DXing and Identifying Japanese
NHK Medium Wave Stations
by John H. Bryant
with Dr. Taka Okuda
three-hundred or so medium broadcasting stations
of Japan's Nihon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) are organized
into two separate networks, each of which may then
be thought of as being organized into four tiers
of stations of descending physical size and transmitter
power. The two networks, NHK Program 1(NHK-1) and
NHK Program 2(NHK-2) are each led by a central station
in Tokyo; NHK-1 is headed by station JOAK, which
operates on 594 kHz. with 300,000 watts of power.
NHK-2 is led by JOAB, 693 kHz. using 500,000 watts.
These two mega-stations and the central NHK production
facilities where they are headquartered produce
the vast majority of the programming that is broadcast
over their respective networks.
A second tier of
stations, if it can be called a tier at all, is
made up of a handful of other mega-power stations
located in some of Japan's largest cities. These
mega-stations serve regional audiences in various
sectors of Japan. In general, these stations use
transmitters of 100, 300 or 500 kilowatts and may
carry a bit more local programming than do any other
stations outside Tokyo. They are:
JOAK, NHK-1 Tokyo, 594 kHz.
JOIK, NHK-1 Sapporo, 567 kHz.
JOLK, NHK-1 Fukuoka, 612 kHz.
JOBK, NHK-1 Osaka, 666 kHz.
JOCK, NHK-1 Nagoya, 729 kHz.
JOAB, NHK-2 Tokyo, 693 kHz.
JOIB, NHK-2 Sapporo, 747 kHz.
JOUB, NHK-2 Akita, 774 kHz.
JOBB, NHK-2 Osaka, 828 kHz.
JOGB, NHK-2 Kumamoto, 873 kHz.
JOLB, NHK-2 Fukuoka, 1017 kHz.
Looking at the geographic distribution
of these mega-stations, NHK has located one of each
network to serve regionally in the southwest of
the country (Kyushu Island), one or two in the north
to serve the vast area of Hokkaido Island and two
or three in central Honshu Island to serve the large
population that lives in cities and towns located
in the heartland of Japan.
The third tier of stations represents
the backbone of each NHK network and, together,
probably serve the majority of Japanese listeners.
The third tiers are each made up of so-called "Key
Stations" located in the principal city of
virtually every prefecture in Japan (each
network has around 35 Key Stations in the 47 prefectures
of Japan. Prefectures lacking a key station are
served from either regional or national sources).
Each of these stations is equipped and staffed to
provide its local prefecture-wide audience with
a limited amount of locally-produced programming,
along with simulcasting the vast majority of the
programs from the Central Station of their network.
The key station staff also provides on-the-scene
news coverage for the entire national network from
news sites throughout their local prefecture. The
transmitting power of these Key Stations is normally
either 10 kW. or 5 kW., though a small handful operate
1 kW transmitters. Each key station is assigned
call letters and may be considered a complete station.
In fact, prior to national networking, a number
of these stations may very well have operated as
independent government-owned stations.
The fourth and generally lowest-powered
tier of NHK stations consist of relay or "slave"
transmitters which are located in many of the towns
and villages of Japan that are, for reasons of topography
or distance, poorly served by signals from their
prefectural key stations. Currently, NHK-1 Network
has about 170 relay stations. Of this number, 136
are totally automated 100 watt relays. These transmitters
have no offices and no staff and are likely only
visited occasionally by a technician stationed at
the Prefectural NHK offices. The NHK-1 network also
operates two similar 500 watt relays and 35 others
ranging from 1 kW. to 10 kW. Some of the thirty
1000 watt relays have call letters assigned and
were, most probably, "real" staffed stations
in the past. This is most certainly true of the
two 3kW., one 5 kW. and the two 10 kW. NHK-1 relay
transmitters. It is unclear whether any of these
more powerful former stations have retained any
staff or autonomy. Given the economics of modern
broadcasting, it is unlikely.
The relay system of the NHK-2
Network is organized in virtually the same pattern
as NHK-1. There are 35 Key Stations and almost 90
relay transmitters. Of the relay transmitters, two
use 10 kW. transmitters, twenty-three use 1 kW.
transmitters; there are two 500 watt relays and
at least eighty 100 watt village relays. Many of
the more powerful relay transmitters were likely
autonomous stations in the distant past.
Like any organism that grew over
almost a century, the actual flow diagram of the
two NHK medium wave networks is a bit more complex
than the description above outlines. The actual
networks are complicated by historical anomalies,
ad hoc circumstance, topography and geography. Nevertheless,
the four-tier organization described above represents
at least the concept by which NHK delivers
AM radio programming to the Japanese public.
