DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-112, October 12, 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 1429 Mon 2200 WBCQ 7415 [temporary, reconfirmed Sept 29] Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 0530 WRMI 9955 [or new 1430] Wed 1130 WRMI 9955 [or new 1430] 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 ** ABKHAZIA. 30/9 1350, 9495.5 kHz, APSUA RADIO - Sokhumi (Georgia), Poesia YL con molte citazioni della parola "Apsua" e canzone melodica OM. Segnale sufficiente-buono. 9535 off. 6/10 0728, 9535 // 9494.7 kHz, prob. APSUA R. - Sokhumi (Georgia), Musica e modulazione debole. Segnale insufficiente-sufficiente (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA. Radio Arcángel San Gabriel was heard in Sofia with a faint signal on 15476 kHz on AM, not USB as usual, at 1905 hours with songs and speech in Spanish. Reportedly, the station broadcasts Monday through Friday (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX Oct 10 via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. Re 8-111, RAE reactivated on 15345v: Sí, efectivamente, Estoy escuchando la señal de intervalo e identificaciones a las 1955 UT del 9 de octubre. La señal es bastante aceptable por mi QTH (condiciones de RX y antenas mencionados tras la firma). Un saludo y buenos DX, Cordialmente, (Tomás Méndez, QTH: El Prat de Llobregat- Barcelona España, playdx yg, via DXLD) 15344.88 - .94, RAE, 2200-2216 + 2242-2250, Oct 9, pips, multi- language IDs, into Spanish, news, played music of Argentina (tango, etc.), poor-fair, started out at .94 and slowly drifted down to .88, signal continuing to improve (Ron Howard, Monterey,CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) And off at 2357 after several IS/ID's. Fair signal (Bob Coomler, Cloverdale, CA, Oct 9, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. Tnx Ron Howard tip, looked for reactivated RAE, Oct 9 at 2257, found very weak signal on approx. 15344.8 which must be it, music playing, and accurate timesignal mixed in at 2300:00. A bit later music gave way to announcement, language uncertain. Might have been able to pull it but was inconvenient to close down TVs and computers at this moment. Earlier that UT day around 0130, I could not confirm it on 11710v which also ought to be revived. So I checked again Oct 10 at 0118 and could detect a very weak signal with music around 11710.75 or so. 11 MHz and 9 MHz bands were almost dead, except for Chile on 11665, Ecuador on 9745. 0249 recheck, still only a carrier detectable on 11710.7 or .8 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Checking for RAE at 0210 Oct 10. I am hearing a very faint, threshold, signal on approx. 11710.7. Could make out a YL & OM talking but couldn't come close to making out the language. Some possible Russian sounding speech seemed to bleed thru, at least to my ears, but can in no way be sure. Music was heard in short bridges between dialog. Almost martial sounding. Does not fit with past RAE programming. Static completely covered signal within a few minutes. Gone without a trace by 0218 (Steve Wood, So. Yarmouth, MA, Drake R8B, 75 x 30 east/west flag antenna, NASWA yg via DXLD) You could check RAE's website for the streaming audio. The website, however, wasnh't exactly //, running about 15 seconds behind the over- the-air programming this afternoon. But it would be easy enough to determine if the same program format (Don Jensen, ibid.) RAE was here in English with Argentine sports and music (good Argentine music at that!) with male and female announcers until 0256 and then into IS/ID loop. At 0259 continued in another language , but signal went in the tank and unable to decipher. Nasty, single tone jammer (???) on frequency (Bob Coomler, Cloverdale, CA, UT Oct 10, ibid.) Jammer very unlikely; however, I do not find any other broadcasters scheduled on 11710.0 around this time, in the four major online resources (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saverio De Cian la segnala ora (1917z) con buon segnale su 15345.15 USB (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, Oct 10, playdxyg via DXLD) 15345.09v, RAE, 2210-2240, Oct 10, Spanish talk. Short music breaks. ID. Varing between 15345.07-15345.10 Poor to fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes Brian, noted also in Europe, around 2200-2215 UT on 15345.10 kHz, Oct 10th. wb (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It seems that R. Nacional is also back on the air, 15345v at 2114 Oct 11, hetting Morocco with sports, both weak (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15344.83v, R. Nacional, 2244-2333, Oct 11, to continue on past Glenn's reception: live sports coverage of the FIFA 2010 World Cup qualification fútbol game (Argentina vs Uruguay, which for them was a very important match), Argentina won! I know this is not your favorite programming Glenn, but was nice to hear the very excited crowd at the stadium after winning, switched back to the studio for scores of other games and upcoming schedules, very slight drifting, good reception with a strong signal (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Por que será que a RAE não volta a transmitir no período da manhã como fazia algum tempo atrás em 11710 kHz?? Estaria em outra frequência? 73 (Luiz Chaine Neto, Limeira sp, 10-10-2008, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) A ERA já voltou ao ar. Neste momento, 08:53 desta sexta feira [must mean 1153 UT], estou acompanhando a programação deles, em português com ótimo sinal, claro, limpo e sem nenhuma interferência. Abs, (Denis Zoqbi, Oct 10, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. 2310, VL8A Alice Springs, 1225, 10/09/08. Pop music program, then an ABC news update by a female presenter including a story about Christmas Island. // 2325 similar strength, 2485 weaker, though usually 2485 is the strongest here. Fading rapidly. Fair/poor (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. New Zealand (Tentative), 6230, Weather Warning, 1005- 1015 Oct 12. Noted a male broadcasting weather reports for South Pacific and surrounding areas. Broadcast seemed to be live. At the end he said, "this is the End of transmission from ZMW." which was at 1015. Not sure of the first letter of the callsign. It could be a "B" or "D". The weather reports were for the New Zealand and Australia area. The mode of the signal was USB. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Chuck, I suspect you heard our VMW from our neighbours in Australia. http://www.bom.gov.au/info/marine/marpamp.shtml Scroll down towards the bottom of the page and you will see VMW and another page with broadcast schedules and frequencies http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/voice_services.shtml The New Zealand Marine Station weather broadcast details can be found on the Met Service website http://www.metservice.co.nz/default/index.php?alias=highfrequencyservicestxt Cheers (Mark Nicholls, Editor, NZ DX Times, New Zealand Radio DX League, http://www.radiodx.com HCDX via DXLD) ?? Z does not rhyme with B or D (or V, etc., etc.). It is pronounced Zed. Does VMW`s weather info really extend as far as NZ? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Chuck, Glad to see VMW makes it all the way over to Florida. Conditions are indeed improving. See DXLD 8-071, 8-101 (Ron Howard, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) According to Klingenfuss' Guide to utility radio stations, this is VMW, Wiluna Meteo in WA, Aus Also: http://www.dswci.org/try/dxw340.pdf - see Australia 73, (Erik Køie, Copenhagen (OZ3YI), ibid.) And you can send reception report to e.mifsud @ bom.gov.au They QSL with nice e-mail card. 73, (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) 6507-USB, VMC, Charleville, Queensland, 1310, 10/12/08. OM presenting marine weather forecast. "End of transmission from VMC" at 1316:24. S6-S7 signal. Still good by 1340. 1 kW per scanaustralia. 8176-USB, VMC, 1330, 10/12/08. Identical format to 6507. Weaker than 6507, but still fair to good. 12362-USB, VMW, Wiluna, Western Australia, 1335 10/12/08. Much weaker than VMC and marine forecasts bothered by close het on high side. Poor overall (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, Alpha Delta SWL Sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [non]. RA via WRN via CBC Overnight, delayed 4 hours, via CBU via CKZU, 6160, Sunday Oct 12 at 1253 UT had Innovation program interviewing someone from CSIRO, ending at 1255, and then at 1257 outro to CBC Overnight. Poor with adjacent QRM on both sides. The trouble is, this slot was previously occupied by Australian Express until it was canceled last week, to be replaced by Australian Bight (?). So what became of that? I found it anyway on the RA website, whence indeed Australian Express has vanished, once I stopped looking for it in the program list under A: ``The Australian Bite --- A tasty spread of stories and music coming to you from all around Australia. From cafe culture to crested cockatoos, from arts and books to the mysteries of Australian rules football, there's something for everyone here in the pantry. Presenter: Heather Jarvis. Universal (GMT) UTC Offset 0.00 Hours English Stream Tuesday 1330 1705 1730 Friday 1830 Saturday 0030 0505 0530`` http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/99.htm So they run it twice in a row at 1705 & 1730, 0505 & 0530? I rather doubt that, but Tue 1330 matches when Au Express used to be on RA direct, 9580. Maybe 1730 and 0530 are end-times, tho none such shown for other airings. From the description, Au Bite seems to be much the same as its predecessor, a grab-bag features magazine (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. [Continued from JAPAN] Possibly even more welcome was a large, fat manilla envelope from Emerald, Queensland that came while I was gone to Grayland. The package was from Patty Schwarz, General Manager of 4HI in Emerald. I had stumbled across their signal on 1143 in late in one of the last good openings of the DU season on my August trip to Grayland. Ms. Schwarz enclosed two stickers and a marvelous XL orange and black 'Stralian Rules football jersey with a 4HI logo and "Miners Overnnight" on it. Miners Overnight was the program that I caught. Ms. Schwarz said that Emerald is a town of about 15,000 in inland Queensland and is currently growing quite a bit due to a boom in coal mining. She found my reception "quite unreal, actually" but said that they had listened to the recording and "it was very muffled but did sound exactly like us, so congratulations...." They are one of the few inland Australian commercial stations (generally limited to 5kW.) that I've heard, so I'm really pleased. I'll be modeling the 4HI football jersey at the next IRCA convention that I get to attend. I hate writing reception reports, but getting QSLs like these keeps me at it: Christmas in October!! (John Bryant, WA, Oct 11, IRCA via DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. 6155, 0600-0635 Sat 11.10, Austrian R 1, Moosbrunn. German news about the death of Joerg Heider, 0615 Music by Ravel and Stravinsky, no news in foreign languages, 55555. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres longwire, via Dario Monfeirni, playdx yg via DXLD) Because, per sked grid, English at 0605 and French at 0610 are M-F only (gh, DXLD) ** BANGLADESH. Olá amigos. A excelente propagação em ondas tropicais continua rendendo preciosas escutas. A melhor escuta até agora esse ano em OT, é a da Bangladesh Betar, em 4750 kHz. Tenho ouvido outra emissora na freqüência de 4750 kHz. O sinal dela entra por aqui por volta das 0000 horas UT. No início da transmissão há a recitação do Al Corão (ou cântico do Al Corão). Pensei que era outra emissora, mas não é. É a Bangladesh Betar. Ouvi ontem o início da sua transmissão às 0000 horas UT e houve uma clara identificação. Em pesquisa na Internet, descobri que a maioria da população do Bangladesh é muçulmana, daí a recitação do Al Corão ouvida. 4750, Bangladesh Betar, Shavar, bengali: 0026, 04/10, OM, mx estilo hindu 43343 0026, 05/10, mx estilo hindu, OM 33333 0038, 06/10, mx estilo hindu 43333 0021, 07/10, OM 32332 0004, 09/10, OM, recitação do Al Corão, YL/OM, nxs 43333 0106, 09/10, YL, nxs, mx 42332 0008, 10/10, OM, recitação do Al Corão, OM, nxs 44233 0000, 11/10, I/S c/ flauta e instrumento de corda, OM/YL, recitação do Al Corão 45333. 73! (Rubens Ferraz Pedroso, Bandeirantes – Paraná, Brasil, Receptores: Kenwood R600, Sony ICF SW 7600GR e Degen DE1103. Antena: LW do Degen DE1103 com aproximadamente 10,62 metros, dxclube pr yg via DXLD) ** BELIZE. V31BG, 14220-USB, Oct 11 at 2244 calling QRZ in a novel way, for stations with a 4 in their call, then a 5, then a 6. I guess that helps alleviate the pileups while not giving preference to any prefixes before the number. Google search soon shows this is Bill, VE7ISV, visiting Belize from 3 to 13 October. 5 & 9 here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Radio Station Mosoj Chaski (pronounced Mo-sock Ch-ah-ski) is a Christian radio station broadcasting on short wave 3310 kHz. Their ministry is to the Quechua people of Bolivia. Even though they are located in the Spanish speaking country of Bolivia, they broadcast entirely in the Quechua language to the 3.5 million Quechua people. Click on the play button to watch the video of the Mosoj Chaski radio station in action. Please turn your computer speakers on and enjoy the music of the Quechua people as you see how God's servants are communicating His Word ... [much more] http://www.galcom.org/index.php?Content=95&Menu=4&Language=english (Galcom via Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) These are the folx who give away fix-tuned radios that will only pick up their own station, to keep any other ideas out (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 3985, Radio Virgen de Remédios, Tupiza, Spanish, 0100, 05/10, música andina, YL 45333 (Rubens Ferraz Pedroso, Bandeirantes – Paraná, Brasil, Receptores: Kenwood R600, Sony ICF SW 7600GR e Degen DE1103. Antena: LW do Degen DE1103 com aproximadamente 10,62 metros, dxclube pr yg via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 6155.25, Radio Fides, (Tentative), 0050-0100 Oct 11, Finally being able to tune this in, noted a female in Spanish language comments with a male. This until 0057 when music is presented. After a few bars, the female returns with more comments. Signal was fair, but rain storm outside. Had to secure (Chuck Bolland, NRD545/WINRADIO, Clewiston, Florida, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6155.25, Radio Fides, (PRESUMED), 1000-1030 Oct 11, Same frequency where I left this last evening during a Lightening Storm, heard CP type music with a male announcer commenting in Spanish after the music. Signal really peaked at 1015 to a good level while two gents talk. At 1019 a female joins the group. Signal was fair to good until 1022 when it began to fade to a poor level (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, ibid.) ** BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA. 28/9 1730, 612 kHz, BH RADIO 1 - Donje Mostre (Bosnia H.), Inglese, "World Chart Show". Segnale molto buono. La domenica, prima di pensare ad ascolti meno facili o più ambiziosi (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) Hi to all This is my new audio clip of BH Radio, Bosnia & Herzegovina http://www.hb9gce.ch/BH%20Radio_20081011_035811612.mp3 Best DX to all, 73 de Andy (Carl Andreas Stumpf, Switzerland, playdxyg via DXLD) ** BULGARIA. 