DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-107, September 27, 2008 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2008 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1427 Sat 2000 WRMI 9955 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Mon 2200 WBCQ 7415 [temporary, confirmed Sept 15] 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]. With all the other good music from several other stations [see GERMANY], it was hard to pick one to stay with but did so with R. Solh, via UK 17700 for a while, Sept 27 1435. At 1459 faded out the music in progress, dead air, then cut to some other music without an ID break (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. Re: Utility DX: Virtual Museum of Radio Communications online now --- Look to the history museum of ATA Tirana and Durres Radio. http://www.utilityradio.com/ click station data, click Europe, click Albania http://www.utilityradio.com/stations/europe/alb/alb-27-kplt-c30.jpg http://www.utilityradio.com/stations/europe/alb/alb-22-kplt-c30.jpg Enjoy, Cheers, Wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALGERIA [non]. see FRANCE ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR IS. 4760, AIR Port Blair, 1449-1501, Sept 27, in English, coverage (live?) of the speech made by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the UN General Assembly today, covering a wide range of topics, "The United Nations is a living symbol of pluralism", weak. Parallel with 4880 (AIR Lucknow), 5010 (AIR Thiruv., best in LSB to get away from Madagascar also on same frequency), 9425 (AIR Bengaluru/Bangalore, signed-off at end of speech - 1501*, while the others continued) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. Hola, 24/9, 1955 UT, 15476, LRA36, ATA px + tanghi e ID multilingue!!! Ottimo (Mauro Giroletti, -IK2GFT-, -JRC525Nrd - Lowe HF150-, Filter PAR Electronics - BCST-LPF + BCST-HPF -Evasdropper SWL Sloper 11mt to 120mt Band- Loop LFL1010, -Lat. 45.42166 Long. 9.1248 -Locator grid. Jn 45 Nk-, Italy, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 6214.30, tentative Radio Baluarte, Puerto Iguazú, 0930 to 0940 poor to fair with some audio 22 September. 73's (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :-), Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ASCENSION. Pleased to hear some life seeping back into the 13m band, Sept 27 at 1412 with BBCWS 21630, fair in Hausa, scheduled 1345- 1415 only, somewhat stronger than English on 21470. Solar flux was still only 68 as of Sept 26. Maybe the Sept 27 figure will bump up to 69, as even 70 is in the short-term SWPC predixions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 2485, VL8K, Sept 26 at 1309, presumed, with M&W talk in English, 1310 music. Presumed, but what else could it be? PNG was in on 90m, Indonesia on 75m. Also checked 2325 and 2310 but no other NT stations audible; there were, however, some misc. carriers which could have been something local. Why does Katherine do so much better than the others? Is there something about its antenna or real power which give it an advantage? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Regarding Glenn Hauser's posting, is Glenn's observation that for some reason Katherine propagates to the US better than its two sister stations a factor of his location or is that a universal observation across the US? Here I would say that I see I don't see that pattern. Observations over, say, the past three weeks or so show sometimes Alice Springs is better, and sometimes better when Katherine is non- existent. Sometimes Tennant Creek is best, or alone. And, indeed, sometimes it is Katherine that is superior and sometimes the only one hears. To compound things, sometimes all three area in with different ones dominant. In short, I am not seeing the pattern -- Katherine usually superior -- that Glenn observes. It seems more random to me. What are others' observations? (Don Jensen, WI, NASWA yg via DXLD) Since I`ve only heard 2485 a couple times recently, it really isn`t justified to draw such a conclusion. But we`ll see if it holds up onward (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Don/Glenn, My own personal observation over several years is somewhat different. In southeastern Pennsylvania I generally note them coming in best in frequency order beginning with Alice Springs on 2310 kHz. Usually at French Creek we would find all three in at the same time with 2310 being the best and generally as we move up in frequency the strength diminishes somewhat. Of course, I have not heard - nor have I been looking for - any of the three Australian 120 meter band frequencies since February. 73, (Rich D`Angelo, PA, ibid.) Northern Territory stations on 120m were all in, Sept 27 at 1258 and in //, 2485 being slightly stronger than 2310, slightly stronger than 2325, tho all were reading about S9+10. YL was speaking English, 1259 folk song continuing past 1300 with no break at bottom of local clock hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4910, VL8T, Tennant Creek, 0841, Sept 26, running past their usual 0830 sign-off time, about the US presidential campaign, weak (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHAMAS. Re 8-106: ``La frecuencia de los 1240 kHz suele identificarse como INSPIRATION 1240. La programación difiere poco a la del resto de estaciones anglófonas: noticias, deportes, entrevistas, conexiones con la BBC - sobre todo servicios informativos - espacios religiosos, música caribeña y, por supuesto: jazz en todas sus variantes, desde la época dorada a nuestros días (JUAN FRANCO CRESPO, via DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` All sources say 1240 [Nassau] is off the air and likely not to return, indeed not heard during my September 11th monitoring session at Long Key State Park, central Florida Keys, where they always were well heard (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Believe the article was written some months or years ago (gh) ** BIAFRA [non]. V. of Biafra International is back on 17650 ex-15280 which was in use July-August; Fridays only at 20-21. Sept 26 at 2055 check, just barely audible on 17650, but unmistakable ``God Bless Africa`` hymn on authentic instrument and equally unmistakable tones of the VOBI orator closing the transmission. This is WHRI, 250 kW at 87 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4699.40, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta, 1012 "..en la hora mas mudial [sic], Radio San Miguel... Bolivia..." 18 September (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :-), Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6075. R. Causaki [sic] Coca, YL 1020 to 1027 with strident español, mentions de workers etc. 24 September; 0913 music bridges, YL much noise. 22 Sept. 1020 to 1030 "...oyentes de ...22 minutos de 56 ...en cuatro horas" 18 September; 1000 "...estudio mundo..." YL with rapid español, 16 Sept (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :-), Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Via a remote receiver in Brazil - 6075, R. Kausachun Coca presumed, everything but an ID. 1040 Sept 26 with a news program that I believed was called "Bolivia Informa." Lots of short announcements, mentions of Santa Cruz, Evo Morales. UT -4 time checks. Right through 1100 with the same sort of programming, but never an ID that I could detect (Hans Johnson, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Hans, I noticed that this station breaks for an ID and promos at about 1015-1018 each day. Just a thought (Chuck Bolland, ibid.) A good one ** CANADA. Re what was on CBC Radio 1 all-night before CBC Overnight relays of WRN relays of --- ? CBC Radio before becoming a 24 hour network on sep 1 1995 --- Most of the CBC English radio (pre Radio One 1997) signed off during the overnight hours (between 1:00 AM-6:00 AM) while CBC Radio 2 (pre CBC Stereo 1997) went 24 hours in 1984 before (October 9, 2006) CBC TV went 24 hours. It too signed off the air. The only network to sign off still is the CBC French Television Network (``Carl Rabbit``, a.k.a. ``Sean Traverse``, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CBC Radio One schedule changes take effect 9/29 --- For those who get their fix of Canada via Radio One, there are some schedule changes and new programming that begin this coming Monday. Check http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ for a link to a PDF for the new schedule. There's a new weekday program, "The Point", and at least one new weekend program, "The Next Chapter". "The Next Chapter" appears to debut tomorrow, ahead of the launch date, at 3 PM local time (except in Newfoundland...). (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, Sept 26, swprograms via DXLD) Direct link: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/R1-Sept27-updates.pdf Notably, Q replaces Sounds Like Canada weekdays at 10:05 am local. Shelagh Rogers gets a new weekly show, The Next Chapter, interviewing authors, Saturdays at 3:05-4 pm. These plus a new talk show, The Point, weekdays at 2:05-3 pm local are the only three changes. MONITORING REMINDERS CALENDAR listings have been updated accordingly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 6160, CBC Radio One, 2335-2359 Sept 26. Noted a program of political commentary and news. Also some music heard. At about 2355 a two or three minute political commentary given by a female. After this, another female said, "The preceding political messages were prepared by the Marijuana Party of ..." Missed the rest. ID followed as "This is CBC Radio One ...North East ...Labrador" Signal was fair to poor with QRM. On the hour splatter drowned out CBC (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) With the campaign under way, CBC is no doubt mandated to provide these bits of time for candidates. But is this shown now on the CBC online schedules? Not that I can find, nor even a general announcement about it. Not even when filtering the full-week CBC Radio 1 schedule for opinion programs. Probably sets aside such a few minutes several times a day, but exactly when? Hmmm, are you sure they said Marijuana? `Third` parties in the USA are essentially locked out of media time, especially free time (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Every registered political party gets a percentage of free time political broadcasts based on the percentage of their votes. In addition they can buy time on commercial radio and television. I believe CBC Radio just does these free-time broadcasts. I didn't note the time, but I heard the Marijuana Party broadcast on CBC Radio One 99.1 FM in Toronto, which was followed by one for the Bloc Quebecois --- odd since they only run candidates in Quebec, but they are allowed the time so, what the heck. I was listening to As It Happens, so it was during or after that program. These spots are inserted at various times through the day on radio and after newscasts on television. During the campaign, such minor parties as the Marijuana Party, the Communist Party, the Marxist-Leninists, the Natural Law Party and others will get their 2 or 3 minutes of fame --- along with the more traditional parties. For these smaller parties with no budgets it may be the only airtime they get. This of course is replicated on the CBC French networks as well as commercial stations. So yes, it was the Marijuana Party. Dude, vote once, vote often. Puff, puff, pass.... http://www.marijuanaparty.ca/index.en.php3 List of Registered Political Parties: http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=index&dir=par&lang=e&textonly=false http://www.elections.ca/med/bro/guidelines2008.pdf Broadcasting Guidelines for the current federal election. According to this document the Marijuana Party is entitled to 9 free minutes of airtime. The Rhinoceros Party was very entertaining --- their high water mark was 1980 when they received over 110,000 votes. "The Parti Rhinocéros, commonly known as the Rhinoceros Party in English, was a registered political party in Canada from the 1960s to the 1990s. Operating within the Canadian tradition of political satire, the Rhinoceros Party's basic credo, their so-called primal promise, was "a promise to keep none of our promises."[1] They then promised outlandishly impossible schemes designed to amuse and entertain the voting public.[2]" --- http://www.neorhino.ca/ Among their policies was a promise to repeal the law of gravity, Counting the 1000 Islands to see if the Americans have stolen any, paving Manitoba to create the worlds largest parking lot and providing higher education by building taller schools. Famously, Quebec candidate "Michel Rivard once went on TV (during free air time given to political parties) and stated: 'I have but two things to say to you: Celery and Sidewalk. Thank you, good night.'" At least Canadian elections are never dull (Fred Waterer, Ont., who is Greenish, but not THAT Green, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CKZU, 6160, Vancouver, with CBC Radio Overnight, final hour listed as R. Australia relay, Sat Sept 27 at 1250 unID show discussing non-believers in Australia. 