DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-060, May 23, 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 SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1360: ** tentative Wed 2200 WBCQ 7415 Wed 2300 WBCQ 18910-CLSB or 17495-CLSB Thu 1430 WRMI 7385 Thu 1500 KAIJ 9480 Fri 0630 WRMI 9955** Fri 1030 KAIJ 5755 Fri 1100 WRMI 9955** Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 [irregular] Sat 2130 WRMI 9955 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1500 WRMI 7385 Mon 0300 WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Mon 0530 WRMI 9955** Mon 0930 WRMI 9955** 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 ** ALBANIA. R. Tirana, better than usual May 22 at 1316 on 13750 with music, hum, almost SINPO 44444 {both the 1300 on 13750 and 2000 on 13720 inaudible May 23 due to propagation disturbance, hi K indices} (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Radio Australia Chief Executive Appointment 21/05/2007 http://abc.net.au/corp/pubs/media/s1930210.htm ABC Managing Director Mark Scott today announced the appointment of Mr Hanh Tran as the new Chief Executive of Radio Australia. Hanh is currently Executive Producer of Vietnamese content for Radio Australia and was, from 1997 until 2001, Head of the Vietnamese Service for the BBC World Service. Hanh has led the Vietnamese content team at Radio Australia in response to new media opportunities. The Vietnamese service of RA is built around online content on radioaustralia.net.au. Having worked as a radio commentator, producer, reporter and presenter, Hahn has over 10 years experience in international broadcasting. Hanh came to Australia in the late seventies as a Colombo Plan student and studied forestry at the Australian National University and media at the University of Canberra. Hanh is a recognised photographer with work in the Parliament House Art Collection. He lectured in photomedia at both the Canberra Institute of the Arts and at the Australian Centre for Photography. "I am pleased to announce the appointment of Hanh Tran as Chief Executive of Radio Australia," ABC Managing Director Mark Scott said today. "I am delighted that from a very strong field of internal and external applicants that the next person to lead Radio Australia has come from our own team of managers and executive producers. "He will bring a wealth of expertise in radio and digital media that will contribute to enhancing the services provided by Radio Australia, while exploring opportunities to expand the service into new markets. "Radio Australia, together with the Australia Network, International Projects and International Relations, is part of the new entity I announced in February. ABC International provides an opportunity for cross platform production in an area of core ABC activity: producing content for international audiences, particularly in the Asia Pacific." Mr Tran will begin in the role of Chief Executive immediately. (via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) The path to leadership at RA seems to be from one of the foreign- language services, as the previous head came from the abolished French service. Behold him: http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/l_hanhtran.jpg (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** BHUTAN. Thanks to the tips from Jose, Alokesh and others about Bhutan BS new 100 kW transmitter, I checked 6035 on 22 May at 1450 UT. Decent signal of BBS was heard, at this hour in English, giving e-mail and postal address towards the end of that program (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, WORLD OF RADIO 1360, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL - A Rádio Brasil Central, de Goiânia (GO), valoriza as ondas curtas em suas identificações. Além de sempre veicular as freqüências de 4985 e 11815 kHz em suas vinhetas, vários presentadores sempre mencionam que a emissora transmite "para Goiás, para o Brasil e para o mundo via ondas curtas". É uma pena que a Brasil Central não envia aos dexistas a confirmação de escuta QSL. No Sul do Brasil, a emissora tem regular sintonia, praticamente durante todo o dia, entre 1000 e 2000, em 11815 kHz (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 20 via DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. Hello Glenn, To all those who think it is a good idea to move CHU to the standard frequencies of WWV's 5, 10, 15 MHz, think again. Although the carriers of these stations are controlled by very stable atomic clocks, the path off the ionosphere is not stable. In listening areas that receive equal strength signal, the mixing of the two signal will cause interference for both stations. The reception will fade in and out as the signals cancel each other. Michael, the codes for CHU and WWV have their own merits. The 'obnoxious modem tones' are still an effective way to send information. It has been and still is an easy way to decode data. CHU sends all the information it needs in a fraction of a second, whereas WWV spreads it over the entire minute. There is a much greater chance of losing data, from fading and noise, when the information is spread over a long time. (Raymond Pelletier ============================================ Frequency and Time Institute for National Measurement Standards National Research Council Canada M-36, room 1026 1200 Montreal Road Ottawa, Canada K1A 0R6 Tel: (613) 993-3430 Fax: (613) 952-1394 raymond.pelletier @ nrc-cnrc.gc.ca Government of Canada ============================================ May 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. JEWISH AM RADIO STATION GOES ON AIR By JANICE ARNOLD Staff Reporter http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=11890 MONTREAL --- Sid Margles, who worked for 40 years in radio, has taken on in retirement one of the biggest challenges of his career: setting up an all-Jewish content radio station on the AM band in Montreal with virtually no budget and relying almost totally on volunteers. Radio Shalom, known by the call letters CJRS, officially went on the air the evening of May 5, Lag b’Omer, traditionally the one joyous day between Passover and Shavuot, at 1650AM. The independent, not-for- profit station received CRTC approval in March 2006. Broadcasting in 60 per cent French, 30 per cent English and 10 per cent Hebrew 24 hours a day, six days a week, Radio Shalom is the only station in North America whose entire programming mix can be described as Jewish. The content is a blend of news and information, religious and cultural programs, talk shows and music, most of it local and the rest from Israel and France. Nothing is live, however. The schedule is still being fine-tuned, and Margles continues to look for people who would like to host their own show and, most importantly, can make a firm time commitment – which is not easy when hosts are not being paid, at least not yet. “We are transforming what was an amateur operation heard on the Internet into a professional operation on AM radio,” said Margles, who is a volunteer consultant. Margles began in radio in the late 1950s as a newsman on CJAD and rose to be general manager of the cross-Canada Standard Broadcast News. He set up and ran its Ottawa affiliate for 10 years. Radio Shalom is a dream come true for its president, Robert Levy, a Casablanca native who lived in France, where Paris alone has four Jewish radio stations. He began the station in 1999 as a subcarrier of Radio Ville-Marie. Listeners needed a special radio to receive it. Levy’s first application in 2003 to the CRTC for an AM spot was turned down. After modifying the format, he finally received the federal regulatory body’s OK last year. Margles stressed that Radio Shalom is a commercial station and receives no funding or direction from the organized Jewish community. Levy was for many years executive director of the Rabbinat Sépharade du Québec, but the station is not affiliated with it. The decidedly secular Stan Asher, a retired CEGEP teacher who has been with Radio Shalom since its inception, is in charge of English programming. He brings with him 35 years experience in community radio, plus 10 years as a CBC freelancer. While the station is religious, as defined in its license, and is off the air on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, Margles said it is not Orthodox as such. He would like the station to have something that appeals to every member of the community and to promote cohesion. “We have extended the welcome mat to Jews of all stripes,” Margles said. He wrote letters to every rabbi in the city inviting their input, whether to be on air or provide spiritual guidance. Few, he regrets, have taken up the offer so far. During Shabbat, the station’s air time is made available to other communities. Radio Shalom operates out of modern offices with professional studios in Town of Mount Royal’s industrial park. Everything is in place for eventual live broadcasting. Projecting from its roof is a 75-foot “state of the art” antenna, a major advance, Margles noted, over the multiple towers that most large AM stations have somewhere out in a field. With 1,000 watts of transmitting power, six weeks of testing showed that Radio Shalom can be heard throughout the island, as well as in Laval and the South Shore. Someone from Trois-Rivières even picked it up, Margles said. Of course, it can still be heard worldwide at http://www.radio-shalom.ca “We will probably never know exactly how many listeners we have, because we are too small to be part of the BBM [radio ratings] survey,” he said. One of the reasons Levy wanted the station to broadcast mostly in French is that he hopes it will also reach non-Jewish Quebecers and contribute to a better understanding of the community and Israel. For now, Radio Shalom is surviving on $250,000 in borrowed money. The goal is to become self-sustaining through advertising and donations. (It can issue tax receipts.) The station’s only staff are two young interns from France, here on six-month exchange programs, whose salaries are paid by the French government. Defining what is Jewish is an ongoing process. The station’s Jewish music is eclectic – chassidic to liturgical to modern Israeli are all in a huge computerized collection – but artists are not included simply because they are Jewish. “We don’t play Barbra Streisand, unless she’s singing My Yiddishe Mama,” Margles quipped. On the other hand, Asher sometimes interviews authors whose books deal with subjects that resonate with Jews. Margles’ immediate goal is to build listener loyalty. The morning schedule is firmly in place, starting at 6 a.m. with English news from Kol Israel and local host Howard Silbiger, a CJAD producer; at 7 is news in Hebrew, and at 8 is French news. Currently on air are David “The Rocking Rabbi” Lazar, who delivers an ‘unorthodox’ spiritual message mixed with heavy metal; Asher and Pierre Lasry, who engage in friendly banter about cultural topics; retired doctor David Sinclair, who hosts a medical show; Yona Rapaport on the arts; Tribune Juive publisher Ghila Sroka hosts Je rate pour vous (I speak out for you), a commentary on current affairs; Université du Québec à Montréal professor Julien Bauer with political analysis; and Gérard Étienne, a Haitian-born convert to Judaism, whose Notes et Rhythmes is devoted to music and poetry; and Avi Kimchi, a veteran correspondent for Israeli media. “It’s a challenge, sure,” Margles said, “but I know we can succeed. This is radio by the people, for the people.” (via Dan Say, BC, DXLD) Margles is a strange spelling, and I suspected a mistake, but I could not find that or any similar name at http://www.radio-shalom.ca/ -- not even on the `equipe` listing! (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. Radio station shuttles commuters during transit strike http://www.cjad.com/bus_strike (Ricky Leong, Calgary, May 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 800 Montreal ** CANADA. Winnipeg FM news --- Both 89.3 and 90.5 FM are now live and finished their testing. CBW 990 is // 89.3 stereo CKSB 1050 is // 90.5 mono CBW is actually ID'ing as 89.3 FM in Winnipeg and 990 AM in the rest of the province. 