DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-04, January 27, 2010 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 2010 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html For restrixions and searchable 2009 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid9.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1497, January 29-February 3, 2010 [note WRMI is off the air or on reduced power/schedule; still webcast] Fri 0100 WBCQ Area 51 5110-CUSB Fri 0200 WRMI 9955 Fri 1530 WRMI 9955 Fri 2130 WWCR1 7465 Sat 0900 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 9510 [2-weekly from Jan 29?] Sat 0900 WRMI 9955 Sat 1430 WRMI 9955 Sat 1730 WWCR3 12160 Sat 1900 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 6170 Sat 2000 WRMI 9955 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Sun 1230 South Herts Radio 5835 Sun 1615 WRMI 9955 Sun 2000 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 9955 Tue 2000 WBCQ 7415 9330-CUSB? Wed 1630 WRMI 9955 [usually first airing] Wed 1930 South Herts Radio 3935 Wed 2000 WBCQ 7415 9330-CUSB? Thu 1300 WRMI 9955 Thu 2000 WBCQ 7415 9330-CUSB? [aired 1496 instead Jan 28] 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://193.42.152.193/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN: http://www.wrn.org/wrn-listeners/world-of-radio/ http://www.wrn.org/listeners/world-of-radio/rss/09:00:00UTC/English/541 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** ALBANIA [and non]. R. Tirana, 0000-0130 Albanian service to North America, 7425, Jan 23 at 2358 IS but poor signal, and not much audible after 0000. Chinese had been on 7425 around 2355, which is CRI via Kunming. CRI is also scheduled on 7425 in English via Kashgar at 00- 01. R. Tirana`s other frequency from Shijak, 6130, had much better signal at 0006 Jan 24, no QRM, but just barely modulated. Meanwhile noted rapid clicking QRM covering 7432-7436 or so which at first I thought was spur from DentroCuban jamming on 7405, but clix still there when jamming had ceased after 0000. Fortunately, no broadcasts scheduled on 7435 until 0030 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. ON AN EXCURSION TO ALBANIA, IT'S JUST YOU AND THE ANTIQUITIES --- By Peter Mandel Special to The Washington Post, Sunday, January 17, 2010, Spring and Summer Cruises It is early morning in the MS Oosterdam's Vista Lounge. Passengers cluster. Curtains sway with the sea. I am awake, but thanks to the softness of the lounge's velour chair, I keep remembering sleep. "You on the Kickin' Corfu tour?" asks a man with a backpack and an aluminum-and-rubber cane. "Um, no," I say. "Shore excursion No. 6. I'm going to Albania." ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/14/AR2010011404061.html?sub=AR (Travel section of the January 17, 2010 Washington Post, via Kraig Krist, VA, via Drita Çiço, Albania, DXLD) travelog, not about radio ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, RN Arcángel San Gabriel, Base Esperanza. January 22 [Friday], 1924-2002 folk music selections, 1927 male time announcements in Spanish “con cuatro horas y veinte y siete minutos”, 1939 short male announcements. 34533 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [non]. 15465, 26/Jan 1803, PORTUGAL, RDP, PP. OM e YL apresentam nx. Fui tentar o sinal da LRA36, mas nem sinal a não ser a moderada a forte QRM da larga amplitude do sinal da RDP que ocupa desde 15465 kHz. 45544 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA [and non]. Estimado amigo Gabriel: Estoy escuchando a RAE a través de Internet y anuncian que se emite a través de la frecuencia 11710 kHz. Según me comentó Glenn Hauser, las frecuencias de 11710 y 15345 kHz no emiten actualmente por problemas en los transmisores. Desearía conocer, si dispones de esa información, en qué frecuencias se emite actualmente por O.C. y sobre todo el programa Actualidad DX. Muy agradecido (Un cordial saludo, (José Bueno, Córdoba, España, via DXLD) Estimado amigo y colega José Bueno, RAE, desafortunadamente, desde hace un par de meses que está inactiva en la onda corta. No emite en las frecuencias de 15345 y 11710 khz, pues el transmisor se dañó definitivamente. Tenía muchos años. Se ha comprado un nuevo, las válvulas ya están llegando, pero ciertamente no se sabe cuándo comenzará a emitir, aunque se espera sea dentro de poco, pero, hay que acondicionar todo nuevamente. Las identificaciones de RAE siguen diciendo que se emite en la onda corta, dado que están 'pregrabadas', y pese a que lo normal sería no mencionar que emite en onda corta, así lo hacen. Un abrazo, GIB (Gabriel Iván Barrera, Argentina, Jan 23 via José Bueno, Spain, DXLD) But soon: RAE is back! Main transmitter used on 15345v and 11711v had been off the air since late October, but Jan 23 at 0016 I noticed a het on 11710 with Chinese station. Could also be variable North Korea, but worth further checking. At 0055, there was the RAE IS and now measured on 11709.4, so still off-frequency but to the other side. By 0102 it was too weak to confirm language, presumably Japanese as previously scheduled, and still hetting weak 11710 signal. The Chinese on 11710.0 is per Aoki: CNR1, Beijing 572 site, 100 kW, 285 degrees. However, this sounds like the same old GE transmitter which RAE could never get to stay on frequency, not a brand-new replacement which is supposedly on order. So they managed to get it going again. Next check at 0215 found English from RAE in the clear after China goes off at listed 0130; like the other foreign languages, this English 02-03 broadcast is UT Tue-Sat only, finally French at 03-04. At 0312 UT Jan 23, the RAE 11709.4 signal was better in music, presumably within French service, but a het once again. Now the only other thing scheduled is CRI in Russian due west via Urumqi, East Turkistan. Meanwhile, look for 15345v reactivated also. Per WRTH 2010, B-09 weekend schedule of RNA relays is Sat 2000-0230 UT Sun on 15345; and Sun 1800-0300 UT Mon on 11710v (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11710.56v, 23/1 0040, Radio Argentina al Exterior, in Portuguese, reports, talks about Paraguay. ID and frequencies at 0048, then tango. End of Portuguese program, interval signal with some IDs in different languages. At 0100 start new program. It was reported off air, now on air again. Slowly drifting upward. At 0054 on 11710.57 kHz; at 0006 11710.58; 0013 11710.59, Weak (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, RX: SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030; Yaesu FRG-7 --- ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15344.951v, RAE, Spanish, 2108, news and current affairs program (sounded like it was a Radio Nacional relay). Looks like they have repaired the old transmitter (presumably, a new transmitter would be exactly on frequency). Hard to pinpoint exact frequency as the transmitter "warbled" a bit. Still though, happy to have it back as this is the most reliable RAE frequency for me. Jan. 23 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Since 11710v was reactivated on Jan 22-23, I look for the other frequency from same transmitter, 15345, at the earliest opportunity, scheduled from 2000 on Saturdays with R. Nacional relay. Jan 23 at 2057 there is a weak signal, sounds Spanish rather than Arabic --- where is Morocco? Is it off or not propagating? By 2157, 15345 considerably stronger and definitely in Spanish, 2100 precisely accurate 5-pip timesignal, and talking about Argentina. Still no sign of Morocco, no het. LRA close to 15345.0. Next check at 2355 music and Argentine-accented talk, 2358 giving an e-mail address for R. Nacional, or maybe it was a government PSA. UT Jan 24: 0004 saying they were now transmitting from Mar del Plata. On UT Sundays they stay on 15345 until sign off nominally at 0230, while on Sundays they use 11710v instead from 1800 to 0300 UT Mondays. As for the 25m channel, which I estimated at 11709.4 based on my one- kHz stepping up and down on the YB-400, Giampiero Bernardini in Italy was listening at about the same time from 0040 UT Jan 23, and put it on 11710.56 drifting upward very slowly by about 1 Hz per minute. He also has an FRG-7 but can measure frequencies much more accurately with SDR-IQ and/or AOR AR7030. Apparently I got it on the wrong side of the center channel. Wolfgang Büschel reports that RAE is back on the air because a new tube has been installed, while Gabriel Iván Barrera previously told us that purchase of a whole new transmitter had been approved in November, so was there a misunderstanding or is the new transmitter still on the way? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 15345 khz von RAE wieder in Betrieb -- Note of yesterday Jan 22: RAE Buenos Aires technicians have got the new transmitter TUBE and repaired the 11710/15345v unit. Station is again on air from yesterday ... 73 wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: ----- Original Message ----- From: "bernd.seiser" Sent: Saturday, January 23, 2010 8:52 AM Subject: 15345 khz von RAE wieder in Betrieb Liebe RTI Hoererklubmitglieder und Hoererklubfreunde, wie mir Rayen Braun mitgeteilt hat, wurde gestern ueberaschend der Sender auf 15345 KHz wieder in Betrieb genommen. Die langerwartete Roehre war endlich bei der Sendestelle angekommen. Eine Empfangsbeobachtung aus Uruquay ueber die italienischsprachige Sendung ging schon telefonisch in Buenos Aires ein, ebenso ein Fax, es konnte auch die franzoesische Sendung gehoert werden. Ich bitte Euch deshalb darum, ab Montag den Empfang um 1700 und 2100 UT auf 15345 KHz zu ueberprufen und bei Erfolg auch die Redaktion in Argentinien zu informieren. Damit steigen die Chancen erheblich, gemeinsam mit RAE im Mai zum RTI Hoerertreffen in Ottenau eine weitere Diplomaktion durchzufuehren. [RTI = Radio Taiwan International] Uber eine weitere Bekanntgabe dieser Information wuerden sich Rayen Braun und ich sehr freuen, vielen Dank fuer Eure Unterstuetzung. Vy 73+55, (Bernd Seiser, Jan 23 via Büschel, DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 6059.99, RAE, Buenos Aires, 1010-1020, Jan 22, local Argentine music. Portuguese talk. ID. Poor in noisy conditions and slightly distorted audio. 15344.94, Radio Nacional, Buenos Aires, 2230-2300, Jan 23, local Argentine music. Spanish talk. Poor. Weak (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) RAE, Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior, nuevamente está en onda corta desde el 22 de enero pasado, por las frecuencias de 11710 y 15345 kHz. Tal como lo ha reportado Glenn Hauser a José Bueno, de España, tras lo cual he consultado al director de RAE quien me ha confirmado recién hoy dicha noticia. La válvula llegó de Estados Unidos y ha sido instalada en el transmisor General Electric, razón por la que está operando nuevamente en onda corta. Recordemos que la emisora estuvo inactiva desde el pasado 27 de Octubre 2009. 73 GIB (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, Jan 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yimber includes this link: http://www.radionacional.com.ar/programacion/rae.html which is a rather strange setup, listing programs in various languages and showing names of announcers, including English: Programa en Inglés. Locutores: Mirian Túrkula y Fernando Farías Por las frecuencias de onda corta 9690 y 15345 para Europa. Locutores: Mirian Túrkula, Fernando Farías. Argentinainternationalradio @ gmail.com Lunes a viernes de 15:00 a 16:00 Thus referring to the European service at 18 UT but in local time. And there is a ``listen live`` link only to the language in progress, if any, on the current local day of week; Portuguese came right up when we checked for Tuesday at 0015 UT Wednesday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Os TXs 11710 e 15345 kHz da RAE já estão ativos em ondas curtas. Estiveram parados por um longo tempo, em virtude de eles estarem sob manutenção. A falha dos argentinos é não responderem de pronto quando perguntado do porquê de os TXs estarem fora do ar. Enviei-lhes um e- mail em novembro para saber. Só agora deram informação a respeito. No radioamadorismo são mal pagadores de QSLs. 73 (LUIZ Chaine Neto, Limeira sp, 23-1-2010, radioescutas yg via DXLD) 11710 & 15345 kHz, RAE, Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior is again active on the SW freq's from 22 January 2010. The station have been reported by Gleen Hauser on same Jan 22, and its reports are corrects, this confirmed today by the Director of RAE through a personal email to me. The tube have been buy in USA and is in use now, with the General Electric transmitter. The station have been inactive from Oct 27th, 2009. 73s GIB (Gabriel Iván Barrera, Jan 26, playdx yg via DXLD) 15345.05, 25/1 2037, RAE, in French, press review, from La Nación and others, song, culture. Fair, light QRM. Transmitter drifting also on this frequency (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, RX: SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030; Yaesu FRG-7 --- ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11710.6 approx., RAE with good clear signal in music during English hour, UT Tue Jan 26 at 0219 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15345, 25/Jan 1915, RAE, em Italian. Mx Argentina estilo bolero. As 1918 UT YL parece iniciar um programa de noticias alternando-se com OM. A lista EIBI informa esse horário em francês e a Aoki corretamente como sendo italiano. As nx são intercaladas com local mx. 35433 (Jorge Freitas-B) 15345, 26/Jan 1845, RAE, EE. OM fala entrementes tangos argentinos. Moderado zumbido na frequência. 44433 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hum from Morocco? EiBi schedules for this and 11710v are one hour off, assuming DST time-shift like last summer, but which was not imposed this summer (gh, DXLD) 15345, the 8-note RAE IS fair at 2157 Jan 26, following German broadcast; had I realized that Aoki shows a one-hour gap until Spanish from *2300, I would have stayed tuned a bit longer to reconfirm that Spanish axually starts at 2200 weekdays, as per WRTH (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARMENIA. 4810.000, Voice of Armenia, Arabic, 1920, brief talk by a man, into ballad to 1928, further comments by a man, brief music (interval signal?), plug pulled at 1930. Jan. 22 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. Hi Andrew, Have been getting reports that CVC will be closing down Darwin at the end of January. Does this mean the entire site will be dark, permanently, or will CVC just no longer be involved?? There have also been reports that CVC will be ceasing ALL shortwave broadcasting. Please confirm or explain. Are any other sites you use going out of service on the same date or soon, and if so, which ones, which languages and services? Thanks, (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO, to Andrew Flynn, CVC, via DXLD) Hello Glenn, Indeed, the Darwin site is ending transmissions on 31st January, and being dismantled ahead of CVC's lease expiry in June. It is untrue that CVC is ending ALL shortwave broadcasting - Santiago and Lusaka still serve viable targets in Latin America and Africa, and The Voice Asia, which we broadcast from Tashkent, generates tens of thousands of responses every month. However, as I have said before, when you combine changing patterns of media consumption with a tough financial climate, it's necessary to examine where funds will make the most impact. Christian Vision is committed to introducing people to Jesus and see Him touch and change their lives - and since we consider the message to be superior to the means or medium we won't be precious about being narrowly defined, like 'we are a shortwave broadcaster' for example. This is clearly a time of transition and nobody quite knows how it will pan out as target demographics, media access, habits and trends are non-homogenous. Radio is still an important part of the mix, especially for those who cannot access new media (I will be speaking on this at Radio Asia in February), and it does things that other media can't do; but a generation of a billion (and increasing) 'connected' mostly-young people has emerged for whom radio has little or no relevance. This presents a huge opportunity which we cannot ignore. Kind regards (Andrew Flynn Director International Broadcasting Christian Vision The Pavilion Manor Drive Coleshill West Midlands B46 1DL United Kingdom Jan 26, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Andrew, Thanks for explaining. I wonder if you could also give me some ideas about this: Whose decision was it to dismantle the Darwin facility rather than repurpose it? One would have thought that Radio Australia would be glad to have it back for its own full use. Since CVC was leasing it, whose property is it now, on the air or not? Are some of the transmitters, antennas destined for other sites? Do you plan to mark the final transmission(s) in any particular way, special programming or announcements, and if so, exactly when; specially endorsed QSLs? Thanks, (Glenn, to Andrew Flynn, Jan 26, via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) No reply as of Jan 27 ** AUSTRALIA [non]. Additional frequencies of R. Australia via KHBN/T8WH Palau [see also PALAU] 2200-2400 on 12040 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAs English 0000-0030 on 15225 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAs Indonesian 0100-0130 on 15655 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAs Burmese 0400-0430 on 15780 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAs Indonesian, not 15785 0500-0530 on 15590 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAs Indonesian 1600-1630 on 9965 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAs Burmese, not Chinese 1300-1430 on 9890*HBN 100 kW / 318 deg to EaAs in Chinese * co-channel China National Radio in Mongolian and Kazakh Additional frequencies of R. Australia via Al-Dhabbaya, UAE: 2200-2330 on 5935#DHA 250 kW / 105 deg to SEAs in Indonesian 2300-2330 on 5955*DHA 250 kW / 090 deg to SEAs in Burmese 1100-1300 on 17880 DHA 250 kW / 090 deg to SEAs in English # co-ch Voice of Russia/International Russian Radio, Russian from 2300 * co-channel China National Radio in Mongolian (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 25 via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 15400, 1310-1325, Sat 23.01, HCJB, via Kununurra. English "DX-Partyline" with Allen Graham, Asian DX-tips from JSWC, talk about Heathkit receivers and man-made noise, 35444. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) This is on their program schedule as 1315-1330; it`s also iffy about the other airing Saturday at ``0800``, axually reported starting at 0755 (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. WIEN MW TRANSMITTER TO BE DEMOLISHED The complete antenna array of the Wien-Bisamberg mediumwave site will be demolished at the end of February. So far it is not known what will happen with the grounds. The transmitter building is under preservation order. http://wien.orf.at/stories/417899/ Transmissions from this site, on 1476 kHz, ceased on 31 Dec 2008 at 2310 UT. At this point it was planned to blow up only the 265 m tall "Nordmast" (northern mast), once used for the 585 kHz outlet that is silent for almost two decades now. The 120 m "Südmast" for 1476 kHz was supposed to be kept, and Österreichische Rundfunksender GmbH told ADXB-OE that the frequency would still be available for interested broadcasters. But now they dump this option definitely. Some photos of the antenna array: http://www.wabweb.net/radio/sender/bisamberg2005.htm More photos, also of the old tube transmitters, with a link to an even larger photo collection that includes also a shot of the Thomson M2W transmitter that had been used during the last years of operation: http://radiomuseum.heim.at/index-Dateien/Page541.htm This development makes the Moosbrunn site the only operational AM transmission facility in Austria. (AM in the German meaning, technically correct covering all amplitude-modulated broadcasting, also dubbed "LMK".) (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 25, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) lang, mittel und kurz - welle? (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. The 0700-0715 news broadcast on 6155 still includes English news starting around 0708 followed by French around 0711 (Mike Barraclough, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) & heard Jan 28 (gh) ** AZERBAIJAN. / NAGORNY KARABAKH, 9677.51, Ädälän Säsi Radiosu, Stepanakert, *0600-0625*, Jan 16, Azeri, IS + ID "...Stepanakert...", news and a report with lots of mentions of Azerbaijan, ID "Ädälän Säsi Radiosu" at s/off. Good signal, but bad audio quality, 35442 (Patrick Robic, Leibnitz, Austria, DSWCI DX Window Jan 20 via DXLD) ** BAHAMAS [and non]. 6227-USB, BAHAMAS & BEYOND "Cruise Island Network" recreational sailboat net. 1345-1420 January 24, 2010. Net controller announcement that the 40-foot white sailboat "Dream Merchant" is overdue from the Dominican Republic to Miami, Dan and Angela Wallace aboard, and asking anyone sighting to contact him or USCG District 7. Check-ins from boaters in Georgetown and Salt Pond, Long Island (Bahamas), Black Point, south of Cuba, etc. (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BANGLADESH. 4750, Bangladesh Betar, Khabirmur, 0000-0130 or 0200, Sat Jan 02 and Sun 03, noted on an unusual schedule, but it was not heard on Wed 06 or Thu Jan 07. Not heard during past few days including Jan 14. Perhaps the noted morning broadcast may be a test (T. R. Rajeesh, Thrissur, Kerala, India, DSWCI DX Window Jan 20 via DXLD) ** BELGIUM [non]. FYI: TDP Radio will perform DRM test transmissions from TDF Montsinery (French Guiana) to Florida on January 21 and 22 2010 17755 kHz 1900-2100 UT; may be a possibility of regular transmissions to Florida as of February 1st if test results are OK. Frequency: 17755 kHz, [17750-17760] Power: 100 kW RMS, Antenna: 4/4, azimuth 311 DRM parameters: - B mode, - MSC = 64 QAM - CR = 0,6 - Audio encoding : AAC + SBR, - Language: English. Wishing you successfull listenings, reports appreciated at f6ajw @ wanadoo.fr ! Regards / 73. (Jacques GRUSON, F6AJW, DRMNA yg via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, Jan 20, dxldyg via DXLD) What about the Darwin Australia outlet future from Febr 1st onwards ? 17755 kHz 0700-0900 UT 40kW 317degrees English AUS TDP - wb For whom? Is this considered an irrelevant detail? The audio content of these tests could reveal it, but no observations have been posted at drmrx.org so far (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) TDP in DRM is nothing but ``dance music``, an incredible waste of resources, apparently only to demonstrate audio fidelity (gh, DXLD) DRMNA reports good reception in North America. And the folks there haven't been very active at drmrx in the past, too. For whom? That`s easy: TDP`s programming is a showcase for DRM (probably paid at energy cost level) and as Darwin shuts down at the end of the month there seems to be a little bit money in someone`s pocket left which has to be given away. Now NA is "lucky" to get the "look what we can" programming. And this fits to the first availability of a DRM Receiver in the US. 73, (Stephan Schaa, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The point is, why do they specify just Florida as target? That usually happens when there is some kind of conference or exhibition. Maybe to impress Jeff White, who is promoting DRM in NA, altho not on WRMI (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Hi Glenn! I thought more about the last part of the announcement (.."regular transmissions"...): This two day transmission is probably some kind of lobby-work to impress either some business men or some politicians... ;-) (Stephan Schaa, Germany, ibid.) It is meant to impress IBB management. SCNR [sic] (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) Recording of the DRM reception: http://www.kg4lac.com/Misc/2010-1-22_TDP-Radio_1900UTC_17755.mp3 Screen shots of DReaM http://www.kg4lac.com/Misc/2010-1-22_TDF-1.jpg http://www.kg4lac.com/Misc/2010-1-22_TDF-2.jpg http://www.kg4lac.com/Misc/2010-1-22_TDF-3.jpg Time: 1900-1932 UT (could not take the music any longer. Was about to go postal. LOL), Date: January 22, 2010 Frequency: 17755 kHz DRM transmission via Montsinery, French Guiana Program ID: Disco type music. Male, in English "The best trans and dance. TDP Radio". Slight dropouts. I have to admit, the audio sounds very good. Too bad DRM has taken so long to catch on. Just think what could have happened to SW if DRM was available to the masses sooner! 73, Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, Virginia USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 3310, R. Mosoj Chaski, 0908, almost NA-sounding LA song at tune/in, then W and M at 0909 mentioning Mosoj Chaski. Also gave numbers. Nice haunting instrumental flute CP music as filler, then M announcer. Decent strength but noise was too high. 24 Jan (Dave Valko, Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26 near Dunlo, Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp, 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50 , HCDX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4699.95, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta, 0115; 0030 same om as before, much weaker signal, 21; 22 January. Tnx Charles Bolland [WORLD OF RADIO 1497] 4716.68, Radio Yura, Yura, 1045 usual woman announcer with CP music, t-storm crashes 16 Jan. 5580.19, Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos, 0000 20 January 6134.741, Radio Santa Cruz, 1040 17 Jan. 6155.274, Radio Fides, 1010 to 1030, om 19 Jan (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Flórida, Jan 23, Drake R 8, Icom 746Pro DL, NRD 535D, noise reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4699.979v, 0115 Radio San Miguel, talks, poor [WORLD OF RADIO 1497] 4716.704v, 27/1 0128, Radio Yura, long talks, music, fading, poor 5952.433v, 27/1 0050, Radio Pio Doce, talks by woman, poor, strong QRM (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, RX: SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030; Yaesu FRG-7 --- ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4699.98, 2245-2325, 23.01, R San Miguel, Riberalta. Spanish religious talk, mentioning "Santa María", songs; back on the air and booming in! 35333 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4699.930, Radio San Miguel, Spanish, 1050, threshold, with talk by a man and several local references. First logging of this for awhile. Thanks Bob Wilkner-FLA tip for this. Jan. 25. WORLD OF RADIO 1497, 4716.658, Radio Yura, 1040, presumed, very weak with Andean music, might have been better if I had tried an hour earlier (David Sharp, ICF-2010, FT-950 and NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4700, Radio San Miguel (Riberalta) (presumed), 2345-2402, 1/25/2010, Spanish. Talk by man occasionally breaking through the noise. Local music at 2355. Short announcements by man at 2358 and woman at 2359. Talk by man at 2400. Very poor signal, improving slightly (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6134.802, Radio Santa Cruz, Spanish, 0930, very good with local music and announcements, periodic 'canned' ID's by a woman. Obliterated by China after 1000. Jan. 22 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4754.9, Radio Imaculada Conceição (Campo Grande) (presumed), 2350-2402, 1/25/2010, Portuguese. Talk by man. Religious music at 2357. Talk resumed at 2401. At noise level most of the time with bits and pieces peaking enough for a tentative ID (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4914.97, R. Difusora de Macapá, 0756-0802. Pleasant ZY Pops, 0758 nice ID promo/jingle, then full canned ID by M, ads and promo then, all by the same M. Blasted by 4915.03 presumed Anhanguera signing on at 0800:43. About the best I've ever heard Macapa. 24 Jan 4915.03, R. Anhanguera (presumed), Signal suddenly on at 0800:43 in middle of ad with music and W announcer, then canned announcement by M. Definite Portuguese. About equal to Macapá just 60 hz below. Was able to notch out some of Macapá and make this a bit readable at about 2.5 kHz bandwidth, but didn't record long enough to ID. 24 Jan (Dave Valko, Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26 near Dunlo, Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp, 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50 , HCDX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 5940.01, Radio Voz Missionária, Florianópolis, 0500-0605, Jan 24, Portuguese announcements, promos, jingles. IDs. Portuguese contemporary Christian music. Fair. Very weak on // 9665.10 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** BRAZIL. 5990, Rádio Senado – Brasília, 0928, 1/22/10, in Portuguese. Mellow vocal, jazzy flute exchange with 2 flutes and percussion with vocal, woman and man announcers, 0930 ID sequence including frequencies (medium wave & shortwave) with several ID jingles, vocal ballad. Very pleasant listening. Good (Mark Taylor, Madison WI, R-75, Winradio g313e, Eton E1, Satllit 800, Kaito 1103; 2 Flextennas, EWE, attic mounted Flextenna, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) But what`s that got to do with senate legislation?? (gh, DXLD) Radio Senado, Brasília DF, *0922-0945, Jan 22, abruptly on with Brazilian pop music. Brazilian ballads. Local folk music. Portuguese ID announcements at 0930 followed by more Brazilian ballads and Portuguese talk. Good Signal. 9565.21, Super Radio Deus é Amor, Curitiba PR, 0110-0120, Jan 23, Portuguese announcements. Portuguese preacher. Weak. Poor with adjacent channel splatter. // 6060 - weak under Cuba (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL, 9695, Rádio Rio Mar, Manaus, *1100-1115, 23-01, inicio transmisión, identificación: "Rádio Rio Mar, Manaos", temperatura: "Máxima 32º, mínima 25º", "Sete horas na Amazônia", locutor, "Rádio Rio Mar, compromisso", locutora: "Sete horas, um minuto", anuncios comerciales, nueva identificación: "Rádio Rio Mar, onda média..., ondas curtas, 9695 kHz, faixa de 31 metros y 6160 kHz, faixa de 49 metros, Radio Rio Mar, Manaos, Amazônia, Brasil". 24322. (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escucha realizada en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW7600G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9694.926, Radio Rio Mar, Portuguese, 2038, per Gonçalves tip, noted all alone on frequency but threshold with local music. First time I've heard this. Jan. 22. 9819.350, Radio 9 de Julho, Portuguese, tentative, noted as het against 9820. Very weak with occasional audio (talk by a man) poking through. Jan. 23 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 10000/am, PPE, Observatório Nacional with Portuguese announcements every 10 seconds and three pips leading up to the top of the minute, in the clear -- WWV/H not audible. 0445-0448 16/Jan. 10000/am, as above, SIO 254 -- even better than last night! 0517-0520 17/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) 10000, Observatório Nacional, Jan 22 at 2313 with UT -2 timechex in Brazilian every dekasecond with one pip, and with three pips at minutetop, mixing with WWVH and WWV, including their weather segments between minutely time announcements. Poor-fair signal but glad to have any at all if it`s still only 1 kW or less. Must have been during a fade-down of superpower WWCR 9980, which came back up at 2320 overloading 10000, disaudiblizing the timesignallers (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 11749.9, Radio Voz Missionária (Florianópolis) (presumed), 2246-2256, 1/21/2010, Portuguese. Excited and assertive male preacher with non-stop sermon. Very poor signal, below noise level much of the time. Slight het noted (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 11780 RNA already on the air with music at 0632 Jan 22 as I tuned by, but when I passed the frequency again at 0640 it was missing. Then checked // 6185 and that was on atop XEPPM. If one of the transmitters broke down, I wish it had been the other (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. The Bulgarian National Radio celebrates Monday the 75th anniversary since its establishment by a decree of Tsar Boris III. . . http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=112343 The 75th anniversary of the Bulgarian National Radio was marked with a festive concert at Ivan Vazov National Theatre and a ceremony for granting its traditional annual awards named after the radio’s first director Sirak Skitnik. Earlier today, a special postal stamp was validated, dedicated to the radio’s anniversary. . . http://www.bnr.bg/sites/en/News/Pages/en2501_B16.aspx (both via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, Jan 25, dxldyg via DXLD) Stamp is not illustrated in either story ** BURMA [non]. Cancelled transmission for Democratic Voice of Burma in Burmese: 1300-1400 on 11880 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAs effective from Jan. 18 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 25 via DXLD) ** CAMEROON [non]. Our Japanese member Nobuya Kato has been on a sightseeing trip to Egypt at the end of 2009 bringing his SONY ICF- 2001D and ICF-SW7600GR with a telescopic antenna. His tips are from the guestrooms of hotels in Aswan, Luxor and Cairo. 9800, Sawtu Linjila, via Wertachtal, *1830-1850, We Dec 30, s/on with sound of African instruments, talk in presumably Fulfulde. Short music and greetings “Assalaam Aleikum” at 1843, another talk program, 45444- 45343. (Kato at Luxor) ** CANADA. Extra RCI shortwave to Haiti --- Glenn, RCI French made an on-air announcement on "Tam-Tam Canada" Jan. 22 about the use of 15260 kHz beamed to Haiti "specially today". Heard this quite by accident while browsing through the RCI website to listen to the beginning of a special edition of the show, co-produced with a local Montreal Haitian radio station. At this time, the show is still designated as the Pick of the Day on the French section of the RCI website. 73, (Ricky Leong, Calgary, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Re: ``6159.97, CKZU - Vancouver, 0303, Jan 14. What a difference 24 hours makes! Yesterday Newfoundland was stronger than Vancouver, but today Vancouver back to normal with a much stronger signal. The reason there is now no echo produced by both stations running the same CBC news is that Vancouver has their own local news and weather; changed probably due to Olympic Winter Games (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` 0300 UTC Tuesday to Saturday (7 p.m. PT Monday to Friday) would be the last scheduled local newscast of the day on CBC Radio One British Columbia. Nothing to do with the Olympics, as far as I know. 73, (Ricky Leong, Calgary, Jan 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I never know whether to expect locally-originated CBC news or nationwide at any particular hour, as I pick and choose webcasts. Local usually IDs source at the start, yet mixes in national and international news. And I suppose some origination e.g. at Vancouver is carried on nationwide network, not just from Toronto or Montreal. Is there a clock showing what happens in each timezone? (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. 6160, CANADA (NEWFOUNDLAND). CKZN (St. John's, NF) (presumed), 0556-0605, 1/22/2010, English. Talk by two men. Identification as CBC Radio 1 by woman at 0559. News at 0600. Moderate signal with slight het on frequency. Heavy high side interference from Radio Nederland (Bonaire) at 0600. Assume this to be CKZN, as CKZU is seldom heard here, and always cochannel with CKZN when heard (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, DX LISTENING DIGEST) If you had listened one minute longer it might have been certain with local weather and programming keyed to timezone (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. 6030, CFVP Calgary at 1728 with country music, 1735 “Classic Country AM 10-60”, spots for Big Chief Beef Jerky and Alpine Mortgages. Later at 2300 they were coming in well on my car radio at 1060 kHz. Fair Jan 23 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, Eton E-1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, listening portable from my car, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. 960, CFAC, AB, Calgary – 12/27 2133 – over top of WFIR-Roanoke for a couple of minutes (more than a few sex) with silly inane hockey game (Vancouver Canucks vs. Calgary Flames hockey) and “960-Fan” ID. Sometimes I can also hear the Cuban Radio Reloj underneath WFIR here with their time pips, morse code IDs and Spanish news items about Arnie Coro and El Hugazo. Not this evening. I guess the Cuban Detnro Jamming Command was using their transmitter elsewhere (Niel J Wolfish, Toronto ON, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) sic. MARE logs are supposed to be in UT, but at that hour I wonder if he slipped into EST (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. CISL-650 TO BROADCAST IN RUSSIAN The CRTC has approved CISL-650's application to broadcast up to 20% of the time in Russian during the upcoming Olympics, Feb. 10-28. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2010/2010-35.htm (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Jan 27, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CANADA. SITE PHOTOS OF THE CHU TIME STATION, OTTAWA, CANADA Hi, all you Shortwave sites enthusiasts! Living in Western Canada, I was quite surprised that there is not any picture of the transmitter site of the CHU Time Station in Ottawa on the Internet. So I decided to bother my cousin, who lives there, to take some photos of the site. The first takes were taken last fall and appeared to be very blurry. Finally, I got these good ones and I'm happy to share them with the people of our group. [Photobucket] In the photo above you can see the 7850(now), 3330 and 14670 kHz masts from the left to the right accordingly. [Photobucket] 73 (Lev Lytovchenko, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) Lev kindly provided the following coordinates of the CHU site in a recent email: "......... The exact coordinates of the CHU Time Station are: 45 17 40,8 N, 75 45 28,5 W. On Street View Map you can also find this site, if you go south from Britannia Park near the Ottawa River along Greenbank Rd (13) to Fallowfield Rd (12)...(edited ed)." Thanks very much, Lev. I had a look at Street View images which are worthwhile looking at also. But for a better look at the rear of the site I think the BING Maps "Birds Eye" images provide great views (Ian Baxter, ibid.) Are these CHU SW antennas solitary shortened vertical radiators? Do you have the GE coordinates? The site appears a very quiet & unassuming location for a place where its signals have been heard globally. Best regards (Ian Baxter, Australia, ibid.) ** CHAD. 6165, Radiodif. Nat. Tchdienne – N’Djamena, 2252–2259, 1/23/10, in French. Contemporary vocal, announcer over flute, vocal (somewhat operatic), announcement (with ID), anthem, 2259, off (Mark Taylor, Madison WI, R-75, Winradio g313e, Eton E1, Satllit 800, Kaito 1103; 2 Flextennas, EWE, attic mounted Flextenna, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** CHINA. OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, Jan 23 at 1337, 5350- 5390 QRMing ham radio on 5373 (see USA); also 5775-5825, but this time shifted far enough up not to QRM AFN GUAM 5765-USB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. JAMMERSTAN: 8400, Chinese Music Jammer; 1337, 17-Jan; also on 9000 & 10440, about equal and weaker than 8400 (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) 8400, Firedrake Crash and Bang 1338 17/Jan 9000, Firedrake Crash and Bang 1338 17/Jan 10400, Firedrake Crash and Bang 1338 17/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) Both 10400 and 10440 are new ones on me, never found them there around same time of day. Is one of them a typo, as reported within one minute of each other by the two? (gh, DXLD) Firedrake Jan 21 at 1408: very poor but audible on 8400, 9000; not audible on 10-11 MHz. Firedrake Jan 22 at 1448: poor on 8400, not audible on 9000 or 10210. Firedrake Jan 23 at 1349: JBA on 8400, NAAA [not audible at all] on 9000, 10210, 11300. Tuning by 9605, Jan 25 at 1335 heard English ``This is CNR News``, back to Chinese, but more English bits later mixed in such as ``The sound of China evening news``. Apparently they think it`s cool to insert such English phrases. I have a hard time imagining any US domestic service throwing in Mandarin comments. Guess what: if you check HFCC, you will not find any such China transmission, but you will find BBCWS in Mandarin via Singapore, 1300- 1530. That`s because the cynical ChiCom are using CNR1 programming here as one of countless jammers against any Western objectivity getting into the country. And they have the gall to pretend to participate in HFCC, failing to register little things like this. 7585 with Firedrake jamming, Jan 25 at 1452 // weaker 8400. 