DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-093, August 17, 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 1421 Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] 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 ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. R. Solh, 17700, via Rampisham UK, making it here weakly Aug 13 at 1459; familiar piece of music still being interrupted for a few seconds at hourtop, and then starting another piece (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UK/UAE. Adresse Radio Solh. Hallo zusammen, ich hatte Radio Solh via GB gehoert und wollte jetzt einen RR abschicken. Jetzt bin ich auf Suche nach der Adresse (Ralf Ladusch-D, A-DX Aug 11) Negative. Bisher habe ich nirgends eine Adresse gesehen. Siehe S.484 im WRTH. Waehrend des exJugoslawien und Irak-Kriegs gab es wenigstens ein USPsychRadio ueber die fliegenden Sender mit einer Adresse auf einem Stuetzpunkt in den USA. Mit EC-130E Flugzeugen - einer Hercules Version. Man wird fuendig mit US PsyOps radio Solh in Google: http://www.psywarrior.com/Herbafghan.html http://www.psywarrior.com/psyhist.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_operations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/193d_Special_Operations_Wing http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=182 Radio Solh wird seit Okt 2004 von einer Einheit der Psychologischen Kriegsfuehrung der US Armee produziert und ueber Al Dhabbaya-UAE mit 250 kW und Rampisham England mit 500 kW ausgesendet. Angemietet wird die Sendezeit bei der Firma VTC(exMerlin), die auch die Frequenzen bei der HFCC Konferenz koordiniert. 11665 0200-0600 40,41NW DHA 250 kW 45 Grad 11675 0600-1200 40,41NW DHA 250 kW 45 Grad 17700 1200-1800 40NE RMP 500 kW 85 Grad Laut Glenn Hauser wird immer wieder das gleiche Programm/Musik ausgesendet/wiederholt (wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 11) 193rd Special Operations Group, Harrisburg IAP, Middletown, Pennsylvania, PA 17057 oder Air Force Special Operations Command, Public Affairs Office; 229 Cody Ave, Ste 103; Hurlburt Field FL 32544-5273; DSN 579-5515 or (850) 884- 5515 (Tom DF5JL, A-DX Aug 11, all via BC-DX via DXLD) So has anyone tried to QSL R. Solh via those addresses, which I think are also/really for Commando Solo airborne? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALASKA. KNLS, Anchor Point, 11870, 1058 UT. Met opening van het klassieke KNLS tuning signal. Gevolgd met Mandarins gesproken program, wel aan de zeer zachte kant. Maar beter dan op 11765 (juist carrier). Toch een tijdje geleden dat ik dit station nog kon nemen. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, België, Aug 16, bdx mailing list via DXLD) i.e.: KNLS, Anchor Point, 11870, 1058 UT Aug 16. With the classic KNLS tuning signal. Weak but fair and better than 11765. I hear very soft Mandarin talks. The Perseus receiver works great; you see what you hear. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. SUCCESSOR TO RADIO TIRANA ON SHORTWAVE? "Home2US has added three premium channels produced by Albania’s Top Channel to the Home2US direct-to-home lineup, the company announced Aug. 13. ... 'The addition of Top Channel and its highly respected team of journalists and overall programming production quality to the Home2US lineup represent a premium expansion and a true win for Albanians living and working throughout America.'" Satellite Today, 13 August 2008. See also website of Home2US, "Gateway for International Broadcasters into the Americas." Posted: 13 Aug 2008 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** ALBANIA [and non]. While searching a little bit I discovered the website of the Beijing-based company (called BBEF) that manufactures the 150 Kw shortwave transmitter (called TBH 522) installed in Albania and of course in China itself. The news release about what was presumably the first delivery to SARFT: http://www.bbef.com/english/e2.htm And the product page: http://www.bbef.com/english/epsm150kw.htm The website also presents a 50 kW variant (TBH 422), but nothing rated at 100 kW. So were the new Shijak transmitters made by another company? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA [and non]. R. Tirana, 13640 to NAm, again audible Aug 16 at 1454, S9+12 level but distorted, needs better modulation, theme music. 1458 cuts to other music with more flutter --- oops, the latter must be CRI via Kashi, as scheduled in English to Europe, and was still going at 1500 opening in Chinese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. I frequently look for LRA36 at various weekday times between 19 and 21 on 15476, but no luck lately, with poor propagation and/or too much local noise. But Aug 15 at 1817 I was definitely getting a carrier on 15476, evidenced by the het it was making with Gabon, also very weak, on 15475. Checked again at 1947 but nothing. Maurits Van Driessche in Belgium was getting RNASG during that hour on 15476.03, peaking at 1917, but weakening by 1940 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: LRA36, Radio Nacional Arcángel, 15476.03. Aug 15 from 1903, with talks in Spanish by female. Signal and audio are best at 1917, with nice drum music and comments. At1940 signal goes down. Best with LW 25meter and Perseus receiver. G (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ARGENTINA/ANTARTIC, 15476, LRA36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, Base Esperanza, 1940-2010, August 15, Spanish, folk songs, ID at 1950 "Transmite LRA36......" , more music and other ID at 1956 UT as: "Transmite LRA36, Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, desde la Base Esperanza, en el Territorio Antártico Argentino..."; other ID by male and more music (national folk). Reported to 2010 UT, 24432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA [and non]. When I was not getting Antarctica, I was getting a variable het on 15345 from RAE, at 1948 Aug 15, which must have been about 15344.8 vs Morocco, which provided the only modulation audible, Arabic music on 15345.0. Usually the het is fairly constant, maybe varying slightly but this time it was alternating irregularly between two different pitches, revealing a further instability in the transmitter. Or maybe Morocco was the unstable one, but I doubt it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. HCJB verifying reception on 15425 at 1200-1230 UT 17 August 2006. The picture depicts the Bungle Bungles. ``The unique geological formations are found in Purnululu National Park, WA. Horizontal silica bands are clearly visible. Sightseeing flights from Kununurra to see the Bungle2 fly over the HCJB Australia transmitter site every day (Fachri, with repro of QSL card, Duly Verified column, Aug World DX Club Contact via DXLD) O o, watch out for all that RF and consider its takeoff angles, azimuths (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Per information from the station, ARDS in Humpty Doo, has not been on 5050 kHz. since July 2007 "due to technical problems." No word on whether they will return to SW (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, U.S.A., Aug 13, HCDX via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Re: 1611 kHz, Sydney --- This news was posted by Geoff Wolfe in the MWOZ Yahoo forum: 1611 in Sydney is no longer R. Italia but now calling itself "Goanna" with a C&W format. This station is also being relayed on the recently re-activated 1701 kHz also here in Sydney. Talk about a waste in watts - having a station on two frequencies within the same service area... Geoff Wolfe - St Marys NSW Australia (via David Onley, The Hague - The Netherland, dxing.info via DXLD) I think the 1611 kHz frequency is part of the old Radio 2 (World Audio Ltd.) network and the 1701 kHz is part of Sid Merhi's Heart N' Soul Productions and Asia Pacific Property developments network. I believe that this is a re-launch and re-branding of His old NTC network. Obviously the DRM trials (for which 1701 frequency was purchased) for Arabic station Radio 2ME (another Sid Merhi company) have ended and Mr. Merhi needs to keep the frequency "alive" to avoid ACMA invoking the "use it or loose it" clause attached to HPON and LPON license conditions. Personally I think that having another country music network in Sydney (to match HPON Cool Country 2KA 1476) is fantastic! The whole reason I got into DXing was to find country music stations, so I am absolutely stoked!! (H. R. BOEKEMANN, Aug 15, ibid.) ** BAHAMAS [non]. 1540, UNIDENTIFIED; 1015-1033 17 August, 2008. Black Southern gospel-type female till 1025 segue into soft Christian vocal, then EZL instrumental. No voice announcements. A couple of domestics and one station with soft Spanish vocals in the mix. Only KZMP audible on the channel at 1045 recheck, excellent from Texas at 1054. Southeast Florida contacts are still hearing no trace of ZNS1 upon checking for me this morning, however. ZNS1 was supposed to be back up by Friday with the upgrades but missed the date. And just when their citizens could have used it with a tropical storm south of the Bahamas (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, Aug 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See disclaimer under CUBA ** BELARUS. 7105, Radio Belarus, 2100-2145, Aug 16, English news. Commentary. Pop music. Instrumental music. ID. Fair. Weak // 7360. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELGIUM. FRANS-NOORSE STRIJD OM VRT-ZENDERS Onderstaand gelezen op http://www.mediamagazine.nl/en op http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/ondernemingen_media_telecom/Frans-Noorse_strijd_om_VRT-zenders.7914643-435.art 73, Hugo Er zijn nog twee kandidaten in de running voor de overname van het zenderpark van de VRT. Volgens diverse bronnen gaat het om de Franse groep TDF en Norkring uit Noorwegen. Zij dienen midden volgende maand een finaal bod in. Daarna hakt de openbare omroep de knoop door. Het dossier is van belang voor de ontwikkeling van het digitale omroeplandschap in Vlaanderen. De Vlaamse regering wil dat het zenderpark, dat de VRT onder meer gebruikt voor analoge en digitale tv-uitzendingen via de ether, verzelfstandigd wordt en overgaat in andere handen. Dat heeft te maken met de plannen van de overheid voor de ontwikkeling van digitale tv en radio via de ether in Vlaanderen. De regering wil dat de openbare omroep het als aanbieder van digitale uitzendingen gaat opnemen tegen andere partijen. Het bezitten van zendinfrastructuur, die de concurrentie ook nodig heeft, zou de VRT van bij de start bevoordelen. Daarom wil de overheid dat een neutrale partij het zenderpark in handen krijgt. TDF, een gewezen onderdeel van France Télécom, is een van de grootste zenderparkuitbaters van Europa. Het bedrijf is in handen van een reeks durfkapitaalgroepen. Het veel kleinere Norkring is een filiaal van de Noorse telefoonmaatschappij Telenor die gecontroleerd wordt door de regering van Noorwegen. Norkring bezit een zenderpark in het Scandinavische land dat ter beschikking wordt gesteld van lokale omroepen. Lees verder (via Hugo Matten, Aug 13, bdx mailing list via DXLD) There are still two candidates in the running to take over the transmission sites of VRT. According to various sources, they are the French group TDF and Norkring from Norway. They will submit their final bids in the middle of next month. Then the public broadcaster will make its decision. The dossier is important for the development of the digital broadcasting landscape in Flanders. The Flemish government wants to privatise the transmission sites used, amongst other things, for analogue and digital terrestrial broadcasting. That's connected with the government's plans for the development of terrestrial digital TV and radio in Flanders. The government wants the public broadcaster to offer services on equal terms with other parties. The possession of the transmission infrastructure, that the competitors also need to use, would give the VRT an unfair advantage from the start. Therefore the government wants a neutral party to take over the facilities. TDF, a subsidiary of France Télécom, is one of the biggest transmission site operators in Europe. The company is in the hands of various capital investment groups. The much smaller Norkring is an affiliate of the Norwegian telephone company Telenor, which is controlled by the Norwegian government. Norkring operates transmitters in its home country that are used by local broadcasters (translated by Andy Sennitt, for DX LISTENING DIGEST) It's actually not that big a deal - TDF also owns the tower just behind RNW! They're gradually expanding all over Europe, so maybe we'll all have to brush up on our French :-) (Andy Sennitt, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BENIN. TWR, 1660 kHz, 12 June 0300, Christian and local African music, English, SINPO 44444; also on 1660, 5 July 0340, Christian program in Hausa, 44444 (Dzever Ishenge, Central Nigeria, Aug World DX Club Contact via DXLD) This is supposed to be on 1566 kHz, and has been confirmed there by Euroamerican DXers. Suspect his MW radio dial is way off, tho several adjacent SW logs from him appear accurate. Or possibly TWR is putting out a spur, but if so should have been noted as such (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. I've tried 6035 Bhutan this evening (13Aug) 1255-1300 UT, just before Firedrake (on 6030) sets in at 1300. PBS Yunnan in Vietnamese (presumed, according to Aoki list) with South Asian sounding speech slightly weaker in the background. Vietnamese speech and South Asian music towards the end of the hour (Yogesh, Hong Kong, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6035, BBS, posted to DXLD yg files section: "Station Sounds": segments of news program from 1401-1415, Aug 12. At 00:07 Prime Minister has come back to the country after the Colombo summit, 01:28 "over 800,000 rupees", 01:50 "Bhutan is hosting … environmental" and 02:00 "Bhutan". This clip will give folks an idea as to what Bruce and I have been struggling to understand during their English programming. Bruce has reviewed the clip and his comments are as follow: ``Ron: Indeed this is very similar to what I've been hearing during the news bulletins. I heard the word Bhutan mentioned a time or two. I would be ecstatic to get reception this good – this is S3+ to S4 and what I get is barely S2. Obviously my Wellbrook loop is not a good 49m performer! A couple of days ago I tuned the SF site of Global Tuners (an R-75 receiver) and noted that the reception there was noticeably better than Southern CA. So your good reception is not an anomaly. I noted the Chinese station under BBS in your recording – I guess the better BBS gets, the more annoying the co-channel QRM underneath! Cheers, Bruce`` (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BIAFRA [non]. WHRI, 15280, loud and clear Friday Aug 15 at 1958 with sign-on, and 1959 starting V. of Biafra International early with its own opening including anthems, several IDs mentioning 19 meter band only, not the frequency. Listened to a few minutes of the usual orator, against the ``Satanic Nigerian government``, and something about the Sokoto Caliphate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Bandscanning vanaf 2130 UT 13-8 5952.47, Emisora Pio XII 5996.23, Radio Loyola 6134.82, Radio Santa Cruz Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4699.6, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta 0930 noted before sign on of Radio Yura 13 August, fair to good signal. 4781.50, Radio Tacana, Tumupasa 1020 to 1030; 13 August but noted off the air 0000 to 0030 on several occasions. 5580.2, Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos weak 0120 to 0130. Provides a signal every local night. 5996.36, Radio Loyola, Sucre, 1045 to 1100 narrow filter with OM en español 13 August. Also 5952.4 Bolivia, Radio Pío XII Siglo XX same time with narrow filter and notch (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, US - 746Pro NRD 535D, 90 meter dipole, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 9694.91, Radio Rio Mar, Manáus, AM, 1045-1053, August 16, Portuguese, Local ads: "....promoção São Francisco de Asis... , neste domingo...." , TC: "A hora certa....", 23432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Bandscanning vanaf 2130 UT 13-8 [for those interested in exact frequencies; unclear if the ones without any decimals are meant to be .00] 9529.96, R. Transmundial 9564.88, R. Tupi 9629.94, R. Aparecida 9645.28, R. Bandeirantes 9675, R. Canção Nova 11780, R. Nacional Amazônia 11784.44, R. Guaíba 11815, R. Central 11854.94, R. Aparecida 11915.10, R. Gaúcha 11925.20, R. Bandeirantes 5990, R. Senado Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 9615 or 9660 --- R. Cultura. the first time I observed this on 9660 was on 12 Jul (2218-, and still heard the next day at 0915 & 1400), then again on 13 & 14 Jul, not anymore (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, mid-August, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Cultura no ar, porém fora de QRG. No momento, a mesma está operando em 9659 kHz, fora do seu QRG original, que é de 9615 (QRA: Édison Bocorny Jr., QTH: Novo Hamburgo- RS, 1948 UT Aug 16, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. RNA em 9665 kHz em 2009? Foi o que repassaram para o blog do Célio Romais que fala do mundo das Ondas Curtas. De acordo com a informação, até o final do ano, encerra o contrato de locação da Rádio China Internacional, que usa está canaleta de 9665 KHZ em 31 metros, que pertence ao EBC do Governo Federal. Mas em algumas QTR´s, a rádio Marumby de Florianopolis utiliza este canal, apesar de ser esporádico. Seria muito interessante a Rádio Nacional da Amazônia transmitir nesta faixa e omidirecional, para que nós aqui do extremo sul do Brasil, possamos disfrutar as informações gerais, pedidos e músicais, etc, pois nos 31 metros há uma abrangência melhor para estas distâncias. Sendo assim, poderiam caprichar bem nos 6185 e mudar a Guaíba, que opera em canal adjascente com diferença de apenas 5 kHz, 11780 da RNA e 11785 da pobre Guaíba, que é atropelada pela RNA nos estados de Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul e Mato Grosso, além dos demais do nordeste. Achava que o EBC locava o QRG de 9600 e não 9665 kHz. Alguém sabe se estou errado? 73 (QRA: Édison Bocorny Jr., QTH: Novo Hamburgo - RS, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Ola colegas. Hoje pela manhã tirei a prova dos nove com respeito à imagem em 11935 kHz da Globo com distorção: tratá-se realmente de uma emissão espúria da Globo. Utilizei um outro rádio, este analógico, e a imagem estava lá presente. Testei longe do computador e do Degen, para não ter dúvida. Não sei explicar porque não chega por aí, mas que definitivamente não é defeito do rádio isso eu já tenho. Como tinha dito antes, no ano passado também tive esse problema usando um radio motobrás (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Skype jorge.freitas.fsa Feira de Santana, Bahia, Aug 17, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) ** BURKINA FASO. 5030, Radio Burkina, *0531-0600, Aug 15, sign on with National Anthem. Opening French announcements at 0532. Local African folk music at 0534. Poor to fair. 5030, Radio Burkina, 2340-0003*, Aug 15-16, French talk. Afro-pop music. Sign off with National Anthem at 0001. Poor in noise & splatter from Cuba 5025 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Unusual CRTC Application --- http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2008/pb2008-71.htm 8. Vancouver, British Columbia, Application No. 2008-1011-0 Application by CTV Limited (CTV) to amend the licence of the radio programming undertaking CFUN-AM Vancouver. The licensee proposes to move the transmitter from its current location to a new site, owned by the licensee, approximately eight kilometres south-east. CTV advised the Commission that the existing AM transmitter CFUN Vancouver is deteriorated to the point that the station is unable to prove its antenna pattern. The Commission notes that changing the transmitter site of the radio station will result in a decrease in the coverage area and consequently, in a decrease in reached population of approximately 574,000 people. ==== What does it mean when a station is "unable to prove its antenna pattern"? (Ricky Leong, Calgary, AB, DX LISTENING DIGEST) As in `proof of performance` that it is operating according to licensed parameters. Or maybe supposed to read ``improve``? But this would be no improvement (gh, DXLD) I note the CRTC document says the station will lose something like 500,000 people from its coverage area. It's difficult for me to see how simply moving the transmitter 8km could move that many people out of the coverage. I wonder if there's a substantial power reduction too? The new facility is not yet in the Industry Canada database so there's no way to check (Doug Smith, TN, Aug 14, NRC-AM via DXLD) Doug, I would be surprised if CFUN will drop power, but there is a good chance the directional pattern will change. Probably putting it all North. 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, ibid.) I remember in the fall/winter of 1975/76 when CFUN was reported as a night time regular by the DDXD crew in northeast Ohio, often topping the channel with an s-20 signal. Great condx that fall - I never logged CFUN on Long Island but did get some nice catches (Bob Galerstein, WB2VGD, Monroe, New York, ibid.) Still 50 kW-U but the coverage area here was defined at the 15mV/m contour, i.e. good crystal set listening strength - the "lost" coverage is in north west Vancouver (new transmitter site SE of the old one). Pattern close but not exactly the same as the old one. Always wondered if the current pattern is accurate - according to the official pattern not all that much signal is sent east but it is a regular here in Calgary on the crystal set. 73, (Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CANADA. CRTC on the Canadian wood business CRTC APPROVAL: NORTHERN PEAKS PORNOGRAPHY CHANNEL CLEARS FIRST HURDLE GRANT ROBERTSON, MEDIA REPORTER, August 15, 2008 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080815.PORN15/TPStory/TPNational/Television/ A Canadian pay-television pornography channel - which is pledging to show at least 50 per cent domestic content at night - has been approved by federal regulators this week, but it must now try to persuade cable and satellite companies to carry the service. The digital channel, which is to be called Northern Peaks, was approved Wednesday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, after Alberta-based Real Productions first applied for the licence in October of 2007. In its application, the company said the proposed service would be "Canada's first adult video channel offering significant Canadian adult content." Northern Peaks will produce its own movies, in addition to events and series from Canada, the company told the regulator. "During each broadcast year, the licensee shall devote not less than 50 per cent of the evening broadcast period to Canadian programming," say CRTC documents outlining the decision. Before Northern Peaks will be given its licence, it must show the CRTC that at least one cable or satellite carrier has agreed to pick up the service. The channel has three years to find an agreement or risk losing the licence. The channel is a Category 2 pay television service, meaning cable and satellite carriers are not required to pick up the channel and the company must negotiate with each carrier. The CRTC said it did not receive any interventions at hearings held in May, meaning there were no other broadcasters or interest groups who registered their opposition to the bid. According to the licence, Northern Peaks is restricted to certain genres, including: drama and comedy, long-form documentary, miniseries, theatrical feature films, game shows and human-interest programming. It will not carry any high-definition programming, according to company documents. Based in Sherwood Park, Alta., Real Productions produces adult content for Starz, Playboy TV and HBO. "Northern Peaks' broadcast day will start at 6 a.m. and run a full 24 hours," the company told the CRTC in its application. If it launches, Northern Peaks will be required to spend a minimum of 25 per cent of its subscriber revenues on Canadian programming, including at least $1-million in its first broadcast year. All programs must be close-captioned, as per CRTC rules. In approving the licence, the CRTC also issued a reminder to cable and satellite companies that "due to the adult nature of the programming, this service shall only be distributed at the specific request of the subscriber." The carriers are not permitted to package the service so that customers must buy Northern Peaks to get other channels (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) Yea, Cancon! (gh, DXLD) ** CHAD. 4904.97, RNT, *0429-0440, Aug 15, sign on with National Anthem. Opening French announcements at 0430. Afro-pop music at 0431. