DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-059, May 21, 2007 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 2007 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.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 NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1359: ** tentative Tue 1030 WRMI 9955** Wed 0730 WRMI 9955** WORLD OF RADIO, CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL SCHEDULE: 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 For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL] http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** AFGHANISTAN. Afghanistan-Pakistan Border Region --- To improve broadcasting to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the BBG is deploying a 200 kW medium wave system near Khost, Afghanistan. A contract was awarded for the transmitter system in FY 2006, and an on- air date for broadcasts to this border region is projected for the end of the fourth quarter of FY 2007 (Broadcasting Board of Governors - Fiscal Year 2008 Budget Request http://www.bbg.gov/reports/bbg_fy08_budget_request.pdf via Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, May 20, dxldyg via DXLD) See also U S A ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. R. Solh, 17700 via UK, May 21 was poor but audible, at about 1427 playing our favorite `Solh theme` and not cut off at 1430. I understand the rotation may be more random now, but should check subsequent days at this time anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. R. Tirana, 13750, which had slight adjacent QRM from TWR Rwanda, 13745, on Friday, May 20, was inaudible on Saturday May 21 at 1300, as was 13745 on the only other day of the week it is scheduled. May 21 at 1303, 13750 was fair with fades, improved toward the end of the semihour when music was playing, signal good enough to be bothered by the hum on the audio. May 21 at 2022 check, 13720 again with music and hum, somewhat stronger than 7 hours earlier. BTW, 13750 DGS Costa Rica was on the air by this time, but has never been heard before 1330 since Tirana began using it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. LRA36, 15476, coming in nicely this afternoon May 21, from tune-in 1921 past 2000. S3 to peaks at S8 or so. Lots of music, alternating with talk features, several IDs interspersed. Sporadic E over North America may be helping along the last hop. More details later (Glenn Hauser, circa 2015 UT May 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: I was about to enjoy the first hour of WHRB`s Silk Road Orgy with music from Japan and Mongolia (and lasts until 0300 UT Tuesday), but eschewed it when I found that 15476 was audiferous, from tune-in at 1915 UT May 21, vocal duet. Noise level not too bad so audible at S3, with occasional peaks to S8. Quickly checked 15345 and heard the het denoting RAE also in; then 15820 for LTA, but no chance of that as WWCR 15825 was inbooming, revealing a sporadic E opening in progress. Es clouds generally over NAm up to at least 16 MHz could well be helping LRA36 along on the last hop of its long journey. Several IDs were heard in the next semi-sesquihour, using the callsign LRA-36; music alternating with few minutes of talk features, but hard to follow with the weak signal and fading. ID at 1934 in Spanish, and then in Japanese! 1941 gave a local time check in UT -3. Music was mostly vocal, sometimes duet, with guitar accompaniment. 1950 talk feature was enumerating something point by point. 1959 duet continued past hourtop when I went back to WHRB webcast with computer wiping out signals such as this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 21 May follow. Solar flux 73 and estimated mid-latitude A-Index 4. The mid-latitude K-index at 2100 UTC on 21 May was 1 (8 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours (SEC via DXLD) Hi all; Since we have a long weekend (Victoria Day) here in Canada, I have had the chance to check out LRA36. Well, despite the lightning crashes they have been heard [15476]. LRA36, Radio Nacional at tune in 1920 UT with Argentine romantic country music. Not the tangos heard during the RAE broadcasts. From 1930-1935 full ID in multiple languages; of course if there was an English one I missed it grabbing for the headphones. At 1935 to 1943 there seemed to be a newscast with sweepers or jingles between items. Back to the music at 1943. Poor with deep fades and lightning QRN. Will keep and ear on this to see if any improvement in signal happens before s/off. [Later:] Heard best between 2030 and 2100. No multi language ID at 2030 though nor even at 2000 [2100?]. Music and announcements continued to s/off at 2100 UT without any formal s/off announcement. Nice readable signal if not for the lightning crashes. May 21/07. 73 (Mick Delmage, Sherwood Park, Alberta, Rx: Collins HF-2050, Ant: KLM 7-30 MHz Log Periodic, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Strong signal here too as could be expected, from sign on at around 1800 UT, with music and multilingual ID. Then weather report, some information on the "Semana de Mayo" and tango music. Less fading than other days, but terrible het from, perhaps, Africa Nº 1 15475. No audio heard from the interfering station. I had to use narrow bandwidth and detune to 15478 kHz in the Degen DE-1103 to be able to hear LRA-36 without becoming deaf due to the heterodyne. I used a 15-m randomwire antenna used, but could get acceptable signal even with the built-in telescopic antenna. 73, (Moises Knochén, Cuchilla Alta, Uruguay, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. Since RAE uses so few channels (6060, 9690, 11710, 15345) in their aging SW transmitters, I often wonder if they are crystal-controlled, such as was the case when Denmark used its 50 kW sender outside Copenhagen on 9520 or 15165 back in the day? (Joe Hanlon, NJ, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I bet they are, as at least 11710 and 15345 drift off-frequency, another xtal characteristic (gh) ** ARGENTINA. Re Mundo Radial: ``En radioescutas, Rubens Ferraz Pedroso en Paraná descubrió Radio Nacional de Argentina en la nueva 6280 a las 2129. Captada también por Alfredo Locatelli, Uruguay, a diversas horas sólo con fútbol y en paralelo con 6060. Terminado el relato deportivo, también finaliza la operación en 6280.`` Me parece que suena mas a una armónica que una frecuencia aparte. Es mi impresión, ya que no suena clara. Tiene el típico sonido saturado de una onda corta armónica. Es sólo una impresión mía, al comprarla con otras armónicas que he oído antes. Por eso es bueno verificar a ver si es eso o efectivamente es otro tranmisor. Saludos, Atte (Luis Valderas, Chile, May 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Luís, La única frecuencia fundamental en OM que cabe para 6280 sería 1570 (x4), donde no hay Radio Nacional. Podría ser espúrea y no armónica, por ejemplo producido por el transmisor en 6060, pero ¿porqué se quitaría del aire en 6280 (y no en 6060)? Hay varias frecuencias fuera de banda por parte del ejército, LTA que retransmiten otras emisoras argentinas, y me parece ser el mismo tipo de transmisión. Pero los otros no mencionan el `sonido saturado`. Talvez puedes sintonizarla más, y observar como suena el audio (hay demora?) en relacion a 870, 6060, 9690, 11710, 15345. En realidad ¿se termina en 6280 y continúa en 6060? 73, (Glenn to Luís, via DXLD) Glenn: Nuevamente Luis Valderas desde San Antonio. Respecto de las transmisiones de Radio Nacional de Buenos Aires, en 6280 me parece que es una armónica. Ahora lo he podido comprobar, ya que también se oye en los 5840 kHz. Mi teoria. La Radio Nacional Bs Aires transmite en los 6060. Además se oye en los 6280, o sea 220 kHz más arriba. También se oye en los 5840, o sea también 220 kHz pero hacia abajo. Deben ser armónicas, ya que su audición no es muy clara sino más bien como una espuria. Saludos -- ..- -.-. .... --- ... / --... ...-- (Luis Valderas, CANAL 2 TV SAN ANTONIO, Calle Patria 1951, San Antonio, Código Postal 2662683, CHILE, May 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Luís, Un armónico (o una armónica) es múltiplo integral de alguna frecuencia (2x, 3x, 4x, etc.). Lo que has comprabado es que 6280 tanto como 5840 son espúreas, como dices a igual distancia de la frecuencia fundamental. Es la palabra correcta (por lo menos como decimos en inglés, ``spurs`` o spurious radiation.). Un armónico es un tipo particular de radiación espúrea, pero no todos los espúreos son armónicos. (Cuando llegan a ser sustantivos, el género de ambas palabras también se confunde, igual con -e- o con -i-, lo que no nos molesta en inglés.) Parece que consideras la claridad lo que hace distinguirlos, pero desacuerdo. Es la relación matemática. Tales pares de radiación a ambos lados de alguna frecuencia no son de ninguna manera armónicos, por definición, aunque varios otros monitores se confunden. Bueno, lo importante es que has determinado lo que pasa. Sólo discutimos la terminología. 73, (Glenn a Luís via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So 6280 is a spur from 6060, with a matching spur heard on 5840 (gh) ** ARGENTINA [non]. Re: La Rosa de Tokyo para este domingo --- No mencionan LS11 para La Rosa; entonces ¿nunca se transmite más en esta emisora? Aunque figura en el esquema: http://www.radioprovincia.gba.gov.ar/programacion/programacion_am.htm No puedo alcanzar su audio durante esta hora de las 16 TU domingo. 73, (Glenn Hauser, May 20, condig list via DXLD) No, Glenn. Actualmente no está saliendo por LS11. La idea es que cuando asuma la nueva dirección de la emisora, luego de las elecciones provinciales de octubre, La Rosa vuelva a LS11. Por ahora, se graba en los estudios de Radio Provincia y sale por una red de estaciones que se ampliará considerablemente en pocos días. 73 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. I just confirmed this Sat. May 19, 0930, what has been going since a few days back on 12085 Brandon, where Radio Australia has been running sort of pidgin transmissions, instead of regular RA programming. Many mentions of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea. Always a close to S/5 signal has become a little fadey and noisy lately. Have anyone else noticed this? (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, they have Tok Pisin scheduled at 09-11 but had been on other frequencies including the other Brandon transmitter on 5995. Are you sure this was not 12080, the usual frequency? Someone else recently reported Brandon DRM as 12085 instead of 12080; in that case it would be 12075-12080-12085 of course if centered on 12080 (Glenn, ibid.) That's right Glenn, 12080, my wires crossed again. All confusion came as I use to detune to 12082 for clear audio and the fact that same time I was lloking for Mongolia 12085 with no luck at all. And as you mention, the announcer said Tok Pisin. Thought that Pidgin was the same thing (Raúl Saavedra, ibid.) It is the same thing, but Tok Pisin is the politically correct name for it now (Glenn, ibid.) ** BAHRAIN. 9745U, presumed R. Bahrain, 2138-2207, May 20, Arabic. Continuous Arabic vocal music thru ToH. Weak but steady under co- channel HCJB (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. Re 7-058: Thanks to tip from Anker Peterson, BBS booming on 6035 at 0200 utc, with new 100 kW transmitter. Got this reply from BBS station engineer this morning .... Qte ....... ----- Original Message ----- From: Thinley Dorji To: Alokesh Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 9:27 AM Subject: Re: Fw: Bhutan back ? Hi Alokesh, I am came back safely and resumed my daily duty. Thanks for the our transmission report. We have started our 100 kW transmitter few day ago. Our transmission starts from 6:30 AM to 12:00 and 14:00 to 21:30 (Indian standard Time) . Send you the details in next. With regards thanks Thinley ............ Unqte Regds (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, May 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 0100-0630, 0830-1600 UT (gh) Good morning Alokesh, SUPER signal from Bhutan. Sign on at 0002.50 with male voice. SINPO 34343. My GoldWave Recorder is working. Vy 73 (Wolf-Dieter Behnke, Germany?, May 20, via Gupta, ibid.) BBS heard here on 6035 May 20th signing on 0003 with brief announcements followed by distinctive bursts of local instrumental music and monks chanting to past 0016, fair on clear channel, best in USB, first time heard here, worth stopping up late for (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth Garden City, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) At 0008 Wolf-Dieter Behnke from somewhere here in Germany posted on the A-DX list "super signal, and this one hour after local sunrise in Bhutan". Of course I checked out 6035 shortly after 0030 but found the signal a bit too weak to make out more than what appeared to be a SAH of a few Hertz. What else is there? To recap the old info: This new transmitter is a Thomson Grass Valley TSW 2100D, delivered with a new 5/6 MHz quadrant antenna. News releases about this project mentioned as operational frequencies 5035 and 6035 but also 7500, although the antenna would not cover the last one channel, so probably the mention of 7500 was just a mistake. The transmitter site outside Thimpu is located at 2600 metres above sea level (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) BHUTAN BROADCASTING CHIEF QUITS TO CONTEST ELECTION | Text of report in English by Bhutan Broadcasting Service text website on 20 May 19 May: With the dateline for political parties to register drawing near, several senior government officials are coming forward to join politics. One of them is the managing director of the Bhutan Broadcasting Service. Mingbo Dukpa declared his intentions to join politics to the media yesterday, 18 May. He said he will be joining the People's Democratic Party [PDP] and contesting the 2008 election from the Deothang-Gomdhar constituency in Samdrupjongkhar. He has already submitted his resignation and will be registering with the PDP this month. Mingbo Dukpa said he is joining politics because people from his constituency have repeatedly called on him to join politics. The decision has also been influenced by the opportunity to serve and work closely with the people at the grassroots level. Mingbo Dukpa has served as the managing director of the BBS for over four years. Before that he served as the Dagana dzongda [district administrator] for five years. He joined service in September 1971 shortly after he completed a two-year diploma course in teaching from the teacher training institute in Samtse. Over a career spanning more than 36 years, he has also served as the chief inspector of schools and as a principal and teacher in schools in several parts of the kingdom. Source: Bhutan Broadcasting Service text website, Thimphu, in English 0000 gmt 20 May 07 (via BBCM via DXLD) Riding our Bhutan-mania theme, United Statesians or others with access to The Discovery Channel might be interested in this new show Sunday night, UT Monday. Times from zap2it below are CDT = UT -5. Adventure Bhutan --- Sun, May 20, 8:00 PM | Run Time: 120 min. Genre: Special --- TV-PG An expedition is the first to map the interior of the country, located in the eastern Himalayas. 42 DSC Sun 5/20 8:00 PM 42 DSC Mon 5/21 12:00 AM 42 DSC Sun 5/27 12:00 PM [1700 UT] I spot checked but have not yet watched the whole thing. Seemed to be more about the challenge of kayaking than about Bhutan itself. Further2more, visit the UTEP campus. 73, (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6165, Radio Logos (tentative), 1045-1050, May 19, Spanish, religious program with talk by male and Christian song, 24222. At 1050 UT the signal is covered by the transmitter opening (¿RNW?). I have the following mail to write to the station: relacionespublicas @ radiologosnetwork.com (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 6060.2, presumed R. Tupi, 0818-0833, May 21, Portuguese. Familiar format of OM with religious talk over music ending at 0830, then seamlessly into OM addressing a rather enthusiastic crowd (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. O que a TRANSMUNDIAL faz no Sul poderiam se fazer no Norte em Roraima?? Prezados amigos, Essa semana li um Email de colegas sobre a recepção da Transmundial em 11735 kHz que possui sua programação em São Paulo e transmite desde Santa Maria/RS no extremo Sul, onde chega até aqui o Nordeste com muita folga e em uma frequência bem desocupada. A pergunta que paira é a seguinte: - Hoje com esta tecnologia de transmissão Via satélite as grandes organizações montam seus estúdios em qualquer lugar e se plugam aos transmissores pelos satélites com sinais confiáveis e de alta qualidade (digitais). Isso acontece já com a Transmundial e com a CVC que também produz nos Estados Unidos e em São Paulo e transmite desde o Chile em seus transmissores para toda a América latina. Por que não fazemos o meso aqui no Brasil. será que tem que ficar tudo socado em Brasília, São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro? - Porque não punhamos os transmissores em Roraima, Rondônia, Acre, para emitir para o Brasil todo? Agora em Roraima seria um dos melhores lugares; aliás esse é um dos azimutes onde ficam as Guyanas (onde na Francesa tem um parque de retransmissoras internacionais é de lá que vem os sinais da Nederland e da NHK). Em Roraima agora temos energia elétrica de sobra da Hidroelétrica de Gury na Venezuela e que é confiável. A propósito o HC (Hugo Chávez) está fazendo seus programinhas lá em Caracas e retransmite desde os parques de Cuba para dentro de seu próprio país. [mainly as external service, not just back to Venezuela --- gh] Não sei porque o Governo brasileiro está de pijamas quanto a esse assunto. Será que o pessoal de Brasilia não ouve rádio? - Era para termos uma das maiores transmissões e utilização do espectro de Ondas Curtas na América Latina e estamos perdendo até para a Argentina que mantém programas em alemão, japonês, italiano e frances pelas ondas da RAE. Cadê a nossa Radio Nacional do Brasil? As freqüências de 19 metros estão invadidas pelos chineses que falam de dia e de noite em todas as freqùências, e a propaganda é a alma do negócio já dizia o galo para a galinha!!! Não é com a TV Brasil que iremos influenciar a nossa política de país emergente; tem que ter rádio e rádio é comunicação barata e eficaz. Todo o dia tem exemplo disso. Esse final de semana mesmo foi o acidente com o Boeing nos Camarões teve a sua primeira confirmação pela Rádio de Camarões e toda a Africa ficou sabendo. Aqui no Brasil é igual aos controladores de vôo as rádios estão na mão de méia dúzia de políticos e de igrejas que passam por cima da alta significância que o rádio deve ter para a nossa sociedade brasileira. Temos que urgentemente mudar esses conceitos. As ondas curtas são a melhor via de comunicação e integração a custo baixo que temos e não podemos simplesmente descartar essa possibilidade. O Brasil precisa de ouvir a voz de suas regiões; não é só o Sul e Brasilia que falam para o país (Cezar Camillo Alves Pelzer, May 6, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Cezar, pertinentes suas observações. A Rádio Senado, em 5990 raramente é captada aqui em S. Paulo. Ela teria que transmitir de diversos pontos do país e em diversas frequências, de tal modo, a cobrir as mais diversas regiões do país. Abs, (EDSON S. CASTRO, PU2LHG, May 19, ibid.) Edson, aqui em Fortaleza, não consigo captar a Rádio Senado. Até mais (Dirney Martins, ibid.) É uma pena que nossos governantes prefiram gastar nosso dinheiro em projetos caros e de pouca abrangência, sobretudo se entendermos que o Brasil é, praticamente, um continente! O rádio deveria ser o principal méio de comunicação, pois você não pode esperar que uma pessoa pobre do interior do Amazonas tenha uma TV digital! Além disso, o rádio é de fácil portabilidade e permite o repasse de notícias imediatamente, sem necessidade da parafernália que a TV exige! É uma pena constatar que é mais fácil escutar a Rádio China Internacional do que a Rádio Senado (5990 kHz - que eu nunca consegui escutar!); que Cuba, Venezuela, EUA, Argentina, etc., transmitem muito mais programas do que o Governo brasileiro para seu próprio país. O Brasil subestima o poder do rádio, mesmo sabendo que nos rincões pátrios os países estrangeiros adentram por méio das OC com mais efetividade! Não só isso, mas o governo deveria doar rádios ondas-curtas gratuitamente às famílias pobres do interior, de preferência àqueles sem necessidade de pilhas, ou mesmo movidos a energia elétrica. Eis o princípio da publicidade e da cidadania acessível a todos, indistintamente. Será que nenhum deputado pode propor idéias desse tipo? Que manter um sistema de emissão em ondas-curtas é bem mais barato que uma TV? Interiorizar as antenas, sobretudo no Norte, é de suma importância para o desenvolvimento de nosso país. Tome-lhes uma Radiobrás em 1 MHz!! :) Cordialmente, (Flávio (For-CE) Arcangelo, ibid.) Amigos, aqui no Recife/PE é quase que impossivel ouvir a Radio Senado a não ser via Satélite no mesmo canal da TV Senado para quem tem parabólica, é claro. Infelizmente estamos "mocos" na linguagem nordestina, quer dizer "surdos" em matéria de radiodifusão. Agora só se conhece FM e nada mais. AM já é uma temeridade, imagine onda curta!!! Enquanto isso o dolar cai e até que dá para arriscar importar uns equipamentos melhores da Europa e EUA. Veremos!!! Ao menos a gasolina eu sei que não vai baixar tão cedo, sempre tem uma desculpa da Petrobrás para não acreditar no mercado quando cai a cotação, mas quando sobe é rápida no gatilho. Viva o povo brasileiro (Cezar Camillo Alves Pelzer, ibid.) Amigos, gostaria da avaliação e/ou criticas sobre a recepção da rádios Senado na frequência de 5990 e caso seja possivel mandar via e-mail o estado, cidade e a recepção. Até mais (Dirney Martins, ibid.) Oi Gostaria de comentar esta mensagem. A Rádio Senado Ondas Curtas SINPO 44344 na parte da manhã até às 1430 UT. Tenho boa recepção desta emissora aqui em minha região Pompeu M G. É melhor que a Nacional Amazônia, SINPO 23322 e a Inconfidência BH -MG SINPO 43333. Lembro que alguém escreveu aqui nesta lista, que Rádio Senado iria usar as antenas e freqüências abandonadas da Radiobrás; para transmissões para o norte do Brasil. Gostaria se posssivel que os colegas desta lista retribuissem mandando comentários de recepcao da Inconfidência 6010 de Minas Gerais (Durval503, ibid.) Pessoal, Entendo que os governantes brasileiros não sabem priorizar o rádio como veículo de comunicação, especialmente o papel que as ondas curtas desempenham em um país continental. Entretanto, a Rádio Senado não serve de exemplo para tal pessimismo, vide a nota que publiquei em 04/02/2007, em http://www.romais.jor.br --- "A Rádio Senado, de Brasília (DF), pretende aumentar o alcance de suas emissões em ondas curtas. A emissora já fechou um acordo com a Radiobrás para utilizar as antenas inativas daquela estatal. De acordo com o diretor Ivan Godoy, o objetivo é levar o sinal da emissora para todas as regiões brasileiras. "Rádio em ondas curtas é muito importante no interior do País, e, com a rádio digital, a qualidade ficará a mesma da transmissão FM", diz Godoy. As informações são do Comunique-se." 73s, (Célio Romais, Porto Alegre, RS, ibid.) ** BURMA [non]. RADIO FREE ASIA LAUNCHES ARAKANESE LANGUAGE PROGRAMME The Radio Free Asia Burmese service yesterday launched a five-minute long Arakanese language service during its ethnic programme. News in the Arakanese language is to be aired towards the end of the RFA Burmese programme every Sunday at 1230-1330 UT on 9320, 9455 and 13675 kHz. The RFA Burmese service will also launch a Mon language section from next Saturday. Shan, Karen, Karenni, Kachin, and Chin have had their respective language programmes airing on RFA’s service since last year. Another Arakanese program, from Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma, also airs every Sunday. (Source: Narinjara) (May 21st, 2007 - 13:37 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) These minolity language programs are generally lumped together under Burmese, not even mentioned in RFA frequency schedules, and we still do not have any exact days and times for them; what an insult. They do the same thing with some Chinese minolity languages (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. Re. Charles' remarks on CHU: 2.5, 5 or 10 MHz specifically means that the frequency ranges reserved for standard frequency and time signal stations are 2498...2501, 4995...5003, 9995...10003, 14990...15005, 19995...20010 and 24990...25005, cf. http://www.ris.bka.gv.at/taweb-cgi/taweb?x=d&o=l&v=bgbl&db=BGBL&q=%7B%24QUERY%7D&sl=100&t=doc4.tmpl&s=(II+456/2003)%3APORG (just the first plain HTML copy I found). This is not hypothetical, RWM at Moscow uses 4996, 9996 and 14996 rather than operating co- channel with the American stations (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Huge file, half of which is footnotes, complete spectrum allocation table, in German, the right column being for Austria in particular. The footnotes, however, are in English. Watch the wrap (gh, DXLD) Hi! I'm replying to an item in one of your recent issues of DXLD. Someone suggested that CHU could be moved to one of the WWV frequencies. That wouldn't be nice. The ntpd [?] computer program can be used to gather time from either WWV or CHU. I used to use it to gather time from CHU, but it's hopeless to do so when the pure carrier power of other stations (WHRI?) can make CHU inaudible. To put both CHU and WWV on the same channel would a) disrupt the ability for a PC to get time from either station, and b) take away all of the nice features that WWV offers to the average listener, in particular, not having to listen to those obnoxious modem tones for ten seconds per minute. 