DX LISTENING DIGEST 12-05, February 1, 2012 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2012 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html For restrixions and searchable 2011 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid1.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn WORLD OF RADIO 1602 HEADLINES: *DX and station news about: Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kashmir, Korea, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sudan, Uganda, USA SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1602, Feb 2-8, 2012 Thu 0430 WRMI 9955 [1601 replayed this week] Thu 2200 WTWW 9479 Thu 2230 WBCQ 7490 [confirmed] Fri 0430v WWRB 3195 Sat 0900 WRMI 9955 Sat 1600 WRMI 9955 Sat 1830 WRMI 9955 Sun 0500 WTWW 5755 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Sun 1630 WRMI 9955 Sun 1830 WRMI 9955 Mon 0330v WBCQ 5110v-CUSB [alternate weeks not including this] Mon 1230 WRMI 9955 Tue 1030 HLR 5980 Hamburger Lokal Radio Thu 0430 WRMI 9955 [or maybe 1603 if ready in time] Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html or http://schedule.worldofradio.org or http://sked.worldofradio.org For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://193.42.152.193/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN: http://www.wrn.org/wrn-listeners/world-of-radio/ http://www.wrn.org/listeners/world-of-radio/rss/09:00:00UTC/English/541 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg without delay. When applying, please identify yourself with your real name and location, and say something about why you want to join. Those who do not, unless I recognize them, will be prompted once to do so and no action will be taken otherwise. Here`s where to sign up: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ ** AFGHANISTAN. 7200, 28/1 1530 Radio Afghanistan, start English program, at 1532 news. Fair, no QRM from other bc (Giampiero Bernardini, rx: SDR-IQ, ant: Windom 60 m long; qth: Pescia, Toscana, remote pc, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ALASKA. 9615, USA, KNLS, 1201 English. Just after sign-on, program lineup, song, ID, business news, 1209 “Postcard from Alaska” profiling Glacier Bay National Park. Fair. Jan 25 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna on the roof, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. 7530, Sat Jan 27 at 2130 I thought to check how R. Tirana is doing, but figured it was too late after the English broadcast at 2100 --- but it was not. Still on the air with theme and opening Albanian, fair signal until cut off at 2130:12*. Altho there is no longer any SW transmission at 2130-2300, it seems one is still being fed to the Shijak site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALGERIA. [Re 12-04, new format:] Re: Radio Algeria launches new youth station http://www.facebook.com/jilfm jilfm@radioalgerie.dz http://www.radioalgerie.dz/fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18139:debut-des-programmes-de-jil-fm-la-nouvelle-radio-100-jeunesse-de-la-radio-algerienne-&catid=3:societe&Itemid=37 Schedule: http://www.radioalgerie.dz/fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18104&Itemid=241 (via Steve Whitt, Jan 21, MWCircle yg via DXLD) 531, Chaîne 1, F'kirina Wilaya d'Oum El Bouaghi DEC 22 2158 - Parallel 549 with pop female Arabic vocal, then talk by woman; to good peak. [Connelly*C-MA] 531, Jil FM, F'kirina Wilaya d'Oum El Bouaghi JAN 24 0300 - Good; techno/dance music, what sounded like "Jil FM" (Thanks to Mauno Ritola at RealDX) by a woman on the hour. Madonna "Music" and then the same ID heard at 0400 parallel 549 kHz. [Conti-NH] JAN 24 2201 - Female group Arabic vocal, orchestra, then applause; huge, actually stronger than parallel 549. 2229 surprised to find a cover version of "Mrs. Robinson" here (and initially thought Faroes until finding the 549 parallel). [Connelly*H-MA] 549, Chaîne 1, Les Trembles JAN 7 2059 - Arabic string music, then Arabic talk by man and woman; good. [Connelly*C-MA] 549, Jil FM, Les Trembles JAN 23 2340 - Loud and clear; discussion and music parallel a weak 531 kHz. [Conti-NH] JAN 24 2201 - Parallel 531 with female group Arabic vocal, orchestra, then applause; good. [Connelly*H-MA] (Mark Connelly WA1ION, Chatham, Harwich, & West Dennis MA; Perseus, cardioid-pattern micro-SuperLoop on car roof, 9:1 xfmr on east bottom corner to speaker wire to 2:1 xfmr to W7IUV transfer amp, and 9:1 xfmr on west corner to speaker wire to 500 ohm null-adjust potentiometer.) (Bruce Conti WPC1CAT, Nashua NH; WiNRADiO Excalibur, 7 x 19.5-m variable termination Split SuperLoop at 60 , 15 x 23-m variable termination north/south SuperLoop, both NRC International DX Digest Jan 27 via DXLD) [and non] Last night's TAs --- TA reception was quite good here last [night] for a change. The strong signals began at the low end of the band but decreased along the way until there were almost none on the high end but Saudi-1521. The Algerians on 531 and 549 were booming in like locals from around 1900 EST [OOOO GMT] until I quit three hours later. Madrid, Spain-585 was the best of the Spain RNEs followed by 684, 774 and 855. Other TA s with fair signals were on 594, 747, 783 and 693. Two LW stations were fair, Morocco-171 and Algeria-252. In past DX seasons I have usually found good TA reception from late January until late March (Ben Dangerfield, Wallingford, PA, R8A, three slopers, ground wire and Quantum phaser, UT Jan 24, NRC-AM via DXLD) [Jil FM] heard with Arabic pops and announcements in French and Arabic on 531 –ed/ (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, MV-eko Jan 23 via DXLD) I was wondering which language (gh, DXLD) ** ANGOLA. Rádio Nacional de Angola was heard for the first time in many months at 1922 January 16 on 4949.8. Very weak at first, then identifications and talk in Portuguese. Copied in LSB. SINPO 22322 at best around 1945 (Arthur Miller, Powys, Wales, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) 4950 and 7216v kHz. 4950 well heard in Namibia at 1615 and 2100 UT in Portuguese. 7216v noted on 7217 kHz at 1700 UT in vernacular, heard on Eton E5 (Hans-Friedrich Dumrese, Germany, Jan 27, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 31 via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. Re: 1630 Spanish speaking UNID --- I think you mentioned earlier that there was a legal dispute between two stations in La Plata. Could it be that this is the other station and not the one that used to be called Buen Aire or Red 92? The Red 92 website (as given in Mika's article on AM 1630) mentions many FM frequencies, but no AM that I could find. Or maybe they cannot mention it if the AM operation is unofficial and not licensed (Jack Weber, MWCircle yg via DXLD) The legal dispute is here, Jack: http://www.pjn.gov.ar/Publicaciones/00017/00015447.pdf Curiously there is another one on 1630 calling itself AM 1630, see http://www.lasupersport.com.ar Apart from this one there is a religious operation called Radio Restauración, and a bit further away from Buenos Aires, Radio Melody. The facebook site mentioned by Max is Chilean. If I were on facebook I would address Valeria Herrera and ask her for further info. 73, (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Jan 21, MWCircle yg via DXLD) The most detailed report so far is under Argentina: http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld1150.txt Horacio Nigro believes the present-day AM 1630 belongs to GLL S.A. GLL is Gloria López Lecube, owner of FM La Isla 89.9, whence comes Valeria Herrera (mentioned on the radiomaníacos facebook site). I think we will know for sure before long. Let's keep our fingers crossed (Henrik Klemetz, Jan 21, ibid.) My Spanish is not good enough to understand all the details, but it seems that this is all very confused. If I understand correctly, Gloria López Lecube has been granted some sort of right to broadcast on 1630, but has not been given a callsign and possibly not an official licence (so is it legal or not?). Red 92 used to operate unofficially on this frequency in La Plata, but they don't any more. However, they still have the transmitter and tower so it may be that Gloria is running the station, but renting the transmission equipment from them. It appears that nobody is prepared to say exactly what is going on. One thing that struck me when I listened to this station is that there were no commercials, no announcements, just an apparently automated playlist and infrequent pre-recorded ID. Some people run pirate radio stations because they like to play at being DJs, but clearly neither Gloria nor Red 92 are in this position. If they are not making money from the transmission, whether it's licensed or not, then why are they doing it? Maybe this is simply a very extended technical test and normal programming will start soon, but it was more then a month between when Paul Crankshaw first heard them and when I did. That's a long time to be transmitting with no income. It will be interesting to see what emerges (Jack Weber, ibid.) ** ARGENTINA. Nueva emisora argentina en el X Band --- reportada ayer en los 1700 kHz. Luego les brindo más detalles. 73 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Jan 28, condiglist yg via DXLD) Still waiting (gh) ** ARGENTINA. AUXILIO ARNALDO R:A:E --- Por favor habla en R.A.E no se puede escuchar la banda de 49 Metros. Están en todas las frecuencias a partir de 5957 hasta 5987; aparece y después aparece más arriba también (Ernesto Paulero, Argentina, 2319 UT Jan 30, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 13363.5-LSB, Radio Continental (relay), General Pacheco. 0012 January 22, 2012. Excellent with Rod Stewart's "If You Want My Body" then female Spanish DJ, into "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder. ID by man at 0022. Also noted 0028 January 24 with ID at 0052, also excellent level (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ARGENTINA: 13363.5/L Domestic relay station; 2222-2242:15*, 29-Jan; Lengthy SS interview segments--sounded like race car noise in back- ground; pop tunes in SS & EE; futbol promo; pips/tone @BoH; hrd several IDs & sounded like Radio Tachi--nothing like this in the 2011 WRTVH MW list. Off abruptly in mid-promo. SIO=253- (Frodge-MI) "Tachi" ring any bells? Pretty sure about the "chi" part. I don't recall anything sounding like this being reported here. Maybe an FM station? (Harold Frodge, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, no bells, but I did search all the AM and the Buenos Aires FMs in this listing on ``tachi`` and got no hits. Also tried Hitachi on google, but got only radio sets. http://www.emisorasargentinas.com.ar/ (Glenn to Harold, via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. VALE CHRIS HAMBLY MEMBER 149. Chris has passed away suddenly at 66 years of age at his home of Mont Albert North in Melbourne, Victoria, on the 18th December 2011. Chris was a life member of the ARDXC and joined in January 1968. He worked for Vic railways until his retirement at the age of 55 years. Chris lived with his parents, (Eric deceased quite a few years ago and his mother Barbara who passed away in 2005). Chris had a lifetime illness and it`s believed that combined with a fall, he had a seizure and with no one there in the house, passed away. Essentially, Chris was known to many, and helped countless times with his generosity to DXers, particularly overseas members. He managed to get Channel 5 Toowoomba to Melbourne via skip conditions about 138 MHz, which is one huge great reception. Robert Copeman remembers this and other times he visited Chris at his home, fixing aerials, etc. Les Hing, Robert says, helped with his "Ghostbuster antenna". Nigel Holmes, head of Transmission of Radio Australia, remembers Chris at Museum railway station years before he had contact with Chris through the ARDXC. On a personal basis I had a long association with Chris, meeting him first in 1973 down in Melbourne at the convention. I recall he could remember the interval signals of the stations signing on, and he won a number of competitions on this basis. He also visited Sydney in 2007 and whereupon he met after some years Debbie and Mitchell. Some days Chris would ring a number of times trying to get me on the phone, and eventually he would be successful, with a DX tip. He loved to hear the Africans in the early mornings. Craig Seager and I had many phone calls from Chris hearing new frequencies new stations, he was unreal. I cannot think of anyone else who came close to the numbers of new frequencies. David Onley formerly of Melbourne, (Geelong cat supporter), now in The Hague, remembers many times in helping Chris with building or repairing antennae's. Also helping Chris re-organising the room he had to use to listen. I last spoke to Chris (according to my phone bill), on the 15th of December at 7.59 pm, it was to confirm that he had the WRTH 2012, and what he thought of it. To which he replied it was good. I then went away for four days. However after not hearing from Chris for a few weeks, and the odd comment on the internet, I rang his lawyer who told me of his passing. (He is also the executer of his estate). To say the family was shocked was an under statement. Many DXers of the club have made comment on the internet, including Robert Shepherd, who knew Chris from the early days of membership. His passing is the subject of a coroners report. So I've asked his lawyer to call me when we can give our acknowledgement in a memorial service. I will put this to the committee and at least one of our number attend and expense is reimbursed. He gave so much but asked nothing in return. Vale Chris may you rest in peace, our friend. Thanks to Robert Copeman for the photo's. Chris Hambly’s radio and loop, Chris’s house with antennas (unsigned, evidently Johno Wright, Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) obit ** AUSTRALIA. GLOBE WIRELESS STATIONS VJS AND VIE I've found out some information, by necessity, regarding Globe Wireless coastal stations in Australia, VJS Perth Radio and VIE Darwin Radio. I have been trying to QSL for some time now, and found a reference to TELSTRA on the main Globe Wireless site. I followed the link to the TELSTRA site in Australia and came up with what I thought was the correct address for VJS in Lansdale, Western Australia. Off went the reception report just after Christmas. Yesterday, January 25th, I got the disappointing result of having the report returned as an unknown address. I was really lost at that point and decided to do some more sleuthing. I went to the website of the Australian Communications and Media Authority and pleaded my case for some information as the the licensee of these stations. Later on today, a very nice email came from Licensing Officer Laureen Harrison of the Radiocommunications Licensing and Telecommunications Deployment Section who gave me the web address for their online database. Lo, and behold! The Licensee for VJS and VIE can be reached at the following address: Integrated Technical Services PTY Ltd. Globe Wireless GPO Box 3850 Darwin NT 0801 Australia As a bonus, here is the Australian website for finding the licenses, licensees and the addresses: http://web.acma.gov.au/pls/radcom/register_search.main_page The whole thing is very self-explanatory, much like the FCC databases. Perhaps those of you whose governments also put this information online might like to let the groups know where the databases can be found. This will cut down mightily on returned reports by enabling those of us who chase QSLs to get the right address from the start. Vy 73 (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, WinRadio G303e / Wellbrook ALA1530P / Hoka 300-32 v3.08, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 15160, researching the RA schedule to advise someone when best to hear it, I am surprised to find this missing from HFCC; had been a useful signal here in the 05-08 period when the MUF cooperate, and still in Aoki as 65 degree beam. So has this frequency been canceled? Jan 29 at 0626 there is a JBA signal which I can just barely // to 13630 also quite weak tonight. RFI also had English on 15160 at 06-07, but canceled all English SW broadcasts at yearend. Checking earlier B-11 HFCC files, no RA on 15160 there either, altho 15240 and many others were included, so 15160 must have been missed as it has certainly been on the air and still is, more favorable beam for us than weaker // 15240, 13690 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I was able to listen RA broadcasting by 15160 on January 31st, 0652- 0708 UT, with interview, song, ID "This is Radio Australia News" and news bulletin, with information about North Korea. My receiver is a Brigmton BT-353, portable, with reel antenna. SINPO was 43333. The broadcast had low volume, and it was clear interference of a powerful Chinese (or similar) broadcast in 15150 KHz. The listening was made in Santiago, Chile. 15160 is also still announced on RA Shortwave Frequency Guide: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pdf/frequency_guide.pdf Hoping that this information can be useful to you, yours, (Eduardo Peñailillo Barra, Santiago, Chile, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [non]. TAIWAN, 11744.742, Radio Australia noted in Indonesian at 0500-0528 UT via Tainan, carrier came on air early around 0442 UT. Usual odd frequency (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Jan 26/28, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 31 via DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. 9830, QSL Radio Austria 1 International verified with a full data letter from Oe1 Service Listeners' Relations Department, a History of Radio Austria International and a schedule good through 24 March 2012 in 37 days for a postal report. The letter stated "Your criticisms and comments are important to us. We look forward to receiving your mail!" (Rich D'Angelo, PA, ARDXC ADXN magazine Feb via wwdxc BC-DX Jan 31 via DXLD) ** BANGLADESH. Bangladesh Betar is being heard again on 4750. First noted on December 27 with a discussion, identification, talk and close at 1500 with another identification, SINPO 23322. Also heard at 1435 January 2 with similar SINPO (Arthur Miller, Powys, Wales, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) See INDONESIA for 4750 mistaken identity ** BELARUS. 6010/6040/6070/6190/7235/7280, Belaruskaje Radyjo 1 were all heard here in Nov-Dec 2011 with good strength. But several checks at 1030-1810, Jan 21 and 23, indicate that they all are OFF the air, maybe temporarily. In contrary, the Belarus Foreign Service, at least on 6155 in Polish and German, can still be heard with a strong signal (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Jan 25 via DXLD) It seems that the changes in shortwave transmissions from Belarus go much beyond the introduction of new 11730. The new schedule appears to be 0400-0700: 7255, Radyo 1 (250 kW tx), 1100-2300: 11730, Radio Belarus (old 150 kW tx), 1500-1700: 7255, Radyo 1 (250 kW tx), ~1703-2300: 6155, Radio Belarus (250 kW tx). Anything else (!) appears to have been turned off, or have 6010, 6040, 6070, 6080, 6115, 6190, 7235, 7265, 7280, 7360 (7390 was apparently the transmitter now in use on 11730, so is of course gone) still been heard since last week? A look at what may have been history now: 6010 and 6070 kHz site at Brest: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/46438937 6040/7265/7280 kHz site at Grodno/Hrodna: http://st2400.narod.ru/nmt_ponemun_3_20040720.jpg 6190/7235 kHz site at Mogilev/Mahiliou: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/58556265 Note how these facilities are almost clones of each other, with the antennas consisting of cages, mounted almost vertically between the two masts. These are apparently former nearfield jamming sites, with their very equipment until recently being used for broadcast distribution instead. The sites are also mentioned as origins of mediumwave outlets, of which 1008 and 1026 still remain --- both listed as 7 kW, indicating Tesla SRV 7 transmitters -> http://stredni.vlny.sweb.cz/Tesla/SRV_7_cz.html However, as far as I know was such a co-location no usual practice. So this would need a closer look (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Brest newly discovered two masts ? 52 07'30.38"N 23 45'15.34"E http://g.co/maps/sqxej Mogilev/Mahiliou site http://g.co/maps/gsvnt veiled Mogilev/Mahiliou site, registered as Orsha http://g.co/maps/gsvnt 6190 / 7235 registered at Orsha 58 kilometers further North, was one of these many VEILED transmitter site locations of communist USSR era, by Mr. Anatoly Titov in late 70ties and 80ties, like for example Sherpukov, Simferopol, Starobelsk(Petrivka) etc. etc. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) 11730, Radio Belarus – Sasnovy (Presumed), 1652, in Belarussian. Popular music, talk, probably sign off sequence but not able to hear an ID, off 1700 (per schedule.) Poor (Mark Taylor, WI, NASWA Flashsheet Jan 22 via DXLD) Date was missing but presumably during previous week. The time he confirms was a mistake, in local time, meant to be 2252-2300 UT! (gh) 11730, 25/1 2255 with a funny guitar songs, IS 2256, talks in (B)russian 2301:30* S7/S2 QRN 452x2 (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non] Now, at 1544, 11730, in a remote radio in Italy, Radio Romania in Arabic and R Belarus in Russian, with pop music. Prevails signal of Romania. At 1606 in remote radio from Minster, Kent, United Kingdom, Global Tuners, R Belarus, pop music, good signal. 73 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana BA - Brasil, 12 14´S 38 58´W, Jan 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Frequency change of Radio Belarus, Minsk: 1100-2300 NF 11730 MNS 150 kW / 252 deg, ex 7390 and deleted 7360 Languages: 11-14 Belarussian; 14-16 & 22-23 Russian; 16-22 Polish / German / English (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, Final issue 1 Feb 2012 of DX Mix News, via DXLD) ** BELARUS. Belarus Radio shortened local small radio outlet recently. Belarus time zone usage now UT+ 3 hours the year around, followed Russia time zone of Western Russia! BRTPC website of transmitter net company mentioned about their local "wire broadcasting network". RUE "Belarusian Broadcasting Centre" informs that as of Feb 1, 2012 will broadcast closure 2 and 3 audio programs: "Radio Channel Culture" and "Capital" of wire broadcasting network in the city of Minsk and regional centers of Belarus. Closing the broadcast due to low demand for public services, for broadcast audio programs: "Radio Channel Culture" and "Capital" in wire broadcasting networks in Minsk and regional centers of Belarus, the lack of a trading network of receiving equipment, as well as the loss ratio for the company to provision of broadcasting services of the Receive audio programs, "Radio Channel Culture" and "Capital" is possible in the range of very high frequency (VHF) at frequencies of 65.9-74 MHz and 87.5 -108 MHz to appropriate receiving equipment. Instead of BR1, BR2, Stalica, now BR1 only on 3-channeled wired network from Febr 1st, 2012. Similar cuts on shortwave happened already? Missed since approx. Jan 15 on low powers 6010, 6040, 6070, 6080, 6115, 6190, 7235, 7265, 7280, and 7360 kHz. Remaining International service from Minsk Belarus is one hour earlier also in winter according new Russia's (and Belarus) standard time the year around. 7255 0400-0700 29,30 MNS 250 72 218 to Moscow, Kazan, Ekaterinburg. 11730 (ex-7390) 1100-2300 27,28,37N MNS 150 246 218 to south-western Europe, Iberian peninsula, NoWeAF. 7255 1500-1700 29,30 MNS 250 72 218 to Moscow, Kazan, Ekaterinburg. 6155 1705-2300 27,28,37 MNS 250 252 218 to south-western Europe, Iberian peninsula, NoWeAF. in A-12 season 7255 (ex-6155) 1705-2300 27,28,37 MNS 250 252 218 to south-western Europe, Iberian peninsula, NoWeAF. 11930 (ex-7255) 0400-0700 29,30 MNS 250 72 218 to Moscow, Kazan, Ekaterinburg. (Wolfgang Büschel, Jan 15/18/26, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews 31 via DXLD) Goodbye Low Powered SW TX Sites. In summary: Low Powered sites of: Brest Hrodna Mahilioú (Mogilev) These SW transmissions appear to have come to an end on January 15 or a little earlier. Also most fascinating images (links) of the former jamming SW antennas used. Thanks to Wolfy & Kai. 73's (Ian Baxter, SW Sites YG via BC-DX Jan 31 via DXLD) I think from 1st January already (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Feb 1, ibid.) Low Power SW transmitters start dates: Brest - Hrodna - Mahilioú If anyone is in possession of info that provides the start date of SW 'broadcast programming' transmissions from these three former jamming sites please drop us all a line. Other info that would be of interest would be the start & end date of jamming transmissions from these three sites. 73's (Ian Baxter, ibid.) The new year (or immediately after) have been disabled, the Hrodna the transmitters in the frequency 6040, 7280, 7265 and 1088. Transmitters preserved for an indefinite time (Sergey Alekseychik, Grodno, Belarus / "open_dx" via RusDX 29 Jan via DXLD) 6040, 1730-1745 28.01, Belaruskaje Radyjo 1, Hrodna, Belarusian ann, local songs, back on the air, 55544 // 6070 Brest (45444) which was 2 seconds ahead of Hrodna! Belarus was not heard on 6010, 6190, 7235 or 7280 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde Denmark, with minus 2 centigrades, heard on the AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) 25 January 2012 received an envelope from the radio station "Belarus". It found two stickers with the logo of the station, a booklet in Russian and English languages with information about the radio station and a beautiful card, but not QSL. On the card photo church of the Nativity of the Mostholy mother of god in Muravanka. On the reverse side of the it is written with a pen: "Dear Dmitry! Thank you for listening to us. Your the report received. Write us still and listen to our broadcasts." (Dmitry Kutuzov, Ryazan, Russia / "deneb-radio-dx" via RusDX 29 Jan via DXLD) ** BELGIUM [non]. 17765, Sunday Jan 29 at 2021, RCI Portuguese service has VG signal on AM, but QRDRM noise clearly audible on 17765, 10 kHz away from ``The Disco Palace`` TDP Radio in DRM via GUIANA FRENCH centered on 17755, which theoretically has a bandwidth of 10 kHz, i.e. 17750-17760 but is really more than 20 kHz. This RCI service is on weekends only, Fri-Sat-Sun. It`s also repeated at 2100-2130, and checked at 2110 in the clear, as the DRM broadcast is now only one hour instead of two from 2000, tho still registered in HFCC B-11 as 20-22 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BENIN. Whatever became of TWR plans for SW as well as MW from Benin? Shortwave was mentioned in DXLD 5-216 over 6 years ago: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxld5216.txt ``TWR new station --- According to TWR the shortwave tower is up and the transmitter building mostly complete. But judging by prayer requests there is quite a lot still to do before broadcasts on MW start! "Please pray for the Higher Authority of Audio-visual Communications (HAAC) and the Department of Communications in Benin to issue the medium wave and shortwave radio licenses. This is needed to put the Benin station on the air (via Steve Whitt, Dec 16, 2005, MWC via DXLD)`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. Re: And the 5030 is out of band, that I am also looking to locate another frequency. When I go back to the office, I will propose this and see how our management will take it up." – Dorji. So BBS will be considering making changes to both their SW frequencies! (Ron Howard, Jan 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Bhutan is north of the Tropical Zone, so use of 5030 is not permitted by the ITU (Anker Petersen, DSWCI Ed. via DXLD) Theoretically; that does not stop China, Russia, USA, etc. (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. A good month for Bolivians with 5 stations (one presumed) heard, all in Spanish: Radio San Miguel, Riberalta heard on 4699.3 at 2248 January 14 with a pop music concert, SINPO 24322. Radio Yatun Ayllu, Yura heard on 4716.7 at 2310 January 14 with Andean songs and identification, SINPO 24322. Radio Lipez, Uyuni heard on 4796 at 2257 January 11, lot of fading. Talk, song, identification and announcements, SINPO 22311. Presumed Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos heard on 5580.2 at 2230 January 2 with songs and announcements, SINPO 24222. No identification but I did hear a reference to Santa Cruz in which province it is located, not heard since. (Apologies for missing out the frequency of this station last month, thanks to Glenn Hauser for spotting this, MB) Radio Pio XII, Siglo Veinte on 5952.5 is the most regular of the Bolivians since constant hash interference on 3310 has obliterated Mosoj Chaski. Noted at 2250 January 11 with songs and talks, SINPO 32432. Heard most nights around this time (Arthur Miller, Powys, Wales, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4699.33, R. San Miguel 1017-1025 talk by M over soft instrumental music with mention of "ondas del...", "universal", amigos, amen, palabra. Must have been a religious program. 1025 MOR religious-like music. 1027 M again over music starting with "Amigos oyentes...", palabra, amen, universal. Fady but almost 100% copy. Gradually fading. (28 Jan.) (Dave Valko, Perseus with Wellbrook up 4 meters and aimed 40/220 degrees, Dunlo, PA, USA, HCDX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4716.7, Radio Yatun Ayllu, Yura, 0114 Spanish. Latin American music, nothing particularly Bolivian about it, male announcer, 0115 tentative “Radio Yura” ID, 0123 tuned out. Poor and declining down to very poor. Jan 30 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4877.35v, Rdif Roraima, 0335-0401*, Portuguese pop ballads. Portuguese announcements. Sign off with National Anthem. Fair level but very wobbly, unstable carrier. Jan 27 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 4877.30, 2315-2325 26.01, R Difusora Roraima, Boa Vista, RR, Portuguese talk, 33222, CODAR QRM (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde Denmark, with minus 2 centigrades, heard on the AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL, Rádio Clube do Pará, 4885 caught with very strong signals at 0442 UT on 29 January 2012 with Brazilian music with latin beat. Lots of IDs and commercials as well in Portuguese. Really enjoyable. Makes me definitely want to go see Carnaval! (Al Muick, Whitehall, Pennsylvania, USA, WinRadio G303e, Wellbrook ALA1530P active loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4925.2, Rádio Educação Rural, Tefé. 0055 Portuguese. Soft music, male announcer sounded like he might be giving a devotional or sermon, tuned away and checked back seconds after 0100 and it was off the air, listed s/off is 0200. Poor. Jan 30 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 5970, R. Itatiaia, Belo Horizonte 0703-0734 Jan 23 Portuguese; Various announcers with music bits; ad strings; passing mentions of Brazil; jingle/ID at BoH; more ads; talk over police siren fx; fair-good (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, MLB-1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Re 12-04, spurs over 49m: Olá Durval, Existe sim uma emissora em 49m, que atrapalha e muito Eu creio que seja a Rádio Bandeirantes 6090 kHz, espalhando harmonicos [sic] 100 kHz acima e abaixo de sua frequencia fundamental. Att (Rogério Rampazo, Alfredo Marcondes -SP, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. QSL: Rádio Voz Missionária, 9665, f/d absolutely stunning A4-sized QSL certificate in 19 days for Portuguese airmail report and 2 IRCs. Certificate has signatures of the President, Vice-Preseident and Director of Radio on it. Also sent some station brochures that list frequencies and show transmitter and antenna system. The QSL and brochures arrived via EMS Post which certainly cost them much more than the IRCs were worth! As a bonus, I was not inundated with religious tracts! (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, Jan 28, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Other frequencies for RVM as in list below: 5940, 11750v ** BRAZIL [and non]. 11765, Feb 1 at 0626, SRDA Curitiba is the OSOB, with unmistakable wailing of David Miranda, but it`s very poor, // 9565. Lest one conclude all higher bands are dead, R. Australia is still better audible on its frequency hidden from HFCC, 15160 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Rádio Brasil Central, 11815, coming in about S4 right now at 2350 UT on January 29 2012. This could be a good night for Brazilians. Playing Brazilian and international oldies and pops with thundering, full IDs by male announcer in Portuguese. Heard Badfinger's "Day After Day" from their live album, which was rather nice to hear. Killed by REE Digital DRM sign-on at 2356, but the REE DRM signal faded down many times and was drowned out by Brasil Central. REE is beamed to South America, so Brasil central apparently can overcome the "back-of-the-beam" field strength (Al Muick, Whitehall, Pennsylvania, USA, WinRadio G303e, Wellbrook ALA1530P active loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 28-1, 15190, Inconfidencia, 2256 with OM with talks S2 max and over-modulated (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 6135, R. Aparecida, Aparecida SP, 2209-..., 28 Jan, program Com a Mãe Aparecida; 24431, adjacent & co-channel QRM. Extremely weak modulation. It's been ages since I last got a decent signal from them on this band, and it was not rare this outlet was providing the best signal compared to their other high frequencies. I am almost convinced this "weak modulation" issue is either a fact, probably for saving power and the transmitter stages, or then a simple matter of deliberate low level audio feed that reaches the transmitter site which would then mean all 4 carriers should present the same quality; if the transmitters were in the same condition. Other stations with the same practice that immediately come to mind are R. Mali 9635/5995 and RNAngola 4950v. 9565, SRDA, Curitiba PR, 1913-1925, 29 Jan, shouting preacher before a live audience; 23431, adjacent QRM. 9584.95, SRDA, São Paulo SP, 2237-2255, 26 Jan, IPDA gatherings schedule, address announcements; 45433. 9629.9, R. Aparecida, Aparecida SP, 2240-2254, 26 Jan, music dedications in program Com a Mãe Aparecida; 44433, adjacent QRM. Fair audio, but by no means strong, not their usual audio quality. 9819.65, R. 9 de Julho, São Paulo SP, 2245-2256, 26 Jan, religious propaganda; 44433, adjacent QRM de CHINA on 9820 as usual at this time. Almost QRM free at 1900+. 11854.96, R. Aparecida, Aparecida SP, 2205-2224, 28 Jan, program Com a Mãe Aparecida; 45433, weak modulation (?) (see 5035). Parallel to 5035, 6135 & 9629.9. 11915, R. Gaúcha, Pt.º Alegre RS, 2203-2221, 28 Jan, news magazine Correspondente Ipiranga, weather report at 2207, then f/ball news; 44433, QRM de ARS [Saudi Arabia] on the same channel. 15190, R. Inconfidência, Belo Horizonte MG, 1501-..., 30 Jan, announcements, Brazilian songs; 25432, bad modulation (see attached [unedited] audio clip). (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Carmen Miranda Report --- Recent Brasillian logs from various sources (Latest Log) [Status notes] "Ck" means the station has been reported as // to the freqs listed. NOTE--Duplicate IDs may be due to list-logging. {duplicate? You mean different IDs on the same frequency? --- gh} [he deletes [almost] all accents, and I am loathe to spend a lot of time putting them back in; why, o why? I have corrected some other spellings] p means presumed; t means tentative 2380v ZYG852 R Educadora, Limeira SP (7/11) Ck 3255 3325 R Mundial, Sao Paulo SP (7/11) 3355 R Educadora 6 de Agosto/Voz do Brasil, Xapuri AC (3/11) Ck 2380 [May relay 4885 Rdf Acreana at times] 3365 ZYG855 R Cultura, Araraquara SP (8/11) 3375v ZYF276 R Municipal, Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira (8/11) 4755v ZYF904 R Imaculada Conceicao, Campo Grande (3/11) 4775 ZYG207 R Congonhas (p) (9/11) 4805v ZYF273 Rdf do Amazonas, Manaus AM (9/11) [Logged up to 4808] 4815 ZYG640 R Difusora, Londrina PR (p) (11/11) 4825 ZYG868 R Cancao Nova, Cachoeira Paulista SP (9/11) 4845v ZYF278 R Cultura, Manaus (11/11) 4865 ZYF203 Radio Verdes Florestas, Cruzeiro do Sul (1/12) " ZYG641 R Alvorada, Londrina PR (t) (11/11) 4875v ZYG810 R Roraima, Boa Vista RR (1/12p) [Rptd up to 4879] 4885 ZYG362 R Clube do Para, Belem (1/12) " ZYF692 R Maria, Brasília, DF [Obsolete? Not in 2011 WRTH] " ZYF201 Rdf Acreana, Rio Blanco/Branco (t) (10/11) 4895 ZYR200 R Novo Tempo, Campo Grande PR (7/10) " ZYF274 R Bare, Manaus-AM (Ex-Radio Globo) [2011 WRTH listed inactive] 4905 ZYF693 R Anhanguera, Araguaína TO (2/10) [In 2011 WRTH; Rptd on 4915 in 3/11] 4915 ZYF691 R Daqui, Goiania GO (12/11t), Ck 11830 (//6080 at times) " ZYF360 Rdf Macapa, Macapa AC (6/11) 4925v ZYF271 R Educacao Rural, Tefe AM (11/11) Ck 5035 4935v ZYF641 R Capixaba, Victoia ES (5/11) 4945 R Ondas Tropicais, Marituba (12/09) Ck 5045 [Not in 2011 WRTH] 4965 R Alvorada, Parintins AM (6/11p) [Not in 2011 WRTH] 4975v ZYG865 R Iguatemi, SP (12/10p) [2011 WRTH listed inactive] 4985 ZYF690 R Brasil Central, Goiania (9/11) Ck 11815 5035 ZYG853 R Aparecida, Aparecida OT (1/12) Ck 6135/9630/11855 " ZYF272 R Educacao Rural, Coari AM (1/12) Ck 4925 [2011 WRTVH listed as irregular] 5045 ZYG360 R Cultura/Cultura do Para (8/11)/R Guaruja Paulista (8/11), Belem PA (8/11) 5055 ZYF274 Radio Jornal a Critica FM, Manaus (2/11) " ZYF901 Radio Difusora, Caceres MT (3/11) 5940v R Voz Missionaria, Camboriu (1/12) Ck 9665/11750 [ex-R Guaruja Paulista] 5955 R Gazeta, Sao Paulo SP (12/11) Ck 9685, 15325 5965 R Nova Visao (4/10) [Listed in 2011 WRTH as R Trans- Mundial] 5970 ZYE523 R Itatiaia, Belo Horizonte MG (1/12) 5990 ZYE773 R Senado, Brasilia DF (12/11) 5995 R Bandeirantes (spur) (6/10) Ck 6090, 9645, 11925 6000 ZYE852 R Guaiba, Porto Alegre RS (12/10) 6010v ZYE521 R Inconfidencia, Belo Horizonte MG (1/12) Ck 15190v 6020 ZYE850 R Gaucha Pto Alegre RS (9/11) Ck 11915 6060 ZYE726 Super Radio Deus e Amor, Curitaba PR (1/12) Ck 6120/9565/9585/9595/11725/11765/11805/11965 6070 ZYE765 R Capital, Rio de Janeiro RJ (9/11) 6080 ZYE726 R Marumby (9/11)/R Daqui (8/11), Curitaba PR; Ck 4915/9665 6090 ZYE956 R Bandeirantes, Sao Paulo SP (9/11) Ck 9645v/11925 6105 ZYE971 R Cancao Nova, Cachoeira Paulista SP; Ck 4825/9675 " R Filadelfia/Cultura Filidelfia, Iguazu PR (5/11) [Not in 2011 WRTH] 6120 Super R Deus e Amor, Sao Paulo SP (1/12) Ck 6060/9565/9585/9595/11725/11765/11805/11965 [Not in 2011 WRTH] " R Globo, Sao Paulo SP (4/11) [Not in 2011 WRTH] 6135 ZYE954 R Aparecida, Aparecida SP (1/11) Ck 5035/9630/11855 6150 ZYE950 R Record, Sao Paulo SP (1/12) 6160 ZYE245 R Rio Mar, Manaus AM (12/10p) " ZYE854 R Boa Vontade, Pto Alegre RS; Ck 9550/11895 [Obsolete?] 6185 ZYE365 R Nacional da Amazonia, Brasilia DF (10/10) Ck 11780 6195 R Nacional da Amazonia, Brasilia DF (7/10); Ck 11780 [Alt to 6185] 9505v ZYE951 R Record, Sao Paulo SP (3/11) 9515 ZYE726 R Marumby (9/11)/R Novas de Paz (12/10) Ck 11725 [2011 WRTH Marumby] 9530 ZYE858 R Transmundial, Santa Maria RS (11/10 [Reactivation] 9550 ZYE855 R Boa Vontade, Porto Alegre RS (1/12) Ck 6160/11895 9565v ZYE727 Super Radio Deus e Amor, Curitiba PR (1/12) Ck 6060/6120/9585/9595/11725/11765/11805/11965 [ex-R Tupi] 9585v ZYE969 Super R Deus e' Amor, Sao Paulo SP (9/11) Ck 6060/9565/11725/11765/11805 ex-R Tupi, rptd as R Globo (12/10) Ck 9565 9595v Super Radio Deus e Amor (4/11) Ck 6060/6120/9565/9585/11765/11965 [Not in 2011 WRTH] " R Record, Sao Paulo [Not in 2011 WRTH] 9630v ZYE954 R Aparecida, Aparecida SP (1/12) Ck 5035/6135/11855 9645v ZYE957 R Bandeirantes, Sao Paulo SP (1/12) Ck 6090/11925 9665v ZYE890 R Voz Missionaria (1/12)/Super Radio Deus e Amor (4/11)/ R Marumby (9/11), Florianopolis SC; Ck 5940/11750 [2011 WRTH as Missionaria] 9675 ZYE971 R Cancao Nova, Cachoeira Paulista SP (1/12p); Ck 4825/6105 9685v ZYE963 R Gazeta, Sao Paulo SP (12/11) Ck 5955, 15325 9695v ZYE245 R Rio Mar, Manaus AM (12/11) 9820v R Nove de Julho, Sao Paulo SP (1/12) [//Aparecida at times] 10000 PPE Observatorio Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (11/11) 11715 R Marumby, Curitiba (7/11) Ck 6080/9515 [Not in 2011 WRTH] 11725v ZYE726 R Deus e Amor/R Novas de Paz/R Marumby (5/11), Curitiba PR; Ck 6060/6120/9565/9585/9525/11765/11965 [R Marumby listed in 2011 WRTH] 11735 ZYE858 R Transmundial, Santa Maria RS (7/11) 11750v R Voz Missionaria, Florianopolis SC (11/11) Ck 5940/9665 [ex-R Marumby] 11765 ZYE726 Super Radio Deus e' Amor, Curitaba PR (11/11) Ck 6060/9565/9585/9595/11805/11965 [ex-R Tupi] 11780 ZYE365 R Nacional da Amazonia, Brasilia (12/11) Ck 6185 11805 ZYE776 R Deus e Amor, Rio de Janeiro RJ (1/11) Ck 6060/6120/9565/9585/9595/11765/11965 11815 ZYE440 R Brasil Central, Goiania (1/12) Ck 4985 11830 ZYE441 R Daqui, Goiania (5/11) Ck 4915 11855 ZYE954 R Aparecida, Aparecida SP (1/12t) Ck 5035/6135/9630 11895 ZYE856 R Boa Vontade, Pto Alegre RS (1/12) Ck 6160/9550/12035 11915 ZYE851 R Gaucha, Porto Alegre RS (9/11) Ck 6020 11925v ZYE958 R Bandeirantes, Sao Paulo SP (1/12) Ck 6090/9645 11935 R Transmundial, Santa Maria (10/10) [Not in 2011 WRTH] 11965 R Super Deus e Amor (10/10) Ck 6060/6160/9565/9585/9595/11765/11805 [Not in 2011 WRTH] 15190v ZYE522 R Inconfidencia, Belo Horizonte (7/11) Ck 6010 12035 R Boa Vontade? [Not in 2011 WRTH] 12175v R Deus e Amor (spur) (10/10) Ck 6060/9565/9585/11765/11805/11965 15190v ZYE522 R Inconfidencia, Belo Horizonte MG (1/12) Ck 6010 15325 R Gazeta, Sao Paulo SP (12/11) Ck 5955, 9685 27825 UNID Pirate (11/11) 29090 R Rio Mar, Manaus AM, FM (9/11) [Studio link] (Harold Frodge, MI, Jan 27, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. Dear friends, On January 13, our member and longtime frequency manager at R Bulgaria, Ivo Ivanov, sent out his last DX-Mix no. 713, telling that R Bulgaria had decided to close its broadcasts on shortwave and mediumwave by the end of this month! Read his complete text under BULGARIA! We will strongly miss Ivo as editor of ”DX-Mix” which has been invaluable contributions to SWN and the DX- Window. Just take a look at Clandestines below! THANK YOU, Ivo! On January 15, I sent this e-mail to english@bnr.bg : ”Dear friends at Radio Bulgaria, I was shocked to receive the message Friday evening, January 13, that Radio Bulgaria has decided to close all shortwave transmissions by the end of January 2012. Radio Bulgaria has been a stable international broadcaster from before I was born, and is still well heard here in Denmark on shortwaves. I heard your DX-programme as late as Friday January 13, 2012, at 2240-2300 on 7400 kHz with SINPO 54544 with slight adjacent interference. Radio Bulgaria is still broadcasting in ten languages to abroad with well balanced news, comments about life in Bulgaria, mixed with the very nice Bulgarian folkmusic. Personally I had the great opportunity after the EDXC Conference in Melnik to visit Radio Bulgaria on August 22, 2011, where we had excellent guidance to the studio and office facilities by Rositsa Petkova and Alexander Markov from the English Section. Therefore it is with my deepest regret to hear, that it has been decided to stop broadcasting on shortwaves and medium waves by the end of this month and to dismantle the shortwave transmitters afterwards. My sincere feelings to go those persons, who will loose their jobs. Will the internet broadcasts of Radio Bulgaria continue unchanged or will there also be reductions? About 95% of the adult population in Denmark has internet access, so for them it will not be a big loss, if the broadcasts continue unchanged on the internet. But many developing countries in the world do not have this possibility, so the closure of the shortwave broadcasts must be a big loss for them. For me as a dedicated shortwavelistener for 54 years, it will of course also be a big loss. Anker Petersen , Chairman of the Danish Shortwave Club International”. - Send your protests now! (DSWCI DX Window Jan 25 via DXLD) No DX Mix News has been received since the Jan 13 issue, but we have since learnt that the DX program will continue on the webcasts, so maybe Ivo Ivanov`s involvement will too? