DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-035, April 21, 2009 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 2009 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 1457, April 22-28 Wed 0500 WRMI 9955 Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1900 WBCQ 7415 Thu 0530 WRMI 9955 Thu 1900 WBCQ 7415 Fri 0000 WBCQ 5110-CUSB Area 51 Fri 0100 WRMI 9955 Fri 1130 WRMI 9955 Fri 1900 WBCQ 7415 Fri 1930 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 7290 Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 [or 2029] Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 0800 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 9510 [except first Sat] Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Mon 0500 WRMI 9955 Mon 2200 WBCQ 7415 Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Tue 1900 WBCQ 7415 Wed 0500 WRMI 9955 [or new 1458 starting here?] Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1900 WBCQ 7415 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 or http://schedule.worldofradio.org or http://sked.worldofradio.org 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://podcast.worldofradio.org or http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** AUSTRALIA. Sino-Cuban QRM to RA: see CHINA [non] ** BELARUS. Colegas, No dia 26/03 eu loguei o seguinte: 7110, 26/03 0417, ETIOPIA, R Ethiopia, presumida, em Amharic/Oro./Tig, desde Addis Ababa-Gedja, com 100 kW, mx local, as 0419 UTC OM Talk, uma moderada QRM não identificada, sinal melhorando ao passar do tempo, gravado, 33433 (JJFS - Feira de Santana BA - Brasil) Houve um engano da minha parte ao publicar a gravação do log e coloquei uma gravação de uma outra emissora que eu não tinha identificado nessa noite em meu blog. Acontece que o colega Lev Lytochenco do Canadá, me enviou o seguinte e-mail: “hi Jorge, Congratulation! Instead of Ethiopia on 7100 [sic] kHz, at 0434 UT, 26.03. 2009. you got Belarus, Radio Hrodna, Hrodna- just 5 kW!!! I am pretty sure about the language it was Belorussian because I know Russian Ukrainian and Belorussin and can recognize some others Slavic languages. Lev.” http://www.ipernity.com/home/96839 Assim, o log da gravação fica assim segundo a informação do colega Lev: 7110, 26/03 0417 (BLR) BELARUS, R Hrodna, em belorussin, desde Hrodna, com 5 kW, YL Talk, no final OM Talk, 34333 (JJFS-Feira de Santana BA- Brasil) Assim tive a grata satisfação da identificação por acaso da escuta de uma emissora ainda mais difícil segundo a informação do colega Lev. 73 e boas escutas, (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Blog: http://www.ipernity.com/blog/75006 Escutas: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/75006/home?t=74925 http://www.ipernity.com/doc/75006/home?t=74925&c=6&s=uploaded Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, 12º 15' 1.57" S 38º 58' 40.30" W, Degen 1103, Antena Dipolo de 16 metros e balum 4:1 em toroide, Direção Leste/Oeste, HCDX via DXLD) 7110 is no longer in use, as in 9-034, moved to 7280, but the log was in the last few days of the B-08 season before the change (gh, DXLD) ** BELARUS. 7255, Radio Station Belarus, 2105-2205+, April 19, tune-in to English news. Local music. IDs. Program about local music. Into Russian at 2200. Good signal strength & in the clear but audio somewhat muffled. No sign of Nigeria on 7255. Poor to fair on // 7210 but covered by China at approximately 2155 sign on. Very weak- threshold copy on // 7390 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Rádio Difusora de Cáceres está ativa em 5050 kHz. O Dexista Itamar Nunes de Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, captou a emissora no dia 23 de março passado, pouco antes das 1400 UT. Também o George Henrique de Moura Cunha, telefonou para a emissora, onde o funcionário Francisco lhe informou que ela está ativa, e emitindo diariamente de 0900 às 1400 UT (Via lista Radio escutas via Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX April 19 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Colegas, Aproveitando a oportunidade que o e-mail do colega Adalberto deixou, passo a mostrar a importância do azimute e da potência na análise de um log. 6090 kHz, Rádio Bandeirantes, São Paulo SP, com 10 kW e azimute 340. Essa direção nos leva para uma transmissão voltada para o noroeste de São Paulo e Centro Oeste do País. Nesse momento, as 1821 UT, com mínimo, inaudível, sinal em 6090 kHz. [accompanying graphic shows signal aimed some 60 degrees westward from the listener`s location Feira da Santana, Baia, but the 340 arrow is really misplaced as if it were 330 or so) 9645 kHz, Rádio Bandeirantes, São Paulo, com 7.5 kW e azimute 30. Essa direção está voltada especialmente para nordeste de São Paulo e o estado do Rio de Janeiro e um pouco mais acima, lembrando que as frequências da faixa dos 30 metros podem ser propagadas a maiores distâncias durante o dia e portanto menos potência. Chega agora às 1822 UT com sinal 43433, moderada QRM das emissoras internacionais que começam a chegar. 11925 kHz, Rádio Bandeirantes, São Paulo, com 10 kW e azimute 202. Essa direção está voltada para o sudoeste de São Paulo, sul do Brasil e América do Sul. Interessante que os 25 metros é uma faixa que se comporta bem em termos de propagação em quase todo o dia e apesar de Feira de Santana está localizada a nordeste de São Paulo é nessa frequência que sintonizo a Bandeirantes com o melhor sinal, assim estou sintonizando-a com o sinal que é irradiado por trás da antena. Agora às 1823 UT, por ironia, está sofrendo uma forte QRM da DW em árabe desde a Alemanha que transmite com 250 kW, mas que normalmente chegaria aqui com SIO 444 tão logo a transmissão da DW se encerre (@tividade DX April 19 via DXLD) ?? The station now on 11925 at 18-19 is VOA in Amharic via São Tomé. This must refer to old monitoring during the latter part of B-08, when DW in Arabic was on 11925 at this time, but two 300 kW Woofferton UK transmitters at 114 and 170 degrees. Azimuths of the still considerable number of Brazilian SW stations gets us into a rather esoteric area. The only ones in HFCC are the CRI relays via Brasília on 9665, which we recently mentioned. Not a single other Brazilian SW station is in HFCC, not even the other high-power Brasília transmitters, RNA on 6185, 11780. So where does azimuth info come from? The ones above must have been drawn from Aoki, which does manage to include azimuths for most entries. I wonder where he gets them; laboriously collected from individual stations? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BRASIL – É praticamente impossível acompanhar a jornada esportiva da Rádio Bandeirantes, de São Paulo (SP), em 9645 kHz, aos domingos, após às 1830, no Tempo Universal. Em Porto Alegre (RS), neste horário, quem domina o canal é a Rádio Internacional da China transmitindo em francês para a África. BRASIL – Há algum tempo, o relay da Rádio Cultura FM, de São Paulo (SP), tem tido regular sintonia, no Sul do Brasil, em 6170, conforme monitoria de Marcos Vieira, em Jataizinho (PR). Em Porto Alegre (RS), foi captada em 19 de abril, às 2150, no Tempo Universal, com regular sintonia. BRASIL – A Rádio do Observatório Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (RJ) foi captada, em Porto Alegre (RS), em 19 de abril, às 1901, no Tempo Universal, em 10000 kHz, transmitindo a hora certa entremeada de bips. O sinal era regular (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX April 19 via WORLD OF RADIO 1457, DXLD) For the first time I could listen on 10000 kHz to Observatório Nacional: 19/4 2105, Observatório Nacional, Brazil, time pips, repeated IDs female (later male), fair (better in USB). Rx: SDR-14, Icom R71E, Realistic DX-150A, Grundig Satellit 208, Drake SPR-4, Ant: T2FD 15 meters long. QTH: Milan, Italy (Giampiero Bernardini, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1457, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [non]. We were wondering if 5850, 350 kW via Sweden at 17- 18, now that RCI has demolished its Ukrainian service and replaced it with French and English on Fri-Sat-Sun, would change the azimuth from 110 degrees to something further west? Yes, now it`s 245 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. The move of CHLW-1310 St. Paul AB to FM (97.7 MHz, 16 kW) has been approved by the CRTC: CHLW St. Paul – Conversion to FM band 1. The Commission approves the application by Newcap Inc.1 (Newcap) for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in St. Paul, Alberta, to replace its AM station CHLW. The Commission received interventions in support of this application. The terms and conditions of licence for the new station are set out in the appendix to this decision. 2. The station will operate at 97.7 MHz (channel 249B) with an average effective radiated power of 16,000 watts. 3. The station will maintain CHLW’s Country music format targeting adults between the ages of 25 and 64. A minimum of six hours and 48 minutes of the broadcast week will be devoted to spoken word programming, including three hours of pure news content as well as information on community events and charities, weather and surveillance material. Simulcast period and revocation of AM licence 7. As set out in the appendix to this decision, Newcap is authorized to simulcast the programming of the new FM station on CHLW for a transition period of three months following the commencement of operations of the FM station. Pursuant to sections 9(1)(e) and 24(1) of the Broadcasting Act, and consistent with the licensee’s request, the Commission revokes the licence for CHLW effective at the end of the simulcast period. ---------------------------------------- CKVH-1020 High Prairie AB has also been authorized to move to FM (93.5 MHz, 25 kW): CKVH High Prairie – Conversion to FM band 1. The Commission approves the application by Newcap Inc.1 (Newcap) for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in High Prairie, Alberta, to replace its AM station CKVH High Prairie. The Commission received interventions in support of this application. The terms and conditions of licence for the new station are set out in the appendix to this decision. 2. The station will operate at 93.5 MHz (channel 228B1) with an effective radiated power of 25,000 watts. 3. The station will maintain CKVH’s Classic Hits music format targeting adults between the ages of 25 and 54. A minimum of six hours and 48 minutes of the broadcast week will be devoted to spoken word programming, including three hours of pure news content as well as information on community events and charities, weather and surveillance material. Simulcast period and revocation of AM licence As set out in the appendix to this decision, Newcap is authorized to simulcast the programming of the new FM station on CKVH for a transition period of three months following the commencement of operations of the FM station. Pursuant to sections 9(1)(e) and 24(1) of the Broadcasting Act, and consistent with the licensee’s request, the Commission revokes the licence for CKVH effective at the end of the simulcast period (via Deane McIntyre, AB, April 21, DXLD) ** CANADA. CRTC REPORT ON LOSS OF OTA TV http://www.crtc.gc.ca/public/broad/applications/2009/2009-113-DTV-Working-Group-Report.zip The CRTC is reviewing licence renewal applications of several large terrestrial TV station groups. Several of these groups are suggesting they will not build out complete networks of digital OTA transmitters -- that there will be no over-the-air TV outside Canada's largest cities after analog TV is shut down in 2011. This study found 840 viewers in five smaller Canadian cities who have TV sets but don't subscribe to cable or satellite. They found: - 69% have an antenna. (does that mean 31% only watch VCR tapes & DVDs? I suppose that's quite possible among immigrant communities whose cultures aren't represented among any OTA or cable channels...) - 20% already plan to subscribe to a "BDU" (cable, satellite, or microwave "wireless cable") within two years -- before they were aware that OTA signals were going away. - 26% say they will live without TV once OTA service is no longer available.