NEW MEMBERS

CHELLAM BOSE

City of Residence  Gurgaon

Association with AIR or DD  Former Employee

Designation (Optional)  Dy. Director (Engg)

Phone  1242577693

Email (Optional)  chellambose@yahoo.com

Date of Birth (Optional)  06/09/1945

How can u  Can inform others to join, Can write for betterment of AIR / DD, Can contribute to the blog by authoring stories

Suggestions/Message / Memoir /
Times are changing. Lifestyles are changing. Whether old or new,every one is unique in their time. So, let us not try to compare the past with the present and say old is gold. However, we can always share our thoughts and experiences and leave it to the next generation to choose from, if they desire.

Regards to one and all
Chellam Bose

ASHOK KUMAR PANIGRAHI

City of Residence  BHUBANESWAR

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  PROGRAMME EXECUTIVE

Phone  09438844772

Email (Optional)  ashokkpanigrahi@gmail.com

Date of Birth (Optional)  27/6/1964

How can u help Can inform others to join, Can write for betterment of AIR / DD, Can contribute to the blog by authoring stories, Can form local AIR/ DD clubs / Listner Forums, Others as listed below

Suggestions/Message / Memoir /
I could not find my name in the members list. I was surprised. Here I join..Best wishes for everybody.

KESHAB MUKHERJEE

City of Residence  KOLKATA

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  ASSISTANT ENGINEER

Phone  8732017277

Email (Optional)  km_cal78@yahoo.co.in

Date of Birth (Optional)  22/2/1962

How can u help Can inform others to join, Can write for betterment of AIR / DD, Can contribute to the blog by authoring stories, Can form local AIR/ DD clubs / Listner Forums

ANIMESH CHAKRABORTY

City of Residence  kolkata

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  adg(e)

Phone  08902496749

Email (Optional)  animesh37@rediffmail.com

Date of Birth (Optional)  10/7/1956

How can u help  Can inform others to join, Can write for betterment of AIR / DD

SANJAY MUKUND CHAUDHARI

City of Residence  Pune

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  Assistant Engineer

Phone  09766211026

Email (Optional)  smc_air@yahoo.com

If Yes, How can u help Can inform others to join

SACHIN PRABHINE

City of Residence  SATARA

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  TRANSMISSION EXECUTIVE

Phone  09422401415

Email (Optional)  kavitasachin@rediffmail.com

Date of Birth (Optional)  8/11/1969

How can u help Can inform others to join, Can write for betterment of AIR / DD, Can contribute to the blog by authoring stories

RAJIB SUBBA

City of Residence  Kurseong

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  Technician

Phone  9749349572

Email (Optional)  rajibkurseong@yahoo.com

Date of Birth (Optional)  11/10/1979

How can u help Can inform others to join, Can write for betterment of AIR / DD, Can contribute to the blog by authoring stories

YOGESH HOSHING

City of Residence  Pune

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  Engineering Assistant

Phone  09420178010

Email (Optional)  yo_ho@rediffmail.com

Date of Birth (Optional)  4/7/1968

How can u help Can write for betterment of AIR / DD

SUDHEVAN P

City of Residence  TRIVANDRUM

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  SEA

Phone  9497017902

How can u help Can inform others to join

UTPAL KANTI MANDAL

City of Residence  NEW DELHI

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  DIRECTOR (Engg.)

Phone  09312225732

Email (Optional)  utpalkmandal@gmail.com

How can u help Can inform others to join, Can contribute to the blog by authoring stories

SANJAY BODELE

City of Residence  JALGAON

Association with AIR or DD  Existing Employee

Designation (Optional)  Director(Engineering)

Phone  07122225198

Email (Optional)  sanjaybodele@yahoo.com

Date of Birth (Optional)  11/9/1969

How can u help  Can inform others to join

IETE- PROF S N MITRA MEMORIAL AWARD-2012

The Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers has selected Shri V.K.Singla, Additional Director General, for the IETE- PROF S N MITRA MEMORIAL AWARD-(2012) in recognition of his outstanding contributions in implementing the digitization of All India Radio and FM expansion,planning of developement activities of AIR including digitization of studio and transmitters and implementing e-governance in Prasar Bharti.

Financial Assistance by Prasar Bharti

  Late Shri Melville De Mellow  

Prasar Bharti has approved a monthly financial assistance to Mrs.C.E.De Mellow,wife of Late Shri Melville De Mellow.Mrs.C.E.De Mellow is about 93 years old and is in an indigent condition.Late Shri Melville De Mellow had joined AIR in April, 1950 and worked till April,1971 when he superannuated.Thereafter,he was retained in AIR as producer(Emeritus)for a period of 5 years.