73 and Best of DX (Shawn Axelrod, VE4DX1SMA, REMEMBER ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN HEAR FOREVER, ODXA via DXLD) ** CANADA. If people are interested in FM broadcast news, there's a new station in Vancouver, BC, testing on 106.3 ... CKAV-2, Aboriginal Voices Radio Network. Though they've been on the air for several weeks now, there seldom seems to be any "live" programing, just non-stop music interspersed with station IDs and the occasional promo. It's connected with the original CKAV in Toronto. 73, (Dave Bennett, May 23, mwdx yg via DXLD) ** CAYMAN ISLANDS. CAYMAN TRANSMITTER MOVE “ENDS BROADCAST CONCERNS” Cayman’s dms Broadcasting company claims to have put an end to concerns that its downtown radio transmitters were causing interference with other stations. The station has moved the transmitters for three of its stations to the Radio Cayman tower by Northward. The fourth dms station, CayRock, is broadcast from a different transmitter at the Island Electronics tower. . . http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/?p=8026 It`s all about FM, ``blanketing``; and linx to a previous story with comments: http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/?p=2662 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** CHAD. Centered 7291.1 Unidentified distorted station, probably in French around 1800-1830 UT. Hi dear Jean-Michel, today May 22nd, the UNID station faded in again around 1725 UT here in Germany. From 1800 to 1830 UT I could understand some French-like snatches. May you can check this station, whether you can understand some French phrases? Probably this station was formerly on 7311v kHz, and pointed by German direction finding DWL station Bockhacken coming from Chad in April 27 til May 15th ... starts at 0426 UT with National Anthem of Chad. 73 de wolfy (May 22) (Wolfgang Büschel, to Jean-Michel Aubier, France, via DX WORLD OF RADIO 1360, LISTENING DIGEST) I looked for it around 7290 around 0500, when I used to hear 7312v, a couple times, but did not hear it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 7-058, 7-059. RNT Ndjamena 7291/7292 noted opening 0432 on May 23 in presumed French after IS &NA which were definitely the same as on http://www.intervalsignals.net Usual distorted audio bothering BBC Meyerton in Portuguese 7290 (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake again audible on 9200, May 22 at 1345, poor and about equal to 10300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. Re 7-059: Dear Glenn, Checked 9200 kHz this morning around 0130 UT; the Firedrake was still there (Yogesh, China, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Right now, May 22 at 1130, I am hearing Firedrake jamming on 9200, 10300, 13970, 14500 and 18160. To make a bad thing worse, especially for the HAM society, 18160 is now being scorched by two Firedrakes with a moderate SAH and some echoing. 9200 tends to close early and I guess that is why you did not hear it. - During the 1200 monitoring break Chinese talk from presumed SOH was heard on 18160 and 14500. Jamming resumed on all five frequencies at 1205. - After the 1300 break all five frequencies again were jammed from 1305. At this time propagation from China on 16 m was down, and AIR Chinese could actually be heard on 17705 almost in level with the CNR-1 jammer until 1315. Presumed VOT on 17560 was stronger than the co-channel Firedrake. Later VOT to 17563 and the jammer to 17565. - During the 1400 break Chinese was heard on 18160 (weak) and 14500 (fair). Again all five frequencies jammed from 1405. VOT now on 17567, jammer on 17565. - 1500 VOT on 17571, the jammer on 17570, station gone at 1525 recheck. All five SOH frequencies again jammed from 1505. - 1600 All five SOH frequencies again jammed from 1605. Very unusual to hear activity on all five at this late hour. Propagation is much above average today. - 1700, 1800 As 1600. - 1900 Nothing on 14500, 18160 not propagating, the other three with active jamming from 1905. The hourly restart of the Firedrake loop currently seems to be slowly advancing, and now has reached xx05 (from xx04 a week ago). Xinjiang PBS finally switched to its summer frequency usage. This means no use of the tropical bands and full time transmissions on 7155, 7230, 7275 and 7340, presumably also on 11770, 11885. 73 (Olle Alm, Sweden, May 22, WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Xinjiang Broadcast Station (XJBS) Dear OM, The XJBS, change to summer time (May 1) and summer skd (May 20). Cf. CNR A07 Schedule http://www2.starcat.ne.jp/~ndxc/ de S. Aoki (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. ENCONTRO RADIOESCUTAS E CRI --- VISITA DA CRI A PORTUGAL Esteve de visita a Portugal na passada semana uma delegação ao mais alto nível da CRI (Rádio China Internacional). Um grupo de radioescutas Portugueses, teve o prazer de estar presente, no dia 15 de Maio de 2007, aceitando um amável convite por parte da delegação de Português desta emissora internacional Tivemos o prazer de conhecer pessoalmente, não só o Digníssimo Presidente em pessoa da CRI, mas também as nossas amigas que produzem os programas em Português e também a responsável pela produção em Espanhol da CRI. Esteve neste encontro a nossa amiga Floribela, que os radioescutas da emissão em Português bem conhecem. A Floribela no momento encontra-se a estudar em Portugal, para aperfeiçoar a língua do poeta Camões, ficamos agradavelmente surpreendidos, pela sua gentileza e pela forma bastante fluente que fala a língua Portuguesa. Foi um prazer muito grande e uma agradável surpresa este convite da delegação da Rádio China Internacional. O discurso do Srº Presidente da CRI, colocou-nos ao corrente das últimas novidades desta Rádio e dos seus avanços tecnológicos. A CRI está apostando forte na programação via Internet, página web, podcast e até na retransmissão de sinal de TV a nível Global via telemóvel, o qual a CRI pretende lançar no próximo ano com as olimpíadas de Beijing. No que diz respeito ás ondas curtas, as emissões irão continuar, embora segundo as informações a aposta futura será nas transmissões via digital, devido ao seu maior alcance com elevada qualidade. Esta visita a Portugal, ao mais alto nível pretende vir em breve a relançar a CRI junto da média em Portugal, com futuras retransmissões de programas produzidos pela CRI com estreita colaboração com a TV e Rádio Portuguesa. A China, pretende que o evento dos jogos olímpicos do próximo ano de 2008, venha a ser não só um grande evento mundial a nível do desporto, mas também relançar a sua economia e relacionamento estreito com todos os povos do mundo, para um caminho de paz e progresso. No grupo de radioescutas que se encontravam presentes neste encontro da CRI e seus ouvintes, encontrava-se o nosso amigo Ribeiro o grande vencedor do concurso de 1998 organizado pela CRI, que levou pela 1ª vez um radioescuta a visitar a China. Esta agradável visita, veio proporcionar também, um melhor conhecimento da verdadeira comida tradicional Chinesa, a qual, é de facto uma maravilha dentro da gastronomia mundial. Se alguns de nós já éramos fans da comida Chinesa, agora ficamos ainda mais despertos para esta maravilha, um grande obrigado à CRI, por nos ter proporcionado este maravilhoso encontro. Gostaria de acrescentar que o diálogo com a delegação de Português da CRI, foi muito gratificante e certamente, iremos ter algumas novidades em breve na programação em Português. O encontro decorreu num restaurante Chinês, situado numa zona privilegiada da cidade de Lisboa, ali bem junto ao padrão dos descobrimentos, sito em Lisboa, na zona ribeirinha do maravilhoso rio Tejo, era daqui que partiam as naus com destino ao Oriente na altura das descobertas no século XV e seguintes. Na entrevista que concedi a esta rádio foram feitas algumas referências ao DX clube do Brasil e aos amigos radioescutas Rudolf Grimm e Adalberto Marques de Azevedo. Foi um prazer muito grande, esta possibilidade de contacto estreito com a delegação da CRI, esperamos que este venha a produzir no futuro, frutos de boa qualidade no estreitar das relações amistosas que desde os anos de 1500, os Portugueses sempre tiveram com o maravilhoso povo Chinês. Um grande obrigado à CRI (Manuel Jesus, Sintra, Portugal, @tividade DX May 20 via DXLD) {Chicoms really got `em snowed -- gh} ** COLOMBIA. 6009.48, La Voz de tú Conciencia, Puerto Lleras; 1928- 1944 20 May, 2007. Clear and fair with Spanish Christian vocals, Spanish male ID (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Wow, trans-continental/oceanic daytime DX (gh) ** CUBA [and non]. Reagan's offer of broadcasting cooperation, sort of, with Cuba. http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/may/22/no-headline---na1fcreaganside22/ Excerpt from The Reagan Diaries, just published: Wednesday, Jan. 16, 1982: "N.S.C. briefing—I made a decision to equip several planes with equipment capable of jamming Cuban radio & TV. We may never use them—I hope not. But we intend to start Radio Marti—broadcasting truth to Cuba. We intend to offer Castro a channel upon which he is free to broadcast to our people. But we'll also tell him that if he jams our radio & (as he has threatened) interferes with our commercial stations we'll black out Cuban TV & radio. We must be prepared to carry that out instantly." Ventura County Star, 22 May 2007. Posted: 22 May 2007 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. 530, FLORIDA AIRSPACE, Radio Martí (airborne); tune in at 2150 18 May, 2007 (local Friday). Intentional channel blocker Radio Rebelde audio was going strong as usual, and also as usual a full second behind 1180, 5025 etc. But interestingly, the Rebelde power was abruptly dropped way down to maybe a fourth of the signal level at 2156, no doubt so the Habana Jammer Commados could check for the appearance of Air Martí. (I've heard this happen maybe once or twice before since the inception of Air Martí during the former PANG 193rd EC-130 operator days.) The Habana Jammer Commandos probably haven't seen a log of mine on the Internet for a few weeks and were curious about the status of Air Martí, thus shut down 530 briefly (hi Arnie). Lots of local line noise here, but I could tell that a couple of minutes later, the Rebelde transmitter was completely cut off, then back up with full power at 2208. Air Martí audio was finally audible at 2217+ underneath and continued clearly, albeit weak under Rebelde, parallel Martí 6030. Air Martí was still hanging in there with the theme sounder at 2300. A true cat-and-mouse game this evening and a great example of the highly coveted radio war. Brilliant! (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Radio/TV Martí funding looks to be secure. "This summer, the House is expected to engage in what has become an annual ritual: voting on amendments to spending bills that attack all angles of Cuba policy, from cutting funds for TV Martí and Radio Martí to stopping the funding of U.S. efforts to enforce the travel sanctions. But even if those amendments pass the House, they would face big hurdles. Approval in the Senate is less likely, in part because of procedural matters and in part because Senate leader Harry Reid, D- Nev., supports