7585 a new spot for it, but why? The only thing scheduled there is Vatican Radio in Tamil via Tajikistan, 1450-1510, says Aoki. At 1502 the 7585 FD was in usual hourtop open-carrier pause supposedly for monitoring, but I could hear nothing else. Resumed music modulation at 1504:40. At 1508 FD also // poorly on 9000 as well as 8400, none higher. Next check of 7585 at 1519, it`s gone, still on 8400, 9000. Meanwhile, several CNR1/jammers in the 7300-7535 range were still well audible. So was 7585 a mistake, or did Sound of Hope try to slip in there, or did Vatican switch from Tamil to a more sensitive language, bringing down the wrath of Chan, or rather SAFRT? Firedrake music jammer Jan 26 at 1546: fair on 9000, 8400 but 9000 had an unstable het on it, not noticed previously (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 7105, Sound of Hope (presumed), Tanshui, TAIWAN, 2207-..., 19 Jan '10, Mandarin, talks, music; 33432, jammed by regular CNR broadcast (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7105, 26/Jan 2257 Firedrake chinês sobre SOH. Mistura de mx e falas. Saiu do ar abruptamente as 2300 UT. Sinal moderado. 7505, 26/Jan 2259, Firedrake chinês sobre quem? Bom sinal (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9000, 27/1 0003, Firedrake, usual traditional Chinese music as jammer, // 8400 good (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, RX: SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030; Yaesu FRG-7 --- ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 4940, Voice of Strait, 1500-1525, Jan 24. “Focus on China” in English; program only on Sunday; today had 25 minute program, not the usual half hour; news items about traveling by train for the upcoming Spring Festival (Chinese New Year); poor reception with moderate AIR Guwahati QRM (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 5965, Jan 26 at 1556 could hear CRI theme music weakly and co-channel from something else. Per Aoki, CRI is until 1557 in Russian via Beijing site, while RCI is in Chinese until 1559 via Yamata, JAPAN site, which one would expect to be mutually exclusive, but they are officially to different target areas, aimed in different, almost opposite direxions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 2980, Radio Vida Nueva (Barranquilla), 0647-0655, 1/26/2010, Spanish. Second harmonic of MW 1490. Ballad style local music. Identification by man at 0650, then more music. Poor to moderate signal strength with fading. Peaks were quite strong for a second harmonic from Colombia (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC- R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. COLOMBIA'S FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE RADIO SHOW LAUNCHED For the first time in the country's history, Colombia has an English- language radio show, broadcast from the University of Antioquia in Medellín. The show, tilted "Prime Cuts," is hosted by Robin Finley and Jeff Guerra, both from the United States. In an interview with Colombia Reports, Finley explained various features of the show. "On the show, we play various genres of independent music from Colombia and from abroad, everything from jazz, hip-hop, to rock and electronica. Also, we will have a 'Local Spotlight', in which we will interview and feature the work of local artists, such as DJs, musicians, and anyone involved in the cultural scene in Medellín." The show's debut on Saturday showcased the work of local Medellín hip- hop group "L-Mental." According to the program's producer, Braulio Uribe Londoño from the University of Antioquia, "the show was a collaborative effort between the director of international relations and the director of the university radio station from the University of Antioquia. The two of them concluded that it would be a really good idea to try and reach the various foreign-language speaking populations who have settled in Medellín, through radio." Tourism in Medellín, and Colombia in general, has increased dramatically in the recent years, giving foreign language radio programming the opportunity to take hold. According to Londoño, "the University of Antioquia radio station decided to create a show catered to English-speaking populations living in Medellín, in addition to the French-speaking niche." Londoño went on to explain that the radio station then contacted Robin, who is well-known for setting up Medellín's first English magazine, "The Arepa," and proposed to him the idea of hosting a radio show, which he accepted. As for the French show, Londoño says that "it is still under development." "Prime Cuts" is on every Saturday night at 9:00 PM (Sunday 0200 UT) on the University of Antioquia Radio Station: 101.9 FM. The radio station at the Univeristy of Antioquia is the oldest in Latin America, and reaches much of Colombia, and even parts of Panamá. Source: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news-lite/97-news/7857-colombias-first-english-language-radio-show-launched.html F.M. en vivo: http://emisora.udea.edu.co/en_vivo_fm.php#none (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, Artie Bigley, OH, DXLD) Really the first, ever? (gh) ** COLOMBIA. RADIO NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA CUMPLIRÁ 70 AÑOS EL PRÓXIMO 1 DE FEBRERO La emisora del Estado más antigua de Colombia adelanta todos los preparativos para la celebración. Desde 1940, hasta la fecha, son varios los momentos representativos y de gran valor histórico que han dejado huella en la cultura colombiana. La celebración será el próximo 1 de febrero en las instalaciones de la emisora, con un gran número de personalidades que han pasado por la Radio Nacional (antes Radiodifusora Nacional). Durante el año mantendrá una programación especial que comprende convocatorias, seminarios, exposiciones y la implementación de un sistema de consolas digitales para sus cabinas, igualando en tecnología y calidad a las de grandes radiodifusoras europeas como la Danish Radio o la BBC. . . Fuente: http://www.eltiempo.com/culturayocio/tvyfarandula/radio-nacional-de-colombia-cumplira-70-anos_7008007-1 (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** CONGO. 6115.000, RTVC-Brazzaville, French, 1921, talk by a woman with hilife, then into talk by a man at 1926. Very poor copy, as it's sandwiched between two powerhouses. Slightly better copy in LSB. Jan. 25 (David Sharp, ICF-2010, FT-950 and NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Mr Hauser, your constant (almost daily) rants against Cuba are becoming a major bore. How about you stick with DX and leave the politics out of it. I thought this was a DX group that was promoting the hobby and not political agendas. I thought the DX hobby was about promoting understanding for peoples around the world. Am I wrong in that? By the way Cuba has sent in aid and medical teams to Haiti but I doubt US news reports would mention that as it might shine a good light on Cuba. If I want more right wing verbal diarrhea I can listen to the AM band as the talk stations from the USA jam up multiple frequencies all night making DX'ing that much harder up here. Respectfully yours (Shawn Axelrod, VE4DX1SMA, VE4002SWL, SWLR-SNØ28, REMEMBER ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN HEAR FOREVER, Jan 20, ODXA yg via DXLD) Email him personally, or block his emails from being sent to your computer. As a member of the group I don't want to hear your complaints about another member. Address him personally or ban him from your computer. Your, as you say "verbal diarrhea" is just as unwanted as his is to you (Mel Robinson, moderator? ODXA yg via DXLD) ?? Right-wing? Me? You have not been paying attention. As I keep having to point out to those DXers who are oblivious to the real world, broadcasting, especially SW is all about politix and religion. I refuse to muzzle myself and not say anything about those topix, in deference to your sensibilities. Programming *matters*. BTW, I have also pointed out Cuban involvement in Haiti relief, and posted positive remarx about some RHC programming. And your anti-Americanism is showing; sorry to know that. Also as you probably have not noticed, I am critical of any station and any country which deserves it, not excluding the USA (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST, NOT answered on the ODXA list) Hi Glenn, Radio Havana Cuba, 22 January 2010 on 6000 kHz at 0220 UTC with, as the announcer said, "a couple of items in the news." Mention of Haiti in terms of the "United States military logistics presence causing delays in the delivery of medical aid." Interesting, indeed, in light of the fact that these same United States have sent a great deal of food, medicine and humanitarian supplies to Haiti. Not to mention that today, 21 January 2010, a United States Navy floating hospital anchored near Port-Au-Prince, with about 550 medical staff on board. Oddly enough, no mention was made of the activities being performed by the Cuban government... By the way, I was watching CNN News Tuesday evening, while waiting for a doctor's appointment. There was an interesting live report from Haiti, showing the Israeli medical team utilizing portable tent hospitals to treat victims of the earthquake, including lifesaving surgeries on-site. It was amazing to watch what they were doing under such adverse conditions. 73's, (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. I wanted to know [if] anyone can tell me how the Cuban jamming has been since the earthquake in Haiti, considering the amount of radio traffic in the region trying to establish contact in the country (Keith Perron, Taiwan, Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I do not find any difference in jamming against Radio Martí, or WRMI (whether on the air or not), nor would expect any change in that. The only jamming which really needs to be cut off for Haiti is on 1180 when it is carrying VOA Creole, but I can`t tell from here. 1180 jamming is in the form of multiple R. Rebelde transmitters unsynchronized rather than noise, and of course Cuba pretends it is not jamming at all. I certainly hope there is no `jamming` on the ham bands. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Jan 21, ibid.) ** CUBA. 6210, weak RHC Spanish leapfrog mixing product of 6150 over 6180, which therefore must be from the same transmitter site. Next check at 1257, 6210 was gone since 6180 had already closed. See also VENEZUELA [non] 6140, RHC in English audible but much weaker than // 6060, 6010 at 0655 Jan 23. Some 24 hours earlier, 6140 was off. But at 0656, 6140 cut to dead air while English continued on the other two. This week I chose RHC for musical entertainment on Saturday morning, ``Cancionero Iberoamericano``, on 15120, Jan 23 in progress at 1438 as Tony Gómez was presenting a frenetic song in English about family planning. Turned out to be a Barbados segment, followed by a much quieter tune, ``Beautiful Barbados``. 1446 on to Trinidad & Tobago for a funny calypso song with tambores metálicos (esteel drums); 1448 time for a bit of something from Aruba, where most people speak four languages, and the main one, Papiamentu, is a combo of six. Before news summary, filled with a promo for Habana`s Malecón. [and non]. 11600, Jan 26 at 1559 noise jamming, while a few minutes earlier there was none and Slovakia was audible in Spanish. Consistent schedule by the DCJC which must be convinced there is something here needing jamming. 11600, jamming still going at 2202 Jan 26, later than usual? Altho maybe not continuously since it started at 1600. Now it`s pulsing, which means maybe only one of multiple transmitters which add up to walls of noise. Tried comparing it to 11930, and much stronger pulsing there matched, exactly synchronized at the rate of four per second, except the pitch was slightly higher on 11930, where Radio Martí had just closed (BTW, Aoki somehow misses Martí on this frequency). We remained baffled why the DCJC runs jammers on 11600, where nothing at all is known to be broadcasting after 1600 --- but hey, no better place for them! WORLD OF RADIO 1497, 15360, Jan 27 at 1445, RHC`s Formalmente Informal, a lo-fi interview mixing with something in Persian, about equal level and precisely zero beat, so rather confusing as they took turns dominating. Latter is RFI Issoudun at 1430-1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. REVIEW: SODERBERGH’S ‘CHE’ AND HISTORICAL ACCURACY by Humberto Fontova Well, Soderbergh and Del Toro’s Che was just released on DVD-Blu-ray. As a bonus, the Criterion release contains a behind-the-scenes “Making Che” section, featuring interviews with Soderbergh, Del Toro, the screenwriters, along with audio narration by the film’s chief consultant (except Fidel Castro), author John Lee Anderson. An obsession among all involved with this monstrosity (271 minutes), we learn, was “historical accuracy.” As a professional duty, last year I sat through this thing. For the sake of this review let’s forget the films’ “omissions,” namely the only success in Che’s life: the mass murder of defenseless men and boys. This being a shoot-em up war movie, we’ll instead focus on the battle scenes and the attendant dialogue. For starters, the only “guerrilla war” fought in Cuba during the 20th Century was fought, not by Fidel and Che, but against Fidel and Che (more on this shortly.) . . . http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/hfontova/2010/01/25/review-soderberghs-che-and-historical-accuracy/ (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DXLD) Touches on Radio, Rebelde ** CUBA [non]. 6030, tuning by R. Martí at 0653 UT Sat Jan 23, sufficiently above DentroCuban Jamming Command to tell they were talking about Tico Valdés. Suspect another airing of ``Arte Latino`` apolitical show. They may be running these evergreen episodes over and over (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. 9810, 0225, CLANDESTINE, Radio República, vgd in Spanish to Cuba, 9/12, until closedown 0400. Extensive idents 0355 (Bryan Clark, Mangawhai New Zealand with AOR7030+ and EWEs to NE, E & SE, Jan NZDX Times via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) You mean, no jamming audible?? (gh, DXLD) Dear Glenn, I am getting Radio República on 9810 at around 0230. What`s their email ID for reports. The email report was not delivered which was sent to Yours sincerely, (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, India, UT Jan 25, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Jose, You might try info @ directorio.org as at http://www.directorio.org/en_index.php which is the parent organisation. Let us know if you get any reply, as they are not very responsive. Were you hearing any jamming noise on 9810? It`s usually heavy here if there is any propagation from Cuba. 73, (Glenn to Jose, via DXLD) Thanks for the info, Glenn. No jamming at all noted here. That station is heard occasionally only when propagation is good. 73 (Jose Jacob, India, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Lack of audible jamming makes it more likely to be from UK site than from Canada. I.e., not too hard to propagate to India off the back from UK, while North American Sackville/Cuba are not propagating (gh, DXLD) ** CYPRUS. 5875, BBC Arabic still audible somewhat under BBC English via Thailand, Jan 22 at 1433 as the latter was starting Politix UK show. Route from Cyprus must be long-path, which makes it somewhat notable. If it were short-path there would be lots of closer Europeans audible on 6 MHz band, which is not the case at this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. 6180, Cyprus Broadcasting Corp. – Zygi (Presumed), 2217, 1/23/10, in Greek. Extended interview of a woman (who did most of the talking) by a second woman. Serenaded by All India Radio with South Asian music under. Cyprus was fair (Mark Taylor, Madison WI, R-75, Winradio g313e, Eton E1, Satllit 800, Kaito 1103; 2 Flextennas, EWE, attic mounted Flextenna, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** CYPRUS. OTH radar, presumed from here, but maybe not, Jan 27 at 1450 spanning 15745-15815, with peaks at odd spots such as 15780 and 15810, so most damaging to Galei Zahal, ISRAEL on 15783.6 and BBC Arabic on 15790, which is definitely Cyprus; overshadowed by the Saudi buzz, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA [and non]. Re 10-03: Jonathan Murphy sent a message to the members of SAVE RADIO PRAGUE Facebook group re comments at http://www.radio.cz/en/article/124187 -------------------- Subject: Radio Prague feature on the future of Shortwave I would urge all those interested in following the situation at R Prague to catch up with this week's Talking Point either in text or listening to the 9 minute clip on the website. I have summarised the main points & provided the link below. Talking Point this week had an interview with Miroslav Krupicka, the station's director and Jonathan Marks formally of RNW. Many points were raised and there was some indication of the direction of the station is going. The savings appear to be made by only using one of the Litomysl transmitters. DRM is effectively written off, conversely podcasts or downloading programmes from the website is seen as a worthwhile investment with 500,000 downloads a month. Feedback was cited as a strong argument to keep Radio Prague on the air and essential for judging the size of the radio audience, although there are no guarantees that this will remain the case. http://www.facebook.com/l/22ca7;www.radio.cz/en/current/talking (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Feedback is of course vital. But in my experience, many SWL's provide the type of feedback that convinces the station management that they are not reaching the right people. At RNW - at least for the English department - many of the letters we receive from shortwave listeners are just requests for QSL cards to verify their reception, with no indication that they actually listened to the content of the programme. One guy writes every three weeks requesting a different QSL card, nothing else. We also get letters from people who claim to be regular listeners, who then ask questions about programmes that haven't been on the air for several years! The quality of the feedback we get from people who visit our website is a lot higher, because they can react immediately to something they have just read. What international broadcasters want is intelligent feedback on the programmes, and an indication that the listener is seriously interested in listening to them. It's not simply a case of "the way the station is going" - it's the way the whole of international broadcasting is going. Some stations that haven't done their research haven't yet woken up and smelt the coffee (Andy Sennitt, Jan 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tell me about it. There is one guy who writes me once a month who says he has been listening to me hosting Happy Station since 2000. At first I thought maybe it was a typo and he meant to say 2009. But then he said could you please send me this that and the other. Just like one guy who writes all the time saying he first heard the show when Eddy Startz was host. Well, this could be true as I have a few that remember Startz. But how the hell does someone born in 1976 (the year Eddy died) remember listening to him every week? The listeners I have from the AM/FM relays and from the internet all listen to content. Mind you, I don't want to put all SWLs in that category. The Latin Americans that have written in also tend to listen to content. It all depends on region I think and where SW is still used for domestic means (Keith Perron, Taiwan, ibid.) ** DIEGO GARCIA. 4319, 2225-2250, DGA, 22.01, AFRTS feeder, (USB) English, NPR news, send a reception report to npr.com, heavy snow in Arizona, strong signal, but CWQRM 43544. No other AFRTS channels audible (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, RTV Djibouti, 0458-0508, 1/25/2010, Arabic. Horn of Africa music. Quick announcement at 0501. Very weak signal, just above noise level, with heavy CODAR interference (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EAST TURKISTAN. CHINA, 3950, Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, 2316 (program started at scheduled 2330)-2335, 23 Jan '10, tone signal, Kazakh (?), announcements, songs; 33432, DRM like QRM. 3990, Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, 2317 (program started at 2330)-2336, 23 Jan '10, tone signal, Uighur (listed), announcements, talks; 34433, QRM de CHINA (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I.e. PBS Gannan, Hezuo in Tibetan, says Aoki (gh) ** ECUADOR. LA RADIO LA VOZ DE ARUTAM NO PERDERÁ SU FRECUENCIA La radio shuar La Voz de Arutam no perderá su frecuencia. Así resolvió el Consejo Nacional de Radio y Televisión (Conatel) la tarde de hoy. Sin embargo, los responsables de la difusión de los mensajes que supuestamente incitaron a la violencia, en Macas (Morona Santiago), durante el último levantamiento indígena serán juzgados por la justicia ordinaria. . . Fuente: http://ww1.elcomercio.com/noticiaEC.asp?id_noticia=331124&id_seccion=3 (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** ECUADOR. 3810/rclsb, HD2IOA, Guayaquil, with Spanish time announcements and pips under the ham chatter until about :38 when the hams went away. Why are there persistent rumours that this station is off the air?? SINPO 2+(2-5)35(1-3) depending on whether or not the hams were on. 0433-0442 16/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) What rumours? But I suspect it is not on air constantly. I have not heard it around 0600, tho WRTH 2010 shows 0000-1200 UT, and also says it is ``AM/U``, presumably meaning AM upper sideband, not lower (gh) ** ECUADOR. Hola Glenn, acabo de recibir un mail de HCJB con los horarios e idiomas de transmisión en su frecuencia en 6050 kHz: ECUADOR, HCJB, La Voz de los Andes, estos son los horarios y los idiomas en que transmite esta emisora en su frecuencia doméstica de 6050 kHz, la única que conserva en onda corta desde Ecuador, según mail recibido de la misma: Hora UTC 0830-1130 Quechua 1130-1500 Castellano 1900-2400 Castellano 0000-0030 Waodani 0030-0100 Cofán 0100-0500 Castellano (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Jan 22, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR [non]. HCJB via CVC CHILE, 11920 in Portuguese, Jan 24 at 0008 *still* with dirty FMy mushy spurs including obviously // audio around 11900 and 11940. How can either organization allow these to go on and on? Is anyone paying attention? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. Our Japanese member Nobuya Kato has been on a sightseeing trip to Egypt at the end of 2009 bringing his SONY ICF-2001D and ICF- SW7600GR with a telescopic antenna. His tips are from the guestrooms of hotels in Aswan, Luxor and Cairo. 711 MW, ERTU, 2336-0013, Dec31/Jan 01, Relay of BBC programs. Conversation in English, but sometimes talk in Arabic was heard, too. (The word “BBC” could be heard often as well.) Scottish song “Auld Lang Syne” (Old Long Since), and the Christmas song “Jingle Bells” in Arabic version were also heard. Then news in Arabic started after 0000 and ID “Idha’atu… min al-qahira” at 0013, 55555 (Kato in Cairo) 1341 MW, ERTU, Cairo, 0851-0906, Dec 29, Arabic broadcast with ID “Huna al-qahira” at 0851, Arabic song, time signal at 0900, full ID “Idha’atu jumhuriya…min al-qahira”, followed by news. Proper nouns such as President Mubarak, Israel, Great Britain, America were heard in Arabic, 55555. Perfect reception thanks to 100 kW output (Kato at Aswan) 1584 MW, ERTU, Idfu (location presumed), 0826-0850, Dec 29, Arabic broadcast with repeat of short announcement and Arabic popular songs, call-in by a male voice. 55555 (Kato at Aswan) 12170, R Cairo, Abu Zaabal, 1607-1656, Dec 31, English service with recitation of the Holy Kor`an, Arabic song, time signal at 1630 followed by news, special program “Review of 2009” to look back on the issues happened in 2009, 55555. The reception condition itself was perfect, but tone quality was not so well (Kato in Cairo) (DSWCI DX Window Jan 20 via DXLD) ** EGYPT. 15080, R. Cairo, poor with distorted modulation as always on this frequency, music at 1430 Jan 27, into 4+1 timesignal 35 seconds late, Cairo news theme and distorted talk in Arabic. This is 13-16 via Abis site to West Africa, where they`d better set their clox by something else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, R. Nacional, Malabo, 0730 lively Hi-life music. Not very strong but surprised it was coming in at this late time for them. Ute QRM 24 Jan (Dave Valko, Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26 near Dunlo, Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp, 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50 , HCDX via DXLD) ** ESTONIA. 4645, 20/1 0016, Tallin Volmet, "This is Tallin airport", meteo info, USB, fair. RX: SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030 --- ANT: T2FD. SW blog: http://radiodxsw.blogspot.com/ (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. 6030, Radio Oromiya, *0325-0329, Jan 25. Heard their IS (distinctive, repetitive xylophone-like music) through the pulsating/percolating noise (jamming, but no R. Marti); otherwise unusable (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Our Japanese member Nobuya Kato has been on a sightseeing trip to Egypt at the end of 2009 bringing his SONY ICF- 2001D and ICF-SW7600GR with a telescopic antenna. His tips are from the guestrooms of hotels in Aswan, Luxor and Cairo. 9610, Ginbot 7 Dimts R, via Samara, *1700-1718, Th Dec 31, Talk program, presumably news in Amharic, 55444. Very strong signal. Also audible on // 7530 (35443). (Kato in Cairo) 11830, Voice of Ethiopian Unity, via Nauen, *1700-1729, We Dec 30, full ID “Yih Finote Demokrasi ye Ethiopia andinet dimts” in Amharic, talk, an Ethiopian popular song, 45444-43443 sometimes disturbed by heavy jamming. (Kato at Luxor) 15195, Meleket Ethiopia R (presumed), via Samara, 1635-1645*, We Dec 30, talk in presumably Amharic, and folk instrumental music, 25232. The reception was disturbed by heavy noise. (Kato at Luxor) (DSWCI DX Window Jan 20 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. ALEMANIA, 6140, Radio Gloria International, 1005-1100* , 24-01, música pop, locutor, comentarios en inglés y algunos en alemán, respondiendo cartas de oyentes, identificación: "Radio Gloria Internacional". 45444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escucha realizada en Lugo, Grundig YB 400, antena telescópica, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. ERA-5, The Voice of Greece, ERT S.A., today Fri Jan 22, at 0800 UT ERA-5 in Greek language on both 9420 and 12105 kHz (not 15630). 9420 kHz S=9+20dB, 12105 kHz S=9+40dB powerhouse signal here in southern Germany. 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Today on http://www.ert.gr/filia/en Radio Filia carried Greek from tune in at 08.00 UT, until 09.00 when the German half hour was heard. At the end also 12105 kHz was heard. At 09.33 UT Russian began. These programs are not in // with 12105 kHz which also is heard here in Copenhagen, but with QRM 09.30-10.45 from KTWR, Agat. Here at 09.30 UT both 9420 and 15630 kHz are in // with 12105 kHz. So, they seem to have got their 3rd tx running again. 73, (Erik Koie, Denmark, Jan 22, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, ibid.) 9420, VOG on the air again as heard Greek, tuning past around 1450 Jan 22. Reports from Erik Køie and Wolfgang Büschel earlier in the day confirm three transmitters are once again funxional (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Okay Erik, they started - 3rd tx - on 15630 little late around 0900 UT again? At 0800 UT the 15630 channel was totally empty. Only 12105 tremendous signal and little weaker 9420 kHz heard here in Stuttgart. See my log of 1150 UT at noon also, see below. 73 de wolfy Voice of Greece ERA-5 and ERT-3 regional service heard on three channels again today Jan 22nd. 3rd transmitter at Avlis site was on repair since Dec 27, 2009. In 06-10 UT slot only two frequencies in use. ERA-5, The Voice of Greece, ERT S.A., today Fri Jan 22, at 0800 UT ERA-5 in Greek language on both 9420 and 12105 kHz (not 15630 kHz). 9420 kHz S=9+20dB, 12105 kHz S=9+40dB powerhouse signal here in southern Germany. At 1150 UT noted three Greek language transmissions from Avlis. ERA-5 on both 9420 kHz S=9+20dB and 15650 kHz S=9+10dB, and weakest signal from Avlis site on ERT-3 regional Thessaloniki relay 9935 kHz with S=9 pure. 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Jan 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9420, VOG reactivated, poor Jan 22 at 2311 check with Greek music // better 7475 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Surprisingly Filia began its German program at 0700 UT on 12105 kHz this morning, Jan 23. English was expected. 73, (Erik Koie, Sat Jan 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Babis: we get some reception in this area on 9420 kHz from 2000 to 2259 UT when Avlis 3 is beamed to Europe and the Atlantic Ocean at 323 azimuth. But, when the antenna, still at 323 azimuth, is evidently moved somehow for the signal to Europe and North America from 2300 to 0259 UTC, nothing is heard on 9420 kHz. Regards, (John Babbis, MD, Jan 24-25, cc to DX LISTENING DIGEST) Or more likely, 9420 not really on the air after 2300. Later monitoring by John as of Jan 27 shows no reception of 9420 either starting at 2000 (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) Seems that the foreign language schedule has changed again? I hear German at 0900 and Russian 0930. I see reported that before this today it was 06-07 English, 07-08 French and 08-09 Spanish. Can anyone confirm? Thank you, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Jan 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mauno: This is on the Radio Filia web site announcing language changes as of December 4, 2009 (times are Greek time, deduct 2 hours for UT). Looks as though they have changed times again. Keep this web site for future announcements. http://www.ert.gr/filia/en/announcements/prosorini-allagi-orariou-ekpompon.htm (John Babbis, ibid.) ** GREECE. "WHERE LAND AND MOTHERLAND?" with Babis Papadakis - A new show on ERA5. Greeks of the Diaspora who have excelled, share an hour with ERA5 about their experiences and opinions. This week the Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas speaks of Hellenes Abroad and stresses that the country faces with determination and confidence, the major national issues. The program is broadcast every Sunday at 11.00 Greek time (0900 UT), and rebroadcast every Monday at 02.05 Greek time (0005 UT), and every Thursday at 07.05 Greek time (0505 UT) (John Babbis, MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I suppose all in Greek, but concerning the subject, maybe some English at least voiced over? (gh) ** HAITI. EARTHQUAKE RADIO The Caribbean nation of Haiti, located on the western third of the island of Hispaniola, was struck by a massive earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale on Tuesday January 12 around early evening. The widespread devastation in their capital city, Port-au-Prince, and in nearby country areas, has caught the attention of news media throughout the world, and aid is pouring in quickly from many countries on all continents. From the air, as shown on TV networks across the United States, it seems that Port-au-Prince is almost entirely damaged and destroyed. This recent earthquake in Haiti is described as the worst in the region for more than 200 years and it has left the population without food, or water, or living supplies. Electricity is cut off, as are also the water and sewage systems, and the telephone networks are not working. To compound these multitudinous problems, a series of more than thirty aftershocks has spread fear among the people, hundreds of thousands of whom now have nowhere to live. The sympathy of the world towards the unfortunate people of Haiti is demonstrated by the huge amount of money running into billions of dollars that is already pledged, and by the amount of food and water and supplies that has already been delivered by plane. It should also be stated that ADRA, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, is already working in the capital city area in relief work and with the delivery of provisions to the people. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, with more than 1/3rd million members in Haiti, operates a hospital and a university in Port-au-Prince, as well as a city bakery. In our program today, we wish to recognize the people of Haiti in their unfortunate plight, and we focus on this independent Caribbean nation with the story of radio broadcasting in this small but heavily populated country. The original inhabitants of what is now the French speaking country of Haiti were Arawak Indians. It was Christopher Columbus who landed on the island of Hispaniola in the historic year 1492 and he established the first European settlement at what is now Cap Haïtien in Haiti. Multitudes of slaves were subsequently brought in from Africa, and two hundred years later, Spain recognized French control of the western third of the island. Haiti gained its independence in 1804, as one of only two nations in the new world that chose French as a national language; the other country is Canada. Haiti is a quite small country of 10,000 square miles, just 180 miles across and 135 miles broad, though the shape is very irregular with two widely separated peninsulas. The name Haiti is taken from the original Arawak word Ayiti, meaning high mountains. The total population is around ten million, with two or three million living in the capital city area, Port-au-Prince, on the southern peninsula. The story of radio broadcasting in Haiti goes way back to the early wireless days. It was in the early 1920s that the American navy established a spark wireless station in Port-au-Prince under the callsign NSC. The first local communication station was established in the early 1930s under the callsign HHM. Their first radio broadcasting station was installed by the government in the capital city in 1927 and it operated under the callsign HHK with 1 kW on 830 kHz. It was in the year 1950 that the callsigns of radio broadcasting stations in Haiti were changed from the HH prefix to the still current 4V prefix. These days more than fifty mediumwave stations are listed in the World Radio TV Handbook, with the highest power rating at 10 kW. However, nearly half of these stations were not active on the air in the era just before the recent earthquake. There is an equal number of FM stations throughout the country. The official lists show an Adventist radio station in Port-au-Prince, 4VVE, with 10 kW on 1560 kHz, together with an FM relay station on 89.7 MHz. The mediumwave station was inaugurated in 1988 and the FM was added in the year 2001. For a period of almost sixty years, Haiti was on the air from numerous little shortwave stations, mostly with just 1 kW or less, though a couple gave wider coverage with 10 kW output. Their first shortwave station was licensed as HH2R in 1935 and it was owned by the Haitian Automobile Association. Over the years some sixty of these little shortwave stations were on the air in Haiti. The best known shortwave station in Haiti was the Gospel station 4VEH which was inaugurated at Cap Haitien at the top of the northern peninsula in 1950. Some forty two years later, there were only two shortwave stations on the air in Haiti, 4VEH & 4VWA, and they both abandoned the usage of shortwave transmissions in the same year, 1992. Station 4VEH, with its American headquarters near Indianapolis in Indiana, was always recognized as a reliable verifier and sometimes they were the only source of QSL cards from a shortwave station located in Haiti. Interestingly, in the year 1946, ambitious plans were announced by a French commercial company to establish a powerful shortwave station in Haiti that would give radio coverage to almost the entire planet. This station, with a commercial world service, was planned with three shortwave transmitters at 50 kW each. However, that grand announcement was the last that was ever heard about this ambitious project. These days, it is not possible to hear any radio broadcasting station in Haiti, unless you happen to live somewhere reasonably close to the Caribbean areas. However, in earlier times, QSL cards were issued by several of the mediumwave and shortwave stations located on this exotic, but stricken, independent nation in the Caribbean. These exotic QSL cards, often picturesquely presented, are available to QSL card collectors these days, only through antique postcard sellers, and at times, on Ebay. At this stage, we are not aware of just what radio coverage has been obtained throughout Haiti in the aftermath of their massive and destructive earthquake (Adrian Peterson, AWR Wavescan script for broadcast Jan 24, via DXLD) BTW, long resident in our QSL gallery is one from 4VEH when it was on 17722 kHz 51.5 years ago, front and back: http://www.w4uvh.net/haiti1.html http://www.w4uvh.net/haiti2.html Index to the gallery: http://www.worldofradio.com/QSL.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RE: Station in the Sky http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/19/haiti.broadcast.warning/ But of course, as you would state, WTFK? I have passively sat on 1030 since 2255 (January 20) up till now, 0105 January 21, and nothing Kreyol. I forgot that the Orlando Hispanic was such a channel dominator, even at night. Some domestic English stations mixing, but nothing else. And after seeing that there's a P-a-P station on 1030, I am not convinced Air Haiti is using 1030 (Terry Krueger, Clearwater FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Follow up story a week later below Low-tech radios connect some Haitians - CNN.com While I admit I haven't caught every word of every newscast since Haiti's 7.1 earthquake of last week, this story below was the first I'd seen regarding the role of amateur radio in Haiti. I consider it unusual and, sadly, a sign of the times, that it took 8 days for a news story on amateur radio to surface: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/20/haiti.amateur.radio/index.html?hpt=C2 (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) I think partly it may be that on the ground ham operators were already scarce in Haiti. I monitored the various disaster nets frequently in the first days after the quake, and with one possible exception, (a verification of a request for supplies) heard no contact with any hams in Haiti. But I did note that in the news reports it was all about people using Twitter before their cellphone batteries died, no mention of the possibilities of radio communication (David Goren, ibid.) This week I did a special on the role radio hams have played to try and establish communication with the other hams in Haiti. Just as I was about to record the show on Wednesday, I'm still shocked that it has not been reported on more. On CNN they just kept saying since the 12th that phone lines are down, internet is not working and that mobile phone service is not good. But at no point did anyone from any of the news networks say maybe ham radio can be used. All they did was focus on the failure of new technology. This just goes to show how sad things are that everyone is forgetting that SW and ham still have a place (Keith Perron, Taiwan, ODXA yg via DXLD) US 193rd Special Operations Wing to provide disaster relief in Haiti Air National Guard --- by Airman 1st Class Claire Behney, 193rd Special Operations Wing, January 15, 2010 http://www.193sow.ang.