Prasar Bharti board also approved constitution of a committee which will work out a fresh scheme of financial assistance to distinguished artists of AIR and Doordarshan who are in indigent condition and are not getting any pension or financial assistance from the Government.

Young Achievers

Master Anish Kale

Congratulations!

Master Anish, Son of Shri Ashok C.Kale,AE DDK Imphal , has been awarded the  Middle School.State level Scolarship of the year 2012.  

Querries - Can U help

Querries from Gangtok - Can U help.

 I need  some favour from you. Would be grateful if you could kindly provide me with the following informations (authentic) ;
1) Date or year of launching of microwave and V Sat system in radio (in India).
2) When did Radio started computer technology ?
3 ) When was live commentarty system started ?
4) When was advertisement started in Radio ?
Thanks a lot, sorry for the inconvenience caused. 

  If so please click the comment button below post and put your answers.

From CRS AIR Nongstoin

Photographs of Independence Day Celebrations received from Community Radio Station, All India Radio, Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills, Meghalaya

Contributed by :  lorenzo warjri lorenzopwarjri@gmail.com

Quiz Program at AIR Pune

A state level science based quiz program was organised by AIR Pune. Semi-final round of the program  was carried out in the auditorium of AIR Pune in presense of students recently.It will be broadcast on 22,23 and 29th sept.from all the stations in Maharashtara.

TECHNICAL SET UP AT LONDON



Olympic Torch

 All India Radio covered the recently concluded XXX th Summer Olympics in London from 27th July 2012 to 12th Aug. 2012 in a grand way. The coverage included the live running commentary on the opening and closing ceremonies, running commentary on India specific preliminary matches in Badminton, Hockey, and Tennis besides the semi finals and Final matches in Badminton, Tennis, Hockey and Football. Also, a daily highlights capsule of 25 minutes duration was broadcast covering all the sporting action of the day. Further, hourly updates of about 5 minutes duration was broadcast on the FM Rainbow network giving information about the happening events in the hour including live reports from the venues.

Olympic Opening Ceremony

For this coverage, AIR had booked space in the International Broadcasting Centre (IRC) besides commentary positions of the venues of interest. Two BRI ISDN lines, one Olympic Network Telephone and one wired Broadcast Internet connection were also book in the IBC. The equipment employed were the ISDN Codecs (MPAC-02/Telos/Swing/Phonetic Mobiles), Sony Mixer, DMX-POI, Nagra-LB Recorder for the voiceover /Local recording and NAGRA-SD recorder for field recordings and Laptop for editing/final capsule production. Two channels of one ISDN Line were used for Delhi, one connectivity for the running commentary and the updates, the two channels of the second ISDN line were used for the live reports from the venues during the hourly updates. Besides every day the field recordings of athletes/officials made on NAGRA-SD recorder from the venues were brought to the IBC transferred/edited on laptops and included in the daily highlights capsule.

Repairs of C band receivers at AIR PUNE

Shri P.R.Waichal,AIR Pune

C band receivers are extensively used in AIR network. AIR Pune has developed an expertise in repairing the same. After the successful repairs of the station receivers, as per instructions from ADG (WZ) this station is working as a nodal centre for repairs of Sonifex digital recorders and C band receivers since last one year.

   Frequently observed problems:

     1.       The receiver is unable to communicate with computer.

     2.     Receiver is stuck up with only one frequency.

    3.     IC 75174 & IC 75175 are found to be malfunctioning.

     4.     It is observed that in some cases IC 16552 is found to damaged.

     5.     Software gets corrupted.

   
Suggestions:

1.        Adequate cooling should be maintained for proper functioning of C Band receivers.

2.        In case of software corruption master reset should be carried out & all the parameters should be loaded again.

3.       In case of communication failure with PC   Voltages at the port M & C should be checked.  
          In  the event of any  abnormality IC 75174 & IC 75175 needs to be replaced.

4.      As the Printed Circuit board  is a multilayer PCB it is advised that soldering should be attempted by skilled hands only.

5.       It is suggested that soldering should be carried out with SMD gun only.

Summary of the work:
  AIR PUNE  has repaired receivers of following stations till this date.