* - 33% will consider subscribing to a BDU. - 26% will probably subscribe if they can get BDU service for $20- 30/mo. - 36% will probably subscribe if they can get BDU service for $15/mo. - 45% will probably subscribe if they can get BDU service for $10/mo. The study may be skewed a bit as best I can tell, the viewers were told OTA service *would* be going away -- that it was a done deal. FWIW the five cities involved: Kamloops, BC (three OTA stations, one in French) Red Deer, AB (six OTA stations, one French) Timmins, ON (six OTA stations, one French) Rouyn-Noranda, QC (five OTA stations, one English) Sydney, NS (four OTA stations, one French) (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, April 21, WTFDA via DXLD) Interesting how the questions are structured so that "there will be no more OTA channels after Aug 2011" is a done deal in those cities. I'm sure the CRTC will have something to say about that. Talk about an invalid survey. If this happens as the broadcasters hope --- then many Canadians without 40 miles of the US border will simply get their HD free from US stations. It'll be like the late 1940's-early 1950's all over again. Remember the stories about the guy in North Bay building a rhombic to get TV from Buffalo 200 miles away. That might not happen, but I expect there will be more big antennas around to get free HD. Cable & satellite charge big bucks for HD up here. There is no free HD on cable or satellite. wrh (Bill Hepburn, Grimsby Ont, ibid.) ** CHECHNYA [non]. Re: ex-Chechnya Svobodnaya / Program Kavkaz closed down? He is our friend with the member of the NDXC monitoring group. His name is Mr. Inoue, lives in Tsu-shi, Mie-prefecture. The E-mail which he received from editor of letters department on Jan. 30. Dear Mr. Inoue, We confirm that our program’s format has substantially changed and our station is currently called the Caucasus. The Chechnya Free radio station was created at a time when the Chechen Republic was going through tough time – something that at the time prompted us to mainly focus on covering Chechnya news. Now that the situation in Chechnya has been normalized, Radio Chechnya Free will cover the latest events that are taking place not only in Chechnya, but elsewhere in the Caucasus, including Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino- Balkaria and North Ossetia. This is why we decided to re-name our radio station into the Caucasus. As of January, a one-hour daily program, which you can hear at 16.30 p.m. Moscow time, will only be centered on Chechnya. It will be re-broadcast in the evening on the same day at 22.30 p.m. Moscow time and at 10.30 a.m. next day. You can tune in to Radio Chechnya Free on the frequencies of 171 and 657 kHz. We sincerely wish you success and all the best. Faithfully yours, Vera, editor of letters department. http://sun.ap.teacup.com/7030545/ in Japanese. (S. Hasegawa, NDXC-HQ, April 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE. CVC is testing DRM for NAB Las Vegas, April 20-23 only: 2200-0100 on 17635-17640-17645, 15 kW at 340 degrees in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See http://www.drmrx.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2112 (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nothing here at all on the west coast of Canada at 0010 UT 22 Apr 09 (Walt Salmaniw, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Was AM on 17680 audible? (gh) ** CHINA. Re 9-034, 9570 via Habana QRMing R. Australia 9580: Irritating isn't it; and it looks like they're aimed right at you (250 kW at 10 degrees from Havana). Even here in central Texas, 75 or 80 degrees off the main beam we get the splash that, on some mornings, ruins RA (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1457, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yet here in Enid, as just rechecked this morning, I do not find 9570 CRI/Cuba to be any problem at all for RA on 9580, nor RHC 9600 for RA 9590. Not that I doubt they are bothersome elsewhere (Glenn Hauser, April 20, ibid.) ** CHINA. Firedrake observations: April 19 at 1312 on 9000, and at 1316 just barely audible on 8400. April 20 at 1227, good on both 9000 and 8400; at 1325 gone from 9000 but still on 8400; ditto at 1346 and 1424 rechex. Firedrake, April 21 at 1325: on 8400 and weaker 9000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake talk and music jammer is full in action in 1210-1300 UT Apr 20th, like in past week log, - frequencies against transmissions in Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Uighur, Nepali: 7260 1700-2100 IBB TIN 7565 1600-1700 IBB UDO 9350 0100-0200 1600-1700 IBB UDO 9355 1700-2100 IBB SAI 9370 1500-1600 IBB TJK 9385 2100-2200 IBB TIN 9455 1500-2200 IBB SAI 9565 1600-1700 IBB Tinang 9845 1200-1500, 2200-2300 IBB SAI Tinang 9985 1300-1400 IBB SAI 11540 1500-1900 IBB TIN, SAI 11550 1500-1600 IBB KWT 11585 1500-1600 IBB TIN 11590 1200-1400 IBB KWT 11605 1200-1400 IBB TIN 11625 1500-1600 IBB TIN 11740 2000-2200 IBB TIN 11785 1900-2400 IBB TIN 11785 1100-1400 IBB UDO 11805 1230-1500 IBB UDO, Tinang, TIN 11825 0900-1300 IBB Tinang 11965 0900-1100 IBB UDO 11975 1400-1500 IBB KWT 11990 1100-1500 IBB TIN, NVS 12025 1500-1700 IBB SAI 12040 1000-1500 IBB UDO, Tinang 12140 1230-1500 IBB TIN -Burmese? different from Myanmar? 13740 0700-1000 IBB UDO 13760 0300-0700 IBB SAI 13830 1100-1400 IBB TJK 15250 0700-1100 IBB Tinang 15285 1300-1530 BBC SNG 15412 1330-1400 VoTibet TJK 15495 1500-1600 IBB TIN 15535 0600-0700 UNID, maybe 24 hrs service jammer. 15840 1000-1200 UNID, SoH TWN ? 17560 1330-1400 VoTibet MDG 17775 0700-1000 IBB TIN 17855 0700-1100 IBB Tinang 17800 0300-0700 IBB SAI Also transmissions of BBC London Mandarin, Uzbek, Kyrghyz; AIR Delhi Mandarin Tibetan, Nepali; Taiwan domestic and international broadcasts 11656 and 15270, - are subject of heavy jamming (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Apr 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``Firedrake talk?`` Firedrake is only music without announcements. Are you mixing in other ChiCom jamming in this list such as CNR-1? But tnx for compiling that extensive exposé (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Glenn, These are the entries in my jamming list of the "China mainland monitoring and jamming organization" in past week A-09. It`s negligible whether a Chinese music program or a domestic news program is broadcast. As westerner I can't identify any Chinese program ID, sorry. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Wolfy, Hard for me to distinguish among CNR programs either, but Firedrake is distinctive music, same one-hour loop, lots of percussion and never any talk, so it stands out, at least for me. Let`s keep the Firedrake name only for that. 73, (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Seems that recently they are doing something different. Since my April 16 log of not hearing any Firedrakes (music jamming), I have heard them on 6030 (causing heavy QRM for BBS/Bhutan on 6035), 8400 and 9000, at 1406 on April 19, but the next day did not hear a Firedrake on 6030, just the usual strong CNR-1 echo jamming. Not very consistent (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See recording of this noon Apr 21. China mainland jamming format changed now, also against BBC Mandarin and TWN International, and against IBB of course. More lyric music format and also more talk of domestic radio relay. "Firedrake" jamming service now changed the format, continuous playing dragon music stopped now. Few and between advertising talk [Howard and Hauser said China National radio 1st program relay] and music jammer but rather lyric Chinese love songs played now, even Elton John sung in between. Some 3 to 4 very fast echos of few transmitters appeared as new? sound. Modern Chinese and international smooth love songs in between (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sounds like the usual non-Firedrake regular network programming, but with echo, presumably CNR-1. Since it is the main national network, there is a variety of musical and talk programming, and one should not conclude what`s on it at any particular time when it is heard as jamming, represents a change in its overall format or that of jamming (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Wolfy, Thanks for the audio. You heard a typical CNR-1 echo jamming (operating more than one jamming transmitter and out of sync, causing echo). It is non-Firedrake jamming, i.e., not non-stop Chinese music jamming. There have been many of these echo jammers used on many frequencies for some time now. The attachment is a recording from March 9, 2009, at 1308 of another typical CNR-1 echo jamming, in this case supposedly against Ming Hui Radio on 6030. Heard // 5030, a standard non-jamming CNR-1 station. Thanks again for sharing this information! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, USA, ibid.) ** CHINA [non]. Re 9-034, new CRI relays via Finland 963 kHz: SRG April 20th, 2009 - 7:36 UT: Thanks, Kai. I didn’t realize that CRI quit Lithuania relays. I wonder if the Chinese found out that the same people who sold that AM air time, also relay RFA to China. WRN Russian still earns tons of money from relaying CRI in the former USSR. But recently WRN began Moscow relays of R. Taiwan Int. I wonder if that might lead to potential problems. SRG April 20th, 2009 - 7:44 UT: According to this job posting, Lithuanian and Estonian programs are produced in Tampere, Finland: http://www.radio86.co.uk/about-radio86/open-vacancies This is pretty amazing. How many of those semi-clandestine language services does CRI run? (Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1457, DXLD) ** CHINA. CRI, which has added more and more shortwave transmissions to become the world`s major SW station in terms of output, may be having second thoughts, considering reducing SW or even eliminating some services, based on audience research in English-speaking countries indicating there is really not enough interest in SW listening to justify the expense. Such resources could be put to better use --- and the fewer SWBC transmissions for real listeners, the more transmitters available for jamming attempted broadcasts into China! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 5990, 31/03 2247, CLM, La Voz del Guaviare, San José Guaviare, YL with comunicados, citações a vários números de telefone, 22332 (Ivan Dias, Sorocaba SP, Brasil, Receptor RFSpace SDR-IQ, Antena Loop Welbrook, ALA1530S+Faseador JPS ANC-4, @tividade DX April 19 via DXLD) ?? Normally on 6035; a mistake by the reporter or the station? ** COLOMBIA. 6010, La Voz de Tu Conciencia, Puerto Lleras. April 21 0701-0735. Tuned-in to woman preacher in English being translated by OM into Spanish. Sermon was directed toward Colombians. Continued until 0710 "Amen" and OM with Spanish IDs, into Spanish religious music until 0733 ID by YL in English and by OM in Spanish "This is the Voice of Your Conscience." (Bruce Barker, Broomall, PA, NRD 535D and an Alpha Delta DX Sloper, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. As transmissões em português da Rádio Havana vão ao ar no seguinte esquema: entre 2200 e 2230, em 13760 e 17705 kHz; das 2300 às 2330, nas mesmas frequências; das 2000 às 2030, em 11820 kHz, com reprise meia-hora mais tarde, em 11800 kHz. Apesar da emissora anunciar português às 2200, em 13760 kHz, em 19 de abril, foi ao ar neste canal a programação em espanhol. Uma das edições do programa En Contacto, que é dedicado ao mundo das ondas curtas, vai ao ar, dentro da programação em espanhol da Rádio Havana Cuba, aos domingos, às 2245, no Tempo Universal, tendo boa sintonia, no Sul do Brasil, em 13760 kHz. Na edição de 19 de abril, Manolo de la Rosa e Malena Negrin apresentaram informações sobre a emissora cubana Rádio Musical Nacional, que dedica sua programação para a música clássica, sendo ouvida em ondas médias em todo o território cubano. Um pouco antes, às 2225, no Tempo Universal, a Rádio Havana Cuba apresenta o interessante programa Mundo de la Filatelia (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX April 19 via DXLD) ** CUBA. RHC, 11760 still on the air altho 9550 has been moved to 6010, April 19 at 0533 tuned in just as Arnie Coro was ending his reminiscences about repelling the invaders at the Bay of Pigs. Probably the same as last year when we captured the story and preserved it in the dxldyg audio files. 13580, RHC leapfrog mixing with R. Prague IS, just as it was concluding English to NAm at 1328 April 20. 1329 RHC alone as Prague was switching to another antenna. RHC also audible on 13880, once again with crackly audio as on 13680, unlike 13780, the two of which jump over each other to produce these spurs (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1457, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The latest from Mixing Product Central on 13 MHz: April 21 at 1414, Fidel on 13720 mixing with CRI English, i.e. leapfrog 13760 over 13740. Meanwhile from the other site, the usual leapfrogs of 13680 and 13780 over each other to land on 13580 and 13880 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Re 9-034: Glenn, You say that if 'Mr Castro' really wants better relations with the US he should 'tear down that radio wall', meaning the jamming of Radio Martí. Sure, but if 'Mr Obama' is serious about the US making amends for years of hostility to its island neighbour, he should start by halting subversive broadcasts to that country, the purpose of which is to change the regime of what is, and has every right to be, a sovereign state. Oh, and he would be doing you a favour as well, as you would no longer have to pay for this propaganda with your tax dollars! (Roger Tidy, UK, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) One man`s subversion is another man`s freedom of speech, which I tend to consider non-negotiable. Does Cuba have a ``right`` to be a communist dictatorship? If free elexions were to be held, and the Commies win fair-and-square over exile/opposition elements, so be it. I won`t shed a tear if R. Martí is closed down, but the facts remain that Cuba also jams Voice of America in Spanish, which is intended for a general Latin American audience (not excluding Cuba), and thus RHC, which is also `subversive` to the USA, and gets to be heard unimpeded, should also be closed down unless the jamming stops, which as I also have to keep outpointing, causes a great deal of collateral damage on the SW bands thru the sheer incompetence or malice of the DentroCubans. It`s incredible how some people are willing to give the DentroCubans a pass over their jamming, the number one bane of shortwave (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS TURKISH. Can someone please advise on the exact frequency that Radio Bayrak is currently on? At 0205 UT I have weak carriers on 6149.965, 6150.009 and 6159.037 [sic --- must mean 6150.037?] kHz and am curious which of these, if any, could possibly be Radio Bayrak. The strongest is 6149.965 kHz at only 5.3 dB above the noise floor. http://www.bcdx.org/?p=44 (Brandon Jordan - Memphis, TN, USA, bcdx.org@gmail.com - http://www.bcdx.org dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) http://www.brtk.cc/index.php/lang/en No. 3 on 6150.037 kHz? Perú and Yakutsk also here. But Taiwan and mainland jamming on this frequency only in the afternoon? 