a tough line on Cuba." Miami Herald, 20 May 2007. Posted: 21 May 2007 http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/112321.html (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** FALKLAND ISLANDS. Aprovecho para mencionar que el fin de semana pude escuchar en MW, nuevamente, al Falkland Islands Radio Service de Malvinas en 530 kHz, bajo QRM de LV de las Madres, Argentina, pero solucionable parcialmente con orientación de la ferrita. Tanto en la noche como en la mañana alrededor de 1000 UT se podía escuchar, por momentos bastante aceptablemente aunque con fading profundo. Lamentablemente la Gerente de la estación, Corina Bishop me confirmó tiempo atrás que no disponen de tarjetas QSL (y obviamente tampoco acostumbran verificar por carta) por lo que quien quiera una confirmación más formal que un e-mail deberá conformarse con una PPC (Moisés Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, May 21, condig list via DXLD) ** FRANCE. FRANCE REJECTS ENGLISH RADIO ON FM BAND IN PARIS Paris Live Radio (PLR), along with two other English language radio broadcasters, the BBC World Service and World Radio Paris, have all been rejected in taking further part in the “shortlist of candidates” in the tender process conducted by the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (the “CSA”) for frequency positions on the FM band in Paris. The decision was made by the plenary committee of the Conseil Supérieur de l’audiovisuel “the CSA” on 10 May 2007 and published on 14 May. Ian de Renzie Duncan, the Director and Founder of PLR, said in response to the decision: “It is unknown in the developed world for a major city to not have at least some local radio in English and after 5 years of hard work beginning with satellite and cable broadcasting here in France – the CSA have just said NO ENGLISH RADIO on our turf. The decision is extraordinary. It just lacks any comprehension of Paris’ place in the world today as the world’s most visited city. What about the 20 million English speaking tourists (around 70% of them speak English in preference to French) who visit Paris every year? Do they mean nothing to the French tourist and government authorities?” PLR is targeted primarily to listeners in the Paris region. These listeners include expatriates and tourists who understand English better than French, as well as French listeners interested in listening in English to improve their language skills or simply having an alternative to the existing French stations. The target audience is 18 to 45 years old. There are 400 000 English speaking non-French residents of Ile de France. In addition, of the 11m inhabitants of the Paris, Ile de France region (based on a recent government study) 15% of those under 60 or 1.4m speak English. The third audience group is the estimated 14.7 million English speaking tourists whom visit Paris annually. Tourists were to be the main target market during the summer months. PLR says it has validated the interest in an English radio station through a number of surveys. The latest survey by Insead students [English Language radio in Paris survey May 2004] showed that, of the survey group of which 57% were English speakers and 28% French speakers, 72% are interested in listening to English radio in Paris and 62% confirmed that they would find the promotion of products and services in English useful. The PLR website received over 100,000 hits in the first three weeks of operation. Although PLR has an authorization from the CSA to broadcast on 963 AM in Paris between the limited hours of 10am to 5pm (summer) and 11am to 6pm (winter) – the Paris AM band is rarely listened to by the French public and many radios only have FM capability. However, PLR says that if the CSA allowed it and the other English language candidates to broadcast 24/7 on the AM band, it would not clash with the basically full French speaking stations and add to the pluralism of the Paris airwaves. PLR contends that Anglo-Saxons are far more at ease listening to AM radio than the French owing to some historical anomalies over the years following World War Two. (Source: Paris Live Radio via Media Europe)( May 22nd, 2007 - 10:54 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) Derek Hogger Says: May 22nd, 2007 at 15:58 e First, our beef --- I do, however, remember Radio France International being literally laughed out of the Dublin license ‘oral hearings’ by the ‘do as we damn well want’ Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. The French might not want to hear English spoken on Parisian airwaves but then, neither did the Irish want to hear RFI ( well those who license and effectively control their airwaves didn’t) - Derek (ibid.) One might point out that despite all the other inequities, broadcast licenses in the US are not granted or refused on the basis of language! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** GABON. Afropop music jammer on 17660.0, May 22 at 1339, and seemed to be a SAH underneath; no sign of AN1 on 17630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Re 7-059: Kai, at the bottom of that page there is the "new antenna for DRM+". On the first page: http://www.digital11.de/index.html the last paragraph of the "Der Modellversuch" section translated using Babelfish seems to imply that DRM+ tests parallel to 26045 in Band 2 will start this year or have started this year? (Mike Barraclough, UK, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That's right. Allocated frequency is 95.2 with an ERP of 100 watts. These tests have apparently not begun yet, I saw no such reports so far, and this signal would hardly go by unnoticed although its appearance on FM radios is presumably not as harsh as the blaring white noise in AM mode. In case anybody wonders what they are transmitting: Just relays of FM signals, each weak another one. Clearly visible in the equipment rack is the consumer receiver used as audio source, tuned to Hit-Radio Antenne on 103.8 while the photo had been taken (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) See also DIGITAL BROADCASTING ** GERMANY. Ascolti DRM sui 26 --- Ciao, stamattina ho ricevuto i primi segnali DRM sulla banda 26 MHz di quest'anno; ecco il piccolo log: 25695 0854 UT, DW Deutsche Welle - SNR 12/15 - Due canali audio (DW e Primer Radio) 26045 0909 UT, ModellversuchDRM - Snr 10-12, Audio a tratti 15896 0857 UT, Bit eXpress - Snr basso - ID e audio a tratti Anche il segnale di Bix eXpress sui 15896 era ricevibile. Rx IC 756 e antenna verticale 7 metri. 73 de (IW0HK Andrea Borgnino, Italy, May 22, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** GREECE. Re 7-058: ``News in English is aired by Radio Macedonia from Thessaloniki Monday through Friday at 1156 hours. The QSL address is: Radiofonikos, Stathmos Makedonias, Angelaki Street 2, Thessaloniki 54636, Greece (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program May 18 via DXLD) Had been one UT hour later during winter time, but first confirmation I have seen of the current timing (gh, DXLD)`` WTFK? 9935! (gh, DXLD) ** GREECE. Checking out a report quoted here a couple weeks ago, that VOG was heard in English UT Wed at 0200: May 23 at 0200-0218+ on webcast, nothing in English, just Greek talk, and at 0210 some music in Greek (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. Me es grato informar que la emisora religiosa Radio Verdad, ha confirmado mi informe de recepción del día 23/03/2007, con una atenta carta firmada por el Doctor Edgar Amílcar Madrid, director y gerente de la estación. La correspondencia fue enviada el pasado 28 de marzo y la recibí el pasado 11 de mayo. El sobre contenía un banderín, una QSL, una calcomanía (pegatina) y un hermoso calendario 2007. Se informa en el material leído que Radio Verdad actualmente emite con 710 watts de potencia. La sintonicé en la frecuencia de 4052.6 kHz, con un radio de la JRC. Invito a todos los colegas a escribir informes de recepción a la citada emisora. 73s y buen DX (Adán González, Catia La Mar, Estado Vargas, VENEZUELA, May 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing --- Date: 6 June 2007 [Wednesday] THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN CYBERSPACE LIVE WEBCAST Join Amnesty International UK and the Observer Newspaper for a unique global event. We will use the internet to link activists from around the world to discuss the struggle against internet repression and to celebrate the irrepressible desire of people towards freedom of expression. . . http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?ID=405 (via Mike Barraclough, DXLD) Time is not given in UT, but appears to be 1730 UT, with times in EST and PST incorrect (gh, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. DRM in Windows Vista Windows Vista includes an array of "features" that you don't want. These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure. They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features won't do anything useful. In fact, they're working against you. They're digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry. And you don't get to refuse them. . . http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows.html (via Critical Distance blog via DXLD) ** IRAN. Frequency changes for VOIROI/IRIB from May 19: 1430-1527 NF 11720#KAM 500 kW / 118 deg, ex 11695 in Hindi 1730-1827 NF 9940 SIR 500 kW / 322 deg, ex 9905*in German 1830-1927 NF 9940 SIR 250 kW / 310 deg, ex 9905*in French 1930-1957 NF 7380 SIR 500 kW / 295 deg, ex 7360 in Italian # strong co-ch RAI International in Italian from 1500 * to avoid All India Radio in Arabic from 1745 and Chinese Music Jammer (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 22 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. 6250.56, P'yongyang Broadcasting Station; 1058-1134 18 May, 2007. great signal with Korean language soft vocals, 3 plus 1 time sounders at 1100, Korean male news, back to vocals nonstop until 1130. Then march filler music and presumed political talk (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. KBS SHORTWAVE CUTS CAUSE NORTH KOREAN JAMMING TO FOCUS ON OTHER STATIONS Cuts in shortwave broadcasts to North Korea by the Korean Broadcasting System have resulted in heavier jamming of other broadcasts to North Korea. The intensfied jamming of Free North Korea Broadcasting, run by defectors, is also affecting another nongovernmental broadcaster, Open Radio for North Korea. Currently, radio broadcasts for North Korea aired from South Korea are KBS’ Social Education Radio as well as nongovernmental Free North Korea Broadcast, Open Radio for North Korea, North Korean Missions Broadcast, and others. But KBS has significantly reduced its shortwave airtime and frequency use. Social Education Radio has discontinued its shortwave transmissions and is now only aired on mediumwave. The suspension of shortwave has freed jamming transmitters in North Korea which are now aimed at the other stations instead. Park Se Kyung, Chairman of the “North-East Asian Broadcasting Institute”, believes KBS should restart its shortwave transmissions to North Korea. He says that, if KBS cannot implement this due to various internal and external constraints, a transfer of broadcast capability to outside parties should be aggressively examined. Mr Park says that if nongovernmental broadcasts carrying the message of hope to North Korean citizens are to be safely transmitted, cooperation from KBS and its related organizations as well as the government’s policy of support is urgently needed. . . (May 23rd, 2007 - 9:37 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) The following item was axually a continuation of above item (gh) REGIME AGAIN JAMS FOREIGN-BASED RADIO STATIONS Reporters Without Borders today deplored the North Korean government's resumption on 11 May of its jamming of independent and dissident radio stations broadcasting in Korean from outside and called on the South Korean government and the international community to defend their right to broadcast freely. "North and South Korea are celebrating the historic reopening of a railway line between the two countries, yet the Pyongyang regime is trying to stop North Koreans from getting news other than that served up by the regime," the worldwide press freedom organization said. "This is a violation of international law." The programs of radio stations Free North Korea Radio, Voice of America, Open Radio for North Korea, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Chosun (all based in South Korea or the United States) are those targeted, according to the Northeast Asian Broadcasting Institute and the International Shortwave Club. North Korea's ruling Labor Party, the only party allowed, last month denounced news from the outside world that allegedly aimed to destabilize the regime and ordered the security forces to stop all video cassettes, written material, mobile phones and CDs from entering the country. The jamming may have been part of these measures or, an Open Radio official told Reporters Without Borders, may have been linked to the reopening of the railway. Jamming of these short-wave stations had substantially declined since last July. North Korea's serious energy crisis apparently prevents the regime jamming all frequencies round the clock. North Korea is ranked bottom in the Reporters Without Borders worldwide Press Freedom Index. 