7335 kHz is the only one of the CHU frequencies that are audible on the cheapest of radios. It stinks that even that one will have to move due to the might-makes-right policy that has dictated so- called "band allocations" and laws for the 15 years that I've owned shortwave radios. BTW, when did you start this CHU crusade? I'd like to catch up on it and don't know if that strong foreign-language broadcast on 7335 is WHRI or not (Michael L. Semon, Florida, USA, May 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Michael, I agree that moving CHU onto a WWV frequency would not be an improvement, or a viable solution. So far WHRI is on 7335 only between 06 and 11 UT. Mostly English, but some Spanish toward the end of the broadcast. 7335 also has QRM from Vatican Radio in various languages at various times between 01 and 05+. I think it was in early- to mid- April that I started the `crusade`. Some of the posts are under USA, some under CANADA. You can probably find most of them by searching on CHU at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html (Glenn to Michael, via DXLD) ** CANADA. A week in the life of CBC Radio's national science program, by Paige Magarrey: The "Gee Whiz" Effect --- Bob McDonald and his Quirks & Quarks colleagues cover science with infectious enthusiasm. It's a 32-year- old formula that still offers lessons on how to make difficult topics compelling... http://www.rrj.ca/issue/2007/spring/678/ (via Ricky Leong, AB, DXLD) ** CAYMAN ISLANDS [and non?]. 4045 USB, Cayman Islands, 1335 to 1340 on 13 May with discussion of weather system over Cuba; effect on George Town, Cayman Islands. Subsequent days heard reports from various Islands in the Bahamas. 5 or more radio countries... :-) (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, FL, Estados Unidos, Conexión Digital May 20 via DXLD) ** CHINA. XJBS Urumqi domestic services were heard again today May 19. Apparently, signals were fading in when I came across them at around 0710, and they remained audible until around 0845 - a total daylight path to my location. 9470 in Kazakh is now free of DRM and this one was heard peaking to S5 and parallel to weak and just audible 7340. 9510 in Mongolian was only S2 at first but improved later and was parallel much weaker 7230. 9560 in Uighur was only pushing the meter to S1 at first but this also improved. The parallel 7275 was inaudible due to local noise if on air, while 11885 and 13670 were inaudible. 9835 in Chinese was peaking to S4 but also became stronger (a machine gun like noise on/off was interfering at 0728). The parallel 9600 was inaudible until it peaked out of local noise at around 0731 at weak strength. Other listed channels 11770 and 7155 were not heard. Propagation of the signals on 9 MHz was extremely variable in strength with peaks up to S9 and fades to almost nothing, similar to long distance MW reception but with more rapid fades/peaks. All are listed with 50 kW omnidirectional except 7340, 9470 and 9835 which are 100 kW. The 11 and 13 MHz channels are all listed for 230 deg 50 kW. I tried further south for AIR Delhi 9595 listed 100 kW via 342 deg at 0700-0800 in Nepali and from 0830 in Urdu but there was no trace of a signal. However I could hear faint traces of a familiar warble on 7200 - no audio, and nothing on 7345 - and someone in Chinese on 11950 at poor strength - Tibet? This had splash from Turkey 11955. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), May 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sounds like it may have been a sporadic E opening, which we associate so much with VHF but also happens at HF. 73, (Glenn, ibid.) ** CHINA. Not hearing Firedrake against Sound of Hope lately on 9200, even when it is coming in well on 10300, so has the lower frequency moved? May 20 at 1343 on 10300, not 9200; May 21 at 1359 ditto, but then 10300 went off for 5-minute monitoring break (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DIEGO GARCIA. 4319U, presumed AFN, 003-0016, May 16, English. Stock report and sports scores via FOX followed by right wingish call-in program. PSA re help for alcohol abuse. Poor/weak (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Radio East Africa, Malabo, 1015-1025, May 14, English, religious program conduced by male with short talks by female, ann. & ID as: “….Radio East Africa......the Lord......”, 25432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not GUINEA, a very separate country ** ERITREA. 7090, V of Broad Masses of Eritrea, Asmara, 1619-1628, 16 May, Vernacular, talks & tunes; 35332, but typically troubled reception due to amateur signals (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 6109.92, Radio Fana, Addis Ababa, 0305-0335+, May 20, Horn of Africa music, talk in local language. Poor, mixing with TWR on 6110, but in the clear when TWR leaves the air at 0332. Heard // 7210- poor under BBC, but in the clear when BBC leaves the air at 0329 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6109.92, R. Fana, 0335-0344, May 21, Vernacular. HoA music followed by OM and YL in [unID] language. Poor as was // 7210. Thanks B. Alexander tip (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. PIRATE (Scotland), 6400.05, Weekend Music Radio, 0000- 0010+, May 20, Acknowledged listeners' reports. ID. Pop music. Fair to good but some occasional utility QRM (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Re 7-058: the new schedule for RFI in Hausa, and the comment by Jean-Michel Aubier. I didn't listen at 0600 today (Monday May 21st) but at 0700 I heard 11830 and 15315 broadcasting this programme. And so the earlier start date of the 21st of May seems to be the correct one (Noel R. Green, (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, it did start today. There was a press release about it, which I didn't see, but it's quoted in the Nigerian press. They apparently didn't realise the times in the press release were UTC, so people in Nigeria will be tuning in an hour too early :-) BTW the programmes are actually produced in Lagos at the Voice of Nigeria. Service was originally planned to launch in September last year (Andy Sennitt, ibid.) This setup is rather odd; could you imagine RFI broadcasting to NAm in English from a studio in New York rather than Paris? Oops, could not imagine them broadcasting to NAm in English from anywhere (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. ANO - reported erratic or absent on SW over the past week - heard this morning (19 May) with fair signals and good modulation from tune-in at 0730 on 17630 (Chris (UK) Greenway, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I got around 17630 at 1330, too, and found the same weak signal from ANO, as if they were running at half power or maybe less. But has not been different from what I heard last weekend on even 15475 and as I have checked on my local late afternoons (2230)on 9580, all frequencies left you with the impression of downgraded power. The other option is to blame poor propagation conditions. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) [17630 at 0730?] Also heard at my location too - and parallel to 9580. And 15475 is strong at 1715 (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.) ** GERMANY. Latest T-Systems schedule update, sent out today, is in the Yahoo group again. No big news; Brother Scare again cancelled a 500 kW Wertachtal transmission, some changes for other religious broadcasters as well (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also SRI LANKA; See U S A [non?] ** GERMANY. A check through the band revealed DRM which appeared centered on 26045 peaking to audibility - may be this one? But no trace of it ten minutes later. 26045 0000 2400 28 NAU 1 0 1234567 250307 281007 N D NEW FNA (Noel R. Green (NW England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 26045 originates from the Hannover university [illustrated]: http://www.digital11.de/3.html This is a trial they run in coöperation with the media authority of Niedersachsen (NLM). It has nothing to do with the Nauen site; Bundesnetzagentur put it into HFCC as NAU only because this is the nearest-by existing site designator (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) ** GREECE. BBG's budget request for fiscal year 2008 reveals where the transmitters dismantled in Greece went to: >>> In the spring of 2006, the BBG closed the Greece Transmitting Station, a major shortwave and medium wave facility. The realities of funding, technology, and shifting audience preferences led the BBG to cease U.S. Government international broadcasts from this facility. Engineering dismantled two high power medium wave transmitters and associated equipment and two of the station’s newer shortwave transmitters. One of the shortwave transmitters has been shipped to Tajikistan for installation at Teleradiocom’s Orzu facility to upgrade the site’s shortwave transmission capability. One of the medium wave transmitters was shipped to the BBG’s Kuwait Transmitting Station to establish a Radio Farda broadcast capability. The other two transmitters will be stored for eventual redeployment to high priority areas to support the BBG’s worldwide broadcast mission. With the assistance of the U.S. Embassy in Athens, the station’s Rhodes transmitting site was formally turned over to the Government of Greece in October 2006 and the Kavala site in December 2006. <<< The two "newer shortwave transmitters" in fact originated from Glória, so they were dismantled already for the second time now. These statements also make clear that any current transmissions on 792 must originate from somewhere else but not from the closed IBB site, simply because the transmitter is no longer there (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [also via John Babbis] ** GUYANA. 3291.72 tentative, GBC tentatively returning to the air, noted first 0020 on 19 May. Having been silent for almost a month, GBC shows the usual early signs of returning to the air with strong carrier but little audio. This pattern repeated over the last three years(Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, FL, Estados Unidos, Conexión Digital May 20 via DXLD) ** INDIA. 