73 wb see last report of May 2007: ``CYPRUS 6150.05v After I read Anker Petersen's report about 2 and 3 May I tried to listen to R Bayrak too. The channel was free, no University Network or others at this time 0130-0240 UT but old pop songs no stop e some IDs "... Radio Bayrak". No "International" heard. 6150.05v on 4 May at 0130-0240 UT Radio Bayrak, Cyprus, old pop songs, few IDs "... Radio Bayrak". No "International" heard in the id. Fading, low voice modulation, fair signal (Giampiero Bernardini-ITA, BrDXC-UK May 4)`` (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** EASTER ISLAND [and non]. Re 9-034, other log of IPA beacon 280 kHz: Olá amigos, Segue abaixo link para novo log de LF realizado pelo Japy DX. Nosso interesse foi acompanhar com mais cuidado a propagação desde o início do sunset. A expectativa era encontrar mais radiodiofusão em LW, especialmente identificar em 198 kHz uma estação que não é a ENRS e nem BBC, monitorada por nós em operações passadas. No entanto o sunset foi decepcionante. A propagação habitual de fato se mostrou para o segmento de NDBs no decorrer da noite apesar do QRN e do frio inacreditável para época do ano. Entre os "novos" estão UI Chuí confirmado em 320, 335 COM Comandatuba, 355 ACJ Aracajú, 330 CNA Carolina. Tentamos mais Nordeste mas as QRGs estavam muito ocupadas. Fora do Brasil: 239 LS Uruguai, 350 LPZ La Paz Bolívia, 355 SNO Sto Domingo Chile e finalmente em nossa região 360 ASN Ascencion. Entre os já escutados reapareceram no dial 391 DDP Porto Rico, 280 VRO Bolívia, 260 TOY Chile, 227 CLD Chile. No entanto o que chamou a atenção aconteceu no sunrise. Em 280 kHz havia um sinal novo mesclado com RCL, muito claro com RST 519. Fiz a identificação "IPA" e deixei os dados de lado para posterior análise. Possivelmente seria mais um desconhecido. Ao pesquisar depois em casa percebi que esse NDB está entre os mais ouvidos do mundo; localizado em Rapa Nui, Ilha de Páscoa, mais de 6000 km para o oeste sentido Pacífico! Procurei uma explicação para o ocorrido. Tom Willians N4KG escreveu rapidamente sobre o SUNRISE ENHANCEMENT (SR) que - resguardada as devidas proporções entre os efeitos de propagação em LF e MF - poderia servir ao caso: http://www.ng3k.com/Misc/n4kgprop.html Ainda nao conseguimos DGPS em 518 kHz, o NDB CPN domina na região em 515 kHz. Porém em 490 kHz encontramos NAVTEX. Os Datatracks argentinos continuaram fortíssimos em 145 kHz. O log pode ser encontrado com um pequeno mapa da hora de escuta de Rapa Nui: http://www.japydx.org/temp/lf/PY2OC_PY2ZX_LF_apr2009.htm Nada mais indicado do que desejar a todos um bom final de Páscoa no dia em que escutamos justamente uma estação da Ilha de Páscoa! (Flávio PY2ZX Archangelo, April 12, radioescutas yg via Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, DXLD) ** ECUADOR. I have never tried for this one so it's new. 3810 LSB, Guayaquil, HD2IOA, 4/20 0647 UT, time pips, Spanish male with time every minute, poor signal with noise and fading (Martin Foltz, Mission Viejo CA, ABDX via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190 at 1416 April 21 with screaming preacher in English, fortunately undermodulated but still plenty annoying, and who would voluntarily listen to that for content? Doesn`t matter, pays your money, maybe gets your transmission to the heathen masses of Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. A puzzle on Monday. Today April 20th the ERT service on 11645 kHz contains the same GREEK program as 9420 and 15630 kHz at present 05-08 UT. Is the international service at 05-10 UT in Albanian, English, French, Spanish, German and Russian language only on Tuesday till Saturday? Monday never ? Or is today a special holiday in Greece, - maybe of the Eastern Orthodox church? Regards de (Wolfgang Bueschel, Stuttgart Germany, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also heard at my location 0630 - and still Greek only at 0830 on all three 9420 11645 and 15630. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.) Voice of Greece Quits Foreign Languages to Europe? What's up with the Voice of Greece? For a few days now ERA 5 appears to be running its Greek channel on 11645, in parallel with 15630. The music is fine but no news in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish. This is something very recent. - The programs were there last week. Hopefully, it's some kind of a switch error that can be fixed soon. Curiously, http://www.voiceofgreece.gr is down, too (Sergei S., Moscow, 0951 UT April 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Everything goes haywire around Easter there (Glenn, ibid.) Dear all: As in years past, during the Greek Easter Holiday week, the accent is on the Orthodox religion and not necessarily on regular programming. I believe that they will now go back to their regular programs later this week. Last week, I downloaded the A-09 Saturday and Sunday Program listings in Greek, but the Daily list was still the B-08 version. A few days ago I went to that web site, http://www.voiceofgreece.gr/ looking for the new Daily listing and got this instead: jtablesession::Store Failed DB function failed with error number 145 Table '.\other\voice_session' is marked as crashed and should be repaired SQL=INSERT INTO `voice_session` ( `session_id`,`time`,`username`,`gid`,`guest`,`client_id` ) VALUES ( 'ok2o8j0olh5np20jrpdbvs5c57','1240235234','','0','1','0' ) As of right now, it still has not been fixed. Regards, (John Babbis, 1404 UT April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The site is back online now. Hopefully, R. Filia will resume its SW soon, as well. Maybe even tomorrow? (Sergei S., Moscow, 1432 UT April 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: http://www.voiceofgreece.gr/ Is back on the web, but still has the old B-08 Daily Program Schedule in Greek. I had Babel-Fish translate the left side-bar and this is what I got: From 16/4/09 until 20/4/09 the [era]-5 will transmit the Easter program of Greek Broadcasting corporation. “Musical [Sergiani]” - In the 19/04/09, in 22.00, one beautiful [smyrnaiiki] evenings with [Ilias] [Kapetanakis]. The [estayromenos]- [apokathilosi]- epitaph and the Resurrection in direct transmission from the [era]-5. Extension of competition “the Hellenism and Big Alexandros: past, present and future”. 70 years together! The [era]-5 it dedicates in May 2009 in the big poet Yannis [Ritso]. Regards, (John Babbis, 1513 UT April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Filia is back on 11645. Heard 0500-0515 UT with Albanian programming, including BBC Albanian relay for about 7 minutes (Sergei S., Russia, April 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, and with English at 0600 including re-broadcast of the BBC's "World Today" (or part of) at 0630 (Noel R. Green, England, ibid.) ** GUIANA FRENCH. Please be informed that, after NAB LV, TDF will perform DRM transmission to Mexico City from Montsinéry on 23 and 24 April 2009 using the following parameters: Transmitter = 150 kW RMS Antenna = AHR 4/4 Azimuth = 292 a- Freq = *17545 kHz * 13.59-15.58 TU [17540-17550] b- Freq = *21620 kHz * 15.59-20.58 TU [21615-21625] c- Freq = *17545 kHz * 20.59-22.58 TU [17540-17550] d- Freq = *15525 kHz * 22.59-00.50 TU [15520-15530] DRM parameters: mode B *MSC=64 QAM* B=10 kHz cr=0.5 débit # 17,4 kbits/s codage audio = AAC+SBR Modulation = RFI Label = < TDF Montsinery > text = "DRM transmission by TDF, French Guiana, to Mexico City; F=17545 kHz in 1400-1600 ; F=21620 kHz in 1600-2100 ; F=17545 kHz in 2100-2300 ; F=15525 kHz in 2300-0050 UTC" A slide show will be added. *Days **= Thu. 23-04-09 + Fri. 24-04-09* Wishing you good listening, Jacques GRUSON F6AJW (via Alokesh Gupta, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Re 9-034: Dear Glenn, Noted your comments on election in India I participated in the process of conducting election (first phase) in one legislative assembly segment of the parliament (as civil servants are polling officials). Our state Kerala (Southernmost state) already went to the polling booths on 16 April with a voter turnout of 73%. The elections in India are conducted on voting machines rather than on old ballot papers! This helps in the process of voting and counting. Results will be available within 3 hours on all seats on counting day of May 16. Being 543 seats covered through vivid areas - from the southernmost Kerala to the deserts of Rajastan to the snowy Kashmir and Himalayas into the tropical jungles. Some states in the Central India and border region have threats from terrorists. So security is also a reason for conducting election in 5 phases. Further, the Election Commission of India is the strongest and ultimate body could only finalise such decision to conduct polls on which day. Governments cannot interfere on that. It is not impossible to conduct poll on one day, But security and safety issues compel the commission for exercising this option. On one day certain states wholly or a same geographical area goes to the poll. Being different from presidential system, the parliamentary democracy is mostly depending on majority of seats. Regional issues took prominence rather than national issues in the election of a candidate on one seat. So conducting election on various phases does not affect result, unless a major event arises in the midst of polls (The murder of Rajiv Gandhi, former PM put Congress to majority in 1991). (T. R. Rajeesh, India, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks, I was hoping for just such an explanation (gh, DXLD) ** INDIA. BBC RIDES FM POLL WAGON WITH ELECTION CAPSULES http://www.radioandmusic.com/content/editorial/news/bbc-rides-fm-poll-wagon-with-election-capsules The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) flagged off its on air initiative across FM stations in India on 16 April, airing capsules that are 65 per cent Hindi, with the rest in English. This week, it has introduced ‘BBC Election Q&A’, one minute capsules for raising awareness on the voting procedures, working of the voting machine, political system etc. BBC World Service India FM Desk Editor Rashika Kaul says, “It is a brain teaser to create curiosity about the electoral process and empowering the listeners with information delivered in an engrossing style.” BBC Election Q&A started airing from 13 April and has slots three times a day, during the morning and evening drive time and during the day. Already on air from 16 April, the second capsule, ‘BBC Ek din ka pradhan mantri’ is aired four times a day and showcases people from different spheres. “It would be short, crisp, impactful programming featuring people from diverse sections of society expressing their actions if they were prime minister for a day. The key of this capsule is the diversity in the people involved.” BBC Ek din ka pradhan mantri also has film stars, journalists, IIM students, housewives, cab drivers, celebs like Javed Akhtar, Aamir Khan and Rahul Bose. BBC has worked with Indian Railways to design a timetable for the ‘BBC Express’ project where BBC reporters will travel across India. The train will travel along the following route: Delhi-Ahmedabad-Mumbai- Hyderabad-Bhubaneswar-Kokata-Patna-Allahabad-Dehli. Covering areas across provincial towns and rural areas, BBC’s global audience will get to hear the views of a wide range of Indian voters. Says Kaul, “Apart from being a publicity exercise for BBC, it is an interesting concept of connecting to the real India. As news is not permitted on radio, there won’t be any serious issues discussed but quizzing on the electoral process, constituencies etc.” Aired four times a day, the RJs on the journey will be linked live to the radio station carrying BBC capsules. Starting from 25th April, BBC Express will be a month long segment covering elections. The election capsules would be aired across all stations of Radio One, regional FM stations like Radio Choklate (Bubhaneshwar, Rourkela), Radio Chaska (Gwalior), Radio Tadka (Udaipur, Jaipur), Radio Tomato (Kolhapur), Radio Rangeela, and Radio Misty (Siliguri). Apart from India, it will be broadcasted in six frequencies of World band Radio across Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Jose, Washington etc. Quizzed about the listenership of Indian election broadcast internationally, Kaul verifies, “World Band Media has many south asian listeners who are interested in keeping a tab on the election scenario in India. The capsules aired in the US would be similar to the slots in India.” Online users will be able to track the journey of the train through a special interactive map and a daily blog available on the BBC’s India Election webpage http://www.bbc.com/india (via Jaisakthivel, Chennai, India, April 21, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. VOI, 9525, Sunday April 19 at 1317 with News Across the Country, but not very far afield from Jakarta, about the new terminal 3 opening at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport; 1321 Today in History about the Monaco marriage in 1956y. Usual good signal but with persistent humming. VOI, 9525, for the third Tuesday in a row featuring Banjarmasin, in another historical W&M lexure, April 21 at 1341. Earlier in the hour, reports about the elexion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. The EMR Internet Service --- Due to the financial crisis in the UK, the EMR Internet Service will only be online every 3rd Saturday - Sunday and Monday of the month as from tonight the 21st of April 2009. European Music Radio is very sorry to lose our 24 hour service, but hopefully this service will return very soon! 73s (Tom Taylor, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. WRN on WorldSpace again --- A reminder (to those of you whose WorldSpace receivers may be sitting gathering dust) that WRN 1 is back on WorldSpace Afristar. This means that once again we can enjoy Glenn Hauser's 'World of Radio' over breakfast Saturday mornings at 0900 BST (0800 UT). The full schedule of all stations on WRN 1 can be found at: http://www.wrn.org.uk/listeners/schedules/schedule.php?ScheduleID=4&Show=week Stations on WorldSpace Afristar are now: WRN1, WRN2, BBC World, R Esperance, NPR, RFI and Africa Learning Channel (Alan Pennington, UK, April 17, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. 