DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-071, June 20, 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 EXTRA 75: ** 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 [apparently canceled; unconfirmed] 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 MUNDO RADIAL, junio-julio: (corriente) http://www.w4uvh.net/mr0706.ram (descargar) http://www.w4uvh.net/mr0706.rm (texto) http://www.worldofradio.com/mr0706.html ** AFGHANISTAN. KABUL --- TOP TALIBAN DEFECTS. http://theweekmagazine.com/news/worldataglance.aspx http://theweekmagazine.com/search/articles/info.aspx?ArticleID=5337 A former top propagandist for the Taliban has defected to the Afghan government. Mullah Mohammed Ishaq Nizami ran the Voice of Sharia from 1996 to 2001, while the Taliban was in charge. Most Afghans know his voice well from the many radio speeches he gave praising then-leader Mullah Omar. Nizami returned to Kabul from Pakistan to accept the government’s offer of amnesty, an offer 2,000 other ex-Taliban have already taken. A Taliban spokesman confirmed the defection, saying Nizami was “mentally sick” and “not an important person.” It now appears Nizami may not have been as hard-line as the regime he served. Even though music and movies were banned under the Taliban, Nizami preserved much of the country’s music and film archives (The World at a Glance, The Week, June 22, via DXLD) ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS. ISLAS ANDAMAN & NICOBAR: La estación regional de la All India Radio desde Port Blair (8.5 kW) transmite de acuerdo al siguiente esquema de emisiones: HORA UTC KHZ DIAS 0315-0400 7115 Lun a Vie 0315-0415 7115 Sábado 0315-0500 7115 Domingo 0730-0930 7115 Lun a Sab 0730-1000 7115 Domingo 1030-1700 4760 Lun a Vie 1030-1730 4760 Sab y Dom 2355-0300 4760 Diario Los programas en su mayor parte se irradian en idioma Hindi, con segmentos en inglés y vernacular. Se recomienda intentar la escucha de noticias en inglés a las 2335 UT por 4760 kHz. QTH: AIR Port Blair, Haddo Post, Dilanipur, Port Blair 744102, South Andaman Isl., Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Union Territory, India. E-mail: airpb @ dte.vsnl.net.in (source? via Marcelo A. Cornachioni, Argentina, Conexión Digital June 17 via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 3385, 16/06 2314 UT, R. La Voz de las Madres, Buenos Aires, Spanish, vários tangos, fv [female voice], anúncios locais, temp na capital 5.2 graus, ID // 530 kHz; o sinal vinha forte por um tempo e depois ia sumindo em fadding; após alguns minutos retorna e repete o ciclo por várias vezes, quando o sinal da emissora entra em fadding curiosamente escuta-se bem baixo um beacom que me pareceu WB 33333 (RENATO ULIANA, Brasil, RX: ICOM IC-PCR1500, ANTENA UNIFILAR 10 METROS, @tividade DX via DXLD) I couldn`t begin to explain this as a spur or harmonic; maybe someone relaying the 530 station, which I also read somewhere recently, has been legalized after many years of piracy/unofficialdom (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. Let eens op de 15345 kHz + of - Argentinia verloopt dagelijks iets van de vaste freqentie, waarschijnlijk om de vaste zenders teontlopen op 15345. Op 10/6 was hun freqentie zelf 15343.90 kHz. Ze zijn deze keer weer sterk. Mvg (Maurits van Driessche, Belgium, 2054 UT June 19, BDX via DXLD) ** ASIA [non]. Received from R Free Asia a QSL card with also mention of the transmitter site which I saw for this first time. Details: Cantonese, April 29, 2007, 1500-1530 on 11595, transmitter = IBB Saipan (Ge Huijbens, Beffe, Belgium, May 29, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) Last week I also got a QSL-card from RFA mentioning the IBB site at Iranawila, Sri Lanka! As long as it is broadcast by IBB's own, official relaystations, RFA has less problems in stating the sites. Cf. DX-Window no. 325 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 4835, VL8A Alice Springs, English, 0748 UT, June 15, Phone talk OM/OM, Fair 4910, VL8T Tennant Creek, English, Phone talk OM/OM, 0754 UT, June 15, Fair 5025, VL8K Katherine, English, news review national, music, 0815 UT, June 15, Fair, QRM R. Rebelde (Rogildo F. Aragão, Sony 2001D, LW 30m, Quillacollo, Bolivia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHRAIN. 9745, R. Bahrain, 2233 15-6, heard on USB with classical Arabic songs, S7 334X3 mixed with Taiwan. On the LSB part, Taiwan is mixed with HCJB Ecuador (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS. VISIT TO RADIO STATION BELARUS --- by Stig Hartvig Nielsen Our Danish member travelled to Belarus via Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania in summer 2006: Belarus and Minsk ”You must be raving mad – going to Belarus”. That was a common remark prior to our departure from Vilnius, Lithuania, to Minsk – the capital of Belarus. Reading various travel guides and articles on the internet wasn’t encouraging either. To put it mildly – what was being said about Belarus wasn’t very positive at all. Belarus was usually described as a nasty dictatorship, Minsk was said to be a dull and boring place with lots of grey concrete buildings and with a severe lack of service. The border crossing would be a nightmare and we should expect to be watched day and night by KGB agents. These negative descriptions didn’t really hold water. The four-hour long journey from Vilnius to Minsk (costing less than £5 – including the border crossing) – went without the slightest problem. And Minsk turned out to be a modern, quite fine and very clean city. It had lots of nice parks, impressive buildings and very wide boulevards. The high-rise blocks in the suburbs were often painted in nice pastel colours. And new house building seemed to go on everywhere in the suburbs of Minsk. We DID encounter some poor and unfriendly service in Minsk, but this was definitely the exception. On the contrary people in general were very kind and friendly. And in contrast to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania there wasn’t a swarm of beggars and hustlers to be seen in Belarus. What a relief! Not to mention tourists who were also quite rare in Minsk. We did not see any blunt KGB agents either and felt at no point intimidated. The population of Minsk numbered 1.8 million while the total number of inhabitants of Belarus is around 10.3 million. About 80 percent of Minsk was destroyed during WW2 and so there is hardly any old, historic part of the city left – unlike the situation in Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn. From 1922 to 1990 Belarus was a part of the Soviet Union. The country gained full independence in August 1991. Since 1994 Aleksandr Lukasjenko has been the president and he is not liked by the Western powers. The USA and EU consider the government of Belarus to be a despotic government that should be removed. Lukasjenko is accused of violating human rights, committing election fraud and for maintaining an authoritarian rule. Under Lukasjenko, Belarus has managed the situation after the fall of socialism in 1990 quite differently to the other countries of Eastern Europe. Most of these countries are dominated by a severe unjust social situation, widespread poverty and an overall economic recession due to the neo-liberal reforms and the sale of the public sector as well as natural resources for next to nothing. Belarus didn’t choose this course. One of the first acts of Lukasjenko as president was to double wages. Lukasjenko is also well known for taking very good care of the pensioners and generally securing social welfare for the ordinary citizens of Belarus. The living standard in Belarus is the highest among the republics of the former Soviet Union. There is hardly any unemployment and attending schools and higher educations is free of charge. A remarkable 80 percent of the economy in Belarus is controlled by the state (public ownership) and so this country is considered to be one of the few countries with a so-called state controlled capitalistic economy. Radio in Belarus since 1925 The first radio broadcast from Belarus was aired in November 1925. At 6.30 pm local time this announcement was heard: “This is Minsk”. Listeners within 300 kilometres from Minsk were able to listen to the news in their own language – Belarusian, from the start for only 30 minutes a day. Now more than 80 hours a day Today broadcasting hours have been expanded and the Belarusian state radio is now on the air for some 80 hours a day. These hours are divided between five radio channels: ‘Programme 1’, ‘Kanal Kultura’, ‘Radyjo Stalica’, ‘Radyous FM’ and the external service ‘Radio Station Belarus’. The first programme of Belarusian Radio is the old, traditional and popular channel which can be heard by 80 percent of the population. This channel is dominated by current affairs – and 90 percent of the programmes are carried out live. External service since 1962 Belarusian Radio commenced broadcasting to listeners abroad in May 1962. To begin with transmissions were limited to a couple of daily broadcasts in Belarusian only. These programmes were aimed at Belarusian seamen in the Mediterranean. According to the WRTH, English language broadcasts were carried during the mid-eighties twice a month and in 1985 German language transmissions were launched from what was then known as Radio Minsk. To begin with, these were only once a week but within a couple of years German was aired three times a week. English language programmes from Minsk were re-introduced in 1994. They were aired once a week. At the same time weekly transmissions in Polish were also introduced. However, these programmes in English and Polish ceased after a couple of years and so Minsk was again broadcasting in Belarusian and German only. It wasn’t until 2000 when a foreign service in English and Russian – besides German and Belarusian – as we know it today - was introduced. No – we’re not sending propaganda It’s not difficult finding the building of Belarusian Radio in Minsk. A meeting had been arranged beforehand and after filling out some sort of security pass we were taken to the 3rd floor in the grand, old radio building, where the foreign service have their offices. We were heartily welcomed by four of the staff of the English service and we were treated with local specialities and presents. The four were Rusland Prokhorov, who is also the vice director of the entire Belarusian Radio, mailbag editor Larisa Suáres, chief secretary Julia Nikitenko and announcer Julia Radkova. Radio Station Belarus is meant to counterbalance the Western media, where almost everything being said about Belarus is untrue according to the employees of the radio station. But they don’t consider themselves a propaganda station like for instance Radio Free Europe- Radio Liberty (RFE-RL). Immediately stressing that RFE in particular is the source of some of the most stupid and ridiculous lies about Belarus. Radio Station Belarus do not however try and refute any of the stories told by Western media such as RFE. “No – we’ve been through a major development here with our programmes. We are more sincere and frank than in the past. We don’t do propaganda – we’re more trying to do popular diplomacy”. Some two thirds of the programmes are filled with analysis concerning economics, policy, the social situation, culture, history, education etc. while some 15 to 20 percent consists of cultural stuff and another 15 to 20 percent consists of music and entertainment. Left: Four of the eleven employees of the English section of Radio Station Belarus: Julia Radkova, Rusland Prokhorov, Larisa Suárez and Evgeni Kovalchuk. Among the regular popular programmes ‘Letters to the Editor’ can be found. It is aired each and every Saturday. Co-operation with the Voice of Russia Belarus has close links with Russia and Radio Station Belarus also has close relations with the Russian external service, Voice of Russia. “We are not as big as the Voice of Russia”, says the English language speaking employees of Radio Station Belarus, “but the quality is just as good”. Most letters are coming from Sweden Radio Station Belarus has an extremely active listenership in Sweden who write letters to the station several times a week. Therefore Sweden tops the chart of countries from where most mail is being received. Following Sweden countries like the UK, USA and Finland are found. Radio Station Belarus receives some 1,600 letters a year from around 36 different countries. During the summer period the response is a lot lower than during the rest of the year. Keeping in touch with the listeners is considered very important at Radio Station Belarus, and they do their best to handle the letters from the listeners with as much care as possible. Two hours in English each night Radio Station Belarus can be heard in English 22 hours a day via internet streaming and it’s possible to listen to the most recent broadcast in English via audio-on-demand from http://www.radiobelarus.tvr.by/eng Besides that, Radio Station Belarus can be heard in English on short wave for two hours each and every night at 20 to 22 hours UT on 7105, 7390 and 7440 kHz (new A07 schedule). The English programmes are also carried locally on 1170 kHz mediumwave at the same time. English on 1170 has been heard here in Denmark, but with poor reception. FM bandscan Minsk 67.70, Avtoradio 68.84, Radio BA 70.43, BR Kanal Kultura 71.33, BR1 72.89, BR Radyjo Stalica 91.75, Sound from TV ch. R4 92.4, Radio Minsk 96.3, Melodii veka 97.4, Minskaja chvalia 98.4, Novaje Radio 98.9, Russkoye Radio 99.5, Radio Unistar 99.75, Sound from TV ch. R5 [thus no FM stations at 93.25 video; that must be a messy situation, mixing TV and FM on same band. Don`t the other FM stations in between QRM TV and vice versa?? -- gh] 100.4, Hit FM 101.2, Pilot FM 102.1, Radio ROKS 102.9, BR Kanal Kultura 103.7, BR Radyus FM 104.6, Radio BA 105.1, Avtoradio 106.2, BR 1 107.1, Radio Mir Belarus 107.9, Radio Alfa (June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** BELARUS. 