DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-085, July 27, 2008 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 2008 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 1418 Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 0530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1130 WRMI 9955 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: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** ALASKA. Re 8-083, 8-084, DART DRM project: ...new shortwave technology that the Defense Department eventually could use to support intelligence operations... Delta Junction 64 02 47.80 N 145 44 09.35 W huge airport Fort Greely HAARP 188 kilometer southwards near Gakona 62 23 32.10 N 145 08 57.17 W (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX July 24 via DXLD) ** ANGUILLA. No sign of Dr. Gene on 6090 on 25 July at 0410. Only heard on WWCR 5935. On 26 July same time and frequency, no Dr. Gene. Mentioned as being heard by Tom Gavaras on 20 July in DXLD 8-084. Maybe people quit giving Rev. Melissa $$$. 73/Liz (Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) DGS was recently reported missing, but his voice is back on 11775, July 27 at 1319 check, atop DentroCuban leftover Martí jamming, and Firedrake too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. ANTARTIDA, 15476, LRA 36, Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, Base Esperanza, 1900-1918, 23-07. A las 1900 identificación por locutora: "LRA 36 Radio Arcángel San Gabriel, transmitimos de lunes a viernes de 15 a 18 hora local, 18 a 21 horas UTC, en la frecuencia de 15476 kHz, banda de 19 metros, desde Base Esperanza, Antártida Argentina". Identificación en varios idiomas, entre ellos portugués y francés. Canciones. 24322. También 1900-1920, 15-07. Se escucha a partir de las 1900 que cierra Africa nº 1 en 15475. Señal muy débil, apenas audible. Locutora, comentarios, mejor en LSB. A las 1915 se nota sólo la portadora. 14321 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escuchas realizadas en Camping de Reinante, costa del mar Cantábrico, provincia de Lugo; Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15475.96, LRA36, RN San Gabriel, 2006 UT 7/22/08. Surfaced briefly after months of inaudibility. Poor at best due to local noise. Could distinguish between Spanish ballads and announcements. Faded out after less than 15 minutes (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8B, 70' Inverted L, Wellbrook 330S 1 meter loop, http://www.radiodx.net/wordpress/ Cumbre DX via DXLD) M-F 18-21 (gh) ** ARGENTINA. MOROCCO/ARGENTINA SILENCE - Morocco on 15345 kHz at 1800-2200 UT (big joy here-all RAE programs are heard clearly ! 1800 En, 1900 Fr, 2000 It, 2100 Ge!). (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, July 24, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 24 via Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DXLD) Italian and French swapped? I had 1900 It and 2000 Fr (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, ibid.) ** ARGENTINA. Re 8-084, UNIDENTIFIED 2280: Gracias Arnaldo. ¿Cuál es esa emisora? Buscando por allí en otros foros encontré reportes similares en el 2006, que se atribuían a una armónica de R. Anacaona de Rep. Dominicana. Por la música caribeña podría ser :-) pero dudo que llegue hasta estos pagos (Moisés Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, condiglist yg via DXLD) Moisés, en casa, nada en esa frecuencia. Busqué más temprano y había mucho ruido. ¿Entre qué horas la escuchaste? Me suena difícil escuchar algo en esa frecuencia que no sea una armónica. Saludos (Víctor Castaño, Uruguay, July 24, condiglist yg via DXLD) Moisés y muchachos, la UNID de 1140 kHz es Radio Guaraní y transmite programación para la paraguayidad local. Justamente es cada vez más habitual la aparición de estaciones de radio destinadas a las tres más grandes colectividades que habitan en la Argentina: bolivianos, paraguayos y peruanos. No se dan idea de cuántas estaciones han aparecido, especialmente de las dos primeras colectividades. Saludos (Arnaldo Slaen, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. 11775, QSL FURUSATO NO KAZE; & NIPPON NO KAZE, 11690 via CVC, Darwin. Partial-data e-QSL in 3 days for a report to Included is their postal address: Policy Planning Division, Headquarters for the Abduction Issue, Cabinet Secretariat, Gov. of Japan, 1-6-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Also, usual antenna & transmitter site cards, indicating languages (Japanese for Furusato and Korean for Nippon) but not program names, in 24 days for reports to: CVC International Relay Station, P. O. Box 6361, Maroochydore, QLD 4558, Australia (Wendel Craighead, KS, DXplorer July 16 via BC-DX July 24 via DXLD) New TCI antenna to erect at Kununurra; former Croatian radio antenna. HCJB Australien Updates. Hallo allerseits! Fuer alle, die es interessiert und es noch nicht wissen: HCJB Australien hat jetzt eine eigene Website. http://www.hcjb.org.au Die "HCJB-Australier" machen sich mehr und mehr selbststaendig und wachsen, so wies aussieht. Auf der Page ist auch ein Link zu ein paar Bildern vom Aufbau der neuen Vorhangantenne gepostet: Oder auch direkt ueber die Homepage: Wenn ich richtig informiert bin, stammt die TCI-Antenne aus Kroatien, wo sie zwar eingekauft, aber nie aufgebaut wurde. Aktuell sind einige Antenneningenieure aus Elkhart und Pifo in Kununurra eingetroffen und helfen beim Aufbau der neuen Antenne (bzw sie bauen sie auf und die anderen helfen *g*). Die beiden Tuerme sind knapp 100m hoch. Na, immerhin gibt's auch mal gute Nachrichten aus der Kurzwelle. Hier wird aufgebaut. (Stephan Schaa-D, A-DX July 21) Die TCI Antenne (neben den Thomson Antennen aus Mannheim) die beste Qualitaet worldwide, wurde noch unter Tudjman aus Spendengeldern der Nationalisten in NoAM angeliefert. Wurde in Deanovec nie aufgebaut und lagerte danach jedoch jahrelang in Zagreb und wurde auch bei Religionssender Meetings wie Sauerbier angeboten. So circa 1996 ging dann CR nach Juelich und Wertachtal zur Telekom und sendet heute noch dort. Jetzt hat HCJB das Schnaeppchen an Land gezogen. Fuer einen NoAm Dienst duerfte die Antenne fuer 5 bis 12 MHz ausgelegt sein. Siehe unten. (wb, July 21) History from dxld 2004: *Croatian Radio has a TCI 611 curtain antenna for sale, 5.9-12.1 MHz, at 100 kW, 5 slews with accessories, original price $300K, delivered in 1995; was to serve North America but never installed. Also at the HFCC Conference, Croatian Radio announced that it has a TCI model 611 dipole curtain antenna for sale. The design frequency is 8.75 MHz, although it operates 5.9-12.1 MHz. The power capability is 100 kW. There are five slew positions. The antenna is complete with guyed masts, air-traffic lighting, remote control unit and all documentation. It is stored in Zagreb, Croatia, where it was originally delivered in 1995. The original price was US$ 300,000. For further information, please contact Ms. Marica Risek, Croatian Information Centre, Meduliceva 13, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia. Telephone +385-1-4846121. Fax +385-1-4848634. E-mail: History: CROATIA TCI 611 antenna for sale: According an article published then by the meanwhile extinct German "Radiohoeren" magazine mentioned that this antenna was purchased to serve North America but not installed yet. So obviously it never was. If I recall the article properly, they then used for transmissions to North America a rhombic, usually on 73something. Otherwise Deanovec was described as being equipped with two non-directional antennas (double cones I think), one capable for 100 kW, the other one for 10 kW only, and these should be the antennas still in use at Deanovec, with the corresponding power levels; all frequencies are coordinated for 100 kW but in practice the second one can be run at 10 kW only. (Kai Ludwig-D, dxld March 15, 2004) (all via BC-DX July 24, 2008 via DXLD) ** BIAFRA [non]. 15280, USA, WHRI, Voice of Biafra International, Cypress Creek. July 25. English, 2002 OM VOBI aperture announcements, music which seems to be an anthem, 2005 OM "VOBI broadcast coming to you from Washington D.C....", African choir music, 2007 OM talks "...Nigeria... human rights abuse... everyone knows... blood...", "...but Nigeria, Yes arrogance!", 2019 OM talks maybe in dialect, 2022 African hi life music till 2025. Started with 33433 but QRM underneath from 2008 resulted 32433. Very interesting book about Biafra is Frederik Forsyth's ``The Biafra Story: The Making Of An Afrikan Legend``, with their history, the conflict, and a Biafran point of view (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4699.4, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta, 2204-2218, 25-07, canciones, locutor, comentarios, español. A las 2211: "A partir de este momento comenzamos este servicio público", comunicados a oyentes, avisos para varios oyentes de Río Madre de Dios. 25322. 5952.5, Radio Pio XII, Siglo XX, 2212-2232, 18-07, locutor, español, comentario sobre proyecto para construir una carretera para unir el Atlántico y el Pacífico a través de Perú, Bolivia, Brasil, Paraguay y Argentina. Identificación, locutora: "Radio Pio XII". 24322. También 2212-2250, 22-07, música boliviana, anuncios comerciales, locutor, español: "Seis de la tarde con cuarenta y dos minutos", locutora, quechua, locutor, comentarios deportivos en español. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escuchas realizadas en Camping de Reinante, costa del mar Cantábrico, provincia de Lugo; Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 5990, R Senado, Brasília, DF heard in Japan at 1008-1025, Jul 04, conversation in Portuguese, a song with trumpet, 44444. The reception was generally well with weak side QRM by R Australia on 5995 (Nobuya Kato, Fujisawa-city, Kanagawa, Japan, DSWCI DX Window July 9 via DXLD) BRASIL, 5990, Rádio Senado, Brasília, 2154-2201, 16-07, locutor, portugués, comentarios, identificación, locutora: "Rádio Senado..., 91.7 MHz, onda curta 5990 kHz, faixa de 49 metros, Rádio Senado, informação, cultura,..., http://www.senado.gov.br/radio ". A las 2200 "A Voz do Brasil, sete da noite em Brasília". 34333. También 2120-2201, 17-07, portugués, locutor, noticias del senado brasileño, a las 2130 canciones brasileñas. A las 2159 identificación y frecuencias y a las 2200 programa "A Voz do Brasil". A las 2201 se cortó repentinamente. 45444. También 2053-2200, 21-07, locutor, comentarios, canciones brasileñas. A las 2101 y 2159 identificación, y anuncio del próximo programa "A Voz do Brasil". A los pocos segundos de iniciarse "A Voz do Brasil" se cortó la transmisión. 45444. También 2059-2235, 2207, hoy con transmisión a las 2200 de "A Voz do Brasil", sin cortes. 45444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escuchas realizadas en Camping de Reinante, costa del mar Cantábrico, provincia de Lugo; Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. RADIO VOZ MISSIONÁRIA-FLORIANÓPOLIS-SC-BRASIL, NOVAS FREQUÊNCIAS --- Hi Glenn, Sobre o seu ultimo boletim DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-084, July 23, 2008, estive acompanhando que as freqüências da radio Voz Missionária estão ainda causando um pouco de confusão. Em 02/07 telefonei para a emissora, conversei com o coordenador da emissora, Sr. Luis Carlos, depois enviei uma mensagem a nossa lista esclarecendo um pouco. http://br.groups.yahoo.com/group/dxclube/message/3278 Um abraço (Marcelo Bedene, DX Clube do Paraná, July 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: A Rádio Voz Missionária, Florianópolis, SC - Brasil, ligada ao sistema Gideões Missionários da Ultima Hora http://www.gmuh.com.br estão com as seguintes freqüências nas ondas curtas cujo transmissores encontra-se na cidade de Florianópolis-SC 49m - 5870 Khz - 10 Kw 31m - 9665 Khz - 10 Kw 25m 11750 Khz - 1 Kw As Informações foram fornecidas pelo telefone 47-3261-3222, sr Luis Carlos, coordenador da emissora. Endereço de correspondencia: programavozmissionaria @ hotmail.com Cx. Postal 2004 Rua Joaquim Nunes, 244 Centro - Camboriú, SC, Brasil CEP: 88340-000 Telefone: (047) 3261-3232 OBS: Apesar de que na sua página na internet ainda consta como Marumby http://www.gmuh.com.br/radio/sintonia.htm mas o nome e a identificação da emissora correta é Radio Voz Missionária. Breve eles estarão fazendo a correção em suas paginas da internet (Marcelo Vilela Bedene, DX Clube do Paraná, http://www.dxclube.com.br ibid.) ** BRAZIL. Brasil: (Presumed) R. Missionária, Florianópolis, 5870 at 0245z. Severe QRM from 5875 [WHRI]. Male preaching, female vocalist (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, July 26, Drake R8B with sloper & T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Date? UT July 26 or earlier. I could also detect a carrier again around 0200 July 27, but too much 5875 for any audio (gh, OK, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 6105, Rádio Cultura Filadélfia, Foz do Iguaçu, PR is off air. 6105, Rádio Canção Nova, Cachoeira Paulista, SP, reported at 2101-2108, July 26, Portuguese, Many identifications and station announcements: "..a Cancao Nova....", 23432. Heard because R. Cultura Filadélfia is off air (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CHWO changes its spots --- As of July 22, 2008, CHWO has changed its call-sign to CFZM. MZ Media Inc bought the station last year and after CRTC approval, they have decided to change the station`s call-sign to CFZM. Their sister station on FM is Classical 96.3, CFMZ. CHWO started broadcasting on November 17, 1956 on 1250 kHz, They switched to 740 kHz on January 8, 2001 and during those 51 plus years, they never changed format, always specializing in an 'Adult Standards' formula that included music from the 1920's and right up until today. Although the new owners will be keeping the same basic format, there are many changes starting on August 11th including a new phone-in talk show, more Old Time Radio shows and much more. Luckily, most of the staff were kept on at the new station. As of August 1st, 2008, all reports to CFZM (CHWO) will receive the new QSL card that we are in the process of preparing. They will be ready for mailing out by the beginning of September. All reports to July 31st, 2008 will receive a CHWO QSL. All details for our QSL cards can be found at http://www.odxa.on.ca/chwo/reports.html This site will be updated in the next few days. We will also continue to provide QSL cards for CJYE and CJMR. Thank you to everyone who has provided reception reports to CHWO these many years and we look forward to many more at 'The New AM740' CFZM (Brian Smith, am740 @ rogers.com QSL Manager for CHWO, CJYE & CJMR More info at: http://www.odxa.on.ca/chwo/ NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CANADA. CJWV-107.9 (Winnipeg) revoked http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2008/db2008-146.htm Some time ago, the station was found in violation of several regulations. They were issued six specific orders to ensure future compliance. Upon rehearing they were found to have violated the first two orders, and as a result it was impossible to determine if they'd complied with the other four. So the licence was revoked. Which probably doesn't make any short term difference as the station is apparently currently off the air (indeed, two low-powered and presumably temporary stations are currently authorized on 107.7, a frequency that would not be possible if CJWV were still operating). However, it will of course prevent the station from returning - and will make the 107.9 frequency potentially available for another applicant. -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, July 24, WTFDA via DXLD) I wish the FCC had the nuts to do this to all of the AM Cheaters in the USA (Kevin in Upstate South Carolina ``possumhunter``, ABDX via DXLD) Not keeping to format was an issue; see CRTC file (gh) ** CANADA. Sept 8 Federal By-Elections - Radio Angle --- This morning by-elections were called in 3 constituencies, for September 8. Not normally a subject for a radio forum. However in two of the ridings, Guelph (Ontario) and Westmount-Ville Marie (Québec) the NDP is running a couple of CBC radio folks. Tom King who for many years was the somewhat exasperated star of the Dead Dog Cafe, which began as a Morningside segment and later evolved into its own stand alone show, is running in Guelph. Personally I think Parliament would be a lot more interesting with Dead Dog Cafe regulars Jasper Friendly Bear or Gracie Heavy Hand taking a seat in the House of Commons. Maybe in the General Election. Anne