3980, KCBS Pyongyang, Kanggye. April 20 0925-0935, elation female choral music, elation male & female choral music. // 3960, 24422 (lob-B). 4405, Voice of Korea, Kujang. April 20, Japanese, 0939 classic elation music, YL talks, talks on music, more elation music, OM and YL talks until 0955 when turned to a silent but carrier on. QRM consisted of alternating quick turn on/turn off signal condition (when turn on it sounds like RTTY or birdies); it runs all day long on 4405, despite could been followed well the VOK content. What could be this QRM? 31432 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS. Lao National Radio's website, which used to stream one of the capital's FM services, has disappeared. Their former URL http://www.lnr.org.la now points to the Lao Academy of Social Sciences. Bizarre! (Dave Kernick, UK, 1344 UT April 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. PRO-RAVALOMANANA MEDIA IN MADAGASCAR FORCED OFF THE AIR A demonstration in Madagascar last night against the closure of two radio stations and a TV station close to deposed President Marc Ravalomanana led to fatal clashes between security forces and anti- government protesters. Two people died and 13 were wounded. Further protests are expected today. Protestors took to the streets after the armed forces confiscated the broadcasting equipment of Radio & TV Mada and Radio Fahazavana. The closure of the stations did not come as a complete surprise. Radio Mada and TV Mada already had received an official letter on 17 April from the Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and New Technologies, Augustine Andriamananoro. According to the letter, “the content of the programmes broadcast on these stations amounts to incitement to civil disobedience and the shaking of public confidence in the Institutions of the Republic”. (Source: Various press reports) (April 21st, 2009 - 9:53 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1457, DXLD) So is this Radio Mada, WTFK, connected with the former SW broadcast on 5895? (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1457, DXLD) ** MALI. 5995, RTVM, 0740-0801*, April 19, vernacular talk. Flute IS & closing French announcements at 0800. Weak. Australia usually signs on at 0758 on 5995 but tonight they did not come on the air until after 0801. 9635, RTVM, *0801:30-0820, April 19, sign on with flute IS and opening French announcements. Local African music at 0802. Vernacular talk at 0803. Weak. Lost in noise by 0823. Listed // 7285 not heard due to strong DRM signal on frequency (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5995, RTV du Mali, Apr 20 0620-0640. Sensational tribal drum solo music at tune-in while at 0625 a whistle or flute mixed with drums for a raucous indigenous song. YL had a Radio Mali ID in French at 0632 with vernacular vocal until tune-out at 0640 (Bruce Barker, Broomall, PA, NRD 535D with Alpha Delta DX Sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. PERIODISTAS DE SLP ACUSAN A ZAPATA DE CERRAR ESTACIÓN DE RADIO [so was it a pirate??] MEXICO, D.F., 20 de abril (apro).- El gremio periodístico de San Luis Potosí se pronunció hoy contra las acciones "fascistoides" del candidato del PAN al gobierno de esa entidad, Alejandro Zapata Perogordo, al que responsabilizaron del cierre de la estación de radio "La Mejor". Por medio de un comunicado, el gremio, denominado "La comunidad de periodistas libres de San Luis Potosí", acusa a Zapata de ir en contra de la democracia, la libertad de expresión y los medios de comunicación del estado. Afirma que, "en un claro atentado al periodismo, en la estación de radio `La Mejor`, que se transmite por el 100.1 de FM, sus directivos desaparecieron a partir de hoy el noticiero `MVS al Día`, que era el más escuchado en esa entidad, desde hace 13 años, debido a que no se ha han cumplido con los caprichos del candidato panista". Señala que, inclusive, el área de comunicación social del comité de campaña de Zapata Perogordo alardea que el noticiero fue cerrado "porque no se manejaba como quería su candidato". Añade que los fundadores y todo el staff del noticiero sólo pretendían realizar su trabajo de manera imparcial, y que la respuesta fue la campaña de Zapata contra los medios de comunicación y la libertad de expresión (via Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, April 21, condiglist yg via DXLD) We were wondering if this is a pirate, but it is not: Emisoras de FM shows it as XHPM, La Mejor FM, in San Luís Potosí, SLP, 41.89 kW (gh) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. HOLANDA – Além das habituais freqüências, a programação em espanhol da Rádio Nederland estava aparecendo, por volta de 0100, no Tempo Universal, há alguns dias em 9810 kHz. Em Pontes e Lacerda (MT), José Moacir Portera de Melo monitorou a emissora com um sinal excepcional. Ressalta que a freqüência, originalmente, era para ser da Voz da Rússia. É como se fosse uma freqüência pirata da Rádio Nederland? (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX April 19 via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. 7530 kHz: VoR instead of RNW --- A switch error? R. Netherlands isn't there today. Starting from 1410 UT, RUI is gone due to a skip and VoR's English WS is heard loud and clear with a bit of heterodyne whistle. The frequency should be in use by RNW for its SE Asia/India English service 1359 to 1557 out of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. VoR's schedule doesn't list 7530 (Sergei S., Moscow, Russia, April 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hmm... message passed on to our Programme Distribution Department. Thanks for the observation (Andy Sennitt, RNW, ibid.) On Tuesday, 21 April 2009, from 1405 until around 1415 UT at 7530 and 9345 kHz [both Tashkent] I heard the Voice of Russia broadcast in English. I heard end of News, followed by Press Review, station identification and commentary on visit of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in Finland. I still heard Radio Netherlands broadcast on 15815 kHz from Madagascar site. Just on 1415 I heard Jonathan Groubert from Radio Netherlands giving station identification and presenting an interview in “The State We’re In” program (Tony Ashar, West Java, Indonesia, ibid.) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Hi Everyone, Just to let you know the Happy Station for April 23, 2009 at 0100 UT will not be broadcast because of a special Earth Day program from 2300 to 0200 [no, it`s 0100-0300 but still pre-empts HS – gh]. Happy Station this week will only have one edition at 1500. On May 6th the 0100 transmission will be back. Coming up on this week`s show: Listeners Corner with messages from the Egypt, US and UK. An album signed and given to a listener in the early 60s by Eddie Startz. Thomas Witherspoon, a Happy Station listener since the late 80s and early 90s, who will talk about an organization he is director of, called Ears To Our World which provides SW radios to teachers and schools in Africa. And music from --- Well, tune in to find out. Air date: April 23, 2009, Time: 1500 UT, Frequency: 9955, 31 meters And remember I'm giving away two shortwave radios from Sangean, the ATS909 and ATS606a, but to enter the lucky draw you must send in your reception report. For those outside the broadcast region of North & South America you can listen to the live stream at http://www.wrmi.net Regards, (Keith Perron, Taiwan, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. Did RNZI change frequencies between 0000 and 0458 UT recently? The PTSW A09 version 2 schedule shows them broadcasting between 00:00 and 0458 on 15720.0 kHz, and 13730.0 DRM. When I tuned to 15720 between 0200 and 0315 I received what I think was a DRM signal. Tuning to 13730 I received a sports broadcast in AM. I was listening to them Sunday night 4/19/09 PDT local time (Denny Dollahon, UT April 20, ptsw yg via DXLD) RNZI often makes changes without notice on their schedule. Best to check it directly: http://www.rnzi.com/pages/listen.php Earlier on April 20, the block we are interested in was omitted, but I told them about it and it is back: 2236-0458 15720 AM 13730 DRM Pacific Daily So that is the opposite of what you heard. Yes, RNZI also does not always follow its own AM/DRM schedule due to programming mistakes or transmitter malfunxions. But they have deliberately reversed AM and DRM, it seems due to special sporting coverage, why? http://www.rnzi.com/pages/football.php 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) The reason is yesterday`s special broadcast was targeted to Vanuatu who were relaying the commentary. 15720 was the preferred frequency for delivering a strong DRM signal. RNZI will follow the same procedure on Wednesday and Friday (Adrian Sainsbury, RNZI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Nice Papua New Guinea this morning, April 20, with the following noted all peaking variously between 1115-1145 UT. Most stations carrying the Talkback show, with calls from many parts of Papua New Guinea. Most of the stations carrying the Talkback program played the National Anthem at 1158. 3219.975, NBC R Morobe - pop music, talk. Poor 3235.0, NBC R West New Britain - reggae flavored songs. Poor-fair 3259.995, NBC R Madang - // Talkback program. Fair 3274.992, NBC R Southern Highlands - woman and man talk in lang. Poor 3289.998, NBC R Central - // Talkback program. Poor-Fair 3304.99, NBC R Western - // Talkback program. Poor 3314.998, NBC R Manus - // Talkback program. Fair-Good 3325.0, NBC R Buka - // Talkback program. Fair-Good. 3334.97, NBC E East Sepik - // Talkback program. Fair-Good 3364.984, NBC Milne Bay - // Talkback program. Poor-fair. 3905.004, NBC R New Ireland - // Talkback program. Good. I assume these are currently the only PNG's active, no sign of any stations at all on the other frequencies. The Perseus recording was set too high to check for Enga on 2410 kHz. 73, (Brandon Jordan Memphis, TN USA, Perseus SDR, Wellbrook ALA100, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Were the frequencies ending in .0 axually measured to three decimal places like the others? If so, please add two more zeroes (gh, DXLD) Brandon, Enga has been off the air for many years. I don't think the transmitter exists anymore. I had an email from one of my friends claiming that 4890 was back on the air around Christmas time. I never saw any other reports on this, and am sceptical that it actually ever came back (Walt Salmaniw, BC, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Hi Walt. I believe I saw a tentative log of possible Enga, or someone else in English, on 2410 kHz in the latest DXLD. Can't hurt to check just in case. ;) (Brandon Jordan, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) That indeed would be good news, but I'm highly suspect. Wonder who the source reporter was? (Walt Salmaniw, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Chuck Bolland. Suggest you read the entire item in DXLD 9-034 under PNG for proper context (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** PERU. 4857.39, Radio La Hora, Cusco, 2350 to 0000 with locutor en español, weak signal, first log for over two weeks. 19 April. 5459.83 - 5460.40, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar with wildly drifting signal 2355 to 0000. Stabilized, OM en español, no music 19 April. 6173.89, Radio Tawantinsuyo, Cusco, 1030 to 1040 weak with co channel splash. 18 April, 16 April. 