DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-075, June 30, 2007 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2007 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1364: ** tentative 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 [reconfirmed June 25] 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 ** AFGHANISTAN. [Re reactivation on FM] Until Oct 8, 2001 when U.S. aircraft bombed its Kabul transmitter, R. Voice of Shariat was heard on 7070-7090 at 0100-0300 (Fri -0800) 1400-1500 in Pashto/Dari and 1530-1710 Foreign Service including news in English at 1530-1545 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 27 via DXLD) ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. A sesquiweek or two of no reception from R. Solh, 17700 via UK, in almost daily chex, ended June 30, when it was JBA at 1416 on my truncated exterior longwire, but axually better on the internal random wire wound several times around a room`s ceiling, activated primarily during T-storms. Familiar music as always, and at 1427-1432 THE SOLH THEME played again at exactly the same time as heard a few weeks ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 29 June follow. Solar flux 75 and mid- latitude A-index 9. The mid-latitude K-index at 1500 UTC on 30 June was 1 (09 nT). Space weather for the past 24 hours has been minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level occurred. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours (SEC via DXLD) ** ALASKA. How`s the wildfire near KNLS doing? It`s named Caribou Hills. Checking http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm June 30 at 1800 UT: Caribou Hills (Kenai-Kodiak Area Forestry): 55,222 acres at 67 percent contained. This fire is 15 miles southeast of Ninilchik. Residences remain threatened. Torching, creeping, and smoldering fire behavior continued. Structures are currently threatened. Information: Visit the Inciweb site. http://www.inciweb.org/incident/727/ (via Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The latter slow-loading, then error message (gh) ** ARGENTINA. Un cárrier de Radio Continental (onda media Argentina) se escuchó en 11131 kHz, modo LSB a las 1337 con avances de programación, Carroussel Mundial y La mirada, también publicidad de Telefe (Alfredo Locatelli, Uruguay, June 24, ElEskuch@ blog via DXLD) La religiosa Radio Baluarte volvió a reactivar su frecuencia de 6215 khz, pero con mucho menor presencia de señal que antes del temporal cierre. Escuchada por la noche desde el atardecer. Radio Nacional Buenos Aires Argentina, se la volvió a escuchar ahora en 6285 kHz a las 0031. Estimo que este canal es un radioenlace con estudios, pues cada vez que se activa esta frecuencia se está en una transmisión de exteriores; hoy con la rueda de prensa del triunfo electoral de Macri en capital federal, otras veces con fútbol; además terminada la emisión de exteriores también cierra esta operación mientras permanecen activas las frecuencias regulares, comportamiento que encaja más con un enlace aéreo que con una frecuencia espúrea (Alfredo Locatelli, Uruguay, June 25, ElEskuch@ blog via DXLD) Previous report had this on 6280, and a matching `spur` on 5840, equidistant from 6060, so ?? (gh, DXLD) 6214.4, R. Baluarte, Puerto Iguazú, 2132-2150, 25 Jun, Portuguese, Braz. religious songs to match; 45333 - best signal ever, at least as early as this time (Carlos Goncalves, Portugal, wwdxc BC-DX June 26 via DXLD) ** ARMENIA [and non]. Re 7-074: We might soon be hearing more Armenian on shortwave. "Armenia's National Assembly is due today to debate government draft amendments that could end Armenian-language broadcasts of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Among the amendments is a proposal to ban, or put a heavy fine on, retransmission of foreign- broadcast programs." RFE/RL News, 28 June 2007. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticizes the amendment. RFE/RL News, 28 June 2007. See also OSCE, 28 June 2007. “Why are they doing this? Because they are afraid of Radio Liberty. Radio Liberty is the only broadcaster which is independent and not controlled by the authorities.” Armenialiberty.org, 27 June 2007. “'I wonder if European public TV and radio companies like BBC and Deutsche Welle would allocate or resell airtime to media outlets of other countries,' said Aram Safarian, who spoke on behalf of (a) governing party, Prosperous Armenia (BHK)." Armenialiberty.org, 28 June 2007. Posted: 29 Jun 2007 Update: "U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is the only foreign news organization whose programs are re-broadcast on Armenian state radio — up to five times a day in some cases. Radio Liberty's FM broadcasts would not be affected. The amendments would not affect foreign broadcasters, such as Deutsche Welle or British Broadcasting Corp., that broadcast on the FM frequency. Neither have Armenian language service, but do broadcast in Russian." International Herald Tribue, 29 June 2007. "Armenia's parliament has passed in the first of two readings a draft law that would impose severe restrictions on foreign broadcast media." RFE/RL News, 29 June 2007. Protested by Human Rights Watch, 29 June 2007. Posted: 30 Jun 2007 [see http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/index.php?id=1831 for linx to 8 stories, including the one in 7-074] (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** ASCENSION. ARTICLE ABOUT ASCENSION ISLAND --- Incluyo este mensaje de un ex-BBC en la isla atlántica para los que buscan datos sobre el pasado de la isla. Juan. Hi. Like Mike, I too arrived on the Island in '66. I got there in April, as one of the first group of operational staff for the BBC. We single guys were supposed to live in the Senior Mess, but that wasn't even a hole in the ground, so we were billeted in the construction camp at English Bay, alongside such characters as Jimmy O'Connor, George Grant and the medic, Dick Gain, to name just a few. Also like Mike, I find it difficult these days to put faces to names, sometimes even for people I met last week, let alone forty years ago, but I think I remember Pete Webster. If I'm correct, he was a rather large individual with an impressive beard. If I'm wrong, my apologies. If you haven't already seen it, and would like some (relatively) recent pictures of the Island, have a look at http://www.n-b-wideawake.co.uk/Ascension.htm I too have plenty more pictures to add, when time allows. I've given up trying to get this address added to the links page of the Island website, or to report the broken links on the site, or even to get a reply from whoever administers the site. All messages disappear into a black hole. Pity. Former Island residents are scattered all over the world, and we hold much of its' history. If the current residents, or those who govern them, are not interested in preserving it then much of that history is going to be lost. Phil Brooks (via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** BAHRAIN. 6010, R. Bahrain, Jun 20 1755-1825, 34333-34433, English, Music and news, SJ at 1757. Also Jun 26 1755-1820, 34333, English, dance music and news, SJ at 1812. SJ=Station Jingle (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium June 29 via DXLD) ** BHUTAN. Early June I travelled to Sri Lanka with my wife Suree and we were guests of Victor Goonetilleke for 3 days. I used Victor's ICOM for some DXing; however the results were poor. The new 100 kW transmitter of BBS Thimpu was the only highlight. On the air from 0000 to 1500 (1400-1500 English) unchanged. While s/on is "armchair reception", English is interfered by at least two Chinese opera jammers on neighboring 6030 and 6025. Bhutan is a deeply religious country and, of course, Buddhism is the religion. I have doubts that there is any other religion present. The Choir of Buddhist monks are singing until 0030 and I waited for an ID, which I could not hear. Listening in Europe means, that fade-out starts between 0030 and 0100 and it is extremely difficult to find any authentic programme details for a reception report. Anyway, chances for a Bhutan QSL are traditionally low (Uwe Volk, Jun 16 and 26, DSWCI DX Window June 27 via DXLD) 6035, BBS, Thimpu, *0000v-0055v fade out as the latest, Jun 14, 19, 20 and 21, signed on with typical Horn fanfare, 0003 Dzhonga announcement, 0004 Buddhist Monks singing, 0027 Dzongha talk by two men, 34333 - 25222. Sometimes QRM Belarus 6040 and Colombia on 6035. Bhutan was not heard on Jun 25 and 26 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 27 via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. I probably also heard this new station on 4732.01 at 0030- 0202, Jun 26, Spanish announcer, western pop songs in English, 24222 - 21221 often totally covered by very strong CWQRM on 4732, at times also slight Russian Utility voice QRM from 4735.0 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 27 via DXLD) 4732.02, Radio Universitaria, Cobija, Pando, tnx Eramo. 1004 tune in with bass driven music accompanied by male vocal; sounded more pop than Andean. 1023 Woman announcer may have shouted "Universitaria". Only one word was shouted. 1030 first female vocal, music till 1045 when signal started to break up. Program of only music with no ID other than the possible one mentioned above. Grey line to Bolivia from Southeast Florida at 1030 GMT. 23 June. Very poor signal on 24 June, same time. 4731.97, Radio Universitaria, Cobija, Pando sign on 1015 with music, later OM en español but under local T-storm, followed to 1045. 25 June (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, Japan Premium via DXLD) Er is een nieuw station op de tropenband ,namelijk uit Bolivia Radio Universitaria op 4732 kHz. Beste tijd voor ontvangst is tussen 2245- 0015 UT, gehoord op 22-23 juni + Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, June 28, BDX via DXLD) Continuando con el monitoreo de Radio Universitaria, nueva estación que opera desde Cobija departamento de Pando, Bolivia, en 4732 khz, también se la escuchó con buena señal por la noche pero muy interferida por una emisora utilitaria en modo digital lo que dificulta apreciar los contenidos. Se identificó como "en los 4730 kHz y en los 97.9 MHz Frecuencia Modulada, transmite Radio Universitaria, desde la ciudad de Cobija" cerrando transmisión a las 0200 UT (Alfredo Locatelli, Uruguay, June 25, ElEskuch@ blog via DXLD) Radio Chicha desde Tocla, Potosí, Bolivia escuchada a las 1050 en 4763 kHz, programa Impacto, noticias y comentarios locales se identificó como “Radio Chicha, en 100.5 MHz FM para Tocla y onda corta de 4760 kilociclos para el mundo"; a las 1115 cierra transmisión (Alfredo Locatelli, Uruguay, June 28, ElEskuch@ blog via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Hello everybody! Help needed: Would you please listen to http://personal.inet.fi/taide/timo.rousku/140607_4865_0206_id.mp3 I have not found any information about Rádio Clube Guaranta. Rádio Alvorada 4865 kHz relaying Rádio Clube Guaranta? Thank you in advance for any other idea! Regards, (Timo Rousku, Finland, HCDX via DXLD) An example of how IDs can be mis-heard. At the very beginning of the clip they say ``Rádio Verdes Florestas`` (gh, DXLD) v LANGUAGE LESSONS ** CANADA. ALL SUMMER LONG, THE BEST OF QUIRKS & QUARKS From the end of June to the Labour Day weekend, we'll be bringing you the Best of Quirks & Quarks. It's your chance to catch up on shows you might have missed, or listen again to your favourites. This summer we've got a special bonus, different shows airing Saturday after the noon news, and Monday nights at 11 p.m. Listen again, as Bob travels to Australia, our producer travels to the Arctic, and a scientist travels to the heart of a storm. For the full lineup visit our website at http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/06-07/summer07.html We'll be back with a new season of Quirks & Quarks On September 8, 2007. Have a great summer! Don't forget to check out our new Quirks blog: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/quirks-blog/ Or subscribe to Quirks podcast: http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/podcast.html You are signed-up for CBC.ca's Quirks newsletter (via gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. 