4840, AIR Mumbai, 0046-0108, May 19, vernacular. Hindi music at tune-in, noted // 5010 Thiruvan` (fair) and 4910 Jaipur (poor). At 0054 each with different announcers followed at 0100 with each station using their own format. Jaipur was unusable by ToH, Thiruvan` fading considerably by tune-out, while Mumbai held steady throughout (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY. Radio Maria heard May 20th on 26000 via Sporadic E at 0835 carrying Mass, still in AM. As last year at peaks was stronger than the London DRM tests on 25695 (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth Garden City, England, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also audible here on the 21st at 1400 and in AM as Mike says. Nothing registering on the S meter but a clear signal on peaks (Noel Green, ibid.) See also GERMANY ** KASHMIR [and non]. PRASAR BHARTI TRANSFERS DIRECTOR RADIO KASHMIR ‘Now only few Kashmiris in Radio Kashmir’ GK NEWS NETWORK http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=19_5_2007&ItemID=39&cat=25 Srinagar, May 18: A day after transfer of six programme executives of Kashmiri discipline from Radio Kashmir Srinagar to other parts of India, the Prasar Bharti Friday ordered transfer of Director Radio Kashmir and the Director Commercial Broadcasting Service (CBS). Director Radio Kashmir G H Zia has been transferred to Chandigarh as Director Commercial Broadcasting Service and Bashir Arif , Director CBS, has been transferred to Hisar in Haryana. Director Radio Kashmir Jammu T Angmu has been transferred to Srinagar as Director Radio Kashmir Srinagar. Prasar Bharti on Thursday transferred programme executive (P Ex) Nisar Ahmad Vani from Srinagar to Nouded, P.Ex G.N Ratanpuri to Balghat West Bengal, P.Ex Nisar Naseem to Satara (Maharashtra), P.Ex Syed Humayun Qasir to Kargil, P.Ex Abdal Mahjoor to Jammu, and Maqbool Ahmad to Sholapure Kolkata. Sources said that transfer orders have been issued despite the fact that Radio Kashmir was presently facing grave problem owing to the lack of programme executives who have been appointed in Kashmiri discipline including drama, spoken word, science. Sources said the transfer was against the Supreme Court ruling which has directed that persons appointed against particular discipline should be allowed to serve that very discipline. “In Jammu and Kashmir they have different modus operandi. They transfer people and replace them with those who have no idea what Kashmiri drama and literature is all about,” said an official pleading anonymity (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) ** KUWAIT. BBG's budget request for fiscal year 2008 officially confirms that 1386 will be used for Radio Farda: >>> An existing 600 kW transmitter and antenna towers have been deployed from Greece for use in constructing a new medium wave facility in Kuwait. Radio Farda broadcasts from this facility are expected to begin in FY 2008. <<< (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA [non]. 9525, Star Radio via Ascension, 0713-0735 May 19, in English, OM with program of African music and singing, IDs: "Star Radio" and "coming to you from Monrovia, Liberia", at 0735 clearly changed over to Cotton Tree News (CTN) programming, fair (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. 9875, R. Vilnius, 2342-2359*, May 15, English. Reports re human trafficking, debate over Lithuanian deep-water port. 2352 ID. Feature on Lithuanian/E.U. antique shops and flea markets. Good (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, R. Malagasy, 0305-0330, May 18, vernacular. Various announcers between musical bits. Solid “R. Malagasy” ID at 0328 followed by a presumed ad/promo, then a “R. Madagaskara” ID at 0329. Poor (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 15295, V. of Malaysia, 1150-1214, May 20, Mandarin. Pop music and ballads with YL between selections. ID at ToH followed by presumed news. Nice ID string at 1210. Fair at best with mild 15300- RFI splatter. // 11885-weak, fade-out after 1200 (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [and non]. HD Radio may go south of the border Baltimore Business Journal - 12:17 PM EDT Friday, May 18, 2007 by Scott Dance http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?t=baltimore&am=baltimore&q=%22Scott%20Dance%22&f=byline&am=120_days&r=20 Mexico is considering acceptance of HD Radio, the high-definition digital technology of Columbia-based iBiquity Digital Corp. According to the Web site of Cofetel, Mexico's equivalent of the Federal Communications Commission, the agency is studying several types of digital radio for implementation. IBiquity officials said in a release Friday that a Mexican government proposal would allow radio stations within 200 miles of the country's northern border to begin broadcasting in HD Radio at their will. Stations that adopt HD Radio can continue to broadcast traditional analog signals and a digital signal simultaneously to provide clearer audio because HD receivers can sort out interference and static. HD Radio is being or was tested in 13 countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Switzerland, Thailand and Ukraine, according to the release. In the U.S., about 1,300 stations broadcast in HD Radio, with at least 11 in Maryland (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) What a waste ** MONACO [non]. ZONE 80 END OF THE TESTS Tests from Zone 80 are now stopped since May 11th. The programme in French was broadcast from Col de la Madone with 40 kW on 1467 kHz from 0500-1620 UTC. The station plan to come back on the air from Monaco from June. But not neccessarily on MW, may be on FM as MC One did some years ago. Adresse is Zone 80 Avenue Rogier, 14 B- 4000 Liège BELGIUM studio@zone80. be or http://www.zone80.be (C. Ghibaudo, Nice - Côte d'Azur - France, via Dario Monferini, May 18, playdx yg via DXLD) Ciao a tutti, Su indicazione di Dario Monferini [sic], questa mattina ho provato un paio di volte a sintonizzare la frequenza di 1467 kHz per verificare o meno la presenza della stazione belga Zone 80 ma non era presente alcun segnale. Anche Dario a Milano ha constatato la medesima situazione, quindi è probabile che le prove di trasmissione siano terminate. Vedremo se partiranno regolarmente con il mese di giugno o se hanno cambiato idea (SWL I1-0799GE Luca Botto Fiora, May 19, ibid.) ** NIGERIA. 6089.85, Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, 2125-2300*, May 19, Vernacular talk, African folk music, local chants. Sign off with short National Anthem. Good signal and in the clear until approximately 2207 when covered by a very strong Anguilla on 6090. But Nigeria still slightly audible under Anguilla (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 7275, R. Nigeria, Abuja, 1512-1617, 16 May, English, light music & songs, announcements 1602, newscast, more music; 44332, adjacent QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Hi, While listening to Wantok Radio Light on the weekend (18th May) on the annual ARDXC DXpedition I heard a special announcement about a frequency change in June. I emailed them to get confirmation of date and frequency and received the following. Regards, Wayne ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Administrator Date: May 21, 2007 10:48 AM Subject: Re: Frequency Change To: Wayne Bastow Greetings Wayne, Thank you for writing to us. Our frequency will change on the 3rd June, this year to 7325 kHz on the 41 meter band. But you will encounter interruptions starting 22 May since our engineers will begin work on our transmitters. Happy listening. Martha on behalf of the Engineering team -- (via Wayne Bastow, Wyoming, NSW, Australia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) This has been planned for over a year, ex-7120; at last (gh, DXLD) ** PERU. 4857.11, Radio La Hora, Cusco, 1036-1041, May 14, Spanish, national news by male, 24432. 6520.41, Radio Paucartambo, Paucartambo, 1028-1034, May 19, Quechua, Huayños and short ann. By male, 25232 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. REACTIVACION RADIO CENTINELA DEL NORTE 4655.2 KHZ Transmitiendo desde el Distrito de Cortegana, Provincia de Celendín, Dpto. de Cajamarca; captada el 20 de mayo desde las 0005 UT hasta su cierre 0200. Promocionando la próxima fiesta patronal de Cortegana en honor a San Antonio de Padua. "...en el extranjero que están escuchando esta señal en 4655 de Radio Centinela del Norte, desde Cortegana para todo el territorio nacional peruano; Cortegana tierra en el norte de nuestro querido país..." Anuncia transmision simultánea por los 90.7 MHz "...arriba Peru, arriba Cortegana con Centinela del Norte..." Durante los años 2000 y 2001 transmitieron tres emisoras a través de esta frecuencia: Radio Celendín, Ecos del Eden y Radio Nuevo Amanecer, todas desde la provincia de Celendín, por lo que ahora puede tratarse de los mismos equipos. En el 2005 el fallecido colega Björn Malm señalaba la escucha de esta emisora por los 4654.96 pero no identificando el lugar de transmisión (Rafael Rodríguez, Bogotá, Colombia, May 21, playdx yg via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 9765, RSt. Tikhy Okean was arriving with fair to poor signal. ID heard at 0835 after IS. With conditions at floor level on most SW bands, this one became a pleasant surprise, after several months of not listening to it. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAINT HELENA. 11092.5 usb, "Radio Santa Helena", Jamestown, 1542- 1600*, 17 May, English, songs, ID+freqency announcement 1550, references to reception reports; 35332. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SIERRA LEONE [non]. 9525, Cotton Tree News (CTN) via Ascension, 0735 May 19, begins with drums, "This is CTN", more drums, into news in English (about elections & cooperation, "Development Program", etc.) but accent made it difficult to understand, "This news comes to you from CTN, Freetown", news in local languages (each segment used the words "Development Program"), usual sign-off announcement, program ended about 0758:30, off the air 0800. Mostly fair, at times almost good. Reception well above average (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. 11905, presumed SLBC, 0120-0144, May 21, Vernacular. Hindi-like ballads and duets with brief YL between selections thru tune-out. Fair, crushed by 11910-R. Vaticana IS at 1144 (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA [non]. Latest T-Systems schedule update, sent out today, is in the Yahoo group again. No big news; IBC Tamil 0000-0100 moved from ex-7225 to 7115 as of May 8 (parameters unchanged, i.e. still Wertachtal, running 250 kW). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. 4750, R. Peace, 0237-0303, May 18, Vernacular/English. OM and YL between both choral and indigenous musical bits. English ID at 0259 followed by choral music bit and a shorter “This is Radio Peace” ID. Poor with CODAR that diminished over time (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAJIKISTAN. BBG's budget request for fiscal year 2008 outlines the new 972 transmitter as well as the installation of an ex-Kavála ex-ex-Glória transmitter at the Orzu site: >>> A new 800 kW medium wave transmitter became operational in Tajikistan in the first quarter of FY 2006 and provided improved Urdu service into Pakistan. A voltage regulator was installed in FY 2006 to improve reliability by providing a more stable power supply to the transmitter. A new medium wave antenna system was placed into service in November 2006 to further enhance broadcasts into this important region. [...] To improve broadcast capability to East Asia, the BBG developed plans to augment the leased Tajikistan radio facility with a high-power shortwave transmitter and associated antenna system. Negotiations with Tajikistan’s state radio service were completed in May 2004, resulting in the contract award for the shortwave antenna system in late FY 2005. Manufacturing of shortwave antenna equipment was completed in FY 2006, and the materials were delivered to the installation site in Tajikistan in October 2006. An existing 250 kW shortwave transmitter from the closed Greece Transmitting Station will be used in conjunction with the new antenna. Facility modifications and installation of equipment are scheduled to commence in FY 2007. The projected on-air date for broadcasts is mid-FY 2008. <<< (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Orzu transmitter is a Thalès/Thomcast (or whatever they are this week) and was new on install in Orzu, not a move from anywhere else. Yes, HF to be installed there is from Kavala/Gloria, so far as I am aware (Benjamin Dawson, WA, May 20-21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. 