Legace-Dowson, a "CBC Radio Journalist" is running in Westmount- Ville Marie against former astronaut Marc Garneau. No guarantees either will win, but King is an interesting candidate (Fred Waterer, Ont., July 25, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC BRITISH COLUMBIA OFFERING ONLINE NEWS IN CHINESE by Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 CBC British Columbia is hoping to widen its customer base through a new website that provides the latest news in the Chinese language. The website, http://www.cbc.ca/bc/chinesenews was launched Tuesday night in association with Radio Canada International and will provide CBC's local, national and international news in simplified and traditional Chinese characters. The site features the CBC's top news stories with content updated several times daily. The translation of the news is done by journalists at RCI. "We've really remade our local news offering in Vancouver in the past year and we want to have as many people as possible see it," said CBC news director Liz Hughes. "We have a real tradition of investigative reporting and journalism that people won't see somewhere else and we'd like to spread that around." According to Statistics Canada's 2006 census, B.C.'s visible minority population grew 21 per cent between 2001 and 2006 and represents 25 per cent of the province's population of more than four million. B.C.'s Chinese communities make up 40 per cent of this group. Solutions Research Group data indicates that Canada's Chinese population has the highest online usage in the country. "We are always looking for ways to serve the rich diversity of British Columbia, not only in the content of our news but also in the way we deliver it," regional director for CBC British Columbia Johnny Michel said in a news release. RCI has broadcast around the world since 1945. (via Dan Say, BC, alt.radio.networks.cbc July 24 via DXLD) "Chinese Born Canadian," or "Canadian Born Chinese" in a similar form to the U.S. "ABC" http://www.cbc.ca/bc/chinesenews where the overworked and underpaid Radio Canada International staff have to act as language-tools and sight-translate daily newspapers for their half-hour broadcasts. RCI is being destroyed like the rest of the CBC, in a new format called RCI Viva which is directed to a domestic (immigrant) audience who don't care, don't use the internet to listen to radio, and would prefer 3 to 4 hours of BBC Chinese World Service programming and the like. So triple RCI budget, get more transmitter times, and expand the programming with guaranteed 5 year funding. Did Mr. Hubert Lacroix ever listen to any of RCI in his world travels? Despite this new CBC encouragement of non-European languages (RCI used to be one of the better Ukrainian, Japanese, Spanish and Brazilian-Portuguese broadcasters), CBC still mucks up news from Asia, as the other day when they tried to rewrite wire copy about the HK stars Tony Leung and Carina Lau wedding in Bhutan. See comments to the hashed story http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2008/07/22/bhutan-wedding.html The CBC Vancouver-Hothouse regional director Johnny Michel used to head Channel M, a multilingual (mainly Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), some Punjabi, little German, Japanese, Hindi) on upper channel. It was bought out earlier this year by Rogers. Channel M pays its journalists poorly and they have to be language tools and shoot for all the other languages which are then dubbed in. Follows the Beijing line. Before that he worked for Global TV, the powerhouse in the Vancouver area. This may be another token effort in the myCBC phase, though they cancelled ZeD after neck-snapping format changes every season, dropped Radio3 ideas as a power network and have ruined the web pages of SRC and CBC while ghettoizing the four regional centres in BC and walling them off from each other -- you can't see them through a window in the "Vancouver house" You would never know that that is a Prince George office, Nelson, Victoria, Kelowna studios. The Surrey satellite office seems to provide the only notice of the South Asian community. The real miracle is what the SRC section can produce with few resources (Dan Say`s own comments? ibid.) ** CANADA. http://www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion/index.html?copy-index http://www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion/2008/07/faq.html ------------ FAQ Posted by Age of Persuasion on July 24 at 05:54 PM Burning questions? Check out the updated FAQ. ------------ Frequently Asked Questions: Q. Will The Age of Persuasion return to Radio One this fall? Alas, no, The Age of Persuasion is not part of the Radio One '08 Fall Schedule. Plans are afoot to produce a new crop of shows, though: watch this space. Q. Will there be an Age of Persuasion book? A. Terry and Mike are currently working on a book based on the Age of Persuasion series, for Knopf Canada. Publication is scheduled for some time in '09. Stay tuned. Q. Will you be streaming more shows from your past season? A. Yes, watch this site: we will be posting programs from our '07 season for streaming: some of them not heard since they first aired. Q. I want to use The Age of Persuasion in my Media class. Are there plans for an AOP curriculum? A. We love, love, love hearing from teachers. And yes, we`re looking into curriculum possibilities for The Age of Persuasion. For the moment, though, the book is our priority. For two career radio guys, learning-to-spell is the big hurdle. Q. Technical question: how come the episode streaming cuts out, or stops completely? A. Okay, welcome to the depths of our ignorance. Our friends at CBC are good enough to handle website matters for us, and offer this: It's possible some will have trouble because they don't have the most recent version of Flash installed. You can find out which version of Flash you have by visiting this page: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_15507 If you don't have the most recent version, it'll probably tell you to download it. http://www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion/index.html?copy-faq (via Dan Say, BC, July 25, alt.radio.networks.cbc via DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. CBYT-3 Ch 2 at 1950 [EDT?] --- I have a CBC station giving times for Newfoundland and Labrador. Must be CBYT-3 as per Bill H's website. WFSB hit up bad, some CCI on Boston 4. Antenna aimed at 40 degrees (Mike B., Enfield, CT, July 26, WTFDA via DXLD) Maybe, not sure what you mean by ``giving times``, but I just point out that at least on CBC Radio, network program promos nationwide always have to add times half an hour later in Newfoundland and Labrador [not really, it`s just their funny clox on the rock, and part of the mainland]. That doesn`t mean you are really hearing a station from NL. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) That's true; the only local programming on CBC-TV that might give actual local times is the local news and the odd promo for the local news. Otherwise it's 100% network fed out of Toronto with 5 different time zone shifted feeds and the mention of 1/2 hour later in NL. wrh (Bill Hepburn, Ont., ibid.) Got it. I did hear the announcer say CBC Television followed by the mentions of Labrador. I realize now that what I heard doesn't mean much. But the skip was coming from that direction and if I read your website correctly, then there are only three stations on ch2 up there. Two are CBCs in Nova Scotia and one is CBYT-3 and your note says "CBYT-3 relays CBC Newfoundland & Labrador." It could be I'm adding one plus one and ending up with three. Quite possible since I have been doing that a lot lately. I should probably just stick to FM (Mike Bugaj, ibid.) It seems to me that most CBC, CTV, and Global relayers are more difficult to ID than Mexico network relayers. At least *some* of the Mexicans put up tiny, hard-to-read text IDs for a few seconds at thirty minute intervals (rarely on the hour and half-hour, however). Sticking to FM is not the answer. The answer is probably to realize that some TV stations will never be IDed, no matter how strong and long-lived the signals might be (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, ibid.) Yes siree... At least Global now ID's with city or region, example CKND = "Global Winnipeg". CIII is the one exception, for some reason just plain 'old "Global". Most Canadian DTV's *do* use their call signs in the PSIP - CBC, CTV & Global included! So don't give up, Danny. The exceptions here in Toronto are CITS-DT, CFMT-DT & CJMT-DT which use slogans for the PSIP - but at least CFMT & CJMT still show their calls on the old-fashioned video ID. (Bill Hepburn, Ont, ibid.) Thanks, Bill. I'm looking forward to IDing at least a few more Canadian TV stations when my local ATVs on channels 3 and 6 go off next year. My most-frequently IDed Canadian TVs are CKPR-2 and CHFD-4 Thunder Bay, with their "Tb" IDs and local ads (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, ibid.) ** CHAD. 4905, R. Dif. Nat. Tchadienne (tentative), Ndjamena. July 25, French, 2035-2051. OM talks, 2043 short African music, OM talks, 2045 two male talks. Some signal enhancement at 2042 but declining from 2047 when started a battle against Brasil, 22332 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) TCHAD, 4905, Radio Nationale Tchadienne, N'Djamena, 0549-0630, 25-07, francés, locutor, comentario sobre participación de los deportistas de Tchad en las Olimpiadas de Pekín, canciones. 45444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escuchas realizadas en Camping de Reinante, costa del mar Cantábrico, provincia de Lugo; Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So back on 4905 ex-7120 both morning and evening; still on 7120 in between? Still blocking Hargeisa? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CHINA. Guangxi BCS, Nanning, 5055 at 1105z July 23, // 9820 with conversational voices and jingles (Jerry Lenamon, Waco Tx, Drake R8B & Grundig Sat 800, T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 6185, Chian [sic] Huayi Broadcasting Corp., 1106- 1120 July 24. Noted a male in Chinese/Amoy language comments. This station, according to Aoki is located at Chengdu, China. The news lasted until 1110 when bridge music noted with more comments. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, NRD545, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ! There are a lot of problems with listings of this. Aoki does say `Chian` but that`s supposed to read `China` ---, and does put it in Chengdu along with coördinates for that city. WRTH has it in Fuzhou, which is on the coast nowhere near Chengdu in the southwest, and Fuzhou is where I always thought it was, especially since it broadcasts in Amoy. WRTH frequency list under China shows this 6185 as station 15) in Fuzhou, but in the following pages I can`t find any station 15) without a provincial prefix [but see below]. And under Fujian province there are only 8 stations listed, not including this one. This is not made any easier by the lack of station names in the referred numerical listings. PWBR also has it definitely in Fuzhou. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) That`s not the only problem --- Hi Chuck, Might I respectfully suggest you actually heard Singapore and not CHBC on 6185. Believe it would be extremely unlikely for you to hear CHBC in Florida with a fair signal (and no Singapore QRM?). As you correctly observed, today Singapore [q.v.] was coming in well for you. Even from the East coast of China I recently was unable to hear anything under Singapore on 6185. RSI is just too much of a powerhouse. CHBC is now regularly well heard on 4830, which for me is a clear frequency here in California. Regarding the location of CHBC: Believe we can safely say it's in Fuzhou. All the information at the following websites indicate the following address (including the CHBC QSL): CHBC P. O. Box 251 Fuzhou, Fujian 350001 < http://2883752.blog.163.com/blog/static/30157479200762051511619/ > < http://zuji.51.net/bcl/ > Hope this helps. Best regards, (Ron Howard, CA, ibid.) - - - - - - Ron wrote in DXLD 7-127: SINGAPORE. 6185, RSI, 1115-1315, Oct 20, 2007 programming in Chinese, IDs "RSI", often mentions RSI website, several "Singapore" jingles. Good reception. Scheduled for 1100-1400. I occasional see postings for China Huayi Broadcast Co. here during this same time period, but I wonder how CHBC's 15 KW could compete with RSI's 250 KW. Not a trace of them today... (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-127 via 8-085) Correct that to read: Singapore, 6185, Radio Singapore International vice China Huayi Broadcasting Corp, 1106-1120. . . So China 6185 China Huayi Broadcasting Corp was NOT heard. Thank you (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, ibid.) 4830, weak talk in Chinese, presumably China Huayi Broadcasting Corp., Fuzhou, July 26 at 1219 as about to outfade. Meanwhile, Singapore [q.v] in Chinese owns 6185, making one wonder if CHBC has given up on using 6185 at all, as seems prudent. Maybe in August when RSI has closed down, we can detect whether CHBC exist on 6185. BTW, Mauno Ritola points out that CHBC, station 15) in WRTH 2008, does appear under the heading ``Broadcasts to Taiwan`` on page 147 (in the domestic sexion), along with stations 11) to 14). So WRTH concedes that Taiwan is part of China, by not putting this in the International sexion? Not exactly: ROC still gets its own separate listings under TAIWAN in the domestic sexion --- but Taiwan`s RTI and V. of Kuanghua broadcasts to the mainland are in the international sexion, so Taiwan must not be part of China? Covering all the bases trumps consistency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 19/7 0900-0930: 11965 FIREDRAKE > VOA Mandarino 11825 FIREDRAKE > VOA Mandarino 11665 FIREDRAKE > RTI Mandarino 11635 FIREDRAKE > RTI Mandarino 11520 FIREDRAKE > RTI Mandarino - 1500-1530: 12025 FIREDRAKE > RFA Mandarino 12005 FIREDRAKE > RFA Mandarino 11795 FIREDRAKE > RFA Tibetano 11780 FIREDRAKE > ? 11665 FIREDRAKE > RTI Mandarino 11585 FIREDRAKE > RFA Tibetano 11550 FIREDRAKE > RTI Mandarino 11540 FIREDRAKE > RFA Mandarino CNR 1 non è più usata come jamming? Comunque tutti i firedrake ora sono perfettamente in // e sincronizzati (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Italia, playdxyg via DXLD) Bandscanning for Firedrake, July 24 at 1257, found it not on 8000 as a few days ago but instead on 8020, good signal // 7280, 11665, etc. At 1300 went to open carrier, during which no trace of Sound of Hope could be heard here, 1305:30 resumed FD, but gone at 1323 recheck. Firedrake again on 8020, July 25 at 1217 presumably against Sound of Hope, but not heard anywhere around 8 MHz on July 26. 9180 Firedrake was also active July 25 at 1226, stronger than 8020, and // 9680 9780 9845 11605 11665 11710 11775 11785 11825 11840 12040 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 5955, July 24 at 1237, M&W interview in English, not // RA 6020, and didn`t think to check CRI frequencies for //, but per Aoki: 5955 CRI 1200-1257 1234567 English 500 95 Beijing 11627E 3957N a08 But that also lists from a slightly different Beijing site: 5955 CNR 8 1200-1300 1234567 Mongolian 100 15 Beijing 11625E 3955N a08 Which seems extremely unlikely, that both would be operational; I did have some co-channel QRM, tho 5950 WYFR was more of a problem. CRI`s Esperanto service coming in well on 11650, July 24 at 1328, talking about, what else, La Pekinaj Olimpikoj, real Chinese clips with voice-overs in Mandarin-accented Esperanto, k.t.p. Per Aoki, at 13-14 UT this is Beijing site at 215 degrees. That`s close to directly off the back from CNAm, which would be 35 degrees. Per EiBi, the // frequency is 9440 from another site, unchecked. I noticed that there was less flutter-fading on 11650 than there was on Firedrake 11665. BTW, penultimate stress is mandatory in Esperanto, but it sounded like ``Olímpikoj``, something which those influenced by natural languages must always beware of (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 3020, RADIO NEVADA. Murillo, Tolima. 