NHK Stations in Fukushima Prefecture
Possibly the best way to visualize the majority
of the NHK network is to examine it as it serves
the population in one more-or-less typical prefecture:
Fukushima Prefecture. Fukushima is located about
midway between Tokyo and the northern tip of Honshu,
on the eastern or Pacific coast of that Island.
It is a medium-sized prefecture, measuring about
166 km. from east to west and 133 km. from north
to south. It stretches from a rather straight Pacific
coast to the high central ridges of the Japanese
Alps, which lay about two-thirds of the way to the
west coast of the island.
The prefecture is divided from east to west into
the three regions. The eastern third of the prefecture
is the coastal region, Hama-dori, which consists
of the coastal plain and a low coastal mountain
range that parallels the coast in a north-south
line. The largest city on the coast is Iwaki, near
the southern border of the prefecture. The central
valley region, Naka-dori, is the heart of Fukushima,
containing a 150 km. segment of the main national
north-south arteries of transportation and communication:
Shinkansen Bullet train and freight rail lines,
the primary north-south freeway and the various
communications and power grids of a modern nation.
The three largest cities of the prefecture lay along
this transportation backbone: Shirakawa in the south,
Koriyama, a strategic transportation cross-roads
in the central region and the prefectural capitol,
Fukushima City in the north. The western third of
the prefecture, Aizu is mountainous, with a declining
population that is located primarily in towns and
villages located in the narrow valleys. The largest
town in the mountains is Aizu-Wakamatsu.
The citizens of Fukushima are served by 15 NHK medium
wave transmitters. These are one 5000 watt station
(the NHK-1 Key Station) four 1000 watt stations,
three of which are now operated as relay transmitters
and ten 100 watt "village" relays. It
is easy to surmise from the map and list below that
all of the 1000 watt stations were at one time semi-autonomous
NHK stations. One might guess that the 100 watt
NHK-2 repeater in coastal Iwaki, which is paired
with a 1000 watt NHK-1 relay, is a modern replacement
for a larger obsolete and semi-autonomous NHK-2
station. That is likely why this small automated
relay transmitter has, almost uniquely, assigned
call letters, JOHZ.
Currently NHK maintains a prefectural administrative
and production facility in conjunction with the
two medium wave Key Stations in the capitol, Fukushima
City. There are also very minor branch offices in
Koriyama and Iwaki as well as a small news room
in Aizu-Wakamatsu. Radio enthusiasts wishing to
contact the "station staff" for any outlaying
transmitters would probably be best served by writing,
instead, to the main prefectural staff in Fukushima
NHK MW FREQUENCY ALLOCATIONS
Like many other national broadcasters, NHK has,
with the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications,
organized the medium wave band with the large regional
"first and second tier" transmitters assigned
channels in the lower half of the band and the vast
majority of smaller transmitters located in the
upper half. There are exceptions to this general
assignment policy in both NHK-owned networks as
well as among the commercial MW broadcasters of
Japan; however, the general pattern holds true.
Also, similar to many other developed nations, Japan
has grouped its smallest transmitters on a handful
of very crowded "grave yard" frequencies.
Unlike most similar situations, though, NHK's graveyard
frequencies are generally are allocated to just
one of the two networks. Thus, twenty-seven 100
watt NHK relay transmitters broadcast on 1026 kHz.
All of them are NHK-1 transmitters and each relays
a different NHK-1 key station. Thanks to modern
simulcasting technology, each transmitter is generally
broadcasting programming that is exactly in-sync
and even in phase. Thus, when listening to NHK-1,
1026 kHz. it is a common occurrence to be listening
to clear programming that is actually coming from
. Clear, that is, until
the local or regional station ID is given (see below.)
Then, one sometimes hears a jumble of call letters,
not exactly in sync and definitely not identical.
IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL STATIONS
Happily, most of the larger NHK stations are the
only Japanese transmitters on their assigned frequency.
Most DXers "identify" these stations by
inference. A good reference such as Pacific Area
Log (PAL) edited by Bruce Portzer, can be used to
find a second NHK station broadcasting the same
program simultaneously ("in parallel.")
If both are the only NHK1 (or NHK2) station on their
frequencies and the programs are truly in parallel,
it is pretty safe to infer the identity of the station
in question. Some DXers use two receivers feeding
into stereo earphones to assure themselves that
the programming of the two stations is truly identical.