6010, Belaruskaje Radyjo, Brest, 2250-2300, May 31, Belarusian ann, western evergreens, talk, ID, 44444 heard // 6040, 6070, 6080, 6115, 7110 and 7145 - Now all night broadcasts again. 6080, Belaruskaje Radyjo, Minsk, 0005-0015, May 31, Belarusian talk about Belarus, 53544 heard // 6010, 6040, 6070, 6115, 6190, 7110 and 7145 - Now all night broadcasts again (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) HFCC gives 0200-0100 for all these frequencies in the A07 season. Since about two years or so, BR 1 is 24h on FM, and they decided now to prolong the relay on SW as well (Bernd Trutenau, Jun 05, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) I checked this information on Jun 07. It seems mostly correct what HFCC has announced. Here is what I heard: 0025-0100: BR-1 heard on 6010, 6040, 6070, 6080 and 7145 (all weak signals), 6115 (S9 + 20) and 6190 (S9 + 5 dB). 0100-0200: Belarus only heard on 6115 (announced "Seinko" ???) and 6190, but with different programmes! All other frequencies were Off. 0200-0230: BR-1 heard again on 6010, 6070, 6080, 6115 (strong), 6190 (strong) and 7145. 6040 and 7110 seemed to be Off (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) ** BELARUS [non]. LITHUANIA. From June 18 Radio Racja in Belarussian relayed via Sitkunai, 1530-1729 on 6225 SIT 100 kW / 259 degrees. Very good reception here in BUL (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, June 19 via DXLD) ** BHUTAN. 6035, Bhutan Broadcasting Service, Thimpu, *0000v-0050v fade out (some nights it already faded out at 0010! in Denmark), May 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 and Jun 01 and 13, test tones, Horn fanfare and Buddhist Monks singing, Dzongkha talks, at best 35333 - 34333 in Denmark and Russia with QRM from Colombia and Belarus 6040; 55544 in Kerala, India. Not audible on Jun 07 (Dmitri Mezin, Russia; Anker Petersen, Denmark; and T. R. Rajeesh, Kerala, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) 6035, *0000-0020, 28-05, Bhutan Broadcasting Service, Thimpu. Horn fanfare heard with S 7, 0004 Dzhonga ann, more Horn music, 0013 talk (S 3), fade out - covered by Colombia 34343. Also heard weaker on 27- 05 with 13231 (Anker Petersen, Vardeborg, Vejers Strand, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD Station Engineer, Mr. D. Thinley, has confirmed by e-mail that he has received my snail mail reception report and will answer with a QSL. The e-mail connection to the BBS is sporadic. I sent him two e-mails replying to his e-mails to me, but in both cases they bounced back with this message: "Your message was not delivered because the destination computer was not reachable within the allowed queue period. The amount of time a message is queued before it is returned depends on local configuration parameters. Most likely there is a network problem that prevented delivery, but it is also possible that the computer is turned off, or does not have a mail system running right now. Your message was not delivered within 2 days and 0 hours. Host bbs.com.bt is not responding." (Anker Petersen, Denmark, June 7, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) 6035, Bhutan Broadcasting Service, Thimpu, going past 1600, May 28, running extended services for its first parliamentary election trials with English discussions. Bad interference co-channel NHK. Might run thru the night past 1900. Good chance in Europe to catch it (Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. A CBN/Anhanguera, em 25 m, é para atuar na QRG de 11830 kHz, porém seu TX está transmitindo em mais ou menos 11770 kHz, harmônico, cujo áudio se apresenta forte, mas saturado. A emissora sempre se descuidou da manutenção de seu transmissor de 25m 11830 kHz e volta e meia é sintonizada fora de sua QRG original. Diferente de sua coirmã a Rádio Brasil Central (Luiz Chaine Neto, Limeira sp, June 15, radioescutas yg via DXLD) That would be a spur or perhaps a mixing product. I say again for the n-th time that an harmonic is by definition an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency. Why do people keep calling other spurious frequencies that?? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL – A Rádio Itatiáia, de Belo Horizonte (MG), foi captada, em Porto Alegre (RS), pelo colunista, em 13 de junho, às 2154, pela freqüência de 5970 kHz, quando eram irradiadas notícias esportivas (Célio Romais, Brasil, Panorama, @tividade DX June 17 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Whatzzup with the audio of RadioBras/11780 the last couple of North American evenings ~0200-0300Z? The audio sounds very compressed, and distorted. Thought it might be my rx but both the E1 and DE1103 show the same symptoms in the Vancouver, BC area with nothing similar for other stations' reception. TD (Theo Donnelly, June 11, shortwaves yg via DXLD) ** BULGARIA. PROFILE: VALERY TODOROV, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, BULGARIAN NATIONAL RADIO The Sofia Echo has published a very long and detailed interview with the Director-General of Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), Valery Todorov. A brief history of BNR is appended to the article. Read the article http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/manager-profile-tuned-in/id_23111/catid_23 (June 18th, 2007 - 9:43 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC LAUNCHES ABORIGINAL WEBSITE Daily News Tuesday, June 19, 2007 http://www.broadcastermagazine.com/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=70374&issue=06192007 As part of CBC’s commitment to bring diverse regional and cultural perspectives into the daily lives of Canadians, CBC is launching a comprehensive, media-rich website called CBC ABORIGINAL. The official website launch coincides with National Aboriginal Day on June 21, and brings together CBC’s coverage of aboriginal issues on CBC Television, Newsworld, Radio and CBCNews.ca. The website is located at http://www.cbc.ca/aboriginal “Our goal is to provide better access to the volume of quality programming produced by CBC that reflects aboriginal life in Canada,” explained Alden Habacon, manager of diversity initiatives for CBC Television. “We’re hoping this website will improve our connection with aboriginal communities in Canada, while reflecting on stories that are important to all Canadians.” CBC ABORIGINAL features current and archival content with accompanying history and background to topical issues. Content includes weekly news stories, arts and culture insights, regional content, on-line polls and profiles of aboriginal personalities. “Canadian audiences expect to see Canada’s diversity reflected in our programming, and increasingly want to be better connected to the aboriginal reality in Canada,” said Kirstine Layfield, executive director of network programming for CBC Television. “Launching this online collection of aboriginal coverage is part of meeting this demand and will also serve as a much needed resource tool for communities, schools, businesses and industry.” (via Dan Say, BC, alt.radio.networks.cbc via Mike Cooper, DXLD) CBC radio at least used to have aboriginal programming on weekends. Now? Zilch. Though they'll count the new Winnipeg based percussion show (Dan Say, ibid.) aboriginal = first nations?? (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. Xinjiang PBS, 4980 kHz, verified my airmail report in a paper QSL with Chinese text in 38 days. They also enclosed some used Chinese stamps along with some excellent bird issues used as postage. A detailed letter and frequency schedule in Chinese were also enclosed. The address for the reports: Editorial Office, Xinjiang People's Broadcasting Station, 84 Tuanjie Road, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830044, CHINA (T. R. Rajeesh, Kerala, India, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 11610, China Radio International (Xi`an), 1121-1135, 6/17/07 in Mongolian (listed). W, a chorus of "God Bless Ye Merry Gentleman" used as a bridge between sections, M, chorus, M/W alt., chorus, W/M, 1132 familiar waltz (I can`t think of the name) sung in presumed Mongolian, ID sequence with CRI web site given in English. Strange choice of music! Fair (Mark Taylor, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** CHINA. 14 de junio, 2215, 6315, CRI-China. Programa español dedicado al billar... Curiosamente este mismo programa iba desfasado casi dos minutos respecto a las transmisiones de ese día de Radio Internacional de China, consultado el cuadro de frecuencias esta no aparece en el actual esquema. ¿Se trataría de una frecuencia no anunciada o un feeder sin identificar? 44544 (Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, June 18, Noticias DX via DXLD) Maybe a mixing product between two 49mb frequencies? But none known to carry Spanish at this hour, per Eibi, just 9490 Beijing, 13700 Sackville. Don`t see how either could participate in a mixing product to land on 6315. -900 kHz image? CRI Kashi is scheduled at this time on 7215, but in Mandarin, not Spanish. Damned if I can find any SW frequencies mentioned on the CRI Spanish website http://espanol.cri.cn/ In English, they have this outdated (12/31/06) schedule: http://english.cri.cn/4026/2006/12/31/44@179910.htm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Chinese Jamming ATTENUATION on June 19. This morning noted Chinese (former Firedrake) jamming with different content like Chinese talk transmissions from national radio program, NOT Firedrake music. 0700-0900 UT slot on 15250, 15270, 17780, and 17855 kHz. 73 wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, June 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake check, June 20 at 1333: all these were in parallel, checked on two receivers. 9200 weak, 10300 much stronger and best of the lot; at 1337 also 13970 and 18180. Did not find any in the 14.5 to 14.7 MHz range. And at 1339 same on // 9605, unlike the others mixing with another audible station, presumably BBC via Japan, tho WYFR is also on the schedules during this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. R. República via Rampisham, UK and RHC, 6100 kHz, 0220-0246+, 6/20/07. I went to check 6100 at 0220 to see how R. República was doing. There is R. Habana in English blasting in with Spanish under. Eventually there was an ID, and some Cuban music, and other programming including a discussion between the same woman and a man with many references to "Católica." No bubble jamming was audible. I checked R. República last night (6/19/07) at 0205, and it was on with the usual bubble jammer, but no RHC. 5910 is with a OM and usual bubble jammer way under. I can't find any reference to RHC on this frequency before for the past two months of DXLD or reflected in EiBi, Aoki, or WRTH May update. I wonder if it's a Cuban mistake or new jamming strategy (Mark Taylor, WI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Wonder if RHC was // other frequencies? (gh) ** CYPRUS TURKISH. (North) 1098 MW, R Bayrak, 1430-1500, May 30, music programme in Turkish, ID and ann for "Radyo Akademi", good. 6150, R Bayrak International, Yeni Isleke, 0505-0601, Jun 01, English ann, popular songs, ID's at 0530 "Bayrak, Bayrak, Bayrak, Inter- International" and 0601 "Bayrak International Voice (of) TRNC." Fair but QRM (Satoshi Wakisaka, Alexandria, Egypt, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) ** EGYPT. 