6160 still audible weakly at 1519 recheck. 6070 CFRX carrier also there, fading averaging S9, peaking S9+5 at 1520 Sept 27, but modulation just barely audible. What a waste. See also UNID 6070.8 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [non]. Bible readings from Exodus XXIX, in English, pronounced slowly one word at a time, about ``I am``, bulls, rams and wafers, Sat Sept 27 at 1505, G signal on 15390. Per Eibi this is Bible Voice via Nauen, Germany, to S Asia, in English only on Saturdays, other days in Hindi, Tamil or Bengali. Exodus XXIX is all about how to carry out blood sacrifices of innocent animals, in particular what to do with their kidneys, in verses 13 and 22. Yuk. WRTH 2008 lists this under Canada since they have a P O Box in Toronto, while admitting it`s a joint mission with something in the UK. I say it`s pointless to attribute multinational gospel-huxters like this to any particular country, especially when no transmitters at all are in use from said country. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. New AM station has started regular broadcasts on 1690 kHz http://www.cjlo.com/station_info.php Power 1 kW, 24 hours, French & English. EMAIL : program @ cjlo.com Address : CJLO Radio , C/o : UNIVERSITY of Concordia SUITE CC-430, Loyola Campus 7141 Sherbrooke Street Ouest Montreal, Quebec, H4B 1R6 CJLO Station Information Formed in 1998 as a merger between CRSG [sic, not a Canadian callsign] and CFLI, two former stations, CJLO is Concordia University's one and only radio station. CJLO is 100% non-profit, and is run entirely by volunteers. CJLO is located in the heart of the Loyola campus in NDG. From early 2003, CJLO has been streaming 7 days a week, and offering a wide variety of programming that truly encompasses the styles appreciated by all of Concordia's 30 000 students. CJLO also hosts events throughout the city to help promote and support the community and musicians. Our on-air personalities are the backbone of the station and there are over eighty DJ's spinning and partying for your listening pleasure. Whether you are interested in Hip-Hop, RPM, Rock, Alt, Punk, Metal, Jazz, Blues, World, or Country, CJLO has something for you, and is always looking for more on air talent. As it stands now, CJLO is broadcasting on the Internet. Our application for a licence from the CRTC to broadcast on the AM band has been approved. As such, we have started the process of building out tower and transmitter in order to start broadcasting in 2007. You'll be able to find us at 1690AM. So listen from home, www.cjlo.com, or come on down to Loyola campus at CC-430 (right across from the G-Lounge) and hang out or get involved (via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. “A new transmitter site for CFUN-1410 and sister station CKST-1040 Vancouver will be located on 104 Street between Highway 10 and Highway 99 in Delta,” reads the press release. “CFUN will become a DA1 (one pattern) with improved night-time coverage to the Fraser Valley and somewhat reduced coverage to the western side of Vancouver Island and Washington State. The prime coverage area to Metro Vancouver will not be drastically affected. The new site will consist of seven self-supporting towers, which is a reduction of one tower from the present total, made possible by the elimination of one pattern for CFUN. We decided against common towers for redundancy purposes. The towers are also going to be self support instead of guyed towers. This was done to allow for full agricultural production on the site once construction is completed. If guyed towers had been used, 40% of the area would have been lost for farming. With self support towers, only 2% of the area will be lost. The agricultural Land Commission reviewed the proposal and in a unanimous decision allowed the proposal.” (AM Switch, NRC DX News Sept 29 via DXLD) ** CANADA. Re 8-093: HOW TO TELL IF PORN IS TRULY HOMEGROWN Lyn Cockburn, The Edmonton Sun News & Opinion, Friday, September 5, 2008 Canada is finally getting its very own pornographic cable channel, said Lyn Cockburn. And thoroughly Canadian it will be. Real Productions announced that the new channel, Northern Peaks, would have far more than the 15 percent “Canadian-made content” required by law. Instead, fully 50 percent of the network’s steamy videos will be Canadian. “We want to be Canada’s adult channel, and I think to do that, 15 percent wouldn’t cut it,” said Real Productions CEO Shaun Donnelly. How patriotic. But can we believe him? After all, most sex scenes are filmed indoors, and we have only the producers’ word for it that the studio is in Canada. Therefore, “I want Canadian landmarks in my Canadian porn.” Lewd acts should take place “on the Skytrain in Vancouver,” say, or “atop the legislature” in front of the famous Golden Boy statue in Winnipeg. Better yet, to ensure that “no Californians or Czechoslovakians [sic] sneak into the cast,” require all Canadian porn stars to be tattooed with the maple leaf --- “in strategic places.” (The Week, Sept 5 via DXLD) ** CHAD [and non]. 4905, Rdif. Nat. Tchadienne, 2200 to 2230 OM and YL en français. R N T ID. 2330. 0600 YL into exotic Tchadienne music. 24/25 September [Wilkner] 4905.06, Radio Anhanguera, Araguaína, Brasil, 2331 Portuguese OM with music at sign off of Chad. 24 September (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :-), Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake, Sept 27 at 1525 on 9905, which is against R. Free Asia, Chinese via Palau; // 9450 against Sound of Hope via Taiwan, neither target audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Yushu PBS, Qinghai on 6075 kHz revives at *1025-1100 in Tibetan and 1100-1230* CNR-1 relay in Chinese. First noted on 20 Sep. Yushu PBS did not broadcast this time more than one year. de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, Sept 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. China's First Space Walk --- Listening to China Radio International may prove quite interesting today/tonite, not to mention historic. http://english.cri.cn/ Space Weather News for Sept. 25, 2008 CHINESE SPACE LAUNCH: China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft carrying a 3-man crew lifted off today from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and is now in Earth orbit. During the upcoming three-day mission, Chinese astronauts, called taikonauts, will launch a small satellite and conduct their country's first space walk. As they orbit Earth, Shenzhou 7 and the body of the rocket that launched it will be visible to the naked eye from many parts of the globe. Check the Satellite Tracker for viewing times: http://spaceweather.com/flybys (Note: Frequent checks are recommended; predictions may change as the orbit is adjusted and estimates of orbital elements improve.) Sighting reports and updates will be posted on http://spaceweather.com (via Fred Waterer, Sept 25, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** CONGO DR [non]. via Meyerton, South Africa. 11890, Radio Okapi, 1610-1659*, Sept 26, French/vernacular talk. “Okapi” jingles. Weak but readable (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. DentroCuban Jamming Command, 9640 with pulses against nothing at 0537 Sept 26. This frequency is used for only two hours earlier in the evening by R. República. DentroCuban Jamming Command, 9640, pulses mixing with weak station in Japanese, Sept 27 at 1310. That would be V. of Russia as scheduled, via Novosibirsk or Komsomol`sk/Amure depending on which online reference you believe. The Cuban jammer is needed on 9640 only at 0000-0200 when R. República is on there, but why should Cuba care if they also mess up innocent bystanders? Have heard the jammer on 9640 at various other hours, and suspect they leave it on 24 hours, altho no doubt ramped up harder during RR hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DEUTSCHES REICH. Re 8-105: ´´Gillars' last broadcast was on May 6, 1945, just two days before the German surrender´´: If so, from where and under which circumstances? Good question. The source used by the game manufacturers website was wikipedia, which is what it is. Wikipedia is often useful but sometimes inaccurate. The wikipedia article seems to have found the May 6th date in a World War II magazine article from November 1995, about Gillars. http://www.historynet.com/mildred-elizabeth-sisk-american-born-axis-sally.htm It states: "Gillars’ propaganda program was known as ‘Home Sweet Home’ and usually aired sometime between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. daily. Although she referred to herself as ‘Midge at the mike,’ GIs dubbed her Axis Sally. Her broadcasts were heard all over Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa and the United States from December 11, 1941, through May 6, 1945. Although most of her programs were broadcast from Berlin, some were aired from Chartres and Paris in France and from Hilversum in the Netherlands." As you point out, Berlin was not an option on May 6th. The May 6, 1945 date could be an error in the magazine article. Or perhaps a recording of a Gillars program was played over a transmitter still in German hands, if one existed, and chose to make time to play a Gillars program in English. The final sentence of the quote implies some recorded programs were broadcast, it seems to me. Lord Haw Haw broadcast until April 30, from Hamburg. The final OKW (Wehrmacht High Command) bulletin was broadcast on May 9, 1945 apparently, via Reichssender Flensburg. When did the foreign service shut down altogether? May 9, 1945 Broadcast audio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordwestdeutscher_Rundfunk I'm leaning towards a factual error in the 1995 article as the answer (Fred Waterer, Ont., Sept 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It is difficult to say for sure when the last 'Axis Sally' transmission went on the air, the reason being that there were two Axis Sallies! Gillars broadcast from Berlin, initially as a rookie announcer on the 'Germany Calling' service to Britain (which went out on shortwave and several medium-wave stations, including Hamburg and Bremen). She was then employed by the radio's 'North America Zone', for whom she presented a weekly programme for the women of America. Finally, she was used in the special broadcasts for American troops in Europe. Her on-air name was 'Midge at the Mic' rather than 'Axis Sally'. The other Axis Sally was Rita Zucca, an Italian-American. She started her radio career by broadcasting to Allied troops from Rome, under the Mussolini government. Then, when the Germans took over the Rome station, she was re-hired to do the same job under Nazi leadership. She was used in two separate broadcasts: one to British troops and one to US forces, and she was identified on air as 'Sally'. There were certainly no broadcasts from Berlin under the Nazis after the early hours of May 2. However, parts of the foreign service had been re-located to other parts of Germany and some of its sections managed to keep going into the first week of May (although shortwave transmissions ended, I think, on April 21). The broadcasts that continued were in the European Service, and included the 'Germany Calling' programme to the UK. The last broadcast from Lord Haw-Haw famously went out on April 30 from the Hamburg studios. However, Haw-Haw's boss, Edward Roderich Dietze, carried on from another location until May 4 or 5. There were also broadcasts by the Nazis in Holland until very late in the war as well as in occupied Czechoslovakia, which was the last country to be liberated. German also had many clandestine stations. Many of these stations were evacuated to Helmstedt in March and April 1945. The last station in this group broadcast on April 10. However, some other Nazi clandestine stations kept going throughout April but from unknown locations (Roger Tidy, UK, Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI [and non]. 