5/18: Did anyone notice Voice of Turkey started two minutes early at 0258 with TS and then usual intro of English program on 5975 to NAm, then into news? (Joe Hanlon, NJ, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA [non]. Ugandan Radio Online http://allafrica.com/stories/200705180149.html UGANDAN recording artists have reason to smile. A new UK-based online radio station called http://www.pearl-radio.net/ is out to promote Ugandan musicians in the Diaspora by playing their music exclusively. That means that we are going to see more Ugandan singers going off to perform in the Diaspora as their music will be widely listened to. Africa 2007 Pearl radio premiered its services with a gospel show that featured last weekend. Ivan Kibuuka, a UK-based Ugandan is behind it (New Vision, via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) ** U A E. [Re 7-058, GERMANY]. Has UAE site ever been used deliberately for South America before? Most likely no. Target areas of Radio Abu Dhabi via Al-Dhabbaya during the mid-nineties were Europe / North America, North Africa (perhaps "North" is to be taken not too seriously, I guess 9545 goes out via the antenna used for 9770 to "NAf" during the evening back then), Middle East, Australia and Far East. I'm not aware of any such transmissions on behalf of Merlin / VTC either. Reminds me o RNW which did the same from Madagascar during recent winter seasons. At present they have replaced this arrangement by Sines if I recall correctly (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. Details of the new 800 kW MW transmitter The recent installation in Abu Dhabi is the third successful implementation for Dhabayia, the radio arm of Emirates Media Incorporation (EMI). Dhabayia 1 and Dhabayia 2 were implemented in May 2003 [1170 kHz] and January 2005 [1575 kHz] respectively. Thomson and its local partner Bin Jabr TRS Est won the multi-million dollar contract to deliver, install and commission an 800 kW medium wave transmitter [for 1539], a directional two-tower antenna, auxiliary systems, the transmitter building and access roads. The latest generation Thomson S7HP transmitter was selected because it is readily upgraded to digital operation should Dhabayia decide to move to DRM. Considering the amount of civil works required, the project was completed in a remarkably short time. With the order placed in summer 2006, civil works were still being completed when the transmitter itself was delivered to site at the beginning of January. Test transmissions started on 20 February, with handover for operational services occurring on 25 February. Perfect team work, creative solutions and flexible interface management made this third record-breaking time scale possible. The three new high power mediumave stations are situated only a kilometer away from the Dhabayia short wave site, where four Thomson shortwave transmitters and 48 Thomson shortwave antenna systems are still running well after more than 20 years of service (Thomson Broadcast&Multimedia "Radio News", Spring 2007) [Note: the transmitters are leased by EMI to the BBG/IBB; the programming carried is Radio Sawa on 1170, Radio Farda on 1575, and Radio Aap ki Dunyaa on 1539 kHz.] (via Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, May 20, dxldyg via DXLD) So, this is an 800 kW transmitter for 1539 kHz, but why they registered only 400 kW at the ITU? (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, ibid.) ** U K [non]. Re 7-058: Glenn, a menos que me dirigiera yo a otro site, con BBC Mundo no se pueden confirmar esas frecuencias de 6095 y 11825 para su esquema de 11-12, porque ellos ni siquieran las contemplan, como vos mismo podés comprobar con una pequeña visita. 73. (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC’s Global News audiences reach a record 233m The BBC’s combined international news services attracted a record global weekly audience of over 233 million during 2006/7, according to independent surveys. The global audience figure for the combined services of BBC World Service radio, BBC World television and the BBC’s international online news service bbcnews.com is up 23 million from 210 million last year. Many people used more than one service. BBC World Service’s weekly radio audience estimate is a record 183 million, up 20 million on last year. BBC World - the commercially-funded international English language news and information television channel – now has estimated record audiences of 76 million viewers a week; up from 65 million in 2005/6. The BBC’s international facing online news sites attracted a record 763 million page impressions in March 2007, up from 546 million compared to March 2006. There were a record 38.5 million unique online users across the globe during March 2007, up from 32.8 million a year ago. BBC Global News Director Richard Sambrook said: “This is a strong and welcome indication that the BBC’s news services are strengthening their impact with audiences around the globe in the highly competitive multimedia age. “People around the world are increasingly turning to the BBC when they need quality news and information that is independent and trusted,” he said.” There were large BBC radio audience increases in Bangladesh (up 8.3 million). Increased survey coverage added 7.5 million to the estimate in Democratic Republic of Congo and 7.0 million in Afghanistan. Weekly audiences in radio markets in India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Rwanda all grew by a million or more during the year. BBC World saw substantial growth in audiences in the Africa, Canada, Egypt, India, Pakistan and the USA. [. . .] The new World Service global audience estimate is derived from a comprehensive programme of independent audience research over a four year cycle. This year’s figure incorporates new data from 24 countries – some 69 per cent of this year’s audience (some 65 per cent of last year’s audience). The BBC World audience figure is compiled from multiple surveys (syndicated, omnibus and specifically commissioned) across 100 countries. The surveys are carried out by independent market research groups and comply with international standards of audience research. - ends - For further information: BBC World Service Press Office Telephone: 0207 557 2941 May 20, 2007 (Peter Connors, BBCWS press, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The BBC's combined international news services attracted a record global weekly audience of more than 233 million during 2006/7, according to independent surveys. BBC World Service's weekly radio audience estimate is a record 183 million, up 20 million on last year. There were large BBC radio audience increases in Bangladesh – up 8.3 million. Increased survey coverage added 7.5 million to the estimate in Democratic Republic of Congo and 7.0 million in Afghanistan. Weekly audiences in radio markets in India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Rwanda all grew by a million or more during the year. Full press release: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/05_may/21/global.shtml (Mike Barraclough, swprograms via DXLD) ** U K. RADIO 4 CLOSES EARS TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS PLEAS Wednesday May 09 2007 The Guardian The Radio 4 controller, Mark Damazer, has axed foreign affairs magazine show A World in Your Ears after nine years on the network - to the consternation of the show's originator and its presenter. Rosie Goldsmith, who has presented the programme which samples English language radio from around the world for four years, openly questioned the BBC's commitment to foreign affairs in the light of Mr Damazer's decision. The axing of A World in Your Ears comes just weeks after BBC Radio Five Live dropped its foreign affairs slot Euro News also in a bid to make savings. "We all understand about efficiencies but you have to wonder how great our commitment is to foreign coverage," Goldsmith told the current issue of BBC in-house magazine Ariel. "My fear is that the perspective is becoming too parochial." She was joined in criticising the axing of A World in Your Ears by Radio 4's world programmes editor, Maria Balinska, who launched the series more than nine years ago. "We've just done a programme on Zimbabwe - radio that's produced inside, outside and about Zimbabwe, for instance from South Africa. How would you compile that range of programmes any other way?," Ms Balinska said. The programme will end on May 27 with a special episode focusing on the BBC's first African radio awards. Mr Damazer said has dropped the show, which airs on Saturday afternoons, in order to "refresh the schedule". "We are losing A World in Your Ears from the schedules. It's done well but we do regularly make changes to our schedule to vary our output and to ensure value for money for licence payers," he added. "The staffing implications are still being worked out. Current affairs remains crucial to Radio 4's health - as can be witnessed every day of the week. That won't change." He also insisted that his network may commission a new and less costly programme at 5.30 pm on Saturday afternoons made by Ms Balinska's team (via John Figliozzi, swprograms via DXLD) 1630 UT. Why should AWIYE have been so costly, just picking up shows produced elsewhere? (gh) The story was also in Paul Donovan's weekly column in The Times; must have been a quiet news week. I haven't listened to the programme, which was not a regular weekly feature, for years. I found it a mess when it first started though they seem to have been doing themed programmes lately. Depends what you mean by foreign affairs, of course; a lot of the radio extracts were more human interest. Ms. Goldsmith doesn't appear to have too much knowledge of human rights issues. She wrote an article on her ten favourite foreign radio stations in the mass circulation which included fairly high up China Radio International which she stated "tells you all you need to know about China" or something very similar and equally ludicrous. Perhaps when she was preparing her Zimbabwe show she might have come across the fact that the Chinese Communist Party co-operates in the suppression of access to free media and restriction of freedom of expression there as well as in their own country. Instead of whinging, come up with some new ideas; programmes don't necessarily last forever, nor should they (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) ** U K [and non]. Summer A-07 of VT Communications Relays. Part one of two: [I am not cross-referencing by all these countries and nons, so remember where to find this or search for it --- gh] Radio Prague 0000-0027 on 11665 ASC 250 kW / 245 deg to SoAm Spanish 0330-0357 on 6080 SAC 250 kW / 268 deg to NoAm English 1300-1327 on 9850 RMP 035 kW / 095 deg to WeEu German DRM Fri/Sat 1330-1357 on 9850 RMP 035 kW / 095 deg to WeEu English DRM Fri/Sat 2330-2357 on 9685 SAC 250 kW / 212 deg to CeAm Spanish China Radio International 0000-0057 on 9745 BON 250 kW / 290 deg to CeAm Spanish 1100-1157 on 9870 SGO 100 kW / 045 deg to SoAm Portuguese 1200-1257 on 17625 SGO 100 kW / 045 deg to SoAm Chinese 1300-1357 on 17625 SGO 100 kW / 045 deg to SoAm English 1500-1757 on 6100 MEY 100 kW / non-dir to SoAf English 1800-1857 on 6100 MEY 100 kW / non-dir to SoAf Chinese 2100-2157 on 17615 SGO 100 kW / 045 deg to SoAm Portuguese Gospel for Asia 0000-0130 on 6145 DHA 250 kW / 085 deg to SoAs SoEaAs langs 1230-1500 on 15215 DHA 250 kW / 085 deg to SoAs SoEaAs langs 1600-1630 on 11695 DHA 250 kW / 085 deg to SoAs SoEaAs langs 2300-2400 on 6040 DHA 250 kW / 085 deg to SoAs SoEaAs langs Voice of Vietnam 0100-0125 on 6175 SAC 250 kW / 212 deg to NoAm English 0130-0225 on 6175 SAC 250 kW / 212 deg to NoAm Vietnamese 0230-0255 on 6175 SAC 250 kW / 212 deg to NoAm English 0300-0325 on 6175 SAC 250 kW / 212 deg to NoAm Spanish 0330-0355 on 6175 SAC 250 kW / 212 deg to NoAm English 0400-0425 on 6175 SAC 250 kW / 212 deg to NoAm Spanish 0430-0525 on 6175 SAC 250 kW / 240 deg to NoAm Vietnamese 1700-1725 on 9725 MOS 100 kW / 300 deg to WeEu English 1730-1825 on 9725 MOS 100 kW / 300 deg to WeEu Vietnamese 1830-1855 on 9725 MOS 100 kW / 300 deg to WeEu French 1900-1925 on 9725 SKN 300 kW / 070 deg to EaEu Russian 1930-2025 on 9430 SKN 300 kW / 090 deg to WeEu German 2030-2125 on 11840 SKN 300 kW / 110 deg to SEEu Vietnamese Moj Them Radio 0100-0130 on 15260 TAI 100 kW / 250 deg to Asia Hmong Tue/Thu Hmong Lao Radio 0100-0200 on 15260 TAI 100 kW / 250 deg to Asia Hmong Wed/Fri Adventist World Radio 0100-0200 on 15445 TAI 100 kW / 250 deg to Asia Vietnamese Sat Radio Solh/Radio Peace 0200-0900 on 11665 DHA 250 kW / 045 deg to WeAs Dari/Pashto 0900-1200 on 11675 DHA 250 kW / 045 deg to WeAs Dari/Pashto 1200-1800 on 17700 RMP 500 kW / 085 deg to WeAs Dari/Pashto Sudan Radio Service 0300-0330 on 5985 KIG 250 kW / non-dir to EaAf English Mon-Fri 0330-0500 on 11805 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Arabic Mon-Fri 0400-0600 on 13720 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Arabic Mon-Fri 0500-0600 on 15325 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Arabic Mon-Fri 1500-1700 on 9840 MSK 250 kW / 190 deg to EaAf Arabic Mon-Fri 1500-1530 on 9840 MSK 250 kW / 190 deg to EaAf English Sat/Sun 1530-1600 on 9840 MSK 250 kW / 190 deg to EaAf Arabic Sat/Sun 1600-1700 on 9840 MSK 250 kW / 190 deg to EaAf Toposa Sat 1700-1800 on 9590 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Arabic Mon-Fri Leading The Way 0330-0400 on 9845 SKN 300 kW / 090 deg to WeAs Persian/English Fri 0330-0400 on 9845 SKN 