DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-048, June 8, 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 NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1463, June 3-9 Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Tue 1900 WBCQ 7415 Wed 0500 WRMI 9955 [or new 1464 starting here?] Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1900 WBCQ 7415 SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1464, June 10-16 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 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 [suspended, until June 14?] 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 1465 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 ** ANGOLA. 4949.757, RN de Angola, 1945, Portuguese, strong carrier but very low audio. Still though, occasional talk by a man and local music could be heard. I also believe this signs-on around 1500 UT. This is based on a massive het 'just appearing' against India on 4950 at 1500 today (6 June) and also the same time yesterday, June 5 (David Sharp, NSW, FT 950 and ICF-2001, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANGUILLA. 11775, Caribbean Beacon still mixing local MW and foreign SW programming on same frequency, June 7 at 1315 check, overblown dramatization, maybe Unshackled vs Pastor Melissa Scott. Was also still mixing on June 6 spotcheck (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA [non]. Re 9-042: During these early years direct reception of broadcasts from Moscow, apparently including special ones for the expeditions in Antarctica, was common practice not only on the stations but on the treks as well. But today? Are shortwave radios a standard device, in particular on the Vostok station and the related supplying treks, or does nobody bother? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I distinctly remember that the USSR used to have a special Polar Service on SW, once a week? Designated both for the Arctic and Antarctic; but don`t remember the times and frequencies. Details were probably in Roger Legge`s USSR HF Broadcast Newsletter (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ASCENSION. BBC Hausa, 21630 at 1355 June 8 // 17780, with an echo between them making me suspect they were different sites, but listed as both Ascension, 65 and 55 degrees respectively. Deliberately offset modulation to even out power like at Tinian, or markedly different propagation paths? Nothing on 21470, the BBCWS English frequency which used to be the most reliable 13m signal in our mornings. That`s because VTC has shifted sites for it, no longer Ascension at all: 08-14 Seychelles at 240 degrees, 14-17 Cyprus at 175 degrees; so we can forget about it in North America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. VALE BRIAN HALPIN --- Johno here, ARDXC. Our valued member Brian Halpin of the Australian Radio DX Club, member 757 passed away Sunday 7th June in Brisbane. He had battled an extremely aggressive form of cancer. His passing at 72 years will be mourned by many. Brian was an active member in Sydney then Brisbane branches for many years. His support for the club was invaluable, and served for a number of years on the committee till moving to Brisbane. He instituted the Cataract Dam DXpeditions, which have proved extremely popular, in fact hearing 2368.5 Radio Symban in its very brief operation, last year, a world first. Brian also taught scouts the rudimentary facts about radio. He had VK4BVH as a callsign for his amateur operations. He also went on other DXpeditions like 1996 to Rainbow beach, which was infamous. He served with the Australian armed forces in the Malaya emergency. He was a gentleman, who treasured his family and friends, always with a smile. He survived by his wife Pam, Greg his son, and daughter Charmaine, and grandchildren. The place won't be the same, mate (John Wright, June 9, NSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) obit ** BOLIVIA. 4409.83, Radio Eco, Reyes, 0030 to 0035, OM en español, fair signal, no sign of the pulsating problems of past months, seem very regular, on each evening. No logs 1000 to 1100. 5580.24, Radio San José. San José de Chiquitos, 0000 to 0030, fading in and out, some music, 5 June. Not heard 1000 to 1130! [Wilkner] 5952.53, Radio Pío XII, Siglo XX, 0000 to 0020 on 27th May, irregular sign on at 1100; Reduced signal strength. 2346 noted on 25 May; 1125 on 28 May. 1110 on 3rd of June, Not on June 4th same time ..... [Wilkner- LOB] 6075, R. Kawsachun Coca, Lauka, seems to drift from sign on, 6074.95, 1020 to 1055 "Radio ....estaciones ...ocho en la mañana, nueve en la mañana ..en la ciudad de ...." Several short flauta andina, YL only toward the end of log, 1 June. On most days at this time. Carrier on 0950 on 6 June. [Wilkner & LOB] Logs ~ Pómpano Beach, Cedar Key, Boca Ratón, Clewiston, Coral Springs and Embu SP Brasil. [Florida - Brasil Group] 73s (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, NRD 535D ~ Drake R8, 7 June, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Original post was mixed in with other countries, separated here. It seems that everyone participating but Bob and LOB must maintain anonymity; why? So it`s impossible to know who really heard what, where, when, which locations if not which individuals really apply to each item (gh, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. (Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia) 4451, R. Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma-Beni, Spanish, programa de Mensajes, 2310, 08 June, S-4, LA PAZ, 6 de junio (PL).— El presidente Evo Morales emitió un decreto supremo que establece la nominación oficial de Bolivia como Estado Plurinacional y sepulta la designación de República, refleja hoy la prensa local (Rogildo Fontenelle Aragão, Quillacollo, Bolivia, 17º 23' 00. 65" S, 66º 15' 49. 60" W raragaodx @ yahoo.com.br Sony ICF-2001D / Lowe HF-225E LW 26m - RGP1m HCDX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL (reativada), 4885, R. Difusora Acreana, Rio Branco- AC, porguguês, programa religioso, ID "...Rádio Difusora Acreana, a voz da selva... Relay Voz do Brasil. 2245, 08 June. S- 5 (Rogildo Fontenelle Aragão, Quillacollo, Bolivia, 17º 23' 00. 65" S, 66º 15' 49. 60" W raragaodx @ yahoo.com.br Sony ICF-2001D / Lowe HF-225E LW 26m - RGP1m HCDX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL – Mesmo com sinal distorcido, a Rádio Cultura Brasil, de São Paulo (SP), prossegue sendo captada em 9615 kHz, em 31 metros. Foi monitorada, em Porto Alegre (RS), em 7 de julho, por volta de 1500, no Tempo Universal, transmitindo músicas brasileiras (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tivivade DX June 7 via DXLD) Still nothing on 17815 (gh) ** BURMA. BURMA CLAMPS DOWN ON OWNERS OF "UNLICENSED" RADIOS | Text of report by Norway-based Burmese Democratic Voice of Burma website on 8 June The Burmese junta has clamped down on the rising numbers of unlicensed radio owners in a move that media experts see as restriction on the freedom of media and access to pro-democracy broadcasts. The ruling junta yesterday issued a warning in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper that those listening to radio without holding a license could be prosecuted under the Wireless Act. The warning carried no information on why people would be prosecuted nor why numbers of listeners are increasing, but a Burmese journalist on the China-Burma border said the increase was linked to the political crisis. "People tend to buy radios when there is a stir in politics," he said. "[The 2007 protests] was like it is now. As soon as it was like that, people bought radios. During 2003 Depayin (massacre), people bought [radios]." He added that sales of shortwave radios manufactured by China, which are used by exiled Burmese media groups to broadcast, were also on the rise. Coverage of the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by domestic Burmese media is heavily controlled. Heavily censored private newspapers and journals are restricted from publishing any information that isn't covered in the state-run publications. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders last month criticised the trial reporting as one-sided. "Even with limited access, the Burmese public is not being properly informed as the military's prior censorship prevents any independent coverage." The chairman of the exiled Burma Media Association (BMA) said the move is an attempt to restrict the freedom of media and a means to arrest listeners of exiled media. "The military government's...legal actions on radio listeners who do not pay license fees... is an effort to hamper the people of Burma who have been depending more and more on foreign radios lately," said Maung Maung Myint. "Let's say, if they want to take action on listeners of foreign radios, they want to create a scenario in which they could arrest them not for listening to the radio but for not licensing their radios." Source: Democratic Voice of Burma website, Oslo, in English 8 Jun 09 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** BURMA. JUNTA ALLOWS MORE FM STATIONS TO "COUNTER MEDIA WITH MEDIA" | Text of report in English by New Delhi-based Burmese opposition Mizzima News Agency Rangoon 4 June: A domestic company, Zaykabar, is all set to launch a frequency modulated (FM) radio broadcast in Taungyi town, capital of Shan State in mid-June, a company official said. The official at Zaykabar said, the groundwork has been completed and audiences will be able to tune-in to the programmes when it first go on air on 15 June. Initially, the range will be receivable from Taungyi and Rangoon. The "Cherry" FM Radio station will be headed by Zay Zin Latt, daughter of Zaykabar Company's boss Khin Shwe and daughter-in-law of Gen. Thura Shwe Man, the third in the junta's hierarchy. "We have planned to go on air on 15 June. We have completed recruiting and training of staffs. Some are experienced staffs from the Rangoon and Mandalay FM. We will add some novelties in our programme, which will be different from other FM stations," a staff of Zaykabar Company told Mizzima. The main broadcasting station, however, will be based at Rangoon's Hmyaw Sin Kyun, where the headquarters of Zaykabar Company is also based. Similarly, Shwe Than Lwin Company is also planning to launch its "Thazin" FM and "Ramanya" FM radio programmes in Loikaw of Kayah State and Mawlamyine of Mon State respectively. Meanwhile, the "Forever Group" of Company, which broadcasts the government's MRTV4, has taken over "Pyinsawaddy" FM programme from the Rangoon-based Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) Studio. The Pyinsawaddy FM launched its programme on 27 March, the Anti- Fascist Resistance Day, this year in Sittwe, capital of Arakan State. The FM airs a daily programme from 7 a.m to 7 p.m and can be received within a radius of 25 miles from Sittwe. Sources in MRTV4 broadcasting station said authorities are planning to expand the MRTV4 broadcasts in Thandwe (Sandoway), Ann and in the Irrawaddy Division. Burma's military rulers have privatized eight FM Radio stations to its business cronies, most of whom the United States and European Union have blacklisted on its economic and financial sanctions list and imposed travel ban. The junta has allowed setting up of several FM stations with entertainment programmes, after its Information Ministry announced that it will "Counter Media with Media". Source: Mizzima News Agency, New Delhi, in English 0000 gmt 4 Jun 09 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** CANADA. 