4780, Radio Djibouti, 2130 to 2200 Sept 25, exotic music, strong signal, off with anthem? Ramadan ends 30 September? (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :-), DX LISTENING DIGEST) Usual sign-off is 2100 (gh) 4780, Radio Djibouti, being received now 2135 Sept 26 in southeast Florida. Also 4770 Nigeria and 4905 Tchad blasting in with good African Opening 73s (Bob Wilkner, FL, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** ECUADOR. Goodbye, HCJB`s steerable antenna. Last transmission on Tuesday Sept 30th at 0700-0730 UT German on 9740 kHz. The very special antenna will - not be scrapped - but be removed and newly erected on HCA transmitter site Kununurra in Australia in 2009. Last LIVE program of HCJB's German editor Horst Rosiak-EQA on Saturday Sept 27th at 0700 UT 9740 kHz. Direct contact during that half hour from foreign countries under +593 9 7064393 or from Ecuador under domestic SMS-# 4351 HCJB. e-mail contact via hcjb @ andenstimme.org Horst Rosiak - Deutschsprachiger Dienst von Radio HCJB. Liebe HCJB-Freunde und DXer, die letzten Tage der einmaligen steuerbaren Antenne sind gezaehlt. Am Dienstag, 30.09.2008 wird die letzte Sendung ueber diese Antenne gehen - danach wird sie abgebaut. Ich betone immer wieder "abgebaut" und nicht verschrottet :) Wenn die Technik mitspielt (versuche Tontechniker, Programmierer der Leitstelle, Produzent und Moderator ein einem zu sein), moechte ich eine Live-Sendung am Samstag, 27.9.2008 um 0700 UT auf die Beine stellen. Nun, 0200est (Ortszeit) ist nicht meine beste Zeit am Tag, aber ich hoffe, es wird ein schoenes Erlebnis fuer uns alle sein! Hier in Ecuador hat HCJB mit der SMS-Nummer 4351 HCJB im Mobilnetz ein leichtes Spiel, aber es klappt leider nicht vom Ausland her. Trotz "herumspielen" habe ich keinen Zugang von aussen gefunden. Daher hier meine private Mobilnummer, um aktiv an der Sendung teilzunehmen: tel +593 9 7064393. Das "+" steht fuer die Wahl ins Ausland, z.B. in Deutschland waere es die "00". Wenn ihr eine Email schicken moechtet, dann nehmt bitte folgende Adresse: hcjb @ andenstimme.org Bei der letzten Live-Sendung hatten wir die unsere Standard- Emailadresse angegeben und erfahren, dass sie zu traege war. Warum diese Nachricht so kurzfristig? Da es mehr ein Ein-Mann Unternehmen ist musste ich abschaetzen, ob der "Eine" (nach OP vor einigen Wochen) auch fit ist :) Klar, etwas kann immer noch dazwischen kommen ... Und zu guter Letzt: Iris Rauscher hat ja in den letzten Wochen schon einige Hoerertreffen besucht (Frankfurt, Dresden, Villach). Im Oktober werde ich an einer Konferenz in der Schweiz teilnehmen und habe dann in der Kalenderwoche 43 Zeit, DX-Clubs o.ae. in Deutschland zu besuchen. Interesse? Bitte schreibt dann umgehend eine Email an hrosiak @ hcjb.org.ec Am besten die "Lesebestaetigung" aktivieren. In der letzten Zeit habe ich die Erfahrung gemacht, das Mails leider nicht durchkamen. Euch ein schoenes Wochenende! Herzliche Gruesse aus Quito, euer Horst (HCJB Horst Rosiak-EQA, via A-DX Sept 26; all via Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DXLD) Isn`t there a German word for `live`? (gh) see USA ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, Radio Nacional, Bata, 2250-2303*, Sept 25, Afro-pop music. Spanish announcements. Sign off with National Anthem. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions. 5005, Radio Nacional, Bata, 0515-0600, Sept 26, threshold signal at 0515 tune-in improving to a weak level by 0540. Spanish talk. Afro-pop music. Instrumental music. No sign of 6250 Malabo (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Radio Africa, 2230-2255*, Sept 25, Tony Alamo religious program. Good. Strong. Weak WYFR audible after Radio Africa sign off (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Via remote receiver in South Africa: 15190, R. Africa, 0929 Sep 26 with preacher in English. Presumed, no at ID by 0931 so I didn't stay with it (Hans Johnson, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 15190, Radio Africa (presumed), 2240-2253* (carrier off at 2256), Sept 26, Bob Wilkner is indeed correct, excellent African reception. Noted the absence of the usual pastor Tony Alamo program, probably due to his problems with law enforcement, instead heard non-stop religious songs which ended at 2253 with no announcements, good signal, best ever (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [and non]. 25/9 0425 UT, 8000 kHz, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea, Asmara, px in vernacolo, Buono. Ciao e buoni DX!!!!! (Mauro Giroletti, -IK2GFT-, -JRC525Nrd - Lowe HF150-, Filter PAR Electronics - BCST-LPF + BCST-HPF -Evasdropper SWL Sloper 11mt to 120mt Band- Loop LFL1010, -Lat. 45.42166 Long. 9.1248 -Locator grid. Jn 45 Nk-, Italy, playdx yg via DXLD) 8000, Sept 26 at 0540, some talk audible, poor-fair, but can`t be sure of language or station. I can be sure it was not the off-frequency one on 7999.4 others have reported. It was, however, very slightly off 8000, judging from pitch of BFO when compared to WWV 5000, 10000 and RHC 6000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Having also heard the nominal 8000 signal with pretty good reception upon occasion, I wonder if there is one stations to/from the Horn of Africa area on or about this frequency? (2 )and, if so, who is it? (Or are there two different stations and who are they?) I see this variously reported as an Eritrean outlet, and by others as an Ethiopian outlet with political programming TO Eritrea? In other words, what is(are) the real identities of the signal(s) on or about 8000? (Don Jensen, WI, NASWA yg via DXLD) There has been a good deal of monitoring of these from Europe where they can get a better idea. I think the consensus is that one is jamming the other, just like Eritrea and Ethiopia show up on same frequencies in the 41 mb (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) The times I have heard the nominal 8000 signal, from before s/on until perhaps 15 min. after s/on, by which time it was fading out, there was no sign of second, jamming signal. I understand, though, that European DXers with more frequent receptions have noted the dual transmissions. But who is jamming who? dnj (Don Jensen, WI, ibid.) Hi Don, Please see Thorsten Hallmann's authoritative website at: http://www.muenster.org/uwz/ms-alt/africalist/africalist.pdf which indicates two active stations in the vicinity of 8000: a clandestine station and VOBME. Also Jari commented on this in DXLD 8- 106. Don, hope this helps (Ron Howard, Monterey/Asilomar Beach, CA, ibid.) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. CLANDESTINE (Ethiopia). 21555, Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio, 1715-1726, September 27, Amharic, new opposition station from Russia (Samara transmitters), talk by male, instrumental songs, 24332 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. TDF is scheduled with a bunch of new Issoudun transmissions from October 1, most likely more experimental relays of Algeria, as all are 500 kW at azimuths of 162 or 194 degrees as previously. However, also as previously, not all of these may really show up for the rest of A-08: 04-05 5905 04-06 7305 05-06 5905 06-07 9535 08-09 13570 13650 15360 17-18 15165 17-19 13570 18-20 11880 20-22 7210 21-23 7420 7455 22-24 5910 7295 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Since I was listening to R. Solh instead, missed Muzprosvet, avant-garde music show from DW Russian service, Sat Sept 27 at 1430 on 15420, so finally found audio file on podcasting page http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,2142,4356,00.html This time about Bengali music, tho can`t tell if it is really today`s episode; direct link: http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_multi_mediaplayer/0,,1808190_type_audio_struct_4356_format_WMedia,00.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. Re 8-106: A atual situação atual da Radio Verdad (4052.5 kHz), da Guatemala Caros amigos, Através do amigo Pepe Bueno, que redirecionou minha mensagem até o Dino Bloise (produtor do programa "Frecuencia Al Díal", desde Miami, pela WWCR e que também é retransmitido pela Radio Verdad), o qual me enviou uma cópia da mensagem do Sr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, Diretor/Gerente da emissora (Radio Verdad), onde informa que tentou conseguir um engenheiro para reparar os módulos de saida do transmissor, danificados pelo raio, mas não conseguiu um profissional que fosse até lá, desta maneira, deverá ele mesmo, tentar reparar ao menos um dos módulos, para voltar com a emissora ao ar, mesmo que com baixa potência. Vamos monitorar a frequência de 4052.5 kHz para verificar se ela volta a transmitir novamente. Um abraço a todos, (Adalberto Marques de Azevedo, Barbacena - MG - Brasil, Sept 26, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. 4780, Radio Cultural Coatán, San Sebastian off. 4799.7, Radio Buenas Nuevas 1135 echo chamber effect in giving ID as Radio Buenas Nuevas (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :- ), Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Cf MEXICO 4800 ** HAWAII. KWHR frequency usage being phased over to T8WH: see PALAU ** INDIA. Via remote receiver in the Philippines, Following up on Ron's logging - 4775, AIR Imphal presumed 1028 sign on Sept 26 with interval signal. No Vende Mataram. Very weak, but a few words of speech coming through at 1031. No ID but their listed sign on and frequency (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** INDIA. AIR trans-polar signals improved somewhat equinoxially on 31m: Sept 26 at 1350, S Asian music, but none in // on different services, via Benguluru on 9425, 9690, 9870; also on 11585 via Delhi- Khampur (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3987, Sept 26 at 1301, weak music, and slightly on high side. That matches the measurement by John Wilkins of reactivated RRI Manokwari on 3987.05. Also something on 3995, another Indonesian likely. 3995 and 3987 both in // Sept 27 at 1301, OM talking, presumably news de Jakarta, poor. On 60m at 1306: 4750 best with Indonesian talk, also talk on 4790, 1307 music on 4870 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3987.04, RRI Manokwari (presumed) 1057 27 Sept, pleasant Indo Pop vocal music. Sounded like a chime IS at 1100. Then W in definite Indonesian. Squeezed between hams on one side and broadcaster on 3985 on the other at this time. Returned at 1131 and seemed to be peaking, no hams, but still het from 3985. Soft pop music. Of course the hams fired up just before W announcer at 1137. Back to music at 1140. M in presumed news at 1200 but didn't hear any // to other Indos (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9680, RRI Jakarta, 0806-0827, Sept 26, Kang Guru Indonesia program #6108, scheduled for Fri. and Wed., in English, singing "Kang Guru" jingle, explains idioms (on his last legs, break a leg and pulling your leg), talking about their new name, many "KGI" and "Kang Guru Indonesia" IDs, asks listeners who is the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and goes on to talk about Stephen Smith (who was presented with a 20th anniversary KGI T-shirt), fair-poor. I first heard their programming back in 1996, when they were "Kang Guru II Radio English". They originally started back in 1989 and from now through next year they will be celebrating their 20th anniversary, which I guess is the reason for their name being changed at this time. Presently the KGI program is carried on over 145 radio stations across Indonesia on SW, AM and FM. An impressive list of these stations is posted at http://www.kangguru.org/broadcastschedule.html but unfortunately not that many on SW (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9680, RRI Jakarta Programa Lima, 1200-1215 Sept 27. Noted news and Indonesian comments by various persons. In the background, Firedrake (the music jammer) can be heard, although it is very weak compared to Jakarta. Jakarata's signal is fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It is the opposite here at 1220. The Firedrake is dominant and RRI Jakarta is way below it (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, ibid.) ** INDONESIA, 11784.86 on air, VoI with Indonesian language news in at 1400 UT, fair signal today Sept 26, \\ VOI stream 128 kb/s on MS IE Media Player, VLC-Player, Winamp. On Firefox started Media Player by hand! Schedule like 0800 En, 0900 Kor, 1000 En, 1100 Chin, 1130 Jpn, 1200 Ins, 1300 En, 1400 Malay, 1500 En, 1600 Ins, 1700 Arabic, 1800 Spanish, 1830 German, 1900 French, and 2000-2100 UT English (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So are you sure it was Indonesian at 1400 and not Malay as supposedly scheduled? Very hard for the outsider to aparttell (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Re SPACE HACKERS, 8-106: I own a cassette recording copied from an original vinyl "Voces del Espacio", produced in Spanish in the sixties, which includes examples of and an explanation of their Space listening activities with audio examples including Gagarin's voice. The original article about these brothers and the recording appeared in the Spanish Edition of CQ about 20 years ago. My brother in Barcelona contacted the author and made a copy for me. It's very interesting, but some parts of the recording like the one in which a cosmonaut (Russians never said astronauts...) breaths intensely is really weird and I always wondered if it had been invented. Regarding the Judica Cordiglia recording. They are sampled at this webpage: http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/manit.htm The main page of the website is at http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/index.htm There are several articles on the web, (Wikipedia, etc) and a video on Youtube with the brothers presenting a book and a film in 2007: Presentazione del libro Dossier Sputnik dei fratelli Judica Cordiglia e del film "I pirati dello spazio" alla Fiera del libro di Torino 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCUqtn8iLZ4&feature=related More about Judica Cordiglia brothers http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/qsl-torre-bert.htm (Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I see in DXLD 8-106, under "international Vacuum," that we have some very credulous people who are still taking seriously the claims of "secret dead cosmonauts' by the Judica-Cordiglia brothers. The Judica-Cordiglia brothers are nothing more than bullshit artists. Here are a couple of links to articles (in PDF) by space historian, and former NASA engineer, James Oberg. He does a good job of demolishing their claims, including pointing out it would have been impossible for them to have received some of the signals they claimed to have received. http://www.jamesoberg.com/judica-cordiglia.pdf http://www.jamesoberg.com/udica-cordiglia-2.pdf How do you say "Stanbury" in Italian?? (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17 http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 15150, I was also listening here from 1436-1540 on Sept 25, just after Glenn's reception, in Arabic, reciting from the Qur'an and Islamic music. Glenn, is this VIRI or IRIB? Started out fair and improved to good reception. 