13800, R. Bulgaria in Bulgarian to the Middle East heard at s/on 1500 at 10.10.2008, brief news and into some pretty good hard rock. Excellent guitar work! Only fair sigs tho with some serious QSB at intervals. Wonder how many Bulgarian speakers live in the Middle east? (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, HCDX via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBCNQ, 9625, Oct 11 until 2230 with CBC Radio 1, The World This Weekend, in the clear and listenable; then CBCNQ ID, and 2231:30 starting Laugh Out Loud, season`s new comedy show (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 6070, CFRX Toronto ON; 2119, 9 Oct; There, but barely copiable; // much better 1010 CFRB with talk program (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 210' center-fed RW, 85' end-fed RW, 125' bow-tie, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 6070.00, CFRX, 2110-2120, Oct 9, Wow! On frequency for a change! Local traffic report. Local news. Fair signal but weak co-channel QRM from Liberia-ELWA starting to fade in (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CFRX, 6070.0, weak but with somewhat improved modulation and no QRM at the moment, Oct 11 at 1315 in talk program. Also seems to be on- frequency, compared to KFTI-1070.0 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. MOVE OF CFUN-1410 VANCOUVER BC'S TRANSMITTER SITE APPROVED BY CRTC CFUN Vancouver – Technical change 1. The Commission approves the application by CTV Limited to change the authorized contours of the radio programming undertaking CFUN Vancouver by relocating to a new transmitter site approximately eight kilometres south-east of the current transmitter site. The implementation of this technical change is subject to the notification by the Department of Industry (the Department) discussed in paragraph 5 below. 2. The licensee advised that the existing transmitter is deteriorated to the point that the station is unable to prove its antenna pattern. 3. The Commission notes that changing the transmitter site will result in a decrease in the coverage in the principal marketing area and consequently in a decrease in reached population of approximately 574,000 people. 4. The Commission did not receive any interventions in connection with this application. Condition prior to the implementation of the transmitter 5. The Commission reminds the licensee that pursuant to section 22(1) of the Broadcasting Act, this authority will only be effective when the Department notifies the Commission that its technical requirements have been met and that a broadcasting certificate will be issued. Therefore, in the absence of the notification by the Department, the licensee will not be able to implement the transmitter approved in this decision. 73, (via Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, Oct 10, DXLD) ** CANADA. I can't remember now where I saw it, but I'm pretty sure the CBC said it ran out of budget money this year to build out CBI's new FM, so it will be 2009 at the earliest before 1140 goes away. s (Scott Fybush, NY, Oct 10, IRCA via DXLD) Sydney NS ** CANADA. A RADIO SERIALIST’S NEXT EPISODE: RUNNING FOR CANADA’S PARLIAMENT --- The Saturday Profile By IAN AUSTEN Published: October 10, 2008 The New York Times "I really thought with 'Dead Dog' that I was helping to save the world in some small way." Thomas King. [Caption] Multimedia [20 minute audio link] Excerpts From the CBC's "The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour" (mp3) GUELPH, Ontario --- AS a writer, Thomas King has twice been nominated for Canada’s main literary prize, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, and his work as an academic has brought him acclaim and honors. But Mr. King’s popularity comes mainly from his performances as Tom King, an often frustrated, somewhat assimilated Canadian Indian who is the straight man in “The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour,” a popular and long-running series of 15-minute radio programs he created and wrote. Now Mr. King, 65, has set aside the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s microphones to make his first foray into electoral politics. His decision to run for a seat in the House of Commons in a campaign that ends Tuesday is, in an American context, about as predictable as Garrison Keillor abandoning Lake Wobegon for a shot at Congress. But as he stretched out his tall, fit frame in the living room of his still incomplete, environmentally friendly house, Mr. King said it was finally time to leave “night shift politics” for a more conventional political platform. “One of the things that I most regret is that I had to give up ‘Dead Dog’ in order to run for office,” Mr. King said. “I really thought with ‘Dead Dog’ that I was helping to save the world in some small way. But you’re never sure how much good you’re doing. “I always tell my Liberal friends they need to vote for me because I’m a lot less dangerous in Ottawa with a partial muzzle than I am free on the Canadian airwaves with absolutely no restraints.” Whether Mr. King, who is a professor of English at the University of Guelph, will succeed in persuading Liberals and members of other parties to elect him under the banner of the left-leaning, labor- backed New Democratic Party is unclear. . . [more] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/world/americas/11canada.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1 (via Mike Cooper, Eric Flodén, DXLD) ** CANADA. CFZM QSL Card --- Hello all and thank you for your patience. The new CFZM QSL card is almost ready and should be sent out to all outstanding and future reports for CFZM, The New AM740 starting October 25, 2008. Unfortunately, it seems that the new owners rarely use the new callsign on-air. It is occasionally mentioned by hosts only once and a while. But most times it is The New AM740, The Best of the Best, Zoomer Radio or a combination of the three. We had this problem a few years ago when the station was CHWO and the management then agreed to feature the callsign on a regular basis, usually just before the hour. I will attempt to do the same here but I fear that things will probably not change. If they do, obviously you will notice. So, if you QSL CFZM 740, CJYE 1250 or CJMR 1320, please send the email reports directly to me at am740 @ rogers.com Mailed reports for all the stations should go to: Ontario DX Association, 155 Main St. N., Apt. 313 Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 8C2 Canada --- Attn: QSL Manager (C???) All emailed and paper mailed reports will be answered by a real, paper, hold in your hand QSL. It's quite a bit of fun to see where the 526 reports have come from over the past 7 years. The previous owners of the station really enjoyed the summaries I sent them as to where the station was being heard, they were even supporters of our conventions when we had them in Oakville. Many of the station staff would drop by our wine and cheese receptions and meet and greet our group members. The new owners have agreed to continue to keep the QSL's going although my sense is they aren't really going to get too involved. I don't think I've hear the callsign (CFZM) used once since they stopped announcing the changeover. But I'll work on them --- lol. So continued good DXing and thank you all for your past support (Brian Smith, am740 @rogers.com --- QSL Manager for CFZM, CJYE & CJMR. More info at: http://www.odxa.on.ca/cfzm/ Oct 11, ODXA yg via DXLD) So the big question is: when they ever mention CFZM, is it Zed or Zee?? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 2/10 0942, 14980 kHz, FIREDRAKE -> Sound of Hope? Segnale insufficiente-sufficiente (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CHINA. Re 8-111: The Voice of Pujiang-Pujiang zhi Sheng changed to winter sked from Oct. 5. Current sked; 1130v-1600 UT 3280 4950 5075nf (ex 9705) kHz. de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, Japan, Oct 10, NDXC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Oct. 9, 7130 kHz, 1925z, CRI Albanian, Kashi-Saibagh, 294 degrees, excellent reception, excellent modulation & audio processing. At first I didn't know this is CRI because till 1929z they played good mix of America, British & FRENCH music! I was really surprised when heard CRI ID (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, SERBIA, Oct 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 9760, CRI via Kunming, 1256, 12/10/08. CRI noted instead of usual VOA. English service had closing announcements and email address. Into English news at TOH. Fair to good (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, Alpha Delta SWL Sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. November: Sun. 9th: Many of the radios provided to Russell Stendal of Colombia Para Cristo are dropped by parachute into remote areas of Colombia. Pray for Russell’s safety and an abundant spiritual harvest (Galcom Prayer Bulletin, Autumn, via DXLD) These are the folx who give away fix-tuned radios that will only pick up their own station, to keep any other ideas out. CPC are one of the major users, for 5910 and 6010 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CONGO DR [non]. via Meyerton, South Africa, 11690, Radio Okapi, 0400-0420, Oct 10, weak with French talk. Many mentions of Congo. “Okapi” jingles (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. Re 8-110, 8-111: 3984.84 odd [re Kai's comment] Croatian Radio in 75 mb is not very strong these days, compared to powerful 100 kW signal on both 6165 and 9830 kHz channels daytime. S=8 at 2215 UT Oct 10th. Whether the fountain like 75 mb antenna is not very effective to cover central Europe too, or they produce only a strong signal 'CLOSE TO' the transmitter site on the Balkans. I guess the old 10 kW unit of the early 90ties is in use in 75 mb during nighttime 2130-0600 UT, in B-08 2130-0700 UT, because of the inaccuracy of approx. 160 Hertz less. On Oct 9th at 2230 UT the transmitter at Deanovec was switched ON and OFF never-ending, and signal was so POOR, like missing final stage booster that night (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Oct 10, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. 5/10 0633, 6000 kHz, Strani suoni sopra R. Habana Cuba. Jamming? (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) Ha; only if we have another feed/transmitter mixup in Cuba, quite possible. There used to be some European DRM on 5990-5995-6000 but not on current schedules. Me too: further below RHC, 13680, Oct 11 at 2126 after musical interlude wrapping up English hour, // 11760 but an echo ahead of it. 13680 must have stayed on, as at 2236 recheck it was RHC in Kriyol --- one way to tell this from real French is the suffix -la frequently added to words. Now 13680 is an echo apart from 5965. But Kriyol is not scheduled on 13680, just runover? Still there at 2249 check, but soon overridden by much bigger open carrier. This is RNV also via Cuba in preparation for their 2300 broadcast, now aimed usward. Kriyol continued to be barely audible underneath and if the relative strengths evened just a bit, I could detect a SAH of 132/minute between them. So add one more anomaly to the SNAFUs at RHC --- two of its own transmitters, presumably at two different sites, interfering with each other. The left hand does not know what the other left hand is doing (there aren`t any right hands in Castro & Castro`s Cuba). DentroCubans vs DentroCubans! While I was at it, checked 17705 at 2239, where RHC Portuguese was very strong but also very overmodulated and distorted as also noted a few days before. It was so bad that at first I thought it was Guarani, until my mind locked into this corrupted Portuguese. Wait a minute, Guarani *is* the language scheduled during this semihour on 17705 per own online sked at http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm So I must have heard Guarani when I tuned in, but then they switched to Portuguese, which is supposed to precede until 2230 and follow Guarani from 2300. Maybe the whole sesquihour is really a mixture, or they just don`t have enough to say in Guarani to fill an entire semihour. Chalk up another anomaly at RHC, where you can always expect the unexpected. Also strange: Guarani is primarily spoken in Paraguay, not Brasil, so you would think the mixture should be with Spanish. But for geographical reasons, the Guarani service is coördinated with other minor languages (compared to Spanish, as RHC sees it). DCJC bubble-jamming vs nothing on 9885, Oct 11 at 2142. VOA Spanish is on this frequency much later; same sound on 9640 against R. República which doesn`t start till 0000, but now bothering CVC Chile on 9635. 9515 also being heavily jammed, Oct 11 at 2220, and that really is in use by Radio República at 22-24. Like many other Cuban jammers, this puts out spurs to at least 10 kHz on each side. Rather than the `bubbling` on the main channel, which is really a mixture of many jammers with the carrier of the victim, the spurs are distinct pulses, at the rate of 132 per minute, or 2.2 per second, and of course any station which feels 10 kHz separation from the DCJC is enough has another think coming. At 2255 check, nothing at all audible on 9820, where Brasil`s R. Nove de Julho had been, but also reported lately to have disappeared again. It would have had no QRM from Portugal, or from RHC, since this was a Saturday, until 2300 when jamming against nothing on 9825 started even tho R. Martí does not come up on that frequency until 0000. RHC, 6000, UT Sunday Oct 12 at 0534 starting DXers Unlimited [BTW, Arnie is activating his blog again as of Oct 8 but no new scripts yet as of Oct 12], with QRDRM from 5990-5995-6000. Nothing on current DRM schedules at this hour, but formerly in use from Europe. Some reports show BBC via Norway centered on 5990 now, but is it on that early, and if so, it should not be interfering with 6000. The DRM I am getting now seems to be centered on 5995. Luxembourg stopped 5990 on March 14, 2008, per DRM DX forums. RHC 6000 also has QRDRM at 1235 Oct 12, but we know that is from Brandon, Australia 5990-5995-6000. Sounds very much like the Cuban jamming against nothing on 5980. Maybe those with DRM should try to `decode` some Cuban jamming. I rarely tune across the whole 12 MHz range, but Oct 12 at 1316 encountered on 12582 rapid pulses like DentroCuban jamming but faster, clocked at 270 per minute = 4.5 per second. If DCJC, must be quite spurious (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re Glenn's comments, ``Chalk up another anomaly at RHC, where you can always expect the unexpected.