73s (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, NRD 535D ~ Drake R8, various antennas, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [and non]. POLISH RADIO TO END BROADCASTS ON 198 KHZ IN AUGUST --- Polish Radio management have decided not to renew the contract with TP EmiTel to broadcast on longwave 198 kHz from Warsaw/Raszyn. This decision has been made because of the financial difficulties of Polish Radio. The contract will expire from the beginning of August. This means Radio Parliament will disappear, as will the longwave transmissions of the Polish Radio External Service, which currently uses 198 kHz on days when it is not broadcasting sessions of parliament. (Source: Polska AM) April 21st, 2009 - 13:34 UTC by Andy Sennitt (Media Network blog via DXLD) 1 comment so far 1 John April 21st, 2009 - 13:42 UTC --- I suppose Droitwich will sound just as muffled when this Polish service ends (ibid.) But does that mean the 198 kHz transmitter will be closed down permanently or just rented out to something else? (gh, DXLD) ** POLAND [non]. PRES English hour at 1200 I don`t expect to hear from European midday to bright spring mornings in NAm, but April 20 at 1220 could make out YL speaking English on 7330, splatter from RCI and CRI mix on 7325; also 9525 VOI Malay had some CCI sounding the same. Now if PRES had a clear channel in either case, we could hear it understandably, but they care only about Europe. 7330 is 100 kW, 5 degrees from Nauen, while 9525 is 100 kW, 300 degrees from Wertachtal, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. Updated A-09 schedule of Radio Romania International: ARABIC 0630-0656 on 9685 9700 11730 11790 1400-1456 on 9605 11820 11945 15160 AROMANIAN 1430-1456 on ^7320, not Macedonian 1630-1656 on ^5980, not Macedonian 1830-1856 on ^5955, not Macedonian CHINESE 0400-0426 on 15215 17780 1300-1326 on 15435 17600 ENGLISH 0000-0056 on 6135 9580 0300-0356 on 6150 9645 9735 11895 0530-0556 on 7305 9655 15435 17770 1100-1156 on 11775 15210 15430 17730, ex 1200-1256, last 2 additional 1700-1756 on *9535 11735 2030-2056 on 9765 11810 11940 15465 2200-2256 on 7440 9675 9790 11940 FRENCH 0100-0156 on 7365 9560 0500-0526 on 7215 9655 11790 15350, last 2 additional 1000-1056 on 11830 15250 15380 17785 1600-1656 on 9680 11950 2000-2026 on 6065 9655 GERMAN 0600-0626 on 7230 9740 1200-1256 on #9675 11875, ex 1100-1156 1800-1856 on 7440 *9775 ITALIAN 1400-1426 on ^7320 1600-1626 on ^5980 1800-1826 on ^5955 ROMANIAN 0000-0056 on 7335 9525 0100-0156 on 7335 9525 0400-0456 on 7350 9510, new transmission 0700-0756 on 9700 11970 15260 17720 "Curierul romanesc" Sun 0800-0856 on 9700 11870 11970 15450 "Curierul romanesc" Sun 0900-0956 on 11830 11925 15250 15380 "Curierul romanesc" Sun 1200-1256 on ^7300 11920 15195 1300-1356 on 11920 15195 1500-1556 on 9855 11895, ex 1400-1456 1600-1656 on 7205 9690 1700-1756 on 9625 11970 1800-1856 on 9625 11970 1900-1956 on 9690 11970, new transmission RUSSIAN 0430-0456 on 7300 9555 1330-1356 on 9790 11835 1500-1556 on 7325 9690 SERBIAN 1530-1556 on ^6025 1730-1756 on ^6105 1930-1956 on ^6145 SPANISH 0200-0256 on 5975 9520 9645 11945 1900-1956 on 9580 11715 2100-2156 on 9755 11965 2300-2356 on 6100 9655 9745 11955 UKRAINIAN 1500-1526 on ^5945 1700-1726 on ^6135 1900-1926 on ^5910 ^ TIG 100 kW, all other GAL/TIG 300 kW * DRM via TIG 300 kW / 307 deg, ex AM # ex 15220 TIG 300 kW / 307 deg, Apr. 6 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 20 via DXLD) see also two DRM outlets via Norway: [7455-7465] ENGLISH [also 1700-1730 UTC +DRM 7460 Kvitsoe Norway] <<<<<<<<<<<<<< GERMAN [also 1600-1700 UTC +DRM 7460 Kvitsoe Norway] <<<<<<<<<<<<<< (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 7325, Adygeyskoye Radio, Radio Majkop, Krasnodar, 1713- 1726, escuchada el 20 de abril en adigués a locutoras con comentarios, posible boletín de noticias, locutor con comentarios; se aprecia muy interferida por la Voz de Rusia en alemán por 7330 vía Kaliningrad- Bolshakovo, SINPO 33443 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Heard Voice of Russia in Serbian at 1600 4/19 on both 25 mb channels, 11840 and 12060, good reception here. English on 12040 is audible from 15 all the way to 21 so listeners in NAm as well as Europe have a channel to depend on for news and features about Russia during this time period (Joe Hanlon, NJ, April 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Re 9-034: Glenn, Concerning the Russian TV report on the history of Soviet/Russian broadcasting, I think it is incorrect to say that the external service first identified as 'Radio Moscow'. I seem to remember hearing a 1930s recording of the English service identifying as 'Radio Centre, Moscow'. I think this was the original ID, at least in English, rather than 'Radio Moscow'. Perhaps somebody could confirm this. It's interesting to note that VOR is to extend its service to Latin America. There is growing contention there these days between three great powers, the US, Russia and China, and of course Venezuela is awash with oil (Roger Tidy, UK, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Within my own memory span, I believe the Spanish service once IDed as ``Radio Central de Moscú``, and/or am I thinking of Portuguese? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** RUSSIA [non]. RADIO LIBERTY'S FORMER HOST DIES UNDER SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES Tengiz Gudava, 55, appears to have fallen a victim to a hit-and-run car accident in Prague. This former Soviet dissident was known for his talented journalistic work at RL Russian service from 1987 to 2004. After his less than amicable departure from the station he became one of its most vehement critics accusing RL of close cooperation with Russian and Belarusian authorities. On April 21 RL Russian Service gave a very brief announcement of his "tragic death." Russkaya Germania (Russian Germany) magazine provides more information. RG quotes his wife Olga saying that last Wed. night Tengiz run out of cigarettes. It was already after 11 pm when he decided to take a walk to a nearest gas station to buy them. Meanwhile, Olga fell asleep. Around 6 am she woke up and discovered that her husband was missing. She immediately contacted friends and authorities. The police initially refused to accept her written report. Tengiz's body was discovered at a morgue on Friday. It appears that he was hit by a car. Surprisingly, he was picked up by the ambulance far away from his house. It is speculated that the unknown perpetrators moved their unconscious victim to a less populous location. Tengiz was still alive when the ambulance picked him up. But he died before reaching the hospital. His wallet was missing. His wife believes that his death is an accident, not a premeditated murder. A biophysicist by training, Tengiz served five years in the Soviet camps for his alleged anti-Soviet activities before his expulsion in 1987. He then lived in Boston, DC, NYC, Munich and Prague. In the end of his career at Radio Liberty he specialized in covering the Caucuses and Central Asia. After his departure from RL Tengiz stayed in Prague working as a freelance journalist. He also wrote several novels. Tengiz is survived by his wife and two sons. His ashes will be taken to his native Georgia and buried next to his father's grave. Back in 2001 I had a chance to briefly correspond with Tengiz on the subject of media situation in the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. I will remember him as a bright man full of passion and idealism. A few related Russian links: http://www.rg-rb.de/2009/16/2b.shtml http://gzt.ru/incident/2009/04/20/202413.html http://www.netslova.ru/gudava/ (Sergei S., Moscow, April 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAIPAN. FEBC Saipan also on 11580 0800-0900 UT Beginning tonight 4/21/09, FEBC Saipan will add a DRM test transmission at 0800-0900 on 11580 with a beam heading of 294 degrees towards China. There is a minor lobe towards Japan from the antenna, and much of East Asia may have a signal. This is expected to continue through the end of April. Reports from anyplace would be welcome. John Stanley, visiting engineer, FEBC, Saipan. http://www.drmrx.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2113 (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SIERRA LEONE [non]. Cotton Tree News, via VTC 15220 daily at 0730- 0800 has changed site from Rampisham, 250 kW at 189 degrees to: Skelton, 300 kW at 195 degrees (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SLOVAKIA. Summer A-09 of Radio Slovakia International: [languages are in Slovak? alfabetical order even tho this is English:] ENGLISH 0100-0127 on 5930 9440 0700-0727 on 9440 11650 1630-1657 on 5920 6055 1830-1857 on 5920 6055 GERMAN 0800-0827 on 5920 6055 1330-1357 on 5920 6055 1600-1627 on 5920 6055 1800-1827 on 5920 6055 FRENCH 0200-0227 on 5930 9440 1700-1727 on 5920 6055 1930-1957 on 5920 6055 RUSSIAN 1300-1327 on 7345 9440 1500-1527 on 7345 9535 1730-1757 on 5920 7345 SLOVAK 0130-0157 on 5930 9440 0730-0757 on 9440 11650 1530-1557 on 5920 6055 1900-1927 on 5920 6055 SPANISH 0230-0257 on 5930 9440 1430-1457 on 9440 11600 2000-2027 on 9695 11650 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 20 via DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. Dear Mrs. Kathy Otto, the summer A09 season registration list shows an entry of BBC London worldservice in English language via SNT Sentech site Meyerton AFS on 12015 kHz at 0600-0700 UT. But for the second day in row I receive that outlet on 12105 instead. Is that a man made punching error, or is that a real update move from 12015 to 12105 kHz? Kind regards (Wolfgang Bueschel, Stuttgart Germany, April 20, to SENTECH via DXLD) ** SPAIN [non]. REE, via Costa Rica, 9630, VG signal and the modulation seemed less muffled than before, so I did not feel compelled to switch to Noblejas 6055, April 19 at 0540 discussing the future of the Spanish language, lack of standardization from country to country, 0545 especially on the danger of Spanglish in the USA; program is Futuro Abierto, scheduled UT Sundays 0500-0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. SAO TOMÉ, 4960, Affia Darfur, Pinheira, 1804-1806, escuchada el 20 de abril en árabe locutor con noticias, reportaje por corresponsal, referencias Darfur y Sudan, SINPO 24332. SRI LANKA, 11635, Affia Darfur, Irana Wila, 1800-1804, escuchada el 20 de abril en árabe, comienza emisión con sintonía, locutor con ID “Affia Darfur”, locutor y locutora con presentación, anuncia frecuencias, locutores con titulares acompañados de música, referencias a Darfur, noticias, en paralelo por 4960 vía Sao Tomé, SINPO 33443 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. 12085, Radio Damascus, 2134-2200, April 19, English programming. Local music. News brief at 2158. Poor with low modulation & hum. Very low modulation on // 9330 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. RTI, 9735, Japanese service at 1353 April 20 putting out unstable matching spurs slightly above 9740 and slightly below 9730, making almost the same pitch noise but not a pure tone het, against adjacent victims, in this case CRI Beijing English on 9730 and BBCWS Singapore English on 9740. I noted a similar case months ago. BTW, you won`t find any RTI listings in HFCC, no doubt a ChiCom requirement as long as they participate with their non-jamming transmissions only; consult Aoki instead. Checked RTI 9735 again April 21, at 1322 in Japanese, and this time without the spurs on 9730 and 9740 that were there the day before. But they`ll be back, no doubt (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. As transmissões em espanhol da Rádio Taiwan Internacional vão ao ar no seguinte esquema: entre 0200 e 0300, em 7570 e 9840 kHz; das 0400 às 0500, em 7570 kHz; das 0600 às 0700, em 5950 kHz; das 2000 às 2100, em 3965 kHz; das 2300 às 2400, em 17725 kHz. Todos os horários são no Tempo Universal. A emissora utiliza relay em outras localidades, como nos Estados Unidos e Reino Unido. A emissora também está a procura de locutor que resida em Taipei para trabalhar na programação em espanhol (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX April 19 via DXLD) This confirms the WYFR QSY to 7570 contains RTI (gh, DXLD) ** TAJIKISTAN. After problems with its transmitter, Radio “Ovozi Tojik” or Voice of Tajik was received in Sofia again on March 20 between 11 and 13 hours on 7245 kHz with programs in the Uzbek & Farsi languages. The station has registered emissions also in English from 09 to 10 hours and from 17 to 18 hours also on 7245 kHz and the QSL address is: Ovozi Tojik, English Service, Chapaev Street 31, 734025 Dushanbe, Tajikistan (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program April 10 via DXLD) ** TURKEY. VOT plans to resume at least one broadcast via the Çakirlar site from April 26: 1530-1630 on 7290 in Azeri. It`s already on 9530 via Emirler (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY [and non]. Just as I tuned across RCI, 15235, April 20 at 2027, on The Link, Marc Montgomery was saying something about Canada officially recognizing that there had been an Armenian genocide by Turx. O o, that bodes ill for the RCI/VOT relay exchanges, and won`t go over at all well, via Emirler, 9620 at 0100+ UT. Here`s the item on the RCI website: ``ARMENIAN-CANADIANS MARK ANNIVERSARY: It's been five years since Canada recognized the Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915 but as the Canadian Armenian community marks that anniversary, we hear how and why many are still working to get official recognition of the genocide in other countries.