300 kW / 070 deg to RUS Russian/English Sun WYFR 0400-0500 on 3955 SKN 250 kW / 106 deg to WeEu German 1230-1330 on 15340 DHA 250 kW / 085 deg to SoAs Bengali 1400-1500 on 9705 DHA 250 kW / 105 deg to SoAs Nepali 1400-1500 on 15520 DHA 250 kW / 090 deg to SoAs Hindi 1500-1600 on 15520 DHA 250 kW / 090 deg to SoAs English 1600-1700 on 11850 DHA 250 kW / 090 deg to SoAs English 1600-1700 on 15445 ASC 250 kW / 100 deg to SoAf Portuguese 1700-1800 on 13700 RMP 500 kW / 105 deg to ME Arabic 1700-1800 on 21680 ASC 250 kW / 085 deg to SoAf English 1800-1900 on 3955 SKN 250 kW / 106 deg to WeEu English 1800-1900 on 9845 DHA 250 kW / 230 deg to SoAf English 1800-1900 on 13720 SKN 300 kW / 140 deg to ME Arabic 1800-1900 on 13780 RMP 500 kW / 105 deg to ME English 1830-1930 on 17585 ASC 250 kW / 085 deg to CeAf French 1900-2000 on 5930 MEY 250 kW / 019 deg to EaAf Swahili 1900-2000 on 9840 DHA 250 kW / 330 deg to WeEu English 1900-2000 on 11970 DHA 250 kW / 285 deg to NoAf French 1900-2000 on 15165 RMP 300 kW / 105 deg to ME Arabic 1900-2100 on 3230 MEY 100 kW / 005 deg to SoAf English 2000-2200 on 15195 ASC 250 kW / 085 deg to WeAf English 2030-2130 on 11985 ASC 250 kW / 027 deg to WeAf French 2100-2200 on 6045 MEY 250 kW / 005 deg to SoAf English 2115-2315 on 11875 ASC 250 kW / 065 deg to CeAf English Radio Okapi 0400-0600 on 11690 MEY 250 kW / 342 deg to Congo French/Lingala 1600-1700 on 11890 MEY 250 kW / 330 deg to Congo French/Lingala RTA Radio Algeria 0400-0600 on 7260 SKN 300 kW / 180 deg to NoAf Arabic Holy Quran sce 0400-0600 on 9540 SKN 300 kW / 150 deg to NoAf Arabic Holy Quran sce 1900-2000 on 9765 RMP 500 kW / 190 deg to NoAf Arabic Holy Quran sce 1900-2000 on 11810 WOF 300 kW / 160 deg to NoAf Arabic Holy Quran sce 2000-2100 on 9765 RMP 500 kW / 180 deg to NoAf Arabic Holy Quran sce 2000-2100 on 12025 WOF 300 kW / 160 deg to NoAf Arabic Holy Quran sce 2100-2300 on 7150 SKN 300 kW / 180 deg to NoAf Arabic Holy Quran sce 2100-2300 on 9710 WOF 300 kW / 160 deg to NoAf Arabic Holy Quran sce BBC WS 0400-0700 on 7440 KVI 050 kW / 190 deg to WeEu English DRM 1800-2000 on 7420 KVI 050 kW / 190 deg to WeEu English DRM 2000-2200 on 5875 KVI 050 kW / 190 deg to WeEu English DRM BBC Darfur Salaam to Sudan 0500-0530 on 9735 MOS 300 kW / 150 deg to EaAf Arabic 0500-0530 on 12015 ARM 500 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Arabic, ex CYP 250kW/185 deg 1700-1730 on 15515 WOF 300 kW / 125 deg to EaAf Arabic 1700-1730 on 17585 ASC 250 kW / 065 deg to EaAf Arabic Radio Mustaqbal: 0600-0630 on 15455 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Somali Mon-Wed/Sat 0710-0740 on 15455 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Somali Mon-Wed/Sat Southern Sudan Interactive Radio Instruction: 0630-0700 on 15445 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf English Mon/Wed/Fri 1400-1430 on 15470 ARM 200 kW / 188 deg to EaAf English Tue/Thu/Sat (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 21 via DXLD) ** U S A [non?]. BBG's budget request for fiscal year 2008, available at http://www.bbg.gov/reports/bbg_fy08_budget_request.pdf mentions firm plans to close another IBB site: >>> The FY 2008 request for Engineering reflects a reduction from base operations related to VOA, RFE/RL, and RFA broadcast program reductions, including associated transmission costs and management and administrative efficiencies. In addition, this request includes transmission savings associated with the reduction of shortwave transmission and the downsizing of the BBG transmitting station operations, including the closure of one transmitting station. <<< But which one? Delano? Biblis? These would be the candidates I would think of in the first place. VOA studio equipment and IT systems will be upgraded: >>> The BBG proposes to replace VOA’s analog audio control consoles with digital consoles, purchase server and computer replacements based on obsolescence cycles, and to upgrade the agency’s email system to provide enhanced information security and safeguard the agency’s vital internal communications links from possibly crippling system failures. The enhancement funds the upgrade of VOA radio studios by replacing obsolete analog audio control consoles with digital consoles. Modern digital studio equipment will provide more reliable service and will provide VOA with the needed flexibility to meet its rapidly changing broadcast requirements. This includes the ability to adapt and repurpose audio content to VOA’s Internet and affiliate streams. <<< (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also AFGHANISTAN; GREECE; KUWAIT; TAJIKISTAN [also excerpted by Bernd Trutenau, ibid.] ** U S A. It`s getting harder and harder to find webcasts of Riders Radio Theatre; most of the listings on publicradiofan.com no longer exist, such as the Saturday 2030 UT ones from Alaskan stations, nor Sunday 1630 on KIOS. Had been Sat 1500 on KANZ/HPPR, but their grid now shows WESTERN SWING AND OTHER THINGS at 1500-1900, instead of 1530-1900 on the program site. Not on the KSUT schedule either, Sat 1330-1400 (and KGLP at same time has suspended streaming anyway). Not on the WLNZ schedule which has changed URL to http://www.lcc.edu/wlnz/ Only two stations still show it on their schedules, but unconfirmed: WVRU has it Sat 1200-1230 still on their grid, followed by 1230-1300 Cowpie Radio. KCHU still shows RRT UT Sat 0230. Check out their website http://www.ridersinthesky.com/ for the blog about other places to hear them (such as an archived WSM show), and other neat stuff such as info about their gear, musical and otherwise (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. ABDX group announce that the Air America Radio network has relaunched. You can find their radio network at http://www.airamerica.com/stations (Barry Davies, UK, MWC via DXLD) Axually the relaunch is Monday May 21- Tuesday 22. Guest lineup is here: http://www.airamerica.com/upcoming_shows What does `relaunch` mean, exactly? Assuming this reflects a new host lineup, M-F will be, here converted to UT from presumed but unspecified ET, how provincial: 1007-1300 THE YOUNG TURKS 1307-1600 THE LIONEL SHOW 1607-1900 THE THOM HARTMANN PROGRAM 1907-2200 THE RANDI RHODES SHOW 2207-2400 THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 0007-0400 THE AIR AMERICANS 0407-0700 THIS IS AMERICA WITH JON ELLIOTT 0707-1000 ???? What became of Sam Seder?? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Air America 2.0 Officially Relaunches May 21st NEW OWNERSHIP "RELAUNCHES" AIR AMERICA RADIO WITH NEW WEBSITE, LINEUP, LOOK & SLOGAN Network begins "I'm an Air American!" campaign with Paul Newman ad. AAR Hosts interview 30+ Headliners for Official ReLaunch on May 21-22, including: Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Richardson -- as well as Steinem, Sorensen, Newman, Nader, Stephanopoulos, Spitzer, Bloomberg, Waxman. Nancy Scola hired as chief blogger. NEW YORK – May 17, 2007– Air America Radio today released a new website and ad campaign in conjunction with the official "ReLaunch" of Air America 2.0 on Monday May 21. All 12 Air America hosts starting on the 21st will air some 30+ taped interviews with prominent headliners (see list below) who discuss their thoughts on the Iraq war, campaign finance reform and the ’08 election, among other topics. "The completely redesigned website will give Air America listeners another platform to participate in the progressive movement through an interactive blog where they can read and give commentary on topical issues of the day," said Mark Green, the new president of Air America; the site will also be easier to navigate with updated information about AAR shows and talent. The network's hosts will begin to regularly blog on the 21st ReLaunch, along with Nancy Scola, who has been chosen as Air America's chief blogger. Nancy Scola is a Brooklyn-based blogger and writer who has served as a congressional aide and a presidential campaign staffer; she writes widely online, on everything from the latest in technology policy to the rebuilding of New Orleans. The network also kicked off a new “I'm an Air American!” ad campaign in various radio trade publications, featuring the actor Paul Newman, as well as a series of talent-based ads beginning with Lionel, who joins the network from 9a-12p. [EDT = UT -4] The two new weekday shows include "Lionel" and "The Air Americans" hosted by veteran Mark Riley, with correspondents Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Mike Papantonio, David Bender and Laura Flanders, airing at 8p- 12a weeknights. The new weekend shows include "Seder on Sunday" from 4-7p Sunday and "7 Days in America" 6-7p Saturdays, a week-in-review show with Arianna Huffington, Mark Green, Bob Kerrey and Bob Shrum. "This new phase in Air America's three year history has three goals," concluded Green. "First, we’ve created an even stronger lineup based on proven veterans, like Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow, and The Young Turks. Second, we’ve rebuilt the website to create a community and conversation that becomes the go-to progressive bulletin board and social network in the country. And third, we’re asking all progressive patriots interested in talk radio to become “Air Americans.” The critical mass of 30 headliners kicking off Air America 2.0 is the kind of news and views that we'll be offering for years to come and that no other radio or TV network now provides." Air America Radio is the national progressive entertainment talk radio network. It is broadcast on 64 stations nationwide and on XM satellite and can be heard via live Internet streaming on http://www.airamericaradio.com (Air America Radio newsletter May 17 via Clara Listensprechen, DXLD) What moron had the bright idea to put Lionel on in place of Sam Seder? Yes, it went from good to crap in about 6 months. This is why if I am going to listen to left wing stuff, I stream http://www.novamradio.com They beat the snot out of AAR (Kevin Redding, AZ, IRCA via DXLD) Personally, I enjoys listening to Big Pillpop, that Golfer who burps when he talks. Or does he talk whilst he burps? Small point. He's so funny! He has a big, fat, mansion in Palm Beach plus lotsa jets, well lardered with food 'n 'adult beverages'. Like Phospho-Soda and Pluto- water, perhaps? When lashing about Miami in 'el Propriedad con las Ruedas de Buick', I gets to feel real rich, just like him and his pals. They're easy to spot. Look for a bunch of biliary cirrhotics with Monte Cristos stuck down their ever-gibbering pie-holes, feverishly counting greenbacks freshly looted via the old Charitable Foundation gag. Franken? Too much of an establishment conservative for my taste (Dr. Zecchino pv zecchino manabigfatpiehole key, fl, ibid.) ** U S A. Hi all, In my monitoring for E-Skip (tough in DFW), I ran across a Hispanic religious and gospel station (Benny Hinn in español) here in Fort Worth, Texas on 87.9 MHz. Anyone know of an FCC authorization granted to operate it? I know of an experimental (I think) one in South Texas, but not around here. Muy interesante, Looks like I have an illegal FM operation here in Fort Worth TX. Thanks (Art KA5DWI, Cowtown, TX, May 18 ABDX via DXLD) They tried that last year from Garland and had a really professional station, even located it in a church, had a web site and every thing. Interesting how they break the law in the name of the Lord. I seem to recall they also tried it from Irving on 92.9 a while back. We don't get too many pirates in Dallas Ft. Worth; each one is a real interesting DX target. We had one on 102.5 before the KMAD semi-move in. Oldies and very interesting nostalgic commercials from the 60's. We had some ultra conservative nuts on 95.7 - really high powered station that could be heard for miles. But the technical quality was poor, no better than phone quality audio (Bruce Carter, ibid.) ** U S A. WNSW 1430 AM, a lease-time station, has changed its format from primarily Korean to primarily Spanish contemporary Christian (David Hinckley, NY Daily News May 15 via Bob Thomas, CT, DXLD) ** URUGUAY. SW status of 6055, R Universo, Castillos, Dept. de Rocha: Juan Brañas, station owner, has answered to my E-mail query regarding their SW status. He says that he is finishing the transmitter site for 1480 MW, moved from Castillos to 19 de Abril town. From here he will broadcast for all the Dept. with studios in Castillos and the city Rocha (capital of the Dept.). He has taken the MW transmitter to 19 de Abril, and