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123185875 Harrisburg International Airport, PA In an unprecedented humanitarian mission, some 50 Airmen and three C- 130 aircraft from the 193rd Special Operations Wing have departed in support of relief efforts in Haiti. The aircraft will be staged at locations outside the devastated area. Two of the aircraft are cargo aircraft. The third, named Commando Solo, is an airborne radio and television station that will provide important information to the Haitian people. "Our National Guard is honored to extend a helping hand to the people of Haiti. I am proud of these dedicated Airmen who are always ready to answer the call of duty, whether it is for combat missions or to aid those in need," said Maj. Gen. Jessica L. Wright, commander, Pennsylvania National Guard. One of the aircraft departed late Thursday evening, the other two aircraft left Middletown, Pa., today. The 193rd was called to serve in Haiti more than a decade ago. In 1994, Commando Solo was used to broadcast radio and television messages to the citizens and leaders of Haiti during Operation Uphold Democracy. This is, however, the first humanitarian mission of its type for the wing. The duration of the mission is undetermined at this time. Members of the 193rd recently returned home from a deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Re: Try 1030 AM for Haiti radio via US Air Force I wonder how much power the AM and FM broadcasts are using. I can't imagine too terribly much, maybe a few hundred watts at best? Sincerely, (Paul B. Walker, Jr., IL, NRC-AM via DXLD) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/ec-130e.htm quotes the AM and TV powers at 10 kW (*I think* that means transmitter output for TV, not ERP.) It doesn't cite the FM power but I'd bet 10 kW as well (and again I'd bet that's 10 kW transmitter output, with ERP on the order of 50 kW) – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Jan 20, ibid.) I heard the old aircraft operation over Haiti some years ago. I recall it faded in and out, as if the aircraft was circling. I think the antenna is a wire that is unwound off the back end of the plane, so it might be very directional. I heard it on 1035 kHz, in 1994 (Jim Renfrew, Holley NY, ibid.) So did I, heard and QSLed at that time. 1035 was the old 4VEH 5-kHz split frequency. Ironically I never logged THEM on 1035, but I did hear the EC-130 transmission! Only medium-wave I've ever logged or verified from Haiti (okay, not actually on Haitian SOIL, but close enough!). QSL was a hand-written verie statement on a color laser- printed photo of the plane; believe power was 10 kW back then as well. (Randy Stewart, Springfield MO, Jan 21, ibid.) ** HAITI [and non]. Father John Henault (HH6JH) in Haiti, finally makes contact his brother via amateur radio Father John Henault, HH6JH, in the midst of the Haiti disaster, has been trying to contact his brother since the onset of the earthquake. However, Father John was unable to get an international phone line out of Haiti. Today, radio conditions were poor and Father John was garbled and barely readable. Finally, at 10:18 AM local time, on January 22, after passing information regarding needed supplies to Fred Moore, W3ZU, in Florida, Father John was able to chat briefly with his brother, Gerald Henault, WA1WOB, in Sutton Massachusetts. With phone lines in Father John's area unreliable and the Internet unavailable, this contact was only possible via amateur radio, with the aid of the Intercontinental Traffic Net on 14300 MHz. (Unlimited non-commercial use of this recording is granted. Credit Brian Crow, K3VR recording) (Brian Crow, Jan 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I`m not posting the recording since the sound quality is pretty low, but if anyone wants it, contact me (gh) ** HAITI [and non]. HCJB GLOBAL VOICE STATIONS, PARTNERS RALLY BEHIND MEDICAL RESPONSE TO HAITI Sources: HCJB Global, Radio Lumière, World Gospel Mission (written by Ralph Kurtenbach) Internet program streaming by HCJB Global Voice’s partner in Port-au- Prince, Haiti, is offering online users the station’s French, Creole and English programming to help listeners keep abreast of developments after a 7.0-magnitude quake struck the Caribbean island on Jan. 12. World Gospel Mission (WGM) engineer Paul Shingledecker resurrected Radio Lumière’s (Radio Light) streaming after working with a local Internet service provider and shifting to a different tower. Tim Rickel, WGM’s vice president of communication, said the new tower “is not as reliable as what they had, but you should be able to get the programming intermittently on the http://radiolumiere.org site.” A Jan. 22 program, monitored in Ecuador, was hosted by a male announcer. It streamed consistently for 45 minutes with a strong signal. With announcers using a makeshift tent studio beside Radio Lumière’s only slightly damaged AM station, ambient sound added local color to the morning show — a pastors’ discussion around the microphones. Planes landed nearby during the show as the host and his guests talked, prayed and laughed together. Relief flights loaded with reporters, rescue crews, health workers, international aid staff and supplies have clogged the Haitian capital’s besieged airport for more than a week after the quake devastated Port-au-Prince. The temblor struck while engineer Alan Good from the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind., and three others were at the ministry’s FM station, Stereo 92, to make repairs and hold radio training. All four escaped injury, but three of Radio Lumière’s employees were killed by the quake elsewhere in the city. Radio Lumière’s program schedule “is constructed in such a way as to keep a balance between the spiritual and the physical,” according to the station’s website. “This is consistent with Radio Lumière’s philosophy that the Creator God is interested in man in his entirety, body, soul and spirit,” the site stated. “To this end the program day includes evangelistic programs and programs to encourage Christians to grow in their walk with the Lord. However, it also has many programs designed to inform, teach and entertain. The belief is that all of these are important and part of God’s care for His people.” “They are doing open microphone [programs], letting people come and tell about problems in their area and requests for help in various areas,” said Paul Shingledecker, who directs the Caribbean and Latin America for World Gospel Mission. “They are now also beginning to do news and announcements. One a few minutes ago was about the availability of buses provided by the aid organizations.” “There was beginning to be a panic in this sense and local buses and trucks were being dangerously overloaded with people who wanted to get away,” Shingledecker added. “This way they can leave in a safe manner.” Another HCJB Global cooperating ministry, Radio Station 4VEH, operated by One Mission Society (formerly OMS International) in Cap-Haitien, was undamaged. At the other side of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, staff members at Radio Eternidad (Eternity Radio) in the Dominican Republic launched their own Haitian relief effort. Begun in early 2006, Eternity Radio hosted a training group from Radio Station HCJB a year later, with 25 people receiving personalized training in production and technical work. In Ecuador, both Radio Station HCJB in Quito and HCJB-2 La Conexión (The Connection) in Guayaquil have appealed to listeners to pray for Haiti’s quake survivors and the aid workers assisting them. Both stations aired interviews with the HCJB Global Hands’ multi-skilled team working at Baptist Haiti Mission in Port-au-Prince. Interviewing Dr. Eckehart Wolff via satellite phone, Radio Station HCJB newsman Edwin Chamorro asked, “Could you tell us a bit about your experience of donating blood for a patient?” “Oh, that isn’t anything special,” the self-effacing German surgeon replied. “What is bad is how we do not have the blood bags or the blood. We have to do whatever is possible; that’s why we’re here. It’s incredible the way God gives us strength. We have 16 hours of work every day — a bit less now, 12 hours. God gives us strength and this [work] is the norm for us.” (HCJB Global News Update Jan 18-22 via DXLD) ** HAITI [and non]. AMARC LLAMA AL APOYO DE LAS RADIOS COMUNITARIAS AL PUEBLO HAITIANO http://www.amarc.org/index.php?p=Haiti_solidarity_ES (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) Lotsa linx Here is a five star video on what ham radio does when the chips are down, this time in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqaKzIkyBug (from K3VR via CGC Communicator via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** HAITI. ARRL SENDS HAM AID EQUIPMENT TO HAITI Source: http://bit.ly/7yctHp https://www.arrl.org/ Even though the communications infrastructure in earthquake-ravaged Haiti is being rebuilt, there is still need for Amateur Radio communications. To assist in this effort, the ARRL's Ham-Aid program is providing equipment for local amateurs to use. On Friday, January 22, the League sent a programmed Yaesu VHF repeater with a microphone, as well as ICOM handheld transceivers, Yaesu mobile 2 meter rigs with power supplies and Kenwood mobile 2 meter rigs. Comet antennas, Larsen mobile antennas with magnet mounts, coax and batteries were also included in the package that was shipped to the home of the President of the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) for distribution. All items were donated by their manufacturers. "In the horror of this tragedy, there still are stars and the cooperation between the ARRL, IARU Region 2 and the Radio Club Dominicano and has been bright," said ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP. "It was donations from our members and friends that began the Ham Aid program in Katrina's aftermath. Now once again, that sharing between hams will provide help in another worst-case incident. ARRL members and donors need to know that their gifts will be used very well indeed." How You Can Help in Haiti The ARRL Ham Aid Fund welcomes your contribution! In 2005, the ARRL established the Ham Aid Fund to accept contributions in support of Amateur Radio's response to Hurricane Katrina and hams responded generously to help ARRL send equipment to the affected area. "Now we are facing another devastating event in Haiti and Amateur Radio is ready to respond," said ARRL Chief Development Officer Mary Hobart, K1MMH. "With equipment contributed by our generous industry partners, the ARRL invites contributions to the Ham Aid Fund from hams who wish to help ARRL deploy equipment where it is needed most. Contributions from Amateur Radio clubs and individuals in any amount will go directly to supporting Amateur Radio's response efforts in Haiti." Donations to the ARRL Ham Aid Fund can be made via https://www.arrl.org/forms/development/donations/basic/ (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** HAITI. HAITÍ: EMISORAS DE ESPERANZA --- Por Ansel Herz PUERTO PRÍNCIPE, 25 jun (IPS) – Desde el terremoto del 12 de este mes que destruyó la capital de Haití y sus alrededores, las radios que quedaron en pie llevan noticias y esperanza contra todas las adversidades. Radio Solidarité 88.5 FM es una de las estaciones que sobrevivieron a la catástrofe. Dos días después del sismo, reanudó sus emisiones desde su pequeño estudio, en lo alto de un edificio de dos pisos en el centro de la ciudad, una vez que sus empleados consiguieron gas para hacer funcionar el generador. . . [mucho más] Fuente: http://costaricahoy.info/internacionales/ips/haiti-emisoras-de-esperanza/41666/ (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** HAITI [and non]. Francia: Planeta RFI --- LAS RADIOS EN HAITÍ por Enrique Atonal Artículo publicado el 22/01/2010 Ultima reactualización 22/01/2010 09:53 TU Tras la catástrofe que ha sacudido Haití, una de las prioridades ha sido restablecer las comunicaciones y en especial la radio, el medio con mayor penetración en el país. Para participar en este esfuerzo RFI trasmite en directo para Haití una hora de programas desde el pasado lunes 18 de enero La idea es aprovechar las seis antenas repetidoras que RFI posee en Haití y que no fueron afectadas por el terremoto. Se trata de un programa en francés y en criollo destinados a la mayoría de los habitantes. Asimismo Radio France ha aportado su ayuda para restablecer las comunicaciones de la radio, tal como lo anunció su Presidente, Jean-Luc Hees. Fruto de este esfuerzo fue el restablecimiento de la radio de Naciones Unidas en Puerto Príncipe. En Planeta RFI nos interesamos también en los esfuerzos que el pueblo dominicano, que comparte la Isla de la Española con Haití, ha hecho para ayudar a sus vecinos. En Haití ha quedado demostrado una vez más que la radio es un medio indispensable en caso de catástrofes. El transistor es una fuente inapreciable de informaciones directas y fidedignas a bajo costo, como en Puerto Príncipe, en donde las radios transmiten incluso desde la calle. Entrevistados: Benoît Laporte-Bisquit, Director Adjunto de información RFI; Eric Amiens y Lucinda Terryre, del programa hacia Haití de RFI; Nicanor Leyva de Multimedios del Caribe y Manuel Betances de RFI Santo Domingo. Escuchar Fuente: Planeta RFI http://www.rfi.fr/actues/articles/121/article_14268.asp http://bit.ly/5EbIHI (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, Jan 26, DXLD) ** HAITI. FLYING RADIO STATION BROADCASTS HELP TO HAITI By Mike Ahlers, CNN January 26, 2010 10:05 a.m. EST San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Sixty miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an Air Force C-130 makes slow and lazy ovals over the Golfe de la Gonzave, a 264-foot weighted wire dangling from its belly like a plumb line. This is Commando Solo, a radio station in the sky. The long wire, kept vertical by a 500-pound lead weight, is helping transmit an AM radio signal to the people of Haiti. Four other antenna on the wings and fuselage are sending FM signals. Full story at : http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/26/haiti.flying.radio/ (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Same: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/26/haiti.flying.radio/index.html (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** HAITI. HAITI'S NEWEST RADIO STATION IS BROADCASTING FROM THE SKIES. Thanks to a specially-equipped U.S. Air Force C-130 that's flying very slowly above the Caribbean country, broadcasting an AM signal in Creole. The programming is mostly Voice of America, though CNN says there are also announcements from Haitian officials about the latest on the earthquake emergency. The AM antenna is a 264-foot "long wire" that's "dangling from [the plane's] belly like a plumb line." It's kept vertical by a 500-pound lead weight - not exactly your usual antenna setup on the ground. The plane also has four FM antennas, mounted on the wings and fuselage of the workhorse aircraft. They call the plane "Commando Solo" - and the CNN report is a great reminder of radio's role during emergencies. Just to make sure the target audience can hear the Commando Solo, the Department of Defense has distributed thousands of solar and hand- crank-operated radios (From Tom Taylor's column on today's Radio-Info newsletter via Rene Tetro, PA, Jan 27, IRCA via DXLD) Some of us should be able to hear this, even with ultralights. Commando Solo is an AM band signal, likely on the lower band and, unlike the local Haitian stations, the equipment should be operating at 100% efficiency. One of the best opportunities ever to hear Haiti. WHAT FREQUENCY??? This link gets to a CNN story that does not list the frequency. The video clip, great to see/listen, shows several shots where the transmitted frequency is just off camera. RATS. Help from anyone?? (John Bryant, Stillwater, OK, WinRadio G313e + Ultralights Wellbrook Phased Array, ibid.) 1030 as per numerous reports over the past week+ in DXLD, elsewhere (gh) The AM frequency is 1030. I don't know what their schedule is, but it could be only daytime, so they don't have to fight the co-channel skywave QRM from USA, Mexico, etc. The prospects don't look too good for hearing them, except maybe for folks in Florida (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF, Ottawa, ON, IRCA via DXLD) ** HAITI. RADIO AS HERO IN POST-QUAKE HAITI Radio Survivor by Jennifer Waits January 26, 2010 In the aftermath of the devastating January 12th earthquake in Haiti, radio has played an important role in terms of keeping lines of communication open. A fascinating radio story on All Things Considered yesterday profiles one Haitian radio station, Signal FM 90.5, that has continued to broadcast after the quake hit. . . http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2010/01/26/radio-as-hero-in-post-quake-haiti/ (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** HAITI [and non]. HAITI, VOA, AND THE ROLE OF SHORTWAVE DURING CRISES --- Mike Barraclough spotted the colloquy below about the role of shortwave in broadcasting to Haiti. I cited this item previously, but did not mention the shortwave parts... "While television and new technologies like Internet and cell phones are the focus of strategy at the Broadcasting Board of Governors that oversees the U.S. government’s international broadcasting assets, shortwave radio remains by far the most effective means of reaching audiences around the world, particularly in the developing countries. It is far from an outdated technology, as is sometimes alleged. A highly relevant case in point is earthquake-stricken Haiti, the poorest and most underdeveloped country in the Americas." Helle Dale, The Foundry Blog, Heritage Foundation, 20 January 2010. http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/20/voice-of-america-reaches-out-to-haiti/ "Very few Haitians, less than 1%, use shortwave, and only 8% use AM, per the BBG’s June 2009 national survey in Haiti. Haiti’s an FM market." Bruce Sherman, Broadcasting Board of Governors staff, comment to ibid (kimandrewelliott.com via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) VOA Creole has always used shortwave for its broadcasts to Haiti. Rebroadcasts on FM and AM stations in Haiti are a more recent addition to the media mix. When the local affiliates were disrupted by the earthquake, VOA stepped up its shortwave broadcasting into Haiti, using the limited number of IBB and borrowed shortwave transmitters still available in the Western Hemisphere. Keeping up with the expanded shortwave schedule has not been easy: see previous post. A June 2009 audience survey in Haiti found that, among the VOA Creole audiences, 81% listened via FM affiliates, 8% via affiliates on the AM band, and almost no one listening via shortwave. This shows, not surprisingly, that audiences, if they have the choice of FM, AM, and shortwave, prefer to listen via FM. But what happens when, due to an emergency, local rebroadcasting outlets become unavailable? What, specifically, happened in Haiti? The June 2009 survey indicates that only about one percent of Haitians have access to a radio with a shortwave band, versus 96% with FM bands, and 63% with AM bands. (The cheapest radios nowadays have only an FM band. Also, many mobile phones have an FM band.) Throughout the world, how many people will keep on hand a shortwave radio for possible crises when local broadcasting, internet access, and mobile networks go down? How many international broadcasters will keep shortwave transmitters in operation for such emergencies. It is possible as these calamitous events happen in the future, HF communications transmitters will have to be pressed into service for ad hoc shortwave broadcasting efforts. The receivers will be in the hands of government agencies, emergency service organizations, radio amateurs, and hobbyist shortwave listeners. This is hardly a mass audience, so the information will have to be passed on to the general public through word of mouth, any functioning local networks, and other means. In the twenty-first century, with the dominance of local broadcasting and the internet, people are better informed that ever -- during normal times. But, during crises, with the corresponding decline in shortwave, people may be less well informed than they were in the 1960s and 1970s. Posted: 27 Jan 2010 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** HAITI [and non]. NEW BLOG FOCUSES ON COMMUNICATIONS IN HAITI The inter-agency working group on Communicating with Disaster Affected Populations aims to improve dialogue between disaster affected communities and the agencies that seek to assist them. A new blog has been launched which provides a place to share information about any efforts to provide communication assistance to the people of Haiti after the devastating January 12 earthquake. It is not meant to duplicate coordination efforts. http://crisescomm.ning.com/ If you are representing an organization involved in communicating with affected populations, please post anything you have about getting crucial humanitarian information to Haitians affected by the earthquake (January 26th, 2010 - 11:43 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** HAITI [non]. In West Palm Beach FL area two local Creole pirates have been heard relaying Signal FM, 99.9/100.1 bleed -- KILLING Boca C&W -- is on relaying Signal FM; first heard 17 Jan 2010 (Ken Simon, Lake Worth FL, 26-37-06N, 80-04-22W, 25 Jan, WTFDA via DXLD) ** HONDURAS. 3250, Radio Luz y Vida, San Luis, 1100 only in español, no English-Spanish Gospel translation (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Flórida, Jan 23, Drake R 8, Icom 746Pro DL, NRD 535D, noise reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3250, Radio Luz y Vida, 0340-0355 Jan 25, Noted a radio drama in English. The drama concerned a religious topic. Signal was good. English is scheduled during the weekend until 0400 on this station according to the WRTH (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, NRD545, 26.27N 081.05W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sat 0300-0400, Sun 0230-0400, WRTH 2010 says, meaning local days or UT days? Jan 25 was UT Monday, so must be the former (gh, DXLD) ** INDIA. the following All India Radio stations were heard between 1400 and 1500 Jan 20, with Hindi vocals unless stated otherwise: 4810, Bhopal, poor 4820, Kolkata, poor 4840, Mumbai, fair 4860, Delhi, poor 4880, Lucknow, poor 4920, Chennai, poor 4940, Guwahati, 1430 man mentioned Guwahati, poor, QRM from China 5040, Jeypore, poor 5050, Gauhati, poor (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, Eton E-1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, listening portable from my car, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kohima s/on at 1217 UT on 4850 kHz. It is estimated for the special broadcast of the Republic day (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, Jan 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4850, AIR Kohima, 1330, Jan 25. Special broadcast of the President’s speech to the nation on the eve of Republic Day; in Hindi, repeated in English; 1355 suddenly off the air; was back on again at 1401 check; 1411 end of speech; anthem; into Hindi with ID for Kohima; local news; 1423 “This is All India Radio Kohima. The news read by … The headlines”; repeat of news in English; 1424 suddenly off the air again and I tuned away. Speech was // 4760, 4775, 4810, 4835, 4840, 4880, 4910, 4920, 4970, 5010, 5040 and 9425. Kohima was the strongest AIR on 60m. Video of her speech is at http://republicday.nic.in/pspeech10wd.html 5050, AIR Aizawl, 1601-1611*, Jan 25. Sign off was earlier than usual; suddenly off in mid-sentence; China had already signed off (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanx for the tip which was sms`ed by Alokesh. Just managed to catch AIR Kohima on 4850 kHz at 1450 UT with news in Assamese. Then on to English station ID "This is All India Radio Kohima, here is the news..." Abrupt break in transmission at 1455. Probably the sign on was to relay the President of India's republic day eve message to the nation (Supratik Sanatani, Kolkata, India, ibid.) ** INDIA [and non]. 4940, All India Radio - Guwahati, 1155-1215, 24- January-2010. 1155, Local type music with flute and chanting, 1200, Station ID by female announcer followed by news 1202, Voice of the Strait started up on this frequency also, about equal signal strength with AIR Signal; Fair (Ed Wlodarski, NJ, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** INDIA. 9470, AIR Aligarh transmitter continues to re-degrade, Jan 21 at 1406 now the buzz is louder than the modulation, and somewhat bothering Russian on 9465 from KFBS. Fingers crossed that it will not resume jumping all over the 9.3-9.5 MHz range (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 13710, AIR with English talks re Mumbai terrorist attacks (still?). LSB wiped out QRM until Cuba signed on at 1400 which smashed them on this channel; // 11620 continued OK, SINPO 34+4+44, 1344-1402 16/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) 13710, AIR, 1350, SIO-322, Indian music and many mentions of India in English, RHC QRM wiped out signal at 1400 (Karl Racenis, ibid.) That being a leapfrog mix of 13770 over 13740. In fact, it is on well before 1400 with open carrier on 13740 (gh, DXLD) ** INDIA. SPECIAL BROADCASTS BY AIR ON 25 & 26 JAN 2010 Special broadcasts by AIR for Republic Day 2010 All India Radio will broadcast the following special programs in connection with the Republic Day celebrations on 26th January. 25 January 2010: 1330 UT: President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil’s address to the nation. This will be broadcast by all stations of AIR. Delhi frequencies are 5015 6030 6085 9575 & 9835. Regional stations on SW are using 60 MB frequencies at that time. Look out especially Kohima 4850 (1000 to 1630 UT). 26 January 2010: Running Commentary of Republic Day parade from 0350 UT Hindi: 6155(Bengaluru 500 kW); 11620(Aligarh 250 kW); 15135(Delhi 50 kW). English: 5990(Delhi 250 kW); 9810 (Delhi 50 kW); 11830 (Delhi 50 kW); 15050 (Bengaluru 500 kW) The following Regional stations will change from their morning frequencies on 60 Meters (4 & 5 MHz frequencies) to their daytime frequencies between 0335-0350 UT as follows: 5965, Jammu? 5985, Ranchi? 6000, Leh 6040, Jeypore 6065, Kohima? 6085, Gangtok 6150, Itanagar? 6190, Delhi 7230, Kurseong 7240, Mumbai 7280, Guwahati 7295, Aizawl 7315, Shillong 7325, Jaipur 7440, Lucknow (? = Normally off air) So some unusual reception of AIR stations shall be observed. The other following stations are already scheduled to be on air daily at this time and will also relay the running commentary: 6020, Shimla 6110, Srinagar 7210, Kolkata 7290, Thiruvanthapuram 7335, Imphal 7380, Chennai 7390, Port Blair 7420, Hyderabad 7430, Bhopal Reception Reports may be sent to spectrum-manager @ air.org.in 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, Telefax: 91-40-2331 0287 Cell: 94416 96043, http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos http://www.niar.org Jan 20, dx_india yg via DXLD) 1330 UT Jan 25, scheduled Republic Day eve speech by President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil: in progress in Hindi at tune-in 1335 on AIR NC 9425, and better four seconds later on AIR VBS 9870. Not on GOS English frequency 9690. At 1345 searched 60m for her, and audible on 4920 Chennai, weaker Mumbai 4840. I could tell it was the same speech tho not synchronized with 9870. Also checked 7.3-7.5 MHz area just in case, but daytime frequencies probably not in use. Kept listening on 9870, and rewarded by abrupt switch to English at 1352 as she started the speech over, greeting military and security forces, quoting M. Gandhi, extolling harmony and secularism, respecting all religions. A wide-ranging pep talk, sort of a ``state of the union``, touching on climate change, carbon footprint; India fourth largest economy in the world, second in population, seventh in area. Ended on 9870 at 1411. I wish advance publicity had made clear she would also speak in English. Meanwhile I had rechecked AIR GOS 9690 at 1402 and there she was in English but not matching any other frequency. Turns out this playback started about nine minutes later as it did not end until 1420, with announcer admitting that it was recorded, on the eve of the 61st Republic Day. Also audible on // 13710 vs Cuban leapfrog. 1422 with editorial criticising racially-motivated attacks on Indians in Victoria, Australia. 1426 economic review. But the speech knocked regular programming out of whack as there was no Faithfully Yours mailbag at 1430; 1437 check, music and talk about something else. The next big broadcast for Republic Day starts at 0350 UT Jan 26, live coverage of the parade with separate frequencies for English and Hindi, usage differing from an ordinary day. But not likely to reach the other worldside from mid-day. Details: http://alokeshgupta.blogspot.com/2010/01/special-broadcasts-by-air-for-republic.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Friends, I monitored All India Radio Channels on January 26, the Republic day of India from 0400 UT. Two [non]parallel channels noted, some relaying Hindi, others relaying English commentary. AIR Bangalore 6155, Delhi 11830, 11620 Aligarh/Delhi(?), 9595, Mumbai 7240 etc. were noted with good reception with Hindi commentary of the Republic day parade AIR Thiruvananthapuram 7290, Guwahati 7420, 7390, Jeypore 6040 (from 0500 or later onwards), etc. were relaying English commentary. All other frequencies were poor/unaudiable here (T. R. Rajeesh, Kerala, INDIA, Jan 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) REPORT ON REPUBLIC DAY BROADCASTS ON SW --- Monitoring Observations of Special broadcasts on SW by All India Radio in connection with 61st Republic Day celebrations of India - Jose Jacob, Hyderabad India celebrated its 61st Republic Day on 26th January 2010. It is customary for the President of India to address the nation through All India Radio on the eve of Republic Day every year and this year also it was no exception. All stations of AIR relayed this broadcast. Also there is the running commentary of the parade in New Delhi in the morning of 26th January which are relayed by many stations of AIR. Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, The President of India addressed the nation at 1330 UTC (7.00 PM IST) in English and Hindi on 25 January 2010. The following are my monitoring observations of the SW stations at my location viz. Hyderabad in South Central India. 4760, Port Blair 10 kW. 333 with co channel Leh 10 kW faint. An echo like effect was noted. 4775, Imphal 50 kW. 343 4800, Hyderabad 50 kW. 555 (My local station!) 4810, Bhopal 50 kW 555 4820, Kolkata 50 kW. 311 (China co channel) 4830, Jammu 50 kW. Off air for many years now. 4835, Gangtok 10 kW. 211 4840, Mumbai 50 kW. 555 4850, Kohima 50 kW. 343 (Regular for these special broadcast as usual) – Usually not on air on other days! 4880, Lucknow 50 kW. 444 4895, Kurseong 50 kW. Off air lately. 4910, Jaipur 50 kW. 322 4920, Chennai 50 kW. 533 (China co channel) 4940, Guwahati 50 kW. 353 4950, Srinagar 50 kW. 353 4960, Ranchi 50 kW. Off air for many years now. 4965, Shimla 50 kW. 343 4970, Shillong 50 kW. 333 4990, Itanagar 50 kW. Off air lately. 5010, Thiruvanthapuram 50 kW. 343 5015, Delhi 50 kW. 422. Rough Audio. 5040, Jeypore 50 kW. 555 5050, Aizawl 10 kW. 422 6030, Delhi 50 kW. 433 6085, Delhi 50 kW. 322 7420, Guwahati 50 kW. 211 9425, Bengaluru 500 kW. 555 9470, Aligarh 250 kW. 544 9575, Delhi 50 kW. Only rough carrier. 9835, Delhi 50 kW. Only carrier. 9870, Bengaluru 500 kW. 444 Later, the stations broadcast translations of the speech in the local languages. On 26th January 2010 the Running Commentary of Republic Day parade from New Delhi was broadcast at 0350–0615 UT (9.20 am to 11.45 am IST) Several Regional stations changed from their morning frequencies on 60 Meters (4 & 5 MHz frequencies) to their day time frequencies between 0335-0350 UT. Some changed later and some even did not change the frequencies. The running commentary was in separate streams in Hindi and English and the individual AIR station opted for any one stream. [sometimes language not specified, so which? --- gh] Here are the detailed observations: (Timings in UTC) 4840, Mumbai 50 kW. Went off air at 0335 (to change to 7240). 4860, Delhi 50 kW. 331 Rough audio (Did not change to 6190). 4880, Lucknow 50 kW. Hindi 252 (Did not change to 7440). 4910, Jaipur 50 kW. Hindi 252 to 151 (Did not change to 7325). 5040, Jeypore 50 kW. English 454 (Changed later only to 6040 only later than scheduled). 5965, Jammu 50 kW. Off Air for many years. 5985, Ranchi 50 kW. Off Air for many years. 5990, Delhi 250 kW. English 554 (Hissing sounds also heard). 6000, Leh 10 kW. Not heard (Usually not heard at my location). 6020, Shimla 50 kW. Hindi 151. 6040, Jeypore 50 kW. English 555 around 0530 (changed to this frequency later than scheduled). 6065, Kohima 50 kW. 151 at 0405 (This frequency is used only very rarely). 6085, Gangtok 10 kW. Hindi 151 at 0443 (This frequency heard rarely only). 6100, Delhi DRM (But I don`t have DRM Receiver!). 6110, Srinagar 50 kW. Hindi 111 (China co channel). 6150, Itanagar 50 kW. Off Air lately. 6155, Bengaluru 500 kW. Hindi 555. 6190, Delhi 50 kW. Did not change to this frequency but continued on 4860. 7210, Kolkata 50 kW. Hindi 242. 7230, Kurseong 50 kW. Off Air lately. 7240, Mumbai 50 kW. Hindi 555 from 0346. 7270, Chennai 100 kW. English 555 (went off at 0430 as usual when commentary was in progress!). 7280, Guwahati 50 kW. English 252 after 0530. (Arabic station was heard before that). 7290, Thiruvanthapuram 50 kW. English 353. 7295, Aizawl 10 kW. Not heard (bad propagation?). 7315, Shillong 50 kW. Not heard (bad propagation?). 7325, Jaipur 50 kW. Did not change to this frequency but continued on 4910 7335, Imphal 50 kW. Not heard (bad propagation?). 7340, Mumbai 100 kW. Hindi 555. 7380, Chennai 50 kW. English 555. 7390, Port Blair 10 kW. Hindi 242 after 0445. Arabic station heard before that. 7420, Hyderabad 50 kW. English. First 333, later 555. 7420, Guwahati 50 kW. Music at 0350 when local station Hyderabad was weak due to skip. 7430, Bhopal 50 kW. Hindi 555. 7440, Lucknow 50 kW. Did not change to this frequency but continued on 4880. 9595, Delhi 250 kW. Hindi 353. 9810, Delhi 50 kW. English 511. Very distorted. 9870, Bengaluru 500 kW. Vividh Bharti Service noted till 0435 as usual 11620, Aligarh 250 kW. Hindi 454. 11830, Delhi 50 kW. English 544. 15050, Bengaluru 500 kW. English 151 (local skip). 15135, Delhi 50 kW. Hindi 311 0608 (China in Spanish Cochannel) earlier no copy (bad propagation?). Receivers: Icom IC 7000 & Icom IC 756 PRO Antennas: Dipoles for 7/10/14 MHz 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS National Institute of Amateur Radio Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India Telefax: 91-40-2331 0287 Cell:94416 96043 http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos www.niar.org Jan 26, dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. 5050, AIR Aizawl, 1620-1630*, Jan 27. DJ in English; pop songs in English (The Troggs with “Love Is All Around”, etc.); sign off announcements in English and Hindi. 9425, AIR Bengaluru, 1435-1502, Jan 27. Wednesday edition of “Vividha” in English (also on Mondays); interview with Dr. Renu Malaviya, Associate Professor, Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, about autism; reads poems about women; this is “Girl Child Week” in India; fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 11935 26/Jan 1928, All India Radio, EE. Mx indiana e OM talk. Moderada QRM da R Marti em 11930 kHz. Sinal melhorando. Uma das poucas transmissões da All India Radio com 100 kW. As 1944 UT ID por OM e termina a tx com uma fala da YL. 33433 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mumbai site (gh, DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 3976.02, RRI Pontianak, 1510, Jan 27. In Bahasa Indonesia; concert of western classical music; mentioned names of “Conductor” and “Concertmaster”; held at “Jakarta Auditorium”; pop Indonesian songs; 1600 several “Radio Republik Indonesia Pontianak” IDs; list of frequencies, mostly FM; poor to fair with ham QRM. Map of “Coverage Area” at http://www.rripontianak.com/ with list of frequencies, showing "3976.8 KHz" (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4925 kHz, RRI-Jambi on Jan. 20 activated again. At - 1100-1600* : Jakarta news at 1200. Closing down with Love Ambon at 1600* (c/off at 1608). Jan 20 at -2200-: IS by the call of bird at 2155. Opening theme at 2157. Jakarta news at 2200. RRI-Jambi was off the air from Nov. 19, 2009. de A. Ishida (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) 4925 kHz RRI-Jambi: off the air from November 19, 2009. However, I was able to hear it only on Jan 20 and Jan 21, 2010. 4925 kHz RRI-Jambi: Jan 20 at -1100-1600*: Jakarta news at 1200. Closing down with Love Ambon at 1600* (carrier off at 1608) Jan 20 at -2200-: IS by the call of bird at 2155. Opening theme at 2157. Jakarta news at 2200. Jan 21 at -1000-1555*: Jakarta news at 1200. Local news at 1300 (from http://www.max.hi-ho.ne.jp/a-ishida/ins/ Jan 25 via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI remains stable here just a smidgin below the 1-kHz-off frequency, Jan 21 at 1357 good signal and modulation with Indonesian song. Unfortunately the last half of the hour is mostly music, so if you want talk content you have to get the first half. 1401 ID, more music; 1402 VOI ID and outro English hour as always giving 100% wrong frequencies, ``9525, 15150, 11785`` and by webcast http://www.voi.co.id Also P-mail street and box addresses, english @ voi.co.id and ``sound of dignity`` tho they now have another slogan I missed earlier. 1403 switch to ID in presumed Malay rather than Indonesian, 1404 hum becomes audible, 1405 warta berita. 9526-, VOI good signal and fair modulation with music during English hour, Jan 23 around 1335 check; but off the air at next check 1410 when the Malay hour has been appearing sporadically. 9526-, VOI, Jan 25 around 1330 poor signal and modulation during English, het 9530. Recheck at 1416 now in the clear at S9+20, but just open carrier to 1417*. 9526-, VOI carrier was off around 1415 Jan 26, but at 1553 it was back on causing a het with CRI East Turkistan on 9525.0, and continued past 1600, as CRI continues another hour in English, but I could not copy languages from either. Aoki shows VOI in Indonesian at 1600, but monitoring Jan 21 by Atsunori Ishida found Arabic during that hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 15085, IRIB's technician at Kamalabad used an additional third unit for Swahili noon service at 0830-0927 UT today 23rd. Usually 15085 kHz is used for the 0730-0827 morning service in Italian and German. \\ 15240 via Sirjan, and 17660 via Kamalabad, both on service. During cold winter season the tx house staff use transmitters also as "heating radiator" often. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. Our Japanese member Nobuya Kato has been on a sightseeing trip to Egypt at the end of 2009 bringing his SONY ICF-2001D and ICF- SW7600GR with a telescopic antenna. His tips are from the guestrooms of hotels in Aswan, Luxor and Cairo. Clandestine: 756 MW, Pal-Voice (presumed), 1508-1558, Dec 31, Talk program in Arabic and non-stop Arabic songs, 45444-35333. (Kato in at Cairo) Clandestine: 756 MW, R Mashreq, 1358-1440, Jan 01, ID in Arabic “Idha’at al-Mashriqiyah”, website address information, recitation of the Holy Koran, Arabic songs, and talk in Arabic. 45454-35343 (Kato at Cairo International Airport) (DSWCI DX Window Jan 20 via DXLD) WRTH 2010 shows the latter as in Metulla, Israel; presumably the former is same transmitter (gh, DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Re Galei Zahal? on 5000, 10-02: Hi Ron, Jari Savolainen has heard today [Jan 21] an Israel army station 4XZ on 5001 kHz with CW. Maybe they were the ones relaying it. Some info about the station: http://www.astrosol.ch/53790397a40a2bb01/53790397a40a31504/index.html 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, via Ron Howard, DXLD) Hi Mauno, Thank you very much for this information. Wonder if that was the CW Glenn was hearing on Dec 3? Appreciate the feedback! Have not heard them again on 5000. Best regards, (Ron Howard, CA, ibid.) 1318 not a likely time to be hearing Israel in OK on 5 MHz (gh, DXLD) 15785, 21/1 1306, Galei Zahal, Israel, talks, today in AM again, fair with fading (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, RX: SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030; Yaesu FRG-7 --- ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY [non]. 5990, SLOVAKIA. IRRS Milano (Rimavska Sobota), 0528- 0538, 1/25/2010, English. Classical music prior to start of scheduled transmission at 0530. ID by man. Religious talk and music. Moderate signal with heavy low side broadcast interference from WYFR on 5985 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Which preacher was it? ** JORDAN. 15290, Radio Jordan. 1219-1232* January 24, 2010. Very good and alone with Arabic male world news items till 1222, bumper music and jingle, Arabic female, into Arabic vocals. Abruptly off at 1232 (listed 1230* in the WRTVH 2010). (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KASHMIR. 4950, R. Kashmir, 0149-0219*, Jan 25. Seems their sign off time varies some (scheduled 0215*); perhaps in Hindi, with subcontinent music; poor; best in USB to get away from Angola carrier (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. 6185, NORTH KOREA, Voice of Korea, Kujang. 