DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-128, December 16, 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 SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1439 Wed 2200 WBCQ 15420-CUSB Thu 0630 WRMI 9955 Thu 1530 WRMI 9955 Fri 0030 WBCQ 7415 Fri 0200 WRMI 9955 Fri 0900 WRMI 9955 Fri 2030 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 7290 Fri 2130 WWCR1 15825 Sat 0000 WBCQ 5110-CUSB Area 51 Sat 0900 WRMI 9955 Sat 1730 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Mon 2300 WBCQ 7415 [confirmed December 8] Tue 1200 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 9955 Wed 0630 WRMI 9955 [or new 1440] Wed 1230 WRMI 9955 [or new 1440] WBCQ is also airing recent archive editions of WOR M-F 2000 on 7415; except on Wednesday or Thursday this should be the latest edition. 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. Malfunctioning exciter causing warble, today Dec 10 around 0730 UT on 9494-9496 kHz. Listen to the Sukhumi Abkhazia outlet. Similar malfunctioning transmitter noted some 2 months ago, also by Erich Bergmann. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Dec 10, with an mp3 clip, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALASKA. New AM 1430 In Alaska --- AM RADIO GOES LIVE IN VALLEY by Lori Tipton Friday, December 12, 2008 WASILLA, Alaska -- A new radio station has hit the airwaves in the Mat-Su Valley, much to the chagrin of neighbors who live near the radio tower. The new, 1,000-watt station -- 1430 AM -- has been up and running since Wednesday afternoon. Spirit of Alaska broadcasting, which owns KMBQ-FM, has successfully installed a new AM radio tower near Cottonwood Creek. The broadcasting company received its FCC license Friday. It's the first- ever AM radio station based in Wasilla. But it didn't come easy. The station's owner, John Klapperich, said he almost missed the deadline to get the license because of a delay building the tower caused by his neighbors. In mid-October, Klapperich hit a road block when his neighbors built a barricade on the road to his property. Even though it's a Mat-Su Borough road, the road wasn't built where it was supposed to be and actually runs across private property. The neighbors say they oppose the tower because it sits on wetlands. "The bottom line is get your tower up, make your money, it doesn't matter what you do to the people around you," said neighbor Bonnye Matthews. And both Matthews and Barry Wise fear the health effects of the radio waves. Matthews says when she expressed that concern to Klapperich, he didn't seem to care. "His response to me was, ‘If I can't build my tower, then I'll sell it to somebody else who will build one with a stronger signal,'" she said. But Klapperich said research showed he was not harming anyone's health. So he went ahead with construction. Klapperich and six others worked nearly two weeks to install the tower. "The entire project was put in by hand, Flintstone technology, literally," Klapperich said. The crew manually piled a 750-pound piece of steel into the ground and used a pulley system to get the tower up. The neighbors say they will continue to fight Klapperich by contacting state and federal agencies. But because the FCC has approved his license, Klapperich says it's a done deal. "I'd like to think it was the best for the community, the neighbors, and Mother Earth, if I may," he said. Whether Valley residents like it or not, KMBQ-FM can now also be heard on the AM dial. "We're simulcasting KMBQ-FM until we design some new, local-originated programming," Klapperich said. (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) My thoughts... Some people need to get a life. If they're so worried about radio waves, then need to get rid of satelitte tv, cellphones and microwaves. In a KTUU-TV Anchor article, two neighbors were quoted as saying: "Matthews and Wise say they both have brain damage caused by poisoning and are fearful the tower will have a neurological effect." http://www.ktuu.com/global/story.asp?s=9409554 You think those two neighbors wear tinfoil hats too? -- Sincerely, (Paul B. Walker, Jr., NE, IRCA via DXLD) They're telling the TV station they have health and environmental fears. The truth is that their fears are aesthetic. They don't want to have to look at something that isn't a tree or a McMansion. (What's happening in this country if someone can't find enough land where neighbors will let him build a radio tower ***IN ALASKA***?!) -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, NRC-AM via DXLD) Seems to me that those who claim to already have 'brain damage' from some sort of toxin or other and now fear the radio waves will make it worse ought not to be taken seriously in the first place. Next they'll be telling the press that the radio tower will be a magnet for space aliens (Russ Edmunds, PA, ibid.) Déjà vu ... I wrote an SF story once with exactly that as the premise. The station had to make do with a longwire stretched between two poles, and most of the signal shot straight up (Paul Swearingen, shiverin' in Topeka, ibid.) What's sadder here, to my mind, is the way in which scientific fact is simply dismissed, if not ignored completely, by most of the parties involved - not just the neighbors but also the news media covering the story. Little niceties like the inverse-square rule, the difference between ionizing radiation at 800 or 1900 MHz and non-ionizing radiation at 1.4 MHz, and even the question of whether a human body that's maybe two meters tall can be affected at all by radiation at a 250-meter wavelength? Too detailed for most of today's media, sadly. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) Or that different frequencies affect different parts of the human body. Years ago, one of my coworkers, who had lived in Alaska when they were younger, told the story of someone who had erected a modest TV antenna. Seems the neighbors didn't like it and they started shooting at it, literally, with firearms, because it ruined their view of the nearby mountain. 73 de (Joe Miller, KJ8O, Troy, MI, ibid.) ** ALBANIA. The schedule of CRI via Albania is the following (the best frequency to hear is the first mentioned): 0000-0200 6020, 9570 English 0200-0400 6020, 9570 Chinese 0500-0600 7220 English (RRI booming in, Romanian, only traces of CRI) 0500-0700 5985, 7210 (ex 7120, past 0730 RRI stronger), 9590 Arabic 0600-0700 11750 English (weak) 0700-0900 11785 English 0700-0900 11855 Chinese 0900-1000 9460, 7285 (ex 7130) Romanian 1100-1200 7220 (ex 7130) Bulgarian 1100-1300 13665 English 1200-1300 7345 (ex 7130) Serbian 1400-1600 11920, 13670 French 1500-1600 7230 (ex 7120), 9565 Turkish 1600-1800 5970, 7155 German 1600-1800 9555, 11735 Arabic 1800-2000 7180, 5970, 6055 (also R Slovakia), 7385 (new fq, bad choice, Tibet stronger, CRI very weak) French 2000-2200 7285, 5960 (QRM) English 2000-2200 7215, 6185 Arabic 2200-2300 6175 Portuguese 2200-2400 7210 Spanish No broadcasts at 0400-0500, 1000-1100, 1300-1400 UT. Almost all frequencies with strong signal. Radio Tirana with half of the power: 0000-0130 6110, 9345 (not 7425) Albanian [0130-0145 missed English, allegedly still on 9345 --- gh] 0245-0300 7390 English 0330-0400 6110 English 0430-0500 6100 English 0730-1000 7360 Albanian 1530-1600 13720 English (not audible every day due to high fq) 1800-1830 7465 Italian 1830-1900 7465 French 1900-1915 6010 Serbian 1945-2000 7465, 11645 English 2001-2030 7465, 6155 Italian 2031-2100 7465 German very weak at the beginning 2100-2130 7510, 9345 English 2130-2300 6005, 9345 Albanian So at the moment 4 transmitters from "Cërrik" for CRI, 2 at "Shijak" for Radio Tirana (Udo Krüger, Dec. 10, Germany? Dec WWDXC DX Magazine via DXLD) ** ALGERIA [non]. RTA, 5865 via FRANCE, Dec 12 with Qur`an until abrupt cutoff at 0657*. Allah`ll get `em for that (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISITENING DIGEST) ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS [and non]. [How to distinguish Port Blair from other 4760 stations by precision frequency measurement] INDIA / SWAZILAND - Terzett auf 4760 kHz. Es hat was von Feinarbeit; gestern Nachmittag, um 4760 kHz: 1118:06 UT - s/on auf 4760.029 kHz [Leh, see below] mit s/off um 1630:23 UT. 1155 UT - f/in auf 4759.987 kHz [Pt. Blair], kein s/off vor 1715 UT (Ende der Aufnahme) 1555:50 UT - TWR Swaziland s/on, auf 4760.001 kHz hoerbar, schnell staerker werdend, s/off 1659:15 UTC Wer fummelt denn fuer dieses Jahr mal die ersten beiden Frequenzen Leh / Pt. Blair auseinander? (Nils Schiffhauer, Germany, DK8OK, A-DX Dec 9 via Dec WWDXC DX Magazine via DXLD) Die Antwort kommt morgens gegen 0100 / 0230 UT am einfachsten: Da erklaert sich durch die unterschiedlichen s/on Zeiten schnell das 4760.029 kHz aus dem Himalaya kommt und 4759.987 kHz direkt aus der Andamanensee zu uns wandert (Christoph Ratzer, Austria, OE2CRM, A-DX Dec 10 via Dec WWDXC DX Magazine via DXLD) To be pointed out: Reception was with PERSEUS and else equipment (Walter Eibl, ed, ibid.) INDIA, ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS, AIR Port Blair, 4760, f/d letter received in 20 days via email for mailed report with 2 IRC's. V/S: P. P. Babby, Station Engineer. CORRECT email address: airportblair @ rediffmail.com Wrong on AIR website. Asks for further reports and tells a little about the islands and their fate since the tsunami. Haven't had much time for DXing lately, with various infrastructure emergencies at the worksite and the additional burden of planning a 5000-subscriber ISP network at Kandahar Air Base, where I will be spending time along with Kabul in the near future. Best 73 de (Al Muick, Afghanistan, HCDX via DXLD) ** ANGUILLA. 6090, University Network with Pastor Barbi er Melissa Scott, "EE" talk about Pre-Socratic philosophy and ancient cults (the point being that cults are not new) and mispronouncing such complicated Greek names as Pythagoras (which she said like pith-a- GORE-us --- took me the longest time to figure out WHO she was talking about, and I finally got it when she mentioned he advocated against eating beans and is the name every high school math student learns because of the theorem about right triangles that bears his name!) She went into great detail about how his whole philosophy would fall apart if they only had "Bean-o"! Apparently she's not heard of the very serious food allergy (medical condition? I'm not sure what you'd call it) of favism where eating beans can make you ill to the point of death which is likely where this element of Pythagoras` philosophical platform comes from. Which leads me to a thought that came to me a while ago about this. Q: Who would Barbi --- er, Pastor Melissa be if she'd gone into politics instead of Porno- er, Religion? A: Sarah Palin! Think about it -- the similarities are amazing. Good looking but not a whole lot of depth, and little appreciation that there SHOULD be some depth if you want authority. I must admit I found all this particularly funny since I had just finished eating a plate of baked beans at the DXpedition! SIO 555 0210-0215 6/Dec (Ken Zichi, MI, DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. R Argentina, 11710.83 at 2325 on 16 Dec. in Portuguese with het. Barely audible. Second weaker het heard (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RAE off-frequency: see BRAZIL ** ASCENSION [non]. Re 8-127: Bambara is the most important language in Mali. And Wikipedia claims that 90 percent of the people in Mali are Muslims. So it is quite obvious that missionary programmes in Bambara are primarily an attempt to convert Muslims to Christians (their number in Mali is just 2 percent, Protestants and Catholics combined). I would consider such activities as sensitive, too. Btw, are there any broadcasts that try to attract European and American people to the Muslim religion? Of course there are numerous Quran programs around, especially from state broadcasting services in Muslim countries, but they are all in Arabic, thus have definitely zero impact in "the West". (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kai, I don't think there's any station specifically trying to convert Europeans or Americans to Islam (like an Islamic TWR/AWR). Some of the broadcasters from Islamic countries I've heard (e.g Iran, Egypt, Kuwait) usually have some kind of short segment that talks about the Koran or Islam. Whether these segments succeed in gaining new converts probably depends on the listener's own volition (Jon Pukila, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. What's the future of Radio Australia and other ABC Services? Have your say here... --- See http://www.abc.net.au/corp/haveyoursay/ Australia's ABC is in the process of defining what it wants to do for during next three years of funding (parts of 2009-parts of 2012) and beyond as it contemplates a digital future. A vision for the year 2020 is also a goal of this initiative. A link to this "Have Your Say" outreach appears on the Radio Australia website, therefore I recommend we non-citizens put our two cents in as well (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, swprograms via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. ABC Radio National -- Summer Season begins December 15th As you may know, Australia and New Zealand largely go on holiday from mid-December through mid-January, and there are significant changes to programming on the spoken-word networks such as Radio New Zealand National, RNZI, ABC Radio National, and RA. The ABC Radio National summer schedule will be posted on December 12th, and appears to begin taking effect on December 15th. Exactly how this will play out on Radio Australia isn't yet known, but much of Radio Australia programming originates from Radio National. See http://www.abc.net.au/rn/summer/default.htm (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, swprograms via DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. ORF 1476 kHz. Tonight Wolf wrote me that the decision about 1476 has been made: Mediumwave will be closed down, the special programming at present carried there will remain online and probably expanded there. That's official and can go public now (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BENIN, 1566, TWR, Parakou, 1703-1725, 13 Dec, Vernacular, Afr. songs, talks; 54444, much better than the VoA 1530 STP at same time. 5025, ORTB, Parakou, 1414-1642, 13 Dec, almost inaudible audio; 15441, then same situation at 1630 when rated 35433, so they keep spoiling a fair carrier with a useless modulation level (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA [non]. This week`s ASSIGNMENT on BBCWS is an excellent documentary about the strife here and the reasons for it. I heard it Thu Dec 11 at 2006 on live stream, but should be ondemand for a while (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4555, R. Virgen de Remedios (presumed), Tupiza. December 14, Spanish, 2354 religious talks "tenemos en Cristo un solo cuerpo...", 2358-0010 religious music with that reverb from inside a church, alternating talks, mentioning "Cochabamba". Partially readable 22322 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) One of several frequencies this one has jumped around to; last reported here on 4555 in early Sept (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL [and non]. Cultura SP fora de frequência --- as ondas curtas da RádioCultura SP, 6170 kHz, que retransmite a FM clássicos, está com harmônicos [sic] em 6098 interferindo em 6090 kHz da Rádio Bandeirantes. A Cultura não acerta mesmo as ondas curtas de 31m e nem a de 49m. Já faz tempo que labutam para isso. Quando tiraram do ar as ondas curtas, melhor fora não ter voltado. Que tirem de vez, se é para atrapalhar o espectro já perturbado com tanta interferência. A Clube Paranaense retirou do ar 6040 kHz de 49m. Simultaneamente a Guarujá também a 5980 kHz. Ambas fazem parceria com a Eldorado. Será que haverá mais desativações de ondas curtas???? A Clube já não atuava em 31m e 25 m havia muito tempo. A RAE é mais uma que está fora de frequência. Deveria estar em 6060 kHz, mas não está. Provoca espúrios e harmônicos adoidados no começo da faixa de 49m. [ARGENTINA, reported around 5940-5950v] Nota-se que os donos das emissoras em geral (nem todas mas a maioria) não estão muito preocupados com as ondas curtas. 73 (Luiz Chaine Neto, Limeira sp, Dec 16, radioescutas yg via DXLD) What a shame that one of the few Brazilian SW stations left with decent non gospel-huxter programming should be such an engineering mess (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9615, 11/12 0921, R. Cultura, São Paulo SP, com 7.5 kW, comentário sobre o aniversario dos direitos humanos, mx mpb, som distorcido, 34333 (Jorge Freitas - Feira de Santana BA - Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL: 10000 kHz - Observatório Nacional - Rio de Janeiro/RJ-B. Recebida confirmação por e-mail. 3 dias. V/S: Ricardo José de Carvalho (Chefe da Divisão Serviço de Hora). QTH: dsh @ on.br (Ivan Dias, Sorocaba, SP, Brasil, @tividade DX Dec 14 via DXLD) A Direção do ON, eles estão recebendo e respondendo diretamente todos os informe recebidos, que até o momento já passam dos 80, dentre eles, 16 países diferentes. Obrigado, 73, (Denis Zoqbi, Dec 15, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Nieuw Braziliaans station op 9819.54 kHz, 2118 UT, Radio 9 de Julho, São Paulo SP. Met Portugees talks en full ID, sinpo 33333, Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, Dec 11, bdx via DXLD) 9819.5, R. Nove de Julho, 2156-2210, 12 Dec, A Voz do Brasil, talks; 23431, no QRM as from 2200 but rapidly deteriorating. 9819.5, R. 9 de Julho, 1228-1255, 13 Dec, interview about the UCSP, the Catholic University of S. Paulo; 24442 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. RNA, 11780, VG signal Dec 13 at 2322, but audio cutting out every few sex. Weakest link syndrome (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 11804.7, R. Globo, Rio de Janº RJ, 2144-2209, 12 Dec, A Voz do Brasil followed by an IPDA [relig.] propaganda program at 2202; 24432. 11804.7, R.Globo, 1233-1300, 13 Dec, religious propaganda program including translation into Castilian; 25442 till being blocked by the VoA in what seemed be Dari or Farsi. 11960 (spur?), R. Globo, 2142-2204, 12 Dec, cf. 11804.7; 25433, distorted (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 12019.50 harmonic, R Inconfidência, Belo Horizonte, MG, 2052, Nov 29, "Paradão Inconfidência", (2 x 6009.75), 34433 (Samuel Cássio/@-tividade DX, São Carlos, Brazil, DSWCI DX Window Dec 10 via DXLD) ** BULGARIA [and non]. 11700, Dec 16 at 1412, motorboating sound which I at first feared was a new defect at R. Bulgaria, but the carrier was steady and it soon went away; may have been OTH radar, uncovering weak signal from RB music // much better 15700 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Re 8-127: CHU has started announcing the upcoming frequency change from 7335 to 7850, heard on 7335 Dec 11 at 0723:15 in French, 0724:15 in English, alternating from minute to minute; and the pips are deleted for the duration of each brief message, referring to http://nrc.gc.ca/inms which leads to this as already quoted in DXLD: http://inms-ienm.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/common_files/stories/chu/communique_e.pdf (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello Glen[n], A voice announcement regarding the frequency change, was put on the air as of 2200 UTC, Dec 10. Regarding the leap second, a leap second will be ADDED at the end of December. This information comes from the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) bulletin B. CHU passes on this information as part of being a national time lab. No voice announcement have been given regarding a pending leap second. Those using the code to set computers can read this information. The leap bit in the code was added December 1. If the earth is slowing down, the days get slightly longer. That is why a leap second is added (Raymond Pelletier, National Research Council Canada, Dec 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) After 2000 UT tune in to CHU on all three frequencies, Friday, December 12, heard at 15 seconds past the minute CHU announcing "Beginning January 1st 2009 time signal transmissions on 7335 will be moved to 7850 kHz. Visit nrc.gc.ca/inms". Repeated in French at 15 seconds past the next minute and so on. The given web address works (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, Dec 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. 9625, CBCNQ seems Inuk, but heavy QRM from FEBC 6 Hz away in listed Khmu language with Aleluya hymn Dec 12 running past 1400 to 1401 Jesus Saves IS and off. Meanwhile, CBC with French ID, then English news at 1400, distorted modulation. As soon as FEBC went off I could hear BBCWS news in English as well, which is via Cyprus. 9650, KBSWR via Sackville, when tuned in Dec 12 at 1405 was just an open carrier, but Korean modulation kicked in at 1406. But the next morning, Dec 13, no Sackville frequencies heard! Must be the ice storm in the Maritimes downing powerlines, if not damaging antennas too. Does Sackville not have any backup power generating capability? I did not attempt to check all possible frequencies, but these were absent: at 1439, BBC sports via Cyprus in the clear on 9625, no sign of NQ service. 9650, normally a big signal with KBS in Korean, missing. 9610, no RCI at 1510. 13675, no CRI relay before 1600, no Austria after 1600. Checked around 1830, RCI still missing from 9610, 11805, 13650 at least; this power outage page shows none at Sackville or Moncton, and just a few elsewhere in NB: http://www.nbpower.com/en/customers/residential/outages/outages.aspx Oops, I should have gone to the business rather than residential outage page: http://www.nbpower.com/en/customers/business/outages/outages.aspx But that shows zero outages as of 2336 UT when Sackville frequencies still missing. BTW, Sackville`s nearest neighboring SW station, WBCQ, was operating normally, heard after 1500 with Brother Scare both on 9330 and 15420+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I just spoke with another "Rob" at the Sackville Transmitting Station by phone, he says the power is out. No known antenna damage, though can't tell for sure until they can come back on line (Rob Peebles, W8LX, Dublin, Ohio, 1926 UT Dec 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: I assume RCI and relays are off the air, as I was informed that Sackville has been without power since 0100 UT Dec 13. They don't think power will be back until at least 1800 UT Monday. They told me the problem has been traced to the "main sub-station," which may mean the main sub-station at the transmitter site since they are talking about power company people working at the site with them and the fact that they are sourcing replacement switch-gear, whatever that is (Jeff White, FL, Dec 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here extracted from Aoki are all the Sackville entries, where we may look for something else, or find when SAC really returns. Note some China were still labeled B-07, and Vietnam 6175, but I think most of these are the same in B-08. This may come in handy later if and when Sackville is back in full business. Note strange power of 167 kW for Vatican Radio on 6040, 9610 --- that of course, is two thirds of 250 kW – probably a bookkeeping trick to even out the time traded. B08 Shortwave Frequency list December 13, 2008 Day 1 = Sunday FREQ STATION UTC Su-W-Sa Language Pow Azi 5960 R.JAPAN 0200-0300 1234567 Japanese 250 240 5960 R.JAPAN 0300-0400 1234567 Japanese 250 240 5960 R.JAPAN 0400-0500 1234567 Japanese 250 240 5960 CHINA RADIO INTER. 0500-0557 1234567 English 250 253 5960 CHINA RADIO INTER. 1100-1157 1234567 Chinese 250 240 6000 R.PRAGUE 2330-2357 1234567 Spanish 250 212 6005 CHINA RADIO INTER. 0000-0057 1234567 Chinese 250 277 6005 CHINA RADIO INTER. 0100-0157 1234567 English 250 277 6010 R.SWEDEN 0200-0230 1234567 Swedish 250 240 6010 R.SWEDEN 0230-0300 1234567 English 250 268 6010 R.SWEDEN 0300-0330 1234567 Swedish 250 277 6010 R.SWEDEN 0330-0400 1234567 English 250 277 6040 R.MONTE CARLO 0300-0330 1234567 Arabic 250 240 6040 VATICAN RADIO 0230-0250 1234567 French 167 240 6040 VATICAN RADIO 0250-0320 1234567 English 167 240 6040 VATICAN RADIO 0320-0357 1234567 Spanish 167 240 6045 KBS WORLD RADIO 0600-0630 1234567 Spanish 250 60 6080 CHINA RADIO INTER. DRM 0100-0157 1234567 English 70 277 6080 R.PRAGUE 0400-0427 1234567 English 250 168 6100 R.CANADA INT. -March 7 0100-0159 1234567 Spanish 250 240 6100 R.CANADA INT. -March 7 2105-2205 1234567 French 250 268 6100 R.CANADA INT. -March 7 2205-2305 1234567 Chinese 250 268 6100 R.CANADA INT. -March 7 2205-2305 1234567 Spanish 250 268 6100 R.CANADA INT. -March 7 2305-2400 1234567 Spanish 250 268 6100 Radio Republica [M-F] 1100-1200 1234567 Spanish 100 227 6100 R.SWEDEN 0030-0100 1234567 Swedish 250 227 6115 CHINA RADIO INTER. 0600-0657 1234567 English 250 277 6120 R.JAPAN 1000-1030 1234567 Spanish 250 240 6120 R.JAPAN 1200-1230 1234567 English 250 240 6145 R.JAPAN 0000-0020 1234567 English 250 240 6175 VOICE OF VIETNAM 0100-0130 1234567 English 250 212 6175 VOICE OF VIETNAM 0130-0230 1234567 Vietnamese 250 212 6175 VOICE OF VIETNAM 0230-0300 1234567 English 250 212 6175 VOICE OF VIETNAM 0300-0330 1234567 Spanish 250 212 6175 VOICE OF VIETNAM 0330-0400 1234567 English 250 212 6175 VOICE OF VIETNAM 0400-0427 1234567 Spanish 250 212 6175 VOICE OF VIETNAM 0430-0500 1234567 Vietnamese 250 240 6175 VOICE OF VIETNAM 0500-0527 1234567 Vietnamese 250 240 6190 CHINA RADIO INTER. 0300-0357 1234567 Spanish 250 277 6190 CHINA RADIO INTER. 0400-0457 1234567 English 250 277 6190 CHINA RADIO INTER. 0500-0557 1234567 English 250 277 7310 R.CANADA INT. -March 7 1205-1305 1234567 Arabic 250 277 7310 R.CANADA INT. -March 7 1305-1405 1234567 Spanish 250 277 7325 VOICE OF TURKEY 0400-0455 1234567 English 250 277 9490 R.SWEDEN 0000-0030 1234567 Swedish 250 163 9520 R.NEDERLAND 2300-2357 1234567 Dutch 250 189 9560 KBS WORLD RADIO 0200-0230 1234567 Spanish 250 277 9560 KBS WORLD RADIO 0230-0300 1234567 English 250 277 9560 CHINA RADIO INTER. 