`` O, five years ago? Never mind (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. AMERICANA: LETTER FROM AMERICA MINUS "THE COOKE ALCHEMY" "Radio 4 has found a successor for the late Alistair Cooke's Letter From America, with the BBC's former Washington correspondent Matt Frei taking the presenter's chair. After months of deliberation, the BBC has unveiled details of a new weekly programme offering quirky insights into life on the other side of the Atlantic. However, thoughts of replicating Cooke's 15-minute monologues were swiftly abandoned amid the realisation that no other person could fill the shoes of the much-loved broadcaster, whose voice filled the airwaves for 58 years until his death in 2004 at the age of 95. Instead, the show, with the new title of Americana, will be anchored by Frei from the BBC's Washington bureau and will offer a mix of discussion, interviews and features, with a focus on the voices of ordinary Americans." The Telegraph, 18 April 2009. "Radio 4 boss Mark Damazer said Americana had come about as a result of Cooke's death in 2004. But he stressed that the new show, which will air on Sunday evenings, would not replace Letter From America. Damazer said: 'The Cooke alchemy could not be replicated. I did not think we should even try to find somebody to fill the large shoes.'" BBC News, 18 April 2009. "The BBC's bureau in the USA (headed by Justin Webb) is stuffed full of talent - but the correspondents all do - of necessity - the main US story of the day - even if it is for many different audiences. Every now and then Justin (or perhaps Kevin Connolly) pops up on From Our Own Correspondent and delivers a beltingly good lateral view of life and culture in America - but those pieces are neither regular nor billed. So I have for a while been thinking about a new programme that would ruminate about America in a way that you would not hear elsewhere on Radio 4." Mark Damazer, Radio 4 Blog, 18 April 2009. Update: David Murphy in Dresden reminds us: "It seems BBC WS has already made up its mind and has created its own programme, not Americana, which is called "Letter from...". So far I think only three programmes have been made. The format seems to be very similar 'Letter from America', with the difference that the speaker changes (so far the speakers have been Mark Tully and Clive James) and that the they have only 8 or 9 minutes to talk. But unlike Americana, the episode I heard featured just Clive James talking, no interviewees, music or other effects." See (and listen to) recent episodes. (for linx see http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=6346 via DXLD) "A mix of discussion, interviews, and features" sounds like the same format of dozens of set-piece BBC radio programs. Is the radio talk really a lost art? Will Americana be broadcast by BBC World Service as well as BBC Radio 4, as was Letter from America? Even though Letter from America was sometimes excluded from World Service at the hours it broadcast to North America, on the dubious logic that Americans don't want to hear about America, the program was nevertheless popular among US shortwave listeners (Kim Andrew Elliott, Posted: 20 Apr 2009, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U K. THE UNTOLD STORY --- AMBITIOUS PLANS TO PLACE THE VAST BBC ARCHIVE ONLINE WILL REVEAL A HOST OF HIDDEN TREASURES DATING BACK TO 1922. ---- Jemima Kiss, The Guardian, Monday 20 April 2009 'My real name is John Ravenscroft, although I have used the name 'John Peel' while working for Radio London," begins a letter to the BBC gramophone department in July 1967. "Basically, this programme is a forum for the better sounds in popular music with the emphasis on the music rather than on myself. By 'better music' I mean the West Coast groups and British bands that are trying to do something new and imaginative. This format, which includes poetry readings and just about anything worthwhile that comes along, has been quite successful ... " Three months later, Peel was in the line-up for the BBC's new Radio 1 network. His file at the BBC's Written Archive Centre at Caversham, Berkshire, overflows with fascinating handwritten notes - one from the post-punk band Yeah Yeah Noh in 1986 begs "Uncle John" to please wear their T-shirt on Top of the Pops; another by the producer Dale Griffin describes UB40's 1982 session as great, despite "flatulence and pestilence" threatening to wreck the recording. . . http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/20/bbc-archives See also: Guardian Photo Gallery of BBC Artifacts: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/gallery/2009/apr/20/bbc-archives-caversham (via Tom Roche, DXLD) ** U S A. ATOMIC SYNCHRONICITY IN FORT COLLINS On a wind-swept field northeast of Fort Collins, a compound of computers, radios and 400-foot antennas [sic] — manned by a handful of dedicated engineers — transmits the precise time to everything from the stock market to traffic signals. --- By Rebecca Boyle . . . http://ltedit.sw.atl.publicus.com/article/20090409/NEWS/904099982&NoCache=1 (Fort Collins Now via Artie Bigley, OH, DXLD) ** U S A. Glenn: The Earth Day special is 0100-0300 UT April 23 (Jeff White, WRMI, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. 11930, Tue April 21 at 1328 talk in S Asian language I could not quite place, mixed with music past 1330. No jamming yet from Cuba; R. Martí starts at 1400 with carrier on several minutes earlier. Is PWBR `2009` any help? Of course not! In fact I seldom bother to check it any more since A-09 began; once in a while it would come up with an answer in B-08, but even so one always had to compare it to up-to-date online resources for confirmation. Aoki shows this is TWR via Novosibirsk, RUSSIA, due south in a variety S Asian languages, many of them obscure, such as this one, Dogri, M-F at 1315-1330, while on Sat & Sun it`s Hindi at 1315-1400. No broadcasts are accounted for after 1330 on Tuesdays, nor in EiBi. Here`s a bit about the Dogri language, not that they are itching to become Protestants, but there is allegedly a translation of the New Testament: http://languages.iloveindia.com/dogri.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. TIMELINE OF MORMON MEDIA INCLUDES INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING "Dr. Sherry Baker, an associate professor in BYU's Department of Communication, has lead the effort to construct the 'Mormon Media History Timeline, 1827-2007' (link opens up a 113-page pdf document). She writes in the most recent issue of BYU Studies: 'It begins with the events leading up to the printing of the Book of Mormon on a mechanical handpress and ends with the launch of BYU Television International by satellite in 2007. ... "Only time will tell if the availability and use of international broadcasting and new media technologies will have for the church a transformative (ecological) effect, as did the printing press in Europe in the 1500s and the telegraph in the Mormon territory in the 1860s." Joel Campbell, Mormon Times, 18 April 2009. (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) The timeline includes the 1962 purchase of private shortwave station WRUL (later WNYW), adding that the station was "unreceivable in the USA." Actually, I and many other shortwave listeners in the United States tuned in WNYW during the 1960s. It was largely Top 40 music, with personalities, network news on the hour, and very few commercials. As the timeline mentions, "about 5% of the programming was Church material." The timeline does not mention the sale, in the early 1970s, of WNYW to Family Radio, a Protestant evangelical broadcaster. Call letters changed to WYFR. Posted: 20 Apr 2009 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) Incredible how serious academix (?) can be so ignorant of the basic nature of shortwave. Then there was BYU radio, a little-noticed program that was on DRM SW, Ascension? for a few months a few years ago (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. A serious but still "Tongue-In-Cheek" look at Shamrock, Texas: http://www.radio-talk.net/forum/index.php?topic=328.0 (via Artie Bigley, OH, DXLD) This is the blog of the Monster FM guy who lost his radio station and maintains that this town is totally corrupt, as covered periodically here (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. Re: [Tvfmdx] Spanish Pirate in Hazleton, PA (on 92.5) and Possibly in Brooklyn or NYC Area The websites for the audio stream and a list of some of the stations which carry the programming are given on the "Emisoras" page. The first three "stations" that are listed appear to be unlicensed broadcasters: 94.5 New York (City); 107.9 Perth Amboy, NJ; 90.5 Paterson, NJ. None of these stations are in the FCC Query data base as translators and they are not full power stations either. There is one listed in the Orlando, FL and two in the San Francisco area, with one on digital 94.3. If anyone has heard any of these stations, let me know. Within the past week there have been reports of a Spanish language pirate on 92.5 in the Wilkes-Barre, PA area. On Saturday afternoon I was in Wilkes-Barre and there was a stereo signal on 92.5 but there wasn't any programming being fed into the transmitter. They had dead air only. We were able to track down the transmitter antenna for the 92.5 pirate in Hazleton. I have pictures of the vertical dipole that they are using. If anyone would like to see the pictures, I can forward them to you directly. The link to the audio source is: http://www.jimenezpublicidad.com/ The list of some of the stations that carry their programming is: http://www.elchicomezcla.com/Emisoras.htm (Bob Seaman, Hazleton, PA seamanrobert7 @ gmail.com April 21, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. FCC MAKES LOCALISM PROPOSALS http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-30A1.pdf The FCC makes 13 proposals. Those of most interest to FM types: - When proposing a new FM allotment, the FCC gives priority to proposals that would be the first station licensed to a given community. If more than one applicant proposes first local service, the community with the greatest population wins. Since there are an awful lot of communities in this country, it's rare for someone to *not* propose first local service... The winning more populous communities are often suburbs of much larger cities. The FCC proposes to consider allotments that would cover a metropolitan area to be *serving* the metropolitan area -- even if they actually propose to be licensed to a much smaller suburb. Since the metropolitan area almost certainly already has stations licensed there, this proposal would favor rural communities outside a metropolitan area. - Native American tribes would receive a preference in competition for allotments or non-commercial stations. The proposed station would have to be licensed to a community on tribal lands, and at least half its coverage would have to be on tribal land. - Newly-licensed commercial-band FM translators would be prohibited from moving to the non-commercial band until they've been on the air for at least two years. (and vice-versa: no flash moves of non-commercial translators into the commercial band.) -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, April 21, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. KNAZ 2 FLAGSTAFF ENDS ANALOG TV BROADCASTS KNAZ bows out of analog --- 2009-04-18 10:39:00 http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/14100.html Actually, it’s more like it was blown out of analog. KNAZ-TV is the Flagstaff satellite of Gannet’s [sic] NBC KPNX-TV Phoenix. The station has been operating at reduced power since ice storms damaged its antenna. Although on the 3/17/09 declaration date Gannet said it would maintain analog operations through the deadline day of 6/12/09, its requesting permission to end immediately since the antenna failed completely. That event took place 4/16/09. It’s still going strong in digital but the analog is totaled. The station has been keeping the FCC informed of the tenuous situation with the antenna, but noted that when it agreed to continue analog service all the way to 6/12/09 there was no “option provided in that form for any qualification or explanation about the possibility of an antenna failure prior to June 12, 2009.” Meanwhile, business conditions forced it to drop its local news program and become a fulltime satellite of its Phoenix big sister. It cut off the local program 8/15/08. “As a free over-the-air television station, we depend on advertising support from the local community in order to pay the bills,” explained GM John Misner at the time. Unfortunately, we have not been able to generate that level of support during the decade that we have owned this television station,” he explained (via Kevin Redding, April 20, ABDX via DXLD) ** UZBEKISTAN. Relay airs VOR instead of RNW: see NETHERLANDS [non] ** VENEZUELA [non]. No chance yet to check new 12010 ex-11875 for the Aló, Presidente service via Cuba, as Sunday April 19 none of the frequencies were active at 1436 check, and regular RHC was still running on 13680. Hugo was off to Trinidad and/or a counter-summit in Cumaná (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6060, RNV via Cuba, 1137-, 322, escuché varias identificaciones: "El Canal internacional de Venezuela... El Circuito RNV presenta "LA PALABRA DE HOY", "estás escuchando la Voz de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela"; a las 1143 UT con programa "Contacto con los Diexistas", locutora en inglés, con report de Juan Franco Crespo, otro oyente de Japón; se acabo a las 1146 UT, solo 3 minutos!!! (20 abril 09) (Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Crespo and Japanese listener means this DX segment is EXACTLY the same recording they have been running for months and months if not years and years, like the totally outdated transmission schedule. And they think regular listeners won`t notice? What regular listeners? Or maybe they never get reports any more (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. 