19 meters was doing very well (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Ron, IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) is the name of the government broadcasting service, including domestic and external. VIRI (Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran) is the name of the external service of IRIB. So what we hear on SW is more like VIRI, but it is also a part of IRIB. As I understand it, and as indicated in WRTH. These of course being English renderings of whatever the names are in Persian (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. Bad collision on 17755, as if there aren`t plenty of open frequencies on this band – Sept 27 at 1414 ME pop music mixing with Spanish producing a fast-rippling SAH, which I would estimate somewhere around 25 Hz, too fast to count but too low to be an audible heterodyne. Soon found music // 17670 in the clear, i.e. Radio Farda, vs. REE Spain on 17755. PWBR `2008` shows both on 17755 but no Farda on 17670, which is Wertachtal, while 17755 is Biblis. Spain aims at Africa, so theoretically no conflict. At 1430 REE had an accurate timesignal on both 17755 and // 17595 in the clear (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. 15785.0, Galei Zahal (presumed), 1518-1541, Sept 25, in Hebrew, pop songs, phone conversations (calls started with "shalom"), fair, first time I have noticed this (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [non]. I have been abbreviating it NHKWNRJ, since I heard them ID rather cumbersomely as ``NHK World Network, Radio Japan`` but now I hear them ID as ``Radio Japan, NHK World Network``, so make it RJNHKWN too. Make up their minds? Tuned in Canada relay, 11705, Sat Sept 27 at 1410 expecting to hear ``World Interactive``, but instead without explanation or apology they ran instead ``Listening Library``, woman reading two short stories, with reverb, piano accompaniment, the first about a woman dying and how she looked; and the second about a character named Shotaro, pigs and a Panamá hat, moral: ``Too much looking at women is not good``, attributed to ``Ten Nights of Dreams``. 1429 ended just in time to hear regular RJ outro, as always cutting to RCI IS and ID before the announcer could finish saying what frequency the next English broadcast at 2200 would be on. So what has become of World Interactive, the mailbag/listener participation show?? Answer: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/program/index.html --- W. I. Is replaced by this on the last Saturday of the month, even if there are only four: ``Monthly readings bring to life decades old stories, shedding new light on masterpieces that have sparked the imagination of young and old for generations.`` No Yamata pre-echo today, but lite Saturday-only QRM de RSA at 1426 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. 9655.29 - KOREA DPR - Korean Central B/C Station (KCBS) noted with strong signal (for northeast NAm) at 1346 Sept 26 with vocal music sounding more like folk or love songs than martial music, anthem at 1356 into time pips, ID IN Korean, then M/W with presumed newscast or political screed. SINPO - 35333 (John Figliozzi, NY, Eton E1, Drake R8B w/ A/D sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. Shortwave radios "common" in North Korea? "Now that short-wave radios are common in the North, broadcasts from outside should be stepped up." Leader, The Economist, 25 September 2008 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Part of my day job is to study the media environment in North Korea. We know that some Chinese-built radios with shortwave bands are finding their way into North Korea. And many senior officials have shortwave radios. (See previous post.) But "common" is probably an overstatement. Radio with medium wave (AM) bands are much more plentiful in North Korea. A medium wave relay is key to successful international broadcasting into the country. So far, South Korea has [not!] allowed VOA or RFA relays on medium wave or any other waveband. Other medium wave relay opportunities are farther from North Korea. With VOA and RFA both broadcasting five hours per day in Korean, never concurrently, "stepped up" broadcasts would add hours during fringe listening hours, producing diminished marginal returns. A more significant "step up" would be a BBC Korean Service, a language that World Service has so far avoided Posted: 26 Sep 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** LAOS. Re: Via remote receiver in the Philippines: 4412.6v, Sam Neua, listed *1000 is not quite correct. I will have to get up a bit earlier to see when they sign on exactly: *0924 today Sept 26 with interval signal, anthem, and on (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** LATVIA. Relays this weekend via 9290 kHz Sat September 27th Latvia Today 0800-0900 UT Sun September 28th Latvia Today 1300-1400 UT Good listening, 73s, Tom Taylor (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** LIBYA. V. of Africa, 17725, Sept 27 at 1500 addressing ``Dear Listeners`` in English; poor. Aimed due south from Sabrata, so unfavorable for here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. The Sitkunai site is adding a transmission on 3955 at 1530-1730 Thursday, Friday and Saturday only, 50 kW at 79 degrees, effective 26 September; another Iranian relay? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 6049.62v, Asyik FM via RTM, 1105-1115, Sept 26, pop songs; at 1109, a 3 minute break for the Islamic call-to-prayer (Maghrib is their sunset prayer, the fourth prayer of the day - Kuala Lumpur sunset was at 1107); pop songs continued, weak, best in LSB (moderate QRM from 6050.0) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 7284.58, RTVM, 0801-0825, Sept 26, tune-in to flute IS. French ID announcement followed by vernacular talk. Local string music at 0823. Weak but readable. Slightly stronger on // 9635 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 4800, Mexico XERTA "We are the World" cover en español, excellent signal 1100 to 1130 (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :-), Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Cf GUATEMALA ** MEXICO. About Radio Chapingo transmitting after 9:00 PM --- Dear Glenn, For two weeks now, I'm "working" with John Callarman, checking and recording MW radio station with their ID, etc., here in Mexico City. The last 24th of September I was on 1610 a few minutes before 09:00 AM to catch the complete ID and to confirm times and I can said that there was no broadcasting at all before 09:00 AM, contrary as they say! I also can confirm that I've checked the same day around 09:00 PM and they sign off around 09:08 after having played the Mexican anthem and the Chapingo one. At least, I send you a small mp3 file, recorded the 24th of September where you'll be able to listen a female commentator giving the schedule of the radio, which is from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. All the best from Mexico City, (Thierry FRICOT, XE1/F-14314 op. Thierry, SAT, SW & BC Listener, Sept 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So 1400-0200 UT only (gh) ** MYANMAR. 5985.0, Myanma R., 1530-1538, Sept 25, in English, seems to give three frequencies (mentions kHz. and meters, but unable to make them out), news (stories about the activities of members of the military [a Brigadier General attended an opening ceremony, a Major General visited someplace else, etc.]), Myanmar weather, slogans about the defense of the country, several IDs, into EZL songs, weak, but hope in another month to really be able to make out more of the news items. The 1300-1430 time period usually finds them with fair to good reception in vernacular. 9730.74v, Myanma R., 1505-1510*, Sept 25, in vernacular and English, seemed to be giving mathematical formulas, brief indigenous instrumental music at sign-off, poor; 1458-1512, Sept 24, in English and vernacular, reading paragraphs, explaining their basic meaning (all about the seasons: winter is the opposite of summer, heat in summer, etc.), poor. 5985.0, Myanma R., 1529-1600*, Sept 27, in English, before BoH indigenous music and singing, sounded like: "This is… [she gives her name]. This is Myanma Radio. You are tuned to our English transmission. 5985 kHz., 50.13 meters, 576 kHz., 520 meters, 5.. kHz., 585 meters. First of all you can hear the news", activities of a Lieutenant General from the Ministry of Defense, etc., "This news comes to you from Myanma Radio. Now I will present you with the weather news", followed by slogans, news of other Asian countries (about beaches in Brunei), EZL songs ("Rose Marie", etc.), Anthem at sign-off, by far the best reception to date (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI 60th anniversary special encountered UT Sat Sept 27 at 0610 on 9615, NOT a time given in advance publicity, quoted in DXLD 8-105, which said: ``The 60th ANNIVERSARY MAILBOX SPECIAL BROADCAST TIMES ARE AS FOLLOWS: SAT 27 SEP Sat 0020 NZDT 2320 UT (Fri) FULL VERSION Sat 1806 NZDT 0506 UT (Sat) FULL VERSION`` The trouble is, NZ was not yet on UT +13, so the time conversion was wrong, really 0606 UT! Anyhow, I`ll hear it ondemand sometime rather than try to compensate for their erroneous publicity, figuring out what they really meant to say. It seems that RNZI, supposedly an external service, operates on local time, whatever it is, rather than UT which never changes. David Ricquish was pronouncing RNZI as ``Renzy`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PALAU. KWHR Hawaii usage of 9930 at 05-12 and 14-18 has been replaced by KHBN [= T8WH] thruout at 05-18. And 12130, which had been KWHR at 12-14, is now KHBN at 10-14 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA [and non] Firedrake ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3205, Sept 26 at 1302 with what sounded like a national anthem, then open carrier so I figured R. West Sepik had signed off, but 1304 talk resumed. 3335, best presumed PNG signal this morning, Sept 26 at 1305 with music and English(?) talk. 3325 had some music but that could also be Indonesia, but nothing from PNG on 3365 or 3385, so they were off? 90m scan Sept 27 at 1303 found: 3205 with talk, 3235 music, 3325 something, 3335 music, 3345 something, 3365 no signal, 3385 talk (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3335, R. East Sepik, 1105 27 Sept, apparent political speech by M mentioning Papua New Guinea, program, province, country, development, Southern Highlands, policy, 2000, committee, one government, etc. Tuned out at 1127. Gradually getting better and very nice by 1125. 