QSL cards from CHU (Canada) & Radio Okapi (S. Africa)

On 11/20/12, I was surprised to hear Canada's time station 'CHU' on 3330
khz. It was pretty weak and faded often, but I could hear tones like those on
WWV, and the time being read by robo-voices in English and French. I emailed
them shortly thereafter at radio.chu@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca, and received an email
reply by the next day. A week or so later, I received a QSL card in the mail
(mailed from Buffalo, NY, interestingly enough). The front and back are pictured
below. The Aoki B12 schedule, as well as the station's QSL card, have CHU
listed on this frequency with a transmitter power of only 3 kw (!!!)

Then, on 11/24, I heard Radio Okapi on 11690 khz. This is a station
that broadcasts into the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo, in
this instance apparently from Meyerton, South Africa. Radio Okapi
is run by the humanitarian organization Fondation Hirondelle (out of
Switzerland) and the UN. I sent them a reception report to the email
address contact@radiookapi.net, and a less than two weeks later, I
received a QSL letter. Not a card, as it was printed on regular printer
paper, which I don't mind. After all, if the folks that run this important
service want to save some money by sending these out instead of printing
QSL cards, I'm more than okay with that. Very nice of them to respond
in the first place.

That's all for now...I probably won't be posting again until the new
year (unless I log some really interesting stuff, or get my Cuba QSL
package before then). Thanks for reading, and happy holidays!

Shortwave logs from Euless, TX for 11/18 to 11/24/12

Country in brackets is the transmitter site and not
necessarily the country of origin, unless specified.
If two countries are in brackets, first one is
transmitter site. After that, the date, time and
frequency in kHz is listed. All times in UTC and
all stations heard on TECSUN PL-380 portable in
Euless, Texas, USA, with 25 foot reel wire antenna,
on a second floor, unless otherwise noted.


[IRAN] 11-18-12, 2345, 7325 -- Weak, SINPO 23222.
Seemingly Voice of Iran in Chinese. Ballad-type music with
male singing.

[CANADA] 11-20-12, 0255, 3300 -- CHU, a time signal
station transmitting from near Ottawa. Automated time tones
and male voice reading time in French and English. Pretty
weak, SINPO 23222. Also heard modem/data-like noises. I
guess I still get a chance to QSL a Canadian station even
with RCI gone.

[FRENCH GUYANA/FRANCE] 11-23-12, 1955, 21690--
Per Aoki, this is Radio France International, transmitting from
Montsinery, French Guyana, on 500 kw. Two males talking in
French, abruptly off at 1959, with the broadcast scheduled off
at 2000.  SINPO 34233.

[USA] 11-23-12, 2000, 15225 -- Voice of America in French
from Greenville, SC. Excited male DJ introduces music,
mostly Latin-sounding, thought I heard "Shakira" mentioned.

[SOUTH AFRICA/ DRC] 11-24-12, 0405, 11690 -- Per Aoki,
this is Radio Okapi, transmitting from Meyerton, SA, at 250 kw.
Apparently this station was set up by the UN and NGOs to
broadcast news and information across the Democratic Republic
of Congo, mostly on FM. Language is supposed to be Lingala/
French, and I did hear a lot which sounded like French. Male
and female seem to read news headlines, made out words like
"Goma" (city in the DRC) and "Hutu". SINPO 34333, surprisingly
clear.

[EGYPT] 11-24-12, 0422, 9965 -- Radio Cairo, very weak and
noisy, SINPO 23222. Chanting by male with Islamic-sounding
music in background.