1213-1219 January 24, 2010. Very good and alone on the channel with nonstop, ranting Korean man. Parallel 6285 (good) and 9335 (very weak), with no trace of 9850 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6240, 23/1 1640, Voice of Freedom - Seoul, Coreano, MX, buono (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, bclnews.it yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) 6240, Voice of Freedom, 1600-1700 1234567 Korean 100 60 Tashkent UZB 06909E4113N _VOF b09 Nov. 1- (Aoki Jan 24 via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. A Seoul-based internet radio station [sic] that broadcasts to North Korea said it will air actual voices of North Korean residents for the first time in a feature program this week. The Free North Korea Radio, run by North Korean defectors, began shortwave broadcasts across the border in 2004 and now transmits programs for five hours a day. The radio station plans to air accounts of North Korean complaints on the country's economic policies in a seven-minute feature program to be aired this Friday and Saturday. "There are four private stations in South Korea that broadcast to the North, but it will be the first time actual voices of North Koreans are being aired," said Kim Seong-min, founder of the Free North Korea Radio. "We plan to air programs with live voices of North Koreans every week from now on." Stringers in the North recorded the voices of residents near the border with China using hidden cameras and mini recorders, Kim said, adding that he could not disclose the video images of the interviewees for safety reasons. In a clip posted on the broadcaster's website, six North Koreans complain about the recent currency denomination, market crackdown and mandatory manure production system. An elderly lady talks about how each household is required to produce eight tons of barnyard manure. Four men and women complain that they are no longer allowed to sell anything apart from agricultural products in the markets due to the government crackdown on the free market. An elderly woman also criticizes the government after authorities took away her goods in the market. By Kim So-hyun --- Source: http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/01/28/201001280034.asp (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, Jan 27, DXLD) ** KURDISTAN. 4770.36, 0440-0500*, CLANDESTINE, 24.01, Voice of Iranian Kurdistan, Salah Al-Din, Iraq. Farsi talk, Middle East songs, closing ann with ID: "In seda-ye Kordestan-e Iran" 34333. The Iranian jammer stayed on 4778.99 all the time and was jamming R Djibouti 4780 instead! (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** KUWAIT. 11990, Radio Kuwait (Sulaibiyah / Kabd), 1838-1845, 1/24/2010, English. Pop and light rock music. Good signal with some fading (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS. 6130, Lao National Radio, Vientiane. 1156-1204 January 24, 2010. Nice, soft Asian instrumentals till top-of-hour long gongs, Lao male ID, instrumental theme or anthem, then female. Good signal. First log here in awhile. Interestingly, a carrier (but no audio) on about 4413.1, which I would like to think is the Xam Nua, Houa Phan provincial (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS [non]. Checking WHRI 11785, Sat Jan 23: on the air at 1357 with gospel huxter in English, 1359 to open carrier and off during the hour Hmong Lao Radio used to emanate. 1519 recheck, back on with choppy Hmong talk, badly edited? for the 1500-1530 semihour of Hmong World Christian Radio (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA. 6070.000, ELWA, English, 0810, weak, with gospel hymns and mixing with a second station (possibly CFRX), which dominated the frequency after 0820. Jan. 23 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5009.96, Radio Madagasikara, 0304-0315, Jan 24, local religious programming with choral music. Malagasy talk. Prayers. Poor in noisy conditions. Full AM mode (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 7105.000, Radio Madagascar, 1430, good with local music, // 6135 audible under co-channel. Jan. 24 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK. 5030, Sarawak FM via RTM, 1437, Jan 25. In vernacular; pop songs; “R-T-M Kuala Lumpur” news; many “Sarawak FM” IDs; EZL reception till tuned out at 1516. 6049.6v, Salam FM via RTM, 1604-1616*, Jan 27. In vernacular; reciting from the Qur’an; “Salam FM” jingles; considerable variety as to when they go off the air (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7295. Traxx FM at 1724 in English, Western-style DJ and pop music, 1731 ID. At 1800 noted them going into presumed Malaysian, possibly for news. (Mostly poor but did rise to good level on a few peaks Jan 23 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, Eton E-1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, listening portable from my car, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. No Mexico IBOC Announcement Yet Source: http://www.radioworld.com/article/93522 It appears reports that Mexico has chosen HD Radio as the official digital radio technology for the entire country are premature. Radio World América Latina, the Latin American sister publication of Radio World, says the communications regulator in Mexico, CoFeTel, has made no statement on the issue and indeed a Radio World search of CoFeTel’s Web site reveals no announcement. However, a source for Radio World A.L. believes Mexico is getting ready to declare HD Radio its digital radio technology of choice when that governing body meets again in the spring. A Jan. 13 article from “Radio Industry of the Mexico Valley,” a greater Mexico City broadcasters association, quotes a CoFeTel official, Jose Luis Peralta, as saying during a recent news conference that Mexico will vote for IBOC as its digital radio standard — over Eureka 147, which it also tested — because IBOC allows stations to go digital without additional spectrum. El Universal reported that Peralta wants to be chairman of CoFeTel. We’ve reported that Mexican stations within approximately 200 miles of the U.S. border have been using HD Radio since 2008 on a voluntary basis. If, indeed, Mexico does decide to allow IBOC use countrywide, it’s not clear whether it would be voluntary or mandated. Mexico also continues to test Digital Radio Mondiale. A spokesman for iBiquity Digital Corp. declined comment for this story (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** MEXICO [and non]. 6185, just open carrier at 0618 Jan 25. XEPPM or ZYE365? Probably the former lacking modulation as it`s a bit early for RNA to be on. Yes, at 0634 RNA had come on modulated with SAH against XEPPM on the lo side (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [non]. México de Leyenda new show on WRMI: see U S A ** MEXICO. Re: [Tvfmdx] Mexico TV-DTV files --- If anyone is interested in having the latest TV-DTV files for México TV, I have uploaded PDF documents at this WTFDA forums link.... http://www.wtfda.info/showthread.php?t=3984&page=2 (Jim Thomas, CO, Jan 24, WTFDA via DXLD) Jim, many thanks for sharing the information. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness, but the analog TV file is the same one Doug's site and tvdxtips.com link to. The DTV file is new to me, and I'm glad to get it. As for the ATV station list, which has changed little since SCT was the regulatory agency in charge of Mexico TV, it suffers from the same problem as other listings of Mexico TV: Omissions of stations. Here are photos of two of the stations not on that list: http://www.tvdxexpo.com/tvsguan.html http://www.tvdxexpo.com/tvsmich.html (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, WTFDA via DXLD) Just so nobody misunderstands, my previous post is not intended as criticism of Jim, Doug, or anybody else. They are merely the messengers. The fact is that several stations I have received are not on the government list. And my thought is that there are other stations that I have not received, and other DXers might receive some of those. Here is a list from tvdxtips that shows the unofficial stations that I have received: http://www.tvdxtips.com/cosvsidtran.html BTW, there are actually two unofficial stations on the Guanajuato page linked to in my previous post: XEZ-3 C. Culiacan and XEZ-2 San Miguel de Allende (Cantú does list this one). (Danny Oglethorpe, ibid.) ** MEXICO. NARCOCORRIDOS: MUCHO MÁS QUE VIOLENCIA ¿Le gustan los narcocorridos? En la radio regiomontana los he escuchado, ocasionalmente. No soy “fan” de este género musical, pero reconozco que algunas de sus canciones más representativas son “pegajosas”, cuentan historias interesantes y representan, sin duda alguna, una expresión cultural. En muchas de estas canciones se exalta a narcotraficantes, aparecen como héroes, como ejemplo a seguir, pero me parece exagerada e innecesaria la propuesta que presentó la semana pasada un diputado del PAN, Óscar Martín Arce, porque desde hace años, los narcocorridos prácticamente han dejado de programarse en la radio y la televisión, y los operadores que los transmiten pueden ser sancionados por la Secretaría de Gobernación. En efecto, en el 2002, fueron sancionadas dos estaciones de radio con 21 mil pesos cada una por la transmisión de este tipo de canciones; otra emisora radio y un canal de televisión recibieron una “amonestación con apercibimiento” en ese mismo año. La Ley Federal de Radio y Televisión prohíbe en su artículo 63 “las transmisiones que causen la corrupción del lenguaje y las contrarias a las buenas costumbres, ya sea a través de expresiones maliciosas o haciendo apología de la violencia o del crimen”. . . Fuente: http://blogs.eluniversal.com.mx/weblogs_detalle9817.html (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. 4830, 21/1 0112, Mongolian Radio, talks man & woman, some music, not // 4895-7260. Fair. 4895, 21/1 0110, Mongolian Radio, nice music and soft talks by woman over the music, // 7260 fair (on 7260 really good) (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030 - ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4895.000, HS-2, 1028, thanks Petersen tip, noted with local music. Sounded like an automated format-- no announcements and several seconds dead air between songs. Stronger than parallel 7260. Jan. 24 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9670, 1530, Voice of Mongolia in English General Service, very good 5/12. No sign of nominated 12085 over 3 days monitoring (Brian Webb, Upper Hutt, New Zealand, with Yaesu FT757 GXII transceiver with 5 metre longwire and Watts DE1104 portable with 1 metre whip antenna, Jan NZDX Times via DXLD) Should be 9665 from 14 to 16; did they QSY? (gh, DXLD) ** MOROCCO. 15345, RTVM missing Jan 26 at 1515, tho it had been on the air before 1500 on 15340. Recheck at 1545, 15345 was back on tho hummy and undermodulated. Transmitter appears to be ailing, and previously did not find it colliding with reactivated Argentina later in the day. Neither country registers its frequencies with HFCC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 5915, 20/1 0031, Myanma Radio, Burma, talk woman, then slow songs, fair. 5770, 20/1 0035, Myanma Army Radio, Burma, talks by woman, music, fair (but in USB to avoid utility QRM) 7200, 20/1 0030-0045, no signal of Myanma Radio, maybe off air this night or low power? (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030 - ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See RUSSIA 7200, 23/1 0030, Myanma Radio, Burma, start BC, on air again, music, talks woman, QRM Radio Sakha, Siberia. Poor. [and non]. 7200.103V, 27/1 0030, Myanma Radio, Burma, starting BC, under Russia (Yakutsk transmitter, East Siberia) (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, RX: SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030; Yaesu FRG-7 --- ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR [and non]. BURMESE MEDIA DENIES REPORTS OF MUTINY, ATTACKS BBC --- By WAI MOE Saturday, January 23, 2010 Burma's state-run media slammed the BBC Burmese Service on Saturday for reporting alleged cases of mutiny in Pegu Division, saying that the ruling regime would "never accept any scheme to break up the Tatmadaw [Burmese armed forces]." In commentaries run in both Burmese and English, state-run newspapers accused the BBC of fabricating a series of reports of unrest within the ranks of the military that have been broadcast by the BBC's shortwave radio service over the past month. . . http://www.irrawaddy.org/print_article.php?art_id=17647 (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. The interview I did on Hear In Taiwan with Andrew Ryan has been uploaded to the PCJ Media site. Just go to http://www.pcjmedia.com and you will find it on the home page at the bottom (Keith Perron, Taiwan, Jan 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. Subject: AJUSTES EN SEÑAL RTM BONAIRE 800 kHz From: Lemuel GMAIL Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 1:56 PM Saludos fraternos: Recientemente los ingenieros en la emisora RTM- BONAIRE han hecho algunos ajustes interesantes en la modulación y esta ha sido mejorada. Les agradezco si pueden escuchar unos días las transmisiones desde sus respectivos países y verificar si NOTAN esos cambios. También ustedes tendrán sus amigos y personas que pueden monitorear la señal por unos días y darme un informe de si notan cambios o mejoras en las transmisiones em OM 800 khz. ¿Pueden hacer esto por favor a la brevedad posible? ¡Muchas gracias! Todo es hecho para lograr alcanzar mejor a nuestra audiencia en sus países y en la región desde Bonaire. Un abrazo, Lemuel (via Carlos Felipe, Brasil, Jan 20, radioescutas yg via DXLD) What exactly did they do to improve modulation?? (gh, DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. 17675, RNZI, Rangitaiki, 2246-2257* (scheduled to s/off 2235), 22 Jan '10, English, English ballads, frequency change announcement at 2257, IS and immediate closure; 15321 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6170, RNZI, Monday Jan 25 at 1329 concluding Dateline Pacific, and starting Mailbox a minute early as usual, but after a six-week summer holiday hiatus. Usual co-channel interference from Russia, and SAH, so I`ll demand the audio sometime in the next month. http://www.rnzi.com/audio/mailbox.mp3 plays it, and once another show is up a fortnight hence, this Jan 25 show will be demoted to http://www.rnzi.com/audio/mailbox2.mp3 for another biweek before vanishing forever. It did start, also as usual, with a Maori song, which seems odd for a mailbag show which should have plenty of letters and DX news piled up by now. Are there not lots of other opportunities to play music on RNZI? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 15120, Voice of Nigeria; 1729-1735+, 1802, 23-Jan; English discussion about UNESCO; still in EE after 1800. SIO=333, need USB to kill strong WYFR in French on 15115; WYFR went to English at 1800 (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW + 86 ft. coil dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15120, 26/Jan 1809, Voice of Nigeria, EE. YL comenta uma entrevista ou declaração de um homem fora do estúdio, mas durante a gravação praticamente não se ouve a modulação, pois já com a YL no estúdio a modulação é bem mais baixa do que a intensidade do sinal recebido segundo a indicação do S-Meter. As 1813 UT curta fala e após OM talk. 44432 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Once their brand-new transmitters and antennas are in full use, will we get reliably good modulation too? Not if the problem originates in the faraway studios, as we fear it does! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** NIGERIA [and non]. [includes some background on previous clandestine radio operations, Radio Kudirat, Ijinle Ohun Oodua] PEOPLE POWER FROM BABANGIDA TO YAR'ADUA Tolu Ogunlesi, January 22, 2010 12:45AM The Save Nigeria Group is only the latest in a series of Nigerian activist platforms keeping alive a tradition of sustained opposition in the face of bad governance. In the last two weeks, the group has scheduled protest marches ("Enough is Enough rallies") in Abuja, London, Johannesburg, Sydney and Lagos. Founded in 2009, one of the missions of the Save Nigeria Group, is "to force the National Assembly to resolve the constitutional logjam created by the disappearance of Nigeria's sickly ‘president' Umaru Yar'Adua [60] days ago ostensibly for medical reasons." Prominent amongst its conveners are religious clerics and civil rights activists. The civil society first blossomed in Nigeria during the Babangida era [1985-93]. At the forefront of the opposition to the military President's economic policies were human rights, labour and student organisations like Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO; established 1987), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Constitutional Rights Project (CRP; established 1990) and the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR; established 1989). The June 12 factor The annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections by General Ibrahim Babangida radically animated the country's pro-democracy groups. Not less than forty pro-democracy groups coalesced into the Campaign for Democracy (CD), led by Beko Ransome Kuti. The CD would prove to be the source of potent opposition to the Babangida government. As soon as it became clear that Sani Abacha was unwilling to usher democracy in, human rights groups and democracy activists realised that they needed to take the battle a step further. And so, on May 15, 1994, the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was formed, as an umbrella body of activists opposed to the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. Around this time, elections were held to select candidates for a constitutional conference planned for 1995 by the Abacha government. NADECO's goal was to ensure that the Government of MKO Abiola, elected on June 12, 1993, was sworn into office. It would eventually become the most prominent opposition group of the Abacha era. Nigeria's petroleum industry unions, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) were also active in the anti- Abacha battle. In June 1994, they embarked on strikes that paralysed the sector. The Nigerian Labour Congress also joined the strike. The government responded with violence, jailing the executives, dissolving the Union leaderships, and replacing them with military sole administrators. A sustained clampdown on NADECO (which drove many of its leaders into exile) led to the formation, a year later, of the National Liberation Council of Nigeria (NALICON). NALICON was based outside the country, and in June 1996 it established a guerilla radio station, initially called Freedom Frequency [FF] which was based in Lagos, but was eventually named after Kudirat Abiola, the slain wife of jailed politician MKO Abiola. In London there was the New Nigeria Forum. There was also the US-based Free Nigeria Movement, which launched a radio station, Voice of Free Nigeria, in 1997. The North American chapter of Yoruba socio-cultural group, Egbe Omo Yoruba founded a short-wave radio station, Ijinle Ohun Oodua. On April 28, 1998, the Joint Action Committee of Nigeria (JACON) was formed as collaboration between all of Nigeria's pro-democracy and human rights groups "to give impetus and verve to the national struggle to restore democracy through collaborative efforts of all our people." JACON demanded the immediate release of all political prisoners, and called for an end to the dictatorship. It also asked for the formation of a Government of National Unity, which would then conduct a Sovereign National Conference. Another product of the Abacha era was the G34, a group of prominent Nigerians from across the country. Formed in 1997, it soon became the arrowhead of opposition to the Abacha dictatorship. When Abacha died in June 1998 and his successor, Abubakar instituted a transition programme, the G34 was one of the groups that went on to transmute into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). During the Obasanjo era, the leading opposition group was the Nigeria Labour Congress, under the leadership of Adams Oshiomhole, now Executive Governor of Edo State. His unwavering opposition to Obasanjo's fuel price increases earned him the sobriquet "Peoples General." Alongside the NLC were the Pro- National Conference Organisations (PRONACO), a coalition founded in December 2004 (and led by Anthony Enahoro) to lobby for a Sovereign National Conference. Also in 2004, the Citizens Forum (CF) was founded by veteran opposition figures like Wole Soyinka and Balarabe Musa. source: http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/5515657-147/people_power_from_babangida_to_yaradua.csp (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirates]. 6900 AM, WBNY, 2245-2300, Jan 22, IDs. “Pirate Week” program. Mentioned WBNY t-shirt giveaway at the Kulpsville Winterfest. Fair signal. 6950 USB, WEAK Radio, 0755-0805, Jan 23, IDs. “70s pop music. Weak. 6925 USB, Outhouse Radio, 1905-1946*, Jan 24, IDs. Instrumental music. Hendrix music. Country rock. SSTV at 1945. Fair signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** OKLAHOMA. Noted my local Disney outlet KMUS-1380 *off* while running an errand for my wife around 7 pm CST this evening. Still off when I was able to get back to the shack a few minutes ago (10:30 pm). A real jumble but there's an oldies station popping up fairly often. I'll be recording on 1380 overnight! (Bruce Winkelman, Tulsa OK, UT Jan 27, ABDX via DXLD) KMUS Originally meant ``Muskogee``, now means ``Mouse``. Or meant? (gh, Enid, DXLD) ** OMAN. 15140.000, Sultanate of Oman Radio, English, 1440, undermodulated (as reported by GH) but strong S9+30dB signal. Continuous pop music (including the Black Eyed Peas and Beyoncé) with no announcements until abrupt switch to Arabic at 1459. Then, ID by man, brief "surf and seagulls" sound effects, clock chimes, more talk by man and into news. Actually getting stronger, and near local-level by 1600. Best-ever reception of Oman on this freq. Jan. 24 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15140, R. Sultanate of Oman, fair signal but barely audible modulation, 1433 Jan 27 with YL in English news mentioning Baghdad, and highly likely it was bad news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PALAU. Angel 4 Monitoring on Jan. 24 at 2200(UT Jan. 23) to 1630 UT [local Sunday] [and see later version below] [see also AUSTRALIA non] 2200-2400 12040 R. Australia, English 0000-0030 15225 R. Australia, Indonesian //15180, 15335, 15415 0030-0045 15680 Faith Christian Church 0045-0100 15680 Music 0100-0130 15655 R. Australia, Burmese //17665 0130-0200 15680 Call to Worship http://www.calltoworship.org/ 0200-0300 15680 Whole Truth Gospel http://www.apostolic-faith.org/ 0300-0330 15680 Lester Sumrall Teachings 0330-0400 15680 Bringing a Message http://www.bringing-a-message.org/ 0400-0430 15780 R. Australia, Indonesian //11550, 15180, 15415 0430-0500 off the air 0500-0530 15590 R. Australia, Indonesian //11745, 15180, 15415 0530-0600 off the air 0600-0700 15680 Truth of God http://www.truthofgod.com/ 0700-1000 15725 VT Communications Music 1000-1300 off the air 1300-1430 9890 R. Australia, Chinese //9475, 11660, 11760, 11825 1430-1500 off the air 1500-1515 9965 MFC Worldwide 1515-1530 9965 Music 1530-1600 9965 JCIC Korean 1600-1630 9965 R. Australia, Chinese Monitor by Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, Jan 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also UNIDENTIFIED 15725 15655, 25/Jan 0100, R Austrália, em Burmese, desde Koror. YL talk.Confirmação da escuta via link http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/flash/listen/default.htm As 0111 UT OM talk e logo após pop mx. Sinal fraco sem QRM. Sinal melhorando chegando perto do final da tx. Gravado. (Jorge Freitas-B) 15725, 24/Jan 0911, T8WH, EE, VT Communications Music. Apenas no final da transmissão as 1000 UT OM fala, mas não consegui entender e colegas me ajudaram na identificação, entre eles o Glenn Hauser, Wolfgang and Hasegawa; esse último me enviou um esquema de monitoramento dessa frequência a identificando como T8WH. Repetindo um trecho de música instrumental, como se fosse um sinal ID. Sinal fraco e com moderada falha de propagação. As 1000 UT OM fala o que provavelmente foi a ID, mas não entendi. Gravado em meu blog (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, Dipole antenna, 19 meters - east/west - Balun 4:1, Skype: jorge.freitas.fsa Escutas (listening): http://www.ipernity.com/doc/75006 dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also UNIDENTIFIED non Angel 4 Monitoring on Jan. 25 at 2200(UT Jan. 24) to 1630 UT [local Monday] 2200-2400 12040 R. Australia, English 0000-0030 15225 R. Australia, Indonesian // 15180, 15335, 15415 0030-0100 off the air 0100-0130 15655 R. Australia, Burmese // 17665 0130-0300 off the air 0300-0400 Shepherd's Chapel http://www.shepherdschapel.com/ [frequency omitted, but 15680 as day before?] 0400-0430 15780 R. Australia, Indonesian // 11550, 15180, 15415 0430-0500 off the air 0500-0530 15590 R. Australia, Indonesian // 11745, 15180, 15415 0530-1300 off the air [WORLD OF RADIO 1497] 1300-1430 9890 R. Australia, Chinese // 9475, 11660, 11760, 11825 1430-1500 off the air 1500-1530 9965 Lester Sumrall Teachings 1530-1600 9965 JCIC Korean 1600-1630 9965 R. Australia, Chinese 1630-2200 off the air 0400-0430 on 15780 kHz, not 15785 kHz. 1600-1630 R. Australia in Chinese, not Burmese. de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, Jan 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Two more simultaneous logs to go with the one in 10-03 from Harold Frodge: 3385, R East New Britain (presumed), Rabaul with EZL music, including “Knockin’ on Heaven’s door” Against the Wind, etc, and YL in Tok Pidgin [sic], mention of PNG at BoH and then “9 o’clock” and into anthem at :31 and apparently off at :32 1/2, but carrier not off and into more EZL at :33. Carrier cut at :35. This was the only signal on 90 metres other than CHU and the only PNG station heard this AM! 1305- 1335* 17/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) 3385. R. East New Britain, 1315, SIO-343, PNG ID, woman talking in Pidgin, "Against the Wind" by Bob Seeger, "Knocking on Heaven's Door" remake, more talk by woman at 1328 with song titles, mentions of Papua New Guinea, anthem (Karl Racenis, 17-JAN, ibid.) This trio were in cahoots, probably within meters of each other, yet maintain their individuality in reporting the same log (gh) 3385, Radio East New Britain, 1026-1040, 24-January-2010, in English / Pidgin. Program Details: 1026, Local type music 1030, Female announcer with song title and time announcement 1036, Station identification followed by a local musical selection. Signal: Good, very strong level this morning (Ed Wlodarski, NJ, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 3385, R. East New Britain, Usual programming with fairly nice signal before it started fading around 1245. Really noisy, though. Finally went off at 1334:52 in mid-song. Decent signal on 3325 at 1312, probably Bougainville after program had already ended. Sounded like the Indo was underneath. 3290 was doing well also but with QRM from SSB transmissions. Still just barely getting audio by 1329. Looked like the signal was still there at 1400. Disappointed that 3345, 3315, 3275 and 3260 have all been silent lately. (23 Jan) (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) ** PARAGUAY. Desde las 2330 UT aproximadamente vengo escuchando una emisora paraguaya en 2100 kHz con buena señal. El programa es en guaraní con muchas palabras en español. Mi único sospechoso es R. Carlos Antonio López, Pilar, 700 kHz en su armónica, ya que no hay emisoras en 1050 hasta donde se. No la escuché identificarse. ¿Alguien más la ha escuchado? Música paraguaya y publicidad local. [luego:] Confirmado: R. Carlos Antonio López, 700 kHz, en su tercera armónica. Se identificó a eso de las 0030 UT. 73, (Moisés Knochen, Cuchilla Alta, Uruguay, UT Jan 21, condiglist yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) ** PERU. 3329.598v, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco, 1045-1055 OM and YL alternating en español, no music but good signal for them 19 January; 1010 rapid español, same YL and OM with Ondas de Haullaga ID by YL, ``salud... emisoras... salud...." 21 January 4949.9 tentative, Radio Madre de Dios, 1040 to 1045 audio en español, difficult log here, 14 Jan. 5039.254, Radio Libertad, Junín 1040 to 1100 mentions de Lima and two other cities in Peru by YL, no music, fading out 16 Jan. 5120.366, Ondas del Suroriente, Quillabamba, 1050 om en español 17 Jan. 6173.857, Radio Tawantinsuyo, Cusco, 1040 to 1050 19 Jan, tnx Charles Bolland (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Flórida, Jan 23, Drake R 8, Icom 746Pro DL, NRD 535D, noise reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. THE LOSS OF LOCAL ROCK RADIO STATIONS Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 @ 02:57 UTC by Juan Arellano In a local context in which Peruvian radio and television [es]stations have lately been closed for supposed political reasons, the end of transmission of a pair of “album-oriented rock” radio stations may seem insignificant. However, against what might be expected, the reaction from radio listeners is worth mentioning and analyzing. On December 8th, 2009, Miguel Villamizar of the blog LO MEJOR del Rock and Pop en PERU, celebrated the 12th anniversary of the station Radio Z. However, later that month on December 30, Villamizar wrote that the rock and pop music station Radio Z would stop transmitting, and in its place, La Calle Radio (The Street) would begin on the same radio frequency, which would play reggaeton, cumbia, and salsa. He writes, “this time another company owned by Mr. Capuñay are now the standard bearers of this ‘worsening' of radio music in Peru.” Even though the post is short, it attracted 221 comments, and most disagree with the closure of the radio station. . . Source: http://bit.ly/bLQqcn (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** PHILIPPINES. 15285, 25/Jan 0200, R Pilipinas, English. ID por OM em inglês, às 0202 UT YL talk também em inglês, parece divulgar mais informações sobre a transmissão com hora e etc. Em // com 11880 kHz com boa recepção com sinal moderado, sinal limpo quase sem ruídos, sem QRM, mas com baixa modulação. Também em // com 17770 kHz, mas com sinal mais fraco, contudo sem QRM. As três freqüências desde Tinang e com mesmo azimute de 283. Gravado com comparativo da recepção das três freqüências (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, Dipole antenna, 19 meters - east/west - Balun 4:1, Skype: jorge.freitas.fsa Escutas (listening): http://www.ipernity.com/doc/75006 dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES [and non]. 15190, 26/Jan 1823, R Pilipinas, em Filipino. Pop mx. As 1828 UT YL fala com menção a Filipinas. Na mesma frequência tx a R Africa desde Bata GNE, que chega levemente ao fundo com OM falando estilo pregação. A medida que o tempo avança o sinal da R Africa vai ficando mais forte durante os picos da propagação. Não me lembro de já ter ouvido com essa intensidade do sinal a R Pilipinas nessa frequência que geralmente predomina a R Africa. 34433 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. AUSTRIA: 11675, Polskie Radio with English programming, including “Current Affairs weekly with talks re unusual vacation spots including mention of a special resort which features boars’ sperm hair tonic treatments. This is gross and NOT tasteful, but it did ‘fit’ with the porn theme of the DXpedition!! Also a programme titled George Orwell in 2010 talking re DNA database in the EU and biometric data in passports, etc. Then into “Focus” magazine programme with culture in Poland including an interview with a violinist 1334-1344 16/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet Jan 22 via DXLD) PRES via AUSTRIA, Thu Jan 21 at 1347 in mailbag reply to someone in Netherlands, says PR still has Esperanto on website, tho had to drop broadcasts three years ago despite Poland`s being the birthplace of the artificial language. This is a time when Multimedia was scheduled, but Slawek Szefs outro referred to it as ``Multi-touch``, a `new hybrid feature` and invited critical comments about the change. It still shows as Multimedia on the grids here: http://www.thenews.pl/static/Schedule.aspx and http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/ramowka/?id=10 Link to Multimedia on the home page goes nowhere, and search on multitouch, and multi-touch finds nothing, but multi touch with a space finds the new info, altho appearing there as a single word! ``MultiTouch``: http://www.thenews.pl/News/?id=124006 ``The New Year has ushered in the necessity of introducing some cuts to our program offer, the chief reason being further limited funding of Polish Radio, the public broadcaster of which the External Service is part of [sic]. Presented by Slawek Szefs MultiTouch is a temporary (???) compromise solution to the problem. I have decided on a merger of the two programs tailoring it to both audiences' expectations. The premier air times for Multimedia and In Touch with repeats will be preserved not to introduce chaos to our schedule nor to disrupt your listening habits. Hope my decision proves correct.`` So when was In Touch scheduled? Toward the end of the Friday 18 and Saturday 13 UT broadcasts, and the other time for Multimedia was toward the end of the Tuesday 18 transmission. Our DX/SWL/MEDIA programs reference http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html has been updated to reflect this. URL above also has an audio link. So I later went back and listened to the entire hybrid program, as he pronounced his name, which reminded us that the L in Slawek is supposed to be crossed and pronounced like a W, (and of course the W pronounced like a V) even tho PRES does not bother to do that on its English webpages. How do you make a crossed- L, anyway? I can`t find Polish on MS Word 95 insert-symbol and if I did, it would surely come out garble in most places. I can`t even copy the symbol from a Polish-language page without getting a question mark. Since about 99.4% of the world`s population does not speak Polish, he really ought to respell name fonetikally for the rest of us: Swavek Chefs. On audio archive, after co-host from In Touch walked in, discussed Chopin being a Pole not a Franc, which I did not hear on SW, having missed the first 22 minutes of the 24.5-minute show. So it must have started at 1324 or 1325. Back to Thursday at 1349, onward to next feature, very well-written and presented, Letter from Poland, by Anna --- on being an expat, from Poland, who grew up in London and now is back in Poland. It seems West London is overpopulated with Poles, making the schools oversaturated too due to large families, so there is some resentment among the Brits. Says she is half-Bulgarian, to complicate matters further. I wanted to get her full name, but like Multimedia, the link to Letter from Poland does not work either and have not reached it by searching. The two separate websites as above are not fully integrated and compatible, but if you click on a link from the old page you may wind up on the new page; is thenews destined to replace the other one?? 1355 into closing of this English hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 6030, good signal Jan 21 at 1258, concluding bit of VOR announcement in English mentioning ruvr.ru, IS, open carrier with hum and off at 1300, clearing frequency for Ming Hui and the Chinese radio war. But VOR is not scheduled here in English per: http://english.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/schedule which at 12-13 shows only 11660, 15610, 15470. Nor do any of the online schedules show VOR in any language at that time on 6030. Something new, or a mistake? Then checking WRTH 2010y: 6030 is in the frequency pages as VOR Samara, but I don`t see it for any language until 1300. And for English at 12-13, WRTH shows a different set of frequencies, 7340+DRM, 7350, 9695 and 11660, the last being the only one in common! Go back and look at the VOR online sked as above: yes, it is dated ``October 25, 2009 – March 27, 2010`` but the lower frequencies make more sense in the winter, so I lean toward the WRTH version. Furthermore, HFCC B- 09 does NOT show 15610 or 15470 for VOR, but it does show 11660 and 7350. So VOR`s own online schedule portrays summer frequencies with a winter date --- don`t you believe the rest of it! Meanwhile, 6030 remains a mystery (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 7200, R. Rossii, Yakutsk, Siberia, 0930-1030, 19 Jan '10, Yakut, talks, piano music, refs. to Yakutiya; 35422, barely audible at end of obs (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7200, 21/1 0046-0002, Radio Sakha, Yakutsk, East Siberia, Russia, regional program, long talks in Russian, then at 0200 Radio Rossii news with a real different BC style. It is the first time I listen to this Russian station. This night with good signal. No traces of Burma (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030 - ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also MYANMAR 7200, Radio Rossii (Yakutsk), 0514-0525, 1/22/2010, Russian. Talk by man. Radio Rossii ID by man at 0515 followed by talk by man and woman. Program of Russian pop and light classical music at 0516. Additional IDs by woman. Good signal with occasional ARO interference. No parallels heard. 7320, Radio Rossii (Magadan), 0536-0544, 1/22/2010, Russian. Talk by woman with short piano music bridges. Moderate signal with fading. Parallels noted on 5940 (Magadan, similar strength) and 6075 (Petropavlovsk, stonger, but under Deutsche Welle). 9840, RUSSIAN REPUBLIC, Voice of Russia (Petropavlosk), 0503-0508, 1/22/2010, English. Man and woman with news. Very poor signal, fading down into the noise a couple of times (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX- 340, IC-R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. 9996, binary code at 1255 Jan 27, presumably RWM, and beating against WWV/H on 10000 where there was also a fast SAH indicating some other station`s frequency was not standard at all (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. Buzzing Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the worst ever, Jan 26: from the 15435 transmitter, already on at 1456 blasting away R. Farda 15410 whose music I had just started to enjoy. Could hear the buzz between 15390 and 15455, along with some Arabic modulation underneath. By 1516 recheck the buzz could be heard all the way from 15355 to 15500, tapering off at both edges, but still audible under WYFR 15355, making Spain 15385 unlistenable. Instead of multiple overlays of buzzing, at the edges it was steady pulsing at the rate of four times per second, something I had not noted previously. Certain other days there was little if any buzz audible around 15435, I suppose depending on propagational variations. I find it incredible that other users of this spectrum have not filed official complaints about it through ITU, or if they have, that nothing has been done about it; just as incredible that the Saudis are unable or unwilling to fix it or turn it off since it is doing them no good whatsoever, making them a laughingstock in the international engineering community, and wasting countless megawatts. The // 15225 with Qur`an from the same Riyadh transmitter site has no such problems, but a relatively minor one at 1525 Jan 26: some intermittent hum and minor buzz on the modulation; wiggle that patchcord! (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, As we both know, poor engineering is nothing new in shortwave, and probably won't get a response anytime soon from DXers, other stations, or, more importantly, the HFCC. However, Saudi Arabia does recognize its importance in the Muslim world, and it is surprising that of the hundreds of millions of Muslims out there, none have said anything about that. Surely getting the Word of God out must be of some importance to the Ministry of Information! 