6030, Calgary - CFVP relaying CKMX (AM 1060), June 29 (Fri.), 0723-0732, poor/QRM, ID "Classic County AM 1060", C&W song (B. J. Thomas with "Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song"). It's not often I hear them except on Monday, when they have no QRM. Also heard // 1060 (poor/QRM) (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The 6030 QRM of course is Cuban jamming and Martí ** CANADA. 6160, CKZU Vancouver at 1224-1237 UT on Jun 27. Short features and chat to 1230 UT, then local and regional news to 1235 UT; weather was next, with PDT time check and temp. of "14 degrees"; ID as "CBC Radio One". Back on the air after being silent for 3 days (June 24-26). (John Wilkins, CO, DXplorer June 27 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** CANADA. Alberta: 94.1, CJOC 'The Lounge', Lethbridge. The revival of this old AM callsign, (CJOC was an AM Station from Lethbridge, beginning with broadcasts back in the early 30's, on 1220 radio dial, with 10000 watts day, 1000 watts night with three tower array) has put a new FM Station on the radio dial in Lethbridge. 'The Lounge' as it is being called, is a middle-of-the road / e-z music of the 50', 60' and 70's. The signal is being shared with a 600 foot tower to the west of the city (part of A-channel TV tower). Currently, the station is in a 'test' mode, running a test loop every two to three hours, with station IDs and announcements of this new service. Mark Campbell (of the old 1090 CHEC fame) and Vern Todd will be morning announcers. So far, the signal / modulation is being heard quite well throughout southern Alberta. This morning (June 29th) during the test loop, it was announced that they will begin with regular broadcasts on Tuesday Morning (July 3rd) at 9:40 AM [1540 UT – shouldn`t that be 9:41?? -- gh] Just a footnote on the 'old' CJOC: 1220 CJOC was a local AM station, which went off the air in the late 90's. The transmitter site was located just east of the city, on Highway 3 (which was built in the 1940's). Three tower array with the directional pattern North /South (long gone is the site with an industrial park in its place). During its long life time, CJOC served the greater part of the Lethbridge area, since it first began broadcasting in 1927, on top of the Marquis Hotel. The studios where later located in downtown, on 3rd Avenue. Jock Palmer was the original owner, who also started the early aviation service here in the south (which later became Time Air in the late 60's). 'JOC" standing for 'Jock' from Jock Palmer's name. Today, there are no AM Stations in Lethrbidge area, only FM (Edward Kusalik, Coaldale, Alberta, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Heads up, you FM DXers --- http://www.lake88.ca/ CHLK 88.1 Perth, Ont., station running test loop now, to go live in July (Marshall Cubitt, June 28, ODXA via DXLD) ERP is only 700 watts, per CRTC info way down on their website (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. CFYZ-1280 TIS toast --- I noticed today that the Toronto Airport TIS has turned into CFBN "The Sound of Money". Weird. They are broadcasting from a different transmitter site. I suspect the TIS went dark and the new station started up soon after. I totally missed that. Still 25/99 [watts, day/night?] but is authorized to upgrade to Class C 400/150 at yet another new transmitter site. Saul, do you or Neil have any other details? It's surprising that a major airport like YYZ would lose its TIS. I still remember them being on 530, then forced to move when commercial station CJFT started up in Fort Erie (which defeated the whole purpose of having 530/1610 set aside for TIS's !!). (Bill Hepburn, ON, June 28, http://www.dxinfocentre.com WTFDA-AM via DXLD) You would not have missed this if you had read last April`s DXLD 7- 045, 7-042 (gh, ibid.) You are absolutely right Glenn. I've got to get back to reading WOR. I should have known that if there's something happening in the radio world that Glenn Hauser's report would have it. Again, you've proven yourself to be THE radio DX hobby authority. Very interesting stuff. I agree with the contributor that the station is doomed. Driving along Hwy 401 towards the airport one day to pick up someone, the channel was all Rochester until getting very close to the airport. There are other vacant AM channels still around the metro area - 790 , 1190 , 1350 , 1390 , 1480 (Bill Hepburn, Ont., DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE. 17625, China Radio Int'l via Santiago. Full data (with site) 'Eld's Deer' QSL Card, with sticker, paper cutting, report form in 21 days. Also sent separate card with appreciation of my report. v/s: Ying Lian [collective name], English Service (Edward Kusalik, Alberta, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake against Sound of Hope, good on 10300, June 30 at 1423; nothing audible on 9200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 15055 spur China CNR1 --- Hi All, Been around awhile, heard June 26 2007 0121z, 15055, Chinese program, CNR1, no // found on 15 MHz band, but found on 13610 China CNR1 5x8, weak to fair on 15055. If it was a spur of 13610, + 1445 kHz, but nothing found on 12165, minus 1445, so not sure where it`s coming from. Other outlets on 17 MHz band; been on 15055 many months. 73 (Dave Vitek, Adelaide, South Australia, swl call vk5001swl, Icom R75, G5RV nth/sth, June 29, harmonics yg via DXLD) If not a leapfrog of two closer frequencies on the 15 MHz band, I suppose it could be a leapfrog of 9 MHz over 12 MHz, but there are so many intentional CNR1 frequencies, figuring it out will be difficult. 15055 could also be a jammer against some weak previously unknown clandestine (gh, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. LV del Guaviare, 12070 --- Concluido el primer tiempo del partido por Copa América entre Colombia y Paraguay, me di una vueltita a las 2325 por 6035 esperando encontrar obviamente a La Voz del Guaviare dando respectiva cobertura. La sorpresa fue que me fui al 2X de la frecuencia y acabo de encontrar con mejor señal en 12070 la misma transmisión. Ahora sí, espero no ser esta vez el único que ha escuchado tal armónico. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, June 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COOK ISLANDS. [Re new R. Cook Islands webcast:] Heard well in Denmark with Internet Explorer browser at *1545v-0950* on weekdays. On Sunday Jun 24 it first signed off at 1050* (local Sunday at 0050!) and signed on again on same day at *1700 (local Sunday morning at 0700 which was announced with "It is Sunday Morning" and time check! It is unusual for us Europeans to hear a station which is so many hours behind us because of its western longitude). They broadcast a mix of talks in Maori and English with lovely South Sea songs relayed from 630 MW (Erik Køie and Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 27 via DXLD) ** CUBA. For the first time (other than when I lived in Kentucky for a couple of years) I have received Cuban television. No ID, but Spanish and many mentions of Cuba on channel 2. A real mixture with WESH, WPBT [Florida] along with the Cuban station at 1930 CT [=0030 UT June 30]. At 2000 WDIQ-2 and WEDU-3. Sure would have been nice to have US analog off tonight. I have the ATSC-11 sitting on channel 2 but nothing has shown up (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, WTFDA via DXLD) ** CUBA. Google Earth imagery. La Julia MW and diplomatic or direction finding service ? 124 lowly shortwave like masts, and 3 MW masts near TX hall: 23 00 17.35 N, 82 13 47.20 W (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX June 26 via DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. Radio República: Got a pretty strong signal with little interference of this Cuban station last night at 2300 UT. However, was on 5910 kHz, a frequency not listed on its website (or any other that I browsed through). Will listen out again tonight (Conor Farrell, Ireland, HCDX via DXLD) Their website is extremely out of date. 5910 is brokered by Radio Miami International but transmitted from Germany. See DX Listening Digests for numerous references to it. It is a (fuera) Cuban exile station, not a (dentro) Cuban. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** CUBA [and non]. El uso de internet en Cuba es limitado a instituciones y profesionales seleccionados, debido, según las autoridades, a la estrechez de banda y altos precios de su conexión satelital obligada por el embargo norteamericano. Cuba y Venezuela trabajan en su interconexión mediante un cable de fibra óptica de 1.552 km de largo, que permitirá acceso a internet de alta velocidad a bajo costo, proyecto que debe desarrollarse en año y medio (RNW Radio Enlace June 29 via DXLD) Geez, no political reason for limited access? ** ERITREA [non]. 13630, Voice of Democratic Eritrea (via DTK-Jülich transmitter). My CD report to: Postfach 1946, 65409 Russelsheim, Germany, was 'returned to sender with insufficient address indicated'. This after 2 months in transit (Edward Kusalik, Alberta, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. FinnHits Radio on the air 29.6. - 1.7.2007 FINNHITSRADIO BROADCAST SCHEDULE Fri 29.6 - Sat 30.6 - Sun 1.7 - 100 W FRIDAY 29.6.2007 18.00 - 18.15 UTC 6273 kHz 20.00 - 20.15 UTC 6273 kHz Perhaps also later SATURDAY 30.6.2007 08.00 - 08.15 UTC 15061 kHz 14.00 - 14.15 UTC 15061 kHz 18.00 - 18.15 UTC 6273 kHz 20.00 - 20.15 UTC 6273 kHz Perhaps also later SUNDAY 1.7.2007 08.00 - 08.15 UTC 15061 kHz ------------ --------- --------- --------- FINNHITS RADIO P. O. Box 85, 9410 AB Beilen HOLLAND Online during/after broadcasts: finnhitsradio @ gmail.com (via Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, June 28, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** EUROPE. Third show of Radio RWE --- a radio show commemorated to vintage shortwave radio, literature, movies) http://www.radiorwe.com/ Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 0700 UT there will be a new show in English of Radio RWE, relayed via Mystery Radio, on 6220 kHz! The new show #3 will be devoted to historic broadcast, inter alia, a pirate broadcaster relaying Radio Free Europe in Poland in 1956 !!! Your reception reports for shortwave relay are very welcome! Please send them (including return postage - no EUR coins please and no German stamps please) to the following address: SRS Deutschland - Radio RWE - Postfach 101145 99801 Eisenach Deutschland/Germany We highly appreciate your mp3 files with recordings of our shortwave relay! Please send them to the following e-mail address: radiorwe @ yahoo.com or radiorwe @ radiorwe.com We can confirm your e- mail reception reports - with mp3 recording included - with our electronic QSL cards (if you prefer to receive snail mail "traditional" QSL card, please send return postage and your reception report to the address above). All earlier reports will be verified if only the QSLs would finally arrive from the printer (via Martin Schoech, June 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PORTUGAL ** FINLAND. Re 7-074, SW/MW licenses granted: DIG Digita Oy belongs to TDF - France (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, BC-DX June 30 via DXLD) ** GEORGIA. 9495, R Abkhazia, Sukhumi, 0430-0458*, Jun 03, music, announcement and talk about an Abkhazian folk group, all in Abkhazian, 35343 (Alexander Beryozkin, St. Petersburg DX Club, St. Petersburg, Russia, DSWCI DX Window June 27 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. 