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE. Hi All - There is a new remote SW receiver in Chile. I tried it just now, looking for two Chilean stations that I thought might be active still. 6010 R. Parinacota 6090 R. Esperanza Both were untraced when checking at 0955, but are listed in the WRTH as 24 hours. Does anyone know if they a still active? (Hans Johnson, FL, Aug 15, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Hans, Just checked this, popular receiver at 1100 GMT. Tnx for tip of Chile receiver (Bob Wilkner, ibid.) So how does one access it? (gh) ** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake colliding with WINB, 13570, Aug 14 at 1328, and about equal level with Harold Camping YFR relay. Don`t recall FD on this frequency before. May be another hit-and-run by Sound of Hope, and could be gone tomorrow. 1403 recheck, WINB only. {tho VOA São Tomé is also scheduled in English after 1400} Firedrake 12040 and 11990 are normally a pair with 12040 stronger, but Aug 14 at 1325 check, 11990 was much stronger. Again suggests that different sites are in use, and changing comparative strength due to propagation variations, tho it could also be transmitted azimuths or powers for some reasons known only to SARFT. Per Aoki, victim on 11990 is VOA via Novosibirsk, and 12040 VOA Tinang. Looked for Firedrake again on 13570, Aug 15 at 1257, but no sign of it under WINB, despite having been there Aug 14 at 1328. Sound of Hope probably had moved on again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Re: How the Chinese duped the world’s broadcasters at Olympics opening ceremony --- The sensationalist media missed the whole point! The cute little girl was lip singing Ode to the Motherland. The lyrics include this passage: We love peace, we love home, But if anyone dares to infringe upon our peaceful home, We will render him to death! The sun is rising in the east; Our People’s Republic is maturing; Our leader, Mao Zedong, Guides the way forward. Composed in 1950, the song soon became an unofficial anthem for Chinese fight with Americans in Korea. Later, the song was closely associated with Cultural Revolution. My older Chinese friends were shocked that such a politicized and aggressive song was picked for the Olypmics opening ceremony. It reminds them of PRC’s initial anti- Western tendencies and of millions killed in the labor camps (SRG August 14th, 2008 - 16:57 UTC, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** CHINA. OLYMPICS: RADIO FREE ASIA PROTESTS AT MEDIA BAR Tibetan-born correspondent still awaiting accreditation Station banned by Chinese authorities files complaint Paul Kelso, Tuesday August 12 2008 07:25 BST A radio station banned by the Chinese authorities has filed a formal complaint with the International Olympic Committee after the Beijing organising committee (Bocog) failed to issue one of its correspondents with media accreditation. Full story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/12/olympics2008.olympicsandthemedia (via Mike Barraclough, dxldyg via DXLD) RFA should throw all its Olympic QSL cards in the trash (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. CRI's reporter in exile in the USA. "Jimmy Cheng Qinghua, an editor for state-run China Radio International (CRI) in Beijing, who now lives in exile in the United States, gave CPJ the directives he saved while he worked on CRI's desk. They covered everything from sensitive political issues to banal tabloid scandals. Having released the information, Cheng knew he wouldn't be able to return to China without facing serious jail time." Bob Dietz, http://cpj.org/blog/2008/08/olympics-a-21point-plan-for-uniformity.php (Committee to Protect Journalists blog, 13 August 2008. Posted: 15 Aug 2008, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) SW transmitters: see ALBANIA ** CHINA. 4940, Voice of Strait (Channel 1), Fuzhou, 1224-1333, Aug 17, in Chinese, no English IDs heard today (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 4950, V. of Pujiang 1219-1245 Aug 12, Pop music selections, M&W announcers; ads/promos at 1230, then mostly chat. Fair and // 3280, also fair. 9750, Nei Menggu PBS 1338-1401+ Aug 15. Totally dominant today, with presumed NHK, the usual dominant, way underneath. Violin music to 1340, then M&W chatting in presumed Mongolian; pips (5+1) at ToH, a couple stanzas of "The East is Red," then more talk. VG signal // 7270 which was fair but deteriorating (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. Bandscanning vanaf 2130 UT 13-8 5910.07, Marfil Estéreo Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** CUBA. Cuba on 530 kHz at Mid-Day! While driving along US 90 from Pascagoula, MS, to Pass Christian, MS, this past Saturday morning (Aug 9th), I was bored with the same old FM radio programming, so I tuned the rental car's radio to the AM band to listen to one of my favorite AM stations, WWL 870 out of New Orleans. Not being familiar with the radio's controls, I accidentally hit the "Seek" button instead of the "Tune" button. The radio stopped on 530 kHz with a HUGE signal from Radio Enciclopedia out of Havana!! I found a sandy spot along the side of the road, pulled off, and listened in amazement. It was, in fact, Radio Enciclopedia. This was around 10:30 AM CDT!! I was able to listen to them all the way from Biloxi to Pass Christian. I turned off of US 90 at Menge Road and lost them as I drove inland toward Interstate 10. Never underestimate the power of AM propagation over salt water! 73 and GREAT DX, (Steve N5WBI, Houston TX, Aug 15, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. Re 8-092: Radio Havana Cuba is still and will continue to use 6180 kHz The never ending bashing against Radio Havana Cuba by Señor Glenn Hauser continues. He has posted at every possible site related to short wave listening a message that sent his credibility down the drain. For the information of the readers of ODXA yahoogroups, HCDX and other shor wave listeners e-mail lists and groups: Radio Havana Cuba continues to use the 6180 kiloHertz frequency registered at the ITU. We are now operating the 6180 kiloHertz frequency with a different antenna pattern and have optimized the coverage of Central North America on 6140 kiloHertz. Again, and to make it clear as a bell --- you can pick up RHC in Spanish on 6180 kiloHertz, a 49 meters band channel that we have not left empty or will leave empty anytime in the foreseeable future. Signed, (Arnie Coro, Host of Dxers Unlimited, Havana, Cuba, 13 August 2008, 12.30 PM 16.30 UTC, HCDX via DXLD) Arnie, Read my comments again. The point in the very first line is the 0500-0700 UT period only, when RHC was colliding with VOA Greenville for at least the last 4+ months, both in English, and an intolerable mixture at least here in your central USA target area. When I first heard 6140 after 0500 August 12, there was no RHC signal audible on 6180, in Spanish or any other language. Also the next night, I could not hear RHC after 0500 on 6180. Are you claiming that RHC is still using 6180 after 0500? Of course you are still using it before 0500, in Spanish now instead of English, as I have also reported, but that is not a problem with VOA. If RHC is still on 6180 after 0500 we shall eventually be able to detect it, in which case you are technically correct. If not, I suggest that you acknowledge this fact immediately, even if you do not want to admit that the presence of VOA was a very good reason to move elsewhere. And if you are still using it after 0500 you are still getting creamed by VOA, altho not causing as much interference to it. I should add that until now RHC has had no Spanish broadcasts on any frequency after 0500, so if they are now running Spanish on 6180 at 0500-0700, it is something new and totally self-defeating. 73, (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I find most of your postings and DX Digest stuff to be useful, but this war that you're waging against Arnie and RHC got old a long time ago. In case someone hasn't told you, the Cold War is over. Let it rest in peace. Besides, they make great cigars. :{)-8 (moustached smilie smoking a cigar). If you really need a windmill to assault, how about taking on those American SW Christian broadcasters? They make us look like a bunch of medieval religious fanatics (Chris Trask, Tempe AZ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Chris, Sorry about that, but he is misrepresenting what I said. And if the cold war is over, get Cuba to turn off their jammers and quit attacking the USA on RHC at every opportunity. In case you haven`t noticed, I frequently have comments too about the gospel-huxters. 73, (Glenn to Chris, via DXLD) And I think this exchange makes it pretty clear what a weasel Arnie really is; surprised you can`t see that. Also in case one has not noticed: Arnie gets to have his say in DXLD --- but can you imagine gh ever getting to have his say, uncensored, on Arnie`s blog, let alone RHC? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, It seems to me that everyone in the radio hobby would best be served if rather than publishing speculations on why somebody or some radio station did something (or didn't do something), that you took the time to e-mail them first and ask. You may accept or reject the explanation if you wish --- that's your right --- but I do think that it's only common courtesy to do this. As for the "big picture", we live in a time where shortwave broadcasters are slashing budgets and eliminating broadcasts. It's getting more and more difficult for international broadcasters to justify the expense of keeping aging broadcast transmitters running to the management types who control the purse strings. I find that I personally listen to most major international broadcasters these days via either streaming audio over the net, or "local placement" on for example our "CBC Overnight" service on CBC Radio One. We've had many discussions on here about wifi radios, or my personal preference, recycled old computers running GNU/Linux connected to micro FM transmitters. A few short years ago, many folks on this list were busy circulating petitions protesting the shutdown of shortwave broadcasts on this or that radio station. It was quite true that streaming audio on 56k dialup connections was pretty awful. But now, (at least in the developed world), we've settled in to our broadband internet connections. That tells us that the world is changing. We should be grateful to those stations who continue to give us something to listen to with our radios. As well, out of that ever shrinking number of shortwave broadcasters, there are even fewer who "engage" with the radio hobbyist community. Arnie Coro and Andy Sennitt are amongst the very few that I can name off the top of my head. So rather than get into "e-mail shouting matches" on the various lists and forums, it seems to me that it would be more productive to have constructive conversations..."radio hobbyist to radio hobbyist". Whatever differences of opinion exist, I know that you, Arnie and the rest of us all share a common love of radio. Why don't we use that as a starting point? 73 (Bob VE3SRE Chandler, http://www.ve3sre.com ODXA yg via DXLD) Bob, It seems that Arnie does not want to communicate directly with me, so there`s no point in asking him. I`m not the only one who in the past have asked him specific questions about RHC schedules, etc., but never got any reply. We even welcomed him into the DXLD yg where he could post his scripts or debate, discuss whatever he likes, but he`s mum. I rather doubt I would be welcome to post to his blog (or is anybody? Freedom of speech is not exactly a high ideal down there). It was painfully obvious to anyone(?) that the 0500-0700 VOA/RHC clash on 6180 needed to be resolved in one way or another. Perhaps Arnie isn`t allowed to suggest that RHC would ever cooperate with VOA in any way, even for RHC`s own benefit. That`s not my problem. I agree with your sentiments about preserving SWBC from various countries, but I doubt that there is any likelihood that RHC will quit, no matter what we say, as they have an overriding political imperative to continue. And yes, it`s nice that Arnie does a more-or- less unpolitical hobby show we can enjoy. But he has his political side too which sometimes comes out. Since RHC is overwhelmingly political (and I even agree with a lot of it especially re the illegitimate unelected Bush-Cheney regime [but then, so is the Castro-Castro regime]), they shouldn`t be so sensitive when they get some of their own medicine. I must say I find it odd that when RHC is at fault for what happens in so many ways, and its masters are at fault for all the jamming with collateral damage to innocent bystander stations, --- that I am the one who is getting criticized for pointing this out. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Glenn, Here are a few facts of life. Most of us have bosses. They might be corporate bosses, boards of directors of organizations, government bureaucrats or party aparatchiks. But unless we're self employed business people, we all have them. If we publicly slam the organizations we work for, we can pretty much expect to end up joining the unemployment lines. Very few of us are in a position where we can do this. What most of us do is muddle along doing our jobs the best we can and then we work within our organizations to try to change the things we think need changing. Sometimes we're successful and sometimes we're not. Another fact of life is that we're at the bottom of the sunspot cycle and this cycle of low solar activity looks like it's going to drag on for awhile. Whatever SWBC'ers are still left are crowding into the lower frequencies. Are there going to be frequency conflicts? Of course. As for Arnie having a "political side", everyone has one. You have one, and everyone who knows me personally knows that I have one and probably every poster on this board has one too. But I try my best to keep it off of here. Again, I come back to my last point. We're all radio hobbyists. Rather than "slam" and see how many "brownie points" can be scored, why not approach things starting from the point of view of "how can I help?" 73 (Bob VE3SRE Chandler, http://www.ve3sre.com ODXA yg via DXLD) Hi Bob, I certainly don`t expect Arnie to `publicly slam` his employer, at any level whether it be the head of RHC, party apparatchix, or the Castros themselves. It would be nice if he were free to speak candidly, truthfully about what is going on at the station. Yes, we are going to have frequency conflicts, especially on 49m, but as I have tried to explain at some length, this one was unnecessary, and that is now proven by its having been resolved by a simple swap, four months too late. ``How can I help``? I let it be known in March or April that the 6180 clash (which was at 0500-0700 ONLY), needed to be resolved, for the benefit of everyone, listeners and the two stations. We may all be radio hobbyists, but that`s not all we are, especially Arnie, who also goes by his professorial title, and has been credited as the `founder of RHC`. {And I`m also a media critic, especially shortwave, as everyone in a free society has a right to be. Just as you have a right to be an apologist for Arnie and RHC.} Even harder than getting the truth out of RHC is knowing what`s in his heart, what he would say if he could really speak freely. He did have several chances to defect (visiting the US, and I think Canada too), and went right back to Cuba, so we can safely assume that he is really a true believer in The Revolution. But here we are talking about him in his presence, and apparently he really can`t say much except to attack me. I agree that this discussion has gone on long enough, but since radio stations, RHC above all, don`t keep politix out of their programming, we should all feel free to discuss political matters in relation to these stations! Ditto religion and religious stations. They are all using up OUR airwaves for their own purposes, in many cases false or misleading ones. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Citing propagation as the reason for changing from one 6 MHz frequency to another perhaps reveals AC's true calling - stand-up comedy. df (Dan Ferguson, SC, K4VOA, ex-IBB, Aug 14, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** CUBA. O o, here I go, about to be accused again of bashing RHC, but there would be less to bash if it would at least get its own act together: Aug 13 at 2028 I was listening to 11750 concluding the Portuguese service clearly announcing the frequency as 17750 in the 16m band! I believe I have noted the same repeatedly months before. Someone please tell the announcer what frequencies they are on! In this case, it even shows correctly on website at http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm Tho that page has yet to make the 6180/6140 correxion, nor the 9550- 11805/15120-15360 correxion which happened this week. At 2029, 11750 into Arabic, // weaker 11800. Meanwhile, 11760 did not switch from French to English until 2030, and // 9505 was missing --- but then, the 2030-2130 English has always been entirely missing from the station`s own schedule above! It`s the current one on website as of UT Aug 14 tho still dated at the top ``Válido desde octubre-2007 hasta marzo-2008`` despite some other updates having eventually been made since March. Tuned in 6180 at 0458 UT Aug 14: no RHC audible, probably closed a few minutes earlier but VOA Greenville open carrier, and 0459 VOA sign-on and English. VOA typically runs warmup carrier as much as 15 minutes before modulating, so that probably still overlaps RHC. Slight correxion to my previous report: RHC stays on 6000 until 1400, not 1300 [which they also do not make clear], as noted at 1322 Aug 14. Monitored 1400 frequency announcement again Aug 14 on 15370, and it was exactly the same as always, still mentioning defunct 9550 and 11805, and not mentioning new 15120, 15360. From slight variations and occasional slips, I am almost positive this announcement is read live from script every day, so updating it should be easy, no excuse that they have to get around to making a new recording for automation to play, as in the case of HCJB wrong announcements lasting for months, years. Reading between the lines of Arnie Coro`s attack on me as ``credibility down the drain`` by a crude misrepresentation of what I had really said, which anyone can re-read, I think this is the cause of his ire: RHC does not want to lose face by admitting that they made a big mistake in colliding with VOA for two hours a night during four+ months. They do not even want to mention VOA in any way. Which, I remind you, Cuba deliberately jams with noise, bubbles, during VOA Spanish broadcasts, which are separate from R. Martí. No Cuban broadcasts, of course, get any deliberate jamming by the U S A. Assuming they were aware of the collision from the outset, and there is no excuse for not being aware of it, as I for one pointed it out as soon as it started, it may well be that they were playing a game of ``chicken`` with VOA, hoping VOA would give in first and move elsewhere. Chicken is a game played in many other cases with many other stations when there is a collision caused by mistakes in frequency planning, or lack of coördination. {Meanwhile, the poor listeners can`t get a clear signal from either station, but who cares about them??} However, as I pointed out early on, since the VOA target is West Africa on an eastward beam from Greenville, and RHC`s target is Central USA on a NW beam from Habana, in all probability VOA was suffering much less QRM (if any) in its target than RHC was in its own target (Greenville off the back at this distance is still very potent, while RHC was aimed nowhere near West Africa), and VOA couldn`t care less whether they are heard well inside the USA --- indeed, per Smith & Mundt, would prefer not to be! So when they finally decided to move, RHC crafted this cover story --- changing antenna patterns, and propagation being the reason. It just so happens that Spanish ends at 0500 and English ends at 0700, so by swapping 6140 and 6180, the latter frequency just happens to go off the air now two hours earlier and doesn`t collide with the unmentionable VOA! However, my quick observations of what was really going on ruined the cover story, so Arnie makes accusations against me again to try to draw attention away from the real issue. The funny thing is, I am quite happy about the change, since that leaves both VOA and RHC in the clear on separate frequencies, as they should always be (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re RHC: I heard 6140 on air on the 15th Aug. in English at 0630 tune in. The signal was clear of QRM, but not very strongly received. It was parallel to the usual 6000 (weak), 6060 (fair to good), 9550 (weak) and 11760 (good, but spoiled by a 'fast pips sender' - supposedly the Russian air force from Moskva). (Noel R. Green (NW England), Aug 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Over the past few nights I have noted RHC s/off in SS with National Anthem at 0456 +- and VoA s/on with English to Africa 0459 -+ so it seems all is fine, though I'm only using a Racal R17 with a K9AY (not fully operational) so can not be sure if RHC goes off but it sure seems like it. 73 (Mick Delmage. Sherwood Park, AB, Aug 14, ODXA yg via DXLD) Just for giggles, I checked RHC`s Portuguese service on 11750, closing announcement at 2028 again Aug 15 to see if they know what frequency they are on yet? Of course not! Still claims ``faixa de 16 metros, 17750 kHz``. One final word. Need I remind everyone that Cuba jams my program WORLD OF RADIO, on WRMI? How can you expect me to treat them with kid gloves or show them any respect whatsoever? And there is no difference between RHC and the DentroCuban Jamming Command --- they are both shortwave ``broadcasters`` run by the dictatorial government, indeed probably sharing facilities (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Check out this link and especially note one of the people the writer thanks near the bottom of the page for crating his motorcycle: http://www.cubaon2wheels.org/Pages/2002-03/Prolouge.html You'll need to trim back to the URL root to get to the main page. And there you will find some very good readings and photos if you can struggle to get past the Cannuckistani's commie-kissing blather. (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, Aug 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. DISCLAIMER: No portion of the below may be reproduced or redistributed by the National Radio Club, their editors or current members without expressed written permission, which will then be swiftly denied. Editors receiving this directly from me are excluded provided this disclaimer is included with any of the below. 