73, (Dan Malloy, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I thought the Buzzing Service of the Kingdom of Sa`udi Arabia was bad the day before, but much worse on Jan 27, a new record: first check at 1500, the horrible 15435 transmitter was audible just between 15390 and 15460, leaving e.g. fluttery Spain 15385 in the clear. But at 1518 If found that blotted out, with the buzz now extending from 15270 to 15775! I can`t begin to enumerate all the stations this was interfering with, but who cares? The edges reduced to just pulsing of four times per second, ranged 15270-15300, and 15630-15775, leaving the full brunt at 15300-15630. The upper end overlapped OTH radar from 15745, see CYPRUS. Standard but amplified remarks of incredulity over the Saudi monstrosity (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Buzzing Service of the Kingdom of Sa`udi Arabia, 15435 transmitter still blotting large portion of 19m Jan 28 at 1530, but somewhat less than on Jan 27. Exact range varies from minute to minute, as well as from day to day, probably more due to intensity of propagation than of transmission. On a much less sensitive receiver, it was much less noticeable. The 4-per-minute pulsing at the edges reached 15160-15220, the full brunt 15220-15500, but not much above 15500 as it`s asymmetrical --- altho with such a wide blob, could be riding or bridging the MUF. Final check at 1555 found the boundary between pulsing and brunting around 15250 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. SAUDI MINISTER SIGNS CONTRACT TO BUILD NEW SPA HEADQUARTERS, INFORMATION CENTRE | Text of report in English by Saudi state-owned official news agency SPA website [SPA headline: "Dr.Khoja Signs Contract for Construction of SPA Headquarters"] Riyadh, January 27, 2010, SPA - Dr Abdulaziz Mohieddin Khoja, the Minister of Culture and Information signed here today the new Saudi Press Agency headquarters and Information Centre in Al Sahafa Borough, costing SR 80,594,710 with the KHALEEJ Al OWLA Contracting Ltd. The Project, to be spread over on an area of 10,000 cm [sic; meaning 100 meters wide and deep? Areas should be specified in square units -- - gh], will be implemented in a period of 24 months period. It will be a ten-storey high building and include a basement and a 3- storey Information Centre and an Auditorium that can accommodate more than 400 persons. It will also have Radio and Television Studios, scheduled for implementation at a later date. Other glaring features of the project is a permanent Exhibition Hall and a Library. The building will have annexes like Warehouses, Electricity Power Station, Parking areas as well as fences, landscaping areas and internal roads. It will also have an annex comprising Guards Building. On completion of the project, it will be a landmark in the city of Riyadh. All its design, aesthetics and location on King Fahd Road have been taken into consideration. In addition, environmental factors, and the solar thermal storage to harness Sun-heat are also incorporated in the execution of the project. The information centre, will be comprised of an Auditorium in the shape of the Globe with an actual Map of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its outer surface. In a statement to The Saudi Press Agency after signing the contract, Dr Khoja said the project comes in line with the directives of the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the Crown Prince and Second Deputy Premier in facilitating media men activities and providing them with the best of working environments. On his part, Abdullah Fahd Al Hussein, the Director General of The Saudi Press Agency said that signing of the building construction contract was achieved by the will of Allah and the tireless support of the Minister of Culture and Information in implementing the aspirations of the personnel of SPA in order to perform their works to the fullest. He added that the permanent headquarters building of the Saudi Press Agency, was a dream of all its employees that has been transformed into reality. Al Hussein expressed optimism that the new achievement will be a strong incentive to SPA cadres to further develop the performance of their works and to keep abreast of changes and information. He thanked the Minster of Culture and Information for his great encouragement and support. Source: SPA news agency website, Riyadh, in English 0000 gmt 27 Jan 10 (via BBCM via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. Caros amigos, Na comemoração de seu 40 aniversário de fundação, o ADXB, clube dexista Austríaco; realizou uma parceria com a Rádio Eslováquia Internacional, e assim a emissora passou a enviar um cartão QSL comemorativo do evento. Este cartão está sendo enviado pela emissora a todos os relatórios de escutas recebidos desde o dia 01 de novembro de 2009 até o dia 31 de janeiro de 2010, sejam ou não de membros do citado clube dexista. Os cartões serão enviados, para todos os dexistas que enviarem seus informes de recepção, acrescidos de um IRC, para o endereço: ADXB, P.O.B. 1000, A-1081 VIENNA, Austria. Um abraço a todos, (Adalberto Marques de Azevedo, Barbacena - MG - Brasil, Membro do DX Clube do Brasil http://www.ondascurtas.com Jan 22, radioescutas yg via DXLD) A reminder that a special QSL marking the 40th anniversary of the Austrian DX club ADXB, is being offered but only for reports on RSI sent to the ADXB addressa above and received by Jan 31. Hmmm, by P- mail only it seems with IRC, so it`s too late already. Remember RSI`s current frequencies to America: 0100 English, 0130 Slovak, 0200 French on 6040; 0230 Spanish on 6080 (gh, DXLD) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS [non]. 5020, not heard around 1300-1400 when checked on January 20 and 22 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, Eton E-1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, listening portable from my car, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SIBC missing from 5020 for at least a week in chex around 1300-1430, including Jan 27 at 1307, when no carrier at all detectable. This is because they have ceased overnight relays of BBCWS which used to start at 12 UT, due to power expense of over US$11K per year, per Media Network blog: http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/sibc-drops-nighttime-relays-of-bbc-to-save-money (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: SIBC DROPS NIGHTTIME RELAYS OF BBC TO SAVE MONEY In a letter to the Solomon Star, Cornelius Rathamana, General Manager of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) says that the BBC radio relay on the National AM service after midnight has had to be be switched off. The people of the Solomon Islands have been receiving BBC World Service relays from the SIBC National Service since the beginning of this millennium from 11 PM to 6 AM local time next day. Mr Rathamana says that due to high cost of electricity, SIBC will no longer be supporting the relay as it will have to shut down its transmitters as soon as the national broadcast finishes at 11 PM. He adds that SIBC has taken this decision with full understanding that the growing BBC audience in the Solomon Islands will be deprived of this service when it is switched off. However, Mr Rathamana says that SIBC can restore the relay if the electricity costs of the relay times were sponsored. The annual cost for the relay on one HF transmitter at 10kW is estimated at SBD$90,000.00 (US$11, 471). (Source: Solomon Star)(January 21st, 2010 - 11:40 UTC, by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) 2 Comments on “SIBC drops nighttime relays of BBC to save money” 1. #1 Jonathan Marks on Jan 21st, 2010 at 12:24 They might adopt the same listener supported relay that was arranged in Auckland. WS feeds go into a digital delay and are played back 2% faster, hence they are able to squeeze a sponsors message in at the top of the hour. At least that it how it worked when I visited in 2000 2. #2 Bryan Clark on Jan 21st, 2010 at 22:31 Yes Jonathan, still going strong on 810 AM in Auckland, though at my coastal country location 90km north, NatRad Dunedin skywave is annoying at night. Sponsorship and litener donations keep the operation going - see their website worldservice(dot)co(dot(nz). Kind regards, Bryan (MN blog comments via DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. 12080, 26/Jan 1855, Sinal teste da VT Communications. A mesma música da frequência de 15725 kHz que loguei anteriormente. As 1859 UT entra a fala do OM identificando o início da tx da R Nederland desde a Africa do Sul em inglês. A VT Communications é uma empresa terceirizada para a geração das transmissões da BBC e que também passou a ter outros clientes, assim o horário deve ser de utilização da VTC e logo após o mesmo equipamento transmissor gera o sinal da RNW, então o sinal passa a ser de geração da RNW. Gravado até o início da tx em inglês da RNW e como podem ouvir na gravação não há variação do sinal e nem interrupção. Sinal moderado (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. 1296.36, COPE Valencia - off channel -, 2253-2311, 20 Jan '10, Castilian, advertisements, IDs, foot/ball news; 44444, het. with Radio XL, G (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Looking for weekly Sephardic service from REE, Monday Jan 25 at 1435, but nothing audible on 15385, not even a carrier. Propagation from Europe not very good, but REE Spanish on 15585 was poorly audible. So did Emisión Sefarad finally switch to the announced frequency 15325? If so, bad news, as it`s blocked by something else, YFR due east from Wertachtal, GERMANY, in Oriya, a S Asian language. And also with heavy splatter from R. Martí/DCJC on 15330. 15385 still missing at later chex before 1455 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. [Re 10-03] SLBC is noted back on 9770 during last few days. Yours sincerely, (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, India, UT Jan 25, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. Our Japanese member Nobuya Kato has been on a sightseeing trip to Egypt at the end of 2009 bringing his SONY ICF- 2001D and ICF-SW7600GR with a telescopic antenna. His tips are from the guestrooms of hotels in Aswan, Luxor and Cairo. 9840, Sudan R Service, via Dhabbaya, 1735-1759*, Fr Dec 31, news in English including interpretation of recorded talk, ID at 1747 “…news from Sudan Radio Service” and at 1748 “You are tuned to Sudan Radio Service”, news headlines, an interview, closing ann with contact (e- mail address) information. 45444 with stable reception condition. (Kato in Cairo, DSWCI DX Window Jan 20 via DXLD) 17745, Sudan Radio Service ID in English mentioned several times during otherwise Arabic dialect, Jan 22 at 1511, in voice-over translation of someone in English, I think at the moment. No imposed reverb/echo on the modulation this time, which helps a lot. 1517 gave address in Nairobi, Kenya, but this is really transmitted from PORTUGAL (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) via Sines, Portugal, 17745, Sudan Radio Service, *1500-1545+, Jan 23, English programming with opening ID announcements at 1500. Contact information with email address and phone numbers. “Lets Talk” drama series with talk about local elections. Local music at 1527. Into Arabic talk at 1529. English scheduled for Sat and Sun only. Good signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 17745, SRS via PORTUGAL, Jan 26 at 1520 with neat jingle IDs featuring ``Sudan Radio Service`` sung in English several times along with music by full hilife orchestra; continued in Arabic dialect with the echo turned off, thankfully (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. via Germany, 11655, Radio Dabanga, 1700-1727*, Jan 23, Arabic talk. ID jingles. // 13800 - via Madagascar. Both frequencies with good reception. 11655 about 1 second ahead of 13800 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** SURINAME. 4990, R Apintie, Paramaribo, 2350-0005, 0315-0500 and 0800-0900, Jan 01, 03, 04, 07, 08, 12 and 15, Dutch announcement mentioning "Radio Apintie" at 0001, mostly middle of the road music and occasional religious songs and talks, 24422 - 34433 (Van Arnhem, Cody, Petersen and Wilkner, DSWCI DX Window Jan 20 via DXLD) 4990.00, 0530-0540, 24.01, R Apintie, Paramaribo (presumed) Dutch (presumed) talk, deep fades, 15111 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) 4989.98, R. Apintie (presumed), 0756-0802, Soft Pop ballads including a remake of "I Want to Make It With You" by Bread at 0800. No ID or announcements in the short time I had recorded. 24 Jan (Dave Valko, Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26 near Dunlo, Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp, 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50 , HCDX via DXLD) ** SWAZILAND. 3200.000, TWR-Manzini, English, 1947, noted in passing, with male preacher talking about "the Creation(ist) Movement." Very good. Jan. 22 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. Our Japanese member Nobuya Kato has been on a sightseeing trip to Egypt at the end of 2009 bringing his SONY ICF-2001D and ICF- SW7600GR with a telescopic antenna. His tips are from the guestrooms of hotels in Aswan, Luxor and Cairo. Clandestine: 702 MW, R Al-Quds (presumed), 2250-2332, Dec 31, an Arabic song, time signal at 2300, news headlines and news in Arabic, then Arabic music program continued. 45444. Fairly strong signal, but no ID was confirmed. (Kato in Cairo) WRTH 2010 says this one is in southwest Syria, a country not mentioned in the original report (gh, DXLD) ** SYRIA. 12085, Damascus Radio at 2139 with Arabic songs, 2142 woman in English. Modulation was fine on music, but low on voice. I couldn’t follow the talk, but did hear several mentions of Israel and Palestinian state, so obviously a political commentary (do they have any other spoken word programming?). Frequent brief musical bridges. At 2200 re-check they were gone, Good Jan 23 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, Eton E-1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, listening portable from my car, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN [and non]. 11605, bad het between Brazilian Portuguese and unID including music, Jan 23 at 0011. Brazilian is VOR via GUIANA FRENCH, and the only other thing scheduled is RFA in Vietnamese via Tanshui, TAIWAN, per Aoki --- another notoriously off-frequency relay from this country, like Tainan as listed which can`t make it to 9955.0 or 11550.0 either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAJIKISTAN. 4765.058, TR-1, 2015, presumed with local music, into talk by language man at 2018. Very good. Jan. 22. 4975.000, Voice of Russia, English, 1940, very good, despite slight transmitter hum, and het on high side from Uganda. Peaking at about S9+40dB. Jan. 22 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. 8743/usb, Bangkok Meteorological Radio with music box tune, into an oriental language with presumed weather, at :21 more music box tune at :25 and then into English ID with frequency by a female computer voice at :27 and into weather. SINPO 253+42+ -- best I’ve ever heard this station! 1319-1329 16/Jan [so, for the first time heard, you have to go to the end of the item -- gh] 8743/usb, Bangkok Meteorological Radio w/music box tune, English ID and into Asian Language with weather at 1303; in well. 1301-1303 17/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) I strongly suspect the Asian language is --- Thai (gh) 8743, 27/1 0008, Bangkok Meteorogical Radio, talks in Thai mentioning Bangkok many times, good (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, RX: SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030; Yaesu FRG-7 --- ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TUNISIA. TUNISIE: Radio Tunis, 963 kHz, Letter & 1 Sticker (Totally new logo) WEB: http://www.radiotunisienne.tn EMAIL: ittisal @ ertt.nat.tn Address: 71 Avenue de la Liberté, Tunis 1002. Signed : Chauchi Aloui (President Directeur General de la Radio Tunisienne) (Gian Carlo Panzeri, stickers collectionist, Italy, via Dario Monferini, DXLD) ** TUNISIA. 7335: Noted cl-down at 0807 UT on Jan 21, wb. (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX via DXLD) 7275, RTT music had just switched to announcement when cut to brief OC and off the air at 0626:50* Jan 27 while // 7335 continued. This is a consistently odd closing time for 7275, contrary to published schedules; as for 7335 closing, on the schedules as 0910, Noel Green says it goes off around 0810, and Wolfgang Büschel heard it until 0807* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. 12035, VOT English at 1330 via Çakirlar site, has become totally useless: Jan 21 at 1341 tho S9+10 signal with flutter, just barely modulated, unreadable. So much for Live from Turkey, the Thursday edition. Recheck at 1409, just as bad, so check Emirler // 15300 at 1411 where modulation is OK, but colliding as usual with RFI in French, slightly stronger than RFI, but too much QRM and fast SAH to be listenable. Discussing the future of Cyprus. So VOT strikes out due to incredibly incompetent engineering at the transmission level and at the frequency planning level, wasting 1000 kW and causing harmful interference to a fellow SW broadcaster. We can only wait for A-10 to start at Marchend, when VOT plans to go back to last summer`s frequencies timeshifted to 1230-1320, 15450 and 15520. But they never learned their lesson about 9830 to North America, colliding with RTTY at 2200, planning to use it again too. Later retrieved LFT on the one-day archive, from the right margin of http://www.trt-world.com/trtinternational/en/news.aspx?dil=en finding it did not start until 31 minutes into the transmission. Seems LFT now has a weekly(monthly?) report from Michael Daventry in London reviewing the Turkish press there, where there are nine highly competitive newspapers. Seref Isler admitted that altho he is half- English, has lived in London and visits often, he was not aware of them. Otherwise the hosts apologized for laughing all the time, so not much other significant content (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 17700 / 17690 due of bad interference from adjacent 17705 kHz channel, TRT Emirler eventually will be move 10 kHz down to 17690 kHz, German service daily at 1230-1327 UT. 17705 kHz is object of heavy radio jamming from probably Hainan Island, China mainland. China jams their neighbour AIR Bangalore transmission in Mandarin language heavily til 1315 UT, signal of jamming about S=7-8 in southern Germany. AIR Bangalore with 500 kW at 58 degrees on 17705 kHz at 1130-1315 UT to zones 43,44. But latter seldom heard here in Europe due of co- channel jamming from China (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Jan 23 via DXLD) 11660, VOT IS of piano variations, Jan 25 at 1456, mixing with something else talking, producing a SAH, which could be RA and/or VOR. 1500 almost-correct timesignal but too undermodulated to make out language. Scheduled as Arabic via Çakirlar. 11815 in Turkish had its own SAH with REE/Costa Rica before 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. 4976, R. Uganda (presumed, but what else?), Kampala, 1925- ..., 24 Jan '10, English, talks; weak modulation; 32441, QRM de Voice of Russia in English 4975 via TJK. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. "Radio Scilly is the world's smallest professional radio station. We started life in 1999 when Keri Jones made a month long trial broadcast from a room in the Star Castle Hotel. Since that first broadcast, we made a further three short trial broadcasts including two from a shed on Porthloo beach! In 2005, Ofcom awarded Radio Scilly a Community Radio licence allowing full service broadcasts to be made to the Isles of Scilly on a permanent basis. Radio Scilly's aim is to provide an entertaining mix of music and talk programmes, produced here in the Islands by our friends and neighbours. We also provide news and weather every hour as well as travel information and emergency broadcasting during events such as severe weather. Radio Scilly is a not-for-profit organisation and we rely on help and support from everyone here in Scilly. If you're interested in helping us, either by making programmes or taking part on- or off-air, we'd love to hear from you." http://www.radioscilly.com/thestation/stationhistory Radio Scilly plays a part in this weeks BBC TV programme "An Island Parish" which is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pszhq The station can be heard online at http://www.radioscilly.com/thestation/listenorwatch/listenliveplayer and a short video tour of the station can be seen at http://www.radioscilly.com/thestation/videotour (via Mike Terry, UK, dxldyg via DXLD) I often listen to Radio Scilly online (through the Pure Evoke Flow). A lovely little station, with chat about which boats are going off to the other islands rather than traffic jams on the M6. Keri has done a great job there. Just what community radio should be like (Shaun Geraghty, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) ** U K. Re DXLD 10-03 Jimmy Porter programme ``7 days left to listen`` (until Jan 24), or would that be Jan 28 from the 21 Jan repeat? (gh, DXLD) It's up until Jan 28 (Mike Barraclough, Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. Frequency changes of BBC: 1400-1600 NF 5875#CYP 300 kW / 121 deg to N/ME, ex 6030 in Arabic 1800-1900 NF 5865 NAK 250 kW / 305 deg to WeAs, ex 6180*in Dari # co-ch BBC WS via NAK 250 kW / 025 deg to EaAs * to avoid All India Radio GOS4 English to WeEu (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 25 via DXLD) ** U K. 9505, Jan 26 at 1558 with BBCWS promos in English, poor signal, but 1600 switch into another language. Scheduled as Urdu via Singapore. 12095, BBCWS in English, Jan 26 at 1500 with news teasers, huge echo; in fact it sounded like a double echo. Scheduled as Rampisham site only at 95 degrees. Short/long path plus another unscheduled site on the air too? 1507 story about France vs the veil and the burka (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. Checking 9410/11860 at 1220, Jan. 20, regular BBC Spanish on these frequencies. Recheck by 1240 BBCWS [English] took place. Seemed they made the shift by 1230. No mention for Haitian citizens this time near TOH before closing, as heard two days ago. 73s. Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, 1430 UT Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So he may have meant the date within as Jan 21 (gh) ** U K. BBC WORLD SERVICE BROADCASTS IN CREOLE FOR THE FIRST TIME TO INCREASE “LIFELINE” SERVICES TO HAITI --- PRESS RELEASE 22 January 2010. BBC World Service will launch a special “lifeline” programme in the Haitian Creole language from Saturday 23 January. This will be the first time the BBC has broadcast in the Haitian national language. This follows other special BBC programming for listeners affected by the Haitian disaster in the French, Spanish and English languages. The new 20-minute daily programme in Creole will contain the latest information about aid and rescue operations, plus messages from people trying to locate family members and other useful, practical information for the survivors of the earthquake. The new programme will be broadcast between 9.10 and 9.30 Haiti time (1410 to 1430 GMT). It will also be available on the Canal Satellite Antilles, Caribbean-wide radio and TV satellite network and on bbccaribbean.com The daily programme will be rebroadcast on six FM relays on the island: Port-au-Prince 89.3 FM; Cap-Haïtien 105.5 FM; Gonaïves 90.5 FM; Las Cayes 106.9 FM; Jacmel 96.9 FM; and Jérémie 92.7 FM. It will also be available on shortwave. BBC World Service Director, Peter Horrocks, says: “We believe our new service in the Creole language will be a vital source of trusted information to Haitians at this time of crisis, as well as to the rescue and aid teams who are working so hard on the ground. “We have had lots of positive feedback that our broadcasts in English, French and Spanish have been appreciated on the ground.” BBC World Service continues to offer special programmes about the crisis in Spanish and English, between 1200 and 1300 GMT on shortwave on 11860 kHz (25 MB) and 9410 kHz (31 MB). The BBC is expecting all the programmes will also be available on the local FM network via the BBC’s partner station, Radio Lumière, when it returns to air. BBC Caribbean – the English-language service for the region - is also supporting audiences in Haiti and the wider region with crucial information. The service’s Twitter updates (@bbccaribbean), dedicated to Haiti as well as ongoing coverage of the wider Caribbean and Haitian diaspora reaction to the tragedy, run on the website, bbccaribbean.com. Updates also continue in the regular programme, Caribbean Report. Ends// (BBCWS press release Jan 22 via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) Same: http://www.newsonnews.net/bbc/1681-bbc-world-service-broadcasts-in-creole-for-the-first-time-to-increase-lifeline-services-to-haiti.html (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) Similar story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8475381.stm (via Terry Krueger, FL, ibid.) As I was listening to the BBC this morning, I hard them announce the start of a daily Creole service (via FM relay) to Haiti from 1410 to 1430 UT. The link below has the details. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8475381.stm Take Care - (Dean Bonanno, Durham, CT, Jan 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) A BBC press release Jan 22 says they are starting a daily Creole- language service from Jan 23, at 1410-1430 UT carried on several FM stations in Haiti and ``also on shortwave``, but do they bother to give the SW frequency? Of course not! We must hunt for it (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BBCWS publicity said they would start their own Creole-language service Sat Jan 23 and thence daily carried on six FM stations in Haiti at 1410-1430, and `` It will also be available on shortwave.``. WTFK??? Forced us to hunt, so we did so between 1405 and 1425 Jan 23, scanning all broadcast bands twice between 5 and 18 MHz (even -22 MHz just in case), and not a trace of it. No suspicious unID signals anywhere even with music which could be this. We can confidently say that if BBC Krèyol is really on SW, it`s not at the same time as on FM. Same press referred to the existing 12-13 transmission via WHRI 9410 and GUF 11860, which has been converted from all-Spanish to Spanish and English, but did not say that the Creole service would be inserted into that, unmonitored today. Seems unlikely, as that would be some two hours earlier than the FM relay. Alokesh Gupta found out additional info about BBC Creole: It`s produced in Miami and presented by Carline Faustin and Simone Degraff, who host a Creole language program on Miami's public radio, WLRN, but produced and edited by several BBC personnel. Plans to maintain it at least until Sunday 7 Feb. The FM affiliates are those of Radio France Internationale, thru which the pre-recorded program is routed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Additional info from a source in BBC WS --- From this Saturday, 23 January 2010, a BBC Global News multimedia and multilingual team will be based in Miami providing a daily helpline broadcast to the whole of Haiti in Creole. The plan is to broadcast the 20 minute long programme until at least Sunday 7 February. The team will be able to produce output related to Haiti to all other BBC outlets, in radio, TV and online, as needed. We can produce the content in English, French, Creole and Spanish. The daily programme will be rebroadcast on FM by the six relays that Radio France International has in the island. TX time is 09:10 to 09:30 Miami and Haiti time (14:10 to 14:30 GMT). We will be sending the pre-recorded programme to RFI by FTP. The show will be presented by Carline Faustin and Simone Degraff, who host a Creole language programme in Miami's public radio, WLRN. Our BBC editorial team comprises producers and reporters from WS radio news, international facing online and BBC Caribbean. Marie-Claire Williams, from BBC Caribbean is a Creole speaker and will provide editorial oversight of the transmission. Henri Astier, from BBC News website will be Editor in Charge. Nick Miles, and Emilio San Pedro from WSNCA will edit the programme. Lisa Robinson, from BBC World Service Trust, will also be working in this project, bringing the WS Trust's experience in broadcasting lifeline programmes to audiences around the world. The aim is to provide a programme that makes the best information available to the people of Haiti and draws on the material being provided by the UN, the US and others, but also makes a point of drawing on the experience and expertise of the Haitian population. Americo Martins , Regional Executive Editor, WS Americas, has been instrumental in pulling together all the aspects of the new Creole language programming for Haiti, including building the team (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, Jan 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Since the BBCWS press release about their new Creole service was not explicit about the SW frequency for the 1410-1430 UT broadcast also on FM, and I could not find it by monitoring on the first day, Jan 23, I then enquired. Mark Deutsch, Head of Broadcast Networks, replied: ``The BBC Creole is on short wave, but not at 1410. It's at 1232:30-1252:30 on 11860 (MSY) and 9410 (HRI), borrowed from the Spanish service to Cuba.`` Which I have not yet monitored directly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But did later, below Media Network blog comments on new BBC Creole service: Omar Ortiz on Jan 24th, 2010 at 02:57 The BBC Creole transmission aired today (January 23th, 2010) in 9410 and 11860 KHz at 12:33 UTC. Record in http://www.diexismoyondacorta.podomatic.com 73’s from Colombia! #5 Andy Sennitt on Jan 24th, 2010 at 12:23 Thank you. That was the inaugural edition. So it looks as if the shortwave service is indeed contained within the existing hour at 1200-1300. Indeed, it is available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/ and it says 1230 GMT. The programme is apparently not live. One of the tweets says “Haiti declared rescue over! Big news. First Creole show was ready to air but we have to drag presenter Carline out of bed in Miami to rework.” But later they say that the second edition will be today at 1410 UT. So apparently the FM and shortwave times are different. Incidentally the BBC Caribbean website refers to the programme as both ‘Connexion Haiti’ and ‘Connexions Haiti’. The programme team themselves in their tweets say it’s singular. There’s a short video showing preparations for the launch on this page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8475381.stm #6 Jonathan Marks on Jan 24th, 2010 at 13:45 Just heard a piece on BBC Radio 4, World at One, done by one of the organisers of BBC Connexions in Miami. Listening to it, you’d swear they were the only ones active in their field. I’m sure they are providing a great service, but if only more of the NGOs and broadcasters coordinated their activities. These islands of help - and the publicity machines that go with them - are awful. #7 Kai Ludwig on Jan 24th, 2010 at 14:23 As I already commented in German: To me all these activities have a clear PR aspect. Also the extensive Kreyól service of VOA, which I think wants to not miss the opportunity to demonstrate what they can achieve, in times of fear that the whole station could get lost in the unbelievable mess of US international broadcasting (VOA, OCB, MBN, RFA, RFE/RL — BBC WS people must be quite amused about the competition being occupied by its own, internal competition). Look at ca. 0:50 into the referenced video: A “BBC Mundo” poster on the wall and a typical BBC console (note the PPM meter). I suspect the BBC’s Spanish broadcasts now originate from this studio in Miami, no longer from London. #8 Andy Sennitt on Jan 24th, 2010 at 16:54 The programme is indeed produced in Miami, as mentioned in my comment at the end of the item above (Media Network blog comments via DXLD) HAITI EARTHQUAKE: BROADCASTING A LIFELINE TO THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST Dave Lee | 14:19 UK time, Monday, 25 January 2010 BBC World Service has begun broadcasting a daily 20-minute programme for Haiti. Transmission time is 9:10 to 9:30 local time (1410 to 1430 GMT). The programme will be produced and edited by a BBC team in Miami. In a special post for the Over To You blog, the BBC's Nick Miles describes the challenges he and his team have had to overcome to put out the lifeline programme: It's been an extremely swift launch of a new radio service to say the least. It was only about four days from the first ideas being jotted down on a piece of paper to the programme, Connexion Haiti, going on air. But it had to be quick. . . Over To You is your chance to have your say about the BBC World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and at 02:40 on Sunday (GMT). * Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/overtoyou/2010/01/haiti_broadcasting_a_lifeline.html * (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) BBC Spanish Hour 1200-1300, on 9410 // 11860, has become a 3 in 1 service as I pointed out last week, rechecked Tuesday 26. Regular Spanish was heard from the start, English was at 1220, Creole from 1233. Back to the regular Spanish service with classical music around 1253 till TOH (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Jan 26, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Jan 27 was monitoring barely early enough to hear the conclusion of BBC`s new Creole service, VG on 9410 via WHRI; a bit of music at 1250, then closing announcement giving the only time for ``Connexion[s] Haïti`` (pardon my French) as 9:10 am, which is 1410 UT when it repeats on Haitian FM stations; as usual, shortwave gets no respect from the BBC, just an afterthought if we are lucky. Or in this case, a beforethought. At 1252:30 introduced in Spanish classical music fill show 19 minutes later than previously, which would last only 7.5 minutes until 1300:00* sharp without announcement, matching a timesignal underneath which must have been BBC Oman just overtaking the channel. Altho this is the least of their problems, now the Haitians are faced with a logjam of special programming at 1230, from VOA, BBC and WRMI. A bit of coördination rather than competition would be nice (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Or, hardly any of them listen to SW in the best of times; see HAITI ** U S A. Re 10-03, secret VOA Creole SW frequencies: The audio on demand at http://www.voanews.com/creole/broadcast_table.cfm contains only the 1730-1930, 2200-2300 etc. program blocks, too. It appears that the further expansion beyond five hours has been arranged at shortest notice, perhaps related to Commando Solo becoming available as FM relay. It's well possible that hastily one Greenville transmitter has been thrown in but the website not really updated yet. This switch from 15390 to 13725 within less than two minutes is definitely no manual retuning. Such a procedure takes ten times longer, probably even requiring to wheel components out of the cabinets and others for the new frequency band in. So this must be either the Telefunken or the Brown Broveri, i.e. one of the transmitters installed for evaluation in 1986. At a glance it seems that the Radio Martí frequency changes at 2000 / 2200 eat up most of the transmitter capacity because they have to continue with another unit. Thus all they can do between 1930 and 2000 for VOA Creole is to make use of one of their two modern transmitters this way, with an on-the-fly frequency switch that has perhaps never been done at Greenville before (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Discovered another unpublicized frequency for VOA`s Creole service, filling in the gap between scheduled 2200-2300 and 0100-0200 transmissions: 7590. It may have been on for days, but I have not been bandscanning much in this bihour. First heard Jan 22 at 2321 with Creole talk on phone, 2334 phone number and ID as Lavwadlamerik (as they spell it in Kreyòl, which forces French to be more fonetik). 2359 recheck, VOA ID and off at 2359:30 so I quickly scanned 7 and 6 MHz bands for another channel. By 0006 I came back to 7590 and found it on again, so they faked me out. Must have had a transmitter and/or antenna change to make at 0000, then resuming. 7590 still going at 0052, but vacant after 0100 when the non-secret service is underway on 7465 and much weaker 5960. I`ll give VOA one more chance to display its full Creole schedule at http://author.voanews.com/english/about/frequenciesAtoZ_c.cfm Checking at 0145 UT Jan 23: NO, still no 7590 shown, and nothing in the 1930-2200 UT period either when we have been hearing them on 15390, then 13725. Kai Ludwig suggests the unpublicized transmissions could really be feeders to the Commando Solo relays on AM and FM over Haiti, tho you`d think C.S. could get satellite feeds. Maybe SW input is more convenient, not having to keep satellite dish aimed from circling aircraft. [No, I just mentioned them as possible kick-off for further expanding the transmissions. Of course shortwave is certainly not used as audio source for further transmissions. Another attempt to make my point while I'm already in a hurry again: It is my impression that the hours covered in the schedule tables and in the on-demand audio offer (what you call "overt") are the real, official, approved, ordered, whatever USIB bureaucracy calls it, schedule for VOA Creole at present. All transmissions beyond this are probably arranged ad hoc, past the official procedures (German saying would call it "kleiner Dienstweg"), thus also not showing up on the website etc. (Kai Ludwig, Jan 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)] This means we need to search for further secret SW transmissions possibly filling the rest of the 24 hours, 0200-1230 and 1330-1730. A VOA press release of Jan 22 says VOA Creole ``has expanded its broadcasting to 10.5 hours on weekdays and 9.5 hours on weekends`` without any details. The known SW transmissions of 1230-1330, 1730- 0200 add up to 9.5! But now there is even more past 0200: At 0215, 7590 is back on, but 7465 is still on too, rather than closing at 0200. 5960 no longer available, with NHK via Sackville. So how long will those two stay on? Until 0300 would add up to 10.5 hours. I certainly have not heard them previously when I scan after 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, 0238 UT Jan 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) VOA Creole: Recheck at 0312 Jan 23, 7465 and 7590 are indeed off, and did not search for further frequencies. So summarizing, the full known schedule of Lavwadlamerik, combining overt transmissions on schedule and covert ones as monitored: 1230-1330 6135-Bonaire, 9505 [above M-F only? Would account for one hour less on weekends] 1730-1930 15390, 17565 1930-2100 15390 2102-2200 13725 2200-2300 15390, 13725, 11905 [overt schedule no longer shows 15390 at 2200; not checked Jan 22; indeed 15390 no longer on during this hour when checked later] 2300-0100 7590 0100-0200 5960, 7465 0200-0300 7465, 7590 The overt schedule at all times day and night also shows 1180 ex-Radio Martí, Marathon, but is it also in use for any of the covert times? Cannot monitor it from here (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Despite previous info from Media Network that the Bonaire relay of Lavwadlamerik on 6135 at 1230-1330 would be expanded from M-F to daily, nothing there at 1325 check Sat Jan 23, nor on // 9505 Greenville ex-9660 as heard the day before. At least we think the latter be Greenville; if Krèyol service demands exceed capacity there, more ad-hoc relays via other sites might ensue. Absence of the morning broadcast matches press claims of 9.5 total hours on weekends, 10.5 on weekdays, as we had calculated in previous post constructing full overt and covert schedule (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I wrote in the Media Network Newsletter dated 21st January that the expansion would be 'as from next week'. That means the week starting tomorrow (24th January), though I suspect the expansion will actually be effective from next weekend. This information was only communicated to me verbally a few minutes before I wrote the Newsletter, and I have not yet put it in the Weblog because I knew it was not starting today :-) As reported in the Weblog, the Chief Engineer of VOA Site B says that the output has increased to 'more than 15 hours', though this may mean transmitter hours rather than programme hours (Andy Sennitt, RNW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Lavwadlamerik, again Jan 23 with fill-in secret transmission on 15390 until 2100* sharp, and up on successor 13725 at *2102:30. After 2200, 15390 was off while 13725 remained on; and by 2201, 11905 had also come on late. Another check at 2359: the secret 7590 channel, only fair signal, cut off with programming in progress at 2359:50*. Expected it back on within two minutes, but instead it did not resume until 0007 Jan 24. Wonder why it took so long. Meanwhile I was also checking the VOA Spanish service which starts at 0000: 9885 was on with music fill shortly after, but // 5890 took a few more minutes to come up, confirmed at 0009. Repeatedly not being able to start a transmission by the top of the hour certainly looks amateurish. Back at HQ they apparently don`t understand that frequency changes cannot be made in a few sex on these old transmitters, and need to build in flex programming time at the end of hours, or just plain pauses for switching time. Many other SW stations have the same disconnect (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6135, UNIDENTIFIED, 1238-1330* January 24, 2010. Is this VOA Kreyol via Bonaire? If so, it's just a big, fat open carrier. Is someone remembering to set the timer but forgetting to dial up the satellite channel? 1180 was just the usual pile-up of out-of-synch Rebelde transmitters at this time. I'm sure VOA was there, just not here (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Surely that`s it. Andy Sennitt knows, but Bonaire does not know, that this transmission is not on Sat and Sun until a week from now (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) The decision to expand the 1230-1330 UTC broadcast of VOA Creole to seven days a week has been reversed. The broadcast will continue to be Mon-Fri only. It will continue to be relayed via Bonaire on 6135 kHz. From today, the 341 beam from Bonaire is replaced by an omnidirectional antenna due to scheduled routine antenna maintenance. My apologies for the misinformation, but it seems there was either a misunderstanding or a change of plan within IBB (Andy Sennitt, Jan 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENNG DIGEST) Lavwadlamerik, VOA Creole service, Monday Jan 25 at 1319 interviewing Dominican Republic ambassador, poor-fair on 6135 via Bonaire, better on Greenville (?) 