3235, R. West New Britain, 1130 27 Sept, tune-in W mentioning ".local station NBC.long Saturday night". And into Dance song. Pretty good. Other PNGs heard this morning include 3905, 3385, 3345, 3335, possibly 3325, 3260, and 3205 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) ** PERU. 3329.62, Ondas del Huallaga, 1000, Huánuco, weak signal 25 September [Wilkner] 5120.4v, Ondas del Suroriente, Quillabamba, 1040 "...en cinco ..la voz momento de flores ..." [sic], 18 September [Wilkner] 5460.43, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar, 2345 OM en español over thunderstorms 22 September [Wilkner] 5470.80, Radio San Nicolás, 2340 OM en español, echo chamber effects and into atenciones, 22 September (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :-), Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5939.27, Radio Melodía, Arequipa, 0630-0700, Sept 26, Spanish talk. ID at 0638. Poor to fair. Very poor after 0658 due to adjacent channel splatter (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WWCR 5935? ** PRIDNESTROVYE [and non]. MOLDOVA - TRANSDNEISTER MOLDOVAN REPUBLIC Using a remote receiver situated in Vienna, this week I've been hearing the domestic service of Radio Pridnestrovye signing-on every day on 549 kHz mediumwave at 1700 UTC (current WRTH has this here 0600-2200, so evidently incorrect), usually with worthless reception due to extreme co-channel interference from Radio Slovenia/Radio Koper, Deutschlandfunk and several Russian Mayak transmitters. Today, however, reception was a bit clearer as only the Slovenian interference was in evidence, so I've recorded the sign-on and uploaded it to the Station Sounds section - this is what you'll hear from the start of the recording 25 seconds before the hour: Characteristic "USSR" on/off transmitter tones Time check in Russian: "Tiraspol 2000 hours" Interval signal (same as that used for Radio PMR/DMR external service) Announcement in Russian: "Tiraspol calling, [capital of the?] Transdniester Moldovan Republic" News in Russian A clearer, albeit much older (1995), recording of Radio Pridnestrovye can be found on the Interval Signals Online website at http://intervalsignals.net (Dave Kernick, Interval Signals Online, Sept 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) CORRECTION: The Radio Pridnestrovye broadcast heard opening at 1700 UT on 549 kHz is actually the EXTERNAL service. Mauno Ritola tells me it's on 999 kHz at 1700-1730 UT (as per WRTH), as well as unlisted 549 kHz. As you'd expect from a 500 kW transmitter, reception is much better on 999 kHz and Mauno has kindly provided me with a good-quality recording from it - this can be heard on the Moldova page of Interval Signals Online at intervalsignals.net. Wonder if Radio Pridnestrovye's domestic service is on FM only now? (Dave Kernick, Interval Signals Online, Sept 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. 11945, Arabic talk at 1407 Sept 27 about Romania, Bucharest, names ending in -escu and Romanian clips for voice-over. What could it be? RRI, off the back! As scheduled in Arabic this hour from Tiganesti but presumably currently Galbeni instead, good modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DGIEST) ARABIC 1400-1456 11945 [15160 is OFF since March 30], March 30 - Aug 3 via old Tiganesti, from August 4 via new 300 kW US-Continental units at Galbeni. S=9 to IRQ, LBN, SYR, JOR, ARS, Palestine, EGY, and SDN. QRM BBC Kranji in Burmese (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA [and non]. R. Riyadh, 17660, Sept 27 at 1417 with dramatic M&W dialog in French, some distortion, SFX, recorded on stage? 1500 drums and French announcements. 13710, Sept 27 at 1515 with Qur`an and then regular Arabic talk, muffled modulation, not // 15435/15225, tho 13710 is also Riyadh, a different program. 15225, Sept 27 at 1513 Qur`an, but SAH of about 4 Hz mixing with YL talk in S Asian language, soon IDed in passing at 1514 as ``Adventist World Radio``. Per EiBi, this is Punjabi via Wertachtal. Adventists vs Allah! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SIKKIM. NINE FM LAUNCHES IN SIKKIM http://www.radioandmusic.com/content/editorial/news/nine-fm-launches-sikkim Kolkata headquartered Chinar Circuits has launched its FM station Nine FM in Gangtok on 24 September, making it the first FM radio station in Sikkim. Nine FM CEO Bobby Gupta announced the launch of the states's first FM station at a press conference in Gangtok on Thursday. The station will be broadcast on 91.9 FM MHz. Addressing the press, Gupta said, "True to our motto “Your Song, Your Voice", all programmes of Nine FM will be highly interactive. Listeners will be encouraged to call in live or write in through e- mail and SMS to share their views on different topics. Nine FM will also provide the opportunity to the common people of Sikkim to place their requests to listen to their favorite songs, which they want to listen or dedicate to their loved ones." "Nine has put together the largest ever collection of Nepali music. We also have compiled a large gallery of English and Hindi music," he added. The broadcast and production facilities at Nine FM have been designed and installed by Clyde Broadcast, Glasgow, UK and the transmission equipment has been procured from Harris Corporation, Quincy, USA. The station has installed dedicated software for scheduling of music, sequencing and playing out. Chinar circuit started its ground activity for Nine FM a month ago to build awareness around the brnad. It had recently started ‘The Nine Freedom Rock tour 08' in collaboration with the Sikkim State Aids Control Society on 17 August in the Sikkim capital in the presence of known personalities of Sikkim. The station launched teasers in the Sikkim Manipal University, to reach out to the target audience. Among the other stations poised for a Gangtok launch are SFM and Radio Misty (via Jaisakthivel, Chennai, dxldyg via DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. As I tuned across 7135, Sept 26 at 1345, music interrupted by a 5+1 timesignal, into unID language obscured by hams more interested in talking than listening. Per Aoki this is BBC Burmese service opening at this hour. But why would they run a timesignal at such an odd time, which is hourtop neither UT nor Yangon? Does Greenwich supply such non-standard timesignals? Not expecting it, was not prepared to measure how far off it was, but I think it was a few seconds late anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. See IRAN [non], conflict with Farda on 17755 ** SPAIN. LISTENING IN ~ RADIO EXTERIOR DE ESPAÑA with Darren Rozier One of the few western European stations still broadcasting English programmes to Europe, Radio Exterior de España, is a breath of fresh air on the short waves. The news is presented in an informal and interesting way and features abound in 10-minute sections in the hour long broadcast. Interestingly, the weekday and weekend schedules are different. During the week the English hour is transmitted between 2000 and 2100 UTC. At the weekend it’s an hour later at 2100 to 2200 UTC. Maybe people can stay up later at the weekend! I couldn’t possibly write up 7 hours worth of broadcasting in one short article, so I shall give you a taster of what you can expect on the station from what I’ve managed to listen to over the past couple of weeks. The broadcast on Saturday 2nd August at 2100 UTC was on 9840 kHz and rated SINPO 55545. The transmission began with a charming tuning signal, time signal pips, an anthem and an announcement which contained a rundown of what would follow in the next hour. The first feature was Radio Corner. Not a DX programme as advertised, but more of an historical insight into Spanish broadcasting. According to this, RNE (Radio Nacional España), the Spanish public broadcaster, began in 1937 at the height of the Spanish civil war. It was initially used by Franco as a propaganda tool. It was also used for fascist propaganda during the Second World War. In this period the only other broadcasts in Spanish to Spain were the BBC, Radio France Internationale and a communist station which came out of the Pyrenees. REE began English programmes in 1945 and joined the European Broadcasting Union 10 years later. This feature included audio clips. The next piece was called "This, That and the Other" – a feature designed to give bite-sized chunks of Spanish news on everything from the Olympic Games to politics. At 2121 it was time for "Theme Songs" – a journey across Spain in modern Spanish popular music. Linked in English, this was a nice and interesting listen. At 2132 it was time for Spanish Historical footnotes – a great feature about past goings-on in Spain. There was information on Troy, which supposedly was located on the Western Mediterranean, Nabrisa – a city of candlesticks and jewellery, and the legend of Tartessus! At 2143 there was "Armchair Travelling". This week they were taking us to Santiago de Compostella, which means "St. James of the field of the Star". It was the 2000 European City of Culture. Apparently, it’s a city with Celtic culture. Many Catholic pilgrims believe that James the disciple of Jesus is buried there. There was much interesting information about this city. At 2153 there was a back announcement for the broadcast and an address was given for listener comments, although it’s worth noting that REE does not verify or QSL any of their transmissions. The anthem closed the broadcast and the tuning signal began to play at 2154. I also caught the broadcast on Sunday 10th August on 9840 kHz at 2100 UTC. Again the SINPO was 55545. The features were: "How About That" – a programme about curious happenings in science, non-science and nonsense. This week it was a tongue-in-cheek look at ghosts and haunted properties in Madrid. "American Chronicles" is all about news from Latin America. This week’s show contained a detailed feature on the rebel Colombian group FARC. Apparently, the authorities are trying to track down FARC supporters in Switzerland, which is harder to do than in the other EU countries because it’s not an EU member. "Cultural Roundup" featured two Spanish musicians who spoke perfect English and played mediaeval music. "Lights, Camera, Action" contained three features within itself. The first two, "Film Busters" and "Films to Remember", reviewed a couple of Spanish language films between them and translated their titles into English. They were "Farewell Good Man" and "Solace" respectively. The reviews included audio clips – in Spanish –which I thought was rather pointless! The third feature was "Yesterday Never Dies" and was about a Spanish screenwriter and director. The transmitter signed off at 2154, halfway through a Spanish song. One thing you’ll notice about REE is that there are musical breaks between some of the features, which, in my opinion, helps to keep your interest. I also listened to two of the weekday broadcasts. Monday 4th August’s was on 9665 kHz and came in at 32333 at 2000 UTC. Wednesday 13th August’s was on the same frequency at 45544. There’s 20 minutes of news. The Monday broadcast included stories of the Spanish deputy prime minister visiting a conference on AIDS; unemployment in Spain hitting a 10 year high; one thousand troops leaving Spain for Lebanon as a peace-keeping force; on Buenos Aires and Spanish relations with Argentina; people having been trampled near a temple in India; a Hamas raid in Israel; a European UN envoy being sent to Myanmar and Mikhail Gorbechev paying tribute to Alexander Solzenitzen, the well-known Russian dissident who wrote about experiences in Stalin’s prison camps. Wednesday’s news was presented by a man and a woman who alternated in the information that they gave out. I think that this style made the broadcast more listenable because it kept your interest and gave it an informal and friendly feel. After the news there’s the weather - over Fleetwood Mac’s "Albatross" - which is used as a music bed. Temperatures are given in Fahrenheit as well as in Celsius, which is interesting for a continental European country. It’s all presented informally and is very easy to understand. The rest of the broadcast is made up of three features (some of them are the same as at the weekend, like "Radio Corner" and "Armchair Travelling", which, on Wednesday, focused on Salamanca), music and a short lesson in Spanish, which I wasn’t interested in as I’m learning Norwegian at the moment and don’t want to get confused! However, it is presented in an easy-to-understand way, much like my Norwegian course here at home. I hope that’s whetted your appetite for REE and a style of broadcasting which is sadly lacking on short wave these days. The Radio Exterior de España website, which includes podcasts, is at: http://www.rtve.es/rne/ree Radio Exterior de España English schedule for A08 is: 0000-0100 UTC Daily to the Americas on 6055; 2000-2100 Monday to Friday to Europe and Africa 9665 11620; 2100-2200 Saturday and Sunday to Europe on 9840 [Caption] Above: The REE English team and other REE staff includes: Justin Coe, Deanelle Baker, Itziar Acosta, Mario Borrego, Laura García, Concha Muñoz, María del Mar Hernández, Miguel León and Jesús Carreras. (photos from REE website) (Darren Rozier, Listening In, Sept BDXC UK Communication via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Sept 27 at 1507 came upon 15650 with some very distorted talk I eventually recognized as English with a heavy African accent; long pauses, mentioned National Democratic Institute, with SFX between items, more pauses. 