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) One more final issue came later Received an email from Radio Bulgaria. This should answer a few questions. ``Thank you very much for your concern about the current situation. Against the background of this transformation, we'd like to encourage you to keep listening to us via the Internet. Let me suggest, for instance, that you could keep listening to our DX program, which is not going to stop, although I imagine the thrill of catching it on the short wave will be not as intense. We are also going to keep our Answering Your Letters program and are thinking of diversifying our topics and introducing new features after we cease the shortwave. Our management and internet team are currently working on the format of our shows, discussing also alternative ways of broadcasting. So, we're going to have a slow start in February but we hope to gain momentum over the coming months. So, bear with us and check out our website http://www.bnr.bg for more news on Bulgaria. Best, Vyara Popova, English Service, Radio Bulgaria`` (via cedwa200, Indiana, Jan 27, ptsw yg via DXLD) RADIO BULGARIA’S CLOSURE OF ITS SHORT-WAVE BROADCASTS - AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE TO LONGTIME LISTENERS Radio Bulgaria Author: Rumiana Tsvetkova January 31, 2012 http://bnr.bg/sites/en/Feedback/HiRadioBulgaria/Pages/3101RadioBulgaria%E2%80%99sclosureofitsshortwavelongtimelisteners.aspx "You will always have a friend in Brazil who will keep roaming on your short wave frequencies, looking forward to the return of Radio Bulgaria’s broadcasts on the air" – these are lines from the letter of our listener José Vieira Saul Bello from Brazil. "I never imagined that the year may begin with such terrible news. After 35 years of contact between us, I perceive myself as a person belonging to one family with you. All of you together and each one individually have done so much for your listeners that you will remain forever in our hearts," writes Juan Carlos Buskalya from Argentina. And these are just two quotes from two of our South American listeners, a tiny part of the nearly 1,000 letters and emails and 120 phone calls that have arrived to us during the first month of 2012 with your feedback. Besides the reactions of disappointment and sadness on the termination of Radio Bulgaria’s short-wave emission of Radio Bulgaria as of February 1, many of you as a token of sympathy have sent to us constructive suggestions for the future of the program. For example, our listener Mike Usher from England proposes that we should follow the example of Radio Slovakia and Radio Prague that use a platform allowing their foreign language programs to be available for smartphones and other mobile and Internet devices. "This will allow listeners to listen to you, even when they are not in front of the computer. Has the management of the Bulgarian National Radio considered working with other public stations, members of the European Union for Radio and Television and whether Evranet can be used for retransmission of at least some of your programs to other parts of the world through the BBC and Deutchewelle?" Mr. Usher asks. The longtime listener of the U.S., William Flim, proposes that Radio Bulgaria should offer to broadcast its programs via live streaming and adds: "My biggest concern is that the decision to stop short-wave broadcasts is taken without a clear understanding that , at this stage, Radio Bulgaria does not offer a serious alternative to listening via the Internet. Discontinuing short-wave broadcasts before removing the deficiencies found on your website will result in the loss of most of your listeners. I understand that shortwave transmissions are very expensive and all governments are facing very difficult decisions relating to strict economic constraints. But I hope that the decision to stop short waves may be revoked or postponed at least until your station offers a real alternative to listening to audio on the Internet, similar to the quality of your shortwave broadcasts. The wonderful work of the team of Radio Bulgaria should continue and its efforts should be appreciated by the widest possible range of listeners." We continue today’s show with a very emotional letter sent to us by Wolfgang Hervih Elerbek from Germany: "Yesterday I heard on your program and I could not believe my ears: Radio Bulgaria leaving shortwave - that's just unbelievable! Why limit the spread and thus these good audibility of informative programs? For me and for many listeners it will be very unfortunate that, as of February 1, we will stop receiving extensive information about Bulgaria. I feel sorry for the employess at the radio who don’t seem to receive the due recognition." "As a longtime and loyal listener of Radio Bulgaria from the United States, it was with great sadness that I learned that Radio Bulgaria will soon cease its short-wave broadcasts”, writes Alice Sdjardin from the US. “Your station was much a needed source of international news to which local media in my region pay no attention. The views presented by your announcers and hosts were invaluable with regard to addressing global problems. "Another friend of ours from the U.S. - even Eldin Stevens believes that the suspension of shortwave Radio Bulgaria will reduce visibility among the international media, and the number of their ordinary listeners. Rene Pijar, a longtime listener from France, admitted in his letter: "We learned with much bitterness that Radio Bulgaria will stop broadcasting on short wave. We would have liked it if this was not done in such an abrupt manner but was preceded by a poll among listeners on their opinion of such a measure. Let us say that for decades we have actively participated in the life of Radio Bulgaria. We attach to this email a protest letter on behalf of all members of the Radio club du Perche, asking that it be read on the air”. Thomas Witherspoon is a listener of our Albanian-language service, who has written an article in his blog, expressing his disappointment even devoted an article to your blog, expressing regret for the suspension of short-wave emission. Another listener we have in the Balkans is John Babis who enjoyed our Greek-language broadcasts. He wrote an email that he has been listening since 1990: "I watched with great pleasure and interest your news bulletins, features and musical shows. It is with deep regret that I learned of the impending closure of Radio Bulgaria’s short-wave transmissions. Although many people use the Internet, I doubt that people will bring their computers with them to listen to the issues that were previously available for listening on the radio." We have received a letter from our fellow Bulgarian Detelin Stoyanov who is captain of a merchant ship: "Hello, dear friends at Radio Bulgaria. On your show from Jan 16, 2012, I learned that you are stopping your short wave broadcasts. We welcome the news with mixed feelings, but first I want to thank you for the past more than 30 years that I've been listening to your programs. I work as the captain of a merchant ship, and please keep in mind that offshore internet access is very limited, so your programs have been the basic source, and in recent years the only current source of daily information from Bulgaria. Over the years I first started listening to you back in 1979 to 1981 during my first voyages, then whenever I had the opportunity to listen to your broadcasts, as in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, also in the Indian Ocean, South Africa, Canada and the Atlantic Ocean. After you go off the air, we will continue to listen to the English programs on BBC, but they offer no information about Bulgaria." Saime Demir from the village of Srednya in Shumen, Northern Bulgaria, writes: "I call on cabinet ministers and MPs, asking them not to create barriers for Radio Bulgaria’s broadcasts in Turkish. We, Bulgarian Turks, were born and grew up in Bulgaria and we very much love our homeland. These are sincere words coming from my heart. I like your programs, which represent a variety of topics from healthcare, livestock breeding, tobacco growing, literature and arts”. Shaban Ozturk from our southern neighbor Turkey admits: "As you would guess, I am one of your serious listeners to the Turkish-language emissions”. A heartfelt letter was sent by Paul Frank from Baden-Baden, Germany: "When I heard in the Monday news bulleting that the end of your shortwave radiation will occur on 1 February, I was dumbfounded. I spent a restless night feeling sad. To me, this is a matter of my love of Bulgaria, its people and especially Radio Bulgaria. From the day when I sent my first letter to you until the day you announced the end of your short-wave broadcasts, a period 58 years have elapsed – it is a whole lifetime. Thanks to the educational channel of news from Sofia, I managed to gain sound knowledge of Bulgaria and to learn more about your country. And now that your country is making a steady progress, Radio Bulgaria has declared the end of its shortwave. For me, this is like the collapse of a small world!" The concerns of our listeners from Russia and the former Soviet republics are associated with the fact that Internet access is available mainly to people in big cities. Sergey Sossin from Russia wrote: "My dear Bulgarian friends, I was very sad when I learned that Radio Bulgaria discontinues its short-wave broadcasting. I do not want to say goodbye to an old friend, but unfortunately, I am unable to listen to you over the Internet. I started tuning into your broadcasts in Russian and other languages as a young man back in 1983. Your programs have turned into a reliable information source and simply connected me with Bulgaria and the Balkan region. It is only too bad that the SW transmissions will completely stop and our direct access to our brotherly Bulgaria will disappear. Is it not possible to preserve as least one or two broadcasts in Russian and Bulgarian on short and medium waves? Because most of your listeners do not have broadband Internet access. And not to mention the ethnic Bulgarians in Moldova, Ukraine and Central Asia. They generally live in villages where there are problems with the electricity supply, not to metnion internet connection. Most of these people are unable even to send letters to you”. His compatriot Alexander Makuhin, who has been listening to us since 1990, said: "I appreciate the Russian-speaking broadcast on short wave aimed at Russia. Radio Bulgaria’s transmissions are very meaningful and interesting. I think it's necessary and important that the Bulgarian government should keep its short-wave broadcasts”. Vladimir Pivovarov from Ukraine spares no strong words in his letter: "What your government does not realize it that it kills its own image and its history in the modern world?" Sergei Shohin from Russia believes that the termination of Radio Bulgaria’s short-wave emissions is "clearly a wrong step" and adds: "It is very useful for us to know the views of Sofia on events and domestic news from Bulgaria. Moreover, as I ham operator, I often listen to the DX Mix of Ivo Ivanov, and this is the only good program for radio amateurs in the world in Russian. Moreover, not all of us have the opportunity to listen to Radio Bulgaria on the Internet! In Russia, the Internet is available mainly in large cities. So, the termination of your shortwave broadcasts will sharply reduce the amount of your loyal listeners. We must not forget the large number of Bulgarians abroad, for which Radio Bulgaria is an opportunity to make them feel at home." Along with your comments on Radio Bulgaria’s short-wave broadcasts, you also express your interest in our various programs and features. Very active in this respect are the users of our website in Arabic. "We continue to follow with interest the information published on your website”, was written by Radio DX-ing club in Algeria. Among the favorite shows are still those for tourism, culture and health. And Bernard Martou concludes: "Many thanks for your feeds, as always with high quality and content. Through your programs, we will continue dreaming and travelling across Bulgaria and through the Internet, we will keep following your programs in the future.” On behalf of all our former and current staff members, all radio hosts, news presenters, authors of our DX programs, and music editors, we extend our gratitude to you, our listeners from all five continents, for your support and interest over the years. And we, here at the English section, will keep doing our best to bring to you our unique pastiche of all things Bulgarian! To get the pulse of Bulgaria and learn more about this part of Europe and the Balkans – stay with the large family of Radio Bulgaria online! We thank all of you, our listeners, for your reactions, comments and suggestions and we thank you for your warm, heart-felt and, what is more important, your honest opinions. (Translated by Rossitsa Petcova). (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) 6000, Radio Bulgaria, Plodviv. 2250 January 25, 2012. May as well take one last log before this one joins all the others and goes silent forever. Bulgarian discussion, female ID 2258. Clear, good (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 15600, Jan 28 at 1453, doomed R. Bulgaria with traditional women`s choral music we shall greatly miss, as we did a minute later when most of the rest of the hour was Bulgarian talk. Good signal but as always marred by squishy spur of varying pitch around 15601 caused by the recalcitrant WEWN 15610. From Feb 1, they can mess up 15600 all they want to. 15600, Jan 30 at 1451-1500* mostly choral music from R. Bulgaria on its penultimate day, Bulgarian service. Juan Franco Crespo received word from the Spanish sexion that they will affix a special seal to QSLs for reports of their last day on shortwave, Jan 31. Previously reported termination time is 2200 UT Jan 31, so the Monday night (+ early UT Tuesday) English broadcasts to North America will be the final ones to us: 22-23, 00-01 and 03-04 on 7400, 5900; and after that, to Europe but also USward: 0730-0800 on 7400, 9400; 1830-1900 on 7400, 9700. The absolute final broadcasts should be at 2100-2200 Tuesday Jan 31: Spanish on 6000, 9400; French on 5900, 7400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MARCA ESPECIAL ÚLTIMO DÍA DE EMISIONES DE Radio Bulgaria --De: Radio Bulgaria Fecha: lunes, 30 de enero, 2012 16:10 Apreciado amigo: Le Informamos que sellaremos con un sello especial la QSL con que confirmaremos los reportes de escucha de nuestra última emisión en Onda Corta de este 31 de enero. Un cordial saludo, Sección de Lengua Española de Radio Bulgaria (via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, Jan 30, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) Been listening to what is presumably the last Radio Bulgaria English transmission to North America at 0300 UT Tuesday January 31. I'm assuming another post is correct stating 2200 UT as the final shutdown, so I'm guessing there will be no transmissions for the North American evening on Tuesday. Fair signal on 7400 at 0300, improving somewhat by 0320. Weaker on 5900, which seems to have more muffled audio. I listened until just after 0330, when 7400 was becoming weaker, also somewhat squeezed between Radio Japan in Swahili via Madagascar on 7395, and the Cuban jamming against Radio Martí on 7405. Radio Bulgaria gave two announcements about the shortwave shutdown: One just after the times/frequencies at the top of the broadcast (perhaps they should have skipped the frequencies) and again at 10 minutes in. So goodbye to Radio Bulgaria on SW. I first heard the station in the mid-60's when it had English to North America at 0000 on 9700, and yes, I recall the "organola" interval signal. One of the better Eastern European signals at the time. I still have some of those red and white "Grannie Marta" tassels the station sent out in the early 70's with their printed program schedules (Steve Luce, Houston, Texas, 0401 UT Jan 31, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Missed the final 22 UT broadcast in English of R. Bulgaria Jan 30, and the final 00 broadcast UT Jan 31, so started to record the final final 03 broadcast, but reception too poor on 7400 and 5900. 7400 overridden by much stronger open carrier from 7395, i.e. MADAGASCAR already warming up for the 0315-0400 Swahili broadcast of NHK at 320 degrees also USward; and by the Cuban radio war on 7405. I did make out an announcement about 0301 that SW would be terminated as of February 1 after 76 years on the air. The same two frequencies in use for Bulgarian at 0530-0600: at 0552 Jan 31, 7400 was good, 5900 almost as good except it`s undermodulated. At 0606, 7400 has open carrier and hum, as they are still running the transmitter long before the 0630 German service; weak audio of something underneath, presumably also R. Bulgaria Turkish in opposite direxion. Turkish-sounding music was more audible at 0620. 9400 also had weaker open carrier at 0606, 0620. Heard IS, theme and German opening at 0630 on 7400. 15600, checking for the Bulgarian hour Jan 31 at 1431, very poor signal and not sure it`s RB, which is normally heard quite well; heavy RTTY from circa 15604 was a problem too tho WEWN 15610 and spurs were off. 15700, at 1643 Jan 31, only a very weak carrier, but never very good here, aimed south. Here are the final scheduled few hours of RB SW transmissions before pulling the big switch forever at 2200 (unless they have already done it?), per WRTH 2012: 1600-1700 5900 7400 9700 15700 Bulgarian 1730-1800 7400 9700 German 1730-1800 5900 9400 Spanish 1800-1830 7400 9700 French 1830-1900 7400 9700 English 1830-1900 5900 Turkish 1900-2000 5900 7400 Russian 2000-2100 5900 7400 German 2100-2200 5900 7400 French 2100-2200 6000 9400 Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here is a recording of the closing announcement in this morning's English broadcast beamed to West Europe: http://youtu.be/b3-E65BlCRM (Tudor Vedeanu, (Gura Humorului, Romania), 0844 UT Jan 31, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here is my recording of the 1400 UT broadcast in Bulgarian. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqGoUhxMWbc (Georgi Bancov, Bulgaria, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9400 31/Jan 2103 BULGARIA, R Bulgaria, in Spanish. YL presents news. // 6000 suffering moderate QRM from CNR 1 and R Guaíba. This did not deserve the end. At 2109 music “My way”, instrumental by Richard Clayderman. 2111 announcement of the sad end of transmissions. 35433 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana Bahia, 12 14´S 38 58´W - Brasil, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO BULGARIA'S LAST DAY Radio Bulgaria's half-hour English programme at 0730 UT this morning (7400 and 9400 kHz) did not carry any special items for their last day on shortwave, apart from the usual recorded "announcement" about their ceasing shortwave broadcasts. Following the news, there was just a feature on folk singer Snejana Vitanova until close at 0800. They were still announcing a shortwave schedule with times and frequencies from the 0730 through until the 0300 transmission. Maybe later transmissions, especially the hour-long 2200 UTC one (if it is aired), will include something to mark the closure of shortwave? [Later:] The 1830 UT English half-hour broadcast from Bulgaria was completely different to the one this morning and featured a lot about the closure of shortwave today. 'Keyword Bulgaria' included an interview with former editor-in-chief of The English section (1974- 2011), Polya Bozhkova, who was definitely not happy with shortwave ceasing. Plus lots of comments taken from listeners' letters. An online version of the 31st January Programme can be heard at: http://bnr.bg/Audio.aspx?lang=1033#http://bnr.bg/sites/en/FullEmissions/Pages/3101TheProgramme.aspx Reception like a local as usual on 9700, so more`s the pity they are leaving shortwave! Was this the final English programme on shortwave from Radio Bulgaria, or will there be a final full hour at 2200 UT? [Later2:] Sadly, no English from Radio Bulgaria at 2200. After French then interval signal, 7400 then 5900 kHz transmitters simply switched off in turn. So the last English on shortwave from Radio Bulgaria, which I first knew as Radio Sofia, was the 1830-1900 half-hour earlier this evening :-( (Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, Sony 7600GR, Jan 31, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) Was not expecting any at 2200 since the original news from Ivo Ivanov of the impending closure said it would happen at 2200 UT Jan 31 (gh) I heard what turned out to be the final English broadcast of Radio Bulgaria at 1830-1900 January 31 on 9700, it included an interview with former editor-in-chief of the English Section of Radio Bulgaria, Polya Bozhkova and many extracts from listeners letters (Mike Barraclough, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) I tried listening to the final Radio Bulgaria broadcast to North America. No luck. Propagation wasn't cooperating. I also tried at the Radio Bulgaria website, but was unable to download the broadcast. Does anyone have the final Radio Bulgaria broadcast to North America? 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC Krist dxldyg Feb 1 via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kraig, did you try: http://bnr.bg/sites/en/FullEmissions/Pages/3101TheProgramme.aspx 73, (Erik Koie, Copenhagen, ibid.) Erik, Yes, thanks. I did try this page. When I click either the sound icon on the link I'm simply taken back to the same page. Audio player doesn't launch. I'm hoping someone has a wav or mp3 of the final broadcast day (any time) to North America. 73, (Kraig Krist, ibid.) The web audio says "5.29 pm", which puzzles me a bit: if it is Bulgarian time, the UT is 1529 - in both cases, however, there is (was) no direct English broadcast. I myself heard it at 18.30 UT on 7400 with a different content at the start as heard on the web. By the way, the audio works OK here. The audio player comes up on the very TOP of the page. 73, (Erik in Copenhagen, ibid.) Neste momento, às 2113, escuto o último programa em ondas curtas da Radio Bulgária. Reconheço que não sou ouvinte da programação de emissoras, mas a Rádio Bulgária era uma das que parava de vez em quando para ouvir o programa dedicado aos e-mails e cartas dos ouvintes, alguns interessantes programas sobre figuras nacionais da Bulgária, sobre locais turísticos e programas musicais. A modulação com o áudio um pouco mais grave prejudicava o entendimento do espanhol, apesar da boa dicção e das pausas de seus locutores. Em mim fica um vazio, uma tristeza que me faz lembrar do fim da Nederland, VOA, DW, BBC, Suécia. A geração radioescuta de hoje é órfã de boa programação de emissoras em ondas curtas. Resta a expectativa também do fim da Radio România, outra que tem uma boa programação em espanhol. Mas a internet veio para acabar com as transmissões de rádio e TV através das ondas hertzianas, pois o futuro caminha para as transmissões via cabo e através da internet de rádios e TVs, devido a cada dia mais rápido e acessível serviço de banda larga. Um adeus amargo para a boa programação da Rádio Bulgária. Uma coisa é certa, essa vale a pena ouvir a programação pela internet. Apesar de sermos ouvintes de rádio e sermos até certo ponto extremistas quando a se ouvir rádio por internet, apoiar uma programação como a da Radio Bulgária pela internet é uma exceção que vale a pena e uma maneira justa de agradecimento pela elaboração da sua excelente programação. 73 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana BA - Brasil, lista condig yg via DXLD) No pasa por ser extremista Jorge, pasa porque, para oir radio, al menos en mi caso, es toda una filosofía y una ceremonia, preparar antenas, receptores, etc., etc., para captar una emisión; no me gusta escuchar radio por Internet, la pc la uso para mandar correos o para jugar o para participar de las listas. Disculpas si no me entienden pero así pienso y vivo. Saludos (Ernesto Paulero, Argentina, ibid.) É isso que eu quis dizer, amigo Ernesto. O nosso amor pelo rádio e os procedimentos de que você muito bem descreve, faz com que pareçamos extremistas com respeito a ouvir radio pela internet. Sim, não tem graça sem todos os procedimentos que envolvem o radioescuta e dexista... Um grande abraço (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana BA - Brasil, ibid.) LA OPINIÓN DE UN EXPERIMENTADO RADIODIFUSOR DE ONDA CORTA:ÉDGAR AMÍLCAR MADRID DE RADIO VERDAD, CHIQUIMULA-GUATEMALA Apreciado hermano Rubén: ¡Otra noticia muy lamentable! ¿Sabe? La Internet no podrá jamás sustituir ni superar a la onda corta. Radio Verdad transmite también por Internet, pero, la Internet es un pequeño juguete diminuto en compraración con la onda corta. Se transmite a alto costo, para lograr unos muy pocos oyentes. Con la onda corta no es así: Transmitimos a no muy alto costo, pero con resultados muy grandes. La Internet es muy limitada y para gente especial; la onda corta es para muchos millones de toda clase de gente. En Radio Verdad no pensamos abandonar la onda corta hasta donde nos permitan hacerlo. Gracias por la triste información. Édgar Madrid (via Rubén Guillermo Margenet, condiglist yg via DXLD What was probably the last broadcast of Radio Bulgaria was heard by me as follows early this morning (local time): 31 Jan 2012, 7400, 2159 UT, 343 Classical music, Tuning Signal, sign off (for last time?) I used to get English from 2200 hrs on other days which was missing this time. My local time was 3.30 am (Indian Standard Time) -- Thanking you, Yours sincerely, (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Hyderabad, India, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 31 Jan 2012: Monitored last few minutes of Radio Bulgaria's 2100-2200 UT broadcast in French, on 5900 and 7400 kHz. Sign-off announcements followed by IS played twice, then both transmitters off the air at midnight Bulgarian time. No sign of the 2200-2300 English broadcast which hitherto followed on those frequencies, so that was it for HF. The 31 Jan English programme (still available on demand at their website at bnr.bg) mentioned that their broadcasts on mediumwave (in Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Serbian, Turkish) would continue. The programme finished with an orchestral rendition of the music on which their interval signal is based - Pancho Vladigerov's March from the Bulgarian Suite. (David Kernick, UK, Feb 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I monitored the same broadcast on 5900 and 7400 for about 20 minutes before the end. A rather pleasant and fitting classical music concert from Bulgaria. We don't hear classical music on the SW very often these days. 5900 provided for a better reception in Moscow but about two minutes before the end it was obliterated by the IS of Vatican Radio's Chinese Service (250 kW out of Tinang in the Philippines). I quickly switched to 7400 to hear the end of the last composition followed by two very familiar IS of Radio Bulgaria. Note that in the last broadcast many language services run a listeners' letter review under the headline: "Radio Bulgaria's closure of its short-wave broadcasts - an unpleasant surprise to longtime listeners." Here's the English text version: http://bnr.bg/sites/en/Feedback/HiRadioBulgaria/Pages/3101RadioBulgaria%E2%80%99sclosureofitsshortwavelongtimelisteners.aspx German: http://bnr.bg/sites/de/Feedback/Friendship/Pages/310112_Briefe.aspx Spanish (shorter version) http://bnr.bg/sites/es/Feedback/Friendship/Pages/Cartas_30_01_12.aspx French (shorter version) http://bnr.bg/sites/fr/Feedback/Friendship/Pages/300112_auditeurs.aspx I didn't realize that R. Bulgaria was known in French under "RBI" abbreviation. 73! (Sergei S., dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Recording of final couple of minutes of Radio Bulgaria on shortwave - 2158 UT 31 January 2012. End of French programme on 7400 kHz, interval signal repeated twice --- then silence. Finally transmitter is switched off (and Chinese station underneath fades up): http://www.box.com/shared/bq9ye4t5jgkxu05lgffx 73 (Alan Pennington, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) Wow, the music was surely sufficiently sad (gh, DXLD) In both Radio Bulgaria transmissions starting at 2100 UT yesterday (French and Spanish) the full B11 shortwave schedule for the respective language was aired - even as nothing has been happened! (Harry Niebuhr, Klein Hehlen, Bonifatiusstrasse 5, 29223 Celle, Germany, Feb 1, ibid.) [and non]. 7400, Jan 31 at 2156 I tune in for the final few minutes of R. Bulgaria on SW. Poor reception but it`s the French hour from 2100; not hearing anything on 9400 in Spanish. Classical music is playing, which is unusual; 2158 some French talkover, 2159:30 IS and off at 2200******* forever, as ACI comes on 7405 from the DentroCuban Jamming Command and Radio Martí. Spot chex of this and other RB frequencies later into Feb 1 confirm that they`re now vacant; freeing up several channels in -00 for other stations, tho I doubt that anyone will succeed R. Bulgaria in using nothing but -00 frequencies. Just in case, RB kept registering those frequencies for A-12, but lots of other stations too (some of which were already timesharing), including: 5900, Bhutan, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka 7300, Russia, Saudi Arabia 7400, China, Pakistan, TWR/Austria 9400, FEBC, Lithuania 9700, Romania 9800, DW, Iran, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, VOA 11600, China, YFR 11700, France, Iran, Turkey 15600, China, FEBC 15700, Pakistan, UAE, WRN Most of the Pakistan plans are likely to be wooden (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Good signal on 7400 kHz for the last issue in English from 1830 to 1859 with SINPO code 54544. At this link the recording of the entire program: https://www.box.net/s/ylf08rht92aj73qm6ooi Distinctly weaker signal on 9400 kHz (Roberto Rizzardi, SWL I/0216/GR, Porto S. Stefano (GR) Italy, playdx yg via DXLD) YOUTUBE: Good Bye Radio Bulgaria on Shortwave http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUT69ecEtas After 76 years on the air, Radio Bulgaria stopped shortwave broadcasting for financial reasons on 31 January 2012 at 2200 UT. I took this video to commemorate the loss of another international shortwave station. Radio Bulgaria will, however, continue to offer its foreign language programmes on the Internet at http://www.bnr.bg Receivers used in this video are Sony ICF-2001D and Roadstar TRA- 2350P, each with their built-in telescopic antennas. I received the station at my home near Hannover, Germany (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) Youtube: The last few secounds of R.B. on SW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubLQfm1-xmE (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) Youtube: Another R.B. Sign Off video [a.k.a. audio] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGLJwJhOTxs (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) TRISTE DESPEDIDA DE RADIO BULGARIA --- 31 de Enero de 2012 - Otra fecha para el obituario de la Onda Corta Amigos: Hoy es el último día de Radio Bulgaria por onda corta, podrán escuchar un programa especial en que se incluye, a la postre, el "Correo del Oyente". http://bnr.bg/Audio.aspx?lang=3082#http://bnr.bg/sites/es/FullEmissions/Pages/Escucheelprogramadehoy.aspx Si hay algo que podemos rescatar en su contenido es la coincidencia de los mensajes de radioescuchas y diexistas argentinos tales como Juan Carlos Buscaglia, Daniel Camporini, Ernesto Paulero y quien suscribe esta nota, todos despidiéndonos también de Radio Bulgaria. Otros colegas latinoamericanos y españoles siguieron el mismo criterio en sus decisiones: Decirle Adiós a la querida emisora búlgara. Y no es descabellado. Al terminar las transmisiones internacionales, el receptor de radio ha perdido definitivamente su esencia; aAl menos en cuanto a su enorme capacidad de permitirnos escuchar la onda corta a escala mundial. Se la pretende reemplazar por INTERNET en lugar de seguir utilizándola como alternativa. Son decisiones que se toman sin entender que a los oyentes de ondas cortas tampoco se los puede reemplazar. Desguazarán hasta la última planta transmisora para terminar con un sistema de comunicación que, en el caso de Radio Bulgaria, llegó a cumplir 76 años!!! Como antecedente lejano quiero citar el caso de Radio Suecia cuando cerró sus emisiones en español por onda corta el 2 de julio de 1993, ya hace casi veinte años. En aquel último programa se despidieron todos los integrantes de la sección y fue Hernán Bernengo, Jefe de Programación, quien emitió una frase que jamás olvidaré: «No hubo voluntad política», dijo «Con este cierre Radio Suecia pierde como mínimo la mitad de sus oyentes en el mundo, un verdadero mal negocio en términos de oyente por dinero ahorrado». El 16 de enero de 2006 otra locutora de Radio Suecia, Cecilia Mora, despedía por INTERNET al programa "Panorama" - la última expresión hispana desde Suecia al mundo - y hoy los suecos no tienen una voz embajadora que nos hable. ¿Es este el resultado que esperan los gobiernos en materia de comunicación radiofónica internacional? Si es así, lo están logrando. La lista de países cuyas voces ya no existen es larga y muy ingrata. No deseo lo mismo para Radio Bulgaria pero la realidad es más fuerte que los anhelos. Finalmente, quienes escuchen hoy por ONDA CORTA la última emisión de Radio Bulgaria y envíen el correspondiente informe de recepción recibirán tarjeta QSL sellada con un cuño especial con motivo de este triste final (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Rosario - Argentina, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SOFÍA DIJO DEFINITIVAMENTE ADIÓS A LA ONDA CORTA El 31 de enero, como hiciera la República Checa un año antes, Radio Bulgaria dijo adiós a la onda corta. Otra emisora que ha pasado por el "embudo". Se gastan miles de millones en proyectos solidarios en los más insospechados rincones que al cabo de unas semanas nadie recuerda, pero Europa sigue tratando de ahogarnos con sus desatinos. Otra pérdida, lacerante, se ha consumado. En el último programa hablaron de continuar con la ONDA MEDIA y las lenguas balcánicas para informar al resto de países vecinos. La experiencia es que es esas frecuencias raras veces llegan hasta España, en muchos casos porque son canales ocupados por emisoras españolas que impiden su entrada aunque algún que otro "agujero" se produce a veces por averías o fuera de servicio inesperado, así que a lo mejor ahí podemos todavía prácticar el DX tradicional. Finalmente leyeron el último CORREO DEL OYENTE que prácticamente fue un RINCON DX extra puesto que el mismo estaba centrado en el cese de emisiones en Onda Corta. Ojalá no desmonten los centros emisores tan pronto como lo hicieron otros países. Ese es un patrimonio que se debería de conservar a toda costa porque es historia viva, pero dudo que se consiga mantener en pie cuando todos los prebostes están deseando que desaparezcan los medios de difusión públicos que en Europa han sido una ventana de pluralidad no conocida por otros lares. Digamos que la radio aquí se desarrolló por otras vías y por ello fue posible tener las mejores organizaciones radiales del orbe. ¡Los nuevos tiempos están barriendo con todo eso porque lo que quieren es tenernos en la "caverna", la ignorancia tonta y supina que tan bien les sienta a los trileros que hoy en día están instalados en las sillas de la UE en donde dictan qué, cómo y cuándo. RIP por Bulgaria. INTERNET es cualquier cosa menos radio, aunque nos lo quieran hacer creer, allá el que se tome al pie de la letra esa lisonja sin sentido. CORDIALES SALUDOS / (JUAN FRANCO CRESPO, E-43800 VALLS-TARRAGONA (ESPAÑA), DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nothing on either 5900 or 7400 at a 0045 UT February 1 check, so Radio Bulgaria is indeed gone from SW (Steve Luce, Houston, Texas, dxldyg via DX LISENING DIGEST) Kraig And Erik: Good stream on the BNR website today explaining their reason for cancelling their SW transmissions in all languages. I heard the first few minutes of the broadcast at 1434 UT on the BNR homepage at the url you gave in streaming (not downloable) audio. I for one enjoyed it although it did not include the classic IS famous for its great quality and enjoyability. It was sad to see this happen to our friends at the Station, but can understand they needed to move on as did other services in the past. SW is not dead yet. It has been around since the 1900's. 73's, (Noble West, NWM&M, TN, PC: Dell Dimension 2400 with Intel Celeron 2.40 GHz processor, Soundmax Digital Sound card, LAN via Linksky router via ISP, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Audio of the last show from Radio Bulgaria: http://bnr.bg/Audio.aspx?lang=1033#http://bnr.bg/sites/en/FullEmissions/Pages/3101TheProgramme.aspx (Artie Bigley, DXLD) Here you go... RADIO BULGARIA - English program for January 31, 2012 (edited, mp3 file [32 kHz/44 kHz/mono], 12.3 MB, 53min43sec) DOWNLOAD LINK: ftp://84.242.176.19/RadioBulgaria/Programi%20ot%20denia/Angliiska/2_Vt ornik/31_01_12_eng.mp3 Kind regards! (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dragan, Thank you. When was this broadcast? 0000, 0300 or 2200 UT? 73, (Kraig Krist, ibid.) Radio Bulgaria's FTP server has "1/31/2012 5:28:00 AM" as a time when the mp3 file was uploaded, so it is probably a 0300z broadcast. But keep in mind that 01/31/2012 was a special day for RB, so they played that recording thru the day. By the way, I am shure they pre-record all shows. For example, Serbian service already have programs for Friday (today is Wednesday). Regards, (Dragan Lekic, ibid.) ** BULGARIA. ========================================================= DX MIX NEWS # 714 01 February 2012 ================================================================= AM broadcasting (LW/MW) in Bulgaria effective from February 1: Vakarel 5 261 VAK 075 kW 0000-2400 Horizont HS-1+Parliamentary channel Petrich 747 PET 300 kW 1600-2300 Radio Bulgaria till Feb.13 Salmanovo 747 SLM 010 kW 0000-2400 Horizont HS-1+Turkish Minority Varna 1 774 VRN 075 kW 0400-0200 Radio Varna till Sep.30 Blagoevgrad 864 BLD 075 kW 0400-2200 Radio Blagoevgrad Samuil 864 SML 010 kW 0000-2400 Horizont HS-1+Turkish Minority Stara Zagora 873 STZ 060 kW 0300-0100 Radio Stara Zagora+HS-2 till Sep. 30 Shumen 2 963 SHM 075 kW 0300-0100 Radio Shumen+HS-1 till Sep.30 Dragoman 4 963 DRA 040 kW 0000-2400 Horizont HS-1 till Sep.30 Kardjali 2 963 KRL 050 kW 0300-0100 Horizont HS-1+Turkish till Sep. 30 Malko Tarnovo 963 MTN 005 kW 0000-2400 Horizont HS-1 till Feb.29 Doulovo 1161 DLV 010 kW 0000-2400 Horizont HS-1+Turkish Minority Targovishte 1161 TRG 010 kW 0000-2400 Horizont HS-1+Turkish Minority Vidin 1 1224 VDN 300 kW 0530-0730 Radio Bulgaria Mon-Fri till May 31 Vidin 1 1224 VDN 300 kW 0500-0900 Radio Bulgaria Sat/Sun till May 31 Vidin 1 1224 VDN 300 kW 1600-2300 Radio Bulgaria Daily till May 31 Kardjali 1 1296 KRL 075 kW 0400-2200 Hristo Botev HS-2 till Feb. 29 No chance to resume DX programs and SW transmitters in Padarsko. BNR and R. Bulgaria managements do not want to fight for money, around 2,000,000 euro per year (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, DX Mix News, via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) ** BULGARIA [and non]. RADIO BULGARIA CONFIRMS FORMER CLANDESTINE BROADCASTS --- The latest edition of the English DX Programme from Radio Bulgaria - the last one to be broadcast on shortwave - confirms that it used to broadcast clandestine stations: “We should mention that from the 1960s to the 1980s, Bulgarian shortwave transmitters were used to broadcast programmes of Radio Moscow and three stations of the communist parties of Chile, Spain and Iran, respectively Radio Magallanes, Radio España Independiente and Radio Courier of Iran.” Radio Bulgaria will end its shortwave transmissions at 2200 UTC on Tuesday 31 January (January 28th, 2012 - 18:12 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) 7 Comments on “Radio Bulgaria confirms former clandestine broadcasts” #1 SRG on Jan 28th, 2012 at 20:24 First, I wouldn’t call Radio Magallanes a clandestine station per se. It was one of two Chilean services of Radio Moscow. R. Magallanes can be compared to Radio Marti or RL/RFE. Second, I wouldn’t put much faith into statements coming from R. Bulgaria. Sadly, the station seems to have a little sense of its own history. For example, its Russian service is still claiming to have started in 1994. Even though, the Russian broadcasts from Bulgaria began right after the WW2, if not earlier. From what I heard, many of R. Bulgaria’s transmitters and antennas were constructed with the Soviet financial and technical assistance for the purpose of Western hemisphere coverage. #2 Andy Sennitt on Jan 28th, 2012 at 21:37 Yes, you’re right. I am aware that Radio Magallanes was a Radio Moscow service. We used to listen to it when I worked at BBC Monitoring in 1974-78. I have slightly amended the text. I believe the information on the other stations is correct as it agrees with information previously published elsewhere, but I don’t recall the Bulgarians themselves confirming it previously. #3 Sudipta Ghose, VU3TKG on Jan 29th, 2012 at 09:39 I also thought (during 70s-80s) that Radio Euzkadi was also broadcast by Bulgaria. #4 Chris Greenway on Jan 29th, 2012 at 11:55 They also omit to mention Bizim Radyo (”Our Radio”) of the Turkish Communist Party. #5 Juan Carlos Aragón on Jan 29th, 2012 at 17:00 Escucha Chile! was the Spanish service of Radio Moscow for Chile. Radio Magallanes, which was also on air thanks to Radio Moscow facilities, was a product done by the Chile Communist Party people, rather than by announcers of Radio Moscow, so IMHO, the info is right. #6 Juan Carlos Aragón on Jan 29th, 2012 at 17:06 Radio Magallanes existed in Chile ( as the radio station of the communist party) and when they had to escape from Chile, they kept on doing radio thanks to Radio Moscow, now under their new clandestine status with Radio Moscow support. #7 SRG on Jan 29th, 2012 at 19:52 Juan, maybe it was different before that, but back in the mid 1980s Radio Magallanes and Escucha Chile! shared the writers and announcers (not to mention the transmitters - one program followed another on the same frequencies). Moreover, the same announcers could also be heard on Latin American, European and Cuban services of R. Moscow. Editorially, Escucha Chile! was called to provide the official Soviet line. Bureaucratically, both broadcasts were part of Radio Moscow’s Dept. of Programs for Chile. ``I guess a better definition for R. Magallanes would be a ’surrogate’ service`` - Somewhat similar to what Radio Martí or RT [Russia Today TV] America are trying to do today. Both Chilean radio services were shut down very abruptly after the announcement of reestablished diplomatic relations between Chile and USSR, with Radio Magallanes going out first (MN blog comments via DXLD) See my wwdxc list of April 1975. Mostly according data material of honoured engineer Bernard Bale BBC, and taken from BBC receiving station Tatsfield, Nr Westerham, Kent, England. The Bulgarians always denied any clandestine broadcasts and jamming outlets towards Caucasus and UKR/BLR/MDA SSR's from Varna site before. The old communist party "old boy network" was always lasting effect longer. I guess also Turkish communist "Bizim Radio" came from both, GDR in winter season, and Bulgaria in summer season. And Radio España Independiente was always narrowed on direction findings by western monitoring stations, coming from Saftica, Romania site instead, as well as Portuguese Communist Party Radio too. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) His 1975 list shows BUL only for Peyk-e Iran and Bizim Radio (gh) Hi Andy, I don't believe too much on their news, heard a lot of rubbish dishonest and unawareness from Balkan in past 3 decades. 