2007. 05. 23. Reporters Without Borders - (via 'Northeast Asian Broadcasting Institute' in Seoul Korea http://www.neabi.com DXLD) Also http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22259 via Artie Bigley, DXLD) SUSPEND THE ABSURD TRANSMISSION BLOCKADE SCHEME IMMEDIATELY The North Korean regime has executed a frantic transmission blockade policy towards Free North Korea Radio, stationed in Seoul, Republic of Korea. This scheme was first reported by the Northeast Asian Broadcasting Institute, a research institute that conducts research on Korean shortwave radio. This information was confirmed by a shortwave transmission firm in Europe which oversees FNKR's transmissions, and also by the International Shortwave Club members' monitoring. The FNKR evening broadcast (19:00 to 20:00 Seoul time [1000-1100 UT; WTFK?? 9490 via Taiwan, plus two other broadcasts; see U K below]) which was clearly audible until May 11th became inaudible due to the North Korean government's transmission blockade. This violated the North Korean people's right to hear the voice of freedom from the outside world and also our transmission frequency - made possible by donations from many national, international groups and sacrificial individuals who are hoping for the democratization of North Korea - was lost. Although the North Korean regime is famous for achieving its ends regardless of the means, we cannot but be astonished by its recent actions, engaging in an all out attack on a NK defector-led radio broadcast that aims for the betterment of their families' human rights and status. The North Korean regime has pressured and threatened FNKR many times in the past to stop its broadcasts through statements and comments of the mouthpiece of the Labor party. The 'Anti-Imperialism National Democratic Line', an affiliation of the Labor party had declared, "The pseudo broadcast run by criminals must be bombed and eradicated" (Dec. 15, 2006). Tongil Shinbo, an another Labor party mouthpiece warned, "The South Korean government must contemplate on the severe consequences the anti-republic broadcasting will bring upon the North- South relations and must take strict measures to discontinue its actions." (Dec. 17, 2006) The North Korean regime has overtly requested the suspension of our broadcast during the 14th inter Korean high-level talks (April, 2004) and the 2nd general-level talks (June, 2004), which well illustrates its ignominy. They have delivered a doll stabbed by a dagger and followers of Kim Jong Il horded in front of the radio station and rallied for the suspension of the broadcast. Due to these overt and covert pressure from the North Korean regime, we had to relocate our station several times and could not even disclose our location to the public. Dissatisfied with previous threats, the North Korean regime is now attempting to block the very core of FNKR broadcast, which abides by the international standard and broadcast ethics. This reveals that the North Korean regime is, in fact an obscene fascist group which obstructs the inter Korean friendship and democratic communication. I request the suspension of the North Korean regime's transmission interference towards VOA, RFA, Free Chosun Broadcast, Open Radio for North Korea, as well as Free North Korea Radio, who are all working to restore rights and freedom in North Koreans' lives. It is not too late. Abolish the closed-off policy which aims for nothing but to blindly coax the North Koreans into being the perpetrators of tyranny! FNKR is aware that reactionaries had always existed when history aims to go its right course and that they will sacrifice all means in order to achieve their personal wealth and prosperity. In spite of this, FNKR will continue to shout out the message of freedom, democracy and reunification ever louder than before, side by side the real patriots in this country who yearn for North Korea's democratization. May 14, 2007 Free North Korea Radio Seoul, Republic of Korea -- (via 'Northeast Asian Broadcasting Institute' in Seoul Korea http://www.neabi.com DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non]. V. of Mesopotamia, with (presumed) Mesopotamian music, May 22 at 1350, but at first the vocal music audio was cutting on and off; carrier off promptly at 1400* after a couple minutes of dead air already (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. [reminder:] Wednesday May 23rd, Radio Mi Amigo 1900-2100 UT by 9290 kHz via Latvia (Tom Taylor) (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, a few hours earlier, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Me habrán de disculpar mi ignorancia, pero ¿qué es Radio Mi Amigo? (Moisés Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, condig list via DXLD) Una de tantas emisoras europeas piratas funcionando ahora legítimamente por comprar tiempo en este transmisor, --- y que me parece nunca habla español. ¿Era el nombre de algún barco? Y ¿cómo acaba de llegar hoy? 73, (Glenn Hauser, 2103 UT, ibid.) RADIO MI AMIGO, TX VIA ULBROKA, LATVIA DATE: 23-05-2007 TIME: 1900-2000 UT FREQUENCY: 9290 KHz SIGNAL: VERY GOOD LANGUAGE: ENGLISH PROGRAM: ID. JINGLES, MUSIC Audiclip available on http://swli05639fr.blogspot.com/ 73's (Francesco Cecconi, Italy, HCDX via DXLD) ** LIBERIA [non]. 9525, Star Radio, 0720-0800* May 22, mostly in English; STAR Radio Contact program, with recorded messages from people in Liberia to friends and relatives, giving phone numbers to call; 0730-0732 no audio - just open carrier; STAR Radio News Bulletin; program "Liberia Today" with many governmental issues; repeat of the earlier STAR Radio Contact program. Suddenly off at 0800 in mid-sentence. Fair reception. Cotton Tree News (CTN) programming was not on the air due to technical difficulties. George Bennett (Editor in Chief, Cotton Tree News[CTN], Freetown) wrote: Thank you for noting this omission. Unfortunately last night we had difficulty uploading our audio file to Monrovia from whence it is sent to London and subsequently via satellite to the short wave transmitter on Ascension Island. We are studying the problem and will hopefully remedy it. But these technical difficulties with files sent electronically are bound to occur from time to time. - - - Michael Toh (Acting Station Manager, STAR Radio) wrote: We are quite pleased with your reception report on STAR radio shortwave. We are delighted as well to learn that you listened to some of our programs, including STAR Contact, Music Of our Land and Liberia Today, our news magazine program. We urge you to encourage others to join you listen to us. We are also appreciative of your suggestions or comments you may have to improve our broadcast quality. Unfortunately we cannot send you the QSL card you requested. However, we will make serious attempt in the future to send you one for your souvenir. Thanks again for your letter, and please feel free to contact us when the need arises (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA. Summer A-07 of LJB Voice of Africa from May 6 via SAB = Sabratha: 1200-1400 on 17600 and 17725 in Swahili 1400-1600 on 17725 and 17870#in English 1600-1800 on 11835*and 15660 in French 1800-2000 on 9590!and 11835 in Hausa # co-ch 1430-1445 BBC in Burmese on Sat * co-ch 1600-1700 VOA in Bangla, 1700-1800 BBC in Hindi/Urdu ! co-ch 1800-1900 VRT in Dutch (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 22 via DXLD) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS. MINIVAN RADIO LOSES OUT IN FREQUENCY BID Private broadcasting in the Maldives moved a step closer as the Telecommunications Authority (TAM) announced the winners of broadcast frequencies today. Frequencies were awarded for five national radio stations, a national television channel and several local radio stations limited to single atolls. The winning companies must now sign agreements with the Information Ministry before the first broadcasts take place. But the launch of government-licenced private broadcasting may signal the death of Minivan Radio, the opposition station which has pioneered independent broadcasting in the Maldives since 2004, after its parent company failed to win a frequency. When Minivan Radio started broadcasting for one hour, twice a week from Salisbury in the UK in 2004, it was the first time Maldivians had received radio news from a non-government source. At its peak it was broadcasting for an hour every evening, and was a valued source of information to many Maldivians. But a decision was taken to stop broadcasting on shortwave earlier this year, in anticipation of winning an FM frequency, and the failure to do so is a serious blow. Ahmed Naseer, the station’s founder, told Minivan News, “It is not the end of Minivan Radio. Not getting a licence from this government, which is illegitimate in my opinion, is not an obstacle.” But current editor Fathimath Shaheeda said “it is too early to say what the plan is. Honestly, I can’t see other stations buying our content. We will wait and see. In some ways it is a good thing as we will not have to sign an agreement with the Information Ministry. The time will come for to sign agreements with the government, but it is not yet,” she added. Read the full story at Minivan News http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=3275 (May 22nd, 2007 - 14:25 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DXLD) Short-sighted, can always go back to shortwave (gh) ** MEXICO. For the record, frequent chex at various times of day and night have turned up no sign of XEYU on 9599v or XEXQ-OC on 6045 for a few weeks now (Glenn Hauser, OK, May 22, WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONACO [non]. 