`` Here's another one - isn't it? RHC was still on air in English via 6000 when tuned this Sunday morning, Oct. 12, at 0710. I heard the latter end of "what is making news in Cuba on October 11th". The signal on this frequency was good, and better than usual (before 0700). I checked other frequencies that should have been on air before the hour but could hear none of them. More news and views about Cuba followed, plus some International news and "music we might like to hear". And at 0730 Arnie Coro's DXers Unlimited was introduced, and had just got started - and I'd taken my seat to listen to it - when the plug was pulled at 0733. No trace of DRM after 0700. I can't remember if I tuned there before 0700 (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sunday 0700-0730 is when 6000 is supposed to stay on later, but in Esperanto, not English. Checked at 1505 Oct 12, Esperanto is appearing at its next scheduled weekly time, on 11760 (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** ECUADOR. September: Tues. 23rd: Joachim Stoelting serving with DMG Mission has taken a few Galcom radios for leaders of the Culina Indian tribe in the remote jungles of western Brazil. Pray for his safety and acceptance of the radios leading to an opportunity for us to provide many more so that these people may hear about Jesus (Autumn Galcom Prayer Bulletin via DXLD) These are the folx who give away fix-tuned radios that will only pick up their own station, to keep any other ideas out. Presumably refers to the Kulina with a K broadcast on HCJB at 2245-2300 on 11920 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** ECUADOR. 6050, HCJB with English program (!) at 0330-0345 in so poorly I couldn't make out much other than the fact it was English, and into Spanish religious program at 0345. HCJB ID (in Spanish) and time pips at ToH and into music program. I thought they gave up all English programming on SW from Ecuador??? SIO 33-2 sandwiched inbetwixt 6055 R Ext Espana and 6045 rumble. 0330-0405 4/Oct –(Ken Zichi, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) The program is Spotlight, and it`s in the Spanish service because it`s considered to be for language learning. We have mentioned it several times in DXLD; it`s also on HCJB at other times, including 9745 at 0315 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, 0615-0630, Oct 11, Spanish talk. Radio Malabo ID at 0616. Fair. 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, 1950-2006*, Oct 11, Spanish talk. African hi-life music to sign off. Weak signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, R. Nacional, Malabo (presumed), Long talk by M in Spanish from 1951 to 2000, then Afro Hi-life music. Went off in mid-song at 2004:32* unfortunately, 11 Oct (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Eton E1, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 29/9 0547, 15190 kHz, RADIO AFRICA - Bata, Inglese, talk OM e musica Gospel. Segnale insufficiente-buono. Trasmettitore instabile e modulazione distorta. Ascolto non regolare, sia per la stazione che per la propagazione (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) Not often reported at this early hour (gh, DXLD) R. Africa, 15190, Oct 11 at 2115 with big open carrier. No modulation detectable even when volume turned up to max. Left a receiver on frequency and suddenly at 2125 started Word of Life program. In case it was a quarter-hour, rechecked at 2140, but still going with woman preacher, verging on screaming. 2157 recheck back to open carrier --- no, it isn`t. Soft spoken preacher barely audible, probably the usual Tony Alámo at this hour. This can be misleading, as now the OC is WYFR, and the two seem to be zero beat, so you don`t realize two stations are mixing. WYFR sign-on in Portuguese 2159 at full modulation level, so that`s the end of Bata monitoring for today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, R. Africa, 2236-2243, Oct 11, to continue on past Glenn's reception: WYFR was the dominate station today with a very weak Tony Alamo (R. Africa) program heard under them. Some people may have been mislead today into thinking they were hearing R. Africa when they heard religious programming (for about 5 minutes) in slow English, but in fact it was WYFR, the remainder of the time was in Portuguese (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 6030, *1550-1700 07+08.10, R Oromiya, Adama, Oromiya. Oromo talks, Horn of Africa music, 34443, QRM CNR-1. From *1700 also BBC, Oman, in Arabic. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres longwire, via Dario Monfeirni, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. A local program from this country has been received in Sofia for several days in a row recently from 14 to 1430 and from 15 to 19 hours on 8002 kHz. Another local has been received often from 03 to 08 and from 13 to 20 hours on 9705 kHz and sometimes on 5990, 7110 and 7175 kHz (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX Oct 10 via DXLD) I have seen no other reports of it being as high as 8002 instead of 8000; another translation error? (gh, DXLD) ** FRANCE. 7220, Oct 11 at 0623, African drumming and chanting, interrupted by announcements in tonal language. Off abruptly at 0630* with no perceptible ID. Don`t recall noticing this before; list logging, could it be Central African Republic, or Eritrea? No, just RFI in Hausa from Issoudun as scheduled at 0600-0630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. DW's B08 schedule is now available at http://www.dw-world.de On the Radio box at left click "Reception" and there will be a note at "Frequencies and Customer Service" alerting you to the upcoming changes, and they are listed at the bottom, for English, German and foreign languages on SW, along with English and German MW and FM listings (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Oct 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So here is the English page: http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_pdf/0,,3311204,00.pdf Notably, the 2100 broadcast via Rwanda will be only on 11690, likely to confront the continuous RTTY on that frequency, instead of 15205 and 11865 which have been excellent in CNAm all A-season. At 1900-1930 and 2000-2057 the only Kigali frequency will be 9735, but that is not for West Africa (and thence NAm) unlike 11690. I also see DW plan to use 6180 for English via Rwanda to E & C Africa at 0400-0530. What about VOA Greenville on 6180 which has been excellent here at 0500-0700 in English, once Cuba finally moved to 6140? VOA plans to drop 6180 and I don`t see any replacement for it, with 15580 Botswana being the only frequency planned for those two hours. So enjoy the VOA 6180 broadcast while you can (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. Oct. 9, 9715 kHz, 1928z, DW Russian, Rampisham, UK 500 kW/076 degrees, excellent reception. Talking, and suddenly at 1929z a one-minute break with open carrier from RMP. At 1930z DW Russian resumed. Why the hell they paused? Best regards & many 73s! (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, SERBIA, Oct 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 17610, Oct 12 at 1351, good signal with ID in passing as DW in Hausa; this is via Sines, Portugal, 250 kW at 150 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. September: Sun. 21st: Political change in Guatemala has resulted in the delay of shipping 3,000 radios there. Pray that we will soon get approval to ship so that these radios can get to people who need to hear the Gospel message (Autumn Galcom Prayer Bulletin via DXLD) These are the folx who give away fix-tuned radios that will only pick up their own station, to keep any other ideas out. But which station are these for? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** HAWAII. HAWAII DTV TRANSITION DEADLINE'S FOR THE BIRDS STATE'S TV STATIONS LOOK TO JAN. 15 SWITCH RATHER THAN DISTURB BREEDING HABITATS OF DARK-RUMPED PETREL By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 10/9/2008 8:03:00 AM http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6603684.html?desc=topstory Washington -- TV stations in Hawaii are in serious discussions to make the digital TV transition on Jan. 15 -- more than a month before the rest of the country -- partly to avoid disturbance to the nesting habitat of the endangered dark-rumped petrel near existing analog broadcast towers. "At this point, we're contemplating that date very, very seriously and we're working with the government agencies involved. I cannot confirm that's an official date yet, but we're contemplating it very strongly," Mike Rosenberg, president and general manager of KITV, Hawaii's ABC affiliate, said Wednesday. The dark-rumped petrel lives at sea near the Hawaiian and Galapagos islands. It comes ashore only to breed, according to the Web site http://www.whatbird.com In Hawaii, the bird has made its nesting habitat near the analog TV towers at the mountain summit of Haleakala on the island of Maui. Rosenberg, whose station is owned by Hearst Argyle Television Inc., has agreed to coordinate the effort for Hawaii's full-power broadcasters. That effort has involved discussions with the Federal Communications Commission and Capitol Hill lawmakers, including Senate Commerce Committee chairman Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat. Inouye has expressed concern that the DTV transition is being mismanaged by the FCC and the Bush administration, a failure that could result in millions of phone calls from frustrated consumers without TV service next February. "We had a conversation [Tuesday] with the Commerce Committee, Sen. Inouye's staff and the National Association of Broadcasters. I know that the FCC is involved in this as well," Hawaii Association of Broadcasters president Chris Leonard said. By law, all 1,756 full power TV stations are required to turn off their analog signals on Feb. 17, 2009 and rely exclusively on digital signals thereafter. Only the Wilmington, N.C., market has made the transition, an early test authorized by the FCC on Sept. 8. The NAB had qualms about the Wilmington test because a $1.2 billion public education campaign funded by broadcasters and cable operators has tried to focus consumer attention on Feb. 17. Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department has been running a $1.5 billion program to subsidize consumer access to digital-to-analog converter boxes to extend the life of over-the-air analog TV sets. That program has also been emphasizing Feb. 17 as the national cutoff of analog TV. Time Warner Cable, the dominant pay-TV provider in Hawaii, hasn't heard from the Hawaii stations about their potential Jan. 15 transition date. Cable operators need to prepare to receive digital signals at their central facilities or headends. "If approached, we'd be happy to work with the broadcasters to discuss their needs regarding the transition," Time Warner Cable vice president of public relations Alex Dudley said. Hawaii TV stations have found a new site on the mountain for their digital towers. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense and the University of Hawaii -- which have their own facilities at the Haleakala summit -- are pressing the TV stations to take down the analog towers immediately after the transition. But the stations can't do that in February after the national DTV transition because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said doing so then could unsettle the dark-rumped petrel's nesting season, Rosenberg said. "Some time in early February, they start nesting -- not in the towers but in the areas where the towers are located at the top of the mountain," Rosenberg said. "Fish and Wildlife has recommended -- and recommended is not strong enough a word -- that we need to deconstruct our present tower locations prior to February." Rosenberg said that if the analog towers don't come down in January, the stations would have to wait a year to do so, and that would be untenable for the Pentagon and the University of Hawaii. "We would be doing a disservice the Department of Defense and the University of Hawaii, who would like us out of there prior to that. They want to clean up the land," Rosenberg said. (Multichannel News via DXLD) ** INDIA. 4775, AIR Imphal, 1520-1539, Oct 10, news in vernacular, BoH "The news at nine" in English. Am glad to finally have positive confirmation that the station I have recently been hearing here is in fact AIR. Noted // 4760 (AIR Port Blair – weak, but clear), 4970 (AIR Shillong – fair with about a 3-4 second delay), 4990 (AIR Itanagar – weak, but clear) and 9425 (AIR Bengaluru/Bangalore – good reception) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR GOS, 9445, 2159 UT Oct 11, ID by M and into news by W, poor, 325 degrees from Benguluru. 5010, presumed AIR T`puram, Oct 12 at 1229 excited talking which sounded like Australian accented English, maybe cricket? Weak and fluttery right past 1230; at 1300 recheck still audible with music. Don`t see how it could have been anything else at this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 11 October follow. Solar flux 71 and mid-latitude A-index 25. The mid-latitude K-index at 1200 UTC on 12 October was 4 (45 nT). Space weather for the past 24 hours has been strong. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G3 level occurred. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours (SWPC via DXLD) 5010, AIR Thiruvananthapuram (presumed), 1232, 10/12/08. Poor signal. OM in extended talk (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, Alpha Delta SWL Sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3578.74 unID 1313-1350+ Oct 6. Talk, mostly by YL to 1334, then ten minutes of what sounded like island music. Weak and getting weaker, with more snippets of muisc after 1345. (Wilkins-CO) 3344.96, RRI Ternate 1330-1401 Oct 10. Vocal, music, YL in Bahasa Indonesia, I think, indicating Ternate rather than R. Northern [PNG]. Poor at tune-in; very poor at ToH. 4749.96, RRI Makassar 1307-1400+ Oct 12. Pop music; YL & OM (mostly YL) with long yaks berween music segments; frequent mentions of Makassar; program continued past ToH. Good at tune-in; still fair at 1400 (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R8, 100 foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Never any luck here so far with 3579v, tho I look for it when 60m Indos are in (gh, OK, DXLD) ** INDONESIA [and non]. 4920, RRI Biak (presumed), 1236, 10/12/08. Muffled audio of OM in extended talk mixing with Hindi music underneath. Presumed AIR Chennai. Overall jumble poor to fair (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, Alpha Delta SWL Sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4920, Oct 12 at 1302 with warta berita, still going at 1307 and not // 4790. So must be RRI Biak; aside it a weaker carrier which could be Jambi. BTW, I remember hearing Biak when it was still under Dutch control; Netherlands New Guinea was in a disputed transitional period 1959-1969, finally becoming fully part of Indonesia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4925, RRI-Jambi (presumed), 1426-1450, Oct 9, in BI, DJ playing pop subcontinent music and songs, with on-air calls ("Hello, hello …"), QRM from some type of data transmission, poor, but the best reception so far this DX season. Thanks again to Tony Ashar for providing the solid ID for this station (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. WEST IRIAN: RRI, 4605, via Serui, no/data handwritten ``A Dani Warrior holding a long spear on the way for a battle`` card in 106 days for $1. V/s Nelson Gtorus (Rich D`Angelo, PA, QSL Report, Oct NASWA Journal via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 11785.97, Voice of Indonesia, 1425-1502*, Oct 10, talk in presumed Malay. Local music. IS & closing announcements at 1501. Fair to good. No co-channel QRM. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Een station dat heel moeilijk teloggen is voor de moment, Radio Rep. Indonesia 3, Jakarta. 11860 kHz, 1115 UT Oct 12. With Indonesian talks about Jakarta. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non]. Re 8-111, CODAR: Glenn, I continue to be amazed to hear people repeating the explanation of why CODAR transmissions exist on our HF bands. The official explanation is that the purpose is the scientific study of ocean currents and waves. Back in the early 1970's NASA launched a satellite to do the same thing. It was soon realized that the satellite was detecting the bulge in the ocean surface over submarines as they stealthily cruised the ocean depths. The NASA satellite revealed the location of both the bad guy's submarines and those of the good guys. The satellite had a sudden power failure and was declared dead. In my opinion the big bucks spent establishing CODAR sites all over the world must have some more serious justification than research on ocean currents. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that motive might be (Joe Buch, FL, Oct 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. WESTERNERS, WATCH OUT FOR HURRICANE NORBERT --- Last night I tuned in to the Southbound Net, a boaters net on 6516 kHz. At 0100 there is a private coastal station that gives weather forecasts. Unfortunately his signal was barely audible but the boats were audible and they were preparing for the storm. The station running the net was in Puerto Don Juan in Baja California, in the sheltered bay between the peninsula and the mainland (Martin Foltz, CA?, Oct 10, ABDX via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. IBA network managers http://www.iba.org.il/spokesman/index.aspx?classto=DoverInnerYedia&entity_code=470087 After a number of years of having 'acting managers', they have decided who the managers of the Kol Israel networks would be. The currently acting manager for broadcasts abroad and broadcasts for immigrants, was named as the new manager: Shmuel Ben-Zvi (Tzvi). Out of the 6 networks listed, 3 of them are maintaining their acting managers. The other three come from other positions inside Kol Israel radio production. The Reshet Alef manager used to manage the Amharic broadcasts. Reshet Gimel and 88 FM managers used to be editors/producers. You can get a few lines of info about Shmuel Ben-Zvi, by selecting "Management" and Shmuel Ben-Zvi under this URL: http://www.iba.org.il/reka/Reka.aspx?classto=staff&lang=en&type=staff (Doni Rosensweig, Oct 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN. TWO WONDERFUL MW QSLS RECEIVED --- I enjoy setting interim goals for myself in DXing --- beyond Country and Station totals. One of these, for me, is trying to hear and then QSL as many NHK1 and NHK2 "pairs" from Japan as I can. Almost every mega-city in Japan has both an NHK 2 and NHK 2 station, and some of the pairs are among the easiest of the Japanese Big Guns to hear from the Pacific Northwest. For instance, everyone out here has heard the Tokyo pair, JOAK, NHK1, 594 and JOAB, NHK2, 693. Another easy one is Sapporo, the northern- most mega-city, with JOIK, NHK1 on 567 and JOIB, NHK2 on 747 kHz. Another of the relatively easy NHK1 is JOQG, NHK1 on 531 in Morioka. Unfortunately, the Morioka NHK2 is one of those infamous NHK2 Synchros, this time on 1386. On that frequency, there are three NHK2 regionals at 10 kW and one at 5 kW. Morioka is the closest to us, located in northern Honshu. In September, I finally heard their local ID at 1320, the only time that they identify locally that we have a chance to hear in North America. The ID was garbled, because there were one or two others audible simultaneously. However, "Morioka" seemed to over-ride the others to my ears and those of my Japanese colleague. I sent off a report with a recording and just received a very nice letter and two QSL cards today from Shoichi Nochi of the Engineering section of JOQC, NHK2 Morioka! Very nice!!! (John Bryant, WA, Oct 11, IRCA via DXLD) Continued at AUSTRALIA ** JAPAN [and non]. Radio Japan's B08 schedule is now available at http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld --- go to Radio & Podcast and then click the frequency schedule in PDF; as of now you will have to scroll down past the current A08 sked and then you will see the B08 list from Oct. 26, where there are some changes, many similar to what was in use last winter in English, and changes for other language services (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Oct 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Direct link to the chart: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/shortwave/all.pdf No changes in the four Sackville relays in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KASHMIR [non]. 6100, CLANDESTINE, R. Sedayee Khashmir, heard at 0224 on 10 Oct, with nice 1 kHz test tone into "Salaam Aleikum" and full ID at 0230 into OM talk in Urdu with traditional music. Tx'er faulted off several times but usually came back within a second or so. They also lost audio for about 20 seconds. This is supposedly a tiny little division of AIR in Delhi (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, HCDX via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Echo of Hope and Voice of the People broadcasted by S. Korea add a service. Radio Echo of Hope/VOH 0300-0500 3985, 6003, 6348 kHz 1100-1900 3985, 6003, 6348 kHz 2200-2400 3985, 6003, 6348 kHz (New) Voice of the People 1100-2100 3912, 6518, 6600 kHz 2200-2400 3912, 6518, 6600 kHz (New) de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, Oct 11, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6020, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze via Yamata, Japan, *1400-1430*, Oct 10, in English, "Today's News Flash", "Today's News on North Korean Issues" and "Today's Editorial". No French segment! Friday is still the best bet to catch English here, but is not a sure bet. Vietnam is steadily getting stronger against Shiokaze, by 1415 about equal strength, unable to hear any jamming (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH [and non]. KBS TO LAUNCH KOREAN LANGUAGE LESSONS http://www.abu.org.my/public/dsp_page.cfm?articleid=3975&urlsectionid=715&specialsection=ART_FULL&pageid=247&PSID=2807 South Korea's public broadcaster, KBS, is to launch Korean language lessons in 10 languages on KBS World Radio and the Internet tomorrow. The launch of the multilingual programme will take place to mark Korean Language Day, The Korea Times reports. It is targeted at radio listeners and Internet users around the world as well as foreigners living in Korea and members of multicultural families in Korea. The 10 foreign languages are English, Japanese, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Vietnamese and Indonesian. The programme, comprising 20 lessons, is a guide for people wishing to learn Korean through situational dialogue taking place in a variety of settings, including airports, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, department stores and tourist attractions in Korea It can be accessed on the KBS World website: http://world.kbs.co.kr/ Wednesday 08 Oct 2008 (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, Oct 11, DXLD) ?? They already have LL in the English service as per my recent log. Good, but I`m afraid 20 lessons will not get you very far (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST ** KYRGYZSTAN. 6030, 1455-1520 fade out, 08+09+10.10, R. Maranatha, Bishkek (tentative). Unidentified language hymns by choir, 22121, QRM CNR-1 (// 4460 and 5030), utility-noise, splashes from 6015 and from *1550 Ethiopia 6030. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** LAOS. Had pretty decent Asian reception this morning 12 Oct. S.F. = 71, A Index = 25, K Index = 4!!! There were G3 level Geomagnetic storms due to a coronal hole. More importantly, the sunspot count is up to 16 with a group plainly visible. It`s odd that polar propagating Asians would be coming in so well with the MUF at 4 and 5 MHz over/around the pole. 6130, Lao National R, 1050 12 Oct, nice soft local music. Talk by M in SE Asian language. Another more lively song at 1055. 1059-1102 several canned announcements over ToH. The first was a dialog between M and girl bracketed by music. The others were simple voice-overs. Music program continued with a lot of talk by M. Getting another station underneath and almost at the same strength at 1150 check. Music to the ToH, usual bells starting about 20 seconds before the actual ToH, M briefly with possible ID but unfortunately another station on an adjacent frequency signed on at this time blasting away. Instrumental local music bridge, possible news by M. Fair (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Eton E1, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** LAOS [non]. WHRI missing from 11785 at 1326 during Sat Oct 11 broadcast of Hmong Lao Radio, normally at 1300-1400. Just VOI 11786 producing het with Firedrake and VOA. Recheck at 1423 found WHRI back on the air with rustic music on Hmong World Christian Radio; 1430 DXing with Cumbre with Marie Lamb – see U S A. Hmong Lao Radio, missing Sat Oct 11, was back on WHRI 11785, Sun Oct 12 at 1312 with Hmong talk, mentioning English terms ``People`s Court`` and nine times in the next three minutes, ``Transportation Ministry``. I wonder what country they were talking about where government institutions have English names? Surely not Laos, Vietnam or Hminnesota (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, What you heard was related to the trial in the Hanoi People's Court regarding the reporting of a major scandal at Vietnam's Transportation Ministry http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=105&sid=1488050 Hmong Lao Radio usually has a liberal sprinkling of English words. (Ron Howard, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. 9290, Latvia Today, 1000-1010, 11-10, programa en inglés: "Welcome to Latvia Today", locutora, comentarios y canciones. 45444. Radio Casablanca, 1140-1150, 11-10, locutor, comentario, alemán, música pop en inglés y alemán. 45444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA. 6070, ELWA, Monrovia, 2240-2302*, Oct 10, gospel music. Announcements at 2300. National Anthem at 2301. Poor to fair with occasional weak co-channel QRM from CFRX and mixing with Chile-CVC at their 2300 sign on (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6070, ELWA Sounded like an English religious program with M host from 2050. Some music. Mention of Liberia at 2100 and possible address during brief announcement by M. Music bridge, then different M with ID and more vocal music. Into US religious program with M host and religious music. Another locally produced program at 2133 with W mentioning "From Liberia, from.". Still going at 2214. Kind of weak with some QRM. Thanks Brian Alexander tip. (11 Oct.) (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Eton E1, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** LIBERIA [non]. 6/10 0726, 9525 kHz. Forte ronzio sopra Star Radio ASC. Jamming o UTE? (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) Or audio feed problem by Star itself (gh) Via Ascension, 9525, Star Radio, *0700-0730, Oct 11, English news concerning Liberia. Short breaks of African music. IDs. Talk about Liberian refugees. Personal messages from refugees. Fair to good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010-USB/6135, RTVM Antananarivo (presumed), 1354-1415+ Malagasy yak to 1400, then French with apparent news (& door-buzzer between some items), back to Malagasy at 1415. 5010-USB slight QRM from (presumed) AIR-Thir'pam. Long-path reception and has been heard 4-5 times this past month, tnx Ron Howard's initial logging (Dan Sheedy, California, via Bob Wilkner, Mosquito Coast DX News Oct 11 via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 11884.71, Voice of Malaysia (Suara Malaysia) via RTM, 1213-1230*, Oct 11, in Chinese, pop music, news, ID "Voice of Malaysia", fair, but audio continues to be less than perfect, light CODAR QRM (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK. 7130, Sarawak FM via RTM, 1250-1315, Oct 11, in vernacular, pop music, ToH pips, RTM news (news // 5964.92 Klasik Nasional FM), after the news played what sounded like a patriotic song (Klasik Nasional went to their usual choral anthem after the news), back to pop music, fair till the sudden sign-on of CNR-2/CBR with "English Evening" already in progress at 1302, both about the same strength, not often I hear Sarawak this well (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7130.01, Sarawak FM, 1330-1402 Oct 8. Variety of vocal music; M announcer occasionally in presumed Bahasa Malaysia; echo announcements and jingles. Good signal with a bit of ham QRM (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R8, 100 foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 7295, TraxxFM (via RTM) 1057-1131+, 1451-1500+ just amazing signal on 4 Oct. with RTM news at 1100, then "Jazz Kitchen" with DJ Jezza. Later check had just as good a signal with "TCT-Charttoppers on TraxxFM" to 1500, then "Dateline" news program with primarily regional items (Dan Sheedy, California, via Bob Wilkner, Mosquito Coast DX News Oct 11 via DXLD) I never have any luck with the 41m Malaysians (gh, OK, DXLD) ** MALI. 7284.58, RTVM, 0802-0830, Oct 11, tune-in to local string music. Vernacular talk at 0804. Very weak. // 9635 - good signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 7245, Radio Mauritania, *0852-0905, Oct 10, Arabic talk. Weak with low modulation (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 6044.94, R Universidad XEXQ, 1216, 10/09/08. Continuous classical music, then finally a string of announcements including mentions of San Luis Potosí starting at 1256, then a female DJ introducing a program of more orchestral music at 1300. Abruptly disappeared for a few minutes around 1340, faded around 1400. Have checked for this on recent days between 1100-1300 and heard nothing, even a carrier, so uncertain if it's irregular or just extremely dependent on propagation. Good at peak (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Cf 8-111, I too noted the transmission break at 1341 Oct 9, but IIRC it lasted just a few seconds over one minute (gh, DXLD) ** MICRONESIA [non]. October: Sat. 25th: This evening, we will be holding the 19th annual Galcom Banquet to celebrate all that God has done and is doing through our faithful supporters. Pray for our guest speaker, Pastor Nob Kalau from Micronesia and pray that this will be a blessed event for all who attend (Galcom Autumn Prayer Bulletin via DXLD) At HQ in Hamilton, Ont.; a chance for DXers eager for 4755 to be reactivated, to buttonhole the boss. Or not: another Galcom page about this mentions a quite different speaker; change of plans? Which are we to believe? Long writeup about Levi says he started with a mobile radio station, now has a fixed 300-foot tower, but WTFK? Presumably not SW (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Viz.: Galcom's banquets are an annual celebration for our Board members, staff, and volunteers but it is open to anyone who wishes to attend. 