73 de wolfy (to Andy Sennitt, via DXLD) ** CAMBODIA. National Radio of Cambodia --- Hasn't been on shortwave for several years, though still on 918 kHz mediumwave, with 200 kW according to WRTH. They've had a web presence http://www.rnk.gov.kh since mid-2010, initially with a live stream of their 96FM service, however that's now been replaced by streams of the National [918 kHz] Service (observed 2225-1600 UT) and a youth channel called Wat Phnom FM (observed 2255-1600 UT), named after a Buddhist temple in the capital (David Kernick, UK, Jan 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) According to logs of Finnish DXpeditions, 918 was logged a year ago, on 28 Jan 2011. 73, (Jari Savolainen, ibid.) [and non]. Phnom Penh 918 was making it very nicely through the static from local storms early this morning around 2245-2300 (UT date 28 Jan), with their usual dawn Buddhist liturgy. Also noted: Myanmar R 576 sign-on 2300; and usual strong signals from Vietnam on 558, 610 and 711. Best regards (Alan Davies, Jakarta, Indonesia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Two more Canadian AMs to bite the dust: - CKMW-1570 Winkler, Manitoba has filed to move to 103.7 FM with 100 kW/52 m. This is probably to be on the same tower as CJEL-FM 93.5. - The CBC proposes to move CHFA-680 Edmonton to 90.1 FM. In theory, what's happening is: - CHFA's current 3.9 kW "embedded relay" CHFA-1-FM on 101.1 FM moves to the exiting 100 kW transmitter on 90.1. - The existing Espace Musique relay on 90.1 FM moves to the old CHFA-1-FM transmitter on 101.1. - CHFA is deleted altogether. - CHFA-1-FM becomes the originating station for Première Chaîne in Alberta. In practice, what's happening is: - CHFA moves to 90.1 FM. - The Espace Musique relay bumped from 90.1 moves to 101.1 FM. Either way, AM 680 goes away. -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66 Jan 20, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CANADA. 6070, CFRX Mississauga (Toronto) ON; 1923-1930+, 24-Jan; News-Talk 10-10; Jim Richards talk show; ads for Harvey Brooker weight loss program, Global Wireless Solutions, Diamond & Diamond, A. Farber, Royal Alexandra Theater & Service Experts. SIO=4+54, lapsed into occasional distortion. Transmitter going out again? // 1010 CFRB, Fair (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, logged by my ears, on my receiver, in real time! WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 6070, Jan 31 at 0609, CFRX is distorted and carrier unstable with comedy; looks like the transmitter is about to go out again. All-night comedy fans will soon have an alternative, as KKLF 1700 in The Metroplex, TX adopts that format February 1, I think from the same network source (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CANADÁ, 6070 CFRX, Toronto ON, 0950-f/out 1115, 30 Jan, CFRB relay, comic show, news at 1000,... advertisements, weather report at 1037, sports news,..., news again at 1100; 25432 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. QSL: VCK, Canadian Coast Guard, Rivière-au-Renard, Quebec, 518, f/d thank you letter in 37 days for English airmail report and 1 IRC for report on their NAVTEX transmission. V/s. Alain Poirier, Officer-in-Charge. Power is 1 kW and distance copied is 790.7 miles (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, Jan 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHAD. 6165, Radio National Tchadienne, N'djamena, 0525-0537. Talk in French by man. West African music at 0528 followed by 15 or 20 seconds of drums just before 0530. Announcements by woman, then talk by man in studio and others in the field. Moderate signal strength, improving over time, and only a little fading. 1/26/2012 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, ALA100M Loop, Random Wire (90'), Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** CHILE [non]. Radio Magallanes, ex-clandestine: see BULGARIA ** CHINA. 4940, Voice of Strait on Jan 28 did not carry the usual Saturday “Focus on China” show in English; should have been from 1500 to 1530; was only in Chinese; strong AIR QRM. Preempted by the Spring Festival Holiday? (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 7435 // 7220, Jan 28 at 1358, Radio Exterior de España IS again audible from Kunming site as prélude to 1400 Nepali service. 7220 had a lot of SSB QRhaM, by those who fail to appreciate this wacky anomaly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 9600, Jan 27 at 1619, interview about Greece in English, fair signal, maybe BBC? No, it`s only CRI as soon mentioned ``China Drive`` on Easy FM, a special holiday edition. Is 500 kW, 290 degrees from Jinhua site at 16-17 only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 7595, Jan 28 at 1351-1400*, Firedrake such as I have not heard for weeks in this time period, good signal but heavy RTTY QRM a few kHz on the hi side. Fearing it would be a waste of time to search for more up to 18 MHz, I did not. Unheard target no doubt Sound of Hope via Tajikistan, as in Aoki at 1330-1400 on 7605, but jumpable anywhere from 7515 to 7640. He also has one SOH segment on 7595 itself but only at 2230-2300, equally saultable. Firedrake Jan 29, finally a few frequencies at once: 11500, fair at 1435 12230, good with flutter at 1450 12300, fair with flutter at 1449 12600, good with flutter at 1449 12980, good with flutter at 1449; no others 9-18 MHz by 1455 Firedrake January 31: 15870, poor with heavy flutter at 1429, -1500*, nothing else audible 14970, very poor at 1433 No others found 11-18 MHz. Don`t think I`ve heard it before on 15870, and it`s not in Harold Frodge`s comprehensive compilation in DXLD 12-03, nor in Steve Handler`s restricted B-11 list, but Aoki shows one of the 100-watt nuisance Sound of Hope transmitters on Taiwan on 15870 available 24 hours in Chinese, or 02-04 in Cantonese, and therefore requiring jamming whenever it appear before an hourtop (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. II Encuentro Diexista Colombo Venezolano (parte 3) Cúcuta y sus emisoras --- Hola Colegas, Le envío el enlace a la tercera y última parte de mi relato con motivo del II Encuentro Diexista Colombo venezolano con una reseña sobre Cúcuta y sus emisoras. http://dxdesdecolom bia.blogspot.com/2012/01/ii-encuentro-diexista-colombo_28.html Buenos Dx (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogotá D.C. - COLOMBIA, Jan 28, condiglist yg via DXLD) MW and FM only, no SW, illustrated ** CONGO. Nothing heard of Radio Congo 6110 at 0600-0830, 1700-2030 UT (Hans-Friedrich Dumrese, Germany, Jan 27, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 31 via DXLD) Apparently visiting Namibia. Because it`s on 6115? (gh) ** CONGO DR. Bunia Congo 5066 kHz. Logged a station at 1852 UT, in vernaculars and African music, but [had] left air when checked at 1915 UT (Hans-Friedrich Dumrese, Germany, Jan 27, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 31 via DXLD) Apparently whilst visiting Namibia; see ANGOLA Radio Télé Candip presumed the station heard nightly on 5066.3 peaking shortly before close down with a balafon interval signal at around 1900. Very difficult to copy though the language (French) and style of music are what one would expect (Arthur Miller, Powys, Wales, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. 5965, Jan 26 at 0656 past 0704, REE Cariari relay is dead air with some hum. Wake up!? Scheduled until 0800 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. R. Progreso affiliates per website http://www.radioprogreso.cu (stations not in agreement with 2009 CTOM/Molano or 2012 WRTH listings are highlighted in bold [or rather in DXLD as*erisked]); 630, Camagüey, 640/90.3, Cd. Habana, 640, Las Tunas, *660, Villa Clara, *690/94.5, Matanzas, *690/99.3, Santiago de Cuba, *700, Baracoa, 730, Isla de la Juventud, 750, Cienfuegos, *800, Granma, 810/94.3, Guantánamo, *820, Ciego [de] Ávila, 820, Moa, *850, Mayarí, 850, Trinidad, *880, Mantua, 880, Pinar del Río, 890, Chambas, 900/98.5, Holguín, 920, Pilón, 940, Sancti Spíritus (NRC International DX Digest Jan 27 via DXLD) A number of additional stations received are listed in 2009 CTOM / Molano and 2012 WRTH that are not on the R. Progreso website. Though 2009 CTOM (and 2012 WRTH) are still the most accurate listings available, documentation of ever-changing Cuba radio continues to be a work in progress (Bruce Conti, ed., ibid.) ** CUBA. 1060, Radio Veintiséis, Jovellanos, Matanzas. 1235 January 29, 2012. Culturally rolling on a post-sunrise Sunday with decadent and loud Rock 'n' Roll, including Metallica and Def Leppard. Into Matanzas province history and culture talk a little after 1300. Quite a programming whiplash. 1190, Radio Sancti Spíritus, Trinidad, Sancti Spíritus. 0040 January 28, 2012. Dominating the channel for awhile, with male and female discussion, ID. For what little it's worth, listed as 1 Kw (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 13640, Jan 26 at 1413, RHC is on this unscheduled frequency // 13670 and 13780 --- 13640 is on the air at 1930-2100 & 2200-2400, so did they forget to change frequency on this transmitter after yesterday`s broadcast? Surely it was used somewhere else in the meantime. Now it must mean some other frequency is missing: yes, 15380 is absent, while RHC is still on usual 15230 (under CRI/Sackville), 13780, 13670, 11840, 11760, 11750, 11690, 9850, 9540, ten transmitters in Spanish at once; is that enough? 13640, Jan 27 at 1437, not on this frequency as it was 24 hours earlier, but back on scheduled 15380; likewise Jan 28. 13800 & 13840 approx., Jan 28 at 1515, pulse jamming spurs from 13820 vs R. Martí, as the DentroCuban Jamming Command refuses to confine its noise to the bandwidth where really `needed`. [non]. 6060, Jan 29 at 0636, RHC is missing from one of its four English frequencies on 49m; no loss; it`s the weakest one here anyway, opening channel for lo het presumably between SRDA Curitiba, Brasil and what else? A bit early for Russia or China, nothing else scheduled. Splatter from RHC 6050 helps to occupy 6060. Sunday anomaly expected: Jan 29 at 1431, 9850 is missing; seems to be on all the other scheduled frequencies 9-15 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also VENEZUELA [non] ** CUBA [and non]. 15330, Radio Martí (presumed); 1821, 25-Jan; Spanish drama. S30 with weak rumble jammer; // 11930, S20 with weak rumble jammer; // 13820, S20 with stronger jammer than other two, but easy copy. 15330 has been logged recently with such descriptions as electronic goose honking & buzz pulses when Marti is off (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, logged by my ears, on my receiver, in real time! DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA [non]. KBC Trasmissione da Noratus-Armenia --- Ciao a tutti. Sta regolarmente trasmettendo la stazione KBC da Noratus- Armenia su 7590 kHz in DRM. Programma contenitore con in primo piano il servizio inglese di Radio Prague. Segnale buono (Giovanni Lorenzi - IT9TZZ, QTH: Messina - Italy 38.11 N 15.32 E, Jan 28, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) No one wants to say exactly when different programs/stations appear within this 3-hour DRM block! Maybe it changes from week to week. ``in primo piano`` presumably means R. Prague came first. Nor has anyone bothered to register it with HFCC; is it Sat and/or Sun at 18-21? Saturdays only per http://baseportal.com/baseportal/drmdx/main 1800-2100 Sat 7590 305 Europe 100 DRM Mix ARM various Noratus Armen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DIEGO GARCIA. Re: ``Is anyone hearing 4319 USB Diego Garcia (or 12759, as well) recently? I've checked at numerous times in recent weeks, but have not heard them. Harold Sellers`` Harold, As noted in my 2 recent reports from Singapore, 4319 was heard very well on 14 and 21 January but was missing on 17 January. Not traced on the 12 MHz frequency (Bryan Clark, NZ, Jan 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) A question for Harold (and everyone else!). Are people not hearing a utility very strongly around 4319? Looks like a narrower "DRM" type white noise here. It was very strong in Masset, and much less so here in Victoria these past couple of days (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, Jan 26, ibid.) Walt, I've heard that noise on recent mornings while checking for AFN. I wondered if it was a genuine signal or some sort of local electrical noise. I guess my question's been answered if you're also hearing it (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, ibid.) Definitely no local noise, Bruce, if you're hearing it, and I heard it 1000 km north, and here in Victoria (Walt Salmaniw, ibid.) Yes, I hear it too, including this morning, strong at about 1800 UT, late morning here in British Columbia (Harold Sellers, Jan 27, ibid.) Thanks, Harold. Sure would be nice to ID this offender. Someone with a utility background might possibly know. Anyone out there??? Thanks, (Walt Salmaniw, ibid.) Gents, This is a NATO STANAG (Standard Agreement) 4285 signal. It's PSK, with a 2400 baud speed and a bandwidth of 3.3 kHz. Best received in USB mode. It's encrypted, and although there are various databases that have it here or on 4316 kHz, not one of them has a call sign or location. You might want to fire off a nastygram to NATO HQ in Brussels, but I really seriously doubt it would do any good. I'm sure if AFRTS kicked up a row, they might be able to get something done, but the fact is that it may not be interfering with them at their target destinations, so they may not care. That's all I got. Wish I could find more info for you, but like I said, it's encrypted and just comes out in numbered blocks or as ciphertext on my end once I decode the signal. 73 (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, ibid.) 12759-usb, Armed [sic] Forces Network, 0124-0205 music program, pop music up to 0145 and then mostly rock music, 0143 mention of a competition. Poor. Jan 30 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, Radio Djibouti, *0300-0400, sign on with instrumental National Anthem. Local chants at 0301. Arabic talk at 0310. Horn of Africa style music at 0340. Weak, poor in noisy conditions at sign on. Improved to a fair level by 0340. Jan 27. 4780, Radio Djibouti, *0306-0345, abrupt sign on with Qur`an. Arabic talk at 0318. Indigenous vocals at 0330. Fair. Jan 28. 4780, Radio Djibouti, 2050-2102*, Horn of Africa style music. Arabic talk. Sign off with instrumental National Anthem at 2101. Weak but readable. Jan 28 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 4780, 1715-1745 27+28.01, R Dif. TV de Djibouti, Arta. Somali comments, songs from Horn of Africa, 1737 talk, 34343, only audible in LSB due to heavy noise QRM in USB and AM modes (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde Denmark, with minus 2 centigrades, heard on the AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ECUADOR. 3810-LSB, HD2IOA, Guayaquil, 0815. Time station with beep and announcement in Spanish by man at 10 second intervals. Poor but steady signal. 1/27/2012 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, ALA100M Loop, Random Wire (90'), Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ECUADOR. 6050, HCJB, Quito-Pifo, 1158-1200. Talk in Spanish by man. Man and woman talking over music at 1159. Pips on the hour followed by ID by man and more talk. Moderate signal strength with minimal fading. 1/27/2012 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, ALA100M Loop, Random Wire (90'), Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** EGYPT. 13650 R. Cairo, Abu Zabaal. Fair level at times between noise and fading. Setswana talk at 0540-0544, 22/12, then s/off at 0600 (Dennis Allen, Milperra NSW (Icom R75, Realistic DX160, Longwire), Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) SeTswana? That`s a bit too exotic for Cairo. Listed in HFCC as ``Saw`` for [Ki]S[a]wahili, 13650 0400 0600 48S,53 ABZ 250 170 0 146 1234567 301011 250312 D Saw and also as such in WRTH 2012 (gh, DXLD) 9305, Radio Cairo (List Log); 2110, 24-Jan; Extremely distorted sig -- not the slightest chance of copy; can just tell it's voice. Spurs on 9295 & 9315. R.C. sked in Arabic. Much less distortion at 2245, 25- Jan; almost copyable. W+2M discussion in Arabic. No spurs (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, logged by my ears, on my receiver, in real time! DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15080, Jan 27 at 1437, Arabic with roaring noise added by R. Cairo, S7 to peaks S9+5. Is 250 kW, 241 degrees from Abis at 13-16. 15160, Jan 28 at 1505, humbuzz at propeller-pitch, no doubt another Abis failure, lacking any human-produced modulation, scheduled as R. Cairo in Ozbaki (Uzbek) at 1500-1600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. EGYPT'S STATE TV STILL TRYING TO FIND ITS FEET ONE YEAR AFTER REVOLUTION Since the ouster of President Mubarak following the 25 January revolution, Egypt's state TV has been trying to restore respect and credibility, much of which it lost under the former regime. Although it has seen some improvements, one year after the revolution the TV seems to still have some way to go to offer consistently balanced and objective coverage. Over the years state TV has been tainted with the image of a tool used by the former regime to promote its policies. New chapter, leadership change The day after the departure of Mubarak the state broadcaster made a U- turn and took on the tone of the revolution and revolutionaries. Recognizing how it was being viewed by people, the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, which oversees broadcasting in the country, seemed to want to open a new chapter in its relations with viewers. It promised that the TV and radio would be "faithful in their message, offering distinguished, competitive information that is worthy of the name of Egypt and its revolution, which history will testify is the greatest in the history of revolutions". This volte-face did not convince many who could not accept the idea that the-then heads and senior management of the state-run broadcasting institutions, who followed the anti-revolution line before the departure of Mubarak, could remain in their positions and speak for the revolution. Under pressure from demonstrations and calls to purge the media, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) responded by replacing the top leaders in the state media. Difficult start With the historical baggage of 30 years of subordination to the government, state TV had a difficult challenge to restore its lost credibility and respect, especially because, although over the years top managers had changed, most presenters and editors remained the same and they were used to working in the old way. Right after the revolution key officials and ministers were keen to appear first on talk shows broadcast on privately-owned satellite channels rather than the state TV. "Officials want to deliver a message in their media appearances, and therefore it would be absurd to try and communicate it via an apparatus that lacks credibility and is little watched," Dr Imad Jad, an expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told the Egyptian online newspaper Al-Misriyun back in March 2011. He said that the officials' choice of Arab and private satellite channels was "justified". Positive changes The state TV channels - namely Nile News and Channel 1 - broadened their range of usual guests to include member of formerly banned political groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Both channels also attempted to appear objective and transparent in their talk shows and coverage of political developments the country has seen afterwards. For example, the state TV was keen to broadcast live most demonstrations held in Tahrir Square on Fridays in protest at the policies of the SCAF. The TV also covered demonstrations held both by liberals and Islamists to demonstrate its impartiality. This was coupled with the introduction of new presenters, reporters and correspondents. Real test However, Egyptian state TV underwent a very tough impartiality test in October 2011 when clashes between the army and Coptic protestors left at least 22 people dead. The TV was accused of incitement against the Copts. Channel 1 was accused of depicting the situation as if the army were under attack from Coptic protestors. It referred to "martyrs" from the army, and made no mention of Coptic victims killed in the clashes. The coverage of the situation by state-owned Nile News TV was similar to Channel 1's. The station carried live footage of incidents outside the TV building and showed cars and army vehicles set on fire. In contrast, videos had also spread online showing armoured vehicles ploughing into crowds at the scene. The coverage of these clashes largely undermined the TV's attempts to build a new image as independent of the ruling authorities. Between extremes More evidence of a struggle to find a new approach was seen in how the state TV covered a new wave of deadly clashes between security forces and protestors in Cairo in mid November. Over the first two days, Nile News TV offered coverage that was critical of protestors, highlighting, for example, images of police cars set ablaze. However, afterwards - in an effort to allay anticipated criticism - Nile News and Channel 1 started to change their original take on the events and adapted their coverage accordingly. Both stations also reported extensively and freely on the developments between security forces and protestors in the square, which left 42 people killed and more than 1,000 others injured. At times, the state TV, however, seemed as if it had gone to the other extreme. On 23 November, Nile News TV provided coverage that mostly appeared to be biased against the SCAF and the government. The station was one of the first outlets to report rumours that nerve gas was being used by security forces to disperse protestors trying to attack the Ministry of Interior. It dedicated a lot of its airtime to this story and conducted many telephone interviews with protestors. Protestors, interviewed directly over the phone by Nile News or through link-ups with its correspondents, were given complete freedom to criticize and accuse the SCAF and the government. The station also gave prominence to the demonstrators' demands that the SCAF step down and a presidential council be formed. In the middle of this, Nile News failed to give the other side an opportunity to defend itself against the accusations and criticisms. The station only quoted statements by the Interior Ministry and the SCAF denying the use of nerve or mustard gas. Even since these events, the TV has allowed open criticism of the SCAF in its programmes and through guests and comments from various people. Election coverage Egyptian state TV's coverage of the second stage of the People's Assembly elections, which started in November 2011, was, however, generally balanced. With live broadcasts, discussions with guests and a wide network of field correspondents, Nile News TV and Channel 1 provided viewers with a comprehensive picture of the second phase of the polls, which began on 14 December. In contrast to some private TV stations, the two stations avoided sensationalizing fears of the rise of Islamists in the first stage of the People's Assembly elections. Alleged censorship However, in the lead up to the first anniversary of the revolution, a number of state TV employees staged a demonstration in protest at what they called censorship imposed by SCAF. They claimed that SCAF was against the broadcast of a documentary about the revolution that included vicious criticism of the Mubarak regime and images of how the police beat up protesters. In a video circulated on the internet, the TV employees called on SCAF "to lift its hand off the media". Some way to go Looking back at the performance of state TV since the revolution suggests that it still has not found its feet. Its coverage remains inconsistent and it continues to vacillate from one side to another. Despite some positive movement, it would appear to have some way to go to restoring credibility among viewers. Source: BBC Monitoring analysis in English 1530 gmt 30 Jan 12 (via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190 kHz is being used by Radio Africa Network. 0600-1200, 1430-2300 UT, 50 kW from Bata, Guinea. =) (Georgi Bancov, Bulgaria, Jan 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Georgi, No, it isn`t. That`s Equatorial Guinea. Has been off the air since last April or May (with very occasional unconfirmed reports of it; may be sporadic). That is merely the listed schedule. If you ever hear it for sure, let us know! Even when it was `active`, the hours were quite sporadic and rarely on the air until the evenings (Glenn to Georgi, via DXLD) Glenn, I heard it two or three times in 2012. Evangelical religious programming, preachers who shout at the crowd, etc, etc, you know that kind of programs. I sent reception report to PanAmerican Broadcasting and now I'm waiting for reply (Georgi Bancov, ibid.) What were the exact dates and times? Did you hear an ID for Radio Africa? (Glenn to Georgi, ibid.) I haven't heard any IDs, but long, long religious programming. Which station it could be? Now I can't hear anything here in Bulgaria and on web-controlled radio in Cumbria, UK (Bancov, 1905 UT Jan 29, ibid.) At 13-15 UT daily Brother Stair is on from Romania, maybe mostly skipping over you. Extended Saturdays only until 1700. If you were hearing something beyond those hours, maybe it was R. Africa. What were the times?? (Glenn to Georgi, ibid.) I heard a religious station on 15190 kHz, 1600-1630 UT, no ID during the broadcast, only religious preaching, but not the voice of Brother Stair. Maybe The Overcomer? But two or three weeks I emailed PanAmerican Broadcasting to send me their schedules and they said Radio Africa is on air every day (7190, 15190 kHz) (Georgi, ibid.) Overcomer according to latest HFCC info is on 15190 IRRS/Romania until 1700 only on Saturdays starting Jan 21; other days until 1500. Did you hear it at 1600 on any day but Saturday??? Sometimes BS does allow others to speak on the air. In such cases try to hear the // from WWRB on 9385 day, 3185 night; or WWCR 9980 day, 5890 night (but not continuously any more). Also on WBCQ 7490 or 15420 at certain hours. These will be // but not synchronized, maybe apart by up to half a minute. The 7190 frequency of R Africa has been off the air for many years, DX-reported by absolutely no one. PanAmerican either doesn`t know what is happening in EqG or lies about it. At least you got a reply, as they have not answered other inquiries. They are probably continuing to sell airtime to unsuspecting ministries whether the transmitters are on the air or not (Glenn to Georgi, ibid.) By the way, I'm interested in receiving and confirming reception of the USA religious broadcasters. I have reported to KNLS two times, but no reply yet. Also WHRI from Cypress Hill [Creek] and Palau (Georgi, ibid.) Note Mark Coady`s recent report of R. Africa, 15190 around 2130 UT. I have tried for it numerous times since around that time with no sign of it whatsoever. I still don`t know whether what Georgi heard at 1600 was on a Saturday when IRRS/Romania was on, or not (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 9710.03, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea, 0403-0425, Horn of Africa music. Vernacular talk. Weak. Much stronger on // 7174.99. Jan 27. 7174.99, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea - program 2, *0255-0330, sign on with IS. Vernacular talk at 0300. Horn of Africa music. Fair. Jan 28. 7195, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea - program 1, *0255-0330, sign on with IS. Vernacular talk at 0300. Horn of Africa music. Poor to fair. Jan 28 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ERITREIA, 7195, Voice of the Broad Masses, Selai Dairo, 1610-1706, 29 Jan, Vernacular, talks, music, program in an Arabic related language heard prior to 1600; 24432, adjacent QRM from stations on 7200, then ETHiopia [q.v.] some time before 1600. Both stations were approx. at the same signal level (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. QSL: ETHIOPIA: VOICE OF ERITREA via GEJA, 7235. The following e-letter from Filmon H. Yohannes was received in 4½ hours: ``Hi Wendel, Woa! Thank you for the message, didn't know you can listen my radio from the USA with 20 meter-long antenna. We (VOE) broadcast from northern Ethiopia, our primary objective or aim is to give voice to the voiceless and oppressed people of Eritrea. VOE is very popular radio in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Thank You Filmon H Yohannes`` Report was sent to hizbawii @ gmail.com (Wendel Craighead, Prairie Village, Kansas, USA, Jan 31, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. ETIÓPIA, 7195, R. Ethiopia - External Service, Geja Jawe, 1652-1708, 29 Jan, English, pops, s/off announcements; French at 1700, HoA songs; 24431, QRM de ERItrea [q.v.] (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9705, Radio Ethiopia, Gedja. Home Service, no related program with New Year, and NA at 2101 and close/down. Observed 7-12/1 and at 1200-1830 here is their FS beginning with Somali. 1600-1700 in English, but previous Home Service in English 1200-1300 as earlier was not on this frequency (Rumen Pankov, Sofia Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi), Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) ** FINLAND. Scandinavian Weekend Radio (SWR) resumed monthly broadcasts on January 13. Future broadcast dates: February 3 and 4, March 2 and 3 (Alokesh Gupta, Cumbre DX via Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) Their schedule for February 3 and 4 is 2200-2300 February 3 6170 11720, 2300-0600 6170 11690, 0600-0800 5980 11690, 0800-0900 5980 11720, 0900-1400 6170 11720, 1400-1500 6170 11690, 1500-1900 5980 11720, 1900 to closedown 2200 February 4 6170 11690. All broadcasts also on 1602 (Website via Mike Barraclough, Feb World DX Club Contact via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) ** FRANCE. ALERT: France 1557 off air --- Ciao ! ecco la risposta di Christian Ghibaudo in tempo reale: FRANCE INFO 1557 kHz spenta a causa di una tempesta di neve sul Monte Agel sopra Mentone --- Christian Ghibaudo France Info 1557 kHz OFF air because snow storm over Mount Agel !!! http://www.nicematin.com/article/derniere-minute/les-chutes-de-neige-revues-a-la-baisse-par-meteo-france-direct.771003.html Christian Ghibaudo, Nice France http://www.3bmeteo.com/radar/italia/liguria (via Dario Monferini, Jan 31, playdx yg via dXLD) At 2341 UT heard France Info 1557 kHz again on air, maybe one of the reserve transmitters at Monte Carlo mountains at or close to Mt Agel - Fontbonne. Noted also tonight \\ on 603, 711, 792, 837, 945, 1206, 1242, but not 1278 and 1494 kHz. 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, Jan 31, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** FRANCE [and non]. ¿QUÉ ESTÁ PASANDO CON LAS ONDAS INTERNACIONALES? Cartas@RN Emisión: domingo 29 y martes 31 de enero Productor: Sergio Acosta Contacto: sergio.acosta @ rnw.nl En Cartas@RN entrevistamos a la Directora Delegada de Radio Francia Internacional sobre los cambios que se producen la referida emisora. La radio mundial francesa, una de las cinco primeras en el mundo por su alcance y mensajes, ha dejado de emitir para el Caribe y Cuba en onda corta. Además RFI se ha fusionado con la televisión France 24. Mientras los trabajadores ven un futuro incierto, la funcionaria habla segura de los planes con el departamento Español. Geneviève Goëtzinger nos dice: “Terminamos el 1 de enero con las emisiones en onda corta para America Central. Eso ya lo habíamos acordado con la empresa distribuidora TDF. Habíamos llegado a un acuerdo de reducir el número de frecuencias. No teníamos opción, fue una decisión económica. Ahí hemos castigado también a Cuba. Pero tenemos la esperanza que como seguimos emitiendo por la web los cubanos, quizás en el futuro, pudieran tener un mayor acceso a Internet y nos puedan escuchar”. En el programa también entrevistamos a Jeff White, director propietario de Radio Miami Internacional, quien nos comenta, que aunque muchas radios están saliendo de las ondas cortas por razones económicas y políticas, la realidad es que el espectro sigue muy congestionado: “Mientras unos salen vienen otros, está prácticamente lleno el espectro”. White nos cuenta en Cartas@RN de los costos de la onda corta y de la encuesta mundial que se está haciendo en español para conocer un estimado de la audiencia existente de estas ondas. Para escuchar el audio del programa consulte nuestra página web a partir del domingo: http://www.rnw.nl/espanol/radioprogramme/cartas-rn Si lo desea, puede leer la entrevista con la Directora Delegada de RFI en éste link, pulsando aquí. http://sites.rnw.nl/documento/EntrevistaGoetzinger.pdf (RNW program previews 27-31 Jan via Yimber Gaviria, DXLD) ** GABON. Africa Number One in Gabon not heard here on 9580 since the start of the year (Arthur Miller, Powys, Wales, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) Checking logs reported to the DX Listening Digest Yahoo group Bill Bingham in South Africa heard them January 3 1441-1445 with poor signals (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) Preview: heard again Feb 3 ** GERMANY. Domenica 29 gennaio 2012: 0907 - 6045 kHz, RADIO ICEMAN - Wertachtal (Germania), Inglese, IDs OM e musica olandese. Segnale molto buono, icemanshortwave @ gmail.com (Luca Botto Fiora, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova) - Italia, playdx yg via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Radio 6150 tests this weekend --- To all friends and listeners of Radio 6150. We are glad that our transmitter worked for the first time with 2.4kw using the aerial. So for coming Sunday January 29 we are on plan to test with this power. Tests will last only for some minutes starting every full and half hour beginning at 7 UT. Some testing is likely Saturday morning using low power and different equipment (Klaus/Germany, Ianns PirateRadio Chat room, 27 Jan via Mike Barraclough, UK, Jan 27, dxldyg via DXLD) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: qsl@radio6150.de Date: 2012/1/27 Subject: Radio 6150 Tests Jan. 28th / 29th *An alle Freunde und Hörer von Radio 6150* Wie freuen uns mitteilen zu können, dass zwischenzeitlich unser Sender erstmalig mit einer Leistung von 2,4 kW an der Antenne gelaufen ist. Für Sonntag Vormittag, ab 8 Uhr MEZ sind Tests mit dieser Leistung geplant. Da es sich herausgestellt hat, dass noch nicht alle Komponenten der Anlage diese Leistung thermisch im Dauerbetrieb verkraften, werden die Tests wahrscheinlich immer nur einige Minuten dauern, beginnend jeweils zur vollen und zur halben Stunde. Natürlich sind wir auch dieses Mal wieder an Empfangsberichten und Audio-Mitschnitten interessiert; für einen Vergleich mit dem in Kürze zu erwartenden Einsatz unseres OPTIMOD-AM Signalprozessors bitten wir auch um eine Beurteilung der Modulationsqualität (Modulationsgrad / Lautstärke; Verständlichkeit / Klang, Höhen / Tiefen...). Wahrscheinlich laufen am Samstag Vormittag Tests mit geringer Leistung und anderem Equipment. Über Berichte, die uns einen Vergleich zu den Sendungen mit höherer Leistung erlauben, würden wir uns sehr freuen. An dieser Stelle auch vielen Dank an alle, die uns bisher mit Empfangsberichten, Jingles, Bekanntmachungen in der Presse und im Internet etc. unterstützt haben. Es wird jetzt nicht mehr lange dauern, bis alle korrekten Empfangsberichte mit unserer QSL bestätigt werden. Wer Interesse hat, Sendezeit zur Ausstrahlung von Programmen zu buchen oder Werbung zu schalten, soll bitte Kontakt mit uns aufnehmen; wir können absolut günstige Preise anbieten! Auch wer anderweitig mitarbeiten möchte, z.B. durch die Zulieferung von Programmen in Deutsch, Englisch, Niederländisch... kann sich gerne melden. Wir freuen uns auf eure Zuschriften, und: *Bitte informiert alle Hobby-Kollegen!* 73, Mark West *To all friends and listeners of Radio 6150* We are glad that our transmitter for the first time worked with 2.4 kW using the aerial. So for coming Sunday, Jan. 29th, we are on plan to test with this power. Because parts of the equipment do not yet stand full power for a longer time, tests will last only for some minutes, starting every full and half hour, beginning at 7 UT. We ask for your reports and audio files, and your opinion concerning modulation / sound, so we can compare it with our soon to come Optimod AM soundprocessor. Some testing is likely on Saturday morning, using low power and different equipment. Please report this, too, so we can see the difference in using low and higher power. Thanks to everybody who supported us until now with reports, jingles, internet, and --- In a short time we will send our QSL for every correct report we got! We offer booking time for broadcasting your programs and advertising for absolutely low prices. Please contact us for details. If you want to help our station, maybe producing programs in German, English, Dutch... or jingles, please drop us a line. We like to hear from you, and:* please tell your friends!* 73, Mark West (via Ivan Guerini, # Swl I2 - 5759 #, http://swl-i2-5759.blogspot.com/ bclnews.it yg via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) Transmitter site is near Munich, address for reports is qsl@radio6150 (Mike Barrraclough, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) ** GERMANY. 6190, Deutschlandfunk, Berlin-Britz. 2251 January 25, 2012. German man and woman discussion, female "Hier ist Deutschlandfunk" at 2259, time sounders (three?) into news headlines. Fair, with someone else weak underneath (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6189.991, DLR / DLF Deutschlandfunk Berlin Britz 'ancient 17 kW poppet' is cold this morning. Minus temperature centigrade in Berlin has outcome of totally distorted audio quality of the final tube? at 10 UT Jan 28. 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6189.991, DLR / DLF Deutschlandfunk Berlin Britz 'ancient 17 kW poppet' is cold this morning. Minus temperature centigrade in Berlin has outcome of totally distorted audio quality of the final tube? at 10 UT Jan 28. Output failure of distorted audio and very low power of 100-200 watts? But according to reports in A-DX ng, repaired already on Monday Jan 30 (Wolfgang Büschel, Jan 28/30, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 31 via DXLD) Domenica 29 gennaio 2012: Da ieri ho notato che DLF su 6190 aveva un audio molto distorto. Questa mattina fino alle 8 era accesa, verso le 9 era spenta, idem intorno alle 15.30. Semplice manutenzione o calerà il sipario anche su questo impianto? (Luca Botto Fiora, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova) - Italia, playdx yg via DXLD) ** GERMANY. 7265, QSL Hamburger Lokalradio via MV Baltic Radio, Göhren; nice professionally printed MV Baltic Radio card showing vertical antenna and equipment on front, station name, e-mail address, on back full-data and reference to my hearing a test broadcast of Hamburger Lokalradio. V/S Roland Rohde. Card received in 9 weeks, for e-mail rpt and MP3 recording to Also sent an e-mail the same day as my rpt, saying that the power was 1 kW. Nothing yet from Hamburger Lokalradio e-mail report, tho I have verified them before via DTK (Jerry Berg, MA, DXplorer Jan 29 via BC- DX Jan 31 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. DEUTSCHE WELLE: NEW WEBSITE, NEW CORPORATE DESIGN Deutsche Welle (DW) will be launching its completely redesigned website on 6 February. The multilingual, multimedia online portal will be available at http://www.dw.de “The new website encompasses everything that DW has to offer – articles, audio, video and interactive content,” said DW Director General Erik Bettermann. “DW.de is a source of reliable information from Germany and high-quality journalistic content in 30 languages. A refreshing colour concept and modern design give the site a friendly face.” Comprehensive corporate identity A new corporate identity has been developed to unite the organization – including the new television and online services. Mr Bettermann said that more and more countries are looking for attention in the battle for opinions around the globe. “With this in mind, the new corporate design is an essential investment for a successful presence in the international media industry.” He went on to say that the numerous new platforms and distribution channels that are available require an overarching concept to ensure that an organization is quickly recognized and hard to forget. Deutsche Welle has adapted to these conditions. In the future, the organization will be represented by a single logo that reflects all of its services – around the world and in every language. (Source: Deutsche Welle)( January 31st, 2012 - 14:08 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) 1 Comment on “Deutsche Welle: new website, new corporate design” #1 Tarmo on Jan 31st, 2012 at 16:10 I see they have been making changes. For example some days ago I discovered DW-TV’s teletext service had gone dark(I’m not amused about it!) (MN blog comment via DXLD) ** GERMANY [and non]. Some MBR changes: Bible Voice Broadcasting Network to EaAf: 1600-1630 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Oromo Mon/Thu 1630-1700 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Amharic Mon/Fri 1700-1730 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Tigrinya Mon/Tue/Fri 1730-1830 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Amharic Mon/Tue/Fri 1630-1700 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Amharic Tue 1630-1800 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Amharic Wed 1630-1830 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Amharic Thu/Sun 1630-1745 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Amharic Sat 1745-1800 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 English Sat 1600-1630 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Oromo Fri/Sun 1800-1830 NF 15335 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 13810 Somali Fri-Sun Bible Voice Broadcasting Network to N&ME: 1715-1800 NF 9465 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 7355 Arabic Mon/Wed/Fri 1800-1830 NF 9465 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 9460 English Tue 1830-1900 NF 9465 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 9460 Hebrew Tue 1800-1915 NF 9465 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 9460 English Sun 1645-1700 NF 11700 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 9460 English Mon/Wed 1645-1720 NF 11700 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 9460 English Tue 1645-1745 NF 11700 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 9460 English Thu 1645-1715 NF 11700 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 9460 English Fri 1645-1800 NF 11700 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 9460 English Sat 1630-1800 NF 11700 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, ex 9460 English Sun Radiyo Y'Abadanga Ababaka in Swahili to EaAf: 1700-1715 on 17725 WER 250 kW / 150 deg Sat, cancelled Voice of Russia, all cancelled from Jan. 1: 0000-0200 on 9875 GUF 250 kW / 195 deg to SoAm Spanish 0200-0500 on 7335 GUF 250 kW / 318 deg to NoAm Spanish 2200-2400 on 11605 GUF 250 kW / 181 deg to BRA Portuguese Brother Stair TOM 1500-1600 on 17580 WER 500 kW / 165 deg to NCAf English, cancelled 1900-2000 NF 9835 WER 500 kW / 165 deg to NCAf English, new txion (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, Final issue 1 Feb 2012 of DX Mix News, via DXLD) see also SOUTH CAROLINA [non] ** HONG KONG. QSL: Hong Kong VOLMET, 6679, f/d information letter in 39 days for English airmail report and 2 IRC's. V/s. LEUNG, Chi-Lam, Chief Aeronautical Communications Supervisor. Address: Civil Aiviation Department, 2/F, Air Traffic Control Complex and Tower, Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok, HONG KONG. Unfortunately, the various postal services took a small bite out of the bottom of the envelope, which resulted in "un petit blessé" in the middle of the letter! (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, Jan 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Re 12-04: Republic Day Special broadcasts heard now 26 Jan 2012 Also: 26 January 2011: Republic Day: Running Commentary of Republic Day parade from 0350 UTC onwards in English English : 5990 (Delhi 250 kW); 9810 (Delhi 50 kW); 11830 (Delhi 50 kW); 15050 (Bengaluru 500 kW) Regards (Alokesh Gupta, dx_india yg via DXLD) From 0350 UT the Special commentary of Republic Day parade is noted on 15050 in English. Also noted on the following: 12060 in English (must be spurious of 11830) 9053.5 varying in English, spurious signals? Others noted are as follows: English 7290 Trivandrum 353 7420 Hyderabad 555 7380 Chennai 555 11830 Delhi 151 Hindi: 5040 Jeypore 353 6155 Bangalore 454 7210 Kolkata 353 7240 Mumbai 555 7270 Chennai 555 signed off at 0430 as usual! 