6660/USB, CHU Ottawa ON, time station; 2232, 5 June; 2 x 3330 (Harold Frodge, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CBC LISTENERS EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT LOSS OF WHITEHORSE AM SIGNAL http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2009/06/07/cbc-signal.html A CBC decision to change its Whitehorse transmitter from AM to FM has people who live in rural areas of the Yukon concerned they'll lose their signal. Pete Beattie, who lives at Lake Laberge, is one of a group of Yukon residents who have circulated a petition against the move. Beattie, who says CBC Radio is part of daily life for him and his neighbours, worries he'll lose the CBC signal because AM traditionally transmits over a larger area than FM. Beattie also wonders how they'll be kept informed during emergencies like forest fires. "I suppose it would be easy to think of any number of events like that where the AM signal would be really good," he told CBC News. Area residents have organized petitions asking both the federal and territorial governments to get involved. A petition to the House of Commons asks "that Parliament permanently maintain AM transmission from Whitehorse, Yukon (one of Canada's 13 capital cities) so that every rural Yukoner will be able to tune into CBC." Opposition parties in the Yukon are also urging action to save the AM signal. CBC North regional director John Agnew said he has no choice but to end AM radio in Whitehorse. The Radio One transmitter on the lower Porter Creek bench has to be removed to make way for residential development, at the city's request. Moving it elsewhere would run into the millions of dollars, Agnew said, so it's far cheaper to add another FM transmitter to the Radio 2 tower on Grey Mountain. The new transmitter will be more powerful than the current Radio 2 transmitter, he said. "We are satisfied from an engineering point of view that we will meet the requirements of our broadcasting licence, but how much further the signal will transmit beyond that I don't know," he said. The CBC has a mandate to broadcast within a 20-kilometre radius of Whitehorse. In addition to the main FM transmitter on Grey Mountain, a second repeater transmitter will be put on a different hilltop to make sure Whitehorse and the immediate area are served, Agnew said. The changeover is slated for August, but CBC will broadcast in both AM and FM while technicians work out any glitches in the system (via Sean Healy, ABDX via DXLD) plus lots of comments, q.v. IIRC, CFWH is 5 KW day, 1 KW night on 570 with a single tower. Likely a 60 degree tower, e.g. 1/6 wavelength - which used to be the norm in Canada for the lower MW frequencies to save $. I wonder how much money CBC will be getting for the old transmitter site which is to be re- developed? Once again, the CRTC just doesn't get it. FM does a great job of replacing AM in urban and suburban areas. It tends to do a lousy job of replacing AM in rural areas. Ultimately, it will cost CBC big bucks as they will have to establish even more repeaters in an attempt to fill in the coverage gaps. I get suspicious when figures like "millions of dollars" are thrown around. I know construction costs are high in the north. But, it is only a one tower array. When CJCH convinced the CRTC to approve a flip to FM, they quoted a figure of $2 millions for a new 25 KW transmitter site, 2 tower array IIRC. But, here is the kicker, the old site used 1/4 wavelength towers, the quote was premised on 1/2 wavelength towers - which really drives up the cost. Perhaps the good folks in the Yukon should demand to see a detailed quote for a new 5 KW on 570 KHz transmitter site. And, demand that the CBC open its books and pony up to how much $ it will be getting for the old site. Sorry, for the rant, but loss of radio coverage to people in rural areas always gets me going :) (Phil Rafuse, VY2PR, Stratford PE Canada, ibid.) ** CHILE [non]. RADIOBLOG OBITUARIOS KATIA LA NOVIA DE CHILE (RADIO MOSCU-ESCUCHA CHILE) --- Hola Elena: Aquí te va el enlace con el trabajo que preparé sobre Katia. Espero os guste y quede como el agradecimiento más perenne hacia una persona que nos marcó en nuestra juventud. Un abrazo. JUAN Radioblog: http://www.natureduca.com/radioblog/?p=106 (Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 6100 at 1255 June 7 with Chinese traditional music, no doubt the postlude of scheduled CRI Russian service via Beijing site at 55 degrees also usward, until 1257*. Also had a big het. Before checking the parallax on the analog dial, I thought I might be on 6105 and the het was reactivated XEQM, but tuning to the real 6105, only a very weak het could be heard there. Online skeds do not show anything else on 6100 before 1300, except maybe Kyzyl, Tannu Tuva, per EiBi. The more likely ones, Malaysia and North Korea, supposedly don`t come on until after 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake June 8: at 1250 on 9000, only fair; but at 1345, it was very good on 13970, steady S9+20, while on 14420 it was deeply fading S6 to peaks of S9+10. Not heard on any of the other usual channels. CNR1 programming also heard very well on 13830, June 8 at 1344 // 11805 and 9845. 13830 is to block RFA Tibetan at 11-14 via Tajikistan, but no trace of it here underneath, and one might not guess CNR1 is just a jammer. 11805 is to block VOA Chinese via Thailand, which I could not hear at all, just a lite echo on the CNR1 audio. On 9845 there was as usual more of a mix with VOA Chinese via Tinang (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. Captada la pirata colombiana Radio Juventud con programación musical de baladas de los años 70's y 80's ahora por los 5587.1 kHz desde las 0030 hasta las 0230 aprox. Mencionando transmisión en FM 104.7 y onda corta 5590 KHz; además con correo electrónico radiojuventud2009 @ hotmail.com Audio en: http://www.goear.com/listen/c4edb68/Radio-Juventud-5587.1-Khz-Rafael-Rodriguez Buen DX (Rafael Rodriguez R., Bogotá D.C. - COLOMBIA, UT June 7, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CUBA. The DentroCuban Jamming Command was all over the place on 31 meters, apparently spurs on frequencies where not normally heard; at least, we hope they are spurs rather than tipoffs to new deliberately jammed frequencies at other dayparts. June 8 at 1253, pulses on 9545, which is a R. República frequency in the evenings only. Also on 9625 at 1255 bothering CBCNQ. At 1258 also on 9780 vs KNLS, Taiwan and ChiCom jamming. More Cuban jamming pulses on 9815 and 9825, but those two at different pitches and rates. 9965 more jamming pulses vs something in Vietnamese --- that must have been YFR via Taiwan on 9960. Meanwhile there was heavy jamming on the usual targets, Martí on 9805 and WRMI on 9955. Perhaps the unexpected pulsing frequencies were spurs from these. The CRI relay on 9570 was also putting out its nasty spurs on 9560 and 9580 against Radio Australia, at 1254 check, tho 9580 still listenable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. ALLEGED SPIES FOR CUBA: SHORTWAVE LISTENERS OR SHORTWAVE SENDERS? http://washingtondc.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/wfo060509a.htm (US Department of Justice press release, 5 June 2009 via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Thanks to Jukka Kinkamo for sending this. News reports provide conflicting details. Some report the Myers's transmitted on shortwave, others says they just received messages via shortwave. Some reports mention Morse code: "Their methods of communicating with the Cubans included Morse code on shortwave radio, changing shopping carts at the grocery store and a face-to-face meeting with President Fidel Castro himself, court documents say." AP, 6 June 2009. "The indictment alleges that they spent years sending encrypted Morse code messages from their flat in Washington's expensive diplomatic quarter - just a few hundred yards from the British Embassy." The [ahem] Telegraph, 7 June 2009. Other reports specify receiving: "The two received messages from the Cuban government via shortwave radio and hand-passed messages, and typically passed their responses to handlers by hand." Reuters, 5 June 2009. "Mr Myers allegedly received his instructions from his Cuban handlers over short wave in the form of coded messages." BBC News, 6 June 2009. I would have to see the "court documents," but transmitting shortwave is rather more difficult than receiving shortwave, especially from an apartment in Northwest Washington. And Morse code requires skill and practice. The "Morse code" might be a corruption of just "code," which can be accomplished by voice transmissions. Most of us who own an "operable shortwave radio" have stumbled across "numbers stations," on which usually a female voice speaks numbers, usually in groups of five. A portable radio costing 100 dollars or less can easily pick up these transmissions. Posted: 07 Jun 2009 Update: "An indictment filed against the couple alleges that in 2006 they destroyed or disposed of 'certain clandestine foreign agent tradecraft items,' except for a shortwave radio they owned. The indictment notes the radio is the same make as one used by Ana Belen Montes, who is now doing 25 years in prison for spying for Cuba. And, the indictment notes, Kendall Myers knows Morse code." Lesley Clark, Miami Herald, 7 June 2009. So my "Morse code as corruption" hypothesis seems to be disintegrating. The indictment, however, does not state specifically that Mr. Myers used Morse code to receive the messages from Cuba. It does appear that shortwave was used for receiving, not transmitting. See section of the indictment that refers to radio. The indictment was posted by Charisse Van Horn to Examiner.com, 5 June 2009. Posted: 08 Jun 2009 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid. see http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=6738 for linx, via DXLD) The Morse Code would simply be `cut numbers`, a quicker way of transmitting only 10 digits by replacing them with letters, commonly heard on the Cuban spy numbers transmitters instead of voice. It takes no great skill to copy these after a bit of practice even if you do not know the entire alfabet (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA. R. Prague in English at 0700-0725, P-F on 7450 // 11600 (John Durham, DX report, RNZI Mailbox May 18, notes by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ?? Not scheduled on 7450, just 11600 and 9880. John repeated the frequency 7450, altho somewhat hesitantly. Checked R. Prague website, HFCC, Aoki, Eibi and WRTH, and no Prague on 7450, or anything else, tho Greece uses it elsewhen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. No signal from HCJB on 11625, June 7 at 1313 and 1415 chex, unlike the day before when the 690/6050 domestic service was heard by surprise, contrary to schedule. The question remains whether on June 6 it was intentionally transmitted. It did offgo immediately at 1500* after timesignal, following standard procedure (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. 11590, Radio Cairo at 0240 on 6/1. Fairly strong carrier but nearly no modulation in listed Arabic to NA [NAm, not NAf] from listed Za’bal. Why don’t they fix this – or can’t they? (Gerry Dexter, Lake Geneva, WI, NRD 545, TenTec 340, "Mark” (MK-l) antenna, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, RNGE, 0535 June 7 in Spanish with hymns and religious talk on this Sunday morning. Fair, sufficient signal with atmosferix. And by uptuning exactly 1 MHz one could hear Vatican instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 9561 and 9704 carriers producing audible hets against 9560 and 9705, June 8 at 1253, no doubt the Addis Ababa twins (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. RADIO ETHIOPIA CAUSES INTERFERENCE ON NEW 7 MHZ SEGMENT If you regularly listen into the new 7100-7200 kHz range in the evening hours, then you may have noticed some interference. Starting 1630 UT and lasting about one hour, you will find on 7165, or sometimes on 7175 kHz, a powerful wideband rushing noise, which is some 15kHz wide. Also very faintly you can hear the carrier of a program below the jammer. The culprit is Radio Ethiopia. It is jamming Voice of the Broad Masses from Eritrea on 7165 kHz. Ethiopia also regularly jams other transmissions in Amharic, for example Deutsche Welle, on 15 and 11 MHz. The jamming uses a rectangular white noise signal that is some 10 to 16 kHz wide. In 2008 Ethiopia commissioned 3 or 4 new transmitters, some of which are regularly used for jamming unwanted programmes. To see a screen shot of the jamming signal, check out the IRY Region 1 website. http://www.rsgb.org/news/0003.php (RSGB News via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. FIRST ENGLISH FM ON AIR IN ADDIS ABABA Addis Fortune, By Merga Yonas, Fortune Staff Writer, June 7, 2009 http://addisfortune.com/First%20English%20FM%20On%20Air%20in%20Addis.htm Ethiopia's first FM radio station broadcasting in the English language began pre-test broadcasting approximately a week ago. The station, run by Paconet Media Plc, incorporated in January 2008 with an initial capital of about 3 million Br, originally planned to turn on its transmitters September 1, 2008. However it experienced delay and began the six-day test broadcast May 29, 2009. Paconet is owned by Addis Alemayehou and his wife, Martha Wondimu. Addis is the chief of party of VEGA Ethiopia, a USAID programme that assists private companies in Ethiopia in effectively exploiting AGOA opportunities. The family owned company was licensed by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority in March 2008 to start the radio station on FM band 105.3. AfroFM plans to officially inaugurate its radio station within the coming 60 days, Addis told Fortune. The station now airs mainly infotainment content with a mix of local