9450.00 But noted also recently reported Egyptian espionage station with the late EGY singer of the 50ties and 60ties, great song performance in 0700-0800 UT slot. Thanks to Tarek, who reported this station also in the 7100-7200 kHz range recently. June 19 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, June 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 15260, EPPF Radio (Ye Arbenyoch Dim) 1600-1700 ....5.. Amharic 200 188 Samara 15260 1600-1700 Th CLA EPPF Radio AH EAf /RUS-s [as listed] Captada el jueves 14 junio de 2007 por 15260 kHz con un receptor Sony ICF SW 7600 GR, antena dipolo de 4.90 mts por lado a 10 mts de altura (Ernesto Paulero, Argentina, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Enclosed a clip but I could not recognize anything like an ID in it. Tnx anyway (gh, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Re DXLD 7-070, EXILED ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH TO LAUNCH RADIO BROADCAST ON 2 JULY This is a TDP-brokered broadcasts, and it has now been added to the TDP schedule website http://www.airtime.be/schedule.html "Zena Tewahedo the Ligament Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Exile 1600-1700 15260 m...... Amharic Africa." (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, June 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. NUOVA STAZIONE DI TEMPO E FREQUENZA SUI 25 MHZ ! Ciao a tutti, grazie alla segnalazione di Peter DL6NL, uno dei piu' attivi "cavalieri del Qrss" e' stata scoperta una nuova stazione di tempo e frequenze in HF. Si tratta del segnale del MIKES (Centre for Metrology and Accreditation), il centro di metrologia finlandese che viene trasmesso sui 25 MHz con una potenza di 100 watt e un'antenna verticale (vertical ¨ú ¥ë [sic] dipole) con un guadagno di 10 dB. Il segnale e' generato da un generatore HP agganciato agli orologi atomici del centro metrologico. Il segnale trasmesso e' il "IRIG B 1 kHz time code", uno standard usato dalle stazioni di tempo e frequenze, composto da toni ogni secondo (di 1 kHz), qui: http://www.meinberg.de/english/info/irig.htm ci sono le specifiche di questo standard. Il segnale e' stato ricevuto in Germania e io l'ho ricevuto ieri nel pomeriggio. Per maggior informazioni si puo' leggere questo documento: http://www.mikes.fi/documents/upload/ursi2004_sent.pdf Saluti e buon ascolto, de (Andrea Borgnino IW0HK, June 19, bclnews.it via DXLD) Presumably means exactly 25000.00 kHz (gh, DXLD) ** GREECE. I managed to stay up late last night to listen to The Voice of Greece's hour-long feature at 0200-0300 UT Monday on 7475 and 9420. They did a biography in English, followed by the Greek translation, of composer Jean (Janne) Sibelius with snippets from his grandson in English. The lady doing the translating went back and forth in both Greek and English with agility. This was followed by an interview with the Russian maestro Costas Pelicanos who replied to the English interviewer in Russian. At the end of the broadcast they played the theme song from "Around The World In 80 Days." It would have been helpful if VOG could give us a preview of the subject matter on its web site in order that we might be better prepared to listen (John Babbis, MD, USA, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And I wonder what the name of this show is, if it is other than the two English hours we already know about. Being tri-lingual, maybe it is not considered an English broadcast, something from a domestic network? (Glenn, ibid.) Glenn: I believe that you are on the right track; that this program was from Voice of Greece'e ERA domestic network. On the credits at the end, I heard a woman's name and ERA mentioned. If they ever get their Program site back up, we may find out what the name of the show is in English. http://www.voiceofgreece.gr/program.asp Regards, (John Babbis, June 20, ibid.) ** GREECE. (harmonic?) 6210, Third program at 2208-2217 June 15, piano plays, S 6-8 max, 34333 Was. //666 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, DX LISTENING DIGEST) As reported several times here, this is a difference mixing product from Avlis: 15630 minus 9420 = 6210 (gh, DXLD) ** GUYANA. 3291.13, GBC, Sparendaam, 0245-0300, Jun 01, noted carrier only still with no audio (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) ** HAITI. Radio Caraïbes FM fête ses 58 ans La radio Caraïbe FM fête son 58e anniversaire ce jeudi 14 juin 2007. Pour marquer cette date, plusieurs activités dont une journée porte ouverte ont été organisées en ses locaux à la rue Chavannes. Au cours de cette journée, des personnalités s'étaient présentées à la station pour adresser aux dirigeants et au personnel leur souhait. http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=44847 Radio Caraïbes FM, FM 94.5, Port-au-Prince, http://www.caraibesfm.com (Dr. Anton J. Kuchelmeister, Germany, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAWAII. RADIO CONSTRUCTION IN HAWAII The Mount Kahili electronic site is one of the most remote tower locations in the Hawaiian Islands. One can only drive within about a mile below the tower.... From the end of the road, it's a one hour hike up a steep, razor-like ridge covered with wet Hawaiian ferns, and finally a 30 ft. rope leads you to the summit and the electronic site. For the Kekahu construction project, we hired Jack Harter, the most experienced helicopter pilot on Kauai. With over 35 years of experience, and 25 years with landing at the sometimes treacherous Kahili ridge, we were in good hands.... Two stories: http://www.well.com/~dmsml/kahili.html http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2007/06/08/opinion/edit02.prt (CGC Communicator June 19 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** HUNGARY. CIERRE RADIO BUDAPEST Amigos/colegas: Lamento dar la noticia del cierre definitivo de Radio Budapest, el servicio para el exterior húngaro, a partir del 30 de Junio próximo. Aunque oficialmente no han hecho el anuncio, pues lo tienen prohibido, Sergio Perez ya me lo confió. Aparentemente la medida alcanzaría a todos los idiomas no solo el español. En fin, se concreta lo que ya preveíamos desde hace mucho tiempo. Sergio piensa despedirse de la audiencia el viernes 29 o sábado 30, por si desean grabar (Hugo Longhi / Argentina Via Dino Bloise, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CLOSURE OF RADIO BUDAPEST Friends/colleagues: I regret to give news of the definitive closure of Radio Budapest, the Hungarian external service, as from this June 30. Although officially they have not made the announcement, because this has been forbidden, Sergio Pérez has confided this to me. Apparently the measure will reach all the languages, not just Spanish. So that which has been anticipated for quite a while has now been made definite. Sergio expects to say goodbye to the audience on Friday the 29th or Saturday the 30th, if you want to be recording (Hugo Longhi, Argentina, June 19, via Dino Bloise, translated by Glenn Hauser for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR Aizawl, 5050 kHz, verified my two reception reports with two separate cave painting QSL cards in 28 days for follow-up reports to SMS Division of AIR headquarters. The cards was signed by new director V. P. Singh! (T. R. Rajeesh, Kerala, India, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also KASHMIR ** INDIA. The signal on 11850 has been positively identified as "All India Radio hej" when opening (after sending a tone then IS) at 0700. It was heard at fair strength on June 16/17 (when RDP Lisbon isn't using 11850), but faded within the first half hour of what is assumed to be the Nepali service. Parallel 9595 was not detected on either day (Noel R. Green (NW England), June 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Dear OM, The Indonesian station monitoring list (Mid June edition, edited by A. Ishida) was released on June 18. http://wave.ap.teacup.com/n1hp/html/sw070618.pdf (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Including: 4920, RRI Biak reactivated, regularly heard since early June, -0830-1500*, also *2100v-. 0930 Jayapura news, 1030 local news, 1200 & 1300 Jakarta news. Last mention of Biak in DXLD was in 6-166 and 6-167, early November 2006, when it was previously reported to have reactivated (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA [and non]. Reception of RRI via 11860 is becoming almost a daily event currently. I'm not sure what time the signal fades in but it's usually at its best between about 0630 and 0800, but varies in strength from day to day. A signal can be detected on the frequency at various times between 0800 when it becomes identifiable again by about 1500. It mixes with BBC SEY at this time, and it is not as strong as it was when previously in use. Checks have been made regularly on 11785, 9680 and 9525 but I've failed - so far - to ID RRI on any of them between 0630 and 1500. BBC via SNG has also been heard on several occasions on 11955 (mixing with TUR) and 11690 (splash from RFI 11700) around 0700 - as well as the usual 11920 that relays NHK. But KNX-HCJB 11750 is very weak and buried by TUR co-channel - but not so long ago it was usually atop TUR when opening at 0730 (Noel R. Green (NW England), June 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Noel, Noted all these at same time slot today. RRI Jakarta 11860 S=3 signal at 0800 UT, but later fade down to S=1-2 level. 9525 ASC in WeAF accented English 7-8, plus UNID station underneath, seemingly VOI towards 30 degr in Far East Asia, JPN/KOR, at 0715 UT. But latter seemingly via SoPAC, Colombia, Bonaire, Azores long path towards Europe. 11759.20 centered dittering digital signal, S=1 at 0728 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, June 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Today RRI 11860 was the best heard so far - it was audible at S4+ at tune in 0615 and still propagating past 0800. Of KWHR 11565 there was no trace at all (Noel R. Green (NW England), June 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ASC 9525 is quite strongly heard at my location, and it might cover RRI. If their outlet is via 30deg then it most likely will come to us via long path. But that route doesn't seem to be doing very well currently - Shepparton 9710 is very poor at 0700, and KNX almost non- existent. I can't hear KTWR 11840 at 0800 either. But this morning I did hear what I assume was CNR-6 11905 - that's via BEI 163deg. I've heard it much stronger though (Noel Green, UK, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RRI was noted also at 0615 on 11860 with a good signal (S6) and many ID. Thanks for the tips. 73 de (Vincent Lecler, France, June 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11860, Jun 19 0615-0630, RRI Jakarta, Cimanggis. ID "Radio Republik Indonesia", news in local language and few ID - good signal no QRM SIO: 244 (Vincent L. - Poitiers - F, HCDX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. VOI, 9525, June 20 at 1320, Korean talk, but mixing at equal level with vocal music. The two did not really go together like a voice-over. Two different audio sources fed into same transmitter? Slight fading which could have been a SAH indicating two transmitters on frequency, but unsure. Normally there is no co-channel during this hour unlike at 1400+. At 1325 was hearing only the music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. I have been advising all my clients, and anyone else who will listen to avoid Windows Vista like the plague. The bundled-in Digital Rights Management (DRM) utilities not only steal about 10% or so of the processor power, but they will prevent many media files and programs from playing or working. My son is in the Navy, and one of his duties is to analyze software and operating systems for military use. He has mentioned some other things that run below the surface of Vista that are very detrimental. He will not allow that operating system anywhere on any machines under his command. My advice to people who have Vista-equipped machines is to format and install Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro. When these become obsolete, I will probably go to either a Mac or Linux OS (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. Frequency changes for Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran in Russian: 0500-0527 NF 9850 KAM 500 kW / 358 deg, ex 9855 1930-2027 NF 7370 SIR 500 kW / 340 deg, ex 7175 to avoid CRI in French (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, June 19 via DXLD) ** IRAN. 15150 Terriblest audio on band. One of the Sirjan (AEG Telefunken) units bc faulty buzzy army telephone line audio like, - that for many months now. 0530-1630 UT. (the German sce on 15430 kHz Sirjan has excellent audio instead !) (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, June 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [and non]. This personal website http://www.khodabandeh.org contains a biography that describes some of the operations behind the clandestine radio station "Voice of Mojahed" --- cf. http://www.clandestineradio.com/intel/station.php?id=86&stn=44 mainly from the 1980s (via Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, June 18, dxldyg via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. 