7340 Mumbai 454 7430 Chennai 454 9595 Delhi 444 11620 Delhi 454 Other SW frequencies of regional station etc. not heard at my location (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Hyderabad, India, http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos http://www.niar.org dx_india yg via DXLD) Republic Day Special broadcasts heard on 26 Jan 2012. Logged the following at Gurgaon, India. 03:50z 6155 Bengaluru 45544 03:58z 9595 Delhi 33333 interference from 9580 04:04z 11620 Aligarh 34333 04:10z 6020 Shimla 33433 interference from 6025 04:12z 6110 Srinagar 44434 04:16z 7210 Kolkata 34333 04:22z 7380 Chennai 34323 04:29z 7240 Mumbai 35344 04:31z 7430 Bhopal 45444 04:38z 15050 Bengaluru 45444 05:10z 4860 Delhi 35333 05:15z 4910 Bhopal 34333 Recordings can be heard at http://soundcloud.com/kaustav_saha (Kaustav Saha, VU2018SWL (SWARL callsign), dx_india yg via DXLD) AIR Republic Day Special broadcast of 26 Jan 2012 Monitored in Assam I have heard the following All India Radio stations airing the running Commentary of Republic Day parade from 0350 UT onwards here in my QTH at Jorhat, Assam. I did the monitoring between 0350 to 0430 UT. 9595 Delhi- SINPO 55444 11620 Aligarh- SINPO 25222 4940 Guwahati- SINPO 55555 4970 Shillong- SINPO 55455 5050 Aizawl- SINPO 45434 6085 Gangtok- SINPO 35333 7230 Kurseong- SINPO 44444 7280 Guwahati- Very Weak 7210 Kolkata- SINPO 45333 7335 Imphal- SINPO 55555 7380 Chennai- Very Weak 7420 Hyderabad- Very Weak 7430 Bhopal- SINPO 25222 Also heard the same special Republic Day coverage on following Medium wave stations: 567 Dibrugarh- SINPO 55555 639 Kohima- SINPO 55444 675 Itanagar- SINPO 25222 882 Imphal- SINPO 35343 Thanks & Regards, (Prithwiraj Purkayastha, Jorhat, Assam, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15050, yes heard AIR live coverage of a parade, with S=9 level here in Europe. Reporter noted a Kashmir state tableau and flowers carried. Around 0500 UT Jan 26. 15209.956, Usual odd frequency AIR Arabic service from Goa Panaji, but always excellent audio quality after the recent refurbishing action at Goa station. Heard at 0430-0530 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 4775, AIR Imphal, re my logging at 0000-0040, Dec 24, in DX- Window no. 444 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Jan 25 via DXLD): It is test that you heard. That station is heard often testing on SW around 0000 just before normal transmission starts. Many AIR stations are also similarly noted testing like that on MW before start of normal transmissions in the morning. Some of them are tests of standby transmitter. On SW I have observed only 4775 like that (Jose Jacob, India, ibid.) 4775, AIR Imphal, 1452, Jan 28. Speech in English; several mentions of Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence; strong CODAR QRM. 4990, AIR Itanagar. Better reception than yesterday. 1420 to 1425 on Jan 28 with musical fanfare and news, sports and weather in English; “Good evening. This is All India Radio Itanagar. The news read by . .”; item about Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh calling for more involvement by Indian youth, etc; “Now the weather . . . next 24 hours”; poor with China QRM. 5050, AIR Aizawl, 1512, Jan 28. Switched over to the New Delhi audio feed with ads in Hindi till news in Hindi at 1515; mixing with BBR (China), but almost as strong; stronger than normally heard (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA, 4990, AIR Itanagar running reduced power? Had not been heard recently, but Jan 27 heard them again at 1357 with hymn “Gloria in excelsis Deo”; 1400 into talk; too weak to make out language; 1415 the usual musical fanfare before the news in Hindi; 1420 again musical fanfare before the local news in English (could tell was in English, but too weak to make out any of the news items); 1425 final musical fanfare after the news followed by subcontinent music; light China QRM; poor reception on a day that had well above normal propagation for other AIR reception. Heard AIR New Delhi on 5015 with their strongest/clearest signal ever heard (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Eton E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 6155, All India Radio, Bengaluru. 0101-0245 January 29, 2012. Excellent listening with mostly subcontinental vocals and instrumentals, listed as Urdu 0015-0430 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3325, RRI Palangkaraya, 1335, Jan 13. May I thrill a Short Wave heart?? From Elaine Paige with theme from ”Cats”, this is one of my all time favourites, but this clip via RRI Palangkaraya with the static and fading sounded the sweeter than any I have heard from my music system to You Tube!!! If you like to enjoy or are as mad a radio romantic as I am, click on the link that follows mentioning Palangkaraya at the end: http://soundcloud.com/victor-goonetilleke/theme-cats-from-palagkaraya (Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka in DXplorer via DSWCI DX Window Jan 25 via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 4750.00, Radio Makassar, 1150-1200 Feb 1, At tune in, noted Quran type chanting by a male. Within a minute a male comments in Indonesian language for a few minutes. He is followed by a female also commenting in Indonesian. At 1152, music presented. Signal was fair except someone causing QRM by whistling and calling in sideband off frequency slightly (Chuck Bolland, Excalibur, 26N 081W, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 4750v, Congrats your antenna is great. Checked on seven remote units, four in Japan, as well as in Alberta-CAN, at Seattle-USA and California-USA, 1200-1220 UT Feb 1. In western North America the subcontinental song/music station in probable Bengali from Bangladesh Shavar was the strongest in NoAM, nearly even 4750 or 4750.001 kHz frequency. In Japan the CNR1 program relay at Hailar was the strongest, a little bit higher in frequency on 4750.008, \\ 5945 kHz, performing radio play. Another weak signal appeared on 4749.989 kHz, but was very weak - just under threshold, couldn't even recognize Bahasa Indonesian language sound. 73 wolfy df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Wolfy, Thanks for the comments. I usually hear Makassar year round with various degrees of signal quality. If they are off, I don't hear them of course? I haven't been checking them recently, so I don't know if they have been off or not? I was just trying to find something to report and saw their signal on my Excalibur. My antennas are nothing to praise, just a simple dipole in my yard. Actually I don't have good reception where I live for some unknown to me, reason? I have plenty of space, but regardless of the length, my antennas just do not improve much? Okay thanks again and hope you also have good reception. (Chuck Bolland, dxldyg via DXLD) Hi Wolfy, Consistently here in Calif., as you noted today, I hear Bangladesh Betar with a decent signal, mixing with CNR1. I hear frequent IDs. I have not heard RRI Makassar for a long time now. This is why I posted to DXLD 12-04: "4749.96, RRI Makassar. A reminder that this was last heard in late Oct and was routinely noted back then on a slightly lower frequency from that of Bangladesh Betar on 4750.0 . . " (Ron Howard, San Francisco, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 9526-, Jan 26 at 1408, VOI has better signal than usual, S9+20 --- trouble is, no modulation. Then I hear some weak Indonesian words for a few sex, silence again, resume again. 1442 check, the carrier is off. 9526-, Jan 28 at 1406, fair open carrier with flutter, some hum, maybe a trace of modulation, no doubt V. of Indonesia on its unique frequency, struggling to get back into service (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It looks like Voice of Indonesia is back on air. I heard the English broadcast today at 1313 UT on 9525 kHz. Recording available at http://youtu.be/uviS3_dMyZI (Tudor Vedeanu, (Gura Humorului, Romania), Jan 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9526-, Jan 31 at 1415, Indonesian talk, S9+20 with some hum but very undermodulated; at least there are no IADs any more. At 1422, 9680 RRI domestic had good modulation and well atop CCI (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [non] 9525, 31/Jan 2052 CHINA, CRI in Russian. OM and YL talk. At 2054 Chinese music. I await the end of the transmission to try to tune in the Voice of Indonesia. At 2055 traditional music ID of CRI. At 2057 end transmission. 45444 (Jorge Freitas-B) 9525, 31/Jan 2057, INDONESIA, Voice of Indonesia, in French. Instrumental music. At 2058 OM and YL talk. At 2059 ID, then I do not hear modulation. Until 2103 signal without modulation. Very weak signal (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana Bahia, 12 14´S 38 58´W - Brasil, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9525.974, Loud and clear VOI Cimanggis in Bahasa Indonesia language heard here in Germany on S=9+15dB level. Supposedly switched from CHN/JPN/Gar east/ALS/Western North America azimuth 30 degrees to 318 degrees at 1400 UT? Saxophone piece interlude at 1433-1435 UT. Feb 1 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) A similar signal here at 1450, peaking to 15 over 9. with Indonesian pop music. Some distortion and slight breaks in audio though. A strong carrier appeared on 9525 at 1457 and almost immediately began with a Chinese/English LL. This was CRI via Kashi in English with Aussie accented newsreader at 1500. Meanwhile RRI Jakarta continued past 1500, now difficult to copy, but the language sounds to be Chinese. Kashi is sched until 1700 according to the Aoki listing (Noel R. Green, (NW England), dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9526-, Feb 1 at 1349, VOI has sufficient modulation and signal for a change, with canned imaginary 3-frequency ``Sound of Dignity`` ID in English during the English hour, but followed by talk in Indonesian, still heavy ACI from the China radio war on 9530. Next check 1444 in the clear with pop music, and IADs, so never mind what I said about no more of those. They are very split-second, but some seem accompanied by carrier dropouts too. 1452 another SOD ID in English, which they do insert into other language services. Ishida agrees that Indonesian started before 1400 today. Wolfgang Büschel was listening too at 1430, measuring it on 9525.974 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Re: cannibalising Marconi transmitters at Bonto Sunggu, Sulawesi ``Maybe all the cannibalising that can be done to keep it on air is why there is only one transmitter left for the FS? (Noel R. Green-UK, dxld Jan 16, 2012)`` Hallo Wolfgang, Greetings from Bandung Java island, here's rainy and cool, less than 24 degrees. But probably much warmer than at your location. A little comment on VOI transmitters to contribute: INDONESIA (History 1996) --- Back in Summer 1996, when they were installing the Bonto Sunggu site in South Sulawesi, I was in Ujung Pandang (now Makassar) for some months, thus also monitored the test transmissions. In addition to the External Service on 9525 kHz they had at certain times of the day up to eight frequencies carrying RRI Jakarta Programa Nasional simultaneously (from all sites), plus the old tropical band transmitter on 4777 kHz! Later in the year the test transmissions evolved into a regular schedule; they even had two National Programmes, ID'ing as RRI Indonesia programa satu and dua respectively. What happened to all five of the Bonto Sunggu transmitters? I don't see them listed nor mentioned anywhere? Have they in the relatively short period of 15 years all broken down due to neglect and lack of maintenace? It's hardly possible that half a dozen transmitters are so worn out that they cannot even be used as spares! If WRTH 2012 is right, could it be that they have been shipped to Jakarta Cimanggis? For what purpose? They couldn't have taken the antennas with them?! Beste Gruesse, Gerhard (Gerhard Werdin, on visit in Bandung, Indonesia, Jan 29, 2012, via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. PROGRAMMES ON SHORT WAVES --- Further to our list of Music programmes last month, via Anatoly Klepov, RusDX 8 Jan via DXLD, we learn of an on-line list of music programmes compiled by Shukhrat Rakhmatullayev, which can be found on http://www.quinbo.hostei.com/music.html An excellent list. On the following pages is a short list of some other programmes that you may wish to listen out for - these are primarily, though not exclusively, programmes that are about History, Culture and Traditions. Many thanks to EDWIN SOUTHWELL for suggestions for inclusion in this list. I hope that you find it useful. Please let me know! I'll update, hopefully expand, and print both these lists again during the A-12 broadcast season. LISTENING POST: Programme List - B-11 period by Alan Roe [all English] Start Stop Days Station Programme Title / Principle Frequencies 0115~0125 mo V of Vietnam Sunday Show 6175sac 0115~0125 sa V of Vietnam Rural Vietnam 6175sac 0115~0125 th V of Vietnam Letterbox 6175sac 0115~0125 tu V of Vietnam Vietnam Land & People 6175sac 0220-0300 we R Taiwan Int We've Got Mail 5950 9680 0230-0255 su,mo V of Russia WS VoR Treasure Store 7250 7290 0245-0255 fr R Tirana Around Albania 7420 0245~0255 mo V of Vietnam Sunday Show 6175sac 0245-0255 sa R Tirana Outstanding Personalities 7420 0245~0255 sa V of Vietnam Rural Vietnam 6175sac 0245~0255 th V of Vietnam Letterbox 6175sac 0245~0255 tu V of Vietnam Vietnam Land & People 6175sac 0310-0330 su,mo V of Russia WS From Moscow With Love 7250 7290 0320-0400 we R Taiwan Int We've Got Mail 6875 0345~0355 mo V of Vietnam Sunday Show 6175sac 0345~0355 sa V of Vietnam Rural Vietnam 6175sac 0345~0355 th V of Vietnam Letterbox 6175sac 0345~0355 tu V of Vietnam Vietnam Land & People 6175sac 0410-0430 tu,th V of Russia WS Moscow Mailbag 9840 12030 0425~0445 th V of Turkey Letter-box 7240 9655 0500~0600 daily RTV Tunis AR Varied Arabic music 7275 0505-0530 sa V of Nigeria Listeners Letters 15120 0505-0530 su R Japan Friends Around the World 5975wof 6110sac 9770iss 0530-0555 sa China R Int Listener's Garden 5960sac 7220alb 0530-0555 su China R Int China Horizons 5960sac 7220alb 0730-0755 sa China R Int Listener's Garden 11785alb 11880 0730-0755 su China R Int China Horizons 11785alb 11880 0830-0855 sa China R Int Listener's Garden 11785alb 15265 0830-0855 su China R Int China Horizons 11785alb 15265 0930-0955 sa China R Int Listener's Garden 15210 15270 17490 17570 17690 0930-0955 su China R Int China Horizons 15210 15270 17490 17570 17690 1030-1055 sa China R Int Listener's Garden 11640 15210 17490 17690 1030-1055 su China R Int China Horizons 11640 15210 17490 17690 1130-1155 su China R Int China Horizons 13590 13645 13665 17490 1139-1155 sa China R Int Listener's Garden 13590 13645 13665 17490 1205-1230 su NHK R Japan Friends Around the World 6120sac 9695 1305-1330 su NHK R Japan Friends Around the World 11730uzb 1355~1420 fr V of Turkey Ataturk Through Diaries 12035 1355~1420 mo V of Turkey Hues & Colours of Anatolia 12035 1355~1420 sa V of Turkey Legends of Anatolia 12035 1355~1420 tu V of Turkey Turkish Legendary Figures 12035 1355~1415 we V of Turkey Letter-box 12035 1405-1430 su R Japan Friends Around the World 5955 11695uzb 21560iss 1615~1625 fr V of Vietnam Rural Vietnam 7220 7280 9550 9730 1615~1625 mo V of Vietnam Vietnam Land & People 7220 7280 9550 9730 1615~1625 su V of Vietnam Sunday Show 7220 7280 9550 9730 1615~1625 we V of Vietnam Letterbox 7220 7280 9550 9730 1720-1800 tu R Taiwan Int We've Got Mail 15690 1755~1820 fr V of Turkey Ataturk Through Diaries 11735 1755~1820 mo V of Turkey Hues & Colours of Anatolia 11735 1755~1820 sa V of Turkey Legends of Anatolia 11735 1755~1820 tu V of Turkey Turkish Legendary Figures 11735 1755~1815 we V of Turkey Letter-box 11735 1805-1820 mo,we V of Russia WS Moscow Mailbag 7270 7330 11985 12060 1805-1825 su Polish R Multi-Touch 7271 7330 11985 12060 1815~1825 fr V of Vietnam Rural Vietnam 7275 7330 11985 12060 1815~1825 mo V of Vietnam Vietnam Land & People 7275 7330 11985 12060 1815~1825 su V of Vietnam Sunday Show 7275 7330 11985 12060 1815~1825 we V of Vietnam Letterbox 7273 7330 11985 12060 1820-1900 tu R Taiwan Int We've Got Mail 7276 7330 11985 12060 1830-1855 sa China R Int Listener's Garden 6100 7405 1830-1855 sa,su V of Russia WS Treasure Store 7277 7330 11985 12060 1830-1855 su China R Int China Horizons 6100 7405 1910-1930 sa,su V of Russia WS From Moscow With Love 7330 1930-1955 sa China R Int Listener's Garden 7285 7295 9440 1930-1955 su China R Int China Horizons 7285 7295 9440 1955~2020 fr V of Turkey Ataturk Through Diaries 6050 1955~2020 mo V of Turkey Hues & Colours of Anatolia 6050 1955~2020 sa V of Turkey Legends of Anatolia 6050 1955~2020 tu V of Turkey Turkish Legendary Figures 6050 1955~2015 we V of Turkey Letter-box 6050 2010~2020 su VOIRI/IRIB Letters programme 6010 6115lit 7320 2105~2120 mo All India R Hindustani instrumental music 7550 9445 2115-2125 fr R Tirana Outstanding Personalities 7530 2115-2125 th R Tirana Around Albania 7530 2120~2145 mo All India R GOS Faithfully Yours 7550 9445 2140~2150 mo R Romania Int Pro Memoria 7310 7380 9435 2140~2150 su R Romania Int DX Mailbag 7310 7380 9435 2140~2150 th R Romania Int Listener's Letterbox 7310 7380 9435 2155~2220 fr V of Turkey Ataturk Through Diaries 9610 2155~2220 mo V of Turkey Hues & Colours of Anatolia 9610 2155~2220 sa V of Turkey Legends of Anatolia 9610 2155~2220 tu V of Turkey Turkish Legendary Figures 9610 2155~2215 we V of Turkey Letter-box 9610 2210-2225 mo-sa Int R.of Serbia Musical Heritage 6100 2210-2230 sa KBS World R Worldwide Friendship 3955ske 2210-2225 su Int R. of Serbia Sunday Concert 6100 2325~2350 fr V of Turkey Ataturk Through Diaries 5960 2325~2350 mo V of Turkey Hues & Colours of Anatolia 5960 2325~2350 sa V of Turkey Legends of Anatolia 5960 2325~2350 tu V of Turkey Turkish Legendary Figures 5960 2325~2345 we V of Turkey Letter-box 5960 2340~2350 mo R Romania Int Pro Memoria 6015 7220 9530 2340~2350 su R Romania Int DX Mailbag 6015 7220 9530 2340~2350 th R Romania Int Listener's Letterbox 6015 7220 9530 (Alan Roe, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. PCJ MEDIA: Keith Perron writes on Facebook: PCJ Programs now available for Iphone/Ipad and other smart phones from STITCHER. At the moment it's only Happy Station Show, But next week Nash Holos, Kelly Alexander Show, Jazz For The Asking, Media Network Plus, Classic Media Network, Switzerland In Sound will be added. For details come take a look. http://www.pcjmedia.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/161-pcj-shows-coming-to-stitcher-app (Mike Terry, England, Jan 28, dxldyg via DXLD) ** IRAN. 13750 at 1430: see OMAN ** IRAN [non]. 7640 Farda spur! 2222 25/1, with IS S1 max (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nearest listed is 7520 via Sri Lanka --- is that what you mean? (gh, DXLD) ** ITALY. Re RAI Radiouno (DXLD 12-03) --- ``That's just Radiouno, as carried on these frequencies between 6 AM and midnight local time. Until now Radiouno was between midnight and 6 AM on FM only`` That is the theory and announced at midnight local time. But not all MW transmitters switch off at midnight (for example on 1062 kHz at least one of the transmitters is on-air overnight on a regular base). Some switch off, but return again after a short time - sometimes less than an hour later (times can vary from day to day). 73, (Patrick Robic, Austria, Jan 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY. ONDE MEDIE LOCALI ALL'ITALIANA: L'AVVENTURA È FINITA? La notizia della temporanea disattivazione delle trasmissioni in onde medie di Broadcastitalia AMitaliana mi è stata confermata da uno dei responsabili. L'evento era stato messo in conto, ma l'emittente intende agire per vedersi riconosciuti i propri diritti. Chissà che questo episodio non apra la strada al definitivo riconoscimento dell'uso delle onde medie e a una regolamentazione delle stazioni locali che sono state attivate nel corso del tempo e specialmente in questi ultimi due o tre anni. . . http://radiolawendel.blogspot.com/2012/01/onde-medie-locali-allitaliana.html (Andy Lawendel blog via Dario Monferini, DXLD) ** ITALY [non]. 15190, Jan 30 at 1258 unknown programming in English, as RRI Tiganeshti, ROMANIA turns on the transmitter early with modulation from whatever is being fed from Milano; 1258:30 ``Triumphal March from Aïda`` by Verdi, the IRRS themesong until 1300 quick IRRS, Milano ID, pause and then The Overcomer Ministry, starting with someone other than Brother Scare in progress, talking and singing, and several sex out of synch with WWRB, still audible on 3185 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GERMANY; SOUTH CAROLINA ** JAPAN [and non]. 6055, Jan 26 at 1450, J-pop on R. Nikkei holding up well an hour+ after local sunrise, S9+17 making it the SSOB, altho 6195 BBC rivals; less fadey and stronger than R. Australia`s Thursday jazz on 5995. Also audible on // 9595, next to another RA 9590. 1459 on 6055, sign-off announcement mentioning several JOZeta callsigns, with MHz and kW for each, to 1500:12* 6055, Jan 30 at 1420 past 1445, R. Nikkei with continuous energetic and repetitive techno music, fair signal. They certainly present a variety of music (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [non]. NHK WORLD TV PROGRAM MONITORS --- NHK is seeking viewers who will watch and submit comments regularly on NHK WORLD TV programs. The comments and suggestions will be utilized for enhancing our program quality. If you are interested, please carefully read the requirements indicated below; if you are confident fulfilling below requirements and consent to what you are requested to do, please apply from the bottom form. . . http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/monitor/tvmonitor.html (via Abid Hussain Sajid, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) Pays 3 kiloyen per monitoring report. Must have 24h access to NHK World on TV, not internet, etc., etc. Apparently they issue such a call each year with a new March deadline (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) ** KASHMIR. Listening as darkness settled over my area, I made the following grayline receptions last evening [including]: 4950, INDIA (KASHMIR), Radio Kashmir, Srinagar, 0203 Hindi. Local music, mostly talk by man and woman, 0213 short announcements alternating between man and woman with music bridges so possibly news headlines, off prior to 0216 which matches their listed s/off of 0215. Poor at first but fading quickly after 0210. My 214th NASWA Radio Country heard (combined Ontario and British Columbia). Jan 27 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna on the car roof. Editor of World English Survey and Target Listening, available at http://www.odxa.on.ca dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KENYA [and non]. Kenya on Ch E2 has been coming in this afternoon in Portugal. The solar flare yesterday seems to have helped conditions, certainly southwards anyway. 1345 28 Jan 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S03qRSL23oE&feature=youtu.be The MUF wasn't high enough for sound (Hugh Hoover, Portugal, 1546 UT 28 Jan, WTFDA via DXLD) How can you tell? that is Kenya? just wondering (FUNNYTOM10 1 day ago, Youtube comment via DXLD) Because Kenya has a known frequency offset of about 40 Hz below the nominal frequency of 48.250. Cameroon is about 200 Hz lower. Dubai is 270 Hz? above and Equatorial Guinea if it is on has a noisy wide carrier about 1000 Hz below 48.250. Not many other E2 stations around now apart from Portugal 48.242 which is due to close soon (Hoover, ibid.) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5985, Jan 27 at 1345, Shiokaze is finally in English again on Friday! Missing since KJI died; poor signal with usual Myanmar het on hi side; YL talking but hard to copy with accent, not headline stingers, but another bit of music inserted at 1348. Still on 5985 24.5 hours later, weak in unknown language (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5985, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze via Yamata, 1335, Jan 27 (Friday). Finally with English again on Friday; news items about North Korea; scheduled 1330 to 1430; moderate jamming (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Eton E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Unidentified station on 9940 kHz --- Here is a recording I made on January 29 at 1400 UTC. The language sounds like Korean but I couldn't find any information about who's broadcasting on 9940kHz at that time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtaLPjI-wTM Any ideas what station this is? -- (Tudor Vedeanu, (Gura Humorului, Romania), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Tudor, Always a good idea for any UNID to enter the frequency in "Search" here at dxldyg and see what has been heard in the recent past on that frequency. - - Per Sei-ichi Hasegawa Dec 9 posting to dxldyg: CMI Voice of Wilderness 1300-1330 9940 Korean via DB Dec. 5- 1330-1430 Su. 9940 Korean via DB [Dushanbe, Tajikistan] (Ron Howard, Monterey, Calif., ibid.) Dear Tudor, I heard your youtube. The ID is not recorded, but think that it is "Voice of Wilderness-Gwangya e Sori Bangsong". The feature is that IS such as the Foghorn appears at s/on (S. Hasegawa, ibid.) ** KOREA SOUTH. Current sked of MND Radio in Korean (Jan. 29) 0400-0440 6230, 6135 Male Version 0500-0540 6550, 6435 Female Ver. 1000-1040 6550, 6435 Female Ver. 1200-1240 6230, 6135 Male Ver. (S. Hasegawa, Japan, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So that`s why I had not hearing any sign of it around 0630; and 0540 is really too early now (gh, OK, DXLD) 6600 & 6518, Jan 30 at 0626, V. of the People in Korean, poor but audible roughly 2.5 hours before sunset there, and no jamming this early. However, no female version of MND Radio in between at 6550, as S. Hasegawa says that broadcast has been moved an hour earlier to 0500-0540, also on 6435, and both also at 1000-1040; while the male version is at 0400-0440 and 1200-1240 on 6230, 6135 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA [meaning SOUTH?], 5857.5, Weather Report Station, Korea. Jan. 2 at 1045-1052(s/ off) in Korean, English & Japanese. SIO 343. Weather report by female voice (Tetsuya TORIUMI, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa-Pref., Japan, AOR AR7030 + 20m longwire, JSWC DX NEWS February 2012 via Toshi Ohtake via Dario Monferini, Feb 1, playdx yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) SSB? A current list of Meterological Fax (weather chart) frequencies used on HF: [including] Korea [sic]: 3585 5857.5 7433.5 9165 13570 These are assigned frequencies. Dial frequencies usually 1.9 kHz lower. These were all personally verified over GlobalTuners maybe 6 months ago. These are all 120/576. Some frequencies are continuous, most aren't (Hugh Stegman, June 24, 2011, UDXF yg via DXLD) 5857.50. HLL2. Seoul, Republic Of Korea. FAX 120/576. Weather map. 0957 UT (Eddy Waters, South Australia, Jan 14, 2011, ibid.) But the same transmitter could be in voice/SSB part of the time (gh, DXLD) Hi, QSL card received today: Oen-Gi Shin Head, Meteorological Radio Transmission Station 538, Gonghang-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul 157-250 Republic of Korea tel (82-2) 2663-5287 fax (82-2) 2666-9949 E-mail im_tra@... [truncated by yg] http://www.kma.go.kr dated Feb 20; 2007 for a Radiofax HF reception. Includes several virgin QSL cards from HLL as well as amateur station 6K0CE, as well as the HLL Facsimile Broadcasting schedule (not dated). Very warm and thankful letter. HLL can be heard on 3585; 5857.5; 7433.5; 9165 and 13570 kHz with 3 kW output. de (Patrice Privat, Beauvais, France, March 13, 2007, UDXF yg via DXLD) Only 3 hits on 5857.5 in the 39300 UDXF posts so far (gh) ** KURDISTAN. 4875.00, 0425-0431*, CLANDSTINE, 26.01, Voice of Iranian Kurdistan, Salah Al-Din, Iraq. Farsi talk, closing ann with frequency, 44444. The Iranian jammer signed off already precisely at 0430*! (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde Denmark, with minus 2 centigrades, heard on the AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non]. BRUSSELS-BASED KURDISH ROJ TV SUSPENDED ON NEW SATELLITE --- Intelsat has also suspended broadcasting Kurdish Roj TV reportedly under pressure from the United States, Brussels-based Roj TV, which holds a Danish broadcasting licence, said on 31 January. Citing a statement from Roj TV directors, the report said the station resumed broadcasting on Intelsat which it referred to as a Greek company - but that one day after the start of its broadcast on the new satellite it was suspended under US pressure. The report did not say when it started broadcasting on Intelsat. The station was previously hosted on Eutelsat until 19 January when the France-based company decided to suspend its broadcasts following a Danish court verdict on 10 January which fined Roj TV, saying it was financed and controlled by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group labelled a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The court decision did not revoke the station’s broadcasting license. The Roj TV statement said that the US put pressure on Greece to suspend Roj TV broadcasts on Intelsat. The station still runs a live feed on the internet, which can be found on http://www.roj.tv among others. (Source: Roj TV, Brussels, in Kurdish 1600 gmt 31 Jan 12 via BBC Monitoring)(January 31st, 2012 - 17:28 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** KUWAIT. 7250, R. Kuwait. Farsi at 0815 with ID “In sedaye Kuveit”, rare catch here. 11/1 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi), Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) HFCC shows 500 kW non-direxional Farsi at 08-10 (gh, DXLD) 15540, R. Kuwait, Sulaibiyah. “You are listening to Radio Kuwait, the time now is 11.50pm Kuwait local time” then English news at 2050, 25/1 (John Adams, Beech Forest Vic (JRC NRD-535, Ewe and Folded Dipole), Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) So it`s still there, English at 18-21 tho mostly inaudible here (gh) 15540, Radio Kuwait at 1744 in listed Urdu with a man and woman talking with a man on the phone then giving phone numbers and talking amongst themselves with mentions of “Arabie” and “Pakistan” to 1758 then a brief jazz instrumental and a woman with talk and national anthem at 1759 and into English at 1800 with time pips, ID and TC, and national anthem - Good at first with fading but more noisy after 1800 Jan 26 (Mark Coady, Peterborough, ON K9J 6X3, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** LAOS. 6130, Lao National R. Too bad this gets squeezed between 6120 Japan and 6140 Cuba at 1200. (28 Jan.) (Dave Valko, Perseus with Wellbrook up 4 meters and aimed 40/220 degrees, Dunlo, PA, USA, HCDX via DXLD) ** LIBYA. 11600 27/Jan 1640-1645 LIBYA, R Libya, in French. YL talk, pop music in French, weak signal and degrading. Also in remote radio from South Africa with good signal (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia 12 14´S 38 58´W - Brasil, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MACEDONIA. 2430, 3rd harmonic from 810, R Skopje, at 2144 [Jan 30?] with folk/traditional songs. Impressed to see that there is not 2nd harmonic but 3rd harmonic; has really the same signal level with the main frequency! Tested and heard in both receivers! (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, from Diversity Report with HF150 and R75 Together, http://zlgr.multiply.com/journal/item/425 via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) Superpower stations would presumably employ extreme harmonic suppression, but 1200 kW is a lot to work with (gh, DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. STATION MWV IS ALMOST READY TO BROADCAST Greetings from Kevin and Nancy Chambers and our team who are finishing construction and making things ready for the three 100,000-watt transmitters soon to be delivered from Houston. A fourth container is also going to be shipped housing security cameras and equipment to complete the testing of the station. When the new station begins broadcasting, as many as 30 to 37 hours of daily programming from five antennas will blanket the globe with the gospel seven days a week. Our programs in English, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, and English for Africa will introduce an additional millions of people to Jesus Christ. LINK: http://www.worldchristian.org/Updates/LatestNews/updates.php More... NEWS...NEWS...NEWS... To suffer [sic] from early February 2012, a new short wave radio in the Indian Ocean, "Madagascar World Voice Radio" broadcasting from Mahajanga on seven frequencies are: 7355, 9565, 9585, 11870, 13630, 13635 and 13650 kHz. I would come back to you for hours (René-Paul Grondin) TEST SCHEDULE FREQUENCY FROM 1st FEBRUARY 2012 Madagascar World Voice (MWV) is a member of World Christian Broadcasting Corporation (WCBC) in Nashville Tennessee (USA) 06H00-06H30 UT 7355 06H30-07H00 UT 9565 07H00-07H30 UT 11870 07H30-08H00 UT 13635 08H00-08H30 UT 9565 08H30-09H00 UT 11870 09H00-09H30 UT 13630 10H30-11H00 UT 9585 11H00-11H30 UT 11870 11H30-12H00 UT 13650 (Bernard Grondin) Facebook: World Christian Broadcasting https://www.facebook.com/pages/World-Christian-Broadcasting/261724572088 (all Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) All we can find on Facebook is this on Dec 20 that the transmitters had been shipped from Dallas factory to port of Houston. Nothing about how long in transit, whether they have arrived safely or how long it will take to install them (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: World Christian Broadcasting --- They're shipped! Our three 100 kW transmitters have been shipped from Dallas to Houston, and will be on the first available ship to Madagascar. Praise God! Pray for the safety of this precious $3 million cargo! Like Comment December 20, 2011 at 2:49pm (via DXLD) I shall be very surprised if it starts anywhere near February 1; that was an early contingency date registered just in case. The original Feb 1 tentative target date for Madagascar World Voice has prompted ``almost on the air`` assumptions, with a frequency test schedule circulating, but not so. I asked Kevin Chambers of World Christian Broadcasting for a status report and he replies as of Jan 31: ``Hello Glenn, Thank you for the inquiry. I wish I had better news. The transmitters are packed and ready to ship. However, the Malagasy government has stalled (16 months) in the signing of necessary document renewals that would allow the transmitters to enter the country. At this time, I cannot give even a guess as to when the transmitters could start on their way here. I have had many "first on- air test" dates in mind but I have given up trying to predict so we are just trying to be patient. We have no leverage as to what the government will do. Everything else here at this site is ready to go. Sincerely, Kevin Chambers, World Christian Broadcasting`` It looks like they would have been better off acquiring the RNW SW transmitters which are already up and running for many years, replenished with newer ones from Sweden and soon to lose their primary purpose (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello: The transmitters are sitting on the dock in Houston awaiting the ship that will take them to the west side of Madagascar. Best estimates are that the trip will take between 60 and 90 days. Once they make it through customs (which sometimes has been a lengthy, uncertain process) and are in place at the station, a technician will have to come from Continental Electronics to install them. Best case scenario for the beginning of testing is probably June 1. We have learned that very little in M'car happens according to our timetable, so more delays would not surprise us. Thanks for asking (Gayle Crowe, Vice President / Programming, World Christian Broadcasting, 605 Bradley Ct., Franklin, TN 37067, 615-371-8707, ext. 103 http://www.worldchristian.org Feb 1, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST ** MADAGASCAR. 5010.00, Radio Madagasikara, 0218-0240, carrier + USB. Local Afro-pop music. Short 25 second IS at 0226 followed by choral National Anthem. Opening ID announcements at 0229. Malagasy talk. Local Afro-pop music. “La Bamba” song. Poor in noisy conditions. Jan 28. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** MALAYSIA. 6050.02, Voice of Malaysia, 1101-1151, Feb 1. All in English; probably a special one day only broadcast due to the Federal Territory Day Holiday, which preempted usual Asyik FM programming. 1101-1110 News, ending with news headlines. 1110-1114 Stevie Wonder “My Cherie Amour”. 1114-1116 “Learn Bahasa Malaysia” program about the pejabat pos (post office) 1116-1124 Pop songs in English. 1124 “On the Voice of Malaysia. Broadcasting live from . . parade Kuala Lumpur. February 1st is Federal Territory Day. Is a holiday here in Malaysia and yes, a little history on the Federal Territory”; provides details of their history. 1127-1151 Pop songs in English. Overall reception was fair; slight het from off frequency from Tibet. Extremely nice to be able to enjoy this in English! Edited MP3 audio http://www.box.com/s/ytjmykxbusuf8ft0nyzc (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Happened again the next day; VOM closed down SWBC a few months ago but continued existing on webcasts (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 7295 for T[r]axx is again empty at 2208 25/1. There is a just S1 signal from China (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 11630, Sarawak FM via RTM, assume via Kajang (near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), randomly from 1439 to 1523 on Jan 28 with their usual Saturday unique program of chanting singing and indigenous music; equally strong with // 9835, but both with IADs (intermittent audio dropouts). 11665, Wai FM via RTM, 1525, Jan 28. In vernacular; DJ with phone calls and played pop songs; almost fair and also with IADs (intermittent audio dropouts); light CNR1 QRM (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) At 1653, no signal in 9835, 11630 and 11665 from RTM, Malaysia. From my point of listening (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana Bahia, 12 14´S 38 58´W - Brasil, Jan 27, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 7245, R Mauritanie, Nouakchott, also heard at 0750- 0801, Jan 12, Arabic talk (news ?) with theme music, 34333. In Japan condition (via long path) is fair at this time (Tomoaki Wagai, Wakayama, Japan, DSWCI DX Window Jan 25 via DXLD) 7245, Jan 29 at 0635, IGIM is on with singing, rather than the usual chanteur. 7245, Jan 30 at 0623, IGIM is on and chanting; MUF quite lo tonight, not much above 8 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Pre-sunrise MW DX Jan 30; ours is not until 1335 UT: 620, Jan 30 at 1303 UT, instrumental NA, 1305 another anthem, of the state? vocal by M. 1307 sign-on mentioning 10 kW in Chihuahua, so XEBU in Chihuahua city, a frequent catch claiming double its listed power. 700, Jan 30 at 1304 UT, soft-spoken YL in Spanish with birthday greetings, introducing mañanitas in three languages, Mayo, Yaqui and Guarijío. (Mayo is invariable, apparently different from Maya; Guarijía is OK when feminine is required.) First one is a guy with guitar, not the usual tune heard in Spanish about Rey David, etc. 1309 segué to another one with different instrumentation. 1310 back to soft-spoken YL DJ with immediate ID as XEETCH, La Voz de los Tres Rios, greeting listeners in Chihuahua as well as Sonora, timecheck at 1311 as 6:10; 1312 quick canned ID by M in another language; 1313 start music program for the three ethnic groups, rustic tunes. Signal is fair but steady with hardly any CCI, more of a problem being ACI, perhaps KGGF 690 splatter. At 1324 runs a couple of federal PSAs, 1326 YL ID again. Now there is some CCI growing in English as XEETCH fades, making a SAH of 3 or 4 Hz which I can`t null, likely WLW resurging, which is close to collinear in the opposite direxion. It`s not unusual for eastward US stations to appear *after* the westward Mexicans around sunrise, when you`d think the east would have faded out for the day. XEETCH is a 5-kW daytimer in Etchojoa, Sonora, one of the federal government`s indigenous outlets. Here`s all about it : http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=862&Itemid=44 including illustrations, linx to a map and audio streaming. Etchojoa is on the road between Navojoa and Huatabampo at the southern end of Sonora. Some listings put XEETCH in Navojoa. 870, Jan 30 at 1318 as soon as I intune, ID for Chihuahua`s XETAR, La Voz de la Sierra Tarahumara, also with YL host, not as good as XEETCH today; XETAR starts at 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. BORDER RADIO. The term "border radio" refers to the American broadcasting industry that sprang up on Mexico's northern border in the early 1930s and flourished for half a century. High- powered radio transmitters on Mexican soil, beyond the reach of U.S. regulators, blanketed North America with unique programming. Mexico accommodated these "outlaw" media operators, some of whom had been denied broadcasting licenses in the United States, because Canada and the United States had divided the long-range radio frequencies between themselves, allotting none to Mexico [sic]. Though the "borderblaster" transmitters were always in Mexico, studios (especially in the early 1930s) were sometimes in the United States, and the stations were often identified by the American town across the border. . . http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ebb01 (via Noble West, dxldyg via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 6185, MÉXICO, XEPPM, Radio Educación. México DF. 0000 January 29, 2012. Noted with the required anthem (a slightly different choral version from the stock one most stations use) followed by male, "... Radio Educación, onda corta 6185 kiloHertz, 10,000 vatios de potencia..." (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. 12085, Voice of Mongolia, 1033 English. News underway read by woman, 1039 a piece of Mongolian music and back to woman announcer at 1042 but too weak now to understand. Very poor at best. Jan 26 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna on the roof, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) A few days after my QSL arrived from Mongolia , I received a nice looking Happy New Year card (“We wish you all the best incoming 2012. Happy New Year!”) from Bolorchimeg Enkhbaatar, Mail Editor, Voice of Mongolia, vom_en @ yahoo.com encouraging correspondence in the future. The New Year card came by registered mail in about a month and had to be signed for while my QSL arrived along the usual unsigned postal path (Rich D’Angelo, NASWA Flashsheet Jan 29 via DXLD) ** MOROCCO [and non]. 