and international news from 6:00am up to midnight. The station plans to work with other local media organizations for content development. "Obviously this type of business is not something that we are going to do alone," Addis, major shareholder and managing director of Paconet, said. "So we need other media and individuals to work with us in terms if sharing ideas and content development for the new local radio station." Though, at the moment, Paconet's station broadcasts for 18 hours a day, the company plans to eventually broadcast 24 hours seven days a week. The air time expansion will depend on the availability of content; the content will also be accessible on the station's yet to be developed website, according to Addis. The transmitter and other studio equipment were imported from Britain and Italy four weeks ago, the Managing Director said. The foundation of this radio station is based on the owner's belief that the international community in Addis Abeba has no way of knowing what is happening in the city because there is no media providing them continuous information in a language they can understand. The target audience is made up of emerging foreign investors and the Diaspora in Addis Ababa - the seat of the African Union (AU), United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and other international organizations that make the city the world's largest diplomatic community out side of New York, with over 100 diplomatic missions. Addis states that he is not only trying to target foreign nationals, but the news coverage of AfroFM will focus on local business, politics, entertainment and other socio-cultural affairs as well. Addis claims that he has been trying to start the English language FM for eight years but could not get the green light from authorities until last year. Addis Alemayehou, who grew up in Kenya and moved to Canada before he came back home to Ethiopia, says the foreign community has so far been neglected by the media in Ethiopia. Though AfroFM is the first ever English private broadcasting service in Ethiopia, the Amharic commercial broadcasting in Addis Abeba has been dominated by prior stations like FanaFM, ShegerFM, ZamiFM and AddisFM in the past few years. There are also four community broadcasting services in Ethiopia - Kore, Kambata, Bonga and Jimma. Public broadcasting services have been awarded only to federal and regional government running radio stations. The full operation of the new radio station is expected to create 15 to 30 job opportunities, according to its owners (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) They seem totally unaware of the English programs not only on the external service of government`s Radio Ethiopia, but also separate ones on the domestic service, MW/VHF as well as SW. 18 hours a day of non-government English would still be a big improvement; what about other expatriate languages? But just like a gospel huxter, if you are starting your own station, you ignore the existence of predecessors and hope no one else finds out there is already competition (Glenn Hauser, DX LISGTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. EUROPirates: 6910, Cactus Jack R., site?, 2130-, 07 Jun, English, oldies, fast IDs; 45333. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello from West Virginia! I got a heads-up from one of the European pirate ops a few hours ago that I might be interested in listening to the latest recording of Pirates Week. And what do you know, I heard my name mentioned during a segment recorded off of gh's World of Radio! I am the one that was in touch with Cactus Jack Radio when he was on the air in both the Balearic Islands with a 100-W mobile, and the following week, last week, when he was just using 10-W from his usual site in Catalunya, because his 100-W linear amp needed some repairing. This did happen, because he was again on the air this evening with 100-W, again on 6910 from Catalunya. And you might like to know that he now has a blogspot, along with a chatroom where I am one of the owners: http://www.cactusjackradio.blogspot.com/ Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who would like to join us there, and a definite invitation goes to you to join us there. This is the same op that was Radio Barretina (unfortunately raided by the Spanish authorities a year or so ago for QRM'ing maritime transmissions) and also Camping Radio. He has been active from several different countries with these 3 stations, including Spain, Croatia, Greece, Andorra, and the Balearic Islands. He also was in the Canary Islands last fall, but did not actually transmit from there. So maybe with enough friendly coercing, we can get him to continue to transmit from some of these different locations, some of which are not regularly-heard countries either for pirate activity or SWBC. I actually was contacted by him when he was transmitting from the Balearics when I was on another European chatroom, Iann's http://www.easyshopdiscountzone.com/radio/pirate/english/ which is another excellent site for checking European pirate activity, and chatting with some of the ops while they are on the air, and some while they are off the air as well. He invited me to a Private Chat, although at the time I did not know who he was, and told me to check 6910. I did, and was able to hear some ID's for Cactus Jack Radio. He told me to e-mail a report and he would QSL. I did, and got the QSL yesterday. I chat regularly with quite a number of the European pirate radio ops on Iann's chatroom, and am quite well known there, where my username is Alex_in_WestVirginiaGreenForest (the same in the Cactus Jack chatroom). If I can help in any way with Pirates Week, let me know, and I'll do what I can to help out, especially concerning Euro pirates. I'm not the most technically-oriented guy, but I've been told innumerable times that I have a great "radio voice," lol, so if there is some way I can help record anything for voice contributions let me know, or just contributing news about European activity by e-mail. I've enclosed some pictures of me and my 2 insane cats, my little house in the forest on the mountain, and my receiving set-up, and also copies of some pirate radio QSL's that I've received, if you'd like to add any to your site. I'm also cc'ing Glenn, and Glenn, thanks for the mention on WOR. The info about the Cactus Jack blogspot/chatroom is also for you. As I mentioned, maybe with enough input, the Cactus Jack op will continue to transmit from some of those rarely reported QTH's. BTW, he also finally sent me an e-QSL yesterday for a xmsn. of his as Camping Radio that I heard last September while he was in Andorra for a brief time. Andorra has been inactive on SWBC for decades, so even though I have a QSL-card from Radio Andorra from some 25 years or so ago, it's still a nice QSL to receive. Well, I hear fat cat Iggy meowling outside about something, so I better check what he's up to or into, and also time to make some leftovers for a late dinner. Thanks to both for the mention, keep up the great work, and keep in touch (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-4588, 0103 UT June 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. Scandinavian Weekend Radio (SWR) from Virrat, Finland heard with fair reception on slightly off-channel 11689.92 last night at 2225 with Tricky Trev show in English. Also audible this morning on 11720.0 in Finnish (1020 UT). On air until 2100 UT this evening - check http://www.swradio.net/schedule.htm for frequencies in use at which time. They also have a special Midnight Sun transmission starting Friday 19 June (presumably into 20 June) re website: http://www.swradio.net/news.htm : 'SWR-Midnight Sun Radio On The Air again! SWR-Midnight Sun Radio reports stories and happenings from Finland`s Official Midnight Sun Town, Virrat. How people spend their time at midnight sun festival. Lots of Finnish entertaining music. It all starts 19. June at 2101 UT.' (Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, AOR 7030+, longwire, June 6, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) ** GREECE. Glenn: When I monitored Voice of Greece at 0000 UT Monday [7475, 9420], the News in Greek was on and at 0005, Greek in Style in English did not follow. There was a sort of neo-modern Greek chamber music disk-jockey style program with announcements in Greek about every 15 minutes "Dikto Elliniki Radiophonia" (Greek Radio Network). At 0100 there followed News in Greek. Maybe all this was due to a Greek holiday or whatever; perhaps Apodimos can enlighten us (John Babbis, MD, June 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. 7125.000, RTVG, 2141, noted with low audio, but good enough to hear lengthy discussion by a man in French, several mentions of "Guinée." Fair S7-9 signal strength. 6 June (David Sharp, NSW, FT 950 and ICF-2001, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4750, RRI Makassar, 1042-1100 June 7. Note the usual type of music heard with a woman singing. On the hour a few comments from a female in Indonesian followed by comments from a male which I believe was news. Signal was poor. Note: This was the only Indo I heard on 4 MHz this morning. I checked 4605, 4790, 4870, 4875 and 4925. There were a couple of carriers on 4925+ but couldn't get any audio (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FLA USA, Watkins Johnson HF1000, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: Wonder if any other RRIs are currently active on 60m? (gh, DXLD) Yes, there area a few. In addition to CB's log above (and be cautious with Makassar, as China is also co-channel), which puts a fair signal into New South Wales, these are also being heard around 1100 UT: 4869.925, drifting to as high as .940 kHz: RRI Wamena (site presumed). Could possibly be Sorong drifting low. 4925.009, RRI Jambi So, including Makassar, there's only three Indos on 60. Fak Fak [4790v] has been off for probably about two weeks now. There are a few Indos on 90/75 meters, 1100+ UT: 3325.000, RRI Palangkaraya (presumed site) under PNG. 3344.962, RRI Ternate, fair under PNG 3976.048, RRI Pontianak 3995.071, RRI Kendari (David Sharp, NSW Australia, FT-950 and ICF- 2001, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Great frequency planning, PNG and Indonesia both on some tropical channels. It may have been ``necessary``, when RRI was all over the place, but not any more (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. CRACKIN' GOOD SOUND ON THE NET NEWS RELEASE 9 June 2009 --- 107.8 Radio Jackie has introduced true studio quality web streams at radiojackie.com. The station has been running state-of-the-art MPEG4 AAC streams for several years. Now it has taken the opportunity of improved internet connectivity at the studios in Tolworth to provide transparent quality AAC streams of 128 kbps (kilobits per second). This is a level of quality defined by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) as indistinguishable from the original audio and is believed to be a UK first.* To listen go to Listen Now at http://www.radiojackie.com 107.8 Radio Jackie is licensed by Ofcom and broadcasts live programmes and news 24 hours a day to South West London and North Surrey. Radio Jackie engineering is by Trevor Brook and streaming is by mouselike.org _________ * AAC 128 kb is not offered by any FM station. The BBC are conducting experimental trials. Attached: Radio Jackie Listen.jpg Caption: A range of streams for all players, from true studio quality to economy for very congested networks, available on Radio Jackie's website. __________ Radio Jackie 110 Tolworth Broadway Surbiton Surrey KT6 7JD http://www.radiojackie.com Contact: Steve Mowbray, office manager 0208 288 1300 steve.mowbray@radiojackie.com (Steve Mowbray, Office Manager Radio Jackie, Tel: 0208 288 1300, June 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) OK, but 128 is common amongst US public radio station streamers. Why would one want to listen to Radio Jackie? Not a word here about its programming (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** ISRAEL. 6973, Galei Zahal, strong pick up in signal with approaching dawn in Jerusalem (0233). What has happened to this station? It used to be rather difficult, and now it sounds almost like Havana! (only slight exaggeration). 