9345, Kol Israel, 1947-1954, escuchada el 18 de junio en español a locutora con boletín de noticias, emisión en paralelo por 9400 y 11590. Esta frecuencia se observó inactiva durante varios días; en la transmisión se observa un molesto pitido. Sin embargo ausente en las otras dos frecuencias; a las 1954 se corta la transmisión en 9345 y 9400. Sin embargo continúa en 11590 y aparece también en 15615; la transmisión en esta frecuencia se mantuvo hasta el cierre y luego comienza la emisión en hebreo, SINPO 45343. 73 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kol Israel escuchada en español hoy 19 de junio en 9400 kHz, desde las 1945 UT. Noticias sobre política y sucesos actuales en Israel, seguido de lecciones de hebreo explicando como decir "estar en huelga". A las 1958 la transmisión terminó súbitamente en medio del boletín meteorológico. Regular, bajo algo de ruido local. Kol Israel in Spanish heard on 9400 kHz on June 19, 1945-1958 UT. News on Israel politics and current affairs, then Hebrew lessons explaining how to say "to be on strike". Transmission ended suddenly 1958 in middle of the weather report. Fair under some local noise. Rx: Degen DE-1103 + TG-34 active antenna (Moisés Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. IBA ENGLISH NEWS WILL STAY ON THE AIR Jun. 19, 2007 0:06 | Updated Jun. 19, 2007 9:51 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813067171&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull "The Israel Broadcasting Authority's Management Committee has extended the grace period for the administration and union workers to reach an agreement on cost-cutting efficiency measures, but made it clear that for as long as there is public broadcasting, foreign language programs will remain on the air... "...However, of all the cost-saving suggestions that have come to the fore, the IBA Management Committee came to the conclusion that it was completely unacceptable to close broadcasts on which large numbers of the immigrant population, not to mention diplomats and overseas listeners, rely... "...According to news reports on Israel Radio, none of the potential ministerial candidates in the Labor Party is interested in picking up the IBA portfolio, and if anyone is forced to take it under duress, this will not bode very well for the IBA." (via Doni Rosenzweig, June 20, dxldyg via DXLD) ** ITALY. Updated summer A-07 of RAI International North West Africa 0435-0445 Italian 6145 7235 0445-0500 English 6145 7235 1330-1355 Arabic 9670 11795 1500-1525 Italian 9670 11770 1630-1655 French 7180 9845 11855 1700-1800 Italian 7130 9845 2025-2045 Arabic 6110 7130 2050-2110 Portuguese 6110 7130 2110-2130 Spanish 6110 7130 North East Africa 0435-0445 Italian 6110 0445-0500 English 6110 1330-1355 Arabic 11915 1500-1525 Italian 11720 1700-1800 Italian 6140 2135-2155 Arabic 6000 7180 Central Africa 1600-1700 Italian 17790 1700-1800 Italian 15390 2050-2110 Portuguese 15240 East Africa and Middle East 0435-0455 Amharic 11900 0455-0530 Italian 11900 0530-0550 Somali 11900 0600-0620 Arabic 11900 1630-1655 Arabic 11810 1700-1800 Italian 6140 11970 1910-1930 Somali 11890 2025-2045 English 5970 11875 2050-2110 Portuguese 11875 Mediterranean area - Notturno dall'Italia 2200-0400 Italian 6060 Russia 0345-0405 Russian 6135 9710 11830 0600-0620 Russian 9670 11795 1605-1625 Russian 9705 11885 2000-2020 Russian 6185 9565 11775 East Europe 0405-0425 Ukrainian 6135 9710 11830 0505-0525 Lithuanian 9670 11795 0530-0550 Romanian 9670 11795 0625-1300 Italian 6140 1335-1355 Albanian 9610 1400-1415 Slovene 9570 1415-1435 German 9570 1435-1455 Croatian 9570 1500-1520 Turkish 9870 11895 1520-1540 Greek 9870 11895 1540-1600 Bulgarian 9870 11895 1810-1825 Czech 6130 1825-1840 Slovak 6130 1840-1900 Polish 6130 1910-1930 Serbian 6130 1935-1955 Hungarian 6130 2115-2135 Romanian 5970 2135-2155 Czech 5970 2155-2210 Slovak 5970 2210-2225 Polish 5970 West Europe 1530-1555 French 9670 11855 1555-1625 Italian 9670 11855 1805-1825 German 6040 9845 1935-1955 English 5960 9845 2000-2020 Danish 6110 9780 Tue/Thu/Sun 2000-2020 Esperanto 6110 9780 Sat 2000-2020 Swedish 6110 9780 Mon/Wed/Fri North America 1400-1425 Italian 15280 17780 1830-1905 Italian 15380 17780 2240-0055 Italian 11800 0055-0115 English 11800 0115-0130 French 11800 0130-0315 Italian 11800 0315-0335 Spanish 11800 Central and South America 2240-0055 Italian 9840 0055-0115 Spanish 9840 0115-0130 Portuguese 9840 0130-0230 Italian 6110 9840 11765 0230-0315 Italian 9840 0315-0335 Spanish 9840 Far East, Japan and Australia 2205-2230 English 11895 1000-1100 Italian 11920 Tutto il calcio minuto per minuto and Domenica sport 1250-1630 Italian 9670 11885 17570 17780 21515 Sun (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, June 19 via DXLD) ** JOHNSTON ISLAND. KH3, (Delay and Update). Skipper of the USSV Dharma, Susan Meckley, W7KFI, informed OPDX that she had to return to Honolulu (while enroute to Johnston Island) because of a bad toothache. She stated that it was unbearable, but was glad that she was able to turn around and go back to Honolulu to visit an oral surgeon. Susan will again attempt her trip to Johnston Island in less than two weeks. It will take about a week to travel there. Susan likes to operate and prefer the CW mode (she states "I can get many more QSOs in"); usually 36 kHz up from the bottom of the band (14036, 7036, etc.). She will also operate SSB (ex. 14236 kHz), but can operate most anything upon request. Susan told OPDX that "I have been an active steady since 1952 and will only answer those stations using ENTIRE callsign.... three letters are illegal. Might be old and old cranky sailor lady, however at almost 73 (ed. not 70 as first thought), I think I am allowed. Anyway, I am appalled at the lack of common courtesy on the bands anymore..... I don't have that many years left, but I will operate in the 1952 mode......Remember. ...Life is sexually transmitted." OPDX would like to wish Susan a speedy recovery. Also, once Susan starts traveling again and becomes active, she would like to hear from you as to where to go next in the area she is in. She would like to visit rare DX spots over next 3 years in the South Pacific (KB8NW/OPDX/BARF80 June 18 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) ** KASHMIR. INDIA-Kashmir: Rasio Kashmir, Jammu, 4830 kHz, verified my reception report with a usual architectural QSL in 28 days by the SMS division of AIR headquarters for a follow-up report (T. R. Rajeesh, Kerala, India, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Shiokaze a rarity here, but poorly audible June 20 at 1310 on 9485 via Taiwan, when KAIJ 9480 was not too strong. Seemed to be in English but with heavy accent, narrative stories of abduxions, mentioning years. 1315 music break, and maybe into non- English, as reception worsens. 1329 piano theme music audible and off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KURDISTAN [non]. The TDP schedule website now shows a new schedule for Dênge Mezopotamya: 0400-2000 on 11530 (ex 0200-0400 on 7590, ex 0400-1600 on 11530). (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, June 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably Moldova site ** LAOS. 4677.5, Sam Neua heard June 10 from 1158.5 tune with local instrumental/vocal music to 1200 UT, woman 1200, program tune 1200-01, woman to 1201.5 then short music and into a man alternating with woman announcer and a few short music spots (just a few seconds each) at 1202. May have been some remote reports, but couldn't be sure. Believe 1200 program is a relay of National Service news. Woman announcer with sign-off at 1231.5 and carrier off at 1232.5. SINPO 25432 with occasional peak to S3 after 1215. Signal gradually improved after 1215 (Bruce W. Churchill, CA, DXplorer June 11 via BC-DX June 17 via DXLD) I wonder why his decimal minutes are always point five? .4 would be :24 seconds, etc., etc. (gh, DXLD) See also U S A [non] ** LIBERIA. NEW AMERICAN PRESENCE AT OLD VOA RELAY STATION IN LIBERIA. U.S. company Dyncorp "won a bid for the feeding of 500 (Armed Forces of Liberia) soldiers currently undergoing training the Voice Of America facilities in Careysburg, outside Monrovia." http://allafrica.com/stories/200706120959.html (The Analyst (Monrovia), 12 June 2007. Posted: 14 Jun 2007 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) But does VOA axually have anything at all to do with this facility now? Dyncorp is also the civilian defense contractor operating Vance AFB here. This story is axually about its legal problems in Liberia (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. It appears that XEYU is sometimes on the air, but at much reduced power compared to a few weeks ago. June 19 at 1300, RHC carrier had not quite left 9600, and I could hear a het on the low side; after Cuba was off, I could detect nothing but a carrier on 9599.2, squeezed between much stronger signals from Nikkei on 9595 and Firedrake on 9605 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MICRONESIA. There's a story about PMA Pohnpei, Micronesia FM/SW at http://www.galcom.org/newsletters/newsletter2007.June.July.August.pdf (Jari Savolainen, Finland, June 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) THE SIGNAL IS STRONG IN POHNPEI, MICRONESIA! [the first part of this pdf article won`t copy, but the continuation on another page, when they get into SW anyway, is copiable:] . . .distributed to the people and the station became the first (and only) radio station on the island. What a joy to see the ministry of these dear people expanded to this extended audience. The next step was to install a short wave tropical band station that would reach out across the waters to the neighbouring isolated islands. Calculations estimated the signal should reach a thousand mile radius and therefore cover a good portion of the 1,200 islands in the area. The original plan was to install an inverted “V” antenna, however, this had to be modified since the tower was situated at the edge of the property. The revised plan called for a fifty foot vertical antenna with a ground plane but finding a space for the ground plane was a great problem. As the team prayed for wisdom they realized that four newly parked containers sheltered under a metal roof might prove effective. Since the metal roof was grounded by wood framing it could serve as the ground plane. The next challenge was to be able to mount a fifty foot vertical antenna from this location. It was decided that the FM tower could support one end of a line at the correct height but where would they fasten the other end. As they walked around the property, they noticed that a hydro pole [sic --- this is a Canadianism for electric, most of which is hydroelectrically produced --- but, but, the word hydro means exactly just water --- a water pole??? Hydro- is a prefix which can be applied to many other things besides electricity ---gh] directly across from them had sufficient height. It also sported a metal bracket near the top – just what was needed to attach the other end of the wire. They knew they would need to contact the authorities to use such a pole so they prayed that God would work it out for them to obtain permission. As they looked up from their prayer, the hydro inspector pulled up just a few doors down from them. The requested was granted! They weren’t long attaching the first end to the tower then crossing the street to fasten the other end. Without a “cherry-picker” they improvised with a truck, a long ladder and a pole with the line attached to the end. In the meantime, the transmitter had been hooked up, all the connections made and the studio equipment prepared. Now for the test signal. This signal requests those who are receiving it to send an