702 is on again. Yesterday may 20 it was broadcasting RMC france in // with 216 LW, but tonight at 6.30 pm local time (4.30 utc) there was a continuous stream of Japanese music with no announcement whatsoever. It is still on at present (7.32 pm). No i/f from nearby RAI DRM (Marco Barsotti, Costa Smeralda - Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy (21/5-2007), Ydun`s MW News via WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DXLD) Thanks for the tip, Marco. Here in Holland MCO 702kHz is also noted 1930 UT 21/5/2007. I have the impression that the music is Chinese, but I am not 100 % sure! 73s (Ehard Goddijn (21/5-2007), ibid.) CRI TEST SU 702 kHz ? In questo momento [``Lun, 21 de Mayo, 2007 5:11 pm`` -- zone??] "entusiasmante" musica cinese su 702 KHz. Test di CRI su questa frequenza ? 73's (Francesco Cecconi, playdx yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DXLD) Qui a Genova a fondo scala. Saluti (I1YGL, `` Lun, 21 de Mayo, 2007 9:53 pm``, ibid.) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA [non]. So Wantok Radio Light is moving to 7325, 24 hours? Here`s what they will run into, per HFCC, all daily and all for the entire A-07 season tho some are likely wooden such as WHRI: 7325 0000 0100 41 KAS 100 173 D CHN CRI RTC 7325 0030 0130 41NE SIR 500 90 D BENGALI-p IRN IRB IRB 7325 0400 0600 37,38W RMP 500 168 D G BBC MER 7325 1104 1405 7NE,8N SAC 250 277 D 7325 Various CAN RCI RCI 7325 1230 1730 41SW MUM 100 10 D 7200 FM Gold IND AIR AIR 7325 1400 1800 48,53 ARM 100 190 D RUS VOR GFC 7325 1400 1500 50 BEI 500 165 D CHN CRI RTC 7325 1500 1600 49,54 BEI 500 193 D CHN CRI RTC 7325 1600 1700 39N KUN 500 300 D CHN CRI RTC 7325 1700 1800 40 KUN 500 300 D CHN CRI RTC 7325 1800 2000 19,29 CYP 250 359 D G BBC MER 7325 1900 2000 28 SZG 500 315 D CHN CRI RTC 7325 2000 2200 53,57 BEI 500 257 D CHN CRI RTC 7325 2100 2200 28S XIA 500 317 D CHN CRI RTC 7325 2200 0300 10 HRI 100 260 D Eng, Spa USA HRI FCC 7325 2200 2400 49,54W KUN 150 191 D CHN CRI RTC Note there is a hole at 0600-1104, which would be prime evening and DX time for WRL (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4774.88, Radio Tarma, 0958-1005 May 23. While sitting on the frequency, this one just popped on the air. Noted male in Spanish comments with slight echo effect and huayño music. Signal was poor (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD 545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RWANDA [and non]. There have been quite regular Sporadic E openings on 26 MHz lately, check out the reports on 26045, 26012, 25795 and 25740 at: http://www.drmrx.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=22 The most interesting one being heard is DW Kigali on 25740 which is getting to Switzerland and France, 80 Watts RMS into a quarter wave Ground Plane Antenna placed 10 m above ground, multi hop Sporadic E I presume (Mike Barraclough, UK, May 22, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DX LISTENING DIGEST) All the logs of Rwanda are from ``Digger``/``Terje`` in Biberstein, Switzerland: http://www.drmrx.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1716 (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Some DTK-T Systems changes: Brother Stair in English from May 19: 0800-0900 on 11700 WER 500 kW / 255 deg Sat/Sun to AUS/NZ >>> cancelled (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 22 via DXLD) ** SRI LANKA [non]. GERMANY. Some DTK-T Systems changes: IBC Tamil Radio in Tamil from May 7: 0000-0100 NF 7115 WER 250 kW / 105 deg to SoAs, ex 7225 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 22 via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Clandestina para Sudan. 12015, Darfur Salaam, 0503- 0510, escuchada el 17 de Mayo en árabe a locutor con titulares, cuña de ID “...BBC News..”, “...Darfur Salam...”, SINPO 33443. 15515, Darfur Salaam, 1700-1705, escuchada el 21 de Mayo en árabe a locutor con presentación, ID, horarios y frecuencias, locutora con invitada, SINPO 44343 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN [non]. FRANCE: New time & frequency of Radio Taiwan International in French: 1900-2000 on 11755 ISS 500 kW / 190 deg to NWAf 2100-2200 on 9485 ISS 500 kW / 190 deg to NWAf (7205 from Sep.2), cancelled (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 22 via DXLD) ** U K [non]. A quick check during the 1100 UT hour May 23 for BBC Mundo, the BBCWS Spanish service, found it indeed on 11825, which would be Guiana French, and 6095, WHRI, and nothing on 7315, tho you will not find this info on its own website (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Re BBC World Service reports big audience increase Further details released to BBC staff had some more interesting statistics, including the findings that listening via AM (mostly shortwave) increased by 18m to 121m listeners per week, although much of this was due to expanded audience survey coverage into countries such as Afghanistan and DR Congo where SW audiences are high. Although WS English-language audiences fell (from 42m to 38m) this was more than balanced by increases in some non-English languages. The top two audiences are for Hausa and Swahili. But audience figures for Spanish and Russian were down sharply (Chris Greenway, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** U K. Re: RADIO 4 CLOSES EARS TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS PLEAS, Wednesday May 09 2007, The Guardian... ``She (Ms Goldsmith) wrote an article on her ten favourite foreign radio stations in the mass circulation which included fairly high up China Radio International.`` Should read "mass circulation Radio Times" (Mike Barraclough, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [and non]. Summer A-07 of VT Communications Relays. Part two of two: Radio Mustaqbal, all cancelled from May 21!!! 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 [also via WORLD OF RADIO 1360] [most of these items are not being cross-referenced by country or non] Star Radio to Liberia 0700-0730 on 9525 ASC 250 kW / 027 deg to CeAf English/Others Cotton Tree News to Sierra Leone 0730-0800 on 9525 ASC 250 kW / 027 deg to CeAf English/Others Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal: 0700-0757 on 9590 SKN 250 kW / 180 deg to WeEu Dutch 1800-1857 on 9590 SKN 250 kW / 180 deg to WeEu Dutch KBS World Radio 0700-0800 on 9870 SKN 300 kW / 110 deg to WeEu Korean 1430-1500 on 9770 RMP 500 kW / 095 deg to WeEu English Fri DRM 1800-1900 on 15360 RMP 500 kW / 062 deg to EaEu Russian 1900-2000 on 15365 RMP 500 kW / 168 deg to NoAf Arabic 2000-2100 on 3955 SKN 250 kW / 106 deg to WeEu German 2000-2100 on 6145 SKN 300 kW / 150 deg to WeEu French 2100-2130 on 3955 SKN 250 kW / 106 deg to WeEu English West Africa Democracy Radio 0700-0800 on 17875 SKN 300 kW / 180 deg to WeAf English 0800-1100 on 17875 SKN 300 kW / 195 deg to WeAf French/English/French Trans World Radio Africa 0830-0915 on 11985 ASC 250 kW / 027 deg to WeAf French 1300-1315 on 13745 KIG 250 kW / 030 deg to EaAf Afar Fri/Sat 1730-1800 on 9805 DHA 250 kW / 230 deg to EaAf Tigrinya Fri/Sat 1800-1845 on 9895 DHA 250 kW / 225 deg to EaAf Amharic UNMEE 0900-1000 on 15135 DHA 250 kW / 225 deg to EaAf English/Others Sun 1030-1130 on 15135 DHA 250 kW / 225 deg to EaAf English/Others Tue CVC International 1000-1100 on 11815 MOS 035 kW / 295 deg to WeEu English DRM Free North Korea Radio 1000-1100 on 9490 TAI 100 kW / 002 deg to KRE Korean 1900-2000 on 9780 TAI 100 kW / 002 deg to KRE Korean 2030-2130 on 9785 TAI 100 kW / 002 deg to KRE Korean Radio Japan NHK World 1100-1200 on 9760 RMP 500 kW / 095 deg to WeEu English Fri DRM Eternal Good News 1130-1145 on 15525 DHA 250 kW / 085 deg to SoAs English Fri Radio Taiwan International 1200-1300 on 9850 RMP 500 kW / 095 deg to WeEu English Fri DRM 1900-2000 on 6045 RMP 500 kW / 168 deg to WeEu French 1900-2000 on 6185 SKN 250 kW / 105 deg to WeEu German Radio Sea Breeze/Shiokaze 1300-1330 on 9485 TAI 100 kW / 002 deg to KRE Korean/English/Chinese 2030-2100 on 6045 YAM 100 kW / 280 deg to KRE Japanese Radio Free Chosun 1330-1400 on 9485 TAI 100 kW / 002 deg to KRE Korean 2000-2030 on 9785 TAI 100 kW / 002 deg to KRE Korean Radio New Zealand International 1400-1430 on 9770 RMP 500 kW / 095 deg to WeEu English Sat DRM Open Radio for North Korea 1400-1500 on 7390 TAC 100 kW / 056 deg to KRE Korean Little Saigon Radio 1500-1530 on 7390 TAI 100 kW / 250 deg to Asia Vietnamese HCJB Global 1600-1630 on 11740 RMP 500 kW / 076 deg to EaEu Russian 2100-2145 on 12025 RMP 500 kW / 168 deg to NoAf Arabic United Nations Radio, all cancelled from May 21!!! 1700-1715 on 7170 MEY 100 kW / 076 deg to SoAf French Mon-Fri 1700-1715 on 11715 MEY 500 kW / 340 deg to WeAf French Mon-Fri 1730-1745 on 7130 MEY 100 kW / 005 deg to EaAf English Mon-Fri 1730-1745 on 15495 WOF 300 kW / 114 deg to EaAf English Mon-Fri 1730-1745 on 17810 ASC 250 kW / 065 deg to WeAf English Mon-Fri 1830-1845 on 15105 SKN 300 kW / 110 deg to EaAf Arabic Mon-Fri 1830-1845 on 17560 RMP 500 kW / 168 deg to NoAf Arabic Mon-Fri [also via WORLD OF RADIO 1360] Radio France International 1700-1758 on 6010 DHA 250 kW / non-dir to WeAs Persian 1700-1758 on 9530 TAC 100 kW / 255 deg to WeAs Persian SW Radio Africa 1700-1900 on 4880 MEY 100 kW / 005 deg to SoAf English 1700-1900 on 11775 MSK 250 kW / 190 deg to SoAf English 1700-1900 on 11810 ARM 300 kW / 188 deg to SoAf English 1700-1900 on 12035 KVI 500 kW / 155 deg to SoAf English Église du Christ 1800-1830 on 15325 SKN 250 kW / 175 deg to NoAf French Thu Voice of Biafra International 2100-2200 on 7380 MEY 250 kW / 328 deg to WeAf English Sat Radio República 2200-2400 on 6135 RMP 500 kW / 285 deg to Cuba Spanish 0000-0200 on 6155 RMP 500 kW / 285 deg to Cuba Spanish 0200-0400 on 6100 RMP 500 kW / 285 deg to Cuba Spanish (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 22 via DXLD) ** UNITED NATIONS [non]. United Nations Radio, all cancelled from May 21!!! 1700-1715 on 7170 MEY 100 kW / 076 deg to SoAf French Mon-Fri 1700-1715 on 11715 MEY 500 kW / 340 deg to WeAf French Mon-Fri 1730-1745 on 7130 MEY 100 kW / 005 deg to EaAf English Mon-Fri 1730-1745 on 15495 WOF 300 kW / 114 deg to EaAf English Mon-Fri 1730-1745 on 17810 ASC 250 kW / 065 deg to WeAf English Mon-Fri 1830-1845 on 15105 SKN 300 kW / 110 deg to EaAf Arabic Mon-Fri 1830-1845 on 17560 RMP 500 kW / 168 deg to NoAf Arabic Mon-Fri (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 22, via WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DXLD) ** U S A. ESTADOS UNIDOS - Após algum tempo ausente, Mercedes Antezana voltou a apresentar o Club de Oyentes, transmitido em espanhol, pela Voz da América. Ela tinha problemas com as cordas vocais. Em sua ausência, o Club de Oyentes teve antigas edições reprisadas. Em sua volta, Antezana entrevistou, por telefone, o ouvinte brasileiro Leônidas dos Santos Nascimento, de São João Evangelista (MG), que escuta a VOA em ondas curtas há três décadas. O segmento vai ao ar, nos domingos universais, às 0100, em 9560, 9885 e 11815 kHz. Também no domingo, só que às 1200, em 7370, 9535 e 13790 kHz (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 20 via DXLD) ** U S A. Deer In The Headlights Judging from last month's Congressional hearing in which the Broadcasting Board of Governors' (BBG) proposed budget for FY 2008 was discussed, the word is out on The Hill about the ill-conceived plans to severely cut back many Voice of America (VOA) language services including the total elimination of the global English broadcasts on radio. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Karen Hughes, at times looked like a deer caught in the inquisitive headlights of the House Subcommittee on Appropriations, chaired by New York Congresswoman Nita Lowey. "It has been many years since this Subcommittee has paid this much attention to VOA," according to one of the attendees at the hearing. Of the 13 members on the Subcommittee, 10 took the time from their busy schedules to ask Ms. Hughes questions about the BBG budget. During last year's budget hearing, there were two in attendance. Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-Michigan) asked Ms. Hughes to justify the BBG's plans to gut VOA and Ms. Hughes did little more than regurgitate the briefing notes she had with her, namely that the BBG has "had to make some tough decisions" about where to spend its money and "broadcasting in English is not a priority." Most of the two-hour hearing was devoted to the VOA budget and the sorry state of affairs at Alhurra Television. Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) made it a point to tell Ms. Hughes that it is likely that the proposed cuts for the Tibetan service will NOT be approved. A half dozen saffron robed Buddhist Monks were in the audience and he, and Ms. Lowey met with them after the hearing. Other members of the Subcommittee, to varying degrees, asked about the cuts in Cantonese, Hindi and the other services on the chopping block. A M-A-J-O-R-I-T-Y of the Subcommittee seemed incredulous as Ms. Hughes time and time again defended the decision to eliminate English broadcasts on radio. "Why would you want to do that?" one Subcommittee member after another asked. To which, she offered no good explanation. Pardon us Ms. Hughes, but other international broadcasters don't see it that way. Chinese government radio is expanding its news programming in English along with Russian government radio and even Al-Jazeera, the Arabic language network, is broadcasting in English. And they are broadcasting to most regions of the world on shortwave radio. Surprised? It is darn near impossible to get a TV signal into a targeted region when there is no TV station that will broadcast it. It is darn near impossible to get an AM or FM signal into a targeted region when there are no affiliates who are allowed to carry it. It's a waste of resources to broadcast our programs into a country where there is a constant threat of being jailed or killed if they catch you with a satellite dish (unless you can convince the authorities that it's really a Weber grill turned upside down and what you're really doing is cooking lunch!) And the Internet? It, too, can be blocked and is too expensive in most parts of the world. In comparison, SHORTWAVE (although the soon to be ex-BBG Chairman will tell you that shortwave is old technology and therefore should be eliminated -- according to his logic, we should stop using the wheel) does marry the mission to the market because IT GETS TO THE MARKET and can not be easily blocked. With some shortwave radios now costing as little as $19, this should be a no-brainer. Then again, it has always been sexier to convince Congress to spend tens of millions of dollars on the latest boondoggle rather than on projects that give taxpayers their money's worth. Apparently these other global broadcasters know something the BBG doesn't: English is the language of commerce around the world; English is the official language in 74 countries and the second language of choice in many others; English is spoken, written or understood by 1.6 billion people in the world. If the BBG chooses to ignore the fact that this is ONE HELL OF A BIG POTENTIAL AUDIENCE AND IT SHOULDN'T BE IGNORED, can we honestly say they are good stewards of the taxpayers' money? And, in response to questions about BBG surveys that "there's just no audience for English," Congresswoman McCollum stated rhetorically. "I know about your surveys. You turn off a transmitter to one area of the world and then asked after the fact if anybody's listening. That just doesn't make sense Ms. Hughes, does it?" We don't think so either. Thank you, Congresswoman McCollum. Focus On This FLASH! The Agency has hired OPM to conduct focus groups. And who will conduct them? Well, psychologists, of course, to figure out why the BBG consistently flunks the Human Capital Resources Survey. By assigning psychologists to conduct the focus groups, our Agency must assume that any employees who are unhappy or dissatisfied with the status quo MUST have something seriously wrong with them. As you know, our Agency received failing grades twice in a row in the Human Capital Resources Survey where we ended up at the bottom of the barrel among all other government agencies. And now they want a study? What for? To the rank-and-file it is incomprehensible WHY at this time of stated budget deficits, the Agency is determined to spend more taxpayer dollars on focus groups to interpret why they received lousy numbers in the survey. It would be much better and cost-efficient for the BBG to focus on their own inadequacies in managing this once-prestigious Agency. The plummeting morale of our Agency employees is not something for a rocket scientist or an OPM shrink to analyze. The answers are all around us. As a public service, we'll answer their questions for them right here, at no charge. How about 10 years of RIFs, which have essentially destroyed the mission of the Agency? That's for starters. It's not only the RIFs that have caused the disintegrating morale around the place. A close second is absentee landlord management by self-styled "experts" on the BBG who meet in secret sessions that they won't share even with the Congress, which provides their funding, because of "national security" issues. However, the "off with their heads" mentality reflected in the arbitrary and capricious RIFs are the most significant manifestation of the overall disdain the BBG holds for its employees. So let's start with the RIFs. The message to employees for the past 10 years is that you are not valuable, you are eminently expendable. The BBG will use you for a single purpose and when that purpose is no longer deemed necessary, you will be cast aside. Sometimes employees are thanked for all their contributions to the organization and more often, are not. Valuable employees with skills go out the door while the BBG political appointees stay glued in place while the employees literally fly out the door. The opinion of the BBG is that employees are one-dimensional. Gone are the days when we worked with zeal and dedication against great odds like aging equipment, insufficient funding and inadequate staffing. The BBG has stopped all that. You are hired and then pigeonholed. Once that pigeonhole is determined to be no longer important, watch out. You and the pigeon hole are thrown out in the street. Except for a few cherry-picked individuals, radio broadcasters are not retooled and retrained for television or the Internet. It's stay in your place until the BBG decides to show you the door. Since the BBG announced its "let's all jump on the TV bus" campaign, which has no roadmap or rationale, has there been any real effort to transition employees to those fields? The answer is - NO. They would rather transition the employees to the unemployment line and wash their hands of the pesky employees. The message is clear. You are not really a part of this organization. How do they expect employees to buy into their plan when part of the plan is to eliminate employees! With attitudes like this, how can the Agency possibly expect good morale? Thanks For The Memories Morale. It's something the BBG claims it is interested in improving. But actions speak much more eloquently than mere words. Let's take as an example the fact that the BBG treats its retired career employees as if they are potential criminals. In the not-too-distant past, after you retired from this Agency you were provided with a retiree badge that allowed you to access the buildings where you spent the greater part of your professional life as if you were still an employee. You didn't get a gold watch, but you did get that little bit of recognition. Now you are given a retiree badge that is essentially worthless. Evidently, the BBG has decided that retirees are potential criminals. We can understand that employees who have left under a disciplinary cloud may pose a security risk but not those that have retired voluntarily. These are employees who have gone through background checks and have been deemed fit for government service right up until the date of their retirement. Suddenly on their retirement day, the Agency acts as if these people are complete strangers. The Agency lumps them in the same category as visitors. Now obviously a "visitor" could be someone the Agency is not familiar with. We can agree that a visitor may need someone to vouch for him/her, someone who can testify to his/her character and need to enter the building. We can understand that a visitor may need to be escorted. But to treat former colleagues in this manner, colleagues who may have been coming to work for the past 15, 20, 30 or more years as if they were suddenly pariahs, is insulting and incomprehensible. Here's just one example of how the Agency contradicts itself in regard to this exclusionary policy. On Saturday, April 28th, at the First Annual Willis Conover Memorial Concert held in this building, a number of retired employees attended. They were not forced to show IDs, they were not required to be escorted either into the auditorium or the restrooms, if needed. How is it that these retired employees when they enter the building during normal working hours require an escort but on a weekend at an open-to-the-public function there was no requirement for an escort? It is the same building and the same individual. There are no non-working hours in this building since we are a 24/7 operation. Is it OK for a retired employee to enter the building without close supervision on a Saturday evening, yet is restricted access on a Tuesday or Wednesday or whatever other day they're here? Is it any wonder that "morale" continues to be so bad in this building? It is well past the time to stop treating dedicated retired federal workers who gave a large chunk of their lives to the Voice as if they are potential criminals. The Straight Poop The Agency is at it again. Needlessly meddling with employees' long- established schedules as if some management official had nothing better to do than to work on a project to determine if people on a straight-eight schedule were really working every minute of their eight-hour tour of duty. This is no joke. Management claims that they have had numerous complaints of employees not only taking meal breaks but taking extra long meal breaks even though they are on a straight-eight schedule. So instead of correcting the behavior of a few employees who may be abusing the system the Agency is going on a crusade to eliminate as many straight-eight schedules as possible. We admit that we have had complaints from Union members stating that some supervisors allow certain favored employees to go missing for hours. Of course, the Agency doesn't address this problem. Again, storm-trooper tactics such as these are another contributing factor to low morale in the building. Most of the employees on a straight-eight schedule are broadcasters. They don't work the same way most government employees work or produce widgets on an assembly line. When you're working with news or any type of broadcasting there is no real down time, no convenient time where there is a break in the action. News happens all the time, it doesn't wait for an employee to take his or her meal period. If you are a writer working on a story, you never know when that telephone call from a potential interviewee will come. Another factor is working around studio schedules which just does not allow for a convenient or right time to take an unpaid meal break. Because of these factors, it is best for all to have the opportunity of working a straight-eight schedule. To force employees who do not want, or who find it totally unproductive, to