528.00, CUBA unidentified; 2004-2045 17 August, 2008. I had Radio Enciclopedia on almost all day as background music throughout the house (as is normal on the weekends). Upon entering the radio monitoring room (let's no longer use the word "shack" -- that's so White Trash) at 2004 GMT I noted a het that wasn't there too long before. Measured to exactly 528 kHz. Now recall that there have been several instances of 529.00 carriers popping on/off daytime here, as detected by me. Surely the same source transmitter. And see my 1180.80 log. A coincidence these appeared the same day? I doubt. Surely the ICRT has something better to do with wasted electricity on an island already deprived of said, especially when a tropical storm is about to cross the island? Oh, if anyone from a government capacity in Cuba actually responds to this, surely they'll say it was Air Martí (untraced for many months here). 530, Radio Enciclopedia; all day today, 17 August, blowing away with the glorious hour-long presumed reel-to-reel cocktail music, oblivious to tropical storms or even more important, Olympic gold medal recipients. And this is a good thing. We love Enci, possibly the best station ever created. See? Not all things Fido or Raúl are bad. Trust me on this one. 700, Radio Rebelde, Sancti Spíritus, Sancti Spíritus; 1515-1535 17 August, 2008. Presumed site, very weak as one would expect for being so far east on the island and my proximity. Parallel 1180 etc. with Olympic coverage of some Cuban team (basketball?), then live Instituto de Meteorología report from 1523 to 1528 by telco-fed man, giving Tropical Storm Fay warning zones (references to Santa Cruz del Sur, Camagüey, Provincia de Granma). Right on frequency so presume not the source of Gerry Bishop's weak daytime het. 1020, Radio Reloj, Jorobo, Las Tunas; 1040-1042 17 August, 2008. Weak under the strong Radio Guamá. Presumed site per WRTH 2008. 1181.80, CUBA unidentified; 1658-1740 17 August, 2008. Suspect the source location. Het measured to 1181.8 with no audio detected, while listening to Noticiero Nacional de Radio feed via Rebelde. Possibly just another Cuban transmitter dumped on, err, off the channel to make things messier for Radio Martí-Marathon. Still hearing a very weak Rebelde FM network feed from another transmitter underneath along with a second Rebelde nearly one second delayed. Regarding Rebelde/NNdR: Tropical Storm Fay news read by the little hottie until 1715, then world news items and out of NNdR at 1732 with a closing mention that tropical storm updates would also be carried on Rebelde FM, then two short, one long time sounders at 1732:30 (the same ones they open NNdR with at 1700 (1300 Cuban local, always) for whatever logic the latter time sounders served. Into live baseball. Sporadic 1181.00 carriers have appeared here on daytime obserations, maybe the same source transmitter as this. "Today, there really are no jammers (stations that broadcast tones or warbles) in Cuba." ~ David "Eduardo" Frackelton Gleason, August 14, 2008, from radio-info.com's Miami-Ft. Lauderdale message board. [tag] (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, Aug 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DESECHEO. Ohio/Penn DX Special Bulletin No. 870.1 --- Thanks to the Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society, Northern Ohio DX Association, Ohio/Penn PacketCluster Network, AB5K & the AR TelNet Clusters Network and "informed source" for the following DX information. DX NEWS FLASH....... ......... Over the past few weeks there has been speculation of an upcoming operation to Descheo Island (KP5) to take place in November. This bulletin is to provide the DX community with the actual facts on what has been going on and what will possibly happen. Several DX publications were notified about two months ago that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) had decided to allow certain amateur radio operators who have made an inquiry about operating from Desecheo in the recent past an opportunity to submit a proposal (approximately 20 individuals). OPDX and others were told to NOT publish anything in fear of jeopardizing the process. As of this time, "NO ONE" has been selected to operate from KP5. The following information was provided by an "informed source" to bring everyone up-to-date and explain what events took place: There is a tentative agreement to facilitate access to the Desecheo Island National Wildlife Refuge by Amateur Radio operators in conjunction with future USFWS management activities in the refuge. The plan would allow Amateur Radio activation of Desecheo for up to 14 days under strict guidelines and close USFWS supervision. USFWS expects to grant a Special Use Permit (SUP) for amateur radio operations to one group selected from among large number of prior applicants. These applicants have recently been contacted by the agency and provided a number of stringent requirements that must be met. They were told that if they are still interested in operating from Desecheo, they had 45 days to submit a proposal. The letter was dated June 30, 2008, with an August 14th deadline. The final selection will be made based upon which proposal best satisfies USFWS requirements. The timing of this operation is still uncertain but is likely to be in the September through December 2008 time frame. The actual dates of the operation are dependent on a number of variables, but the team and Dxers should have a minimum of 30 days notice. We are not sure, but we believe as many as a dozen proposals have been submitted. Apparently, the final selection will be made by a three-person panel. Continue to remain patient as the selection process proceeds. Apparently, Dxers worldwide can look forward to the first USFWS-authorized activation of Desecheo Island in many years (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster August 15, 2008, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, Radio Djibouti, *0300-0330, Aug 16, sign on with National Anthem. Arabic talk at 0301. Short breaks of Mid-Eastern type music. Qur`an at 0303 followed by Arabic talk. Poor to fair with CODAR QRM (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Glenn: Just found this link to streaming audio of Raices 102.9, the station where Rudy Espinal is primary announcer: http://www.puntacana-travelguide.com/Dominican-Republic-Live-Radio.html On that page, there are links to the live audio of six Dominican stations, including Raices 102.9 FM. The following page of the organization that owns the station also has a link to live streaming ("Escuchar Raices"): http://www.centroleon.org.do/esp/r_raices.asp (Jeff White, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. HCJB Changes Frequency Manager --- Vladislav Cip of the High Frequency Coordination Conference (HFCC) forwards the following message from Allen Graham of NASB associate member HCJB. Hello to my dear friends in the HFCC and greetings from the Middle of the World! I wanted to say how much I have enjoyed working with you the past three years that I have served as Frequency Manager for HCJB. The HFCC is a great experience and there are many great people involved. In order to dedicate more time to my primary role at HCJB Ecuador, I will be stepping out of the role of frequency management. Horst Rosiak, our International Radio Director, will be taking over as Frequency Manager. This is actually an area he worked in about 15 years ago, so it's not new to him. Although he will not be attending the B08 conference, I hope you get to meet Horst at the A09. His e- mail address is hrosiak @ hcjb.org.ec Have a great B08 conference. All the best from Quito (Allen Graham, HCJB Global Voice, Quito, Aug NASB Newsletter via DXLD) ** EGYPT. R. Cairo, 12170, 1630 19 July, IS, ID, news in English, 35533 (Zdenek Elias, Czech Republic, Aug World DX Club Contact via DXLD) This item caught my eye amongst many other logs by frequency simply because these other English broadcasts from Cairo never seem to be reported at all from North America; so a reminder of the occupant of this OOB frequency next WWCR (gh, DXLD) ** EGYPT. BRAZILIAN COMPLAINTS ABOUT RADIO CAIRO MODULATION, CONTACT Colegas, Alguém tem conseguido sintonizar a Rádio Cairo? Eu não consigo. A freqüência é 9360 e o horário 2215 as 2330? Agora estou ouvindo-a bem longe o que parece ser a Cairo. Essa Rádio tem a modulação horrível, principalmente quando o locutor fala. Péga-se uma ou outra palavra quando a locutora fala e quando é música. Eu já enviei dois relatórios informando sobre a qualidade do som, enviei até um pequeno áudio em mp3. Não respondem nem por e-mail. É ela mesmo, está com o seguinte SINPO 24332. O agravante mesmo é a modulação, eu não entendo nada!! Será que eles recebem cartas ou e-mail de ouvintes? Quem são esses felizardos? Gostaria que os colegas informassem sobre a recepção dela e se estiver nessa situação que enviemos e-mails solicitando uma melhor modulação, afinal ela nos prestigia com transmissão para o Brasil. Um abraço a todos. (Jorge Freitas SWL1023B, Skype jorge.freitas.fsa, Feira de Santana Bahia, Aug 13, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Jorge, a alguns dias atrás sintonizei essa emissora e ao ouví-la, aparentava receber sòmente a portadora, com a voz do locutor e músicas num volume muito baixo. É muito desagradável escutar a transmissão de uma emissora tão exótica com o áudio nessas condições. Poderíamos procurar alguma forma de criar um pedido coletivo, para tentar solucionar tal problema. 73's!! (QRA: Thiago P Machado [PY2002SWL] QTH: Brasília-DF, Brasil [GH54XC] http://www.bsbdx.blogspot.com ibid.) Olá Jorge. Tenho tido os mesmos problemas com a Rádio Cairo. Inclusive já mandei dois e-mails para brazilian_prog@ egyptradio. tv, mas não responderam. O que será que acontece? (Ivandro Neves, Martinópolis/ SP, Aug 14, ibid.) Ok Ivandro, Thiago e Denis. Agora o que eu não entendo é o que eles estão ganhando com isso, uma vez que não há audiência. É melhor direcionarem seus transmissores para o interior do país deles e contatar os distantes nômades no deserto. De qualquer forma acho que enviar e-mails não custa nada, quem sabe se eles de tanto recebe-los mesmo atrasados não melhoram a modulação? Valeu pelas informações. Um abraço a todos (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Feira de Santana, Bahia, ibid.) Alo amigos, Esta estoria do sinal da Radio Cairo aqui no Brasil, é mais velha do as Mil e uma Noites. Acho que eles ja foram avisados, por alguns dos amigos aqui da sala. Mas vale, a idéia do amigos, porque quem sabe se melhora o sinal. É uma SW a mais para nosso Hobby com um sinal otimo. Outra coisa é a dicção do locutor; parace que falta letras. Sei da determinação do povo ca CRI, para aprender português e tão la, falando melhor que certas regiões do Brasil. Que ALA, o Clemete o Misericordioso, nos ouça! 73 a todos (Paulo Miled Zugaib, ibid.) Ola Jorge: Aqui no Chile exactamente a mesma coisa acontece, na freqüência de 9360 kcs. Ouve-se bastante de uma hora antes em árabe e se ouve muito bem, mas um pouco mais tarde, quando é a vez ao serviço em espanhol, permanecer por longo tempo, apenas com o ar no habitáculo, mas sem áudio. Quando o áudio é muito distorcido quase inaudível para o ouvido. Ele tinha bons resltados demodulation sinal SSB moso com o meu melhor receptor, e mesmo correndo o manípulo de Carrier ao contrário do lado da distoricion do sinal, Atenciosamente, (Hector Frias, CE3FZL, Chile, ibid.) Caros, Infelizmente a Rádio Cairo é uma emissora podre de tudo, não esperem nada deles. Nem eles esperam. Anos atrás tive oportunidade de um contato maior com eles por telefone, mas a realidade escutada foi pior ainda, em vista de que os recursos deles são escassos, a base da economia daquele país é turismo, ou seja, orçamento flutuante o tempo todo. Até me surpreendeu quando um computador chegou lá anos atrás. As cartas eram respondidas a mão e o boletim era datilografado. Minha última escuta deles data de Maio deste ano; as transmissões são feitas desde um parque transmissor que não sabe o que é manutenção, porque eu não sei se isso já aconteceu por aquelas bandas. A maioria dos seus transmissores é de origem soviética e alemã, coisa dos anos 50-60 ainda. O problema do áudio, é falta de modulação, típica daquela emissora, portanto, se você mal conseguia ouvi-los, pode logar como Rádio Cairo! Rs (que tristeza). O departamento latino tem apenas 7 funcionários para tudo, e o e-mail deles não chega nas mãos deles em tempo real, porque de novo, a falta de estrutura não permite. Das únicas, entre poucas informações que recebi deles, foi por meio do Barcelona DX, que reportou que as antenas deles não são direcionais e que os sinais de fato não chegam onde deveriam chegar. Logo, vamos ao menos creditar o fato de que são sobreviventes em uma área onde grandes gigantes já deixaram seus serviços em português, mas eles ao menos continuam por lá. 73, (Denis Zoqbi, ibid.) Ola amigos da lista. Estive "acompanhando" durante um bom tempo a programação da Radio Cairo, realmente uma emissora em dificuldades... No ano passado enviei um relatório que não teve resposta, mas insisti e no dia 13/02/2008 fiz um vasto relatório com vários detalhes da programação em português desta data, inclusive do programa "Um olhar de cinco minutos para o Egito", que trazia informações sobre a história de uma personalidade do Egito. Curioso é o fato de que, para entender o nome do programa, repeti muitas, mas muitas vezes mesmo a gravação que fiz (santo gravador), pois além da modulação muito ruim, a voz da locutora tinha um sotaque estranho de difícil inteligibilidade. Mas desta vez valeu a pena e no dia 25/03/2008 me foi encaminhada uma carta com um bonito cartão QSL. Eu fiz observações no relatório com relação à qualidade de modulação, pois creio que o problema seja mesmo este, uma vez que o sinal da R. Cairo por muitas vezes chega bem aqui, mas falta áudio. Bem, vale aquela velha máxima na qual o dexista tem que ser um sujeito muito paciente! Espero que um dia esta emissora possa melhorar suas condições de propagação, mesmo porque como bem comentaram os amigos, trata-se de um QTH exótico, muito interessante de se buscar a sintonia. Um abraço a todos, e boas escutas! (Michel Viani - Osasco - Sao Paulo - Brasil, ibid.) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. Aug 13 at 1505 found an open carrier on 15190, by 1515 peaking at S9+8 and then I could detect some undermodulation vs high local noise level. From intonation could well be American preacher in English, i.e. R. Africa. This was last reported by several lucky listeners on July 4, so maybe making another appearance, even if for only one day or one week. Others may have better luck later today in identifying it for sure. Nothing else is on the schedules here, which is rather remarkable, as other stations could easily move onto this frequency which is open most of the time, and R. Africa doesn`t even bother to register it with HFCC. I did not recheck until 2008, and nothing on 15190 then. Also checked 15190 24 hours later than previous report, 1510 UT Aug 14, and no sign of anything. Nor at 1642 UT Aug 15. Nor when DXing the 19m band during the 19 UT hour, but others did that day and next (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, Radio Africa, 1925-2159+, Aug 15, US-produced English religious programming. Also some locally produced English religious programming with local African music. Radio Africa IDs at 2001 along with e-mail address & addresses in Ghana & Nigeria. Fair signal strength but poor to fair modulation. Only a threshold signal by 2159 & covered by WYFR sign on at 2159. Irregular. Not heard Aug 14 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190 - RIO MUNI, R. Africa, 8-16 1800 sermon, better at 2145 recheck (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, NASWA yg via DXLD) 5005, Guinea Ecuatorial, RN (tentative), Bata. August 15, Spanish, 2224-2301 music selections, the genre unrecognized, (by the beat seems sometimes pop or hi life) alternating short talks. 2258 seems a National Anthem, 2301 carrier off. Weak, some improvement from 2240, 23332. 5005, Guinea Ecuatorial, R. Nacional, Bata. August 16, 2240-2258, Hi Life and Spanish romantic selections, 2255 thirty seconds of Spanish romantic abruptly interrupted by National Anthem, played until its end at 2258, then carrier off. Sometimes ham QRM, stronger than Aug 15, 24332. 73 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m HCDX) No hams should be anywhere near that frequency; must be some other 2-way (gh, DXLD) 5005, Radio Nacional, Bata, 2245-2258*, Aug 16, Spanish ballads. Instrumental music. Sign off with National Anthem. Weak modulation. Poor in noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RNGE, 6250, Aug 14 at 0546 DJ mentioned R. Malabo as he talked over lively song (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, *0535-0610, Aug 16, sign on with Spanish talk. Radio Malabo ID at 0550. Variety of Spanish Euro-pops, Afro-pops & hilife music. Possible news at 0603. Fair to good but occasional utility QRM. Irregular. Not heard on Aug 15 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 7100, VOBME, program 1, *0355-0405, Aug 15, IS. Horn of Africa music at 0358. Talk at 0359. Covered by noise jammer at 0400. Noise jammer & VOBME gone at 0409 check. At 0410 noticed unidentified station on 8000.13 with talk & Horn of Africa music. VOBME? Good signal. Heard past 0425. 7100, VOBME, program 1, *0355-0401, Aug 16, IS. Covered by noise jammer at 0400. Noise jammer & VOBME gone at 0401. Possibly moved to 8000? 7165v, VOBME, program 2, *0355-0425, Aug 15, new frequency. ex-7175 (at least for today). IS. Horn of Africa music at 0400. Talk at 0401. Fair but several minutes of noise jammer at 0359. Frequency varing 7165.00-7165.13. 7175-7165.12, VOBME, program 2, *0356-0420+, Aug 16, IS. Talk. Horn of Africa music. Weak. Poor. Mixing with unidentified broadcast station. Covered by noise jammer at 0359, causing VOBME to move to 7165.12. VOBME back on 7175 at 0436 check. ** ERITREA? 8000.15v, VOBME?, *0359-0420+, Aug 16, Tentative. Talk in unidentified language. Horn of Africa music. Good signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re this ETH/ERI item in dxld 8-092: ``UNID 8000: After not hearing it there for over a week (seemed to be on 7100 or 7175 on some days, but probably off or somewhere else on other days), it was back here today until 1659 (cut off) and 1701 to 1732 with blank carrier only from 1715 to 1720. But maybe this one has also a name: Twice today (about 1645 and 1720) I heard the following, spoken into the music somewhat before some kind of feature started, definitely by one of the usual speakers there: "I-Esran" (or I-Esram) .... "Salam" ... and the a sentence ending again with "Esran". 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, Aug 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` This program has every now and then advertisement-like promos for website asmarino.com (which seems to be in process to be asmarino.org soon). (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, Aug 17, ibid.) Which belongs to one of the clandestines abroad, no? (gh) ** ETHIOPIA. 7110, Radio Ethiopia, *0259-0325, Aug 15, short IS on electronic keyboard. Chimes at 0300 & Amharic talk. Short breaks of techno music. Some Horn of Africa music at 0303. Afro-pops. Fair. Very weak // 5990, 9704.18 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. Re: Slideshow of Moyabi SW station --- Thanks to Andy Sennitt's Media Network blog, Africa No. 1 now has a slideshow on its website of the Moyabi transmitting station. This can be viewed at http://www.africa1.com/diapo_moyabi.php (Colin Miller, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) As I said in DXLD, the resolution is abysmal on the charts and the photos. Can`t even make out some of the text in English. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) And right now the website does not connect at all --- One can recognize the available antenna patterns, but hardly read the frequency ranges of each system. Still it gives an interesting insight. Especially remarkable is the circumstance that it are in fact two facilities, with the transmitter from 1989 being an independent "Moyabi II" installation with own antennas, not sharing anything (besides auxiliary things) with the original "Moyabi I" plant. And obviously "Moyabi II" is not in use at present, the antenna patterns I saw when the page was loading do not match anything that is (or was recently) on air. Reviewing the presentation of the "Moyabi I" antenna installations could reveal whether indeed only two transmitters are operational anymore or the antennas are the limiting factor. This concerns the observation that ANO on 17630/15475 had been taken off when something else was on air (NHK, music jamming for Libya). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, 1332 UT Aug 16, ibid.) 9580, Afrique No. 1 Moyabi, 2138-2151, Aug 12, French/English. "The Best of the Motown Sound" program with music by Marvin Gaye, Junior Walker and others in English; announcer in French between selections; fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, CLR/DSP, 200' Bevs, MLB1, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [and non]. EMR Transmissions via 6140, 9290 in Aug-Sep-Oct Channel Date Time 6140 17th August 1159 to 1259 1159 to 1229 Tom Taylor 1159 to 1259 Paul Graham [sic: I suppose means 1229-1259 -- gh] From the 21st of September 2008 EMR will be adding 9290 kHz to our monthly schedule along with 6140. [see LATVIA] I hope you enjoy the programmes to come! in 2008. Good Listening, 73s (Tom Taylor, Aug 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. DRM Tests in Hannover --- The University of Hannover is planning to test 26 MHz DRM Low-Power Short Wave using the new Thomson TSW 26-300 DRM transmitter. Thomson is providing the transmitter including DRM front-end (Cirro-Stratus) and antenna for the period of the testing. The use of DRM in the 26 MHz short wave band is an interesting option for small areas like towns or university communities. No larger than a bookshelf, TSW 26-300 DRM enables an amazingly efficient local coverage and can provide listeners in densely populated areas with high-quality DRM contents like music, speech, data or disaster information. Unlike FM coverage, DRM shortwave coverage is not limited to line-of-sight (from Thomson newsletter via Aug NASB Newsletter via DXLD) WTFK? When? ** GERMANY [non]. On 15690, Aug 13 at 1501, news in Russian about Georgia, etc. Could be VOA --- oops, no it couldn`t since VOA management just cancelled all the Russian broadcasts! After all, America has nothing to say to Russia these days! It`s really Deutsche Welle via Rampisham. Hmmm, Radio Rossii is also coincidentally scheduled on same frequency at same time, but no sign of co-channel QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. 7125, R. Conakry, Conakry-Sofon. August 17, French, dialects, 0904-0917 OM talks, musical bridge returning to OM talks, 0910 voice and percussion music with a long instrumental session, 0916 OM talks and musical bridge. Poor, 24432 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAWAII. HAIKU NAVAL RADIO STATION --- Today I received a request to use a photo from one of my web sites. In the process, I checked out the web site shown in the sender's signature. The URL has no hint as to what to expect. There are some excellent photos of the station, including the Alexanderson Alternator which was shut down in 1958: http://www.davewjessup.smugmug.com/ (via Jerry Proc, Toronto, Ontario, Aug Radio HF Internet Newsletter via DXLD) Follow the link also to http://www.friendsofhaikustairs.org/ Was top- secret radio station on Oahu in WWII, the stairs supporting huge antenna, VLF? Lately inaccessible (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTNEING DIGEST) ** HAWAII. 6679, Honolulu Radio with weather and ID by OM, 1020-1023. 73s de Bob (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, US - 746Pro NRD 535D, 90 meter dipole, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. President's address to the nation on the eve of Independence Day --- All India Radio will broadcast the Hon'ble President Smt. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil's address to the nation today (14th August,2008) from 1900 hours IST (1330 UT) onwards. This broadcast would be available on shortwave frequencies 5015, 6030, 6085, 9575, and 9835 (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, Aug 14, dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. AIR Kohima on 4850 is not heard usually by me. However I hear them on Independence Day (Aug 15) & Republic Day (January 26) and on the previous days. So watch out 4850 today and tomorrow. Their sked is 0000-0415 1000-1600/1630/1700. 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, Aug 13, dx_india via DXLD) Yes AIR Kohima noted now on 4850 after long time now at 1325 UT as expected for the Indian Independence Day! Look out tomorrow also. (Jose Jacob, Hyderabad, India Aug 14, dxldyg via DXLD) AIR Kohima 4850 - News in Assamese by YL when I checked in at 1430. English news at 1451. Regds (Alokesh Gupta, Aug 14, ibid.) 4850, AIR Kohima, 1308-1404, Aug 14, strong signal, in vernacular, subcontinent music and singing, series of ads with singing jingles, 1328 marching music/anthem, open carrier 1330-1331, started again with special Independence Day speech in vernacular, followed by same speech in English, abruptly off at 1404, noted speech was parallel with 4895 (AIR Kurseong), 4940 (AIR Guwahati) 4970 (AIR Shillong), 5010 (AIR Thiru.), 5040 (AIR Jeypore) and 9425 (Bengaluru/Bangalore). Today 4850 was the strongest AIR that I have ever heard on 60m (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3325, RRI Palangkaraya 1135-1230 Aug 14. M yakking in Bahasa Indonesia, occasional vocal music; 1159 YL announcer briefly, SCI, then Jak program at 1200, lasting until 1230. Good signal // 4604.94, 4749.96, and 3995.03, and probably others, for the Jak relay. 3976.06, RRI Pontianak 1253-1305+ Aug 17. M&W chatting in Bahasa Indonesia; a music break at 1256 was followed by more chat, with no discernible break at ToH; ham QRM after 1300. Have not heard this one in several months, with not even a weak het noted on many attempts. Hope they're back for good. 3995.03, RRI Kendari 1235-1300+ Aug 16. M&W in conversation; weak and losing by ToH. 4604.94, RRI Serui 1205 Aug 14. Noted with Jak news // 3325 and others. Weak but readable. This is another station that I haven't heard for several weeks/months. Whether silent or just bad condx I do not know. 4749.96, RRI Makassar 1159-1230+ Aug 11. SCI, Jak program to 1227, then local program with a mix of English and Indo vocals and chat (more chat than music); slowly deteriorating but still there at 1300 with music across ToH. Haven't heard this all summer but have heard it daily this week. Don't know if they were silent or if it was just lousy summertime condx (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R- 8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 3976.04 RRI-Pontianak (presumed), 1307-1322, Aug 17, in BI, on-air phone calls ("Hello, hello …"), EZL music, has been off the air for about 4-5 months, poor-fair, QRM/hams, still heard at 1433 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. VOI, 11784.9, het audible against Firedrake Wed Aug 13 at 1359; Firedrake went off a few seconds past 1400, leaving weak VOI in the clear, mentioning Malaysia, so I suppose the language during this hour is really Malay instead of Indonesian. If they are going to stay on 11784.9 instead of 9526, now it`s time to lobby for putting English at 1400 instead of 1300, equally hoping that propagation will improve during the same hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Jakarta, 11784.88, 1715 UT Aug 16, Program in Arabe, about Georgia and Russia. Strong and clear, no sign on 9526. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** IRAN. Weak and fadey signal in German, Aug 15 at 1815 on 15085. I would hazard a guess this is VIRI, Kamalabad, which is the only station in the world on this frequency and is scheduled in German at 1730-1830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. IBA: RESHET BET / ALEF OVERNIGHT PROGRAMMING BACK TEMPORARILY --- According to this article: http://www.iba.org.il/spokesman/index.asp?classto=DoverInnerYedia&entity_code=455192 Paraphrasing: Due to popular demand, from September 1, until after the Jewish holidays, which finish in late October, they will bring back the live overnight programming on Reshet Alef and Reshet Bet. In the meantime, the administration will decide what to do with overnight programming after that point. Netiva Bar Ilan's show which was moved to Reshet Gimel from 11 PM - 1 AM (Israel Time), will stay there, as Reshet Gimel is a more natural place for a music show anyhow. The article also mentions that Reshet Gimel will be leaving using a 'playlist' and will give music organizers the ability to freely play new songs. To this point, they will be creating a new program called, "First Chance" where they'll play new music and allow listeners to rate the songs and the preferred songs will be integrated into Reshet Gimel broadcasts. I also just noticed that the Spokesperson's website did actually have a complete description as to what was moving and being cancelled on Reshet Alef/Bet. At this point, it's a moot point to list it here (Doni Rosenzweig, Aug 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. CLANDESTINE, 9779.96, Furusato no Kaze *1600- 1630* Aug 14. Talks in Japanese; at 1626 e-mail address and other info were given to close transmission; off at 1630*. Good signal; presume via Taiwan. (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN. IRAQ, Radio Voice of Kurdistan on 6335 kHz is not on the air since July 1st or earlier. Seems ceased *0345-0700 and 1600-1900, featuring in English 1600-1700 or is using new frequency? (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 10 via DXLD) ** LATVIA. Relays this weekend on 9290 kHz Sat August 16th Latvia Today 1000-1100 UT Radio Casablanca 1100-1200 UT Sun August 17th Alice's Restaurant Rock Radio 1700-1900 UT R. Caroline with Rob Leighton Imagination 1900-2100 UT Good Listening 73s (Tom Taylor, Aug 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) & in advance on the dxldyg From the 21st of September 2008 EMR will be adding 9290 kHz to our monthly schedule along with 6140. New Transmissions via 9290 kHz in September [SUNDAYS]: EMR Presents the Radio Jackie History in 8 parts with Colin King, and all his memories of Radio Jackie from 1968 up to 2008. RJ, The Pirate station that was never silent for long. 9290 21st September - 1300 to 1400 1301 to 1320 Colin King, Radio Jackie History 1320 to 1400 Mike Taylor (Mail Box) (live) 9290 19th October - 1400 to 1500 1400 to 1420 Tom Taylor 1420 to 1500 Colin King Radio Jackie History I hope you enjoy the programmes to come! in 2008. Good Listening, 73s Tom Taylor, Aug 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GERMANY ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, R. Nasionaly Malagasy, Ambohidrano, 1334-1423, Aug 13, in French or a similar sounding vernacular, playing Hi-life music/singing and calypso type songs, started out with light AIR QRM, but gradually dropped out. Recently have often checked this frequency and only found AIR here until today, so this was a nice surprise. A change to their schedule? (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Very nice longpath catch. Madagascar is the closest SW country to the antipodes from western North America (gh, DXLD) 5010, R. Nasionaly Malagasy (presumed), 1340-1356, Aug 17, sounded like French, mostly non-stop ballads in French, fair (no AIR QRM). The curious thing about this station is I do not hear it in LSB, only in USB and AM (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5010.04, 3.8 1830, Radio Madagasikara med skön lokal musik, senare radioteater på franska. Går ofta bra. Ingen av epostadresserna på hemsidan verkar fungera. Q3. RFK (Ronny Forslund, SW Bulletin via DXLD) 5010.04, 3.8 1830, Radio Madagasikara with nice local music, later on radio theatre in French. Often heard with good signal. None of the e- mail addresses on their web site seem to work. Q3. RFK (Ronny Forslund, Sweden, SW Bulletin, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 7284.5 R. Mali silent today, 12 Aug, but active on 9635. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Aug 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALTA. BBCWS relay on webcast from Campus FM --- see U K [non] ** MAURITANIA. 4845 & 7245, R. Mauritanie, Nouakchott, still inactive on these HF, but does remain active on (parallel) 783. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Aug 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. SCT list dated March 15, 2008: http://www.cft.gob.mx:8181/cofetel/radio_tv/doctos/infra_am.pdf (John Callarman, Krum, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Official government list of MW stations, in order by state, city, call letters, showing licensee, frequency day and night powers, term of license (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** MEXICO. 6044.93, XEXQ (presumed), 0227-0244, Aug 16, in Spanish, with classical piano music; Aug 17, 0227-0255 classical music. It's probably been over 20 years since I last heard this station, when I lived in Santa Bárbara (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. Glenn, today I was at this Entrepeneur Thing at the Holiday Inn in Portland, Oregon and a Mongolian Gentlemen by the name of "Bayar" was sitting right behind me. He worked in Audience Relations of Radio Ulan Bator. You probably know him (Bruce MacGibbon, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, you must know him better (gh) If you received a QSL from Radio Ulan Bator Mongolia during the 80's it most likely came from this man "Bayar". What are the odds you would be at an entrepenuer conference in Portland, Oregon and sitting behind you would be "Bayar" who used to be the QSL guy for Radio Ulan Bator. This happened yesterday and his wife could not believe it. Bayar and I will be getting together to talk about shortwave and Radio Ulan Bator (Bruce MacGibbon, Gresham, OR, Aug 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. 595, RTM-"A", Oujda, 2206-..., 10 Aug, Arabic, newscast; 42441, QRM de Portugal 594. This is again off channel. The reflected wave from Muge POR 594 is stronger down here on the SW coast, so even if I'm closer to Oujda than when observing it at Lisboa, it's tougher to receive it day or night, and besides that, I don't bring my phaser along. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Aug 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 9730.766, Wolfgang Bueschel schrieb: Wer neben dem olympischen TV auch noch etwas kurbelt oder Perseus-sieht: etwas interessantes aus R Myanmar Yangon auf 9730.77...78v noch bis 1500 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 10) QRG hier nach SpectrumLab 9730.766 kHz. Und SINPO um 1433 UT: 24342. Groessere Splatter vom unteren Seitenband. Das Signal wird aber bis Sendeschluss, der spaetestens gegen 1530 UT ist, gewoehnlich noch besser (Wolf-Dieter Behnke, Germany, A-DX Aug 10 via BCDX via DXLD) ** MYANMAR/BURMA. 9730.77, Myanma R., 1417-1422, Aug 17, clearly in English, their Minorities and Educational Service, probably a language lesson but too poor to be sure, 1422 into vernacular (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. The brand new Myanmar transmitter on 594 kHz is throwing in local quality signals at Kolkata evenings (1500 UT). Curiously it leads parallel 576 kHz (faint) and 5985 kHz (strong) by almost 9 seconds. English news at 1530 UT is followed by announcements and music (Supratik Sanatani, India, Aug 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 5770.02, Defence Forces BC Station, 1249-1315+ Aug 14. Presumed with vocal music and few, if any, announcements. No copy 1300-1310, then noted YL with talk 1310-1315. Poor with little readability (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. WBCQ Dody Cowan/Deborah Rey Interview --- For those who missed the July 21, 2008 0100 UTC interview with the former Dody Cowan of Radio Nederland's His and Hers, it is archived at: http://johnlightning.com/11LRNI/RNI%20Firesale%20Programs/RNI%20Firesale%207-20-08-9PM-CD1.mp3 73, (Dan Lewis, Aug 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. Bandscanning vanaf 2130 UT 13-8 6159.96, CKZN Canada Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. Bandscanning vanaf 2130 UT 13-8 6089.92, Radio Nigeria Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. VOICE OF NIGERIA PLANS THREE NEW LANGUAGE SERVICES In an interview for The Channel, the magazine of the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB), the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria talks about the station’s expansion plans. Abubakar Jijiwa tells the AIB that “we are planning three new languages, Chinese and either Hindi or Urdu, and Portuguese as we want to reach out to Lusophone Africa. The Chinese are already doing very well in their Hausa service of China Radio International. Hausa probably has the capacity for 100m listeners, and that’s why others are targeting in the Hausa language. We are currently looking at the funding for Mandarin - our signal gets into China very well and we get a lot of letters from English listeners in China.” (Source: The Channel) 1 comment so far: 1 SRG August 13th, 2008 - 17:45 UTC Great to hear about plans for VoN’s proposed new language services. But I’m still waiting for their German broadcast. As a reminder here’s what Media Network reported on 2 Nov 2001: By the end of the year, the station [Voice of Nigeria] plans to launch a German service, as well as broadcasts in two other Nigerian languages: Igbo and Yoruba. I understand that Igbo and Yoruba were introduced since then but no German yet (August 13th, 2008 - 12:53 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. For those who need them, KGYN 1210, Guymon, OK is on day power and under 1210 Philly. Not sure why they would be on day power and pattern. There are no storms out in that part of the U.S. Perhaps transmitter maintenance? (Willis Monk, Old Fort TN, 0351 UT Aug 14, AMFMTVDX mailing list via DXLD) Happens quite frequently (gh, Enid, DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. 1520, KOKC, Oklahoma City, OK 8/12 1952 [CDT] Jerry Doyle Show. Then shortly after POOF! (Kevin Redding, Adamsville TN, ABDX via DXLD) KOKC lost their main 50 kW transmitter a few weeks ago, and were operating off of a 5 kW standby and had a really weak signal. As of last weekend, they were back on with 50 kW, but it sounds like maybe they had another problem. I'll check tonight (Bruce Carter, ibid.) Explains why KOKC had also been so weak here, especially nightwise. ``Lost`` in what way? (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CLASSIC HITS KEEP KOMA ATOP SPRING ARBITRON RADIO RATINGS By Mel Bracht Staff Writer Fri August 15, 2008 http://newsok.com/article/3283538/?print=1 Classic hits station KOMA-FM 92.5 retained its spot as Oklahoma City's most popular radio station for listeners 12 and older in the spring Arbitron ratings. KOMA's Danny Williams and Lisa Sykes ranked No. 1 in morning drive. Its other shows, including Ronnie Kaye in midday, Dave Martin in afternoon drive and Fred Hendrickson in evening, ranked No. 2 in their time slots. Program director Kent Jones' 9 to 11 a.m. show straddles morning drive and midday. Topping the three country stations, KTST-FM 101.9 "The Twister” remained No. 2. KXXY-FM 96.1 ranked No. 6 and KKNG-FM 93.3 was No. 9. Among day-part leaders, news/talk KTOK-AM 1000 led the way in midday with syndicated commentators Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, KTST's Craig Buffington was No. 1 in afternoon drive, and Frito was No. 1 in evenings on contemporary hits KJYO-FM 102.7. Big gainers included classic rock KRXO-FM 107.7, album rock KATT-FM 100.5, classic rock KQOB-FM 96.9 and Mexican regional KTUZ-FM 106.7. Big losers included adult contemporary KMGL-FM 104.1, sports/talk WWLS-FM 98.1/AM 640 (which was down 15 percent from last spring), news/talk KOKC-AM 1520 and Mexican regional KINB-FM 105.3. With four stations in the top seven — KTST, KJYO, KXXY and KTOK — the Clear Channel Communications station cluster had its best ratings book ever, market manager Bill Hurley said. In the 25-54 age demographic coveted by advertisers, KRXO was No. 1, followed by KATT and KTST. KMGL, KOMA and KJYO tied for fourth. Two public radio stations, classical music KCSC-FM 90.1 and KOSU-FM 91.7/107.5, made their debut in the rankings. KOSU recently switched its format from mostly classical music to National Public Radio's news/talk format. The station also carries jazz programming Friday and Saturday nights (via Kevin Redding, TN, ABDX via DXLD) Since apparently KOKC is bottom of the barrel or "big loser" as they say here, ya think maybe they'll go back to a KOMA-FM simulcast? I don't see where they have anything to lose, and with the FM being #1 in the market apparently that proves the market loves oldies, er, "classic hits" as they refer to it these days. Hey it could happen, right? (Michael n Wyo Richard, ibid.) A few years back when they were oldies they had a spot on my radio presets, and I live in the Dallas area! With a little help from a whip extension to 60 inches, they boom in like a local. When they switched to talk - who cared any more (Bruce Carter, ibid.) Whip works on MW?? Strange receiver (gh, DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. Hi Glenn, August 14, 2008. Radio Pakistan Bangla service was monitored today on 9340 kHz from 1200 to 1245 UT. The program content was Kor'an recitation followed by its Bangla translation, Urdu Naat (religious poetry recital), News and Commentary in Bangla, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistan's recorded message in English from radio archives, recording of Prime Minister's address on Independence day in Urdu and the Programme Kashmir update at the end of transmission. SINPO rating was 44444. The peculiar API-3 transmitter buzz was missing. I think some transmitter reshuffling has taken place. The transmission of Radio Pakistan News and Current Affairs Channel via API-4 has not been heard on shortwave since last many months. Neither the programme announcers of Radio Pakistan Current Affairs Channel on medium wave mention the shortwave frequency any longer. Most probably API-3 is off air and API-4 is being used for external services. Perhaps Mauno Ritola who has been monitoring API-4 in Finland could confirm whether Radio Pakistan Current Affairs Channel is still being heard on shortwave (Aslam Javaid, Lahore, Pakistan, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PALAU. Re 8-092, more talk of WHR buying KHBN, not finalized yet? 7365, 13.8 0500, WHRI, Cypress Creek med programmet Harvest. I det berättades om ett brev från en lyssnare i Palau som hört World Harvest Radio från en sändare på Palau. Tydligen har World Harvest Radio köpt en av kortvågssändarna på Palau (detta framgår dock ännu inte av WHRs hemsida). 4 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin via DXLD) 7365, 13.8 0500, WHRI, Cypress Creek with a programme called "Harvest". They told about a letter from a listener in Palau who heard World Harvest Radio from a transmitter in Palau. Obviously World Harvest Radio bought one of the shortwave transmitters in Palau (not yet shown in WHR web site). 4 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 3172.36, Radio Municipal, Panao seems off. 4790.10, Radio Visión, Chiclayo noted 0533 on 14 August, 24 hour a day station? [Wilkner] That`s when I usually hear it (gh, DXLD) 4949.9, tentative, Radio Madre de Dios, Puerto Maldonado, 1130 with weak audio, seems to sign on too late for southeast Florida. 13 August 5014.5, Radio Altura, Cerro de Pasco from 0240 to 0415 with "en Cerro de Pasco" and "más y más, Altura-la radio" in between live-sounding carnival music. Decent signal & only Cuba-5025 louder. 10 August [Dan Sheedy, CA, via Wilkner] 5039.21, Radio Libertad, Junín, 1050 to 1105, very consistent station with good signal into south Florida every day, excellent music from Peru. [KM-Cedar Key / Wilkner] 6047.22, tentative, Radio Santa Rosa, Lima, 1100 to 1110 weak with some audio en español, thanks Churchill tip. 14 August. 6173.94, Radio Tawantinsuyo, Cusco noted at 0300 weak with Perú music, being murdered by cochannel. 16 August. At 1000 usually under DRM slop (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, US - 746Pro NRD 535D, 90 meter dipole, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) = RNZI 6165- 6170-6175 ** PERU. 4835.6, Radio Marañón, Jaén since its return seems the strongest of the Peruvians at 0000. 73s (Bob Wilkner, FL, Aug 13, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 4835.44, Radio Marañón, 1055-1105 Aug 14. Noted two females in Spanish comments until 1058 when music is presented. This continues into the new hour. Immediately after the music however, canned ID and promos heard. Signal went from fair to poor during this short period (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5949.94, Radio Bethel, Arequipa, 1055-1104, August 16, Spanish, religious program conducted by male: "invitamos a todos nuestros amados oyentes a escuchar... a los amigos de América y los amigos del mundo... la obra del Movimiento Misionero Mundial...." , ID as: "...hora Bethel, Frecuencia Celestial", 22322 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Bandscanning vanaf 2130 UT 13-8 6019.45, Radio Victoria Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) Radio Victoria Peru. This morning on 6020 khz with a fair signal. Logged this station back on 2005 for the first time. There is a short story on this station on the following link. http://www.pateplumaradio.com/south/peru/victoria.htm Luigi KP3003SWL (Héctor Pérez-Díaz, PR, Aug 14, HCDX via DXLD) Hector, Radio Victoria is one of the pioneers of broadcasting in Perú. And so the Patepluma article refers to pre-IPDA days, when Radio Victoria was an ordinary commercial station using the first bars of Beethoven´s 5th Symphony as their ID cue. Since 1989 or so the station is hired by the Peruvian branch of Igreja Pentecostal Deus é Amor. See QSL information under Peru at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxld6032.txt and church information at http://www.ipda.com.pe (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, ibid.) ** POLAND. From July 1, Polish Radio External Service has started broadcasting on 198 kHz Long Wave. The 200 kW transmitter is located in Raszyn site near Warsaw. This frequency is shared with Polish Radio Parliament, which will continue to broadcast when parliament is in session. At all other times from 0600 to 1600 UT, Polish Radio External Service in English, Hebrew, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, German, and Polish transmits on this frequency. The English language transmissions are from 0700 to 0800 and from 1200 to 1300, and are available when Radio Parliament is not broadcasting. The 198 kHz frequency can be picked up in Poland and can also reach Polish diaspora in neighbouring countries, especially Germany, Ukraine, and Russia, providing up-to-date information on what's going on in Poland. Transmissions in Ukrainian go on this frequency daily from 0800 to 0900, from 1000 to 1030, from 1430 to 1500, and instead of the Polish language programme from 1530 to 1600 on Sundays (Olexandr Yegorov, The Whole World on the Radio Dial Aug 16, RUI via DXLD) ** PRIDNESTROVYE. Radio PMR is putting in a great signal into my area at 2215 and 2300 on 6040, with news about the small independent country. If you look on the website http://www.marisha.net/tiraspol/radioPMR.jpg you will see a photo of Radio PMR and other places. It is an interesting website. Best wishes (Chris Lewis, England, Aug 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Marisha is promoting travel to PMR, with rental units, etc. (gh, DXLD) ** ROMANIA. Hoy he observado la ausencia de señal en 11965 R. Rumania Int en la emisión habitual de las 2100, si que llega muy alto y claro (45444) por 9755, mi última escucha de esta frecuencia fue el día 11, sí que ignoro si es desde entonces o solo hoy. El famoso transmisor que parece no ha dejado de dar problemas desde el día de su puesta en marcha. Saludos y buenos DX, Cordialmente, (Tomás Méndez, QTH: El Prat de Llobregat-Barcelona España, Aug 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Re: ``RUSSIA TODAY ON SHORTWAVE --- Hi Glenn, I was checking some frequencies on the 31 meter band, around 1955 UT this evening (7/16) and heard an English language transmission on 9795. This turned out to be Russia Today, and seems to be the audio of the TV transmission. I have never heard this on shortwave before. I checked on the website http://www.russiatoday.com and it matches (with 30 seconds or so delay) the video stream on the site. It is still being carried as of 2020. I believe this transmission is via Moscow site. Best Wishes (Chris Lewis, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` Did you ever hear that happening again? (gh, to Chris, via DXLD) It was a feed mistake at the transmitter site which fed the RT audio on SW. It was interesting to hear another English language station from Russia on Shortwave, even tho it was unintentional. 