1.     AIR Panaji                       2 No

2.     AIR Jalgaon                    2 No 

3.    AIR Chhindwada           2 Nos

4.    AIR Betul                         2 Nos

5.    AIR  Ambikapur            1 No

6.    AIR Ahwa                        1 No

7.    AIR Satara                      1 No

For further details contact Shri P.R.Waichal,AIR Pune on pune@air.org.in

Down the memory Lane by PREM CHANDRA GUPTA

Field posting at GORAYA  Punjab in 1968, GORAYA

Originally a 50 Kw MW Westinghouse Transmitter for Jullundur Radio station was installed at Goraya, a place between Ludhiana and Jullundur.  Actual site is between Phagwara and Goraya , it is about 5 km from Phagwara and 45 km from Jullundur. Staff quarters were also constructed where Einc (a post between Station Engineer and Deputy Chief Engineer) and all other staff used to stay at site. This was one of the transmitters which were installed at Calcutta, Lucknow, Madras, Bombay etc around independence of India. In 1967-68 one 100 Kw Mw Transmitter was installed there. A parasitic self radiating mast along with the main mast was also installed to modify the radiation pattern to direct it towards Pakistan. This was to carry Urdu Service and some component of Punjabi programme from Jullundur. At that time 50 Kw Transmitter was shifted to a new building and was being rewired afresh. The transmitter had a 6 feet deep tunnel below its racks to carry blower air to cool the valves. One night when testing was going on around 2 am one of my senior colleague feeling sleepy but still working stepped into the pit entrance to the tunnel and fell. His jaw bone was broken. He had to be taken to Jullundur for medical help next morning, there were not many Dental surgeons those days, however his jaw was set, mouth was immobilized by fixing wire between the teeth of lower and upper jaw.

I and a few other installation staff were staying at Phagwara as there was no accommodation for the installation staff at Goraya Transmitter site. Mr D.W.Palekar Installation Engineer for the project (post equivalent to Einc) was also staying with me. I was assigned the work of testing the control circuit for the transmitter and also to supervise the installation of the studio at Jullundur Radio Station. This Studio was to feed the programme to the 100 Kw transmitter.  Although I was designated as Installation Officer Field Strength Survey, I was assigned duties as AE for testing of the transmitter. Since The 100 Kw transmitter was regularly working between 6 am to 11 pm the testing time was between 11pm to 5 am only. My work schedule was starting from Phagwara at 10:30 pm to Goraya , work overnight till 5.00 am come back to Phagwara, have bath take breakfast, run to catch a local train to Jullundur, work there from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm return by the 5:15 local to reach Phagwara, eat dinner at 6 to 6:30 pm and sleep for two three hours, and then go to Goraya for night testing. This routine was almost for one full month. Since Mr Palekar was with us CPC vehicle will take us to Transmitter site and bring us back in the morning.

During this period of testing Late Mr V.B.Pradhan who was in Transmitter Design section of P&D Unit also came to adjust the Input feeding Circuit to the Parasitic Mast. This was to pick the signal from the main mast and re-radiate thus modify the radiation pattern. During his stay I was involved in the Tuning the mast input circuit along with one technician in the night after the transmitter was switched off, and then during the day I will go with the vehicle and take measurements of the field strength along a route starting from Jullundur, Nakodar, Phillaur, Banga towards NavaSshahr, Mahelpur towards Hoshiarpur and back o Jullundur. This was an elongated rectangle, encircling the transmitter site. After checking the strength, further changes will be made in the night in the mast input circuit. It took almost one week to complete the work finally when Mr Pradhan was satisfied and left for Delhi.

Installation of Studio at Jullundur;-  As I have mentioned above a new transmission studio with announcer’s mike, turn tables, and facility for the relay from receiving center was being installed at A.I.R. Jullundur, which I was made responsible. Acoustic work was already complete only Rack wiring was to be done with jack strips and Audio Console was to be wired up. Normal practice in CPC which I had noticed was that testing was done only after completing the total wiring work. There used to be many problems cropping up at the testing time and it would take days to rectify. I told the technician who was doing the wiring work to give me the test daily for the day’s work 15 minutes before winding up for the day. He was very reluctant to begin with; I explained that testing daily work will reduce the final testing time. He agreed and followed the routine of getting the day’s work, tested the same evening. Two three times some faults were noticed which were promptly rectified. And finally the Console was also wired up. It took hardly 20 minutes to give a final test and every thing was through with out any hitch. The technician finally promised that he would follow the practice in future at other installations.