5915, R. Zambia NBC, Lusaka. April 20, vernacular, 2042- 2057, YL talks, tribal music, 2046 returning YL followed by tribal choral with strings, percussion and flute music, 2050 Afropop music, 2053 short tribal, YL talks returning the tribal of before. 33433. 73's (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 3440 LSB, NO ID, 2036-2042, escuchada el 20 de abril con emisión de música árabe o parecida, se aprecia emisión muy precaria, mal modulada con cortes, en un principio pensé que pudiera tratarse de algún armónico, pero la emisión no parece comercial, a las 2039 sufre un corte de varios segundos, SINPO 34442. Pueden escuchar un audio de esta emisora, probablemente se trate de algúna emisión pirata, ¿Griega? Audio: http://jmromero782004.podomatic.com/entry/eg/2009-04-20T13_56_05-07_00 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) José, there are lots of Greek and other guys on this frequency area chatting on LSB. Often playing also music. Same thing in the 6600/6700 area. Your recording; seems the receiver was not on exact frequency, but sounds to me like Greek song. 73 (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 4868.96v (Indonesia ??) (shifted to 4868.95), 4/11, 1854-1916. M local chant with instrumental music (similar to Indian chants); W brief unclear talk at times; better heard in LSB with lite QSB, statics & rustle; QRM codar; poor / very poor (Giovanni Serra, Italy, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 4870.07v (presumed a clandestine), 4/19, 0201-0209. Frequency shifted to 4870.06 - 4870.05 - 4870.04 kHz; M / sing-song chant; "The Ride of Valkyries" brief orchestra music; W / enhanced [?] announcement in unID language & continuing briefly "The Ride of Valkyries"; M with Arabic vocals chant; better heard in USB to avoid some utes; fast QSB with S 9+ of peak & rustle; QRM codar; fair till 0208:56 when a QRM strong jamming killed this radio! (Giovanni Serra, Italy, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 15396.7-USB, approximately, 2-way Spanish intruder April 21 at 1336-1339+. Pretty lively continuous conversation this time, but couldn`t really copy details, presumably poachers or narcotraffickers (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ STYLE POINTS Above all, I try to make DXLD readable, i.e. with a minimum of unnecessary abbrs. and clutter. Fixing up reports to make them so takes up a great deal of my time. Perhaps I am foolish to care about this. Please help out by minimizing such labor on my part. Just a few things here to mention: UTC --- some people feel they have to put the letters UTC after every single time they mention, often even without a space between the numbers and the letters. This is totally unnecessary. By all means say somewhere that your times are UT (no C is necessary unless you are splitting milliseconds), and then spare us all the repetition. Likewise, some feel they have to put kHz after every single frequency mentioned, again often without even a space between the numbers and the letters. This is totally unnecessary and redundant. And better kHz than MHz, just to be consistent and to facilitate later searching. Also, if you ever read anything professionally printed, you will find that there is ALWAYS a space after a period or a comma! Please emulate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) TINY TRAP +++++++++ On CBS Sunday Morning, April 19, Jeff Greenfield refers to Cuba as a ``tiny nation``. Earlier on same show an Almanac about Grace Kelly referred to Monaco as ``tiny``. The area of Cuba is roughly 53,117 times that of Monaco, per info in the 1987 Almanaque Mundial. Now, are you sure that makes both of them qualify as tiny? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``Latvia is tiny, just a little bigger than West Virginia``, says correspondent Daljit Dhaliwal from Riga on World Focus, April 20 at 2111 UT via OETA OKLA. Suggest she hike across Latvia, or better yet WV, and then tell us if she still think they are tiny (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO PHILATELY +++++++++++++++ RE 9-034, RUSSIA`S POPOV STAMP: http://myfdc.blogspot.com/2009/04/russia-apopov-fdc.html http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8AMmfBQS1QA/SeXWP-ZGgSI/AAAAAAAAGZg/GLL2-hyOs5k/s1600-h/RU090316.jpg (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, radiostamps yg via DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Re: 9-034, Local QRM --- Thanks Alan & Dave, After watching the video, I think you`re right. The noise that played while the Speedplug and the Zyxel devices were on the screen is very similar to what I'm hearing. I'll start patrolling the neighborhood to see if I can find the source. Assuming I do find it, do you know if there is a way to block the noise at the source? Low pass capacitors in the power line or something like that. Again, thanks for the tips (Jerry Lenamon, Waco TX, April 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Jerry, No, I don't think that anyone here has come up with a way to block the noise at source - the only solution is to get the devices removed (Alan Roe, UK, ibid.) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ THE RUSSIAN WOODPECKER -- HAM RADIO VS. THE BEAR (Russian Woodpecker, Steel Yard, OTH-B) The Russian Woodpecker Not an avian at all, the Russian Woodpecker was the vast, faceless and distant enemy of most of the users of shortwave radio in the Western World for eight or nine years, beginning in 1976. Folks were going about their electronic business in North America one day (July 4, 1976. Bathe in the snark), talking to airplanes, ships, each other - and all of a sudden, an enormous stuttering noise slammed down onto an entire range of frequencies. The signal was monstrously powerful, and was heard on wide bands (up to 40 KHz across) on several frequencies in the shortwave bands. It manifested as a harsh, rapid clicking or tapping. Andy Clark, call sign W4IYT, was at the time working for a commercial aeronautics radio company. It maintained communications links between commercial aircraft and their owners, allowing airlines and the like to speak directly to their airplanes while aloft. In a 1999 interview with the Miami Herald, he claims that he named the phenomenon 'woodpecker' for the sound. While talking to his home office, he asked if they, too were getting an awful loud 'woodpecker' noise on their airwaves. They confirmed it. What was it determined to be at the time? The 'woodpecker' was fairly quickly tracked back, using RDF, to two sites inside the Soviet Union. Analysis of the pulses, as well as the behavior of the signal (times of day, attenuation, etc.) indicate that the 'woodpecker' was the signal of an extremely large OTH-B radar system. This system was, presumably, being used by the Soviets as a long-distance air-search radar to warn them of inbound bomber and cruise missile attack travelling over the North Pole. It was tracked to two sites because, like many extremely powerful radar systems, processing the radar return data was much easier if the transmission and reception points were widely separated, rather than having to filter the full strength of the emissions from an adjacent transmitter. The sites were near Minsk and Nicolaev, and were likely operated by PVO Strany as early warning systems. Why was it a problem? It was a problem for Western operators because the Soviets had chosen to use a set of frequencies which had been set aside for civilian use by international agreement. They didn't care, of course. Hams and companies pushed the U.S. Government (and the British Government, and the Canadian government) into formally protesting to the U.S.S.R. about the woodpecker's presence. However, the Soviet Union would never even officially acknowledge the presence of the woodpecker, much less that it was their doing - in much the same way the U.S. government refuses to acknowledge the existence of Area 51. Since they wouldn't own up, protests were pointless. 'The Russian Woodpecker,' as it came to be known, would appear when the atmospheric conditions over the northern hemisphere were conducive to shortwave relaying - shortwaves travel around the world (rather than straight into space) by bouncing off the ionosphere and then the ground, 'rebounding' their way around the planet. These did the same thing. Not only did it invade voice transmissions, but harmonics caused pulsing static on television signals, made more problematic by the lack of modern filtering electronics on most television sets at the time. For a while, electronics companies in the West even began selling 'Woodpecker Killers' - damping and filtering devices that would, when connected inline with commercial radio and television antennas, damp out the characteristic steady pulsing of the woodpecker's signal. These worked with varying degrees of success, as the woodpecker was wily, and jumped around a bit as the Soviets adjusted the system for best resolution. Eventually, the Soviets did modify the operating parameters of the radar to avoid the most commonly used aircraft emergency frequencies, which didn't calm down the ham community. What Did the Signal Look Like? Lots of folks in the civilian ham radio community hauled out oscilloscopes and wideband receivers and had a good gander at the woodpecker. Some did so out of curiosity, some did so while finding ways to damp it out. A few, however, did so with an eye to defeating it (more on that in a moment). So doing, they left us with fairly good data on what the signal looked like. The majority of the following data is from an article reprinted on the web from the ham radio magazine "Monitoring Times", and was originally published in 1985. At the grossest level, the signal varied in its pulse rate - not the frequency it travelled on, but the rate of the signal pulses heard. Although it was observed at 10, 16 and 20 Hz, it operated nearly all of the time in a 10 Hz mode. The pulses were centered around four different frequencies at any given time; typically, it wandered around the low MHz range. The example given in the article has it observed using 16490, 16450, 16490 and 16570 KHz. There were two observed main 'operating modes', named 'static' and 'dynamic' by western observers. In static mode, the woodpecker would transmit four pulses, one on each of the four operating frequencies, in four adjacent 7 ms windows. The pulses themselves were of unknown shape and length, as they were hashed by the bounces and the like, but their observed length varied between 3 and 6 ms. Then there would be a 72 ms silent period, and the cycle would begin again. This produced the 10 Hz pulse - 7ms + 7ms + 7ms + 7ms + 72ms = 100ms, or one-tenth of a second. So it was actually producing four separate 10 Hz pulses, offset by approximately 7 ms in time and a few tens of KHz. In 'dynamic mode', the woodpecker would step through four different frequency-to-window assignment patterns over a six-second cycle. That is, if we label the operating frequencies of the moment A, B, C and D then the cycle might look like this: seconds 1-6: (window 1) A (window 2) B (window 3) C (window 4) D seconds 7-12: (window 1) B (window 2) C (window 3) D (window 4) A seconds 13-18: (window 1) C (window 2) D (window 3) A (window 4) B seconds 19-24: (window 1) D (window 2) A (window 3) B (window 4) C Some dedicated listeners eventually became able to determine what operating mode the Woodpecker was in just by The Mark One Earhole, but even so the modes and frequencies would change at random, occasionally to previously-unseen ones. This tended to drive operators crazy, since it was just not possible to 'stake out' a quiet frequency for use when the Woodpecker was out and about. Vigilante EW We don't know what, if anything, the U.S. military did about it, although it's likely the woodpecker didn't have much of an impact on the spectrum theyused. Western hams, however, did what most disgruntled North Americans would do if a woodpecker started in on their patch - they shouldered shotguns (virtual ones, in this case) and started laying in wait. Since the operating principle of a radar is to listen for reflected radio energy from its targets, these hams reasoned that they could probably interfere with