2255-2312 Julio 26. (Armónico 1510 x 2). Mucho tiempo tras la plena identificación de esta emisora no autorizada que transmite desde la zona central del departamento del Tolima. Su señal ya había sido reportada años atrás por el fallecido colega Björn Malm en incluso en su página de audios que aún es preservada, hay una grabación de esta emisora. Presentando siempre música popular colombiana. "...están escuchando Radio Nevada, 1510 AM, estación de interés público, desde Murillo, la perla del Tolima... Radio Nevada, la estación radial que siempre te acompaña..." Anuncios de Cafetería El Comercio, Restaurante Central y Funerales La Aurora. "...los éxitos de la música popular aquí en Radio Nevada..." (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogota D.C. - COLOMBIA, PC Winradio G303I, JRC NRD 525, Sony ICF 2010, Antenas hilos de varios longitudes, July 27, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 5910, Marfil Estereo, Lomalinda, 0608-0617, 16-07, canciones latinoamericanas, identificación por locutor: "Sintonízate con las ondas de la paz, Marfil Estéreo". 35433. 6009.9, La Voz de tu Conciencia, Lomalinda, 0614-0720, 17-07, locutor, locutora, canciones religiosas en español. Por detrás se escucha, muy débil hoy, Radio Mil. . 23322. También 0620-0714, 25-07, locutor, locutora, comentario religioso. Interferencia de BBC WS hasta las 0706 que cierra la emisora inglesa. 23222. 6035, La Voz del Guaviare, San José del Guaviare, 2234-2255, 18-07, locutor presentado canciones colombianas: "Está presentando Alberto Rojo", "Las mejores noches de la salsa", "Esto es el rincón de la salsa". 23322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escuchas realizadas en Camping de Reinante, costa del mar Cantábrico, provincia de Lugo; Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. REE Cariari de Pococí relay station measured on 11814 this local morning, 1510 UT. Just audible altho is some 75 miles NE of San José. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, July 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, it`s always off-channel; noted het with Japan two hours earlier (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. I noticed some anomalies in RHC`s frequency usage the morning of July 26, Cuba`s national holiday, but did not bother to log them; there are anomalies just about every day. I thought there might be extended broadcasts for the festivities but none of the usuals on 9, 11, 13 or 15 MHz were on when checked around 1530; maybe later. As they don`t say openly in Habana, ``Patria o suerte, ¡pensaremos!``. The Alo, Presidente frequencies 11670, 11875 were again active Sunday July 27 at a quick 1430 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Radio y TV Martí, nido de fraudes??? • El informe de la Oficina de Investigaciones del Congreso (GAO) sobre la reiterada conducta fraudulenta en contratos de la llamada Radio y TV Martí, es una verdadera oportunidad para hacer funcionar al recién creado Panel de Etica aprobado por el pleno de la Cámara de Representantes de EE.UU. POR GABRIEL MOLINA La General Accountability Office (GAO), una dependencia del Congreso de Estados Unidos, lanzó más fango sobre la llamada Radio y TV Martí, al acusarla el 15 de julio de adjudicar contratos por valor superior al millón de dólares a las emisoras de Miami Radio Mambí y Radio Azteca, "sin seguir los procedimientos normales de licitación". El diario The Miami Herald dio a conocer un informe de 30 páginas de la GAO, en el que se establece cómo la Oficina de Transmisiones Internacionales (IBB) no siguió las normas federales de adjudicación de contratos al autorizar esos acuerdos por un valor total de 1 069 451 dólares a WAQI Radio Mambí 710 AM y TV Azteca. El informe es el primero de varios de la GAO sobre las operaciones de Radio Martí, emisora que actúa bajo la dirección de una delegación de la Oficina de Transmisiones, con sede en Miami, creada en 1985 por el entonces presidente Ronald Reagan para desestabilizar al Gobierno de Cuba. . . http://www.granma.cu/espanol/2008/julio/mier23/30nido.html (via José Miguel Romero2, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) Dentro-Cubans gleefully welcome more news of scandals at Martí (gh) Re 8-085, FCC OKing TV Martí on channel 13 another year: I wonder what ramifications there are for potentially transmitting from within (or above) the US via analog TV 13 after February, 2009 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 4909.1, RADIO CHASKIS DEL NORTE. Otavalo. 0230-0250 julio 26. Presentando música bella, música folclórica ecuatoriana y presentación bilingüe quechua-español. "...somos Chaskis del Norte en los 4910 kHz onda corta y 950 AM..." además de la mención del los teléfonos y el correo en Hotmail, dan nueva dirección para contactos postales en: Calle Bolívar 805 y Juan Montalvo, Otavalo, Provincia de Imbabura (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogota D.C. - COLOMBIA, PC Winradio G303I, JRC NRD 525, Sony ICF 2010, Antenas hilos de varios longitudes, July 27, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** ERITREA/ETHIOPIA. Tried to monitor all ERI/ETH frequencies systematically in the afternoon; the following is somewhat a condensed report giving an image of the situation in the last one or two weeks in the period between 1600 and 1800: R. Ethiopia: In addition to the usual frequencies 7115 has been observed on several days roughly between 1630 and 1730 in addition to // 5990/7110, but presumably about 1 second delayed. Noise Jammer: There are up to two noise jammers mainly switching channel by channel between 7100 and 7120, but also occasionally on 7175, 7220 or 8000. VoBME 1: 7100 on air, but very irregular, and no channel figured out which is regularly replacing this one. Observing the pattern of jamming + R. Ethiopia bc, it's likely that also ERI is also around there. VoBME 2: 7175 on air, but very irregular, but often 7220 is on with most certainly news in Arabic + FM freq. announcements at 1700. When last heard 7175 ERI until 1700, 7220 came up a few minutes after. So probably 7220 is the standard alternative freq. to 7175 if jammed there. UNID 8000: This one, presumed the same as reported as unid or ERI at 0400-0559 also, is on air regularly 1500/1600-1700* and occasionally *1710-1730*. No ID, IS or anything like that, afternoons likely not // to any of the others. Also no more observations of presumed ERI 7999.4. Presumed R. Oromia 6030: monitored once with instrumental IS-type music at 1557, than into "typical HOA style" programming until at least 1630. VOTR: usually strong on 5950 and irregularly // weak 6170 R. Fana: 6110 often audible, but 7210 hardly. R. Bana: 5100 audible, but usually very weak until 1800, but no jamming observed. 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, July 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. The Ethiopian government under the leadership of Ato Meles Zenawi follows a different approach towards ‘freedom of the press’. The Ethiopian government believes the news should be regulated and filtered before it reaches the consumer. Since coming to power the government has enacted various laws and regulations to control the flow of information. It allows a few so-called media outlets as long as they agree to submit to strict guidelines and accept the authority of party cadres to have the final say. Working outside these parameters brings out swift and harsh punishment. Thus in today’s Ethiopia the news business is the sole property of the one party state. There are no independent Television stations. There are no independent radio stations. There are no independent Internet service providers. There are no independent phone companies. The very few independent newspapers and periodicals operate under the constant strain of immanent closure or jail for perceived digressions. The Ethiopian government very well knows knowledge is power. It is willing to trade the curse of famines and poverty rather than having a well-informed and conscious citizen. The government spends millions on technology to jam short wave radio broadcasts from the US and Germany. It invests large amounts of money to block Ethiopian web sites based outside the country. The regime wastes taxpayer’s money on eavesdropping on telephone conversation of its citizens (from http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/2950 via Bob Wilkner, FL, DXLD) ** EUROPE. Per Dutch Pirate station Radio Lowland, there will be a special "Short Wave Combination Holland" broadcast on air on August 1, [Friday] on 6310 kHz, with power of 400 Watts. Broadcast will start 0700 UT, and run to at least 2400, possibly a little bit later, as I asked the op if he/they could stay on a little bit later for possible better chance for reception in North America, and he replied it is possible. Not sure if more than one station will be involved; the name of the broadcast seems to indicate possibly so. Good chance for DX'ers in eastern N. America who have never logged a European pirate, or for those who have to hear a new one. This info first came from the alfalima website (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, U.S.A., July 23, HCDX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Obamania in Berlin --- The Barack Obama speech at 1700 UT will be broadcast by the main programs of both public TV systems in Germany, Das Erste (ARD) and ZDF: http://www.daserste.de/doku/beitrag_dyn~uid,wezf85owkehy6kbq~cm.asp http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/6/0,1872,1404038_idDispatch:7880308,00.html No doubt also a number of ARD radio stations will broadcast it in full. Deutschlandradio choose to carry the full coverage as opt-out on 153/177/990 plus satellite and webstream only: http://www.dradio.de/wir/dokumente/598458/ But most interesting: Reportedly a German translation of the speech will be broadcast in Berlin on 88.4: http://forum.mysnip.de/read.php?8773,606031 Quite remarkable, since neither a coordination of this 88.4 frequency nor an authorization of such a special station appeared in the public domain. The discussion reads as if Deutschlandradio is behind this transmission, but this remains somewhat unclear (Kai Ludwig, Germany, July 24, in advance, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. SCENES OF BROADCASTING HOUSE, BERLIN CIRCA 1942 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGvRejBm6Ps This is a video clip from a German documentary of some sort. The first scenes show the Haus des Rundfunks (presumably in Berlin) or Broadcasting House and lots of broadcasting equipment, circa 1942. About 1:30 in, you see an example of why Germany won gold in the Synchronized Swaying competition at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. :-) Wunschkonzert roughly translates as Request Concert --- music requests for the soldiers at the front (Fred Waterer, Ont., ODXA yg via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Radio Gloria International this Sunday Date 27th of July 2008 Time 1200 to 1300 UT Channel 6140 kHz The transmissions of Radio Gloria will be broadcast over the transmitting station Wertachtal in Germany. The transmitter power will be 100 000 Watts, and we will be using a non-directional antenna system (Quadrant antenna). Good listening, 73s (Tom Taylor, DX LISTENING DIGEST, in advance on the dxldyg) ** GERMANY. Transmitter hunt at Schweinfurt --- On June 30 I wrote about AFN Bavaria on 1143: > Some observers insist that no mediumwave transmitter is on air at Schweinfurt anymore and this garrison is now served by the Würzburg mediumwave outlet, 30 km away, something on which I commented that if so Würzburg must run more than 300 watts now. I was already considering a trip to Schweinfurt to check it out by myself, but somebody else spared me the hassle. Here is the travellog of his hunt for the Schweinfurt transmitter: http://forum.mysnip.de/read.php?8773,599785,606821,sv=1#msg-606821 He notes that the signal became audible when coming closer than 10 km and was of a quality acceptable for casual listeners within 3 km from the later nailed down transmitter site. Downtown Schweinfurt the signal was noticeably poorer than in the western part of the town, suggesting that the transmitter is located around Ledward Barracks. At Franz-Schubert-Straße, where the AFN TV transmitter is located, 8 of the 14 level bars on an ATS 909 were lit. At Heeresstraße, with a distance of about 400 metres left, the signal had increased to 12 of 14 bars. Finally he arrived on the parking lot Am Volksfestplatz, next to Ledward Barracks, and now the signal bar was fully lit, leaving no any doubts. No mediumwave antenna could be spotted, also not when using the opportunity to perk inside the stadium accross the street, so presumably the transmitter uses some rather simple antenna. The reporter also notes that 1143 was in the past a solid signal around Schweinfurt, but not so anymore since 1992 or 1993. He speculates that at this point a more sophisticated mediumwave installation had been replaced by a makeshift solution still in use. Somebody with more experience on low powered mediumwave transmitters can perhaps give a good guess for the power, but certainly it is considerably lower than the official (and probably until 15 years ago correct) figure of 300 watts. For reference: http://maps.google.de/?ie=UTF8&ll=50.048542,10.207887&spn=0.020089,0.037594&t=h&z=15 Meanwhile local newspaper reports indicate that AFN plans to move the FM equipment from Würzburg to Schweinfurt. WTFK? A few days ago a frequency coordination for 87.7 with an ERP of 100 watts at Schweinfurt appeared in public Bundesnetzagentur data (Kai Ludwig, Germany, July 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA [and non]. XERTA and TGMI are still clashing on 4800; must be the source of the het of two or three hundred Hz one hears at 1207 July 25, which combined with CODAR makes them both totally unreadable. BTW, WRTH 2008 shows sked of R. Buenas Nuevas as 1930-1545 and 2130-0230, which makes no sense; must mean 0930-1545. Same het around 0200 July 27 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. 7125, R. Conakry, Conakry-Sofon. July 26, French/Dialects (scheduled), 0916-0935 voice and percussion African music selections with long intervals of silent between these mx, OM talks at 0935. Carrier sign off at 0926 and 0927 for some seconds, low audio level 24433 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HUNGARY. Hungary is on the way to digitalize radio and television broadcasts. The Hungarian News-Distribution Authority officially informed on Friday, July 25, 2008 that in about 6 months time from now, digital radio and television broadcasts will be introduced. The tender was won by so called Antenna Hungaria Ltd company. (By the way, we visited Antenna Hungaria Ltd. in connection with our EDXC Conference 2001, on Monday, August 27, 2001). The digital distribution will take place alongside the earth surface and reception for radio and television will be obtained by simple roof -- antennas. Hungary is planning a smooth transfer into the digital age for the entire country. The last analogue distribution system will be switched off first in the year 2011. From the newspaper "Nepszabadsag on Saturday, July 26, 2008. Translated by (Tibor Szilagyi - EDXC via Roberto Scaglione, shortwave yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. RESULTS OF DRM TESTS ON 3 AND 26 MHZ On May 07-12, 2007, the Asian Broadcasting Union performed DRM measurements for broadcasts on MW, 3315 kHz and 26 MHz at the Kingsway site near Delhi. The results were generally good, but most drop-outs appeared at local sunset and sunrise. The final report of 60 pages is now published and very technical, but the main conclusions for SW are: DRM tests on 3315 kHz: "The Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) nighttime applications were found very interesting and the results within this short test period encourage further testing by the participants for possible regular use of this band. The results reflected that the variation of the ionospheric conditions determine the performance of this type of propagation, the main problem being the delay spread. This could normally be avoided by using a robust mode but there were some spots where reception was impossible. The participants rated the performance of NVIS reception as acceptable but audio quality for robust modes was considered poor." DRM tests on 26 MHz: "The 26 MHz was considered by the participants and attendees as being one of the most promising applications for the Asian continent. The reception quality was very good at the locations and routes tested reaching more than 98% of the locations measured in static and mobile modes. It is capable of achieving a near FM audio quality for local coverage using an antenna placed in a 40 m height tower." (via Alokesh Gupta, Jul 21, DSWCI DX Window July 23 via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. RRI Fak2, Irian Jaya Barat, 4790, with talk in Indonesian, presumably Jak news, July 25 at 1208. Nothing on other RRI 60m frequencies, not even 4605 Serui which used to stand out (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4604.94, RRI Serui, not noted for several days in the +/- 1200 UT time slot. Hope another Indo hasn't bitten the dust (John Wilkins, CO, DXplorer July 20 via BC-DX via DXLD) Haven`t heard them lately either, but figured it was just poor and noisy summer conditions (gh, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Voice of Indonesia, 9526.00v, 1308-1319 July 24, in English, news, Commentary Today (about Morocco), Today in History, ID: "V.O.I., the sound of dignity", fair (slight transmitter hum) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Voice of Indonesia again on 11785.97 tonight 1600-2100 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, July 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) VOI, 9526, July 25 at 1225 check was only detectable as a very weak het with equally weak 9525, presumably Poland via Germany. Even less so July 26, while e.g. VOA Philippines 9760 and numerous Firedrakes were inbooming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I ended with the feeling that VOI 9526 was rather off this local Saturday morning [July 26], 1230 UT, as propagation from the Pacific was 100% as you pointed out from VOA 9760 Philippines, strongest signal from RRI 9680 and even Radio Australia 9580, heard very week in the recent past days (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) See LAOS [non], 11784.9? This confirms it, as of a few hours later: Jakarta, terug op oude frequentie 11784.87 kHz i.p.v. 1 kHz hoger. Tijd 1823 UT. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, July 27, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. XM/SIRIUS MERGER APPROVED See http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2532863820080726 (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, July 25, swprograms via DXLD) XM / Sirius: what it will mean to listeners --- An extensive article appears in today's Wall Street Journal [Murdochy] regarding the go- forward plans for Sirius satellite radio following its merger with XM. This is as much as I've seen in one place regarding the future plans for subscription plans, radio choices, etc. The article appears to be "in the clear" and does not require a WSJ subscription for access. See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121690484936980873.html?mod=djemTECH (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, swprograms via DXLD) Viz.: FCC COMMISSIONERS SET TO APPROVE XM-SIRIUS DEAL SATELLITE-RADIO MERGER WOULD PASS AFTER FIRMS PAY $20 MILLION IN FINES By AMY SCHATZ July 24, 2008 12:14 p.m. WASHINGTON - A majority of commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission have reached a deal to approve Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s long-pending purchase of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. The final hold-out, Republican commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, agreed to vote to approve the deal after winning several concessions from the companies involving enforcement issues. . . (via Richard Lewis, dxldyg via DXLD) SATELLITE RADIO MERGER APPROVED By Kim Hart, Washington Post Staff Writer, July 26, 2008 The government has approved the long-delayed merger of the nation's only satellite radio companies, combining Sirius and XM into a single entity with 18 million subscribers. The decision last night came almost a sesquiyear after the companies first proposed joining. Based on yesterday's closing share prices, the deal is valued at $3.3 billion, not including debt. Dozens of lawmakers, consumer groups and broadcasters had long opposed the merger, saying that the union would create a satellite radio monopoly. But three of the five members of the Federal Communications Commission agreed that the marketplace has changed since the two companies formed, with Internet radio, iPods and other technological advances competing for consumers. The merger passed, but with several conditions. The companies must cap prices for three years after joining and allow consumers to choose the channels they want and pay less for packages of channels. Radios that allow a la carte channel selections will eventually be available for car dashboards -- the largest area of growth. The companies said they would introduce radios that receive both XM and Sirius channels. . . [more] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/25/AR2008072503026_2.html?sid=ST2008072503697&pos= (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. I checked with Moshe Oren whether Galei Tzahal is using one of the shortwave transmitters that Kol Israel used to use. This is his response: "Galei Tzahal is not using a Bezeq transmitter. We do only the Persian service to Iran. Partly received at Europe (13850-11605) On Two transmitters time slot 1400-1530 UTC" (Doni Rosenzweig, July 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Suspicion was based on 6973 and 15785 being exactly on-frequency rather than varying widely before (gh, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6015, Shiokaze - Sea Breeze via Yamata, Japan, *1400, July 25 (Fri.), in English, piano IS, "JSR. This is Shiokaze Sea Breeze, the shortwave radio program from Tokyo, Japan. This program is broadcast be the Japanese private organization COMJAN, that has been investigating missing Japanese", "We would like to ask of you if you have any information about abduction issues of North Korea to please give us any information at our email address < chosakai [ at ] circus.ocn.ne.jp > or please write to us", gives Tokyo Central Post Office box number but unable to make it out, probably 1022. "Also call us at 81356845058 [plus gives other phone numbers if calling from Tokyo or the suburbs]. Any family information will be appreciated. Also please see our contact at http://www.chosa-kai.jp/ ", "Today's News Flash" starting with item from July 9, "Today's News on North Korean Issues", fair, no jamming. See the bottom of the page at http://www.chosa-kai.jp/USA.html for letter sent by COMJAN to the US Congress dated July 4, 2008 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. V. of the People, clandestine from S to N Korea, 6518 with talk in Korean // 6600, July 24 at 1240. The latter had rapid pulse jamming but 6518 was clear. V. of the People, clandestine from South to North, July 26 at 1209 clear on 6518 except for lite CW QRM – this is a marine band, after all, // 6600 slightly better and free of any jamming on this occasion. M&W talk in Korean, 1232 orchestral music, still no jamming on either. But there was heavy whoosh-whoosh jamming against 6348 R. Echo of Hope. What does this tell us? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3912, SOUTH KOREA, Voice of the People clandestine in very well at 6:15 am tune-in [1115 UT July 24] with male and female announcers and music; punching right through the ham QRM. For mid-summer, conditions were not bad. The lack of lightning QRN this morning was remarkable (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17, ABDX via DXLD) S Korea: 3912 at 1105z, clandestine V. of the People with jammer underneath (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, July 26, Drake R8B with sloper & T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Date? ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6518, Voice of the People, clandestine from S to N Korea, 1140-1145, July 27, Korean, Local songs, 24342, // 6600 (jammed) (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS [non]. Hmong Lao Radio, via WHRI 11785, Sunday July 27 at 1321 rustic male solo singing with abrupt tone changes; atop the Firedrake and victim QRM, but also could detect a low-pitched het on the low side, about 11784.9. This I suspect was V. of Indonesia, as not heard on 9526 at this time. If so, it was not +1 kHz around 11786 as it occasionally has been reported (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. Relay this weekend via 9290 kHz --- Sunday July 27th Latvia Today 1500-1600 UT. Good Listening (Tom Taylor, DX LISTENING DIGEST; in advance on the dxldyg) ** MADAGASCAR. QSL VOA STUDIO 7, 13755 via RNW relay Talata MDG. Full- data, including program name, paper folder with color photos of studios and antennas on the front and signed by Rahamefy Eddy, Technical Department. Address: Radio Nederland, P. O. Box 404, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar (Wendel Craighead, KS, DXplorer July 18 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 6010, Radio Mil, México DF, canciones mexicanas, locutor: "En Radio Mil vive la música de México". Interferencia de BBC World Service en 6005. 22322. [¿fecha?] También 0601-0635, 18-07, canciones méxicanas y otras canciones latinoamericanas, canción "Malagueña", identificación por locutor: "En Radio Mil vive la música de México", "Vive México en Radio Mil". Interferencia de BBC WS en 6005. 23322. También 0620-0639, 19-07, con el mismo programa de música e identificaciones. Interferencia de BBC WS en 6005 y muy débil interferencia hoy de La Voz de tu Conciencia en 6009.9. 23322. También 0602-0629, 22-07, mismo programa, con señal más débil hoy, pero no interferencia de LVTC y sí de BBC WS. 13221 0614-0710, 26-07, canciones mexicanas, identificación: "Vive México en Radio Mil", "En Radio Mil, vive la música de México". Interferencia de BBC WS en 6005 hasta las 0706 que cierra la emisora inglesa. Buena señal hoy. 32333 variando a 23322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escuchas realizadas en Camping de Reinante, costa del mar Cantábrico, provincia de Lugo; Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BBC sked shows to 0710* Why not -0659*? (gh) ** MEXICO. Since XEXQ told Julián Santiago that they are still on the air, I looked for it again July 24 at 1243 when the noise level was lower than usual. I could detect a carrier a smidgen on the hi side of 6045, but no modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 6104.84v, Mérida, "FM de Mérida" 1200 to 1230 on 25 July, with "FM de Merida" ID [KM-Cedar Key] (via Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, South Flórida, July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Quite a bit of activity noted in Chiapas, with the Radiorama website providing decent streaming audio on most the MegaCima stations. One thing with Radiorama's streaming audio, though --- it appears it's connected to off-air receivers, based upon noise level (John Callarman, Krum TX, July 26 as he reaches Chiapas in his state-by-state update of MW listings, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Azteca 13 information, anyone? --- My UNID Mexican Channel 2 yesterday during my MUF 3 opening apparently was XHCH, an Azteca 13 affiliate in Chihuahua that was showing Olympic promos (Azteca is Mexico's Olympics station) and during programming had a circle-like logo on the top right of the screen that was a circle with the Azteca Trece detail (as it appeared, it wasn't exactly a clear picture). The ads were showing Hispanic men though, which is something I don't see much here. I had some perfect Spanish audio under KJRH as well (wouldn't have known it was KJRH had it not been for a brief ad with a local area code!) I was lucky enough to have recorded this Azteca one. I originally thought it was a double hop due to the rarity of the Mexicans here, but it seemed quite unlikely at MUF 3 with everyone's skip midpoints being directly overhead at the time. It comes up as 1514 miles and I was aimed right at it when it came in strongest, in with KACV (also in good facing to the northwest with IDs and logos!), KDFX, and KJRH at the time, with KMID in for a while. This would be a new state for me and in my location, exceeding [something omitted]. Does anyone have a decent quality screencap of Azteca 13 that I can compare with what I saw?? I'd like to be more sure of it. I can't find one and would like confirmation that they indeed run their logo top right, at least sometimes. Anything would be appreciated (Chris Kadlec, Fremont, Mich., July 27, WTFDA via DXLD) There are eight channel 2 Azteca-13 stations listed on Fred Cantú's website. Their circle logo with two vertical bars and three dots next to it is distinct as shown on the Azteca website. I don't think I've ever seen it anywhere except upper right. http://www.tvazteca.com/ I would think that XHCH would be the most likely station you saw but 2X Es at ch 2 would not be unusual. I get XHCH here regularly but the only way to easily tell that it is them from the other Aztecas 13's on ch 2 is their unique video carrier frequency being off center at 55.251.2. But you need a tuner capable of measuring that. I use my Kenwood TS680s ham radio. Catching ID's on the TV set is at top of the hour, sometimes half hour and with local ads. Positively IDing Mexican TV network stations to exactly where they are is usually tough without knowing the offsets; even then there are often multiples (Randy Zerr, Ft Walton Beach FL, ibid.) TVDX IDs: see also CANADA ** MICRONESIA. Does anyone know if the Micronesia station on 4755 has ever begun regular SW broadcasts? 73 (JD Stephens, Hampton Cove, AL USA, July 25, HCDX via DXLD) They sure did, JD. I heard them regularly last Fall for a few days (?weeks) around mid October. They haven't been on the air since shortly after that time, though. Hopefully will return soon (Walt Salmaniw, BC, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Not heard here in months --- think they're having antenna problems and perhaps policy issues as well (Bruce W. Churchill, Senior Project Manager, Emergency Transportation Operations Division, President, InfraGard San Diego Members Alliance, an FBI-Affiliated 501(c)3 Corporation, 14320 Firestone Blvd. Suite 100, La Mirada CA 90638-5541, Cumbre DX via DXLD) I have been in contact with PMA about their SW transmissions on 4755 kHz, and this was their latest reply to my inquiry as to when regular transmissions on SW will start: Dear Alex - We are still awaiting technical help as we need to change antennas so that we can reach the islands. Thank you for your interest and prayers. God bless! Melinda, PMA Guam HQ guam @ pmapacific.org P. O. Box 3209, Hagatna Guam 96932 http://www.pmapacific.org Not really much news, but at least we know that they have not been abandoned as the initial target was for Jan. or Feb. 2008 (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV U.S.A., July 24, HCDX via DXLD) ** MOROCCO. MOROCCO/ARGENTINA SILENCE - Morocco on 15345 kHz at 1800- 2200 UT (big joy here-all RAE programs are heard clearly! 1800 En, 1900 Fr, 2000 It, 2100 Ge!). (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, July 24, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 24 via Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DXLD) Also missing: Radio Marocaine, Nador, 15340 at 1200 UT, and on 15345 at 1800 UT too July 25 (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) See ARGENTINA ** NEW ZEALAND. Re 8-084: RNZI doesn't announce its DRM frequencies because essentially it's a feeder service to partner stations in the Pacific rather than a service intended for a general audience. RNZI doubtless knows there are hardly any individuals out there with DRM receivers, and mentioning an additional frequency that hardly anyone can hear would produce unwanted letters from confused listeners who don't understand what DRM is all about (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, that`s rather defeatist, certainly amounting to no promotion of this exciting new medium (gh, DXLD) But, for those that may not know and there may be a few, they do list the DRM frequency schedule on- line: http://www.rnzi.com/pages/listen.php (Pete Costello, ibid.) Speaking about RNZI, should I be able to hear them at 1100 UT on 9655 here in Oregon? I was getting a great signal on my G5 on 7145 but nothing on 9655 when they made the switch around 1100 UT (Bruce MacGibbon, Gresham, OR, ibid.) You should, altho this transmission is the one on a NW beam, less favorable for NAm. Was Australia audible on 31m at the time? Could be that on this occasion RNZI failed to come up on 9655 but on some other frequency; or off for maintenance. Glenn to Bruce, ibid.) Yes, I heard Radio Australia on 9580. Just happened to be up before 1100 and thought I would listen to Radio New Zealand on 9655. Will try again. Thanks for the information, Steve and Glenn (Bruce MacGibbon, Gresham, OR, ibid.) Tuning in 6170 at 1258 July 27, jazz music in progress, making me wonder whether RNZI had not been running DRM here during the previous hour as scheduled. 