9505. The 1230-1329 broadcast is still M-F only, and will remain so, says Andy Sennitt; altho Terry Krueger heard an open carrier during the entire period Sunday on 6135 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I have now seen the email relating to this. Apparently they sent out a complete schedule that had the 1230 transmission listed as daily, then realised their error and subsequently sent out a correction. The (incomplete) schedule on the VOA website has always indicated this as a daily transmission. BTW, regarding the silent carrier noted yesterday on 6135, this may have been a test of the omnidirectional antenna which has replaced the 341 degree beam from today, as the latter has been taken out of service for scheduled maintenance. If the relay continues after the maintenance is completed, I presume the transmission will revert to 341 degrees (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UnID, 7590, 0013-0030 Jan 26. Noted two male individuals in Creole language conversation. Heard "Washington" mentioned and "Fort Lauderdale" mentioned. This is probably a local station broadcasting for Haitians. It is very strong. Could not find a listing anywhere for this type of broadcast. The signal was very good. Heard a complete ID at 0100 as "VOA, Washington D.C." Thanks Glenn for the heads up (Chuck Bollland, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Lavwadlamerik, still on secret frequencies 7465 and 7590 Jan 26 at 0219 quick check. This pair have been running until 0300 despite missing from A-Z schedule at http://author.voanews.com/english/about/frequenciesAtoZ_c.cfm Was also still hearing covert 13725 before 2200 Jan 25. Lavwadlamerik, Jan 27 at 1305 on 6135 via Bonaire, 9505 presumably Greenville, with announcement over sad piano music reminiscent of Sea Breeze. This semihour does not conflict with Haitian services from BBC and WRMI at 1230 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. SENDING RELIEF INFO TO HAITI BY GETTING BACK TO BROADCASTING BASICS --- By Andrew Doud | Reporter Published: January 22, 2010 Source: http://bit.ly/7yctHp See video http://vp.mgnetwork.net/viewer.swf?u=4c2f7f7058ff102da6fd001ec92a4a0d&z=NCT The US Government has help on the ground in Haiti, but since the earth quake happened, they’ve also been sending aid over the air. Voice of America Site B in Greenville has been broadcasting information in French-Creole for more than a week now. They are certainly not using the latest technology. In fact, the majority of the radio equipment was first used nearly 50 years ago. But when communication breaks down after a natural disaster, what’s old is new again. Since January 12th this former Cold War radio station has been broadcasting Creole to the Haitian people. Macon Dail, chief engineer at VOA Site B, explained, “With the shortwave spectrum the signals actually bounce off the ionosphere after it leaves the transmitter site and goes directly to the listener.“ On a normal day, VOA Site B transmits around 2 hours of Creole to the Caribbean. Since the quake, that air time has increased to more than 15 hours. Dail said, “If the infrastructure goes down, and nothing else can be heard, shortwave it always available to be picked up by anyone, anywhere in the world.“ The messages that go out are primarily public service announcements on the availability of food, water and information on disaster relief assistance. “Sometimes in a case like this, less is more,” said Dail. It’s not fancy or flashy but it is effective and when satellite, television and cell phones aren’t an option, in this case, radio is reliable. Voice of America first went on the air in 1942. Site B can transmit information to Europe, The Middle East, North Africa, South America and of course, Haiti (WNCT television, Greenville, via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, Jan 24, DXLD) Why are stories about VOA always bringing up the Cold War? (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. VOA CREOLE SERVICE'S ROLE IN HAITI PRAISED BY U.S. SENATOR Says 'coverage is making a difference' Washington, D.C., January 26, 2010 – The Voice of America's (VOA) Creole-speaking staff is providing vital information to Haiti, aimed at helping people find "immediate shelter, medical assistance and aid," Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., said in a statement. "Many Americans may not be aware of the role of U.S. international broadcasting … in assisting the people of Haiti," Kaufman said in a statement published in the Congressional Record on Jan. 25, 2010. Kaufman, a former member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the agency that oversees VOA, noted that shortly after the Jan. 12 earthquake, VOA began Creole broadcasts on multiple frequencies in Haiti from Commando Solo, a C-130 aircraft operated by the 193rd Special Operations Wing. "Since then, VOA Creole Service has broadcast news and information on the relief efforts, utilizing reporters on the scene in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas," he said. "The VOA Creole Service broadcasts include public service announcements with information and statements from U.S. Government agencies, including USAID and the Department of Defense, (DOD), aimed at helping Haitians find immediate shelter, medical assistance, and aid," he said. "There are hourly public safety and relief supply updates, as well as a call-in line to broadcast messages from families and friends of the injured and missing. Ronald Cesar is running this program, with a small but very dedicated staff, and I thank all of them for their commitment to the disaster relief." Cesar is chief of the VOA Creole Service. "Online, VOA has updated Twitter and Facebook feeds around the clock with the latest news and information about Haiti." Kaufman said. "All this coverage is making a difference. If you searched 'Haiti' on Google News the weekend after the earthquake, the first hit was of a VOA news story, thanks to the presence of numerous VOA stringers reporting around the clock from Haiti." Kaufman noted the critical role U.S. international broadcasting has played in similar situations throughout history. In 2008, when Kenya erupted into violence, VOA provided one of the sole sources of credible news and information worldwide, he said. And when the 2004 tsunami devastated Indonesia, Thailand, and countries across the Indian Ocean, VOA helped millions stay up to date with the international relief effort. VOA's Creole Service broadcasts 10.5 hours on weekdays, and 9.5 hours on weekends. It is available from the DOD airborne transmitter flying over Haiti, local Haitian affiliates and from U.S.-based transmitters. The service is available at http://www.VOANews.com/creole (VOA press release Jan 26 via gh, Mike Terry, Drita Çiço, Dr Hansjoerg Biener, DXLD) Re VOA Creole: ``Haiti is also a cell phone market, with (surprisingly) 90% of Haitians saying in our research that they own a phone, and half of them reporting they use their phones for SMS text messaging.`` [source?] I find it surprising that he would say that. Because during a segment 6 days ago on BBC World someone from some relief agency I don;t remember if it was the Red Cross or the World Food Program said that 1 out of every 3 people in Haiti has a mobile phone. So 90% seems very high (Keith Perron, Taiwan, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9310, VOA English at 1521 Jan 23 via Tinang, PHILIPPINES westward, on the threat of invasive Asian carp to lake Michigan, how to keep them out with barriers? On the Environment Report, ending all too soon at 1523 for silly sports segment. Here`s one of many stories, more about the carp: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/asian-carp-michigan-rep-i_n_432255.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. A few hours before President Obama`s State of the Union address, I found out the special frequencies VOA was going to use to broadcast it live at 0200-0330 UT Jan 28: Africa: 909, 1530, 4930, 6080, 9885, 15580 Asia: 11705, 11745, 13680, 15260, 15445, 15520, 17845 Middle East: 9550, 9780 Not expecting to hear much in the night from relays presumably Eastern-Hemispheric, I quickly tuned thru the list around 0209 UT. The only ones heard for sure were 4930, when the President had not quite started and the announcer mentioned voanews.com; shortly afterwards found 9885 better as welcoming applause was ongoing. Nothing audible on the others except traces of carriers on a few of them. Both 4930 and 9885 normally open at 0300 via Botswana, but the earlier hour could also have been via São Tomé, or even Greenville on 9885. BTW, I also noticed that the secret VOA Creole transmission at 02-03 was lacking 7590 but still on 7465, apparently not covering the speech. Perhaps the 7590 transmitter was needed for SOTU; we`ll have to see if it`s back following nights. REE Spain has also been known to broadcast voice-over translations of such significant US live events on 6055, but not this time (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Notizie dalla FCC : http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/ib/forms/reports/swr031b.hts?q_set=V_SITE_ANTENNA_FREQ.file_numberC/File+Number/%3D/IHFC/P2008012200001&prepare=&column=V_SITE_ANTENNA_FREQ.file_numberC/File+Number WTWW, Lebanon TN: owner/operator/engineer George McClintock Contact: George McClintock LEAP OF FAITH, INC 6611 ORMOND DRIVE NASHVILLE, TN 37205 USA Buon monitoraggio sabato sera (Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Re: Haven`t heard WTWW testing the last few days on 9480 or 5755, so I asked George McClintock how things are going. He says a long test period is scheduled for Saturday Jan 23, times here changed to UT: 1600-1900 9480 1900-2200 9475 2200-2400 9480 0000-0400 5755 [UT Sunday] ``All this assumes that we have no problems. This will be a test to see how the transmitter and other equipment hold up with extended transmission time.`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-03, WORLD OF RADIO 1497) And it`s on and running! Huge S9+25 signal here with classic rock `n` roll music at 1608 Jan 23. Initially steady, but then with slow selective fading the only thing marring the music. Frequent IDs by Ted Randall, asking for reports to tedrandall @ tedrandall.com Stayed on except for a brief transmitter break at 1656. And cut off again abruptly at 1726, stayed off until resuming at 1737. The shift to 9475 at 19-22 is because YFR is using 9480 during those two sesquihours via Nauen. Good music, but I suspect that will not be its main format once WTWW is in regular service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear DX'ers: WTWW was testing again at 1600 (I tuned in 18 minutes into the test) on 9480 playing a mix of light pop/rock music with frequent ID's voiced by Ted Randall. Much better signal as of UT Saturday, January 23, 2010 using a Sangean ATS818ACS receiver and coax dipole longwire antenna [sic] (Noble West, Clinton TN, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: I heard WTWW on UT Saturday at 1600 on 9480 with Ted Randall "Equiptment Test" announcements and oldies by Four Seasons, Beatles, Fats Domino, Elton John "Crocodile Rock", with good signal on a Sangean receiver and longwire antenna. I sent Ted a reception report for the station. Will try them this evening. They were also using 9475 during the 2000 period, then back to 9480. George would be pleased! 73's, (Noble West, Clinton TN, ibid.) HI GLENN - I am hearing station WTWW, Lebanon TN on 9480, testing and playing old pop rock tunes like Beach Boys, Moody Blues; announcer Ted Randall at 1618 asking for reception reports to be emailed to: tedrandall @ tedrandall.com 73 and "Good Listening"! (Rick Barton, Arizona, 1655 UT Jan 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I switched from comm gear to small portable and had L/C reception on the station test of WTWW. Numerous IDs by male announcer, oldies, and reference to "the QSL" radio program. ID at 1725, into "Working my Way Back to You", and tx suddenly closed at 1726 without fanfare or announcement. 73 (Rick Barton, Arizona, 1742 UT Jan 23, ibid.) WTWW heard with weak but clear signal here in the UK from tune-in at 1830 on 9480 with oldies and frequent "equipment tests" announcements. First time I've heard it here (Dave Kenny, Caversham UK, AOR 7030+ 95m beverage on ground, Jan 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9480 USA, WTWW – Lebanon, TN, 1826-1900* Jan 23, thanks to Rick Barton tip noted playing oldies with announcer Ted Randall mentioning equipment test broadcast asking for “signal reports” to tedrandall @ tedrandall.com Announcement came after every two to three songs and no song titles were provided. Very good signal (Rich D’Angelo, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 9480, WTWW (Lebanon, TN), 1844-1900, 1/23/2010, English. 1960s pop music. Canned announcement by Ted Randall with identification "You're listening to WTWW, Lebanon, TN, performing equipment tests". Requested reception reports to tedrandall @ tedrandall.com Good signal with some fading. Signal strength decreased by about 50% at 1859, and test on 9480 ended at 1900. Test continued on 9475 with same (weaker) signal (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN. RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wires (90' and 200'), ALA100M, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I also have them on 9480, with Ted Randall asking for reports. Playing Fats Domino "Walkin' to New Orleans" and "Twist" and the like, Thanks for listening to WTWW". Good sig on the PL-310 barefoot (John Cereghin, Smyrna DE, 1850 UT Jan 23, ABDX via DXLD) Some DXers hear 9480 kHz in Japan from around 1700 UT. However, not known. UnID Arabic station on 9480 kHz very weakly at around 1700- 1830. This Arabic station is any station? (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, UT Jan 23, ibid.) Maybe Voice of Russia? EiBi has VOR Arabic at 16-17 on 9480. Arabic is also scheduled in the following hour on other frequencies (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) This Arabic station is Voice of Russia from 1600 to 1900 (JM Aubier, France, ibid.) Thanks. VOR of 1700 is extension until 1900 from 1600 (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, ibid.) 2015 UT, 1/23/2010, SINPO - 55545 QTH: Halfmoon, NY (near Albany) RCVR: Eton E1XM, Grundig Satellit 600 ANT: Eton - Internal rod antenna (not extended!) Grundig Satellit 600 - Alpha Delta DX Sloper A much easier catch for me here in upstate NY. The music is so great I've switched on my Grundig Satellit 600! Putting in a 20 over signal here on the Eton E1 with the rod antenna completely collapsed! Keep the Motown tunes coming! (John Figliozzi, ibid.) 9475, 23/1 1955, WTWW Lebanon, Tennessee, USA, testing, very weak signal with deep fading, songs. After 2015 better, no more deep fading. Fair now at 2025. Nice! WTWW 9475, 2030 UT, now nice signal here in Italy, pop songs "... Radio show", several IDs Ciao (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, ibid.) He mentioned his QSO radio show; maybe to be on WTWW? (gh) 9475, 23/Jan 2038, WTWW, English. Com mudança da frequência chega com sinal mais fraco que da primeira vez que a ouvi. Pop mx. Infelizmente ela mudou a frequência para dentro da faixa de um bloco dos meus famigerados ruídos elétricos. As 2040 UT OM com ID. Sinal moderado. Voltando a frequência as 2118 UT mx dos Beatles. 73 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Degen 1103, Dipole antenna, 19 meters - east/west - Balun 4:1, ibid.) Can hear them also here on 9475 at 2042 UT. Weak signal, bits of their frequent announcements audible. Somehow the "we'd love to hear from you" portion is always best audible :-) 73, (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) Booming in here in Halifax, Nova Scotia at 2100 playing American Woman by the Grateful Dead!! Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network (Ray Neeny, ibid.) I think you meant to say "The Guess Who"! Hmmm.... I'm surprised a Canadian didn't know that! :-)) (If the Grateful Dead had played "American Woman" at one of their concerts, all sorts of circuits would have blown in the Deadheads' minds! (John Figliozzi, NY, ibid.) I'm British, but even so, you`re correct; I should have gotten that correct. I'm also from the younger generation too! (Ray Neeny, ibid.) Booming in here as well in West Central Minnesota. Heard ID, now playing Beatles song. Occasional fading (James Bernhardt, 2118 UT, ibid.) Blowing into South Central Wisconsin at 2137 at S9 + 20 with various oldies and an ID (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, ibid.) Caught them at 2145 on 9475 playing music then giving signal idents. At 2200 they did switch to 9480 khz. Reception is fair with some fading. No interference noted. Location here: Leesville, SC. BTW: Good music selection they are playing. Any idea of the format WTWW will be when they are broadcasting full time? (gpsblake, ibid.) [see below] WTWW testing on 9475 kHz at 2157 UT. Moderately strong signal here in Northern Panhandle of West Virginia. Playing "Little Old Lady from Pasadena." Audio is a bit flat and compressed. Icom IC-R75, 35' wire with ground plane (minmax09, ibid.) I didn't see it mentioned here. There is a WTWW webpage, with not a lot on it, but it's at http://wtww.us/ The signal is booming in here in Greenfield Park, Quebec, near Montreal at 2200 UT (Sheldon Harvey, ibid.) 9480, 23/Jan 2202, WTWW. Pop mx década 60 e 70. ID por OM. Constantes interrupções por frações de segundos até as 2204 UT. Após as 2204 UT sinal estável sem interrupções. 35444 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, ibid.) Please, do not be a religious programming. Yes, an excellent selection of music. Now here in Feira de Santana, in Brazil, comes with a very good signal. The transmission in 9480 kHz is better. I hope they choose this frequency. The signal is now improving at 2228 UT, almost local quality (Jorge Freitas, ibid.) 9480: WTWW, Lebanon TN, EE, 23/10 2228. Canções internacionais de outras épocas. Beatles ‘It is a hard day night...’, Elton John, Neil Diamond (é mole?????, Diana, uma cantora brasileira gravou a versão desta música quando eu ainda andava de triciclo.....) e outras do gênero. Outras canções conhecidas das décadas de 70, porém sem recordação do seu título. Id por OM: ‘This is WTWW, Tennessee, USA, performing equipments test...’ 35443 Melhor sinal com ajuste em LSB. Grato, Jorge Freitas pela dica. Vejam o site http://www.wtww.us/ --- WTWW: ‘We Transmit World Wide’. Uma lista européia está informando que estarão das 0000 às 0400 UT em 5755 kHz [and they got it from me --- gh]. Para os saudosistas, um excelente momento de ouvir as canções de outrora (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo – SP, BRASIL, Rx: Kenwood R-1000, Ant.: H 20 m + Tuner TEB STA-1 + MFJ1040-B, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Noise levels, which from time to time did come up as the sun sunk in the western sky only to have reception recover, has just about overwhelmed the signal at this juncture (2230 UT). Can now hear it only faintly (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, Eton E1XM, Alpha Delta DX Sloper, ibid.) [and non]. WTWW rock music and ID testing continued Jan 23 on 9480 until 1900 when as scheduled shifted to 9475 to avoid YFR. No difference in signal strength here, unlike some other places. Only problems, occasional usually brief carrier drops off the air due to some failsafe circuit, and I ceased to keep track of those exact lapses. 2200 back to 9480 still with VG signal. But must have faded down with the sun, as by 2355 was not hearing it at all, or maybe off; instead, some other weak station, probably the Tibetan service CNR-11 which starts 9480 at 2155 via Baoji-Sifangshan 724 site per Aoki. Kept checking 5755 for WTWW`s evening test, but nothing there yet by 0009 Jan 24 while WWRB was in well on 5745, so WTWW must not have been on. Still no sign of it at 0054 so the 5755 test may have been scrubbed tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No; see below Amigos, Da mesma forma como os sinais de teste da WTWW chegaram ontem à noite em 9480 kHz (Jorge Freitas, tks pela dica) quando foi possível curtir um belo sinal com mx das décadas de 70 e 80), após 0000 UTC foi possível captar a outra transmissão de testes da WTWW, desta feita em 5755 kHz: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: WTWW, Lebanon-TN, EE, 24/10 0248. Sequencia de mx antigas, intercaladas pela locução de estúdio, com a identificação: ´ This is WTWW, Tennessee, USA, performing equipments test...’ 35443 (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo-SP, Brasil, Sony ICF2001D, Loop blindada VS, Amplif RF VS + Fone Tecsun E-805, DX Clube do Brasil http://www.radioways.cjb.net http://www.ondascurtas.com DXLD) Glenn and Dear, Now, 0253 UT of 24/JAN on 5755 kHz WTWW comes with good signal playing their wonderful rocks, 44444, incredible quality of the received signal (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana BA, BRASIL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Follow-up to last report about WTWW`s long-hours test on Jan 23 [not July 23 as I wishfully must have thought! Please correct that if copying]: George McClintock tells me that WTWW was off the air until about 0130 UT Jan 24 as he was repairing a water leak in the cooling system, but then back on 5755 and well audible here; planned to stay on until 0400 and if all goes well may not need to test on air much afterwards this week. Ted Randall, whose recorded IDs and requests for reports had been playing every few minutes, went live from his home studio at about 0300, responding to e-mails, shortly taking phone calls to a toll-free number 1-877-511-8890. He asked just about every caller if they were a ham operator, and just about everyone said no. I did not catch any of their names. George McClintock was also on the air by phone at 0337- 0341, and again at 0430, as the transmission was extended until 0436*. Apparently no further on-air testing Jan 24 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DX'ers: WTWW has all but faded as of UT Sunday, January 24, 2009 at 0330 UT. I was hoping for a peak in the S meter, but here in Tennessee, I must be in the skip zone. It's buried in the mess, with some noise on the channel. Maybe we can hope it will propagate better the next UT day. 73's, (Noble, TN, Sangean ATS818ACS, and Belden RG6U cable, 100 ft with leadin, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) AUDIOCLIP: WTWW TEST TRANSMISSION 23-JAN-2010 2200-2310 UT 9480 kHz The audioclip is available here: http://blog.libero.it/radioascolto/8320033.html 73's (Francesco Cecconi, QTH: Central Italy, playdx yg via DXLD) 9480 23/1 23.30 WTWW - Nashville EE ID e rock MX, ottimo (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) Guys, Anybody know what the planned regular format will be for the new WTWW 9475 in Tennessee? I've been to their website http://www.wtww.us but no real clues to what their plans are. Anybody know? They are doing equipment tests playing mostly 1960's top 40 oldies. Sounds like 50 kW or more. Heard this afternoon at 3:09 pm EST/2009Z here in Akron. Tnx, es 73's, (Tim, KD8GZ, ODXA yg via DXLD) No idea, Tim. But without insulting anyone else's listening preferences, I hope it doesn't turn out to be another religious/ radical politics format. I think we could do with a little more variety from domestic SW (John KC2BPU Figliozzi, NY, ibid.) I believe it will be a lot like WWCR and KAIJ --- mostly religion, plus far-right politix. That`s where the business is. If we are lucky, there will be some time left over for DX programs to fill in. Enjoy the oldies while you can (could). 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) I agree with Glenn. Unfortunately for those of us looking for diversity out of domestic shortwave, channeling Willie Sutton here, religion & politics is where the money is (Richard "Cash is King" Cuff, ibid.) I'd love to see another WBCQ-esque station. I don't mind WWCR; its the only place to hear Alex Jones or any other divergent view. I hope this station doesn't devolve into a Top 40, classic rock, or (grossly overplayed and worn out) oldies station- you can find plenty of that on local FM stations around big cities (Mark Tanguay, ibid.) I'm thinking something along the lines of the old WNYW Radio NY Worldwide -- even if only for a few hours a day. But, yeah, I guess when all is said and done crap is king. There's no dispute there. With a few notable exceptions, that characterization fits most of American radio. But it'll be one more station I can ignore (John Figliozzi, NY, ibid.) Nur keine Bange. Da kommt aus Nashville noch mehr hinterher. Wenn der gute George McClintock sich solch ein Spielzeug installiert und bei der FCC anmeldet, dann soll's auch genutzt werden. Oil kostet doch nichts... WTWW - We Transmit World Wide 36 16 35 N 86 05 58 W 64 km oestlich Nashville TN http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=36.276154&lon=-86.099842&z=17.95&r=0&src=yh http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=36.276154&lon=-86.099842&z=17.95&r=0&src=msl http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=36.27628096058736~-86.1000893111588&lvl=17&sty=h 5755 0000 0700 4,9,18,27,28,37-39,46,47 BWW 100 040 Eng USA BWW FCC 9475 1900 2200 4,9,18,27,28,37-39,46,47 BWW 100 040 Eng USA BWW FCC 9480 1200 1900 4,9,18,27,28,37-39,46,47 BWW 100 040 Eng USA BWW FCC 9480 2200 2400 4,9,18,27,28,37-39,46,47 BWW 100 040 Eng USA BWW FCC website http://wtww.us http://wtww.us/pages/gallery/george-finishing-wiring-fiber-optics16.php http://wtww.us/pages/gallery/transmitter-fully-wired17.php http://wtww.us/pages/gallery/rhombic-pole-holes-being-drilled18.php Main Station Record - WBWW Permittee: Leap of Faith, Inc. Call Sign: WTWW File Number: IHFC/P-20080122 License/Renewal: Grant Date: 30/06/09 Expire Date: 30/06/12 CP/Pending Applications: Transmitter Location: 131 Hiwassee Rd. Transmitter City: Lebanon, TN Coordinates: 36 16 35 N Latitude 86 05 58 W Longitude Tower Heights: 0 Meters OHAGL 0 Meters OHAMSL Obstruction Markings: None required Conditions: None Target Zones: 4,9,10-16,18,27-29,37-39 Address: Leap of Faith, Inc. Radio Station WBWW 6611 Omond Dr. Nashville, TN 37205 Transmitters: Power No. of No. Model (KW) TXs Freq. Tol. Emission ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Continental Electronics/418E 100.00 2 0.0015% 9K00A3E 2 Harris/MW-50 50.00 1 0.0015% 9K00A3E Antennas: Gain Azimuth Beamwidth Elevation No. Model (dB) (Deg) (Deg) (Deg) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Penn-Tech RHO 12.00 40 25.00 10.00 2 Penn-Tech RHO 12.00 180 25.00 10.00 3 Penn-Tech RHO 12.00 45 25.00 10.00 (FCC) 40 Grad ist ungefähr der Richtung Kentucky, Toronto, Montreal, Neufundland, Schottland, Amsterdam, Polen, Ukraine Pfad. wb (via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) No youtube temos uma gravação da recepção da WTWW em 5755 kHz, sinal captado também aqui em São Bernardo. Música, locução de estúdio e telefonema de ouvinte. Vejam o receptor que o ouvinte utilizou: 1939 RCA Victor T-80, cuja imagem está na gravação do Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43q5qMTP9jE 73, (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo - SP, radioescutas yg via DXLD) WTWW on 9475 at 2045z with oldies tunes. Excellent reception, S-9 +10, good modulation, stable signal (Jerry Lenamon, Waco Texas, Grundig Satellite 800, multi-wire sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9475, 23/1 2025, WTWW, Lebanon, Tenn. USA, testing, pop songs, several announcements, fair to good (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, RX: SDR-IQ; AOR AR7030; Yaesu FRG-7 --- ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Other logs in this report were dated 25/1 around this time so I suspect this one was supposed to be 25/1 too (gh, DXLD) 5755, WTWW was back on testing with music Jan 26 at quick check 0219, good signal and modulation. George McClintock says he has been experimenting with 125% positive modulation, rather than negative, both on this and earlier in the afternoon Jan 25 on 9480, and wanted reports on modulation quality as heard. This is common on MW, but rarely employed on SW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) At 0247 WTWW faint on 5755 with music. First time heard after chasing it since forever 73/Liz (Cameron, MI, UT Jan 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Reacting to Glenn's tip, I observed WTWW's test transmission on 5755 kHz at 0230 UC 26 January. Continuous pop music interspersed with occasional announcements, such as: "Coming to you from near the banks of the Upper Cumberland River in middle Tennessee, this is WTWW, Lebanon, Tennessee, USA, performing equipment tests". Reception was fair, monitored via the Global Tuners remote receiver in Vero Beach, Florida. A clip of the above announcement can be heard on the Interval Signals Online website at http://intervalsignals.net (David Kernick, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) NEW STATION ON 5755 AND 9480 KHZ? Hello Friends: Last night from 20:43 to 21:00 Guatemalan time (0243-0300 UT) I was performing a scanning and found on 5755 kHz a very good signal that I thought was KAIJ coming back to air. Interestingly this station was broadcasting Rock and Roll Oldies and to my surprise its ID was as follows: “Coming to you from the banks of the upper ???? River in middle Tennesee, this is WTWW, Lebanon, Tennesee, USA, performing equipment tests”. As soon as possible, I made an electronic search and found the following links in YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIRnAh1txK8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43q5qMTP9jE&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCM8R8bx8Q&feature=related One of this videos, show other frequency: 9480 kHz that I am going to try tonight. Any further information, please let me know by this mailing list. 73, (Julio Rolando Pineda Cordón, Guatemala, Jan 26, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Must not have been reading DXLD ** U S A. THE 2009 BILL LEONARD, W2SKE, PROFESSIONAL MEDIA AWARD The Bill Leonard, W2SKE, Professional Media Award is a national level award given each year to honor three professional journalists whose outstanding coverage best reflect the enjoyment, importance and public service value the Amateur Radio Service. This award -- created as a tribute to the late CBS News President Bill Leonard, W2SKE, an avid Amateur Radio operator -- is divided into three categories, each with its own award: audio, visual and print. Audio: Ted Randall, WB8PUM, hosts a weekly show on shortwave radio -- The QSO Radio Show. The Board recognized that Randall's show has become even more effective as a podcast of "consistently high quality, treating issues within Amateur Radio week after week." Randall was the recipient of this award in 2008, as well (source? via Ted Randall, DXLD) ** U S A. 7490, WWCR-3, Sat Jan 23 at 1346 with gospel music, hyper DJ inviting participation by singing groups; not laid-back doo-wop Rock the Universe with Rich Adcock. Jan 1 online program schedule no longer shows RTU at all on WWCR, but Sat 13-14 is Inspirations Across America, and 1400-1430 Country Crossroads. Nevertheless, at 1412 check it was the piano lady with her Musical Memories, consistently filling that semihour instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 600, WSNL, Flint used to sometimes air short infomercials replacing top of hour newscasts. An older guy would drone on for about five minutes with financial gloom and doom type conspiracy stuff. He was so dull I didn't pay much attention. He is suspected as being one of the crooks of the year! Pat Kiley. http://www.redandnater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=74212 (Larry Russell, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) was on WWCR, KSTP, et al. ** U S A. Estimados Amigos: Me complace anunciar que el nuevo programa "México de Leyenda" de Radio México Internacional se transmitirá por WRMI Radio Miami Internacional los UT jueves de 0100-0130 en 9955 kHz (o sea, miércoles en la noche en las Américas), a partir del 4 de febrero UTC. (Jeff White, WRMI Radio Miami International, 175 Fontainebleau Blvd., Suite 1N4, Miami, Florida 33172 USA Tel +1-305-559-WRMI (9764) Fax +1-305-559-8186 E-mail: radiomiami9 @ cs.com http://www.wrmi.net Jan 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I assume that comes from the webcasting R-M-I, a private project by a ham previously publicized in DXLD, not the ex-government external SW service (gh, DXLD) WRMI update: still QRP, but French to Haiti -- Glenn: We are still using the auxiliary [5 kW] transmitter, which has been working pretty well. But we aren't running 24 hours, as we have to give it breaks so it doesn't overheat. Reports are good from the south. We did start on Thursday of this week a daily (Monday-Friday) hour in French for Haiti (and French-speaking Caribbean) 1200-1300 UT Mon-Fri. Currently we're running Radio Prague in French from 1200 to 1230, Vatican Radio newscast in French from 1230 to 1245, and UN Radio in French 1245-1300. We're working on some religious programs in Creole for this block as well, and we're trying to get some fix-tuned radios sent to Haiti. This should be a long-term commitment for us; not just for the immediate crisis. Propagation analysis from Miami to Port au Prince at 1200 UT looks really good. We have found some of the parts we've been needing for the transmitter and antenna. Our consulting engineer should be getting here from Panamá any day now, so in the coming days we will hopefully have the main transmitter back on air and the North American antenna back to normal (Jeff White, WRMI, Jan 23, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The M-F 12-13 French/Creole? Block on 9955 bumps off two airings of WORLD OF RADIO and some other DX programs. Last we checked, the DentroCuban jamming did not ramp up until 1300. But considering the continuing jamming problem on 9955, are you sure you want to commit to fix-tuned radios?? Heavy jamming on 9955 as usual from 1330 past 1500 Jan 25, abating a bit to pulsing rather than noise wall at 1513 check when I could detect some music underneath, unknowable whether it was WRMI with Prague relay or YFR Taiwan in Russian, but suspect the latter (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9955, straining to hear WRMI`s new French service to Haiti, Jan 27 at 1257, very weak signal I was about to conclude to be in French when DentroCuban Jamming Command cut on at 1257:40 with one pulser, quickly joined by others, and a pileup noise wall before 1300 when WRMI presumably is running a new Cuban exile program daily, Radio Libertad until 1400. But Cuba was jamming this hour anyway for months when it contained no contrary programming, just victimized DX and other innocent shows. WRMI`s website still has not been updated to tell us anything about Radio Libertad: http://www.wrmi.net/schedule.php but it allegedly is not strictly an anti-Castro show. Close enough. WRMI is not only on the SSE antenna at this time but on the backup 5 kW transmitter, pending repairs, making it virtually inaudible here, and not a chance of overcoming jamming, which the Cubans keep on thru the 1400 hour for good measure against DX and other programs, and even past 1500 when R. Prague is relayed in English. Jeff White says the 12-13 M-F hour is now occupied by programs in French for Haiti: Prague, Vatican and UN Radio, perhaps to be replaced by religious programs in Creole when available (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Regarding the Cuban jamming of WRMI --- Jeff may not have the resources to do it but it seems reasonable to me that if he could secure a second 31 m frequency (9970 is now available) he could use the new frequency for all programs not in Spanish. Then the Cubans would have to switch to the new frequency too, something they might not do since it wouldn't be in Spanish. If the transmitter channel could be easily switched, the antenna would probably be OK with a very minimal SWR (Jerry Lenamon, Waco TX, Jan 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Good idea in principle, except I would not want to be any closer to powerhouse WWCR 9980 when that is on, i.e. all day. Also current WRMI sked has Spanish and non-Spanish mixed together, so would require a lot of switching back and forth (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** U S A. AWR's WAVESCAN mp3 download links Dear DXers, if you miss a Wavescan program from AWR on short wave, here is the download link: For the program which airs on January 24, 2010 [13.2 MB, mp3 64 kbps]: http://audio.awr.org/asia/Wavescan/AWRWavescan/ENGPU_WAVE_20100124_1.mp3 WAVESCAN AUDIO ARCHIVE: http://audio.awr.org/asia/Wavescan/AWRWavescan/ 73 (Dragan Lekic from Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. 11675, Jan 25 at 1500 AWR sign-on in English, Nepalese to follow. Aoki says via Wertachtal, GERMANY, and followed by English at 1530. I hope the next Nepali census determines just how many Seventh-Day Adventists there are, as I find it hard to imagine how one could retain any traditional culture once becoming an SDA. World Almanac 2002 calculated Nepal is 90% Hindu, 5% Buddhist, 3% Moslem, leaving 2% for everything else, but of course other Christian sects are also doing their damnedest to make inroads. AWR also working on the Turx, Jan 25 at 1511 on 11780 via AUSTRIA, and just as good a signal if not better than Anguilla 11775. At 1515 one hymn had some English lyrix, including ``blood, crimson red,`` oooh; 1516 YL announcement in Turkish. More music until 1529*. 17610 with extremely repetitious rustic melody of only a few notes up and down being sung at 1456 Jan 27, 1458 briefly to other music before cut off at 1458:40 without any announcement. Another example of AWR`s Afar service via AUSTRIA, to what must be a tiny minority, Adventist Afars, but AWR voices hope of their peculiar sect catching on from afar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 11565, WYFR at 1454 Jan 22, lite reverb again upon Camping the doomsayer, but no reverb when the program outro announcer started speaking, as it was Family Bible Study #192 for current date (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Additional transmissions of WYFR Family Radio in English to WeEu: 2000-2100 on 6260 KCH 300 kW / 309 deg via TRW=TV Radio Waves 2000-2100 on 7240 DHA 250 kW / 315 deg via VTC=VT Communications New language service of WYFR Family Radio in Pashto to WeAs: 1400-1500 on 9440 ARM 200 kW / 147 deg via TRW=TV Radio Waves (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 25 via DXLD) Thus is finally identified new broadcast I have been hearing for some weeks. Meanwhile, I searched for it in all the Asian language listings on the FR website, and was it there? Of course not! Wait a minute: Gautam Sharma, quoted by Kevin O`Donovan on KBS World Radio Worldwide Friendship DX segment, Jan 23, says 14-15 on 9440 from YFR is in Assamese; and he should know. NEITHER language appears on this list: http://www.familyradio.com/international/frame/ (gh, DXLD) As I tuned in 15315, Jan 27 at 1438, heard gruff announcer mention ``shortwave radio station``, then ``Family Radio`` and later, ``Open Forum``, but otherwise in a S Asian language. Aoki shows it`s Malayalam, since Dec 30 at 14-15 via Wertachtal, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Winter B-09 of WEWN Global Catholic Radio: English 0100-0900 on 11520 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to N/ME 0900-1300 on 9390 EWN 250 kW / 335 deg to SEAs 1300-1500 on 13835 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to WeEu 1500-1900 on 15610 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to N/ME 1900-0100 on 15610 EWN 250 kW / 085 deg to WeAf Spanish 0000-1000 on 11870 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm 1000-1700 on 12050 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm 1700-2400 on 13830 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm Spanish 0000-0500 on 5810 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm 0500-1300 on 7555 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm 1300-2200 on 11550 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm 2200-2400 on 12050 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 25 via DXLD) These 220 degree beams are right across central Mexico, not Central America. CIRAF targets are 10 = Mexico, and 11 = Central America and Caribbean, but the latter are clearly secondary. 