6045, R Gloria International, via Juelich, verified my e- mail reception report (Cf. DX-Window no. 326) from this address: radiogloria @ aol.com They answered very fast, so I think you could try and send them a report. Good luck! (Artur Fernández Llorella, Malgrat de Mar, Spain, DSWCI DX Window June 27 via DXLD) On Jun 23, Andy sent me this e-mail: "Hallo Anker, many thanks for your reception-report. For a QSLCard please be so kind to send 2 dollars to the following address: Radio Gloria international c/o Coloradio, Jordanstraße 2, D-01099 Dresden, Germany. You can hear RGI each 4th Sunday of the month in the internet-stream of http://www.coloradio.org Time 15-16 UT; each second month also via mv balticradio SW 6045, next one Jul 22 1200 UT" (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 27 via DXLD) MV Baltic Radio On - 1st of July 2007 [Sunday] At - 12 o'clock UTC [for one hour?], On - 6045 kHz In our July transmission we bring news from Mecklenburg Western Pomeranian, we give you information about new bands and CDs (e.g. Candye Kane, Daloco, Absolute, PET and many more) and we remind you of our program "Eine kleine Beatmusik - A small Beatmusic" of the wild 60's and 70's. Good Listening (Tom Taylor, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [and non]. Re 7-074: Re 7-074: This should be the explanation: http://forum.mysnip.de/read.php?8773,451822,508491#msg-508491 Says, amongst a mention of Deutsche Welle cutting back its DRM transmissions one step after another: "At present 5990 is not in operation during the evenings and at night due to technical problems with a transformer that needs to be replaced." Probably this concerns co-located 6095 as well. [this part concerns LUXEMBOURG, duplicated there] The Ismaning signal sounds softer because it contains a carrier on 6085. They use the existing sections of the transmitter if I recall it correct, thus putting the DRM signal on an AM carrier, so to speak. No big investments, no expensive modification of the S4005 beast once purchased for Bavaria's foreign service (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM. 9700, TWR Assamese to Asia / India via KTWR, Guam. Full data E-QSL showing the T2F2 antenna, used at the monitoring station in India. This in response to a e-mail report sent to: ddevadoss @ in.twrsa.org Also received a e-mail verification (QSL) statement. Reply in 70 days. v/s: E. Daniel Devadoss (Edward Kusalik, Alberta, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUIANA FRENCH. DRM: RFI this AM is really shaky, only S5 to S6 SNR 17 db. They are currently decoding about 35% very poor. They are also very low in freq., 17871.36 kHz. Sincere Best Regards, 73,s (Eric//KG4OZO// Atlanta, Georgia, 1328 UT June 28, drmna yg via DXLD) Looks like RFI have recycled their xmitters. 1400 UT 06/22/07. They are now on 17870.00 kHz. New permanent freq?? Sincere Best Regards, 73,s (Eric//KG4OZO// Atlanta, Georgia, drmna yg via DXLD) TDF from Montsinéry is now transmitting RFI program to Europe (DRM meetings next week in Oslo) at 30 Az. New frequency is 17870 kHz as we have QRM in Europe from CRI 17880 kHz from Bamako / Mali. In North America, you are receiving on a side lobe. BTW, I will be next week in Montsinery. 73. (Jacques Gruson F6AJW, June 23, ibid.) ex-17875. Or rather, it is now 17865-17870-17875. Presumably still M-F only, from 1300, 1400 or whenever they get around to it (gh, DXLD) ** HUNGARY. I finally listened to the Friday June 22 audio file of R. Budapest`s English broadcast. The remark about 8 days before being off the air was made by a woman, so her name is certainly not György as I surmised. Wouldn`t her name and all the others be found under ABOUT US? Of course not! After the news from 5:30 into show is a 1992 interview by Charlie Coutts, the Scotsman who was head of RB English service even during the communist era, mid 1960s to 2000* with the same woman announcer of today, mainly about women`s rights or the lack of them. Since 1971 she worked there; her wrapup starts at 22:35 in. She says her name again at 24:20, and it does sound like ``György`` -- - can this be a woman`s name too as occasionally happens with George in English? Maybe it really is Gyongyi as Dragan put it in 7-073. I then listened to the Sunday June 24 program, with ``And The Gatepost``, starting with some music, and then at *13:30-27:30* into the show, ``DX tips and mix`` with Mike Mitchell joining editor/presenter Sandor Laczko. Just this one last time I transcribe all the tips given in those 14 minutes --- something I used to do years ago, until I gave up on this show so full of errors and outdated info. This time there were (only) two major gaffes I will remark on bracketedly. But I have not cross-checked to confirm everything else, so quote any of this at your own risk. Channel Africa, times and frequencies for English: 03-0355 7390 MEAf; 03-05 3345 E&CAf; 05-0555 9685 WAf; 05-0659 7240 SAf; 06-0655 15255 WAf; 10-12 9620 SAf; 14-1559 9620 SAf; 15-1555 17780 EAf; 17-1755 15235 WAf; 20-22 3345 SAf. And French: 04-0455 7305 CAf. Darwin, Australia, Voice of Strait, a religious station, all on 5050: 1130-1400 Hindi, 14-15 Viet, 15-1545 Pashto [here they are totally mixed up! V. of Strait is in China and certainly not religious. It is on 5050. There is a station near Darwin on 5050, but that of course is ARDS. The Darwin station with Hindi, Vietnamese and Pashto must be CVC, but on some other frequencies!] Lajos Horvath, DX editor says: 4485, R. Frecuencia, 23-03 from Celendín, a.k.a. LV de Celendín [no country mentioned! It is PERÚ. This was last mentioned in DXLD 6- 107 of July 22, 2006 under LATIN AMERICA in a list of then-active stations, but is it still?] Australia, VL8T, NT SW Service, Tennant Creek, 50 kW, 0830-2130 4910. Parallel station from Alice Springs, VL8A, 50 kW, 4835. CVC International, Christian Voice, England-based studio, but SW transmitters in various parts of the world. [schedules below only concern English?] CVC Voice Africa, from Zambia: 00-06 4965, 06-15 6065, 15-24 4965 all to Af CVC Intl via Uzbekistan: 01-03 11790 As, 03-06 13680 As CVC Intl via Armenia, 04-07 15515 to As; 13-16 15615 As CVC Intl via Australia, 06-09 15335 As, 09-11 11955 As, 11-18 13635 As CVC Intl via Germany, 05-06 9430 Af, 06-09 15640, 15-18 15715, 18-21 13820 all to Af Address of studio in England: CVC International, P O Box 3040, West Bromwich, West Midlands B70 OEJ Belarus Radio, English to Europe, daily 2020-2200 7105, 7390, 7440; report to R. Station Belarus, Chervonyaya St #4, 22807 Minsk, Belarus. [street not spelt, nor is anything, so it sounded like that] Esperanto language broadcasts: China R International: 11-12 11635, 15110; 13-14 9440, 11650; 16-17 1215 MW Albania; 17-18 11650; 1930- 2030 7265 9745; 2200-2300 7315 9860. Voice of Russia, English to Europe: 16-17 7370, 9890; 17-18 7370, 9890, and Sat/Sun 9820, 11675. 18-19 7370 9890 11630; 19-20 7195 7310 9890 12070; 20-21 9890 12070; DRM: 08-09 12060, 15780; 14-15 9450. Bulgaria: RB DX program launched 50 years ago: ham station LZ50DX to yearend; special QSL. Also until yearend, ham station LZ170VL, in honor of 170th anniversary of national hero Vasilevsky. QSL via LZ1KZA. China R International: English with good quality heard: 06-08 11855 WEu; 10-12 13665 WEu; 15-18 558 MW London (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Glenn, The exact name of that female host is Györgyi Jakobi. I've just asked my neighbour Gyöngyi to come in my house and I gave her an audio to listen to. She told me that Györgyi Jakobi is the exact name. She also mentioned that is a very rare female name, but György is a very common male name (like George in English). When I first heard it, i thought that was Gyöngyi, like my neighbour's name, which is a very common Hungarian name. It means pearl. P.S. Györgyi Jakobi is also listed there: http://ice.radio.cz/ice/article/85879 http://www.iwmf.org/directory/index.php?dir_beat=&dir_country=Hungary&dir_lang=&dir_media=&dir_region=&mode=browse Best regards! (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, June 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) BTW, Gy- in Hungarian is pronounced Dy-, as I first learned from R. Budapest`s Hungarian lessons in the early Sixties (gh, DXLD) RADIO BUDAPEST: CHARLIE COUTTS' LAST PROGRAMME AIRED Have been checking Radio Budapest's last week of programming via the World Radio Network archive. On Tuesday they aired a 2000 edition of Spotlight which turned out to be the very last programme from Scottish born Charlie Coutts, head of the English service for over 30 years, who died on April 6 2000. A very familiar voice to me, I remember in the 1970's Charlie doing a football commentary on Radio Budapest as a Hungarian and Scottish football team had been drawn against each other in a European competition. An obituary of Charlie Coutts, dealing extensively with his work at Radio Budapest, can be found at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000413/ai_n14300069 The World Radio Network 7 day archive of Radio Budapest's programmes is at: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=9 (Mike Barraclough, England, June 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) On their own website as previously noted, it appears they have a full month`s audio archive. Let`s hope they leave that up indefinitely, mostly repeats lately anyway: http://real1.radio.hu/nemzeti.htm An unconfirmed report suggests that R. Budapest will continue broadcasting in Hungarian only, and according to the previous schedule. BTW, Kim on VOA TTA June 28 had a segment on R. Budapest and excerpts from the same June 22 program mentioned above, starting 38:40 into the 50 minute file (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R Budapest, 6195, from 0230 to 0258 June 30 with the last English broadcast to NAm. Mention of this came at 0257. Announcer mentioned that there would be Hungarian instead and that this was all part of a change to reduce cost. Doesn't it cost the same to broadcast in English as it does in Hungarian? Same kilowatt hours. At any rate, sent off a QSL letter yesterday (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, if all the English producers and news journalists give their time free, pay their own travel costs, etc :-) At Radio Netherlands, I believe (I don't have the exact figures here) programme distribution costs around half of our total annual budget. According to the website, the final English broadcast was at 0430-0500 UTC. For those who missed it, you can listen/download it from http://real1.radio.hu/nemzeti.htm (click on the date - 30 - at the top of the picture). Nice to hear the voice of the late Charlie Coutts again (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s not UTC, but local time, on their audio linx! (gh, DXLD) I listened to 0100 UT [June 30] broadcast on 6040 kHz. News, program from archive and music program. A by-the-way, nonchalant message at the end stating R. Budapest broadcasts will end. "Goodbye". Overall good until 0118 UT when carrier without audio and then tone also came on 6040 kHz. Moderate QRM from the carrier/tone. [that would be VOA UT Tue-Sat, ex-6000, for Special English 0130-0200: they should have been crash-starting!! More dismissive treatment of the Little Guy, not to mention the beleaguered American SWL and taxpayer -- gh] 0230 UT broadcast on 6195 kHz fought with BBC also on 6195. Same programming as 01 UT broadcast. Overall fair. Disappointed with final broadcast. Hoped for more about R. Budapest, their broadcasting history, etc... in other words a "proper" goodbye. I guess I need closure. Good luck getting a QSL. I have not received a reply from R. Budapest in over 1 year. I will miss R. Budapest. Interesting programming not heard elsewhere, at least not elsewhere for me. Was an RBSWC member for many years. In DXLD 7-007 I wrote asking if R. Budapest was planning to leave SW. Unfortunately, came true. "** HUNGARY. Noticed the following on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 at the R. Budapest website http://www.english.radio.hu/ Is R. Budapest setting the stage to leave SW? 73 (Kraig Krist, dxldyg via DXLD) Viz.: Dear visitor, The development of the on-line world has had an impact in all fields of life. As a result of its role in the speeding-up of the flow of information, the traditional forms of media must adjust to the expectations created for us by the ever more increasingly globalising social and information conditions. In Hungary, the number of Internet users is constantly increasing, even if this growth is not explosive. For this very reason, it is necessary to make the alternative, on-line radio broadcasting more popular, since the key to - and importance of - the experience of radio listening happens to be its being up-to-date. This also requires informativeness and speed from a public service radio station in the 21st century. The easily accessible, down-loadable material creates the possibility for Hungarian Radio, an institution with a grand history, to become - in this new dimension, the world of Internet - the intellectual centre for Hungarian cultural and public life, and the radio station of the nation paying attention to the needs of listeners. Hungarian Radio (via Kraig Krist, dxldyg via DXLD)" Interesting book "Twelve Days --- The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution" by Victor Sebestyen. Many radio mentions. Book explains how Hungarians believed western propaganda, including R. Free Europe/R. Liberty only to be ignored when the actual need arrived. Recommended reading. Goodbye, R. Budapest... I feel