e- mail or phone message stating their geographical position. What a thrill to receive five responses from Japan, 3,000 miles away, reporting a strong signal. Praise the Lord! Friday and Saturday were spent training nationals in the operation and maintenance of the equipment and preparing them to handle any problems that might arise. Then they discussed additional resources for programming in English and Polynesian. Finally, they completed the documentation required for the government. Sunday was spent preaching, touring the ship that is used for medical work, meeting the people in the community and taking communion with the island believers. By Monday, March 5th, everything was completed and Allan, Dave & Pastor Nob went to distribute radios in the villages. What a blessing to know that thousands of people will be hearing the Gospel message on a consistent basis because of these new radio stations (June-August GALCOM International newsletter via DXLD) BUT --- what about the rest of the story? Here it is more than 3 months later and not a peep reported out of the SW transmitter on 4755. Surely Japanese monitors would be hearing it if it were on (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. Marruecos. Radio Médi 1 captada en Montevideo hoy a partir de las 2209 UT en árabe en 9575 kHz, son calidad de regular a buena. Pasa a francés 2211 y retorna al árabe 2218. Es una captación frecuente alrededor de las 2200 UT en este lugar, libre de QRM en esa frecuencia. Rx.: Degen DE1103, antena telescópica Morocco. Radio Médi 1 heard in Montevideo today, 2209 UT in Arabic on 9575 kHz, reception fair to good. Went into French at 2211 and back to Arabic 2218. Often heard around 2200, free from QRM on that frequency. Rx: Degen DE1103, telescopic antenna (Moisés Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, June 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. One other "anomaly" - I'm regularly hearing Gander (Newfoundland) using such as 5616 and 5649 but I can't hear a peep out of CKZN St. John's 6160 same time (0630+) - a weaker signal, directional transmission or....? (Noel R. Green (NW England), June 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I seem to recall they have a very simple antenna, but it could well be aimed at Goose Bay and not toward you (gh, DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. Jon Stewart vs Gary England, KWTV weatherman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC1UHTKrVrY KWTV & England proud of being ridiculed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf3rcT-gu-Y&mode=related&search= (via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. Here`s a 5-minute clip of WKY stunting, 3 MB. Just a typical sample. Some of the other one-liners were quite a bit funnier. BTW, WKY apparently is not streaming; I can`t even find a website, unlike a lot of other Citadel stations. The Spanish bit is referring bewildered listeners back to the 105.3 station where that format continues. http://www.w4uvh.net/wkypaul1.mp3 73, (Glenn Hauser, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn's clip is encoded at 80K/44 kHz Stereo and even at 3megs, might be too big for some of you on dialup. So, for your listening pleasure here the same clip encoded at 24K/16hz Mono, and is only 888K http://www.walkerbroadcasting.com/wkyam930.mp3 Feel free to pass my URL along to any list and anyone interested in hearing the clip (Paul Walker, SC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This is the most monotonous thing I have ever heard (Richard Lewis, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) WKY Countdown --- Listen and see :-) (Ryan Beam, June 12, radio- info.com OK board via DXLD) See what exactly? I know today is supposed to be the day that 105.3 and 104.9 are supposed to enter that trust. Perhaps you have some information you'd like to share? (Jbizzle, ibid.) Beam knows nothing. T Minus 5 Days 22 Hours and 14 mins as of 11:48 am 6/12/07 (Ryan Beam, ibid.) I noticed the countdown this morning, too. The logical reason is that WKY and KINB can no longer simulcast as the trust's stations must operate completely separately from Citadel. Don't know where 104.9 and 105.3 have moved, but they shouldn't be in the Citadel building anymore (Kent, ibid.) Almost the same jokes, etc., as they had mixed in amongst the timer when KCYI flipped to Wild. I wish they would interject Edward I's quote of "A man does good business when he rids himself of a turd" (he was referring to the Scots). (Milton77, ibid.) I sincerely hope - though I doubt it - that the new format will be as interesting as the countdown leading up to it. There are hardly any surprises on either band anymore. I guess the good news is that it won't be (yet (another)) religious broadcaster. I'm guessing an all-sports format. (doxvoom, June 14, ibid.) Well of course it would be. Citadel is wanting a place to put the throw away shows so KOKC and KEBC and KREF can't have them. Mike and Mike in the Morning ESPN all day. It's a guess I don't really know if that is what they are doing, but knowing the Citadel bunch it would not surprise me (Givers, June 15, ibid.) It's really pathetic how predictable commercial radio is anymore (doxvoom, ibid.) What's really pathetic is that some people apparently think the countdown foretells impending doom. Some of them actually called 911. As Dave Barry always says, "I swear I'm not making this up." Read for yourself: http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_165235600.html (jd, ibid.) [already in DXLD 7-070] As I was listening today, the countdown had changed to "four days and thirteen hours" or so ... and then as I was driving to the supermarket around 7:00, the countdown stopped completely. Is it counting again? (doxvoom, ibid.) As of Saturday evening, the countdown is running and will now apparently end Tuesday [sic] morning at 9 am. Only in Enid would people fear the END OF THE WORLD because of something they heard on WKY. But on the flip side, someone is reading that article deep in the bowels of Citadel and thinking, "Maybe we should hire a sales manager specifically for the Enid-Alva area!" (Media Mogul, ibid.) I had several calls at the station this weekend asking about Das Countdown. Two of them referenced it as a Dooms Day Countdown. I assured them that it was just Jesus' return and not to worry, they will be swept up before any real damage occurs, and then hung up. (Jbizzle, ibid.) Re: WKY is changing formats --- but to what???? It's going to be the Sports Animal's AM home. The Spanish station moves to 640. Still no decent local talk (Midtowner, June 13, Okctalk.com via DXLD) I am not quite sure what the point of this is. Is it for better reception or what? I currently drive to Ada (about 90 miles southeast of OKC) two to three times a week and listen to the AM 640 often and getting pretty good reception down there. I remember when they only had the AM station and I could listen almost all the way to the Texas border towards Dallas (CCOKC, ibid.) Local talk is too expensive apparently. It's all a business decision. Apparently sports talk and the inane musings of Al Esbach pull more ratings than the generally intelligent things you'd hear from Mark Shannon or Ron Black (Midtowner, ibid.) I do not know why WWLS would move from AM 640 because it is one of the most powerful stations in the state. I know I can pick it up all over the state when I am making my rounds for work. This is what Mark Shannon had posted on his website: Quote: ``A little inside media stuff which won't bring any substantial changes in Oklahoma City radio. Citadel (owner KATT KISS BOB SPORTS ANIMAL) has placed two of their properties "in trust" in order to comply with FCC rulings that called for Citadel to sell off some properties in order for them to purchase ABC radio. WILD-FM (104.9) and LA INDOMABLE (low-power FM broadcasting Mexican music,) are now in that trust until they are sold off. They've been on sale for months, but according to people I've talked to, at a price they're not likely to get anyone to pay. As a result of this move, LA INDOMABLE and the former WKY have split simulcasting programming and WKY will now go to some type of syndicated programming, likely national sports.`` My guess is WWLS will most likely move most of ESPN radio over to WKY until the sale clears the FCC. I say that because Clear Channel has Fox Sports Radio on 1340. KTOK and KOMA corner the market on talk radio (SuperScooper, ibid.) WKY 930 OKC countdown complete --- WKY`s protracted countdown to new format concluded almost on schedule --- ``zero`` came at 1400:12 UT June 20. Then they screwed up with several seconds of dead air, and upcut on OKC Mayor Mick Cornett introducing the new format which is:: ``The New Jocks 930`` --- yes, more sports talk, ``from the people who brought you The Sports Animal``, which continues on WWLS 640, no change there as some had speculated. There were plenty of hints that WKY would go sports talk in some of the one-liners, and on fora such as okctalk.com. Not clear if Mick will be a regular host, which somehow seems not in his current job description; but his first guest was Billy Tubbs, some coach on the line from Beaumont. I`ll probably post a clip of the transition shortly. Now I can resume ignoring this useless station. Here`s 6 minutes, less than 2MB. Perhaps the other Paul will want to excerpt a shorter/smaller segment. http://www.w4uvh.net/jox930.mp3 Listening to it again, this hour will be Billy Tubbs` show and Cornett will go back to being mayor (Glenn Hauser, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It almost sounds like NOAA's Perfect Paul. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/audio/Paul_SYN.wav (Paul Armani, CO, ABDX via DXLD) Correct name [ :) ] is Mr. Roboto as we named him on the internet WX lists. And in some cases the name sticks --- much to the chagrin of the NWS (Powell E. Way, III, SC, ibid.) I always thought that was Sven, the drunken Swede (Brian Leyton, CA, ibid.) ** PALESTINE. PALESTINE TV IN GAZA FALLS INTO HAMAS HANDS The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation has been paralyzed since it was taken over by Hamas over the weekend. PBC employees in Gaza are barred from reaching their workplace, while Hamas has confiscated the broadcasting equipment, studios and archives and are using it for their own programming. The Palestinian television channel is no longer transmitting pictures from Gaza, and has transferred all of its broadcasting to Ramallah. PBC Chairman Bassem Abu Sumayya said the PBC was using another frequency for its broadcasts. The building accommodating the Voice of Palestine radio station was set alight. Read the full story at The Media Line http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=18017 (June 18th, 2007 - 15:54 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** PARAGUAY. 12000, R Licemil, Ypané, 1742, May 27, Spanish/Guaraní ann, Música Paraguaya, greetings to paraguayos in Paraguay and abroad, good reception. Also heard 1555, Jun 03, National Anthem sung in Guaraní, martial marches: "Chaco Boreal", "Legado de Gloria", "Infantería de Nuestra Tierra", good reception (Adan Mur, Paraguay, in Conexión Digital via , DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) very lowpower ** SAINT HELENA. Laura Lawrence, Station Manager, and Derek Richards of R. St. Helena, have just written that the final totals are: 371 QSL cards issued for the 2006 Revival broadcast on Nov 04 while four reception reports could not be verified. No fake reports were found. During the transmission, Derek answered about 300 e-mail reports! A "clipping problem" occurred when broadcasting towards North America, so the power output had to be reduced to only 300 watts! Regarding the test transmission on May 17, 2007, 75 e-mail reports were received. Initially, it was just to be a test for the local technicians to get the SW equipment on the air. During the test, the antenna was turned around pointing towards various continents and that explains the varying signal strength noted by many DX-ers. The audio problem was caused because an AM-signal had to be broadcast by a SSB transmitter (Robert Kipp, Langen, Germany, May 27 and Jun 01, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. ESLOVÁQUIA - A Rádio Eslováquia Internacional transmite em espanhol no seguinte esquema: entre 1430 e 1500, em 9440 e 11600 kHz; das 2000 às 2030, em 6055 e 11650 kHz; das 0230 às 0300, em 9400 e 11900 kHz. A emissão das 2000 tem regular sintonia, no Sul do Brasil, em 11650 kHz. A edição de 17 de julho foi captada, pelo colunista, em Porto Alegre (RS), durante a apresentação do programa de respostas aos ouvintes. O interessante é que a apresentadora, quando a carta era do Brasil, lia a mesma em bom português! (Célio Romais, Brasil, Panorama, @tividade DX June 17 via DXLD) ** SPAIN. ESPANHA - A REE também fala em português! A emissora leva ao ar o programa O Espanhol no Brasil, de terças a sextas-feiras, entre 1800 e 1900, pela freqüência de 17595 kHz. A condução está a cargo da jornalista brasileira Cyntia Floriani. O programa apresenta notícias diárias de economia, política e esportes que relacionam Brasil e Espanha. Também irradia capítulos do curso de espanhol para brasileiros preparado pelo Instituto Cervantes do Rio de Janeiro (RJ). (Célio Romais, Brasil, Panorama, @tividade DX June 17 via DXLD) I guess 17595 breaks away from other programming on parallel channels during this hour; but 17595 is also aimed at CAm (gh, DXLD) ** SUDAN. UN RADIO IN JUBA GOES LIVE ONLINE BBC Monitoring observes that Juba-based radio station Miraya (Mirror) FM is now available on a live stream from the broadcaster's new website at http://www.mirayafm.org The station broadcasts round the clock from studios in Juba and Khartoum, broadcasting on 101.0 MHz FM for Juba, with coverage extended by relay transmitters in Malakal, Rumbek and Wau. Programming is in Arabic, English and local languages. Miraya FM was launched on 30 June 2006, and is operated in partnership between the United Nations Mission in Sudan http://www.unmis.org and Swiss journalists' organization Hirondelle Foundation http://www.hirondelle.org Source: BBC Monitoring research in English 20 Jun 07 (via DXLD) ** TAIWAN. 