set the SW transmitter on MW. He adds that the SW transmitter will work also from 19 de Abril, he hopes in a couple of months. They announce their station as "Grupo de Emisoras Universo" and specifically their SW appears named on its website as "R. Universo Internacional." URL is http://www.universoam.com/ and E-mail is am1480 @adinet.com.uy Owner's E-mail is grupouniverso @ adinet.com.uy Look at their expected coverage map on SW at http://www.universoam.com/cobertura_oc.html (Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I don`t think so: a very large oval encompassing all of SAm, most of NAm, most of Eu, all of Africa, Asia as far as India --- at least, not with the 40 WATTS as listed in WRTH 2007y. No mention of power could I find on website for 6055 ``kilogers`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) GH, The cue is the power they use, he didn't answer this in my original query. I asked him for antenna and power details. I've never heard it in these years since they announced their SW. In one moment he said to me that he was testing --- should have been with this 40 W transmitter --- but no copy. And now this e-mail. It's also strange when he says that he set the SW transmitter on MW: "puse el de la onda corta en onda media". So, Glenn, I think the best is to wait to the effective moment they start to broadcast in a serious way. And serious means a decent power, not the 40 W, so maybe the map belongs to an increased value in output power. Who knows. The value of this info lies in that the 1) SW plan is confirmed, but still not operative; 2) that he is still in the process of moving the transmitter site. This has proved to be not an easy issue for Mr. Brañas; it has taken several years (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. /CUBA. 6180, Radio Nacional de Venezuela via RHC facilities, 1038-1045, May 19, Spanish, very interesting report about the new channel “Televisora Venezolana Social”.- Talk about the new programmation and technical equipment for the new Channel Number 2 (Teves-Fundacion Televisora Venezolana Social”. ID as: “Somos el Canal Internacional de Radio Nacional de Venezuela”, 33433 with QRM Radio Nacional de Amazônia, Brazil (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. CLAND., 1550, Polisario Front, Tindouf (?) (Algeria?), 0655-f/out 0735, 15 May, Arabic, talks, news; 45343; // 6300. Sign-off at 0800. Does anybody know the actual site, or are we supposed to keep listing it as "Tindouf, ALG?" On some days, the audio doesn't pop out before, say, 5-20 mins. after *1700, at which time they're still airing the one-hour prgr in Castilian - and they do mention "castellano", not Spanish (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE. ZBH to Launch New Short Wave Radio Station Published by the government of Zimbabwe The Herald (Harare) 19 May 2007 Posted to the web 19 May 2007 Harare --- Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings is next Friday -- on Africa Unity Day -- expected to launch a new short wave radio station, The Voice of Zimbabwe, a Zimbabwean news and news analysis station that will broadcast internationally. "The station will be Zimbabwe's first world station. It will broadcast initially for just two hours a day and gradually increase its broadcast time until it becomes a 24 hours a day news and talk station," ZBH said in a statement. . . http://allafrica.com/stories/200705190053.html (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) Andy Sennitt adds: Meanwhile, the Electronic Chronicle reports that Zimbabwe’s own international service, the Voice of Zimbabwe, will launch on Africa Day, 25 May, and will initially broadcast for just two hours a day, gradually increasing to 24 hours. This may be due to staffing problems, as a report on the Nehando Radio website says that ZBC is paying very low salaries, way below the poverty line, and staff at the Power FM network are “resigning in droves.” No frequencies have been announced yet for the Voice of Zimbabwe. (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE. Weird Music Loop on 9765 --- Heard a very strange sounding music loop consisting of four notes with sort of a background as if it were being played on an accordion-like instrument with one hand playing the four notes and the other providing the background. I tuned into it around 0504 UT Sunday and it abruptly left the air at 0509. Signal was fairly weak -- about an S5 or so at my QTH -- but with minimal fading. Has anyone else heard this? (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY Drake R8B receiver A/D DX Sloper antenna, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) John, This music loop on 9765 is jamming by Zimbabwe of VOP, Voice of the People (via Madagascar, 250 kW 0400-0500 UT) to Zimbabwe. Yes, it does sound like an accordion/bagpipes music mix but it is the familiar jamming of this station by the government of Zimbabwe (David Pringle- Wood, Harare, Zimbabwe, ibid.) John, it's Zimbabwean jammer, the same levels here in April, at 04- 05z, nowadays it's hardly noticeable. Seemingly few weeks ago WB reported about target of this jamming (ZWE-clandestine transmitting from MDG) (Vlad Titarev, Kremenchuk, Ukraine, dxplorer yg via Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9765: Yes, that is the type jamming against MDG Zimbabwean cland outlet, like an African jamming type of Firedrake-music sound. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. CLANDESTINE, 11810, SWR Africa via Armavir, *1700- 1718, May 15, English. Sign-on with “live” music. OM and YL ID, schedule and URL. “Call Back” program with interview re corruption and fraud throughout Zimbabwe and Africa. Fair. // 12035 via Norway (per Bueschel tip) - Fair, running about 1 second behind (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 19 May at 1630 UT the distorted station on around 7291.5 sounds pretty much like French to me. And at 1700 there seems to be an Arabic language newscast, just the same pattern observed on 7310v a few days ago (Jari Savolainen, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Have noticed a het on the hi side of Defunct Gene Scott, 11775 via Anguilla, which was not there before --- May 17 at 1349, and again May 19 at 1322. Could not pull in audio under Dr. Gruff. About 11775.6. I wonder if this is the AIR Nepali/Tibetan service as scheduled via Goa, a transmitter which has had off-frequency problems before. Not heard after 1400, maybe outfaded, as AIR runs until 1430. But May 21 het still audible after 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 17436.0, 5-digit Spanish numbers by YL on AM, very strong, 20 over 9, May 21 at 1729 while R. Rebelde 17735 was only 15 over 9, as carrier had not gone off yet at 1730 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ TIS LIST Bill, Do you maintain the TIS List? (Charles A Taylor, WD4INP, Greenville, North Carolina, IRCA via DXLD) No Charlie, I gave that up several years ago because you can find the same information at http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/tis.html The only problem is that the FCC only maintains a list of local/state government TIS. AFAIK, there is no complete list of federal government TISs, although someone in government may have such a list. If it exists, it is not made public (Bill Harms, MD, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM: see AUSTRALIA; CHINA; GERMANY; ITALY; UAE; UK +non Mythbusting HD AM I decided to do a bit of exploring of how AM receivers are currently made, and whether HD AM is really such a good idea or not. Since our local standards station chooses to cater to the Waveradio crowd - with its 1.7 kHz audio bandwidth - I decided to explore whether the business model of Radio Disney, programming in HD to pre- teens, is advisable or not. Since my daughter was off on a shopping spree today - and I needed to de-battery a roomfull of abandoned toys, I also came across a nice cross section of radios, all of which were purchased or acquired within the past 5 to 7 years or so. It amounted to about 7 or 8 radios - of varying price, quality - from a wristwatch radio to a $80 boom box. Without a single exception - ALL of them utilized a single IC for at least the radio portion, and a single ceramic filter for AM, and a single one for FM. I even found some radios that bypassed the ceramic filter connections with a capacitor, and relied completely on the AM ferrite bar / tuning capacitor for whatever poor selectivity they had. Mixtures of stations separated by 40, 50, or more kHz were commonplace, even in the radios that actually used IF filters. Therefore, every single AM radio in my daughter's junk room, from $5 giveaways to $80 boom boxes, were WIDEBAND by nature. They were not wideband in any way to have good audio quality. It was to make them as cheap as possible. They also exhibited horrible degrees of self jamming, given the poor mechanisms used for tuning (the BEST were round dials connected directly to the tuning shaft). It was impossible to tune on-channel where the IBOC hash was theoretically cancelled - but only from 5 to 10 kHz. Above 10 kHz, it is amplitude modulated, well within the wide IF bandwidth, and came right through the little 1 to 3 inch speakers, which make terrifically good tweeters at those frequencies! What was left of the audio on Radio Disney sounded muffled and awful mixed with high frequency hash. Now that I think of it - my daughter "graduated" from Radio Disney to a local top 40 FM - about the time they started this IBOC nonsense. The reason she doesn't like Radio Disney any more? "It sounds bad". And this is from a kid that still likes High School Musical and Hannah Montana. I photographed, documented EVERYTHING - and will soon put up a web page devoted to this research. If I had to rate Radio Disney's business plan based on this sample of 7 or 8 preteen radios, I would have to say that it is very foolish. Just for a sanity check - I went looking for one of the old style radios, the type with three IF coils. I had trouble even finding one in the house - but my father passed away recently and he had one. Sure enough, it sounded like it was bandwidth limited to 3 or 4 kHz, but I know what to listen for and there was a good degree of IBOC hash even with the restricted bandwidth. The slightest bit of mistuning, and the IBOC hash appeared superimposed on the audio with a vengeance. It did have the effect of serving as a tuning guide - the least IBOC hash was center frequency. It was the only radio I tested where I could actually get it on center frequency- at least without more twiddling than any pre-teen would do. I photographed that one for the heck of it (Bruce Carter, May 19, ABDX via DXLD) On HD - Craig Healy http://www.am-dx.com/hdradio2.htm What is the future going to bring for the next step beyond HD Radio? HD Radio right now is broadcast over existing radio channels, both AM and FM. It is not truly on-channel, as the IBOC (in band on channel) acronym would suggest, but on the two adjacent channels. This both causes interference to and receives interference from neighboring stations, especially in crowded metropolitan areas. The full-digital is designed to have the signal only on the assigned channel, but it will be roughly a decade before that could happen. Receiver penetration is simply too low, which would cut off the vast majority of listeners from stations if done too soon. That would be suicide. So, where will we be in a decade? Given the extremely rapid progress of things like streaming audio and iPod-type devices, it's safe to assume that personal multi-function devices will be the norm. These will replace cell phones, iPods and PDAs, plus other functions like GPS and navigational accessories. WiFi will be universal in most metropolitan and suburban areas, corresponding to cell coverage. You'd have to get pretty far into the boondocks to be out of range. Potential satellite augmentation may even fill those gaps. Global coverage will be expected. Such a versatile pocket accessory will no doubt include audio capability, both live and stored. Bandwidth will be more than enough for video, and certainly 5.1 or 7.1 surround audio at flawless fidelity. What consumers want is the electronic equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife, and they want it for lunch money. Consumers will have the choice of spending maybe $100 on a single- function, very limited program source HD Radio with a small coverage footprint. Or, probably less than that on a pocket device which gives them essentially unlimited program choices, and about any other function from email to car navigation with nearly global coverage. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.. Here are some points.. 1. HD Radio has very limited geographic coverage. As of this writing (May 2007) there is no night AM HD Radio. 2. Receivers for HD Radio are not selling, nor are manufacturers enthused about it. GM has adopted a wait and see attitude on including them in new cars. 3. Program choices are limited to one on AM, and two or three on FM. Multiple choices come at a cost of lessened fidelity due to bandwidth sharing. 4. Streaming audio has none of these limits. Program channels are limited only by the resources and imagination of the content provider. Coverage soon will be similar to that of cell phones. 5. WiFi-type iPods will sell because they do everything, not just play radio. Quantity sales will keep prices rock bottom. As I've said, I have advised my clients to look past HD Radio and spend time and effort on streaming audio. I have also encouraged things like video and 5.1 audio archiving. The future is there, not on terrestrial bandaids. Technology becomes obsolete. Buggy whips are still made, but are hardly mainstream. Vinyl records, Betamax and 8- track tapes all had their day, but are past. They still have a small and dedicated fan base, but hardly enough to support a major industry. HD Radio and broadcasting as it is structured today will join them before too long. Content is King, the delivery is secondary - as long as it's convenient to the masses. That delivery will be via a practical and fun device that does many things, and does them all well. It will not be a single function overpriced radio. (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ FRANZÖSICH-ALLEMANDE CONGLOMÉRAZION It had been reported in detail how Thalès sold in December 2005 its Broadcast and Multimedia business back to Thomson where it had been integrated into Grass Valley, otherwise known for TV equipment (Grass Valley makes what become of both the Philips and Fernseh GmbH breeds of cameras, previously known as BTS and regarded for "still better colours than any Sony"). In some kind of return Thales in last year acquired the railway signalling business of Alcatel, which for its part had swallowed the German Lorenz company years ago (still obvious from their Stuttgart branch being located at Lorenzstraße). This happened at such a speed that apparently wide parts of the German railway industry have not noticed yet that the other big manufacturer besides Siemens is no longer Alcatel (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RELY ON 2-METER REPEATERS Everybody knows that whenever there is a massive emergency, cellphones simply stop working, or in the best possible scenario, it is very difficult to communicate using them. BUT, simple, relatively low cost amateur radio two meters and seventy centimeter bands radios continue to work nicely ,providing reliable communications links that are not dependent of the number of users of the system, like cellphones are. That's why amateur radio repeaters continue to be regarded as a most reliable way of communicating during emergencies, something that here in Cuba we have found out when the last several hurricanes like Michelle, Isidore Lili and Dennis struck our archipelago!!! By the way, a low cost handheld FM two meter band transceiver and a very simple antenna system is all you will need to stay in touch via a repeater, even under the worst weather conditions !!! (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited May 19, via ODXA via DXLD) Sorry, but I think hams have allowed themselves to become much too dependent on repeaters. Just like cell towers, they can be destroyed by hurricanes or other emergencies, and then where are you? Will your little hand-held be able to make direct contact when needed? For real emergency purposes, hams need to have operable and portable units with better antennas and able to run max power not dependent on AC lines or getting to some other transmitter to boost them along (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ PROPAGATION OUTLOOK FROM PRAGUE http://www.asu.cas.cz/~sunwatch/070518.html Solar-activity forecast for the period May 18 - 24, 2007 Activity level: mostly very low to low Radio flux (10.7 cm): a fluctuation in the range 70-85 f.u. Flares: weak (3-12/day), middle (0-2/period) Relative sunspot number: in the range 25-55 Astronomical Institute, Solar Dept., Ondrejov, Czech Republic e-mail: sunwatch(at)asu.cas.cz (RWC Prague) Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period May 18 to May 24, 2007 quiet: May 18, 21, 22 and 23 quiet to unsettled: 0 unsettled: May 19 and 20 unsettled to active: May 24 active: 0 minor storm: 0 major storm: 0 severe storm: 0 Geomagnetic activity summary: geomagnetic field was quiet from May 10 to 16. RWC Prague, Geophysical Institute Prague, Geomagnetic Dept, Czech Republic e-mail: geom(at)ig.cas.cz Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period of one solar rotation unsettled to active: May 19-20, (22-23,) 24-27, (30,) Jun 3-4, (5-6) active to disturbed: May 20, 25-26, Jun 3 quiet: May (18, 21,) 28-29, 31, Jun 1-2, 7-12 Survey: quiet on May 9, 11-16 mostly quiet May 10 quiet to unsettled - quiet to active - quiet to disturbed - mostly unsettled - unsettled to active - unsettled to disturbed - mostly active - active to disturbed - disturbed - Notice: Days in brackets refer to a lower probability of possible solar activity enhancements depending on previous developments on the sun. F. K. Janda, OK1HH, Czech Propagation Interested Group e-mail: franta.janda(at)quick.cz (via DXLD) ARNIE CORO'S DXERS UNLIMITED'S HF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST VHF forecast today, looks good for still more Sporadic E events to happen during the weekend and all along the next week as the sunspot number is extremely low, and there are very few chances if any of maximum useable frequencies going above 30 megaHertz, except perhaps via Trans Equatorial Propagation. Solar flux is moving now slowly up, and the same holds for the sunspot count. [earlier:] Several days in a row with an absolutely spotless solar disk. Not a single sunspot seen during several days, is something that tells us a lot about the way solar cycle 23 is decaying. Now we are going to see an increase in the daily sunspot count as an active region is developing under the close watch of solar scientists. We have been following solar activity as usual, finding that during the past three months we frequently experience several days in a row without a single sunspot!!! Some newcomers to solar observations might have wondered if this was normal or not, but long time observers, like my good friend Ángel González Coroás, a solar scientist, were not shocked by the spotless Sun. Ángel told me in an e-mail that as we continue to approach solar minimum, spotless days will become more and more frequent. Now we are seeing very few small spots near the limb of the solar disk, and the daily sunspot count is expected to rise for the next few days. If you want to run your own propagation forecasting software, feed the program with a solar flux figure of 70 units and you will be hitting ballpark figures during the the last 10 day of May !!! As those of you already familiar with the A index, planetary magnetic disturbance indicator may have noticed, the lowest A index produce the best propagation conditions (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited May 19, via ODXA via DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ [Variety] 5/19 First Reviews for Michael Moore's "Sicko" Sicko --- Posted: Sat., May 19, 2007, 5:58am PT The Weinstein Company presents a Dog Eat Dog Films production. (International sales: The Weinstein Company, New York.) Produced by Meghan O'Hara, Michael Moore. Executive producers, Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein. Directed, written by Michael Moore. Editors, Don Swietlik, Geoffrey Richman, Chris Seward; music, Erin O'Hara. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (noncompeting), May 19, 2007. Running time: 113 MIN. By ALISSA SIMON Three years after winning Cannes' top prize for "Fahrenheit 9/11," docu helmer and agent provocateur Michael Moore returns to the Croisette with more polemics as performance art in "Sicko," an entertaining and affecting dissection of the American health care industry that documents how it benefits the few at the expense of the many. Pic's tone alternates between comedy and outrage, as it compares the U.S system of care to other countries. Given Moore's celebrity and fan base, plus heightened awareness of pic resulting from the heated battle between left and right already ongoing in cyberspace, returns look to be extremely healthy. Pic should also play well internationally, providing an eye-opening lesson for foreigners who may be inclined (like Moore's Canadian cousins) to take out insurance from their homeland before visiting the States. Employing his trademark personal narration and David vs. Goliath approach, Moore enlivens what is, in essence, a depressing subject by wrapping it in irony and injecting levity wherever possible: a long list of health conditions that spark a reason for a person to be denied insurance coverage sail into deep space accompanied by the "Stars Wars" theme; a graph showing America's position in global health care as No. 38 -- just above Slovenia -- is followed by film footage of primitive operating conditions. Pic explores why American health care came to be exploited for profit in the private sector rather than being a government paid, free-to- consumers service such as education, libraries, fire and police. Moore comes up with an archival audio recording of Richard Nixon from February 1971, praising Edgar Kaiser and his system using incentives for less medical care. The next day Nixon addresses the nation, proposing a new health care strategy that amounted to a less-per- patient expenditure to maximize profit. Pic starts by sketching a gamut of health care horror stories from average Americans: those who can't afford insurance, those who are denied coverage for various, often ludicrous reasons, and those who believe themselves well-protected, but find that the moment they avail themselves of medical services their insurance provider uses obscure technical reasons to refuse coverage, retroactively deny claims and cancel insurance, or raise rates so astronomically that the patient is forced into the ranks of the nearly 50 million uninsured. Perhaps most emotionally affecting story comes from Julie, a hospital worker whose husband had a potentially terminal illness that medical staff thought could be treated with a bone marrow transplant. Insurance deemed the treatment experimental and refused to cover it. Unable to afford an alternative, the husband died. The congressional testimony of a former Humana medical director provides a devastatingly direct description of what she calls "the dirty work of managed care." Constantly told that she was not denying care to patients, rather simply denying them Humana's coverage, her career advanced as she saved her corporation money. Moore appears in his shambling folksy persona about 40 minutes into the pic, interviewing foreign citizens, American expatriates, hospital workers and doctors in countries with nationalized health care such as Canada, England and France. The dramatic contrast with America is played for laughs, as the seemingly incredulous Moore continually mutters, "What do you mean it's free?" Pic's most dramatic (and now controversial) tactic involves Moore taking a group that includes 9/11 rescue volunteers with medical problems that haven't been covered by insurance to Cuba -- first to Guantánamo Bay, which Moore proclaims as the only place on American soil with universal health care, and then to a Havana hospital where they are given treatment. Cuban seg wraps with a poignant expression of emotional solidarity between 9/11 volunteers and Cuban firemen who pay them homage. Pic incorporates extensive archival footage (some of which comes across as grainy on the bigscreen) as well as home movies and photographs. Extracts from Communist musicals, classic comedies and horror films provide Moore further opportunity for comic editorializing (via Tom Roche, DXLD) ###