0206 is S9+20 again here, as it has been lately. Is my new antenna particularly sensitive in this frequency range? I do seem to be getting better signals lately, since the Sloper went up, on 6 and 7 MHz. I really enjoy this one's programming --- intended for a home audience, mostly military, and not for foreign listeners. Programming is all Hebrew, as far as I have heard, but not a problem. They have really mellow oldies during the overnight hours, with few announcements by very mellow guy. Tonight, things like Bridge over Troubled Waters, Let the Sun Shine In, and other oldies, mellow vocals, etc. That comes abruptly to an end at 0158, when there is an Army bugle call (since it is 5 am in Jerusalem, I strongly suspect it is the Israeli military's version of Reveille, followed by a stirring military march and canned full ID with a list of frequencies, with man and woman announcers. You can't forget this is Israel's AFRTS. 0200, two minutes of news by woman (tonight leading with attempt on life of Karzai's brother in Afghanistan, not to hard to figure out despite being in Hebrew. After 0202, more upbeat morning program with gal DJ, more talk and more pop music. I really enjoy this station! (Don Jensen, Kenosha WI, June 6, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** ITALY. There are a couple of new MW stations testing from Italy. Challenger Radio is testing on 1566 kHz from Villa Estense, in the Padova (Padua in English) province (north-eastern Italy). They are transmitting with 500 W power into a makeshift wire antenna. Modulation was rather low, but now it's better. Phone number is +39- 0429-660118. E-mail: challenger @ challenger.it At present they are relaying a religious program. Their site is http://www.challenger.it/realvideo/eng_live_uronair.html It seems they are selling satellite time (and thus, possibly, radio airtime) to aspiring broadcasters. They are announcing DRM tests too, and by phone I was told that DRM is coming in the near future. Radio Broadcast Italia is testing from Rome on 1485 kHz; they own a 1 kW transmitter but when I heard them a few days ago their power was 500 W into a 21 meters vertical antenna; they are working on a 35 meters lattice antenna. Their site is http://www.broadcastitalia.it/ mainly dedicated to historic recordings of early Italian free FM radios; there is a link to streaming audio, if you want to check whether you're listening to the station. E-mail is radio @ broadcastitalia.it --- I received a quick reply from Stefano Ricciardetto, who attached a PDF QSL and promised a "real" card via snail-mail. Thank you to Italian DXer Roberto Scaglione http://www.bclnews.it for the heads-up on these tests. 73 (Fabrizio Magrone, June 6, MWC via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6518, Voice of the People, Goyang, South Korea, 2106-2120, 5 Jun, Korean to N. Korea, talks; 25342; not audible on the usual \\ frequencies of 3912 & 6600. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. RADIO FREE ASIA via SITKUNAI, 9490 at 0100 to 0135, June 4, in Uyghur. Heard an Asian language here occasionally, but not Mandarin so probably not a CNR jam and believed it might be RFA. But whenever it was audible, Bible Voice via Wertachtal stayed on the frequency until several seconds after 0100, and none of the parallel frequencies was audible. Then, a couple of times BV ended a few seconds earlier and I heard the last bit of RFA theme music. And finally, on June 4, BV went off even earlier and I heard the complete ID despite a weak signal. After brief Asian instrumental music, a woman and men spoke (Wendel Craighead, Prairie Village, Kansas, USA, UT June 8, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. 5009.918, R Malagasy. 2012, superb S9+30 signal with excellent music and energetic male DJ. 6 June (David Sharp, NSW, FT 950 and ICF-2001, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 6104.49, Mérida, XEQM at 1040 on June 7; when transmitter is operating, well heard well in Florida to 1300. Transmitter problems at times, better signal than several months ago (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, NRD 535D ~ Drake R8, 7 June, DX LISTENING DIGEST) XEQM escuchada 0030-0130 en 6105 kHz, noticiario deportivo, resultados de football, baseball y boxeo, comentarios diversos, identificación Candela FM, posteriormente transmisión del "Juego de Estrellas" de la Liga Mexicana de Baseball desde Can Cun, Quintana Roo, identificación Sistema RASA con diversas repetidores en la República Mexicana. SINPO general 3 a 4. Escucha Centro Sur de la Ciudad de México, día soleado, temperatura 20 grados celsius, cielo despejado. Radio Grundig 750 antena telescópica y tierra física. 73´s (Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, UT June 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. CRIEnglish relay via Sackville, 9650, still has co-channel QRM from RN via Tinang, PHILIPPINES with a slow SAH, June 7 until 1326:40 when Netherlands national anthem which closes every Dutch broadcast. Would they still follow with 3 minutes of English? After 20-second pause, yes! Hard to copy but gave e-mail address other than rnw.nl. Maybe it was Network Europe. RN`s confusing weekly e-mail program guide claims they are broadcasting both Network Europe and Radio Books at 1300, and all other English times on Sunday June 7, this one supposedly via WRN only, not SW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. Back in April and May it seemed remarkable that signals as hi as 17880 or even 21550 were making it here in the nightmiddle, but now almost at Solstice, it happens just about every night, tho signal strength varies a lot. June 7 at 0519, found VG signals from RFA Chinese service best on 17880, also 17615, 15615 and 15130. These were roughly two words apart as IBB deliberately offsets the modulation to even out power consumption. I found that three of them were not exactly synchronized with the others, but not sure about the fourth. No ChiCom jamming audible this time, but no doubt it was there and not propagating here. The sites and azimuths are, all of these scheduled 0300-0700: 15130 Tinian 319 degrees 15615 Tinian 279 degrees 17615 Tinian 295 degrees 17880 Saipan 310 degrees Tinians are 250 kW, while Saipan is only 100 kW. VOA, English, 7575 until 1259* June 7. Tinang is supposed to overtake from Udorn at 1300, but frequency remained empty as late as 1302 when I upgave and ontuned. Recheck at 1314, Tinang had meanwhile oncome with jazz show (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I've just checked IBB Monitoring audio recordings to confirm your discovering, and apparently at 1309z the jazz program was on the air, nothing till 1309z. But, what the hell are this bass mixture on Melbourne, Australia recordings (1308z PHT tx off, 1338z tx on): http://asia.ibbmonitor.com/RMS_Data/Sounds/2009_06_07/ENGL/VOA/MELB/0906071308@MELB_7575VOAENGL.MP4 http://asia.ibbmonitor.com/RMS_Data/Sounds/2009_06_07/ENGL/VOA/MELB/0906071338@MELB_7575VOAENGL.MP4 73, (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Please delete KUOK from your list. KUOK (Univision), Woodward, OK will be digital ready on June 12th. Lee Redick Director of Sales Telemundo/Univision Oklahoma City, OK (comment to article/list of 35 stations not ready for DTV June 12, see below DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV, DXLD) Channel 35 before and after. Archrivals TM and UV have a common sales director?? Anti-trust? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 7325, nice verie for follow up to November 2007 report. Dorcas Komb, Administrative Asst., replied with nice letter and multi-color attractive Wontok [sic] Radio Light card with full details (though the date listed was the date of the follow up rather than the original 2007 report). The station, per the letter, is a 1 kW all solid state transmitter, a Crown TB1000, located in a "shipping container" on the outskirts of Port Moresby. I have neither heard this one in the past year, or have I seen any reports, though fairly widely reported earlier. Apparently this is the result of a new antenna that into central New Guinea [sic]. Sent pix of antenna complex. Antenna is two dipoles connected in parallel by a ladder line. Support for the antenna are several wooden poles, rather like telephone or utility poles. Feed point is slightly off center to steer the beam toward the northwest and center of PNG (Don Jensen, WI, NASWA Flashsheet June 7 via DXLD) ** PERU. 3329.53, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco seems there 1000 and 0000 most days, occasional good reception with noise reducing antenna and equipment. cf: Dallas Files [??]. CHU notched on NRD535D. [Wilkner] 5120.33, Ondas del Suroriente, Quillabamba with strong signal 0030 to 0050 on 5 June. [Wilkner] 5460.1, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar at 0030 on 5 June with weak signal, not noted 1000 to 1100 recently. [Wilkner] 6195.79, Radio Cusco, 1100 OM with ID as Radio Cusco, music, mentions de locations in Peru, 3 & 4 June, 0000 also noted. [Wilkner] (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, NRD 535D ~ Drake R8, 7 June, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5560.00, Radio El Sol, Tentative, 0011-0013 June 7, Caught a male in Spanish comments for a couple of minutes then the signal dropped off the air. It was poor and never returned (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Fla, Watkins Johnson HF1000, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Chuck, What is your basis for suggesting this is Radio El Sol? I can`t find any listing for it on 5560 or any nearby frequency. Checked latest DBS, WRTH, LA-DX, Eibi, Aoki, even PWBR. Exact .00 suggests it might be a US harmonic from 1390. 73, (Glenn Hauser, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Chuck, This would be significant news if they are actually reactivated. Can you please check for something more solid to indicate it’s them? Thanks (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, ibid.) http://www.pateplumaradio.com/south/peru/pucara.htm “Radio El Sol, the fourth shortwave station transmitting from Pucará in the Province of Jaén, was first heard in the beginning of January, 1997. The station announced that it was transmitting on the frequency of 5560 kHz, although it was actually tuned on the variable frequency range of 5560.7 - 5560.5 kHz. Interestingly, this is precisely the same frequency range on which Radio Pucará had broadcast on shortwave in the 1980's. In early 1997, Radio El Sol's early morning transmission was occasionally audible in Japan around 1100-1200 with a folklore show entitled "El Madrugador". The station identified itself with the following identification: "Transmite Radio El Sol desde el caluroso y acogedor distrito de Pucará, en la fronteriza provincia de Jaén, Región Nor Oriental del Marañón, República del Perú, en los 5560 kHz onda corta internacional para todo el Perú, América y el mundo. Siga sintonizando en nuestra frecuencia 55-60." (historical info, via Ron Howard, ibid.) ** PRIDNESTROVYE. Radio PMR is being received well at 2215 UT on 9665. VOR in English then takes over [2300], better than any of the transmissions beamed to Europe. Thank you Glenn, (Chris Lewis, England, June 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. No het on 9540 and no carrier detectable on 9541.5 June 8 at 1253, so I think SIBC was off; noticed when checking the Cuban overjamming on 9545 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALIA. RADIO SHABELLE DIRECTOR KILLED BY GUNMEN IN SOMALIA The director of Somalia’s Shabelle Radio Network was gunned down in Mogadishu today, one of his colleagues who was also wounded in the attack told AFP. Witnesses said the assassination of Mokhtar Mohamed Hirabe took place in the capital’s restive Bakara area. “We were walking in the street together,” Ahmed Omar Hashi said from his hospital bed in Medina hospital. “Hirabe was shot in the head and he fell to the ground while I was hit in the stomach and in the hand. Then the gunmen came, they shot him again in the head but I managed to escape,” he said. Another Somali radio journalist was killed in clashes last month. Somalia is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. Media houses have been routinely shut down by the authorities and many reporters, Somali and foreign, have been kidnapped by armed groups. Two freelance journalists, an Australian and a Canadian kidnapped near the capital some nine months ago, are still being held, while a Somali TV reporter was also kidnapped on 2 June. Somalia has lacked an effective central government since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the country into violence. (Source: AFP) June 7th, 2009 - 12:00 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) WTFK? This was on shortwave for a while, but presumably only FM recently. Radio Shabelle, i.a., has been in an incredible amount of trouble, put off the air repeatedly, coming back, staff attacked, culminating in this. The first report of it appeared in DXLD 3-032. There were lots more reports in 2005 and 2006; we had to go back to 6- 183 to find a reference to its then former SW frequency, 6960, which Steve Lare, Michigan said he had last heard in November 2005. Other DXLD issues getting a hit on Shabelle in our archive, in reverse order: 8-029, 7-145, 7-139, 7-136, 7-115, 7-113, 7-079, 7-069, 7-068, 7-008, 6-182, 6-110 . . . (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-048) It’s on 101.5 FM in Mogadishu. Broadcasts are currently suspended, following the killing (Chris Greenway, June 8th, 2009 - 16:39 UTC, Media Network blog via DXLD) Asesinan al director de la emisora somalí Radio Shabelle http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/06/07/comunicacion/1244373998.html (via José Miguel Romero2, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) ** SOMALILAND. Somalia, 7145, R. Hargeisa, Hargeisa, Somaliland, 1734- 1826, 06 Jun, Somali, talks & local songs; 45433. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. Radio Dabanga, 11500 kHz. Received a non detailed card with a full detailed handwritten confirmation on it for a reception report sent to Press Now, Witte Kruislaan 55, 1217 AM Hilversum, The Netherlands. No v/s (Artur Fernández Llorella, Catalonia, Spain, June 7, HCDX via DXLD) ** SYRIA. Dear Radio Friends, Here it is --- the full interview I had with the kind and motivated people at Radio Damascus based on several meetings with my good friend Rasheed Haidar and his team, who is the head of the English section, with Mr. Adnan Mouhammad, the director of the foreign broadcasts at Radio Damascus and Mr. Asad Zarai, who is the chief engineer of Radio Damascus responsible for the shortwave transmitters at Radio Damascus shortwave station in Adra. You can find the full interview at my Radio Damascus website at : http://www.radio-damascus.net or directly here : http://radio-damascus.net/Interview_with_Radio_Damascus/Interview_with_Radio_Damascus.html I hope you enjoy reading the interview and find a lot of new and interesting information in it. Please also have a look at the set of special QSL cards on the Occasion of 40 years German Program : 1968 - 2008 at : http://radio-damascus.net/Special_QSL_40_years_German/Special_QSL_40_years_German.html greetings (Kris Janssen, Belgium, June 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: INTERVIEW WITH RADIO DAMASCUS JUNE 2009 Antwerpen, Belgium, 7th of June 2009 Dear Radio Friends, I just arrived back home in Belgium today after a fabulous 4-week visit to the beautiful and friendly country Syria is. My very dear friends of Radio Damascus organised a whole program for me, reflecting the legendary Syrian hospitality. The head of the English section, Mr. Rasheed Haidar, also organised several meetings for me with the director of the External services, the chief engineer of Radio Damascus' shortwave station in Adra and the other staff of Radio Damascus. Here are some answers to questions which will interest you all: Question : Radio Damascus is using a media mix to distribute it's programs. You are now using shortwave, mediumwave (for the Hebrew and Russian program), satellite (Hotbird, Arabsat and Nilesat) and the internet --- http://www.syriaonline.sy/radio.php Since a very long time, listening to Radio Damascus on shortwave has had its difficulties due to modulation problems. Are you aware of this? Answer: Yes, many listeners, all over the world, are writing us about the modulation problems. The problem with the shortwave transmitters of Radio Damascus at the Adra shortwave station is that they are aging. The French made transmitters were installed in the beginning of the 1980's and the tubes of the transmitters have to be replaced. Unfortunately, replacing these tubes is a very expensive matter and Radio Damascus has a limited budget to operate. As a matter of fact, there are 2 kinds of tubes in the transmitter. 2 RF carrier tubes (Radio Frequency Carrier) and 2 tubes responsible for the modulation. We recently, at the beginning of 2009, replaced the RF carrier tubes which resulted in a stronger and better signal on both 9330 and 12085 (12085 kHz is back on the air after a long time of absence). Question: How many shortwave transmitters are installed at Adra shortwave station? Answer: There were 4 French made shortwave transmitters installed at Adra in the beginning of the 1980's. Two of them are operational, using the frequencies 9330 and 12085 kHz. Question: What is the power outlet [sic] of these two shortwave transmitters? Answer: Originally, they are 500 kW shortwave transmitters but they are now operating at 400 kW now. Question: Since the replacement of the RF-carrier tubes the signal has improved. But what are you going to do about the modulation problems? Answer: As a matter of fact, we are planning to install a new shortwave transmitter to serve our listeners better. We are planning to do this next year, that will be in 2010. This will probably be a 250 kW transmitter. We will soon invite manufacturers to submit their tenders and we will study these offers. After the installation of the new shortwave transmitter, next year, we will be evaluating the results and if the results are good we will not rule out the installation of another new transmitter. But first we will install that one new shortwave transmitter next year. Question: You are using two frequencies. 9330 and 12085 kHz. To where are these transmissions specifically beamed? Answer : Adra shortwave station has a full range of antennas to reach different parts of the world. The transmitter operating on 9330 is specifically targeting Europe. We are also getting reception reports from other parts of the world for the transmissions on this frequency, which is of course very nice, but the main target for this frequency is Europe. The other frequency, 12085, is beamed to the U.S.A., Japan and Australia. Although, as with 9330, we do get reception reports from parts of the world which are not the prime target of this frequency. Question: You are also operating a 300 kW mediumwave transmitter on the frequency of 783 kHz. This transmitter is based in Tartous, a city on the Syrian coast. This transmitter is used for the Hebrew program from 1600 till 1830 UT and the Russian program from 1830 till 1930. I noticed myself excellent reception of the mediumwave transmissions while I was in that region. So, I am sure that the Hebrew program is very well received in Israel on that frequency. What about the Russian program? Is 783 mediumwave also well received in parts of Russia? Answer: We do get a lot of response and interaction of listeners tuning in to the Hebrew program and that mediumwave transmitter is indeed very well received in Israel. Concerning the Russian program on the mediumwave. The main target of this transmission is not Russia itself but also Israel and the occupied territories. As you may know, there are many immigrants from Russia settling in Israel and the occupied territories. They are the target audience of the Russian program on 783 kHz mediumwave. Question: Besides the modulation problem, there is also the problem of buzz or hum of the transmitters? What will you do about this? Answer: Yes, we are also aware of this problem because of the many kind letters and reception reports we receive from our listeners all over the world. And we are also working on this. The replacement of the RF-carrier tubes was our main priority and this should result in better results. But we are now also working on the buzz or hum coming from the transmitters. The chief engineer of Radio Damascus is I calling upon you, dear listeners of Radio Damascus, to let him know how you receive Radio Damascus in your part of the world on the shortwave bands. On which frequency you listen (9330 or 12085 kHz). And if there is an improvement in modulation and reception conditions in general of Radio Damascus. In this context I also urge you to make a short audio recording of how you receive Radio Damascus on shortwave. You can send all reception reports and audio recordings to Radio Damascus and these will be rewarded with a beautiful Radio Damascus QSL-Card. The kind and motivated people at Radio Damascus love to hear from you, their listeners, what you like and think about the programs. Your suggestions are welcome at : Radio Damascus P. O. Box 4702 Damascus Syrian Arab Republic Or you can send me an email at radiodamascusenglish @ yahoo.com which I will forward to the Radio Damascus staff immediately. Kris Janssen Radio Damascus Listeners Club http://www.radio-damascus-listeners-club.tk or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radio_damascus Belgium (via DXLD) 12085 is surely not direxional to three widely divergent areas at once, USA, Japan and Australia. The point is, what azimuth(s) are used during the English broadcasts? 9330 to Europe also is in about the same direxion as North America, as for all broadcasters in the Middle East, SE Europe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKMENISTAN [and non]. 279, Türkmen R, Aºgabat [sic], 2106-2122, 02 Jun, Turkmenian, Kor`anic chanting, talks at 2110; 15341; this was audible after BLR s/off. LW conditions were fair-good on 06 Jun, with very nice signals from CZE 270 and POL 225 both observed roughly between 2100 & 2200. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. 4975.961, Radio Uganda, 2003, good with hilife and woman announcer. Best in USB. 6 June (David Sharp, NSW, FT 950 and ICF-2001, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. LISTENING IN ~ RADIO UKRAINE INTERNATIONAL with Darren Rozier listeningin @ bdxc.org.uk Radio Ukraine is another of those stations I remember bumping into on my old National short wave receiver from the 80s. I remember one night, as a teenager, casting around for something on the dial to help me get off to sleep and Radio Ukraine seemed to do the trick. The presenters had the authentic Eastern European accents. They were knowledgeable and made their subjects interesting. Plus there was plenty about the former Soviet republic of Ukraine. Knowing what happened there back in 1986 gave me even more of an interest on what the country was actually like, rather than seeing it as somewhere where something bad happened once. The tone of RUI is similar to that of stations from the other Eastern European states. Radio Bulgaria and Radio Romania come to mind. The Voice of Turkey and the Voice of Greece are also quite similar. It's mainly 10 minute features with cheesy theme tunes. Most of the features are narrated and any audio clips are normally in the language of the country concerned. RUI has this fabulous male presenter with a voice so deep that, if it was any deeper, you'd need an oscilloscope to pick it up! To some, stations like this seem old fashioned. To me they sound quaint and authentic. It makes the listen far more interesting. Because the life of one Darren Rozier has been so busy since he got back from Shetland he has only managed to listen to two of the hour long broadcasts that you get daily from RUI - Sunday 10 May and Thursday 14 May. But enough to give you a flavour of what the station is about! Sunday 10 May - 1900 UTC broadcast - 7490 kHz - 45444 - dropped in at 1916: *1916 - Came in at the end of the weekly event review. They were discussing a new oil pipeline and a European Commission Presentation that went with it. *1917 - "Music From Ukraine" - the feature which took up most of the Sunday broadcast. This is a relaxed weekly weekend feature which gives the station a chance to not only showcase some of it's older and folkier music, but also a chance to push forward some of its more modern bands. This feature is full of background about the songs and follows a theme throughout. Today's theme was remembering the Second World War along with other former Soviet states and celebrating their victory over fascism. Victory Day for the former Soviet Union is on the 9th May. The peace agreement was signed in the late evening of the 8th May where it was already the 9th at Moscow time. The Soviet Union attacked Ukraine on June 22nd 1941. They were the first nation hit as the Eastern Front opened up. The Soviet Union called it "The Great Patriotic War". There was a poem that was written about Ukraine at this time called "Rise the Huge Country". (The following song titles sound a bit strange, but they will be because they're direct translations from either Ukrainian or Russian.) The first song played was called "The Sacred War". It was written in Russian and it sounded very rousing and, dare I say it, frightening! Ukraine suffered the heaviest losses during WW2. It was occupied by the Nazis with the troops rolling across the country not once, but twice. There was another song written in 1941 when the Soviet troops retreated - it was like a promise