Identification by inference is
fine for many DXers, but not all; some only feel
satisfied when a positive local station identification
is clearly heard. With NHK, there are also a handful
of frequencies that contain dozens of small NHK
stations, all broadcasting one of the two programs
simultaneously: the so-called "grave yard channels."
Except for very rare station breaks, there is no
way to know which of these synchronous stations
or, indeed, which combination of stations is being
heard. Hearing a local station ID becomes critical
for all of us in these situations.
STATION IDENTIFICATIONS: SCHEDULE
As one might expect of Japan's largest broadcaster,
the NHK networks are highly organized and automated.
Even though there are only a few local station identifications
during the broadcast day, they occur at very predictable
times and follow a rigidly fixed format.
NHK First Program (Daiichi
JST - UTC
04:59:50 - 19:59:50
11:59:50 - 02:59:50
18:59:50 - 09:59:50
The official script followed
by all NHK1 stations is:
[call letters] NHK [location] Daiichi Hoso (desu)
Example: JOBK NHK Osaka Daiichi Hoso (desu)
The announcements are pre-recorded and may be read
by either a male or a female announcer. The trailing
"desu" is optional, is pronounced "dess"
and translates as "is" or "This is"
in this case.
NHK Second Program (Daini
JST - days - UTC
01:35:00 - Tuesday - 16:35:00
01:40:00 - Wednesday thru Saturday - 16:40:00
05:29:55 - At sign-on of broadcast day - 20:29:55
09:29:55 - After weather broadcast - 00:29:55
16:19:55 - After weather broadcast - 07:19:55
22:19:55 - After weather broadcast - 13:19:55
23:59:50 - Sunday/Monday only for sign-off? - 14:59:55
The official script followed
by all NHK2 stations is:
[call letters] NHK [location] Daini Hoso (desu)
Example: JOAB NHK Tokyo Daini Hoso (desu)
The announcements are pre-recorded
and may be read by either a male or a female announcer.
The trailing "desu" is optional, is pronounced
"des" and translates as "is"
or "This is" in this case.
DECODING WHAT YOU HEAR
Perhaps this section should be titled "predicting
what you may hear." If you know a few simple
rules of pronunciation and, if you have a Japanese
phrase already transliterated from Japanese "Kanji"
ideographic writing to the western or "Roman"
alphabet, it is fairly simple to write out ahead
of time what you should hear, phonetically.
Although Japanese grammar is
both subtle and complex, pronunciation of individual
words is very easy and the number of syllables or
sounds in the language is relatively small. Written
Japanese was transliterated in to the Roman alphabet
by excellent linguists who took advantage of the
simplicity of pronunciation. Unlike English and
many other languages, all vowels in Japanese have
only one sound:
a is "ah" as in Japan
e is "a" as in the capital letter A
i is "ee" as in bee
o is "oh" as in the capital letter O
u is "oo" as in moon
There are only a few surprise
pronunciations in Japanese that may come into play
in the town names of station identification.
1. All R sounds are given a single trill like many
Rs in the romance languages, especially Spanish
(think of "arriba, arriba!), so you single-trill
the R in "Morioka" is "Moh-ree(trill)-oh-kah."
2. The syllable "fu" is pronounced with
a lot of "h" on the "f". Thus
the city of Fukuoka may sound to some more like
3. Trailing U sound in some words is almost totally
missing. This is especially true with the "desu"
which is offer heard as "des" in station
IDs, as mentioned previously.
4. In the syllable "su," the U is almost
always silent. Thus, the Japanese food "sukiyaki"
is actually pronounced "ski-yaki" in Japan
and the famous naval town "Yokosuka" is
5. All syllables in each word are given about the
same level of emphasis. There is not an "accented"
syllable to the degree that most English speakers
expect. This is especially difficult for native
English speakers. Thus "Hiroshima" is
"hero-she-ma," not "hero-SHEE-ma."
DECODING THE STATION IDs
There is one final pronunciation key to station
identifications: acronyms or alphabetic letters
are pronounced as they would be by an American English
speaker reciting the alphabet: A, B, C, etc. This
is, of course, very helpful when trying to identify
NHK or any of the commercial network broadcasters,
as well as when attempting to hear the station call
JOAB NHK Tokyo Daini Hoso desu
"JOAB NHK Toe-kyo---Die-knee---Hoe-so--- des"
Here are two recorded examples
of NHK IDs:
NHK1 on 576 in Kagoshima (MP3) by a male announcer:
"JOHG NHK Ka-go-she-ma---Die-ee-chee---Hoe-so---des"
NHK2 on 1386 in Kagoshima (MP3), also by a male
"JOHC NHK Ka-go-she-ma---Die-knee---Hoe-so---des"
A NOTE ABOUT THE "GRAVEYARD"
As discussed previously,
the fourth and most numerous tier of Japanese stations
is made up largely of highly automated "repeater"
relay stations that are located in small towns and
villages throughout Japan. These transmitters relay
the programming of their "key station"
which is usually located in the prefectural capitol.