1300 timesignal and RNZI news in analog (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Re WE2XFZ, Chilocco: 830 is now off the air as I type this, but 540 has a HUGE open carrier there now! Interesting there's no modulation with these OC's that I've been able to catch (Kirk Allen, Ponca City OK, 2022 UT July 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: The Chilocco station is apparently testing their FM frequencies this morning July 24. I first heard 92.3 briefly from 8:40 to 8:42 CDT [1340-1342 UT] QRMing a country station on that frequency with fair strength. Then I heard 99.1 with the same type of tones from 8:45 to about 8:50 and finally at 9:01, I heard them come on 107.5 which I have heard before with the strongest signal there. They are still on as I write this. They were/are QRMing stations on all 3 frequencies heard. The station is still on at 9:15 on 107.5. Just tried all 6 frequencies at 9:25 [1425 UT] and nothing here (except other FM stations). Their FM range is probably quite a bit shorter (Glen to Carl, via DXLD) They apparently went off 107.5 about 2 minutes after I sent that e- mail. I also tried the AM frequencies. Nothing was heard here either. I heard a carrier on 7580 kHz shortly before I heard 92.3. What are their SW frequencies? I not sure if I would be in the skip zone of 7580 kHz for Chilocco (Carl DeWhitt, Ponca City, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I don`t think 7580 has anything to do with this. SW frequencies authorized: 4015, 4085 12115, 12185 22015, 22085 26115, 26185 12415, 12485 also requested but maybe not granted. TV: ch 18 and 61; Maybe also VHF: 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13 --- 73, (Glenn to Carl, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PARAGUAY [non]. Ethnic station: see ARGENTINA ** PERU. 3173.30, Radio Municipal, Panao, 0120 to 0135 OM en español, weak signal on 26 & 27 July. Had been off since May. Also: 3174.53 drift to .43, Radio Municipal, Panao noted 1100 on 25, 26 and 27 July (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, South Flórida, July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ID presumably based on previous logs, frequency range (gh) ** PERU. Re: ``4834, R. Marañón, Jaen seems silent. (Wilkner). However, a weak signal was noted on 4835.46 at 2315-0140 on Jul 07/08 with talk and music (Petersen in DSWCI DXW) 4835.5, R. Marañón (presumed), Jaen, 2246-..., 10 July, Castilian, talks, songs; 15241. If not this station, or Perú, then what? (Carlos Goncalves-POR, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 16)`` FYI: Zeljko noted strong local signal of R. Marañón when toured to Quito late Feb 2008. He notes strong signals there, like a steep fountain umbrella signal [i.e. NVIS] to cover local area. (wb) Viz.: PERU, 4835.46, Re R. Marañón, Jaen. Vorhin war ich mal wieder nach laengerer Zeit auf der wwdx-Seite. Jemand hat ueber eine Station auf 4835 geraetselt und wusste nicht, ob es sich dabei um R. Marañón handelt, oder ob die ueberhaupt noch senden. Es ist zwar schon laenger her, aber bis Ende Februar war Marañón in Quito regelmaessig mit gutem Signal zu hoeren. Das Programm besteht zu meist aus peruanischer Musik, lokale Cumbias in der Mehrheit. Auch gibt es immer wieder IDs. Ich wuerde meinen, dass man mit ziemlicher Sicherheit sagen kann, dass es im vorliegenden Fall R. Marañón ist. In Quito war das Signal immer so stark, dass ich mich gewundert habe, warum die Station ausserhalb so selten gemeldet wird. Auch habe ich sie hier in Europa noch nicht hoeren koennen (Zeljko Crncic-D, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 25 via Büschel, DXLD) ** PERU. 5059.2, LA VOZ DE LAS HUARINJAS. Huancabamba. 0130-0215* julio 25. Esta es la reactivación en onda corta de esta emisora, ahora en nueva frecuencia (ex-6819v). Reportada por el colega Miguel Castellino en la lista condiglist. Presenta mucho ruido en esta frecuencia que por momentos la hace inaudible. Con música tropical y contactos telefónicos con los oyentes de diferentes lugares de la Región Pirana. Anuncios de Celulares Movistar, Transportes Elada. "...cuéntale al Perú y al mundo, somos La Voz de las Huarinjas..." Parcial S/off a las 0214: "...Gracias por su sintonía - - - mañana estaremos nuevamente en el aire para hacerle pasar una mañana, tarde y noche divertida - - - te desea La Voz de las Huarinjas - - - y los 5060 en la onda corta, hasta mañana nos reencontraremos con un día - - - ..." En mi QTH no la reportaba desde Diciembre de 2006. 6936.3, RADIO ANDINA, sitio desconocido, Perú. 0251-0304* julio 27. ¿Nueva o reactivacion? Buscando emisiones piratas desde USA en 6925 me encontré con los últimos minutos de transmisión del día de esta emisora que se identificó como Radio Andina; a pesar de una aceptable señal, no logré identificar desde dónde transmiten. Presentando cumbia sanjuanera con Corazón Serrano y Sonia Morales. "...gracias por compartir la señal auténtica del pueblo Radio Andina; estamos trabajando con responsabilidad, mucho dinamismo y somos una radio positiva al servicio de usted y toda la familia..." Parcial S/off a las 0302 : "...señoras y señores - - - y cada uno de ustedes, muchas gracias por su amable sintonía; ésta fue la señal de Radio Andina - - - amplitud modulada - - -" Luego Himno Nacional. No encuentro referencia presente de alguna emisora peruana operando en esta frecuencia, mas sí, dos estaciones con este nombre: Radio Andina, Huancabamba, que operó a principios de siglo en 6673v kHz; y Radio Andina, Huancayo, que operó durante mucho tiempo a través de los 4995v kHz (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogota D.C. - COLOMBIA, PC Winradio G303I, JRC NRD 525, Sony ICF 2010, Antenas hilos de varios longitudes, July 27, condiglist yg via DXLD) See also PROPAGATION ** PERU. 6019.38, R. Victoria, 0307-0353, July 24, usual long winded, impassioned, raspy voiced preacher (Is this David Miranda?); religious songs, ID: "Lima, Peru, Radio Victoria", best in LSB, fair-poor, // 9720 (poor) and // R. Tupi (Brazil) on 6060 (poor, under Cuba) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED, to which one would reply: 9720.19, Radio Victoria, Lima, 1147-1153, July 27, Portuguese, Long religious talk by male, program from "Iglesia Deus es Amor", 23432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sic – Portuñol, I suppose. In Spanish it should be ``Iglesia Dios es Amor``, and in Portuguese, ``Igreja Deus é Amor`` (gh, DXLD) ** ROMANIA [non]. See U K. BBCWS ** SAINT HELENA. I just received this info from John Plimmer in Montagu, South Africa: The Cape Times shipping columnist sent me the following: Good Day, John, Glad you enjoyed the column. Thanks for the email. RMS St Helena has been in drydock for a week or so and sailed for the Island on Monday. She usually goes CT-St Helena-Ascension-St Helena-CT with calls occasionally at Walvis Bay. This voyage she will only go CT-St Helena-CT and should be back in CT in about 12 days. Hope that helps. Regards, Brian Ingpen http://www.capeports.co.za July 23 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, July 23, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 21505, 1425+ Weak with music, Arabic M announcer, N Africa service. Fading, lots of QRN. Usually receive 21460 really well here but not noted lately beyond occasional weak het. Drake TR-7, Mosely CL-33 beam (Russ Scotka, FL, 7/26 via Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, South Flórida, July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SINGAPORE. 6150, "938 Live" domestic station (FM 93.8) relayed via RSI, 1427-1442, July 24, in English, many IDs: "938 Live", news, promo for "Making The Market Work For You" investment seminar presented by Aviva Direct, sports news, fair, not // 6080, website: http://www.938live.sg/portal/site/938Live (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SINGAPORE. 6120, Radio Singapore International, 1043-1055 July 24. Noted a female in .... comments until 1045 when a male continues. At 1049 a shift to promos briefly, but can't catch any place names. At 1051 music starts. At 1055 recorded musical ID as "...RSI..." After that, music continues until the hour. Another ID at 1100 as, "Radio Singapore International" with accent by a female. After the hour, news presented by a female. Signal was good. I thought Singapore was off the air for good? 6080, Radio Singapore International 1116-1130 July 24. Noted a male and female in telephone conversation. Male was being interviewed. This is mixing with HCJB a little which broadcasting music making copy of RSI difficult now. At 1124, full ID in English by male as, "This is Radio Singapore International." Signal was fair but lots of QRM here. Good Asian Morning here in Clewiston, Florida, NRD545 (Chuck Bolland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) They have one more week until the end of July. This should have been in Malay, with 6080 in English (Glenn Hauser, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA [non] re 6185 RADIO SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL - SPECIAL FAREWELL PROGRAMMES 25 MINUTES: Commentators bid Farewell to RSI RSI ceases transmission on 1 August 2008. Jason Tan speak to the many commentators who have generously donated their time to the station's programmes. Tune in to hear their thoughts on the station's end, their fond recollections of past interviews and their well-wishes to RSI's staff and listeners. Sat 26 July 1135 hrs UTC CONNECTIONS: A view from RSI's listeners Yvonne Gómez reads excerpts from listeners' letters and speaks to RSI's listeners to hear their views on the station's programmes over the years. Thu 24 Jul 1220 hrs UTC Sat 26 Jul 1205 hrs UTC Sun 27 Jul 1105 hrs UTC Wed 30 Jul 1235 hrs UTC 25 MINUTES: Good Night & Good Luck, RSI RSI's presenters reminisce about the good ol' days! Stay tuned to learn more about how radio has changed their lives and what it means to have garnered loyal listeners in the course of their work! Wed 30 Jul 1235 hrs UTC RSI overseas: RSI producers act as ambassadors building bridges with friends in the region. As RSI ceases transmission, we speak to some of the producers from various language services of RSI on their experiences representing RSI Overseas. Sun 27 Jul 1335 hrs UTC Thu 31 Jul 1240 hrs UTC RSI broadcasts between 1100-1400 hrs UTC (1900-2200 Singapore time) over 6080 kHz in the 49mb and 6150 kHz also in the 49mb. website http://www.rsi.sg/english [audio loop available] (RSI English E- newsletter via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, July 25, dxldyg via DXLD) RSI in English, 6080, July 26 at 1154 with Aussies, Filipinos on phone lamenting closedown of RSI, hoping it would return. And someone from Singapore National University with a North American accent who conceded that RSI`s day had come and gone due to changes in IT. Apparently these were former contributors to the programming rather than listeners; another one was known as ``Singapore`s travelling gourmet``. Show was ``25 Minutes`` [as above]. 1200 to news of Kashmir klashes and Bangalore blasts. Bothered by Firedrake overlap from 6085, especially during hi-frequency percussion passages. Also checked 6185 for the RSI Chinese service, July 26 at 1205. Heard several IDs which I think match the Mandarin ID as spelt in WRTH 2008: ``Xinjiapo guoji guangbo diantai``. The last three words are also heard in IDs from China, so it`s crucial to catch the ``Xinjiapo`` which is obviously a corruption of ``Singapore`` --- or vice versa? Would someone like to add the proper tones? And is it different in Cantonese and Mandarin? I also monitored this July 25 at 1200 with timesignal and the ``Xinjiapo`` ID. The RSI Malay service was also in as usual on 6120, just causing a lot of QRM to NHKWRJ English via Sackville after 1200 July 26, a situation they never considered worth resolving, just waiting for RSI to self- destruct (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6150, Radio Singapore International, (Tentative), 1100-1115 July 26. Dare I report this? I think I will. At 1100 noted a second signal come on the air with comments by a female while RTI is also broadcasting with a male in news. Things get confusing as the clock ticks with both signals mixing it up here. Can't identify the language from RSI yet, but it's supposed to be English. Time ran out for me as far as listening. RSI never improved anymore to help with the ID (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, R-390A, DX LISTENING DIGEST) You could have paralleled it to 6080 (gh, DXLD) As RSI winds down for their local listeners I thought I would check the relays of local FM stations which will remain and offer audible signals over a decent area. All 4 stations heard yesterday (26 July) between 2310 and 2340. 6000 - Chengsi Pindao/Capital FM in Cantonese?- 43444- sharing with RHC Spanish. The usual mishmash. 6150 - 938 Live in English - 42333- a strong signal spoilt (even on the narrow filter) by a booming Noblejas in French on 6155. 7235 - Warna FM in Malay- 44444- steady signal without QRM and nice music too. 7275 - Oli FM in Tamil - 33333- listenable signal with identifiable South Asian speech. 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, July 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Saludos cordiales: ESPAÑA, 12035 Radio Exterior de España, 1205-1216, escuchada el [sáb ado] 26 de julio en español, emisión del programa "Amigos de la Onda Corta", SINPO 45444. Se trata de un nuevo servicio o cambio de horario?? JMR (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) Mensaje de Antonio Buitrago de REE: El motivo es el siguiente. Resulta que durante el verano (hasta finales de agosto) no hay "Tablero deportivo", un programa que cubría de 6 a 8 horas de programación deportiva. Como ha acabado el fútbol y los responsables de programación tienen que llenar ese horario y esa falta de contenidos con otros programas. Han elegido "Amigos de la Onda Corta", y supongo que otros. Esa es la razón que me ha comunicado la secretaria técnica de REE (Antonio Buitrago via José Bueno, ibid.) ** SRI LANKA. USA (non): R. Farda, 5860 at 0115z July 23 via Sri Lanka, 250 kW at 315º. Short path, 9735 miles, all daylight. Long path, over 15000 miles, almost all dark. More likely a long path but with the really low solar activity who knows. // 7280 via Wertachtal not much better (Jerry Lenamon, Waco Tx, Drake R8B & Grundig Sat 800, T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. Broadcast For Shipping: Hi Glenn, As they say, "What's new?" I recently wrote to Bangkok Meteorological Radio to find out what the station does. I guess you have heard that amusing jingle they run between broadcast sections? I heard it once or twice in Virginia, but did not know what it was, but here in Oregon it is much louder. Anyhow, I thought you would be the best person to pass on their reply... since there is some question whether or not it is really, really BC! BMR's flyer lists three services: VOLMET Broadcast, Broadcast For Shipping, and Facsimile Broadcast. Regarding the "Broadcast For Shipping", Ms. Jantima Niyomchok writes "We broadcast the weather forecast for shipping in Thai and English, and after that we include 7 days forecast in Thai." Each of the segments is separated by a tune running about a minute and a half. I asked her about this, and she said "I do not know the name and the meaning of the tune that is played between announcements. We have used this jingle for a long time." Here in Oregon it is very clear, especially on 8743 from 1200 to 1400. Frequency 6765.1 is not as loud, presumably due to higher absorption. Greetings from Eugene! 73, (David Walcutt, OR, July 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. R. Thailand, 11625, July 27 at 1315, brief transmission break for antenna change, chime IS – I love those mellow tones! Full ID in English including transmitter site near Udorn, opening Mandarin service which is unscathed by jamming, tnx to the generosity of China`s SARFT. But the Thais have to watch what they say (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TRINIDAD. 