2008 Annual Banquet Saturday, October 25, 2008 Calvin Christian School 547 West 5th Street Hamilton, ON 5:30 pm R.S.V.P. by October 14, 2008 By Telephone at: (905) 574-4626 ext. 26 By E-mail at: banquet@galcom.org Guest Speaker: William Levi, Founder of Operation Nehemiah in South Sudan . . . http://www.galcom.org/index.php?Content=90&Menu=6&Language=english (via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. A Contest entitled “Who knows better Mongolia” is being carried out over Radio Voice of Mongolia. The station is received in Sofia loud and clear from 1530 to 16 hours on 12085 kHz. Entries should be sent by November 15 this year to: Voice of Mongolia, English Service, GPO Box 365, Ulaanbaator 13, Mongolia (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX Oct 10 via DXLD) ** MYANMAR [and non]. November: Sat. 8th: Chuck Mancebo and Steven Dunn are working to reach the un-reached by radio in Burma. Pray for their ministry as the government has been jamming their radio signal (Autumn Galcom Prayer Bulletin via DXLD) These are the folx who give away fix-tuned radios that will only pick up their own station, to keep any other ideas out. WTFK? Most likely SW from Asian/Pacific gospel-huxter sites. Most jamming countries don`t bother with wacky religionists. If true, the junta must really feel threatened by these (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. ZLXA, 3935.060 kHz, 1615 UT Oct 10. Mooie carrier voor de moment, met af en toe ligt geputer (E.) Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. Re AUSTRALIA: ZLM Taupo Maritime Radio can be heard occasionally also here in Finland on 6224 kHz. Recently got a nice, full-data e-mail verification from that station. 73, (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, Oct 12, HCDX via DXLD) And see AUSTRALIA for URL ** NIGER. On a rare Friday off, I was able to hear the following: 9705, LV du Sahel, 10-10 2035, vocals, organ & kalimba-like instrument (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. 15120, V. of Nigeria 2001-2058* Oct 11. Booming in with "Africa Hour," in English, beginning with news, then in-depth stories from the region; closedown announcement at 2057; off at 2058 (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R8, 100 foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. I hope you don't mind that I ask for help? Some days ago I tuned in to 1640 and had a lot of stations in a jumble. I heard an announcement for "The home of the Cowboys" and I think they said KNID, but this is not the name for the Enid Station listed on 1640. I hope that you as a citizen of Enid can help me with this one? I attach a recording made on my SDR-IQ with 4 kHz bandwidth in USB (Gert Nilsson, Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, Oct 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Gert, Tnx for the kind words. I am glad to tell you that you must have heard our Enid station KFXY 1640. There was a promo for upcoming Oklahoma State football game ``on your home for the Cowboys, 107-1, KNID.`` The call letters are not too clear, but 107.1 is the recent new frequency for the FM affiliate of KFXY, under same ownership, KNID. And I am sure no other 1640 station would be promoting such a game. As you probably know, KFXY is directional, NNW/SSE so your hearing it to the NE or NNE is even more of an accomplishment. I think it is seldom reported from Europe, certainly no comparison to WTNI in Mississippi. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, to Gert, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thank you Glenn! Now I will search for an email to KNID and send a reception report. As you said, WTNI is a much easier catch. I have other stations on 1640 making it hard for KFXY. Stations in OR, UT and CA were heard the same night when I recorded KFXY! (Gert Nilsson, ibid.) ** OKLAHOMA. KOKC, 1520, OKC, UT Oct 12 around 0108 on the caradio was weak and getting lots of co-channel QRM, leading me to believe that once again they are on greatly reduced power instead of 50 kW, maybe 5? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. PROGRESSIVE RADIO THE GOAL FOR LOCAL ACTIVIST By M. Scott Carter, Published: October 05, 2008 12:00 am http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_279012330 It wasn't what she'd planned on. In fact, the thought really didn't even enter her mind, until that trip to Portland. And even afterward - - after the trip was over and she'd done the research -- she still wasn't keen on the idea. But Mary Francis believes in community. She's big on diversity. And she likes to hear other voices. So the self-described hippie-turned- community-activist decided to roll up her sleeves and give the project a shot. And now, she's trying to build a radio station -- from the ground up. "I have a friend in Houston," she said. "We met in Portland at a Unitarian General Assembly and got to talking. She realized she'd heard me on her local radio station doing a commentary about the trial of a soldier who refused to go to Iraq." That conversation proved to be a pivotal one. "Later that summer, I met another friend who told me the Federal Communications Commission was taking applications for a new public station." One conversation led to another and soon Francis was considering trying to start a progressive, public radio station in Norman. "I wrestled with the idea for about a week," she said. "Then I finally said OK." Since then Francis has hired an attorney, found an engineer, raised money and filed an application with the FCC -- all for a dream that she really hadn't planned on. A dream to fight, what she believes, is an ever-growing increase of right-wing religious broadcasters. "I think the thing that really irritated me was the fact that 80 percent of the public airwaves are owned by religious stations," she said. "This chance is one of the last airwaves available. If we don't do something now, we'll never get another shot." And for Francis, that shot is worth the effort. "These religious right groups figured out a long time ago that they didn't just have to talk to their congregation, or their 200 people; they could talk to the world and, now, they've gobbled up 80 percent of the radio stations in the country." So Francis started her campaign. She wants a secular radio station. A radio station that focuses on community. A radio station that reports local issues. A radio station to the left of the political spectrum. "I want a community station," she said. "I participated in a telephone conference and then started fundraising and looking for money." Her first goal was simple: come up with enough cash to hire an attorney. She succeeded. "I found a nationally known attorney who reduced his fee because he believes in the cause," she said. "Then I found a great deal engineer." From there, she started fundraising and, before long, raised almost $6,000 from a national Unitarian Universalist organization. "We're off and running," she said. "We're currently working very hard at fundraising and we're waiting to hear from the FCC." And while it could take a while to hear from the feds, Francis is leaving nothing to chance. She continues to push the issue, build support and raise money. In fact, just a few weeks ago, Norman's Unitarian Universalist Fellowship hosted a fundraiser for the station, "Funny Songs About War, Ignorance, and Greed -- The Music of Roy Zimmerman." "Things are going well," she said. "We think we need about $103,000 to get us on the air." In addition to her current efforts, Francis is approaching the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and private donors seeking support for the project. "Groups like CPB and NPR and the federal government will help pay for things like the tower and directional antenna and even help fund staff positions," she said. "And the grant from the Unitarian foundation is recurring so we can apply for those funds every year." And while the federal application process is, at best, cumbersome, Francis said her efforts are beginning to pay off. "Originally we thought we were going to have to wait another year, but I believe we're at the head of the list," she said. "We have two competitors for the airspace, but I'm pretty sure we can handle that." Should her application be approved -- the station would be at 87.9 on the FM side -- Francis said she will reach out to community groups and organizations to help provide unique, locally created programming for the stations. "My goal is local," she said. "A community radio station that covers issues in our community." A station that Francis believes, could be one of the few remaining, non-commercial, non-religious voices left. "This is the last of the airwaves," she said. "We'll never have another chance to get any airspace if we don't don't this. The time is right now." Even if it is something she had never planned on doing (Norman Transcript via Artie Bigley, OH, DXLD) Well, the FCC does not yet have any such application on record via FM Query. Besides public radio KGOU 106.3, not progressive enough? Well, it does not carry Democracy Now, nor does any OK broadcast station! See http://www.democracynow.org/stations/oklahoma --- --- for Norman OK, FCC does show gospel-huxters licensed on 89.3, KSSO; 103.1 K276EX; and gospel-huxter applications on 92.9 and 97.3. 87.9 would have no nearby channel 6 analog to contend with, but what about the 50 kW gospel-huxter in nextdoor Moore on 88.1, KMSI, which has been there for years?? Looks like to me any app for 87.9 would be denied on that basis alone. And are we talking about LPFM? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Any comment on this story and my evaluation of it abottom? 73, (Glenn to Doug Smith, via DXLD) It's a typo. They mean 89.7. The Norman Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is the applicant for a new station at Dibble, Oklahoma on 89.7. 2.4 kW/56 m at 34-55-46N/97-39-43W, my map is in the car so I can't pin down that location. It's directional with a broad null at 150 degrees, going down to about 38% power on that heading. A superficial look suggests this application stands a fair chance of succeeding. There is one other application open for 89.7 in Oklahoma, South Central Oklahoma Christian Broadcasters for 400 watts/107m in Chickasha 34-53-50N/97-57-24W. A bit close, but it's also quite directional (quite a bit more than the UU application) and with a null more or less towards Dibble (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Geez, an otherwise well-written article gets the frequency wrong, the most important number concerning any radio station! And neglects to mention that the city of license will not be Norman at all! (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, We got our [KGOU] CP for Woodward for 23.4 kW, and are nearing conclusion on the lease, etc. I'm hoping, if all goes well and we raise enough $$ that the station will be on the air next fall. I'm not moving toward HD with any speed. There are no consumer sales to speak of, and the money is not worth it yet. The new station proposed by Mary Francis is a directional pattern located in Dibble, OK, SE of Norman. Here's the FCC application: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=174870 Here's the 60 dbu contour in the engineering exhibit. It does not even reach Norman. http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=661220 There was a 3 station MX [mutually exclusive] group there. The FCC awarded the CP to a proposal in Chickasha but Mary has filed an objection alleging that the winner misstated the number of people getting first or second service (the point system plus more for non- com resolution of MX groups). I don't know if she's right or not but at this point, she is waiting for the FCC to rule on her objection. Shrugging. I don't think Mary is going to be happy with the results (Karen Holp, General Manager, KGOU Radio, The University of Oklahoma Outreach, to gh via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ha, map shows coverage just tangent to the max coverage contour of KJTH 89.7 Ponca City/Enid. In reality, this means with a little bit of tropo enhancement the LP station in Dibble would have its already tiny coverage area further reduced, and also from a TX station in the other direxion. But we hope they make it. If not, KGOU should give them a subcarrier or HD subchannel (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. 15140, Radio Sultanate of Oman, 1425-1445, Oct 10, tune-in to pop music. Chimes/gongs & ID at 1430. Theme music and English news at 1431. Back to pop music at 1442. Very weak. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3235, R West New Britain, 1130, 10/11/08. Island- type music with male announcer commentary. Seemed to be // to 3365, which was also audible, but was definitely not // to 3335 which had a spoken-word program at the time. Poor but improving. 3260, R Madang, 1200, 10/08/08. A bit of music I recognized as the PNG national anthem, then off the air after a few moments of open carrier. Poor. 3365, R. Milne Bay, 1236-1246*, Oct 11, in English, relay on NBC programming, pop songs, on-air calls with music dedications, gives phone numbers and NBC email address, suddenly off. Do not often hear this one (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PARAGUAY. LA RADIO OFICIAL PROMETE SER LA "VOZ DEL PUEBLO", RADIO NACIONAL DEL PARAGUAY --- Por Mílder Melgarejo Valiente "No estamos trasmitiendo los discursos del presidente Fernando Lugo", admitió Judith María Vera, directora de Radio Nacional del Paraguay, para luego explicar que la nueva línea editorial de la emisora estatal es ofrecer una programación variada con informaciones de todos los ámbitos de la sociedad ya que el nuevo gobierno pretende trasformar la "voz oficial del Gobierno" en la "voz del pueblo". PLURALIDAD. El nuevo Gobierno ha creado la Secretaría de Información y Comunicación para el Desarrollo, en la cual se enmarca la reestructuración total de Radio Nacional del Paraguay, tanto en las frecuencias de 920 AM y 95.1 FM. "La emisora estará abierta a la ciudadanía y vamos a dar espacio a todas las organizaciones civiles, instituciones del Estado, organizaciones no gubernamentales y partidos políticos", adelantó Vera. La administración tiene previsto hacer un llamado de concurso a todas las organizaciones que desean contar con un espacio en la emisora estatal. La selección de las propuestas radiales estará a cargo de un consejo integrado por personalidades del ámbito cultural y periodístico. TODOS LOS COLORES. Una década atrás era utopía pensar que los partidos políticos de la oposición accedan a una programación en Radio Nacional. Ahora, el proyecto comunicacional del Gobierno busca brindar espacio a todas las agrupaciones políticas. El primer obstáculo a vencer por la dirección de la radio será la distribución de horarios en la tanda de programación ya que existen varias agrupaciones políticas, admitió Judith Vera. RECAUDACIÓN. El costo de espacios será bastante económico para las organizaciones sociales, instituciones públicas, ONGs y partidos políticos, pero también la administración de la radio tiene previsto poner al aire programas con proyección comercial. "Tenemos que tener auspiciantes porque debemos tener sostenibilidad, hay rubros que se tienen que pagar con la recaudación de la radio", explicó Vera. Radio Nacional cuenta con un presupuesto de 1.800 millones de guaraníes, pero la nueva administración pidió un aumento de G. 5.000 millones para hacer posible la reestructuración de la emisora estatal. CADENA NACIONAL. En la época de Alfredo Stroessner se implementó la cadena nacional, a través de la cual Radio Nacional entraba en cadena con todas las emisoras del país para difundir (dos veces al día) las actividades del Gobierno. Este formato convirtió a la radio estatal en poderosa e influyente herramienta del Gobierno. Después del golpe de Estado del 89, la emisora perdió fuerza y se convirtió prácticamente en caja de resonancia de los discursos de los mandatarios de turno y del Partido Colorado. En Radio Nacional no había espacio para partidos de oposición. FUENTE: http://www.ultimahora.com/notas/161703----La--radio--oficial-promete-ser-la- (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia http://yimber.blogspot.com DXLD) Converting it from a government to a `public` radio station. But how can it really be a people`s station with no SW, ex-9737v?? (gh, DXLD) ** PERU. "La Nueva CPN Radio", Lima. Seems to have changed ownership. A Peruvian blog says this happened on Aug 22. New QTH mentioned as 3rd floor in a building on a roundpoint called Ovalo de Higuereta, in the Surco neighbourhood of Lima. Actual web site of CPN Radio is still "under construction". 