a friend is now gone :( 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, VA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tuned in to tonight's (June 30 UT) Radio Budapest broadcast on 6040 kHz at 0100-0128*. News, interview feature from their archives and some local music. At end of the broadcast, the female announcer mentioned ceasing English broadcasts on June 30th to a "more cost- effective situation." Not sure if this was the final broadcast being the 30th UT or tomorrow's broadcast on the 30th local time will be the last (Rich D'Angelo, PA, DXplorer June 30 via BC-DX via DXLD) R. Budapest fair with some good gypsy music and then a quiet and quite sad good-bye at 0127 from the English Service of Radio Budapest June 30 2007 (Jim Ronda, OK, DXplorer June 30, ibid.) Yesterday this matter was subject of a quite extensive discussion in the German-language A-DX mailing list. Finally the head of the German service had been asked, and all he could say was that there is no chance to get a QSL card anymore, since nobody is left who could send them out. The Pester Lloyd newspaper published three days ago this comment: http://www.pesterlloyd.net/Archiv/2007_26/0726radiobudapest/0726radiobudapest.html Says that only three editors were left at the German service and will now have to turn the lights off. Politicians consider money spent for foreign services as being thrown out of the window; this is the only explanation for MR being so quick with axing the foreign language services. The procedure is just outrageous, considering that they have an obligation to keep the public informed: MR general director György Such ordered all employees working for Radio Budapest and facing their dismissal to report about the station's demise only in the last broadcast. What were they afraid of? A flood of e-mails like they got after firing Franziska Simon [a popular German service editor] in February? Of course in late May the news had been leaked despite the muzzling order and first revealed by our newspaper. Finally since this week the imminent closure of the station has been mentioned on air. György Such left an enquiry about the reasons for closing Radio Budapest unanswered. It is unnecessary to further comment on his policy (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ICELAND. RÚV reports end of shortwave broadcasts --- In today's (2007-06-28) evening news, Ríkisútvarpið reported the end of their shortwave broadcasts to be July the 1st. Their teletext page (247) is still active, though, with no mention of closure (Reynir H. Stefánsson, Iceland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Icelandic public broadcaster RÚV officially announced that the relays of its newscasts on shortwave will end on 1 July (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, June 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RUV SW schedule: 1215-1300 Eu 13865 1410-1440 Am 13865 1755-1825 Eu 12115 1835-1905 Am 13865 2300-2335 Am 12115 Look out for the ID "Útvarp Reykjavík". They are a good QSLer (Dave Kenny, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Times vary a few minutes either way. By ``ending July first``, do they mean the last broadcasts will be on July 1, or June 30 already as makes more sense fiscally? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGETS) ** INDONESIA. 9525, Voice of Indonesia, *0744-0804, June 29, usual music & ID loop ("You are listening to the Voice of Indonesia"), ToH start of their English segment, news. Mixing with CTN (presumed) till 0752 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3987.05, RRI Manokwari, 1145-1225 Jun 27. Lite pop vocals to 1158, then M announcer, program notes, and SCI at 1200; Jak news began at 1201. Good signal \\ 4789.98, 3976.06, 3995.04, 4604.94, and I think 4869.93. Back to local programming (2 men chatting) at 1216. 4789.98, 1144-1202 Jun 25, soft Indo vocals hosted by M; local announcement at 1159, then delayed Jak news at 1201. Good signal (John Wilkins, CO, DXplorer June 28 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** IRAQ. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty --- This group has some of the best minds in the business of looking at and making sense of data and trends in media. It's a long download but it's worth it. Read it. You will learn something (Lou Josephs, June 26, medianetwork blog via DXLD) Viz.: IRAQ: RFE/RL REPORT REVEALS WEAKNESSES IN SUNNI-INSURGENT MEDIA WAR WASHINGTON, June 26, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The greatest strengths of the Iraqi Sunni-based insurgency's media strategy -- decentralization and flexibility -- are also its greatest weaknesses, according to a report officially released today by RFE/RL. The book-length report, "Iraqi Insurgent Media: The War Of Images And Ideas" by RFE/RL regional analysts Daniel Kimmage and Kathleen Ridolfo, provides an in-depth analysis of the media efforts of Sunni insurgents, who are responsible for the majority of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq. The popularity of online Iraqi Sunni insurgent media, the authors contend, reflects a genuine demand for their message in the Arab world. Kimmage and Ridolfo argue that the loss of coordination and message control that results from decentralization has revealed fundamental disagreements about Iraq's present and future between nationalist and global jihadist groups in Iraq and that these disagreements are ripe for exploitation by those interested in a liberal and democratic Iraq. The report also finds that anti-Shi'ite hate speech is an increasingly prominent part of the insurgent message. With sectarian killings on the rise in Iraq, the tenor of invective points to the possibility of even greater bloodshed. A wealth of evidence shows that hate speech paved the way for genocide in Rwanda in 1994, for example. Iraq's Sunni insurgency has developed a sophisticated media campaign to deliver its message over the Internet through daily press releases, weekly and monthly magazines, books, video clips, full-length films, countless websites, and even television stations. Part of the target audience for insurgent media projects are mainstream Arabic-language media, which often amplify the insurgent message to a mass audience. The popularity of online Iraqi Sunni insurgent media, the authors contend, reflects a genuine demand for their message in the Arab world. A response, no matter how lavishly funded and cleverly produced, will not eliminate this demand. The authors argue that efforts to counter insurgent media should not focus on producing better propaganda than the insurgents, or trying to eliminate the demand for the insurgent message, but rather on exploiting the vulnerabilities of the insurgent media network. (pdf format): The entire report Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/06/830debc3-e399-4fa3-981c-cc44badae1a8.html (via Lou Josephs, medianetwork blog via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Galei Zahal on upper flank of Moscow DRM signal, 15784.82 kHz at 0810 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PALESTINE [non] ** ISRAEL. Kol Zion heard well tonight June 29th but at 0330 and on 11585 with English news and "Face to Face" program until 0345 (Tom Sliva - NYC, UT June 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kol Zion Lagola (Voice of Zion to the Diaspora) was a name they quit using sesquidecades ago, I think. The 0330 broadcast is supposed to be on 11590 per EiBi, with 11585 used only: 11585 2000-2300 ISR Kol Israel HB Eu So did they forget to change the frequency in the morning? (gh, DXLD) ** KAZAKHSTAN. Re 7-074, GERMANY [non]. Radio Kazakhstan --- 11950 was indeed in use for the first program of Radio Kazakhstan until it disappeared around the mid-nineties. To my knowledge German from Kazakhstan no longer exists. Ten years ago it was heard very well in Central Europe, thanks to a relay of Shalkar (2nd program of Radio Kazakhstan) via the Brovary transmitters near Kiev [UKRAINE]. But shortly afterwards, before or around 2000, these relays were cancelled, and now we just heard about the possibility of the Brovary shortwave facilities being removed completely. The grounds still occupied by the antenna field, located almost inmidst the town, must be quite attractive for development. Hansjörg Biener`s website is here: http://www.biener-media.de Btw, ethnic Germans from the former USSR are still moving from there to Germany. "Ethnic Germans" means: Citizenship -- German. Nationality -- German. Mother tongue -- Russian. Consequently people consider them as "the Russians", they are not recognized as Germans by the real- world society here, and the consequences are quite dire (concerning the chances to get a job and so on). Best regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. KOREA D.P.R. v15184.71, came across martial soldier chorus music in 1500-1600 UT portion, and heard Voice of Korea Pyongyang station ID at 1555 UT in English. Seemingly Voice of Korea's North American service replaced 9335 by 15180-15185v channel? Scheduled 1300-1700 UT, 13 En, 14 Fr, 15 En, 16 Fr. No \\ broadcast on 11710 kHz could be traced here in Europe. At 1547 UT Vatican Radio's Asian service came on co-channel 15185 kHz, so a 290 Hertz terrible heterodyne pitch noted then. [Later:] And station wandered around to 15184.40 at 1738 UT, .54 at 1730 UT, .57 at 1725 UT, .67 at 1755 UT. Scheduled 1300-1756 UT to NoAM, 13 En, 14 Fr, 15 En, 16 Fr, 1700 Korean. Parallel frequency for Korean language outlet at 1700-1756 UT on 11709.92 kHz also to NoAM. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENIG DIGEST) KRE in Russian on odd 13759.95 at 0730 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. Radio Kuwait in English on 11990 kHz --- Tuned into non- stop pop music at 1945 UT on 11990 kHz, then ID in English at 2000 "This is Radio Kuwait, discover your hidden powers", followed by a programme called "Discover Your Hidden Powers". Have they reactivated their English service? Not heard them myself in English for quite a long time (Tony Rogers, Birmingham, UK, AOR 7030+ / LW, June 28, BDXC- UK via DXLD) Used to be 1800-2100 (gh) Tuned in to 11990 at 1815, hearing pop music, ID by woman at 1829 as "This is Radio Kuwait", time pips at 1830, followed by news, read by woman announcer (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, June 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Just before 2100 dominated by French 11995 (gh) Re Steve Lare and Tony Rogers --- the same here on 11990, and it is operating at 1800-2100. And the morning transmission in English to S Asia on 15110 has also resumed. It was heard today (June 30) at just after 0500 UT with reading and instruction from the Kor`an. Transmission continued until 0758 (the last 65 minutes or so was non- stop pop) when ID in English was given, and transmission times on FM, MW and SW. This service does begin at 0500. Arabic used to be broadcast in this transmission but today, after time pips, Persian started // 9750. But after about two minutes 15110 left the air. Arabic meanwhile was heard via 11675 until about 0700 (co-channel Radio Solh) and 15495 (Noel R. Green (NW England), June 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks to Tony's tip, Radio Kuwait heard in English tonight, from tune-in at 1850 on 11990 kHz. Its certainly been a long time since their English service was carried on SW - perhaps 3 or 4 years. Radio Kuwait was last listed in BDXC's Broadcasts in English in our Winter 2003 edition. Its great to hear something back on SW especially with the closure of Radio Budapest and Iceland's SW relays tomorrow (Dave Kenny, England June 29, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Radio Kuwait's morning transmission in English has also been reactivated on SW, heard here this morning from tune-in just after 0700 until 0800 sign-off on 15110 kHz. Closing announcement confirmed the following English schedule: 0500-0800 on 15110 to S & SE Asia 1800-2100 on 11990 to Europe & N America The announcement also mentioned 963 kHz mediumwave and 96.3 FM for local listeners. This is exactly the same SW schedule that was in effect until the English service disappeared from SW in late 2003. Thanks again to Tony Rogers for discovering Kuwait's English Service back on SW (Dave Kenny, Caversham, June 30, ibid.) ** KYRGYZSTAN. The Kyrgyz Republic is using 3 transmitters. Two of them for Radio Bishkek and one for Radio Rossii. I heard Radio Rossii from 2100 sign on until 2255 (tx remains active) and from 2300 until around 0020 fade out. At 2300 ID as Radio Rossii. I heard Kyrgyz Radio from 2300 sign on until around 0010 fade out on 4010 weak and from 2300 \\ on 4795 very weak, just for some minutes until fade out. The evening programme in that time of the year not audible (Udo Krueger, Germany?, wwdxc BC-DX June 23 via DXLD) ** LATVIA. 