13297 kHz USB 2329z: "Piarco Radio" working "Air Jamaica 091"; passes message "Off at 2325z." Also heard working "Martinair" flight. Nice strong signal into Florida (23 July 2008) (AL STERN, Satellite Beach FL, Cumbre DX via DXLD) For those not into full-bore utility DXing, I point out that this is Trinidad [no country was mentioned in original post], your chance to hear voice transmission from there on SW, only not a broadcast station. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** TURKEY. TRT TURQUOISE RADIO COMPETITION --- Dear Radio Listeners: TRT have been preparing international competition as mentioned follows Here is TRT's announcement of its own web page http://www.trt.net.tr """Following our first International Radio Competition last year, we have decided to organize yet another one in 2008, this time strictly devoted to the global climate change and/or environmental problems which have become the most important global problem. We believe that our eternal love radio can play a major role in terms of creating public awareness, and help finding solutions. As you will read below, this year, the participants will act as part of the jury as well, turning the Contributory Jury's proceedings into an active workshop. The event will be organized by TRT with the cooperation of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU)""" Application form and competition regulations link is: http://www.trt.gov.tr/turkuaz/eng/index.html (Mustafa Cankurt, July 26, HCDX via DXLD) Eternal love radio??? This is a professional competition to produce programming, not a listeners` essay contest (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U K. ZIMBABWE (non), 12035, SW Radio Africa, 54545. Excellent signal despite VOR's efforts on each side. Heard discussing hyper- inflation and with its usual highly professional programming. 1820- 1827. A byproduct of an "opening" for my local English based transmitter sites - normally too close to be relied on. 13675, BBC WS, 55555. Perfect reception in English. Heard 1800-1810. 13745, BBC Russian (weekends only), 44444. Heard 1810-1820. GERMANY (non), 13650, Deutsche Welle, Arabic, Woofferton, 44444. Heard 1830-1835; all July 26. 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC ROMANIAN SERVICE ENDS The Sunday Times By Paul Donovan July 27, 2008 http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article4386403.ece Once upon a time, there was only one language. Then vanity drove men to build a boastful edifice. God's punishment was to smash the one language into dozens and fling them across the earth. That Tower of Babel has now been replaced by the Tower of Babble, Bush House in Aldwych, in London, but it still has a close connection with those scattered tongues: every day its polyglot journalists send out programmes in 33 of them, from Albanian to Vietnamese. From this week, the number will fall to 32, because the Romanian Service ends on Friday. Whatever your views on Genesis, nothing tells you more about the upheavals in world politics than which languages the World Service broadcasts in and which ones it doesn't - a decision ultimately taken by the Foreign Office, which pays for the World Service, rather than the BBC. Romanian is not the last Romance language beamed by Bush House, which still broadcasts French (to Africa), Portuguese (to Brazil) and Spanish (to Latin America). It is, however, the last language aimed at a country now belonging to the European Union - so in that sense, it marks the end of an era. Broadcasting in Romanian - along with Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak - began in September 1939 as part of Britain's propaganda effort to win wartime hearts and minds. All those others ended in 2005. Several other language services created for the war effort have also been abolished now that hostilities have ceased: German lasted from 1938 until 1999, Italian from 1938 until 1981, and Japanese from 1943 until 1991. In Africa, the three longest-running language services, Hausa, Swahili and Somali, all began in 1957 to counter the antiBritish output of Radio Cairo following the Suez crisis of the previous year. Only after the USSR dissolved in 1991 did the government permit the BBC to start broadcasts in Azeri, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Ukrainian and Uzbek, the languages of former republics. There is a clear paradox about all this. Although the foreign-language services may have their existence determined by Whitehall, that certainly does not apply to their editorial content - which is often as independently minded as that of the domestic BBC. That has been the case ever since the BBC launched its first such service - Arabic, in 1938 (to counter Mussolini's Arabic broadcasts) - and it has helped make the BBC trustworthy. The Romanian Service was probably at its most popular in 1989, when it increased its output to report on the bloody overthrow of Ceausescu. But 19 years on and it's a different country. Competition from 100 other radio stations, and fewer FM stations syndicating the BBC, mean that the Romanian Service's share of audience has shrunk to 3%. Even though its abolition saves the BBC only £1.3m a year (going towards the new Farsi TV service due to start next year), its continued existence is no longer tenable. Unless, that is, the tectonic plates of geopolitics move again and Whitehall determines that the Romanians need a radio service subtly projecting British values. The Sinhala Service was axed in 1976 but revived in 1990 to cover the Tamil Tiger rebellion. Albanian was axed in 1967 but revived in 1993 to cover the Balkan wars. So, they come and they go and may come again, always a mirror of our national perception of friend and foe, what's hot and what's not (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U K. Here`s one way to get to audio files of the past week`s PROMENADE CONCERTS ON BBCR3: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/radio/?q=Proms Trouble is, they come out in jumbled order here, some with dates and some with Prom numbers, so you have to know what you`re looking for; and most concerts are split into two or even three overlapping parts. In the more-info drop-down link you get the axual length of the segment, much less than the length of the file. When broken into parts, the start and stop may well be in the middle of something rather than a clean break. Such are the joys of automating these funxions. This also includes separate files of the repeats of many of the evening concerts a few days later in afternoons, so that gives one a few more days to catch something before it be deleted after one week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Did you know that Mr. Radio Martí also produced the movie “Snow White and the Three Stooges?” Now it all makes sense (Brock Whaley, HI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: CHARLES WICK, 90, INFORMATION AGENCY HEAD, IS DEAD --- By DOUGLAS MARTIN Charles Z. Wick, whose friendship with Ronald Reagan led to his appointment as director of the United States Information Agency and gave him influence to recharge the agency with bigger budgets, superior technology and aggressive policies, died on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 90. . . http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/us/24wick.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss (N Y Times July 24, 2008, via Whaley, ibid.) OBIT ** U S A. SENATE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE SEEKS TO REINSTATE VOA CUTS The Senate panel that oversees funding of the Voice of America (VOA) has recommended reinstating funding for the seven language services which are planned to be cut on 30 September. But ProPublica says the move seems unlikely to prevent the cuts as gridlock in Congress has delayed action on most, if not all, spending bills for 2009 until the next administration. David Carle, a spokesman for Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, said that “the committee does not support zeroing out these programmes,” but that its spending bill “will not become law for some time yet.” Tim Shamble, the union representative for VOA employees, said that it would be “very difficult” to get the services up and running again after being shut down. “If you’re off the air for any period of time, you lose your audience.” The appropriations subcommittee also suggests trimming $8.4 million from the administration’s $112.4 million budget request for the Middle East Broadcast Networks, the parent company to Alhurra (Source: ProPublica)(July 25th, 2008 - 11:48 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Prompted by an erroneous log of VOA 9815 in Portuguese as Botswana, I checked this transmission July 24 at 1823: VG signal so can`t be Botswana but instead Greenville as currently scheduled. Sign-off lasted until 1831, and carrier stayed on until 1834:30. I had the BFO on to notify me when it quit, and then I could also hear a just barely audible carrier on 9815. That`s also VOA, in French via Madagascar, both to exactly the same West African target areas. But if the VOA Greenville signal is making it there during the first half of the hour, it must also be interfering with the VOA Madagascar signal during the second half which of course starts promptly at 1830, if not a minute before with its own sign-on. In such a case, there should be DCI (drop carrier immediately) and/or CS (crash-start). This is one of many cases now where VOA sites serving the same target area unnecessarily change abruptly, and steps are not taken to avoid self- interference! Another example is 17530 where the first half of the 1400 English hour is Greenville, the second half Thailand, also with a monitored overlap. BTW, 9815 has quite a convoluted VOA schedule at 1630-2130 per EiBi: i.e.: 9815 1630-1730 Voice of America SWA EAf /BOT Swahili Botswana 9815 1730-1800 Voice of America P EAf /D-L Port. Lampertheim 9815 1800-1830 Mo-Fr Voice of America P WAf g Port. Greenville 9815 1830-1900 Voice of America F WAf /MDG French Madagascar 9815 1900-2030 Voice of America F CAf /BOT French Botswana 9815 2030-2100 SaSu Voice of America F WAf g French Greenville 9815 2030-2100 Mo-Fr Voice of America HA WAf /BOT Hausa Botswana 9815 2100-2130 Mo-Fr Voice of America F CAf /BOT French Botswana A year ago, the 1730-1800-1830 Portuguese and the 2030-2100 Hausa were via Morocco, but who needs that? Lampertheim and Greenville were simply plugged in as substitutes, surely inferior ones to W Africa. Furthermore at 1630-1700, 9815 now collides with BBC via Oman in Sinhala, which makes one wonder how much co-channel QRM there be in those respective target areas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Actually Lampertheim cannot reach Western Africa at all, the possible azimuth range stops somewhere before 180 degrees. And in fact the site can transmit in southeastern directions only because in the nineties it got additional antennas to cover the declining Yugoslavia. Anything else there beams in eastern/northeastern directions, since originally the target areas were limited to the Soviet Union. Frankly, I did not expect the Biblis/Lampertheim twin sites (they are just a few kilometres apart from each other, much closer than e.g. Greenville-A and Greenville-B) to escape the axe while the more versatile facilities in Greece and Morocco had been abandoned. However, they obviously were not only more versatile but also substantially more expensive to operate (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Lampertheim is not much farther away from East Africa than Briech (Morocco to Maputo is about 4950 miles, Lampertheim to Maputo is about 5400 miles, a difference of less than 10%). The beam angle though might be off a bit. The current HFCC shows 132 degrees as LAM`s most southerly beam but Maputo is at 158 (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, ibid.) ** U S A [and non]. It`s unusual to hear WRMI, especially when the DentroCuban Jamming Command is grinding away on 9955, but July 24 at 1253, WRMI was about equal level to the jamming with a speaker talking urgently about ``Cuba Libre``. 1327 recheck, only jamming heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 22/7 1242 - 9955 kHz NF? WORLD HARVEST RADIO INTERNATIONAL, English, music country live e ids OM. Segnale insufficiente - buono; KWHR ex 12130? (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Italia, playdxyg via DXLD) No WHR scheduled at any time on 9955 that I know of (gh) ** U S A. Looking for the unID African music on 5050, July 23 at 2255, WWRB was already on the air with preacher. Supposedly scheduled from 0000, but definitely after 2300; does it really start at 2200? That would be ``6 pm`` EDT rather than CDT in their ambiguous schedule. The night before, WWRB was also off the air before 0500 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWRB Manchester, 5050 at 0042 UT 25/7, Cantos religiosos comentarios OM, francés, 44232 (Antonio Madrid, Moraleda, Granada (España), CG: 37 8'43''N - 03 56'39''O / 712 Mts Altitud, Rx: Sony ICF2001D + Kenwood R5000 + Degen, Ant.: Dipolo 100 mts + Yaesu FRT7700 Web: http://radioescucha.spaces.live.com Noticias DX yg via DXLD) So there`s another report of this transmitter sold out to a Tennessee church being partly in French; any specific times for that, and any other languages? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. 5109.84, WBCQ, Monticello, ME, 0315-0325, Jul 19; I was very surprised when I logged WBCQ and heard a message in Russian, but it appeared to be a religious programme in English telling about Radio Overcomer with its broadcasting and postal address in Moscow! 35444 heard // WWRB The Overcomer Ministry on 5745 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window July 23 via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. One of the better, or I should say few signals above 15410, July 24 at 1731 was on 15760, talk in a language with lots of o-umlauts, but certainly not German, so is it Turkish? Yes! Eibi shows this as YFR via Woofferton at 17-19. Still fair signal at 1816. BTW, CL, there is nothing wrong with well-informed `list-logging` such as this for major broadcasters, where you are never going to hear a local site ID anyway. However if later shown to be mistaken, a correxion will certainly be forthcoming. Dictation-speed Bible reading in English of Acts XXV: 14, July 26 at 0550 on 7520, about Paul & Festus. This is a Russian hour from WYFR, reminding me of when there used to be some dictation-speed secular news in Spanish from VOA circa 1960, which was a big help in my early learning of that language. I would tape and transcribe the broadcasts, not intended as language lessons but I suppose for embassies or USIA/USIS libraries to copy down and publish? But I digress. Haven`t run across dictation-speed broadcasts from WYFR before, just another way to worm The Gospel into people`s heads, and skew their second- language skills toward evangelism. Surprised to find WYFR Spanish on 7730 instead of usual way OOB 7780, July 26 at 1211, M&W discussing Daniel XI, confirmed by // 15130 which that early was JBA, and still going past 1300; scheduled on 7780 until 1345. Probably punch-up error, and we shall see if it happen again [later:] WYFR again on 7730 instead of 7780, July 27 at 1303 with hymn in Spanish. I meant to check the earlier scheduled usage of 7780 to see if it had changed too. The July 1 WYFR revised schedule showed: 7780 0304-0400 RUSS 44 7780 0400-0500 ENGL 44 7780 0500-0600 GERM 44 7780 0600-0700 ROMA 44 7780 0700-0745 POLI 44 7780 1100-1200 ENGL 222 7780 1200-1345 SPAN 222 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Let`s try again my previous comment about the appearance of WRNO`s fixed log-periodic antenna. The lower-frequency elements are longer and are at the back end toward the top; the shorter higher- frequency elements are toward the front end and closer to the ground. This is to maintain the same take-off angle for low and high frequencies, theoretically (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WRNO: Equipment 50 kW at 20 degrees azimuth towards LA, MS, AL, TN, KY, OH, Toronto, Quebec, Greenland, Narvik Norway, Archangelsk Russia, Ural / Ufa. G.C. 29 50 12.57 N, 90 06 57.44 W but Yahoo Maps image is wooden covered area instead, see: Near to WWL 870 kHz mediumwave some 0.96 miles / 1.55 km away at 29 50 13.99 N 90 07 54.98 W (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX July 24 via DXLD) No reports of WRNO for the past week; testing finished, or more to come before programming, really from August 1? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. More from The Coasters this week on Rock the Universe, WWCR, 7490, Saturday July 26 until 1300. Announced they have a 3-month audio archive of shows via http://rtu.dkosmedia.com (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Where our previous plaudit has been quoted Well, WWCR 7490 reception has been improving around Tiquicia lately, so different from they initially moved from 9980. Use to tune in on Sat. mornings for Rock The Universe, too. Altho you have made clear you are more classical music prone, I see you seem to enjoy the Doo Wop style, from which Big Steve Cole has a great show every Saturday evening on the web from the Doo Wop Cafe. I remember he used to have an hour of the regular four duration of DKOS on WBCQ 7415 on Sat. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Am wondering if anyone has any old tapes of KUSW broadcasts? John Florence, "skinny" Johnny Mitchell, etc. (Rick Barton, ABDX via DXLD) In one of those weird "small world" moments, John Florence surfaced here in Rochester a few years back. I had just been assigned by WXXI to help them launch a AAA format on WRUR-FM, the University of Rochester station that WXXI had begun operating under an LMA, and out of the blue one day I got a call from John. He had recently moved to the area (following his wife to a new job) and offered to help out with the music, an offer I gladly accepted. Of course, I hit him up for whatever KUSW material he'd hung on to. It wasn't much - some pieces of their first and last days on the air, mostly - but it was more than I'd ever saved from my days as a listener. And yeah, I'd be happy to dub it off for Rick and anyone else who's interested! John is back in Utah now, involved with "Utah Free Media" at http://utahfm.org He's on the air there Thursdays, 6-9 PM MT s (Scott Fybush, NY, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Re W269CE --- Peter: I'm not sure if you remember my unID last month that turned out to be WSVX AM 1520 (Shelbyville, IN) being rebroadcast on 96.5 (W243CL). Like one website said, "this is not your average 27 watt translator on a stick...." They are either 150 or 250 watts and pound a good signal out. It has been heard by a DX'er in Muncie at over 60 miles, with no enhancement. They even mention "now on FM 96.5" in their on-air promos and on the station's website. Maybe this scenario *is* what the FCC was aiming for. I'm sure that the FM sounds better than the AM. Shelbyville no longer has a local FM as 97.1 is now really an Indianapolis station (and they even make fun of it in the not so legal, legal ID "WLHK Shoobydoo Indianapolis, all of my ex's live in Shelbyville"). The AM is only 250 watts at night, with big 50 kW stations on either side of them (Cincy and Memphis) and once in a while another station on 1520 is either on day power at night (cheating or equipment malfunction) or just comes in better (due to propagation) really limits their AM signal. I'm sure that a translator is easier than trying to get a CP for the AM and the associated costs for equipment (one FM antenna vs several for a directional outfit on AM). They have not been as strong of late, thankfully and I can DX over them sometimes, even with rabbit ears. 73, (Dave Hascall, IN, July 24 WTFDA via DXLD) Many of the UHF STL's used by AM stations sound way better fidelity- wise than the actual AM stations themselves. I always thought it was a shame. When in Niagara Falls as a teenager, I preferred listening to local CJRN 710 on 455.1625 MHz instead. (That was before it became North America's most powerful TIS station, of course.) (Bill Hepburn, Ont., ibid.) ** U S A. Daytimer WRFD-AM 880 [Worthington OH] on ALL night last night! --- Did any one besides me notice that http://www.wrfd.com/ was running all night long last night on 880 AM?? WRFD is licensed for daytime Only operation with 25 thousands watts. I'm sure the folks at WCBS-AM on 880 AM aren't happy about this and don't appreciate the added interference to their clear channel. It not like they (WRFD) were running 250 watts where interference would have been a lot less noticeable to WCBS-AM. I wonder if this was operator error and or a computer glitch. Also, It's obvious to me that their employees don't even monitor their station at all times and/or at least see to it that they cease daytime operation at the proper licensed time. Has this happened before at WRFD? (Artie Bigley, OH, DX LISTENING DIGEST, also posted at radio-info.com) ** U S A. DR. DEMENTO'S SHOW HITS THE ROAD WITH SEATTLE VISIT --- On Radio: By BILL VIRGIN, P-I REPORTER Who would go to a nightclub to watch some guy play CDs and videos and talk about them? Fans of Barry Hansen would, that's who -- and will, at The Triple Door in Seattle on Aug. 1. Of course, it's not exactly Hansen they're going to see. Instead the draw is Hansen's radio alter ego, Dr. Demento, who for more than three decades has been playing comedy, novelty and just plain odd songs. . . http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/371916_radiobeat24.html (via Kevin Redding, July 24, ABDX via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. Captaciones DX por Yimber Gaviria, Colombia. Las horas son en UTC. Frecuencia en kHz. Julio 23 del 2008. 1660, 0353, La Nueva Sensación, Venezuela, 0353- UT, 555, Segundo armónico 830 x 2. La Nueva Sensación... OM con TV "son las 11 y 23 minutos; 830 el poder en amplitud modulada". http://www.sensacion830.com/ Sintonicé ambas frecuencias; escuchen la grabación en los 830 kHz AM y en la frecuencia del segundo armónico, 830 x 2 = 1660 kHz AM. via YV5FIH. Receptor: Icom PCR-1000, Discone, en Global Tuners. 73 de (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, HCDX via DXLD) ?? So was it heard by Yimber or YV5FIH? The latter could be at near-local range, degrading the DX newsiness of this (gh) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. Saludos cordiales, hoy 23 de julio percibo que la Radio Nacional Saharaui está sin señal en 6300. JMR (José Miguel Romero2, Spain, 2035 UT July 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ARGELIA, 1550, Radio Nacional de la República Arabe Saharaui, 2126- 2137, 24-07, locutor, árabe, comentarios. Interferencia de Capital Gold, London en 1548. 22322. En paralelo con 6300 con mejor señal (44444). (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escuchas realizadas en Camping de Reinante, costa del mar Cantábrico, provincia de Lugo; Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CLANDESTINE, 6300, RADS, 2050-2100, July 26, Arabic, very nice local music, announcement by male in Arabic, 34333. Best reception for this station from my city (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. SWRA 12035: see UK UNIDENTIFIED. Re 8-084, 5050: As night falls in Europe (and before sunrise in Asia, Australia, NZ) may I remind everyone to check 5050 for that intriguing unID African in French that Roberto Scaglione was hearing yesterday before and after 2300 (Glenn Hauser, July 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 2035 check: I have a very faint carrier on 5050 which could be anything. Sorry, but this is something for monitors with more than a piece of wire in their kitchen [the HF-wise quietest place in my flat]. In any case this signal is noticeably weaker than 5030 (Burkina Faso), 4940 (IBB São Tomé) and 4905 (Chad [q.v.]). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) See enclosed thread: - Last night a mailing list about pirate stations had reports about a station with African music on 5050, perhaps a pirate station? - Yesterday at 2010 the signal on 5050 had just one pop song, played over and over. Rechecked several times, after 2100 this was still going on. - So it indeed appears to be a pirate. Subject: Re: [A-DX] Afrika auf 5050? Also doch wohl ein Pirat auf einer dummen Frequenz. da gab es doch vor Jahren einen "Latinopiraten" in der Gegend, der sogar eine Anschrift in VEN (?) hatte. Hier kam jetzt ein A4-QSL-Zertifikat von Maple Leaf Radio, einem 100-Watt-Piraten aus Nordamerika (6925 kHz). (Harald Kuhl, Germany, 1227 UT July 23, A-DX) In einer Piratenliste liefen gestern am späten Abendempfangsbeobachtungen für 5050 kHz mit afrikanischer Musik. Pirat oder Tropenbandsender? Tanzania wurde dort ja lange nicht mehr gehört und hatte früher schon gegen 2100 UTC Sendeschluss (Harald Kuhl, ibid.) Um 2010 UTC lierf jedenfalls nur Popmusik, und zwar immer wieder ein und das selbe Lied. Ich hab zwischendurch immer mal wieder rein gehört, ob sich am "Programm" etwas geändert hat, kurz nach 2100 UTC lief das Lied noch immer. Hier in Leibnitz war die Station mit SINPO 44343 zu hören. 73, (Patrick Robic, Austria, ibid.) [Kai`s summary translation]: - I think years ago there was a "latino pirate" around this frequency, even with an address in Venezuela? - You mean La Voz de las Cañas on 5060? This was a joke by some DXers at Madrid. They produced mock-ups of programming from Latin America and fired up a 100 watts transmitter etc.etc. In Madrid 0.2 litres of beer are called a Caña, thus the name, since they got this idea on a pup round. Du meinst La Voz de las Cañas auf 5060 kHz? Da haben sich vor laanger Zeit mal ein paar Madrider DXer einen Spaß mit Dario Monferini gemacht. Sendungen produziert, die wie ein Lateinamerikaner geklungen hat, über einen 100-Watt-Sender in Madrid abgestrahlt und dann tief in der Nacht Dario angerufen, sie hörten da einen UNID auf 5060 kHz, was das denn wohl sein könne. Der Spaß zog sich etliche Nächte hin, Dario hat dann Henrik Klemetz alarmiert und so wurde hin- und hergerätselt, was das denn wohl sein könnte. Dummerweise endete die rätselhafte Station auch nicht in jeder Nacht... Und als dann in den USA die üblichen Verdächtigen (Terry Kruger, Jerry Berg...) nichts hörten, wurde langsam klar, daß man wohl auf einen Schabernack reingefallen war und daß das wohl aus Europa kommen mußte. Während sich Dario und Henrik die Nächte um die Ohren schlugen, högte man sich genüßlich in Madrid. Unter Caña versteht man in Madrid ein kleines 0,2l Bierglas, und weil die Idee dazu beim Bier entstanden war, kam dann der Name "La Voz de las Cañas" dabei raus. -- Tschüß, Martin http://home.wolfsburg.de/elbe/ Elbe, 1512 UT July 23, ibid. (all via Kai Ludwig, DXLD) Good signal instead on 5060 (here in south Italy and on Atlantic DX UK Globaltuners receiver), Russian (?) mx. Here is a recording, but no more the same music like 10 minutes ago http://www.bclnews.it/5060-080723-2142utc.mp3 Off at 2154z (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, July 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Language sung on that clip sounds Russian, or at least Slavic, novelty song? Big signal on clips; still suspect non-pirate (gh, DXLD) The carrier was on 5050 kHz between 2037-2051 and on 5060 kHz it disappeared at 2154. It was very stable with similar trace on Spectrum Lab screen and in both cases 8 Hz below the nominal, so at least it looked like being from the same source. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, July 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 9500 audio sweeps again audible July 25 at 1224, but weaker than before. Suspect proof-of-performance testing of a new transmitter, but who knows where? Have previously heard this at various times between 1200 and 1330. Online skeds agree there is only one broadcaster supposed to be on 9500 at this time, CNR1, Shijiazhuang, China site, which runs 165 degrees all the way from 2000 to 1735 (but has anyone heard it at any time to confirm this is not wooden?). Novosibirsk, Russia, does start with FEBA to S Asia at 1400 on 9500, so maybe that`s a remote possibility (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 9720, A weak signal (33333) definitely Spanish, sounding like a political rally? Heard 2215-2230 July 26. No QRM. Possibly Radio Victoria, Lima. I am certain it is NOT Family Radio in French to Africa (whether or not it ends at 2200 or 2100). I have just (at 2230) heard a jingle - so even more likely to be Lima. Could this be a rare catch of a Latin American signal (from outside Brazil) of 1 kW reaching Europe, particularly in these zero sunspot times?? 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, July 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) This station is perpetually off-frequency, so if you could nail down the offset, that would help to ID it. See PERU (gh, DXLD) Hola: Nuestro amigo Antonio Madrid, experto diexista, realizó esta escucha desde Granada, España, el día 25 de julio y difundió el siguiente log: Log from Antonio Madrid, yesterday July 25, Located at Granada, Spain: Perú, R. Victoria, Lima, 9720 at 2220 UT, Predicador, Español, 34332 (AMG) (via Tomás Méndez, Spain, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 9950 at 0230z. News in English, female announcer. I first heard this a few days ago but I haven't been able to ID. HFCC A- 08 shows Ukraine (KHR) at this time but the R Ukraine Intl website lists 9945 (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, July 26, Drake R8B with sloper & T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RUI would not have English at 0230 anyway; can`t find anything listed. After 0200 July 27 I could detect a very weak carrier on 9950 aside DCJC 9955. Could be anything; mixing product? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MUSEA +++++ 'NEGLECT' OF BLETCHLEY CONDEMNED --- BBC News 24 July 2008 A call to save Bletchley Park has gone out from the UK's computer scientists. More than 100 academics have signed a letter to The Times saying the code-cracking centre and crucible of the UK computer industry deserves better. They say Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, should be put on a secure financial basis like other "great museums". "We cannot allow this crucial and unique piece of both British and World heritage to be neglected in this way," the letter to The Times said. The academics were brought together by Dr Sue Black, head of the computer science department at the University of Westminster, who was moved to act after visiting Bletchley Park in early July. "I went up there and felt quite upset by what I saw," she said... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7517874.stm More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) A PIECE OF HISTORY - PORTISHEAD RADIO Western and Somerset Mercury 26 July 2008 http://snipurl.com/35zjm [www_thewestonmercury_co_uk] A piece of Portishead's history is to be returned to the town after years in a Cornish barn. Set up in 1927, Portishead Radio was the most famous marine radio station in the world acting as a link between the Merchant Navy and home for decades. The transmitting site in Portishead was closed in 1978 and the police headquaters and houses at Merlin Park now stand in its place. Portishead resident and former town councillor John Clark has located what is believed to be one of only two remaining consoles from the station in Cornwall and is keen to see the equipment returned to its home town and put on display for all to see. He said: "Marconi's pioneering experiments over water took place within sight of Portishead. "The console provides links with our Merchant Navy past and the history of science and technology. I think it should be in Portishead." Members of Portishead and North Weston Town Council have agreed the proposed new library would be an ideal site for the historical equipment to be placed on show, however this is some time away and in the meantime Mr Clark is looking for a local organisation that will take responsibility for the storage and/or display of the console. Anyone interested in helping can contact John via email at john.h.clark @ btinternet.com (via Mike Terry, BDXC-UK via DXLD) TINY TRAP +++++++++ Re 8-084, ICELAND. Oops, it wasn`t Katie Couric on CBS but a female anchor on NBC Nightly News (Clara Listensprechen, DXLD) Ergo Anne Curry, subbing for Williams, and here`s the clip with the evidence at the end of her introduxion: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#25786220 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM; ALASKA; INDIA; NEW ZEALAND; below ++++++++++++++++++++ DAB/DTV: HUNGARY POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ ARRL GETS REIMBURSED FOR LEGAL FIGHT AGAINST FCC OVER BPL; SWLs SHAFTED *** emphasis added by gh below, who also wrote the headline The ARRL and the FCC have met to discuss the future of Broadband over Powerline Internet access. This after an appeals court ruled earlier in the year that the FCC handled the matter of B-P-L's introduction to the U-S improperly. On July 9, ARRL officials including President Joel Harrison, W5ZN; Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, and General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD met with members of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology. According to Imlay, the meeting was hold to discuss a possible regulatory approach to BPL with the FCC. Suggestions put forth by ARRL addressed the needs and concerns of Amateur Radio operators in avoiding harmful interference from BPL systems while imposing the minimum necessary regulatory obligations on B-P-L deployments. Imlay said, that there are at this point rules that could be adopted which would, at once, both protect Amateur Radio communications from predictable harmful interference from BPL; ***and permit broadband over power line systems to operate in the 3 to 80 MHz range without significant constraint and without substantial redesign or retroactive build outs.