Gas-phase emission spectra of the hitherto unknown free radical BiNa have been measured in the NIR range with a Fourier transform spectrometer. The emissions were observed from a fast-flow system in which bismuth vapor in argon carrier gas was passed through a microwave discharge and mixed with sodium vapor in an observation tube. Two systems of blue-degraded bands observed in the ranges 8900-9800 and 7200-7800 cm(-1) were measured at high spectral resolution and vibrational and rotational analyses were performed. To aid in the analysis of the experimental data, a series of relativistic configuration interaction calculations has been carried out to obtain potential curves for the low-lying states of BiNa and also electric dipole transition moments connecting them. As in the isovalent BiH system, the ground state of BiNa is found to be X(3)Sigma(-) with a spin splitting of about 1769 cm(-1). The first excited state is A(3)Pi, and the observed band systems are assigned to the transitions A(3)Pi(A(2)0(+)) --> X(3)Sigma(-)(X(1)0(+), X(2)1). Comparison with earlier work on the isovalent BiH system emphasizes that the relative weakness of the varsigma MO in BiNa is responsible for qualitative differences in the electronic spectra of these two systems. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.