that they would be back to rid the land of this enemy. During the Nazi occupation Ukrainian troops fought a guerrilla war. A song called "Go Forward Partisans" was written as an encouragement to them. During all these occupations the Ukrainian people tried their best to get on with life as normal - living, falling in love and getting married. A song was played called "A Partisan Wedding" and another called "A War War". In Western Ukraine there was a strong Nationalist movement which formed into the Ukrainian Regular Army. They tried fighting both the Nazis and the Soviets, but they lost. Most of the soldiers were bought to trial by the Soviets and were accused of collaborating with fascists. Another song followed called "A Rifle Man Was Going To War". It was mentioned that some Ukrainian war songs were written in the early 20th Century before the Soviets came. The song "Give Me Another Machine Gun Belt" got another meaning in 2004 during the Orange Revolution. One Ukrainian rock star played a version live to protesters while this was all going on. It's about a soldier who turned out to be a girl and died in the fighting. It's a Ukrainian rebel song and it's quite catchy! Other rebel songs actually contain words that soldiers should say if they're ever captured or tortured. One such song was played by another rock band and included a great guitar solo. I noticed that their rock is sung with deep, warbly voices. Maybe this is an element of historical Ukrainian music. Another such song is called "Hey Hoo Foreign Devils". Some war songs were about the peaceful lives back home that soldiers missed so badly - their families, their children etc... "I'm Leaving You Today" was about a soldier's homeland, his elderly mother, the eyes of a girl and his inevitable death on the battlefield. This was performed by another Ukrainian rock band. This was a long, but interesting programme. It's easily something you could have on in the background while you, for example, wrote up a piece for Communication magazine! However, you would want to listen to the presenter links in-between the songs so you could follow the thread and actually learn something. The show ended with the presenter thanking me for listening and a mention for the studio producer (who I assume is a technical operator). I then heard the rousing theme tune. *1957 - The deep-voiced male presenter (who I mentioned earlier) then came on to say that the transmission was ending. He then read a list of times and frequencies for the English broadcast. He began with Europe and then went on to North America. Then he said the programmes were also available on real audio and in audio on demand at the website. The show is also broadcast on the Sirius satellite at 1500. He then invited me to write to Kiev and gave me the address. Just as he got into saying goodbye the transmission ended abruptly at 1959. Just before this happened I got some co channel interference from a station broadcasting in Arabic on 7495 kHz. Thursday 14th May - 2100 broadcast - 7510 kHz at 32433 - QRM on the same channel with music and foreign speech. This broadcast was a little harder to listen to, so this might be reflected in the following write-up. *2105 - Came in during the news bulletin. There was quite an in-depth discussion about energy markets, the modernisation of the Ukrainian gas transportation system. The reformation of the election laws were also discussed and there was reference to the 2004 elections (the Orange Revolution). Somali pirates had take a vessel where all 24 crew members were Ukrainian. I found this news difficult to follow because there weren't clear boundaries between where one story finished and another began. *2109 - Ukraine Today, presented by our favourite deep-voiced news man! He started by talking about the new oil pipeline which will pump oil from the Black Sea coast all the way into Europe. With this being trumpeted as a great idea there was a hint of negativity as concerns were being expressed over security in the oil sector. Reference was also made to a powerful Eurasian transportation corridor with this new project. Lviv (Kiev) [sic] is Ukraine's cultural capital (and also where one of the country's SW transmitters are sited!) Ukraine want to identify themselves as Europeans so they're preparing themselves for some kind of competition. Four cities are being judged. The judges will be looking at city and town reconstructions and also modernisation. Ukraine are involved in the International Film Festival. The Ukrainian Cinema Foundation want to use the festival to promote the country's films. They want to enhance the reputation of Ukrainian cinema and promote it abroad. The films they want to use are "One Day We Will Wake Up" and two others. Animation was also mentioned. A clip of the director of "Wake Up" was played with English translation. It's a woman director and the film is a fairytale for adults. Each of the characters have a dream of how to make the world a better place. *2120 - "Close Up" - the regular Thursday feature which looks more closely at Ukraine. The first story was about the relationship between Ukraine and Canada. In the 19th Century there was a massive emigration to Canada and some people are still packing up and emigrating there. Both nations share close bilateral relations. Daniel Carreon is the Canadian ambassador to Ukraine. A clip was played of him speaking. It was poor, echoey audio which sounded like he was off-mike. Ukraine became members of the World Trade Organisation last year. Ukraine is the third largest participant in Canada's military training programme. This was followed by another clip from Carreon. (Close Up doesn't strictly follow the "presenter narrates" format. There are sometimes other presenters doing voice pieces to keep the programme fresh.) The next story was about the second Ukrainian polar expedition to Antarctica. Ukraine have been active here since 1996, taking over from an old British research station in the Argentine islands. This location is unique because it's in just the right place to get good readings on ozone depletion. The feature also contained some fascinating facts about Antarctica. It has a beautiful and harsh environment. 90% of the world's ice and 70% of its fresh water is found here. It's the coldest environment on Earth and it's practically untouched. It's twice the size of Australia. *2144 - By this time the programme audio was quite hard to hear so I only caught little bits. This next programme was dedicated to famous Ukrainians, but I didn't catch the title. The name of the man featured was an historical figure called Yaroslav. He was born in 980 AD and founded the town which bears his name. He also had a significant part to play in Byzantine churches. He married in 1018 to a girl who had connections with Sweden. He had five daughters and five sons. He had a military influence in the Byzantine Empire. One of his daughters married the heir to the throne of England. I think they said that the Swedish woman was Yaroslav's second wife. *2158 - End of transmission. Same announcement as at the end of Sunday's broadcast. Other programmes include listeners letters on Saturday (Hello From Kiev), Reading Lounge (famous Ukrainian writers and poets), Roots (culture and education) and Outlook. Address: RUI, 26 Khreshchatyk str., Kyiv, Ukraine. Website: http://www.nrcu.gov.ua email: vsru @ nrcu.gov.ua For only two day's listening I think this is quite a lot actually - drop me a line with suggestions for future stations to feature and I'll see what I can do. I hope to catch some of you at the BDXC summer meeting at the Barmy Arms in Twickenham on 13 June, but if not, then I'll catch you here next month. ~ 73s and happy listening! Darren. (June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** U K. Re 9-047 Spectrum 558, ``Wonder what they get from PBS Tue- Fri, Sun at 0300-0400 on AM. Charlie Rose? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD)`` Spectrum uses World Radio Network as a sustaining service. The WRN Europe schedule lists The News Hour with Jim Lehrer Tuesday-Friday 0300-0400, Sunday whilst Spectrum lists PBS. I suspect it may be NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me which WRN carry (Mike Barraclough, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Why skip NewsHour on UT Saturday? PBS is TV, NPR is radio. Not only Brits but a lot of Americans have a hard time figuring that out (gh, DXLD) ** U K [and non]. BBCWS "World Have Your Say" comes to Oregon --- Will originate an edition from Momma Jane's Pancake House in The Dalles. Why, you ask? Because a fan of the show contacted them and invited the program to The Dalles. See http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2009/06/news06-07-09-03.shtml (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, June 7, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) Viz.: BBC SHOW COMES TO MOMMA JANE’S JUNE 10 By Rodger Nichols, of The Chronicle Sometimes all you have to do is ask. Steve Miles, code enforcement officer for the City of The Dalles is a fan of the British Broadcasting Company’s [sic] “World Have Your Say” program, which has been carried at 10 a.m. weekdays on Oregon Public Broadcasting for the past two and a half years. The program visited Oregon in March 2007, originating one day of the worldwide live talk show from the Baghdad Theater in Portland in conjunction with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). Recently, show host Ros Atkins announced the show was returning to Oregon for several days, in part to host workshops at a conference of public radio news directors in Portland. Miles then invited producers to bring their program to The Dalles on one of those days. They agreed. Wednesday, June 10, the show will originate from Mama Jane’s Pancake House. “We picked this particular spot because he invited us to come there,” said producer Madeline Morris by phone from London Friday. “We were looking to do something outside of Portland. We’re very aware that Portland in not all of Oregon. We had a little bit of a look at the sorts of things that you do there and we thought it might be a really nice antidote to Portland.” World Have Your Say will actually broadcast two shows from The Dalles. From 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific time the show goes to all the world except Africa. From 11 a.m. to noon, a second live show will be broadcast in Africa. [17-18 and 18-19 UT; that explains some previous confusion] It’s a fast-paced show, with two presenters circulating through the host audience for comments, and people calling, literally, from all over the world. In addition, there’s a lively e-mail discussion, and one producer keeps an eye on that traffic and reading appropriate comments to the audience. The program is well-traveled. Morris ticked off some of the broadcast sites since the first of the year: “We were in Indiana for President Obama’s 100 days, we were in Mexico for the swine flu. We were in Israel for the Israeli elections at the start of the year. We’ve been in India and Pakistan as well this year. That was a great show. We went there particularly to link up audiences in India and Pakistan and we did a fantastic program where we had one audience in Lahore, Pakistan and one in the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, which is the one which was attacked. And we had Pakistanis speaking to Indians and they never get to do that normally.” Morris said she didn’t have specifics on audience size, but it was large. “For English language programming, the weekly reach of the BBC World Service is 50-60 million people,” she said, “but we don’t have audience figures for our particular program. It’s too difficult to mesh up because we have 70 partner stations and so many people listen on satellite radio, Sirius and XM.” She said the topics for the show change with the day’s news, and producers wouldn’t know what they would be until the day of the show. “The aim of the program is to bring the world together and give people a place to speak to one another,” Morris said. “It’s a program driven by our listeners and what our listeners want to talk about” (via DXLD) ** U S A. WRMI, 9955, was equal to or atop the jamming Sunday June 7 at 1308 as W&M were telling story of ``nuestra historia de amor``, which seemed apolitical. Online program sked, not updated since March 14, still shows Radio Cuba Libre clandestine 7 days a week at 1200- 1400. Normally I hear nothing but the DentroCuban Jamming Command before 1400, so suspect WRMI was on NW antenna instead; or extraordinary propagation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Hi, Friends, On the Swedish National Day, June 6th, I heard Cheetah Radio on 11885 kHz at 1600-1630 with a program about "Project Risks". The host, Michelle LaBrosse, confirmed my reception in one hour via e-mail and promised a QSL-card later on. Mail address: radio @ cheetahlearning.com or michelle @ cheetahpower.net 73 from (the island of Gotland and Björn Fransson, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5109.85, WBCQ, Monticello ME (presumed); 2255-2303+, 7-June; Funky music to brief NPR news at 2300 -- at least several months old as sed that the Bush Admin. was releasing flu pandemic info, then back to funky music; no ID; in English. SIO=354, best in USB (Harold Frodge, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re DX MIX NEWS # 575 02 June 2009 DXing With Cumbre: [please confirm if ANY are really on the air -- gh] WHRI Angel 1 0330-0400 on 7315 Sun/Mon 7315, at 0347, June 7 (Sun.), nothing heard here. WHRA Angel 5 0330-0400 on 7385 Sun/Mon 7385, at 0348, June 7 (Sun.), nothing heard here (Ron Howard, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Hi Glenn, Can you help me with something? I heard Family Radio Stations on 9405 kHz at 1800 UT this evening, with a strong signal. Transmitter sounded noisy, with "rumble" sounds in the background. Could you tell me which site this is, if you know? Best wishes (Chris Lewis, England, June 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Chris, It is a new transmission just started June 4 via the Armavir, Russia site, also known as Krasnodar, supposed to be at 1800- 1900 only. Language? At 1900, RL via Biblis, Germany to Belarus is supposed to take over 9405. 