15610, WEWN English at 1508 Jan 22, discussion of ``pro-life`` with heavy long-path echo from 39 megameters away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15420.1/usb, WBCQ (presumed), English sing-song preacher with an androgynous voice coughing and clearing his/her throat while reading/chanting religious phrases -- hypnotic, but not in a good way! Very weak and faded by ToH to the point where if there was an ID I couldn’t hear it. SIO 253 -- faded to 151 by ToH. 2040-2100 16/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) Yup, that`s from Fence Lake NM, Global Spirit Proclamation. We`ve nailed her/him, both adrogynous and anapaestic (gh, DXLD) The main transmitter for WBCQ 5110 suffered a failure in one of its high power output tubes on Saturday, January 23. As a result we were on-air from 2330 to 0400 using our backup BC-610 transmitter, with a full AM signal at about 300 watts into a Timtronium dipole strung between our two wind turbine towers. Reception was widely reported in Indiana, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maryland, and other locations in the midwest and eastern US. If repairs can't be completed by Sunday evening, we will be on the BC- 610 again starting at 2300 UT Sunday. Regards, (Larry Will, Mount Airy, Maryland, 1811 UT Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The main WBCQ 5110 transmitter has been repaired and is back online as of 2255 UT on Sunday, January 24. Regards, (Larry Will, Mount Airy, Maryland, 2303 UT, ibid.) ** U S A. 15550, 1901, WJHR, Milton, Florida - surprised to catch this in USB 19/12 with 1 kW test transmission. Weak signal with preaching. Email address for reports given at 2001. Signal peaked 2045 but then deteriorated. Quick email QSL. Only readable on my EWE beamed eastwards (Bryan Clark, Mangawhai New Zealand with AOR7030+ and EWEs to NE, E & SE, Jan NZDX Times via DXLD) ** U S A. WWRB tidbits --- Greetings: We have provided various broadcasters their notice that WWRB shortwave no longer will provide broadcast services via our facilities. WWRB shortwave will back fill with 'HCJB' quality of programming working with 'up-start' broadcasters (Dave Frantz, WWRB, Jan 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dave, I guess that must mean no more Brother Stair, and who else? (Glenn to Dave, via DXLD) Brother Stair will stay with WWRB shortwave TFN. The other broadcasters that have been canceled will be deleted from our Global - 1 broadcast sked next month (Dave Frantz, ibid.) Here`s what it looks like now, i.e. 3185: http://www.wwrb.org/schedule/global_1/combined.pdf So Brother Scare is `` HCJB Quality``? Please! Sorry, HCJB (gh, DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. 5373, Jan 23 at 1337, SSB traffic bothered by OTH radar spanning 5350-5390, presumably CHINA, q.v. Also bothered by ute beeping from 5368 area. 5373 is one of the five discrete frequencies constituting the ``60 meter hamband`` in the USA [would you believe 55 meters?], as ARRL reminds us at http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/06/03/1/ ``The FCC has granted amateurs 5332, 5348, 5368, 5373 and 5405 kHz`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 6501-USB with marine weather for Caribbean, at least partly originating in Miami, by masculine robot voice, Jan 22 at 2324, but distorted/overmodulated and splattering; soon found // 8502-USB which was in better shape. Both are USCG frequencies, but not certain which station(s) involved at this hour, maybe New Orleans (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 4079.5/cw, TMP33 HiFer beacon fair/good. 0457 17/Jan 4089/cw, DASHER with about 20 ‘dits’ per 1/4 minute. 0547 17/Jan 4096.3/cw, DASHER (‘hexie’) from Joshua Tree National Park [California], with 15 dashes per 1/2 minute. Very weak. 0506 17/Jan 4097.4/cw, KX, 45/41 with same format as below. Drifting downward apparently! 0507 17/Jan 4098/cw, KX, temp beacon sending KX 10 times, and then “Temp in 45 temp out 42 (each number repeated three times) Weak but clear. It did take three times to catch both numbers for sure tho! 0351-0358 17/Jan 4102.1/cw, W, “wind” beacon -- no dits most cycles --- sometimes just one dit heard -- in other worlds, not very windy there apparently! Weak but clear. 0539-0545 17/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) What`s all this? See http://www.hfunderground.com/wiki/High_Frequency_Beacons ** U S A. Sunday tropo before Sunrise --- I arrived home late and hit the dials right before 2 AM and observed some unusual FM conditions at home that I heard briefly in the car. What was unusual was that TV reception conditions were strange. Several new logs from Central Louisiana earlier this morning. I logged decoded IBOC on KEDM 90.3 Monroe LA at 0300. KEDM has three IBOC streams: KEDM-1 which is // with the regular analog signal which was airing the Red River Radio program "Blues Before Sunrise", KEDM-2 was broadcasting traditional jazz, while KEDM-3 was relaying World Radio Network overnights. At 0330 CST I heard a first --- Glenn Hauser's "World Of Radio" on an FM station, albeit IBOC on KEDM-3. The IBOC signal was stable at times, but would drop in an out and occasionally revert back to analog if the fades were too deep on the Sangean. As for KEDM, they are not a full-time affiliate of Red River Radio -- RRR (a Shreveport-based public radio network) and not listed on the list of full-time stations but does carry "Blues Before Sunrise". BBS was heard on other RRR stations such KLSA 90.7 Alexandria, KDAQ 89.9 Shreveport, and KBSA 90.9 El Dorado AR (which is heard here 24/7). (note: KEDM is one of two radio stations licensed to the University of Louisiana at Monroe. As is the case with the University of Arkansas, in addition to a Public Radio station there is also a second student "college radio" station, KXUL 91.1) http://www.redriverradio.org http://www.kedm.org (Fritze H Prentice Jr, KC5KBV, Star City, AR, Jan 24, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. Some people have been wondering about my getting WNAX-570 South Dakota in the daytime here in Enid OK. Is it skywave, especially in midwinter? NO. I get it all the time, month-in and month-out, QRN level permitting. It is always under much stronger KLIF Dallas, and not really listenable, and with a slow SAH. (Counted Jan 22 around 2210 as 3.4 Hz, back in Enid.) Last time I was in OKC at midday, Jan 15, I checked on the caradio, and WNAX was still audible there, despite stronger signal from KLIF than in Enid, of course. Approximate distance Yankton-OKC is only 400 miles, not as far as you might think, since there is nowhere closer in SD than Yankton in the SE tip, and the path is across our high-ground- conductivity Great Plains. I would love to try for further KFYR-550 Bismarck ND, which also has a tremendous coverage area; if only KFRM in Kansas would go away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) One time in the last 20 to 25 years, KFRM-550 was off the air for awhile because all three of the original self-supporting towers ln their directional antenna system were destroyed by high winds, and sitting here in Wichita monitoring 550 during the daytime I was hearing KCRS-550 in Midland, Tx., which has an especially strong lobe in my direction during the daytime. And Enid would likely get an even stronger signal from KCRS (Jeff Altmann, KS, ABDX via DXLD) Yes, on a good day, or with careful nulling I can tell KCRS is there, but KFYR is closer to the same direxion as KFRM. If KFRM were off, nulling KCRS should be no problem. Not that I wish KFRM ill, a good station with lots of local content, handy weather map on website, etc. I could probably pull KFYR on skywave at SR/SS or nite, but that`s not the same as doing so on daytime groundwave (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Glenn, interesting stuff. Imagine what you'd hear if you had a loop antenna perhaps on the car roof, or if you ran out a Beverage. If you can try using a length of hook up wire to connect your car radio aerial to a wire field fence (not the electric variety!). You might be lucky to find a Beverage in situ. 73 (Steve Whitt, UK, MWCircle yg via DXLD) I`ve done this before, what I call ad-hoc fence-beverage DXing. I know a few spots around here in the country which might work, but it`s a matter of getting everything together and the time to do it. So many fences now have metal posts, and the few sections remaining with wooden, therefore somewhat insulating posts are likely to be decrepit/rusted/ not electrically connected for any great distance. As my main portable is now the DX-398, I am reluctant to hook it up to a (non electric, for sure) fence for fear of overload, getting it zapped. But with a good fence bev, inductive coupling can be effective, just putting the radio next to it. Maybe I`ll try clipping the car aerial onto a fence as you suggest. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) I do know that KFYR's day signal hits the Sandhills area (including the Nebraska National Forest) with relative ease. If KFRM wasn't on the air, I'd even wager a pretty good bet that KFYR could reach into the first tier of counties in northern Kansas, albeit very faintly. Much further south of there, though, one would probably have no chance at 'em. Just tuned to WNAX and they're running a talk program from someone named Lars Larsen -- quite disappointing, with the nasty weather that's hit the region in the last 24 hours, the local populace would be much better served with storm-related announcements and bulletins. One more far-reaching station to throw into this mix is KWMT. Its ground system is aging, so the amazing day signal that it put out once upon a time has eroded somewhat, but it still reaches pretty far south, well into northern Oklahoma. One interesting tidbit, though -- they run spots for a livestock auction barn in Faith, South Dakota (in the northwest portion of that state). The listeners in Faith might not even be able to hear KWMT in the daytime -- it's probably covered by the amazingly-far-reaching CBK. 73, (Rick Dau, Omaha NE, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. UT Logs afternoon of Jan 21 on caradio as I was driving around or parked at various Enid spots: 1540 at 2042, ``ESPN Deportes Radio, 15-40 AM`` IDs more than once, with the ``ESPN`` letters pronounced as in English, no doubt mandated by management. Promo for station ad sales with 214 AC soon gave away the source. Fortunately The Dallas Metroplex has three overlain area codes so they have to give 10-digit phonumbers. This was atop the channel, probably KXEL skywave underneath. Amid SS, inserted a Selective Service System PSA in English, seemed aimed at guest aliens about the need to register. Never heard call-letter ID, but NRC AM Log 2009-2010 shows it as KZMP, COL University Park, 32 kW in daytime, U4 antenna. FCC AM Query shows a neat 3-lobe pattern, with peaks at 90, 190 and 285 degrees; nulls at 145, 230 and 355 (rounded off, measured only every 5 degrees). We are somewhere around 345-350 degrees, so suspect the pattern was out of whack to be putting such a dominant signal in here, and certainly skywave, not groundwave. See http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=63551 Even stranger, FCC lists night power as 0.0 kW, yet includes all the antenna parameters, a similar but different pattern with 5 lobes, the major one due east. But on the pattern plot, power shows as 750 watts night, matching NRC AM Log info. Meanwhile, Metroplex Spanish on 1440 was inbooming, in fact far stronger than OKC`s 1460 KZUE groundwave. No wonder, as KTNO is now 50 kW in daytime on what was once a 10-kW regional channel. 25+ hours after 1440 was dominated by KTNO, Spanish from The Metroplex, tried again on caradio Jan 22 at 2200 UT and immediately heard ID for WGEM in Quincy IL. Now there`s a heritage call which has managed to survive; I think I picked up their TV channel 10 in the 1960s long before I heard the AM. But it`s no full service radio, now just another ESPN affiliate per NRC AM Log listing. By 2206 Spanish music from KTNO was atop. I wonder how 1540`s KZMP calls possibly correlate with a Spanish slogan, or with ESPN. Or are they just random? ``Zumbido más potente``? But there is no hum, hmmm. Also wonder how the network ESPN could come up with a Spanish or English slogan to match the letters, which long ago became a meaningless corporate initialism, rather than Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, as was the original cable TV channel (I think). How about ``Extremely Silly Passion Network`` ``Estúpidos Son Para Nosotros`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I too have noticed that "ESPN Deportes Radio" is a mix of English and Spanish. I believe it is quite necessary. The four-letter combination ESPN, if spelt out in Spanish, may suggest something else than what is intended. The Swedish agency for international development is SIDA in Swedish. This is untenable in Latin America, where it means "AIDS". And so their Spanish language stationery sports "ASDI". And back to radio, in Neiva, Colombia, there is station HJKK on 840 AM whose callsign has to be pronounced in an alternate way so as not to make people laugh. The two final letters would sound as "caca", poopoo, if pronounced in a normal fashion. And so the callsign is always rendered as "HJ Doble K". In the ESPN case, the two final letters could easily be understood as "pene", penis. This being the case, it is surely wiser to maintain the original English pronunciation (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ja2, had not thought of that. I wonder how PACA pronounces his ham callsign when speaking Spanish, CO2KK? Reminds me of the possibly apocryphal case of a carmodel called Nova in English failing to sell in Puerto Rico because ``no va`` means ``it doesn`t go`` in Spanish. This assumes the SS are too ignorant to know that their own word nueva derives from the Latin nova, meaning new (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Metroplex also has a KZMP-FM and I believe that it was first. This is part of the Lieberman Broadcasting Dallas group: KZMP-AM, KZMP-FM, KBOC, KNOR, KTCY, KZZA, & KMPX-TV (David R. Block, Carrollton, TX, ptsw yg via DXLD) 1060, Jan 21 at 2054 UT, financial talk about derivatives, ``Off the Wall Street Radio Network`` --- not sure if that was a joke? No, googled this about Phil`s Gang Radio Show, and the time matches 20-21 UT: http://chataboutit.com/about/phils-gang-radio-show/ Apparently that ``network`` applies only to this one show, like EIB. But whence on 1060? Retuned after hourtop at 2105, ad mentioned ``here in Boulder``, then ``AM 1060 and 1580, Business Radio`` in Colorado. So it`s KRCN, COL Longmont, 50 kW in daytime. 1580 refers to KKKK Colorado Springs; NRC AM Log shows them both as ``The Big Money Station``, not a slogan I heard. 1060 was so steady for so long that I was wondering if I had a new semi-close station by groundwave, normally vacant in daytime, but no, this was skywave. 1220, South Asian music dominating the channel, Jan 21 at 2124, in fact classical sitar music, nice! 2130 switched to vocal S Asian music. Only problem a bit of splash from semi-local WBBZ 1230 Ponca City OK. Lots of music, lacking ads or other announcements, even at drivetime! Should also make it a good companion if it streams. Finally at 2139 gave phone number 972-243-8411, i.e. Dallas. 2200 kept playing music past hourtop, a song with instrumental accompaniment including bagpipes. 2204 dead air as I had to tune away, but still there at 2225 check. Uplooked later in NRC AM Log, this is KZEE, COL Weatherford TX, Asian ethnic as ``Hot Pepper 1220`` and ``South Asian Radio`` with only 1.6 kW day power, so doing a good job here on afternoon skywave. Is Midwest City OK KTLV still on? Rarely audible here and no problem for KZEE`s Enid listener. Yes, it does stream, autolaunching from http://www.radiohotpepper.com/ And is there a program/language schedule? Of course not! But there is quite a gallery of hosts, most of them not accompanied by specific time slots. Refers to format as ``Indi-Tex``, and shows radio-locator map from site W of Ft Worth so skews eastward, but not nulled usward. Also 24 hours after 1220 was dominated by KZEE, Hot Pepper 1220, one of The Metroplex ethnic stations, Jan 22 at 2200 on the caradio I could barely make out its South Asian music in the pileup. The Metroplex sure has a lot of Asian stations of various ilx, as well as Spanish ones all over the AM dial. 1190, Jan 21 at 2148 UT, promo for a silly ballgame in Lubbock, but then ID as ``CNN 1190`` so has to be KFXR Dallas, which has a minor lobe almost due north, besides the major lobes to the WSW and ESE from site W of Dallas. That`s the original KLIF facility. 1210, Jan 21 at 2152, heard ID in English as ``ESPN Radio``, apparently atop KGYN. Only thing that fits per NRC AM Log listings is WSKR, COL Denham Springs LA, near Bâton Rouge with 10 kW, tho there`s another ESPN in SW Utah, a bit too early for that (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. DX ALERT - KGBC 1540 GALVESTON IS STILL OFF THE AIR Just checked the frequency again this morning. KGBC 1540 on Galveston Island (TX) is still off the air. This is the station that recently switched to China Radio International programming. Haven't heard why they suddenly went off the air, but it opens up 3 frequencies for me (1530/1540/1550)!! 73, (Steve N5WBI Ponder, Clear Lake City TX, NRC-AM via DXLD) Well, it looks like I jinxed myself! I tuned to 1540 last nite and KGBC was back on, but at reduced power. At least I can pick out stations on 1530 and 1550! The AM band has been pretty active and unpredictable lately. You never know what station will pop up on frequency! 73, (Steve N5WBI Ponder, Clear Lake City TX, ABDX via DXLD) So is KGBC still/again nothing but CRI relay? I wonder if they are proceeding with changing transmitter sites to NE/ESE of Houston as applied for. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) 1540 KGBC is usually audible here at Boca Chica Beach, when it's on. I tried for it several times today and heard NOTHING but an open carrier. Occasional bits of SP talk from another station that had a "futbol" play by play this afternoon. Again, nothing heard from KGBC except an OPEN CARRIER (Steven Wiseblood, Boca Chica Beach, TX, Jan 24, ibid.) I tried them this afternoon from Katy, TX - there was nothing on the frequency. (Bruce Carter, Jan 24, ibid.) ** U S A. Re 10-03: WTNI is now "Sports Radio 1490/1640 The Team" with ESPN according to their (messy & incomplete) web site. Seems to be the outcome of the transition I heard on air on the 19th Jan. 73s (Steve Whitt, UK, Jan 21 MWCircle yg via DXLD) ID in MORSE on 1640 Khz, DE WTNI BILOXI MS USA was heard here on the 19th - 0400-0500 UT. It looks to have been a precursor to WTNI switching format to sport. Apparently iding as "Sports Radio 1490/1640 The Team" with ESPN (Paul Crankshaw, Troon, Scotland, Jan 22, ABDX via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not to be confused with the other sports-format 1640 station, KFXY here in Enid, but a different network, SNR per NRC AM Log. I never listen to it except when forced to tune across frequency momentarily. WTNI really gets out, while KFXY is seldom DX reported from USA, let alone overseas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Cheers, Steve, for the heads up. My NRC AM Log amended. Future care here, if like me, you are looking for sports from Enid OK hi! (Barry :-) Davies, MWCircle yg via DXLD) ** U S A. TEST TRANSMISSIONS BY EXPERIMENTAL STATION KB5XSZ 1700 KHZ Although not likely to be heard very far from its transmitter site, the attached link contains an interesting letter from the FCC to KBSZ 1250. http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=15316 Readers in the US may already be aware as it has been reported by IRCA and also through the last issue of MWN, but the letter gives some more detailed information that may be useful (Andrew Brade, UK, Jan 22, MWCircle yg via DXLD) I.e., Apache Junxion AZ, daytime non-critical hours only, not to exceed 1 kW, from temporary tower, non-direxional, expires March 16, 2010. To determine soil conductivity for KBSZ-1250 Wickenburg which is considering the site for a frequency change to 1260 and slight power increase. Wickenburg is way out NW of PHX while AJ is on the eastern fringe (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Obituary: James Quello, 95, former FCC commissioner. Here's the eulogy of FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. "It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of former Commissioner Jim Quello. Jim was a friend and a beloved Commissioner of this agency for more than two decades. Known as the 'Dean' of the FCC -- and 'Boss' to the many staffers who worked for him -- he was a role model to generations of FCC employees and advocates for his decency, personal charm, and commitment to his work. He leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of service to the FCC, the communications industry, and the American people. "Commissioner Quello’s long life was packed with accomplishment. He was born April 21, 1914, in Laurium, Michigan -- eleven years before the first public demonstration of television and two decades before the creation of the FCC. He served his country with great valor and distinction in World War II, surviving six amphibious landings and earning multiple decorations and campaign ribbons. He spent his first career as a broadcaster, finding ways to serve local communities in the early days of the medium. And he went on to serve the FCC as Commissioner from 1974 until 1997, receiving numerous honors and earning widespread respect and affection." Readers may remember FMedia!'s noting that Quello, when on the Commission, was against indecency; he especially criticized Howard Stern, and supported fines for indecency. Quello was a veteran of WJR 760 Detroit, and widely acclaimed for his years of public service on the FCC. Howard Stern then was on open-air FM radio (with hints today that he may leave Sirius Satellite Radio and be back on FM). Bruce Elving, writing in the newsletter, asked: "Will Quello mellow?" "Will Stern learn?" (Bruce Elving, FM Atlas, Jan 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. New Posts to DX Tests . Info on Jan 27, 2010: ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1) WGGH-1150 Marion, IL DX Test http://www.dxtests.info/2009/11/wggh-1150-marion-il-dx-test.html TEST CANCELED --- We've just received confirmation from Paul Walker that the DX test scheduled for WGGH 1150 in Marion IL for Feb. 6, 2009 has been canceled. A test may be scheduled at later date (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. Weekly E.A.S. Tests --- A question for anybody that knows the answer. What are the time of day requirements (or are there any) for an EAS Primary station to run a weekly test? Does it have to be Mon-Fri? 8 am to 5 pm? Thanks, (Juan Gualda, Fort Pierce, FL, ABDX via DXLD) Required Monthly Test [See 11.61 (a)(1)] The Required Monthly Test consists of the following: the EAS header codes; at least eight seconds of the twotone attention signal; an audio test script; and the End of Message codes. The monthly test can last up to 30 seconds. Monthly tests are originated by the local primary station or state primary stations. Monthly tests will be conducted between 8:30 a.m. and local sunset on odd numbered months and between local sunset and 8:30 a.m. on even numbered months. Unlike the weekly test, the monthly test must be retransmitted within 15 minutes of receipt. There is no need to send a weekly test during the week that a monthly test is performed (via Steven Wiseblood, TX, ibid.) Juan, Used to be as you say, daytime hours. That was back in the EBS days. The reasoning was because many stations monitored another AM station and you couldn't get the signal at night sometimes. Since the advance to EAS, any time of day is fine as long as it's once a week. We monitor KSL in Salt Lake City, as well as Wyoming Public Radio (KUWR) and KQSW-FM in Rock Springs. RWT's (required weekly tests) come in at all hours and any hours any day including the weekends. With EAS since you can monitor FM stations and NOAA, and can monitor more than one station; time of day is no longer critical. At least that's how I understand it and I trust John Dehnel at KSL knows the rules pretty well too :-) (Michael n Wyo Richard, ibid.) To expand on the other responses, each broadcaster is required to test their equipment weekly. Most stations simply press a button on the EAS device and a weekly test is sent. Each station schedules and logs their test independently. Once a month the entire system is tested with a Required Monthly Test. The RMT is usually generated at a statewide level with dates and times coordinated months in advance. There are several links in the chain. In Texas there are two statewide primary broadcast stations, WBAP (Ft Worth) and KTRH (Houston) plus the Texas State Network (satellite news network) for regions that are out of range of WBAP or KTRH. In each region (or media market) there are one or two local primary stations that are obligated to monitor the statewide network. In my area the stations are WACO FM & KWTX FM. Those stations monitor WBAP and forward any statewide alerts or tests to the other stations in the market. My station monitors WACO FM for the statewide tests. In addition, all stations must monitor the National Weather Service station in their market. In Texas this is all coordinated by the Texas Association of Broadcasters (trade/lobbying organization) and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Conceivably the Governor could pick up the phone and ask for an alert to be sent over every radio, tv and cable station in the state. I imagine it would work in most cases. But nothing is perfect, especially EAS. The FCC periodically sends inspectors around to stations to inspect the equipment and the logs. Stations that don't keep the equipment in working order and logs up to date could be subject to big fines. Next to Public File violations EAS is probably the area most likely to trip up a station. One last thing, only two types of alerts are required to be forwarded. Alerts generated by the President must be forwarded and the Required Monthly Tests must be forwarded. All other alerts are forwarded at the discretion of the individual broadcaster (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, ibid.) ** U S A. Re FCC and pirates A good friend of mine, who works for the FCC, put it this way. "The FCC of today, unlike the FCC of yesterday, does not sit up searching the band like a DXer looking for stations that violate the laws. Today`s FCC has had it budgets cut and responds to complaints, rather than looks for problems. He went on to say that they will respond to complaints from listeners, which are usually the result of; interference to a licensed FM facility, obscene or hateful speech, public nuisance, or interference to aviation and government communications by dirty transmitters." In some communities I've known them to give the hobby broadcaster or pirate a pass, yet there have been more than a few busts based on the references above. There are several pirates that have been on the air for quite some time. It's just because they are under the radar, and with the exception of some DXers that know what the dial should look like, the average person assumes they are just another radio station. I've always wanted to do a story on this for the DX Audio Service, but one thing the FCC and the pirates have in common --- they don't want to talk on the record (Fred/W8HDU Vobbe, Lima OH, WTFDA via DXLD) I think it's been that way for a long time. Way back when I was in high school in rural Southeastern Colorado, myself and a couple of friends built and operated several "pirate" radio stations. Designing and building both AM and FM transmitters and antenna systems was a great learning experience, that ultimately led me (and my friends) toward getting the FCC First Class Radiotelephone license and entering the field of broadcast engineering. After I moved up to the Denver radio market I became friends with the field engineers at the local FCC office. One of them told me that they knew about our pirate radio operations, but didn't take any action because we weren't interfering with anybody, maintained high technical standards, and kept the content clean. I worked hard and got the First Class license at the young age of 17 (40 years ago). I didn't want to lose it, so my involvement in pirate radio ended on the day the nice lady at the FCC handed me that pretty blue piece of paper (Girard Westerberg, N0AFI, http://www.DXFM.com Lexington, KY, ibid.) So if someone in Indy set up a pirate station on 87.7, it is unlikely that the FCC would do anything about it unless someone complained? Very interesting indeed. Channel 6 audio is gone, of course, so that frequency is wide open in central Indiana (Bob Timmerman, ibid.) There are more than a few on the air around the U.S. According to DX Audio Service members there is a ton of pirates down in the Miami area, two in Indiana, three in Ohio, and one in western NY. Some even stream their programming on the internet. I really think it would be an interesting story to talk to some of the operators (Fred/W8HDU, ibid.) I would suggest there are three types of pirate. 1. The "hobby pirate". (or "Ham broadcaster") I suspect many of us have done that. The hobby pirate enjoys knowing they can build a transmitter that works -- the programming is largely irrelevant. Intended audience is a small number of electronics geeks and maybe one's girlfriend. This pirate will remain low-profile. They don't want to get caught, and are proud of a clean signal that doesn't interfere with anything. These operations will go away once the operator discovers girls/goes off to college/needs the time for an after-school job to pay for a car, etc.. 2. The "I will be heard" pirate. These are people who believe their programming must be heard, even if licensed stations won't play it. They tend to be very passionate about a fringe type of programming -- a very narrow area of music, or extreme politics. (either right or left) They'd love it if everyone would listen, but they won't compromise their programming to pull more listeners. This pirate will be medium-to-high profile, but doesn't want to get on the FCC's radar. They'll try to avoid causing interference, but since technically-interested people are often not involved, they sometimes get in trouble by mistake. These operations will go away once the operator realizes nobody is listening to their bizarre programming. 3. The commercial pirate. These are people who have an idea for a way to make money at broadcasting -- if only they can avoid the cost of obtaining that pesky license. Their business plan doesn't allow for spending millions of $$ buying an existing legitimate station, or waiting for years (and bidding millions of $$) obtaining a new permit at auction. Their programming isn't making it on commercial radio, but it's not so far off in left field that nobody listens. They're not at all above adjusting their music mix to maximize audience. These pirates have it figured out. They know the FCC isn't going to show up on their doorstep tomorrow; they know they can ignore NOUOs and NALs* - nobody is going to physically remove their signal from the air. By the time they become enough of an annoyance for the armed federal marshals to show up, they've made more than enough money to cover the cost of the confiscated equipment (and probably enough to buy new gear to replace it & return to the air...) (or steal it...) They could care less about interference to legitimate stations -- they avoid licensed frequencies only to the extent necessary to ensure the licensed station doesn't interfere with the pirate. These operations will only go away if the operators go to prison. Prison time is not likely to result from an unlicensed broadcasting conviction (but many of these commercial pirates seem to have other criminal irons in the fire and may well go up the river for something having nothing to do with the FCC...) * NOUO = Notice Of Unlicensed Operation. NAL = Notice of Apparent Liability. (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. AIR AMERICA CEASES PROGRAMMING, TO FILE BANKRUPTCY + Air America ceases live radio programming + Says to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection + Says to wind down operations + Cites ad revenue decline, failure to find new investors By Emily Chasan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Air America, a politically liberal talk-radio network, said Thursday it would cease operations and file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection to begin an orderly wind down of its business. The radio network was launched in 2004 by comedian Al Franken, now a U.S. Senator and has helped launch other careers such as that of liberal television personality Rachel Maddow. The network, which had about 100 radio outlets nationwide, has suffered a decline in advertising amid the U.S. recession and a search for new investors failed, Air America Media chairman Charlie Krieker said in a memo to staff Thursday. Air America, which has struggled under a succession of management changes since its inception, had previously been forced into bankruptcy in 2006 when efforts to resolve an outstanding debt with a creditor from the network’s earliest days broke down. Franken stopped broadcasting for the network in 2007 after he announced he was seeking nomination for the Senate seat from his home state of Minnesota. The company said a severance package will be offered to full-time employees with more than six months of tenure at the company and that it will play “encore programming” through Jan. 25. (Reporting by Emily Chasan; editing by André Grenon) Reut 17:40 01-21-10 via Ricky Leong, Jan 21, DXLD) Air America has posted on their site that they're finished. Article included below in case it gets taken down before you can read it. Obligatory Wikilink of list of affiliates here, in case anyone's interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Air_America_Radio_affiliates Thank you for reading this, and have a good day (or night) (April Ferguson, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business. The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America's business. This past year has seen a "perfect storm" in the media industry generally. National and local advertising revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to fold or seek bankruptcy protection. From large to small, recent bankruptcies like Citadel Broadcasting and closures like that of the industry's long-time trade publication Radio and Records have signaled that these are very difficult and rapidly changing times. Those companies that remain are facing audience fragmentation as a result of new media technologies, are often saddled with crushing debt, and have generally found it difficult to obtain operating or investment capital from traditional sources of funding. In this climate, our painstaking search for new investors has come close several times right up into this week, but ultimately fell short of success. With radio industry ad revenues down for 10 consecutive quarters, and reportedly off 21% in 2009, signs of improvement have consisted of hoping things will be less bad. And though Internet/new media revenues are projected to grow, our expanding online efforts face the same monetization and profitability challenges in the short term confronting the Web operations of most media companies When Air America Radio launched in April, 2004 with already-known personalities like Al Franken and then-unknown future stars like Rachel Maddow, it was the only full-time progressive voice in the mainstream broadcast media world. At a critical time in our nation's history — when dissent on issues such as the Iraq war were often denounced as "un-American" — Air America and its talented team helped millions of Americans remember the importance of compelling discussion about the most pivotal events and decisions of our generation. Through some 100 radio outlets nationwide, Air America helped build a new sense of purpose and determination among American progressives. With this revival, the progressive movement made major gains in the 2006 mid-term elections and, more recently, in the election of President Barack Obama and a strongly Democratic Congress. Laws have changed for the better thanks to this revival.....but all the same our company cannot escape the laws of economics. So we intend a rapid, orderly closure over the next few days. All current employees will be paid through today, January 21. A severance package will be offered tomorrow to full-time current employees with more than six months of tenure. We will strive to assist affiliates and partners in achieving a smooth transition. Starting at 6 pm EST today, we will provide our affiliates, listeners and users a selection of encore programming until 9 pm EST on Monday, January 25, at which time Air America programming will end. We are proud that Air America's mission lives on through the words and actions of so many former radio hosts who are active today in progressive causes and media nationwide. In the years ahead, as we look back, we should all be proud of our passionate determination to assure that our nation's progressive voice would be heard loud and clear. Through the hard work and dedication of current staff, and those who preceded you, a lasting legacy was forged which will now continue through other voices and venues. Thank you (Air America website, everything else removed, via April Ferguson, DXLD) All gone by next week, it appears: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_America_Radio (Eric Flodén, BC, ibid.) Posted via the GLBT/Liberal blog Pam's House Blend, PHB blogger Louise posts a link to Air America's homepage which announces that AAR would stop broadcasting as of today, January 21, and also file chapter 7 Bankruptcy. http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/14929/air-america-is-gone http://www.airamericaradio.com (Fritze H Prentice Jr, KC5KBV, Star City, AR, EM43aw http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com http://www.twitter.com/KC5KBV DXLD) More from the AA place blog [NOT property of AA itself], from which you may reach the rest of it to read: http://www.airamericaplace.com/index.php?showtopic=30681&pid=279451&st=0&#entry279451 (gh, DXLD) From the Green 960 AM blog in San Francisco: Air America: RIP All, The Air America radio network is no more. They are closing the doors on Monday, and the great experiment featuring talk radio with a lefty tilt is over. Read this from their website. The truth is, this network was dead a long time ago. They're just burying it Monday at 6 pm PT. We started 960 the Quake in October of 2004, with a lot of promise, anticipation and excitement, with a virtually 24-7 Air America schedule. We were all in. You were there with us. It was so exciting. Fast forward to now. Management screw ups, overspending, talent management, it was a mess from almost the get go. There were truly some fine, dedicated radio people there that were part of the launch team, but they never had a chance. They offered un-entertaining programming. They deserved this. We are in the ENTERTAINMENT business, I am going to say this for the ten billionth time. We are not in the POLITICAL business. And now, sadly, I have been proven right. And I'm not one bit happy about it. I once dreamed of an Air America West, in the bay area. I was in,. I wanted to play. I offered them my heart, soul, and station once. They bit the hand that fed them in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Don't cry for them. The marketplace has spoken. GOOD NEWS: Green 960 Online and Radio is NOT GOING ANYWHERE! We do not carry any AA programming during the day, we will offer Norman Goldman temporarily at midnight weekdays, replacing the (very) talented Jack Rice and Rachel Maddow, who sadly, is not offering a radio product (for now). Stay tuned, as they say. I will have much more to say in this space soon. http://www.green960.com/main.html (from Airamericaplace blog, via DXLD) ** U S A. THE FUTURE OF RING OF FIRE... fcousins posted on January 21, 2010 16:57 http://ringoffireradio.com/blogengine/ If you hadn't already heard, Air America Radio is ceasing operations as of this afternoon. Please take the time to read the message at AirAmerica.com. We have been with Air America since the earliest days of the network, and it is very sad to see one of the only liberal outlets in this country have to close their doors. We believe very strongly in what Air America was working to accomplish, and their presence on the radio will be tremendously missed. I'm sure you are all now wondering what will become of Ring of Fire. The short answer is "nothing." We will continue to run our weekly radio show. Ring of Fire is independently produced, and we were only syndicated through Air America. We will simply be syndicated through another company, but rest assured, you will not miss a single beat. We are still set to air as per usual. This week’s Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio, and David Bender: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern (via DXLD) Saturdays 2000, Mondays 0100 UT (via gh, DXLD) However, someone mentioned that ROF was no longer freely webcast but behind a premium firewall (while still broadcast on AA affiliates) (gh) Syndication is via Go Left TV (web) http://www.ringoffireradio.com/blogengine/post/Welcome-to-the-new-home-of-GoLeft-TV!.aspx (Clara Listensprechen, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Altho the AA website seems to have been closed down, the ROF website had this full schedule for Air America, in case you want to search for what becomes of its other ex-programs: All Times Eastern… Monday-Friday 1A-3A Best-of “The Lionel Show” 3A-6A Best-of “The David Bender Show” 5A-6A “The Rachel Maddow Show” 6A-9A “The Lionel Show” 9A-12N “Montel Across America” 12N-3P “Doing Time with Ron Kuby” 3P-4P “Break Room Live with Marc maron & Sam Seder” (secondary stream) 3P-6P “Montel Across America” 6P-9P “The Ron Reagan Show” 9P-11P “Clout! with Richard Greene” Saturday 1A-3A (rebroadcast) “The Lionel Show” hrs 1&2 from Friday 3A-6A (rebroadcast) “The David Bender Show” 6A-9A (rebroadcast) “Doing Time with Ron Kuby” 9A-10A “Marc Sussman’s Money Message” 10A-11A “State of Belief” with Reverend Welton Gaddy 11A-12N Best-of “The Ron Reagan Show” 12N-1P “The Charles Binder Program” 1P–2P “Freethought Radio” with Annie Laurie Gaylor & Dan Barker 2P-3P Best-of "The Rachel Maddow Show" 3P-6P “Ring of Fire” with Robert Kennedy Jr. & Mike Papantonio 6P-7P “7 Days in America" with Mark Green & Arianna Huffington 7P-8P Best-of “The David Bender Show” 8P-10P Best-of “Clout! with Richard Greene” Sunday 2A-6A Best-of “Doing Time with Ron Kuby” 6A-9A Best-of “The Lionel Show” 9A-10A (rebroadcast) “7 Days in America" with Mark Green & Arianna Huffington 10A-1P Best-of “The David Bender Show” 1P-2P Best-of "The Ron Reagan Show" 2P-4P Best-of “The Rachel Maddow Show” 4P-7P “Politically Direct with David Bender” 7P-8P (rebroadcast) “State of Belief” with Reverend Welton Gaddy 8P-11P (rebroadcast) “Ring of Fire” with Robert Kennedy Jr. & Mike Papantonio 11P-1AM “On the Real” with Chuck D. (via gh, DXLD) Too bad. Not a bad moderate to liberal service. At least Ed Shultz is still around on Jones. Too bad MSNBC doesn't have a radio service. There is always KGO, as they have been around for many years. Sirius Moderate or Liberal talk may be the best answer off the bird as you don't have to live in a market with a moderate to Liberal station, and the station you may like can change format at a minute's notice as many do. That is the number one problem with radio. You like a station, you wake up tomorrow and the station is some other format. I consider Ed Shultz on Jones a moderate and a couple others. Randi Rhodes is off the scale Liberal. Thom Hartmann, also on FSTV is interesting too. I'm not really getting into politics. I just don't like any broadcasting company going bust. Even the ones I don't care for, but money talks and if you don't have the green stuff, you go away. We have seen it hundreds of times. There just seems to be not enough money to support the broadcasting industry. Years ago when we had many less stations, most all seemed to keep their heads above water. Few disappeared, now looking at the Broadcasting Info updates, so many stations go and return, and go, and return. 