Monday, January 15, 2007 - 12:25
> Radio Networking for Democracy in Palestine

Palestine Radio Mapping

Study of all stations in the West Bank using the FM Band...

As part of its project ‘Radio Networking for Democracy in Palestine ’ implemented in partnership with AMIN/Internews, Internews Europe mandated Carlo Francescangeli, broadcast technical expert, to conduct the first study of its kind on Palestinian Radio Mapping for all stations in the West Bank using the FM Band.

This report was presented to Palestinian local radio station managers, media professionals and representatives from the Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunication during a workshop in Ramallah in December 2006.

The study includes the precise coverage area of each radio stations as well as technical issues the Palestinian local radios are facing:

  •  Stations are often over modulating for greater reach nevertheless strongly jeopardizing the quality of the broadcasted sound;
  •  Their transmitters and antennas are often not conform to the technical norms advised by the International Union of Telecommunication and not correctly set up and maintained;
  •  The FM spectrum is not only divided between Palestinian local radios but also, with powerful Jordanian, Lebanese and legally established Israeli FM stations as well as many illegal Israeli radio stations broadcasting from settlements in the West Bank.

    Report recommendations include:

  •  The use of relay systems by the Palestinian local stations;
  •  To set up a technical radio institute to manufacture, assemble and repair at lower cost, better equipment needed by the stations (antennas, regulators, transmitters);
  •  A better measurement and control of the FM spectrum in particular regarding illegal stations broadcasting in the West Bank.

    Suleiman Zuhairy, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Telecommunication said “this is the first time that a third and professional party offered such important and accurate information on local radio mapping that the Ministry can depend in its ongoing project to ratify the legal status of the Palestinian radio stations”.

    “This mapping study, for the first time, offers accurate and scientific information for all radio stations on their coverage areas, problems they are facing as well as possible solutions”, also said Ziyad Shalbak, Manager of Radio Al-Balad in Jenin.

    More information at AMIN Radio Resource Center

    PDF - 45.2 kb
    
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    This survey is funded by the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)

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