FM DX: Kanowit, Sarawak

 

Kanowit was my first destination in Central Sarawak after landing at Sibu Airport. When I got a car that I rented for 3 days after paying to the car rental company at Sibu Airport, the first thing to do was driving to Kanowit town for having late breakfast and radio signal monitoring.

Kanowit is a small town in Sibu Division, it takes 45 minutes drive from Sibu town, meanwhile 35 minutes from the airport.

Compare to other towns near Sibu, Kanowit is not a good town to receive tune a clear signal radio station, it is the blindspot coverage of Bukit Lima and Bukit Singgalang radio transmitters.

In Kanowit, the only clearest radio station is RTM Sarawak FM 107.1MHz, transmitted from Bukit Memaloh, meanwhile Nasional FM 104.5MHz is having transmission issue on its audio feeds. 

Sibu commercial radio stations from Bukit Lima such as Tea FM 100.7MHz, MY FM 105.9MHz, Hitz FM 105.1MHz and Era FM 96.3MHz are very difficult to be tuned in Kanowit, Sarawak. For Cats FM, 88.4MHz from Bukit Lima has no signal, meanwhile 99.9MHz from Bukit Singgalang has moderately weak signal.

Before and after the breakfast, I managed to record 10 radio signal monitoring videos in Kanowit, Sarawak.

1. RTM Sibu FM/Wai FM Iban 102.1MHz from Bukit Singgalang (40km)

2. RTM Traxx FM 95.9MHz from Bukit Singgalang (40km)

3. RTM Ai FM 97.1MHz from Bukit Singgalang (40km)

4. RTM Red FM 101.1MHz from Bukit Singgalang (40km)

5. Cats FM 99.9MHz from Bukit Singgalang (40km)

6. Era FM 96.3MHz from Bukit Lima (39km)

7. Hitz FM 105.1MHz from Bukit Lima (39km)

8. MY FM 105.9MHz from Bukit Lima (39km)

9. Tea FM 100.7MHz from Bukit Lima (39km)

10. RTM Sarawak FM 107.1MHz Bukit Memaloh (0.5km)

In my opinion, Kanowit town is a Sarawak version of Sungai Siput (U), Perak in terms of radio reception. In Sungai Siput (U), Bukit Larut and Gunung Kledang transmitters have weak coverage, RTM launched a gap filler transmitter there for Radio Klasik and Nasional FM.

Bukit Lima and Bukit Singgalang radio stations only show MONO signal because they're not clear in Kanowit, but Bukit Singgalang has more signal than Bukit Lima there by having comparison. Hence, to serve Kanowit community, RTM can add more radio stations in Kanowit transmitter by applying more new frequencies.