1200-1257 1234567 English 250 240 9610 R.CANADA INT. 1405-1505 1234567 Chinese 250 277 9610 R.CANADA INT. 1505-1535 1.....7 Russian 250 277 9610 R.CANADA INT. 1505-1605 .23456. Russian 250 277 9610 R.CANADA INT. 1535-1605 1.....7 Ukrainian 250 277 9610 R.CANADA INT. 1605-1805 1234567 English 250 277 9610 R.CANADA INT. 1805-2005 1234567 French 250 277 9610 R.CANADA INT. 2005-2105 1234567 Arabic 250 277 9610 VATICAN RADIO 0030-0057 1234567 Portuguese 167 163 9610 VATICAN RADIO 0100-0142 1234567 Spanish 167 176 9610 VATICAN RADIO 0145-0227 1234567 Spanish 167 176 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1200-1230 .23456. Inuktitut 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1230-1400 .23456. Cree 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1200-1500 ......7 English 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1200-1700 1...... English 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1400-1500 .23456. Inuktitut 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1500-1600 ......7 French 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1500-1700 .23456. English 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1600-2200 ......7 English 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1700-1900 1...... French 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1700-2400 .23456. Inuktitut 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 1900-2000 1...... English 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 2000-2100 1...... Inuktitut 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 2100-2200 1...... English 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 2200-2300 1...... French 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 2200-2300 ......7 Aboriginal 100 348 [what`s this Aboriginal language if not Cree or Inuktitut?] 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 2300-2400 1.....7 English 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 0000-0100 1234567 English 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 0100-0400 ..34567 Inuktitut 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 0100-0615 12..... English 100 348 9625 CBC Radio Nord Quebec 0400-0615 ..34567 English 100 348 9650 KBS WORLD RADIO 1200-1300 1234567 English 250 268 9650 KBS WORLD RADIO 1400-1500 1234567 Korean 250 268 9755 R.CANADA INT. 2305-0005 1234567 Spanish 250 268 9755 R.CANADA INT. 0005-0105 1234567 English 250 268 9755 R.CANADA INT. 0005-0105 1234567 English 250 268 9755 R.CANADA INT. 0105-0135 12..... Portuguese 250 268 9755 R.CANADA INT. 0105-0205 ..34567 English 250 268 9755 R.CANADA INT. 0135-0205 12..... Ukrainian 250 268 9755 R.CANADA INT. 0205-0305 1234567 Spanish 250 268 9755 R.CANADA INT. 0205-0305 1234567 Chinese 250 268 9755 R.CANADA INT. 0305-0405 1234567 Spanish 250 268 9785 Radio Republica [off ya] 0000-0200 1234567 Spanish 100 227 9790 TDP RADIO DRM 2300-2400 1234567 English 70 227 9795 R.JAPAN 0900-1000 1234567 Japanese 250 163 9800 R.CANADA INT. DRM 1505-1534 1.....7 Russian 70 268 9800 R.CANADA INT. DRM 1505-1604 .23456. Russian 70 268 9800 R.CANADA INT. DRM 1535-1604 1.....7 Ukrainian 70 268 9800 R.CANADA INT. DRM 1605-1804 1234567 English 70 268 9800 R.CANADA INT. DRM 1805-2004 1234567 French 70 268 9800 VATICAN RADIO DRM 2045-2130 1234567 English 70 268 9800 R.CANADA INT. DRM 2200-2300 1234567 English 70 268 11705 R.JAPAN 1400-1430 1234567 English 250 240 11795 KBS WORLD RADIO 1100-1200 1234567 Spanish 250 176 11805 R.CANADA INT. 1800-1859 1234567 English 250 105 11835 Radio Republica [ya off] 2200-2300 1.....7 Spanish 100 227 11835 Radio Republica [ya off] 2300-2400 1234567 Spanish 100 227 11845 R.CANADA INT. 2100-2159 1234567 French 250 92 11865 R.CANADA INT. 2000-2059 1234567 Arabic 250 73 11885 CHINA RADIO INTER. 1300-1357 1234567 English 250 272 11970 CHINA RADIO INTER. 2300-2357 1234567 English 250 285 11990 R.CANADA INT. 2200-2300 1....67 Portuguese 250 163 11990 R.CANADA INT. 2300-2359 1234567 Spanish 250 176 11990 R.CANADA INT. 0000-0059 1234567 Spanish 250 176 12025 HCJB QUITO [NOT all Arabic]2100-2145 1234567 Arabic 250 73 12025 HCJB QUITO 2145-2215 ....56. Arabic 250 73 13630 R.JAPAN 1030-1100 1234567 Portuguese 250 163 13650 R.CANADA INT. 1800-1859 1234567 English 250 73 13650 R.CANADA INT. 1900-1959 1234567 French 250 73 13650 R.CANADA INT. 2000-2059 1234567 Arabic 250 73 13675 CHINA RADIO INTER. 1400-1457 1234567 English 250 272 13675 CHINA RADIO INTER. 1500-1557 1234567 Chinese 250 272 13675 R.OESTERREICH INT. 1600-1700 1234567 Ge/English 250 272 13700 CHINA RADIO INTER. 2200-2257 1234567 Spanish 250 176 13730 R.CANADA INT. 2300-2359 1234567 Spanish 250 176 15230 CHINA RADIO INTER. 1300-1357 1234567 Chinese 250 240 15230 CHINA RADIO INTER. 1400-1457 1234567 English 250 240 15305 R.CANADA INT. 2000-2100 1....67 Portuguese 250 163 15305 R.CANADA INT. 2100-2200 1....67 Portuguese 250 163 15305 R.CANADA INT. 2200-2300 1....67 Portuguese 250 163 15365 R.CANADA INT. 1800-1859 1234567 English 250 105 15365 R.CANADA INT. 1900-1959 1234567 French 250 105 17765 R.CANADA INT. 2000-2100 1....67 Portuguese 250 163 17765 R.CANADA INT. 2100-2200 1....67 Portuguese 250 163 17790 R.CANADA INT. 1800-1859 1234567 English 250 105 17790 R.CANADA INT. 1900-1959 1234567 French 250 105 (from Aoki/NDXC, reformatted, annotated by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) All RCI/CBC/CRI relay frequencies, etc., still missing Sunday morning Dec 14. Jeff White hears from Sackville that they don`t expect to have power back until 1800 UT Monday. There`s something wrong with the switching at the main power substation; apparently not related to the ice storm in New England. Sackville is still off the air Dec 16, instead of resuming as hoped by 1800 Dec 15. Before and after 1400 checked several frequencies and nothing there: 7310, 9625, 9650, 15230. So not only Radio Canada Internal, which is of very little interest anymore to the non-immigrant, but several other stations have lost their big signals into North America: CRI, KBS World Radio, NHKWNRJ, Voice of Vietnam, R. Austria, R. Sweden, Vatican Radio, R. Prague, R. Nederland, R. Monte Carlo, V. of Turkey. Worst-hit must be KBS and VOV which are pretty hard to hear direct in North America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CFRX 6070 appears to have been totally off the air for a few weeks. Can anyone confirm or update us on its status? Is Steve Canney on this list, and if not, why not? 73, (Glenn Hauser, Dec 11 ODXA yg via DXLD) Glenn, CFRX is essentially an "engineers toy". When it's on it's on -- - when it's off, it's off. C'est la vie. And to make demands that someone be on a particular e-mail list is a bit much. People have lives...spouses, families, kids, jobs etc. Much as many of us would like to spend a good chunk of our time online and/or twiddling the radio dials, for most of us life simply doesn't allow us to do this. This is only a hobby...not a full-time profession. 73 (Bob VE3SRE Chandler, ibid.) I am not making demands. I know Steve was once on this list when I did a search, but apparently not since several years ago. BTW, there have not been any posts to the CFRX yg which I think he may own, since Nov. 12. Since ODXA is in charge of QSLing CFRX, one would assume ODXA would be a bit more interested in keeping everyone informed about the status of the station. Steve seems to be the conduit for such info, so at least we may learn something second- or third-hand. Keeping up with CFRX comings and goings should not amount to being a ``full-time profession``. Perhaps it`s not so strange that there is more interest in CFRX outside Ontario than inside. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) This from Steve Canney today: Not a big update but I had an e-mail back from the engineer the other day indicating the section of the new transmitter causing problems is off getting fixed by the manufacturer, hence CFRX being off the air once again. No idea when it'll be up and running ....ugh! On the up-side, I've received a number of interesting reception reports from DXers in Europe for CFRB 1010 over the last few months (via Harold Sellers, VA3DXO, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, Managing Editor, "Listening In" Ontario DX Association http://www.odxa.on.ca Dec 13, ODXA yg via DXLD) An old friend is back! I am listening to CFRX 6070 right now 12/16 1730 UT with its usual good signal. They were not on the air yesterday. How long were they off? (Bill Harms, Elkridge, Maryland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mid-november, I think (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, and how is the modulation vis-à-vis the signal? (gh, DXLD) Decent signal in central Texas at 2320z with traffic report. Some fading but no obvious interference as heard on my Satellite 800 here at work (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, ibid.) Nothing here at 2345. 73/(Liz Cameron, MI, ibid.) Interesting! They are now off here too at 2350 12/16. Wonder what is going on (Bill Harms, Elkridge, Maryland, ibid.) No sign after 0000 on 17 Dec. They certainly seem to be irregular. 73/ (Liz Cameron, ibid.) Maybe they got the message how pointless it is to broadcast at night when CVC Chile is on 6070? (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. MS good again - 1 FM ID --- On 88.9 here, tons of French and Classical last night. The French likely CKSB-FM-1, but nothing identifiable. And the Classical - who knows! (Dave Williams, Redmond, OR, Dec 13, WTFDA via DXLD) During the Geminid meteor shower (gh) CKSB-FM-1 should be classical. Isn't CBUX-FM-1 in Victoria on the same network? Are the Chaine Culturelle stations in parallel nationwide or do they have separate feeds for different time zones? General rule about Canadian relay station callsigns... The number follows the callsign of the station being relayed. CKSB-2-FM: the number 2 follows "CKSB". The station relays CKSB -- an AM station. (which happens to be on 1050 in Winnipeg and carries the first French network) CKSB-FM-2: the number 2 follows "CKSB-FM". The station relays CKSB-FM. (89.9 Winnipeg, with the second French network) Callsigns of FM stations always contain the -FM suffix. CKSB-2: has no -FM suffix. This relay station is on *AM* 860. (and relays CKSB 1050. I'm not sure what they'd do if someone used an AM station to relay an FM!) -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, WTFDA via DXLD) ** CANADA. Application of CKDH-900 Amherst NS to move to FM Postponed The application to move CKDH-900 Amherst NS to FM, which was to be considered at the CRTC hearing starting today (Dec 16), will instead be considered at a hearing starting Jan 26 of next year. It seems that the CRTC goofed when they published the notice - the correct FM frequency is 101.7 MHz (18.7 kW, 32 metres) not 107.1 MHz as indicated in the Oct 17 notice. Preamble for item 40 This application will be considered, subject to interventions, in the non-appearing phase of the public hearing. The Commission will consider the interventions and replies relating to this application already placed on the public file for Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 2008-13. 40. Amherst, Nova Scotia Application No. 2008-0816-5 Application by Maritime Broadcasting System Limited to convert the radio station CKDH Amherst from the AM band to the FM band. The new station would operate on frequency 101.7 MHz (channel 269B) with an average effective radiated power of 18,700 watts (maximum effective radiated power of 40,000 watts with an average effective height of antenna above average terrain of 32 metres). The applicant proposes an Adult Contemporary music format. The applicant is requesting permission to simulcast the programming of the new FM station on CKDH for a period of three months following the commencement of operations of the FM station. The applicant is also requesting, pursuant to sections 9(1)(e) and 24(1) of the Broadcasting Act, the revocation of the licence of CKDH effective at the end of the simulcast period. 73, (via Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, Dec 16, DXLD) ** CHAD. With RNT reported reactivated on 4905 in the evenings, I have wanted to check for it in the mornings, but haven`t managed to as early as 0430. However, Dec 13 at 0613, there was a weak signal with indistinct modulation, CODAR QRM, presumably Chad (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4905, R. Natle. Tchadienne, Gredia (I don't know why I kept writing it as Grevia for so long), 1644-1707, 13 Dec, French, discussion about schooling & educations, Arabic at 1700, newscast; 44433. This is not being observed on 6165 during the day, and their 41 m outlet seems silent too (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4905, R. Chad, N´djamena. December 13, French, 2204, OM studio, recorded and outside talks "festival du ballet national, présentation des artistes", 2217 African tribal music, then at 2221 Afropop selection till 2230 ending with male talks and National Anthem, s/off at 2231 when emerged a Chinese. Good and clear 33433. 4905, December 14, French, 0624 OM talks, French music, 0633-0634 YL talks, musical bridge to return YL. 23233 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 4940, Voice of Strait, 1500-1525, Dec 14 (Sun.), "This is the Voice of Strait, Fuzhou, China", into the Sunday only program in English "Focus on China", moderate-heavy QRM from AIR Guwahati, at 1525 into Chinese (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 4330, Xinjiang PBS, Urümqi; 0017-0030 December 16, 2008. Presumed (listed) Kazakh female, into almost xylophone-sounding instrumental from 0018, male talk and local music. Clear and fair, much better than 4500. 4500, Xinjiang PBS, Urümqi; 2345-0010 December 15/16, 2008. Surely the one with continuous 1 kHz test tone at tune-in until 2350, then open carrier until 2359:55 when into time sounders, brief repeating instrumental music followed by talk a lady in presumed (listed) Mongolian. Very weak (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 4460, China, CNR, Beijing. December 14, Chinese, 0906-0913 OM and YL talks sometimes on music sounding like ads. 24322 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxdlyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4460, CNR-1 Beijing #572 transmitter site, better than usual Dec 15, fair at 1407. Per Aoki this one is non-direxional while 5030 is at 37 degrees, the latter almost always mixed with but atop Sarawak. 8400 with Firedrake, and ute QRM, Dec 15 at 1410. No doubt the latest landing of Sound of Hope as it jumps around the 8-9 MHz area (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn I heard this last night as early as 1130 and //9000 where much weaker. 8400 was strong and yes it is definitely hopping around to chase SOH which is inaudible if it is even there (Robin L. Harwood, VK7RH, Norwood, Tasmania, Dec 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. 3984.86, V. of Croatia, 2317-2337+ Dec 10. Man and woman talking in English, I think - lots of ham QRM so not sure of lang. (listed as English); definitely Spanish after 2330, as the ham QRM lessened. Fair signal and // 7375, which was poor (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 3985, Voice of Croatia – Deanovec, 0258, 12/13/08, in English. Contemporary music, 0300 "This is the Voice of Croatia with Croatia Today." program start with headlines and news items starting with Croatian political news. Fair (Mark Taylor, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** CROATIA [non]. via Germany, 7375, Voice of Croatia, 2315-2330, Dec 12, English “Croatia Today” news program. Lite music at 2329. Spanish at 2330. Poor to fair but must use ECSS-USB to avoid strong DRM QRM on low side. Weak but readable on // 3984.97 - via Croatia (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC, 12000, Dec 11 at 1429 referring to webcast via http://www.radiohc.cu said that programming is repeated ``integramente`` at 1500-1900. That`s when SW is off the air, except when they forget to turn off the transmitters at 1500 sharp. {They also say it is in ``audio real`` even tho it is really in Windows Media}. At 1453 when I happened to be tuned to 15120, plugging the date`s Mesa Redonda show at 6:30 pm = 2330 UT on 9820, 6000, which would be about --- human rights! What chutzpah! RHC is now announcing that they are playing back their morning programming from 1100 UT on their `audio real` webcast at 1500-1900, as heard Dec 12 at 1430 on 13680. Trouble is, it is not Real Audio, but Windows Media. Poor Real, getting the kleenex treatment as a reward for being the pioneer. Also mentioned Dec 13 at 1457 on 11760, but sign-off announcement included 955 kHz (``novecientos cincuenta y cinco en la banda de 31 metros``) to be used later in day, the announcer not knowing enough to realize that it was a typo in the script for 9550, and RHC could not possibly be on a MW frequency 955 kHz. But then the rest of the frequency announcement for transmissions starting at 0000 was cut off before he could botch anything further, and after another plug for programming continuing on their portal de Internet, off at 1459* Meanwhile, the DentroCuban Jamming Command pulsing away against nothing at 0615 Dec 13 on 9785, 9825, 7365, frequencies not currently in use for any hostile programming; and also on 9885 QRMing some station other than VOA Spanish, with music --- now it`s VOA English via South Africa. Pulses of a different pitch and different rate at same time on 9955 against inaudible WRMI. RHC, 11690, Dec 13 at 2323, song in Spanish, VG signal way over DW Rwanda, barely detectable underneath; 2324 RHC said show is ``Sonido Cubano``. As usual their own transmission schedule at http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm claims this frequency does not start until 0000. Furthermore, their own program schedule at http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/programacion.htm does not show any programming in Spanish at all in the 23-24 UT hour. DentroCuban Jamming Command, pulses against nothing on new frequencies, which could be just spurs, or could tip us off about new frequencies for exile broadcasts, at some completely different times: 9925, Dec 16 at 1348 11878, Dec 16 at 1416 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also VENEZUELA [non] ** CUBA [and non]. Safe to take KA1103 to Cuba? (message in YG thread) Tom, user of a Degen 1103 portable SW receiver took it with him a trip to Cuba; this is what he says at his return: "I'm back home with the KA1103 intact, no problem at airport security or customs - carry on bag not even inspected other than x-ray. Reception was great on the beach the one time I took it there but virtually impossible back in the room or on the balcony of the Hotel Playa Costa Verde, except for a handful of very strong stations. All the lighting is fluorescent after a recent national conversion program and probable additional sources are the air conditioning, keycard door entry and keycard master electrical switch that are controlled over a wired network. Radio Martí or other offshore Spanish language station was by far the strongest SW signal, at times breaking through the RFI and also overwhelming the buzzsaw jammer. Couldn't get RCI except on the beach. Also on the beach 20m was pretty good - nice signal from a Swiss SSB - and some sigs on 15m. Also picked up a strong Canadian aeronautical weather station above 15 MHz with weather for Victoria, Abbotsford and Comox, BC." (Tom, in "de1103" YG via Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Dec 12, dxldyg via DXLD) [Same as above plus]: I'd be interested in hearing what others' experiences were with RFI at other Cuban resorts. 73, (Tom Holden, VE3MEO, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. RADIO AND TV MARTÍ LAUNCH REDESIGNED WEB SITE Miami, Florida, December 9, 2008 -- Radio and TV Martí launched this week a newly redesigned version of its Spanish language Web site, http://www.martinoticias.com, giving users a full spectrum of media offerings including live streaming radio and television programming. The site features more Web stories, including audio and video, allowing up to nine stories to be viewed and giving users a better idea of the full scope of the news from Cuba, Latin America and the rest of the world. The site incorporates RSS feeds, and in the near future, will provide visitors the ability to subscribe to receive e-mails of news stories in their areas of interest. "For anyone who wants to know what's going in Cuba today, this is the place to come," said Pedro Roig, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio and TV Martí. "We want to enhance our Internet and digital media capacity and make it a priority. Our goal is to reach as many as possible, which is very difficult in Cuba." Other features of the site include a 24-hour news ticker, offering the latest headlines, as well as special feature news stories. According to Roig, Radio and TV Martí hope to further augment its Internet presence, possibly with a presence on social media sites YouTube and Facebook (BBG press release Dec 12 via DXLD) We are not impressed. It may be a new website, but the low-resolution and now undated frequency grid http://www.martinoticias.com/frecuencia.aspx is STILL out of date, e.g. showing 11845 and not 15330! And worse, still showing Delano before it was Deleted! Are they trying to confuse the jammers at the expense of confusing listeners? No RM frequency goes unjammed for long, including those not currently in use! What about the program schedule grid at http://www.martinoticias.com/rdprogramacion.aspx At first you think it is right up to date since it has been configured to show the current date with each day of week! Then you see that the times on the left are still in EDT, 4 hours from GMT! Both of which are in am and pm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. This was received after preparation of my December NASWA Journal column. Times shown here are GMT and refer to the European stream. If you're listening on shortwave, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/programme_times/a_d.shtml and look for the regional streams of interest (here in North America, most likely Africa and East Asia). For "Brand Cuba" check the Monday Documentary; for "Playing Castro's Tune", check the Wednesday Documentary and the Friday Documentary for relevant air times (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, swprograms via DXLD) Viz.: BBC WORLD SERVICE MARKS FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION From Monday 29 December, BBC World Service is broadcasting Cuba Cuba, a special season of programmes that investigate the world's fascination with this tiny Caribbean island [see TINY TRAP!] and its impact on the world. Fifty years on from the revolution that overthrew the Batista regime, Cuba Cuba, explores the country's politics, music and culture and the changes currently taking place there. There'll be reports on the country's current housing crisis, analysis of its history in the past five decades, debate and comment on the future of communist control and prospects for political change in Cuba. Cuba Cuba Brand Cuba - Monday 29 December and Monday 5 January 9.05 – 9.30am The Cuba of the Castro brothers Fidel and Raul has endured decades of sustained hostility from the United States, and survived near economic collapse after the Soviet Union crumbled. But it has, nevertheless, often managed to punch above its weight in the global arena. In Brand Cuba, Allan Little analyses some of the factors that have kept Cuba alive in the public imagination; the iconic images of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara; the missile crisis of 1962; Cuba's military exploits in Southern Africa, and the island's unique approach to diplomacy through medical aid. Along the way, there are some surprising stories; personal and political. Allan Little learns about Fidel Castro's first marriage to Mirta Diaz-Balart and his successful custody battle for their son; and hears how Che Guevara's theory of revolution almost brought disaster to South Africa's ANC in its struggle against apartheid. Presenter/Allan Little, Producer/Linda Pressly/Co-production with R4 Thursday 1 January News Programmes Throughout the day, BBC Cuba Correspondent Michael Voss, will provide news packages focusing on Cuba's past, present and future. He'll be reporting from Fidel Castro's old headquarters high in the Sierra Maestra Mountains, with some of the original revolutionaries who fought alongside Fidel, Raul and Che Guevara. He'll also be driving through the island in a 1959 American car, built the year of the revolution and still working – just. Emilio San Pedro reports from Miami and there'll be news from around the world offering a global perspective on Cuba's relations with Latin America; Africa; Eastern Europe and the US. Business Daily – Cuba 8.30 – 8.50am Stephen Evans reports from a Havana back street garage, where a mechanic manages to keeps 50 year old Chevrolets on the road; hears from one of Cuba's most prominent economists; talks to a person who says Castro stole his family's sugar plantations and meets a man who argues that the US embargo prevents the import of vital medical equipment. Assignment: Cuba: Hurricanes and Housing 9.05 – 9.30am More than half a million Cuban homes were damaged in the hurricanes of 2008 and as many as 60,000 were completely destroyed. This comes on top of an acute housing shortage across the island, especially in Havana. The housing reforms of the early revolutionary years, which gave most people deeds to their homes and prohibited the owning of multiple properties, were some of the most popular of the Castro government. But fifty years later, housing has become the biggest cause for complaint among Cubans and the black market is massive. No one knows how much cash swims around in this parallel economy, but it seems that many Cubans have to pay out thousands of dollars to move house. And the social impact can be acute - divorced couples forced to continue to live together and parents sharing rooms with grown up children. Linda Pressly explores the uniquely Cuban ways people have found to get around the system. Presenter/Linda Pressly, Producer/Polly Hope Outlook 1.30 – 2.00pm Lucy Ash meets young Cubans in Miami - men and women born in the US whose parents and grandparents once lived in Cuba. She hears from DJ Laz - his morning show gets Miami out of bed - and Pitbull, the top dog of Cuban hip hop whose grandmother fought alongside Fidel Castro. And she talks to Carlos Frias who recently visited Cuba for the first time, unearthed some astonishing family secrets and wrote a book about it. Presenter/Lucy Ash, Editor/Gavin Poncia Wednesday 7 and Friday 9 January Playing Castro's Tune 9.05 – 9.30am Fifty years after the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power Cuba has poverty and independence - and lots of music. In a two-part series Stephen Evans explores the links between Cuba's music, its revolution and the effect of political and social changes in music and musicians' lives, both at home and for those living in exile abroad. Castro closed the casinos and opened music schools. Stephen Evans listens to some of the results with help from some of Cuba's leading musicians and the broken pianos they play. He hears music that ranges from early socialist revolutionary anthems to protest songs about current power cuts, the Buena Vista Social Club, all-women orchestras and hip hop. Presenter/ Stephen Evans, Producer/Paul Evans/Co- production with R4 Arts Programmes Tuesday 30 December The Strand Special – Ry Cooder Mark Coles talks to American singer guitarist and composer Ry Cooder. In 1996 - 20 years after his first visit to Cuba - Ry Cooder went back and with Nick Gold of the British music label World Circuit, recorded one of the most popular Cuban albums of all time - the Buena Vista Social Club. Setting up camp in Havana, the pair recorded an ad-hoc group of elderly musicians they'd plucked out of retirement. The recording has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide - the biggest selling world music album ever Wednesday 31 December The Strand Special Harriett Gilbert examines Cuba's contemporary literary and movie scene and the impact of the revolution on artistic expression (BBCWS via Rich Cuff, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) ** CZECHIA. R. Prague, 13580, Fri Dec 12 at 1425 caught end of interesting feature on The Arts program about Martinu revisited, the composer Bohuslav Martinu, who is getting more respect these days; see http://martinu.cz His name actually has a circle over the final u, but that is too exotic for MS Word to handle in a font other than WST- Czec from the symbol archive: $ which also appears to have Braille in it! And no doubt would not survive into plain text conversion. When I copy his name from the above website it just shows up as a plain old u. I am not clear about what fonetik funxion the circle serves, and I seldom see it on other Czech words; is it archaic? But we digress: back to his music! Here`s the audio of the 8+ minute feature, all-talk and cutting off just a snippet of music at the end: http://helix.radio.cz:8080/ramgen/rm/EN/08/12/EN081212-14-high.rm?start=16:58.79&end=25:21.54 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA. As always, almost stable frequency chart for the winter season as already published. Only 4 changes since last winter from Litomysl: 0430-0500 9855 English (both ex 9890) 0500-0530 9855 Russian (these two every season only traces due beaming eastwards) 1000-1100 15710 English and Czech (as last year registered 15700 but again used 15710) 1900-2000 6135 Spanish and French (ex 5930, how to understand this choice?, 6135 is occupied) One antenna (transmitter?) seems to be not full in use. Many programmes very weak, even when "good" frequencies are used (Udo Krüger, Dec. 10, Germany? Dec WWDXC DX Magazine via DXLD) ** DIEGO GARCIA. Dec 11, AFN, 4319-USB at 0040z with replay of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" (sp?). Reception best at tune in, faded away before 0100z as daylight moved across the Indian Ocean. Not a grayline path for me but listeners in western NA would have more of a grayline path. From central Texas, Diego Garcia is the most distant active station available on a normal short path, 10650 miles. // 5446.5 [Florida] (Jerry Lenamon, Waco Texas, Eton E-1, T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4319-USB, (relay) AFN; 2147-2201 December 13, 2008 with PSA's, canned "AFN" ID by man at 2200, into network feed news. Great signal. Also noted in the 0000-0045 timeframe at generally good level since December 9, 2008, some RTTY notwithstanding, and the usual mix of US network talk and news feeds, PSAs (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4319 USB, AFRTS, 0005–0035, 12/14/08, in English. News, military PSA's, Sports talk program with call in’s, 0010 promos, fill music, more call in’s talking about football, 0029–0031 caller talking about the Green Bay Packers!! Brief promo at 0031 about vehicles (didn’t quite get it), another caller talking football. Poor. A catch I’ve been trying to make for years (Mark Taylor, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD)) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, Radio Djibouti, *0300-0345, Dec 13, sign on with National Anthem. Qur`an at 0301. Arabic talk at 0315. Horn of Africa music at 0344. Weak. Poor with strong CODAR QRM (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. 