put their work on hold for forty five minutes for a meal break, is a nuisance at the very least. Moreover, if they are in the field on assignment, they rarely, if ever, can shut down for forty five minutes. It is true that the law and therefore the Union Contract do call for a meal break. But allowances are allowed for employees who work as broadcasters. From what we understand this is being driven not by the supervisors (who know the work these employees do) but by people in the Personnel Office who have never had and still have no clue as how work at the Voice of America is accomplished. As we know, the Office of Personnel places a higher priority on hounding, punishing, firing and rifing people than they do on reward and recognition. If the Agency front office is truly interested in improving morale in this Agency it will put a stop to this crusade immediately. Let's just see how much management really cares about morale. Ignore Them And They May Go Away Could it be that a major reason for the almost non-existent high morale in parts of this building is the inability of managers to keep in touch with the people they manage? We've heard of a Division Director who meets regularly with employees working on his pet TV project (that we believe violates the VOA Charter) who has not had a staff meeting with employees working for the radio operation he supposedly oversees in at least three years. Our guess is that the morale is probably pretty good among the TV people but just plain awful for the people he chooses to ignore. The icing on the cake comes from his reportedly frequently repeated not- too-subtle statements: "Why should I meet with the radio people anyway? I don't care about them. I hope radio goes away." ONE WAY TO BOOST MORALE IS FOR MANAGERS TO RECOGNIZE THAT VOA IS IN THE COMMUNICATIONS BUSINESS and that means integrated radio, TV, and Internet, and not in the business of perpetuating a top heavy bureaucracy whose only job is to keep their jobs. [more, on the struggles of the union movement] http://www.afge1812.org/index.cfm?PageToWork=Content_Page_3 (AFGE Local 1812 News & Views, May, via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Re 7-058, http://shortwavemusic.blogspot.com/ --- Hi Myke, ``Highway of God`` --- I just noticed you have this as WHRI, but that time and frequency [7465 at 2300] would have been WWCR, as in the now outdated A-06 FCC schedule: http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A06FCC01.TXT And thus your comments about WSHB, etc., are inapplicable. I wonder what sources you are using for identifying stations? As for 12085, neither VOA nor Mongolia seems likely at that hour. The two stations on another (current) schedule at that time are Syria and China/ Mongolian service, neither of which that sounds like, if you are certain of the frequency: http://www.geocities.jp/binewsjp/bia07.txt Regards, (Glenn Hauser to Myke Weiskopf, May 23, via DXLD) ** U S A. NEW BLUES MUSIC SHOW ON SW Glenn: I would like to inform you and your listeners that "The Checkerboard Lounge," a new weekly Blues music show, will premier Sunday June 3rd at 2200 UT on 7415 kHz [WBCQ]. We will air the likes of Buddy Guy, Jelly Roll Morton, Eric Clapton, Junior Wells, Robert Johnson . . . but we don't want to give it all away. So we invite you and your listeners to tune in, enjoy the Blues and become Official Checkerboard Lounge Lizards. Sincerely, (Roscoe, Your bartender, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. The station in Maine is blasting over WBBM tonight, with ID as 1240 WPZR, ads for Lewiston-Auburn. A good chance for Maine! Time 10:30 PM EDT (Jim Renfrew, Holley NY, May 23, IRCA via DXLD) So that is WTME Rumford, in the SW corner, evidently on 10 kW day power rather than 18 watts at night. But Maine now has another 780, WREM Monticello, NE corner, supposedly there now ex-710, the AM station to go with WBCQ (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solid here in NW NJ (Rick Shaftan, IRCA via DXLD) ** U S A. It's rare to see a public radio station team up with a commercial station on programming, but with the huge amount of audience that NPR news shares with commercial radio in Boston, it's no surprise to find WGBH (89.7) and WBOS (92.9 Brookline) joining forces to add 90-second news updates to WBOS' morning show. Dan Tritle, local Morning Edition anchor for WGBH's Cape and Islands stations (WCAI/WNAN/WZAI) will deliver the updates four times an hour from 6:15 until 8:15 AM. For now, WGBH is providing the newscasts without charge, but the stations are looking for sponsorship opportunities. Memorial Day is a week away, and in New York City, that's become synonymous with "Rewound" on WABC (770), as the erstwhile "Musicradio 77" returns from the mists of time once more, through the magic of restored airchecks, for a full day (6 AM-6 PM) of classic music. The day begins with a 1981 montage, includes two hours of "The Top 100 of 1967," and wraps up with Bruce Morrow and Chuck Leonard from 1974, followed by two hours of Rewound talk with Mark Simone. And this year, sister station WLS (890 Chicago) gets into the act with its own version of "Rewound," so we'll probably be flipping between the two webcasts on Monday to catch all the action (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch May 21 via WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DXLD) ** U S A. BIG 89 REWIND ON WLS 890 CHICAGO! http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=408961&spid= WLS would like to invite all listeners to 890AM on Monday, May 28th (Memorial Day) for the BIG 89 REWIND radio special. ALL DAY LONG, WLS goes retroactive --- back to the days when it was the nation's music leader, The Rock of Chicago. Hear Chicago's most legendary DJ's LIVE from 5AM - Midnight on Memorial Day! This will be a true historic day in Chicago radio. I believe they stream on the net (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. COX TOWER STANDING TALL IN CASE OF DISASTER --- MANATEE GRANTED USE OF 1,667-FOOT TOWER DURING EMERGENCIES --- GRANT JEFFERIES A radio tower that reaches 1667 ft above the ground in East Manatee County is a vital link in case of an emergency. The radio tower which transmits music daily on WHPT 102.5, also is a vital link for transmitting information for the Emergency Alert System for the Tampa Bay area from Pasco to Charlotte Counties including Manatee And Sarasota Counties. By RICHARD DYMOND [caption] In the event of a hurricane or other emergency, the ability to communicate with the public instantly over commercial radio could save lives. Since 2002, Sarasota County emergency coordinators have depended on an almost 1,700-foot tower in East Manatee and the 100,000-watt radio station that goes with it to get their message out. Manatee County will soon have use of the same tower, which is the largest in the Tampa Bay area, and the powerful station as well for instantaneous information. The red-and-white tower belongs to WHPT-FM, 102.5, a Cox Radio Inc. station whose studio is in St. Petersburg. . . http://www.bradenton.com/186/story/54539.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. 940, FLORIDA (MIS) Pinellas County Emergency Management, WPTI814, Palm Harbor; 1705-1710 18 May, 2007. Noted this one at exceptional level when near US-19 and SR-580 (Countryside vicinity). This is one of three transmitters (the Ulmerton Road, Largo transmitter is loud and near me, and the third is near downtown St. Petersburg) which synchro the same audio. Usual NOAA Weather Radio KHB32 telco audio with sporadic Emergency Management generic crap announcements dropped in (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W Visit my "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" at: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html or: http://www.geocities.com/geigertree/flortis.html DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1680, LOUISIANA, KRJO, Monroe; 1033-1040 18 May, 2007. Presume the one based on format, near local sunrise time. Briefly up before the Winter Garden, FL Spanish station overtook the channel. Promo for the apparently very big "Rejoice Music Soul Food" Christian concert in Philadelphia, then mention of "...only on Rejoice..." (KRJO's slogan -- and note the call letters, get it?). I initially hoped this was WTTM, Lindenwold, NJ based on the Philly concert reference until I Googled the concert and saw it was a major event at this location, and WTTM is apparently mostly an Asian languages/ brokered format. Plus, late on the sunrise path for NJ here. So, KRJO I will say it was (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. YVKE MUNDIAL CARACAS SUFFERING INTERFERENCE FROM UNKNOWN SOURCE Since March 2007, the signal of state-run Venezuelan radio station YVKE Mundial for Caracas [550 kHz] has suffered from interference. The motives for this are unknown; the problems, however, begin when the station broadcasts news or public affairs programmes, according to the station’s director, Cristina Gonzales. The journalist also stated that during the last week the signal has been interrupted, as happened for 14 hours on 10 May. A commission made up of Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV), YVKE Mundial and the National Telecommunications Commission (Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones, CONATEL), is investigating these events in order to determine the motives. (Source: IFEX) (May 21st, 2007 - 12:24 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) Nothing about the problem found on RNV website. Listening to YVKE steaming audio, during nationalization proceedings of Cantv, May 22, I am noticing occasional fades typical of distant FM reception. No transmission outage though. So the studio / transmitter link appears not to be working all OK. This is not what you would call jamming (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, May 22, MWC via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. The clock is ticking on RCTV. Better keep an eye on their website, http://www.rctv.net/ where I found this: Se abre el juicio RCTV La Sala Político-Administrativa del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia admitió, en el día de hoy, el recurso de nulidad intentado por RCTV y un numeroso grupo de periodistas contra la decisión de cierre anunciada por el Ministerio de Telecomunicaciones, por considerar que existen méritos suficientes para que se proceda con el juicio que anule dicha decisión. No obstante y de manera inexplicable, la misma Sala declaró improcedente el amparo cautelar igualmente solicitado por RCTV. Esto quiere decir que se inicia oficialmente el juicio en contra de la decisión de cierre, puesto que hay meritos suficientes para ello, pero se mantiene, por los momentos, la medida de cierre anunciada por el Gobierno. Esta decisión es francamente contradictoria puesto que no impide, como debería hacerlo, que cierren a RCTV, afectando a más de 200 periodistas, 3000 trabajadores y a toda la sociedad venezolana, pero admite, sin embargo, que hay razones fundadas para afirmar que el cierre decretado por el gobierno es ilegal, dando pie así a que se produzcan daños irreparables a los derechos humanos y la libertad de expresión. Esto equivale a sostener que "se es culpable hasta que se demuestre lo contrario", en contra de todo principio jurídico universalmente reconocido. A pesar de esta contradicción y de las múltiples presiones y amenazas de voceros del oficialismo, para que el TSJ falle en contra del canal, RCTV toma fuerza de esta decisión puesto que lo que hemos sostenido desde el principio ha sido reconocido: hay pruebas contundentes de que el cierre es ilegal y