In most cases, these "stations" have neither
call letters nor staff. These repeater stations
are organized with sometimes dozens of either NHK1
or NHK2 repeaters on a given frequency ("graveyard"
channel.) It is possible that a handful of these
stations do have small local staffs and may give
actual local IDs. If that is so, the ID will occur
at the times listed for all IDs of that network
(NHK1 or NHK2.) The vast majority of these stations
will carry one of two IDs: either they will simply
repeat the identification of the key station that
they are serve, or they will automatically broadcast
a generic network ID, with the announcer saying
simply "NHK Daiichi Hoso" or "NHK
Daini Hoso," as appropriate. There is little
that can be done to identify the station if the
generic network ID is heard. However, if the key
station ID is heard and if you have a list of which
repeaters are attached to which key stations, actual
local identification can be usually inferred.
For some time now, the Pacific
Asia Log (PAL) edited by Bruce Portzer has been
the definitive reference for MW broadcast stations
in South and East Asia as well as the Pacific. As
of December 2005, PAL (posted 0905) contains considerable
partial information about "key stations"
and relays in the Comment entry for each NHK transmitter
listed. At the next revision, PAL should contain
a complete listing of such data. The PAL may be
QSLING NHK STATIONS
The NHK stations continue to be among the most reliable
QSLers in the world. In general, most stations have
a near 100 percent reply rate to detailed, well-written,
correct reports. Most Japanese office workers have
taken several years of instruction in reading written
English, so this is the preferred language for international
reception reports to Japan. However, if this proves
overly difficult, the Japanese are a cosmopolitan
and outward-looking people, so reports in other
"major" languages have a good chance of
being answered, as well.
The most difficult thing about
reporting to NHK stations is finding a mailing address.
WRTH only lists addresses for the ten or so regional
offices of NHK. That address is the one to use ONLY
for stations in that particular city. It is important
to know that key stations in other cities QSL directly.
There are several good lists on dxing.info's own
site which should prove helpful with many of the
other key station' addresses. Check under "Japan"
at the Lists
page. When all else failed, the authors have
had very good luck depending on the Japanese postal
service to deliver letters using a generic address
Radio Station JOOP
Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK)
Takayama City, Takayama
You should NOT use most computerized
translation software, whether on-line or not, to
translate addresses from Japanese. These programs
generally translate every Japanese ideogram to its
literal Western meaning. That may be all right for
general conversation, but it does not work for addresses.
For instance, many automated translation programs
will render "Takayama City, Takayama"
to its literal meaning in English "Tall Mountain
City, Tall Mountain" It is highly unlikely
that the Japanese postal service will be able to
deliver such a letter to the station in Takayama.
Japan is still an extremely polite
society. That is probably the main reason for the
marvelous reply rate exhibited by Japanese MW stations.
If you receive a reply from a Japanese station,
please take the time to send them a "thank
you" note. The easiest method is to keep a
supply of interesting picture postal cards of your
area and simply hand-write a brief message on one,
address it and drop it in the post. Be sure and
print (block letters) if you write to Japanese by
hand. While most office workers can read typed or
block lettered English, cursive script writing is
a total mystery to most.
Finally, have a great time DXing
Japan on medium wave. Whether the station is a member
of one of the two NHK networks or is operated by
one of the excellent commercial broadcasters, it
is a window on a fascinating culture. Good luck
and Great DX!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Professor Bryant served
as a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow in Japan in
the mid-1970s and is an internationally recognized
authority on East Asian Architecture. For the past
25 years, he has sought to hear radio stations throughout
East and South Asia on the Tropical Broadcast and
Medium Wave bands.
Dr. Okuda was born in Osaka and
is on the faculties of the schools of architecture
at Nihon National University, Tokyo and Oklahoma
State University, USA.
The ID recordings were made by
well known DX authority Nick Hall-Patch during a
visit to Japan in April, 2005.
on December 17, 2005
(partly already on September 5, 2005)