9250, R Wadi El Nile, Abu Zaabal, 1804-1807, Dec 06, Arabic comments to children`s music, 24322 (José Miguel Romero Romero, Spain, DSWCI DX Window Dec 10 via DXLD) They have verified by post-card type Card from Egyptian Radio and TV Union (ERTU), Engineering Sector. Mr. Fouad Alfeky, Engineering Director of Spectrum Management, said that return postage is not required in the report (Shin-ichi Shiraishi, Sendai, Japan, ibid.) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, Radio Nacional, Bata, 2250-2300*, Dec 13, African choral music. Spanish talk. National Anthem at 2257. Weak. 6250 not heard for the past several weeks (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Radio Africa, *1506-1610+, Dec 13, sign on with their usual English religious programming. Fair level but weak modulation. 2235-2250*, Dec 13, English. Tony Alamo religious program. Radio Africa ID at 2248 along with e-mail address & California address. Strong but audio slightly distorted (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 5980, Voice of the Revolution of Tigré, Addis Ababa, 1542-1555, 13 Dec, Tigrinya, talks; 34433. 7165, R. Ethiopia, Geja Jawe, 1547-1609, 13 Dec, Arabic, music, talks; English at 1600, infos, announcements and into western pops; 34433, adjacent QRM; \\ 9560.5. 9560.5, R. Ethiopia, Geja Jawe, 1544-1614, 13 Dec, cf. \\ 7165; 44433, adjacent QRM but improving (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 5980, Voice of Tigray Revolution, *0255-0307, Dec 11, IS. Amharic talk at 0300. Horn of Africa music at 0303. Weak but readable. // 5950 - weak under Okeechobee. 5990.88v, Radio Ethiopia, 0410-0420, Dec 11, Amharic talk. Horn of Africa music. Poor. Weak. Noted on 5990.78 at 0434 check. Much better on // 7110, 9704.18 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 9560.61v!! R. Ethiopia, 0733 13 Dec, with horn of Africa songs. Seems replaying the same song over and over again. Carrier unstable co-channel QRM with Xinjiang PBS - China producing a 1000 Hz tone (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 9695, OPPOSITION. Voice of Oromiya Liberation Front, (presumed) via Juelich at 1640 on 12/13. Weak and all talk. I don't think it was co-channel Radio Liberty as the format didn't have an IBB "feel" to it, and it didn't run full up to the hour, but was gone at 1658 (Gerry Dexter, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. Big mess on 9704-9705, Sat Dec 13 at 1441, somewhat distorted Chinese on 9705.0 and het from 9704.3 or so. Per Aoki, 9705 is VOA Cantonese via Saipan. 9704.3 must be the always-off- frequency Ethiopia, by long path? But per Aoki, their English broadcast at 14-15 is M-F only. Nevertheless the transmitter must have been on; could not pull any audio from it separable from VOA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 15650, Raadiyoo Sagalee Walabummaa Oromiyaa, ¿Alguien sabe algo? Alguien sabe si en verdad está emitiendo esta emisora? No la encuentro listada en ningún sitio y no recuerdo haber visto ningún comentario sobre ella. JMR Radio-RSWO --- Raadiyoo Sagalee Walabummaa Oromiyaa Guyyaa: Sanbata galgala: saa'aa 8:00 - 8:30 pm [1700-1730 UT???] Dambalii gabaabaa, Metir Baandii 19, 15650 KHZ E-mail to: RSWO2006 @ GMAIL. COM OR RSWO @ AWOFIO.COM Audio del 13 de diciembre: http://www.awofio.com/RSWO12132008.RAM POLITICAL OBJECTIVES OF FIO: INDEPENDENT DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF OROMIA (via José Miguel Romero2, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Ye Ethiopia Adera Dimtse Radio --- Tedla Asfaw http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?blog=15&title=ye_ethiopia_adera_dimtse_radio&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 The December 10 program of "Ye Ethiopia Adera Dimts" program, posted on ecadf is worth listening. It brought respected voices of the people that includes Eng. Hailu Shawel a popularly elected opposition leader, Obang Metho and Tamagen, activists from the Diaspora on its program. I hope this young radio will continue to entertain voices that will make real differences in Ethiopia and avoid the trap of being the voice of any party. The name "Adera" in Ethiopia has a big connotation. One of the saying in Ethiopia in Amharic, "Ye Tesete Adera Ke Mitefa Ye Woledute Yitfa" shows, promise/Adera given to someone has much more value even than once own child and never to be abandoned at any circumstance. Radios who are the voices of parties and other independent radios like "Adera" have big job of mobilizing Ethiopians to battle the TPLF racist thugs on all fronts and they should be supported and encouraged by the public. Let us all promise to focus on the real enemy, TPLF, and bring freedom to our people by respecting our differences. The next Monday (Dec. 15) rally in D.C. organized by different radio stations to call for unconditional release of Teddy Afro is an initiative which has a full support of Ethiopians and let us come out in force, snow or rain, and show Ethiopian Unity for foes and friends (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, Dec 13, DXLD) WTFK?? ** GERMANY. CHRISTUS --- a probably jumbled and apparently incomplete thread from MWC, about hearing the letters CHRISTUS sent in Morse Code on a MW frequency --- I heard this in CW again this morning, this time on 1320 at 0600. I feel sure that last time I heard it on a different frequency. I wonder what this is? Perhaps we should start a CHRISTUS log. (Andrew Brade, UK, circa Dec 9, MWC via DXLD) Hi Andrew, I checked your report on Perseus. The frequency was 1321.241 and the exact time 0559:40. Recording: http://www.geocities.com/paulcrankshaw/1321christus.wav I reported it on 12.9/08 on 1324.745. Interestingly the time was 0459:40 which would correspond to the same local time (ie 0559:40 BST). You reported it also on 13/10/2007 with the comment "This may have been from 1320, or possibly from 1323 as the tone was poor" (Paul Crankshaw, ibid.) Thanks Paul - the answer seems to be here, courtesy of Glenn Hauser: http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld8103.txt It's Radio Santec transmitting a 15-minute programme on Voice of Russia's German tx (Andrew Brade, ibid.) I haven't heard this myself so this is just speculation, but Universelles Leben (a Christian station) is scheduled to be on air from Germany at 0545-0600 on 1323 kHz according to EMWG. If you wanted to transmit morse code on an AM transmitter, especially one that runs 800 kW, you wouldn't try keying the carrier but you'd modulate it with a tone. If the tone you chose was 1.75 kHz, then you'd end up with it appearing in the modulation sidebands at 1321.25 and 1324.75 kHz (i.e. 1323-1.75 and 1323+1.75). That's near enough to where you both heard it. Problem solved? (Jack Weber, ibid.) Exactly so Jack. Radio Santec and Universelles Leben are the same thing I think (Andrew Brade, ibid.) I've just checked the recording and the other sideband also carries the CHRISTUS tone at 1324.747. Well done, Jack! (Paul Crankshaw, Dec 9, ibid.) ** GERMANY [non]. Some changes of Deutsche Welle DRM from Nov. 11 and Dec. 10: 0500-0600 on 3995 SIN 090 kW / 040 deg to WeEu, cancelled >>> now BBC 0600-0700 on 3995 SKN 100 kW / 121 deg to WeEu, cancelled >>> now BBC 0700-0800 NF 5990 SKN 100 kW / 150 deg to WeEu, new additional 0800-1000 NF 9610 SIN 090 kW / 045 deg to WeEu, new additional 1600-1800 on 3995 SKN 100 kW / 121 deg to WeEu, cancelled >>> now BBC 2100-2200 on 3995 SKN 100 kW / 121 deg to WeEu, cancelled >>> now BBC 2200-2300 on 3995 SIN 090 kW / 040 deg to WeEu, cancelled >>> now BBC (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Dec 15 via DXLD) See also UK ** INDIA. 5050, AIR Aizawl, 1526-1545, Dec 12, outstanding conditions, normally it's only Voice of Strait and Guangxi FBS heard mixing together here, today AIR was clearly heard, in vernacular, into the English "News at nine", after 1545 was too confusing to differentiate and Guangxi FSB was getting dominate. This is a rare one for me. 4970, AIR Shillong, 1546-1623, Dec 12, after the "News at nine" back to local programming in vernacular, subcontinent music, into English, "This is the North Eastern Service of All India Radio broadcasting from Shillong on 60.36 meters shortwave", with western classical music, playing Symphonie Fantastique, good-fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nice catch, Ron. 5050 AIR Aizawl is a rare catch at my qth, actually I think I've logged it only once or twice in last 10 years or so. All other active 60 mb AIR stations are rather regular here. Aizawl antenna pattern and/or location seemingly is not favoring my direction. And the Chinese twins on channel doesn't help either. And for some weeks there's also been a strong (ute?) empty carrier most of the time on 5050. 73, (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 5050, AIR Aizawl, 1528-1545*, Dec 14, still mixing with Voice of Strait (poor) and Guangxi FBS (fair-good), clearly heard changing from vernacular to English for "News at nine". Am almost positive AIR signed-off at 1545 because they had slowly been improving and were very distinct by the end of the news, I briefly went to look if they would continue parallel to 9425, but upon my return there was only Guangxi FBS and VOS and clearly nothing else (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 5010, AIR, Thiruvananthapuram; 0107-0140 December 16, 2008. Long string of Hindi commercials, single and extended time sounder at 0115, into telco-ish world news in Hindi by man (some type of break at 0121), back to telco-ish news 0122, seemingly cut out of the feed at 0125, though still with news talk, high-pitched time sounders (five?) at 0130 and into decent non-telco audio male and female talk, Indian instrumental music beds. Good (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 5990, AIR Aligarh, 0137-0200*, Dec 11, vernacular. Hindi music; commentaries & IDs; booming sig at tune-in (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, R8, RX350D, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4790.05, RRI Fak Fak, 1358, 12/14/08. Pop music to 1359: 40 when announcement by low-pitched OM. Presumed ID at 1400:05, followed by Jak news by YL. Decent signal but CODAR interference (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, JRC NRD-545, AOR AR7030 Plus, Wellbrook ALA-100 Loop, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Glad to hear at least two of the RRI on 60m, 4750 Makassar and 4790 Fak2, Dec 14 at 1409, with talk and music respectively, both bothered by CODAR; and both registering about S9+15 tho 4790 sounded a bit louder. A few minutes later, both with music but not //. No other Indos detected on 60m. Recheck at 1440, 4750 and 4790 still audible but weaker. Sunrises are already getting earlier, tho sunsets are still getting later, to gang up at the Winter Solstice for the shortest day overall. RRI transmitters come and go, and you never know which ones will be on the air from one day to the next, assuming propagation is cooperating. Dec 16 at 1358, unlike two days before, no sign of Fak2 on 4790, but Makassar was in well on 4750, talk in Indonesian; still fair at 1433 with music, 1440 W&M DJs on phone with someone; always CODAR QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 7235 14/12 0000 INDONESIA, RRI Palu, indonesian, desde Palu, com 1 kW, sinal de ID, ID as 0000 e YL talk, mx indonésia, 0007 YL talk, gravado, 22332. Brasil) As escutas podem ser ouvidas em http://www.ipernity.com/doc/75006/home?t=74925&c=6&s=uploaded- (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Feira de Santana Bahia, 12º 15' 1.57" S 38º 58' 40.30" W, Degen 1103, Antena encurtada para OT com 12 metros, dxclube pr yg via DXLD) RRI Palu, Sulawesi Tengah, 1 kW is on 7235v at 0000-0800 per WRTH 2009. PWBR `2009` shows 7234v instead. What else could it be? PWBR also has Belarus 5 kW until 0200. HFCC but no one else has TWR Novosibirsk on 7235 at 2325-0045 for India. WRTH 2009 India section for TWR shows Bengali before and after 0000, but on 7345 Novosibirsk, and not daily (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Jorge, Ouvir uma estação de 1 kW da Indonésia é algo que salta aos olhos em termos de Dexismo. Esta sua escuta é realmente um marco. Parabéns !!!! (Adalberto Marques de Azevedo, Brasil, comment on the audio page, via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non]. CQD, Jack Binns and the rescue at sea in 1909 Special Event, 100th Anniversary Jan 22-24, 2009 See this web page http://www.jackbinns.org/ http://earlyradiohistory.us/CQD.htm http://earlyradiohistory.us/1909rep.htm The Marconi Radio Club W1AA of Massachusetts USA will take part in the Jack Binns special event with two stations by representing SS Republic (Call sign MKC) as W1AA/MKC and SS Baltic (Call sign BC) as W1AA/BC. The two stations plan to be on the amateur bands on Jan 23 from 0001Z to 0400Z and on Jan 24th from 1200Z to 2000Z. . Both SSB and CW modes will be used. Watch the DX Summit http://www.dxsummit.fi/DxSpots.aspx?count=50&range=2 for W1AA/MKC and W1AA/BC spots. Special one of a kind photo QSL cards have been created for each call for the event. A special event certificate is also available for working both stations W1AA/MKC and W1AA/BC. Mixed modes is OK. QSL card information for stateside is via W1AA in QRZ.COM with an S.A.S.E. Regular sized envelope is OK for QSL cards. DX QSLs are via the W1 bureau. A certificate is available. If stateside stations work both stations and wish a certificate please send a large 8 1/2 x 11 inch envelope with $1.50 in stamps on the envelope for stateside return only. Certificates for DX stations via W1AA DIRECT via QRZ.Com address with a large envelope 8 1/2 x 11 inch envelope and sufficient USA postage for 2 oz of mail to return to their country. This will be a great event. Please take the time to tune the bands and work us (Bob "Whitey" Doherty, K1VV, President, Marconi Radio Club, W1AA, Email: k1vv @ comcast.net DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. 6055, LITHUANIA (relay), Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sitkunai; 2048-2120 December 13, 2008. Spanish with reggae- ish and one Urban English vocal, Iranian news items by man and woman, ID at 2015, New Age-ish filler music. Very good level, and parallel even stronger direct Iran 7130 (best of all) and 7350. No trace of Rwanda, which is what I was looking for (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. 6973, Galei Zahal; 2209-2331 December 13, 2009. Nice level, and as always a brilliant blend of Israeli pop mixed with McCartney's circa-1970 "Singalong Junk" instrumental, and later, Squeeze "Loving You Tonight" (with the DJ quite honorably mentioning Difford & Tilbrook on the back end). (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN. 1350, JOER, Hiroshima, after about a year and two months and 2 f/ups, I finally got my QSL from JOER, RCC. For some reason, this one was slow to receive. Most Japanese stations are excellent fast QSLers. With this, I have once again 100% reply of Japanese stations. As usual, this is another really nice full color QSL card with photo on the tower. No V/S, but date & time, station, etc are all on the card with "Confirmed Your Report!" QSL no. US001 also typed on the back. Address: 21-3 Moto-machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-6504, Japan. Also sent program schedule in Japanese. Japan QSL :#113. MW QSL #3001. I am really pleased with this one. It is always special to get a new QSL from Japan (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, Dec 16, HCDX via DXLD) ** KALININGRAD. Dec 10, V of Russia via Kaliningrad, 9435 at 1330z, in Russian (Jerry Lenamon, Waco Texas, Eton E-1, T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Russia, 9435, Voice of Russia or Rossii, tentative, 0930-1040 Dec 12. Noted a program of Russian comments from individuals. Heard an ID in Russian which I missed. I wasn't recording at the time and am typing this from my recollection. At 0945 possibly a long discourse from the Russian President. After the hour news and conversation between females. Signal stayed at poor level. This broadcast isn't listed in any of my references during the 0900 to 1100 hours. There's other broadcasts earlier and later however (Chuck Bolland, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Chuck, originate from Kaliningrad exclave at Bolshakovo transmitter site. 54 54'48.50"N 21 42'45.92"E 9435, 0700-1500 to zone 29S, that's main lobe at 118 degrees towards Caucasus, Abkhazia, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran ... {unfortunately Florida is on the reverse side of the horizontal rhombic antenna, type 902 RH 155/68/40 } KLG 120 kW antenna 902 (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. CLANDESTINE, 3912, Voice of the People, Goyang, KOR, 1902-1919, 13 Dec, Korean, talks; 35433; \\ 6518 & 6000, both worse than on 75 m (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9690, Nippon no Kaze, via Darwin, 1508-1530*, Nov 24, Korean language talks with some music to 1525 ID, postal address in Tokyo and website. Closed with soft instrumental music, fair. (D'Angelo/FCDX). They responded to an electronic report to info@rachi.go.jp with an electronic reply from hai@rachi.go.jp in 3 days from the Policy Planning Division of the Headquarters for the Abduction Issue, a Cabinet Secretariat position within the Government of Japan. The e-mail reply noted "Thank you for sending a reception report of "Nippon no Kaze (il bon ue baram)". We are very glad to receive your report from U.S.A! Unfortunately, we do not issue any verification (SWL/QSL) cards and letters, but according to the description you gave us, we can confirm it was our Korean program." They mentioned that the organization is also broadcasting the Japanese program "Furusato no Kaze" in order to send messages and information to the Japanese abductees in North Korea and "The Government of Japan is making its utmost effort to resolve the abduction issue and we appreciate your kind attention." They gave the schedule for their programs as: Furusato no Kaze (Japanese), 1330-1357 on 9965, 1430-1500 on 9880, 1600-1630 on 9780. Nippon no Kaze (Korean), 1500-1530 on 9690, 1530- 1600 on 9965, 1700-1730 on 9820 (Richard D’Angelo, Wyomissing PA, U.S.A., DSWCI DX Window Dec 10 via DXLD) Nippon no Kaze is the name in Japanese, but in Korean their ID is: "Ilbon-e Baram" (Anker Petersen, ed., ibid.) ** KYRGYZSTAN [non]. Both BBC and RL have to resume SW: see UK; USA ** LATVIA. I don`t often hear the various special programs from Ulbroka, as they are scheduled too early in the morning, but Sunday Dec 14 at 1345 I came upon a signal occupying the usually vacant 9290. A YL was talking about Latvia in English, fair but fading down into noise level; 1349 outroduxion as Latvia Today, Goodbye, but more music filling, still rock music at 1355. I understand this transmitter will be closed down at yearend, so glad I had a chance to hear it this well (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Relay this weekend via 9290 kHz: Sunday December 14th Latvia Today 1300-1400 UT. Good listening 73s (Tom Taylor via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA. 6070, ELWA, 2250-2302*, Dec 12, choral music. Announcement at 2300, Sign off with National Anthem at 2301. Very weak under a strong Romania. Weak but in the clear after Romania sign off at 2257. Some adjacent channel splatter on high side (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. See IRAN [non]; NETHERLANDS [non] ** MALAYSIA. Here is the listing of the internet radio services from the Voice of Malaysia after going to their site http://rtm.gov.my and registering: http://bkj-station1.jaring.my/vom1 http://bkj-station1.jaring.my/vom2 These are the external services from Malaysia. Full schedule is listed in the page: http://202.190.233.9/vom/schedule.htm (from the VoM `s site) From little observations I have found in the previous month : On the VoM1 channel, English service can be heard in the 07-0830 time followed by the Malay and the Indonesian program passing the 1230 time. On VoM2 I fond the Chinese program ending at 1230 instead of the scheduled 1200. At 1600-1700 carries the Arabic service and the Malaysian service at 1700-1800 being in contrast to what is shown in the schedule page (1530-1700 for Arab service and 1700-1900 for Malay) This also is verified to my older SW observations Moreover here is the remaining list of government stations: http://bkj-station1.jaring.my/nasionalfm http://bkj-station4.jaring.my/muzikfm http://bkj-station1.jaring.my/klfm http://bkj-station1.jaring.my/asyikfm http://bkj-station1.jaring.my/traxxfm http://bkj-station1.jaring.my/minnalfm http://bkj-station4.jaring.my/aifm All the above seems very clear but let me describe the station names: Nationalfm : the first program with oldies music and news MuzikFM : older name Radio Dua, with current and older pops KL FM : Kuala Lumpur FM, capital`s radio station Asyik FM : program for the minorities ends at 16 UT (this per RNW) Traxx fm : you know about, the English speaking R. Minnal FM : the Hindi radio service Ai FM : the Chinese radio service (I think Mandarin) Please notice that these above addresses replaced half of November older addresses from akamai that are now inactive (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Zacharias, Thank you for sharing your Internet observations. On SW (6049.60v), Asyik FM programming ends at 1400 UT, with Suara Islam on from 1400 to 1700*. Thanks again (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, USA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 6049.60, Suara Islam/Voice of Islam, 1548 + 1612, Dec 14, only an open carrier heard with no audio. Hope that this is not another transmitter in trouble (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7270, Malaysia, Wai FM and Limbang FM via RTM (tentative), Kuching- Stapok. December 13 0946, OM talks, 0949 ABBA style pop song followed by another pop, 0954 OM talks, 0955 don't recognize style music, from 1000 strong QRM. 22322 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 5995, Radio Mali (Bamako), 2233 - 2302, 12/11/2008, French. Talk by man, sometimes joined by second man. Upbeat traditional music at 2245. Talk by man and woman at 2250 followed by modern pop music at 2255. Identification by woman at 2300, then talk by man. Moderate signal. SINPO 33333 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, TenTec RX-340, Drake R8B, RF Space SDR-14, Random Wires (90' and 200'), Eavesdropper Dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7284.8, R. Mali, Kati, 1130-1315, 14 Dec, French, folk & tribal songs; contemporary Malian music, newscast at 1300; 55444; \\ 9635 also very good (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITIUS. MAURITIUS BROADCASTING CORPORATION ACCUSED OF