1509 into some other language, apparently ID, mentioning FM, SW and kHz, ``Miraya FM``, and then mostly in non- English until 1511 tune-out. This is the relay via IRRS ``Milan``, i.e. Slovakia, 150 kW at 160 degrees. Also had a lite warbling het which I at first thought might be a jammer, and then thought might be out of some local household device such as TV set turned off but not unplugged (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Big open carrier on 11680 gave me pause, Sept 27 at 1317 covering up some Mideastern music. Probably Cuba which uses it later in day for Venezuela, RHC. Fortunately, that went off a semi-minute later uncovering the music, soprano accompanied by mugam-like instrument; 1335 into talk, sounds like Turkish. Is PWBR `2008` any help? Of course not --- nothing at all shown on 11680 during this hour, except Korea North, which this certainly was not, nor was that audible today anywhere around 11677v. More nice ME music, including at 1355 children`s choir with piano accompaniment in medley including prettified version of La Cucaracha, almost making it into a round. 1400 accurate 3-pip timesignal and Turkish news by YL mentioning Adana. As A-08 online skeds easily confirm, this is TRT Emirler, 500 kW at 310 degrees, 1300-1530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. Surprised to encounter excited coverage in English of silly ballgame frequently mentioning Chelsea, Sat Sept 27 at 1525 on 7380, confirmed as BBCWS by // 9740 but echoing slightly out of synch via Singapore. Also surprised to find 7380 listed as Meyerton, South Africa site at 5 degrees; despite unfavourable azimuth, most likely long path at this hour. This transmission goes into Swahili at 1530, except on Saturdays, in English until 1700 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also ASCENSION, SINGAPORE ** U K [non]. BBC WS on 1010? --- I was out and about right around sunset last night, and I was getting BBC World Service on 1010. Looking at Radio Locator, I don't see any likely suspects. KXPS is sports, Delano and San Francisco are SS, and KXXT is religion. I've had CBR before on rare occasion, does anyone know if they run BBC WS around 6-7 PM PDT? (Brian Leyton, southern(?) CA, Sept 26, ABDX via DXLD) No (gh) How about the station in Utah? 73 (Tim Hall, CA, ibid.) That's a very likely possibility that I hadn't thought of. The schedule on their web site says that they carry BBC WS, but only from 10 PM to 4 AM. This time of year, their license shows sunset as 6:45 PM [Mountain] Standard Time, which seems rather late, since it was around sunset here, and it was about 6:45 PDT. So they might still have been on 50 kW at that time. As I recall, the end of September is a good time to catch stations on day power, since the actual sunset time can get much earlier than their official sunset time on their license. October may be even better. I'll have to keep working on this one - KCPW would be a new one for me (Brian Leyton, ibid.) Yup, that'd be KCPW - COL is Tooele, UT but the tower is in Salt Lake. I thought of them too when you mentioned it although I haven't listened well enough to know exactly what the schedule is. I know they are flea-power at night (like 13 watts) so after dark I'm sure it wasn't them. However I'm sure it's possible they were still on day rig or it was before sunset mountain time. I'd say that's a good possibility (Michael n Wyo J Richard, ibid.) They also have 3.1 kW critical hours, and they are ND. So that could be a possibility too. I should know this, but when do critical hours start/end? (Brian Leyton, ibid.) Critical hours are 2 hours after sunrise and 2 hours before sunset as specified in license (Powell E Way III, SC, ibid.) I'm not sure WHAT the story is right now with KCPW(AM). Last year, KCPW made a big deal out of flipping the AM signal from a simulcast of KCPW-FM to 24/7 BBC World Service. But then the owners of KCPW AM-FM, Community Wireless of Park City, put the stations up for sale. (There's a long and very twisty back story to the sale, having to do with the greed of the guy who founded KCPW and its parent station, KPCW in Park City.) KCPW-FM almost got sold to a religious broadcaster, but then a community group, Wasatch Public Media, put together a last-minute fundraiser and came up with $800,000 in 60 days to buy the FM license from KPCW. The sale of the FM closed on Wednesday. AM 1010 is *not* part of that deal. It's being sold to a Catholic broadcaster. That deal hasn't closed yet, and apparently (though I haven't confirmed this) Community Wireless is still operating it with 24/7 BBC News until that happens. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) Well, then if they were following the rules (and I have no reason to think otherwise), then if it was KCPW that I heard, they were on either critical hours or night parameters. I'll try to keep looking for them, but I guess I only have a few days left before the legal LSS moves earlier by an hour (Brian Leyton, CA, ibid.) Now that you mention it, I just went back to the website, and it only mentions the 2 FM frequencies, not the AM. So they may well have a very different schedule. I did see a notice that they had been sold (Brian Leyton, CA, ibid.) Try for them before sunrise (6:00 am PT is good now) the next few days. I can almost always get them on my car radio here in San Diego when I leave for work in the morning. 73 (Tim Hall, ibid.) ** U S A. FOUR VOA RADIO SERVICES PREPARE TO SIGN OFF The VOA Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian, and Hindi services will transmit their last radio broadcasts on 30 September. The services will continue via internet and/or television. VOA Hindi has a weekly report on India's Aaj Tak TV. VOA Serbian and Hindi have on shortwave until the end, while Bosnian and Macedonian were only via affiliates in their target countries, plus internet audio. VOA Russian radio already ended on 26 July, continuing as an internet- only service. VOA Georgian was slated to close down completely, via all media, on 30 September, but the Georgian-Russian conflict has given that service an indefinite stay. The Broadcasting Board of Governors reversed its decisions to eliminate VOA radio in Turkish, Croatian, and Greek. RFE/RL radio broadcasts continue in Russian, Georgian Serbian, Bosnian, and Macedonian. Posted: 27 Sep 2008 (kimandfrewelliott.com via DXLD) See also KOREA NORTH [and non] ** U S A. 9535 with open carrier, occasional tones, Sept 26 at 1348, VOA Greenville warming up for 1400-1415 Spanish sports broadcast. If VOA aggregated all the transmitter-hours wasted on these warmups, it could easily add an hour or two of modulated English broadcasts in prime time to the Americas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presidential debate nominal start time is 0100 UT Saturday; maybe we can expect some secret extra SW frequencies, as appeared for VOA coverage of the Democratic and Republican Cons a month ago, including from African sites, 6080, 9885, 12080, 15580? Please look for them (Glenn Hauser, Media Network blog via DXLD) Those are published frequencies that should be used around the debate: English to Europe, Middle East, and North Africa 0100-0130 UT 1593 English to Far East Asia, South Asia, and Oceania 0100-0200 UT 7430 9780 11705 0200-0300 UT 9780 11705 English-Special - just in case 0130-0200 UT 1593 6040 9820 (SRG, ibid.) Scanned bands from 16 to 90 meters between 0136 and 0146 UT. Computers and TVs were necessarily on obscuring weaker signals. Did find live debate broadcast weakly // TV but never exactly synchronized on 15595, presumably VOA, site unlisted and normally not scheduled. Very good on 9820 and 6040 which are Greenville normally only at 0130-0200 with Spe-cial Eng-lish. While I was at it, I checked private US SW station frequencies which are on the air in English at this time, and found them all in normal programming, mostly gospel huxters: 11520, 9505, 7465, 7415, 6985, 6890, 5935, 5920, 5875, 5850, 5745, 5070, 5050, 3185. Whatever became of the concept of public service broadcasting, pre-empting regular programming if necessary on such rare special occasions? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Great reception right now, at 0135 UT on 6040. Radio: SONY ICF-2010, telescopic antenna. QTH: near Chicago. Another passable frequency is 9820. The debate is also heard on 6080, 9780 and 9885 (Sergei S., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Next check at 0220: both 6040 and 9820 were off. VOA must have only run them during their normal spans, i.e. cutting off the debate right in the middle at 0200! 15595, whencever it was, faded out before 0200. Still no private US SW frequencies with it at 0220 either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Both frequencies out of Greenville went dead at 2 UT. The live debate is carried in its entirety by France 24 in English, though. As part of its public service Russia Today TV broadcast a live picture of Obama for a few seconds followed by a report about Ralph Nader. I'm sure it will be on YouTube.com a few hours later. R. Liberty Russian and R. Marti chose not to interrupt their programming for the US presidential debates (Sergei S., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, 6040 went into usual VoA closing announcement right in the middle of McCain's sentence. France 24 carried the debate live not only in English but also in French and Arabic. Right now English service continues with the coverage (Sergei S., 0253 UT, ibid.) During the debate I also scanned the basic cable and on-air TV channels to see if there were any surprises about who was carrying the debate, or not: it WAS on: NBC, ABC, Fox, CBS, PBS, Telemundo, CSPAN 1 & 2, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC. It was NOT on Univision, Ion, CW, My or CNN Headlines. I suppose Univisión was the most surprising, but they just left it to their main competitor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. VOA Special English, business dialog lessons with terms about finding a job, such as networking, resume; interrupted by tone cues and music riffs, Sept 27 at 1523 on 9695, which is Tinang, Philippines at 349 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. RADIO NEWYORK INTERNATIONAL CHANGING FREQUENCIES OCTOBER 5 Radio New York International`s broadcast this Sunday, September 28, 2008, will be its last on WBCQ 7415. Effective Sunday, October 5, RNI will move to WBCQ 5110. RNI will continue to be heard from 8 to 11 pm Sunday evenings on WBCQ 5110. [EDT = 0000-0300 UT Mondays] RNI is asking listeners for feedback on the sound and coverage of WBCQ 5110 after they move. You can contact the RNI team via their website at http://www.johnlightning.com The tentative schedule for RNI on 5110 kHz is as follows: 1. 10/5 8 PM (scheduled) Power Pop with Dave ``The Boogie Man``; 10/5 10 PM Rock The Universe with Rich Adcock 2. 10/12 8 PM The Johnny Lightning Music AND PHONE CALLS Show 3. 10/19 (open) 4. 10/26 8 PM (scheduled) The Hank & Jim Halloween Special 5. 11/2 8 PM Johnny Lightning`s Pre-election, (Pre-erection?) Special 6. 11/9 8 PM Johnny Lightning`s Post Election Special (Post Coital Depression?) September 26, 2008 --- 4:35 pm WBCQ.com (via Sergei S., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. HCJB: TECH CENTER FOR CHRIST http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t.15789.html (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17, DXLD) Illustrated, quite a bit of detail about what they do in Elkhart (gh) ** U S A [and non]. Preacher on SW and domestic radio, will stay how long? Innocent until proven guilty, but: FBI: EVANGELIST TONY ALAMO ARRESTED IN CHILD SEX INVESTIGATION http://www.yahoo.com/s/959912 (Glenn Hauser, OK, Sept 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See EQUATORIAL GUINEA That same URL on Sept 26 goes to a different, updated story headlined: EVANGELIST TONY ALAMO AGREES TO RETURN TO ARKANSAS So what if we still want to see the Sept 25 story?? (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. WTOP 1050 --- No, not a typo. I logged the following: 1050, WTOP, MD, Silver Spring. Playing short recordings telling people to tune to 1500 to listen to Federal News Radio. Heard TOH ID at 1600 [EDT] 9/26 while driving on the Washington, DC Beltway (Bill Harms - MD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Goodtown just can`t make up its mind how much to jumble up the callsigns and formats of its Capital properties. Shouldn`t that be WMID, since WTOP is no longer near the TOP of the MW band? 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** U S A. WPRR --- They officially launched on Monday September 22. I caught them Monday night with a moderate signal with WTTM underneath. They're running Pacifica radio programming. I tuned in on my break at work from 7:50 to 8:00 PM [EDT = 2350-2400 UT]. They had a talk show about with a piece on how Senator (and VP Candidate) Joe Biden had been involved with a piece of legislation aimed at giving financial relief to large banks like Lehman Bros. The program ended and there was just a "WPRR Public Reality Radio" ID with no city of license mentioned into the top of the hour then into another program. The station claims to be offering programming of an educational nature on politics, world affairs, religion and other topics. As with other Pacifica radio stations they are a non-comm (J. Nielsen, MARE Tipsheet Sept 26 via DXLD) WTFK? 1680. Ex-WDSS, Ada MI (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. 