9795 khz is amongst the group of frequencies which I monitor, and this is how I came upon Russia Today (Chris Lewis, England, Aug 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA. FINAL CLEANING OF RTV STATIONS IN SERBIA effective as of September 1! Dear DXers, Serbia's Republican Broadcasting Agency (RRA) and Republican Telecommunications Agency (RATEL) finally decided to SHUT DOWN all radio and TV stations, after all public tenders were ended and RTV stations received licences for broadcasting for the next 8 years, according to new FM/VHF/UHF plan: http://www.ratel.org.rs/editor_files/File/Plan%20o%20izmeni%20Plana%20Raspodele%20FM%20i%20TV.pdf [file is 6.9 MB large]. Joint announcement was released one week ago that ALL RADIO AND TV STATIONS IN SERBIA WITH NO LICENCES MUST BE CLOSED DOWN BY AUGUST 31, 2008. Stations who disobey this order will be closed by force, in coordination with the police, if necessary. It is expected the majority of stations will close themselves by August 31 evening, but some stations will not do that and they will be also punished by law. Some radio stations already left the air, for example: Radio Palic, Subotica; Radio 103, Subotica; Radio Spektar, Sombor; Radio Safir, Pancevo.... So, dear DXers, almost 1000 (one thousand) stations will disappear from September 1 and from now on you will be hearing only licensed stations listed on: http://www.rra.org.rs http://www.ratel.org.rs By the way, stations in the city of Belgrade were already closed down on July 31, 2007! And also worth of mentioning is that RADIO NIS didn't get licence and also will be closed! Radio Nis' mediumwave frequency of 711 kHz will be turned over to Radio Belgrade. Best regards & many 73s! (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, SERBIA, Aug 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) What became of B-92? (gh, DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. Today from Radio Singapore International I got a QSL card for my airmail report on 6150 of 6 Jul 08 along with a letter about their closing SW and goodies like a CD case, 7 picture post cards, 2 Mouse pads, 17 Stickers of 2 types and 2 packets of Magnetic Memos. (Clearing all shelves?) (Jose Jacob, Hyderabad, India, Aug 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6080, News Radio 93.8 (93.8 Live) via Radio Singapore International verified in 44 days for a follow up report with a full data picture postcard of The Esplanade _ Theatres on the Bay is Singapore`s newest attraction card and a form letter from v/s Sakuntala Gupta, Senior Programme Director at RSI English Service. Form letter includes the news about RSI`s closedown. Also included were a mouse pad, several blank QSL cards, lanyard for an ID card, a pile of stickers, magnetic puzzle coaster, and a CD case (Rich D'Angelo, PA, DXplorer Aug 10 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** SPAIN. 1623 kHz, RNE-R. 5 Todo Noticias, site? (DF=northeast, but I may be wrong), 2215-, 10 Aug, distorted spur; 35343. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Aug 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. Via SLOVAKIA. 15650, Miraya 101 FM, 1500-1520+, Aug 16, English news at 1500. “Miraya 101 FM” ID at 1511 followed by news about Olympics. Another ID at 1515 and into Arabic talk. Poor to fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN. I may complain about the lack of music on R. Sweden, but I must say for a daily half-hour show, they really do a fine job of putting together an entertaining and informative magazine of news and features in English. The announcers have a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, which ensures a friendly image for Sweden. Lately I have found it convenient to listen to the 1430 UT relay via Sackville 15240, reliably good reception too. It would be more convenient in the Central timezone if it were an hour earlier. The 1230 broadcast on 15240 direct is usually audible but understandably not as well as Sackville two hours later. Since all the other Nordic countries have abandoned English broadcasts, and even shortwave altogether, one wishes that R. Sweden covered the other countries too, but with only half an hour a day, one cannot blame them for concentrating on their own (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. Observing on August 5-8 on 9330 kHz (already 12085 is not in use at present?) program in Turkish starts around 1650(?), 1700 in Russian (strong signal, middle audio), 1801 UT switching to German but with bad low audio - so their problem is in studios there? (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 10 via DXLD) With WBCQ still absent from 9329v, checked for Syria around 2120 UT Aug 14, but could only detect a very weak carrier. Those further east should have better luck with the carrier if not the modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Thanks for your interest in the Radio Damascus Listeners club. Yes, as you noticed, and unfortunately, response is not what I hoped it to be. I got, till now, 2 more members and no posts. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radio_damascus/ Also a direct link to it via: http://www.radio-damascus-listeners-club.tk But I still consider the group as active, which means still open and welcoming to future members. Maybe that some publicity will boost the group. And, as you mentioned, the poor reception of the shortwave transmissions of Radio Damascus is not helping neither. It is a very frustrating situation and be assured that the people at Radio Damascus are aware of this and frustrated about this situation too. I am in intensive contact with them, visited Radio Damascus personally last year and will visit them again in April or May 2009. The transmitters at Adra station are just old and tired and I am afraid that no funds are available (or no desire to make heavy investments in shortwave anymore) to install new transmitters. By the way, the first hour of the two hours long daily transmission is now only on satellite (no shortwave), the second hour is on satellite as well as shortwave (9330 and 12085 kHz (irregular)). I do mention the problem of the faulty shortwave transmitters in every letter and report I sent to Radio Damascus and the head of the English department even translates my letters into Arabic and brings them to the highest management levels of Radio Damascus (external service) and Syrian Radio in general to inform them about the reception problems and to press for a solution. They do try to get around of the shortwave problem by putting the programs on satellite. They are using Hotbird, Arabsat and Nilesat for this and when you have a satellite dish at home, capable of receiving one of these satellites, you can listen to Radio Damascus loud and crystal clear (this is what I do). This solution works of course for Europe and the Mena region but I don't think you can receive these satellite signals in North America. Last but not least, the folks at Radio Damascus are seriously thinking about putting Radio Damascus on the internet. This is also something I have been continuously advising them as another alternative delivery method. They are really studying this possibility and I hope and expect something in this direction in the not too far future. I want to conclude with an appeal. Everyone at Radio Damascus is really concerned and interested about their listeners and you can make them very happy by writing to them and tell them what you think about the programming. They put a lot of effort in bringing every day an interesting and informative program. So, even when reception conditions are not what it should be, please do write to them with letters and reception reports. The more letters and reception reports they get, the more they can stress to the higher management levels that there still is a bright future for international broadcasting. Best regards, (Kris Janssen, Belgium, Aug 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TATARSTAN [non]. 15110, Voice of Tatarstan/GTRK Tatarstan via Samara, *0410-0500*, Aug 16, open carrier noted 0331, at 0400 continuous tone for about a minute, open carrier continued, brief IS at 0410, Russian ID sounded like: "V efire programa na volne Tataratan", music and songs (ballads and folk songs), radio drama, did not notice anything sounding like a news segment, heard in Russian and assume Tatar (a portion of the broadcast clearly did not sound Russian). Back in July I was fairly sure I was hearing an English ID on several occasions ("This is Voice of Tatarstan"), in the middle of their IS, followed by the Russian ID, but clearly no English ID is used now, so perhaps I was wrong. Thanks to Dan Sheedy for the confirmation of no English ID. Audio clip of the IS, ID and some music now posted to: Files – Station Sounds in the dxldyg (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. The National Radio Company of Ukraine received complaints of bad reception of its programmes on long and medium waves in the outlying regions of Ukraine. The shortwave can help to cover them. Maybe some of you remember the Ukrainian home radio on 49 and 60 metrebands. The frequencies were 6020 and 4940 kHz. In 1996 those transmissions were cancelled. So from September 1, the Ukrainian Radio plans at last to restart the relaying of the 1 National home channel UR-1 on short waves. The planned frequency is 5970 kHz, the power of the transmitter in Brovary near Kyiv – 100 kW with the non-directional antenna. The target area is outlying districts of Ukraine and the neighbouring countries like, for example, the European part of Russia, Belarus, Moldova, the Baltics and some East-European countries like Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Simultaneously, NRCU renews the relaying of its 3 channel “Radio Kultura” on 837 kHz medium wave via the 150 kW transmitter in Taranivka near Kharkiv, and from October 1 on 1242 kHz via the 40 kW transmitter in Dokuchaevsk near Donetsk (Olexandr Yegorov, The Whole World on the Radio Dial Aug 16, RUI via gh, Sergei Sosedkin, DXLD) ** U K [and non]. On WORLD OF RADIO 1419 you gave a list of BBC frequencies listenable in the US, and I am able to hear all of them here in West Virginia. Except: 9740 and 6195 [both Singapore], altho my records show that, in the past, I have heard them; and 6005, which collides with Cuba on 6000, although I have also heard 6005 in the past. But, here is a list of other BBC frequencies I am able to hear in WV: [gh added sites] 00 7105 Oman 01 7320 Cyprus 06 11765 South Africa 08 15400 17830 both Ascension 09 15400 17830 both Ascension 10 15400 17830 both Ascension 11 15400 Ascension 15 12095 Rampisham 16 12095 Rampisham 17 12095 Cyprus 18 12095 Cyprus 19 12095 Cyprus 20 12095 Cyprus 21 12095 [12095 supposedly closes at 2100 now] 22 12095 [ditto] I was able to hear all of these at the beginning of A-08, but reception has been poor or non-existent in the summer, but as fall approaches, I have confirmed that all of these are still available here, with the exception that I have not yet been able to hear 7320 at 01 (Kent D Murphy, New Martinsville, Aug 9, by P-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. For those interested in hearing BBC WS programming that is sometimes not streamed "due to rights restrictions", check out Campus FM Malta. http://www.campusfm.um.edu.mt/ (Mr Sandy Finlayson, swprograms via DXLD) Thanks, Sandy! This is a new one to me; several Australian colleges have similarly offered unrestricted access in the past, but were not the most reliable streamers. Australia's ABC NewsRadio used to stream when other online outlets were not, but have since changed their schedule such that they stream at times when there is no unique reason to listen to them for a BBCWS fix. The Public Radio Fan link to the Campus FM schedule is http://www.publicradiofan.com/cgibin/station.pl?stationid=3519 (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, ibid.) ** U S A. BBG SHOULD ENHANCE SW, NOT REPLACE IT --- ‘Consumed By New Technologies,’ It Should Improve Shortwave, Not Replace With the Internet The Reference Room :: Commentary by George Woodard, 8.13.2008 http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.15065.html The author is a former vice president of engineering at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and director of engineering of the International Broadcasting Bureau. He is now retired. George Woodard [caption] Recent commentary in Radio World discussed the pros and cons of various mediums for international broadcasting (Reader’s Forum, March 26). It used to be, until about 1994, that shortwave was both the preferred and generally accepted medium to reach mass audiences across international borders. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of Soviet-style communism circa 1990 caused a natural (and correct) rethinking of what the medium, or mediums, of the future for IB should be. U.S. government broadcasters such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Voice of America, who, of the U.S. broadcasters, were involved in the winning of the Cold War (from an IB perspective), looked immediately for fresh and effective ways to reach new, changing and expanding audiences. RFE/RL and VOA began a highly successful campaign to launch local AM and FM former Soviet and Eastern Europe “affiliate” stations to carry their respective programs. In the early days of this endeavor most RFE/RL/VOA/and BIB/BBG members and staff realized that, due to the history of conflict between western and Soviet societies, the so- called “affiliates” could always “pull the plug” on the arrangement. As time went on, however, the ensuing euphoria over having local AM and FM outlets in countries where RFE/RL and VOA were once banned seemed to some BBG members and staff to dim the possibility of ever having the “plug pulled.” Trigger-happy The “pull-the-plug” reality, however, may be beginning to sink in to some current BBG members as they see what is happening in places like Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and many others, not to mention Afghanistan, Iraq and most countries in the Middle East — some of whom profess to be our friends yet are reluctant to allow us access to their radio stations, even for a fee. In addition to local affiliate placement, there also is a new and renewed interest by many past and present BBG members in satellite radio (and television, as well) and Internet audio and video streaming. These developments and pursuits are appropriate, though too often they are accompanied by an unthinking euphoria in the BBG that, instead of making the IB picture clearer, actually clouds the scene. Further exacerbating the situation is the U.S. government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors. The board is made up of well-intentioned, patriotic and highly successful individuals from the private sector. However its experience in international public matters, foreign policy and diverse cultures at the level of the common citizen was — in my experience and to put it kindly — somewhat limited. My tenure with the BBG was from about 1994 to 2000, and my experience was that instead of listening to experts who have devoted all or most of their lives to IB matters, the BBG instead were consumed with its own brilliance, and self and group importance. I have no direct experience with the current BBG who, except for one member, are all new to me. But I see nothing to make me think this has changed since I retired. It was not always that way. The predecessor to the BBG was the Board for International Broadcasting. The BIB I was familiar with was made up of such luminaries as James Buckley, Malcolm S. (Steve) Forbes, Michael Nowak, James Michener, Ben Wattenberg, Lane Kirkland and others who, despite their proven and recognized expertise, actually listened to the many and varied disciplines of IB experts before making up their minds on a topic. The BBG has been consumed by new technologies such as the Internet, satellite and local AM and FM placement almost since its beginning in about 1995. For example, a big “to do” was recently reported in several media outlets about Internet Denial of Service (DoS) of RFE/RL Internet broadcasts to Belarus. The media did not mention, however, that prior to these DoS attacks, RFE/RL was averaging very few page views per day on its Belarus Web page — a pittance by normal Internet standards, “in the noise” compared to historical shortwave audience numbers. Yes, the Internet is a technology of the future and also the present. Its potential is almost unimaginable and growing every day. Every news broadcasting organization in the United States — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC, local AM/FM/TV stations — have remarkable Web pages to enhance and expand their core delivery medium. Enhance and expand, not replace. Yet the BBG wants to use mostly the Internet to replace its historical radio medium: shortwave. I have a former colleague whose son is serving in Iraq. The son wrote his father an e-mail saying that one of his military colleagues recently asked him, “Where is the VOA? All we hear anymore is the BBC.” That whole story is more complex, but the question does deserve an answer. The BBG often uses the cost argument against shortwave: “The Internet is more cost-effective, and further, the Internet is where the competition is.” That logic is flawed. Comparing apples to apples, the Internet is actually less cost-effective at present. One million real-time listeners, small by shortwave standards, entail very high cost bandwidth requirements on the Internet. The competition, by start-up bloggers for example, could not possibly afford being on shortwave radio. The business example should be: “Go where your competition can not follow.” The U.S. government can afford shortwave radio. For example --- Let me close with a story that elaborates the BBG’s past closed mentality. (I am referring only to known past group mentality from my own personal experience, though there is no evidence that leads me to believe the current crop is any better.) During the 1998/99 Yugoslavia war, I was DE of the IBB. The State Department asked the BBG to put VOA on the air on FM into Belgrade. The closest we could get to Belgrade was about 120 miles, from the hills/mountains of either Bosnia or Romania. I tried as best I could to explain to both the BBG as well as “State” that 120 miles was a long distance for FM, and that whatever little signal would reach Belgrade could be easily jammed by a 100 watt or less transmitter and simple antenna from a tall building in the center of Belgrade. Neither the BBG nor State listened to my argument. They said that young people in Yugoslavia listened only to FM. Where they got this information was never explained. We proceeded to put 5 kW FM transmitters on the air (with 13 dBi gain Yagi antennas) from the mountains in both Bosnia and Romania, with the antennas pointed to Belgrade. The whole operation took less than six weeks due to some dedicated and inspired work by several IBB employees, indeed the entire IBB organization. In the end, the signals were effectively jammed by low-power transmitters near the center of Belgrade. Shortwave, and later a high- power medium-wave signal from Hungary, got through. As the Don McLean song about Vincent van Gogh goes, “They did not listen, they’re not listening still, perhaps they never will.” (via Alokesh Gupta, India, dxldyg via DXLD) It sounds as though the BBG members are making the same blunder that has plagued US government and industry for at least the past two decades, which is to enlist the aid of recognized experts, dismiss them, and then do whatever you please (Chris Trask / N7ZWY, Tempe, Arizona 85285-5240, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) They have "closed mentality". The article says... In the sub-continent they only listen to their appointed agents, since long. 73s de (Sudipta Ghose, Cumbre DX via DXLD). ** U S A. The Voice of America Russian shortwave service ceased on July 26. It’s a pity that simultaneously with the cancellation of three half-hour programmes in the Russian language half-hour special English programmes on the same frequencies also disappeared. Instead, the Russian service of Radio Liberty uses from August 1-st the Voice of America broadcasting time and partly its frequencies. But instead, Radio Liberty cancelled its broadcasting time from 0700 to 0800, and from 1000 to 1200 UT. Here is the recording of the parting programme of the Voice of America on short waves . . . (Olexandr Yegorov, The Whole World on the Radio Dial Aug 16, RUI via DXLD) ** U S A. IBB Greenville Showcased at NASB-DRM USA Annual Meeting NASB Newsletter - August 08 At this year's NASB-DRM USA Annual Meeting in Cary, NC, Walter Konetsco, Deputy Manager of the IBB's Greenville transmitting station, presented a video about the facility, which is about an hour's drive east of Raleigh, NC. The video was produced by Rick Williford, who was also present. The IBB transmitter facility is located about 20 miles southeast of Greenville on a plot of approximately 2700 acres. It has 41 antenna arrays. Greenville is the last remaining domestic transmitting facility in the IBB network. It provides transmissions to Cuba, Latin America and Africa for the Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio Martí), and to the eastern seaboard of the United States for Radio Thailand. It was dedicated in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy. In 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Office of War Information. In 1942 - 17 days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor - the first broadcast of the Voice of America went on the air in German. Throughout World War II, the VOA 's broadcasts were carried on leased facilities of private shortwave stations in the U.S. Eventually the VOA was placed under the control of the State Department. As the Cold War escalated, Russia began jamming the VOA in 1948. VOA's transmitting facilities were beefed up to cover a worldwide audience and to combat the Russian jamming. This expansion program was called "the Ring Plan" and it gave birth to the VOA relay stations in Morocco, Greece, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Okinawa and North Carolina (which was also known as "Baker East.") Construction of Baker East began in the early 1950's, but the McCarthy investigations caused the abandonment of the facilities in 1953. In 1959, Congress appropriated funds to continue the construction. The plan was for the Greenville facility to be composed of three