1470 unmentioned (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Oct 12, realdx yg via DXLD) This is one of the most frequently reported S American MW stations in Europe. Must really get out, in that direxion, anyway. Never(?) reported from NAm, where there is a bit of co-channel QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4790.05, Radio Vision, 0905-0915, Oct 10, Peruvian folk music. Spanish announcements. ID at 0912. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 9445, FEBC Manila with IS and clear ID loop in Bahasa Indonesia, 2223 past 2225 UT Oct 9, fair with some fades, grayline. But the strange thing is, FEBC is not scheduled as such on 9445, per EiBi and Aoki, just at 23-24 in Cambodian, while AIR GOS is supposed to be on 9445 until 2230! EiBi: 9445 2045-2230 IND All India Radio E Eu benguluru 9445 2300-2400 PHL FEBC Manila KH SEA iba Should have kept listening, as I later found in WRTH summer update that FEBC Indonesian is supposed to be on 9435 at 2230-2330, making me wonder if I read the frequency wrong, but I don`t think so. It shows Indonesian is daily, whilst EiBi and Aoki say on UT Saturdays this frequency-hour changes to Malay. WRTH does not have any Malay on the FEBC schedule. [Later:] FEBC Manila, 9435, Oct 11 at *2223 with ID in Bahasa Indonesia and IS, programming from 2229. So my previous report of this on 9445 was probably in error. Hmm, that was Saturday but still Indonesian, not Malay (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. VOA via Tinang, 9760, Oct 11 around 1405 with World News Now, signal suddenly degrades to weaker with more fading, then comes back to solid. No interruption in modulation; happened twice for a few seconds. It is as if there are two transmitters or antennas running at once, and one of them momentarily drops off the air. Hey, looking it up later in HFCC, there ARE two transmissions from Tinang on 9760 at same time! One is at 12-15, 21 degrees, and the other is at 13-16, 270 degrees. So the 21 dropped off for a bit, and the 270 stayed on. Earth & Sky, now with only one presenter, runs at 1421-1423, then at 1423 silly ballgame news, times apparently locked in to VOA WNN`s hourly clock (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. Oct. 9, 6140 kHz, 1810z, instrumental music, very good reception. I was listening to this instrumental music, guessing this is a wrong feed or music fill if transmitter lost audio feed. I was right. At 1829 dropped carrier. I immediately turned on my computer to find out whose feed was lost. I looked in Aoki schedules, and nothing to my area there (why the hell?). Then I looked into Eibi and there it was: POLISH RADIO WARSAW in Russian 6140 kHz, WERtachtal, Germany 075 degrees (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, SERBIA, Oct 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. RRI reliably with good signal in English to Europe and North America beyond, Oct 9 at 2228 on 7185 and somewhat better 9790, both of which must be new Galbenis with fine modulation, Romanian folk music, always a treat; 2237 mailbag reading an entry in their ``fascination of radio listening`` contest. But better tune to the low side to avoid the QRDRM from Sackville 9795-9800-9805. Also found RRI fair in French on 6130, Oct 10 at 0124 with ID and folk music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SIERRA LEONE [non]. via Ascension, 9525, Cotton Tree News, 0730- 0740+, Oct 11, opening ID announcements & drums at 0730 followed by English news. “CTN” IDs. Vernacular talk at 0740. Fair to good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 13810, GERMANY (via Nauen), Brother Scare, heard bumping his gums about US politics and the antichrist at 1450 on 10 OCT. According to EIBI, this is beamed to the Middle East. I wonder how many listeners this maniac has over here. He sounds his best during deep QSB. Unfortunately the signal was quite strong but for the deep QSB. At 1458 he involved the FEMA and said that there would soon be martial law in the USA. This was about all I could take and tuned out (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, HCDX via DXLD) Not the only gospel huxter who considers it of great importance to get a signal into The Holy Land even if no one would listen to them. No doubt helps the suckers` fund-raising (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Olá amigos. A excelente propagação em ondas tropicais continua rendendo preciosas escutas. Nessa madrugada ouvi uma emissora com transmissão em árabe na freqüência de 4960 kHz. Houve várias menções à Darfur, uma região do Sudão que está em crise. Talvez seja uma transmissão da Voz da América para o Sudão. Alguém sabe que emissora é essa? Não achei nada em meus arquivos. Seguem algumas escutas efetuadas por esses dias. 4960 ?? Unid, AA, 0311, 12/10, OM/OM, talks, várias menções á Darfur no Sudão, id 44344 73! (Rubens Ferraz Pedroso, Bandeirantes – Paraná, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) Rubens, É: ``Affia Darfur`` --- 0300-0330 4960 SAO 100 30 [Sao Tome] 5995 LAM 100 132 11635 IRA 250 279 Falamos muito disso em DXLD 8-111, 8-110 em SUDAN [non]. 73 (Guilherme Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** SUDAN [non]. 15650, SLOVAKIA, Miraya FM, Rimavska Sobota, *1458- 1510, Oct 7, Arabic/English. Crash-start with Arabic vocal music; Sign-on announcement at 1501, into English news re Sudan; soundbites; poor with occasionally peaking to fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60 m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 29/9 0557, 15750 kHz, VTC int/sig - Meyerton (Sud Africa), Prima di SOUTHERN SUDAN INTERACTIVE RADIO INSTRUCTIONS. Segnale sufficiente- buono (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) ** SYRIA. Subject: unsere Sendung --- Liebe Hörer, die deutsch- sprachige Sendung von Radio Damaskus wird in den nächsten Tagen im Internet zu hören sein unter der Homepage http://www.rtv.gov.sy "Deutsches Programm". Mit freundlichen Grüssen, das Team der deutschsprachigen Sendung von Radio Damaskus (Oct 9 via Volker Willschrey, Germany, via Drita Çiço, Albania, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Can English webcasting be far behind? Page is mostly in Arabic, but click on Deutsches Programm; leads to lots of .asf files to download. I picked one at random, #187, but very slow, supposed to take 26 minutes for 21 MB on my cable connexion! And that`s at least what it took, turned out to be a 43-minute drama in Arabic, not German. Click on ENGLISH and all you get is ``Comming Soon`` [sic] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. The future of public service broadcasting in Taiwan is being seriously threatened, according to the head of the country's public television broadcaster, PTS. Sylvia Feng, President of the PTS Foundation, said that Taiwan's new government was holding back its half-yearly funding amounting to US$15 million, as well as a large budget appropriation that had previously been approved for digitalisation. She told the Public Broadcasting International (PBI) conference being held in Arles, France, that since a change of government earlier in the year, there had been moves to undermine the independence of the public broadcaster. They are threatening to take over public TV, they are threatening to replace the board of directors, and they are threatening to change the whole management team, she said. We have been proud of the fact that Taiwan has the most independent public broadcasting system of anywhere in the Chinese-speaking world, but now that is under threat. Ms Feng said the government wanted to go back to the old days of controlling public broadcasting which would be a tragedy for the country as there would no longer be the checks and balances that currently exist.The new President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, in his inauguration speech promised to protect the independence of media in Taiwan, but in practice that hasn't happened, she added. Source: ABU Asia Pacific Broadcasting http://www.abu.org.my/public/dsp_page.cfm?articleid=3983&urlsectionid=715&specialsection=ART_FULL&pageid=247&PSID=2807 Friday 10 Oct 2008 (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, Oct 11, DXLD) ** UKRAINE. With the entering into the winter B08 season, some frequencies will be changed again. So the following is a tentative winter season schedule of RUI broadcasts from the 26 of October 2008 to the 29 of March 2009. To Russia: from 1 to 6 h-s and from 14 to 18 h-s on 5830 kHz. To Europe: from 6 to 9 h-s on 7440 kHz; from 9 to 14 h-s on 9950 kHz; from 18 to 21 h-s on 7510 kHz; from 21 to 1 h-s on 5830 kHz. To North America: from 0 to 5 h-s on 7440 kHz. (Olex Yegorov, RUI Whole World on the Radio Dial Oct 18 via DXLD) ** U K [non]. Figured 13m would be pretty dead, but instead found one very good signal at 1326 Oct 12 on 21470, BBCWS via Ascension, steady at S9+10 with minor fading. The Ticket show, on a long-overdue dentroChinese TV film about Bruce Lee which has been moved up from CCTV-8 to CCTV-1. 1329 broke for promo about Assignment: South Ossetia starting Oct 23. 1330 promo rest of Ticket; 1330:30-1332:30 news headlines, then more of The Ticket about composer John Adams; recheck at 1347, much weaker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. ABSOLUT VODKA SUES ABSOLUTE RADIO --- 10-Oct-08 Absolut VodkaV&S Vin&Sprit, the drinks company that owns the Absolut Vodka brand, has launched legal proceedings against Absolute Radio, formerly known as Virgin Radio, for infringement of its trademark. . . http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=62833&d=254&h=260&f=3 VODKA BRAND SUES ABSOLUTE RADIO The owner of Swedish vodka brand Absolut has launched legal proceedings against Absolute Radio, the rebranded Virgin Radio, for infringement of its trademark. Drinks company V&S Vin&Sprit, which owns the Absolut vodka brand and Absolut Tracks music project, has issued a writ against Absolute Radio for trademark infringement and "passing off" - misrepresenting its services as those of Absolut. The firm has claimed that consumers are likely to be confused over the use of the similar names and that Absolute Radio could be detrimental to its vodka brand. . . http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/10/commercialradio-radio (both via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) Why am I not surprised? (gh, DXLD) 3 comments so far --- 1 Jamie October 11th, 2008 - 20:32 UTC What! That is just stupid. Can’t they see the E after absolut? sheesh :p 2 SRG October 12th, 2008 - 4:01 UTC What took Vin&Spirit so long? We discussed this issue already on Sept. 2: http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/uks-virgin-radio-to-rebrand-as-absolute-radio Virgin Radio blasts from Toronto under its old name. Great coverage on the US side! Its 99.9 FM signal is heard loud and clear in Buffalo, NY and on I-90 West almost up to Rochester. Pretty amazing. I checked the signal two days in a row on a car radio. I wonder what’s their antenna’s height. 3 Andy Sennitt October 12th, 2008 - 15:08 UTC I think it’s a little difficult for people listening to a radio station to know whether ot not there’s an E in absolute As for the delay, no doubt the wheels were set in motion as soon as the station announced its name change, but the legal profession isn’t renowned for its breakneck speed (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U S A. SENATOR BROWNBACK WANTS VOA, ETC., TO BE "STATE-RUN." The text of S.3546 http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/?id=4989 The Strategic Communications Act of 2008, introduced 23 September by Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), is now available. Excerpts: "Abolishment of Broadcasting Board of Governors- The United States International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (22 U.S.C. 6201 et seq.) is repealed on the date that is 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act. ... There is established the National Center for Strategic Communication. ... The Center shall be headed by the Director of Strategic Communication, appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. ... The primary missions of the Center are ... (6) to direct and coordinate foreign broadcasting by the United States Government." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Even though the bill includes the traditional language that "United States international broadcasting shall include (1) news which is consistently reliable, authoritative, accurate, and comprehensive," meeting this requirement will be difficult in an agency whose director is appointed by the president. Furthermore, the preponderance of activities of the Center would have to do with the advocacy of U.S. policy. This is why Britain separates its international broadcasting and public diplomacy activities. It's also why the public broadcasting entity of virtually every industrialized democracy (including U.S. international broadcasting since 2004) is governed by a board and not directly by the government. The bill enshrines the existing structure of U.S. international broadcasting, mentioning specifically Voice of America, "surrogate broadcast programs," RFE/RL, RFA, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and (even though it no longer exists) Worldnet. Significantly, Alhurra, Radio Sawa, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) Inc. are not mentioned. A main reason that U.S. international broadcasting has less audience than British international broadcasting, even though the former has a larger budget than the latter, is because the former consists of these entities that fragment scarce resources, compete with each other, and force audiences to tune to two stations to get a complete newscast. Fiscally conservative S.3546 is not. See previous post about same subject. Posted: 10 Oct 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** U S A [non]. Wrong VOA English feed? On 09. Oct at 1910z at 15580 kHz via Botswana 350 degrees with fair reception I was listening to for a few minutes VOA English to Africa - World New Now program with YL host and news reports (including Ayas Gul's from Islamabad). When I checked this frequency at 1935z there was a V-O-A Spe-cial E- nglish program. But, since at this time there should be VOA English to Africa, not Spec. Eng. as per http://www.voanews.com/english/about/frequenciesAtoZ_e.cfm I checked audio recordings from IBB Monitoring website, and apparently all VOA English to Africa at this time broadcasted Special English. So, is this just a wrong feed, which originate from Washington, or a revised program schedule? (Dragan Lekic from Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PHILIPPINES Once I heard VOA English on 1539 kHz although Urdu is scheduled (Jose Jacob, India, ibid.) ** U S A [non]. 