Some Hardships faced by the staff at Goraya; - The Site for the transmitter installation was in between Phagwara and Goraya a small township about 10 Km away. Although the location was on the Highway connecting Jullundur and Ludhiana and buses used to ply very frequently but no bus will ever stop at the transmitter site. Only one or two local buses used to ply between the two places e.g. Phagwara and Goraya. The service was hourly from either side and it was invariably full of passengers and will not stop at the transmitter site. Many times we will board the bus to Goraya and return by the same to go to Phagwara. Once my wife asked me to come early so that we could go to see a picture, I took permission from my boss and left at 3 pm thinking I would be able to reach home by 6 pm to catch the show at 6:30. I waited long time and went to Goraya and finally reached home at 7:30 pm much after the picture time. You may imagine the picture we had in the house. It was only with the intervention of Mr Palekar things could be patched up. It was Mr Goyal Einc who arranged a vehicle for the children of the staff to go to school at Jullundur and back in the evening. Later the same bus will take other members of staff for any Shopping or work at Jullundur once a week. There was no transportation from Radio Station to Transmitter, because staff quarters were constructed there. I don’t know what is the situation now? Some time in June/ July 1968 I was called back to CPC and then transferred to Television Station Delhi.

Contributed by

PREM CHANDRA premchandra33@gmail.com

Independence Day Celebrations at AIR Kurseong

Contributed by 

resraj subba rajibkurseong@yahoo.com

Independence Day Celebrations at AIR Shillong

Independence Day Celebrations at AIR Shillong
Flag hoisting and Children's Programs at AIR Staff Quarters

Contributed by

 sanjai rai sanjairai67@gmail.com

Obitury

आकाशवाणी रायपुर (छत्तीसगढ़) से किसान भाईयोँ का लोकप्रिय कार्यक्रम "चौपाल" हर शाम 7.21 बजे से 8 बजे के बीच प्रसारित होती है। उक्त समय मेँ 7.30 से 8 बजे के अवधि को कार्यक्रम "किसानवाणी" के नाम से प्रसारित होती है। लेकिन पूर्व मेँ उक्त पूरी अवधि मेँ चौपाल कार्यक्रम के नाम से प्रसारित होती रही है। उन्ही दिनोँ श्री विष्णु प्रसाद साहु जी से.नि. वरिष्ठ उद्घोषक आकाशवाणी रायपुर (छ.ग.) चौपाल कार्यक्रम को "बिसाहू भैय्या" के नाम से अपनी सेवानिवृति तक प्रस्तुत करते रहे हैँ। वही बिसाहू भैय्या का देहावसान दिनांक 06 अगस्त 2012 को हो गया । हमारी श्रद्धांजलि

News courtesy - Jhavendra Dhruw  

New Member

Name		Suresh Bochare
City of Residence		Aurangabad(MS)
Association with AIR or DD		Existing Employee
Phone		09423144141
Email (Optional)
How can u help		Can inform others to join, Can write for betterment of AIR / DD, Can contribute to the blog by authoring stories

Good News - Let's Pray..

Shri Gopi Chand Garg (Retired in 1995 as Station Engineer, Doordarshan Kendra Jaipur) was suffering from Paralysis and was in no sense for last four and half months. By the grace of God he has come out of  COMA recently and started to recover. Yesterday I spent about one and half hour with him in his home. I request AKASVANI DOORDARSHAN PARIWAR to pray to god for  his speedy recovery.

Contributed by
OP Rajpurohit, Technical Director:DDK Jaipur

09414251557(M), oprajpurohit1@gmail.com
 

Independence day at AIR Jalgaon

 Flag hoisting ceremony  on Independence day at AIR Jalgaon along with the staff

 Contributed by  Sanjay Bodele sanjaybodele@yaho...

Independence Day Celebrations at Aizawl

Independence Day Celebrations at Aizawl

Contributed by Raajeev Rustagi raajeevrustagi@gmail.com

New Members

Name		S.D.BHARDWAJ
City of Residence		DURHAM ,NC,USA
Association with AIR or DD		Others
Designation (Optional)		AIR
Phone		9199571273
Email (Optional)
Date of Birth (Optional)		15/12/1938
Would you like to contribute for betterment of AIR / DD (Optional)		Will decide later
Suggestions/Message / Memoir / Story u wish to be loaded on blog (Optional)		is any person in contact with G.S.K.Rao who was in CPC and ,HP Khampur etc

AIR Visakhapatanam ( MW Tx) will be 49 years on 04.08.2012

AIR Visakhapattanam has been a vibrant radio station and have witnessed numerous moments of glory in these years.  Akashwani Doordarshan Parivar is proud of hundreds of administrative, engineering, programme and news persons who have worked tirelessly to bring the station to this stage and those who are still working at the station and contributing their pie. 

It’s time to congratulate all of them who have been directly or indirectly associated with the station. We invite all our friends to post their comments to appreciate their efforts.

We also request the employees/ex employees of the station to share their Memoirs, experiences and thoughts by adding them in the comment or mailing them to avsmanch@gmail.com . 