15349.1, Jan 28 at 1503, pleased to find R Veritas Asia via VATICAN in the clear on 15350 with ID in passing, but IMM cut on at *1503:47 causing usual big het, so must have been a momentary failure, as I think I ran across it during the previous hour before RVA came on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR/BURMA. 7110 at 2330 UT sign-on per Jose, tuned in at 0000- 0130 UT sign-off all four of the following frequencies all carrying different programmes: 5915, 5985, 6030, 7110 kHz. All on target no off freq. so presume all Chinese transmitters from NPT - NAYPYIDAW - new capital. 7110 kHz noted on 7100 kHz sometimes according to Jose and confirmed here near Colombo, Sri Lanka. [first 7100, then moved to 7110, no more 7100, gh] 0130-0330, 0600-0830, 9590. New TX NAYPYIDAW 0230-0958, 9730.84 kHz including English 0230-0330, 0700-0730 UT. 1100 approx-1430 UT on 7110 kHz, 0930-1600 UT 5985.86 kHz. -1500 5915 kHz. Sked being monitored as we go along. At 0000 UT Jan 26 Myanmar Radio observed using 7110 kHz right now, also 5915, 5985, 6030 kHz all in Myanmar languages. All 4 transmitters on the nose. Also note 7110 kHz around 1130-1430 UT. If the hams will permit; good luck (Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, 4S7VK, DXplorer Jan 26 via Wolfgang Büschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) [Note: 6030 ALSO NEW for MYANMAR -- but plenty of co-channel QRM – gh] 7110 from Myanmar checked here in Germany in 0020-0045 UT on Jan 27th. 7109.995 up to 7109.997 kHz, mostly music program, S=9+15dB in peaks. Two different talk programs, different program/languages on 5915.000 and 5985.000 kHz. 6030 was totally covered by VoA - R Martí in Spanish, and Cuban jamming. 7110 kHz could be on music test - out of broadcasting band during test phase -, after built up and erection of new 50/100 kW TX and antenna by the Chinese firm BBEF at NPT - NAYPYIDAW - new capital ?? BBEF 150 kW SW unit TBH522 150 kW PSM SW transmitter. BBEF DF-100A 100 kW SW transmitter vy73 Wolfy DF5SX (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST; also to INTRUDER ALERT, who will try to get them out of the 40m hamband) 7100.0 A3E, unident language. I have got this report from HB9CET, OM Peter from Switzerland. He has heard the station at 0012 UT on Jan 27 on 7100 kHz. In the beginning I can hear "AMEN", later a post box "57", and there is Indian music at the end. Do you know / understand the language? (Uli Bihlmayer, Germany, DJ9KR, DARC ham radio bandwatch / Jan 27, wwdxc BC-DX tn Jan 31 via DXLD) Myanmar of course, seems a sponsored programme from Bible Voice "Athmik Yathra "Siritual vehicle" more or less translated (Victor Goonetilleke, 4S7VK, Sri Lanka, DXplorer Jan 28, ibid.)) Re Myanmar. Wie auch schon letzte Nacht Jan 27, z.Zt. am 28. Jan um 2330-0100 UT Myanmar wieder auf 4 Kanaelen, alles differierende Musik- oder Wortprogramme. Danke fuer den Tip von Victor 4S7VK. Ein reines Musikabspielprogramm laeuft nach 7100 kHz letzte Woche, nunmehr gestern Jan 27 und heute Jan 28th, 10 kHz hoeher, 0030 UT Jan 28 auf 7109.997 kHz. Wortprogramme in verschiedenen Lokalsprachen auf 5915.000 und 6030 (QRM VOA IBB-BBG R Marti + jamming), und aehnlich Thai / Lao klingend auf 5985.000 kHz. Ich wuerde mir aber nicht zutrauen aus diesen Programmdetails, die man auf den 4 Kanaelen hoert, einen RR zusammen zu basteln. Die Sender mit gerader Frequenz stehen in NPT - NAYPYIDAW - der neuen Hauptstadt, der Sender mit der krummen x.830 kHz kommt noch aus Rangoon. Vielleicht ist die Nutzung von 7110 kHz zur Zeit nur temporaer, weil die chinesischen Techniker vor Ort sind und einen weiteren Sender Made in China am neuen Hauptstadt Standort einrichten und die burmesischen Ingenieure schulen, da laesst man leicht mal eine Musikstrecke laufen, ausserhalb vom Rundfunkband, um die Qualitaet des Senders besser einschaetzen zu koennen, ... das war nur so eine Idee von mir, weil auch Victor 4S7VK von 4 Sendern \\ aus NAYPYIDAW schrieb (Wolfgang Büschel, Jan 28, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 31 via DXLD) 7110, Myanma Radio, randomly from 1316 to 1434*, Jan 27. In vernacular with EZL pop songs and indigenous music; mostly fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Eton E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7110, Jan 27 at 1351, presumed Myanma Radio, poor talk on AM with multiple QRhaM CW hets (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5985.86, R. Myanma, 1311 both this and 7110 in the clear, but not //. Continuous talk by W announcer here while 7110 had their usual soft Pop music program (did I say "usual"??!!!). Got a nice clear reception of 7110 across their ToH at 1230. The wavering bands of noise I'm getting on the T2FD (one is smack on 7110) was hardly noticeable using the Wellbrook, which is further away from the house. (28 Jan.) 73 (Dave Valko, Perseus with Wellbrook up 4 meters and aimed 40/220 degrees, Dunlo, PA, USA, HCDX via DXLD) 5985.0, Myanma Radio via Naypyidaw. By 1449 on Jan 28 found them here; so they still continue to switch transmitter sites during their evening broadcast; earlier heard them on 5985.83 via Yangon transmitter site. 7110, Myanma Radio, randomly from 1307 to 1430*, Jan 28. In vernacular with EZL pop songs and indigenous music; QRM from OTH radar (7060- 7195) (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tonight Myanmar Radio noted on various SDR receiving posts, but not with light pop music as recently, but Burmese local music songs instead. 7109.992 kHz at 2300-2400 UT Jan 30. 5915.000 and 5985.000 different spoken programs and much weaker. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5770, Myanmar Defense Forces Br. St., 1409-1432, Jan 31. EZL pop songs; monologue in vernacular; recently better than normal; BoH they play indigenous theme music (no longer with the unique military marching band music). http://www.box.com/s/fnok0m2ldr47ip60dkdh contains Jan 29 MP3 audio of some typical music. [WORLD OF RADIO 1602] 5985.0, Myanma Radio via Naypyidaw, 1530, Jan 30. Their final English segment of the day; ID, frequencies and news; 1542 weather and news headlines; 1548 segment of pop songs; poor. 5985.83, Myanma Radio via Yangon; 1329, Jan 29. They now are using a signature format of indigenous theme music for about one minute and then four chimes followed by a lone chime (was formerly used on 7110); 1330 Shiokaze QRM. 7110, Myanma Radio, 1329, Jan 31. Recently have noted a change in their BoH format; no longer the unique indigenous theme music for about one minute and then the chimes (that format is now heard on 5985.83); now they play a different indigenous music at 1330 (no chimes). On Jan 30 ran well past usual 1430 sign off; still heard at 1449, but off shortly thereafter (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7110, Jan 31 at 1408, Myanma Radio presumed with singing, poor signal but better than usual and no QRhaM at the moment; seems undermodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. 6160, CANADA (NEWFOUNDLAND) CKZN St. John's 1016. Economics and business discussion, 1026 mention of CBC Radio One, 1030 "7 o'clock" time check, woman with news and a reporter saying "CBC News St. John's". Very poor. Jan 26 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna on the roof, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nice one! I've never been able to "lift" separate audio (but I'm only ~15 km from CKZU's transmitter site, as I think I've posted), but October-ish / November-ish in recent years, I have been able to observe "echo" whenever both were carrying hourly news from Toronto, generally early Sunday evenings Pacific time when the local CBU newsroom shuts down earlier. The only reason I even stumbled on that was for a while CKZN was notoriously off-frequency, setting up a mighty het (Theo Donnelly, BC, ODXA yg via DXLD) Hi Theo: This seemed to be a time when Vancouver wasn't propagating well. There was QRM, but I couldn't discern any programming that might have been Vancouver. I was checking 690 and knew what I had was not parallel (Harold Sellers, ibid.) ** NIGER. 9704.99, LV du Sahel, 2101-2302*, audible after Ethiopia 9705 sign off at 2101. Vernacular and French talk. Local chants at 2254:30. Sign off with short flute IS and choral National Anthem at 2300. Weak but readable. Jan 27 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NIGERIA. NIGÉRIA, 7275, R. Nigeria (presumed), Abuja, 1127-..., 27 Jan, [unreadable] talks; 15441. I was unable to monitor this longer than just a few minutes' time, and repeated the observation on Sat. 28, Sun. 29 & Mon. 30 Jan at approx. the same time, but all I could hear was extremely weak which is a bit odd since a 50 kW transmitter is listed for this outlet, and they were fairly audible in the past. 73 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 9690, Voice of Nigeria, *0800-0810, sign on with local music and talk in listed Hausa. English news noted at 0904 check. Poor to fair. Jan 27 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC- 7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Glenn, I have noted a change in the Voice of Nigeria's programme schedule. French is now from 0700 to 0730 UT on 15120 kHz. Arabic starts at 0730 UT on 15120 kHz replacing French. I wonder if this change has anything to do with the recent unrest in the mostly Moslem northern part of Nigeria. I first noted this change on January 29. (Christer Brunström, Halmstad, Sweden, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6924.97, Radio Ronin Shortwave, 0045- 0108*, rock music. Pop music. IDs. Email address. Fair level but weak modulation. Jan 28 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) QSL: USA, PIRATE, Radio Ronin Shortwave, 6925, f/d Shogun of the Airwaves card in 44 days for email English report to radioroninshortwave(at)gmail(dot)com. This is also an impressive card on sturdy stock and surely took some time to design and cost to print. Card arrived in plain envelope postmarked in Buffalo, New York, with a zip code of 14711 (Belfast, New York) written in the sender section of the envelope. I'll take off my tinfoil hat now (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, Jan 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6930 USB, Radio Ga Ga, 0235-0255, pop music. IDs. Weak. Jan 28 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldy8g via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6920 USB, Radio Ga Ga, 0255-0308*, pop music. ID. Fair. Jan 29 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6924.91, XERF, 0105-0120, someone rebroadcast XERF programming with Wolfman announcer. Ads. Short breaks of music. Talk about the history of XERF. Strong. Jan 29 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** OKLAHOMA. 910, Jan 26 at 2008 UT on caradio, ``KVIS, your weather authority``, from Miamuh OK, making slight SAH with presumed TX station as usual, no AH, as someone speculated KVIS could have been source of a het (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 39, KWTV-DT, Jan 29 at 1556 UT, Bob Schieffer on CBS` `Face the Nation` says ``back in just a minute`` as he revels in the full hour he has finally been granted, ``Battleground Florida`` primary special, and the show is to be one hour weekly from April, I think --- but not yet in OKC! Just as I expected, KWTV won`t coöperate, retaining its usual real estate infomercial at 1600. Will they ever fall into line? BTW, KWTV has continuous (local) news, repeat after repeat on 9-2, where they could have put part 2 of FTN if not on 9-1, but they did not. I`ve been meaning to follow up my report a few weeks ago that 27, KFOR had cancelled continuous weather on 4-2, to run Ant TV on both 4-2 and 4-3. A few days later, 4-3 was dropped, and now it`s just 4-2 with Antenna TV old movies (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. A bit of area tropo enhancement Feb 1 at 1510 UT helps confirm that the OKC market still has at least two analog low-power TV signals, 48 with Univisión, and much weaker but locking in 19 with gospel huxtress in English, this time neither squeezed nor stretched, losing lock by 1530 while 48 remains quite watchable at 1600 with `hoy` program (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) KUOK, KUOT ** OKLAHOMA. University of Oklahoma Spring 2012 Concert [live] Video Streaming [times CST UT -6 in Feb; CDT UT -5 in Apr] Feb 11, 8pm Steel Drum Festival Feb 12, 3pm OU Symphony Feb 19, 3pm Accademia Filharmonica Apr 5, 8pm Percussion Orchestra Apr 18, 8pm Wind Symphony and Symphony Band Apr 22, 3pm OU Symphony Apr 24, 8pm OU Jazz Bands http://music.ou.edu/home/live_stream.html (via Glenn Hauser, Enid, DXLD) More may be added ** OMAN. I received on Radio Oman FM 90.4 in English on 15355 kHz from 0602 tune-in to 0830* on Jan. 29. It was mainly Light Classical music and Instrumental music. http://ani.atz.jp/FBDX/NowBBS/img/6169.mp3 by XYZ in Akita at 0618UT on Jan. 29. de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, Japan, Jan 29, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) FYI, received also at Cyprus Isl by Costas this morning. RSO Thumrait Oman registered a lot of wooden entries 73 wb Jan 29 (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 15355, Dear Dave, Wolfgang, Mauno, Today I heard Oman, Radio Oman. 15355 kHz at 0802-0822 UT in English with request pop music show sio 444. Many IDs of 90.4 FM station in Oman no Radio Oman shortwave ID was heard. Mentions of Muscat festival and site given, presented by om/yl. Time check at 0816 UT. Then Barbara George song "I know you don`t love me no more." sio 433. Then nothing heard. QRM (Costas Constantinides, Cyprus, Jan 29, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 31 via DXLD) ** OMAN. Radio Sultanate of Oman, 13750, caught at 1433 with Arabic to eastern Africa. Koranic chanting into long-winded discussion program between two men. Fair signals, considering the broadcast is supposed to be beamed to eastern Africa (Al Muick, Whitehall, Pennsylvania, USA, WinRadio G303e, Wellbrook ALA1530P active loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Al, Are you sure about Oman? I haven`t seen this reported before. Not in EiBi or Aoki, but in HFCC, likely one of several wooden registrations from them. But Iran in Hindi is on 13750 at 1430-1530, and at that hour would have been starting the transmission in Arabic (Qur`an). Since this was Sunday, lucky that Cuba was not on 13750 until later for Aló, Presidente. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Hi Glenn, EiBi has Oman here 1400-1730 UT in their 15 January update. I'm also wondering if Iran would have had the Arabic Koranic chanting on a Hindi program? Haven't listened to Iran in ages, so I do not know for sure. Is there anyone else has heard this? Guess I did get lucky with Cuba. Was surprised that they were not there. I will give it another shot tomorrow before I make a final call on it, unless someone else has some input one way or the other. Let us move this one onto the "tentative" pile until I can have a crack at it again tomorrow. I didn't come across the signal until 1433, so the sign-on would be a definite giveaway! You're more than likely right and it is a wooden entry, but now I've got to make sure. 73 (Al Muick, ibid.) Al, I am looking at EiBi as of Jan 15 (as I was before) and I don`t see any Oman on 13750: http://www.eibispace.de/dx/freq-b11.txt AFAIK, *all* VIRI broadcasts in all languages begin with a few minutes of Qur`an (i.e. in Arabic). Also see WRTH 2012 for the very limited B-11 schedule of Oman with only 15140 on air from 14 to 15 (in English), compared to the HFCC registrations, http://hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=B11&broadc=RSO almost all of which are imaginary! 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Glenn, Please see the attached sked-b11.csv, from 15 January, which my DXtreme logger program pulls down from www.eibi.de.vu. It imports it and converts it to a .mdb databse. You can open the .csv file in Excel and find 13750, and you will see the Oman listing 1400-1730. I am OK with calling this Iran, but I will make sure tomorrow, if just for my own peace of mind. I am beginning to believe all published lists and schedules are imaginary! Best, (Al Muick, DX LISTENING DIGEST) There is a listing in eibi for OMAN to East Africa as follows: 1400 1800 OMA Radio Sultanate Oman A EAf 15375s Perhaps the wrong frequency was punched in on 1/29/12 when Al heard them on 13750? (Bruce Fisher, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Al, Yep, there it is at line 9128. It took forever to scroll down to that after importing text in Open Office. I prefer the plain txt version of EiBi, which is a lot easier to navigate, but it`s strange they don`t match in this entry and I suppose many others. Maybe he puts more (all?) unconfirmed HFCC info into the one you are using. Those really ought to be flagged in some way. 73, (Glenn, ibid.) All, Due to circumstances beyond my control, I missed the 1430 UT ID or sign on, but with reception conditions a little clearer today, I have used synchronous AM as well as USB on this signal on 13750. The language is definitely *NOT* Arabic, so please disregard my logging of Oman on this frequency yesterday. Unless someone comes up with any evidence to the contrary, I am going to call this V of Iran in Hindi (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, Jan 30, ibid.) I checked both 13750 and 15375 this morning 1/30/12, first at 1400, and again at 1425 onwards. At 1427 Iran signed on 13750 with IS, Koran and presumed Hindi. Nothing was heard on 15375 (Bruce Fisher, Lexington, MA, USA, ibid.) 13750 1400-1730 48,53 THU 100 220 Arb OMA RSO B11: #6130 RSO appeared 18 August A12: #5699 RSO (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) He`s talking about HFCC registrations. That does not make them any less imaginary (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. 15725, R Pakistan's Urdu service at 05-07 UT put out a terrible spur on 15646.800 kHz, but NOT symmetrical on 15803v kHz. \\ 17830 S=9+10Db at 0551 UT Jan 26 (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 26, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 7325-, Jan 27 at 1357, usual JBA carrier after CRI cuts itself off, maybe some music; no better 24 hours later, presumed Wantok Radio Light (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Radio Tarma, a station I had not heard before, had an incredible signal on 4774.9 at 2332 January 14, SINPO 44433. Uptempo Latin American songs with regular clear identifications. Only the two Cubans were stronger. Still there but weaker at 0020, SINPO 24322. Also noted on subsequent nights with weaker signals. Ondas del Sur Oriente, Quillabamba heard on 5120 at 2344 December 28 but faded out within minutes. Heard again 2252 December 31 with talks, songs, adverts and identification, mentions of Lima and the New Year. SINPO 24333. Noted on several occasions early January, slogan `Ésta es la número uno' heard January 2 (Arthur Miller, Powys, Wales, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** PERU. 4826.35, Radio Sicuani, 1024-1035, Noted a very weak signal here with a male in Spanish comments fading in over the noise. At 1028 music heard also in and out due to poor signal. At 1030 believe I heard a female talking? However, the noise was so bad, it was impossible for me to be certain? Haven't heard this for awhile and only presuming it is Sicuani based on the frequency? I am happy to hear this again (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, NRD545, 26N 081W January 26, 2012, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4747.08, R. Huanta Dos Mil, 1015 end of talk by M with nice clear ID, then into beautiful OA campo music with W vocal. Great animated lively shouting in ad at 1033 check. Next ad was in Quechua. Then the next one was about 2 minutes long with address and shop hours given. More ads. Fair signal but fady. (28 Jan.) 5039.19, R. Libertad de Junín, Nice signal at 1040 with pleasant tinkly OA campo music. Had a nice clear ID earlier at 0958 but wasn't recording unfortunately. M in echo at 1044 with mention of San Martin. Then live studio M at 1045 with another mention of San Martin, TC, a few more announcementions and back to music. M returned with mensaje at 1051. Start of Huayno with a lot of yipping then M again with another mensaje. 1054 brief music and more announcementions with mention of "onda musical", Peru. Getting a little splash QRM from Rebelde. (28 Jan.) 5120.02, R. Ondas del Suroriente. Found OC here when checking the band at 1050. M with long talk in muffled audio at 1057-1100 with mention of Peru. Sounded too early for him. Into campo music at 1100. 1101:30 canned announcement during song. M again at 1104 but really hard to copy. Had to use the passband and notch to eliminate the ute on 5121.5. (28 Jan.) 4955, R. Cultural Amauta, suddenly popped on at 1054:50 with fast tempo OA music already in progress. 1058 live W announcer in apparent Quechua. Fast OA music again 1100. W returned at 1104 with mention of Peru and Cusco. Still going at 1107. Good signal but muffled audio made it difficult. (28 Jan.) PERU?? 6060, The last couple times I checked, I noticed a buzzing with carrier on this frequency prior to China signing on at 1130. No audio to speak off. Is it the OA?? (28 Jan.) (Dave Valko, Perseus with Wellbrook up 4 meters and aimed 40/220 degrees, Dunlo, PA, USA, HCDX via DXLD) ** ROMANIA. 7310, Jan 29 at 0632, reliable RRI English broadcast with top news item being anti-government protests across Romania, calling for resignation of the president --- but bare bones, no details or background before on to next story. First I had heard of it, not exactly headlining US media. Here`s more about the situation: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/romania-protests_n_1228525.html Just how objectively and thoroly is RRI covering this threat to the government that runs it? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Protests have been going on for two weeks but getting weaker and weaker. On Saturday there were only 200 people or so protesting in Bucharest. Not something any media outside Romania would really pay attention to (Tudor Vedeanu, (Gura Humorului, Romania), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Radio Rossii's LF transmitters --- Dear Glenn, I have been a long time "fan" of Radio Rossii from Russia on their various SW and LW frequencies (great music and announcing), and this morning, 01 February, between 1315 past 1405 UT, 153 kHz Komsomolsk, FE was "booming" into the Eastern California (USA) Mojave Desert QTH remarkably strong and with nary interference from power-line-carriers (PLCCs/A0s), whilst all of their other frequencies are strangely absent: nothing(!) - not hardly any modulated carriers detectable on 180, 189, 234, and 279 kHz this morning, and their SW frequency of 6075 kHz is off-air this morning (replacing 5930 kHz last year). There has been a strange trend noted by myself this winter: beginning in late August 2010, I could listen to quite strong signals from five LW broadcast transmitters in the Russian Far East: 153, 180, 189, 234, and 279 kHz, and some very good mornings of reception were enjoyed throughout the autumn of 2011 // 5930 kHz, but an odd sort of "winter anomaly" set-in by the end of 2011, and I lost reception (or very weak) from the LW transmitters of R. Rossii, and I wonder if this is simply due to changing propagation conditions - possibly increased D- layer absorption as we experience greater solar activity, or has there been some real changes to the broadcasting structure of Radio Rossii's many transmitters on LF and HF? I've also enjoyed some brief listening to Radio Rossii whilst in St. Petersburg, Russia 15-17 September 2009 on their 873 MW frequency in my hotel room near the Great Patriotic War Memorial (Leningrad) on the south-side of St. Petersburg (as well as some swell LW/MW DXing whilst there)! Can anyone in Russia or closer to their Far Eastern transmitters let us know what is the situation there? Thanks (Stephen P. McGreevy - N6NKS, Keeler, California, Employing a Kenwood TS480SAT, back-field 1- meter active-whip to homebrew VLF converter this morning. http://www.auroralchorus.com http://www.spaceweathersounds.com DX LISTENING DIGEST) Stephen, Perhaps the change in timezones account for some of this, with frequencies signing off an hour earlier than you are accustomed to in winter. 6075 is still on air, but goes off at 1300. Same for 180 and 234, tho in WRTH 2012 the other LW frequencies are shown on past 1300. Of course, rising solar activity generally correlates with falling longrange reception on LW, MW (Glenn to Stephen, via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 5905, Radio Rossii. 1958 “trumpets sounding…”, fanfares and short speech of president Medvedev, followed by old Soviet NA with changed words from 2000, time for the New Year in Moscow on 31/12 (they said at 1200 by V of Russia in Russia that the first country with New Year on earth was Christmas Island, but on Bulgarian radio said it was first in Tokelau and Samoa and what is the true?) (Rumen Pankov, Sofia Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi), Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Intermodulation at Armavir Tiblisskaya Krasnodar Kray site again, 6090 kHz + 1089 kHz = 7179 kHz. IM 7179 ist auch wieder aktive 6090 kHz - 1089 kHz = 5001 kHz auch bestaetigt Jan 24, 2012 at 2042 UT. vy73 - (Peter, HB9CET, Swiss USKA Bandwacht, Jan 24, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 31 via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) ** RUSSIA [non]. DX PROGRAM: January 24, “Radiopanorama” (a program of the World Radio Network) for the first time out in the SW-air! Listen to the program for amateur radio on the waves of the International radio of Spain every Tuesday! (Vadim Alekseev, Moscow, www.dxing.ru via RusDX 29 Jan via DXLD) Radio Exterior de España. Russian language: 1700-1730 Mon-Fri, 11755 kHz transmitter (Spain), 350 kW (editor, ibid.) ** RUSSIA [and non]. VoA Blogs About RT --- WikiLeaks' Julian Assange and Kremlin TV: Anti-Westernism Makes for Bizarre Bedfellows http://blogs.voanews.com/russia-watch/2012/01/27/wikileaks%E2%80%99-julian-assange-and-kremlin-tv-anti-westernism-makes-for-bizarre-bedfellows Occasionally, I read the Russia Watch blog, and it seems to me even less balanced than RT. RT (esp. RT-America) follows the "free stations" model taken from BBG's text book. It seeks to provide local perspective and coverage. Thus, it's incorrect to compare RT to Japan's NHK English and South Korea's Arirang. Rather, the stations should be compared to VoA Persian TV or RFA Burmese TV. For instance, RT America started detailed coverage of the Occupy Wall Street Movement long before this story made it to US mainstream media (Sergei S., Jan 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also read the comments, the eighth of which is this Assange for RT The founder of the Wikileaks whistle-blowing website, Julian Assange, is to host a talk show on RT channel, the Moscow-based English- language TV service. The channel's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan tweeted: "Drum roll and solemn faces please...Julian Assange's first TV show will go to us." In a statement on the Wikileaks website, Assange said: “Through this series I will explore the possibilities for our future in conversations with those who are shaping it. Are we heading towards utopia, or dystopia and how we can set our paths? This is an exciting opportunity to discuss the vision of my guests in a new style of show that examines their philosophies and struggles in a deeper and clearer way than has been done before.” The programme will launch in March and comprise ten 30-minute editions with guests that Assange describes as "iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders". The programme will be produced by hitherto unknown Quick Roll Productions whose web address was registered on 8 January this year. The RT deal appears to be non-exclusive and other distribution deals are being sought by the programme's makers (AIB Industry Briefing 30 Jan via DXLD) ** SAINT KITTS. Fairly decent week for QSLs, all things considered. I am quite happy with the results and hope for even better results in the coming weeks. The solar activity sure had made the propagation funny! I am finally seeing ZIZ, St. Kitts and Nevis again after a long hiatus, and I hope to have them QSL'ed very shortly. I do believe they are the last of the Caribbean "splits" on mediumwave. I hope everyone has had good DX coming their way! 73 (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, Jan 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SÃO TOMÉ E PRÍNCIPE. 4940, VOA, via Pinheira. I just received two nice QSL-cards on transmissions heard last month from the VOA direct. Address: IBB Sao Tome Transmitting Station, C. P. 522, Pinheira, São Tomé, São Tome e Príncipe (Victor Goonetilleke, Piliyandala, Sri Lanka, DSWCI DX Window Jan 25 via DXLD) ** SAO TOME E PRINCIPE. QSL: [VOA] STUDIO 7 via PINHEIRA, 15775. Confirmation letter from Helena Menezes with attached very nice full- data color e-cd depicting transmitter site & BBG logos (Marti, RFE/RL, VOA, Sawa, & RFA) signed by Victor Guadelape, Transmitter Plant Assistant Supervisor, in 1 week. Report was sent to Hmenezes @ sto.ibb.gov (Wendel Craighead, Prairie Village, Kansas, USA, Jan 31, Cumbre DX via DXLD) targetted on ZIMBABWE ** SARAWAK [non]. 15420, R Free Sarawak, http://soundcloud.com/victor-goonetilleke/rfsarawak-15420-1-17-2012-10 The station sent an alert and sure it came thru fine. This is the link to my sound clip, 15420 going great!!! (Victor Goonetilleke, Piliyandala, Sri Lanka, DSWCI DX Window Jan 25 via DXLD) U.K. (non) Frequency change of Radio Free Sarawak in Iban: 1000-1200 NF 15420 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAS, ex 17560 (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, Final issue 1 Feb 2012 of DX Mix News, via DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. I attempted to email Saudi Radio this afternoon and it came back as un-deliverable. I used the address in WRTH. Does anybody have a good e-mail address for them? Thanks, (Alex Klauber, 25 Jan, ptsw yg via DXLD) Try eng @ saudiradio.net --- it didn't bounce. Or saudi-radio @ saudiradio.net.sa 73, (Mauno Ritola, WRTH, ibid.) L'indirizzo dovrebbe essere questo: Broadcasting Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia P. O. Box 61718 Riyadh - 11575 Saudi Arabia Ma come diceva anche Scaglione, pare proprio che non pubblichino più QSL, come riportato anche nel blog Short-wave DXing: http://shortwavedxe r.blogspot.com/2010/11/broadcasting-service-of-kingdom-of.html Che siano a corto di soldi? :-\ Roby (Roberto Rizzardi, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** SERBIA. Since the start of the year I have not noted the Belgrade transmitter of International Radio Serbia on 9635, though the Bosnia transmitter is still operational (Arthur Miller, Powys, Wales, January 25, Feb World DX Club Contact via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) I have noticed its absence myself on a few occasions when I have checked 9635 (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) ** SERBIA [non]. 6100, BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA. Radio Serbia, Bijeljina, 2210-2229*. Talk in English by man and woman. Following ID by woman at 2219, talk alternating with slow Serbian vocal music. Closing announcements by man at 2228 followed by brief music. Gone at 2229:30. Weak but steady signal in lots of noise. Language was definitely English, but noise made content difficult to understand. 1/30/2012 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, ALA100M Loop, Random Wire (90'), Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5019.867, SIBS Honiara observed on remote SDR unit in Brisbane Australia. Then mentioned "... half past eight {0930 UT}, and talk about education program '9 to 9'". S=9+10dB strength, easily readable downunder (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 31 via DXLD) ** SOMALILAND. J28AA (E70A), Darko Rusman, is making a second attempt to go to Somalia. He had planned to be QRV as 6O0DX from Galkayo, Puntland, Somalia late last November, but several days before he was scheduled to depart he had to cancel “due to security concerns”. Now Darko is planning to operate from Hargeisa, Somaliland, Somalia from February 10th to 20th. “The license has been granted and call sign will be issued on the arrival”, although no mention was made of the expected new callsign. He’ll be taking an FT-857D and a multi-band vertical for 7 through 28 MHz activity. Darko says “This is my vacation trip and I will try to teach local radio amateurs in Hargeisa and perhaps to establish local radio club.” Plans are to donate an IC-735 and antenna. He is calling for proper operating procedures and if need be won’t work certain stations if they don’t operate correctly. “If you hear me, don't call me twice, one call is enough. Don't break into ongoing QSO. Don't call me if I call specific geographical area or specific prefix. I'll try to give a chance to QRP stations and don't call me if you are not QRP” (via Bill Smith, W0WOI, IA, 30 Jan via Joe Talbot, AB, VA6YC. VA6JWT, 6O0JT, DXLD) Control freak? ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 15190, Jan 28 at 1504, Brother Scare is still going via IRRS via ROMANIA, past usual 13-15 broadcast. Had not noticed this before, but why not? Since 10 am Saturday is when he performs his big live service with local psychophants assenting and amening. He`s also scheduled to be on WBCQ 15420v-CUSB Saturdays only at 15-16 and 17-18, but not audible there at 1504, just another presumed weak BBC Cyprus signal As for 15190, ahá, latest HFCC B11 dated Jan 27 shows 300 kW, 100 degrees from MILano (meaning Tiganeshti, Romania site), has added a Saturday-only broadcast at 1500-1700 effective last week, Jan 21. BTW, they also have other preachers after 1500 as needed: Friday 1500-1515; and from Feb 5, Sunday 1500-1530. The Friday extension is on 115 degrees instead. Oops! Vatican`s DRM broadcast to S Asia in English is also on 15185- 15190-15195 DAILY at 1530-1600. There must have been a huge collision this Saturday when I had quit monitoring. Vatican aims to CIRAF 41 only as target, while IRRS includes 41 among many others, so collision bells should be ringing at HFCC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9980, Jan 29 at 1511, Brother Scare via WWCR is mentioning he is on 9980 and 15190 --- wrong! Not on Sundays: 15190 via IRRS via Romania confirmed off the air after 1500 (but from next week there will be an extension to 1530 on Sundays, some other gospel huxter or him? And on Saturdays he does run to 1700 now despite Vatican Radio DRM at 1530). Not only is The Last Day Prophet of God wrong about how many days are left, he`s wrong about his own schedule. How can anyone with half a brain take this nutcase seriously? But he`s so good for the SW business (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But back on?? --- 29-1, 15190, Overcomer Ministry, 1517 with priest in very emphatic talks, S6 max (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ITALY [non]. ROMANIA. Additional transmissions of Brother Stair TOM: 1500-1530 on 15190 TIG 300 kW / 100 deg to AS/AUS/NZ English Sun 1500-1700 on 15190 TIG 300 kW / 100 deg to AS/AUS/NZ English Sat (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, Final issue 1 Feb 2012 of DX Mix News, via DXLD) See also GERMANY [and non] MBR changes QSL: WWRB/The Overcomer Ministry, 9385, f/d Brother Stair/Atomic Mushroom Cloud card in 152 days for English report via first class mail with 1 first-class stamp, and follow up in English with 2 first- class stamps. QSL arrived 17 days after follow-up. A note on the included religious pamphlets stated they never received the first report (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, Jan 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN [and non]. Programa del 28 y 29 de enero 2012: Amigos de la Onda Corta es un programa semanal de Radio Exterior de España de 25 minutos de duración, que dirige y presenta Antonio Buitrago. Es un espacio informativo sobre temas del mundo de los medios de comunicación y el diexismo. Resumen del programa: - Nueva emisión de Amigos de la onda corta, los sábados de 1605 a 1630 - REPORTAJE: 75 años de la creación de Radio Nacional de España (1ª parte) - Alonso Mostazo nos ofrece los pronósticos de propagación en HF para el mes de febrero Se emite por onda corta, satélite e Internet: Emisión del SÁBADO 0605-0630 UT Europa: 12035 kHz - 9780 DRM Oriente Medio: 11895 kHz América del Sur: 5965 (*) kHz Emisión del SÁBADO 1605-1630 UT [NEW] Europa: 15585 kHz Oriente Medio: 21610 kHz África: 15385 kHz América del Sur: 15125 y 17595 kHz América Central: 9765 y 17595 kHz América del Norte: 17850 kHz Emisión del DOMINGO 0030-0100 UT América del Sur: 11815 DRM (*) 6125, 9620, 9765 y 11680, kHz América Central: 6125 y 9535 kHz América del Norte: 9630 DRM (*), 6055 y 9535 kHz Emisión del DOMINGO 1330-1400 UT Europa: 13720 y 15585 kHz Oriente Medio: 21610 kHz África: 21540 kHz Filipinas: 11910 (Desde Xian) América del Sur: 15125 (*) y 17595 kHz América Central: 9765 (*) y 17595 kHz América del Norte: 15170 (*) kHz (*) Desde el centro emisor de Cariari, Costa Rica (via Jose Bueno, playdx yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) 11680, Jan 30 at 2116, REE in Portuguese, YL with Brazilian accent conversing with Castilian-accented OM. The 21-22 M-F broadcast is only on this frequency direct for Brasil, while the 1830-1900 M-F is on all `Spanish` frequencies of REE, even the one relayed by CR to North America, 17850. 9675, Jan 31 at 0603, REE via Costa Rica is still on the air with narration and singing, not news, a filler? // 5965, and so is the third CR frequency 3350. Tried to hear whether these were // 11895 and 12035 from Noblejas, but no propagation from Europe. By next check, 0611, 9675 was off while 5965 continued as it alone is supposed to (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. 7200, SRTC, *0255-0328, abrupt sign on with Arabic talk. Chirping birds at 0259. Local chants at 0320. Fair, but covered by Iran at their 0328 sign on. Jan 29 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 13800, R. Tamazuj via Dhabbaya. Fair strength signal very degraded by atmospherics. Speakers in listed Somali. //s 7315 and 11940 not heard, 0408 7/12 (Charles Jones, Castle Hill NSW (Sony 2001D with 7m. vertical antenna, Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) ¦ Good with “Huna Radio Tamazui“ ID in Arabic at 0424, 21/1. R. Dabanga starts at 0429 (John Adams, Beech Forest Vic (JRC NRD-535, Ewe and Folded Dipole), Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) Where is it listed as Somali?? (gh, DXLD) ** SUDAN SOUTH [non]. 7315, Dabanga (S10-20) 0520 31-1, // 11940 // 13800 (S9) talks by OM in a vernacular but not Arabic, with talks about Sudan and A-grand. Also ID R Dabanga. QRM on 11940 a carrier with tone of 1 kHz, on 13800 a FSK (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN SOUTH [non]. 17745, Jan 28 at 1510 check, ``Sudan Radio Service`` song, with echo (backscatter? Seems longpath from Skelton would be unlikely under current conditions), then YL with same confusing announcement as on previous weeks about change in schedule as from January 1. Anyhow, still in English during this hour on Saturdays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 17745, Sudan Radio Service via Woofferton, 1534-1600, Jan 28. Their Saturday “Road to Peace” program about the challenges of ethnic representation; promo for “Road to Peace” on Wednesday “only on 98.6 SRS FM”; pop song in English about freedom in South Sudan; pop song in vernacular; promo for monthly program with officials from the South Sudan Land Commission to discuss land use issues. As Glenn has also reported, they had an echo. Edited MP3 audio http://www.box.com/s/mvf0ln0af6mvhy9sblgt contains 5 ½ minutes of today’s program. 17745, Sudan Radio Service via Woofferton, 1638-1650, Jan 30 (Monday). First time I have heard a Monday segment in English; “news bulletin”; Malawi hydro-power project, “The project coordinator, Honorable Philip Koti Wala, spoke to 98.6 SRS FM”; “Last week the Deputy Mayor of Juba City Council, David Lokonga ordered reorganization of Jebel market. He spoke to 98.6 SRS FM on Monday at the site of the demolitions”; announced their change in scheduling as heard before; started out fair to poor; faded down to unusable by tune out at 1650. Very nice to find even more English programming here besides the Saturday "Road to Peace" show! (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See below for full English schedule, now daily 1630-1700 (gh, DXLD) SUDAN RADIO SERVICE Revised complete schedule Arabic (Darfuri) Days Area kHz 0400-0415 daily SDN 11800dha* 0415-0430 .....s. SDN 11800dha* 0430-0500 daily SDN 11800dha* 1600-1615 daily SDN 15500skn* 1615-1630 ....f.. SDN 15500skn* 1630-1700 daily SDN 15500skn* Arabic (Juba) 0400-0500 daily SDN 13720dha 1500-1600 mtwtf.. SDN 17745wof 1500-1530 ......s SDN 17745wof 1600-1630 .....s. SDN 17745wof Bari 1600-1630 ...t... SDN 17745wof Dinka 1600-1630 m...... SDN 17745wof English [WORLD OF RADIO 1602] 1500-1600 .....s. SDN 17745wof 1530-1600 ......s SDN 17745wof 1630-1700 daily SDN 17745wof Fur 0415-0430 .t..f.. SDN 11800dha* 1615-1630 m..t... SDN 15500skn* Masalit 0415-0430 m..t... SDN 11800dha* 1615-1630 ..w...s SDN 15500skn* Moru 1600-1630 ......s SDN 17745wof Nuer 1600-1630 ..w.... SDN 17745wof Shilluk 1600-1630 ....f.. SDN 17745wof Zaghawa 0415-0430 ..w...s SDN 11800dha* 1615-1630 .t...s. SDN 15500skn* Zande 1600-1630 .t..... SDN 17745wof Key: * Darfur News and Information Service (WRTH 1 Feb update via DXLD) So are all the non-Darfur transmissions specifically for SUDAN SOUTH or not? I.e. not for the rest of SUDAN? Would have to research the geographical areas for each language (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** SURINAM. 4990, R. Apintie: No sign of this today or lately. Off?? (28 Jan.) (Dave Valko, Perseus with Wellbrook up 4 meters and aimed 40/220 degrees, Dunlo, PA, USA, HCDX via DXLD) ** SWAZILAND [and non]. 9585, Jan 29 at 1458, assertive speech in French continues right past 1500; listening a bit more closely, it`s a sermon. So this is TWR`s 1455-1525 broadcast toward Madagascar, per Aoki in French on Sat & Sun, Malagasy M-F. Cross-checking in WRTH 2012, it shows French only on Sat, with Malagasy Sun-Fri, but not so. You still have to look under South Africa to find TWR Swaziland`s schedule mixed in with Meyerton and Benin MW 1566. Altho TWR Africa originated in Swaziland, Manzini has been demoted to a mere transmitter site with HQ in RSA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BENIN ** SWEDEN. R. Suecia, ex-SW station: see discussion under BULGARIA ** TAIWAN. QSL: Sound of Hope 7105 kHz - 6-4, Lane 84, Guo Tai st. - North Dist - Taichung 404 - Taiwan con QSL + adesivo in 33 giorni. Si 1 IRC (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, shortwave yg via DXLD) ** TAIWAN [and non]. 