separate sites - two transmitting and one receiving station. In 1953, President Eisenhower created the U.S. Information Agency, which was tied administratively to the State Department but operated independently with direct presidential oversight. The U.S. International Broadcasting Act signed by President Clinton brought all of the government's international broadcasting services under the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). In 1998 the USIA was abolished and the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) was established. The IBB oversees all civilian international broadcasting, including Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Marti), and the Voice of America radio and TV. VOA currently broadcasts in 45 languages to an estimated worldwide audience of 115 million per week. The Greenville transmitter site has nine transmitters - eight 250- kilowatt and one 50-kilowatt that is currently being retrofitted for DRM testing. The station broadcasts over 90 hours per day of programming, 60% of which is for Radio Martí. Twenty-nine employees staff the site 24/7. Greenville was designed as two identical and independent transmitter sites - Site A and Site B. These two sites, near Bear Grass and Black Jack, NC, were fed by the receiving station - Site C - near Farville, NC. Technical advances forced the closure of the receiving site in 1995. In 2005, Site A began to be phased out. It is now mothballed, and only Site B remains on the air. Site B includes antennas designed to reach far-off locations like Prague and Moscow, but the majority of the current transmissions are beamed to Cuba, Latin America and Africa. It airs VOA broadcasts in Creole, English, Hausa and Portuguese to Latin America and West Africa. The BBC uses Greenville for relay transmissions in English and Spanish to Latin America, and Radio Thailand uses the site to reach the eastern U.S. There are three receive-only TVRO satellite dishes to receive programming. BBC feeds are downlinked from PanAmSat. Eighteen Scientific Atlanta receivers pick up the programs from the three satellite dishes. Orban Optimod audio processors are used. The transmitters at Site B are one Brown Boveri (BBC) 500 kilowatt unit, three Continental 420A 500-kilowatt transmitters, three GE 250 kilowatt units, one AEG Telefunken 500 kilowatt, and one Continental 617 50 kilowatt unit. All of the 500-kilowatt transmitters are currently being operated at 250 kilowatts. The transmitters are routed to an antenna switch bay. There are 50 miles of transmission lines connecting the transmitters to the antennas. The master control room is the heart of the center. It provides all audio patching, antenna switching and monitoring of the transmission facilities. The transmitters can be divided into two groups - those installed under the 1963 project, and those installed as part of the modernization plan in the 1980's. The GE 250-kilowatt transmitters were part of the original equipment, manufactured in 1961. They have been the "workhorses" of the station, and they still play an important pat in the Greenville operation. The can cover 6-21 MHz and they have been modified various times over the years, including the installation of solid state amplifiers. The Continental 420's were made in the late 1940's and are run at half-power - 250 kW. The Continental 617A was used to relay programs overseas in single sideband. In the mid-1980's, Greenville was selected as a location for testing of different models of modern shortwave transmitters. Four transmitters were purchased from leading manufacturers - an AEG Telefunken and a Brown Boveri, which were full production models; and a Marconi and a Continental model 420B, which were prototypes. The AEG and the BBC are currently in use at Site B. The other two were installed at Site A, which is mothballed. The BBC and AEG transmitters use pulse step modulation techniques. The 41 antennas are located in an arch around the transmitter building. They cover from 3 to 305 degrees azimuth, although the most used azimuths are 90 to 236 degrees, from Africa to Central America. There are 16 curtain antennas which operate from 9.6 to 11.7 MHz, 20 rhombics which operate from 6.1 to 26 MHz and from 3 to 286 degrees, two log periodics which operate from 4-10 MHz for communications and program relays that are inactive, one TCI curtain antenna that was originally installed for testing for the global IBB network, and two simple dipoles which operate on 6 MHz at 10 and 174 degree azimuths. Three-phase commercial power is supplied by the local electrical company, and there's a diesel generator which can be used in case of a commercial power failure. The site has a complete machine shop for the fabrication of small parts. Greenville maintains a large parts inventory, including many high-power tubes and capacitors that are becoming obsolete. There is a major water conditioning system for transmitter cooling requirements. After the video, Adil Mina of Continental Electronics pointed out that the director of the Office of War Information in 1942 later went on to found Continental in Dallas. Walt Konetsco mentioned that "there's some interest in the B Site for WWV, because they're looking for a facility on the East Coast." The A and B sites are identical in terms of transmitters and antennas. Konetsco said that tours of the A Site are tightly controlled since 9/11, but exceptions may be made for international broadcasters who make advance arrangements. The Delano (California), Kavala (Greece) and Tangier IBB transmitter sites were recently closed. IBB still has relay stations in Sao Tome (a small island off the west coast of Africa), Botswana, Kuwait (which is in a buildup operation with emphasis on the Middle East), Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, the Mariana Islands and Germany, although the German site has been decreased (Aug NASB Newsletter via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Unfortunately this article contains out of date info, such as: ``The BBC uses Greenville for relay transmissions in English and Spanish to Latin America, and Radio Thailand uses the site to reach the eastern U.S.`` (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Glenn, What I find hard to believe: All curtain antennas are for 9.6- 11.7 MHz? Yes, old ones cover only two neighbouring bands, but have they installed 16 ones and all for 31/25 m exclusively?! This especially since most of these curtains are aiming at Europe, judging from aerial images. And the "decreased German site" were of course three sites, of which one (Holzkirchen) has been closed at yearend 2003. Finally: The Telefunken transmitters use pulse duration modulation. See also http://www.worldofradio.com/dxld7046.txt for some background on the Greenville installations. Some interesting insights are here: http://www.g8wrb.org/data/Burle/Techniques-to-Extend-the-Service-Life-of-High-Power-Vacuum-Tubes.pdf (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. The VOA via 6180 used to be a very potent signal here when via Breich, but via Greenville the signal is much less strong, and subject to "splatter" from the BBC DRM racket on 6195. (Noel R. Green (NW England), Aug 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) cf Cuba, now that RHC moved to 6140 ** U S A [non]. Looking for VOA Korean service, 11740, via Tinang, Philippines, Aug 15 at 1300, instead heard Sakura, NHK timesignal and opening Chinese. Some co-channel turned out to be VOA, way underneath, with American song segment at 1315 identifiable only by // 5890. This is quite unusual, as VOA is normally very dominant on 11740, 250 kW at 21 degrees, vs NHK via Singapore, 250 kW at 1 degree. The target zones are officially separate, but looks like another bad collision in East Asia until 1330. Later on VOA English, 9760 via Philippines, I heard a promo mentioning that Issues in the News is now heard on both Saturdays at 0230 and 0530 and Sundays at 0130 and 0430. The website which also has it OD, http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/issuesinthenews.cfm adds Sunday 1230. I wonder what program has been cancelled that it is filling in for. At 1352 Aug 15 on 15790, was hearing a woman speaking English, with a very heavy South Asian accent --- not it`s not --- yes it is --- she seemed to be going in and out of English and Urdu, for this is VOA`s Radio Aap ki Dunyaa via Sri Lanka, and soon mentioned Voice of America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) VOA Music Mix heard on short waves! Only on August 14 I heard VOA Music Mix on 11755 kHz around 0800 UT. I was tuning the SW dial and at 0801Z I heard VOA News, and then at 0805 VOA Music Mix with DJ Larry London (not the Bordercrossings show). At 0840Z I turned off my radio. The signal was from very good to excellent strength. I checked IBB Monitoring scans from Belgrade, and they indicate a powerful transmission in Aug. 14 0630-0845Z. Nothing on 11755 kHz at 0800Z on Aug. 15 & 16, so that was probably a test transmission. Best regards! (Dragan Lekic from Serbia, Aug 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It may be unusual at that hour, but VOA MM fills various other SW slots. I was hearing it after 0605 UT Sat and Sun on 6180 Greenville, free of CubaRM. Glenn Hauser, ibid.) 11755 is a Biblis frequency of Russian at 63 degrees at other time of the day. Maybe a test broadcast for Georgia / Russia target? wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** U S A. We are grateful for so much sporadic E this summer, still going into mid-August, even if it doesn`t reach TV channel 2, for it makes WWCR 15825 a big solid signal much of the time, only one megameter away here, vs a just-barely-audible signal if we were depending only on the MUF-starved F2 layer --- including during the Friday WORLD OF RADIO broadcast, which August 15 I noticed was starting at 2029 instead of 2030. This should allow it to finish before the frequency change announcement to 7465 has to start (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Airline Transport / WWRB shortwave Hi Glenn: Airline Transport is purchasing 5 additional fixed wing aircraft for our Powerline & Pipeline patrol group. We are planning on hiring additional 5 Pilots and 5 observers and building another runway here at the WWRB shortwave transmitter facility: Runway 36 / 18 This will require the removal of an entire antenna system. Two fixed wing aircraft are based here at WWRB shortwave for TVA contracts. The other aircraft and crews will be based in other parts of the USA. It's sad to remove the antenna --- but when ATC is hauling in $350 per hour flying Pipelines & Powerlines and each 'patrol' circuit is almost is 8 hours every day, one can see why the antenna is being decommissioned (Dave Frantz, WWRB, Aug 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dave, So which antenna is it, and which frequencies/times/azimuth will be affected? (Glenn to Dave, via DXLD) I think the 270 beam; the company`s surveyor will make the decision. By the way, I have been told that if the SW station is closed, all five transmitters, feedlines, all spare parts --- everything related to shortwave broadcasting is to be smashed with a bulldozer and scraped then, to the salvage yard! I asked why!!! Reply: liability --- in no way are they going to sell transmitters with 32 KV DC at 20 amps to some 'church group'. Anything goes wrong after the sale, and you can be sure the widow will come a-calling with her lawyer! It's cheap insurance to scrap and kill all liability, forever! I have seen ATC cut up an airplane that was no longer needed for a contract project, that was still airworthy with NOTHING! wrong with it!!! for the very same reason. Can you blame them????? Following the law in America does not mean anything! It's just 'evidence' in your favor; it's still up to the jury! Our nation is going, has gone insane! (Dave Frantz, WWRB, DX LISTENING DIGEST) We thought that Dave was in charge of ATC, the decider. Per website, 270 is Dual Feed Reflector Curtain and currently not in use for any of the transmissions dubbed Global 1, 2, 3 or 4, since it`s aimed into the sparsely populated Pacific (and Oklahoma). (gh, DXLD) We've updated the station Photo Gallery with new aerial photographs taken by Airline Transport Communications' corporate pilots. http://www.wwrb.org/gallery.html (WWRB website Aug 17 via DXLD) 5050, WWRB, Manchester TN, 2211-2219, 12 Aug, English, talks; 14331, adjacent utility QRM; improved very slowly. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Aug 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So indeed WWRB is on the air some two hours earlier than 0000 authorized by FCC. BTW, FCC has just issued an updated schedule as of 14 August: http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A08FCC03.TXT And I remind you it covers maximum hours authorized --- except for stations like WWRB which pay no attention to it --- not necessarily all of them use by any given station; and also includes wooden, or at least not yet active listings, without flagging them, such as WBCQ on 5835, WMLK on 9955, KVOH on 9975, etc., etc. You still need to know what is really going on by monitoring or comparing with other listings (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WWRB: see UNIDENTIFIED 9555 ** U S A. My logbook would not be complete without at least one entry per month of the awful spurs from KVOH, Simi Valley CA, which is really on a mountain. Made it for August, as last heard July 2, but much stronger this time. August 15 at 1953, very distorted FMy music on about 17922, matching relatively clear 17775. The spur was only slightly weaker than the fundamental, at peaks S9+15 vs S9+18. On the spur I could see the S-meter fluxuating slightly with modulation variations. Then looked for the match on the low side, and there it was around 17628, with same distortion, but as usual significantly weaker than the other one, plus/minus 148 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Glenn: It's 1813 UT Saturday as I write this. We're doing some tests on the northern antenna till 2100 UT today. Could you check our signal up there? Thanks a lot (Jeff White, WRMI, Aug 16, via DXLD) Jeff, Yes! At 1817-1821 I checked 9955. Too much computer and TV noise in the house, but on the DX-398 in the yard and hooked on a longwire down the street, it was fairly audible. Sounds like Ted Randall. Is that his special from Huntsville? I can`t quite decide whether there is some residual jamming in the mix, due to the still hi noise level here and/or background noise on the program. 73 (Glenn to Jeff, ibid.) Live from Huntsville! ---------- Saturday from 2 pm EDT to 5 pm EDT [1800-2100 UT] On 7415 KHZ WBCQ And 9955 KHZ WRMI Join us along with Charlie Emerson N4OKL, Vice President of the Huntsville Hamfest and Special Guests! (from http://www.tedrandall.com via DXLD) Can barely detect a carrier on 7415, this early from WBCQ. Are they really on? Should have fired up 9330 which does much better in daytime (Glenn Hauser, OK, 1831 UT Sat Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: Many thanks. Yes, I'm hearing jamming here too. I think it's because this is a time slot where we had Radio República until a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully it will go away eventually when they realize the change. It is indeed Ted Randall with his special from Huntsville. His phone line is a little low coming in here, but we've boosted it up as far as we can (Jeff White, WRMI, ibid.) 1937 UT: 9955 stronger than last hour, 90% copy, in fact no comparison to WBCQ 7415 which is still just a carrier, maybe. WRMI has some deep fades, however, when the jamming becomes more obvious. Jeff, caught a fragment of a weather-news item about extremely hi winds in Hialeah recently. Any problem for you? (Glenn to Jeff, ibid.) Glenn: We haven't had any wind problems at the transmitter site yet, but we're really watching Tropical Storm/Hurricane Fay closely. It looks like it will be going west of here, but the east side of the hurricane is usually the worst, so we could get some bad winds and rain here. We're going to evaluate things late tomorrow, and we may lower the boom on the northern antenna until the storm goes through, in which case we'll only be using the corner reflector going south for that time. There's not much we can do to protect the corner reflector, but it's a lot less delicate than the other one, and came through the past hurricanes with flying colors (Jeff White, WRMI, ibid.) At 2045, WBCQ had built up to readable level, and had the advantage of no jamming, but WRMI was stronger and holding its own against jamming. (Glenn to Jeff, ibid.) Right now the only thing we've got from R República is the 1000-1100 slot from Sackville Mon-Fri. I think they have funding problems. They've talked about resuming transmissions on 9955, but nothing definite yet (Jeff White, ibid.) So I finally look at your schedule dated August 1. Wow, that`s a lot of R. Prague on Sat and Sun afternoons [English, Spanish, and French too]. Expendable apparently. And some new WOR times; I assume 4 pm will be back next Saturday? (Glenn to Jeff, ibid.) Glenn: Yes, the extra Prague on weekend afternoons is probably very temporary. Yes, unless Ted has other plans, WOR at 4 pm ET Saturday should return next week (Jeff White, ibid.) See WRMI`s program schedule (no longer an xls grid, and not specific as to DX program repeat times), updated August 1 at: http://www.wrmi.net/program.php?id=94 It`s in 12-hour EDT so add 4 or 16 hours for UT. New WORLD OF RADIO times are Sat 2000, Sun 2030; also WAVESCAN Sat 2030, and heard Sun 2100 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Please note the following change to Family Stations, Inc. transmissions via RTI [TAIWAN] (This change went into effect on August 8, 2008): DELETE Vietnamese to Vietnam 9930 kHz 1300-1400 UT ADD Vietnamese to Vietnam 9455 kHz 1300-1400 UT (WYFR Aug 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Found an illegal rebroadcast of nut-case Alex Jones on Channel 17 of the Citizens Band (27165). S-5 here in Hanover, Michigan at 1810 UT. Probably originating from the city of Jackson, Michigan, about 15 miles from my QTH. Remember, Jones is the "talk host" who created panic on New Year's Eve, 1999 by declaring Russian missiles were being launched, possibly towards the United States and possibly due to Y2K computer malfunctions. If you ever get a chance, be sure to watch the Trio Network documentary on Jones and his Bohemian Grove nonsense. Trio went along with Jones, and shot their own footage. Jones cleverly edited his tape to make the event out to be some type of satanic ceremony. However, in the Trio footage, it simply looks like a Medieval play. You see an audience sitting on bleachers, drinking pop and eating popcorn. At the end of the play there's a fireworks display. Fireworks....really satanic. (Sarcasm dripping....) 73, (Bill Lauterbach - WA8MEA, Aug 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Don`t need CB --- he`s on WWCR 3215, 5070 and 12160 for hours and hours middays and evenings past midnight with show ``Info Wars`` (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. TALK RADIO WWWT DUMPED, FEDERAL NEWS RADIO ELEVATED Washington Business Journal - by Jeff Clabaugh Staff Reporter Monday, August 11, 2008 - Modified: Monday, August 11, 2008 - 2:00 PM Less than a year after launching talk radio station WWWT, Bonneville Broadcasting Corp. is pulling the plug and giving its signals to Federal News Radio. Starting this fall, Federal News Radio (WFED), currently broadcasting on 1050 AM, will move to 3WT’s 1500 AM and 820 AM. A third signal, 107.7 FM, which also currently carries 3WT, will begin carrying WTOP programming this fall as well. Bonneville also owns WTOP. WTOP is a broadcast partner of the Washington Business Journal. In addition, Washington Nationals games, and other sports programming currently carried on the 3WT stations will broadcast on 1500 AM, and will be heard on 107.7 FM through the fall 2009 season. It also ends Bonneville’s relationship with local sports commentator Tony Kornheiser. “Tony Kornheiser is currently not on the radio; he will be doing Monday Night Football this fall and will not return to our radio stations after this,” the company said in a memo to employees. Eight Bonneville employees were informed they would be let go Monday, with several other cuts expected because of operational shifts when the transition takes place. “We didn’t get the kind of ratings that we were looking for and therefore didn’t have the revenue or the profit,” said Joel Oxley, senior vice president of Bonneville. “This lets us move our distribution to WFED, which has a tremendous growth opportunity.” The latest moves also make WTOP a trimulcast station, broadcasting on three FM frequencies, further increasing its regional coverage. This is the third incarnation for the trio of stations since March 2006 when Bonneville partnered with The Washington Post to launch Washington Post Radio. Bonneville and the Post ended that relationship last August, citing low ratings. Federal News Radio was launched by Bonneville in 2000 as an Internet- only radio station targeting government employees and contractors. It began broadcasting on 1050 AM in 2004 (via Kevin Redding, TN, ABDX via DXLD) Washington DC Format Follies: I have a simple solution. Put WTOP back on 1500 where it belongs (Bill Harms, MD, ibid.) Agreed !! Is silly what is going on with the 1500 situation in DC. 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, WI/IL, ibid.) This is a poster child for how skywave is ignored. Outside of the KSTP skywave coverage, WTOP is very strong over the entire Eastern seaboard. Format they put on - something that only appeals to local DC residents. The reason? WTOP's 50 kW transmitter is strong enough to penetrate buildings (Bruce Carter, ibid.) In Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts they have a monster signal but as big as it is, its NOTHING like WBAL up there (Kevin Redding, TN, ibid.) They do well to the Northeast, but not to the West. They boom in here in Elkridge, MD day and night (Bill Harms, ibid.) If the metro area includes Fairfax, VA, my cousin gets it perfectly at her apartment at night. We have been on the phone before and she and I tuned it in at the same time. That was before WLAC went IBOC. WLAC clobbers 1500 where I am at night (Bob Smoak, Bamberg, SC, ibid.) The D.C. Suburbs migrated west where WTOP does not cover that well at night. WTOP until the last few years covered the D.C. Metro just fine. Same goes for the previously known WWDC at 1260 kHz (Juan, Ft. Pierce, FL (born in DC), Gualda, ibid.) I'm with you. It seems very likely that they'd be better off by adding the FM plus AM ratings on a 100% simulcast than hoping for Federal Radio to do anything. Their issues are the weak AM night signal in the affluent, rapidly growing west metro, the very real ratings difference stations see with exactly the same programming when you flip talk programming to FM from AM, no matter how strong the AM signal is (greatly improved listening levels from younger listeners, even if 12+ doesn't change), and, as mentioned, the building penetration. Still, with that signal, it's got to be a plus to combine the shares (as Bonneville does with KSL). (Brian Goodrich, Greensboro, NC, ibid.) I'm going to play devil's advocate on this one. Much as I'd love to have WTOP back on the big AM signal that bombs in like a ton of bricks up here, I can see why Bonneville is doing what it's doing. With the addition of the 107.7 Virginia signal, there won't be an square inch of the Washington metro that doesn't get a city-grade FM signal from WTOP. Bonneville believes very strongly that the future for news and talk is on FM, and they're proving that to be correct with their moves to FM at KSL, KTAR, WTOP and now KIRO. KTAR flipped its AM signal to sports. KIRO may well do the same once the dust settles on its move to FM. KSL maintained the AM simulcast not because of 1160's skywave reach at night but because of its near-statewide groundwave coverage by day. Utah is unusual in the extent to which the entire state looks to Salt Lake City for news; the Salt Lake TV stations are seen on translators and cable as far afield as St. George, more than 300 miles away, and you can buy the Salt Lake papers anywhere in the state. KSL may also remain on AM simply because there's not much else for Bonneville to do with the AM signal; there are already four all-sports AMs in Salt Lake (700, 1230, 1280, 1320) and a bunch of other talkers, too (570, 630, 1430). In the case of Washington, Bonneville has the chance to take a very profitable (if rather odd) niche format, Federal News Radio, and put it on a signal (1500) that will reach its target audience, DC bureaucrats, much more effectively than the rimshot daytimer signal (1050) where it now resides. If I'm running Bonneville, I'm thinking FNR is a more effective use of the 1500 facility than a WTOP simulcast would be. Remember, the ratings tell us that Bonneville has already successfully moved more or less the entire WTOP audience from 1500 to FM, and picked up new listeners along the way. Returning WTOP programming to 1500 won't add much in the way of new listenership, and as long as 1500/820 break from the simulcast to carry Nats games at night, they can't even combine ratings with103.5/103.9/107.7, so there's a risk that the WTOP-FM ratings could end up somewhat diluted by a partial 1500 simulcast. Where the 1500 signal would help WTOP is entirely outside the Washington market, where Bonneville doesn't sell ad time. 1500 is certainly superior to 103.5 in Baltimore, where 103.5's directional notch protecting WXCY 103.7 Havre de Grace MD kicks in. And there's a case to be made that the strong 1500 signal to the east would be useful to Washingtonians heading to and from the coast. Maybe Bonneville should buy an FM in Ocean City to extend the WTOP network out there. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) Scott, I can also see Bonneville's line of thinking, but I still think it is a mistake. They should have left the AM alone and augmented any area without coverage with FM. Many people who work in the DC area live to the North and East of DC, just where 1500 has good coverage during drive time. Also, as you indicate below, there were a lot of listeners to WTOP here in the Baltimore Area. Fort Meade and vicinity is expected to take on a large population increase in the next five to ten years. I have to wonder if the fine folks at Bonneville realize that... And you know how I feel about the younger generation of managers ignoring skywave (but that is another discussion.) (Bill Harms, MD, ibid.) These people spend tons of money on research and consultants and completely ignore common sense and what long time loyal listeners continue to want. After all you've spent all that money so you have to change something, right? You'd look dumb if you didn't, right? If you don't then you wasted all that money, right? Wrong. Why buy the station if you're going to keep on doing what's been done successfully for decades? That makes too much sense; we can't do that! A perfect example our here on the West Coast is KNX. It had been all news since 1968. The quite a bit older but still very much on top of things GM of more than 30 years, who had led the station to many many awards over all that time was shown the door when newer younger management took over. So what did these newer younger management types do? They ruined a truly legendary station. On weekends they put on a computer show done by a truly arrogant jerk and a cooking show. Both hosts were paid several million dollars a year. After a couple of years the computer show ended up on another station. Their co-owned all news station KFWB, which gets out relatively poorly became the flagship station for the Dodgers. So what you do on the weekends if you're looking for news, weather, traffic and sports when the computer show or cooking show is on KNX and KFWB is running the Dodger game? You're SOL. The ratings for both stations went in the tank. They've brought back a few of the old reliable things on KNX that worked for many decades but it's too late. They've trashed the place (Dennis Gibson, ibid.) Dennis, you are soooo right. My wife & I needed to take a drive out to Agoura last week. We started with KNX, and that cooking show absolutely drove us nuts. Between the idiot callers, wanting a good recipe for boiled water, and the hostess, who patiently explained to the caller every painful step, I just about wanted to rip the radio out of the dash. Over on KFWB, we actually got to listen to the news (The Dodgers moved over to KABC this year - another 5 kW station with decent but not outstanding coverage). That wasn't so bad, except that once we hit Woodland Hills, the HD started cutting in and out. Personally, I prefer the analog - HD just sounds tinny and harsh. Especially when they switch between the studio announcers and the mobile reporters. That just gets downright annoying. All I really want is for KNX to go back to full-time news. They can do whatever they want with KFWB. We don't really need 2 news stations in town - especially when they are co-owned. The only advantage is that by flipping back and forth, you can always catch a traffic report (Brian Leyton, CA, ibid.) You're talking about Jeff Levy and Melinda Lee, right? Both had been on KFI and I believe were doing fairly well. I didn't know the circumstances of their departure. If KNX offered them $millions, that would certainly explain it. I never did care for Levy. Arrogant jerk is a pretty good description. He could never say, "Sorry, I don't know the answer to that." He always had to have a solution, no matter what the problem or whether he had a clue what the caller was even asking. About the third or fourth time he sent somebody down a road I knew was completely wrong, I gave up on listening. I was very happy when KFI brought in Leo Laporte to do the computer show. (Not sure if he's still on since I've been gone for a couple years.) I know KFI flailed around for quite a while trying to find a replacement for Melinda Lee. They even tried Dom DeLuise for a while. I think when I left they were down to pulling people in off the street to do that show. It can't be easy to talk about cooking for a couple hours and make it sound remotely interesting to the audience (Jay Heyl, FL, ibid.) Correct. I have never listened to KFI; I can't stomach it. Speaking of KFI, according to Scott's always excellent Radio Journal http://ftp.media.radcity.net/ZMST/Journal/Journal.pdf KFI's tower "has reached its full height of 684 feet". Construction on the huge 50 foot top hat started yesterday. Scott - once the tower has been completed how long do you think it will take to get approval to start using it? Do Proofs of Performance still exist? There are so few new AM sticks that issues concerning them are something I don't know much about (Dennis Gibson, ibid.) And was completed in one day, as it turns out! Because KFI is non- directional, they can start using the tower pretty much as soon as they can get RF into it. It will go on initially under Program Test Authority, possibly at half-power (I forget exactly what the rules say on that point), but there's no need for the lengthy proofing that's needed for a new DA. I haven't heard anything today from my contact at KFI, but I won't be at all surprised if the new stick is on the air before the week is out. Now that the tower is up, the rest of the job (connecting the existing transmission line to the tower, making sure the lighting on the tower is working, etc.) is relatively simple. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) KABC's antenna system is a little weird. The two towers are very different heights and the styles are much different. http://www.fybush.com/site-020313.html (Dennis Gibson, ibid.) Good points, Scott --- and you may be right. I like the way you think things through (leaving the emotional stuff on the bench). Maybe I underestimate the potential of Federal News Radio. I've never heard anything about their billing. First impression, though, is that the big signal AM would still be a cume magnet for those listening to WMAL, etc., and a familiar catch-all for people all over the greater Washington area. Plus, as you said, it provides a pretty good signal toward the coast. All bets are off, though, if they can find another format that's viable on its own (Brian Goodrich, Greensboro, NC, ibid.) Believe me, it's easy to be emotional about a station like 1500. I had the pleasure of touring the transmitter site last week, and it's a magnificent specimen of Art Deco industrial architecture that's being well cared for by Bonneville. You leave there (well, I did, anyway) wanting it to be 1950 again, with the mighty Western Electric transmitter humming away and the AM signal dominating the market. But it's not 1950, or 1980, or even 1995 anymore. Bonneville wouldn't be pushing so hard for news and talk on FM if they weren't getting VERY positive audience response. Everywhere they've done it - KTAR, KSL, WTOP, and now KIRO - ratings have gone up substantially, as have ad revenues. So in a way, this is the opposite of the (very legitimate) problems Dennis has with KNX and KFWB - those stations are simply trying to cut costs and losing some of their valuable content, and their listeners, in the process. I'm not as familiar with KTAR or KSL as I am with WTOP, but in Washington WTOP isn't cutting back on much of anything - the product is still solid, the staff seems pretty happy, and the newly-renovated newsroom is one of the nicest in the country. And whether we like it or not as AM DXers, or AM sentimentalists, that product is now where the audience evidently wants it to be: FM. There are chicken-and-egg arguments aplenty going on in the industry right now about this transition. Some argue that by moving AM staples like talk, all-news and sports to FM, companies such as Bonneville are speeding up the demise of the AM band and reducing the value of the AMs that remain. (Would putting WTOP back on AM help encourage sampling of its AM competitor, WMAL? Sure it would - and that's one reason Bonneville's not doing it!) Others argue that the AM band pretty much already has one foot in the grave, and the other one is sinking fast. The argument on this side is that even if WTOP, for instance, did have a full-market AM signal on 1500, a significant portion of its potential audience will simply never find it there. My personal view of the matter is that it varies dramatically by market. Washington has always been a notoriously bad AM market, with no truly full-market signals and a disproportionately high level of FM listening. (Atlanta, Houston and Miami are bad AM markets, too.) Other markets are different - San Francisco remains a vibrant AM market, with KSFO, KNBR, KCBS and KGO all very viable signals. If I had a news or talk format in San Francisco, I wouldn't be rushing to move it to FM. I've always thought of Seattle as a fairly viable AM market, too, which is why it will be VERY interesting to see how KIRO-FM does. FM reception can be iffy in some areas (hi there, West Seattle!), and the competition among KVI, KOMO, KJR and KIRO had been keeping listeners tuned to AM. We'll see what changes now that KIRO is on FM, especially if they don't keep simulcasting it on 710. In the end, of course, content is king, and smart broadcasters these days know that terrestrial AM and FM transmitters are just two of the many options for delivering that content. (Somewhere in Texas, Harry Helms is smiling...) Bonneville is one of the smartest broadcasters going these days. They understand that "WTOP" is valuable content, and that "AM 1500" isn't the best way to get that content where the listeners are. Yes, it's sad for those of us who've associated the brand with the signal for so many decades, and it's a loss for those of us outside the market who have benefited from the extra skywave coverage the 1500 signal provides. But Bonneville believes - correctly, I think - that the combination of the three in-market FM signals will be a better match between "WTOP" and the audience it wants to reach. And it believes - also correctly, I think - that the 1500 signal, while not absolutely ideal for the task at hand, is the best option it has for its Federal News Radio content. It bears noting that FNR started as a webcast, and much of its listenership is still via streaming audio. The AM broadcast signal (especially in its original home on 1050) is in some ways really just a billboard for the stream. It's a good bet that if FNR is still around a decade from now, it won't still be using AM radio at all. In any event, don't look for FNR to draw ratings. It's designed to serve a VERY niche audience that exists only in close proximity to the Beltway, and to attract the very lucrative advertisers who will spend big bucks to talk to that small group of bureaucrats. FNR would never have made sense on 1500 in AM's mass-audience days. Today, it's almost certainly the most lucrative thing Bonneville could be doing with that signal. (Maybe even more so than leasing it out to preachers and infomercials might be.) I'm rambling here, I realize - my point is that Bonneville "gets it" in a way that other broadcasters don't. This may be a function of Bonneville's private ownership vs. the strain the market puts on companies like CBS...but that's another treatise, I fear. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Scott, do you know if IBOC is coming back once they [KFI] start using the new tower? I must say that I've enjoyed the ability to DX 630 and 650 since IBOC was shut off and they started using narrow bandwidth. Guess I'd better do some DXing before it's too late (Bryan Leyton, CA, ABDX via DXLD) That would be a good idea. I'd hurry. The IBOC transmitter wasn't damaged in the tower collapse, but the short auxiliary antenna KFI has been using didn't have the bandwidth to handle it. Yes, the new antenna will, and yes, I expect they'll put IBOC back on. Sorry! s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) ** U S A. KUT-FM IS 50 YEARS OLD AND KEEPING AUSTIN WEIRD MUSIC --- KUT's 50 years of not playing the hits --- University's radio station built listener loyalty by sounding like Austin, delivering story behind the music. By Patrick Beach, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF, Friday, August 15, 2008 http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2008/08/0817kut.html Founding documents suggest that when the University of Texas' radio station, KUT-FM, was granted a license 50 years ago this week, federal regulators might have had a little trouble locating the City of the Violet Crown: Austin is described as a collection of 132,000 people some "160 miles south of Fort Worth." Of course, everybody knows that Fort Worth is 160 miles north of Austin, not vice versa. But the language suggests that the capital was more humble if not obscure, and so were the beginnings of its public radio station — 4,000 watts, with a signal range of maybe 15 or 20 miles, broadcasting, it's believed, from the UT Tower all of three hours a night, 15 hours a week. When the station went on the air that November, the first thing locals with FM radios (sort of the equivalent of what HDTVs were a few years back) heard was "The Eyes of Texas." "We were short and dumpy," says Stewart Vanderwilt, who's been with the station for eight years as director and general manager. It hasn't been so for quite awhile. With a budget just more than $6 million, the bulk of it — 85 percent — coming from listeners, the station now blasts 100,000 watts around the clock, has a staff of roughly 65 people, produces original programming — some of it nationally syndicated — and has a generous listener base that is the envy of other public radio stations across the country. In addition to KUT, there's a repeater station in San Angelo, HD radio channels, four different Web sites, dozens of podcasts and blogs and a news department that includes a full-time state Capitol reporter. The news department, which began from nothing in 2002, has won more than 50 awards, including a dozen Edward R. Murrow awards for journalistic excellence. When Vanderwilt arrived, the station's audience was about 100,000. Today the radio audience alone is about 200,000, with about another 100,000 tuning in online or through other media. Combining local broadcast, online and national productions, KUT reaches roughly 500,000 people every week. Of the more than 860 stations that carry National Public Radio programming, Vanderwilt says, KUT is the top-performing public station in Texas and "outpaces other Texas cities and most cities in the top 50 markets in the U.S." But, he says, it's impossible to separate the station's success from the community it serves. A great deal of KUT's programming originates from the station — 83 and a half hours weekly, not including an average of four and a half hours weekly of local news and other original material that's inserted into "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered." That bumps the number to about 88 hours, compared with about 80 hours that come from NPR, Public Radio International, the BBC and other sources. Jack Barton, senior director covering the adult album alternative (triple A), for FMQB, which covers the radio and music industries, says noncommercial stations such as KUT are "driven by instilling passion in its audience to become members, introducing its audience to new music, by being sensitive and aware of the needs of their own market." "I think if you talk to labels and managers, you'll find that when they (the station) commit to the record, they commit to the artists and they sell records through airplay," he says. He also calls KUT's approach to its playlist "extremely adventurous." "They're not doing what a commercial station does," he says. "They're not playing things because they think they're going to become hits, although they're not averse to playing hits. They're much more a leader than a follower." He compares KUT to public radio stations in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Seattle, which all cater their playlists to their audiences: "These are all stations that are taking chances on artists they hope will be up and coming, but basing their decisions on quality and how it affects the local listenership." Although robust and exuding "vitality," a word National Public Radio President Kevin Klose used to describe the station, KUT also has to connect, on a daily basis, its woolly heritage with a media landscape that's changing at a baffling clip. Its devoted listener base has been tuning in to many of the same voices for decades — "Eklektikos" host John Aeilli began his fifth decade two years ago — and this base howls whenever there's a programming shakeup. Staffers are proud, if not a little self-satisfied, of being a station that sounds like and serves a specifically Austin and Central Texas audience; as many NPR affiliate stations have succumbed to a creeping commonality that makes them no more unique than your neighborhood Applebee's, KUT is producing more of its own content, not less. At the same time, in an age when cars come MP3-ready and kids are more likely to hear new music through file sharing, not over the air, the station is preparing for a time when we might not experience radio as we do today. "We have to keep some of the old institutions but also infuse new things that invigorate the next generation of public radio listeners," says John L. Hanson Jr., who came to the station in 1974 to be a nighttime R&B jock, served two tours as general manager and has hosted the syndicated "In Black America" show since 1980. "Having basically grown up in Austin and having had my whole radio career here, it lends a perspective to the discussion. We don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water." For David Brown, whom some listeners still regard as that guy who came here from "Marketplace" in Los Angeles to cover Texas music three years ago, that means respecting — and documenting — a musical heritage while dispelling the myth that Austin is still, in his term, "Willie-ville." It also means, for him, bridging music and news. In a town where music is a huge part of the economy, not just the culture, that's important, according to Vanderwilt, Brown's boss. He compares music in Austin to the auto industry in Detroit. "In the iPod era, you've got to be more than a jukebox," Brown says. "In a way, that kind of works for KUT. Other stations can play the music, but at KUT, because of its news component, it enables them to dig into these stories and connect the music side with the news side. And the original objective of (the music news series) 'Texas Music Matters' was to do something like that. We've also found we've become a platform for people who want to be heard on a national level." This means Brown's beat can take him from discussing the late Townes Van Zandt to interviewing local indie band Electric Touch ahead of their appearance at Lollapalooza — and a whole lot of advance work on bands playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival. "Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of great stories there are to tell," he says, adding that he thinks he's collecting material for "a museum that doesn't yet exist." Still, there's that musical and personality heritage that's been a part of the station's mix ever since it shook off its classical roots. "KUT was born out of that music culture," Brown says. "They went to the Armadillo. That was their hangout, and they would bring that voice to the air. People like (longtime jocks) Paul Ray and Larry Monroe are very responsible for what Austin sounds like." "There is a genuine interest in the music," says Brown's colleague, Laurie Gallardo. "I have not encountered another radio station like KUT." Celebrations planned The folks at KUT are planning a year of activities to celebrate the station's 50th anniversary. (Go to kut.org for more details, some of which are still being finalized): Friday: KUT Live with Patty Griffin. This show kicks off the celebration. A limited number of tickets will be given away to the public. Nov. 20 and 21: 'BBC – World Have Your Say.' KUT will feature two live broadcasts of this show which attempts to highlight what's on people's minds by having the listeners dictate content and conversation. Feb. 28: 50th anniversary gala at the Four Seasons Hotel. May 28: A live taping of popular show 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me' at renovated Bass Concert Hall. Sept. 3, 2009: A concert with several bands at Bass Concert Hall. (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. 1680, KGED, CA, Fresno, received nice letter in 50 days from Paul Shinn-CE. Address: 39 W Olive Ave, Fresno CA 93728. MW QSL #2996. 73, (Patrick Martin, KGED QSL Manager, Aug 14, HCDX via DXLD) But, but --- YOU are the KGED QSL manager per your constant signature, so you couldn`t QSL yourself? Or as manager are you alone eligible to hear directly from the CE and ineligible to QSL yourself? And surely you have heard and QSLed it already before becoming QSL manager?? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) LOL --- Wait --- You got a QSL report back --- in 50 days from KGED in Fresno. I think you are one of -- if not the best DXer -- on the west coast. But how do you send yourself a DX report and it takes 50 days to get a reply (Mike McKenna, IRCA, via DXLD) Mike, You didn't notice the verie signer's name? It wasn't mine. Legally, I don't think it would be cricket to sign my own QSL. hi. Paul, the CE did. 73, (Patrick Martin, KGED QSL Manager, ibid.) ** VENEZUELA. Saludos Colegas Diexistas y Radioescuchas del Mundo!! Placer y gusto en saludarlos. Nuevamente les hacemos llegar la Actualización de nuestro blog, el cual incluye los siguientes temas: 1) Radio “La Voz de Venezuela” --- en ruinas!!! Una serie de fotografías que definitivamente nos indican que ese proyecto de instalar una emisora de 1000 kilovatios en los 1240 kHz desde la Península de Paraguaná en el Estado Falcón, fue un desacierto por completo. Instalaciones y edificaciones en completo abandono. Las imágenes son más que elocuentes y representan un verdadero monumento a la corrupción en nuestro país. Definitivamente “ La Voz de Venezuela” murió por desidia e incapacidad!!! http://diexismovenezolano.blogspot.com/ Como siempre, agradecemos sus críticas y sugerencias constructivas sobre nuestro trabajo. De igual manera deseamos reenvie esta nota de prensa a todos sus contactos diexistas para que se enteren de la labor que se realiza desde Venezuela, para a dar a conocer el hobby del Diexismo. Desde Venezuela --- 32 Años, Escuchando al Mundo!!! (CLUB DIEXISTAS DE LA AMISTAD – VENEZUELA, Ing. Santiago San Gil – Editor del Blog, Aug 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz., but go see the illustrations! --- http://diexismovenezolano.blogspot.com/2008/08/blog-post_6850.html RADIO "LA VOZ DE VENEZUELA"...EDIFICACIONES E INSTALACIONES EN RUINAS !!! Dicen que una imágen vale mas que mil palabras y las fotos que ustedes verán a continuación son un ejemplo fiel. Allí estan las imágenes en ruinas de lo que fueron las edificaciones e instalaciones que albergaron a Radio La Voz de Venezuela 1240 kHz, en Punta Tumatey, Península de Paraguaná, Estado Falcón, al noroeste de Venezuela. La Voz de Venezuela fué un proyecto del Estado Venezolano que data de 1976 y que consistía en el desarrollo y puesta en servicio de una estación radiodifusora tipo AM (Amplitud Modulada), operando en la frecuencia de 1240 kHz (Onda Media MW) con una potencia de transmisión de 1000 kilovatios y cobertura esperada para toda la cuenca del caribe, incluyendo las Antillas, República Dominicana, Puerto Rico, Panamá, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, Haití, Jamaica, países insulares del caribe oriental, sur de México, sur de la península de la Florida (Estados Unidos) y costa norte de Colombia. Esta emisora contaba con 2 transmisores marca Continental de 500 kilovatios cada uno y llegó a salir al aire en período de prueba hace algunos años (ver otros reportajes en éste blog). Geográficamente la escogencia del sitio de transmisión fué un completo error, pues el salitre tarde o temprano, si no se hace un mantenimiento permanente, acabaría con sus instalaciones, como lo podemos observar en sus paredes, estructuras y torres. Además técnicamente fué un desacierto querer imponer una poderosa señal que interfería a estaciones de radio de países vecinos. La Voz de Venezuela, solo llegó a utilizar 1 de los 2 transmisores de 500 kW, con una potencia de 380 kilovatios en antena y causaba interferencias diurnas y nocturnas a 38 estaciones que operaban en los 1240 kHz. Es obvio pensar que si se hubiese llegado a transmitir con 1000 kilovatios serían muchas mas las estaciones interferidas así como muchas estaciones que operan en canales adyacentes a ésta frecuencia serían barridos en muchos paises. Finalmente lo que causó la paralización de las transmisiones de La Voz de Venezuela fué la ola de protesta de paises vecinos que consideraban que estas emisiones era "una invasión del espectro radioeléctrico y violaba su soberanía de dichos países". En esta inversion multimillonaria estuvieron involucrados organismos gubernamentales como: Ministerio de Transporte y Comunicaciones (MTC), Ministerio de Desarrollo Urbano (MINDUR), Compañía Eléctrica CADAFE, Venezolana de Televisión, Ministerio de Informacion y Turismo (MIT) y la empresa Telefónica CANTV. Las preguntas que nos hacemos son las siguientes: no había nadie en esos organismos que alertara sobre el fracaso de este proyecto? Ninguno de los ingenieros y técnicos involucrados sabían las consecuencias de la escogencia de la frecuencia en la onda media (MW) y de las interferencias en paises vecinos? La Contraloría General de la República nunca ha investigado este caso, donde por negligencia y desídia, la Nacion perdíó cuantiosos recursos? Se perdíeron todos los equipos de La Voz de Venezuela? Preguntas que quedarán - por ahora - sin responder! Lamentablemente las consecuencias de la desidia gubernamental están a la vista. Nosotros seguiremos documentando los hechos para la historía de la radio venezolana y evitar en el futuro, que casos como éste, no se vuelvan a repetir!!! Publicado por C.DX.A - INTERNACIONAL (via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. 4939.96v, Radio Amazonas, Puerto Ayacucho on irregular schedule with continue transmitter issues. Not there 1000 to 1100 Aug 16th, off Aug 15 same time (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, US - 746Pro NRD 535D, 90 meter dipole, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM. On Aug 6th 1800-1830 UT on 7280 and 9730 was V of Vietnam in Spanish instead of in English (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, Aug 10, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 13 via DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 1550.0, 2137-2144 15/8, Nat. R. of Saharan ADR, Desconhecido, ALGERIA, (Arabic), OMs com, por suposição, boletim de notícias. 2144 sumiu o sinal 23322 (Antônio Laurentino Garcia, PR7BCP, João Pessoa-PB, Brasil, HI22nu, IC R-1500, Antena: 3DX3, HCDX via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1800-1810, Aug 16, English news. “Spice FM” ID at 1808 & into Swahili talk. Fair level but poor, difficult reception due to Brazil’s Radio Transmundial on 11734.91. Both in at equal levels (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE. 3396, Z B C, Zimbabwe, 0050 with pop African music, OM, fades 16 August with no sign of 4828. 4828, ZBC Zimbabwe at 2230; 2300 early fade in, noted with music while looking for irregular Radio Sicuani to no avail. 14 August (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, US - 746Pro NRD 535D, 90 meter dipole, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. via MADAGASCAR. 9895, Radio Voice of the People, 0420-0455*, Aug 15, local African music. Vernacular talk. IDs. English at 0443 with English news at 0444 about local violence. Closing announcements at 0454. Poor (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. Extra Capacity to Zimbabwe --- VT Communications is offering short-term, ad hoc capacity on its global SW network for broadcasters requiring extra transmissions into Zimbabwe during the current crisis there. VT Communications currently delivers daily programmes into this country and the wider region for a number of broadcasters including SW Radio Africa. The company has a number of available slots that would suit daily 30- minute and 60-minute programmes for Zimbabwe including: 0300-0400 UT (5-6 am local time), 250 kW, Ascension transmitter 0500-0700 UT (7-9 am local time), 100 kW, Southern Africa transmitter 0800-0900 UT (10-11am local time), 250 kW, Ascension transmitter 2000-2200 UT (10pm – midnight LT), 250 kW, UAE transmitter Please ask about the availability of time slots outside the above list. This is part of VTC’s service which offers broadcasters extra capacity to rapidly increase their transmission capability to cover major regional and world news stories and events. If you require extra capacity into Zimbabwe during this period, please contact your designated VT Communications’ Account Manager or Tim Ayris, VT Communications' Business Development Manager for Broadcast: tim.ayris @ vtplc.com or telephone: +44 (0)7515 333 142 (Aug NASB Newsletter via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. August 17th, 3291.20, Unidentified. At 1150 to 1200 weak but there, using noise reducing antenna. Guyana Broadcasting Corporation has been off for a year? (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, US, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Are you saying it is a broadcast station? 1200 is awfully late for Guyana to be propagating on 90m, and in the summer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re my previously reported unID on 9555 around 0630 past 0700. There was very faint music audible again on the 15th, but it faded before 0700. I've realised since reporting it that 9555 if divided by 3 = 3185 where WWRB resides - or did. I can't hear it at this time currently. Becoming aware of this I have been trying 2 X 3185 = 6370, but there is no trace of anything on there. WYFR is making it consistently on 6915 so I think 6370 ought to propagate if there's anything there to propagate. Maybe someone Stateside could try (Noel R. Green (NW England), Aug 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) WWRB has previously been reported on 6370; don`t think I`ve ever caught it there. 3185 should be with Brother Scare all night, so some music, but his intonations ought to be elsewhen recognizable. Doubt we would hear much on 9555 then with Cuba on 9550 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 9601.6, Silent carrier, 2223-, 10 Aug; 13441, QRM de CHINA (tentatively) on 9600. 73 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Aug 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Se ha publicado la información referente al XIV Encuentro Nacional de Diexismo [lots of photos] Saludos, Por este medio quiero invitarles a visitar el nuevo blog, donde está la información gráfica de lo que aconteció el pasado 1 a 3 de agosto del 2008, la 14a. Edición del Encuentro Nacional de Diexismo, de la radiescucha de la onda corta en Gómez Palacio, Durango, en la República Mexicana. http://14-encuentro-nacional-dx.blogspot.com/ Espero sus comentarios, y Mil Gracias por su apoyo. La próxima cita será Agosto 2009 en la ciudad de Cuernavaca, Morelos. México Su Amigo y radioescucha (Magdiel Cruz Rodríguez, Aug 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HFCC B08 in Moscow The B08 conference of the HFCC will take place August 25-29 in Moscow. The NASB's official representative there will be Glen Tapley of WEWN. At press time, we know that George Ross of KTWR will also be at the conference. NASB members who need assistance with any frequency coordination matters may contact Glen at: gtapley @ ewtn.com (Aug NASB Newsletter via DXLD) TINY TRAP +++++++++ Re Matthew Chance: Sadly, no pseudo Mohawk on his mug in this CNN profile: http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/chance.matthew.html I wonder if he would also consider the UK tiny (Terry Krueger, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And we heard him again calling GEORGIA `tiny`! GRAPHIC GAFFES & AUDIBLE ATROCITIES +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FORMER VETERAN On NBC `Nightly` News from morning Beijing, in afternoon Oklahoma, UT Aug 14 around 2250, Pete Williams reporting on celebrities who were spies in WW II, such as Julia Child, referred to someone else as a ``former CIA veteran``. Mr Williams must have severe problems with logical thinking, as once you are a veteran of anything, you are always a veteran. Or did the CIA disown this person? I don`t think so, as the point was that once-classified documents had been released. And even if they did disown him, that would not change the fact that he had once worked there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WORLD OF HOROLOGY +++++++++++++++++ RAMADAN Re 8-092: Glenn, Quoting H. A. R. Gibb’s “Mohammedanism”: “It is laid down that the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar year, is to be observed as a period of fasting, with complete abstinence from food and drink during the hours of daylight.” So that’s why we called Ramadhan as a holy month. Best 73, (Tony Ashar, Depok, Indonesia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MUSEA +++++ VOA BUILDING IS A MUSEUM Among "hidden treasures" in D.C. federal buildings: "The Wilbur J. Cohen Building, which houses Voice of America, has bas-relief sculptures over each four building entrances. The bas-reliefs, along with most of the murals inside, reflect the theme of social security, because the building was originally built to house the Social Security Board, which never moved in. The Cohen building's auditorium has a mural on sliding panels that is usually hidden from the people who do make it into the building - in the auditorium, at the back of the stage, is a 12-by-16 foot mural by Philip Guston of a family eating a picnic and people working. The giant work of art is usually out of view when the auditorium is being used." http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/29976/ (Kansas City infoZine, 15 August 2008 via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: AUSTRALIA; GERMANY; PERU; USA ++++++++++++++++++++ DTV CAN`T HOLD UP TO LIGHTNING And these folks that got a high VHF signal are also going to be sorry. They don't get much power. For example WSPA TV on 7 analog has 316,000 watts. Digital they get 25,000 watts. They get SEVERE disruption from thunderstorms, but not as bad as 2-6. Expect problems. Last week we had a strong thunderstorm that had a lot of lightning fairly close. The digital part of 21 was freezing and stuttering due to static, and I expect a digital 7 would be unusable (Powell E Way, III, SC, W4OPW, Aug 15, IRCA via DXLD) Powell, I am wondering, once analog goes away, will the digital signal boost up to full power? If digital was running 316 kwatts, would they get out as well as analog then? 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, ibid.) MORE ON ANALOG TV AT THE US-MEXICO BORDER Below is a link to The El Paso Times about the delayed change-over to digital transmissions at the US- Mexico border. You might still be able to DX analog from the border if this legislation is accepted. http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_10096398 (Dan Ramos, Huntington Beach, CA, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) Viz.: STATIONS BATTLE OVER DIGITAL TV BILL By Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times Article Launched: 08/05/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT EL PASO -- Legislation to allow TV stations along the U.S.-Mexico border to continue broadcasting an analog signal after Feb. 17, when all other U.S. stations will be required to broadcast only a digital signal, has Spanish- and English-language TV stations in El Paso fighting over the issue. The Digital Television Border Fix Act, introduced last year by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, passed the U.S. Senate last week and is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, has co-sponsored a similar bill in the House. The legislation would allow U.S. television stations within 50 miles of the Mexican border to ask the Federal Communications Commission permission to continue both analog and digital broadcasts until Feb. 17, 2014. Most TV stations in the United States, including stations in El Paso, have been broadcasting both digital and analog signals for several years to meet government requirements, but analog signals are scheduled to stop Feb. 17. U.S. TV viewers need to buy a digital converter box or purchase a digital TV to continue to receive broadcasts over the air after that date. TVs connected to cable or satellite TV service will receive digital broadcasts. Kevin Lovell, general manager of Channel 7-KVIA (cable Channel 6), said English-language channels in El Paso and along most of the border are opposed to the legislation. Spanish-language stations and networks have been lobbying for it, he said. "Competitive pressures" may force English-language stations to broadcast in analog and digital if Spanish-language stations do it, Lovell said. "It's expensive to maintain analog and digital signals. It's well into six figures a year for KVIA." It's also important to do the change now while a national education campaign is under way, he said. David Candelaria, vice president for Entravision Communications Corp., and general manager of Entravision's Spanish-language radio and TV stations in El Paso, including Channel 26-KINT and Channel 65-KTFN, said English-language stations complain about the legislation, but, he said, broadcasting both signals would be optional. "The fact is a lot of people still won't have" the digital capability and they will need the analog broadcasts "to be informed," Candelaria said. Hutchison, in a written statement, said, "Due to the expense of transition and the continued availability of analog programming from Mexico, many households may choose not to participate in the transition" and wouldn't have access to weather warnings and other important safety messages from U.S. broadcasters. Lovell said the Spanish-language stations' main concern is losing viewers in Mexico. Candelaria said losing viewers in Juárez, where Channel 26 has a "pretty significant audience" for its newscasts is a concern, as is losing El Paso viewers who might opt to remain analog and tune in only to Mexican stations. But the main reason for Entravision's support of the legislation is to make sure TV viewers continue to receive vital emergency information, he said. Congressman Reyes in a recent column in http://www.newspapertree.com said statistics indicate 31 percent of El Paso households rely on over-the-air TV broadcasts, and many of them have not bought converter boxes. "While I respect Mr. Lovell's position, as a policymaker, I must always weigh the pros and cons of each issue and make a decision that I believe is in the best interest of my constituency," Reyes wrote. "Giving El Pasoans more time to make the transition to DTV (digital TV) to ensure they have continued access to vital emergency alerts is the right thing to do." (via DXLD) IBOC Iboc is not my favorite word in radio modulation concepts. In the turn of 2005 to 2006, I noticed that as over the air television was being foolishly written into a new testament of digital television prophecy, your own prophecy was the warning against the coming of digital AM radio. I felt like wishing that would never happen but having heard it from you, I listened anyway, in other words put a mental thumb on it. Nowadays, WCBS 880 AM puts out a WABC 770-like strapper signal in my area but the modulation seems to reach out maybe 3 Kc on each side, then with a dead spot, then with ABSOLUTE PURE CRUD centered seemingly 10 Kc on each wiping out liked stations like (WWL) 870 New Orleans and one or more graveyard Connecticut daylight AM stations that are/ were passably fun to listen to on Bohemianly idle mornings in bygone days. The reasons of disgust continued when a friend drove me around in his car with the actual audio quality (lack and distortion of- ) of WCBS HD available at the cost of $168 a year I seem to have seen. It`s so unnice seeing a friend beg me for pocket money to finance his cowboy driving and hopeless sounding radio when I`d wish better for a lone friend and progress for a whole civilization. When Mr. Craig Healy wrote in your August 12 edition that he installed an Iboc into a transmitter, I imagined that the best place to insert all one would really be to strap it on top of a board- at- once hot solder sucker machine. Skipping a meal so that my heartbeat doesn`t drown out the ever so feeble output of a WD11 tube picking up 160 metres SSB stations off a 200-foot antenna on Friday nights is ever so much more fun and comfort than Iboc (Frederic Jodry, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ POWER LINE ADAPTOR Glenn, Very interested to read about Powerline adaptor interference in the most recent DXLD. I have had a nightmare with a source of interference locally in my area. I have been trying to find what it is; I am 99% sure where it is coming from. It is especially strong on 31 meters, around 9375, and then all thru the shortwave band. I have never come across anything like it, it has spoiled my hobby, which I have followed for 11 years now. I have called OFCOM which is the UK broadcast regulatory committee; they are going to assist me with the matter, and hopefully, it will be cleared up. [later:] I have been trying to keep up with shortwave as best I can, as mentioned in my recent e mail about the very bad interference I am getting. Hopefully the OFCOM engineer will find where it is coming from. I have also signed the petition mentioned in the latest DXLD (Chris Lewis, England, Aug 13-14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BT Powerline Adapters Interference Hi all, As a follow-up to the articles that have appeared in this month's "Communication" and "Contact" magazine here are a few recordings a made a couple of weeks ago which illustrate the extent of the interference caused to me by the Comtrend Powerline Adapters used by BT for their BT Vision service. For each file, you'll hear me stepping through the range in 5 kHz steps: 4700-4800 khz: http://www.randa.plus.com/4700-4800.WAV 5900-6000 kHz: http://www.randa.plus.com/5900-6000.WAV 9400-9500 kHz: http://www.randa.plus.com/9400-9500.WAV 11500-11600 kHz: http://www.randa.plus.com/11500-11600.WAV 13500-13600 kHz: http://www.randa.plus.com/13500-13600.WAV 15000-15100 kHz: http://www.randa.plus.com/15000-15100.WAV 17450-17550 kHz: http://www.randa.plus.com/17450-17550.WAV 25600-25700 kHz: http://www.randa.plus.com/25600-25700.WAV For much more information - please go to the UKQRM website at: http://www.mikeandsniffy.co.uk/UKQRM/ and join the Yahoo Group at: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/UKQRM/ and sign the petition at: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/SaveShortwave/ (Alan Roe, England, Aug 17, worlddxclub yg via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ BRIDGE RAILING ANTENNA ENHANCEMENT Glenn: -- The following was originally written by DXer Mathias Volta, a chat-buddy of mine in Germany, via the Global Tuners site, and then re-edited by me with his permission. Mathias has found an interesting way to hear more North Americans on MW (Greg Hardison, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Yes, transatlantics from North America on mediumwave are very fascinating indeed! I started to concentrate on MW-DX more up from October 2007 and I only use the ATS 909 and E5 right now, without any loop antenna or similar amplifying; I just use each radio's internal ferrite antenna. The result is a handful of USA and Canada signals at my location in Geeste, when the conditions are right. Geeste is about 80-90 km away from the North Sea's coast and already nice to test out for those TA's. These signals are just indicators for more serious MW- DXers, but it is fascinating to log these stations with a "normal" ordinary mediumwave ferrite antenna radio. My "handful" of stations include WWZN 1510, WEGP 1390, VOCM 590, WCNZ 1660 all with strong power (excl. WCNZ) of about 10-50 kW, and also KVNS 1700 with only 800 Watts [allegedly]. This 800 W transmission could be received several times in my living room in Geeste with 4 bars out of 12, on the ATS 909's signal level. Now after October in winter time I will try out a special thing I found out: My location Geeste has almost flat landscape and the one and only chance for improved DX is to go on a bridge (street used only by farmers), which crosses highway A31. The railing of this bridge enhances mediumwave signals in a strong manner and it is worth to put the radio on this railing, getting much stronger mediumwave signals and enhancing the chance for TA from NA! My youtube video WWZN 1510 is a result of that! http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ1wI-taboQ Friends, I will let you know about more results of this kind of MW- DXing, when I will hopefully will get them! Fact is, that I will try out to get a pretty strong signal from KVNS again coming winter season on this way of "highway bridge railing enhanced MW-DX"! :-) And you should try out my method of MW-DX, too! Please let me know any positive results! Yours, Matze -- (via Hardison, DXLD) Similar things happen around railroad trax, long straight ranch fences, which I call defacto Beverages (gh, DXLD) ###