arbitrario. Se abre este juicio, además de quedar pendientes las decisiones sobre otras medidas cautelares y de amparos que aún están por decidirse en el TSJ (via DXLD) And despite what I said earlier, another go-around between our Venezuelan combatants (gh) : Un pequeño comentario. Estimado Don Guillermo, Lamento profundamente el comentario que ante Ud. y los colegas diexistas ha hecho el compatriota Adam González. Todo ello sólo demuestra la profunda división y odio que ha dejado en estos 8 largos años el Presidente Chávez a tráves de sus discursos ideológicos marxistas en parte de la sociedad venezolana. Respeto las opiniones del colega González pero no las comparto. No voy a polemizar que si Chávez y su revolución son una maravilla o no. Él tiene una posición política y se la respeto, porque a mi me enseñaron en "Democracia" respetar las opiniones de los demás. No conozco a Marcel Granier, ni trabajo, ni tengo ningún vínculo con RCTV. Pero como democráta y amante de la paz, sé lo importante que son los medios de comunicación para una sana Democracia. Cuando se pretende eliminar un sólo medio, aunque la línea editorial no sea del agrado del gobierno de turno, se atenta contra la libertad de expresión. Apoyo a RCTV así como cualquier medio que estuviese en peligro de desaparecer porque eso acallaría la libertad. Hasta ahora no he visto que existan "Canales Golpistas" porque se atrevan a criticar al poder de los gobiernos. Imagínense ustedes el que el gobierno de Estados Unidos mandarse a cerrar canales porque critican su posición al seguir manteniendo una guerra inútil en Iraq. Eso si sería "golpismo". Aquí todo el mundo sabe que sucedió en Venezuela un 04 de Febrero de 1992. Que ahora el actual presidente lo quiera conmemorar como una gloriosa fecha patria es otra cosa. Al colega González tranquilízese, tómese un té de tilo para que calme sus nervios. Le recuerdo la historia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBUo-pYeVfQ&NR=1 ¡Muchas Gracias! Don Guillermo. Cordiales 73´s. Atentamente, (Jorge García Rangel, Venezuela, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Gee, Hugo was a failed GOLPISTA himself back in 1992! And that will lead you to other videos on this subject. The following is not a direct reply to the above, as both are not being published until now, May 23, but to our previous comments (gh, DXLD) Hola Glenn, Saludos desde Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA. A continuación te envío algunas apreciaciones mías con respecto al asunto que hemos debatido recientemente: RCTV. Atentamente, Adán González NO ES CUESTIÓN DE JUSTIFICAR, SÓLO POR JUSTIFICAR Después de leer las notas en inglés del amigo Glenn Hauser, al final de mi réplica publicada en días pasados, estoy en la obligación de hacer ciertas apreciaciones: 1) En ningún momento Chávez, ni el gobierno revolucionario, tendrían interés en prohibirle a RCTV transmitir a través de los sistemas de televisión por suscripción, amigo Glenn. La decisión de no renovar la concesión sólo es válida para la frecuncia de RCTV en Caracas, canal 2, banda de VHF, y para el resto de sus repetidoras a escala nacional. 2) Sería bueno recordar que los únicos verdaderos agresores a la libertad de expresión, han sido los dirigentes políticos de la oposición y el señor Marcel Granier, como directivo de RCTV. Verbigacia, el ex gobernador opositor del estado Miranda, Enrique Mendoza, sacó del aire --- usando como fuerza de choque su policía estatal --- al canal Venezolana de Televisión en la jornada del 11 de abril de 2002. Marcel Granier impuso en su empresa --- en igual período --- un "apagón informativo". La oposición vernacular ha estado 8 años "cacareando" que Chávez acabará con la libertad de expresión y ellos mismos demostraron --- con su torpeza --- cuán democráticos y tolerantes son. 3) Amigo Glenn, no se trata de justificar sólo por justificar. No es un mero ejercicio mecanicista. En estos casos, o se tiene la razón o no se tiene. En ningún momento he dicho que los chavistas no nos equivocamos, todos somos humanos y erramos. Sin embargo, en el asunto de RCTV, la plenitud de las herramientas jurídicas y de la argumentación lógica están de nuestro lado. No es intentar encontrar CUALQUIERA forma de darle la razón al proceso revolucionario, NO. Es debatir de manera seria y con ideas en la mano. ¿O aún no me explico? Gústele o no a Marcel Granier y a algunas personas, la CONCESIÓN SE VENCE. ¿Por qué el Estado no la renueva? Tiene sus fundamentos muy sólidos; uno es la Ley Orgánica de Telecomunicaciones. En su artículo 171 reseña: "Sin perjuicio de las multas que corresponda aplicar de conformidad con lo previsto en esta Ley, será sancionado con la REVOCATORIA de la habilitación administrativa o concesión, según el caso: (...) 6) El que utilice o permita el uso de los servicios de telecomunicaciones para los cuales está habilitado, como medios para coadyuvar en la comisión de delitos (...)". Fíjense, el gobierno en ningún momento está REVOCANDO la concesión --- y tiene razones de sobra para hacerlo --- simplemente ha aguardado el vencimiento de esa figura administrativa. Insisto, mucha gente DEBE LEERSE la mentada Ley Orgánica de Telecomunicaciones antes de emitir opinión. 4) Considero que las evidentes reflexiones --- en el presente estadio --- sobre el debate abordado, son: primero, que estamos frente a la infinita aberración de un medio de comunicación --- y de directivos --- que se autoproclaman defensores de la libertad de expresión y al mismo tiempo le dan un puñalada por la espalda. Segundo, que una persona no puede desconocer las leyes y la argumentación científica, sólo para justificar un delirio dicursivo. En eso, amigo Glenn, los opositores SÍ son EXPERTOS. En el justificar sólo por justificar. Fe de errata: En la réplica titulada "SINDICATO BOLIVARIANO DE RCTV SÍ EXISTE", erróneamente utilicé --- por un lapsus --- el término ARRENDATARIO por el de ARRENDADOR, el cual es el correcto. Mil disculpas (Adán González, Certificado de Locución #26950, Catia La Mar, Estado Vargas, VENEZUELA, May 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Caso RCTV: de verdad no me parece que la mejor solución sea no darle más cobertura al caso RCTV, sobre todo porque esta semana estará muy "movida" en el ámbito informativo. Es muy lamentable. Aquellos que quieran manipular esta situación con el cuentico de la "libertad de expresión", están bien equivocados. El Estado está en todo su derecho de no renovar la concesión. ¿Por qué el miedo al debate científico y bien argumentado? ¿Será que hay un sector temeroso de que se conozca la verdad? Por lo visto, SÍ. Duélale a quien le duela, este próximo 28 de mayo nace una nueva señal en el Canal 2. ¡Bienvenida sea! 73s y buen DX (Adán González, Catia La Mar, Estado Vargas, VENEZUELA, May 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. Re 7-059: The only really confirmed site for a MW transmitter has been the refugee camp in Rabouni (where visitors spotted a 50 kW Harris transmitter some few years ago, co-sited with the studios and the SW transmitter). There have been wild speculations from time to time, but there has never been an actual confirmation for any other site, be it nearby Tindouf or a third location (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, May 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 7291v : see CHAD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM: see also GERMANY; MONACO; RWANDA; UK [and non] DRM RECEIVERS Have been reading numerous posts about DRM tests in the 26 MHz (11 m) band and was wondering from afar here in the States: Are there actual self-contained DRM receivers for sale in the UK? What are they and how well are they selling? (If anyone knows, that is.) Thanks (John Figliozzi, NY, May 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) In case an answer from Germany would be of interest as well: There is a rather huge set, to be run from mains power, made in South Korea and distributed under the Morphy Richards brand. This set can be ordered through online shops and some specialized shortwave dealers, as Deutsche Welle suggests on this page: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,2142,8211,00.html That's all. Nothing available from "ordinary" outlets at all, and to people outside the shortwave scene DRM means Digital Rights Management as a matter of course (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) John, the Morphy Richards 27024 was initially only available in the UK as a grey import with a European power plug, it's now available via their website at £50/£60 more than the European models, £199.99, but presumably we get the correct mains plug! They have no plans to release it to dealers so as to sales I would say probably in double figures to hobby enthusiasts. Reason apart from the fact it's not price competitive and mains only; there is virtually nothing to listen to in the UK in DRM. The set has some interesting features, such as EPG and record, but you can get an equivalent DAB set with those features for a lot less money (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Geomagnetic field activity ranged from quiet to minor storm levels. From 14 May to early on 18 May, the geomagnetic field was mostly quiet. By early on 18 May, a coronal hole high speed stream moved into geoeffective position causing active periods at middle latitudes while active to minor storm periods were observed at high latitudes. Solar wind speed increased form approximately 320 km/s to 610 km/s, while the IMF Bz fluctuated up to +13/-15 nT for a few hours. By late on 18 May, the IMF Bz was decreasing and by 19 May, did not vary much between +/- 3 nT. Quiet to unsettled levels were observed at middle latitudes with an isolated minor storm period at high latitudes on 19 May. By 20 May, solar wind speed was slowly decreasing and ended the period around 530 km/s. The geomagnetic field was mostly quiet at all latitudes on 20 May. SPACE WEATHER OUTLOOK 23 MAY – 18 JUNE 2007 Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels during 25 May – 03 June and again on 17 June. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected during 23 May. A coronal hole high speed stream combined with a possible weak CME are expected during 24 - 27 May, with unsettled to minor storm conditions possible. Major storm levels are also possible at high latitudes on 25 May. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected during 28 May – 02 June. Activity is expected to increase to quiet to active levels during 03 – 04 June due to a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Activity is expected to decrease to mostly quiet levels until another recurrent coronal hole becomes geoeffective on 14 June. Unsettled to active periods are possible during this time. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected during the rest of the forecast period. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2007 May 22 2054 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2007 May 22 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2007 May 23 75 5 2 2007 May 24 75 15 4 2007 May 25 75 25 6 2007 May 26 75 20 5 2007 May 27 75 15 4 2007 May 28 75 8 3 2007 May 29 75 5 2 2007 May 30 75 5 2 2007 May 31 75 5 2 2007 Jun 01 75 5 2 2007 Jun 02 75 8 3 2007 Jun 03 75 15 4 2007 Jun 04 75 15 4 2007 Jun 05 70 8 3 2007 Jun 06 70 5 2 2007 Jun 07 70 5 2 2007 Jun 08 75 5 2 2007 Jun 09 75 5 2 2007 Jun 10 75 5 2 2007 Jun 11 75 5 2 2007 Jun 12 75 5 2 2007 Jun 13 75 5 2 2007 Jun 14 75 15 4 2007 Jun 15 75 10 3 2007 Jun 16 75 5 2 2007 Jun 17 75 5 2 2007 Jun 18 75 5 2 (http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio via WORLD OF RADIO 1360, DXLD) ###