9355 with a heterodyne from something on the hi side, about 9355.1, Oct 11 at 2222. Only thing scheduled here is R. Free Asia in Cantonese via Saipan, which per Aoki is jammed, so perhaps this was CNR-1 or some other kind of interference. By 2224 the QRM seemed like a hymn, so could also be spur from some FE gospel huxter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WHRI, 11785, Sat Oct 11 at 1430, het from Indonesia 11786, DXing with Cumbre, Marie Lamb saying she now worx for WCNY where the show is recorded. It`s sister station to WAER Syracuse, her ex- employer. I expect they are in same building with shared facilities anyway. Here she is on the WCNY staff list now, http://www.wcny.org/content/view/63/120/ ``Marie Lamb is a Central New York native and a graduate of the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University. Marie hosted classical and opera programs at WIKE-AM, at the former Eisenhower College in Seneca Falls. She also hosted a daily jazz program for many years at WAER-FM in Syracuse. Marie began at Classic FM in 2002 as a staff engineer, and she can often be heard on the air as a substitute announcer.`` with reduced image of her photo: http://www.wcny.org/images/stories/Marie938small.jpg Strangely enough, no mention of her SW broadcasting. See also LAOS [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15710 kHz at 1230-1300 UT Sat Oct 11, nothing noted from HRA-USA, tx seemingly OFF. Only Radio Cairo noted with S=6-7 level towards India, distorted audio and prayer program. At same time strong US stations on the 19 mb. WWCR 15825 kHz on S=9+10 db level. Powerful also WEWN 15855 S=9+20dB, and S=9 of RHC 15120 and 15360. 1400 UT nothing noted on 9955 from KWHR, no propagation to EUR. Surprise, surprise noted Cumbre DX program via WHRI today Sat at 1430 UT on 11785 kHz. Strength only Signal=4-5 here in Europe, SINPO 22332. Heavily disturbed by VOI Jakarta 11785.97 kHz het. Used Eton E1 with 2.3 kHz filter, SYNC mode LSB, +PBT-on minus going. 1440 UT male voice announcer. reading some BORING frequency logs. 1455:35 ID "DXing with Cumbre", "...from the Great Lake...", bird crying. 1456 UT "Northwood Radio ... 6925usb", by Chris Lobdell. 1457 Pirate DX, 1458 totally COVERED by CRI interval signal from upper 11790 kHz, that's Urumchi 500 kW, S=9+20 dB. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Oct 11, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WHRA, 11885, Sat Oct 11 at 2136 had a woman preacher with an indeterminate Central European accent and a very limited vocabulary. She says `vord` instead of `word` most but not all of the time. She interjects ``glory`` several times a minute, and was also praising God repeatedly for circumcision: ``the word of the gospel is a sharp two- edged sword`` suitable for the operation, but our hearts should also be circumcised, whatever that means. I don`t think she was talking about female genital mutilation. Per WHR online schedule this is: ``Secret Of Eternal Life``, with Lilly Janian. She is not going onto our Monitoring Reminders Calendar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WEWN, 11560 in English, Oct 11 at 1325 with very rapid choppy flutter and frequency also fluttering from Doppler effect. Strange propagation, not affecting other US signals on band, tho something similar on CBCNQ 9625. Since this WEWN transmission is at an azimuth of 335 degrees, my theory is that most of the signal I am getting, so disturbed, is not direct, but backscatter from the auroral zone. Their other two frequencies at the time, 7425 and 17510, checked at 1328 and 1330, did not exhibit this. WWV reported the mid-latitude K-index at both 1200 and 1500 as 5, but ``no space weather storms in the past 24 hours`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WINB, 9265, Oct 11 at 1448 with revival meeting, two or more people shouting at once. Usual unstable carrier, warbling with BFO on, confirming it`s WINB despite the fact that it is supposed to be on this frequency only until 1200, per FCC and HFCC. And WINB`s own schedule at http://www.winb.com/schedule.htm claims it changes from 9265 to 13570 at 0800 EDT = 1200 UT. One might have equally guessed 9265 was WMLK, on the schedules for 9265 from 1600, but that has been inactive for many months and this was certainly no Elder Jacob O. Meyer speaking. Furthermore, this station had modulation, unlike WMLK when it was on. I have yet to catch when WINB axually comes up on 13570, but it was on at 1705 check Oct 12, unstable carrier, with music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. QSO QSY: QRJ. Found this on Ted Randall`s website: Welcome TedRandall.com! Home of the Ted Randall show and "QSO" the ham radio interview and talk show! http://www.tedrandall.com ATTN! DUE TO PROPAGATION PROBLEMS TUNE TO WBCQ 5110 KC IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO RECIEVE 7415 KC We invite you to listen on WBCQ 7415 kilohertz Saturday nights 11PM EDT, 10PM CDT, 9PM MDT, 8PM PDT, 0300 UTC. Targeted to the USA and Mexico Sunday WRMI Radio Miami International on 9955 1-3 AM ET 0500-0700 UTC - QSO (new time) UTC Targeted to the Caribbean and South America If you are not near a receiver you can still listen live on these links. WBCQ [not working when I checked -gh] WRMI This week on QSO [repeat of previous week] Alvin C, York special event station this week starting Sunday. N4Y on 28.370 14.270 7.270 3.870 145.270 FM and EchoLink N4ECW-R Operating October 5 -12 1800Z - 2359Z . . . (via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) So is the 0300 broadcast on both 7415 and 5110? Checked at 0310, NO, on 7415 some gospel huxter is inbooming, and QSO is very weak on 5110, not really listenable here. Ted has had complaints from eastern US that 7415 is inaudible (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It was Pete Peters on 7415 by mistake. Is he supposed to be on WBCQ anywhen? (gh) ** U S A. Glad to note that KXTR, Kansas City, 1660, is back playing classical music, Dvorak`s New World Symphony, UT Oct 12, in honor of Columbus? Please; at 0110, instead of stupid ballgames which have preëmpted its nominal classical format a couple previous evenings checked. Not so enjoyable, tho, with all the QRM from non-zero beat 1660 stations, producing multiple subaudible heterodynes. There are 8 other US stations on this frequency, the most crowded X-band channel, and it sounded like all of them were fighting KXTR for dominance via non-direxional caradio antenna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KHCB-AM 1400 ON CONSTRUCTION PERMIT --- I received the following information from the Nov edition of the KHCB "Broadcaster": "KHCB AM 1400 began broadcasting from the new towers in League City on September 2nd with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) testing authority. Thankfully, the facility did not suffer any damage and continued to broadcast during Hurricane Ike. One listener called and said, 'I started looking for a Spanish station at 1 am while Ike was ravaging outside my home. I have kept my radio tuned to your station. You have excellent programming and it has been a blessing in my life.' Joyous listeners have called excitedly reporting a clear signal all over the greater Houston area including the downtown area, to Katy in west Houston, and even as far north as Humble. At the time of this writing there is no power nor telephone lines on the Island. The FCC has granted an extension of the time of testing so that KHCB may remain on the air from the new towers. Normally, after the time of testing is completed, FCC requires a return to the original broadcast tower until government engineers verify the data obtained during testing. Please pray for a speedy and favorable decision by the FCC to allow full time operation from League City." In another paragraph, it states, "At the Galveston site, the water came up about 10 feet onto the property. The water was four feet into the [transmitter] building and destroyed the transmitter." Here's a link to the CP nighttime pattern ... http://tinyurl.com/4xz86y Actually, the transmitter site is located in Dickinson, TX, just off of FM 517 and Cemetery Road on, what else, Tower Road! 73, (Rev. Steve N5WBI, Ponder, Houston TX, NRC-AM via DXLD) Towers? Yes, CP calls for TWO of them. So this graveyarder will get to be direxional, unlike most of them, with max signal at night due north toward Houston, also peaking at 155 degrees, and minimized at 255 degrees in kidney-bean pattern. Still wonder how well they will cover Houston with hundreds of stations bounding in on same frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. New station on the air: KMZQ-670 in Las Vegas, Nevada is now on the air with "The Best Rock of The 70's and 80's". Its look like KMZQ-670 Las Vegas and KMZQ-99.3 Payson, Arizona are simulcast. They use "The Q" and "only on The Q" (Bill Block, Prescott Valley, AZ, Drake R8, Oct 12, IRCA via DXLD) KMZQ has been on the air for about a month or more I think, and yes, both 99.3 from Payson and 670 simulcast (Paul Walker, NE, IRCA via DXLD) If so, I`m surprised no DX reports of 670 yet, even from Patrick Martin, OR; or did I miss them? NRC AM Log 2008 says it`s 30000/600 watts, U4. Looked up at FCC, the plots for the CP, now on the air, show daytime pattern has major lobe at 335 degrees, minor lobe in opposite direxion 155 degrees, pulled-in nulls at 75 and 235 degrees, which are roughly (exactly?) toward Chicago and LA. Nighttime pattern is just the opposite! Major lobe at 155 degrees, minor at 335 degrees, same nulls. How can that work? Two different sites? No, single site NW of Las Vegas. They must figure with 30 kW they can really beam away from the city in the daytime and still cover it plenty well, as well as much of Nevada, while with only 600 watts at night, they need to aim most of it toward the city. They use three towers daytime and four at night to accomplish this (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) According to the maps, KMZQ has a fine signal in Las Vegas and vicinity. That "minor" lobe you speak of covers Las Vegas and everything within 50 miles. That 600 Watts does decently as well. I have a friend headed to Las vegas sometime in the next few weeks, I'll have him check it out! (Paul B. Walker, Jr., Ord NE, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I kind of thought this was a little close spaced to the Denver 670 at 618 miles. Especially with the "lobe toward Chicago" that Glenn mentions. And, if I understand this correctly, they are simulcasting an FM in Phoenix 256 miles from the AM. Strange (Patrick Griffith, CBT CBNT CRO, Westminster CO, ibid.) The FM they simulcast on is licensed to and has a tower near Payson, AZ. To say it barely rimshots Phoenix would be being kind (Paul B. Walker, ibid.) It`s a null toward Chicago (and Denver primarily), not a lobe (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** U S A. LOCAL 93.1 DEAD AIR NOW A MUSIC PIRATE The recently reported 93.1 in Fremont MI broadcasting dead air has now turned into a full pirate broadcasting showtunes, 1950s oldies, some soft AC music, and on and off a little bit of older variety tunes. I took the chance to drive all around town trying to single out a residence or business that is transmitting this signal --- with no luck at all - no small towers, no rooftop transmitters in the area of the strongest signal, nothing. The signal is never strong enough to come in on seek on my radio; it's almost never totally perfect except a few spots where the car isn't moving. It seems to be strongest in a certain area, but because it's so widespread with just a very good yet not perfect signal, I couldn't find anything. I'm suspecting there is a transmitter housed in the local co-op towers, though. The signal is strong at my DX site which is generally above most of the town, so it's likely low powered but high enough up - I'd still say about 5 watts or so. I recently filed a complaint to the FCC about this. I usually am all for pirate stations, but more the kind that promote the "hey government, I bet you can't catch me while I play popular music all the kids love that the commercial stations won't play!!" sorta stations that are popular or liberal, but they're just playing old stuff I could hear on some local oldies stations. Sure, I feel bad for trying to shut them down, but that's what you get when you cover up my most open and busiest frequency!! I still can't hear it in my driveway and WDRQ and WIMK were taking it out in town in spots, but still... I wouldn't mind so much if they would turn the transmitter OFF during my nighttime tropo hours when they're not playing music over it. Nothing like going to my DX site overlooking town having a strong unID station in and heading to the best place to receive it, then turning the corner to the DX site and suddenly having the frequency change to perfectly loud dead air. I'm gonna take these people down, whatever it takes. Does that make me a bad person?? I feel a little guilty. I'd rather shut them down by walking up to someone's door and asking them to please stop this transmission and telling them my reasoning, but I can't find em. I'm guessing from a DXer`s point of view with a pirate on your most open frequency (one of very few here!), it would be understandable (Chris Kadlec, Fremont, Mich., Oct 11, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Due to space restrictions last month, ADAM WILLIAMSON's letter was left over. Adam states that he was 'perplexed by Karl Zuk's article in the June issue regarding the state of radio in the USA. Karl states that American radio stations play "no more than about 500 rock and pop standards" and FM has become "a monotonous mainstream of heavy advertising and inane talk". In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. In contrast to what we have here in the UK, where the majority of commercial stations play only rock and pop, in the USA you can normally choose between many different musical styles, each with their own dedicated stations broadcasting continuously. For instance, in the UK, if you like country music as I do, you can tune in at certain times on certain stations and listen to specific programmes, but in the USA you can normally take your pick from a variety of FM stations and listen whenever you like. Many of those styles (genres) simply do not have dedicated radio stations in the UK. Of course, in the USA, there's plenty of rock and pop if that's what you like, but the point is you don't HAVE to listen to rock, pop and rap if you don't want to. Regarding AM programming in the USA, that's the home of AM talk radio where you will hear a variety of points of view and opinions from left, right and centre. Again, in the UK, we are limited to hearing the output of the BBC and (I think) one major talk station in the whole country, and what can be said in the UK is often highly constrained by standards of political correctness. In the USA they have constitutionally safeguarded freedom of speech, so you will hear contrasting output that is utterly refreshing and thought provoking. Of course, as Karl Zuk mentions, there are the "shock jocks" who can be heard in the major metropolitan areas, but they are not the standard. I would say most radio programming is more family-oriented than what you will hear in the UK. Lastly, all this radio variety in the USA is paid for by advertising, or in the case of the public service broadcasters, by local business donations and charitable contributions. The whole concept of being forced to pay a licence fee to finance a public broadcaster (with its sinister apparatus of uniformed inspectors, detector vans and intimidating billboards) is an anathema to Americans, and in any case is completely unnecessary considering the high quality output from those public broadcasters catering to what Karl Zuk unflattering calls a "cerebral minority". Far from being a "messy garage", after spending time in the USA and listening to the radio a lot, I find American output very tidy and compartmentalised. In fact, I have been "spoiled" and can hardly stand to listen to domestic UK radio any more. There's just not enough genuine variety." (Open to Discussion, Sept BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** VANUATU. 