DISRUPTING AIR TRAFFIC The use of unauthorized frequency bands by the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) is putting air traffic in danger in the Indian Ocean region, the African Press Agency (APA) has learned. The accusation has recently been made by aircraft pilots who argue that they are having a lot of difficulties contacting airport communication towers in Mauritius, Reunion, the Mauritian dependency of Rodrigues and Seychelles and that this situation is putting the planes and the life of crew members and passengers in danger. At first the pilots thought that the interference was caused by radio communications coming from the island of Diego Garcia where the Americans have a huge air force base. But an official of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) who requested anonymity revealed on Friday that the culprit is the MBC which has started using certain frequency bands without the prior authorization of the ICTA in order to launch a digital television in Rodrigues on 20 December. The official added that members of the ICTA would be meeting urgently on Saturday to resolve the problem. He added that it will now take more than two months before Rodrigues will be connected to digital TV as ICTA will have to study which frequencies are available and if they do not interfere with other radio communications. He added that the MBC will need the approval of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) before using any frequency. For his part, Fareed Jangeerkhan, the President of the administrative board of the MBC who just came back from Rodrigues, indicated on Friday that the launch will go on as scheduled on 20 December as nobody has as yet informed the MBC of the so-called interference. He added that tests are already being carried out to launch digital TV in Rodrigues (Source: African Press Agency)(December 14th, 2008 - 13:11 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) WTFK!?!?! ** MEXICO. QSL desde XEQM, 6105 KHZ, radio comercial mexicana por onda corta!!! http://entre-ondas.blogspot.com/2008/12/qsl-desde-xemq-6105-khz-mrida-yucatn.html Ya recibí mi primer QSL, una tarjeta postal improvisada como QSL de parte de XEQM desde Mérida, Yucatán. Espero que puedan captarla y enviarles sus comentarios y sugerencias, así como reportes de recepción. Más detalles en el link de arriba. - También agradezco al Dr. Julián Santiago Diez de Bonilla, quien motivó a gente de esa emisora comercial a seguir adelante y animarles a que verifiquen nuestros reportes de recepción. Acerca del 15 Encuentro: http://dx15mexico.super-red.es/cuernavaca2009.htm http://cuernavaca2009.mi-website.es/15dxmeeting.htm (en inglés) Les solicito que compartan esta información con sus contactos de radio y diexistas de todo el mundo, en español y en inglés, muchas gracias y 73 (Magdiel Cruz Rodríguez, desde Jiutepec, Morelos, Dec 10, playdx yg via DXLD) ** MEXICO [and non]. Still trying to hear some audio from XEQM, to tell whether it is really in Maya now during daytime, but all I can detect is a het from 6104.8 against 6105.0 stations: Dec 11 until 1459:30 VOA Chinese closing, but Tinang carrier seemed to stay on; then I heard CRI IS, which is opening in Russian, and VOA opening Uzbek via Tinian, both much weaker than Tinang had been, but still way too much for Mérida (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Radio Educacion, Mexico 6185 --- Hearing this rather well tonight (0215 UT Dec 17) with a clear ID in Spanish at 0222, preceded by indigenous folk music of some unidentified genre. Good signal S9+ on the Lowe HF-150 mated to the Alpha Delta DX Sloper antenna, with only minor splatter from adjacent channels. Here is a link to a current (November 2008) program schedule for Radio Educacion's shortwave service. Mexico City is on Central Standard Time (UT -6), as is the schedule. http://www.radioeducacion.edu.mx/ONDA.pdf (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Ahora pueden escuchar la nueva Radio México Internacional por: http://pepina.listen2myradio.com/ e-mail: antonio_martinez_s@yahoo.com.mx (Antonio Martínez Miranda, México, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO MÉXICO INTERNACIONAL Saludos amigos: He recibido una buena noticia en relación a la reactivación de nuestra queridísima Radio México Internacional. Lamentablemente es solamente vía internet. Sin embargo, es un esfuerzo titánico por parte de una sola persona, el Ing. Antonio Martínez (xe1a), conocido radioaficionado de la ciudad de México, quien estuvo laborando precisamente aquí, hace algunos años y que ha sido testigo de ese "crimen" bien organizado de su desaparición. Ya en otras ocasiones hemos comentado los lamentables detalles, así que hoy no vale la pena. Por ello, nos solicita a la comunidad diexista el apoyo para poder sacar este proyecto avante. Menciona que no tiene patrocinio alguno y que tampoco desea tener una emisora "comercial", es decir, será sin afán de lucro. Es doblemente admirable su empresa. Me ha comentado que tiene el deseo de emitir programas variados, pero por supuesto, el DX será algo primordial. Así que vamos a enviarle el material (escrito y/ó sonoro) que esté en nuestras manos para tal fin. Los que deseen participar con alguna "sección", aquí está una magnífica oportunidad de "aparecer" en su programación. En fin, como entusiasta de las emisoras de la onda corta, celebro que RMI pueda volver a escucharse, al menos por la vía electrónica. Invito a todos los amigos que simpaticen con este proyecto a comunicarse con el buen amigo Antonio y hacerse presente todos. http://rmi.es.mn Muchas gracias por la atención y ojalá pueden difundir entre los colegas esta buena noticia. Cordiales desde Tepic (IVAN LOPEZ ALEGRIA, Dec 16, via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISSTENING DIGEST) The URL http://rmi.es.mn forwards to http://www.qsl.net/xe1a/Radio/ where a player tries to launch, and there is even an `authorization` or rather letter from SCT saying internet `radio` stations are not regulated and no authorization is needed. Also a radio tuned to 21272.5 but I assume any operation other than XE1A on 15m is not to be expected. A private webstation, I guess, totally unrelated to the original RMI, which was run by the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio, government agency. I suppose the RMI name is up for grabs, but the programming makes the station, whatever the platform, so how can this be like XERMX? A bit exaggerated to call this a reactivation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [and non]. GOAT GLAND MAN HAS ENDURING APPEAL by James E. O'Neal, 12.10.2008 In looking back at the last century from our 2008 perspective, two of the most interesting decades were The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. These 20 years witnessed an upheaval in the status quo of social structures, medicine, the arts and physical sciences. The 1920s gave us broadcasting as we know it today, and during the next decade it matured into the great empire that became part of virtually everyone's daily existence. Many stories are intertwined with radio from that period, but one of the most interesting and long-running is that of a small-town "doctor" who become a multimillionaire when most of the country was caught up in a crashed stock market and bread lines. He also routinely thumbed his nose at regulatory bodies including the Federal Radio Commission and its successor, the FCC. That individual was John Romulus Brinkley. When millions were out of work, Brinkley made millions. He boasted an elaborate mansion with herds of exotic animals roaming the grounds, a fleet of customized Cadillacs, sailing vessels, airplanes and a radio station that was 10 times more powerful than anything U.S. laws allowed. Brinkley was not a radio scientist or an engineer. Neither was he an artist nor a performer in the strictest sense. He uttered his last words into a radio microphone some 70 years ago and has been dead for almost that long. Yet his name is irrevocably intertwined with broadcasting. A certain radio law is referred to as the "Brinkley Act" and his actions influenced radio treaties. He spawned a genre of broadcasting that continued for decades. And the roots of a large electronics firm still in business just may have been nurtured by his quest for a louder voice. . . [Much more with illustrations] http://www.rwonline.com/article/71102 (via Harry Helms, ABDX via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. Re 8-127: I just checked Mongolia now (Sat. 1235 UT), and two observations: the live streams are embedded in Flash player in a way that it's impossible to extract any of the usual kinds of audio links (Real, WMP, MP3, etc.), and upon trying the streams myself, while the player looks to be running, I don't get any audio, through either Firefox or IE. I'll retry at another time and let you know if I manage to hear anything. Thanks! [later:] Tried it again Sun. 0300 UT, still no audio from Mongolia, on my system at least (Kevin A. Kelly, Bedford, Massachusetts, USA, Dec 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) FM 106 is playing for me now at 0315 UT Sunday, somewhat jerkily. 100.9 is not altho the latter has busy-bar in the middle while 106 does not. IE. URL displayed at top of 106 player: http://www.mnb.mn/fm1009.aspx?fmid=2 At top of 100.9 player: http://www.mnb.mn/fm1009.aspx?fmid=1 Tried launching directly from =2 and it worked. =1 still does not work. Restarted 106 player and now it has the busy-bar too (Glenn to Kevin, via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. Dec 14, 08, USA (non) (presumed): R Free Asia, 7470 at 2355z, Dec 14, listed as Tibetan via Ulaanbaatar. "Jingle Bells" music bed (under voice over) just before TOH. Time pips to 0000z, program continued but carrier off at 0000:10z. 100 kW at 230 . N Am is off the back side of the beam but the path is Stage 2 twilight for the entire distance. VOA English on 7460 via Thailand (250 kW at 30 ) at the same time has a similar path but better signal since it was pointed more my way (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, Eton E-1, sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. 1593, RTM-"A", Marrakech, 1210-..., 13 Dec, Arabic, folk songs,...; \\ 1640 & others, e.g. 207; 15442. This is almost surely a spur (?), and since [distorted] spurii usually come in pairs emanating from the fundamental frequency, I tried 1640-1593=47, but nothing was heard on 1546, apart from UK's stations on adjacent 1548 even in the middle of the day. 1640, RTM-"A", site?, 1206-..., 13 Dec, Arabic, folk songs,...; \\ 1593 & others, e.g. 207; 35444. This is again the FM-like transmission active again as reported days ago (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. Re: ``5770, Myanmar definitely, 1431, heard some high pitched tones followed by talks. Very low modulation, mixed with RN background. Better using LSB to avoid a FSK stream. At 1438 with a pop like music, max S1-2 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, no date on logs but probably same as date posted, Dec 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) What do you mean by ``RN background``? Surely not R. Netherlands on 5770 (gh, DXLD)`` RN background = QRN background (typo not looked after 2nd check). It seems you did not look before the logs about the date of reception (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) i.e. ``Here are several logs of yesterday 8th`` (gh) ** NEPAL. Some schedules still show R. Nepal on 5005, but as of last February, Victor Goonetilleke reported it missing, and I have not seen any reports of it since (Glenn Hauser, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Another previously undiscovered one-minute English broadcast from RN! Dec 14 at 1357 I happened to tune to 9390, and heard a promo in English for ``Curious Orange``, before the transmitter cut off at 1358*. RN is not supposed to have any English until 1400, on other frequencies. Checking the schedules, there is an RN Dutch transmission via Tinang, Philippines on 9390, supposedly at 1259-1357 only. This probably correlates with the RN English introduxion I have heard previously on 6105 Tinang at 1359: transmitter switching is NOT properly coordinated with program source switching. I quickly changed to 6105 again this time, but no RN heard there and VOA Chinese again started a few seconds late after 1400. And again the het, presumably XEQM, a bit stronger than before but still could not detect any Maya (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also MEXICO; PHILIPPINES ** NETHERLANDS [non]. 6055, LITHUANIA (relay), "The Mighty KBC / "The Big L," Sitkunai; *2130-2228* December 14, 2008. Presumed transmitter site. Listened to the end of the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Spanish programming again, and transmitter dropped off for only a second or so at 2129, then into an unfamiliar interval signal a few times followed by "The Mighty KBC" slogans and program, very retro Radio Luxembourg and Europirate format (obviously) with way many jingles, soul and oldies rock/pop, including McCartney/Wings "Band On the Run" at 2138, Sammy Hagar "Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy" at 2154. Christmas-themed oldie from 2202. "The Big L" slogan at 2209, "House Of the Rising Sun" by an unknown singer (not sure if it was a post- original recording by Eric Burdon). ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" at 2220 followed by apparent commercials with lots of websites and KBC promos, concluding with "All over Europe... The Mighty KBC" into, hmm, maybe a Keith Emerson/ELP snippet? Fell silent at 2228. Carrier seemed to stick around after 2230, but no other brokered programming audio noted. It seems pretty obvious that these KBC/Big L guys are airing this via an antiquated broadcast medium (shortwave) just for the shear nostalgia and fun of it all. This sub page has most of it: http://www.kbcradio.eu/?page_id=31 Every Sunday at this time, I suppose (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. 6355, 5785, Radio Nederland, 0410-0425, Dec 14, weak Bonaire leapfrogging spurs. 6355 leap-frogging spur of 5975. 5785 leapfrogging spur of 6165. 190 kHz separation between each frequency. Dutch programming (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. 6160, with R. Australia via WRN via CBC Overnight, via CKZN, with Media Report, mid-program ID from National Radio at 0645 Fri Dec 12. Quite good reception (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6160, CKZN St. Johns, 1153, Dec 9, English. Reports re big snowstorm in Newfoundland; CBC promos and news at ToH; "Labrador Morning" program ID; weather for Goose Bay & Happy Valley; fair at best (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, R8, RX350D, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGER. 9705, LV du Sahel, 2305-2316*, Dec 13, local rustic music. French talk. Qur`an. Sign off with National Anthem. Lately sign off has been varing between 2300-2333. Weak. Poor (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 15120, VON, 1815, Dec 12, in English, program about the economy of Nigeria produced by "Voice of Nigeria Abuja", fair with hum (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. The Voice of Nigeria's website at http://www.voiceofnigeria.org/ now include a page of Programme Schedules (ie scans from a printed publication). However, it is undated, and a quick check today (Sunday 14 December) suggests that it is out of date. The schedule shows for Sunday at 1330: On the Ball; 1345: Literary Corner; 1415: Kiddies Voices; 1430: Junior Theatre. Actual programmes heard (via the poor quality live stream) were: 1330: Talking Politics; 1345: Evergreens; 1415: Kiddies Voices; 1430: Just a Chat (Alan Roe, Teddington, UK, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. [non]. via ?, 15180, Aso Radio International, *1600-1657*, Dec 11, sign on with local drums/flute music & opening ID announcements. Several “Aso Radio International” IDs. Talk in presumed Hausa. Local music. Sign off with local drums/flute music. Good. Thanks to John Wilkins tip (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Site not clear but Aoki suggests it`s FRANCE (gh) 15180 UNKNOWN. ASO Radio, (unknown site) at 1600 on 12/10, carrier on at 1559:30, brief flute-like IS, M at 1600 talking over drum background. Peaking to fair level now and then, but generally "down." I don't find a "93.5 FM" listed in WRTH. Thanks John Wilkins. (Gerry Dexter, WI, NASWA Flashsheeet via DXLD) ** PERU. 4857.45, Radio La Hora, 1052-1100 Dec 16. At tune in, noted Spanish ballads. Time mentioned during music by a female. Noted a pattern with the music when the machine would get stuck on a track and keep repeating. I've had this experience with my CD player in my truck whenever the CD is slightly damaged and gets stuck and keeps repeating. At 1058 a couple of ads noted. At 1100 ID given as, "...Radio La Hora ..." canned followed by a second canned ID with a different person. Live comments from a male at 1101 then more canned stuff. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Re 8-127: UNIDENTIFIED. 6195.80, Latin OM in Spanish alternating with YL, 1040 to 1105 "...en cinco en la mañana..." "señor y señores, buenos días.." no ID on the hour. Perú? 15 December. 73s, (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Robert, Saludos desde Colombia, la emisora es la reactivación de Radio Cusco, presentando horas y horas de programación religiosa de la Iglesia Dios es Amor y otras iglesias evangélicas. Cabe anotar que aparece corrida de la última frecuencia reportada, algo como 6194.3 KHz. Un saludo y Buen DX (Rafael Rodriguez, Bogotá - Colombia, Dec 16, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** PHILIPPINES [and non]. IBB Tinang finally gets it right Dec 16: carrier came on 6105 a few sex before 1400, no extraneous audio from Radio Netherlands, and promptly into VOA Chinese opening, overriding the Chicom QRM. And yes, still that het around 6104.8, presumably RASA Mérida, México in Maya (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also MEXICO; NETHERLANDS [non] ** PHILIPPINES. FEBC, 9430, Fri Dec 12 at 1450, scheduled in Chinese, but a truly bilingual program with M in English, W in Chinese discussing origin of and playing Xmas carols, such as O Come, All Ye Faithful, which they said dates only from the XIX century, not as ancient as it seems with Latin title Adeste, Fideles. VG signal despite 345 degree azimuth from Bocaue; could be mistaken for a North American service. See also CANADA [non], 9625 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. PRES, 9450 via Germany, Sunday Dec 14 at 1351, good signal as Slawek Szefs was interviewing someone about the exhumation of the body confirmed as Gen. Sikorsky`s. BTW, they pronounce his name starting with Sh- even tho it`s not spelt Sz-; why? Googling on the Szikorsky spelling, one gets a very few hits in the Polish language spelling it that way but the preferred spelling is Sikorsky (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) From http://www.travlang.com/languages/polish/pronounce.english.html A common phenomenon in the Slavic languages is "softening" or "softened" pronunciation of consonants. This is made by pronounced a slight 'y' immediately following the letter. Example: NIE is pronounced NyEH This occurance happens in the following letters: C written C' or CI N written N' or NI (as in the Spanish ñ) S written S' or SI Z written Z' or ZI (can also occur in the pair dz = dz' or dzi) (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. Polish Radio External Service in DRM from Dec. 15: 1800-1900 on 6015 WER 040 kW / 300 deg to NoEu in English DRM, ex 6015 WER 100 kW / 300 deg in AM 2030-2100 NF 3975 WER 040 kW / non-dir to WeEu in German DRM, ex 5970 JUL 100 kW / non-dir Best regards, (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, Dec 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL [and non]. RDPI, 15520, with silly ballgame in Portuguese, Sat Dec 13 at 1508 // much stronger 15560. What`s the schedule of 15520? Is PWBR `2009` any help? Of course not! No listing at all for RDPI on 15520. EiBi shows Sat/Sun only at 15-17 to Africa. Aoki agrees, adding the azimuth 144 degrees. The 12040 collision between RDPI and HCJB German starting at 2230 extended longer than ever heard before, Sat Dec 13, still going at 2321. Must have been a rather late-running silly ballgame (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Glenn, Yes, in fact RDPi broadcasts to Africa on Saturday & Sunday, 1500-1700 UT, on 15520 kHz, 144 degrees. This info. is available at http://tv1.rtp.pt/canais-radio/rdpi/ondas_africa.htm besides the schedule I sent some time ago Best regards & good DX, (Luís Carvalho, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, Hasn't the RDPi B08 been publicised already?... I roughly checked the DX Mix News item, and if the RDPi made no changes of late, like I think they didn't, then please note the following, also available at http://tv1.rtp.pt/canais-radio/rdpi/distribuicao.php?canal=5 --- "São Tomé/Príncipe/Angola/Moçambique Sat/Sun 0800-1455 on 17590 LIS 100 kW / 144 deg" >> this should be 300 kW, not 100. "But, but, we have just been reporting that 12040 runs past 2230, colliding with HCJB; axually I think that transmission is open-ended depending on sports or whatever. And hasn`t Carlos repeatedly outpointed that some are not really 300 kW, but less? (gh, DXLD)" >> 12040 NAm - their sched. sent to me clearly reads: 1900-2400 special b/casts Mo-Fri 1900-2100 regular " Sat+Sun 2100-2400 special " Sat+Sun As you correctly put it, it is open-ended. >> the 300 kW units used for the India + MidEast as well as for the Venezuela-beamed broadcasts are adjusted to just 100 kW, so when "100 kW" is indicated, one shouldn't infer it is via any of the old 4 remaining units which, frankly, are only kept in case of a major breakdown of the newer transmitters, but then they can't be operated automatically, so I was explained long ago. In practice, however, it seems none of these [old] transmitters are used as they experience problems for many weeks until end Nov'08, I think, when it was quite clear that due to some computer-related problem, the 144º African beam was left without signal after the regular weekday evening broadcast [1700-2000] whenever there was an extra transmission after that [2000-2400, 11825 kHz]. On occasions, only two of the [300 kW] transmitters were being used when the whole four were meant to be on the air. The RDPi preferred not to detail what really happened, but it seemed those breakdowns were not related to the transmitters themselves; it was rather all that's needed to operate them automatically and from distance. They are also able to remotely check the power level at any given time, but then if something serious happens at odd hours, then there's nobody there to fix it, so unless a crew leaves for the site and is able to put everything in shape again, there may be no time until the program ends meaning it will be taken care of the following morning. The RDPi argues there are many other unmanned HF sites like theirs, but I still can't find any excuse for such failures. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** QATAR. 954 kHz, QBS heard at 2322 on 10 Dec with Arabic talk, no ID on the half hour, into a sort of radio play with mentions of "Hussein," "Musharraf" and "Jamirah." Confirmed against live audio stream. Really poor reception, with some equally weak QRM. Even if this is a directional beam going southwest, I find it hard to believe it is 1500 kW. Hopefully, QSL will give me some insight as to what is going on here! 'Tis the season for Xmas parties, so not too much DX done today (or anything else for that matter!). 