73, (Glenn to Chris, via DXLD) The transmission was English, and as you rightly stated, RFE in Russian followed. Will QSL this one. Family Radio mostly mark on the QSL which site relayed what (Chris Lewis, ibid.) ** U S A. A couple of items from X-band stations: 1610, "KJNW", Federal Way [a town in Washington state]. This is the station with EZ and melodic religious music I have heard a couple of times driving to and from SeaTac Airport on Highway 99. Today I heard the call letters and subsequently got the web site. One of its missions is to provide broadcast training for the underprivileged. It cites a short wave frequency "capable of being herd in 20 countries" but does not list the frequency. No street address or phone number were provided and the E-mail address is non-functional. The calls stand for "King Jesus North West." 1640 WQIF320 Tukwila. To the best of my ability, these are the calls of a new TIS noted today on Highway 99 on the way back from the airport. It is run by the City of Tukwila. I don't recall hearing or reading about this one before (Pete Taylor, Tacoma, WA, June 7, 12225w 4719n, HQ180 + Kiwa air core loop, ICF2010 + " " " ", DX398; Palomar loop, SRF-59 & -M37V, Eton E100, IRCA via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 2381.10, unID harmonic 0950 on 5 June. Logs ~ Pómpano Beach, Cedar Key, Boca Ratón, Clewiston, Coral Springs and Embu SP Brasil. [Florida - Brasil Group] 73s (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, NRD 535D ~ Drake R8, 7 June, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It`s impossible to know who really heard what, where, which locations if not which individuals really apply to each item (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 11710, NORTH KOREA & UNID. Voice of Korea and UnID, 1238, 6/3/09 in Korean and ?. V. of Korea had talk by a woman until UnID sign-off at 1245. UnID had a nice ballad, talk by a male announcer, an anthem (which I have not been able to identify as a national anthem), and off at 1245, leaving VoK in the clear. Both were about even. I have listened since and not been able to identify anything else here. There are several options listed in EiBi and Aoki (AIR in Burmese, CNR 1, R. Taiwan International) but none are listed as signing off at 1245. On 1200, 6/6/09 only V. of Korea was audible with an anthem, and woman announcer in Korean (Mark Taylor, Madison WI, WinRadio g313e, ICOM R 75, Eton e1, Grundig S 800, Kaito 1103; 2 Flextennas, EWE, attic mounted Eavesdropper, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Seems to me VOK could be the one signing off at 1245; nominally to 1250 but variable. Otherwise, RTI plus ChiCom jamming. Check if it matches the Taiwan anthem on other transmissions; they play it opening every English broadcast, IIRC (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks to Lev Lytovchenko, Edmonton, Alberta who send a money order in US funds on a US bank to P O Box 1684, Enid OK, 73702 USA CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ NRC - WTFDA CONVENTION, ALLENTOWN PA, SEPTEMBER 4-6 IT’S ALLENTOWN IN 2009! This year’s joint NRC-WTFDA Convention will be held in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, in Allentown, with members of WTFDA joining NRC members, too! Besides the regular events such as the auction, banquet, and quiz, the AAA Lehigh Valley Ironpigs minor league baseball team will be in town, in their last homestand of the season. It will be held at the Rodeway Inn 1151 Bulldog Drive, Allentown, PA 18104. This hotel is conveniently located near Rts. 22, 309, and the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike. It is also close to the Lehigh Valley International Airport. 1). To reserve your room call the Rodeway Inn at 1-888-395-5200. Make sure to mention you are with the National Radio Club for the $69 rate (before Taxes). Up to 4 people can stay in the room. You can get 1 king bed or 2 double beds. The website for the motel is http://www.rodewayinnallentown.com This motel was formerly known as the Days Inn Conference Center. 2). Convention registration is $45. Check is payable to “National Radio Club” and mail it to Bob Smolarek at 31 Mark Drive, High Bridge, NJ 08829 3). Send any auction items to 31 Mark Drive, High Bridge, NJ 08829 4. More details to follow concerning tower hunting, tours, and a guest speaker. So be in Allentown this Labor Day! (June 15 NRC DX News, June 8 via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ KLOK 1170 - New Format Noted yesterday while driving home from Monterey: KLOK 1170, San José, CA has changed format from Spanish to International, continuously playing Asian and Indian music all day, and soliciting emails from those interested in hosting international shows in their language on "San Francisco's New International Station". KLOK is 50 kW directional to NW from a 3-tower end-fire array in San Jose, and is HD. Unlike most AM HD stations, KLOK has taken the time and effort to employ FULL STEREO AUDIO through their HD system - the quality of their audio is truly remarkable. Any of you in the SFO Bay area wanting to hear what HD done right sounds like, tune to KLOK with your HD receiver. Your socks will be knocked off (Darwin Long, CA, June 7, ABDX via DXLD) This reinforces the experience that I've had - it's very, very easy to make AM HD audio sound awful, but in the rare instances when a station puts real effort into tweaking its processing to account for the nuances of the AM HD codec, the system *can* be made to sound pretty good. I've heard a handful of stations - KFAB in Omaha comes to mind - that have figured out how to do it right. (The "secret," to the extent that there is one, seems to involve carefully controlling the amount of upper treble - 10 kHz and up - that reaches the encoder.) Now, is it *worth* the effort? I think that train has probably left the station at this point...but it appears that KLOK's owners are among the few holdouts left who disagree. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DTV CONVERTER BOXES Guys, I am about to use my coupons for DTV boxes. In the past, there's been some brief discussion here about the RCA, Magnavox, Zenith, the perhaps similar LG box and maybe some others. I'd like to find a box with excellent sensitivity, but would like to hear any of your input regarding other features, as well. Can anyone offer input? Thanks, (Brian Goodrich, Greensboro, NC, ABDX via DXLD) The Zenith or the Best Buy one [Insignia] which is made by LG. The RCA I think good bad reviews. The Magnavox has OK sensitivity, but changing screen aspect is a pain as you have to go into menus and the Zenith has a button on the remote. The Magnavox can't be operated without the remote. The Zenith you can turn off and on and change channels without the remote. Be prepared to find out that rabbit ears don't work very well, if at all. (Powell E Way III, SC, ibid.) DTV Converter Box DTV has not worked out too well for me. I have tried the Magnavox, Digital Stream, and a BT TECH made just before coupon days (the BT tech is NOT a coupon box; it outputs HDTV and digital sound out). I have tried several indoor antennas. Results were as follows no matter, what I do. On a good day, sure, everything between here [where?] and Boston is in. The slightest enhancement will make a good day. However more often than not, on a bad day, just trying to get a local 15 miles away results in freezing / pixal blocks. No local store that I have access to carries the Zenith or ever did. It came to the point I reconnected to basic cable and abandoned DTV efforts. (I tried working with it over different seasons: winter was better; summer with leaves on trees = forget it. I can't get the antenna outside (Norbert Starship, June 8, ABDX via DXLD) Here in Tampa, I probably live about the same 15-mile distance from the "antenna farm" near Riverview where most of the stations are located. I purchased an Insignia converter box, which was one of the highest rated by Consumer Reports. I also purchased a good electrified rabbit ear antenna that boosts the signal. However, the converter box will only receive some of the stations, and there is some pixil box effect as you describe. Some stations are not receivable at all. Reception is definitely not a good as analog was (Dick W., ibid.) I'm a long way from the antennas. Probably 60 miles from the closest ones. Winter, no leaves, life is good. Summer, forget TV because the leaves disperse the signals. In AZ I could get signals 125 miles away without a problem in the winter. Summer, forget it, pixellation abounds. If there are no impediments between you and the signal, it will travel a long way. If there is leaves, buildings anything in the way, forget TV (Kevin Redding, Crump, TN, ibid.) GREAT DTV RECEIVING ANTENNAS Two DTV receiving antennas that are highly recommended by Gary Stigall of San Diego SBE Chapter 36 are as follows. The story first appeared in our newsletter in CGC #894: o For UHF (CHs-14 to 51), Gary says he's a real evangelist for the "Terrestrial Digital 91XG." It has high gain AND excellent front-to- back ratio (28 dB): http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=TD-91XG o For HI-BAND VHF (CHs-7 to 13), Gary recommends the following Winegard: http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=YA1713 (CGC Communicator June 8 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) RF SATISFACTION This guy is in Clinton, SC some 20 miles from me. He works obviously at Presbyterian College there. Look at his DTV antenna set up, and the pictures. http://web.presby.edu/~jtbell/TV/stations.html (Powell E Way III, W4OPW, SC, June 7, ABDX via DXLD) FCC SAYS 35 STATIONS TO GO DARK JUNE 12 SEVEN OF THE STATIONS ARE MAJOR NETWORK AFFILIATES John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, June 3, 2009 http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/talkback/277999-FCC_Says_35_Stations_To_Go_Dark_June_12.php#61490 Click here for a list of the stations http://www.broadcastingcable.com/file/3310-SilentStations.pdf The FCC said Wednesday that 35 full-power TV stations that have been broadcasting in analog have said they will be ceasing operation entirely on or before June 12—meaning they won’t start digital operations after they pull the plug on analog. Although 17 of those 35 have technical issues and the FCC said it expects them back by year's end, and some others could continue using some of another station’s digital real estate in the market. Of those 35 stations, 18 are owned by one company in bankruptcy, Equity Media, while seven of the 35 stations are affiliates of a major network, the FCC said. The FCC said it would try to reduce the number that would go dark, pointing out that some of the Equity signals would still be available on the multicast channel of another digital station. That news came at the FCC's public meeting Wednesday on the status of the DTV transition. Eloise Gore, associate bureau chief of the FCC's Media Bureau, said that 10 of those 35 stations have already gone dark. In a press conference following the FCC's DTV briefing Wednesday where 35 stations were cited, all