7260, R. Vanuatu (tentative). Talk by M at 1010 start 10 Oct. Soft, almost LA-sounding ballad at 1015. M at 1017, brief music bridge, then feature with M interviewing W in south Pacific-sounding language. Studio M announcer returned at 1029. Talk by different M at 1030. Came back at 1035 and it appeared to be gone, although there was a weaker signal there. Someone was here in Vietnamese after 1100, maybe VOA Thailand?? (Dave Valko, Paint Creek/Mountain Road micro- DXpedition site near Dunlo PA, Eton E1, 315' Beverage (BOG) at about 310 , Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** VANUATU. The new 10-kW transmitter of Radio Vanuatu has started broadcasting programs on 3945 kHz from 0530 to 10 hours and from 19 to 2130 hours; on 7260 kHz from 19 to 10 hours, Saturday to 1145 hours (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX Oct 10 via DXLD) What is your source for this schedule? We have no reports of 3945 being reactivated so far. Meanwhile consulting the WRTH 2008 I notice this, which in case it has not been picked up before, about which we have heard nothing further (gh, DXLD): ** VANUATU. UCB Pacific Partners are working with a Port Vila-based ministry to open a new SW station with two transmitters in 2008-09 (WRTH 2008 via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) United Christian Broadcasters? ** VENEZUELA. LA RADIO EN VENEZUELA - CARACAS. Nuevo Blog aliado; Visítalo: http://radiovenezolana.blogspot.com/ (Santiago San Gil, Venezuela, 11 Oct, CDXA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) All the recent posts are about various FM stations from someone named Honofre Cuencia. There is also a handy list of linx to station websites (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. RNV CI, via Cuba, VG on 15250 // 13680, Oct 9 at 2300 with YL announcer in English giving program summary, and also at 2304 ``Informative Short News``. She has a really heavy accent and her translations are terrible, getting in the way of following the gist, with too-literal cognates which aren`t really appropriate in English, like ``divulgation``, ``planification`` (or ``plannification``?); and ``appointed`` meaning ``he pointed out``. First item was about how there is complete freedom of expression in Venezuela, and then went on to attack the opposition, and their ties to ``oligarchic Colombian families``. So how come we hear nothing but the Chavista line on RNV?? From the intro you might think the whole hour would be in English, but at 2310:30 into Spanish, what a relief, properly enunciated and pronounced, but of no use to monolinguals, and I had already heard plenty of propaganda. Still in Spanish at 2323; at 2328 a bit of English, but just introducing a song in --- Spanish! Thenceforward, I did not pay close attention but left it on in background and did not notice any more English before sign-off around 2400. RNV via Cuba, 11705, Oct 12 at 1241 check had very strong signal, but modulation cutting off and on about once per second. Impeded listening for content (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM. 4739.53v, R. TV. Son La (presumed), 1348-1400*, Oct 10, in Vietnamese, indigenous music and singing/chanting, audio quality varies from day to day. Today was somewhat mushy, fair-poor (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** YEMEN. 30/9 1358, 6135 kHz, fade/in YEMEN RTV - Sana'A, Musica locale e ID OM. Segnale insufficiente-sufficiente (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, RTZ 1940-2059* Oct 9. East African music with YL speaking occasionally in Swahili; 5+1 pips to ToH, then English news from Spice FM, beginning with "It's 11:00 East African Time;" back to Swahili at 2010 with a ten-minute commentary, then more music; Kor`an at 2055; closedown announcement at 2058, followed by anthem. Very enjoyable and a good signal, building to VG by 2058 (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R8, 100 foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) So another case of English news at 2000 instead of 1800 (gh) 11735, TANZANIA. R. Zanzibar, 2102, 10/9/08. Back in good form with Arabic influenced vocals. Steady S6 signal (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, Alpha Delta SWL Sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Should have been about to sign off, cf above (gh) ** ZIMBABWE. 4828, presumed ZBC Gweru, 2356-0006, Oct 7, vernacular. Continuous hi-life music; no ID/announcements noted; poor with occasional ute QRM; first time in months this one hasn't been covered by CODAR or a ute here (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60 m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1512 kHz: I noticed a Schlager/Hits station running without announcements carrying German pop. The signal varied considerably with a faint signal from Jeddah always underneath. Direction was as far as I could tell NW from my QTH which would mean Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel or Flensburg. Heard yesterday 2130-2315. Possibly a low power special event station? I hope Wolfgang or Kai can shed some light on this mystery. 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, Oct 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Steve Whitt via MWC today 0909 UT: Yesterday (Saturday) and today I have noticed a daytime signal from the SE playing back to back Dutch tunes (as typical of the Dutch pirates normally above 1600 kHz). No announcements of any sort heard. Signal is quite strong & well modulated. As soon as I sent the first message a DJ/announcer appeared on this station! Announcing an SMS number & mentioning Nord Holland (via Ydun Ritz, Denmark, ibid.) Why wouldn`t your first assumption be that it is the Wolvertem, Belgium, transmitter reactivated with a new client testing? It`s still in WRTH 2008, but missing from EMWG. Also, last I checked, Germany is not NW from England (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) O, dus toch wel. Overigens, als jullie toch naar piraten zitten te luisteren: hier bij mij in de buurt heeft een piraat kennelijk ontdekt dat de 1512 tegenwoordig "vrij" is. Een standaard piratenzender met polka´s e.d. O, nu net een aankondiging: noemt zich "Zanussi" uit Mastenbroek (dat is een gehucht net ten noordwesten van Zwolle). Aan het accent te horen zou dat kunnen kloppen. Knalt er hier uit natuurlijk. Iemand van jullie die ´m ook kan horen? JR (Jan Reint, Netherlands, ``11:11 AM`` Oct 12, BDX via DXLD) Jan, Die morgen kon ik die hier op de 1512 ook horen met een O=3. En momenteel (11h15) hoor ik hem nog (of is dat al een ander?) 73 (Hugo Matten DXA-232 / BDXC 2470 HMn. QTH: Veurne - België (51 1'56"N - 2 40'36"E) RX: AOR AR7030+, Kenwood R-5000, Sony ICF-6700W. ANT: Dipool 22,8m + 9,2 m, T2FD 17m, Wellbrook ALA - 1530 Loopantenne. Kruisdipool 137 MHz, ibid.) Hier met een S-4, Jan Reint. Dus zal wel een beetje power gebruiken anders was hij niet zo luid hier (Johan, PE9DX, ``11:51 AM`` Oct 12, ibid.) 1512 komt hier goed binnen met Polka "waar ik zoveel van hou...." (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, 1013 UT Oct 12, ibid.) ** UNIDENTIFIED. 5/10 0651, 7220 kHz. Solo portante e qualche tamburo. Segnale insufficiente-nullo. Prob. R. Centrafrique? (SWL I1- 0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) See also FRANCE UNIDENTIFIED. Re 8-111: 7712v. Nothing heard after my first logging Oct 7th 2008. Maybe this is a once-a-year tx running amok event. Me too considered the possibility of semi-harmonic in the 19 mb. Do we know any other broadcasters with known semi-harmonics (in Arabic) than Saudi Arabia? Around -1800- while checking this frequency portion, the only broadcast is China 7620. Also the EE "numbers lady" has a "always staying on" carrier on 7690. And of course a lot of ute-traffic in this frequency-area. Just to add an observation, at times I've noticed a "bubble-jammer"- like transmission on these "letters-lady" frequencies e.g. 7690 and 4880. Sounds like a jammer, but is only either USB or LSB. Just wonder if this is related to these numbers stations (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, Oct 11, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 9528, motorboating sound centered here, Oct 11 at 2145 past 2200. Could be a jammer or a maladjusted transmitter. Possibly Voice of Vietnam-1, 9530, which per Aoki signs on at this very hour, but that`s just when I tuned in and could have been on earlier. At 2258, noticed similar if not identical sound on 9478 aside Radio Netherlands 9475 in Indonesian via Tinang (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6/10 0649, 9990 kHz, Bubble Jamming -> ??? Segnale sufficiente-insufficiente (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 15058-15084, the range covered by a buzz rather like the old BSKSA problem, Oct 10 at 1320. The only broadcast transmitter listed in this range is Abis, Egypt on 15080, which has also had its problems (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks to Chuck Ermatinger, who contributed via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com (gh) DX-PEDITIONS ++++++++++++ LATEST DXPEDITION IN SOUTH AFRICA For those of you who like to follow my DXpedition exploits, the latest one is posted at: http://www.dxing.info/dxpeditions/jongensgat_2008_09.dx Something there for all. Have fun and good DX (John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa, Oct 11, MWDX yg via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: CUBA; ROMANIA [both QRM complaints] ++++++++++++++++++++ DTV: HAWAII. IBOC/HD: OKLAHOMA RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ CONTINENTAL ELECTRONICS, MANUFACTURERS OF SHORTWAVE TRANSMITTERS, ETC., CHANGES HANDS "Continental Electronics Corp., a maker of radio-frequency transmission equipment, has changed hands. The business, which has been based in South Dallas for all of its 62 years, was purchased for $24.5 million by Lone Star CRA Fund LP of Dallas. The seller was New York-based Veritas Capital. The privately held Continental manufactures radio-frequency transmitters used in high-definition radio broadcasting, AM and FM radio broadcasting and short-wave radio." http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2008/10/13/story16.html Dallas Business Journal, 10 October 2008. Posted: 12 Oct 2008 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Seems it has changed hands a few times already recent years (gh, DXLD) UHF AND OTHER ANTENNAS Channel Master has completely revised their entire line. The new CM catalog is available as a .pdf at: http://www.channelmasterintl.com/documentation/documentation.html (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, WTFDA via DXLD) Once was the industry standard especially for UHF dishes; no more (gh) LORENZO HEMMER CONVIERTE AL SER HUMANO EN ANTENA DE RADIO El artista mexicano Rafael Lozano-Hemmer ha instalado en el centro Barbican de Londres Frecuencia y volumen , una obra interactiva que hasta el próximo 18 de enero, convierte al espectador en una antena de radio poco convencional capaz de captar las ondas de la capital británica. A medida que el visitante se desplaza por la galería The Curve, una suerte de pasillo de forma curva en el que se muestra este trabajo, las dimensiones de su sombra proyectada en una pared blanquísima permiten sintonizar una emisora de radio. Así, la galería es concebida como una especie de enorme transistor en el que el ser humano es el dial que viaja de izquierda a derecha para fijar las distintas frecuencias no sólo de radio, también de taxi, comunicaciones de aviones o policía. Sin él, la obra de este mexicano afincado en Canadá muere, porque sólo habrá sonido cuando los proyectores de luz desplieguen sombras en la pared. (via José Miguel Romero, Noticiasdx yg via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ SOLAR-ACTIVITY FORECAST FOR THE PERIOD OCT 10 - 16, 2008 Activity level: very low Radio flux (10.7 cm): a fluctuation in the range 64-70 f.u. Flares: weak (0-2/day) Relative sunspot number: in the range 0-25 Astronomical Institute, Solar Dept., Ondrejov, Czech Republic e-mail: sunwatch(at) asu.cas.cz (RWC Prague) GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY FORECAST FOR THE PERIOD OCT 10 TO OCT 16, 2008 quiet: Oct 10, 14, 15 and 16 quiet to unsettled: Oct 13 unsettled: Oct 11 and 12 active: 0 minor storm: 0 major storm: 0 severe storm: 0 Geomagnetic activity summary: geomagnetic field was quiet from Oct 5 to 8, quiet to unsettled on Oct 4, unsettled on Oct 2 and 3. RWC Prague, Geophysical Institute Prague, Geomagnetic Dept, Czech Republic e-mail: geom(at)ig.cas. cz ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _ Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period of one solar rotation unsettled to active: Oct 11, 14-16,(27-28) , 31 active to disturbed: Oct 12-13, 29-30, quiet: Oct 10, 17-26, Nov 1-5 Survey: mostly quiet: Oct 7-8 quiet to unsettled: Oct 1, 5-6 unsettled to active: Oct 2-3 unsettled to disturbed: Oct 4 Notice: Days in brackets refer to a lower probability of possible solar activity enhancements depending on previous developments on the sun. Petr Kolman OK1MGW, Czech Propagation Interested Group e-mail: kolmanp (at) razdva.cz (via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) SUNSPOT ALERT 11 OCT 2008 Space Weather News for Oct. 11, 2008 http://spaceweather.com NEW SUNSPOT: A "new-cycle" sunspot belonging to Solar Cycle 24 is emerging near the sun's northeastern limb. This is the third time in as many weeks that a new-cycle sunspot has interrupted the year's remarkable run of blank suns. The accelerating pace of new-cycle sunspot production is an encouraging sign that, while solar activity remains very low, the sunspot cycle is unfolding more or less normally. We are not stuck in a permanent solar minimum. Readers with solar telescopes should train them on the sun this weekend to observe sunspot genesis in action. AURORA WATCH: Sky watchers from Alaska to Scandinavia should be alert for auroras tonight. A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and causing high-latitude geomagnetic storms. Visit http://spaceweather .com for images and updates. Sign up for free Space Weather News bulletins: http://spaceweather.com/services/ (via James Welsh, Oct 11, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) ###