73 de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, Palstar MW-550P Mediumwave Preselector, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. Escuchando el cierre de transmisión en español de Radio Rumanía Internacional, Diciembre 10 a las 0056UTC en 9525, me llamó la atención que la locutora haciendo el acostumbrado repaso de frecuencias para cada uno de sus servicios en castellano, mencionó 9523. Es entendible este corrimiento 2 kcs. más abajo, porque parecen estar recibiendo a ratos una pronunciado "pringue" (splatter, eso es) a esa hora de CNR 9530 en tibetano apuntando a 255º. 73 + Felices Fiestas (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos cordiales, Raúl, puedo confirmar ese dato; acabo de escuchar en Radio Rumanía Internacional que anuncian 9523 kHz, para el servicio de 0000 a 0100, ``5.960, 9.523, 9.665 y 11.960``. Felíz Navidad y próspero año nuevo (José Miguel Romero, Spain, ibid.) ** ROMANIA. RRI English at 1300 missing from recent new frequency 11970, Dec 16 at 1351 – that`s after WYFR closes and RRI should be audible, but nothing there, unlike the Romanian language channel 11940 which was VG; and also English on 15105 with sports at 1353. Nothing audible on 17745 either, which was what 11940 replaced. Is the sign-off announcement any help? Of course not! Annoying thing about RRI is at sign-off they never give the frequencies of the broadcast just ending, but instead all the frequencies and platforms of the next English broadcast, in this case at 1800 on 7215, 9640. Anyhow, either one of the new transmitters failed, or they have moved again away from 11940, which would be advisable due to the WYFR collision they should have anticipated before going there, anyway. And RRI have finally deleted the totally outdated A-08 schedule so that from the homepage you can now go directly to the B-08 English schedule at http://www.rri.ro/art.shtml?lang=1&sec=20&art=15758 but it still shows 11970 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. LAMENTABLE EL FALLECIMIENTO DE FRANCISCO "PANCHO" RODRIGUEZ, COLEGA DE LA VOZ DE RUSIA Acabei de receber uma triste notícia do Chefe do Departamento de Língua Portuguesa da Voz da Rússia, Yuri Chupin. Ele relata que o apresentador e produtor do programa Frecuencia RM, emitido em espanhol por aquela emissora, Francisco Pancho Rodríguez, faleceu em Moscou, na madrugada desta quinta-feira. Não temos mais detalhes mas, há algum tempo, Pancho havia me escrito que estava com problemas de saúde. Ele era o produtor do programa Onda DX que vai ao ar nas emissões em português da Voz da Rússia. O DX Clube do Brasil enviava a ele colaborações gravadas em MP3. Até metade de janeiro, o Onda DX estaria gravado, pois o locutor Jonas Bernardino está saindo de férias. Numa dessas colaborações, o amigo Ulysses Galetti agradece ao Pancho pela "parceria neste 2008" entre o DXCB e a Voz da Rússia. Detalhes do Frecuencia RM em: http://es.geocities.com/programasdx/frecuenciarm.htm 73s, (Célio Romais, via José Elías Díaz Gómez, via Santiago San Gil, Dec 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Queridos amigos, acabo de leer un correo en la lista de Radioescutas que habla del fallecimiento del amigo y colega locutor Francisco Pancho Rodríguez, esta noticia me ha sorprendido y me ha entristecido muchisimo (José Elías Díaz, Venezuela, 12 Dec, NOTICIASDX yg via DXLD) EN MEMORIA DE JUAN PATRICIO CORTÉS (PANCHO RODRIGUEZ) Dejó de existir nuestro colega, locutor Juan Patricio Cortés Jacome. Durante varios años trabajó en Radio Moscú Internacional en el programa "¡Escucha, Chile!". Sus recuerdos comparte el ex jefe de este programa, hoy comentarista de La Voz de Rusia, Guennady Sperski. Después de la asonada castrense, Juan Patricio se vio obligado abandonar Chile. Nosotros con Rolando Carrasco lo recibimos en el aeropuerto de Moscú, a finales de 1984. El joven de apariencia agradable nos inspiraba simpatía. Con facilidad se incorporó a nuestra colectividad, en la que trabajaban entonces altos profesionales como José Miguel Varas, Eduardo Labarca, Ekaterina Olévskaya, José Secal. A su ruego, llamábamos Pancho a Juan Patricio. Reemplazó al micrófono al magnífico conductor de programas René Largo Farías después de que éste partió para Chile. Katia Olévskaya y Pancho formaron un excelente dúo. Sus voces destrozaban el muro de mentiras e hipocresía con el cual rodearon a los chilenos los medios de información controlados por la dictadura, despertaban la voluntad de resistencia, coadyuvando así a reinstaurar la libertad y la democracia. Yo quisiera destacar las cualidades personalidades de nuestro colega. Pese a su suavidad exterior, Juan Patricio era inquebrantable cuanto se trataba de cosas de principios. Siempre estaba dispuesto a ayudar a sus compañeros, se lo respetaba por su modestia y tacto. Era muy grato trabajar junto con él. Nuestro país pasó a ser su segunda patria. Aquí formó una familia y continuó trabajando en La Voz de Rusia. Con su habilidad de llevar al auditorio, en forma clara y espontánea, el contenido de los programas, Juan Patricio hizo un aporte notable al desarrollo del diálogo de culturas entre los pueblos de Rusia y de América Latina. El tiempo no respeta a nadie. Fallecieron René Largo Farías, Hernán Rodríguez y ahora Juan Patricio Cortés Jacome. Nosotros guardaos la agradecida memoria de todos ellos. Han escuchado al comentarista de La Voz de Rusia Guennady Sperski, ex jefe del programa "¡Escucha, Chile!". http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=spa&q=7968&cid=83&p=12.12.2008 (via Jose Bueno, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nuestro pésame --- Hola a tod@s, Parece que el mes de diciembre es un mes de dolor para la comunidad diexista. En el mes de diciembre del año pasado murió Paco Martínez, presidente de la AER; hace unos días Carlos Arturo del Castillo y hace horas, Pancho Rodríguez. En nombre de la AER ¡Descansen todos ellos en Paz! Lamentablmente, ya no sólo desparecen las emisiones internacionales, sino que incluso dejan de estar con nosotros personas que nos han contagiado a tod@s su amor por la radio. En los días finales del año, cuando tod@s nos deseamos buenos deseos para el año 2009, no nos queda otra que proseguir en nuestras labores de apoyo a la onda corta internacional, pese al dolor que sentimos. Un cordial saludo desde Madrid (Pedro Sedano, Madrid, España. COORDINADOR GENERAL, AER, ibid.) A Pancho Rodriguez. Sin lugar a dudas, la noticia del fallecimiento de Pancho Rodríguez, ha sido todo un mazazo; se sabía que estaba algo delicado de salud, pero no cabía esperar tan fatídico desenlace. A partir de ahora, las noches diexistas de los martes no serán iguales, cuando encendamos la radio y sintonicemos La Voz de Rusia, ya no escucharemos a Pancho, ni a Frecuencia RM, lamentablemente no será fruto de la mala propagación. Pancho se nos ha ido para siempre, un referente de la radio como pocos, esa manera tan sencilla, tan campechana de contar las cosas, no te dejaban indiferente; al revés, tenía una manera tan particular y personal de contar las cosas que hacía que sintieras interés por escucharlas. No ha dejado algo más que una voz, nos ha dejado una maravillosa persona, que con más de sus mil programas de Frecuencia RM, ha dejado una huella, profunda, pero que muy profunda, en la historia de la radio, no sólo de la historia de la radio en Rusia, si no de la historia de la radio, con mayúsculas. Compañero, que allá donde estés la propagación te sea propicia, buenos DX Pancho. Descanse en Paz. De un radioescucha (José Miguel Romero, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Estas son palabras que uno jamás quisiera pronunciar... y sin embargo, llega el día en que nos vemos obligados a hacerlo, sintiendo que la pena nos sobrecoge el alma: Hoy, 11 de Diciembre de 2008, a la 1:15 horas de la madrugada, ha fallecido nuestro querido compatriota, amigo y compañero PATRICIO CORTES, un hombre que fue para quienes le conocimos un ejemplo de lealtad a la Patria y a nuestros ideales, un ejemplo de abnegación, entereza, valor y personal sacrificio ante las adversidades, uno de los mejores amigos y compañeros que hemos tenido los chilenos residentes en Moscú. Con sumo pesar, hoy les hacemos llegar nuestras más sentidas y sinceras condolencias a los familiares y seres queridos de Patricio. ¡Compañero Patricio Cortés, Presente! Mañana sábado 13 de diciembre de 2008 serán los funerales con una misa en la iglesia católica central de Moscú a las 13:00 hrs. y el entierro en el cementerio "Perepechenskoye". Luego, mismo día, un recordatorio en la Embajada de Chile en Moscú (via Célio Romais, Brasil, noticias dx via DXLD) This reads as if it was written by someone in Moscow, not Célio, tho it was attributed only to him who posted it (gh) Amigos, Que triste es esta noticia. Tengo unas tarjetas QSL especiales de "Frequencia RM", firmadas por Pancho. Descanse en paz. A propósito, siempre conocí este gran persona como Francisco (Pancho) Rodrigues. ¿Era Francisco Rodrigues el seudónimo de Juan Patricio Cortés? Saludos desde Rusia, (Dmitry Mezin, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) Es muy triste la noticia de Pancho. Recuerdo que cuando Thaïs y yo visitamos La Voz de Rusia hace algunos años, Pancho me entrevistó para su programa, y yo le entrevisté para el mio. El próximo día -- era febrero -- con un frío horrible y el suelo cubierto en hielo y nieve, Pancho nos dio un tour de un dia completo del Kremlin, y él y yo entramos juntos al mausoleo de Lenin. La contribución de Pancho a la onda corta ha sido muy significante. El mundo diexista ha perdido una gran persona, y nosotros hemos perdido un gran amigo (Jeff White, ibid.) Amigos: Es muy triste para nosotros los diexistas del mundo la pérdida irreparable de Panchito Rodriguez, mi querido compatriota Chileno. El mundo Diexista ha perdido una gran persona pero muchos de nosotros hemos perdido un gran amigo (Daniel Bustos Aravena, Sintonia Internacional, ibid.) Amigos: Consternado por la desaparición física de Patricio Cortés - más conocido en el mundo hispano como Francisco Pancho Rodríguez - me uno a los radioescuchas y diexistas que lo lloran. Pancho fue y será un símbolo de libertad que brilló en Rusia. Desde allí me acompañó con su pausada voz a través de Radio Moscú (actualmente La Voz de Rusia) durante 25 años. Fue un amigo a la distancia que supo acortarla con su sensibilidad y don de bien. No olvidaré sus verdades exclamadas en el emblemático programa "Escucha Chile"; tampoco se borrará de mi mente su prédica del diexismo y de las comunicaciones a través de "Frecuencia RM". He sido afortunado con su presencia radial y telefónica, con sus palabras, con sus buenas intenciones. Me honro en haber sido su amigo y aún más por recordarlo como hombre de bien. Hasta siempre, querido Pancho... Tu siembra ha dado frutos! (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Rosario-Argentina, condiglist yg via DXLD) OBIT ** RUSSIA. Relay Voice of Russia by SW-transmitter 26/10/2008-28/03/2009 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kHz / UTC / kW Moscow / RUS 5900 0000-0300 500 5905DRM 1400-1600 35 5985 1500-2000 200 6000 1630-1800 250 6130 1600-2200 200 6145 1600-2200 250 7105 1600-1630 250 7135 1300-1600 250 7155 1700-1900 250 7170 0000-0400 500 7170 2000-2200 250 7195 1700-2100 250 7230 1600-2100 500 7240 1800-2200 250 7260 0200-0400 500 7270 1500-1900 250 7290 1800-2200 250 7305 1800-2100 250 7310 1800-2200 250 7320 1600-1900 250 7330 0000-0300 500 7330 1700-2200 250 9470 1500-1800 500 9675DRM 1500-1800 35 9840 1500-1700 200 11630(15460) 1300-1500 250 11635DRM 0700-0900 35 12025 1200-1600 500 12055 1300-1530 500 13600 1300-1500 250 13760DRM 0900-1400 35 Sankt-Petersburg / RUS 5910 1500-1800 200 5920 1600-1900 200 5920 1900-2100 400 5920 2100-2230 200 5935 1500-1800 400 6000 1800-1900 200 6045 1700-2000 200 6060 1800-2000 400 6125 1500-1700 200 6170 1800-2100 200 6195 0100-0300 500 7130 1700-1800 400 7240 2600-1800 200 Kaliningrad / RUS 5950 1800-2200 160 5975 1630-1900 160 7285 1600-2300 160 7340 2000-2300 160 9435 0700-1500 160 9720 1000-1100 160 Samara / RUS 5900 1400-1700 250 5940 1500-1700 250 5940 1800-2300 250 6000 2000-2230 200 6020 (9480) 1500-1800 250 6025 1800-1845 200 6030 2100-2200 250 6155 1845-2000 200 6175 1700-1800 200 6185 1300-1700 250 7155 1900-2000 250 7290 1600-1800 250 9695 (13810) 1200-1300 250 9900 1300-1500 250 Krasnodar / RUS 5925 1500-1800 100 5945(7210) 0100-0300 500 6005 1500-1800 100 6035 1700-1900 500 6055 1800-1900 500 6140 1900-2100 100 6175 1800-2000 100 7105 1800-1900 100 7150 0200-0600 500 7300 1700-2000 250 11975(15450) 1300-1500 250 15540 1000-1100 250 Novosibirsk / RUS 5925 1900-2200 500 5940 1200-1400 100 5945 1400-1800 500 5975 1900-2100 500 6105 1600-1700 500 6170 1200-1300 500 7280 1500-1600 500 7305 1200-1400 200 7305 1400-1700 100 7320 1100-1200 100 Irkutsk / RUS 5920(9495) 1000-1400 100 5965 2000-2200 250 5995 1500-1900 100 6125 1700-1900 250 7265 1000-1100 250 9800 1300-1500 500 17805 0600-0900 250 Chita / RUS 6140 1200-1300 500 7295 1700-1900 500 7335 1800-2000 500 7350 1200-1600 500 15195 0800-1000 500 Vladivistok / RUS 5930 1100-1500 100 7260 1300-1700 500 7265 1200-1300 250 7330 1100-1500 500 9855 0400-0600 250 12040 0200-0400 250 13735 0200-0400 250 Khabarovsk / RUS 6115 1100-1500 100 7155 1200-1500 100 KOmsomolsk-na-Amure / RUS 6005 1300-1500 250 13665 0200-0500 250 15735DRM 0200-0600 90 17665 0600-1000 250 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky / RUS 6180 1200-1400 250 7125 1600-1900 250 9840 0400-0600 250 12030 0200-0400 250 Gavar / ARM 6235 1800-2000 500 7250 0200-0400 500 11510 1700-2000 500 Grigoriopol / MDA 6240 0000-0500 500 6245 1800-1900 500 7125 2300-0600 500 7420 1900-2100 500 Orzu / TJK 5920 2100-2300 500 6135 0000-0300 500 9475 0200-0400 500 9820 1600-2000 500 11660 1200-1400 500 15755 0800-1000 500 Yangi-Yul / TJK 4965 1300-1500 100 4965 1600-1700 100 4975 1300-1500 100 4975 1600-2000 100 5830 1800-1900 200 5830 1930-2000 200 7345 1500-2100 100 9885 1300-1530 100 9885 1600-1700 100 Xian / CHN 9660 1500-1600 100 S. Maria di Galeria / CVA 7350 0200-0600 250 Montsinery / GUF 7335 0200-0600 250 [reported as 0400-0600 instead] 11605 0000-0100 250 13630 0100-0300 350 Wertachtal / D 6155 0200-0500 250 6175 2300-2400 125 13755 1500-1600 125 ( ...) 01/03/2009 - 28/03/2009 (Nikolay Rudnev, Srtoitel, Belgorodsksys oblast, RUS-DX Dec 14 via DXLD) ** SAN ANDRES. LW beacon: Having a little trouble finding it on a map but it's coming in rather well. 387 kHz - SPP from San Andreas [sic] Island (Bill Nollman, Farmington, CT, 0525 UT Dec 14, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) It's an isolated island in the Caribbean about 120 miles off the coast of Nicaragua. But yes, a piece of Colombia. Congrats! (Bill Hepburn, Ont., ibid.) But considered a separate radio country (gh, DXLD) ** SERBIA [and non]. Good conditions Dec 5, so 6100 from 1900 UT (Russian) Radio Serbia dominating until sign-off 2235. So start of Chinese at 2230 was strongly audible. German program gives right frequency announcement 6100 and 7200. English service still announces 7240 which is not used for months. But 7200 not active on Dec 5 and 6. So no afternoon program from 1100 UT on (Udo Krüger, Germany? Dec WWDXC DX Magazine via DXLD) ** SEYCHELLES [non]. Glenn, re FEBA ``the ONLY English on this sked, semi-hour per week; is there more included in VARIOUS? (gh, DXLD)`` The answer is yes - but not much. See BDXC-UK Communication December p21 (Dave Kenny, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 0145-0200 Mon & Sat 6140 1400-1430 Sun 12045 1415-1430 Mon/Wed/Sat 12045 all beamed to S Asia via Abu Dhabi (Dec BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** SLOVENIA. R. Capodistria, Beli Kriz, 1170 kHz, noted here in Italian at 1915-1935z with Italian pop songs and features about Slovenia.Weak but no QRM heard;only QRN disturbing reception (José Turner, Portugal, Dec 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. SIBC, 9541.5v has been reported after 1400, but nominal 9545 is supposed to be in use only at 2000-0800, with 5020 at 0800-2000. Perhaps they are running 9541.5v longer hours until 5020 can be reactivated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9541.54, SIBC, Honiara. The best signal here is around 0830, when suffering more or less severely from the lower sideband of Deutsche Welle on 9545. Often the best intelligibility is around 1100, when Deutsche Welle has signed off at 1000*. Heard Dec 08 around 0840, when SIBC comes stronger than the last days, and providing SIO of 232-3 while Deutsche Welle is 30 dB stronger (Nils Schiffhauer, Burgdorf, Germany, DSWCI DX Window Dec 10 via DXLD) Here a weak carrier was noted without audio at 0650-0840, Nov 28, Dec 02, 03 and 06, with strong QRM from Deutsche Welle and weak QRM from CRI, Beijing on 9540. But at 1005-1059, Dec 02 and 04, faint talking was heard (Anker Petersen, Denmark and Rolf Wernli, Thalheim, Switzerland, DSWCI DX Window Dec 10 via DXLD) I'm getting the SIBC at fair level now at 0650 UT on 9541.51 with an improving signal since 0630 tune-in. Not much more than threshold initially, but now at fair level, although there's a bit too much local noise to make much out from the transmission. Fun to watch the improving signal, though on the Perseus SDR screen. Mostly music. Getting pretty close to good signal strength (only S2 or S3 on the meter, though) at 0655 UT (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, Dec 11, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9541.1, Ilhão Salomão, SIBC, Honiara, 15/12, 0855, programa Voice of Salvation, vários desejos de Feliz Natal e Ano Novo, 35444 (SAMUEL CÁSSIO MARTINS, SÃO CARLOS SP, BRASIL, RX JRC 525, LONGWIRE 30 METROS, @tividade DX Dec 14 via DXLD) ** SPAIN. Has REE discontinued their B-08 weekday English broadcasts to Africa, which a few weeks ago you reported would be on 9605 and 9690 at 19 UT (I think)? Last year, I was able to hear these frequencies in the afternoon broadcasting in English to Africa, but I haven`t been able to hear them this year. Do you know anything about these REE English broadcasts to Africa? REE has a distinct perspective that I like to hear, and although I get their English broadcasts to the US at 00 on 6055, I prefer to listen to the African broadcasts, since I have other things to listen to at 00. I`m enclosing a postcard, and I hope you can send me any info you have about REE weekday English to Africa. Many thanks (Kent D. Murphy, New Martinsville, WV, Dec 6, by P-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kent, REE does its best to keep its English listeners guessing. I have not confirmed any of this myself, but the B-08 EiBi schedule shows 19- 20 M-F in English to Africa on 9605, and to Europe on 9665. Sat & Sun English is instead at 22-23 and to Europe only on 6125. Edwin Southwell, England, did report hearing them on 9665 M-F (Glenn Hauser, Dec 12, PC reply to Kent, via DXLD) REE, 17595, Sunday Dec 14 at 1435 with two sopranos in song outroed as ``Mi Bien Amor``, which I think the announcer said was recorded in Guatemala; 1444 music from Venezuela sung by the RTVE Chorus. Excellent modulation and usual strong, steady signal. I am as impressed by this service direct from Noblejas as I am unimpressed by the muddy Costa Rican relays. Per program grid I found at http://www.rtve.es/files/70-12182-FICHERO/Parrilla_colores_corporativos.pdf this show is Solo Canciones, Sundays at 14-15. It`s going onto my Monitoring Reminders Calendar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Información recibida de Antonio Buitrago de REE: Los programas "Amigos de la Onda Corta" correspondientes a las semanas de Navidad y Año Nuevo sufrirán algunos cambios debido a la programación especial que ha elaborado para estas fechas Radio Exterior de España. Sólo habrá dos ediciones el sábado 27 de diciembre de 2008, a las 0505 y 1530 UT. Y el sábado 3 de enero de 2009, también dos ediciones, a las 0505 y 1905 UT. Cordiales 73 (José Bueno, Spain, Dec 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The 1530 edition had been on Sundays, and only on one or two frequencies breaking away from the rest (gh, DXLD) ** SRI LANKA [and non]. BBC via SLBC: selective inaudibility. "In the past few days, the BBC World Service has been jammed by the state-owned Sri Lanka Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC). ... On 10 December, the authorities jammed a report about protests by politicians in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu who objected to being called 'jokers' by the Sri Lankan army chief. On 27 November, reports on a speech by the leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels and a press conference by representatives of the Defence Watch website were rendered inaudible by the SLBC, which is contractually obliged to retransmit the BBC’s Tamil and Sinhala programmes every day. The SLBC has, since August, been broadcasting a programme immediately after the BBC programming to give the official Sri Lankan government take on what the BBC’s journalists have just reported." Reporters sans frontières, 12 December 2008. "BBC Sinhala (Sandeshaya) and Tamil (Thamil Osai) language programmes are transmitted through SLBC under an agreement between the BBC and the SLBC." BBC News, 30 November 2008. "Although the BBC local language programmes ... are available online, this censorship affects the the vast majority of Sri Lankans who are not connected to the internet." Free Media Movement (Colombo), 30 November 2008. Posted: 15 Dec 2008 (see http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=5449 for 3 linx via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. 17745, Sudan Radio Service, via Sines, PORTUGAL, Sat Dec 13 at 1510 with didactic discussion by M&W in English about animals; F-G peaks, but increasingly bothered by splatter from WYFR 17760 English. Is PWBR `2009` any help? Of course not. No SRS listed there, but Aoki & Eibi have English as daily 1500-1530. At 1529 into Arabic, or some dialect thereof, accompanied by steel drumming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN. RADIO SWEDEN ADDS “CHRISTMAS FREQUENCIES” FOR ENGLISH TO EUROPE --- Radio Sweden carries the following announcement on its website: “During the period between Christmas and New Year’s days, our English programme to Europe at 2130 UTC can be heard on the additional frequencies of 1179 and 5850 kHz.” These frequencies normally carry relays of the Swedish domestic service (December 15th, 2008 - 11:25 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** SWEDEN, SAQ TRANSMISSION ON CHRISTMAS EVE DECEMBER 24TH 2008 There will be, as before, a transmission with the Alexanderson 200 kW alternator on VLF 17.2 kHz from Grimeton Radio/SAQ on Christmas Eve, Wednesday, 24th 2008 December. The message transmission will take place at 0800 UT and will be repeated at 0830 UT. The transmitter will be tuned up from around 0730 UT. There will be no activity on amateur radio frequencies with the call SK6SAQ this time. QSL-reports are kindly received: - E-mail to: info@alexander.n.se - or fax to: +46-340-674195 - or via: SM bureau - or direct by mail to: Alexander - Grimeton Veteranradios Vaenner, Radiostationen, Grimeton 72 S-430 16 ROLFSTORP S W E D E N Also read our web site: http://www.alexander.n.se Yours (Lars Kalland SM6NM (via Steve Whitt, MWC via DXLD) ** SWITZERLAND. DRS1 Beromünster 531 kHz --- Hi to all, DRS1 Beromünster on 531 kHz will definitively close on 28th Dec. 2008. From 1700 to 2400 local time [1600-2300 UT] DRS1 will send the special event "Wunschkonzert" with interviews to special guests of DRS1 and music requested by the listeners. Please stay tuned on 531 KHz for this sad event; another transmitter will leave the fascinating world of medium waves. This is the announcement of DRS1: http://www.hb9gce.ch/DRS_fine_20081216_073013_531.mp3 73 de HB9GCE, Andy (Stumpf Carl Andreas, Switzerland, 16 Dec, playdx yg via DXLD) ** TATARSTAN. Hola, amigo Glenn: Te escribo para preguntarte sobre el email de Voice of Tatarstan pues le escribí tanto a este: postmaster@stvcrt.kazan.su y a éste root@gtrkrt.kazan.su y me fueron devueltos y rechazados. Te agradecería me dijeras que puedo hacer o donde buscar o por lo menos dame la direccion postal de carta actual de Voice of Tatarstan. Desde ya, te agradezco, y te envio un gran saludo de Feliz Navidad (Merry Christmas) and Happy New year 2009. Saludos (Ceferino Carlos Campmajó, Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, Dec 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Ceferino, no sé, pero me parece que no debiera funcionar más el dominio .su - Unión Soviética. Talvez se cambiaron a .ru PWBR 2009 dice lo siguiente, sin correo-e. ```TATARSTAN WAVE (``Tatarstan Dulkynda``), GTRK ``Tatarstan``, ul. Gor`kogo 15, 420015 Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. [phone numbers]. Contact: Hania Hazipovna Galinova. Formerly known as Voice of Tatarstan. Address for reception reports: QSL Manager, P O Box 134, 420136 Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. Contact: Ildus Ibatullin, QSL manager. Offers an honorary diploma in return for 12 correct reports in a given year. The diploma costs 2 IRCs for Russia and 4 elsewhere. Accepts reports in Russian or English. Return postage helpful``` 73, (Glenn to Ceferino, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET. 6200, Xizang PBS - Lhasa, 1630-1700, Dec 12, "Holy Tibet" English program, news, segment on "Tourism of Tibet", played a lot of Tibetan songs, reception continues to improve, today close to 100% readable (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [and non]. Here in West Virginia, even with only a 30-foot indoor wire antenna and a small portable SW radio --- the infamous Kaito KA-1103, with the fantastically simple and brilliant concept of memory tune scanning with their jog dial wheel, while everything else about it is such an idiot`s masterpiece that I`ve often wanted to smash it against a wall --- I am able to get a lot of BBC broadcasts. In B-08, I have been able to hear the following, but obviously with widely varying reception quality: 0000 7105 0300-0700 7255 0300 6145 0300-0600 6005 0400 9650 0500-0700 5875 11785 0600 9410 1100 15400 1100-2100 17830 1300-1700 21470 1300-1800 15420 1500-2100 12095 1600-1800 11665 1700 9410 11860 1700-2300 15400 1800-2000 5875 1800-2100 9630 1830-2100 9410 1900-2200 6005 2100-2300 6110 2200 6155 About 3-4 weeks ago, on a Friday evening WV time, I was able to hear 6155 continue beyond 22, not just for a few minutes, until somebody realized they forgot to turn it off, but for a full 3 hours. Yes, for that one day only, I was able to hear, with pretty good reception, 6155 from 23 to 02. The BBC website doesn`t even show 6155 operating at those hours, and I was hoping that the BBC was suddenly increasing their broadcasts, but I haven`t heard it since. I`m very curious about this, but also a bit angry about what could be, because I was able to hear clearly, at a good evening time, the BBC Interview which, depending on the guest, can be excellent, and The Interview is hard to hear at other times it is scheduled, due to time or reception (Kent D. Murphy, New Martinsville, WV, Dec 6, by P-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6155 at 22-23 is Meyerton, South Africa (gh, DXLD) ** U K. Re: ``UNIDENTIFIED. 15180, Nov 26 at 1334, BBCWS loop announcement with musical theme, long pause starting over every 29 seconds, that there is ``no programming on this channel at present. Details of all our services are at bbcworldservice.com``; some splatter from big Costa Rican signal on 15170. BBC gone by 1355 recheck. It was very nice of BBCWS to go to the trouble and expense to tell me that there was nothing to be heard on 15180, but not really needed. Why pick this channel, instead of countless others to fire up a transmitter and tell us they have nothing to say?? No clues in online listings about where this could be coming from; earlier in day, 15180 used by BBC from Oman, Cyprus. I know better than to waste my time searching for info about 15180 at bbcworldservice.com At least this loop said nothing about satellite, which would be even more irrelevant (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` On 11 Dec, BBC began a Kyrgyz service at 1300-1330 on 15180, 500 kW, 62 degrees via Rampisham, so that almost accounts for the above, 4 minutes later. Kyrgyzstan just kicked BBC off local FM. The B-08 VTC schedule in 8-115 did not include any Kyrgyz from BBC, altho some language segments were non-specific. The only languages matching that semi-hour on other frequencies were Indonesian and Uzbek. Nor did the WRTH A08 update show any Kyrgyz from BBC (also looking for Kirgiz spellings). So apparently BBC Kyrgyz had been off SW, and now it`s forced to resume that antiquated medium! But so far no BBC press release about this. Kyrgyz website http://www.bbc.co.uk/kyrgyz/institutional/frequencies.shtml still says nothing about SW, imagining that it`s on FM, and the 1300 broadcast was only 5 minutes long --- which could also explain the `nothing` announcements in my original unID (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. Re 8-127: For the fourth day in a row, BBCWS in English on 9625, Dec 11 at 1423 under CBC Northern, and easily confirmed as such by // 5975 BBCWS via Thailand. Again there is a SAH of about 3 Hz, and possibly RSA is in the mix too. Now we have a VTC schedule update showing that it`s Cyprus with BBCWS at 14-15, 64 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CANADA ** U K [non]. 6030 is overwhelmed with signals now reducing any chance for CFVP to be heard in the mornings here. At least the DentroCuban jamming is gone by 1400, but the Chicom CNR1 jamming is in full force, against what? Aoki says Ming Hui Radio, Tanshui, Taiwan is on 6030 with 100 kW, 325 degrees at 1300-1400 only, and is jammed. They also show CNR1 from Beijing site #572 on 6030, all the way from 2000 to 1735, 50 kW non-direxional. But Dec 14 at 1404 I was definitely pulling news in Arabic thru this mess, and that is BBCWS via Cyprus, 300 kW at 101 degrees, longpath or grayline shortpath? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. BBCWS in English, 11760, way over RHC Spanish at 1352 Dec 16; recheck at 1414, RHC was slightly atop BBC with SAH. This correlates nicely with BBC transmitter site change at 1400 as in Aoki: from Oman at 310 degrees, also favoring us, to Cyprus at 90 degrees. Thanks to the temporary absence of CBCNQ Sackville, BBCWS now well heard on 9625 via Cyprus, Dec 16 at 1406, ID in passing, lite QRM probably from RSA. At 1422 BBC interviewing an agony aunt in India, deep fades (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. Frequency change & additional transmissions of BBC in DRM mode from Dec. 10: [see also GERMANY [non]] 0500-0600 NF 3995 SIN 090 kW / 040 deg WeEu, ex 6195 KVI 035 kW / 190 0600-0700 NF 3995 SKN 100 kW / 121 deg WeEu, ex 6195 KVI 035 kW / 190 0700-0800 on 6195 KVI 035 kW / 190 deg WeEu, cancelled 1500-1700 NF 5790 WOF 100 kW / 172 deg WeEu, new additional 1600-1800 NF 3995 SKN 100 kW / 121 deg WeEu, new additional 2100-2200 NF 3995 SKN 100 kW / 121 deg WeEu, new additional 2200-2300 NF 3995 SIN 090 kW / 040 deg WeEu, new additional New additional unregistered frequency of BBC WS in English: 1500-1600 on 9855 UNID transmitter Very good reception here in BULGARIA (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Dec 15 via DXLD) see also SRI LANKA ** U K. BBC Russian Channel launches on YouTube --- London, Tuesday 16 December 2008: BBC World Service today announces the launch of new BBC Russian Channel on YouTubeTM, the leading online video community. Alongside the BBC's current radio and online offering to Russian- speakers, the launch of this Channel further expands the BBC's outreach to Russian-speaking audiences on a range of platforms. The BBC Russian Channel on YouTube - http://uk.youtube.com/bbcrussian - offers a mix of content comprising video material covering political, social, economic, scientific and cultural issues, video reports from the BBC's unparalleled global network of correspondents, as well as short video clips illustrating major world events. There are also reports by bbcrussian.com correspondents covering the events and issues of special interest to the Russian-speaking audience. Head of BBC Russian, Sarah Gibson, says: "We are pleased with this development as it means that even more Russian-speaking news seekers are now able to access the BBC's online output in Russian." Editor of bbcrussian.com, Dmitry Shishkin, adds: "We are engaging with all the different ways in which our audience consumes the news. As one of the very few Russian-language broadcasters producing high- quality video content specifically for the web, we see the launch of our Channel on YouTube as a logical and very important step in this direction." The BBC Russian Channel is part of a portfolio of video news Channels being developed by BBC World Service as it extends its relationship with YouTube. In what is the first multi-language deal by a major international news broadcaster with YouTube, users will have access to high-quality, independent and impartial news clips produced in Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Urdu. The new language channels are set to launch at the end of this year and start of 2009, and are an addition to the existing BBC World News Channel, http://uk.youtube.com/bbcworldnews which showcases BBC news clips in English. Patrick Walker, YouTube's Director of Video Partnerships for Europe, Middle East and Africa, comments: "YouTube is a truly global platform that connects millions of people from all over the world, many of whom have a strong interest in international news. By bringing top quality news content to the YouTube community in many languages, the BBC is taking an innovative step to engage with this large and diverse audience." Ends/ (BBC press release Dec 16 via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Winter B-08 of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Arabic - Radio 0200-0700 on 1593 Free Iraq 1500-1530 on 1593 1830-2000 on 1593 2100-2300 on 1593 Avari, Chechen & 0400-0500 on 5885 15625 Cherkessi(x20m.) 1600-1700 on 9725 11605 Belorussian 0400-0600 on 612 6105 6120 1600-1800 on 612 9415 9865 1800-2000 on 612 6105 9865 2000-2200 on 612 7165 7220 Dari - Radio 0330-0430 on 1296 9335 12140 15335 Free Afghanistan 0530-0630 on 1296 12140 17530 19010 0730-0830 on 1296 12140 17530 19010 0930-1030 on 1296 12140 17530 19010 1130-1230 on 1296 9335 9990 12140 1330-1430 on 1296 9335 12140 Georgian 0500-0600 on 9725 15265 17495 1130-1145 on 15265 15460 17495 17515 Mon-Fri 1400-1500 on 15120 15265 1800-1900 on 9525 9620 9780 2000-2045 on 9565 9590 9840 Mon-Fri 2000-2100 on 9565 9590 9840 Sat/Sun Kazakh 0100-0200 on 7235 9790 1300-1400 on 12005 15120 Pashto - Radio 0230-0330 on 1296 9335 12140 15335 Free Afghanistan 0430-0530 on 1296 12140 15335 19010 0630-0730 on 1296 12140 17530 19010 0830-0930 on 1296 12140 17530 19010 1030-1130 on 1296 9990 12140 19010 1230-1330 on 1296 9335 9990 12140 Persian - Radio 0030-0200 on 1575 5860 6115 7145 Farda 0200-0230 on 1575 5860 6115 9520 0230-0300 on 1575 6115 9520 15690 0300-0400 on 1575 5925 9520 15690 0400-0500 on 1575 9430 9585 15690 0500-0600 on 1575 9585 12015 15690 0600-0830 on 1575 9585 15690 17675 0830-1230 on 1575 5860 15690 21715 1230-1400 on 1575 5860 13680 15690 1400-1530 on 1575 11750 13680 15410 1530-1600 on 1575 11750 11840 13680 1600-1700 on 1575 7520 7580 11840 1700-1800 on 1575 7520 7580 9785 1800-1900 on 1575 7520 7580 9595 1900-2000 on 1575 7580 9335 9570 2000-2130 on 1575 7485 7580 9335 2130-0030 on 1575 Moldovian 0500-0600 on 5890 Mon-Fri 1600-1630 on 6120 Sat/Sun 1700-1730 on 6135 Mon-Fri 1900-1930 on 6135 Mon-Fri Russian 0400-0500 on 5940 7305 9520 17770 0500-0600 on 7305 7345 9520 17770 0600-0700 on 9520 9535 15250 17770 0700-0800 on 9520 12015 15250 15285 0900-1100 on 7220 9520 15130 1300-1400 on 9715 13660 15130 1400-1500 on 7225 9715 15130 1500-1600 on 7220 7270 11805 11870 1600-1700 on 7220 7305 9520 11805 1700-1800 on 7220 7305 9520 9725 1800-2000 on 6150 7220 7350 9650 2000-2100 on 6150 9520 2100-2200 on 6105 7335 7425 Tajik 0100-0300 on 7275 11795 0300-0400 on 9760 11795 1400-1500 on 7595 9695 1500-1700 on 7260 9695 Tatar Bashkir 0400-0500 on 5920 7220 0600-0700 on 9680 1600-1630 on 5895 7380 1700-1730 on 5895 7380 2000-2100 on 5895 Turkmen 0200-0300 on 864 7295 12015 0300-0400 on 5955 12015 1400-1500 on 6055 9445 1500-1530 on 6055 9835 1530-1600 on 864 6055 9835 1600-1800 on 5820 9625 Uzbek 0200-0400 on 9680 12025 15590 1400-1500 on 9595 11715 12015 1500-1530 on 864 1600-1700 on 6060 7550 9760 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Dec 15 via DXLD) *** U S A. /KYRGYZSTAN: RFE/RL PROGRAMMES NEED "PRIOR APPROVAL" TO BE RESTORED | Text of report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website on 15 December Kyrgyz authorities said today that Radio Azattyk, RFE/RL's popular Kyrgyz-language service, will not be restored to the airwaves unless its programs are submitted to the government for prior approval. Melis Eshimkanov, the head of Kyrgyzstan's state-controlled radio and TV broadcaster, said the programs are "too negative and too critical" of the government and claimed that powerful Kyrgyz figures are behind the decision to keep Radio Azattyk off the air. "Unless we can hear the programs in advance, we cannot have them on the air," he said. RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin said the move may force Radio Azattyk to put its broadcasts exclusively on shortwave frequencies for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. "Frankly, we expected more from a country trying to prove its reformist credentials in the region," he said. Eshimkanov said "the problem [with Radio Azattyk] is the content." He said Kyrgyzstan will not honor its current contract with RFE/RL now, nor when it expires at the end of the year unless Azattyk clears its radio and TV reports with the government in advance - or "guarantees" they will not be offensive. "The mission of providing unbiased news and information cannot be compromised," said Dr. Jeffrey Hirschberg of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees all U.S. international broadcasting, including RFE/RL. "Such proposed censorship conditions are unacceptable." Until October 8, Azattyk's TV and radio programs were heard and seen by nearly half the Kyrgyz population. Azattyk broadcast three hours of radio programming each day and produced two weekly prime-time television news shows, "Inconvenient Questions" and the youth-oriented "Azattyk Plus." Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website, Washington, D.C., in English 15 Dec 08 (via BBCM via DXLD) RFE/RL (Radio Liberty) in Kyrgyz is resuming on shortwave: 1200-1230 UT on 9465 and 13755 kHz 1500-1530 UT on 7150 and 11790 kHz (Neven Nagy, [location unknown but an Hungarian name], Dec 15, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) see UK too ** U S A [and non]. 15580 open carrier, Dec 11 at 1450-1458* and covering up a weaker signal, i.e. VOA São Tomé blocked by VOA Greenville-B, which doesn`t modulate on this frequency until 1700 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. 17740 in uncertain ME language, Dec 16 at 1447 M&M interviewing someone, fair at best and gone at 1459 with no ID or jingle heard, and nothing listed in most references, a late addition since B-08 began; however I recall the VOA Kurdish used to be here, and it is again per: http://www.voanews.com/kurdi/frequencies.cfm and the site is South Africa per http://www.sentech.co.za/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=300&bid=25&btitle=Frequencies&meid=324 After 1500, 17735 came on with NHK via France, and 17745 with Sudan Radio Service via Portugal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Something strange has been happening on WBCQ, on 7415, at 00 on Sundays [he means UT Mondays] when they broadcast Harry Shearer`s satirical `Le Show`, which is also heard on NPR and elsewhere. In recent months, about 7 minutes have been removed from the program by truncating the musical content. Harry usually mixes a few musical interludes into his satire, and in recent months on WBCQ, only about 5 seconds of each piece of music is played: imagine Carl Perkins or Elvis singing ``It`s one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready…` and then the song ends. The show now ends at approximately 0053, and then there is just dead air, presumably until broadcasting resumes at 01, although I never listen long enough to find out. I can think of only two possible reasons: either WBCQ is avoiding paying royalties on recorded music, or they are trying to save money by turning their transmitter off for a few minutes (Kent D. Murphy, New Martinsville, WV, Dec 6, by P-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) But is the transmitter off, or just unmodulated? Harry used to offer on the web a music-less version of his show, but I don`t find that any longer. Perhaps it is still available and WBCQ is downloading it either by accident or deliberately. Podcast page: http://feeds.kcrw.com/kcrw/ls How about it, Allan, what`s the explanation? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. The next Dan Lewis show on WBCQ and Radio Newyork International features conversations with Popular Communications editor Edith Lennon, prolific DXer and World of Radio producer Glenn Hauser, and a replay of our interview with Benn Kobb of 26 MHz.us Join us on December 29 at 0100 UT -- that's December 28 at 8 PM Eastern in North America -- on WBCQ, 5110 kHz. Programs will stream online at http://johnlightning.com/webcast and be archived at http://johnlightning.com/firesale WBCQ is a free speech radio station location in Monticello, Maine USA with a website at http://wbcq.com (Dan Lewis, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The interview with me lasts no more than 30 minutes, so somewhere in the middle of the two-hour block (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. WBOH, distorted 5920, Fri Dec 12 at 1345, OM preacher in gringo Spanish, e.g. pronouncing código as codígo, followed by YL with better accent. There is no Spanish shown on the schedule at this time, 8:45 am local: http://www.fbnradio.com/new_page_copy(1).htm Sister station WTJC, Dec 13 at 0610 with Joy to the World during Xmas medley not only on distorted 9370 but also splattering as far as down as 9220 and as far up as 9490, but worse the closer to 9370, interfering with many other stations! Not the first time this has happened. // 5920 distorted but not splattering. Checked again at 1438, 9370 itself had a big het since WTJC is also off-frequency, but VOA Deewa service in Pashto via Sri Lanka is really on 9370.0. And WTJC still splattering, now detectable between 9320 and 9410 again interfering with many other stations. I then tried to notify the FBN chief engineer David Gernoske but got a bounce from the earthlink address I had for him, so resent it to the generic FBN e- mail address. No reply from them, but WTJC, 9370, back in whack without splattering all over the band, Dec 14 at 1350 with preacher talk. Somewhat distorted audio on fundamental, but as long as they keep it within 4 kHz of 9370, we can live with it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: WTJC splattering all over --- Thank you for advising us. Bro. Gernoske fixed the problem Saturday afternoon. In Christ's service, (Michael D. Ebron, General Manager, FBN, Dec 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WBOH, 5919.94 at 0432 on 16 Dec. with hymns, Christmas sermon. Moderate. // WTJC on 9369.97. Checked later at 0510 and the frequencies changed to 5919.95 and 9369.91 respectively (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WEWN, 5755, Sunday Dec 14 at 1406 with two-tone mass in English --- what`s the proper name for that kind of chanting --- a whole string of words `sung` at one pitch, and then the last one at a lower pitch, and why? However, this was getting severe self-QRM from WEWN`s own squealing modulation card, getting worse and worse. Why don`t they fix this problem which has been ongoing for years at varying levels? Do they assume no one is really trying to listen, anyway? Later checked other WEWN frequencies: at 1415, 7555 had much lighter squeal by comparison, not nearly so annoying, as Panis Angelicus was being sung. At 1426, 11520 in Spanish gospel rock, no squeal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KAIJ News from Ken Zichi: Tip originally from HCJB DX Party Line Podcast dated 6/Dec/08 Dave McClaren reports that KAIJ is gone as the transmitters have been removed from the building, and the Antenna farm has been dismantled. (The balance of this diatribe is from me. --kvz ) I guess you can say it is not only merely gone, it is very most sincerely gone? :o Some history for the youngin's out there: KAIJ transmitted from facilities near Dallas Texas, and started out life in the early 1980s as KCBI [C)riswell B)ible I)nstitute] -- my first QSL from them is in 1985 [it is number 580] -- while I was in law school so they may have been broadcasting before then, and I missed out on the 'grand opening' because life was interfering with DX. They originally started out as a "private" station [i.e. NOT 100% religious] including an attempt at a DAILY DX programme (!) but overall the programming was pretty forgettable. They 'died' for about a half a year in the early 1990s (1992?) They then came back with Gene Scott ranting, er preaching, in the mid 1990s. Two if By Sea came around in the early 2000's (2001?) if memory serves, although they may have been the group that took over in 1992 as well; I'd have to do some digging to know for sure. Anyway, as I recall, they changed the call to KAIJ and ended up leasing time mostly to Dr Gene, which was the case right up until the time he died if I remember correctly. Anyway, Two if By Sea Broadcasting was out of Washington [state; at Enumclaw, which is Walcmune spelt backwards --- gh] originally, but most recent information I have shows them having moved to someplace in Tennessee, but in any event, I haven't heard this station in quite some time. Interestingly, kaij.us is still up and implying the station is on 9480 daytime and 5755 nighttime. I haven't checked there in a long time - I should tune to see if it REALLY is gone, but the FCC site says they are no longer in operation!) Such interesting memories -- and I note I never did get a KAIJ QSL – lost opportunities, I guess! Sigh (Ken Zichi, MI, MARE Tipsheet Dec 11 via DXLD) ** U S A. Sunday Dec 14 around 1417 I noticed an Airforce MARS net on 7633.5 SSB, NCS calling stations in Indiana; came back to it at 1445, still going with NCS ID as AFA1NF, attempting to contact many other stations, some of which were not heard by him and all of which were not heard or with much weaker signals here. Does the NCS ex-officio run more power or with better antenna than ordinary members? Seems this frequency was considered secondary. A search of the 18,473 posts so far at the UDXF yg got ONE hit on 7633.5, from the prolific Al Stern, Satellite Beach FL, May 16, 2007, more than a sesquiyear ago: ``USAF MARS has reverted back to its original MARS freqs ending in "0" and "5": 4557.0 7633.5 13927.0 Primary 14606.0 18617.0 20992.5 The change has already been instituted and is current.`` Then searched UDXF on the callsign and also got ONE hit: ``4593.5 AFA1NF, USAF MARS Net: 1309 USB Voice (05/MAY/2008) (Jack L. Metcalfe, KY)`` But no info on QTH. Found this website which mentions AFA1NF as NCS on the previous two Sunday mornings: http://www.marsregionone.org/IndexNew.html Other Googling leads to Indiana as the provenance of AFA1NF. However, AF MARS regions will be realigned in January, #I becoming New England so I suppose that means all the callsigns will have to change (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. ABDX presents the first [MEDIUMWAVE] DX test of the season. Thank you to Jay Rogers for running a DX test at WOON 1240 kHz in Woonsocket, RI. This test will run Sunday morning Dec. 21 at 0200 ET / 0700 UT. WOON 1240 is mono running 1 kW NDA. You can send your reports to Dave Richards via e-mail or regular mail. WOON/1240 985 Park Avenue Woonsocket, R.I. 02895-6332 U.S.A. E-mail: dave @ onworldwide.com (note: use the station callsign as the subject line so it's not disregarded as spam). The DX test will consist of: --Morse Code ID --Voice announcement about it being a test broadcast --Morse Code ID --WOON Radio Jingle, (sung) "O-N Radio.......in Woonsocket". These four elements will repeat, in that order, for 60 minutes from 2:00 to 3:00 EST on 12/21/08. A special thank you to Jay, Ron Gitschier and others who made this test possible (Kevin Redding, ABDX List owner, And all the people at ABDX who made this possible, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) Audio clips sent to the station will not be required but will be appreciated. While supplies last, a bumper sticker will be included with the QSL. As an added benefit to anyone who may have logged WOON or its predecessor WWON, these antenna coordinates are new as they are on a different antenna versus the last time they did a DX test. 73, (Jay, N1WVQ/V31VQ/WQBI410, ibid.) I have updated http://www.dxtests.info with the information on this first test of the season. 73, (Brandon Jordan, TN, IRCA via DXLD) ** U S A. NEW RADIO STATION LACKING FEDERAL AUTHORIZATION KHOD REMAINS ON AIR AS IT RESPONDS TO PROPOSED FINE By Todd Wildermuth, Editor, The Raton Range http://www.ratonrange.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=143&ArticleID=10881 KHOD is operating out of a rented space on Park Avenue on a corner of the El Portal Hotel building. Its antenna sits atop the roof of the building. Range photo by Todd Wildermuth [caption] A new radio station that began broadcasting from downtown Raton in May is operating in violation of its federal construction permit and is not authorized to be on the air, according to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC last month issued a "Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture" against KHOD, which is broadcasting at 105.3 FM. The notice proposes to fine Hodson Broadcasting, the owner of the station, $10,000. It gives Hodson Broadcasting until Dec. 17 to pay the proposed fine or submit a response to the FCC explaining why the fine should be cancelled or reduced. On Thursday, Richard Hodson, the sole proprietor of Hodson Broadcasting and its lone station, KHOD, said he was in the process of preparing a response to the FCC. Hodson, who spoke to The Range by phone from what he said was his corporate headquarters in Las Vegas, Nev., would not specifically discuss what he will say in his written response. He also refused to say what his position is on whether or not he is in violation of his construction permit or whether or not he needs another permit to grant him authority to actually broadcast, which he was continuing to do as of Monday. Asked directly by The Range if he believes he is not in violation of his FCC construction permit - which outlines specifics for the station's location, power level, antenna height and antenna structure type - Hodson said, "I'm not saying that." Asked if he thinks he must apply for and receive another permit from the FCC in order to legally go on the air, Hodson said he can't comment on that "as a legal matter" until he files his response with the FCC. Hodson did agree with the FCC's notice in saying he has not applied for a "special temporary authorization" (STA). He said if he was to file for a STA, that would "clear this up." An FCC Enforcement Bureau agent from Denver who inspected KHOD this past June - following complaints about KHOD allegedly operating in violation of its construction permit - found the station had no STA or waiver to operate on-air or to operate from its location in Raton, where Hodson has set up his studio in a rented Park Avenue space in the El Portal Hotel building. The notice also notes that the station's construction permit remained - as of Nov. 17 when the notice was issued - in "Off Air" status. The FCC construction permit to Hodson Broadcasting for KHOD was issued by the FCC June 28, 2006, and is due to expire June 28, 2009. The permit indicates KHOD must request an additional permit from the FCC in order to begin broadcasting actual programming. The permit specifically says "automatic program test provisions" of certain FCC regulations "do not apply in this case" and "a formal request for program test authority must be filed...before program tests will be authorized." The notice says the FCC agent in June found KHOD was not authorized to be on the air, was operating from a Raton location in variance of the Des Moines, N.M., location listed on the construction permit, and was operating with a power level, antenna height and antenna structure at variance from the construction permit. KHOD has been broadcasting via an antenna - fed by a coaxial cable - atop the El Portal roof, according to the FCC notice. Hodson told The Range he believes he can put his studio anywhere within the planned reach of KHOD's signal. According to an FCC map on file at KHOD's Raton studio, once the permitted antenna is built on Sierra Grande - a mountain near Des Moines - the station's signal is to reach Raton and beyond, almost to Cimarron to the west, in addition to reaching south to Roy, north into Colorado and east, getting slightly into Oklahoma and Texas. During the June visit with the FCC agent, according to the notice, Hodson acknowledged that the KHOD signal from Raton "does not reach the KHOD(FM) construction permit's community of license of Des Moines, New Mexico." The notice says the agent "warned Hodson" June 25 "concerning the unauthorized operation" of KHOD, but Hodson "insisted" the station "must stay on the air to serve Raton..." The agent on July 1 again warned Hodson - this time by phone - regarding the station's continued operation, the notice says. The notice says the FCC received a complaint by phone Oct. 7 and another Oct. 9 each claiming that radio reception of other stations was being interfered with by KHOD's signal, which the complainants said could be heard "across the entire FM dial." Hodson on Thursday called the claims of interference caused by his station "fabricated issues." He said there have been " a lot of people trying to throw stones my way." "I think I'm doing a bang-up job," Hodson said. "(KHOD) is the mom- and-pop station that community's been needing for some time." KHOD has been playing a variety of commercial-free pop and rock music from a few different decades. The station has been running lately with mostly or all preprogrammed music with no live announcer on the air. In the past, Hodson has taken to the microphone at times, but he left "abruptly" Nov. 23 for Las Vegas, Nev., according to Melanie Niles, a contract employee who is doing the music programming and answering the phone at the KHOD studio. Niles said her 90-day contract expires at the end of this month and she indicated she is not likely to renew it. According to the FCC notice, the first complaint to the FCC about KHOD's operation in relation to its construction permit specifications came via e-mail May 12, with the complainant saying KHOD's signal had been discovered on the air during the previous week. The notice says the FCC was informed the next day, May 13, that KHOD had signed off the air and announced it would be back on the air in 60 to 90 days broadcasting from "its mountain top transmitter." Instead, KHOD returned to the air in June, broadcasting from the Raton studio and antenna again, according to a June 20 complaint mentioned in the notice. The FCC agent arrived in Raton to investigate four days later. Bill Donati, owner of KRTN (93.9 FM and 1490 AM) in Raton said he spoke to the FCC about KHOD. He said some KRTN listeners had told him they got interference at times when trying to tune in KRTN. "I don't mind competition," Donati said. "I just want it to be on the same playing field." Lory Phillips, general manager of Trinidad-based KCRT (92.5 FM) and KBKZ (96.5 FM), which are both heard in Raton, declined to comment on whether he had lodged a complaint to the FCC about KHOD. An FCC spokesman said he could not discuss the Hodson case specifically because it remains an "open issue." He did explain, though, that once the FCC receives and reviews Hodson's response, the FCC will make a final decision about the proposed forfeiture, or fine, and Hodson will have the right to appeal that decision. Hodson indicated it remains his intent to place an antenna on Sierra Grande and