*** Meantime, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ordered that the Federal Communications Commission \ reimburse ARRL for the docketing fee and the cost of reproducing copies of briefs and other documents in the ARRL's successful challenge of the FCC's Broadband over Powerline rules. The Order, issued on July 9 following review of an opposition from the FCC and a reply from the ARRL, awarded the ARRL's full claim of $6,096.18 (ARRL via Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1615 - July 25, 2008 via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) UKQRM YAHOO! GROUP FORMED TO FIGHT AGAINST BPL A new Yahoo! Group called UKQRM has been formed. This is a meeting place for those who use HF (shortwave) and are suffering from QRM (interference) caused by a technology that is not designed to transmit RF. This is known as Broadband over Power Lines (BPL). Using power line adaptors, BPL devices set up a network within the home using the mains household wires to carry a radio frequency signal. The frequency used is the whole of the spectrum from 3 - 30 MHz which includes all the shortwave broadcast bands. The resulting interference extends hundreds of feet from the house with the equipment and makes listening to shortwave radio impossible for anyone within that range. The group is concentrating on the situation in the UK, but acknowledges that the problem is much wider than that. Mike, the group owner, has produced this video to illustrate the problem: UK readers interested in joining this group should go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UKQRM/ Andy Sennitt comments: The traditional DX clubs have been very slow to latch on to the threat posed by this technology, so it’s encouraging to see that at least some listeners in the UK are trying to raise awareness of the problem. Behind the scenes, RNW has been involved in the effort to prevent the widespread use of this technology for several years now. One of my colleagues has been attending international conferences to raise objections on behalf of shortwave broadcasters. Unfortunately only a handful of other other international broadcasters have supported our efforts. Interference from these devices affects digital as well as analogue shortwave signals. Related stories: Open PLC European Research Alliance publishes specification documents Research shows BPL and PLC face significant obstacles to success FCC adopts rules for Broadband over Power Lines Wireless Institute of Australia issues statement on BPL (July 25th, 2008 - 9:36 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) Comments so far 1 Bear July 25th, 2008 - 10:47 UTC This is a very serious matter, however I suspect that it’s a case of ‘money talks’. Let’s hope DRM has a louder voice than BPL!! 5 UKQRM Mike July 25th, 2008 - 11:11 UTC Dear Andy, Thanks very much for the support and all the work you and RNW has already done. I am perplexed and disappointed that only a few of us have become concerned about this problem. +30db I am getting from it here which wipes out everything DRM or otherwise. SWLs need to put pressure on their clubs and world broadcasters as well as their governments the ITU and shops and suppliers of short wave equipment. This is NOT going to go away without a fight. And if a SWL is currently unaffected the chances are they very soon will be. Join UKQRM and fight for your right to tune in the world! 6 ruud July 25th, 2008 - 13:52 UTC I am waiting for Broadband over water pipes, over gas pipes etc. I have some iron and copper work lying around some where, there must be a way to squeze money out of it by putting some broadband communications over it. (When you don`t hear from me anymore after this I have struck rich and burning money in some holiday resort.) The problem is that actually nobody is interested anymore in communication in the 150 kHz - 30 MHz band. Maybe some money can be made out of DRM, but that is questionable. So why not demolish this part of the spectrum by introducing million dollar gaining projects that will ruin normal use of the AM bands. Even portals over the motorways produce rubbish affecting AM reception (I know I am old fashioned by listening to obsolete AM bands). The government only cares for making as much money out of communications. On the back of the consumer who has to buy new equipment. BTW, anyone aware of the policy of the Dutch government on this? 7 Andy Sennitt July 25th, 2008 - 13:59 UTC Yes, it’s against it. Summary by the ARRL: NUON in the Netherlands is not going to offer its digital services through the power lines any longer. It will stop its services in the beginning of July [not sure what year that was, but not this year]. They have determined that the technology is too limited and that it is still not commercially attractive to offer internet services through the power lines. NUON claims that the test they performed shows that it is possible to offer internet services on a small scale. However, the technology is not ready yet for a large scale applications. One of the biggest problems is that it is very susceptible to interference. The Telecom Agency of the Dutch Government has determined through measurements that signals are too strong and cause interference to radio communications. Info about UKQRM was already published in DXLD 8-079, 8-080 but filed under RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM instead (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ MID DAY 49M OPENING TO COLOMBIA Apertura en pleno sol de la banda de 49 metros aprox de 1800 a 1900 UT del sábado 26 de julio, reportadas las siguientes estaciones: 6019.3, Radio Victoria 6055.0, Radio Juan XXIII * 6079.8, Radio San Gabriel * 6134.7, Radio Santa Cruz 6155.2, Radio Fides 6160.0, tent. Radio Rio Mar 6173.8, Radio Tawantisuyo 6536.0, Rd LV del Rondero * especial mencion a estas emisoras ya que revisando mi "logbook" hace más de 10 años no la escuchaba, efectos del nuevo ciclo solar??? También presentes las estaciones colombianas 5910 Marfil Estereo, 6010 LV de tu Conciencia y 6035 LV del Guaviare. Saludos colegas y bue DX para todos (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogota D.C. - COLOMBIA, PC Winradio G303I, JRC NRD 525, Sony ICF 2010, Antenas hilos de varios longitudes, July 27, condiglist yg via DXLD) BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, PERU SETI SEGMENT ON NOVA SCIENCE NOW http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0305/02.html Did not seem to take into account Joe Buch`s recent comments here about digital vs analog; possibly they do not read DXLD? (gh) AURORA "POWER SURGES" TRIGGERED BY MAGNETIC EXPLOSIONS Here's something of note that turned up today: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080724-auroras-lights.html (Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA via DXLD) Researchers working on a NASA mission to understand the interplay of magnetic fields and charged particles blown outward from the Sun have identified the trigger for the colorful electrical storms in the polar regions. They hope this is a step in developing reliable forecasts of geomagnetic storms that can disrupt satellites in orbit and power grids on the ground. The findings appeared in an article published Thursday on the Web site of the journal Science. Scientists have long known that the dancing auroras of color known as the northern and southern lights are generated by charged particles flying from the Sun and interacting with the Earth`s magnetic field, which is then pulled into a windsock shape by the solar wind. FULL STORY: http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=014&ACCT=1400000100&ISSUE=0807&RELTYPE=CS&PRODCODE=0000000&PRODLETT=ZB&CommonCount=0 73, (Curt Phillips, CEM CMVP, W4CP ex-KD4YU; WB4LHI, ARRL Life; QCWA; SKCC; NASWA; OOTC Tar Heel Scanner/SWL Group, Raleigh, NC USA, http://www.w4cp.com NASWA yg via DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ TIM RUSSERT BLEW IT ON IRAQ. SO WHY ARE WE CANONIZING HIM? By Alexander Cockburn, The Nation The delirium in the press at Tim Russert’s passing has been strange. As a broadcaster he was not much better than average, which is saying very little. He could be a sharp questioner, but not when it really counted and when courage was required. He was tough with George Bush in a February 2004 interview. He taxed him with faking the reasons to attack Iraq. But in the years before the 2003 attack, I used to hear Russert being merciless to those questioning whether Saddam Hussein had the nukes and bioweapons alleged by the Bush Administration and its co-conspirators in the press, prominent among them Russert himself. Russert and his staff ignored efforts by watchdogs like Sam Husseini and others to get him to stop telling lies to the effect that it was Saddam who threw out the UNSCOM weapons inspectors, whereas it was Richard Butler, the head of UNSCOM, who pulled out the inspectors, apparently at the instigation of the United States. As Husseini correctly writes, “This lie, echoed through much of the political- media system around the time Russert told it, helped set the stage for the invasion after 9/11.” If Russert had rocked the boat in any serious way he’d have had more enemies. The right-wingers didn’t care for Walter Cronkite, but they had no problem with Russert. Rush Limbaugh nuzzled him respectfully on the air, and so did Don Imus. Russert was always there with his watering can to fertilize myths useful to the system. On Russert’s memorial show Ronald Reagan glowed in memory, up there with FDR as the twentieth century’s best-loved and most popular American President. Not true at all, as Russert — trained to read polls by years of working for Mario Cuomo and Daniel Patrick Moynihan — could have found out in five minutes if he’d wanted to. Reagan had a scrawny 52 percent average approval rating for his presidency, worse than JFK, LBJ, Eisenhower, Roosevelt and Johnson. His supposed “likability” was also hugely exaggerated. But the invention of RR as the toast of the ordinary folk was necessary to validate the disgusting pigout for the very rich he inaugurated, which continues to this day. Similarly necessary has been the notion that if it means winning the “war on terror,” ordinary Americans are OK with the President (along with the US Congress) making a bonfire of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Russert helped spread that lie too, even though polls dissected in numerous accounts by press watchdogs like FAIR have shown that a narrow majority of Americans hold contrary views on the matter. Russert spent many years working for Moynihan, who played the greasiest cards in the political deck, whoring for the Israel lobby, race-baiting for Nixon. Few were more zealous than Russert in shredding anyone with the temerity to criticize Israel. Obama, now shuffling Moynihan’s greasy deck with his Father’s Day sermon about black responsibility, got a dose of Russert’s own race-baiting earlier this year, with a ridiculous volley of questions about Farrakhan and Wright in the February 26 debate. Any white telly pundit can make hay with Farrakhan, but when it came to high gasoline prices Russert was meek as a shoeshine boy on his show, lining up the oil execs and tugging his forelock. After Russert’s death the TV played over and over the clip of his interview with Dick Cheney, where the latter said US troops will be greeted as liberators. Russert didn’t say, “What do you mean, Mr. VP? People historically despise occupying armies. Bombing historically does not win people to your side.” It was a softball moment for Cheney. Russert was part of the amen chorus. Now, after his death, in congratulating Russert, his eulogists in the press get to congratulate themselves. On Hardball, Chris Matthews decided to have a show much like the one he always has, stacked with Irish Catholic men. This time it was more self-conscious, but the self-consciousness of it only underscored the incredible skewed reality that the show presents day in and day out. Matthews began with a prayer. “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. [Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.]” Then he introduced guys who are on his show all the time, Mike Barnicle and Pat Buchanan. And the three of them had a kind of Irish wake on the air, laughing, remembering, talking about the importance of parochial school and the values imbued in Tim and all of them by the nuns. On and on they went, about Catholicism and the Irish, and the special quality of Irish Catholics as “truth tellers,” as people who “get the bad guys” — prosecutors, G-men and journalists. Russert was put right up there in the pantheon of FBI agents, without irony, people who delve for the truth, for the light, for the greater good against the “bad guys.” Matthews used that phrase, “bad guys,” over and over. Then he closed the segment with the other half of the prayer: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” Russert, they said, was the guy who always did it better. So it was as if the closing prayer put Tim right there by the side of Mary, an interlocutor to God for the lesser lights, the Chrises and Pats and Mikes, the “sinners” who only strive to be like him. The TV carried live shots of Russert lying in state, and the mourners could pass by and merely touch the edge of his coffin for a cure, or hope for a cure. This after seven years of craven, culpable journalism across the mainstream board. No one at this point is remembering the reporters at Knight Ridder, who were among the few in the mainstream pre-war to hammer away at the WMD argument. Russert’s colleague- survivors need him as a saint (via Oklahoma Observer July 10/25 via DXLD) Some of many comments on the article from alternet forum, now closed: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/88783/tim_russert_blew_it_on_iraq._so_why_are_we_canonizing_him/ A lesson for Democrats. Posted by: KeepsonTickn Jun 20, 2008 5:13 AM When I watched Democrats and pundits from the left praise Tim Russert's fairness, I couldn't help but think of the words of the replicant Priss, in Blade Runner, "Then we are stupid and we will die." Tim Russert was a likeable guy. That did not make him fair and impartial. One of the pundits said that Russert was "so well prepared that he had questions twelve levels deep." Well, this was true, if he was interviewing Democrats - he would persist and persist with every possible embarrassing, damaging or incriminating interpretation of events. With Republicans, though, Particularly administration officials Russert tended to be one level deep. He would ask the expected question from the news of the day (even if it was uncomfortable!) But then he accepted the subject's prepared answer, no matter how inadequate or obviously flawed it was. If Russert was fair, Republicans wouldn't be heaping so much praise on him. They aren't wired that way. Democrats could learn from this. One of the many --- Posted by: jebpgh on Jun 20, 2008 6:18 AM Russert was a nice guy who worked hard to make himself seem penetrating and tough. But he was not exceptional when it comes to the media's role in the war, he was running with the pack. His life was of consequence to his family and friends - and that is how he should be remembered. Most of the praise came from the same colleagues who feed at the same trough of mis-information and pretend to be journalists. I really didn't pay a lot of attention - and neither should anyone else. We should all move on at times like these and take this propped up homage from the collective for what it is - hollow and self-serving. No need to get mean about it (via DXLD) OBIT ###