9290 kHz relay: Latvia Today programme on Sunday night the 1st of July at 1900-2000 UT on 9290. Good Listening (Tom Taylor, June 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [non?]. 15650 tentative, Libya in Arabic with Saharan music around 7-9 UT, weak and fluttery like ISS France S=3 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) FRANCE/LIBYA. I've been "busy" the last couple of days listening to the Libyan transmissions from four senders. 15550 went off air at 2200 UT last night and then the same transmission was heard via 11835 kHz (I don't know if this frequency was on before 2200 or not). The one playing continuous music on 15650 kHz also went off at 2200 UT. I earlier heard 11835 and 9590 kHz with Hausa but I think both went off at 2000 UT. 15550 kHz is Voice of Africa in Arabic of course. 15650 kHz is on air again this morning with Libyan style music - it went off at 1100 UT yesterday - then heard again already on air at 1730 UT. It will be interesting to know where all of this is coming from! (Noel R. Green-UK, wwdxc BC-DX June 28 via DXLD) Poor signals on all these channels here in southern Germany. 15550 S=1 tiny signal, always underneath of powerful VoRUS MSK in Hindi co- channel. 15650 Ar noted at 1230 UT, S=1-2 tiny signal (Wolfgang Büschel, June 27/28, ibid.) LBY 15650 kHz has gone down to a weak signal now - it was peaking much strong around 0630 UTC+ (Noel R. Green-UK, wwdxc BC-DX June 29, ibid.) ** LIBYA [non]. 17627.50, Sowt Alamel, Jun 21 1205-1215, 25432-35433, Arabic, Kor`an and talk, ID at 1208. 17637.50, Sowt Alamel, Jun 22 1231-1245, 33333, Arabic, talk, ID at 1243 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium June 29 via DXLD) ** LITHUANIA. Re 7-074, KBC Radio extended SW schedule. According to the Lithuanian operator, the expanded KBC relays will start already this weekend (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, June 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) KBC informs: "Only the show at Sunday starting at 0100-0159 [UT] is this weekend. The Friday show is starting the 6th in UTC." (Ydun Ritz, Denmark, June 30, ibid.) This is correct, according to the operator (Trutenau, ibid.) ** LUXEMBOURG. 6095, LUX DRM transmission missing in total in 7-9 UT range today June 29. Despite LUX DRM 5990 is on air from Junglinster LUX at same time (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I didn't hear LUX 6095 this morning - I don't think it's on air now at 1000 either, although I do have some noise from my computer. It was off at 1800 last (Thursday) evening too, and I had a nice signal from BBC Oman in Persian on 6090, but had to use USB due to the bzzzzzzz from 6085. A little later there was a weak unid signal on 6100 which went off air before 2130. I couldn't even guess what it was though. (Noel R. Green-UK, wwdxc BC-DX June 29 via DXLD) 6095 DRM. I checked LUX 6095 also, it seems bc time has been shortened to approx. 1000-1900 UT only (wb, June 29, ibid.) Re 7-074: This should be the explanation: http://forum.mysnip.de/read.php?8773,451822,508491#msg-508491 Says, amongst a mention of Deutsche Welle cutting back its DRM transmissions one step after another: "At present 5990 is not in operation during the evenings and at night due to technical problems with a transformer that needs to be replaced." Probably this concerns co-located 6095 as well. The Ismaning signal sounds softer because it contains a carrier on 6085. They use the existing sections of the transmitter if I recall it correct, thus putting the DRM signal on an AM carrier, so to speak. No big investments, no expensive modification of the S4005 beast once purchased for Bavaria's foreign service (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAWI [non]. Re BBC via South Africa 3380 --- Hi Glenn, Checked Google, 1 hr after the e-mail, and found info in latest DXLD; my apologies for not checking, will do so in future, still don`t think it`s Malawi, very early time for us 1800z is 3.30 am local, not heard anymore from Chris. 73 (Dave Vitek, Adelaide, South Australia, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Re 7-074: Dave Pomeroy wrote to me off-list to let me know that he also saw "tele ver" Wednesday with Veracruz mentions on channel 2. Thank you, Dave (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, WTFDA via DXLD) ** MEXICO. Around noon [CDT = 1700 UT] I had a Mexican station on channel 2 with the time (CT), a (7) in a circle and the temperature (31 degrees) in a box in the lower right hand corner. The time was on the top of the box. A "channel 7" ID was on the hour, but no call letters (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, June 29, WTFDA via DXLD) XHTAU-2 Tampico relays channel 7 from Monterrey weekday mornings and early afternoons. There is a picture of the circle-7, etc. on the WTFDA Forums in the unIDs section posted by Scott in OKC. Fernando [García, ex-Monterrey] alerted me to this mini-network (which also includes XHOR-14) several years ago. (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, http://www.tvdxexpo.com ibid.) ** MONACO [non?]. Bonjour! À Monaco, la semaine passée le Ministre d’État (la personne politique la plus importante après le Prince) a annoncé la création de RADIO MONACO (radio nationale), avant la fin de l’année 2007. Normalement en septembre il y a aura plus de détails avec les accords du CSA. La station sera audible sur toute la Côte d’Azur. Affaire à suivre… Voilà pour cette fois, A bientôt (Christian Ghibaudo, Nice, via Dario Monferini, June 29, playdx yg via DXLD) ** MONACO [non]. Hi Glenn, Monaco/France: Col de la Madone on 1467 kHz is back on the air. Daytime until 1630 UT, with probably 40 kW. It's a relay of RMC INFO, the "local" programme. i.e. the same as on 216 kHz, but with some local commercials. Regards from Sunny Côte d'Azur (Christian Ghibaudo, France, June 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 5770, Myanmar Defence Forces R could not be observed at different times in Sri Lanka, although Victor remembered having received them recently. Obviously temporary off (Uwe Volk, Jun 16, DSWCI DX Window via DXLD) ** NEPAL. 5005.03, R. Nepal, Jun 20 1322-1336, 33443-34443, Nepali, talk, ID at 1327 and 1328 and 1331 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium June 29 via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. V. of Nigeria, somewhat back to the normal after strike ended, and somewhat adjusted audio level, less loss through low audio level, but somewhat overmodulated at times (Thorsten Hallmann, Germany, June 29, dxing.info via DXLD) ** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. 9455, Radio Free Asia Burmese (via IBB Tinian). Full data 'democracy and freedom' (with transmitter site indicated) QSL card in 14 days. Report sent to qsl @ rfa.org (Edward Kusalik, Alberta, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORWAY. Subject: [HCDX] UKEsenderen Trondheim Hi there listeners, according to UKEsenderen, there will be no broadcast on 1485 nor 7215 kHz this year during the UKA festival in Trondheim. As you may be aware, UKEsenderen is the radio station of the biannual UKA festival during October, Norway's largest cultural festival http://www.uka.no/informasjon/engelsk/ The radio station has been a cooperation between the Student Radio --- content http://www.studentradion.no and Akademisk Radioklub --- broadcasting http://org.ntnu.no/ark/ in Trondheim. Because of lack of interest by the organizers of the UKA festival, UKEsenderen was last operating in 2001. The Akademisk Radioklub has tried, in 2003, 2005 and this year, to convince them otherwise, but without success. But maybe there is a chance for 2009, if we tell the organizers now that we would like to have UKEsendering back on the air. You can contact them by e-mail at uka @ uka.no and please be polite when asking about UKEsenderen; this is not meant as a worldwide e-mail campaign or fight. The Akademisk Radioklub welcomes a copy of e-mails sent to the UKA organizers at ukesenderen @ la1k.no This is also the correct address for listeners reports and other questions about UKEsenderen. Please spread the news. Kind regards, (Harald Kuhl, DL1ABJ, June 28, HCDX via DXLD) ** PALESTINE [non]. A NEW CLANDESTINE STATION FROM ISRAEL TO PALESTINE Hello DXers, just got back from Alexandria - about 300 km north of Cairo - which is my place for MW DXing. Checking 756 which is always carrying Almachrek radio, the clandestine station from Israel to Lebanon, I noticed a new ID for a station ID in Arabic - Rokn Alsout Alfalasteniy - in English it means the corner of the Palestinian voice, first time to hear it on 22/6/07 with various programs about the Palestinian current situation, especially after HAMAS took over the rule of Gaza. They transmit twice daily as they announce temporary on 756 KHz - Daily 07.00 – 08.00 AM, 15.00 – 16.00 PM Jerusalem time = 0400-0500 UT and 1200-1300 UT - they also announced the Website http://www.pal-voice.org/ It's a quite strange mix, to be honest, listening to the programs they repeat the morning transmission at the afternoon. Some of the programs are - between us - which sounded like a political commentary criticizing the current situation in Gaza and HAMAS. Also a program called - lady - dedicated to fashion and make up stuff! with some English hits in between as well; some of the other programs are to the point and Abu Mahmoud. The main announcers of the programs are the same announcers of Almachrek Radio and BTW I hear the same announcers on Program D of Kol Israel, especially the current affairs programs. Same source!? One more note: WRTH 2007 stated that the sign on of Almachrek radio is at 0430 UT, but actually it starts at 0500 right after the corner of the Palestinian voice; same with the sign off when Almachrek signs off at 1200 UT, the Corner of the Palestinian Voice starts the afternoon transmission. They gave the following details for contacts : P. O. BOX: 49371 – Jerusalem 976041 [I thought Israel had 5-digit postal codes, and thus easiliy confundible with US ones --- gh]; e mail: palvoicejer @ gmail.com Fax:02-6599190. All the best, guys (Tarek Zeidan, DXing from Alexandria, Egypt, June 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3260, R. Madang (presumed), 3315 R. Manus (presumed), 3335 R. East Sepik (presumed), 0735-0840 6/29/07: All three stations heard continuously during the half-hour before and after PNG sunset buried under heavy static with talks seemingly in Pidgin and occasional music. 3335 had best signal here tuned on USB to avoid interference from CHU Canadian time signal station on 3330. Best multi-station PNG logging at this QTH this summer season (Stephen Bass, Columbus, Ohio, Icom 746PRO and Wellbrook 330S, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Australia mentioned this morning June 29 that PNG elexions are taking place Saturday June 30, so look for temporary reactivations or extended schedules on other 120/90/75/60 mb frequencies --- most of them on 90, of course (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3335, Radio East Sepik, Wewak surprised to hear 1105 to 1112 with male announcer reading the news in English followed by 1110 Island music. Very late in the local morning for such a reception. 3260 and 3315 also in, alas with poor signals. 22nd June (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** PERU. 3172.62, Radio Municipal, Panao noted with weak signal 0950 after several days of not being there or too weak for log? 25 June (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** PERU. Estimados Amigos DX: Estas fueron las emisoras peruanas que transmitieron a las 1300 UT: 6089.4, R. Universal, Cuzco, 1305, 34222, Castellano 4775, R. Tarma, Tarma, 1308, 44433, Castellano 4955, R. Dif. Cultural Amauta, Ayacucho, 54423, Quechua 4975, R. Del Pacífico, Lima, 44522, Castellano (Portadora Fuerte, Modulación SUPER Bajísima) 5939.7, R. Melodía, Arequipa, 23422, Castellano 6520, R. Paucartambo, Cuzco, 24422, Castellano Cordiales 73! (DXSPACEMASTER, ALFREDO BENJAMIN CAÑOTE BUENO, Lima, Perú, June 29, condig list via DXLD) ** PORTUGAL. Re 6261: Dear Glenn, The chap of the pirate station replied to a 2nd mail, and explained he's got reports from G, I & RUS... while I still can't receive its 10 watt emanating from a very high antenna as he puts it; the location is in the outskirts of Lisbon, meaning we're almost neighbours! 