9735, R Taiwan International had a test transmission to Japan from May 27 to 30 for its Japanese language service at 1100-1200 (instead of 11605) and 1300-1400 (instead of 9635) in parallel with regular 7130. A music interlude program was also aired on 9735 at 1200-1300 (Takao Miyajima, Yokohama-city, Japan, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) [non] Dear Friends, Yesterday on 16th of June, I received a nice detailed QSL verification card depicting Floating Water Lanterns on the Keelung River from Radio Taiwan International for my email to prog @ rti.org.tw & rti @ rti.org.tw reception report on 7th of April 2007 from 1600 to 1700 UT on the frequency of 11600 kHz of their English language broadcast. The card also stating as follows: - Floating water lanterns during the Ghost Festival is a way of appeasing wandering spirits and calling on them to join in a sacrificial ceremony. Regards & 73’s (Mukesh Kumar, The Cosmos Club, Muzaffarpur, INDIA, June 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mukesh, I wonder if the details included the transmitter site, Issoudun, France?? 11600 was used until early May and resumes in early September. Now it`s on 15515. 73, (Glenn to Mukesh, via DXLD) Hi Glenn, I heard the program on 7th of April 2007 (Mukesh, INDIA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, I know, that was in your initial report. I am trying to find out whether they specified the transmitter site on the QSL card. There have been reports that altho there is a space for that on the card, they have been leaving it blank. You did not mention whether they specified it. Can you give me a yes or no? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN [non]. Liebe Hoerinnen und Hoerer von Radio Taiwan International, wir moechten Ihnen mitteilen, dass die Frequenz 7520 kHz zwischen 0600 und 0700 UT aus Okeechobee, USA, ab heute, den 20. Juni 2007, durch die Frequenz 7780 kHz zwischen 0600 und 0700 UT ebenfalls aus Okeechobee, USA, ersetzt wird. Frequenzen für das Sommerhalbjahr 2007 (25.03.2007 - 27.10.2007): 1900 - 2000 UTC: 6185 kHz (via: Skelton, GB) 2000 - 2100 UTC: 15695 kHz (via: Okeechobee, USA) 2100 - 2200 UTC: 3965 kHz (via: Issoudun, F) 0600 - 0700 UTC: 7780 kHz (via: Okeechobee, USA) Mit herzlichen Gruessen aus Taipei, Ihre RTI-Deutschredaktion (via Volker Willschrey, via Drita Çiço, DXLD) ** U K [non]. BBC EN ESPAÑOL, A-07 PUBLICADO EN SU WEB. ¡POR FIN¡¡¡¡ Con mucho retraso la BBC por fin anuncia el esquema para A-07 en su página web: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/tuning_in/newsid_4294000/4294086.stm Onda Corta FRECUENCIAS HASTA EL 27 DE OCTUBRE DE 2007 Diario: 11:00 a 12:00 GMT Transmisiones dirigidas a Centroamérica y el Caribe 6095 kHz (banda de 49 metros) 11825 kHz (banda de 25 metros) (José Miguel Romero2, Spain, June 18, dxldyg via DX LISENING DIGEST) Bien... CA y el Caribe; parece que Sudamérica no existe. Hace AÑOS que no escucho BBC en SP. Trataré de encontrarlos mañana, aprovechando que es feriado en mi país y no tengo que trabajar...aunque dudo que esa tranmisión llegue aquí, seguramente 11825 (GUF) es con antena ND, la otra tal vez no. 73, (Moisés Knochen, Uruguay, condig list via DXLD) Moisés, no, es a 305 grados, y la otra a 182, dice HFCC. 11825 1100 1200 10,11W GUF 250 305 D G BBC MER 15579 6095 1100 1200 10S,11,12NE HRI 250 182 D Spa USA BBC FCC 16004 73, (Glenn, ibid.) ¡Gracias Glenn! Parecería que, en cuanto a la dirección, la mejor apuesta es por 6095 kHz; la pregunta es si a esa hora aún habrá propagación en esa banda. 73, (Moisés Knochen, ibid.) Dudo (gh) ** U S A [and non]. Some frequency changes for Voice of America: 0030-0130 NF 11605 UDO 250 kW / 308 deg, ex 9795 Pashto Radio Ashna 0030-0230 NF 9335 IRA 250 kW / 334 deg, ex 7555# Pashto/Dari Radio Ashna 0130-0200 NF 6040 GB 250 kW / 174 deg, ex 6000* English Tue-Sat 0300-0400 NF 17510 IRA 250 kW / 334 deg, ex 9430 CeAs Langs Radio Liberty 1400-1500 NF 12005 IRA 250 kW / 340 deg, ex 15530 Urdu Radio Aap Ki Dunyaa 1400-1500 NF 15530 LAM 100 kW / 108 deg, ex 15195@ English 1400-1500 NF 17740 BOT 100 kW / 010 deg, ex 17895! English 1500-1530 NF 7280 TIN 250 kW / 305 deg, ex 9885 Uzbek 1500-1530 NF 9700^UDO 250 kW / 316 deg, ex 9705+ Uzbek 1500-1600 NF 15530 BIB 100 kW / 085 deg, ex 15195@ English 2200-2400 NF 7120 PHT 250 kW / 270 deg, ex 7215& English 2330-2400 NF 7350 PHT 250 kW / 270 deg, ex 7260 Special English # to avoid KJES in English from 0200 * to avoid Radio Havana Cuba in English @ to avoid Radio Cairo in Pashto fr 1430 ! to avoid BSKSA Holy Quran Sce in Arabic & to avoid CRI in Mandarin Chinese til 2300 + to avoid La Voix du Sahel in French on 9704 ^ totally blocked by DW in DRM mode Cancelled transmissions of VOA: 1530-1630 on 6040 UDO 250 kW / 300 deg English 1530-1630 on 11520 IRA 250 kW / 299 deg English 1800-1830 on 4940 SAO 100 kW / 010 deg Hausa Sat/Sun 1800-1830 on 9565 SAO 100 kW / 335 deg Hausa Sat/Sun 1800-1830 on 11720 MOR 250 kW / 260 deg Hausa Sat/Sun 1800-1830 on 12080 BOT 100 kW / 350 deg Hausa Sat/Sun 1800-1830 on 17785 MOR 250 kW / 172 deg Hausa Sat/Sun (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, June 19 via DXLD) ** U S A. VOA BRAND LIVES ON AT THE FORMER BETHANY TRANSMITTING SITE. "More than 3,000 are expected to lay out their blankets and unfold their lawn chairs to enjoy the lakeside [symphony orchestra] performance at what is now Butler County [Ohio] MetroParks' Ronald Reagan Voice of Freedom Park at 7850 VOA Park Drive, where canoe and peddle boat rentals are offered. The park is adjacent to West Chester Twp.'s Voice of America Park. Pending National Park Service approval, the two parks will return under the Voice of America name when 258 acres of VOA is transferred to MetroParks' ownership later this year. The merger of the parks will open the way for future development plans, which Stanbery said he hopes will include an amphitheater where the 'VOA concert at the Lake' could become an annual staple." http://www.journal-news.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/06/15/hjn061607VOAconcert.html (Dayton Journal News, 16 June 2007 via kimandrewelliott.com June 16 via DXLD) DOGFEST THIS WEEKEND AT THE VOICE OF AMERICA PARK WILL ATTRACT 8,000 DOGS AND 15,000 PEOPLE. http://www.oxfordpress.com/hp/content/oh/story/living/2007/06/13/pjw061407lifedogfest.html (Oxford (Ohio) Press, 14 June 2007. Posted: 16 Jun 2007, ibid.) See also LIBERIA ** U S A. Pastor Melissa Scott via WWCR, 13845, June 19 at 1305 was putting out spurs and splatter from 13825 to 13865 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. The TDP schedule website now shows 11655 for the religious "Suab Xaa Moo Zoo" program in Hmong (for SE Asia), ex 11650 (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, June 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11650 was via Taiwan, so 11655 probably is too (gh, DXLD) If this were clandestine I would have put it under LAOS [non] ** U S A. WILL THE HUMBLE FARMER BECOME THE FIRED FARMER? Originally published in Current, March 12, 2007 --- By Jeremy Egner For nearly three decades, folksy Maine public radio host Robert Skoglund, better known as “the humble Farmer,” has won fans in New England and beyond for a weekly jazz program interspersed with his wry, country-common-sense commentaries delivered in a distinct Down East accent. But now Maine Public Broadcasting Network has indicated it may stop carrying the Friday night fixture as an internal reprimand erupts into an increasingly public dispute. The nonprofit, state-assisted network, weary of what it says are thinly veiled political statements, has warned Skoglund to shape up or ship out. [Update: He has to ship out. The Maine network canceled Skoglund's show in June 2007, the Portland Press-Herald reported.] The host, in turn, is publicly decrying the network as an agent of censorship. . . http://current.org/radio/radio0704skoglund.shtml (Current via DXLD) Which has linx to further stories on this. Above story goes on to say he is still on WDNA Miami including the rants, but checking the WDNA website I cannot find any mention of him on the schedule now. Also KGLP Gallup but they have suspended webcasting anyway. His own website is http://www.thehumblefarmer.com This page has lots of discussion about the matter: http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/RadCombined.html I had frankly never heard of him and never heard his program. Finally found the page on his website which linx to mp3s of latest and lots of previous shows, along with other stuff mixed in: http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/ThisWeek.html You may also read his rants rather than listen to them. The latest show does seem to be mainly rants with musical interludes (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MAINE Public Broadcasting Network is facing protests over its cancellation of Robert Skoglund's "Humble Farmer" program. MPBN dropped the show, which had been on the air for 28 years, in a dispute with Skoglund over political commentaries he made during the broadcast. Now a group of state lawmakers has signed a non-binding resolution calling on MPBN to restore the show to its airwaves - while Augusta's Kennebec Journal is calling on Skoglund to drop the commentaries and go back on the air playing music. There's more bad news for Christopher Lydon's "Open Source" radio show: it's losing its Boston public radio outlet. Even though the program picked up enough funding (through an appeal to listeners) to keep it in production at least through the summer, its ongoing financial uncertainties finally proved too much for WGBH (89.7 Boston), which is dropping "Open Source" from its prime 7 PM Monday- Thursday slot. In its place, WGBH (which had also been the home base for "Open Source", through rental of its studios) will expand its evening jazz offerings by another hour, and we'd suspect that means the end of the 7 PM Friday slot for "On the Media," which is at least also heard on WBUR over the weekend. The loss of WGBH, along with last week's loss of network carriage by Public Radio International, may not be a death blow to "Open Source," which draws many of its listeners through its podcast, but it's not good news, either. Public radio programmers are as susceptible to peer pressure as anyone else, and WGBH is one of the most influential stations in the system. (And with that said, it's also not at all out of the question that "Open Source" can still survive and even thrive outside the usual public radio system, leaning even more heavily on its podcast as a main distribution mechanism.) (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch June 18 via DXLD) ** U S A. KARL HAAS' ADVENTURES IN GOOD MUSIC BROADCASTS COME TO END http://www.wclv.com/page.php?pageID=174 June 29, 2007 at 8:00 PM will mark WCLV’s last broadcast of Adventures in Good Music with Karl Haas. The station has produced, broadcast and syndicated