We expect current employees of these stations to send us the details of program and engineering heads of the station since inception, so that we can put the information on blog and give friends an opportunity to salute them.

Contact details of AIR Visakhapattanam –

E-MAIL  airvisakhapatnam@rediffmail.com

mailto:airvzag@sify.com

Phones -

Engineering Head            0891 2562084 2563787 9440188594

Program Head                   0891 2565550 2560303 9440188794(M)

Duty Room                         08912560280

Control Room              08912563156

Replace Computer with a Thumb Wheel Switch

....... to tune ABR 202 (C Band) Receiver 

 Simplicity is the need of the hour. As Engineers, we aim in simplifying things around us, so that it provides us a better, faster and easy way to terminate a task at hand. We take this opportunity to share with you on our project, on how to use a Decade switch to work hand in hand with a Radyne Comstream Digital Audio Receiver ABR202. This may eliminate need of computer for dialing tuning. 

For this project the basic Hardware and Software supports are:- (a)A Decade switch (thumb wheel) taken out from an old Synthesizer (b)Two nos. of D Connector(9pins male & female) (c)25 pins D Connector(female) (d) ABR202WINDRV software and (e)CAT 5/6 cables.

The main system connections are:-

(a)   From COM port (male) of personal computer to the M&C port(female) of Radyne Comstream Digital Receiver. For this, a parallel connection is made for the first five pins (ie.1 to 5).

(b)   From the Decade switch to the 25 pins Relay Port of the Radyne Comstream Digital Receiver. For this, connections are as follows.    

Decade switch point connector	25 pins Relays port
1	9th pin
2	10th pin
4	11th pin
Ground©	25th pin

System settings: For port settings

Open WINDRV

                                    From taskbar click TERMINAL

                                                                                           Click PORT SETTINGS

A Dialog box will appear, then select

·        NAME

·        COMPORT – Com1

·        BAUDRATE – 2400

·        DATABITS – 7 bits

·        PARITY – odd

·        STOP BITS – 1 bit

·        TERM/PACKET MODE – ASCII

             

A Com1 terminal dialog box will open. In this very window type your password if any and then, For Carrier configuration type

CC  ,,256000,1,3,0

For format definition type

FD  ,1,,7,0,0

For confirmation of settings type CC then Enter and then FD and then enter. Settings done will be displayed. Configurations for other desired frequencies can be done in the same way.

Now for Presettingthe decade switch to be operational we need to define channel frequencies from 0(zero) to 7(ie, 8 channels in the Com1 terminal dialog box) which we can configure according to our needs. We may note here that a channel 0(zero) of the decade switch will correspond to a channel frequency setting no.7 of the receiver and so on thus, giving a reverse operation.

After configuring all the settings, the receiver is made to be operational with the switch alone by giving the command ‘LC 1’ in the Com1 terminal dialog box. After doing so we may terminate COM port to M&C port because at this point the switch will be fully functionalized. If one desires to have PC based control then type the command ‘LC 0’ in the Com1 terminal dialog box.

Work done at AIR Shillong by Baki Syiem, EA & P.C. Lyngdoh, Technician under the guidance of Shri O.N. Pradhan, AE.

For details contact at "o n Pradhan" pradhanshg@gmail.com“Baki Siyem" kiiari.00@gmail.com

M. D. Sundriyal on retierment of officers

Sir, the thread about retiring officers of AIR and DD is an excellent one and I congratulate you.  Though I am no more in AIR/DD but I consider myself to be a part of this family as I have been there for more than 28 years.

In the list of officers retiring on 31.07.2012 I personally know two of the officers, both from programme side - Shri Rajesh Reddy and Kum. Chhaya Ganguly.  These two are quite well-known in their respective fields.  While Shri Reddy has been a renowned poet in the literary circuit, Kum. Chhaya Ganguly is best known for her lovely voice.  Both of them are accomplished artists and I have had the privilege of interacting with them at different stages.  This year's New Year Celebrations at Akashvani Bhavan were made memorable by Madam's rendition of her popular ghazals.  Though I came to know about Shri Reddy around 1989-90, I came to meet him personally for the first time when he was posted at AIR, Ratnagiri and then at Vividh Bharati, Mumbai.  When I was on the verge of leaving AIR in January 2011, I discussed with Reddy Saheb his contribution in the field of Urdu/Hindi shayari (though I had rang him up for some official business).  He promised to send me a copy of his latest publication which I am still waiting for.  

AIR will not be the same with retirement of talented officers like these two.  I wish them a long, happy and healthy retired life. 

Regards, 

Mahender D. Sundriyal  mdsundriyal@gmail.com