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I can`t help but wonder if he is just pretending to be near you. A pirate can pretend to be anywhere (gh, DXLD) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Radio Rossii broadcast on SW for nationals in western Europe is hardly to find for an average shortwave listener these days. And some VoR foreign broadcasts to count on limited channel quantity. As well as 5 broadcast hours daily via Wertachtal 125/250 kW in Ru, En, and Arabic (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, BC-DX June 40 via DXLD) ** SIERRA LEONE [non]. 9525, Cotton Tree News (presumed) via Ascension, 0742-0752, June 29, sounded like CTN news program in vernacular, mixing with VOI *0744. CTN seemed to end at 0752, poor (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9525, "Cotton Tree News" - Email reply from George Bennett gbennett76 @ yahoo.co.uk for email with audio clip to Anne Bennett at abennett @ hirondelle.org "Dear Mr Herkimer, Thank you so much for your email. I am impressed that you picked up CTN's short-wave bulletins so clearly in New York. It is early days for our project but the students and journalists here at Fourah Bay College in Freetown are very enthusiastic and learning fast. As you may know, the country went through more than ten years of devastating conflict and is emerging as a fledgling democracy - but there is a long way to go and much to do. We at Fondation Hirondelle are proud to help the College develop its radio services and will continue to work here till the end of 2008. Sincerely, George Bennett, Editor in Chief, CTN, Freetown, Sierra Leone". (John Herkimer-USA & Ron Howard-USA, DXplorer, via NZDXT July via BC-DX June 30 via DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. TALK RADIO 702 OFF AIR IN SOUTH AFRICA --- Sadly, one of our oldest AM MW mediumwave stations has now gone off air and migrated to the FM band. 702 was never a good DX catch overseas as the transmission was beamed South, making it a difficult catch in the Northern Hemisphere. The only person I know ever logged it in the north was Jean Burnell in [Newfoundland] Canada = a superb catch. Very few MW stations are now left broadcasting in South Africa anymore. I think only four are left. This is the result of ICASA, the regulator, not granting any more MW licences, although many have applied and been refused (John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa, South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s, http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx via Steve Whitt, MWC via DXLD) As I recall, 702 was originally in the ``homeland`` of Boputhatswana; did it ever gain radio-country status? (gh, DXLD) John, do you know what the reasoning is for not granting new MW stations in SA? Surely it can't be due to band congestion :O) (Dave Bennett, mwdx yg via DXLD) The only MW stations remaining on air in South Africa as of July 2007 are: 567, Cape Talk, Cape Town, 25 kw 576, R. Metro, Meyerton (Joburg) 50 kw 657, R Pulpit (gospel) Meyerton (Joburg) 50 kw 846, Umhlobowenene, Komga (Eastern Cape) 100 kw 1269, Chinese community R., Midrand (Joburg) 2 kw (irregular) 1287, Ligwalagwala, Welgedacht (Joburg) 2 kw 1422, Panhellenic R, Bedfordview (Joburg) 1 kw 1485, R. Today, Honeydew (Joburg) 1 kw 1548, R. Islam, Lenasia (Joburg) 10 kw This is very few stations and the MW band is wide open to have many more stations, but these are refused by the regulator ICASA. ICASA is supposed to be an independent and impartial regulator, but which in practice is stuffed with the ruling political party`s lackeys who toe the party line. African politicians are dead scared of having independent radio stations on the air as they fear they will criticise the ruling party and its policies. So they make ridiculous requirements of stations having to have 80% black African staff and announcers, and 80% local content. For instance, Talk Radio 702 wanted to broadcast on the FM band, but they would only grant them restricted FM coverage on the condition that they closed down their MW transmitter on 702 kHz which was widely heard all over the country. Now they also want to withdraw the license form R. Pulpit on 657 kHz, as there are very many religious broadcasters who have applied for licenses, all of which have been refused, on the basis that it would be better to have no religious broadcasters at all. Then we have the case of the Afrikaners who are a large and powerful minority in the country. For years they have battled ICASA to have their own radio stations playing their own music and Afrikaans language. They were even granted a temporary licence in the early years for a short trial period. After the short trial period they refused to renew the license and ordered them to close down. The Afrikaners would not, so the government sent in the troops and closed them down forcibly. The Afrikaners keep on applying for a licence which is continually refused, so this year they took ICASA to the high court and challenged their refusal, and won the case. The learned judge found that their licence applications had been unreasonably refused and ordered ICASA to re-look into the granting of a licence. It will be interesting to see if they ever get on air? Major broadcasters like BBC, VOA and DW would also dearly like to broadcast locally, but again = all refused, although interestingly they do allow BBC to broadcast on SW from the government transmitters in Meyerton. I have written to the Cape Times about this scandalous situation but elicited little response. Those who get their licences refused by ICASA also complain, but they get little media coverage and the general public is apathetic about these restrictions, so the government gets away with it. These are my personal views and observations and not unfortunately shared by my fellow citizens in this country (John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa, ibid.) ** SURINAME. 4990, Radio Apintie, Paramaribo, 0950 to 1000, usual OM with signal much troubled by CODAR, much better in USB than AM mode. Have found no audio filter that works with CODAR; best I can do is ECSS. 25 June (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** SWITZERLAND. SWISS GOVERNMENT APPROVES WORLD RADIO SWITZERLAND The Swiss federal government has approved a licence for a new English- language digital radio station called World Radio Switzerland. WRS, to be run by Swiss Radio and Television (SSR), will replace World Radio Geneva in November. The government also approved the launch of DRS 4 News, an all-news German-language digital radio station that SSR will begin operating at the same time. Full details from Tribune de Genève: http://www.tdg.ch/pages/home/tribune_de_geneve/english_corner/news/news_detail/(contenu)/100560 (June 28th, 2007 - 12:31 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) Despite the name, this is a mere domestic service only; webcast? (gh) ** SYRIA. Radio Damascus broadcasts again with only one transmitter and is reported at 17 hours on 9330 kHz in Russian, and on 12085 kHz at 18 hours in German, at 19 hours in French and at 20 hours in English (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX June 28 via Dragan Lekic, Serbia, dxldyg via DXLD) ** UKRAINE. See KAZAKHSTAN ** U K. BBC WORLD SERVICE TRUST OFFICIAL DIES AFTER WALK INTO SEA. Kari Blackburn was previously executive editor for BBC Africa and Middle East regions and head of the BBC Swahili and Great Lakes Service. . . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6253044.stm BBC News, 29 June 2007 (via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) BBC CHIEF 'KILLS HERSELF' BY WALKING INTO THE SEA By David Sapsted, Last Updated: 1:58am BST 29/06/2007 A senior executive at the BBC is believed to have committed suicide by walking into the sea and drowning herself. The body of Kari Boto, who used her maiden name, Kari Blackburn, in her role as director of international operations for the BBC World Service Trust, was plucked from the sea off Felixstowe by an RAF helicopter. She was taken to the hospital where her husband works as a senior consultant but doctors, some of them friends of the couple, failed to revive her. A police source said: "All the indications are that this is a tragic case of suicide." Mrs Boto, 53, who was due to take early retirement in a few days, had been seen by a passerby shortly before noon on Wednesday, sitting on the beach at Old Felixstowe with her head in her hands. . . http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/29/nbbc129.xml (via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Was her `early retirement` voluntary? (gh, DXLD) ** U K [non]. 15745, BBC Arabic with BBC website address, noted at 1230 UT, S=2-3 fading tiny signal. Maybe CIS or Russian Siberia relay site southwards lobe? (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, June 27/28, BC-DX via DXLD) ** U S A. 13640, BBC World service via WHRI Angel One, Cypress Creek transmitter. Full data (with site & program name) '20 years of short wave Ministry to the World' QSL card. This response in 76 days, from e-mail report sent both to their web site & whr @ lesea.com (Edward Kusalik, Alberta, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Whee, so BBCWS is now a ``Ministry`` (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. On VOA's Talk to America, 28 June, I interviewed Terrence Ripmaster, author of the new book Willis Conover: Broadcasting Jazz to the World. And we discussed Radio Budapest, which will end its international broadcasts on June 30 after 70 years. We closed with an announcement that Talk to America will end in about a week, to be replaced with a web-based live chat, Thursdays at 1800 UTC. Audio will be available here. http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/TTA-New-Past-Shows.cfm Posted: 28 Jun 2007 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) It`s there now Talk to America will no longer be a 5-day-a-week radio program, but known as ``T2A``, from Wed July 11, each *Wednesday* at 1800 UT; go to http://www.voanews.com click on TTA promo link and join the chat, with ``an exciting lineup of guests``. This is progress?? (Glenn Hauser, listening to the show, notes for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. JOHN MCCAIN MAKES HIS REVERSAL ON USIA A CAMPAIGN PLANK "In 1999, I supported a plan to integrate USIA into the State Department. In theory, this reform was supposed to ensure the coordination of our public diplomacy with our government-to-government relationships. In practice, it made public diplomacy an orphan. ... We need an independent agency with the sole purpose of getting America's message out in a factual and persuasive manner: managing radio and TV broadcasts to those in need of objective news; establishing American libraries with Internet access throughout the world; sending Americans overseas and sponsoring foreigners' visits to America for educational and cultural exchanges; and creating a professional corps of public- diplomacy experts who speak the local language and whose careers are spent promoting American values, ideas, culture and education." http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/orl-mccain2807jun28,0,3795588.story (Sen. John McCain, Orlando Sentinel, 29 June 2007 via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Placing an "objective news" broadcaster under an agency whose purpose is "getting America's message out" was always, and will always be, unworkable (Kim Andrew Elliott, Posted: 29 Jun 2007, ibid.) See also ARMENIA ** U S A. VOA gets exclusive interview in Afghanistan, thus deriving benefit for its sponsoring government, which means RFE/RL can't use the information, thus depriving benefit to its sponsoring ... wait a minute ... "Ambassador William Wood, the new U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, told the Voice of America (VOA) in an exclusive interview today that "as long as the Taleban can continue to sustain itself from outside the country, and as long as it meets with some level of cooperation among the drug