expand the reach of KHOD. He said his efforts to do so have been delayed by his dealings with the New Mexico Land Office related to the antenna matter. Hodson, 42, formally founded Hodson Broadcasting in March 1997 in Nevada, according to a filing he made to the FCC in October 2004. That filing says Hodson is an Ohio native who grew up in southern Nevada. In the filing, Hodson says he received a diploma in radio announcing from the Columbia School of Broadcasting and has worked on air at three FM stations, two AM stations and for three radio networks throughout an 18-year career in the Las Vegas, Nev., market. According to Hodson, before successfully bidding $80,000 for the Des Moines radio "allocation" - a FCC term used in FCC auctions to award new station frequencies - he unsuccessfully tried to get the authorization for a station in California (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) Ha, last August we stayed at El Portal, and mentioned the KHOD CP in DXLD 8-095 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENIING DIGEST) Subject: For the manager: Sierra Grande & KHOD Hello, I listen to KENW a lot when in NE NM, especially your 106.1 relay from Sierra Grande, which I understand is to be replaced by 88.5. I hope it gets out as well. However, according to FCC info the new frequency will be on the same tower as KHOD. I wonder if you are aware of KHOD`s problems, and what is your relationship with them? Thanks, (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO, to KENW with link to above article, via DXLD) Dear Glenn Hauser: Thanks so much for your e-mail. We have no relationship whatsoever with KHOD, but I appreciate the opportunity you gave me to read the newspaper article. We have no plans to share tower space with KHOD. I suspect that the gentleman filed on the same coordinates that we use on Sierra Grande, since it seems from the article that he is not too picky about where he actually builds his station. I will check with our engineers, but I'm sure we filed on the same site where we have our current translator on Sierra Grande. We filed for higher power simply to protect our presence in the area. As you noted, we are very pleased with the way our 106.1 MHz gets out. I'm sure the new frequency will do even better, because we will be running a lot more power. We are working to change our translators to at least Class A stations so they will be protected. We have been bumped more than once by religious NCE broadcasters who have deep pockets. Attached is a .pdf file that shows our FM stations and translators throughout our part of the country. Thanks again for the info. Sincerely, (Duane W. Ryan, Director of Broadcasting, KENW-TV,DT,FM KMTH-FM, 52 Broadcast Center, Eastern New Mexico University, 1500 S. Ave. K, Portales, NM 88130 (via DXLD) How is it stations like KHOD can just thumb their noses at the FCC, but if a Part 15 Station has a GROUND wire an Inch too long, they crucify and BURY the poor radio nut for such a "horrible crime" of listening to his iPod over his granny's old radio? They should ONLY allow Hams to work at the FCC. Techs for most jobs, Generals to be on the board, and Extras for Chairman and Enforcement (Kevin in Upstate SC KJ4HYD, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. FCC Search Page Goes Five Full Years Without An Update from the nice-work dept Congrats to the FCC -- supposedly the most tech savvy of gov't agencies, for going a full five years without updating its website search. Jerry Brito, who has been watching the FCC's website for quite some time, and noting how awful it is for a tech-related agency, points out that the search page was last updated on December 11, 2003. Of course, that's not the biggest problem. As Brito notes, the docketing system has tremendous problems for an agency that needs to be more transparent: "there is no full-text search, there are no data feeds, and their robots.txt file is set to exclude search crawlers." Of course, when the agency is run by a guy famous for secrecy and purposely hiding information to get his way, perhaps it's no surprise that the search function has gone neglected. http://techdirt.com/articles/20081211/1836593096.shtml (via Dave Hascall, Indianapolis, Dec 15, IRCA via DXLD) Ever since the FCC started issuing licences for SWBC stations in the tropical bands and even out-of-band (like we used to accuse the Soviets of doing all the time) --- and then later allowed AM-IBOC which is in violation of international agreements regarding allowed A3 emission bandwidth, I've lost total respect for them. wrh (Bill Hepburn, Ont., WTFDA-AM via DXLD) They're not exactly on top of things. There's a pirate on FM here that broadcasts nightly, has a website and has even hosted parties & events. I think I even narrowed down what building it's transmitting from; they don't even bother to make it secret what neighborhood they're transmitting from. I think I'm about a mile from FCC HQ so if I can hear it they surely can, too. At least the CDBS is up-to-date (as far as I know) and fairly useful (Claudio Leite, KB3RMJ | Washington, DC (FM18mv), WTFDA via DXLD) Due to staffing reductions resulting from appropriations reductions, they long ago adopted a policy of not bothering with pirates unless they have what they consider a legitimate complaint of interference. The databases behind the various searches and queries are reasonably up to date - the fact that the search page itself hasn't been updated may not be of much concern (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) ** U S A. TECH RADIO OFF AIR DUE TO MONEY ISSUES By Joshua Hull | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Story last updated at 12/10/2008 - 11:57 pm After 47 years of providing music and programming for the Texas Tech campus, the student-run KTXT-FM radio station made its last broadcast Wednesday after budget issues forced a complete shutdown of operations. Broadcast on the 88.1 FM frequency, the station was known for alternative music and sponsoring local music shows at various Lubbock venues. . . http://lubbockonline.com/stories/121008/loc_366042611.shtml (via Ken Kopp, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. Dear All, New verifications from MW Stations, heard in USA: Wind Cave NP Information Radio SD 1600 kHz PPC 10 weeks. Sign: Tom Frend, Park Ranger WPJR991 Highway Radio Winter Park CO 530 kHz Email + letter 3 weeks. Sign: Ronaltd Lutz, Electronic Engineer WPPZ664 City of Loveland Information Radio CO 1610 kHz Email I week. Sign: Andy Hiller, Public Information Officer WQBJ389 Evanston High Way Radio WY 1610 kHz Sign: Martin E. McCoy, WyoLink Support Manager. Email 12 weeks Yellowstone Information Radio West Entrance MT 1600 kHz PPC 12 weeks Ellsworth AFB Information Radio SD 1610 kHz PPC 9 weeks Greetings from (Ge Huijbens, Beffe, Belgium, MWC via DXLD) TIS/HAR ones only excerpted here ** U S A. KAAY, 1090, Little Rock, has been spamming me on the assumption that I am a ministry who might want to be on this powerful station. So I took a look at their website: here`s the way to SELL AM RADIO!! And right off the bat, KAAY is trying to deceive clients --- it is NOT *THE* most powerful, etc., but one of MANY such 50 kW stations. O, the wiggle word is ``all``; refers to a listing of stations which shows some other Christian ones are not *all* Christian, but include ethnic, or whatever in their formats. Furthermore KAAY has a VERY direxional night pattern which means you can`t hear it at all in many close states, e.g. OKLAHOMA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Most Powerful Station --- Licensed at 50,000 watts, day & night, KAAY is the most powerful all Christian formatted radio station in the USA. While most Christian AM stations have to turn their power down or off at night, KAAY blast’s [sic] it’s [sic] ministries [sic] messages to many states and even Mexico. It’s a powerful platform for ministries to broadcast their message on as an alternative to Shortwave radio, which most people in the USA do not have a reciver [sic] for. Alternatively most do have an AM button on their radio, so keep it set to AM 1090. Tell us where you are listening from by sending us a note. (from http://1090kaay.com/Article.asp?id=719376&spid=18042 via DXLD) ** U S A. 1410 WIQR Prattville, AL --- The last five nights at least, I've been able to pick up this radio station out of Prattville, AL and they are always playing the same thing. A replay of a high school football game involving Prattville, AL. According to the FCC, they are supposed to be at 1000 watts nighttime and 5000 watts daytime. I'm just curious if anyone else has been able to DX this and do you think they are transmitting using their daytime power? Just seems weird to me. Anyhow my first post here, thanks so much for the information (P. S. Blakely, Leesville, SC, Dec 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Welcome, P.S., You mean they are replaying the very same game?? That would be a big automation (?) SNAFU. Also, according to the NRC Pattern Book, WIQR`s day pattern has a main lobe to the WNW, and the much smaller night pattern has a main lobe in the opposite direxion toward the ESE, neither of which is favorable for SC (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, I'm almost certain for those 5 days or so, it was the same game although I can not remember the name of the opponent. It certainly was Prattville High School football though. Station probably making a big deal about them being state champs for 3 years in a row. I've only been able to faintly pick up any signal at all on 1410 over the past few days at the same listening time, a real faint sports station but I can't pick up the call letters. If I catch the station again, I'll make sure to make a recording of it, I just picked up an MP3 player that can record just for such stuff. I've emailed the station to find out if they were indeed playing the same game over and over. Thanks much (P. S. Blakely, ibid.) ** U S A. 4440 Harmonic, WSRC, Fair Bluff, NC, 0330-0400, Dec 14, 3rd harmonic of 1480. “Country Oldies Show” on “Westwood One” Network with country music. Local ad for “Guitar Center.” Local ads with many mentions of Fair Bluff, North Carolina. Very weak but fair to good on peaks. 1480 kHz not heard (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WMTY on 670, located just south of Oak Ridge, TN, has been off the air for two days. This is a daytimer, non-directional, with 2500 watts. Anyone know why they are off? Several months ago they ran with an unmodulated carrier for an entire day. Apparently they are not on the top of anyone's list of things to fix! (Jim Tonne in Oak Ridge, Dec 13, NRC-AM via DXLD) It's co owned with the now defunct WATO 1290, which will presumably be turning in its license in a few months. Horne Radio is to Tennessee radio what Rama Communiations is to Florida radio! Horne probably didn't pay the power bill and it got turned off or their transmitter what kaboom and they don't care or are too cheap to fix it... OR MAYBE, another tower "fell over" (Paul Walker, http://www.onairdj.com Ord NE, ibid.) ** U S A. NPR LAYOFFS, PROGRAM DROPS --- 7 % (64 STAFF) WILL LOSE THEIR JOBS AND "NEWS AND NOTES" AND "DAY BY DAY" ARE AXED. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/10/npr-announces-layoffs-sho_n_150001.html (via John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Official NPR announcement, plus lots of discussion. Not everyone thinx NPR is ``liberal`` (gh) ** U S A. WHA Towers in Madison, Wisconsin http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=24549 (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) Different parts of UW fighting over environmental impact of radio tower construxion in arboretum (gh, DXLD) ** URUGUAY. La historia de El Espectador --- 13.12.2008 | 19.44 La historia de El Espectador comenzó en abril de 1922, cuando la filial uruguaya de la compañía General Electric puso en el aire, con un pequeño transmisor de 10 vatios de potencia, las primeras emisiones de prueba. La radio había irrumpido en el mundo apenas 17 meses antes, con la estación norteamericana KDKA, y todavía habría que esperar unos días para que la BBC de Londres estuviera en el aire. . . Fuente: el Espectador [illustrated] http://www.espectador.com/1v4_contenido.php?id=139430&sts=1 (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, http://yimber.blogspot.com DXLD) ! Very long chronology by the station itself fails to mention the most important fact, that it was on SW for many years, 11835. Believe it was active in the 1960s or 70s (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. 9550, 11 Dec 0026, Radio Nacional de Venezuela via Cuba talks about Constitution, good. Grazie all'amico Giroletti che mi ha segnalato il miglioramento della propagazione. Ciao (Giampiero Bernardini, Avvenire, Milano, playdx yg via DXLD) That would be a new broadcast at 0000, if not really RHC. However, UT Dec 13 at 0005, no sign of Cuba or Venezuela on 9550, something weak in Chinese over something weaker, and e.g. stronger DW on 9545. [Later:] Someone reported RNV during the 0000 hour on 9550, which would be a new time via Cuba, but Dec 13 at 0005, no sign of it, just something weak in Chinese which per EiBi is CRI from domestic site in Hakka to SE Asia. There was another weaker signal under; EiBi also shows RHC itself on 9550 during this hour in French to S America, where, I understand, French is not a major language, but neither is Arabic in the Caribbean. These were both overshadowed by analog German from DW on 9545 which is currently via Ascension at 00-02. Another Sunday without Hugo! No sign of previous frequencies for ``Aló, Presidente`` via Cuba, at 1550 check Dec 14 of 13750, 13680, 11875, 11680 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. 7160, Christian Voice, 0505-0520, Dec 11, many “One Africa” IDs. Rooster crows. Pop music. English talk about different ways of celebrating Christmas. “CVC” ID. Good signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1800-1820, Dec 11, “Spice FM” ID. English news. Swahili talk at 1810. Afro-pop music at 1815. Strong but poor audio with unstable, warbling transmitter. This heard on a Thursday. English not always heard at 1800 on Thursdays. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11735, RTZ, 1758-1809, Dec 12, drums, pips (about a minute early), news in English, ID "This news is coming to you from Spice FM", almost fair but as others have noted their transmitter has audio problems (warbling). I have alerted Zanzibar of the warbling audio on 11735 and hope they will be able to fix that, as they have good signal strength (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1800-1810, Dec 13, no English today. Only heard Swahili talk. Local Mid-East style music at 1804. Strong but with the poor, warbling audio & with slight hum. 2050-2059*, Dec 13, Mid-East style music. Swahili talk. National Anthem at 2058. Strong but poor warbling, distorted audio. Audio getting worse & worse (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. 15775, VOA via São Tomé, 1712-1754, Dec 12, "Studio 7" program in vernacular, BoH into English, "Good evening Zimbabwe", news, High-Life music, IDs " This is Studio 7 for Zimbabwe, live from the V.O.A.", fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non non?]. Hello Glenn, Re 8-127: "UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Re 8-126: Niel's 950 unID likely solved." Boortz' site lists KWOS Jefferson City, MO and WHSY Hattiesburg, MS as their only affiliates on 950. I know for a fact that WAKM on 950 in Franklin, TN plays the Star Spangled Banner every morning, that's how I first heard them and verified them. I stole that for WDWS and we've been running the Star Spangled Banner every morning since. Take care and thank you!! (Eric Loy, DWS Sportsnight, WDWS Radio, Champaign IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. NORTH KOREA/INDONESIA?? 3960.4, Distorted signal here, and 3959.76, weak but definitely a station here as well at 1150. Suspect 3960.4 is KCBS Pyongyang because of the distortion. Could 3959.76 be RRI Palu?? (5 Dec.) (Dave Valko, PA, HCDX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 6025. 0511 on 12/11. M/W talk in seeming English but extremely weak so I could not pick out any words. On top of that it was very noisy. Unless it is a new entry, Enugu seems a possibility. Not heard again in checks over the next two days (Gerry Dexter, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Another possibility: KTMI, the new SW station in Oregon, which is registered on this frequency at this time --- oops, first they have to axually build the station! Also on schedule is AWR via Wertachtal, but in Bulgarian, not English (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, 8GAL coming in well with usual V/CQ marker on CW, Dec 14 at 1400-1401, partially overlapping the remaining carrier from Rossii 6075. 6074, 8GAL audible without BFO, Dec 16 at 1400 as R. Rossii carrier stayed on 6075 past 1401; with usual V/CQ marker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6215 AM, YL with repetitive syllables in presumed Korean, Dec 16 at 1506, believed to be spy numbers station, but from North or South? Not in Aoki. Ron Howard had reported this an hour later on Nov 26. I think this has been around for a long time. Searched UDXF YG and 17 hits on the frequency for various utility services, but not this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Unidentified station on 7445, tune in at 1745z until signal off at 1800z. Only Christian type music heard, no specific tune recognized. Only other station audible on 41m at this time was R Bulgaria on 7400 (Jerry Lenamon, Waco TX, Dec 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. BBC WS sport program today Dec. 13 1500-1600 on unregistered frequency 9855 (55544), UNID tx \\ 12095 (45544) 73! (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 10000, mixing with WWV propagation info, Dec 14 at 1418, different pips slightly offset from WWV. 1420 the unknown switches to multiple bips per second in some kind of digital format. Maybe this is LOL Buenos Aires, which Eike Bierwirth says operates only at 14-15 UT? Or the new Rio de Janeiro station, if it is still operating after initial test? Haven`t seen Brazilians report it lately. Then I find the digital stuff still audible down to 9996, so maybe it was really coming from RWM Moskva (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This was almost certainly RWM on 9996, audible in the shadow of WWV's carrier on 10000. I heard them a few weeks ago out at Bois D'Arc at the same time with the same format. If you stuck around another 20 minutes or so you probably would have heard the minute of CW IDs at 1439 (until then I had assumed it was a station on 10000 as well). Best, (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. The RTTY interference that has been missing for a couple of months on 11690+/- has returned. I noticed it about a week ago interfering with DW Radio. 11690 is part of the 25 metre broadcast band. I thought utility stations can only broadcast in this portion of the spectrum on an non-interference basis. So how can this take place? (Andy Reid, Ont, Dec 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Andy is the featured contributor of the new WRTH 2009; see pages 10-11 for his photo and comments; as Carlos Gonçalves was in 2008. According to this reference at Monitoring Times, http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/swb.html 11690 is for broadcasting ONLY now: 11500-11600 25 meter NIB (Note 2) 11600-11650 25 meter WARC-92 band (Note 3) 11650-12050 25 meters 12050-12100 25 meter WARC-92 band (Note 3) 12100-12600 25 meter NIB (Note 2) Note 2 Broadcasters can use this frequency range on a (NIB) non- interference basis only. Note 3 WARC-92 bands are allocated officially for use by HF broadcasting stations in 2007. They are only authorized on a non- interference basis until that date [end] I am surprised to see 12600 as the upper limit of the 12100+ range as no broadcasters really operate above 12170. Is 12600 a typo? There is certainly an error in the title of that page. BTW, there is another persistent RTTY ruining 12015 as a broadcast-only frequency. We have repeatedly asked for the 11688 approx. RTTY to be identified by anyone who can decode RTTY, with no results (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Lennart Deimert found the source quickly! 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Dec 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Subject: 11688 kHz Hej Mauno, After some search I found this info. You can read more about this on (look for "Black Sea Fleet") http://www.astrosol.ch/networksofthecisforces/navymorsenetworks/thenavyheadquarters/index.html So my guess was not so bad ... Black Sea Fleet [Chernomorskiy Flot] Headquarters in Sevastopol UKRAINE, callsign RCV Small facilities in Ochakov UKR, Chernomorskoe UKR, Novoozernii UKR, Feodosiya UKR, (Novorossiysk RUS). Logistic supply base in Port of Tartus SYR (See here: Mediterranean Eskadra). After the disintegration of the Sovjet Union 1990 a series of agreements settled the partition of the Black Sea Fleet between Russia and the Ukraine in the relation 50:50. In the meantime (2008), only 18.5 % of the ships sail under Ukrainian flag. Russia will rent all UKR facilities until 2017. This contract however is being argued about by both parties. Several fleets facilities, lighthouses and - more important - MARS-75 Radio Navigation stations, even have been occupied by Ukrainian Nationalists. Russia 2005 decided Sevastopol will - later on - be replaced by the extended oil port Novorossiysk RUS. Another point of discussions is the Treaty of Montreux of 1936, which gives Turkey control of the passage of the Bosporus. Moscow, with the help of Ankara, objects to US plans to expand NATO-led counterterrorism force from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea. Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania and Turkey are members of the Black Sea Naval Cooperation Task Group. A small Romanian unit is responsible for the lower course of the Danube with its home port Tulcea. Frequencies of RCV: Primary 10201, 4055, 5224, 5312, 11688 kHz. Very Best, Lennart (via Mauno Ritola, DXLD) I suppose reception of it sort of correlates with Europe on 25m. But it`s such a strong, steady signal, I would not have put it outside North America. Maybe it is RCV, but I would still rather have someone intercept and decode it now, than just refer to frequency listings. So why don`t the broadcast users of 11690 raise hell with the Russians about this? Currently that means: VTC/South Africa, DTK/Croatia, HCJB, CRI [ha; no moral right to complain of QRM], RHC [ditto], AWR/KSDA, Deutsche Welle/Kigali/South Africa, and I wish I could add Jordan. I think I did ask UDXF some time ago. But now I search the group on 11688 and find nothing, but three hits on 11687: 11687.5 : Unid Prob French Navy 1558 UNID/50/850 Crypto. In QRM. (14Jun06) (MPJ) Posted by MPJ. Western Europe. [JRC NRD-545/Code30. WinRadio G313i/TrueTTY. Yaesu FT-847/Code30. Wellbrook ALA1530] 11687.4 Khz dig unIDed RTTY 50/850 encrypted. 16:49:28UTC (2006-06-19) (Jon-FL in Florida, USA on ZIRC:#wunclub) 11687.0 Khz dig Unid RTTY, sounds like 850 Hz split, possibly French Navy logged here earlier, tks KB2URI 19:04:54UTC (2008-05-14) (KC2HMZafk on IRCGlobal#popcomm) These are the loggings from the NSA logbot on several IRC channels. They are listed by... Freq, Mode, Comment, UTC time, nickname, QTH and IRC channel These logs are provided to promote and advance the hobbie [sic] of Utility Radio Monitoring. IRC is a mode of realtime internet chat that utilizes servers and users from all over the world. To join in the fun of live interactive utility monitoring, please visit #monitor, #wunclub and/or #popcomm on StarChat, or #monitor and #popcomm on IRC- GLOBAl where this logbot resides (via gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. [A-DX] 11855 0900-1030 UT -- Diese Nachricht wurde automatisch von einer Regel weitergeleitet. Sollte mal ein Perseus Nutzer z.Zt. auf Empfang sein: wie sieht das verbrummte Signal auf 11855 kHz grafisch aus? Ich beobachte seit einigen Tagen einen Brumm, ohne dass man mit dem E1 einen Träger genau ausmachen kann. Dort senden VoA Thailand in Mandarin und einige? chinesische Jammer, sowie auch ein guter Kandidat für eine krumme Frequenz das 2. Programm aus Jeddah. Ist das nun eine neue Art von Brumm Jamming mit einem tiefen Offset, oder ist der Versatz von Jeddah der Auslöser? (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Dec 15, ADX via Büschel, DXLD) 11855 0900-1030 UT, in past days and this morning, I note a low sound BUZZY signal on 11855 kHz. The PERSEUS screen shows many 16? carriers some approx. 45 Hertz apart. But only, when CRI Cerrik powerhouse left at 0900 UT. Tested around 0900-1030 UT when VOA Mandarin and 2nd px Jeddah is on air. But I >guess< is something different China mainland jamming ??? Still puzzles me. 73 wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re: What's "ADM", on air since November 5 on Wednesdays only, 1600-1657 on 13790, Issoudun 500 kW with beam 128 deg.? (Kai Ludwig, DXLD) According to the HFCC registration, ADM stands for Abu Dhabi Media Company. Sounds like something worth checking out :-) (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Broadband 25-30 kHz signal in broadcast-band. Yesterday noted the OHR again [British from Cyprus?] on 15137 to 15163 kHz midst in the 19 mb, around 0910 UT. Noted almost every day in 09-13 UT range on 19 mb, sometimes near 15300, or >15.5 MHz. 73 wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ So Long, Partisan Democrat Mr. Hauser: I just listened to your latest, and my last, WOR broadcast. You just had to close out with the crybaby from Arkansas who didn't get to see the Victoria's Secret peep show because it wasn't carried by the local CBS affiliate. Even though you title your broadcast World of RADIO, you just had to throw that tv report in because you have such venom towards the "religious right" when what you really meant were conservative Christians. And then you were so happy to report that a Democrat House committee will be investigating the GOP FCC. So why are you paying (if you are paying) to have your biased broadcast on World-Wide CHRISTIAN Radio? And why is a left-wing Democrat like you living in Oklahoma? You don't sound like an Okie. I'm sure you would be much comfortable living in pinko-liberal New York or Boston or LA. So, I'll be going somewhere else for sw radio reports, and I'll be contacting WWCR to recommend they take WOR off their schedule. Go to your friends at NPR. Merry Christmas (Kenneth Reynolds, Bronx, NY kenreyn@earthlink.net) Glenn, I very much appreciate all that you do. I listen to you via podcast almost every week. I'm not a big fan of the short political comments, but there aren't many of them. I get over it. You provide a great service. Thanks, (Rich Mitchell with a donation via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com) MUSEA +++++ RADIO NURSE AT THE PHILBROOK --- Philbrook Announces Major Gift of Modern and Contemporary Industrial Design TULSA, OK.