the commissioners expressed concern. "I am concerned whenever any broadcast station goes dark or shuts down its operation in terms of localism and diversity and competition," said FCC Chairman Michael Copps. "In the face of a disappearance of another newsoom, that is a net loss for the American people." Commissioner Adelstein called it "almost a perfect storm for the broadcasting industry," citing the unprecedented downturn in advertising due to a variety of factors. Commissioner Robert McDowell said he hoped the FCC would take broadcasters' "extreme economic duress" into account when it makes new policy (via CGC Communicator June 8 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) Please delete KUOK from your list. KUOK (Univision), Woodward, OK will be digital ready on June 12th. Lee Redick Director of Sales Telemundo / Univision Oklahoma City, OK (comment to above article via DXLD) Channel 35 before and after. Archrivals TM and UV have a common sales director?? Anti-trust? (gh, DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See ITALY; and next item ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL RADIO RECEIVERS ARE NOT ESPECIALLY "GREEN" kimandrewelliott.com June 6, 2009 "Clearer reception may be the result for some listeners, but, according to an Energy Saving Trust report published two years ago, 'traditional analogue radios have an average on-power consumption of two watts, but digital radios consume, on average, more than four times this amount (8.5 watts).' Radios - be they analogue or digital - rank fairly low down the list of the most energy hungry appliances in our home, but it does seems slightly at odds with our energy-saving mantra that we should be making a step-change towards a technology that uses "more than four times" the power of its predecessor." Leo Hickman, The Guardian, 3 June 2009 (Kim Andrew Elliott discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy) Kim writes: This article refers to DAB domestic radio in the UK, but also applies to DRM shortwave radio. Battery consumption is an issue here. Newer chipsets promise lower power drain (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) My own personal experience with consumer-based multi-band radios are in step with the general findings here. Below findings use Alkaline AA batteries. KAITO WRX-911 full analogue, life 400+ hours, batteries at 1.00 Volts ea. TECSUN PL-200 digital PLL, analog audio, life 100 hours, batteries at 1.10 Volts ea. GRUNDIG G6 digital PLL, digital audio, life 50 hours, batteries at 1.25 Volts ea. Note the voltage requirements needed by digital controlled circuitry. This shortens presumed battery life... however 3 "exhausted" batteries from a digital radio could be used to power the radio efficiently. I doubt anyone does this, still it is an alternative to tossing perfectly good batteries. I also note that the WRX-911 does not like Rechargeable batteries, while the digital models thrive on them. The Tecsun (Eton E100) can be "code set" for Alkalines or Rechargeables. This does affect battery life, extending Alkalines. I have not tested the new DSP radios recently offered using the Silconix 47xx series chips. Initial reviews of these radios are mixed to say the best. Battery life has not been addressed yet (Paul Shaffer, Cheshire, CT owner of all 3 radios presented here, ibid.) VINYL COMING BACK; WHY NOT SHORTWAVE? Hi Everyone, Today I read an interesting story from a newspaper in Japan (Mainichi News) from June 2, 2009. It was written by Kazumata Hirota, a media and music specialist at Tokyo University. I’ll translate it for you because it is very interesting. He writes about SW and its future and the parallels with vinyl. Part of it reads. (excuse the translation) In 1990 many in the music industry were saying that vinyl would die. From 1990 to 2000 record sales dropped by 97% in the markets of North America and Europe as CD sales rocketed. But since the advent of MP3s and music downloads, CD sales in these markets have also declined. The major record labels closed their vinyl pressing plants, the last being Columbia Records in 2001. The US, which had 32 vinyl plants, now has seven, all independently owned. But since 2007, demand for vinyl releases has risen by 42%. And in the first half of 2009 has seen an increase of 11% whereas CD sales continue to drop. The major labels such as Universal, BMG and Sony Music have started to re-issue new releases on vinyl. United Pressing, the largest vinyl pressing plant in the US, which has been around since 1948, have been since 2007 running are full capacity. In 2009 the runs for vinyl have been 60,000 12” a week, 22,000 10” and 7000 7”. Company owner said that in 1996 he started to lay off staff. His company went from have 300 workers to 70. But in 2006 started to re-hire many of them back as well as new people. The company now has 273 people as of March 2009. So all the experts who said vinyl would die seem to have been off with their predictions. This leads me to the question. What about the prediction that shortwave broadcasting will also vanish and go the way of records. Shortwave listening has dropped in many regions of the world since internet connections have increased in speed and availability. Here in Japan, the sale of SW radios has dropped off to only a few thousand units sold each year, just like vinyl. Many SW stations including Radio Japan, have cut back in SW broadcasts in favor of podcasting. But yet independent stations have increased hours. The US which has been severely hit but SW cuts, has seen many small stations filling the gaps left behind when Radio Japan or BBC reduce hours. In many ways this could be a good thing, as the reduced hours by the large to medium size stations leave more air space for smaller stations. [What are these ``smaller stations``?? --- gh] The question is when will stations like Radio Japan, BBC, and others wake up just as the large labels did? This will happen when they realize that the smaller stations are bringing in larger audiences that they are. History has shown is that many of these large companies are not good at restructuring. Look at how it took the major labels to respond to the MP3 revolution. Smaller companies just on the new technology right away. My viewpoint is the same is happening to SW radio. The reason I say that is all the signs are there. The full story is 3 pages. This is just a short summary. Give me some time to translate the full article and I’ll send it along (Keith Perron, Taiwan, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WHERE'S THE ACTION? RECEIVERS ON E-BAY Hi all, I hadn't pulled up EBAY in a couple of months, so this evening I thought I'd go there to see what receivers were available for bid? I first entered the Watkins Johnson HF1000 for a search which came back as zero items found. Then I tried the NRD-545 which also came back without any results. Subsequent searches of other receivers came back negative also. There were a couple NRD-525's out there, but they looked like they were over priced from the results of the bids so far. Anyway, I don't recall the availability of table top receivers ever being so scarce before on EBAY? I realize the economy is bad now, but I would think there'd be those wanting to sell their receivers for some extra cash, rather than holding on to them? Just a thought (Chuck Bolland, FL, June 8, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ TRANS-EQUATORIAL Our amigo Derril from Antigua is also telling me that he has been enjoying some nice FM DX from South America. Those amigos who sent today's question are very interested about the so called Trans-equatorial ionospheric forward scatter propagation, that provides so interesting DX signals on frequencies as high as the two meters amateur band, TEP is much more frequent on the 10 meters and 6 meters bands. Although there are well verified reports of regular TEP propagation from the Caribbean to Brazil on the 2 meters amateur band. All I can say amigos is that Trans-equatorial upper HF and VHF propagation was discovered by radio amateurs operating from Africa and the Mediterranean region, and so far scientists have not really reached an agreement about what causes this unique form of signal propagation that shows practically no relation to the solar cycle. Examples of Trans-equatorial propagation include the reception of Brazilian FM stations operating from 88 to 108 megaHertz in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico [and vice versa per periodic reports carried by DXLD --- gh]. Amateur two meters band signals from as far as northern Argentina reaching Puerto Rico, and the history making path between Zimbabwe and Cyprus, one of the first ones that was fully documented by radio amateurs during the early nineteen fifties. There are some reports indicating that Trans-equatorial propagation has even sent the maximum useable frequency curve to well above 300 megaHertz, something that indicates an extremely high level of free electrons concentrations at F2 layer altitude. I hope that this short explanation gives you an idea amigos of what Trans-equatorial forward scatter propagation is, and how it is still very much a mystery that science is trying to discover using sophisticated research tools like satellites equipped with ionospheric sounders that work in reverse, that is they send signals from space to the ionosphere at the same time that standard ionospheric sounders probe the ionosphere from below. The fact that Trans-equatorial propagation happens at certain times of the year is the main clue that scientists are using to find a correlation that will fit and finally tell them why this extraordinary VHF and up to UHF bands propagation events happen (Arnie Coro, RHC DXers Unlimited June 6 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) THE SUN, ON DISCOVERY If you watch Discovery Channel much, you have this ``I`ve seen this before, haven`t I?`` feeling, but then an hour is flagged as ``new`` - -- like The Sun, Sunday evening. See for youself -- a cute astrophysicist explains coronal mass ejexions, etc., yes, somewhat elementary, but what grafix of the sun, aurorae, etc. It`s at 7-8 pm CT, repeated at 10-11 pm, on the feed we get in OK; 0000 and 0300 UT Monday. Some online listings imply the second airing is a different episode, but I think not. And between them at 0100-0300, also `new`, Inside Planet Earth, about the core, which also has implications for propagation (Glenn Hauser, Enid, UT June 8, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) They were both bugged as `Premiere` but I continue to think DSC is guilty of re- and re-working old material into `new` programs (gh) Hi Glenn, I saw both programs yesterday evening. They were pretty factual but of course they had to get in their obligatory the "sky is falling" plugs in for global warming and solar flares wiping out all electronics on the planet. I was glad to see that they mentioned the Maunder Minimum, the Little Ice Age and how the variability of the energy output of the Sun will cool or warm our global climate. Anecdotal evidence is pointing towards another Dalton Minimum. A Dalton Minimum is a miniature version of the infamous Maunder Minimum, where the number of sunspot groups drop to a below normal level and corresponding total energy output of the Sun also drops. This would bring on a mini mini ice age for a period of 30-50 years. Here is one of my favorite mantras, "There is no better fun to be had then sitting in the radio shack on a cold winter evening DXing". With no molten core we would have no protective magnetic field and therefore ultraviolet light from the Sun and cosmic rays from distant supernova's would sterilize the surface of our planet of all life. Last but not least, no or few sunspots would mean poor propagation conditions for 16-11 m due to a reduction of ultraviolet light but enhanced propagation conditions on 120-41 meters due to less D layer absorption. 73 & GUD DX, (Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O, Lakeland, FL, USA nz4o@arrl.net LF/MF/HF/VHF/UHF Frequency Radiowave Propagation Email Reflector: http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/spaceweather NZ4O Daily Solar Space Weather & Geomagnetic Data Archive: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf5.htm NZ4O Daily LF/MF/HF/6M Frequency Radiowave Propagation Forecast & Archive: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf6.htm NZ4O 160 Meter Radio Propagation Theory Notes: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf8.htm NZ4O Solar Cycle 24 Forecast Discussion & Archive: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf72.htm June 8, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###