trafficking, criminal, and corrupt community inside Afghanistan, it will continue to be a threat." http://www.voanews.com/english/About/2007-06-26-voa75.cfm (VOA press release, 26 June 2007 via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) VOA and RFE/RL share time on FM and medium wave transmitters in Afghanistan. This means the United States transmits to Afghanistan by way of two fractional international broadcasting efforts, rather than one complete one. This is a main reason the BBC has a larger audience than U.S. international broadcasting, even though Britain spends less on international broadcasting than does the United States. (Kim Andrew Elliott, Posted: 30 Jun 2007, ibid.) see also NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS ** U S A. Google Earth imagery: WWRB Morrison, TN (Manchester Copperhill) - [nice installation, wb.] 35 37 25.34 N, 86 00 51.35 W (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX June 26 via DXLD) Copperhill has nothing to do with it now; that was the old WGTG site right on the Georgia border, not in middle Tennessee as now (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. Noticed that WEWN`s squealing transmitter was on 9885 in Spanish, June 29 at 1312 tuneby, misericordia talk; sort of appropriate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KAIJ`s datalink problems result from the last two miles to the transmitter site near Frisco TX out in the country from Dallas, where there is no cable, no DSL, no landline available, so it has to be microwave. A 900 MHz link did not work so it was moved to 5.8 GHz, --- almost line of sight, but some dropouts continued. It turned out that a wholesale nursery in the path would sporadically place some trees for sale exactly in a position which blocked the signal. It is hoped the nursery can be persuaded to leave a hole in the right place so the KAIJ data and programming can reach the transmitter unimpeded. A big mall is going up in the area, and when that happens in a couple years, DSL and cable should become available (Glenn Hauser, summarizing an explanation by George McClintock, KAIJ, for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. George McClintock of KAIJ tells me that following the report of KDLO-3 in South Dakota being off-frequency with its channel 3 audio, he contacted someone at the station he knows and it was corrected the evening of June 28. They appreciated hearing about the problem. The automatic frequency control on the unit had failed, perhaps due to extreme temperature variations, and this could happen again. For its local viewers, the KDLO audio probably came thru better on old TV sets with wideband tuners, or manual fine tuning. But to get the sound in just right, the video would be off-tuned into black. New TV sets are more narrow-band, with no fine tuning, but AFC, on the assumption that all video and audio are transmitted exactly 4.500 MHz apart! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: A little mixed feelings about it being "fixed" as it was providing a very quick way to ident them with the Yaesu FT-847 :> Last heard it had migrated to 65.800 MHz (June 25th). I'd first e-mailed Doug about it June 5th. Now if the same effect could be achieved on this "situation" http://www.savefile.com/files/728829 (40-sec 7M mpeg vid file) Saga upon request. Thinking about seeing if KVRL 94.3 might be affected/interested/concerned. 73, (Pat - WA5IYX Dyer, San Antonio TX, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re WDCD, 7-073: Glenn, No 3080 harmonic of 1540 heard here in Albany, I'm about 5 miles away from their towers. The old WPTR's legendary "null" - which at night gave them a bigger audience in Nova Scotia than in downtown Albany - was not so much a product of their tight tower pattern as it was a deteriorated field of ground mesh. When I was a teenager and they were a Top 40 powerhouse, there wasn't any place in town, south of town, or inside a lead vault that you couldn't hear them with bonecrushing signals. As the years went by, the ground field fell apart, and so did their local signal. The exact same thing happened at 1460 WOKO (now WDDY Radio Disney), whose ground field was shot to hell when I worked there in 1980. We had a big nighttime audience in Québec where we dominated after daytimer CKRB left the air, and routinely got fan letters from merchant mariners in the North Atlantic. But we needed to put a large- aperture loop antenna on the studio's roof - about 7 miles line-of- sight northwest of the transmitter site - just to hear ourselves. Not only was our ground system shot, but our tower phasing was out of whack, which played havoc with our transmitted audio, which left the studio sounding great but lost 50% of its LF content by time it hit the air. I dare say that our technical problems on AM nowadays had already deteriorated due to deregulation and overallocation and technical neglect and budget slashing and automation and unattended operation and unqualified (or non-existent) engineers that left the AM band sounding like crap. IBOC is just icing on that awful cake. Not that it much matters. The broadcast band is the domain of conservative alarm-monkeys and sports buffoons, none of whom do any service to their "communities of service." It isn't even fun to DX anymore, with a zillion semilocal pests on every channel, plus the cacaphony of powerline buzzes and mystery harmonics and wobbly noises generated by every gizmo in our houses. The only place it's still fun to listen is 50 feet inland from an ocean, aside a Hawaiian volcano, or in a shack in the middle of Nowhere, Newfoundland, with nine 2-mile-long Beverages strung through the frozen marshes. Cheers, Al Q (Al Quaglieri, NY, June 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Our local graveyarder, KRSN 1490 has gotten approval from the county planing and zoning commission to install a folded unipole antenna on a water tower to replace the temporary installation running on an STA. A picture of the tower is at http://mesamike.org/radio/mwdx/pics/hawks_water_tower.jpg There are already some cell-phone antennas on the tower. It doesn't look to me like there is enough room for a folded unipole on that water tower! On a folded unipole, don't the skirt wires have to come down as close as possible to the ground? It seems like the flared out base of the water tower would interfere. Anybody ever seen a folded unipole on a water tower before? (Mesa Mike Westsfall, N6KUY, WDX6O, Los Álamos, New Mexico (DM65uv), June 28, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. LOCAL RADIO CLASSIC GOES OFF THE AIR AFTER 48 YEARS "Adventures in Good Music," one of the mainstays of local classical music radio, will end Friday when the program goes off the air for the last time on WICR-FM (88.7). The 48-year-old syndicated program with Karl Haas was once carried by hundreds of stations worldwide. Presented locally since 1983 by the Indianapolis-based Fine Arts Society, the hourlong music appreciation program has been airing on weekdays at 8 a.m. Fewer than 20 stations, including WICR, have kept airing repeats of past programs since Haas died in 2005. But now the German-born musicologist's family has asked Cleveland radio station WCLV-FM, which produced "Adventures in Good Music," to end its syndication. "Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin" will replace "Adventures" on Monday in the same WICR time slot. "We're very sorry to lose Karl Haas, and we wish his family had not made the decision to withdraw the program," said Michael Hunt, the Fine Arts Society's executive director. "It's the highest-rated program we have." Scott Uecker, general manager of WICR, said that according to recent estimates, the show has drawn nearly 10,000 unique listeners each week (Indianapolis Star via Kevin Redding, June 28, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. The venerable WTBS-17 (OTA) in Atlanta is changing callsigns and programming this fall. Details are in this Atlanta Journal- Constitution article. It is changing to Peachtree TV and its proposed call is WPCH. http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2007/06/28/0628bizturner.html Get those logs and screenshots of WTBS OTA before its too late, maybe I can get the ducts to move more eastward than Birmingham before the switch ;) – (Fritze, KC5KBV, Prentice, Star City, AR, Grid Square EM43aw, June 29, WTFDA via DXLD) AJC story, different URL: http://www.ajc.com/business/content/printedition/2007/06/28/bizturner0628a.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) And hear the story read by robot, click-to-listen, linked from above: http://c2l.newsworthyaudio.com/Partners/COXNewspapers/C2lPlayer.aspx?PartnerKey=COXNewspapers&SiteKey=ajc&ArticleGUID=ajc_printedition_2007_06_28_bizturner0628a&ArticleURL=http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/cnishared/newsworthy/ajc//printedition/2007/06/28//ajc_printedition_2007_06_28_bizturner0628a.mp3&PartnerSpecificParam=AdUrl=http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/ajc.cni/$PAGE%23ap%40click2listen%23pg%40$PAGE%23sub%40$SUB%23fromsite%40ajc%23 Going back to the newsworthy home page, [only?] one other newspaper doing this is the Washington Times (Moony) (via gh, DXLD) ** U S A. CLEAR CHANNEL NOT STREAMING TO CANADA ANY MORE? Well, this doesn't have to do with traditional radio listening, but I have noticed over the past 2 or 3 weeks that the majority of the radio stations from the U.S. that I listen to no longer can stream to Canada. Mainly these are Clear-Channel owned stations, but there are others as well. What's with this!? (John Hyde, June 30, ODXA yg via DXLD) Do you get an error message saying `no streaming to Canada`? (gh, DXLD) ** URUGUAY. 9620.7, Emisora del Sur, Montevideo, 2118-2129, 23 Jun, Spanish, talks; 22441, QRM de DW 9620 in Arabic, just like the situation on 12 May at 2145 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, wwdxc BC-DX June 26 via DXLD) ** VATICAN [non]. Nothing special today except Vatican Radio Special Portuguese QRG 17590 missing on their website. --- Special liturgy just in progress today at 7-9 UT on 5885 Italian, 7225 German, 11740 English, 13765 French, 15550 French, 17590 Portuguese [from website:] Friday 29th June 2007 --- Liturgy of the Eucharist on the Feastday of the Apostle Saints Peter and Paul, with the conferral of the Pallium, presided by His Holiness Benedict XVI at 09.30 a.m. [0730 UT] From Saint Peter's Basilica, Liturgy of Eucharist on the Feastday of the Apostle Saints Peter and Paul, with the conferral of the Pallium to some Metropolitan Archbishops presided by His Holiness Benedict XVI. Live broadcast at 09.20 a.m. [0720 UT] - in Italian for Italy on kHz 5.885 SW, for the area of Rome on kHz 585 MW and MHz 105,0 FM, and via Internet on Channel 1 - in English for Western Europe on kHz 11.740 SW, for the area of Rome on MHz 93,3 FM and via Internet on Channel 2 - in German for Central-Western Europe on kHz 7.225 SW, for the area of Rome on kHz 1.611 MW and via Internet on Channel 3 - in French for Africa on kHz 13.765 and 15.550 SW, for the area of Rome on MHz 103,8 FM and via Internet on Channel 4 - in Spanish for the area of Rome on kHz 1.260 MW and via Internet on Channel 5 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) VAT was heard best here on 15550 kHz in French - the other frequencies also good, but 7250 weaker, and 5885 hardly audible! (Noel R. Green, UK, wwdxc BC-DX June 29 via DXLD) This is the page to keep an eye on, if you care, for special broadcasts from VR, which may or may not involve special SW frequencies: http://www.radiovaticana.org/CoorPro/entrasmisspec.htm Something is coming up July 4 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]. 7250, Degar Voice, Jun 26 *1301-1311, 43443, Vietnamese, 1301 sign on with IS, ID, talk; this frequency only on Tuesday. 7350, Degar Voice, Jun 23 *1300-1307, 43443, Vietnamese, 1300 sign on with IS, ID, Talk, This frequency only on Saturday (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium June 29 via DXLD) ** VIETNAM [non]. 