the proper operation of the Woodpecker if they used their own sets to send back carefully timed pulses of their own which would interfere with any actual reflected radio energy. This they did; for a time, the airwaves and newsletters were rife with people trading ideas, analysis and techniques for 'jamming the woodpecker.' Did it work? To some degree, we can say it did: The woodpecker would react when intefered with, usually by switching modes or frequencies. This was a truly inspiring find, because it meant that dedicated, frustrated lone radio hams, hunched over their sets at the height of the Cold War, could do what the U.S. Government seemed unwilling to do - stick it to the USSR on their own turf. Spoofing the Woodpecker was a delicious means of personal catharsis, since a single ham with a moderately powerful radio could cause major annoyance to an entire enormous Soviet early warning organization. Better yet, groups of hams could, with coordination, drive the woodpecker off the air entirely! It was found that if enough hams staked out frequencies in its known range, and instantly began to spoof it when pulses appeared on their frequencies, the woodpecker would (after a time) shut down entirely, briefly. No one was sure why - hypotheses ranged from Soviet operators doing manual-instructed systems tests, to their efforts being interpreted as massive weather interference, or even just plain frustration. Whatever the reason, 'Russian Woodpecker Hunting Clubs' sprang up in the ham community as groups organized to 'peck back.' The irony of it all was too good to miss, anyhow. Shortwave hams were used to being targeted as the sources of whatever strange interference their neighbor's TV ran into, no matter that they were nowhere near that frequency. In this case, they were actively out to interfere, and not just with a TV but with the Soviet military -and, of course, the Soviets couldn't do anything about it since they refused to admit the signal was theirs in the first place! Eventually, of course, the Woodpecker was shut down, for whatever reason. Although occasional bursts of interference still fly out of the former Soviet Union, their adoption of standards and Western electronics means that the ability of the Russian military to blithely invade the spectrum is somewhat hampered. So what was it really? Turns out that the signals were produced by two massive radar installations which NATO ended up codenaming STEEL WORKS and STEEL YARD, apparently due to their massive, open-framework construction. They were known to the Soviets as S-225 ABM-2 systems. They were built to serve as missile launch warning radars. Apparently, when the exhaust plume of a boosting ICBM hits the ionosphere, it causes a localized depletion of ions, which changes the reflectivity of the layer. Hence, the 'backscatter' - i.e. those signals which were reflected back towards the USSR by ground features and objects - would change signal characteristics enough to gather data on said missile plumes. Global Security says that sources put the power of the radar's transmitters at between 20 and 40 megawatts, which would explain why it caused so many people so much annoyance. The Minsk facility, which may have already been shut down, was abandoned after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. As with any potentially fun and interesting enigma, there were (and are) no end of conspiracy theory games that surround it. At times, the Russian Woodpecker has been deemed by the tinfoil-hat set to be a Russian weather-control system, a Mind Control device, a surveillance (as in, listening to your living room) device, beacons for aliens, and of course (since they're electromagnetic and powerful) brainchildren of the late, great Nikola Tesla. That latter might make them death rays, Tesla Globe generators, versions of Wardenclyffe, who knows. Some of the nonsense is fun to read, but most of it's junk. A great deal of these so-called 'experts' seem to confuse pulse the pulse frequency with the actual signal frequency, leading to statements like this: "The Russian signals are primarily pulsed at the very dangerous 10 Hertz Extreme Low Frequency (ELF)." (from a tripod.com member's site on Tesla) Sigh. Google mind control and Russian woodpecker together, see what you get. Sources: "Radio hams do battle with 'Russian Woodpecker.'" Miami Herald, 1982. Reprinted on the web at http://www.qsl.net/n1irz/woodpeck.html "The Russian Woodpecker." David Wilson, Monitoring Times newsletter, 1985. Reprinted on the web at http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/brogers/Wpecker5.htm Personal experience in 1980-82, during ham instruction by Mark (KA2MRE) and as a licensed ham (KA1KTP) Documents and texts of the ABM treaty at FAS: http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/abmt/docs/abm1.htm Global Security online, at http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/steel-yard.htm (Author: The Custodian at: http://knol.google.com/k/the-custodian/the-russian-woodpecker/2fun52mu4pu/7?domain=knol.google.com&locale=es# in Google's Knol, via Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING - DTV see USA: KNAZ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mobile DTV System http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090420/ap_on_hi_te/tec_mobile_tv Washington, D.C. will be the first to get mobile DTV in the United States. Should this be broadcast on the same transmitters as regular DTV, it should be easier to DX than the unstable ATSC standard. (Curtis Sadowski, IL, April 21, WTFDA via DXLD) Hmm, Free vs. Pay?! Sounds like a no-brainer but what will the Verizon's, the T-Mobile's and the AT&T's of the world have to say on this matter? IIRC, Philly tried to install a free Wi-Fi network across the city but Verizon went to the State legislature and got some law put on the books making it much harder for free / local government based services to exist. Airports across the country tried to do the same and Wi-Fi providers had a fit. It sounds interesting but I wonder if it will fly. 73, (Dave Hascall, ibid.) I don't think the Verizons, T-Mobiles, and AT&Ts have much control over this. It's the Motorolas, LGs, and Kyoceras that matter. If they put mobile DTV chips in their phone hardware, the mobile carriers really won't have any say in the matter. (except for having control over which phones they offer cheap with a new account, so maybe they *do* have control!) (I wonder what their revenue cut is on the mobile video services? - how much, if any, do they keep, and how much do they pass on to Qualcomm for operating the transmitters?) I'd love to see this work (and wonder if it might serve as an alternate source of *fixed* TV for viewers in places where ATSC reception is problematic) but I'm not going to hold my breath. Essentially this *is* ATSC. It looks like they're encapsulating the audio/video information in Internet Protocol (IP) packets and then transmitting that over a modified ATSC transmitter. The thing has to be backwards-compatible with existing ATSC receivers. Basically I think they're surrendering some resolution and using that bandwidth to transmit a more redundant signal. My employer is involved with a competing standard (ATSC M/H) which really is similar in concept. The resolution standard I'm seeing quoted most often is "half-VGA" - 320x240 in the computer world, 240i (or is it 240p?, I forget) in the DTV world. It looks as if WRAL (Raleigh NC) has beat the Washington folks to air: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wral.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fstory%2F4948031%2F&ei=xdvtSfisLKbAMpe_pAQ&usg=AFQjCNEchEPoQvTtKIq1Ajox6E0OcxZbnw Ironically, if you Google on "wral mobile tv" you get both this hit and a copy of the same Yahoo story Curtis quoted (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) The military, and I assume FEMA, weren't too thrilled with the potential robustness of the standard ATSC signals in the case of a hurricane event. They may be the ones to help push for this to be free as part of national safety and security, as the signals will be theoretically easier to grab on a portable TV with a whip. Wrh List of stations that will launch MDTV in 2009... http://www.omvc.org/_assets/docs/presentations/MobileDTVLaunchStations.ppt (Bill Hepburn, Ont., ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING – IBOC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ IBOC TURNOFFS From Today's "Taylor on Radio-Info" Report... Let's hope we'll really start to see this happen! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Have some FMs temporarily shut off their HD signals - to save on the electric bill? Yesterday's T-R-I lead story predicted that this 2009 NAB convention will have "truths revealed" about issues like HD Digital Radio - and sure enough, I got this email from a regional exec at a big group who knows of "several companies shutting down their HD signals in some markets to cut electrical cost. In our company [one of the top five or six groups] we would rather turn that off temporarily than cut more people loose. By the way - there have been no complaints or calls in the markets that have done it. And in one market I know of, we'll save about $3,000 to $5,000 annually. Right now, every penny counts. We are trying to save peoples' jobs." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (via Jeff Lehmann, Hanson, MA, April 21, WTFDA via DXLD) Seems like a smart decision; why continue paying for something no one is listening to, and is not generating any revenue? After 2 or 3 years of relentless advertising, if anyone was interested in HD Radio, you think they would have purchased a radio by now. As I understand it, stations have a (yearly?) contract with Ibiquity that comes with sizable royalties, I imagine more money would be saved by not renewing that. Unfortunately, some of the other bits in the past few T-R-I newsletters about the NAB Convention seem to indicate that the industry big-wigs are still holding out a lot of hope for IBOC, or at least that is what they are saying. Two stations here have done this, it appears, they simulcast each other (KRCD and KRCV), and both have had their IBOC down for a few months. Hopefully more will follow (Bryce Foster, Whittier, CA, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING – DRM See CHILE; GUIANA FRENCH; MALI; NEW ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ZEALAND; ROMANIA; SAIPAN; USA - Mormon PROPAGATION ++++++++++++ GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY FORECAST FOR THE PERIOD OF ONE SOLAR ROTATION unsettled to active: Apr 17, (18, 21,) 24, (26, 28,) May 5, 8-9 active to disturbed: Apr (20, 23,) May 6-7 quiet: Apr 19, 22, 25, 27, 29-30, May 1-4, (10,) 11-12, (13) Survey: quiet: Apr 14-15 mostly quiet: Apr 8, 13 quiet to unsettled: Apr 9, 11-12 quiet to active: Apr 10 quiet to disturbed - mostly unsettled - unsettled to active - unsettled to disturbed - mostly active - active to disturbed - disturbed - Notices: Mainly quiet period before the enhancement of solar activity, therefore all forecasts are less reliable than usually. Days in brackets refer to a lower probability of possible activity enhancements depending on previous development on the sun. F. K. Janda, OK1HH, Czech Propagation Interested Group e-mail: franta.janda(at)quick.cz (via WORLD OF RADIO 1457, DXLD) Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet levels during 13 - 15 April. Field activity increased to quiet to unsettled levels on 16 April, with an isolated active period observed at high latitudes, due to the influence of a coronal hole high-speed stream (CH HSS). ACE solar wind velocities increased from 303 km/s at 16/1351 UTC to a high of 547 km/s at 18/1921 UTC. During this period, the Bz component of the IMF varied between -8 nT and +10 nT. Field activity decreased to quiet levels on 18 - 19 April, and solar wind velocities gradually decreased to 431 km/s at the end of the forecast period. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 22 APRIL - 18 MAY 2009 Solar activity is expected to be very low. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to increase to high levels during 08 - 11 May. Normal flux levels are expected during the rest of the period. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at mostly quiet levels through 05 May. Activity is expected to increase to quiet to unsettled levels during 06 - 09 May, with active conditions possible on 06 May, due to a recurrent CH HSS. Activity is expected to decrease to predominantly quiet levels during 10 - 18 May. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2009 Apr 14 1947 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 2009 Apr 14 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2009 Apr 15 70 5 2 2009 Apr 16 70 5 2 2009 Apr 17 70 8 3 2009 Apr 18 70 5 2 2009 Apr 19 70 5 2 2009 Apr 20 70 5 2 2009 Apr 21 70 8 3 2009 Apr 22 70 8 3 2009 Apr 23 72 5 2 2009 Apr 24 72 5 2 2009 Apr 25 72 5 2 2009 Apr 26 72 5 2 2009 Apr 27 72 5 2 2009 Apr 28 72 5 2 2009 Apr 29 72 5 2 2009 Apr 30 70 5 2 2009 May 01 70 5 2 2009 May 02 70 5 2 2009 May 03 70 5 2 2009 May 04 70 5 2 2009 May 05 70 5 2 2009 May 06 70 15 4 2009 May 07 70 8 3 2009 May 08 70 8 3 2009 May 09 70 8 3 2009 May 10 70 5 2 2009 May 11 70 5 2 (SWPC via DXLD) ###