the program since March 22, 1970. With the agreement of the Haas family, the station will also cease distributing the program to other radio stations. At its zenith, Adventures in Good Music brought musical enjoyment to millions of listeners and was for many years the most listened to classical music radio program in the world, carried by hundreds of stations in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Panama and world- wide by Armed Forces Radio. However, after Karl Haas’ death in February of 2005, the number of stations broadcasting the series in the United States dropped to fewer than 20, and international distribution was restricted to Australia. Adventures in Good Music began in 1959 as a daily 10:00 AM one-hour program on WJR, Detroit. This was a radical programming move on the part of the main-line 50,000 watt AM station, but it paid off, as the program generally won its time slot in the ratings. In 1970, WCLV and Haas teamed up to produce and distribute his programs to radio stations, world wide. Haas received many awards including two George Foster Peabody Awards and the National Endowment for the Humanities Charles Frankel Award. In 1997, he was the first classical personality to be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. Most recently, in 2000, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fine Arts Radio International Awards presented by Missouri Southern State University. His book Inside Music was published by Doubleday in 1984. It is currently in its 10th reprinting. Robert Conrad, the President of WCLV, said, "Throughout his broadcasting career, Karl Haas had the knack of informing and delighting his listeners with his vast knowledge of music. He was a distinguished and beloved broadcaster, leaving a valuable legacy of music appreciation that is unparalleled. WCLV was also involved in the production and national distribution of three best-selling compact disc recordings featuring Karl and his commentary: The Story of the Bells, The Romantic Piano and Song and Dance. We have been pleased to make Adventures in Good Music available to listeners for over four decades and are sorry to see this fine series end. The program has been an essential part of WCLV since 1970. To answer many anticipated questions, the recordings of Karl`s thousands of programs cannot be sold to the public because of copyright restrictions on the music used in the shows. The Haas family is exploring ways to preserve this treasure trove of musical knowledge and make it available to the public. For comments from listeners about the end of Adventures in Good Music and Karl Haas, click here ---- You are invited to send us your reflections on how Karl Haas affected your life to aigm@wclv.com During the week of June 25, WCLV listeners will be treated to an Adventures in Good Music “double bill” daily. Program listings follow: [EDT = UT -4] Monday, June 25 10:00 AM 8:00 PM Love's Labor Not Lost Degrees of Wind Velocity Tuesday, June 26 10:00 AM 8:00 PM Baroque and In Debt Visitors' Visas Wednesday, June 27 10:00 AM 8:00 PM No Man's an Island The Grandeur of Simplicity Thursday, June 28 10:00 AM 8:00 PM If I Were King Rated PG Friday, June 29 10:00 AM 8:00 PM Laying it On That's the End of That (WCLV via gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Weird test signal on 1660 --- I've been hearing this all day, and it's still going strong tonight. It's a signal on 1660 with a recorded loop repeating over and over. All it says is "testing number 1. This is HAR number 3. Testing number 1 for HAR number 3." This is repeated with about a half second pause between each repetition. There seems to be a second station with a similar message, but I can't make it out. I'm wondering if this is a test for something permanent, and what it might be. Also, I wonder how far it's getting out. I am in Memphis, and the strength of the signal suggests a local origin (Adam Myrow, Memphis, TN, June 17, NRC-AM via DXLD) It is. It's part of the state DOT's "SmartWay" system. http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/tdotsmartway/ They've had two TISs (on 1680) operating in Nashville for 2-3 years, and are in the process of greatly upgrading the TIS network here. Look for areas near Interstates where there's a newly-installed shiny metal enclosure (like the ones for railroad signals) and a pole, about 20- 30' high. The box will have a sign posted warning not to dig, because there's a ground plane under there. For details, go to: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/tis.html In the yellow box, select Tennessee and 1660 kHz. You'll find three licenses in Memphis: WQEX384, WQEX385, and WQEY238. Each license covers several sites. (i.e., WQEX384 has five transmitters at different locations) Click on the call letters for more details. If you then click on the word "SITE" in the "Additional" box, it will show you the multiple sites -- with a pretty good description of where each transmitter is. A similar network exists in Knoxville (WQBJ215 - 1620 kHz). I would expect one in Chattanooga but can't find it in the FCC records - maybe they left Chattanooga for last & haven't filed the paperwork yet? -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. Re 7-070: Glenn: -- The Radio Disney list missed a few, including O&Os WDWD/590 Atlanta, KKDZ/1250 Seattle, KMKY/1310 Oakland and KDIS/1110, the Los Angeles "flagship" of sorts. One can add these to a scan of the list published in #70, to see the scope of once-great stations, now being eaten alive with this pure audio crap. It should be obvious that Radio Disney is nothing more than a grand way to hook our children on compulsive "consumer" spending habits, creating misled appreciation for overpriced, cheaply-made (often with Latin American or Chinese slave labour*) Disney-branded shit that passes for "merchandise". (*=A few years ago, a sweatshop was busted just South of Downtown Los Angeles, employing among others 12 year olds who were hand-stitching Disney market-ready flotsam. In 1995 it was discovered that African- American workers in a certain Disney World Florida unit were being paid 18% less than their White counterparts.) -- Reverence for all things Disney is especially infectious in Southern California, with some Disney devotees showing the same fervor as religious fanatics, both for the "product", and against any who dare detract. Any parent allowing his or her child to be exposed to this putrid swill, and to the abuse of Capitalism it all represents, should have his or her head examined. 73z. – (GREG HARDISON, CA, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WNJC 1360 AM Transmitter test again this weekend! (Field Day weekend --- I got all my parts in for working on the phaser this coming Saturday (Sunday Morning). This test will be a little different. I will have the transmitter off from about 9 pm till midnight for a phaser update. Once I bring the transmitter back up I will have it running the following patterns: [EDT = UT -4; Washington Township NJ] 12 – 12:30 am: 1000 watts omni-directional 12:30 – 1 am: 2500 watts omni-directional 1 – 1:30 am: 4000 watts n directional 1:30 – 2 am: 4000 watts ne directional 2 – 2:30 am: 4000 watts e directional 2:30 – 3 am: 4000 watts se directional 3 – 3:30 am: 4000 watts s directional 3:30 – 4 am: 4000 watts sw directional 4 – 4:30 am: 4000 watts w directional 4:30 – 5 am: 4000 watts nw directional 5 – 6 am: 5000+ watts omni-directional Hopefully this test will allow for many more people to listen for the station. I will also be mixing in the Quasi-QRSS. To make this a little interesting, I am offering a $25 gift certificate to HRO (Ham Radio Outlet) to the first one who can identify all 20 sweepers used ;) I will be playing them every 20 mins or so… For example the 20th century fox theme and the ive fallen and I cant get up FX. Trying to make it a little more interesting ;) Anyway hopefully word can get out for this quickly. Thanks, (John Hamann, kc2dux, Engineer for WNJC 1360, John @ DuxPond.com dxhub yg via DXLD) ** U S A. ABC News Nightline, UT Tue June 19 after 0335, had a segment on RV life, with someone referring to an Airstream trailer, affexionately(?) as a ``rolling turd``. Altho I am not hearing- impaired, I often let the closed captioning run, in case I miss something. Waiting a few seconds for the captioner to catch up, did they really say that? We`ll never know, because captioning changed ``turd`` to ``RV``, which I am sure was NOT spoken audibly. Whew! The Deaf are once again saved from being exposed to awfully naughty language. Hmmm, this is a rare DXLD wherein that word is mentioned in two different items (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. MOST VENEZUELANS BACK STUDENT PROTESTS - POLL A majority of Venezuelans support student protests over the closure of an opposition television channel, a poll showed on Sunday, despite President Hugo Chávez insisting the demonstrations were part of a US plot to topple him. Chávez replaced RCTV, the country’s oldest broadcaster, with a state network last month. Since then, there have been regular protests by thousands of students accusing the president of undermining democracy. A Datos poll of 600 Venezuelans across social classes found 56.2 percent supported the students, with only 23.8 percent opposed to them. Of the rest of those surveyed, 19.3 percent had no strong opinion and 0.7 percent said they did not know or did not want to reply. The poll, published in newspapers on Sunday, was conducted on June 8-10 and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Chávez, a frequent and vocal critic of the United States who was reelected by a landslide in December on the back of his generous social spending, dismissed the poll in his weekly television show on Sunday. “This is all part of the conspirators’ plan,” he said. “This is an attempt to incite them.” Chávez has accused the students of being part of a US-backed “soft revolution,” saying they are trying to model their protests on the 2004 “Orange revolution” in Ukraine. His supporters argue the students are using gestures seen in the ousting of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and Georgia’s 2003 “Rose revolution,” giving flowers to police and spelling out “Freedom” with their bodies. Chávez’s critics argue his moves against the media are further evidence of centralization after the president politicized the military, judiciary and oil industry. Chávez is considering indefinite reelection, has won powers to rule by decree and is forging a single governing party to steer his self-styled socialist revolution. The Datos poll found 66.9 percent of respondents opposed the closure of RCTV. This chimed with a survey from Datanalisis in April that found nearly 70 percent opposed the shutdown, often citing the loss of their favorite soap operas. Chávez also has threatened to muzzle Globovision, Venezuela’s last remaining mainstream opposition channel, if it does not stop inciting protests. The Datos poll found 75 percent would oppose Globovision being pulled off the air. Only 7.6 percent of respondents thought the main pro- government state channel, praised by Chávez, was “good” or “very good”. Datos found 81.1 percent of viewers thought it was “bad” or “very bad.” (Source: Reuters)(June 18th, 2007 - 13:18 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** VIETNAM. 4739.75 Son La hrd 6/11 w/ inst mx from 1200 tune in to 1201, man and woman anns & inst mx to 1201.5, man ann to 1209. Local mx 1209- 1210.5, woman ann 1210.5-1214, inst mx fol by man ann, then woman ann 1214-1216.5, indigenous vocal mx (a capella, sing-song rhythm) by man 1216.5-1222.5. Woman ann 1222.5-1225, more indigenous vocal mx to 1227, prog inst mx, man ann, inst mx to 1228.5, woman fol by man ann to 1230+. SINPO 2+4333 w/ traces of CODAR QRM and ocnl Ute SSB. Programming appears to be in indigenous language (Hmong?). (Bruce W. Churchill-CA-USA, DXplorer June 12 via BC-DX via DXLD) Of the 110 `words` in the above item, I count 28 telegraphically- truncated ones, or roughly 25 percent. Why bother? Are bits any more so precious? No ink and paper involved. Why not make it readable in the first place? If saving every single keystroke possible is the objective, ``man ann`` could be just ``M``; the ``ann`` is superfluous, and I often wonder if it is supposed to read ``announcer`` or ``announcement``. This might be called ``DXplorer style`` but not all of its members use it. This is the kind of thing I usually change to plain English as part of my normal editorial duties, as well as fixing punxuation, correcting misspellings, such as ``capella``, (gh, DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6300, CLANDESTINE. Radio Nacional Saharaui (Rabouni), 2342-2400*. 