15655, Que Huong R., Jun 20 1213-1258* 35333 Vietnamese, talk, former South Vietnam national anthem at 1225 and 1242, ID at 1257, Closing announce, 1258 sign off, (ex: 15665 kHz) 15655, Que Huong R., Jun 21 *1200-1206 35322, Vietnamese, 1200 sign on with opening music, opening announce, talk. 15655, Que Huong R., Jun 22 *1200-1212 35433, Vietnamese, 1200 sign on with opening music, ID, opening announce, talk. 15655, Que Huong R., Jun 23 *1200-1210 25432, Vietnamese, 1200 sign on with opening music, ID, opening announce, talk. 15670, Que Huong R., Jun 25 *1200-1211, 35433, Vietnamese, 1200 sign on with opening music, ID, Opening announce, talk, (ex: 15655 kHz) 15670, Que Huong R., Jun 26 *1200-1211 35333 Vietnamese, 1200 sign on with opening music, ID, opening announce, talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium June 29 via DXLD) Cf. 7-070; June 7 and 9 they had just moved from 15680 to 15650 (gh) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6300.05, 2255-2400* Clandestine, 20+24-06, RASD, Rabouni, Hassania (local Sahara dialect of Arabic) political talks often mentioning Saharawi, 35333. Not off 2300-2400 as mentioned elsewhere (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR [and non]. TANZANIA. These days reception of Voice of Tanzania Zanzibar is very good on 11735. Frequency is clear most time of the transmission. Begin at 1458 after presumed frequency change, sign off at the end of the program at 2100 with hymn. One of the best audible African stations. At 1700 news relay from Radio Tanzania in Swahili. All programs in Swahili, only 1800-1805/10 news service in English. From 1700 to 1757 Radio Romania English but mostly Zanzibar is dominating (Udo Krueger, Germany, wwdxc BC-DX June 26 via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE. 4828, V of Zimbabwe, Guineafowl, 2137-, 23 Jun, non-stop African pops; 55333. At the same time, ZBC 3396 was at full steam too. and with the same sort of menu, by the way (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, wwdxc BC-DX June 26 via DXLD) STILL NO REGULAR PROGRAMMES FROM THE VOICE OF ZIMBABWE Monitoring observations over the past month of the Voice of Zimbabwe indicate that regular programming has yet to start. The station opened on 25 May 2007. Harare's state-owned The Sunday Mail reported on 27 May that the station was testing "for the next three weeks, during which time management will be fine-tuning programming and receiving feedback from listeners from all over the world". The published transmission schedule is 0530 to 1630 gmt on 5975 kHz and 1630 to 0530 gmt on 4828 kHz. However, no news broadcasts have been heard; the station plays Chimurenga [liberation war] music which fades away at different times. There is no set schedule and no announcers have been heard. Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings and the Ministry of Information have not advanced any explanation for the failure to begin news broadcasts. Zimdaily, a London-based online news service critical of government policies, reported on 5 June that the station had "indefinitely" postponed broadcasts because "the radio was inadvertently jammed by the same equipment set up by the paranoid ZANU-PF government to jam private radio stations - Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa". The station, headed by liberation war veteran Happison Muchechetere, is thought to have hired three reporters by 15 June. Staff members are still based in Harare, not in Gweru, the city from which the station broadcasts. Vehicles bearing the station's logo are seen on the streets of Harare. Source: BBC Monitoring research 29 Jun 07 (via DXLD) Voice of Zimbabwe --- Hi Glenn, Still no programming heard from this station. Local media newspaper reported this article on Friday 29 June. 73 David, Zimbabwe ZBH MANAGER FACES DISMISSAL FOR REFUSING PROPAGANDIST POST ZIMBABWE Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH)'s Spot FM Editor-in-Chief Methuseli Moyo faces dismissal for resisting deployment to the new state-run radio station, Voice of Zimbabwe (VOZ), it was heard yesterday. Government sources said Moyo could be fired soon for refusing to take up a senior position at the short wave radio station in Gweru. VOZ is a government propaganda station headed by Happyton Muchechetere to counter so-called negative publicity against government by what officials call "pirate" radio stations. This refers to the Voice of America (VOA)'s Studio 7, SW Radio which broadcasts from London, and Voice of the People (VOP). Officials says the State Department-funded VOA, and SW Radio which they say is British-financed, as well as VOP which they claim is Dutch-funded, are on a negative publicity campaign against the government, hence the setting up of VOZ. Sources said Moyo rejected an appointment at the controversial station arguing that he was a professional journalist and not a propagandist. The row has sucked in President Robert Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba who is said to have clashed with Moyo whom he accused of being a relative of former Information minister Jonathan Moyo. Charamba, it is alleged, has been pressing ZBH boss Henry Muradzikwa to fire Moyo for his alleged links with the former minister. Sources said journalist Moyo was now facing the chop. "Moyo received a letter from his bosses in Harare advising him to relocate from Montrose studios in Bulawayo to Gweru with immediate effect, on Wednesday," a source said. "But Moyo rejected the appointment. His colleagues think the move is a demotion intended to force him out." Moyo, former Sunday News news editor, has also been under pressure after Muradzikwa told him there were claims from a senior ministry official that he was no longer trustworthy because he had "got another job". Moyo is said to have told Muradzikwa it was untrue, but the Jonanthan Moyo issue lingers on. "Charamba confronted Moyo about the issue in March 2005 after former minister Moyo's dismissal," a source said. "But journalist Moyo told Charamba in the presence of other ZBH managers that he was not related to Jonathan Moyo, and that even if he was, he didn't see anything wrong with that because he and Prof Moyo were not the same," a source said. "Charamba suggested Moyo was brought into ZBH by Prof Moyo as part of the Mnangagwa camp's strategy. Moyo told Charamba that he would never support anyone involved in Gukurahundi massacres to be president, and said he wondered why Jonathan Moyo supported Mnangagwa in the first place." After that their relations soured and now Moyo is facing dismissal. Moyo yesterday refused to comment (Zim Independent via David Pringle- Wood, June 30, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Olá amigos radioescutas da America Latina. Gostariamos de saber se por aí na America do Sul, tambem está a acontecer o seguinte: Nas frequencias de 14235 a 14245 kHz, já a dias que se escuta um forte Jamming aqui na Europa???? O Jamming está demasiado forte, lembra os tempos da guerra fria, algo se passa !!! Que se saiba até ao momento ainda não foi identificada a origem deste forte Jamming. A pergunta é? Será que é somente na Europa que se escuta, ou tambem a America do Sul está a ser afectada com este ruido bastante forte. Qual a origem??? Asia ou America??? Aguardam-se possiveis informações (Manuel Jesus, Sintra, Portugal, June 29, condig list via DXLD) You mean it`s a grinder like the USSR used? Or what makes you sure it is really jamming? Could be harmonic of something jammed on 7120. I wish people would *describe* such things. There are lots of different kinds of jamming, and things that may sound like jamming but are not really (gh) Hora 2251 UT; escucho el jamming en 14233.3. Saludos (Jorge Enrique Knull, Argentina, June 29, condig list via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITIED TESTIMONIALS see CANADA: CFYZ +++++++++++++++++++++++++ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ EIBIview EIBI now has a freeware viewer for its "Freq" text files. The freeware viewer, called "EIBIview", is available for download from - http://www.susi-und-strolch.de/eibi/dx/EIBIview.zip Very easy to use. Links of Interest: JefferyGuide - http://www.angelfire.com/trek/amsguy CodeAmber.Org - http://www.codeamber.org The News - http://www.angelfire.com/trek/amsguy/TheNews.html Sincerely, (Dave Jeffery, NY, June 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DTV DXER HALL OF FAME WEB PAGE http://www.tvdxexpo.com/dtvhall.html (Danny Oglethorpe, LA, WTFDA via DXLD) DRM: see GERMANY; GUIANA FRENCH; HUNGARY; ISRAEL; LUXEMBOURG LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ Unisex Hungarian Names: see HUNGARY ITATIAIA [Re 7-074] It's not just the case of how Itatiaia is pronounced, but the rules, so let me see if I can explain it. In this word, almost every vowel is at the same level so to speak, with the stressed one being the one I pointed - the 3rd "a" [you mean second A? --gh], which sounds like [ah]. The number of syllables determines it: i-ta-ti-aia; "aia" is not a dyphtong per se, but "ai" is. As far as what you perceived as "ee-tuh-CHAY-uh", well, that's not quite so, but it clearly denotes the Brazilian way of pronunciation, certainly not ours, but the flow of the word is kept. One of my family names on my mother's side, Assunção (formerly, Assumpção) would be pronounced with open "a" whereas we pronounce it with a closed "a." "Rádio" and "radio" are different words: the former means what you know*, the latter stems from verb "radiar", and implicitly stands for the 1st person singular "eu radio" = I radiate. [rah-dee-oh] is incorrect - as you know, initial Rs or double RRs do sound like Fr./German Rs, but the final "o" sounds like our "u", as in "Carlos" [kárloosh'], not [kárlohs] which is in the Castilian way. *) Rádio applies to radio as a means (then it's feminine), to an apparatus (masculine) and also to the chemical name (Mme. Curie, etc., hi!). Likewise, "música" / "musica", music / (ele/ela) musica = he/she makes music. "Polícia" = police, "policia" = he/she patrols (you lack the right verb) in the sense that he/she is a policeman/~woman. Many other similar examples where the accent mark changes it all. The Os in polícia/policia sound like our U, OO in English. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) In some cases Spanish uses accents to distinguish two homonyms from each other, but they still follow stress. For example, tú = thou, tu = thy; él = he, or it; el = the (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, When I was working commissioning the new medium wave antenna at R. Itatiaia earlier this year 1. I was told it was a name of a nearby region originally from a Native American language 2. The pronunciation is approximately "e-ta-chia-e-ah" with the accent mildly on the middle "chia" My experience as a western N. American who spent most of the first 6 years of my life on the Hoopa Reservation and spoke Karok as a child, and who as an adult can pronounce Spanish perfectly thanks to my Lodi Hi and U.C. Berkeley educated mother (even tho my grammar is hopeless) is that there are no hard and fast pronunciation rules about transliterated words from Native American languages to English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Spanish may be the best because of its hard and fast rules within the language, but even Spanish has had to incorporate the X from the western hemisphere that doesn't exist in Iberian Spanish (but certainly does in Esquerda). (And notice that there are at least 4 or 5 ways to spell the name of the Basque language in Spanish and English both!) Written, of course, from Seattle, the largest city named for a Native American person, whose name is actually usually given as Chief Sealth. So the pronunciation of transliterated words is correctly the local usage. And that's what H. L. Mencken said, too, if memory serves (Ben Dawson, WA, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ OUR EXCLUSIVE ARNIE CORO'S DXERS UNLIMITED'S HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Sporadic E openings happening now on an everyday basis, over North America, the Caribbean, Northern Africa and Europe, with some phenomenal 2 meter E skip contacts reported from western Europe this week. And, more to come, amigos as this Sporadic E season has taken a turn for the better during the last week of June. Solar flux at very low levels, a small coronal hole located at a geo effective position are combining to produce rather poor HF propagation conditions, typical of sunspot minimum years, although late in the evening the 20 and 30 meters amateur bands are opening up from the Caribbean to the Asia-Pacific region. Solar activity moving up, after many days of a spotless Sun (Prof. Arnaldo Coro A., CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited June 30, HCDX via DXLD) ###