17920, Sound of Hope (presumed). In Chinese plus bimbam-bang Beijing’s drums at 0900 and from 1000 // 14970 and 16100 on 9/1 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi), Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) 18180, Sound of Hope, Tainan. Heard at 1030 on 8/1 (Graham Dawe, Broken Hill NSW (Icom R8500, Vertical antenna), Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) Any Firedrake? All we ever hear here (gh, DXLD) ** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, UT Sat Jan 28 at 0621, RTI German instead of Spanish via WYFR, opening `Hörerbriefkasten` with novelty song, sounds funny, but you really need to understand colloquial Mandarin (Taiwanese?) to get anything out of it, so do they think their German audience is generally sinolingual? Mentions that it`s the Jahr des Drachens. This is the week there is supposed to be a monthly DX report segment from Europeans, but it`s too late so I will have to try the audio archive later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello radio friends! On January 23, 2012 I received a QSL from R. Taiwan International, 6875 kHz via Okeechobee 05/11/2011 06:00 UT. Sent reception report via web report and received new full data QSL card in 80 days via ordinary mail. The QSL of this month reproduces Taipei city walls, built in 1884; the thick two story walls were a strong fortress for the city. Square and circular holes were carved as windows to view the enemy. Only a few sections remain, leaving a rare glimpse of the Qing dynasty era. 73 from (Nino Marabello, Treviso, Italy, swprograms via DXLD) ** TAJIKISTAN. Re: NOTES: If we use the HFCC HF Skeds, 4010 uses 50 kW 4050 uses 100 kW, 4635 uses 100 kW, and 4795 uses 15 kW. Bishkek has vertical antennas, but Dushanbe (Yangi Yul) uses curtain antennas, and is always the strongest of these particular stations. Dushanbe is in Tajikistan [q.v.], but only 456 miles to the SW of Bishkek (with a 12 minute later sunrise). Although the HFCC says all 4 stations use ND antennas, I wonder about Dushanbe. 1/19 (Jim Young, WPC6JY, Wrightwood and Inspiration Point (10 miles west of town), CA, ICOM IC-706, 756 ProIII and Grundig Satellite 800, 60-M vertical, 60-M inverted Vee, 80-M inverted Vee, 40-M yagi, NASWA yg via DXLD) I've my doubts. Never heard of curtains used on 60 mb elsewhere, for steeply signals. See the Mongolian 60 mb sites, see Gavar 4810 antenna, see the two NAVIS antennas of 5025, 5040 kHz at RHC Quivican - San Felipe. 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** TAJIKISTAN. 4765.07, Tajik Radio, Orzu. 1844, fair, with nice local music, comments. Very low modulation and "warbly" transmitter if tuned in sideband. Also at the upper edge of the Over-the Horizon Radar QRM [CODAR?] (everything down frequency of this was unreadable). 2/1 (David Sharp, Bourke NSW (FT-950, NRD-535D, R8, R30A, Timewave 599ZX, various Palstar and MFJ accessories, Quantum Phaser, various Sangean and Tecsun portables, EWE aerials), Jan/Feb Australian DX News via DXLD) ¦ Observed during a celebration of the New Year 1845-1910 on 31/12: 1853 a speech in TJ by the president, lady voice at 1900 salvo and folk songs (no play of National Anthem as on New Year in Mongolia at 1600 on 4830 and Kyrgyzstan at 1800 on 4010 on 31/12 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi), ibid.) ** TATARSTAN. 26 January 2012 took [caught?] "On the wave of Tatarstan". The station was involved in the 0610 on the frequency 9410 kHz. Broadcasting in the Tatar and Russian languages. SINPO - 44444. QRM from the BBC (Seychelles). (Alexander Golovokhin, Togliatti, Russia / "deneb-radio-dx" via RusDX 29 Jan via DXLD) 27 January 2012 accept [heard?] "On the wave of Tatarstan" with 0810 UT on 11610 kHz in Russian and Tatar languages. Reception 45544. In November 2011 sent a report by regular mail to the address of Idus. But the answer has been received yet. A report put the envelope with the return address. Receiver: Degen 1103, Telescopic antenna (Dmitry Kutuzov, Ryazan, Russia / "deneb-radio-dx", ibid.) 11610, 0810-0900*, RUSSIA, 27.01, GTRK "Tatarstan", Kazan, via Samara. Tatar conversation mentioning Russia and democratic principles, 0859 music and closing ann, 55544 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde Denmark, with minus 2 centigrades, heard on the AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** UGANDA. Since the start of the New Year I have failed to find Radio UBC Uganda on 4976 (Arthur Miller, Powys, Wales, January 25, Feb World DX Club Contact via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) ** UGANDA [non]. Radiyo Y'Abadanga Ababaka in Swahili to EaAf: 1700-1715 on 17725 WER 250 kW / 150 deg Sat, cancelled (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, Final issue 1 Feb 2012 of DX Mix News, via DXLD) ** UKRAINE. Dneprovskaya Khvylya, Zaporozhye: There's a nearly three minute recording of this station received in Joensuu, Finland at 0907 January 28 on a Tecsun PL660. "Great signal for a moment but only about ten minutes later lot of noise and fading" says uploader SanttuDX. Put Radio Dniprovska Hvylya 11980 in their search engine (Mike Barraclough, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) The letter with the radio station "Dniprovska wave" (Zaporozhye). "Hello, Alexander! Thank you for the information. Glad to meet again. Was on the prevention of the hospital. Practically and theoretically zone radio direct wave on such frequencies is limited radius of ??120??. Reception area of the reflected wave of the first jump starts on the radius of the 1100 km. Under more favourable conditions for passage of radio waves zone can shrink or expand. Including practically all the territory of Ukraine for the reflected wave is outside the reception of radio waves of these frequencies. Although to my surprise there is a confirmation of acceptance of our radio with Kyiv, Lviv and it is only in the winter period. All of this can be in the tropospheric [sic] passing. Well your reception area is the most favourable for these frequencies because is located at a distance of 1000 km from Zaporozhya. Were confirmation of receipt of the Moscow, Ryazan, Kazan well and Togliatti of course. And if to take into account and that the direction of the antenna to your side and when our power, it probably means that you only have to hear us. Please confirm the receiving or not receiving our card. And one more particularly a meaningless question. Alexander from Togliatti, heads the Ukrainian diaspora, tell him our address. Until then, all the best! (Alexander Golovokhin, Togliatti, Russia / "deneb- radio-dx" via RusDX 29 Jan via DXLD) Hello Alexander! If I may, a bit of history, as far as I am aware. When Alexander from Zaporozhye (was this radio ALEX on FM) decided to develop SW with Radio Dneprovska Khvylia, he enlisted the support of RRT concern, which him to use the frequency 11980 kHz, at the time intended for low-power transmitters up to 5 kW (former jammers). Earlier this glushilka (on my same information in “Radioamator” No.7/1994 worked on 6060 kHz with programs UR1 and Zaporozhye PTRC. In Kyiv the day was heard well. Now the frequency of 11980 kHz was high enough for broadcasting on Ukraine and is good for a more long-range coverage. But on the near the distance she was superior in the summer, though due to solar radiation and because of the weak power of the transmitter signal more dull in the layers of D/E. Somehow, after communicating with him, being in the role of bandwidth manager in the NRCU I him to use in the winter of low frequency 5830 kHz (or 5840), which used then and RUI in the dark. In Kiev was heard somehow, even though there may need was another antenna. At that frequency coverage is reduced. So the point here is to the purpose of broadcasting: zakordon or Ukraine. Hence the need to select and frequency. But the trouble is, as far as I I see that he has a transmitter almost neperestraivayemiy, in the sense of easy (Alexander Egorov, Kyiv, Ukraine / "deneb-radio-dx", ibid.) Dniprovskaya wavna [sic]. on January 29, 2012, 0700, 11980 kHz, SINPO - 25242. Moscow. The receiver of the radio DEGEN Antenna : Active Loop antenna 31MS (:Anatoly Klepov, Moscow, Russia, RusDX 29 Jan via DXLD) ** U A E. 9525, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Radio Australia (relay), al- Dhabbaya. 2225-2330:03 January 24, 2012. Clear and fair, improving by 2300 with Indonesian programming, mostly discussion. Bumper music and ID in Indonesian at 2300 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. 15510, Sat Jan 28 at 1501, BBCWS on unusual frequency, good signal but flutter with news in English. 1506 into clip of scoring in a footballgame, Liverpool v Manchester United. 1509 found more BBC `Sportsworld` on inferior // 17780, and at 1514 on 13825 under R. Martí and jamming spread from 13820. Once again, BBCWS blows away scheduled languages to replace them with stupid ballgames in English at least on Saturdays; HFCC shows: 15510 in Somali daily at 14-15 via Seychelles, and 15-17 via Cyprus 17780 in Hausa daily at 1400-1430 via Ascension, Hausa Saturdays 1430- 1700 via Woofferton 13825 in Somali Saturdays at 1500-1700 via Cyprus So is this just fill-in on Saturdays to give the Hausans and Somalis a day off? Or do stupid ballgames in English trump and pre-empt anything else on the BBC schedule? 7385, more strangeness on this frequency, Jan 28 at 2200, BBCWS opening expanded `From Our Own Correspondent` with teaser including an item I had heard earlier in week on the 9-minute version, 2201 news, but then chopped off the air at 2203*. This is still unaccounted for in latest HFCC of Jan 27: only BBC time on 7385 is 02-04, one hour each from Seychelles and Ascension. And nothing anywhere scheduled before or after 2200. A few days ago I had heard Vatican IS on 7385 until 2100*, also unscheduled. What`s going on here, and from where? I looked around for another BBC frequency to hear FOOC, found one at 2206, 9915 Ascension, but that had another stream, interview about solar therapy, so not FOOC. 9740, Jan 29 until 1429, `The Fifth Floor` heard part of discussion among other BBC language personnel, Russian, Arabic and Vietnamese, such as the difficulty of translating English idioms, ``bugbears``, cliché quiz. Others of the (only 27 left) languages to be featured next week. Here`s the programme pagge with audio link for one episodde labeled as 25 minutes, but that`s impossible as there are only 23 minutes between 1406 and 1429; and a schedulle not including 1406 Sundays, since who cares when it`s on the stream broadcast via Singapore? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00n1xwh If you click on the ``see all broadcasts`` link you still see the same page with only 4 times on an unspecified stream. BBCWS after all these years has not figured out how to manage its totally unnecessary fragmented scheduling. I later listened to the whole show on demand, and the above 3 language people only appeared in the last segment, so it`s not a language-by-language rotation; nor any sign of how many episodes there have been or will be. On the player for the latest episode there is a link to other episodes, i.e. last week`s but there is to way to play it. That`s no help (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Four different English BBC-WS broadcasts Today for the first time I realized BBC World Service in English has different shortwave broadcasts for different parts of the world. Of course this isn't surprising, but I just wasn't aware about this until I noticed four different BBCs broadcasting at the same hour. Here is what I heard today between 1330 and 1400 UT. - On 5875, 6195, 9740, 11760, 11890 and 15575 kHz the BBC-WS aired "The Weekend Strand". This was the broadcast for the East Asia. - On 15420 and 21470 was "Top of the Pops", beamed to East and South Africa. - On 9410 and 15310 was "Global Business", for the listeners in South Asia. - On 17830 there was a program named "Heart and Soul". The broadcast was for West and Central Africa. Signals were fair to excellent at my location. Who said you can't listen anymore to BBC-WS on shortwave in Europe? :) (Tudor Vedeanu, (Gura Humorului, Romania), Jan 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tudor, you are right, BBCWS carries different SW channels in English. I believe this thing began like ten years ago. I remember initially it caused a lot of confusion and controversy in the world DX circles. I agree with you that even to this day BBCWS provides a rather reliable SW coverage of Europe. Sure, reception is not as great as before but it's still acceptable. I guess the story is a bit different in the central parts of North America. 73! (Sergei S., ibid.) There are 5 different program streams 11760 and 15575 are beamed to the mideast just happened to be playing the same program as the East Asia stream (Peter Hansen, NY, ibid.) ** U K. BRITISH RADIO'S 'DESERT ISLAND DISCS' TURNS 70 --- Eureka Times-Standard, CA By Jill Lawless Associated Press January 29, 2012 London --- Margaret Thatcher chose Beethoven, Michael Caine picked Frank Sinatra and boxer George Foreman selected The Beatles' "All You Need is Love." They are among almost 3,000 guests who have appeared on the radio program "Desert Island Discs," a British broadcasting institution that turned 70 on Sunday. The show's simple format hasn't changed since 1942: Ask an illustrious or famous figure to choose the eight pieces of music they would take with them to a deserted isle, and talk about what the tracks mean to them. At the end of each program, the guest is sent into imaginary exile, along with their choice of a book, a luxury and one of their eight records. Almost 3 million listeners tune in each week to the show, which has stranded royalty, prime ministers and movie stars, as well as scientists, poets and philosophers. Its success is a mark of radio's enduring popularity in the age of the Internet and high definition TV. Host Kirsty Young said its strength lies in the "unique blend of a castaway's life and the music that forms its soundtrack." "At best it displays the frailties and strengths of the human condition—how our creativity, grit and humanity can see us through," she said in a BBC radio documentary marking the anniversary. Young told the Radio Times magazine that scientists made the best guests, because they often had not been interviewed before. "Politicians are awful, especially when they have the responsibility of office, because they have to be careful," said Young, one of only four hosts the show has had in 70 years. Still, politicians rarely refuse an invitation to soften their image. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair revealed a love of Spanish guitar music, his successor Gordon Brown enthused about Bach and current leader David Cameron selected Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue" as his desert island record. Even a senior member of the British royal family has appeared. Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, was a guest in 1981. Her musical choices included "Rule Britannia" and—more surprisingly— "Sixteen Tons" By Tennessee Ernie Ford. The probing of the castaways is gentle—a style pioneered by the show's creator and original host Roy Plomley, who plied guests with food and drink at his club before recordings. But the interviews are often revealing and can occasionally make headlines. There were hundreds of complaints when Lady Diana Mosley, widow of Britain's World War II Fascist leader Oswald Mosley, was a guest in 1989 and offered the view that Hitler "was of course extraordinarily fascinating and clever." In February 2003, a month before the invasion of Iraq, actor George Clooney accused then U.S. President George W. Bush of manipulating the country into supporting war and said it was Americans' "patriotic duty to question the actions of your government." Few refuse an invitation, which brings no fee but considerable prestige. "You're honored to be part of this strange national club," said U.S.-born music broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, a castaway in 2002. "To be welcomed into something so quintessentially British as 'Desert Island Discs' means I've made it, I'm welcome, I'm home," he told the BBC. Mick Jagger is one of the best-known holdouts. His Rolling Stones bandmate Charlie Watts said yes, as did ex-Beatle Paul McCartney—who chose his murdered bandmate John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" as his desert-island track—and musicians from Bing Crosby to Alice Cooper. The most popular musical choice over the decades has been the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's 9th Symphony, with Mozart the most frequently selected composer. The most popular non-classical piece is Edith Piaf singing "Je Ne Regrette Rien." The most commonly requested luxury item is a piano. Other choices have been more original. American novelist Norman Mailer requested "a stick of the very best marijuana," while egocentric entertainment svengali Simon Cowell asked for a mirror — "because I'd miss me." Online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) I vaguely recall that DID was once on the BBCWS (or more likely GOS), but now see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr for podcasts, etc. There are also two other versions, Revisited and Long-Play (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. MARK THOMPSON TO STEP DOWN AS BBC BOSS AFTER OLYMPICS Director general will quit at the end of 2012 or early in 2013 after eight years in charge of public broadcaster Dan Sabbagh, Friday January 27 2012, The Guardian Mark Thompson, the BBC's director general, has signalled to senior colleagues that he is ready to step down, with insiders believing he will quit at the end of 2012 or early in 2013, at the end of the broadcaster's Olympic year. Britain's most powerful television executive has not given an exact timetable for his departure, but friends say he acknowledges that he has entered the final chapter of his eight-year director generalship and is "psychologically ready" to leave a job that paid him L779,000 last year. . . http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/26/mark-thompson-readiness-step-down-bbc (via Ricky Leong, AB, DXLD) ** U K. BBC LOCAL RADIO MAY BE REPRIEVED --- Radio 4 News just reported that Lord Patten, BBC Trust chairman, is expected to ask the Director General today mitigate £15m cuts that would have led to programme cuts and job losses. Horray! (Mike Terry, Jan 25, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) [Moderator: there was an article on the BBC Trust's request to rethink the BBC local radio cuts in the Guardian on Monday at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/23/bbc-trust-opposes-local-radio-cuts The outcome of its request is of course still speculation - Alan Pennington] Further details are in the BBC staff "magazine" (now only online - but accessible by the public) at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/16682760 (Chris Greenway, ibid.) ** U S A [and non?]. 10000+, Feb 1 at 1337, WWV/WWVH are quite weak, with heavy QRM from huge continuous ute noise with some pulsing on the hi side, as others have noted. What is this? Same sound around 9910 too. By 1443, WWV strength has built up, but noise still audible underneath. By 1455, that`s no longer audible but still on 9910 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS CHAIRMAN RESIGNS Walter Isaacson has resigned as Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The Washington Post reports that Mr Isaacson, whose authorized biography of Steve Jobs was a bestseller last year, said in his resignation letter that he is “taking on another big writing project, so I won’t be able to give the BBG the time it needs and deserves.” (Source: allaccess.com) See also Kim Andrew Elliott’s blog: Will the new BBG chairman be a hack or a flack? (January 30th, 2012 - 16:23 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) Viz.: WILL THE NEW BBG CHAIRMAN BE A HACK OR A FLACK? Posted: 29 Jan 2012 Washington Post, 27 Jan 2012, Emily Heil: "Walter Isaacson, who penned a best-selling book about the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, resigned Friday as the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors to work on another book. 'I'm taking on another big writing project, so I won't be able to give the BBG the time it needs and deserves,' he said in a resignation letter sent Friday to the agency, which oversees U.S. international broadcasting, including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. ... The White House must now nominate Isaacson’s replacement to the eight-member bipartisan BBG board." Mountain Runner, 27 Jan 2012, Matt Armstrong: "In his letter announcing his resignation, Walter wrote ... 'Our terms have all either expired or are about to, and I think the board can be proud of its work. We developed over two years a strategic plan to streamline and consolidate the agency, and we adopted unanimously at our last meeting the two resolutions that would implement it. We’ve also hired great new entity heads — David Ensor at Voice of America, Steve Korn at Radio Free Europe, and Carlos García-Pérez at Radio and TV Martí — to join the strong leaders at the other entities.' Knowing how hard the Board has worked since they took their jobs in June 2010, Walter’s resignation should not reflect a personal failure but a reflection of the strain of the 'part-time' board. The strain is made worse when this board is not regularly infused with fresh bodies and minds, which was its design. Governors are appointed to staggered terms, but we are again in a situation of neglect by the White House in nominating new blood. ... The relatively thin upper management has arguably relied too much – by necessity – on the Governors to manage the organization when the Governors should have been in the role of providing expert and senior advice. The BBG’s new strategic plan, the details of which are still being finalized and have yet to be shared beyond a narrative, includes changes to remedy this over-reliance on the appointed part-timers." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) I would not call the USIB upper management "thin." There's is an abundance of upper management, given that each entity has an upper management. If the planned consolidation preserves the multiple brands of USIB, there will continue to be multiple front offices. The new chairman of the BBG must be committed to true consolidation. Only when USIB ceases to be a dysfunctional confederacy of feudal entities can it begin to rise to its goal of becoming "the world's leading international news agency." The new chairman should also be distinguished by journalistic hackery rather than political flackery. If not a distinguished journalist, he or she should be a distinguished broadcasting professional -- preferably with some experience witnessing the role of international broadcasting in countries where the domestic media are government controlled or otherwise deficient. Background in diplomacy (public or otherwise), public relations, or political consultancy, would be less helpful. USIB will succeed if it provides the objective information that allows people in the audience to make up their own minds. It will fail if it manipulates content in an attempt to manipulate global public opinion, even if such manipulation is "in support of freedom and democracy." In my Foreign Service Journal paper, October 2010, I proposed that US international broadcasting be franchised to a consortium of US private broadcast news companies. The resulting new "board" would perpetuate itself, not having to wait for presidential and Congressional action. Government oversight would be limited to renewing, or not renewing, the contract, every N years. If news is the product, the less government oversight the better (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** U S A. VOICE OF AMERICA AT 70 --- Diplomatic Courier By Chrisella Sagers, Managing Editor 26 January 2012 "This is a Voice from America..." “The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.” - William Harlan Hale; February 1, 1942 Such began the first broadcast of a small team of dedicated men transmitting live from a claustrophobic New York City studio into Nazi Germany. Their group had no name, although their first broadcast was titled Stimmen aus Amerika—Voices from America. The equipment they used was borrowed. They had no direction as to what they would broadcast, except the truth. At that moment, the United States stepped into a role as guardian of the power of ideas and honest messenger of information to all corners of the world... Full story: http://www.diplomaticourier.com/news/diplomacy/725 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. VOA via WLO: Full article and soundclip here: http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=12706 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) Viz.: VOA NEWS TRANSMITTED VIA SHORTWAVE RADIOTELETYPE TO THE SHIPS AT SEA. I have just discovered that maritime shortwave communications station WLO in Mobile, Alabama, has started a 24-hour transmission of news in radioteletype (RTTY) and another digital text mode, SITOR-B. The frequency is 8473 kHz. Much of the transmitted news comes of VOA (presumably taking advantage of the public-domain status of VOA content). The audience is, apparently, vessels in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean service area of WLO. The WLO RTTY News signal is audible at my house in northern Virginia throughout the day and night. On this page is a sample of my reception on 25 January at 2230 UTC. Copy was, at that time, near 100% (though it isn't always). Any breaks are caused by fading or noise on the frequency, or by the inability of these basic digital modes to handle certain punctuation marks. Reception is usually more successful in SITOR-B, which has error correction, than RTTY, which does not. The service began in August, per this item: RadioReference.com, 18 Aug 2011, George Hutchison, originating from UDXF Yahoo list and GreenKeyers: "Through the gracious accommodation of Rene Steigler, K4EDX, owner of WLO in Mobile AL, KLB north of Seattle, and KNN in Marina Del Rey, California, and his technical staff in Mobile, ---> WLO RTTY News is now on the air!! <--- ... Frequency is 8473.000 kHz. Power is 1000 watts. On-Air time is 24/7. ... Speaking for myself, this is a dream that after perhaps 14 years is finally coming true. I believe it to be a bit of history, because other than the WA9XHN/WC2XPF experimental RTTY transmissions between 1999 and 2001, to my knowledge there has NEVER been any RTTY News transmissions aimed at a general audience/listenership." Technical paramters for the RTTY are 45 baud, 170 Hz shift, using upper sideband of commercial RTTY than the lower sideband typical in amateur radio. There are several programs that can receive both RTTY and SITOR-B (same as AMTOR-FEC, including TrueTTY and MixW. (These programs are used by radio amateurs to enable the transmission of digital modes, but they can also be used for receive-only. More information about WLO at http://www.shipcom.com (Posted: 29 Jan 2012, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) VOA with RTTY and AMTOR (SITOR Mode B) on 8473-USB --- Thanks for the head's up on this interesting frequency. Cranked up my MixW program and am now decoding VOA news in English alternating between RTTY and SITOR Mode B (AMTOR) with pretty close to 100% copy. Not sure of the transmitter location, or even the exact purpose of this transmission. Reminds me of the old point to point SSB transmissions from Greenville, in bygone years. All this at 0300 and still going strong at 0327 UT 31Jan2012. SWITCHING TO RTTY BROADCAST KO WEM VIA GDI DATION WLO IN MOBILE, ALABAMA. SHIPCOM OFFERS HIGH SEAS RADIOTELEPHONE SERVICE FOR RATES AS LOW AS 99 CENTS PER MINUTE ON THE FOLLOWING ITU HF CHANNELS. STATION WLO, MOBILE, ALABAMA ITU CHANNDPSV405 414 607 824 830 1212 1 226 1607 1641 AND 2237 STATION KLB, SEATTLE, WASHIG MXUBQ CPANNELS 417 805 1209 AND 1624 CALL 1-800-633-1312 FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.SHIPCOM.COM. PLEASE SEND SIGNAL REPORTS TO WLONEWS -AT- OLYPEN.COM This ad came up at 0342 UT, so it's from WLO, Mobile AL. Interesting for sure! Wonder how long this will last, or if it's just a trial (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Walter, This has been going on for some time now. At least since August of last year. See: http://www.eham.net/articles/26659 It's a free service WLO has been providing to the ships in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. I guess this is their way of advertising. On Saturdays, if you catch KSM, you can get world news pounded to you at a screaming 18 WPM! ;-) They issue a radiogram QSL. No idea on WLO. Still waiting for a QSL for their PACTOR/CW frequencies, but since they are asking for reports on this one, you might get a response quicker. BTW, WLO and KLB out of Seattle are owned by the same company, ShipCom. Their website is actually quite nice as well. Vy best 73 (Al Muick, ibid.) Thanks, Al. I just learned about the transmission this week, so better late than never. I've e-mailed them, so we'll see if they respond. 73, (Walt Salmaniw, ibid.) I'm also a bit surprised about the sensationalism surrounding these broadcasts. After all, it's an old technology - RTTY radio services used to be quite common in Europe and Asia. They were especially popular with maritime weather broadcasts and news agencies. Almost every Socialist nation run its own news service on RTTY - in various languages. Even North Korea had it. The Soviet hams and DXers loved that. In the late 1980s - very beginning of 1990s, RTTY was used by the USSR to broadcast weather maps and at least two newspapers (Murmansk Fisherman and one more title that escapes my memory). Sure enough, TASS had its extensive RTTY service, too. You can see the examples of what used to be available here: http://www.astrosol.ch/utilitystationsexamples/newsagenciesfaxandrtty/index.html Not sure about what's going on today in this area. I see reception reports of Kyodo News Service dated 2005. 73, (Sergei S., ibid.) Nothing "sensational" Sergei, just something different. I'm well aware of the old days with lots of RTTY transmissions, weather faxes, etc. Go try and find them now. That's why I've found this VOA text broadcast rather interesting. I'd love to see more stations doing the same, but in this day and age, it's not going to happen (Walt, ibid.) Walt, I didn't mean you. Actually, I was talking of George Hutchison from UDXF Yahoo list and GreenKeyers (as quoted by Kim Andrew Elliott): "Speaking for myself, this is a dream that after perhaps 14 years is finally coming true. I believe it to be a bit of history, because other than the WA9XHN/WC2XPF experimental RTTY transmissions between 1999 and 2001, to my knowledge there has NEVER been any RTTY News transmissions aimed at a general audience/listenership." 73, (Sergei S., ibid.) ** U S A [non]. 9885, Jan 27 at 0654-0657* open carrier, off after brief tone-test. EiBi and HFCC show that 9885 is supposed to be transitioning from São Tomé to Meyerton RSA at 0600 daily, both IBB English, i.e. VOA. 11840, Feb 1 at 1440, RHC atop CCI from something in ME language, which gains somewhat by 1457-1458*. HFCC and Aoki show it`s VOA Kurdish via Lampertheim, and it`s supposed to continue in English at 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 25990, KLIF TX Dallas - 1/21 1738 – presumed the one here with a phone-in show with some Gomerette asking the announcer to suggest what kind of vehicle would be suitable for transporting her large dog (Niel Wolfish, Burnt River Ont, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD} 25990/nbfm TX, Dallas, MANY Talk radio 570 KLIF IDs & end of Net Worth Radio programme. Promos then a legal ID at the ToH as “a Cumulus station" into Fox News Radio. This is NOT KSCS from Ft Worth which is the usual inboomer here, but is it the same transmitter? In well, 35443 hummy modulation, 2146-2205 22/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, Port Hope MI, ibid.) 25910/FM, WBAP Fort Worth TX; 1919, 24-Jan; WBAP, part of your radio family, 8-20 AM & 96.7 FM WBAP; Rush Limbaugh & Mutual Fund Show promos. Good but scratchy, a bit better than 25990 KLIF. 25990/FM, KLIF Dallas TX studio link; 1916, 24-Jan; Talk Radio 5-70 KLIF; Dave Ramsey Show; ads for Ideal Floors, Granberry Dental Center. Good but scratchy (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, logged by my ears, on my receiver, in real time! DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 21630, Jan 28 at 1512, another weekend, so WHRI activates 13m again, and splatters all over the place during wacky gospel huxter in English who is anti-lust, anti-fornication, and anti-murmuring, according to scripture listing stuff including seven other things that ``tempt God`` ????. Can`t have that! The splatter was audible this time from 21540 to 21760 but the fundamental was only S9+19. With a few more dB it would no doubt cover the entire 13m band as previously (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See note under WEWN (gh) ** U S A. 12105, Jan 28 at 1516, CODAR in the clear as WTWW-3 is off the air --- or almost; I can hear a very weak carrier which I think might be its exciter, but checking HFCC I see that KTWR is scheduled on 12105 at 15-16 in Chinese. Another conflict is until 1430, IBB Sri Lanka in Burmese. On former 12100, WTWW had the frequency all to itself. Then WTWW Arabic cuts on briefly at 1517, then gone again. Since last Wednesday I have been awaiting confirmation that the WTWW-2 test broadcast with Ted Randall taking calls on the air will occur this Saturday Jan 28 at 22-24 on 9990, UT Sunday Jan 29 at 00-04, but as of 1645 UT none has arrived, so I assume it will not be happening this week either; but check just in case. 9990, Sat Jan 28 after 2200, nothing from WTWW-2, so the transmitter test has been postponed again. Altho I did not check 5085 after 2400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 1601: confirmed first broadcast Thursday Jan 26 at 2200:30 on WTWW 9479; and 2230 on WBCQ 7490; UT Friday 0430+ on WWRB webcast, presumably also 3195. Further airings this weekend are: UT Sunday 0500 on WTWW 5755; UT Monday 0330v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; on WRMI 9955: Saturday 1830, Sunday 0900, 1630, 1830, Monday 1230. Also on WRN via Sirius/XM 120 Sat & Sun 1830, Sun 0930. 9955, Sat Jan 28 at 2207 I find WRMI on the air since it`s a weekend, and in the clear with sufficient signal so I settle in to listen to `Media Network Plus`. ``Our propagation guru`` Dan Hensley is explaining the recent CME and its effects to Keith Perron, such as TV breaking up due to bombardment of satellite. As they were discussing further outages, 9955 dumped off the air at 2209:55 and was still gone 4 minutes later when I upgave. 9955 still missing Sun Jan 29 at 1510, when presumed Tibetan was heard well enough but with pulse jamming, Commies inadvertently helping Commies, i.e. RFA via TINIAN during this hour only, no sign of WRMI. 1623 check, hoping WORLD OF RADIO would be audible at 1630, but only lite pulse jamming occupied the space. The DentroCuban Jamming Command used to leave the 15-17 UT block in English alone. WORLD OF RADIO 1601 monitoring: if back on the air, Sunday 1830 on WRMI 9955, and Monday 1230 when probably jammed. Last, best chance is UT Monday 0330v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB. 9955, Jan 29 at 1837 check, WRMI is back on air, with WORLD OF RADIO 1601, clear of jamming but weak. Jeff White says they had a transmitter problem when I heard them go off Jan 28 after 2200, but they were back on around 1800 Jan 29. Next check at 2108, 9955 now with full-bore jamming, totally blotting scheduled English religionist Jack Van Impe, prior to 2130 `Foro Revolucionario`. 9955, Monday Jan 30 at 1242 check, nothing but wall of noise jamming audible during one of the few remaining WOR SW airtimes on WRMI. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Current WRMI schedule grid shows there is *nothing* ``needing`` DentroCuban jamming during this hour on any day of the week. WOR 1601 confirmed on webcast of Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB, UT Monday Jan 30 at 0400 running a bit late as usual, having reached Papua New Guinea, from nominal 0330 start fortnightly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Just a quick note Glenn and listeners, what`s on the air. Listening time home`s been a bit scarce this month but I caught shows # 470, 471, and 472 of Marion`s Attic which had the Listeners Requests show; 471 included an Empire record in good shape (although the audio going to the electric recording head sounded like it was coming out of a pair of `47 tubes) with a singer named Reed. Judging by ear I think that the guitar and voice were Mr. Les Paul (Fred Jodry, NY, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 7555.1, KJES, Lord's Ranch, Vado NM; 0211-0235+, 23-Jan; Robo-kids in Spanish led alternatively by YLs & OMs. (What's the point of this?) [brainwashing --- gh], 0230 VYL with call ID & presumed announcement in Spanish for me to let her know if I can hear her, then continued roboing in Spanish. SIO=3+53- at best, very fady. 11715, KJES, Lord's Ranch NM; 1503, 23-Jan; No sign of them (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, logged by my ears, on my receiver, in real time! DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15583-15642, Jan 30 at 2108 I find WEWN`s 15610 signal extremely strong with the squishy spur/noise field extending this far out: The peaks are at intervals of somewhere between 8 and 9 kHz, circa 15619, 15627, 15636; and on the lo side 15601, 15592, maybe 15584 but strong VOA 15580 signal obscures it there. Jan 31 at 1427, WEWN is missing from all three frequencies: 11550 and 12050 in Spanish, 15610 in English; but there is heavy FSK/RTTY circa 15604, as if that station has trumped WEWN. Normally it`s nothing but WEWN spreading splash and spurs from 15610, and Bulgaria [q.v.] on 15600, which only had a very weak signal if that`s what it was. All three WEWN frequencies still silent at 1643. Weather.com shows no lightning anywhere in the US. 15610, Jan 31 at 2120, WEWN is back on air after missing from all three frequencies 7 hours earlier. Were they eliminating the awful spurs the English transmitter puts out? Of course not! Still squishing up to 20 kHz on both sides of 15610. 12050 and 13830 in Spanish are also back on. I find it quite strange that no one but me seems to report this. I am 100% sure WEWN is at fault and not my receiver. It would be nice if some other monitors heard and complained about it, lest WEWN et al. think it`s just me. Doesn`t anybody else care about WEWN and all the other stations not keeping within their legal bandwidth with properly modulated signals???? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 13570, WINB Red Lion PA (presumed); 1916, 23-Jan; English, New Testament huxterage about resurrections, sin forgiveness, etc. SIO=544, QRM from intermittent trill plus weak remnant of the downfrequency Int'l Windshield Wiper Synchronization Service (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, logged by my ears, on my receiver, in real time! DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re: WWCR Google Maps 45 degree view --- WWCR transmitter site now viewable with Google Maps 45 degree view (4 views) Must zoom close to see in 45 degree view. 36 12N 86 53W. Rhombics seen, but not their antenna wires, (Ian Baxter, NSW, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) Ian, Thanks for the incentive to look more closely at WWCR. Here in central Texas they deliver an outstanding signal, even off the back of the antennas. It appears that there are 3 rhombics, with azimuths of 48 , 44 and 87 . All three rhombics have a side length of about 375' with an overall length of about 700'. The feedlines are visible (balanced open wire) but no terminations can be seen, I wonder if they are terminated? That might explain the huge signals off the back. HFCC shows WWCR with azimuths of 40 , 46 , 85 & 90 . Is it possible to slew a rhombic? I've added an outline of the rhombics to: Photo Albums > #06 SW: NORTH AMERICA Sites JL (Jerry Lenamon, Waco TX, Jan 26, ibid.) And thank you very much for doing the map. I was thinking of doing one (when time permitted) too, but you have saved me the time :-) (which I'm grateful for) It can often be difficult determining an actual antenna dimensions amongst multiple masts, when no wire can be seen. You've done well. I was looking at the FCC records for WWCR a day ago & noted that they are licenced for 4 Rhombic antennas: Gain Azimuth Beamwidth Elevation. No. Model (dB) (Deg) (Deg) (Deg) ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- - 1 RHO 13.00 90 20.00 11.00 2 RHO 14.00 46 20.00 22.00 3 RHO 14.00 85 20.00 22.00 4 RHO 14.00 40 50.00 22.00 Now that I have your WWCR Rhombic drawing I might have another look at the Google Maps image & see if there is actually another RHO that we might have missed. > Is it possible to slew a rhombic? Good question. I'd need to research this. Can anybody else in the group assist with an answer? (Ian Baxter, ibid.) Hi Jerry, I had another look around the WWCR site. I don't see a 4th Rhombic. The WWCR website also lists a 4th azimuth, so I do wonder if they might be slewing one of their antennas. BUT they list 4 transmitters used around the clock, so that assumes at least 4 antennas. Perhaps one antenna mounted directly below another using same masts, but I would discount this due to induction effects. FM/TV broadcast transmissions can be combined into one antenna, but I can't say I have ever heard of this done for SW/HF. Basically I need enlightening regarding the WWCR SW antenna situation also (Ian Baxter, ibid.) The radiation pattern of a rhombic will depend on numerous factors; e.g., leg length, tilt angle (1/2 the bigger interior angle), height above ground, ground conductivity, etc. IIRC, if you raise the frequency so the leg length gets larger in relation to the wavelength of the signal, you get multiple side lobes, some of which can be quite strong. Remove termination & you get radiation in both directions. One can play around with the HFAnt antenna software, part of the itshfbc propagation package to see the pattern changes that result when changing physical parameters, or frequency of operation. df (Dan Ferguson, SC, North American Shortwave Assn, ibid.) Ian and members, Coming from my speciality MW Masts, I have on my records the mast for WNQM Nashville being at 36 12 31N 86 53 37W. This 50 kW mast is within the compound. Another oddity is that the building to the North of the compound actually houses the studios for all the broadcasts on shortwave and WNQM. Further clarification on WNQM. Daytime as 50 kW is one mast omnidirectional. Nighttime use is 5 kW directional using 5 masts. 