- The Philbrook Museum of Art is pleased to announce a gift of nearly 100 works of twentieth- and twenty-first-century design from the George R. Kravis II Collection. The promised gift will immediately provide Philbrook with a core collection of exceptional design material and establish a vital new collecting area for the Museum. . . http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=27751 Among the collection’s highlights from these American modernists is a short wave radio transmitter called Radio Nurse designed in 1937 by the American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Noguchi designed the receiver shaped like a head in a nurse’s cap. Its status as a superb sculpture is indicated by the fact that it was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1939 (via Kim Andrew Elliott, DXLD) SW xmtr or rcvr? (Kim Elliott, DX LISTENING DIGEST) TINY TRAP +++++++++ ``From Monday 29 December, BBC World Service is broadcasting Cuba Cuba, a special season of programmes that investigate the world's fascination with this tiny Caribbean island and its impact on the world.`` [as under CUBA [non] above] O, come on. What business does the BBC have covering Cuba if they don`t even know it`s not tiny, but ``the largest of the Antilles`` as RHC frequently says, and unlike most of their blather, this is indisputable. Per page 455 of the World Almanac 2002, Cuba`s area is 42.8 kilomilesquared, while Great Britain is only 84.2 --- so Cuba is almost exactly half the size of GB, which therefore, must be ``doubletiny`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, 69.9 kmisq, bigger than Cuba but smaller than GB, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ A GOOD SOLUTION AGAINST PIRACY? I think this is very important: that is a research of 15 years and a proposal/idea to all people across the globe. You need to read and post your opinion there! Please read and distribute this 15 year research article: Saturday, November 22, 2008 MEDIA publication offers : a good solution against piracy? Printed media enclosures are a custom in Greece many years ago. Below you will find some of the facts concerned with the history of media enclosures, by the amateur view of a media observer looking regularly the local newsstands, and referring with approximate times Here is a short parenthesis that refers to the status of piracy in Greece that explains in short the reasons media entered into these offers. In its 2006 edition IFPI showed a 50% level of music piracy for Greece, ranking them one of the top 10 countries in earth in piracy level. But considering that the lower salary today in Greece is Eu 750, the price of a legal CD is at least 20, is too expensive. The pirate CDs sell for Eu5 with pirate DVDs around 7-10. As far as I can remember this was also a quite long 'tradition' still from the cassette time, when tapes on 70s and 80s were sold in …baskets. But with the worst ever audio. Even music shops those old times had higher earnings selling cassettes recorded from LPs in their semipro decks. Today most of the market is driven by several mega stores in the main centre of the city and African people selling pirate copies. Nearly all traditional music shops have been disappeared (except some selling only 'vintage' LPs )… [much more, illustrated] http://tinyurl.com/5vzg7e (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, Dec 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) LANGUAGE LESSONS see also POLAND ++++++++++++++++ DERIVATION OF BOMBAY/MUMBAI Bom bahai ?! Dear Anker, DX is also interesting because one makes virtual travels, learns a bit about languages, and so on and so forth. I hope you manage to find some space in the next DXW issue to add what I'm about to explain. So, re the India item in this week's DXW, where on earth did you get this strange sounding, ugly form "bom bahai"? You and many would be surprised of the myth around this name. a) In old Port., "bay" was written "baya">"baiya">"bahia", and, by the way, the last form is how one must write it even today in telex or Morse code because "baía" cannot be written in these modes. "Baía" [ba-í-a] ([ba-ee-a] is perhaps how I could represent the sound for English readers, with the -a- pronounced like the -u- in "church"). The -i- is stressed and clearly separated from the other vowels: Conversely, "farmácia" (pharmacy) for instance would be telexed / telegraphed as "farmahcia", "sítio" would be "sihtio", etc. Also conversely, it's like writing the German word "Bücher" as "Buecher." Unfortunately, many other words simply loose their flow, e.g. manha & manhã have, to my knowledge, no other means of being reproduced unless perhaps if an -n- is added to the latter, if the tilde is dropped. b) "baía" [bay] is a feminine noun. c) "bom" [good] is the masculine form of the adjective and "boa" is the feminine form. Maybe the locals [Indians] chose to use the masc. form "bom" instead of the fem. "boa", and even adjusted the pronunciation of "baiya"/"bahia" to "bahai" - which is absolutely meaningless in Portuguese and even sounds very strange and ugly to us. "Bahia" in Brazil seemed to have retained the old form for historical reasons. I suppose they write the noun "bay" like us though. So "Boa baiya/bahia" (=boa baía) is almost surely how it was called in India in those days. Well, what is the really true part in all this? I am afraid only the one that regards the language, the etymology. The rest is false!!! This "boa baía" > Bombaim (Portuguese) > Bombay > Mumbai is nothing but a myth with no historical evidence. "Bombay" was a name borrowed from the Portuguese form so as to adjust the pronunciation into English. Bombaim ended up in English hands because the Portuguese Crown offered it [Bombaim] as a marriage dowry taken by our Princess Catarina de Bragança, in 1661. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [reply from Anker missing?] Dear Anker, Until not so recently, I too supposed "Bombaim" was nothing but the Hindi version of the Portuguese name, with "Bombay" being nothing more than the English version of that. Conversely and for instance, what is known as Panagi in Goa is called Pangim in Portuguese. I am pretty sure many among us will imagine it is so about Mumbai, but then only scholars or those who feel interested about history know Bombaim and other places in India once became part of the Portuguese Crown, not just Goa - Damão - Diu. Possibly the same with the French. Few will know France held a small territory on the east coast. So no wonder the "Jyllandsposten", the "British Everyman's Encyclopaedia" or similar contain the same error. That is a myth, like possibly the same around the Portuguese navigator Fernão de Magalhães, who foreigners insist in calling him Magellan. As you may know, he had this circumnavigation idea our king refused, and offered his services to Castile. This was common practice at the time, even among rival nations. So he was finally appointed as leader of the Spanish expedition until he got himself killed the natives by risking too much in the shores of what later became known as "Filipinas", a name (you guessed it!) after the Spanish king. The second in command, Sebastián del Cano, led the little remains of the expedition on the return voyage by the east path, the Indian Ocean, then a "Mare Nostrum" of the Portuguese Crown. Best 73 and a Jolly 2009! (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: CANADA; CROATIA; GERMANY; POLAND; RUSSIA; ++++++++++++++++++++ UK Re 8-127: BBC & DW IN EUROPE ON DRM DIGITAL RADIO Tnx to Chris Lewis, England for sending a pdf of the new BBC/DW DRM schedule effective Dec 10, which looks to be the same as previously published (gh) Oh, yes! Let's hope that DRM receivers are widely available in Lapland. Otherwise even Santa Claus can't buy them just in time to offer them in the Christmas Eve! Seriously speaking, I wonder how many listeners (among us) already have a DRM receiver, which makes possible to receive such programmes. Ironically, many SW int'l broadcasters (including BBC & DW) reduce their shortwave analog transmissions, which can be easily listened with a common and widely available receiver, starting from our grandpa's old valve radio, to the new generation of portable & communication receivers! Even more interesting, I wonder how many listeners may find easily a DRM receiver available at his nearest shop. At least, here in Portugal, this is impossible! To be frank, I do prefer remaining with the old mono, noisy, sometimes faded & distorted, (irony, don't get me wrong!) but still very useful analog shortwave than buying such a brand new but quite unaffordable receiver... 73 & good DX! (Luís Carvalho, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) There was a comment, in the UK, when DAB started, that there were more transmitters in use than there were recievers!! Having looked around a number of "major" retailers in UK, I have yet to find a DRM receiver. There again I have yet to find a station I want to listen to using the mode!! Did anyone do any market research and ANALYSIS before they introduced this system? (Keith, UK, ibid.) The short answer is "no". This was very much an engineering-led development, spearheaded by Peter Senger of Deutsche Welle, who has now retired. The concept was for a system that would enable shortwave to compete more effectively for listeners with domestic stations. I told my RNW colleagues that the DRM Consortium should get people with marketing/sales experience on board at an early stage to plan how to roll out DRM as consumer product. First, I said, find a name that can be used in all languages to explain what it is - the name is half English, half French, and the abbreviation is confused with Digital Rights Management. In the meantime, the engineers got so engrossed in their tests that they failed to take account of massive changes in programme delivery elsewhere, the decline in the importance of shortwave in some key markets (US, Europe) and the need to offer attractive programming to convince people to go out and buy a DRM Radio. Even many of the people I have spoken to recently who were initially very enthusiastic about DRM admit that it will never become a mainstream technology for listeners in the developed world. But there is interest in India, China, Russia and some other large countries which see it as a way of getting digital transmissions to people in remote rural regions. There are also a few niche applications such as what RNZI is doing to feed its partner stations in the Pacific. Would DRM ever have been commercially viable in the developed countries? I doubt it, and I suspect this is one reason the engineers were reluctant to bring marketing people on board. Nobody likes to be told that their pet project is a waste of time. The irony is that, because DRM is an open source technology, the very people who are regarded as "competitors" by those who developed it are now the most likely to use it, having spent nothing on its development (Andy Sennitt, Netherlands, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: UNIWAVE DRM receiver I see availability is given as January 2009 but no price point, it will be interesting to see what the battery life is for DRM reception. I can't see a European market for this model as it doesn't cover DAB/DAB+/DMB-audio all of which are in use, or going to be introduced, in most, if not all, of the countries the BBC/DW service is targeting. However the FlexiRF tuner it is using is capable of this so perhaps they are planning a European model adding these, indeed for the US market they could produce a DRM/HD Radio model: http://www.mirics.com/FlexiRFTuner.php Radioscape is no longer supplying the RS500 module used in the Morphy Richards and Himalaya receivers, which themselves are relatively expensive and have only been available to consumers in Western Europe from online retailers (Mike Barraclough, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ibiquity's current position is to not permit HD Radio in multistandard receivers. (Benn Kobb, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Does this apply to Europe, too? If yes they can stop any further attempts to establish their system here (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) ``The concept was for a system that would enable shortwave to compete more effectively for listeners with domestic stations.`` In this context I would understand "shortwave" as a synonym for international broadcasting, for that scene of state-funded stations with shortwave being their only (away from mediumwave in Europe) distribution method in the past. Everywhere one heard and read that shortwave with its typical AM sound was believed to be the reason for the lacking interest of listeners in these services. During the nineties satellite transmissions were believed to be the salvation. Then the engineers brought up the concept of digital transmissions on shortwave, now this was believed to be the saviour of the classical foreign services. In my opinion Digital Radio Mondiale is just not the solution of the *real* problems for the classical foreign services but also for shortwave as a broadcasting medium in the developed world. For the first part I would consider that an abundance of online offerings ruined their once unique position. For shortwave the problem is just the lack of interesting content. How much of the airtime aiming at Europe and North America is occupied by programming that is of interest only to smallest niche audiences or, frankly, just utter nonsense (like e.g. "Brother Stair")? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) Juan Carlos Ara on the Digital Spy forums posted a link to a YouTube video of reception of the BBC/DW service in Spain: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9v5sn3L3iyY Sent a reception report to DW and BBC just giving the YouTube link and has received a QSL by post from DW: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=29372986&postcount=464 New way of sending reception reports (Mike Barraclough, UK, ibid.) MICHIGAN STATEWIDE DTV TESTS THIS WEEK Michigan's DTV pass/fail tests will be conducted this week. They're using a red screen / green screen method and have started to air ads on TV about the tests. Details are listed at http://www.michigandtv.com/ but they only include the long-term schedule for Detroit. I'm not sure if other markets are doing more than this one test. The site is rather informative and helpful (Chris Kadlec, Fremont, Mich. (105 mi. ne of Milwaukee), WTFDA vua DXLD) Red/green? What about those watching B&W sets? (gh, DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ RECEIVER ADVICE I AM 65 YEARS OLD IN A NURSING HOME. WHAT IS A VERY GOOD SHORTWAVE RECEIVER MEDIUM PRICED? ALSO GOOD ANTENNA FOR INSIDE A BUILDING. THANKS IN ADVANCE GLEN (ROBERT G Dec 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Robert, I wish I had a good answer for you, but I do not consider myself well-informed on SW radios currently available. If you don`t mind, I`ll publish your inquiry and some of my readers can surely help. One indoor antenna I am familiar with is the Sony Active Antenna, AN- LP2. It`s a loop you hang in a window, and it`s battery powered. You should always be better off getting even a bit of wire outside the building if at all possible. Best wishes, (Glenn Hauser to Robert G, via DXLD) ARECIBO SPY TELESCOPE The author of that book on the NSA was speaking on Weekly Sedition, WRIR, Dec 16 at 1700-1730. Mentioned that NSA mainly eavesdropped on HF using Wellenweber antennas. And that the huge Arecibo, Puerto Rico, radio telescope was originally built for NSA to eavesdrop on microwave communications from Russia by moonbounce. Also about various other listening posts. Hmm, should read the book. To be continued next week on WRIR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SHORTWAVE FOR NEWS VIA TEXT? Shortwave is also a serviceable medium for the transmission of text, and data. As such, shortwave could be used to tap into the greater internet. Not for graphics-rich websites, or streamed video, but certainly for e-mail and maybe some text-only website material. There still is an HF e-mail industry, though it is a bit murky. It might make more sense for a shortwave text and data transceiver or receiver to exist as a dongle rather than something built in to a laptop. This is because most laptop owners would have no use for the shortwave capability. And because the shortwave receive circuitry would be out in the less noisy open rather than inside the RF hell of a personal computer. My design for such a dongle would include an antenna that you can Velcro to the window of your hotel room. Typically, this would be a hotel room in a country that blocks the bejesus out the internet. In such a country, you may not be able to get the news from the BBC or New York Time websites. The dongle would be a smart receiver, trying all the frequencies of your desired shortwave news source, then glomming on the one that provides satisfactory reception. The shortwave text source would send, in addition to news, continuous updates of its frequency schedule, which the dongle would automatically note and use in future searches. The shortwave text receiver could be left unattended in your hotel room, receiving the news when it’s transmitter and when it’s receivable. Such news would be stored in memory. When you return to your hotel room after a day of business, you can read the news at your leisure. A fly in the ointment of my dongle design is that you might need your laptop for your day of business. Thus, the dongle should be able to work standing alone. The laptop would come in handy later as a way to read, comfortably, the stored news, and as a device in whose memory that news text can be placed, if desired. In this design, I am inspired by amateur radio’s PSK-31 mode. In contrast to DRM shortwave digital audio, which requires a great huge swath of spectrum, and which drops out at the slightest provocation of interference or attenuation, PSK-31 is robust. Using a sliver of spectrum, a PSK-31 signal that is down in the soup and barely audible on a receiver produces 100% copy on a computer screen. A moderate number of disparate transmitter sites, using middling power output, should be able to produce signals that can be received by these devices anywhere in the world, any time of the day, except when solar conditions are really bad. There are enough people in remote or denied areas of the world to justify this new technology. The only competing technology would be Iridium and Globalstar, the LEO satellite telephone services, probably more expensive, and more conspicuous when being brought into countries that do not welcome the free international flow of information (Kim Andrew Elliott, Kim`s Column, Dec NASWA Journal via DXLD) DOG FENCES RADIATE NOISE LW-MW Interference --- Hi all, I`ve been going crazy the past few weeks trying to figure out where a loud buzzing sound is coming from whenever I try to listen to certain LW and MW frequencies. Well, this morning I went out with my field strength meter and found the culprit. It turns out that the offending device is one of those fenceless dog perimeter units that my next door neighbor had installed a few weeks back. He leaves it on 24/7 even when the dog is not outside, just in case he gets out. In so far as I can tell the thing runs at around 110 kHz, but has a broad noisy spectrum that extends up to about 300 kHz, and then again appears in the AM band between 550-700 and 1000-1120 kHz. Short of cutting the guy`s buried radiating wire, I`m at a little bit of a loss in trying to get rid of this interference. I've tried various filters to no avail. The only ones that work well, of course, also attenuate the frequencies I'm interested in. Have any of you come across this problem and found a way to resolve it? 73, (Rene' F. Tetro, Chief Engineer, Salem Communications - Philadelphia, WNTP-AM / WFIL-AM, 117 Ridge Pike, Lafayette Hill, PA 19444, IRCA via DXLD) Have you tried telling him that there is interference? If it is audible over your 990 client, or at least enough to compromise the audio quality, that in itself should be enough for him to uninstall that and return it to the vendor. It interferes with your work. The fact it's a next door neighbor brings up all sorts of tangles. I suppose a lot depends on how well you get along. However, if the dog wears the collar all the time, maybe you could set up a higher powered transmitter to zap it every minute or two. Set it to detect when the outside perimeter unit is running. If the dog goes nuts in the house with that thing running, I'd bet it will be shut down and uninstalled quickly. (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, ibid.) Humorous reply: Good idea. Perhaps I should watch for the dog to be outside and then fire up my 1.5 kW linear on 160 meters, modulate it to 100% on LSB, and then watch what happens :-) (Rene Tetro, ibid.) Rene, I have exactly the same problem. My neighbors installed one several years ago and it totally wrecked my LW and lower MW reception. At first I was baffled because it wasn't coming via radiation, but rather was showing up at the electrical input to my house; I figured out that the buried fence wires ran parallel to the main power feed to their house, and the signal was coupled into the electrical distribution for the entire neighborhood. It was re-radiating inside their own house too, to the point where their dog wouldn't go near the TV and stereo system because the signal was setting off its collar inside the house! Some options might be: - ask if they could turn down the transmitted power of the unit, and see if that reduces the interference you receive (pitch it as being more humane to the dog :-) - offer to replace the transmitter and collar units with ones that don't use the LW/MW frequencies - see if there is a way to locate the buried wires that wouldn't radiate into your antenna's pickup pattern. I think these things should be outlawed, as I suspect they don't comply with Part 15 regulations, but good luck in trying to pursue that path (Brett Saylor, ibid.) Sometimes I think these things are just an excuse for people too lazy to train their dogs. How much more could it cost to pay someone to train it vs. the invisible fence anyway? (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ), [15 mi NNW of Philadelphia], ibid.) Based on my limited experiences with invisible dog fences, I am not convinced at all they work. We've all heard about the dog that gets zapped, and runs right over it anyway. Or the other dog who gets zapped and never goes outside again. Our next door neighbors put one in (right next my antenna) several years ago, but I never get any interference from it, so I really wonder if they ever use it (of course, I don't wonder too much...) 73 de (Joe Miller, ibid.) These fences operate under Part 15 of the FCC Rules. The rules state they may not cause interference, and must accept any interference. He may have bought a bad one with defective filtering. Ask him to please return it and get another one, or ask if you can put a Low-Pass filter network on it. If he refuses, go to the FCC and they will force him to stop using the device (Kevin in Upstate SC KJ4HYD ABDX via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ 49 mb at midday in ECNA More research will need to be carried out, but I did note some signals on the 49 mb at 1800 UT on Dec. 14 (using Grundig G5 and whip in a park in NJ): V. of Russia heard on 6245 and 6055 with good level in English, airing "Music and Musicians"; 6175 was also heard but not at the same level as the first two. Poland relay was also heard on 6015 at 1800 with fair level [next day converted to DRM --- gh]. BBCWS also noted on 5875 at 1815 but F-P level, likely from Rampisham but Cyprus also listed there (per Aoki B08), both 18-20 to RUS, w/news; World Have Your Say is heard M-F at 1800 (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Dec 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet levels at all latitudes during most of the period. ACE solar wind measurements indicated a subsiding coronal hole high-speed stream was in progress at the start of the period. Velocities gradually decreased from 532 to 314 km/sec during 08 - 10 December. A solar sector boundary crossing (away (+) to toward (-)) occurred late on 10 December associated with minor increases in velocity, plasma density, and IMF total field intensity. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 17 DEC 2008 - 12 JAN 2009 Solar activity is expected to be at very low levels. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels during 02 - 06 January. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at quiet levels during 17 - 21 December. Activity is expected to increase to unsettled levels during 22 - 24 December due to a recurrent coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS). Activity is expected to decrease to quiet levels during 25 - 30 December. Activity is expected to increase to unsettled levels during 31 December - 02 January due to another recurrent CH HSS. Activity is expected to decrease to quiet levels during 03 - 12 January. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2008 Dec 16 2222 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # Product description and SWPC contact on the Web # http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2008 Dec 16 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2008 Dec 17 68 5 2 2008 Dec 18 68 5 2 2008 Dec 19 68 5 2 2008 Dec 20 68 5 2 2008 Dec 21 68 5 2 2008 Dec 22 68 10 3 2008 Dec 23 68 8 3 2008 Dec 24 68 8 3 2008 Dec 25 68 5 2 2008 Dec 26 69 5 2 2008 Dec 27 70 5 2 2008 Dec 28 70 5 2 2008 Dec 29 70 5 2 2008 Dec 30 70 5 2 2008 Dec 31 70 8 3 2009 Jan 01 70 10 3 2009 Jan 02 70 10 3 2009 Jan 03 70 5 2 2009 Jan 04 70 5 2 2009 Jan 05 70 5 2 2009 Jan 06 70 5 2 2009 Jan 07 70 5 2 2009 Jan 08 70 5 2 2009 Jan 09 69 5 2 2009 Jan 10 69 5 2 2009 Jan 11 69 5 2 2009 Jan 12 68 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1439, DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Our country - the last remaining superpower on earth - needs to learn to measure its strength not by the number of people it can kill but by the number of people it can feed, clothe, house, and care for." - Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry's Double-Dip: Lead With Your Values and Make Money, Too) [Al Muick`s tagline from Kabul] ###