1600 kHz with persistent het I have been hearing for years, somewhere around 100-200 Hz, at 1338 Sept 26. On the longwire aimed toward Cushing OK, the nearest 1600 station, KUSH was dominant, and had a SAH, so I think that was close to 1600.00. Most likely culprit is KRVA in The Metroplex, which could also be heard at times in Vietnamese, but difficult to correlate it with the off-frequency. BTW, the 2008 NRC AM Log shows address for this in Houston, while the 2007 NRC AM Log had an address in Dallas. City of license remains Cockrell Hill, which is on the west side of Dallas. So what has Houston got to do with it? Is it now relaying a sister ethnic station there? Even so, doesn`t it have to maintain an address somewhere near the COL? Phone number also changed during the year (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I think Wayne will back me up on this that the AM Log [of which Wayne Heinen is the editor] gives the address where a DXer most likely will get a response from a QSL request. Evidently someone has reported they received a response from the address in the Log. The FCC lists their address as 301 Commerce Suite 1600 Fort Worth, TX 76102 The corporate (Mortenson) HQ is in Lexington, KY (Bill Hale, TX, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It does (have to maintain a main studio in or near the COL) but that's not necessarily the address that appears in the Log. I'm sure the addresses in the Log are those believed to be delivered to people who have responded to reception reports, or who at least might be able to respond. Nothing requires a station to actually originate any programming from its "main studio" - I think as a matter of policy it must be possible to originate programming from there, but you don't have to actually do so. I know of stations that have specified their transmitter building as their "main studio" but fed all programming from elsewhere. Strangely enough, the address for KRVA in the FCC's CDBS database is in Sacramento, California! (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) I had not realized the NRC AM Log`s station addresses were skewed towards those useful for QSLing, rather than official local or business addresses, since it does not seem to show any verie-signer names to go with the QSL addresses (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1360, KBUY, NM, Ruidoso - Licensed for U1 5000/199, KBUY has a CP for U1 9000/182. An STA has been granted for D1 408/0. The application for the STA states: “The KBUY tower was destroyed when a backhoe hooked into one of the tower guy wires. Subsequent to the loss of its authorized antenna, station KBUY returned to the air at 6 am MST (sic) on August 12, 2008, employing an emergency long wire antenna at its licensed site. The antenna is elevated 25’ in the air and extends 102’ in a northernly (sic) direction and then 77’ in an easterly direction. The antenna feed point impedance has been measured at 21-j19 ohms [must be some New Mexico engineering, hi]. With an antenna current of 4.41 amperes, the operating power is 408 watts.” No mention of nighttime operation, so we assume they are D1 (AM Switch, NRC DX News Sept 29 via DXLD) ** U S A. 1100, WZFG, MN, Dilworth. 8/8 0800 [EDT]. Heard testing on air with a loop of cuts from various talk shows they will carry. Also announced Fox news. IDing as “AM 1100 the Flag.” Announced they will begin full time on Monday August 11 at 8 AM local time. Good signals on my car radio going to work (Shawn Axelrod, Winnipeg MB, NRC DX News Sept 29 via DXLD) The station’s tower was struck by lightning during its inaugural program on 8/11, destroying the transmission line, according to an article http://wzfg-am.fimc.net//Article.asp?id=838863 on the station’s website. On 8/15 I monitored WZFG’s live webstream and heard a message about this situation. Because of the lightning strike, the station was experiencing technical difficulties and working to return things to normal, according to the message. It was not made clear whether the station was even on the air, so I e-mailed Shawn Axelrod to see what he could tell me. Later on 8/15 Shawn replied that they were indeed on air, but at times with a signal strength that would suggest they were running at reduced power. A call to the station on 9/19 revealed that everything is now back to normal (Bill Dvorak, WI, ed., DDXD-West, NRC DX News Sept 29 via DXLD ** U S A. KCPW 1010 SLC with BBC: see UK [non] ** U S A. Re 8-106, KFI turns on new tower: I listened on my way home, from Burbank to North Hollywood, a grueling 13 minute commute ;-) Quite honestly, they sounded fine before the switch, just the occasional static when passing power lines. I'm probably too close here (about 35 miles) to see a huge difference. It was hard to tell what was going on, because they had a lot of fake sound effects going, and the crowd made a lot of noise. I guess their processor adds a bit of delay, since they seemed to have some echo problems, especially when Terry Ray Elmer (their news reader) came on and spoke with them. I assume that she was back at the studio, while they were at the transmitter. It may also just have been some feedback from the speakers they used so that the crowd could hear. At the time of the switch, IBOC was not on, and as far as I can tell, it still is not on. It's harder to tell here because of the interference from KSPN (Brian Leyton, CA, ABDX via DXLD) They did it at 5:10 [pm PDT Sept 25 = 0010 UT Sept 26]. I think it's possible that they had reduced power on their aux because it seemed weaker than usual all day. That wouldn't surprise me. There was what I think was a fake sound clip of arcing for the first few seconds after the guy said he threw the switch. The signal didn't increase until about 10 seconds after the switch was thrown. After that there was hum with some crackling for a few seconds then the hum stopped. Indoors the signal strength appears to be the same as KNX, which means it's working because that's what it used to be. Those of you who can hear KFI (or used to be able to) --- KFI fired up their new tower and returned to 50 kW late this afternoon. I'm curious as to whether you're hearing KFI as well as you used to before their tower came down in December of 2004. The new tower is slightly shorter and has a large top hat. They had to agree to that to get approval to replace the tower. The old tower was 175.7 degrees electrical height. The new tower is 158.1 degrees electrical height and the top hat ads 23.3 degrees electrical height. I know just enough about AM towers to be dangerous so I have a question for you broadcast engineers out there. Beyond ground wave (especially at night) should the top hat have any effect on the signal strength as compared to what it used to be? I'm too close to be able to tell. 73 (Dennis Gibson, CA, Sept 25, IRCA via DXLD) I'm hearing KFI but it is very weak. With their old tower, it may have been better. But with the 1150 site, I never heard it until near LSS. KFI used to be a regular up here 24/7 most of the year with their old tower. Only a carrier in like June/July, but there. By Sept, I would have had audio all day. [later:] Dennis, How much stronger do you find KFI now compared to before? It seems they have gained about 10 dB here I would guess. I wonder as it gets towards Winter more, if I will hear them all day? 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) Pat, I think your 10 db gain with the new antenna is on the mark. Being on the coast you might be able to hear KFI 24 hours a day in the winter. I should be able to hear them from 4 pm to 8 am [PST = UT -8] during December, that's 16 hours a day. In the mid 90's I would listen to the "Mr. KFI show" on week nights. "Phil Hendrie Show" came along to bumped Mr. KFI off the air. Took me a month to figure out Phil's program. When TP DXing is poor, I sometimes listen to the "Bill Handle Show" on KFI. His "Handle on the Law" is on KEX Saturdays from 4 pm to 7 pm [PDT = UT -7] (Dennis, Salmon Creek, WA, Vroom, ibid.) Dennis, Yes, it seems like KFI's signal is up about 10-15 DB more than before. With the old tower, I generally would hear them year around, if not a carrier in mid Summer, but I don't know if the signal is that good now. It does not seem that good. 73, (Patrick Martin, ibid.) I checked KFI's daytime signal this morning at 1033 PDT [1733 UT Sept 26]. It seems to be slightly stronger now. Their frequency was wandering from 639.9992 to 640.0001 kHz between 1033 and 1047 PDT, so it appears that they are not yet using their GPS-controlled IBOC exciter (Albert Lehr - Livermore, CA, Allied A-2515 receiver, Homebrew external sync detector, frequency measurement system, phase-locked to WWVB, Two 8 x 35 x 11 ft. Ewe antennas at 218 and 293 degrees, 30 ft. E/W wire 3" underground, ibid.) Friday night 9:10 pm MST [sic, probably means MDT = 0310 UT Saturday]. In southeast New Mexico, KFI's night signal has had a good improvement but the co channel QRM from the 640 in Juárez makes them unlistenable. On the other hand KNX-1070 with less signal strength is quite listenable with a lack of garbage underneath. On a side note, 660 from Window Rock is running non directional at the moment (Jerry Kiefer, Roswell, NM, 0318 UT Sept 27, IRCA via DXLD) RADIO STATION FEELS THE POWER AGAIN By Sandra T. Molina, Staff Writer Article Launched: 09/25/2008 09:47:21 PM PDT http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_10562271 LA MIRADA - Radio station KFI has about 5 million more listeners. It's not because of new programming or sales promotions attracting new listeners. A 684-foot antenna was turned on Thursday at 16608 Trojan Way to replace the original 760-foot tower that was knocked down by an airplane about four years ago. KFI's popular drive-time team, John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of "The John and Ken Show," broadcast their 3-7 p.m. show from the location. They were joined by radio employees and listeners. "We fought against Fullerton Airport and many others to make this happen," Kobylt said just moments before the tower was turned on. At exactly 5:15 p.m. [sic], KFI's morning show host Bill Handel flipped the switch on the 50,000-watt tower. Confetti streamers shot out into the crowd as the "Tower of Power" went to life. "There's no more static or dropouts," Handel said. "It's a whole new world." An ordinance allowing the new tower was approved by the La Mirada City Council in January, a month after the Federal Aviation Administration ruled it wouldn't be a hazard. The new antenna will reach 16 million listeners in Los Angeles and Orange counties, according to KFI officials. "We have now returned to our licensed parameter," he said. Despite the FAA's determination the new tower would not pose more of a hazard than the previous one, it had opposition from the local aviation community. The plane crash that knocked down the original tower killed the pilot and his wife. Addressing safety concerns, the tower has seven levels of ground wires compared to the old one's two and several strobe lights. The original had none. "It's very gratifying to be up and running," Ashlock said, "but we did build a deep appreciation for Fullerton Airport's concerns during the talks." (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. GAY TALK SHOW SPEAKS TO BROAD AUDIENCE Friday, September 26, 2008 4:41 AM, Commentary By Ann fisher They debuted on May 3 as Ohio's first GLBT talk-radio show. But Radio Outlook -- talk by and for the greater Columbus gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community -- is also for anyone else who cares about current events and friendly, informed banter. The lean is left, but everyone is welcome. And what's beautiful is that the hosts, Outlook Weekly co-owners Michael Daniels and Chris Hayes, don't try to hide the show's focus: "Great, local babble and talk, GLBT radio right here in central Ohio," Daniels recites at routine breaks. Nor do they concentrate on broad topics at the expense of their core audience. They scale a gamut of national and regional issues, including a local-events calendar, and then pluck away when a thread is relevant to the GLBT audience. Daniels and Hayes also often highlight a gay-related item; this Saturday, it's the Ohio Gay History Initiative. Radio Outlook airs at 8 a.m. Saturdays on WVKO (1580 AM). It started as an hour and now is 90 minutes. . . http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/09/26/ann26_ART_09-26-08_B1_BKBECSO.html?sid=101 (via Artie Bigley, Columbus OH, DXLD) ** U S A. RAY BAURENHUBER --- From Ray`s niece. "It is with great sadness to inform you that my Uncle Ray has passed away. He had a heart attack on Thursday 9/25 at about 4:30 p.m." Although Ray and I never met, we were good friends, exchanging emails, post cards etc for many years. 