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, ibid.) I just checked; they are on 4 frequencies at once (19m, 22m, 25m & 31m). [or various other combinations depending on time of day! gh] There are four feedlines exiting the building. Counting from the west side, the second feedline (36 12 36.05N 86 53 35.51W) doesn't appear to be connected to anything. The MW array must be fed by an underground line, at least nothing is visible on GE. JL (Jerry Lenamon, TX, ibid.) I've found several more sources to explain the antenna field at WWCR. I've revised the "WWCR Rhombics" image posted to the shortwavesites photo album #6. The rhombics are labelled R1 - R4 which correspond to the WWCR transmitter schedule website here: http://www.wwcr.com/transmitter-sched.html The listed azimuths don't exactly match the azimuths as calculated on GE but they're pretty close. R1 is listed at 46 (GE measures 48 ). R2 listed as 85 (GE measures 87 ). R3 listed as 40 (GE measures 44 ). R4 listed as 90 (GE measures 86 ). (Or maybe I'm measuring the angles wrong). The WWCR website has an aerial photo showing the site at this link; http://www.wwcr.com/photo-gallery/800x600_at_aerial.gif Even better, Bing maps Bird's Eye View has a good view of the antenna field here: http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.6002=q:36+12+36+N++86+53+36+W:nelat:36.2820777996192:nelong:-174.713606770833:swlat:36.1379650997253:swlong:-175.153059895833:nosp:0:adj:0&p=c/5872/style=be&lat=q11bmx&lon=7rrxy8&alt=95.358016&z=19&h=351.634603&pid=5874 The Bing image shows all 4 supports for the most westerly rhombic (R- 4) including one support on the northwest edge of the wooded area and one in the wooded area at the west side of the site. The supports are noticeably shorter than R-1, R-2 and R-3 and the legs appear to be about 295' long as opposed to leg lengths of about 375' on the other 3 rhombics. That works out to ~1.75λ on 5890 and ~3λ on 9980. [I don`t know what all those λs represent, some ASCII problem in different versions of this post --- gh] It appears that the #4 rhombic is fed at the east end (without a visible termination) making it bidirectional 270 /90 . The other 3 rhombics are fed at the west end and the terminations are not obvious on those rhombics either, so they may be bidirectional too. According to Wolfy the gain for a 2λ rhombic is 8db, 4λ = 11.2db and 6λ = 13db. On 90 & 60 meters the big rhombics are only ~ 1.25λ & 1.85λ long but on 19m the legs are 6λ. (Don't the FCC rules require a minimum forward gain of 10db? Maybe that isn't required for all frequencies) . Even though the rhombics are not as efficient as a curtain they're a lot less expensive to build and they have good gain on the higher frequencies with lots of minor lobes to help fill in their North American coverage. We should remember that increasing the signal in one direction means diminishing the signal in other directions and there are potential listeners in all directions. JL (Jerry Lenamon, TX, Jan 31, ibid.) ** U S A. Glenn, WYFR has cut back lately but you can't tell it at 2300 UT as yesterday on Sunday the 29th I confirmed them on no less than 7 frequencies in English: 6115 9355 9430 9690 11720 15400 and 15440. I know 9690 and 15440 were going during the 2200 hour and I heard 6115 on after 0100 when I was scanning 49m. None of this is up to date on the family radio website schedule although it does all show correctly on HFCC http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=B11&broadc=YFR They have recently been selling off major market domestic stations in Washington DC (WFSI), Philadelphia (WKDN), and have moved WFME in Newark, NJ to commercial status so it is next up for sale to bring in cash flow. It is a shame budget issues don't seem to effect them on shortwave but all of our good stations are leaving or gone already (Ryan Ellegood, Union City (Northwest) Tennessee, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. QSL: KKL Radio, Vashon Island, Washington, 13176, no data thank you on local postcard in 17 days for US $1 return postage and English report via first-class mail. Operator describes on the card how they just squeaked through 3 days without commercial power with the road blocked by down (sic) trees and electrical debris. "The heat from the sun coming through the window gives me the strength to survive." This kind of changes my mind about how nice the Pacific Northwest was supposed to be (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, Jan 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) A few years ago KKL had a nice, printed full-data QSL-card. Got one from Sean for my 2008 report on 13176. 73, (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Jari! I'm envious! LOL. Maybe they don`t have them anymore or maybe whoever sent the card (there was no v/s - just the callsign) thought they were sending me something special, or maybe the storms would not let them get to their QSLs. Who knows? When I catch them again, I'll send another report and make mention that I have heard they had beautiful QSLs in the past and wonder if they might still have one of those that they can send. Thanks for letting me know! (Al Muick, ibid.) Al, as I send them a RR last September I got the following "no-QSL"- reply: --- Dear Thomas, Thank you for the signal report. KKL as a commercial short wave station does not have a QSL card as such; so I’m enclosing a picture I took at sunrise from the front deck of the station. You can find more information at KKLRadio.com or our parent company at this address: http://www.swisscom.ch/en/broadcast/our-product-range/maritime-communication.html Thank you for your interest in short wave listening. Respectfully yours, Seán --- As this reply is far far away from being any kind of valid QSL, I re- ask for a "no-card" QSL (BTW, I did not ask - and never ask for a QSL- card in a RR to an utility station, since QSL letters from "commercial" stations are usually "nicer to look" and more informative than printed "Date/Time/Frequency" cards. Even from a BC station I like a letter more than a card, hi), but since then I didn't get any answer :-( Maybe you have more luck. 73, (Tom Rösner, Germany, DL8AAM, ibid.) Thanks for the info, Tom! You can also find KKL at: http://www.kklradio.com/ Vy 73 (Al Muick, ibid.) ** U S A. MUSIC OF YOUR LIFE RETURNS TO AM RADIO Media Release Radio Heritage Foundation January 27 2012 New Life on AM for Music of Your Life Those who listened to US stations in the late 70's and early 80's will remember this music format - featuring adult standards - heard on a large number of AM stations. After years of decline as listeners moved away from AM, the format found a new home online http://www.musicofyourlife.com supported by a small group of generally low power fringe AM stations in areas with high numbers of retirees. In a stunning comeback, MOYL has signed a deal with the owner of some 39 AM stations to replace many existing brokered Asian and Spanish language programs with their formula of 'Great American Songbook' and complementary adult contemporary hits [think Michael Buble] from February 1 2012. What's interesting: Asian and Spanish language programs are replaced [presumably as their younger listeners migrate to FM and online], music returns to AM, and some of these high power [10-50kW] stations are familiar to many listeners: KBLA 1580 in Los Angeles, KIQI 1010 in San Francisco, KXPA 1540 in Seattle, KWRU 940 in Fresno, WNMA 1210 in Miami and many others. MOYL is targeted directly at the 'baby boomer' market, and is closely associated with long time artist Pat Boone and his family - he's one of the personality presenters - and advertisers are clearly seeing value in using this format on AM radio in major US radio markets to reach the 55+ listeners. For these older listeners, it'll be pleasant to tune to AM and hear familiar tunes and slow paced presenters instead of incessant talk, chatter and sports. The real test will be - can MOYL move some of the next generation current 40-55 audience from FM to AM - and breathe new life back into the AM dial. From a radio heritage perspective, this move by MOYL underscores the appeal of radio and familiar music to the 'babyboomer' generation which grew up with AM radio, and which increasingly and instinctively returns to its roots as retirement beckons. It's this audience which dominates visitors to the Radio Heritage Foundation website http://www.radioheritage.com and enjoys the hundreds of entertaining features about broadcasters from their era of radio. If you're interested in radio from the 1930-1970 era, you'll enjoy many of the stories, images and memories. Radio Heritage Foundation is a registered non-profit connecting radio, popular culture, history and heritage. Voluntary annual supporter donation towards operating costs is just US$25 (David Ricquish, NZ, RHF, Jan 26, WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Every article from RHF leads to a prompt for $$ ** U S A. WFIL DX Test 2/12/12 --- I have been looking back in my records and noted that I have not done a DX Test on either or our stations in a few years. For three successive years, back in the mid- 00's, I conducted several tests. I stopped doing them because with so many consecutive years, results were similar from year to year. Now, with a 3-4 year gap in the solar cycle since the last test, I think it's time I give it another go and see if we find any changes in reception. So, I will be conducting a DX Test on WFIL, 560 kHz, on Sunday morning February 12, 2012 between 0000 and 0100 EST (0500 to 0600 UT). I will run on our day pattern at 5 kW, and broadcast the usual tones/warblers/unusual music/etc. Unusual music; maybe we'll try some polkas this time instead of the marches. :-) I am not sure who coordinates the tests anymore since I have been out of the loop for a while, so I'm sending it out to the lists to which I am subscribed. If any of you know who the current coordinator is, please forward the notice to him/her. 73, (Rene' F. Tetro, Director of Engineering and IT, Salem Communications - Philadelphia WFIL 560 AM: "Philadelphia's Christian Teaching & Talk Station" WNTP 990 AM: "Intelligent Conservative Talk" 117 Ridge Pike, Lafayette Hill, PA 19444 Voice: 610-828-6965 Ext: 41 Fax: 610-828-6725 Email: rtetro @ pobox.com Jan 31, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. 720, Jan 26 at 2006 UT on caradio, WGN traffic control, weather is steady and R5, scarcely a sesquihour after local mean noon. WGN can make it on groundwave over a megameter away, but I think this was skywave. Checked 670, where WSCR sometimes mixes with KFTT Denver in the daytime, but now covered by splatter from WWLS OK 640 IBOC. No chance for 780 WBBM or 890 WLS either with OK stations upon them (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. FCC fines Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania AM station --- This is what happens when you don't do maintenance and try to bluff your way past the FCC Enforcement Bureau. Stroudsburg station WPLY is shut down and faces bankruptcy on many fronts. The station, WPLY 960, has been off the air since June, with its tower system in shambles. It was running 6 dB down from its nominal 1000 watt assigned power (i.e. 250 watts), and only using one of four towers, so its contours and nighttime coverage were a complete wreck. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/watchdog/mc-watchdog-wply-stroudsburg-20120125,0,5763819.column 73 (Al Muick, Whitehall PA USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1490, KRSN Los Álamos NM: QSL card serial #13, for DX test Jan 21 received by p-mail on Jan 28, full details, signed both by Michael Westfall, N6KUY, QSL Coordinator/Volunteer, and David Sutton, COO, Station Owner/Manager. It seems KRSN means ``Kommunity Radio Station Now``. Also enclosed two filing cabinet magnet cards, and business card from Sutton, all of which present a wavy musical staff logo, but only the business card appears to have an axual melody on it, representing their jingle? Accepted report by e-mail, no rp. Tnx again to Michael and David for the test as I previously reported, IDed by MCW tuning offset from 1490. See them at: http://www.w4uvh.net/KRSN.jpg (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. DX Test Alert --- KRPI Radio, 1550 kHz, Ferndale, WA will conduct a DX Test on Sunday morning, Feb. 26, 2012 from 4:00 to 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time [0900-0930 UT]. The test will consist of voice announcements, Morse code identifications, distinctive music, and audio tones. Chief Engineer David Harris has indicated the station will be using their daytime power [50 kW] and antenna pattern for the test. Reception reports and digital audio recordings may be directed to 1550radio@gmail.com. DXers can receive a KRPI QSL card for correct reception reports by sending their reports along with a self-addressed envelope and return postage to the following address: Mr. David Harris, Chief Engineer, KRPI Radio, P.O. Box 3213, Ferndale, WA 98248. Many thanks to Mr. Harris who is also amateur radio operator AC7OB (Test arranged by J.D. Stephens and Jim Pogue, DX LISTENING DIGEST) KRPI's actual daytime antenna pattern can be viewed on the FCC website http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/127961-23102.pdf One of the two main lobes is at 90 degrees, so it should get out well to the east. The local geography skews the groundwave quite a bit, what with saltwater to the west and the Cascade mountains to the east, which explains the coverage shown on Radio Locator (Bruce Portzer, WA, IRCA via DXLD) KRPI should provide a unique chance for those in the east to log WA and noting no more CBE. I get KRPI here in IL during very good west / wnw SSS cx a few times a year it seems. 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, ibid.) And for those of us further east (and not equipped with bevs, BOGs, or the like), we can also fervently hope for, in addition to good conditions, WDLR to stop their nightly cheating, and for WQEW to cease jamming 1550 (and 1570) with that ghastly IBOC noise (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF Ottawa, ON, ibid.) ** U S A. 1680.020v 22.1 0612 WPRR Ada MI med datasnack. Svag och störd av WTTM som har varit dominant senaste tiden. Men 100% säkert idad. Instabil sändare som svingar 1680,. 18-1680.022 i ett tjusigt mönster som tar flera timmar att genomföra. AHK 1680.021 22.1 0600 99% säker på WPRR Ada MI som loggats av AHK här denna morgon. Stationen var en hel del svagare än WTTM och dessutom ostabil som en orm enl AHK:s IQ-analys som jag fick via mail. Precis efter WTTM:s ID kan man höra ett svagt W???. TN (ARC MV-eko Jan 23 via DXLD) This station is a seldom guest here in Sweden so a nice log by AHK. 1680.020v, Jan 22 0612, WPRR Ada MI with data talk. Weak and disturbed by WTTM who has been dominant recent times. But I got a 100% positive ID. Unstable transmitter that varies from 1680.018-1680.022 in a fancy pattern that takes several hours to complete. AHK (Anders Hultqvist, Dalarö, Sweden, Arctic Radio Club MV-eko via DXLD) 1680.021, Jan 22 0600, 99% sure of WPRR Ada MI logged by AHK here this morning. The station was a lot weaker here than WTTM and also unstable as a snake according to AHK's IQ analysis which he sent in an email. Just after WTTM's ID, you can hear a faint W???'. TN (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, MV-eko translating for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 1680, WPRR MI, Ava [sic]. 1-15 good over KRJO. 0340 with “WPRR 16-80 AM and 95 point 3 FM. Public Reality Radio” ID into music. [EB-MO] (Eric Bueneman, MO, IRCA DX Monitor via DXLD) ** U S A. Report: 24/7 COMEDY COMING TO DALLAS ON 1700 AM January 25, 2012 at 4:12 PM (PT) --- VOLT RADIO Talk KKLF- A/RICHARDSON-DALLAS, presently a simulcast of CUMULUS Talk KLIF-A, will flip to Comedy on FEBRUARY 1st using 24/7 COMEDY RADIO, reports the DALLAS OBSERVER. KKLF is among the stations being spun off from CUMULUS and operated by VOLT as trustee. 24/7 COMEDY RADIO Operations Director GEORGE GIMARC is a well-known DALLAS radio personality from his days at KZEW and KDGE. KKLF serves primarily the north side of the market and simulcast Sports KTCK-A (THE TICKET) from 1998 to 2005. http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/101559/report-24-7-comedy-coming-to-dallas-on-1700-am (via Kevin Redding, Jan 26, ABDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) ** U S A. 1860, Sunday Jan 29 at 0642, WA0RCR is just barely modulated with presumed usual ham radio news broadcast on UT Sundays only; multiple CW QRM upon the carrier was much louder, due to a contest? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. Re: ``BTW, in frequent bandscans I have yet to run across *any* hams on their five authorized discrete so-called `60 meter`` USB frequencies in this range: 5332, 5348, 5358.5, 5373, or 5405, subject to change as recently happened to one of them. Axually they are all in the ``55 meter band`` -- why would that be so hard to say instead of sixty?`` Hi Glenn. You may have better luck on the uppermost channel, which is referred to as 5403.5 USB which is the difference between carrier frequency and tuned frequency, or something like that. Tune to 5403.5 when in USB mode. You may have to try on several nights. I am using a TS-870 and an inverted Vee cut for 80 and fed with 450 ohm ladder line and a tuner. This allows all-frequency usage. I recently got on the air on this band and worked England (G0HNW) Surinam PZ5RA and Sierra Leone 9L0W (an expedition) when they were active. Power is presently limited to 50 w. There is Doug K4LY in S.C. who may show up on 5346.5 also. He has one of the better signals here (central FL). These ops are often fairly weak. Many of them are trying to work all US states. These contacts are all "simplex" (xmit and recv on the same freq.) You almost need to dedicate a receiver to one of these frequencies and just sit and listen as stations will call CQ and then leave if no one answers. Try in mid to late evening. This is all USB even though hams below 9 mc are normally using LSB. There is a strong AFN feeder on 5446.5 USB (as tuned) which you can use as a frequency calibration check, if the USB is tuned properly at a dial reading of 5446.5 then you can tune to one of the other ham channels and just wait. I also frequently hear some sort of digital on channel 3. It will always be known as 60 meters. 73 (Bob Foxworth, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Bob, Tnx for the tips. Yes, of course I should sit on a frequency to eventually hear someone --- I just thought I would eventually run across some if there were any significant activity. Maybe it`s the power limitation. I suppose most of the hams on `40` or `80` are running a lot more, up to the max, and those bands are full of signals. Which other countries are allowed on these `60`m frequencies? Maybe there is a convenient website reference. 73, (Glenn to Bob, ibid.) ** U S A. WF2XYA: Glenn, It isn't every day that the FCC licenses an Experimental Radio Service (ERS) station in the shortwave bands. Most ERS licenses are for defense contracts, avionics, meteorological and scientific operations in UHF and above. But station WF2XYA will use 32 HF frequencies at 4.2 kW ERP, until November 2016, from transmitters in Washington, D.C., Aurora IL and East Rutherford, NJ. The D.C. transmitter is at WRC-TV. https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=121441 The licensee is Cognitive Data Dispatch LLC (CDD). Next to nothing is stated about the company or its projected business in its FCC paperwork. Its license application was filed by consulting engineers and a law firm. "CDD is seeking authority to transmit data in a point-to-point mode using a minimal spectral footprint (utilizing a channel for less than 10 milliseconds at a time, not to exceed 250 milliseconds of total occupation during any 24 hour period) on pre-coordinated HF frequencies using fixed transmit and receive locations." The company lists its transmitters as "Etus" (sic), which would be the Ettus Research software-defined radios. https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=119897 CDD asked to be exempt from FCC Rule 5.115 which requires station identification "in clear voice or Morse code. All digital encoding and digital modulation shall be disabled during station identification." The license includes no such exemption (Benn Kobb, AK4AV, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Detail from the first FCC link above: [in all cases] Class: FX Emission Designator: 2K80J3E Authorized Power: 4.2 kW (ERP) Frequency Tolerance: (+/-) [not specified] Station Locations (1) Aurora (KANE), IL - NL 41-48-27; WL 88-16-06 (2) Washington (DIST OF COLUMBIA), DC - NL 38-56-24; WL 77-04-53 (3) East Rutherford (BERGEN), NJ - NL 40-48-27; WL 74-04-07 Frequency Information [identical for all three, but listed separately] 2289 2292 2395 2398 3170 4538.6 4548.6 4575 4610.5 4613.5 4634.5 4637.5 4647 5046.6 5052.6 5055.6 5067.6 5074.6 5099.1 5102.1 5313.6 6800.1 6803.1 6858.1 6885.1 6888.1 7480.1 7483.1 7486.1 7549.1 7552.1 7697.1 Licensee Name: Cognitive Data Dispatch, LLC File Number: 0387-EX-PL-2011 Call Sign: WF2XYA Special Conditions: (1) Licensee should be aware that other stations may be licensed on these frequencies and if any interference occurs, the licensee of this authorization will be subject to immediate shut down (from above file via DXLD) Searching on the above licensee name, Google finds NOTHING except the FCC filings. It does not exist on the web otherwise. The second FCC link explains more of what it`s about, lists many of the licensees already on the frequencies, but asserts no harmful interference should be caused because of the briefness of the transmissions. Would anyone care to speculate what this is really about? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Hartford Pirate on 87.70 --- This one may get out via E skip since it has the channel to itself, so it's worth checking 87.70 MHz for Caribbean music in stereo (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, Jan 25, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. TRIBES WILL OWN NEW FM STATIONS, FCC PROMISES http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/24/43306.htm WASHINGTON (CN) - New FM radio stations allotted to Native American tribal lands will be owned by tribes or tribal entities under new rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC made the change after determining that auctions for new commercial radio stations covering tribal areas do not comply with the Tribal Priority provisions of the Communications Act. Those provisions presume that tribes, or entities controlled by tribes, are uniquely suited to understand and meet the needs of tribal communities served by new commercial stations. Commercial stations are currently distributed by a geographically based allotment process. During that process, known as a 307 (b) process for a section of the Communications Act, petitioners ask the FCC to grant an allotment for a station based on factors such lack of existing service and the demographics of local communities. Once a new station is allotted, an open auction is held for its license. As a result permits for stations specifically allotted to serve the needs of tribal communities could be purchased by broadcasters who did not meet the Tribal Priority provisions. The FCC rejected a plan which would have given tribal entities auction credits of up to 60 percent to make them more competitive, finding that the risk of outside bidders winning was still too high. Instead the agency has adopted threshold qualifications for bidders on new station permits. Those qualifications require bidders to show they are a federally recognized tribe or tribal consortium or an entity that is 51 percent owned by a tribe or consortium. Tribes or tribal consortiums must also show that at least 50 percent of the new station's broadcast area will cover their land. Special exemptions will allow tribes or tribal consortiums who do not have designated lands to participate in the allotment and auction process (Courthouse News Service via Kevin Redding, Jan 27, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. At WFUV-FM, They are having their Friendbership, bring new friends fund-raiser, and while I noticed that space rental on their 5 repeater transmitters is only $1,000 a year, I can imagine that Mr. Ralph Jenning could have Allan Weiner - like choice words for the unexpected high costs of all those new F.C.C. licenses. Is there really an ethical reason why F.C.C. payments only last a quarter of a year? Listeners in Northern New York State or Massachusetts who are having trouble hearing WFUV on 90.7 Mc because of the pair of stations droning in Vermont near New Hampshire and New Hampshire near Vermont might try the 94.5 Mc repeater (Fred Jodry, NY, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** URUGUAY. 1912-2012. 100 AÑOS DE LA ESTACIÓN COSTERA CERRITO RADIO Posted on enero 31, 2012 Las primeras instalaciones radiotelegráficas que se hicieron en el Uruguay fueron dos estaciones pertenecientes a compañías particulares; una se abrió al servicio público en el Cerro, (“Punta de Yeguas”, hoy “Punta Yeguas”, al oeste de Montevideo, sobre la costa del Río de la Plata) y perteneció a la Compañía Telefunken, de Berlín (gestionada por su representante Don Ernesto Quincke), constituida por una estación de 1 kilovatio de potencia oscilatoria en la antena y que empleaba los dispositivos antiguos del sistema Telefunken de chispas lentas. Esta estación fue puesta al servicio público en 1906. Su indicativo era MV... http://lagalenadelsur.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/1912-2012-100-anos-de-la-estacion-costera-cerrito-radio/ (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, Jan 31, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN. 13765, Jan 30 at 1449, VR IS, 1450 ``Laudetur Jesus Christus``, as they are transitioning in Latin from Hindi to Tamil; poor signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. 1559 UT Sunday Jan 29, checking the `Aló, Presidente` frequencies of RNV via CUBA: yes, El Hugazo is rampant on all five: 13750 best by far, declining quality on 15370, 17750, 13680, 11690. Further chex of `Aló, Presidente` via CUBA, Sunday Jan 29: at 1838, 13750 was off, but the other four frequencies continued: 13680 now a very strong signal as if the transmitter/antenna on 13750 had moved there; weaker 17750 undermodulated, 15370 with ACI from RCI 15365, 11690 vs NAA RTTY. Recheck 1920, same with those four still on later than usual, but surely not for much longer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]. Algo que no entiendo: si alguien explica, gracias Anoche estaba tratando de escuchar la voz de Vietnam, y justo a las 0300 UT cuando inicia su emision en español, al unísono, inicia Radio Deustche welle por la misma frecuencia, resultado: NO SE PUEDEN ESCUCHAR BIEN NINGUNA DE LAS DOS. La emisora alemana tapaba a Vietnam casi totalmente y en algunos desvanecimientos aparecia Vietnam. Abandonan la onda corta pero joder al otro siempre je je (Ernesto Paulero, Argentina, Jan 29, condiglist yg via DXLD) Más allá que muchas veces se superponen diferentes transmisiones destinadas a distintas áreas o regiones yo creo que por estos tiempos no se analiza tan minuciosamente como se hacía otrora las áreas primarias y secundarias de cobertura, conglobando los análisis con las condiciones de propagación, las de recepción en las áreas de destino, los receptores promedio, etc., etc. (Arnaldo Slaen, ibid.) At 0300 Vietnam via Sackville is at 212 degrees for CIRAF 11, i.e. Central America and Caribbean, not South America. DW in Swahili from Kigali is non-direxional for much of Africa (gh, DXLD) Si te refieres a la transmisión en 6175 kHz, esa va dirigida al Caribe, mientras que la transmisión de DW en Swahili en la misma frecuencia va dirigida al Este de Africa. En ambos casos la región "del Plata" sería un blanco secundario por decir algo. Sin conocer los procesos de armonización que hacen las emisoras, me atrevo a suponer que a lo sumo se preocuparán por los blancos primarios. Eso suponiendo que ambas emisoras estén en el HFCC. BTW en el sitio web de la VOV no logré encontrar mención a las ondas cortas. Saludos (Moisés Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** VIETNAM SOUTH. DAVID DELAY, PIRATE-RADIO DJ WHO ENTERTAINED VIETNAM TROOPS AS ``DAVE RABBIT``, DIES Dallas Morning News By Joe Simnacher January 24, 2012 C. David DeLay Jr. received the Purple Heart and became a sergeant during his three combat tours with the Air Force in Vietnam, but is most widely known to veterans as ``Dave Rabbit,`` his underground radio persona in Saigon... More at: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/lake-highlands-richardson/headlines/20120124-david-delay-pirate-radio-dj-who-entertained-vietnam-troops-as-dave-rabbit-dies.ece Radio First Termer --- From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_First_Termer Radio First Termer was a pirate radio station which operated in January 1971 in Saigon during the Vietnam War. The station was hosted by a United States Air Force Sergeant Clyde David DeLay (August 15, 1948 - January 20, 2012 better known to some by his DJ alter-ego "Dave Rabbit". The two other members of the crew were known as "Pete Sadler" and "Nguyen". Their real names are unknown. After three tours in Vietnam, "Dave Rabbit" and his friends launched Radio First Termer from a secret studio in a Saigon brothel. The station broadcasted for 63 hours over 21 nights (between 1 January 1971 and 21 January 1971. The station played "hard acid rock" such as Steppenwolf, Bloodrock, Three Dog Night, Led Zeppelin, Sugarloaf, the James Gang, and Iron Butterfly, bands which were popular among the troops but largely ignored by the American Forces Vietnam Network. The music was mixed with antiwar commentary, skits poking fun at the U.S. Air Force and Lyndon B. Johnson, and raunchy sex and drug oriented jokes. During the mid-1990s, sound clips from a Radio First Termer broadcast posted on the internet renewed interest in the station. In February 2006, "Dave Rabbit" came forward and told his story. He also did an interview for a bonus feature on the DVD release of Sir! No Sir!, a film about G.I. counterculture during the Vietnam era. Although the frequency was always announced as FM69, in reality the show was broadcast over numerous frequencies, in addition to 69? MHz as selected by the Radio Relay troops across Vietnam. It was also broadcast over AM frequencies, including 690 AM. In February 2008 audio clips of this underground radio show made their way into the hands Opie & Anthony and 3rd mic Jim Norton. They played some of the audio of these shows over the air at both their terrestrial radio show and their XM Satellite radio show and were impressed with the skills of Dave Rabbit back in "the 'Nam" which led to renewed interest on such sites as Google (via Mike Terry, Jan 24, mwdx yg via DXLD) ** ZAMBIA. 4965, Radio Christian Voice; 2324-2332+, 23-Jan; Religious music; heard "CVC" at 2331 into commentary by heavy accented M in English. SIO=322 with crackle QRM -- local? Fair at best, but best heard in quite a while. USB helps a bit (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, logged by my ears, on my receiver, in real time! DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mainly useful as an all-night propagation indicator (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1640 kHz, 1225-1230 January 29, 2012. Someone here carrying Radio Católica Mundial (EWTN's Spanish network) with bible talk, female net ID. Obliterated by the 2 X 820 kHz local station WWBA daytime power up at 1230. The most likely stations at this post- sunrise would seem to be WTMI, Biloxi, MS and KFXY, Enid, OK, but the formats don't fit this, unless one of them is brokering on a Sunday morning in non-English. And, I've never heard EWTN brokered, but rather on dedicated affiliates (Terry L Krueger at Clearwater, Florida, Abridged pile of junk: JRC NRD-535; ICOM IC-R75; Hammarlund HQ-180A; Aqua Guide 705 Radio Direction Finder; Sangean PR-D5; Sony ICF-7600GR; GE SuperRadio III; RadioShack DX-399; 1 X roof dipole; 1 X in-room random wire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Any chance the Dominican Republic station would still be audible on X- band? It seems to be Catholic. Unfortunately, their program schedule for 2012 is blank. http://www.radiojuventusdonbosco.com/donbosco/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29&Itemid=49 Or maybe something new from Central America? Can`t imagine KFXY Enid doing Catholic or Spanish tho not monitoring at that time. Don`t know about WTNI. Unlikely in FL, but the further 1640s: KBJA, in Utah is Spanish but not religious (anything may go on Sunday morning); KDIA in California is religious but not Spanish or Catholic: http://www.kdia.com/programguideprint.aspx Here`s a 5+ year old log from: http://www.opensubscriber.com/message/hard-core-dx@hard-core-dx.com/5481440.html ``DOMINICAN REPUBLIC --- 1640 Radio Juventus Don Bosco, Santo Domingo, November 25th, 0316, speech of the Pope, songs, Radio Católica Mundial program; O=3`` (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Maybe a spur from WEWN? Shortwave spurs are reported in the 1600-1700 band now and then. Per WEWN web site, it's on 7555, 12050, and 15610 at 1200 UT. Hard to see how this could generate a spur on 1640, though (David Yocis, WV, ibid.) No, usually come from 6 MHz band (gh, DXLD) Glenn, Unfortunately, it's too late for the DR at my location at this time, even extreme eastern Cuba (Santiago) is virtually gone by then on the west central FL coast. Checking today (January 30) from 1225 up to 1230 (when blocked by the 820 X 2 local station on day power), all I was hearing was WTNI, Biloxi, in English with ESPN Sports format, same signal level (good) as the Radio Católica Mundial mystery. So, very possibly it's WTNI brokering something EWTN Sunday mornings. It would be good if someone closer to Biloxi could check in the 1200 hour Sundays to confirm. Their website is useless; everything, including WXBD (1490 kHz, which may be simulcast on 1640) loops back to a placeholder-only page for their FM, 96.7 The Champ. But there is a live stream option, so if all three are simulcast, it might be possible to parallel (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 5680, GAUMONT TEST --- Estimados, ayer y hoy logré escuchar nuevamente y a diversas horas la transmisión que se identifica como "Gaumont Test" siempre en 5680 kHz CW. En horas de la tarde local no llegaba tan bien como a principios de mes, pero en la noche se recibe con buena señal. Lamentablemente no tengo a mano ninguna antena direccional para onda corta asi que seguiremos ocn la incógnita. 73, (Moisés Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, Jan 30, condiglist yg via DXLD) Hola, También fue escuchada "Gaumont Test" en Mar Del Plata luego de varios dias de silencio, durante todo el día. 73 (Tony LU2DKN, Mar Del Plata, 1316 UT Jan 31, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 6200, 6075, 5850, 5775, Jan 30 at 2122, strong carriers cutting on and off at the rate of 14 times per minute, noticed with the DX-398 portable on the porch. Not found on other frequencies at 25, 50 or 75 kHz intervals such as 5700, 5925, 6000. Very strange. Since I had only one receiver handy, could not tell if they were synchronized, but seems likely, and were right on each frequency. Walking around the neighborhood, found no changes in signal strength, nor when approaching WOR HQ, so the source must be external. 6075 was overriding a weak Vatican. All gone at 2139 check on the FRG-7 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 7000, 1200-2100 January 28, 2012. A huge, mutant, noisy carrier around 7000. Noted 1200 discovery today, and still there past 2100. But no trace of it 1200+ the next day. Can't be too terribly far from the Republic of Florida, if not within (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 9580, Re 12-04: Hi Glenn: I'm still trying to identify the co-channel to Radio Australia on 9580. RA is clean as a bell until 1200. The Chinese begins at 1200 with no IS or other ID. It just pops on in mid-broadcast. I'm almost sure it is in Chinese - but I'm not a linguist. It seems to come on at 1200 and go until at least 1300. The 31 metre band dropped out just after 1300 this morning up here near NYC. From 1200 to 1300 this morning, the Chinese station had a show on about little kids. Conversations with little kids in big echo-filled rooms and kids screaming and such. It might fit your suggestion as a domestic or regional service. The signal strength varies from barely perceptible to completely overriding RA. Can you suggest some CNR1 frequencies to try as parallels from 1200- 1300? The mystery continues! I'll try again tomorrow (Saturday, January 28) Thanks, (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, Jan 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Karl, Anything further? From http://www.eibispace.de/dx/bc-b11.txt I have pulled out some CNR1 frequencies which are in use between 12 and 13: 5945, 6080, 6180, 7290, 7365, 9630, 9860, 11925, 13610 Also as jammers: 6045, 11635, 13625, 15110 Here`s another possibility. I recall that back east (Andy Reid in Ontario) there have been complaints of the Habana 9570 relay of CRI (in Cantonese) at 12-13 putting spurious interference on RA 9580, altho I don`t have that problem here. See if it matches 9570 and/or 9560. But I think what was heard on 9580 was rather distorted. 1200 1300 CHN China Radio Int. CA ENA 9560/CAN 9570/CUB Your previous inquiry about this said it was before 1200...? (Glenn to Karl, via DXLD) I mentioned 1000 to 1200 UTC initially because I was half awake in bed listening to my Sony ICF-SW7600GR when I first heard this reception. The oriental language station is co-channel, not adjacent channel. It seems to peak from 1215 to 1245 UT or so. I'll check the parallels and try to record it, as well. To be continued (Karl Zuk, Jan 31, ibid.) Hi Glenn: The not-so-mysterious mystery of 9580 at 1200-1300 is solved. As you suggested, the signal mixing with Radio Australia is indeed CRI. The situation here might make you think you have a sloppy radio. 9560 has R. Australia with a weaker signal. 9570 has CRI via Cuban relay with a huge signal featuring Cuban AC hum 9575 has a little slop from 9570 and 9580 - but no clear audio. 9580 has R. Australia mixing with a hummy spur of CRI via Cuba. 9590 has R. Australia with a weaker signal as predicted. 9560, 9580 and 9590 are all listed on RA's current frequency list. At 1200 (or some seconds thereafter,) CRI comes on cold on 9570 with Cantonese. At 1300, CRI continues in English on 9570 still mixing with RA on 9580. Why are the old Havana transmitters so bad? I hear the same hummy audio on 6000 kHz evenings here. You would think Arnie Coro and his crew could do better than this. Maybe it is due to financial problems. Parts are expensive and/or unavailable? [or, THEY DON`T CARE --- gh] On the surface, the multiplicity of these signals seems ridiculous. I'm sure they are all intended for different regions but they all arrive here with big signals. Also, the power of these transmissions is mind boggling. When I first started listening almost 50 years ago, only the biggest stations used 50 kilowatts. It was still a novel concept. Megawatt transmitters and super antennas did not yet exist like they do today. Now, as an amateur radio operator, I work QRP CW stations (like myself) operating at the milliwatt or microwatt level. The signals coming out of today's SW relay stations are simply huge, way out of the grasp of a lowly amateur. Thanks for helping me along with this. I first started listening to shortwave in 1965. It's nice to know that the complexity and chaos has not waned over the decades! It's always a free-for-all (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, Feb 1, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 9625, Jan 31 at 1420, chimes sounding much like HSK9, but not scheduled here, atop CCI and lo het from CBCNQ; then language sounds tonal. HFCC shows only Iran in Japanese, and South Africa in Portuguese, so we go to Aoki for a fuller picture: also Taiwan in Vietnamese, so presumably that (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. WEIRDNESSes: 9965/all modes, Buzz Pulses; 2130, 25-Jan; same thing as heard on 15330 at 2022, 1/22. Not heard on 15330 at this time & 9965 pulses gone at 2202 (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, logged by my ears, on my receiver, in real time! DX LISTENING DIGEST) Old habits die hard: R. República used to be on 9965 requiring jamming (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 11661.45, Here is a recording from this strange frequency of a unIDed station in an unIDed language http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ecrrdxg6y7qok66 Notice that carrier has unstable frequency (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 15604 approx., Jan 31 at 1430, heavy FSK/RTTY here instead of usual WEWN spreading from 15610 or Bulgaria on 15600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Hearing a time signal station weakly on 25000, doesn't seem to give an ID. Possibly the MIKES station in Finland? 0930 on 29/1. Anyone else getting this? Regards, (Craig Seager, NSW, ARDXC via DXLD) Yes, in Europe at least, sure likely that (gh, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ ACKNOWLEDGED ON WORLD OF RADIO 1602: Hi, Glenn, Been quite a while! About 20+ years since I last contacted you with SW news; from Minneapolis, I believe. The first time I called you was for my logging of Radio Grønlands on 3999 kHz, which had been reactivated. I think that was 1985 or 86' via the old fashioned way, telephone! I'm usually in the wrong place at the right time to listen to WOR via SW like I used to. So, I just go to your website; much more convenient for me. I've also donated to WOR via PayPal. Keep up the good work, Glenn! (Terry Palmersheim, KT7DX, Helena, MT 59602) TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED ON SUBSEQUENT PROGRAMS: Thanks to a check in the mail marked ``confidential`` with a postit ``Keep up the great work``, to P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702 Thanks to Jack Smith, Newport NC, for an MO in the mail to P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702. Thanks for a contribution from Chuck Ermatinger, MO (gh) Thanks for the weekly show which I used to listen to on WRN but now usually via your webstream (Andrew Rogers, Worcester, England, with a contribution in US$ via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com) Dear Mr. Glenn Hauser, It is with great pleasure that I send you this letter. My name is Tomoaki Wagai and I am a Japanese listener on radio. Thank you for sharing your information of DXing every time. I can only offer you a beggary donation. Please use for your work. I would very much appreciate your work (with a donation to P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702 USA) Re: 12-04, TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING: ``MISTER SPEAKER`` This is a long-overdue thanks -- even if I do not read every item in every issue, I never miss this one. So, thanks (Eric Flodén, Jan 28) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ WRTH B11 SCHEDULES UPDATES FILE Sean Gilbert on Facebook: The WRTH B11 schedules updates file has now been posted to the website, please visit www.wrth.com to download the PDF file (via Mike Terry, 1652 UT Feb 1, dxldyg via DXLD) CHANNEL 2-6 MAPS I've updated my Ch 2-6 maps - suitable for printing - US cutoff now 1 kW to reduce clutter. http://dxinfocentre.com/tv-nam.htm Bullseyes are DTVs. Dots are analogs. (William R Hepburn, Grimsby ON CAN, 23 Jan, WTFDA via DXLD) The channel 3 map shows WSBS in Key West. Can anyone verify that this station is really on the air? The reason I ask is that Chris Dunne has been down on the Keys many times and has never seen the station. I don't remember Octavio in Havana ever logging this station either. Just wondering. Those old TV Station Guide map outlines still are good, aren't they? (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, ibid.) I'm always trying for WSBS when the skip is from the south but never get any sig-bars. I can sometimes hear a 3-pilot on the ICOM, but an now beginning to suspect I hear WBRA via TropoScatter. wrh (Bill Hepburn, Ont., ibid.) NEW FCC FREQUENCY ALLOCATION CHART http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/spectrum/table/fcctable.pdf (via Dan Ferguson, dxldyg via DXLD) 168 pp, extremely detailed. Includes international allocations for Regions 1, 2, 3, as they differ from USA (gh, DXLD) SHOLLY`S QSL SHOW I have a slide show video on Youtube that show my collection of SWL QSL cards. http://youtu.be/AVW9iYhNpYc (Spencer G. Sholly <>< KB5WQW 10-10# 43794 S.O.C.# 681, Killeen, TX, ptsw yg via DXLD) So small that full-screen required, and no sound, he apologizes (gh) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ JERGA DE LA RADIOAFICIÓN EN EL RÍO DE LA PLATA Hace unos cuantos años, como radioescucha en las bandas de radioaficionado y en particular paseando por “el (famoso) bulevar de los 40 metros” -la banda de los 7 MHz- había empezado a redactar una lista de las palabras o expresiones que se utilizaban en banda de 40 y 80 metros por los radioaficionados en fonía, típica de los aficionados de esta zona del mundo. No se donde está esa lista, quizá perdida entre alguna de las hojas de mis cuadernos de registro de captaciones. Hablo de los años setenta. Me gustaría, con el aporte de quienes lo deseen y visiten este blog, incorporar más de esos términos. Aquí, los que se recuerdan hasta el momento: http://lagalenadelsur.