06/16/07, Arabic. OM with impassioned talk with musical backgrounds followed by ethnic instrumental music. Several IDs. Into orchestral music (NA?) and off at 2400. Fair (Joe Wood, TN, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 6300, CLANDESTINE (Western Sahara). Radio Nacional de la RASD, 2304- 0001*. 6/15/07. Man with news in Arabic language followed by headlines at 2323. Regional music selection followed by some talk and music selections until closedown ID and announcements at 0000. Poor to fair but steadily improving. Recent schedules have this signing off at 2300 (Rich D'Angelo,-PA, ibid.) i.e. DX Mix News, Bulgaria UNIDENTIFIED. There is a station on 3780 kHz that is coming in OK, verry little static. No ID so far has been announced. It is in Spanish. If anyone knows please post on the list (Paul Armani, Denver CO, 1711 UT June 19, ABDX via DXLD) I assume you mean a broadcast station? No Denver station on 1260 which could harmonicize x 3. Nor any others in neighboring states with Spanish format. Certainly not Denver 630 x 6 which is in English. Could also be 540 x 7, where there is KNMX in Las Vegas NM, Spanish, tho such a high harmonic unlikely especially in daytime. Other than that, more likely a local mixing product if not a receiver image from a higher SW frequency. Hope you can get an ID or some more specific clues (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 5055.0, UNID Spurious European, 0215-0228*, Jun 06, man and woman talking in very distorted Spanish or Romanian, mentioning Bucharest, but not // R Romania Int. in Spanish on 5975, 34332. Not heard 0015-0110 on Jun 07 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 13 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. When checking for KWHR 11565 Monday June 18 around 0710 I found the frequency in use by an alphabet station - not numbers, but letters spelled out as Alpha Golf Lima Echo etc. And the lady (a mechanical one?) had a very distinctive way of pronouncing November (Nuvembrr) and Victor (Victurr) and Hotel (Hotill) - perhaps they are receivable more clearly spoken that way! She mentioned a message group 5 during transmission, but closed with "end of message, end of transmission" at 0718 so I don't know her identity, although I think she's been heard previously around this frequency, but not so strongly. KWHR was heard after her departure with Christian music, but at very poor strength (Noel R. Green (NW England), June 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) You caught the Mossad, Israeli intelligence. I think I have a sked somewhere if you want it but I'll have to check. 73/Liz (Cameron, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Noel, From your description of the pronunciations it is highly likely that what you heard was the National Security Institute of Israel, Mossad, station EZI [not an ITU callsign]. On this page http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=10483 there are recordings that you can listen to and compare with what you heard. Regards (Harry Brooks, NE England, ibid.) Many thanks to Wolfgang, Erik, Harry and to Liz for their replies concerning the Alphabet station on 11565. On playing some of the recordings on the E10 page sent by Harry (thanks for the offer Liz, but this will suffice) it does seem that I was tuned to the Mossad station EZI (Echo Zulu India). I could hear the same style of pronunciation in the recordings as I did over the air. Their signal was again audible today (June 19th) but at much less strength than yesterday (Noel R. Green (NW England), June 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ In memory of ROCKY * (Rodney L. Scribner, Pittston ME, with a check to Glenn Hauser, P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ NEW ITU MONITORING FILE Saludos cordiales José Miguel, en la página de la ITU, hay nueva actualización del listado en pdf (15 de junio) en http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/terrestrial/monitoring/files/pdffiles/314.pdf 73 (Antônio, via José Miguel Romero, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Un nuevo listado de la ITU, una vez más con sospechosas ausencias por parte de la ITU; no entiendo porqué omiten de forma sistemática a ciertas emisoras, consideradas Clandestinas y Jammers (José Miguel Romero, ibid.) It`s hit and miss, with broadcast stations only a minor part of it; look at the few listings inside the 13, 16, 19, 25 meter bands, for example. Still, worth checking in case something useful can help with an unID (Glenn, ibid.) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ The geomagnetic field was at quiet to unsettled levels during 11 - 13 June. Field activity increased to quiet to active levels on 14 June with brief, localized storm periods detected at middle and high latitudes. Quiet to unsettled levels occurred during the rest of the period with brief active periods detected at middle and high latitudes. ACE data indicated a solar sector boundary crossing on 13 June followed shortly thereafter by a recurrent coronal hole high- speed stream. The boundary crossing (toward (-) to away (+)) occurred at around 13/1800 UTC and was accompanied by increased proton densities (peak 16 p/cc at 13/1807 UTC) as well as increased total IMF field intensity (peak 12 nT at 14/0136 UTC) and Bz variability (minimum - 11 nT at 14/0016 UTC). The recurrent high speed stream commenced during the latter half of 13 June and eventually reached a peak of 628 km/sec at 15/0016 UTC followed by a gradual decrease in velocities. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 20 JUNE - 16 JULY 2007 Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels. Isolated C-class flares are possible during 28 June - 11 July. 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 20 June - 05 July. Activity is expected to be at unsettled to minor storm levels during 20 - 22 June due to a recurrent coronal hole high- speed stream. Activity is expected to decrease to mostly quiet levels during 23 - 29 June. Quiet to active conditions are expected during 30 June - 01 July as another recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream affects the field. Mostly quiet levels are expected during 02 - 10 July. Field activity is expected to increase to quiet to active levels on 11 July due to a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Mostly quiet conditions are expected for the rest of the period. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2007 Jun 19 1923 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 Jun 19 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2007 Jun 20 68 15 3 2007 Jun 21 68 20 5 2007 Jun 22 68 15 4 2007 Jun 23 70 10 3 2007 Jun 24 70 5 2 2007 Jun 25 70 5 2 2007 Jun 26 70 5 2 2007 Jun 27 70 5 2 2007 Jun 28 75 5 2 2007 Jun 29 80 5 2 2007 Jun 30 80 15 4 2007 Jul 01 80 15 4 2007 Jul 02 80 8 3 2007 Jul 03 80 5 2 2007 Jul 04 80 5 2 2007 Jul 05 80 5 2 2007 Jul 06 80 5 2 2007 Jul 07 75 5 2 2007 Jul 08 75 5 2 2007 Jul 09 75 5 2 2007 Jul 10 75 5 2 2007 Jul 11 70 15 4 2007 Jul 12 70 10 3 2007 Jul 13 70 8 3 2007 Jul 14 70 5 2 2007 Jul 15 70 5 2 2007 Jul 16 70 5 2 (http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio June 19 via DXLD) LATE BREAKING PROPAGATION NEWS Solar flux at very low levels = 67 units There seems to be an inverse correlation between very low solar flux and Sporadic E layer events... Sporadic E openings reported by 6 meters radio amateur operators from the Caribbean to the Canary Islands and Western Africa Also many reports of Sporadic E events from North America to Europe and to Hawaii !!! (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, June 19, HCDX via DXLD) TROPO VS. E-SKIP Just what is the difference between "tropo" and "eskip"? I understand that they are related to terrestrial atmospheric conditions rather than ionospheric conditions, but how do they differ? Perhaps there may be some other curious FM newbies out there as well (Chris (FM challenged) Black, N1CP, Cape Cod, June 20, ABDX via DXLD) I decided last year to write up something on skip and my experiences with it, not because I'm a genius on the subject (which I'm not) but because there are probably others who might be able to learn something about the subject. I put that up on my web site, and am finally letting the world (or a small piece of it) know about those pages. They can be found at: http://www.mhawkins.org/radio/skip/Es_intro.htm It`s not perfect, but I think its accurate (or at least mostly accurate). The goal of putting it out there is to help newbies, so if any of you see mistakes or glaring omissions, let me know. With any luck at all, putting it out there will make the skip gods laugh at me, give me skip and force me to update it immediately (Mike Hawkins, June 13, ibid.) Thanks Chris. I think the best explanation of the difference can be found on this web page. http://www.dxfm.com/ Just click on the "signal propagation" section on the left side of the page (Keith, MA, ibid.) Well.... the site was definitely interesting and had a lot of information. It reminded me of the story about the little girl who got a book from her grandmother about penguins. She wrote a thank you letter as follows: "Dear grandmother. Thank for the book about penguins. It tells me more about penguins than I care to know". What the site didn't discuss (or I could not find it) that would be of use to the casual FM DXer is how do you know when receiving a signal whether it is tropo or eskip? (Chris (still FM challenged), ibid.) I would say two things (IMHO) that tell me know whether its trop or skip are "signal strength" and "distance" For signal strength I mean if the signal is fadey or not. Usually most of my eskip signals have some fade to them and can drop in and out quickly sometimes. A good trop signal will usually be much more steady (not necessarily stronger tho). Skip distances are usually over 600 miles (even tho I have had short 450 mile skip..it is pretty rare). Trop distances are usually under 700 miles or so (for me usually under 500 miles). Two other ways to tell are to check out following web maps. http://maps.dxers.info/ is a good indicator of Eskip or F2 skip paths on 6 meters http://www.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/ham/aprs/path.cgi?map=na is a good indicator of Trop paths on VHF. Hope this helps (Keith, ibid.) Trop - Starts at UHF and works down the bands. Fairly steady and shorter distance than Es. Its an atmospheric phenomenon. Its close to the ground and the signal is trapped in a layer or a river of air different temp than the surrounding air. Generally up to 250 - 300 miles. Es - E sporadic - Often fluttery sounding and ephemeral, disappearing quickly and returns quickly. Many times several stations want to come in at once. Signals are unstable. Generally 500 to 1500 miles for one hop. 2 bounces rare and up to 3000 miles coming off the E layer of the ionosphere. /Caused by solar flares or blue jets and red sprites from lightning discharge. F2 - Like Es but off the F layer of the ionosphere and distances of 3000 miles + on one bounce. F2 is usually observed by distance. Chris, all this stuff was on my ham test back in 1984. I am very surprised that you don't know this stuff (Kevin Redding, AZ, EX- KA1MBA, ibid.) A sagacious man of great charm and physical beauty created the following web page a decade ago, and it has some information on sporadic-E vs. tropo: http://www.dxing.com/tvfmdx.htm In a nutshell, tropo signals tend to be weaker but more steady than sporadic-E; tropo signals tend to gradually fade out as the duct breaks down whereas sporadic-E signals can fade in and out within seconds. Sporadic-E signals tend to be stronger on peaks than tropo and more subject to distortion. Tropo is normally a shorter range mode; if you're hearing a normally-unheard station frpom less than 400 miles away, it's almost certainly tropo. Sporadic-E range is usually 500+ miles, but there are exceptions to these rules of thumb (Harry Helms, W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, ibid.) CORNFIELD-INDUCED TROPO The corn plants as they mature give off an enormous amount of water vapor. That's how we get those insane 80+ dew points in mid-summer without being near a body of water. A wonderful breeding ground for trops too --- all that moisture in the lowest levels. Push a hot, dry air mass over that and you can have your BBQ while you DX! (Matt Sittel, NE, WTFDA via DXLD) ###