73 (Doug Pifer, Oregon, Sept 26, IRCA via DXLD) Ray lived fairly close to me in College Point in Queens. We go back a long way. We got to know each other while I was still editing EDXR back when the GE Superadio was a new item. Back then, I visited him and installed an outdoor antenna for his ICF-2010. It was his first real antenna. What a difference it made! I had to devise a coupling system between the antenna and his rig. Direct connection was way too powerful! We worked together for years on continuous improvements to his DXing shack. Ray always wanted to make his reception better and better. He recently installed an Alpha-Delta trap array that he was quite proud of. I nearly begged Ray to get his Technician amateur radio license, but Ray was quite satisfied being a great BCB DXer and SWL. In the very beginning, his loggings were simple and basic. His skills improved continually and his fraternity with our group made him a celebrity. Everyone knew Ray and felt his enthusiasm. Ray loved radio and he loved his family and life in general. He fought illness for many, many years always with a smile on his face. No matter what difficult obstruction stopped his life, he would always eventually come back for more. He never gave up. He took great bitter with little sweet yet always had an extraordinary positive attitude. He served the IRCA in many ways and always took his positions quite seriously. I talked him into running the elections and he actually wound up enjoying it! He always made lemonade from his lemons. Ray was a great, great guy. We should all learn from his approach to life - to squeeze every joy possible out of every minute. God be with you, Ray. I hope his loggings from above will be as amazing as his life on earth. I'll miss our conversations and I'll miss his spirit. A better man you will never meet. Rest in peace, my friend! (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, ibid.) OBIT ** VENEZUELA [non]. 6060, R. Nacional de Venezuela via Cuba, *1100- 1140, Sept 25, it has been quite a while since I last checked this one and was surprised to find them mostly in English, talking about the joint commission between China and Venezuela, the financial situation in Venezuela and the world financial crisis ("Result of speculation within the capitalist system"), reading some of their laws against corruption, etc., poor to fair with QRM from Sichuan PBS-2, many IDs in Spanish, also had segments in Spanish. Map showing their SW coverage and a less than complete schedule at http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/index.php?pg=internacional (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Admire the pretty colors on the map at http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/uploads/ondacorta1.jpg and then ignore the times and frequencies, duplicated alongside it at the previous URL, which have not been updated in the past three sesquiyears since the service started. Does not include the broadcast you heard, 1100 on 6060. In fact, the only entry which is still correct is Rio de Janeiro on 17705, once you correct 1700-1800 local time (winter only) to 2000-2100 UT; BTW, Aoki thinx that is non- direxional, which I doubt (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 3170.23, UnID harmonic (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :-), Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Time?? Very odd frequency to be a harmonic, not working out to an even multiple of any MW frequency ending in -0. For those who may not know this trick, if you add the digits (disregard the decimals) and get a multiple of 3, the whole number is divisible by 3, and this isn`t since they total 11. It obviously is not divisible by 2 either to come out with a frequency ending in 0 instead of 5, and thus divisors 4, 5, 6 would not work either. Of course there could still be an off- frequency or possibly deliberately split fundamental in Latin America, 1585+, but such are getting quite rare (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 4781.57v, Sign on at 1107 with subdued audio 25 September (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, La Florida del Sur :-), Sept 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) One would assume R. Tacana, Tumupasa, Bolivia around this frequency. Must have been about fade-out time, tho (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. Last few weeks logs: 4870, UNID STATION, 1859, AM, Very weak male talks, unID language. 19/Sep/2008 (Hans de Zeeuw, Sept 21, HCDX via Jari Savolainen, ibid.) Two possibilities I can think of: A Russian mixing product which has been here for several weeks. Two audio streams audible at times, haven't bothered to check from which frequencies this is generated. Also clandestine Voice of Iranian Kurdistan jumps around this frequency range, but I don't think they are on the air this late. 73, (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 4945, fluttery carrier, but no modulation audible at 1305 Sept 27. I figured it was AIR Guwahati, but that is supposed to be on 4940, so one of us may have had the wrong frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re: unid DRM format on 5876 kHz (BBC/Norway) --- Hi, I could find another parallel frequency for this unid DRM transmission on 4790 kHz. Still no idea what is going on. Most "probably" any VT data service ?? Helpppppp.... ;-) 4790 A20: unid 0158 Ham-DRM/Mode B/S/16 QAM/2.4kHz, MELP codec, txt msg "0375 2718 3304 7182 6848"; 0940z //5876 kHz.19/SEP/2008 (DL8AAM) 5876 A20: unid 0938 Ham-DRM/Mode B/S/16 QAM/2.4kHz, MELP codec, txt msg "0375 2718 3304 7182 6848" //4790 kHz. 19/SEP/2008 (DL8AAM) 73, (Tom - DL8AAM Rösner, Germany, Sept 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) What does A20 mean? (gh) I could also hear what sounded to be a DRM transmission on 4790 today (Sept. 27) at 0630 UT. But it appeared to be using only the USB, and what I believe is Peru on 4790 Spanish - religious) could be heard by using the LSB. There was also 'noise' on 5876 which might have been local, and didn't sound exactly the same as that on 4790. I can't Helpppppp any more than that as I have no means of decoding it. But almost certainly it is something similar to what is being heard from time to time within the BC bands. The MUF is often low at this hour in Europe (if that's where the signal originates) which perhaps explains the use of 4 MHz. Norway was DRMing on 6195 as usual. There were two other digital type transmissions audible within this band - what I believe is STANAG on about 4812 and another unknown on about 4980. Besides Peru, the only other broadcasts I could hear were Mauritania 4845, Cuba 5025 and WWCR 5070. Brazilians that had been audible during the past week on 4885 and 4915 were inaudible today (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6068 approx., fair carrier but very little audio obscuring CFRX 6070, undermodulated, Sept 26 at 1251. Previously measured on 6066.6, but this time judging from het it was more like 6068, but it went off at 1253 before I could pin it down. This closing time makes it more likely to be Korea North (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6070.8, approximately, was the unstable carrier barely modulated which has been interfering with CFRX 6070, also barely modulated, Sept 27 at 1254-1256:37*, previous days on 6067-6068, and most likely Korea North. Surely someone in EAs or WNAm could verify this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6150, 2-way SSB in Spanish at 1518 Sept 27 as I was checking the band for any remaining broadcast signals, for which this band is supposedly allocated exclusively, but tell that to Mexico (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. As I was bandscanning for possible transmissions of the presidential debate by US SW stations, at 0142 Sept 27 came upon strong open carrier on 6768.0, somemale saying ``Hello?`` but nothing further. Pirate? No, more likely Cuban spy numbers station, as per a number of UDXF logs, designated as V2a, but unusual programming for that (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 8-106, 7520 numbers station: Glenn, Silly me, I forgot to mention the language. It was in English, but with some unknown accent. Regards, (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ Magna.zip APPLICATION I just found out a few minutes ago that the file I loaded this morning had problems opening, so I re-compiled the setup program and uploaded it again. Please download it anew and load it again. Sorry for the trouble. It has a number of new features that will excite you. http://www.orchidcitysoftware.com/IMAGE59.HTML (Chuck Bolland, FL, Sept 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Chuck, That is an awesome application - thanks for the speedy response. It works absolutely fine. Regards, dave Thank you Chuck for all your hard work to make this programm a beauty! I use it on a daily base, very useful!! And also for your nice logging via the HCDX-list. Grtz from Scotland!! Just updated and free (via Chuck Bolland, FL, ibid.) MUSEA +++++ DX: VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF RADIO COMMUNICATIONS ONLINE NOW Dear radio-friends, Today I have to announce that OM Rainer Brannolte has launched his virtual museum of radio communications. His website http://www.utilityradio.com/ is dedicated to ancient utility-stations on the bands between 9 kHz and 30 MHz. He offers legendary sound files from stations that ceased duty long ago. You can find some very interesting QSL on his web pages, too. His little online-museum is still growing but with some very interesting sound clips he opened his doors today. Please be kind and take a look at http://www.utilityradio.com/ and discover some interesting facts of what was on the bands between the 1960s and today. Listen to stations from Cameroon, Belgium, the former G.D.R. or have a look at some utility transmitter-sites on Google Maps. Everyone is invited to visit utilityradio.com and enjoy sounds from long ago. If you like you can also contribute your own recordings from stations on the bands. And your images of rare QSLs are appreciated, too. Share the history of utility radio with us. OM Rainer and I hope to see you (Thomas Ingenpass, Germany, in UDXF yg, via Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, DXLD, Sep 26) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see UNIDENTIFIED 4790/5876 ++++++++++++++++++++ IBOC: see USA KFI KALEIDOSCOPIC ABSTRACT ART ON DTV BREAKUPS Following up my previous remarx in 8-101 about this: I get the same effect on some other borderline signals –-- or when a normally adequate signal gets just a bit weak --- usually alternating with the black screen ``no signal`` notification from the DTV STB converter. So maybe it does not require analog QRM, just a signal a bit too weak. While it is often multi-colored, I have noticed that at a certain point two colors tend to dominate, often with large tiles --- green and purple, a horrid clashing mix. This may also be influenced by the original picture being in black & white. Why is this? Also on rare occasions when I have just changed channel, I see parts of two different stations, frozen mixed on the same screen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ UHF DX PROPAGATION VIA NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS? Scott Bidstrup, WA7UZO who lives in Costa Rica, sent an interesting article about noctilucent clouds as a possible medium for UHF propagation. According to the article in Science Daily --- see http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080925144806.htm --- the clouds contain ice coated with sodium and iron from micro- meteors, and sit at about 53 miles (85 km) altitude, mostly between 50-70 degrees latitude, and sometimes as far south (or north, in the southern hemisphere) as 40 degrees latitude or less. The clouds are highly reflective of radar signals, and instead of diffraction as we see in ionospheric propagation, ripples in the clouds seem to reflect in unison, reinforcing each other. Noctilucent clouds are sometimes visible at night, because their altitude is so high that they reflect sunlight into areas of darkness. They are also known as polar mesospheric clouds, and appear most often at twilight during the summer. Go to http://www.spaceweather.com/nlcs/gallery2008_page13.htm to see images of noctilucent clouds (ARRL Propagation Forecast Bulletin 40 ARLP040, From Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, WA September 26, 2008, To all radio amateurs, via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) So could that explain some unexplained TVDX on UHF? Just because radar may be in the UHF range, doesn`t necessarily mean VHF would not work, unless there is something else about their characteristics to favor those frequencies. 85 km up is a bit lower than sporadic E, so skip distances should be shorter but still notable (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###