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/jerga-de-la-radioaficion-en-el-rio-de-la-plata/ (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, noticias dx via DXLD) Fascinating! Some of the expressions have recognizable equivalents in English; others could give us some new ideas. Quite a lengthy list of slang terms (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ HFCC A-12 Review of the A12 HFCC Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia By Dr. Jerry Plummer, WWCR and George Ross, KTWR http://tinyurl.com/87mjbb6 Courtesy : National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters HFCC A12 - Opening remarks by Oldrich Cip, chairman HFCC http://hfcc.org/A12/HFCC_REP_2012-005-Opening_Remarks_to_A12_Conference_in_KL_by_Oldrich_Cip_Chairman_HFCC.pdf Few more HFCC A12 public files are available at : http://hfcc.org/A12.phtml (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, Jan 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) MUSEA +++++ KSFO Staff Photo, 1942 [with KWID, 100 kW SHORTWAVE] See http://www.rwonline.com/article/ksfo-staff-photo-/211517 for a black-and-white photo are staff members of KSFO in San Francisco, standing in front of the station’s brand-new transmitter plant, located on Islais Creek in the southeast part of the city. (Photos courtesy of Penny Wilkes and Art Leberman). The Blaw-Knox tower on the roof of the building is for the station’s 5 kW AM signal on 560 kHz. The four sets of transmission lines moving off to the left are for KWID, the 100 kW shortwave station that KSFO owner Wesley I. Dumm built in 1942 at the request of the government. Its curtain antennas were supported by wooden poles off to the left of the photo. Its signals were heard throughout the Pacific during World War II, making the station a critical link for war news and government information. The station eventually became part of the Voice of America after the war. The identities of most of the people are not known (can you help?), but they are wearing picture ID cards, probably a wartime security measure. The KSFO transmitter building is still in use, as seen in the recent photo. There is now a rendering plant where the shortwave antennas were located. John Schneider is a lifelong radio history researcher. Write the author at jschneid93 @ gmail.com This is one in a series of photo features from his collection. Find more under the Columns/Roots of Radio tabs at radioworld.com (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) LA RADIO EN LA OSCURIDAD: EMISORAS CLANDESTINAS EN EL MUNDO Estimados: Acabo de publicar la tercer entrega del documental La Radio en la Oscuridad, producido en 1989 por Jaime Báguena García y Alfonso Montealegre para Radio Nederland Wereldomroep (RNW). En este caso, se titula Emisoras clandestinas en el mundo. Lo pueden escuchar desde aquí: http://lw3esh.blogspot.com/2012/01/la-radio-en-la-oscuridad-3.html Las otras entregas están aquí: Episodio I: Introducción a la radiodifusión libre, pirata y clandestina http://lw3esh.blogspot.com/2011/08/la-radio-en-la-oscuridad-1.html Episodio II: La radiodifusión ¿blanca o negra? http://lw3esh.blogspot.com/2011/09/la-radio-en-la-oscuridad-2.html Lástima que el resto de los capítulos se escuchan bastante mal. Los cassettes originales están muy gastados. 73! (Federico - LW3ESH - Tomasczik, Jan 30, condiglist yg via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See BELGIUM; BRAZIL; CZECHIA; DIEGO ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GARCIA; SOUTH CAROLINA; SPAIN; much QRM DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MULTICASTING (SUB-CHANNELS) IN YOUR MARKET? If you are a TV OTA viewer/DXer and think your local TV stations could offer more choices, maybe you would like to read the following article http://click.newscheckmedia.com/q/NFtUuh9AcO9TAjoi-lohirJivoWqvfi04DjViBk9-2_tZSQGm8rW9gQtL Contrary to what was speculated one to two years ago, OTA viewership is once again on the rise. The difficult economy is driving the increase. Forward this to your local TV GM's if you think they could offer more without sacrificing HD (Jim Thomas, wdx0fbu, Springfield, Missouri, 24 Jan, WTFDA via DXLD) FCC DENIES UNIQUE ION "TIME-SHARING" PROPOSAL http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=30775 The FCC has denied a creative proposal to get an additional DTV subchannel on cable. Must-carry rules allow a full-power digital TV station to require local cable systems to carry one of their program streams. The station may select which stream is entitled to carriage. However, if the station broadcasts more than one stream, only one is required to be carried (in many cases, stations negotiate with cable to obtain carriage for additional streams. These agreements are business contracts, not enforced by the FCC). ION (formerly known as "Pax" and licensee of most TV stations with the combination "PX" in their callsigns) proposed to split their licenses. They proposed to license a second station on each of their channels, and assign that license to a firm called "Urban Television LLC". The existing ION station and the new Urban station on each channel would share time, with ION using the channel part of the day and Urban using it the rest of the day. This kind of thing has happened in the past. Growing up in Milwaukee, I remember occasionally DXing two stations sharing channel 10 in Lansing, Michigan. Michigan State University's station WMSB broadcast educational programs during the day; commercial station WILX-TV broadcast NBC and local programs in the afternoon and at night. A new timesharing situation is likely to develop in Sacramento, California in the next year or two, as two non-commercial licensees were found equally qualified, and both will receive licenses to operate on channel 43 there. What's different in the ION case is the length of each time slot. In the WMSB/WILX case, WMSB used the channel continuously for several hours; it then signed off for the day, allowing WILX to use it continuously for the rest of the night. In ION's case, each station would operate for **a few milliseconds**. It would transmit one of ION's video packets, then one of Urban's audio packets, then one of Urban's video packets, then an Urban metadata packet, then an ION metadata packet, etc., etc. And to some degree, the FCC has on its own motion proposed doing just this. A station operating above channel 37 would give up its own channel and would share time on the transmitter of some other station operating below 37. Both stations would be entitled to a slot on cable/satellite; each would be individually responsible for what airs on their subchannel. But in ION's case, the Commission isn't buying it. They labeled the scheme as "...a division of spectrum...", not a division of time -- and denied the license assignment (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Jan 27, WTFDA via DXLD) REMAPPING CONFUSING?? I know I've posted this enough times to be nauseating(grin) but: having answered several hundred viewer calls & emails for WSMV-TV during the digital transition, the grand total of ordinary non- technical viewers we've found confused by channel remapping is ZERO. (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Jan 27, WTFDA via DXLD) The number here in Rochester was non-zero, but it was in single digits. (And "confused" would be a strong word for those calls; "curious" would be better.) For the average non-technical viewer, it proved (at least in our experience) to be MUCH easier to explain that "channels 8, 10 and 13 will still be channels 8, 10 and 13" than it would have been to explain "channels 10 and 13 will still be 10 and 13, but 8 will be 45 and 21 will be 16 and 31 will be 28; at least until the band is refarmed again and 8 has to move to 21 or 31." We made a point of heavily promoting the need for both VHF and UHF antenna capability (though our own station was a UHF that remained on UHF), but that was as technical as we needed to get to satisfy the vast majority of viewers. As for us DXers --- it seems to me we're long overdue for someone to use one of the widely-available ATSC tuner chipsets to produce a specialty receiver designed specifically for our needs, which would include the ability to defeat PSIP remapping and tune solely by RF channel. I can't imagine such a functionality would have much purpose anywhere outside the DX community, but there's no reason we shouldn't have nice toys for us, right? s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) There was some confusion for viewers when I was working at KTWU-11 in Topeka and we first activated KTWU-DT on channel 23. There wasn't much confusion, however, but there were some trying to get channel 23 using an antenna designed for channels 11 and 13 (WIBW-TV). I was gone by then but I know there were complaints from some viewers when the KTWU moved digital from channel 23 to channel 11 at the end of the transition. WIBW-TV reactivated their digital channel 44 transitional transmitter as a translator at a much lower power than when it was WIBW-DT. One of the nation's most DXed stations (KQTV-2 in St. Joseph,MO) was a local for me on channel 2 (although often plagued by skip which I didn't mind), but is now DX for me as well as KQTV-7 is seldom seen here (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PROPONENTS WANT UNEVEN FM SIDEBAND POWER APPROVED QUICKLY. Opponent Jonathan Hardis makes some excellent points about how the Media Bureau skipped over some significant requirements in pushing to implement IBOC: http://tinyurl.com/UnevenHDFM-WantedNow (CGC Communicator Jan 30 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) Radio World: NPR Labs, KUOW to Test New FM+HD Booster System http://www.radioworld.com/article/npr-labs-kuow-to-test-new-fmhd-booster-system/211529 NPR Labs says it’s working with member station KUOW(FM), Seattle on a new type of FM+HD booster system as well as new design methodology, which the R&D engineering group says could ease the way for stations to employ both FM analog and FM HD Radio boosters to improve coverage in areas where interference may be high due to geographical obstacles or overlapping signals. The study is based on a new hybrid, FM+HD booster system developed by Harris Broadcast. “This study is intended to put an end to the questions about the optimal design of FM boosters,” NPR Labs Senior Technologist and Project Lead John Kean told Radio World. “In the past, engineers have had no hard information on the optimal design criteria for FM boosters. As a result, we’ve seen boosters that have been designed, built and turned on, but they’re ultimately disappointing because they suffer from these multipath distortion effects. What we’re hoping is that this study will put an end to that lack of technical information about the parameters for booster design.” The first phase of the project is a study to predict, and avoid, multipath distortion effects that occur with signal boosters. RW readers are familiar with multipath distortion that causes FM sound to sound noisy, and with mobile reception multipath adds clicks and pops as the FM signal varies. Listeners can hear the multipath at a stop light, and then find that moving the car a few inches restores the signal by moving out of the point of multipath cancellation, according to Kean. “This distortion of the received audio occurs because the signal from most boosters must overlap to some degree with the signal of its primary station,” Kean said. “As a result, there has been uncertainty over the deployment of FM boosters for many years because the effects of these overlapping signals have been unknown.” To develop accurate data on the allowable signal ratios and modulation timing offsets, NPR Labs and Towson University will perform a series of listener-based tests using controlled simulations of overlapping signals. These tests will determine the necessary parameter limits for booster location and operation — before construction of the booster begins. These parameters will be used in advance mapping software developed by NPR Labs to geographically evaluate booster locations and optimize design. The labs will also test HD Radio receivers to verify their Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing “guard band” parameters, outside of which the digital reception may fail. The parameters will be used to ascertain the geographic operating area for KUOW’s digital coverage with and without the planned booster, according to Kean. KUOW’s design is challenging because it operates with both FM analog and FM HD Radio transmission. To more precisely control the signal overlaps with hybrid broadcasting, Harris’ DSP-based gap filler system was selected. This system provides RF filtering and has the ability to separately control the power of each digital sideband, as well as the analog FM channel, according to Harris. Another first for this system is the use of over-the-air relay. In comparison with booster designs that regenerate the IBOC signal locally at the booster, the over-the-air relay will reduce construction and operating costs and eliminate the need for a digital circuit from the primary transmitter, according to NPR Labs. NPR Labs anticipates presenting a report on the design and testing process this spring at the Public Radio Engineering Conference. (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ NOTICE TO OWNERS OF RADIO DEGEN DE-1127! The Company Degen has changed the procedure of updates of the new model Degen DE-1127. If you follow the instructions set out in the annex to the radio English instructions, the unit can be damaged! New instructions for the firmware Degen DE-1127 download from Novosibirsk DX Site at the address: http://www.novosibdx.info I hope someone will help. With best wishes (Igor Yaremenko, Novosibirsk, Russia, Rus-DX 29 Jan via DXLD) EXCALIBUR NO MATCH FOR THE NRD545 Note: Although I was able to see a presentation of this station using the Excalibur, hearing any audio was close to impossible. I had to go with the NRD545 to hear audio. The Excalibur is not recommended for DXing in my humble opinion. So I will always rely on the NRD545 as a top of the line DX receiver. MAKE YOUR OWN MULTIBAND SOFTWARE DEFINED SHORTWAVE RADIO Hagalo usted mismo: Receptor SDR multibanda para HF Con el fin de interesarlos en la radio experimentacion y aprendizaje de nuevas tecnologias, les invito a mirar como pueden construir un receptor SDR para HF del tipo basico de una manera facil, economica y sencilla. http://swlcolombia.blogspot.com/2012/01/hagalo-usted-mismo-receptor-sdr.html 73 y Buenos DX (Jose Luis de Vicente T. - HK3ORT, Jan 29, latinoamericadx gy via Santiago San Gil, Venezuela, DXLD) See original for illustrations! And run thru translator if necessary. Basically, repurpose a cheap $15 SW radio portable as SDR by plugging it into your soundcard and using free SDR software. Rough tuning still has to be done on the radio; fine tuning on the computer. Not as many features as on a commercial SDR but a lot cheaper! Viz.: (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HAGALO USTED MISMO: RECEPTOR SDR MULTIBANDA MUY ECONOMICO [no accents] La idea de armar su propio receptor SDR (Radio Definido por Software) para HF le parecera atractiva si todo lo que necesita es un pequeño receptor barato tipo portatil, que incluya algunas bandas de Onda Corta, un trozo de cable (20 cms.), un PC con tarjeta de sonido o audio, y el software para SDR (gratuito). Sera necesario abrir el receptor y obtener alguna informacion de su interior que comentare mas adelante. Imagen real obtenida captando una señal desconocida entre dos emisoras en onda corta (HF) [except tildes, of course] El pequeño receptor sera del tipo portatil, aquel cuya marca resulta realmente desconocida, por lo general de origen chino y cuya mayor cualidad, aparte del bajo precio, es que se les puede encontrar hasta en droguerias de barrio y almacenes populares. (El mio costo col$15.000). Pese a ser economico, el radio incluye un frecuencimetro digital y 8 bandas en Onda Corta De este receptor barato vamos a utilizar los circuitos que se encargan de sintonizar, amplificar, y mezclar las señales de radio (RF). En realidad todo esto lo hace un solo circuito integrado, interconectando pines de el mismo, sin embargo esto ya viene hecho de fabrica. Todos los circuitos del radio residen en el pequeño rectangulo negro Ahora bien, debemos encontrar el pin al cual entran finalmente estas señales, el sitio justo es antes del transformador de frecuencia intermedia (IF) o del filtro de 455 Khz. Para ello deberemos primero observar la referencia del integrado y buscar su hoja de especificaciones (internet), donde nos diran cual es el pin por donde entra la señal (IF IN). Es aqui donde soldamos nuestro trozo de cable. Es muy facil hallar el pin buscado y mas aun soldar el cable de color verde (dentro del circulo rojo) El cable en su otro extremo se solda a un conector para audifonos (plug), de igual manera se soldara otro cable desde tierra (negativo) del radio a masa del mismo plug. El plug se conecta bien a la entrada de microfono (Mic In) o de linea (Line IN) de la tarjeta de sonido del PC. Cable rojo: antena, cable verde: señal hacia el PC, cable amarillo: masa o tierra hacia el PC, cable negro: alimentacion Finalmente se ejecuta cualquier software gratuito para SDR (HDSDR, Winrad, SDR-Radio, kgksdr, SDRadio, SoDiRa, etc.) con todos los anteriores lo he probado y funciona perfectamente, me inclino por el HDSDR y el SDR-Radio (del mismo que hizo el HRD) quizas mas por facilidades de operacion y agradable aspecto. Operacion Señales de RTTY en 40 mts, el corrimiento se debe a variaciones de voltaje por mala calidad del adaptador de voltaje Es muy sencillo de operar: basta saber que la sintonia "gruesa", es decir el movernos entre bandas se hara desde el mando de sintonia del receptor portatil, mientras que sintonia fina o seleccion de emisoras, tipo de modulacion, ajuste de ancho de banda, volumen, filtros de audio, etc., se efectua desde el software. Ahora usando el SDR-Radio, observe los filtros de audio en AM sincrona (Izq.) Es obvio que un receptor SDR comercial cuyo modelo mas economico cuesta mas de US$500 ofrece mas refinamientos, sin embargo nuestro pequeño no se queda atras en recepcion y nos permitira ademas de un contacto mas directo e inmediato con esta tecnologia, la satisfaccion y orgullo de haber sido construido por nosotros mismos. Recomiendo emplear una antena externa (HK3ORT blog as above, via DXLD) SOME INFO ON SW RECEIVERS: CCRADIOSW, TECSUN PL-660 Hi, Glenn: First, I bought the CCRadioSW unit, a 'mid-sized' portable with many convenient features and good sound. It lacks SSB capabilty, which is one of the reasons that I bought the Tecsun PL-660. The Tecsun PL-660 is much smaller than the CCRadioSW, but it's a higher quality receiver. It DOES HAVE SSB. And this SSB works quite well! I have compared a few stations with the two receivers, except for the larger speaker on the CCRadioSW, the Tecsun PL-660 wins hands down! And, as I mentioned previously, Tecsun solved the charger problem by enabling the user to turn off the charger. As far as I can determine, unplugging the AC adapter is required when using non-rechargeable batteries--TO BE SAFE. If I were with C.Crane, I'd change that. Alas! This wouldn't feasibly help current owners. Adios, (Wendell Lloyd, Rockport TX, Jan 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ALINCO DX-R8T FOR AM DXING? Just wondering if anyone on the lists has used the Alinco DX-R8T receiver for AM DXing? Among it's most interesting features is a 12 kHz I/Q output on the rear panel that would allow for the receiver to be used as an SDR. This opens up a lot of possibilities, and makes this receiver the "best of both worlds". A small, portable receiver with a decent feature set (though no DSP) --- combined with I/Q outputs that allow it to be connected to a computer for further processing. Unfortunately, Alinco isn't famous for publishing a lot of details about their radios - Universal Radio is selling the radio at $479, which makes it a good value for an HF receiver. -- 73, (Les Rayburn, N1LF, EM63nf 121 Mayfair Park Maylene, AL 35114 6M VUCC #1712, Grid Pirates #222 Life Member Central States VHF IRCA via DXLD) I am presently using the DX-R8T, and my primary interest is AM DXing. I too, could not find many reviews that spoke to the performance in the broadcast band. I am quite pleased with the overall sensitivity in the AM band. No problem in that respect. The standard AM filter is quite wide, but this isn't a great problem, as you can go SSB for greater selectivity. I plan to install a Kiwa filter module in mine. Overall build quality is good, but the keypad is quite small. I can't speak to the SDR function, as I keep my computer and radios away from each other. Not much of a review, but I give it a vote of confidence. Contact me directly if you have any questions (Chris VE6IY Dorn, 23 Jan, IRCA via DXLD) A few days ago Les inquired about Alinco's new DX-R8T communication receiver. As luck would have it, I just received this exact radio yesterday and had a little time to play with it last night. In case you don't remember me, seeing I haven't been active on this list for a few years due to family obligations, I was NRC webmaster for three years, and have been an AM DXer for more than 40. Here are some quick observations about Alinco's new offering: The Alinco is nearly the same size as my Icom R75. The overall fit and finish is one that says I'm of "lower" quality as the knobs, buttons and cabinet just don't measure up to that of the Icoms. The Alinco display is very nice though and I prefer it to the Icom. The pale, light blue backlight is soft and extremely easy on the eyes. I also like its contrast. The numbers are large, easy to see and most of the radio's settings are also displayed. The Alinco offers 15 selectable dimmer steps so you should be able to find a setting suitable for your environment. Audio quality is good, so long as you use a good external speaker. The small front firing speaker is very tinny sounding, making for very unpleasant listening. I hooked up an older Radio Shack Minus speaker which made all the difference in the world. The radio seems sensitive enough. Comparing it side to side with my Icom R75, it heard everything the Icom did. I tune using ECSS exclusively and the Alinco seemed very stable and selective. The IF shift works well enough, although for me the small control is a tad over sensitive and doesn't have a well refined range of use. You have to move this tiny knob very slowly either side of 12 o'clock, dependent upon which mode you've chosen, for its effectiveness to become noticeable. I am not happy about the front panel buttons on the Alinco. They're almost as if they were added as an after thought. They are small, poorly labeled and are not located in logical positions. Being an EE for 30+ years, I personally would have chosen larger sized buttons and not made all of them perform multiple functions. Nearly every one of the front panel buttons perform dual tasks. This involves the use of the "FUNC" button first, I understand why this was done, though it can initially be very awkward because the second function of each button is labeled underneath the button and is labeled in a different color. I feel the user will become more accustomed to this as operating time increases, but during a first use session or two, I found it to be pretty confusing. I felt I was always titling my head down to look for what was needed. I'm also not happy with how tuning steps are set. On my Icom I'm able to easily set and tune in 1khz steps while using ECSS. Surprisingly, this step rate doesn't seem possible on the Alinco. Before I commit to this statement, I'm going to review the user manual again just to be sure. Speaking of which, the manual isn't well written at all. Tuning around on the Alinco seemed a bit of a chore. Tuning is accomplished via UP/DOWN buttons as well as the VFO knob. Tuning steps are also dependent upon mode. I tried to set the tuning steps for 1 kHz in USB/LSB, but no matter what I did, the VFO always tuned in 10 Hz steps. I did manage to get the radio to tune in 100 Hz steps, but only while using the UP/DOWN buttons, The VFO knob is large and does the job, though slowly. There also appears to be a slight wobble to it, but nothing overly significant. Fortunately the radio features direct frequency entry. I'll need more time to evaluate the receiver in greater detail. I'd like to do some daytime DXing with it to see how it does. Living in a heavily RF polluted environment can be challenging for most receivers. I did notice some bleed through from Bloomberg Radio 1130, and I'll spend even more time seeing how the front end handles these stronger signals. I was able to hear a HAR/TIS on 550 from upstate NY and KMOX on 1120 was also easily heard. I also noted some of the usual hets. By the way, the antenna used was my Quantum Loop. The radio doesn't seem bad for the price; however it should be noted that a power supply is NOT included. A DC cable is and I used my trusty 35A Astron that I use for my Ham station to power it. As some of you may have noticed, this radio is nearly identical to Alinco's new transceiver. It even has a plastic plug over the mic jack! I'll post more updates as I dig deeper into it, but initially it`s promising. 73- (Gary Wilt W2GJW, Wood Ridge, NJ, FN20wu, Jan 27, NRC- AM via DXLD) DO RADIO WAVES CAUSE TIME WARPS? http://www.dumpyourphoto.com/files3/93135/CENfx5Kgba7.jpg This photo is copyrighted to Gamma Infinity Flickr. This remarkable time warp may very well be the last usable commercial "hammock" antenna in the United States. It's atop the old (vacant) Odd Fellows building that everyone sees from the 10 freeway when making the transition to the 110 in downtown L.A.. For years I marveled at this thing. Here's why. (Don't worry, I'll get the tech out of the way fast.) It's an OLD design. Really old. KDKA old. Marconi Wireless old. Most AM stations use vertical antennas now, and Fybush, who ought to know, says it's the only end-fed horizontal hammock that he knows about. So for years I would drive by going WTF? Internet is a wonderful thing, because along with all the other stuff it tells me, it says that until about a year ago, this was still the primary transmitting site for KYPA, formerly KGFJ, currently 1000 watts. The full history of the site is here http://www.fybush.com/sites/2009/site-091030.html Note how this antenna, despite its antediluvian design, was actually reinstalled a few years back. It looks new, because it is. KGFJ stood for Keeping Good Folks Joyful, as this little station serenaded Central L.A. from the 1920s on, live from above the ballroom. KYPA stands for Your Personal Achievement (station), left over from a failed business talk format. It's now a leased signal for Korean programming. And there's the history of local AM radio, right there. According to Fybush, this is now at best a backup site, despite the signal actually being better in the target Koreatown. The owners moved the transmitter to their hill near Dodger Stadium about a year ago, when this unoccupied building inexplicably raised the rent of the only tenant it had. So it goes in radio. The engineers stopped making decisions 15 years ago. The suits make them now. I'd been meaning to bang off a shot of this antenna for years. I finally did. There's some additional processing by a dirty car window, but here you go. Let's do a dance of joy in the former 110 dB contour. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gamma-infinity/5611467190/in/pool-55161275@N00/ (via Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, Mi Blog: http://lagalenadelsur.wordpress.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) THE SHORTWAVE AUDIENCE What kind of audience can a specific shortwave broadcaster hope to reach? Dr. Graham Mytton, former head of BBC World Service audience research, says: "You may have audiences of less than 0.1%.... But this does not mean an insignificant achievement necessarily. Shortwave broadcasters are niche broadcasters. Often they are not aiming to reach mass audiences , but people with specific needs, interests and tastes.... If your average reach was, let us say, one person in 10,000, that is 0.01%. On a global scale that is a lot of people -- about 350,000 of them. The problem is that we can never afford the scale and number of surveys that would necessarily prove it." The Resurgence of Shortwave Radio However, many sources agree that shortwave radio is experiencing a resurgence. According to VT Communications, which operates the BBC's worldwide transmitter sites, "latest research shows that shortwave radio listeners are growing globally, with shortwave penetration at its highest in the developing countries. That is not to say that shortwave is not having an impact in the developed countries. The increase in the shortwave audience, says VT Communications, is "spelt out dramatically by just one factory in China that is frantically producing 300,000 shortwave radio sets per month just to support demand. Grundig in America report growth each year on their sales of shortwave receivers. There are at least 600 million shortwave radio sets worldwide." Surveys cited by VT Communications show that in France, 70% of households with radio have access to shortwave. In Slovakia, the figure is 77%, "What is most interesting," according to VTC, "is the growth over the last 10 years in shortwave usage by business travellers, diplomats, aid workers and others who move about the world as a result of their jobs. This change has occurred because of the portability of new sets and the simplicity of their use. Modern synthesized sets, which have the facility of actually entering the precise frequency number, made shortwave easy for everyone. People learned to pre-tune their sets, forgetting about kHz, MHz and wavebands. The new sets went in pockets, handbags and briefcases. Now sets weigh as little as 220 grams and are easily available and affordable." TeleDiffusion de France, which operates Radio France International's extensive [sic] shortwave transmitter network, says that "an estimated 2.5 billion people tune in to programs broadcast on shortwave, and about a billion receivers pick up shortwave transmissions. At any given moment, over 200 million receivers are tuned in to shortwave broadcasts. Shortwave remains the only means of reaching a broad audience anywhere in the world, via a simple portable radio that can be bought for around $25. Listeners include expatriates, business travellers, tourists or simply people who want to hear programs in a language other than their own or who want to open a new window on the world." Large government-owned broadcasters like the BBC and the Voice of America have been able to carry out listenership surveys in certain countries. These surveys reveal that around 1% of the population of Jamaica and the United States listens regularly to shortwave radio stations. In Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Trinidad, listenership to shortwave is between 1% and 5% of the population. In Ecuador, it is between 5 and 10%. Guyana in South America has a shortwave listenership rate of between 10 and 30% of the population. Other countries -- especially certain African countries -- have a shortwave listenership rate of over 30%. In Barbados, 39% of households with radios have access to shortwave. Listening rates are often higher in countries like Peru and Brazil, where shortwave is used for domestic broadcasting as well. The Voice of America has estimated its weekly Spanish-language audience in Latin America at 3.2 million adults, and this does not include the Radio Martí broadcasts to Cuba. Country-by-country listening rates for VOA in Spanish range from 1% to 10% of the adult population. In 1998, Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica carried out international radio listening surveys in 18 Latin American countries. Regarding shortwave stations, Medios y Mercados said: "When we consider any local market, their audiences may be minuscule. However, their strengths lie in their broad coverage and they may have sizeable listenership when aggregated across many local markets." Indeed, the survey found that 9.2 million people between the ages of 12 and 64 in the 18 countries surveyed had listened to at least one of the eight government-owned shortwave stations included in the survey within the past 30 days. The highest rating was for Radio Nacional do Brasil, with 3.5 million listeners. "In terms of demographics," the study concluded, "the listeners to the international radio broadcasters are more affluent, better educated and have a higher occupational status (owners, managers, professionals)." The Cuban shortwave audience is a special case. Since the government controls all media on the island, a great many Cubans tune in to foreign radio stations for news and other programming. And thanks to the Soviet legacy, many if not most radio receivers in Cuba have shortwave bands on them, so listening to shortwave is very commonplace on the island. In a 1988 survey in four cities (Havana, Santa Clara, Holguin and Santiago) carried out for the U.S. Government's station Radio Marti, about half of all adults reported having access to shortwave radio, and 12% had listened to a shortwave stations within the last week (22% within the last 12 months). As much as 21% of respondents in the city of Santiago indicated they had listened to Radio Marti within the past week, and Radio Marti had a total weekly audience of 220,000 in the four cities. One Cuban exile program aired by Radio Miami International, La Voz de la Fundación, had a 2% weekly audience rating in Santa Clara. Listener correspondence can also provide some helpful information about a station's audience. An analysis of listener letters received by WRMI in 1999 showed that the largest percentage of correspondence (39%) came from Latin America and the Caribbean, and the second- largest (29%) was from the United States and Canada. (The North American service of WRMI had just begun at that time.) Europeans produced 23% of the correspondence, which is interesting since we don't specifically target that continent. Six percent of the letters came from Asia and the Pacific, and the remaining 3% were from Africa. Breaking down the origin of the correspondence from Latin America, by far the largest amount (35%) was from Cuba. Brazilians contributed fully 20% of our Latin American correspondence, even though we have very few programs in Portuguese. (The Brazilians listen to Spanish and English programming, as well as Portuguese.) After Brazil came Argentina (13%), Venezuela (11%), Mexico (7%), Uruguay (5%) and Peru (4%). (from WRMI, via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, DXLD) PHOTOS OF THE KPFK(FM) TRANSMITTER AND TOWER 1959-1960 Here are historic views of the KPFK transmitter plant and tower on Mt. Wilson in 1959 & 1960. Photos provided by Steve Hawes and Tom Anderson and posted on six Web pages by Don Mussell. Are those mercury vapor rectifier tubes? Is the antenna horizontally polarized (sure looks that way)? Check out the stylish dress of the day. Non-commercial KPFK has the most powerful FM signal on Mt. Wilson. It is a Class B station and at its HAAT of 863 M would ordinarily be allowed to run only 930 watts ERP. However, because of grandfathering, KPFK is permitted to run 110,000 watts ERP with circular polarization. It's a genuine blowtorch. Fabulous old photos: http://tinyurl.com/KPFK-1959-1960 (CGC Communicator Jan 30 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ CODAR IMAGERY AS A PROPAGATION STUDY TOOL Those who DX shortwave know about, and are probably not very happy about, CODAR. However, it can be used to study activity of the ionosphere as well, which may be of interest to MW DXers who are interested in propagation. Best wishes, ((Nick Hall-Patch, BC, Jan 23, MWCircle yg via DXLD) From the sdr-radio group: From: http://www.spaceweather.com/ Pieter Ibelings, President RFSpace Corp, has published ionospheric analysis of recent CME event reflected by CODAR imagery. ----------- --------- ------- The Jan. 22nd CME also disturbed Earth's ionosphere. In Atlanta, Georgia, radio engineer Pieter Ibelings monitored a 4.5 MHz CODAR (coastal radar) signal as it bounced off layers of ionization along the US east coast. "The moment of impact can be clearly seen on the CODAR radar plot," he points out: "The CODAR transmitters are located all around the coast and are used for mapping the ocean currents to a distance of about 200 miles," Ibelings explains. "These signals also propagate through the ionosphere so they can be picked up all around the world. The signals are almost perfect for ionospheric sounding since they are linear chirps. I capture the chirp with a receiver locked to GPS both in frequency and time. I then de-chirp the waveform so I can extract the time of arrival information at my location." The CODAR echoes show ionization layers shifting vertical position by some hundreds of kilometers, changes that surely affected the propagation of HF radio signals in the aftermath of the impact. More information about Ibelings' observations may be found here: http://www.rfspace.com/RFSPACE/BLOG/Entries/2012/1/22_CODAR_Ionospheric_Observations_during_the_CME_Impact_of_JAN_22,_2012.html Anyone know how powerful these transmissions are, or whether any are located in the UK? (Graham Maynard, MWCircle yg via DXLD) Codar Ocean Sensors has sites scattered around the world including Galway in Ireland, and the Virginia Beach, VA, area here in the US. It has totally ruined 60 meter DXing for those of us in the southeastern US. I'm not certain of the power but it quite strong here in the mountains of southwestern North Carolina. Codar is IMO a pest of the first degree but I'm sure oceanographers will disagree. Tune from 4700 to 4850 kHz and you'll probably here its distinctive wide pulsing signal in several places (Rick W4DST Robinson, ibid.) It looks like it's just the USA for this particular system, Graham: http://cordc.ucsd.edu/projects/mapping/maps/ However, there may well be similar systems in other countries; over- the-horizon radar has been used by a number of militaries over the years, and I would guess information on them might be a little harder to come by. [Later:] I already stand corrected in my own backyard, Rick and Graham: http://venus.uvic.ca/tag/codar/ Though I haven't tracked down proposed frequency or how frequently it will operate. All the more embarrassing because I've worked in the past with some of the people involved in that particular project. I guess the first link I sent shows only systems for which they hold oceanographic data? Perhaps my link only refers to a certain group of users of a commercial HF radar: http://www.codar.com/about.shtml Best wishes, (Nick Hall-Patch, ibid.) VIDEO OF JANUARY 23 SOLAR FLARE On January 23 around 0400 UTC a powerful M9 solar flare erupted, and this was right on the threshold of becoming an X-class flare. The CME hit Earth around 1500 UTC on January 24, causing bright aurora. Watch a lovely video of the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ilr8p13A2o Also check this British report: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/24/sunspot-explosion and this one from Montreal: http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120124/northern-lights-solar-storm-120124/20120124/?hub=MontrealHome (QST de W1AW, Propagation Forecast Bulletin 4 ARLP004 From Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, WA January 27, 2012, To all radio amateurs, via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) SOLAR STORM AFFECTS COMMUNICATION The Daily Telegraph, Australia, January 27, 2012 Passenger jets are being forced to divert around the north pole as the Earth is bombarded with rays from the strongest solar storm in nearly a decade. "Proton storms" - caused by massive solar flares bombarding the Earth with radiation - can interfere with radio communications and satellite-based systems such as GPS navigation. . . http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/passenger-jets-are-being-forced-to-divert-around-the-north-pole-as-the-earth-faces-strongest-solar-storm/story-e6freuy9-1226254693681 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Geomagnetic field activity ranged from quiet to minor storm levels at mid-latitudes and briefly reached severe storm conditions at high latitudes. The magnetic field was mostly quiet on 23 January with an isolated minor storm observed at high latitudes from waning effects from a CME. On 24-25 January, activity increased to isolated minor storms at low latitudes and severe storms at high latitudes, due to the arrival of a CME, associated with the 23 January M8/2b flare. An interplanetary shock was observed at the ACE spacecraft at 24/1431 UTC followed by a 37 nT increase in total field, as measured by the ACE spacecraft, at 24/1439 UTC. A corresponding sudden impulse was observed in the Boulder magnetometer with a 22 nT deviation at 24/1504 UTC. Solar wind speed, as measured by the SOHO spacecraft, was approximately 750 km/s at the time of the shock passage before decreasing to approximately 650 km/s. The geomagnetic field decreased to predominantly quiet levels for the remainder of the period. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 01 - 27 FEBRUARY 2012 Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels from 01-09 February until old Regions 1401 and 1402 are due to return. Solar activity is expected to increase to low levels with a chance for M- class flares and a slight chance for X-class flares for the remainder of the period. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to remain elevated from 01-02 February but below the 10 pfu threshold values. A return to background levels is expected from 03- 08 February. On 09 February, old Regions 1401 and 1402 are due to return to the visible disk. From 09 February until the end of the forecast period, there will be a slight chance for a proton event. The greater than 2 MeV electrons at geosynchronous orbit are expected to be at normal to moderate levels for the entire forecast period. The geomagnetic field is expected to be at predominantly quiet levels for the entire period. Quiet to unsettled levels are expected on days 03-04 February, 09 February, 12 February, and 23 February. This increased activity can be attributed to multiple, recurrent coronal hole, high speed wind streams. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2012 Jan 31 2314 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # Product description and SWPC contact on the Web # http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2012-01-31 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2012 Feb 01 115 5 2 2012 Feb 02 115 5 2 2012 Feb 03 115 5 2 2012 Feb 04 115 5 2 2012 Feb 05 115 5 2 2012 Feb 06 110 5 2 2012 Feb 07 110 5 2 2012 Feb 08 110 5 2 2012 Feb 09 120 8 3 2012 Feb 10 130 5 2 2012 Feb 11 130 5 2 2012 Feb 12 130 8 3 2012 Feb 13 130 5 2 2012 Feb 14 130 5 2 2012 Feb 15 130 5 2 2012 Feb 16 130 5 2 2012 Feb 17 130 5 2 2012 Feb 18 130 5 2 2012 Feb 19 130 5 2 2012 Feb 20 130 5 2 2012 Feb 21 130 5 2 2012 Feb 22 130 5 2 2012 Feb 23 120 8 3 2012 Feb 24 115 5 2 2012 Feb 25 115 5 2 2012 Feb 26 115 5 2 2012 Feb 27 115 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1602, DXLD) EARLY SSS TIP With the start of the new month, most stations in the States are switching powers 30 to 45 minutes later than yesterday which means that early Feb can be very good for sunset skip. Already at 5 pm CST [2300 UT] KRLD 1080 was easily coming thru semi-local WNWI even though Dallas switch time isn't for another 75 minutes. My 6 PM recording should prove interesting and after that I'll switch over to the west antenna. 73 KAZ Barrington IL [later:] I had a feeling SSS conditions would be good; at 1825 CST coming thru K.C. 610 on the west Double KAZ antenna was KNML, The Sports Animal and Albuquerque mentions for a new one. 73 KAZ Barrington IL back out to record 1900 ID's from the west (Neil Kazaross, IL, Feb 1, ABDX via DXLD) ###