73, (Patrick Martin, IRCA via DXLD) Patrick, I too am a fan of KGO. Have them on the internet radio at my bedside, since even for a DX'er, KGO is a tough haul from Eastern Canada. Thank goodness for the internert. They have a slight liberal bent with folks like John Rothmann and Ray overnight, but they also provide a bit of balance with Dr. Bill on Sunday nights (I happen to enjoy his pragmatic perspective as well). (John Fisher, Kingston, Ontario, ibid.) John, I note John Rothmann has moved to 10 pm-1 am PST some time back. I don't often get a chance to listen to him but on the few occasions I do I find it amusing how relatively mellow and contained he is on radio. He is one of my regular professors at Fromm Inst. here in San Francisco (a thriving school for higher learning for senior citizens). At Fromm he is an orator of the first degree with a loud booming voice (no microphones needed) and an exceedingly interesting delivery + extensive knowledge of current affairs and politics. He worked for Richard Nixon for many years finally leaving during the lies and deceits over Cambodia. We have many excellent professors at Fromm but I probably enjoy Rothmann the most. p.s. If one goes to Google you can find interesting articles on both John Rothmann & Fromm Institute (Don Kaskey, San Francisco CA, ibid.) Been a fan of KGO since the 1960's when their first talk show came from the "Hungry I" in SF, hosted by Les Crane. Later on Ira Blue was there for years. KGO is one great station. One of the few that has kept their format. I guess with the internet, KGO has listeners worldwide. Their signal is right on the edge in the Summer and in the Winter decent days. At night with an ERP of about 250 KW to the North (U3), they have made the ratings in Portland in the 70s. Came in 2nd in an ARB book. Shocked the whole Portland market! 73, (Patrick Martin, ibid.) I listen to KGO on rare occasions. While they have kept their format essentially intact for "centuries", I find it generally boring. A special guest on a program may make it worthwhile for me to listen, but listening to KGO is like eating the same thing for dinner 8700 nights in a row. It`s interesting that with their huge signal up and down the Pacific Coast, there are places on I-580 in the East Bay where you cannot receive them at all. The magic of directional patterns and finding the perfect null point! (Mike Hawkins, ibid.) Don, I miss Rothman on the weekends, as I never listen before around Midnight or one and I listened to Rothman on the weekends, but he moved to Week nights (Bernie Ward's old spot). KGO is a great station. 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, ibid.) Mike, KGO is tough to listen to in Reno too. They have a tight null. I know a lot of people that will not listen to any talk radio as they find them boring. I also enjoy CtoC at times, depending on the subject. We need more talk shows on DXing!!! 73, (Patrick Martin, ibid.) I'll listen to C2C sometimes, but I am finding radio pretty boring these days. My pet peeve with C2C is when they put on shows about the worldwide calamities that you can do nothing about. I once sent an email to George Noory, basically telling him that the doom and gloom shows could be enough for someone who is teetering on the edge to commit suicide, that shows of that type offer no value and that there are sometimes no solutions available, IF there was any substance to the topic in the first place. He responded to me (I was surprised) by saying that they run a disclaimer at the end of shows like that. I asked him what if that person (or persons) never made it to the end of the show because they had already pulled the plug; no response there. Entertainment is one thing. Spreading fear, uncertainty, doubt, doom and gloom is pretty much unneeded in a world that seems to be overwhelmed with most of those qualities right now. I've also heard way too much namecalling on political shows by people who disagree, and also smug self-righteousness from people who are talking with those they agree with. I would like to hear a show or six on DXing. The only person I ever heard get into the subject was Art Bell when he was speaking with Harry Helms. It`s not a popular talk show topic, but I bet you'd be surprised by how many DXers would come out of the woodwork to call in if that topic were being aired. Not that it would help the ratings though; we are kind of off in our own little world (Mike, ibid.) Mike, Agreed. But they do it all for ratings. Money talks. Enough to run any program that sells ads. Fear sells ads, politics sells ads. Talk radio must do pretty well to stay on the air. Almost every market has the EIB Network or C2C if nothing else. I called in on Ray Briem's show on KABC years ago, 82 or 83 I think when they were discussing DXing. I think even Richard Wood called in. 73 (Patrick Martin, ibid.) I spoke on the air with Ray Briem on KABC 790 about BCB dx many years ago. It'd be nice if more hosts would discuss such topics. Art Bell has of course from time to time (Mike Sanburn, IRCA via DXLD) [getting back to Air America] I can tell you why they failed - they didn't make the programs entertaining. Say what you will about talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin and Michael Savage, they always keep the ball rolling in keeping the audience amused and entertained. The whole field of talk radio is personality driven - if you don't have someone with a larger than life personality, there isn't a thing in the world to be done to keep people tuned in (Curtis Sadowski, IL, WTFDA via DXLD) Stephanie Miller is certainly entertaining (Jay Novello, ibid.) Personally, I think they failed because they took an overly-simplistic route towards liberal talk: they felt they could simply build an "upside-down" conservative network & liberals would flock to it. It's way too simplistic to simply assume liberals' thought patterns are the exact mirror image of conservatives'. Unfortunately, radio doesn't seem to be able to think in other than the most simplistic terms. I happened to agree with most of the political positions of the hosts, but I couldn't stand to listen to the programming either. It just wasn't good radio (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) There were several causes of the network's decline; the past few years AAR was a shadow of its former self. AAR's original founders IMHO tried to build a wall of liberal talk instead of concentrating on a few quality hosts. Some of the shows I heard between 2005 and 2007 were good, others were stinkers. Al Franken wasn't quite suited for radio, and he really didn't connect the way other talk hosts in and out of AAR did. I've listened to Mike Malloy on and off over the years (I discovered him while DXing AM on WSB in the early 90's), but he could be informative and thought provoking one night, and shrill the next. But management of AAR was part of the problem; they went after celebrity names regardless of what radio talent they had. Jerry Springer--WTF? There were allegations of questionable financial dealings which further hurt the network's reputation. AAR's biggest problem besides spreading themselves too thin to have a 24/7 radio network was coverage. Many affiliate stations were the small coffeepot AM's in a company's cluster or stations that have become "format of the month" stations. Many areas did not have AAR stations during much of the network's run. Little Rock's AAR affiliate was the coffee-potted KDXE 1380 (2006-2007) which is difficult to hear at night even *within* the city limits of Little Rock. The only strong station I can recall that AAR had was AM680 (then WWTQ "Progressive Talk 680") Memphis. I listened to AAR via WWTQ from Feburary 2005 to 2006 when I started subscribing to XM (which also carried a AAR feed, although it had some variations). WWTQ (now sports-talk WMFS-AM) had and still has a good daytime signal, which can be heard even in parts of Central and Southeast Arkansas but its choice of a local afternoon drive host, Leon Gray in 2005-06 wasn't a good fit for the station. Perhaps, there are lessons to be learned from AAR's demise as programming and networking are concerned (Fritze H Prentice Jr, KC5KBV, Star City, AR, EM43aw http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com http://www.twitter.com/KC5KBV ibid.) Air America going dark No political rants from me either. Just sadness at a poorly run network that I repeatedly BEGGED to consult -- not because they were "lib-rull", as I've consulted conservative hosts many times -- but because I thought they were doing a lot of things wrong. Now, they're gone and it's a shame, but it's not surprising. Meanwhile, their chief competitor, Jones Radio Network (now known as Dial Global) is stable and profitable, and I doubt Ed Schultz or Stephanie Miller or Thom Hartmann is gonna have trouble getting on some of those former AAR stations (Donna Halper, ABDX via DXLD) Before the days of Air America, Stephanie Miller had the 7-10 pm slot on KABC in Los Angeles. I used to listen to her on the way home whenever I worked late. She was very funny. At first her political humor seemed to make fun of both sides pretty equally. As time wore on, though, her humor got more and more partisan, eventually to the point I didn't enjoy listening any longer. I suspect she'd draw a much bigger audience if she moved her humor back toward the middle (Jay Heyl, ibid.) Before this spins into a political discussion, my experience is that topical comedians find a niche and go with it. Jon Stewart tends to skewer the right more than the left, although he absolutely will go after the left too. Stephanie Miller goes mainly after the right, because that's her niche. That said, I absolutely have heard her make fun of lefties too (Donna Halper, ibid.) Miller's show on KABC was more a general comedy show. Politics came up only when it broke into the mainstream news. She eventually began focusing on it more and more. I'm not sure if there's a big audience for a radio comedy show that isn't centered entirely on politics, but experience shows she could be good at it (Jay Heyl, ibid.) According to several sources, Air America has ceased operation. I'm not going to make this a political post, but these are comments about Air America itself. It had an amazingly long life for a company with such a checkered history. Many talented people have been associated with the network over the years, but many mistakes have been made. Putting aside the financial aspect, some of the on-air decisions made very little sense. Jerry Springer's morning show wasn't exactly stellar, and their firing and hiring decisions almost always left them worse off. They broke new ground, though, and brought hosts like Rachel Maddow, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes and Thom Hartmann to the national stage. But as managements changed and decisions increasingly led to affiliate erosion, the amazing thing is that they lasted this long. Fortunately, most liberal talk stations no longer get the majority of their programming from Air America. Unfortunately, advertisers may equate the two, thus I suspect an economic backlash against non-AA programming may result. I hope not, because Air America has been a shadow of its former self for a long time, and it's important for all major viewpoints to be represented on the Air. Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Stephanie Miller, and Mike Malloy (and possibly others I've forgotten) are still doing successful programs, and I hope some of the AA staff will find homes with new syndicators. AA made the airwaves more diverse, and that should be its legacy (Rick Lewis, AZ, ibid.) I have to admit that I did not know what Air America was and don't know that I ever listened to it. Perhaps it is because I live in Kansas which is very conservative. And that is reflected on what is carried on radio including local talk radio. Here in Topeka a program on WIBW is strictly one-sided with no interest in hearing the other side. The hosts handpick guests that represent only one viewpoint and belittle anybody who calls with a differing opinion. When I was programming KTWU (TV) I made sure that an opportunity was made to a broad spectrum of opinions and always included third party candidates in political debates and it felt it was the responsibility of KTWU to let viewers hear all the candidates and not narrow it down (censor) for the viewers.? I do believe the loss of the Fairness Doctrine has led to polarization and now listeners only listen to the viewpoints they agree with. Too bad. Since I am retired I have a greater chance to listen to talk radio and really like NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and the BBC's "World Have Your Say" where respect is shown to all callers and there is an opportunity to hear divergent viewpoints (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, Jan 22, WTFDA via DXLD) I think that what WIBW does is common on talk radio anywhere nowadays. A larger market allows a variety of opinions, where a smaller market may limit that. I think that too many people limit their listening to viewpoints that they agree with, and as a result, don't give themselves the opportunity to learn or to stretch or to think --- they just nod in agreement. When it comes to news, I have become jaded and tend to turn on shortwave and listen to news from other countries. I don't know if this is accurate, but my opinion is that news media tends to "go with the flow" politically rather than make waves so that they don't lose their invitations to events, thus giving a scoop to some other news source. In my area, news/talk covers the full spectrum from ultra-liberal to ultra-conservative. I do have the opportunity to pick and choose and sometimes actually do that. I'm grateful for the options, and wish more people would actually strain their brains a bit rather than just look for something they can nod their head to. That's one of the main things that makes us different from chimpanzees! I hope I've said what I wanted to intelligently without taking a political side. I wouldn't want to irk THEM! :) Now we need some skip!!! (Mike Hawkins, CA?, ibid.) When discussing newer networks and the signals they're on, sometimes it makes sense to state the obvious. A new operation like Air America is going to have a hard time getting programming on stations with decent signals, because those stations are usually already successful, in no small part due to those huge signals. There have been pivotal times in the radio biz where new formats were so financially enticing to lure the big guys to change (the dawning of top 40 and the early 80s urban cowboy/country boom), for example. But for the most part, the big guys hold on to what they have. It didn't help that Air America squandered lots of money in lots of ways, made odd hiring decisions, and even put the network's owner on in the evenings instead of major network-caliber talent. Every decision like that drew affiliates away from the network until eventually it wasn't the best place for affiliates to get liberal talk. This isn't politics, it's economics. If many of your offerings don't match those of others who offer the same type of service, failure is inevitable (Rick Lewis, AZ, WTFDA via DXLD) They had WWKB in Buffalo so that's no excuse. I happened to like the Air America programming, incidentally. Unlike NPR at least they admit which side they are on instead of pretending to be neutral. The problem is that the liberal audience to whom Air America was appealing was happy with the programming from NPR, and only the hard- core ideologues were looking for something different. In the case of New York, WLIB took more or less what few listeners Pacifica WBAI had. And WBAI has an audience share below most Ed Band stations although I listen to it myself from time to time -- but I am far from the average listener by any demographic definition. That being said, if there was a market for liberal talk radio, they would have signed up better affiliates. These 5,000 watters and up running Sports Talk, Business Talk or Radio Disney are always looking for something to pull in a bigger audience -- at least enough to cover the electric bills (Rick Shaftan, NJ, ibid.) LIBERAL RADIO, EVEN WITHOUT AIR AMERICA By BRIAN STELTER Published: January 24, 2010 In a week of bad news for liberal causes, the announcement that Air America, the left-wing talk-radio network, was abruptly closing was greeted this way by Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos political blog, when he asked on Twitter, “Air America was still really on the air?” The collapse of Air America on Thursday came across as a symbolic loss for those seeking an ideological counterweight to right-wing talk radio dominated by personalities like Rush Limbaugh. But symbolic it is, little more, given that small pockets of progressive talk are flourishing on the radio dial despite Air America’s misfortunes. The hosts of several progressive talk shows hastened to remind fans last week that although the format’s brand-name network had folded, their shows were still on the air. . . http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/arts/25radio.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) LIBERAL AIR AMERICA GOES OFF THE AIR Listen to the Story Talk of the Nation [17 min 15 sec] January 25, 2010 Air America, billed as the Left's alternative to conservative talk radio, airs its last broadcasts on Monday, after fewer than six years on the air. NPR’s David Folkenflik explains why high-profile hosts like Rachel Maddow and Montel Williams weren't enough to keep the network afloat. . . [transcript] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122951230 (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) 1230, KKEE, OR, Astoria is now Fox Sports Radio, ex Air America. Noted 1/24/10 at 1830 EST. I note that both KPOJ and KPTK seem to be continuing with moderate to liberal talk with Ed Shultz, Thom Hartmann, etc. 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, Jan 25, IRCA via DXLD) Just fyi, we're still hearing voices from "the left" in PHX on 1480. Had the Thom Hartmann show in local morning, am monitoring "progressive" talk pgm at the moment. Haven`t yet been able to tell if these are live shows, or reruns, as the content is sort of generic. But I haven't awoken (yet) to Martini in the Morning or anything like that. 73 and Good Listening to all! (Rick Barton, PhX AZ, Jan 26, ABDX via DXLD) Hi Rick, If I recall correctly, KPHX was running very little Air America programming. Some weekend stuff and Rachel Maddow, and I think that was about it. With the exception of Rachel Maddow, most of the successful Air America hosts had already moved to other syndicators. Ron Reagan Jr., (yes, he's liberal), was added to the Air America roster last year, and if current Internet reports are to be believed, he has decided not to continue his show. (I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere.) – (Rick Lewis, ibid.) ** U S A. Radio Conexión 15-90. Hi friends! On a Perseus recording dated 02 NOV 2009 I got a Spanish speaking station on 1590. They identified as "Conexión 15-90" or "Radio Conexión 15-90". Henrik Klemetz pointed me to the Spanish programing of WARV on Sat/Sun (1800- 2400 local time, 2300-0500 UT) as the posible candidate and yes! It was confirmed past weekend. "Conexión 15-90" it is the name of the Spanish block on WARV. So do not confuse it with some LA/MEX station! I am attaching a recording from their web stream of some IDs. (Mauricio Molano, Salamanca, Spain, Perseus placed at Alde del Cano, Cáceres, Spain, mwcircle yg via DXLD) Yeah, who wants to hear Warwick, Rhode Island? NRC AM Log show it as 5/5 kW, with religious format (in English) (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. YPR: COMMENTS: How come the Chamber Music Lincoln Center program today [1800 UT] January 25 was the one on your schedule for April 26??? http://www.yellowstonepublicradio.org/programs/listings/chamber_society.php ``Prokofiev: Sonata in D Major for Flute and Piano, Op. 94 (1943) (Ransom Wilson, flute; Frederic Chiu, piano) Mendelssohn: Quartet in F Minor for Strings, Op. 80 (1847) (Orion String Quartet)`` Last week`s did not match the listing either (gh comment to Yellowstone Public Radio/KEMC, via DXLD) No reply ** URUGUAY. 6045 USB, R Sarandi, Montevideo, heard at 0210, Jan 10, pop songs, mainly Spanish, but including Bruce Springsteen “Glory Days” and Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling”; time checks and occasional canned IDs, weak. QSL in 24 hours from Fernando Gopar saying the station was using 250 watts at the time (thanks to DX- Window and Horacio Nigro for the info). Heard twice subsequently on 6045, no sign of Zimbabwe here recently (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, DSWCI DX Window Jan 20 via DXLD) ** VATICAN STATE. 4004.253, Vatican Radio, 1959, noted in passing with interval signal, into talk by a man. Fair. Jan. 22 (David Sharp, NSW, ICF-2010, FT-950, NRD-535D, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. RCTV INTERNACIONAL NO PASÓ EXAMEN DE CONATEL http://www.rctv.net/ 09:22 AM Caracas.- El canal RCTV Internacional fue considerado como Servicio de Producción Audiovisual Nacional por Conatel, de acuerdo a un aviso publicado en un periódico nacional el día de hoy. De acuerdo al comunicado, estos "servicios deberán dar cumplimiento inmediato a las disposiciones contenidas en la Ley de Responsabilidad Social en Radio y Televisión y las normas técnicas que la desarrollan". Esto se traduce en la incorporación a la programación de mensajes institucionales de carácter oficial, cadenas, horarios protegidos y cuota de producción de nacional, entre otros. La lista publicada por Conatel incluye en la misma categoría otros 23 medios de todo el país. Quedó sin embargo por fuera el canal Telesur, el cual fue considerado como Servicio de Producción Audiovisual No Nacional. Roberto Rodríguez M., EL Universal, http://bit.ly/6PEWEk (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, Jan 21, DXLD) sábado 23 de enero de 2010 VENEZUELA / ULTIMA HORA: RCTV SALIÓ DEFINITIVAMENTE DE LAS PANTALLAS VENEZOLANAS A las doce de la noche de este sábado, las compañías de cable sacaron de su grilla de programación al canal Radio Caracas Televisión Internacional, luego de que el director de la Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Conatel) Diosdado Cabello, advirtiera a las cable operadoras que de no sacar de su programación a los canales que no cumplan con la Ley de Responsabilidad Social en Radio y Televisión, se les aplicaría un procedimiento administrativo. Conatel anunció la semana anterior que RCTV Internacional pasaba a ser calificado como Productor Nacional Audiovisual, lo cual obliga a la planta televisora a dar cumplimento a la Ley de Responsabilidad Social en Radio y Televisión.Además, exhortó a las compañías de televisión por cable a retirar de su parrilla de programación a RCTV si no cumplía con disposiciones como adherirse a las cadenas de radio y televisión Fuente: Globovision, Caracas, Venezuela. http://www.globovision.com/news.php?nid=138913 Mas información en nuestro blog: http://diexismovenezolano.blogspot.com (Santiago San Gil, DXLD) RADIO CARACAS TV SALIÓ DEL AIRE POR VIOLAR LEY RESORTE Las cables operadoras suspendieron temporalmente ayer domingo en horas de la noche, cuatro canales de producción nacional por no cumplir con la Ley de Responsabilidad Social en Radio y Televisión vigente. Fuente: http://www.entornointeligente.com/resumen/resumen.php?items=1006676 (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, Jan 25, DXLD) VENEZUELA: FRANCIA ESPERA QUE VENEZUELA DÉ MARCHA ATRÁS EN SUSPENSIÓN DE RADIO CARACAS TELEVISIÓN INTERNACIONAL A su vez, el secretario de la OEA, José Miguel Insulza, lamentó la suspensión y se ofreció personalmente a colaborar para un entendimiento entre las partes. El pluralismo informativo constituye uno de los elementos constitutivos de la libertad de prensa, que es esencial en el buen funcionamiento de un régimen democrático", aseguró señaló hoy un portavoz del Ministerio de Exteriores de Francia. Asimismo, Francia ha emplazado al Gobierno del presidente venezolano, Hugo Chávez, a que ajuste sus compromisos internacionales en el ámbito de las libertades fundamentales y de los derechos del hombre, agregó la misma fuente. José Miguel Insulza, a su vez, reiteró la disposición de esta institución y la suya personal a "colaborar al diálogo y el entendimiento de las partes". Con ese fin, consideró que "sería de gran ayuda" que, de acuerdo con la Carta de la OEA y de conformidad con la Convención Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, el Gobierno venezolano permitiera la visita a este país de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos y de la relatora especial para la Libertad de Expresión. RCTVI, que desde hace más de tres años emitía por cable, es una de las 24 emisoras por suscripción que el Gobierno venezolano clasificó el pasado jueves como "nacionales". Este estatus obliga al canal de televisión a ajustar su programación a las normas legales venezolanas que se aplican a las cadenas con señal abierta, incluida la transmisión de las cadenas nacionales obligatorias, en su mayoría alocuciones del presidente Hugo Chávez. EFE http://www.eltiempo.com/mundo/latinoamerica/cierre-de-rctvi_7033268-1 (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) 01:00 PM Caracas.- La organización Somos Radio emitió hoy un comunicado en el que rechaza el cierre de algunas televisoras por cable por parte de la Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Conatel). Señalan que se trata de un golpe a la libertad de expresión pero también los trabajadores venezolanos que laboraban en estas compañías así como los usuarios que tendrán menos opciones de las que escoger. Mencionan que las leyes en el país funcionan condicionadas a posturas ideológicas y políticas lo que resta legitimidad al cumplimiento de las normativas legales en el país, en el caso de las televisoras, de la Ley de Responsabilidad en Radio y Televisión. Reafirmaron que en nada contribuye a la solución de los problemas estructurales del país que desde el gobierno se trabaje por el cierre de más medios de comunicación. Somos Radio plantea en el comunicado seguir en la lucha por la defensa de la libertad de expresión en el país, y por el respaldo a los trabajadores de medios de comunicación afectados por el cierre de diversos medios radioeléctricos. Fuente: http://www.eluniversal.com/2010/01/25/pol_ava_somos-radio-rechaza_25A3337051.shtml (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) RECHAZA VENEZUELA INTROMISIÓN DE FRANCIA EN CASO DE CANALES DE TV El presidente venezolano Hugo Chávez rechazó el día 26 la intromisión del gobierno de Francia, que criticó la suspensión de cuatro canales de televisión transmitidos por el sistema de cable en el país, al señalar que se trata de un asunto de política interna. "Firmé a mi canciller (Nicolás Maduro) una nota de protesta al gobierno francés. Es extraño que con su experiencia diplomática suceda esto", dijo el mandatario venezolano durante un acto celebrado en el palacio Miraflores. El gobierno venezolano determinó que los canales American Network, America TV, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) y TV Chile incumplieron la ley de Responsabilidad Social en Radio y Televisión por no difundir los mensajes del gobierno local, tras lo cual ordenó el domingo pasado las operadoras de cable sacarlas de su programación. El secretario general de la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA) y los gobiernos de Chile, Francia y Estados Unidos se pronunciaron sobre la medida que afecta a Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), opositora al gobierno bolivariano, cuya concesión para transmitir por señal abierta no fue renovada por el gobierno en mayo de 2007. Francia solicitó a las autoridades venezolanas dar marcha atrás a la decisión, que afectó también las transmisiones en Venezuela de TV Chile, e hizo un llamado para alentar el pluralismo informativo. (Xinhua) 27/01/2010 Fuente: http://spanish.peopledaily.com.cn/31617/6879686.html (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) Notice the ChiCom source of this last story; what do they care about freedom of the press? (gh, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [and non]. VENEZUELA Y RCTV: ¿CÓMO ES EN OTROS PAÍSES? Redacción, BBC Mundo Marcha en Caracas contra la suspensión de RCTVI --- Miles de personas se manifestaron contra la suspensión de RCTVI en Venezuela. La cadena de televisión venezolana Radio Caracas Televisión Internacional (RCTVI) fue sacada del aire el pasado sábado por no transmitir un acontecimiento declarado de interés público, cuya difusión era obligatoria para los canales nacionales. ¿Cómo es la situación en otros países? ¿Pueden los gobiernos obligar a los medios de comunicación a transmitir determinados contenidos? En la mayoría de países existen leyes u obligaciones similares que regulan el acceso del gobierno a espacios de emisión en los medios de comunicación. Sin embargo, la consideración de "acontecimiento de interés público" y la frecuencia con que se aplica esta interpretación varían. Algunos observadores consideran que las "cadenas nacionales" deberían ser un servicio público para informar a la ciudadanía en momentos de emergencia. En este sentido, consideran, cuando su uso se convierte en algo casi cotidiano, se corre el riesgo de que pierdan efectividad. clic¿ Usted qué opina? ¡Participe en el debate! A propósito de la polémica en torno a RCTVI en Venezuela, BBC Mundo les propone un recorrido a través de la normativa que rige en diversos países y su aplicación. . . Fuente: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/america_latina/2010/01/100126_1142_rctv_medios_venezuela_otros_paises_pea.shtml NOTA: Les faltó Ecuador, y Perú, como han visto en las ultimas noticias (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, Jan 27, DXLD) "EL PRIMER CIERRE FUE LOCURA, EL SEGUNDO ES DICTADURA" Joaquim Ibarz, Diario de América Latina En medios de crecientes marchas de protesta de los estudiantiles venezolanos, que ya han ocasionado la muerte de dos jóvenes en Mérida, renunció el vicepresidente Ramón Carrizález (uno de los dirigentes más cercanos al presidente Hugo Chávez) y su esposa, ministra del Ambiente. El cierre del Canal Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), que logró una gran audiencia nacional pese a verse obligado a emitir por suscripción de cable, ha provocado una amplia repulsa a nivel nacional e internacional. . . (seguir) http://www.lavanguardia.es/lv24h/20100126/53877706925.html (via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [non]. 11705, RNV via CUBA transmitter is in terrible shape, only the worst for the Bolivarian allies! Jan 21 at 1249 big S9+22 signal but very undermodulated, in fact hard to hear beneath continuous scratchy audio breakup which was also splattering plus and minus 15 kHz. RNV ID heard and then sports(?) report. If RNV ever monitored their own broadcasts, which they obviously do not since they don`t know the real times and frequencies, they might hurry up and get their own Calabozo SW site going --- but then the Cubans are assisting them with that, so it may turn out just as incompetent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM. Voice of Vietnam announced in the Letterbox programme that they have ceased using 1242 due to lack of feedback from listeners (Edwin Southwell, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) Per WRTH, several language broadcasts were on this frequency only, including English at 11, 15 and 1630 to SE Asia; others had SW too (gh, DXLD) ** YEMEN. 9780, Republic of Yemen R (presumed), Sana with vocal music from someone who sounded a lot like Whitney Houston and at :55 into Arabic music. :57 had an OM talking in English but never heard anything resembling an ID so this is just presumed. Into Arabic at ToH, SIO 33+2+ 1847-1902 16/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, TANZANIA-ZANZIBAR, No sign of RTZ today around 1800 Jan 23 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, Eton E- 1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, listening portable from my car, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. CLANDESTINE, 4895. Zimbabwe Community R, Meyerton, AFS, 1816-1829, 24 Jan '10, Vernacular to Zimbabwe, talks; 35332, but deteriorating fast (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Chihuahua on 830? Greetings Guys, In the last few weeks I've spent a lot of time on 830 where there's occasionally been some fairly big XE pile-ups. After listening there for more than 3 or 4 hours total time, I swear I'm hearing a weak station in the pileup that mentions CH frequently. I've not been able to dig out an ID on it yet. I'm wondering if any of you can hear this sta or perhaps know of a CH station operating on that channel? In the last few months I've caught IDs for XELK, XELN, XEITE, XEVQ, and just tonight was XEIK. Any help on this mystery station would sure be appreciated. Thanks and 73! (Kirk Allen, Pasadena, TX, Jan 26, IRCA via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Unid presumed clandestine, 4330, 0000 1/21. Logged via DX Tuner in Sweden, signs on at midnight UT with 5 + 1 time pips, interval signal of chirping birds, cooing doves and cuckooclock, ID in unknown language by OM and YL, sounds like sinjan radio stanj yasla, ID in another language by OM and YL, into talk in Arabic. Link to 11 minute audio file below. Best in lower sideband due to CW QRM http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mdj5tmznt4g (Edward Rausch, NJ, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) China, Xinjiang PBS in Kazakh. 73, (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) i.e. EAST TURKISTAN; not clandestine unless you wish to consider any operation transmitted from occupied TURKISTAN as cland (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 5900, Jan 23 at 1343 with big hum and no intelligible modulation. B-09 registrations show Tashkent, UZBEKISTAN site during this semihour with Vatican relay, but 5900 keeps switching sites with relays of various stations: 0930 Irkutsk, 1200 Pet/Kam, 1300 Novosibirsk, 1330 Tashkent, 1400 Samara. This might have been the latter warming up before 1400 start of VOR Urdu (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6104.75, 21/1 0130, UnID in Portuguese, long talks, not Cancao Nova (I listened to their streaming). Is Filadelfia active? Poor (Giampiero Bernardini, Ascolti milanesi, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I assume you know XEQM is very close to 6104.75, maybe 6104.8 variable. So you are positive it was not Spanish (or Maya, hi)? 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Thanks a lot, Glenn, if it was Spanish it was a very fast & with a close pronounce; but the signal was so weak that it is possible. This evening I got the station here in Italy for about 20 minutes but it was really weak, it could be in Spanish (or in Maya hi), but only some music came out a little clear for few time. I could just measure the frequency: 6104.759 kHz. Have nice DXing (Giampiero, Jan 26, ibid.) : 6104.759v, 27/1 0145, Unid again, long talks, frequency slowly drifting up and down. Very weak, no positive talks could be heard, only some music. Glenn Hauser suggests it is XEQM from Mexico that is reported around 6104.8 (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, RX: SDR- IQ; AOR AR7030; Yaesu FRG-7 --- ANT: T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) E di nuovo la unid su 6104.759 (stavolta l'ho misurata). Glenn Hauser suggerisce il Messico, stasera però più che musica non ho ascoltato. L'altra volta mi pareva brasiliana, ma considerato il segnalino... Certo se era spagnolo era molto veloce e pronunciato in modo un po' ostico... Bah speriamo che la propagazione migliori (Giampiero Bernardini, Jan 27, playdx yg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 9394, 2-way Spanish SSB, Jan 21 at 1335, with splatter from Brother Scare/WWRB 9385. Usual dreary conversation about who knows what (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 15140, open carrier Jan 22 at 1510 atop weak Arabic; the latter no doubt Oman, and the carrier helped to audiblize it, muscling aside much stronger WYFR Spanish from 15130, but not completely. The carrier had some fading, so maybe from further than Greenville, but whence? Nothing likely scheduled now or later on 15140 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 15725, Now, 0928 UT on 15725 kHz from 0910, an unidentified transmission of a stretch that is repeated instrumental music. Does anyone have "information"? The transmission is still in the air, 0947 UT, 73 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, Jan 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I can receive "VT Music" from 0700UT on 15725kHz. It is T8WH of Palau. I received it to *0705-1000* yesterday (Jan.23). (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, ibid.) Eventualmente: KHBN 15725 0500-1600 41,49,50,54 100kW 270degrees Vietnamese, English wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Thanks Wolfgang and Hasegawa. The 1000 UT ended the broadcast with talk of OM in English. I think I understand the "ministry ..." The signal was very weak. KHBN is a shortwave station broadcasting from Palau? It is not in the lists. 73 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana BA BRASIL, ibid.) Glenn. Escutei hoje a partir das 0911 UT em 15725 kHz uma emissora que repetia um trecho de música instrumental e essa transmissão foi até as 1000 UT quando OM falou algo em inglês, talvez a ID, mas não entendi. Dois colega na DXLD informaram como sendo T8WH e a KHBN, qual das duas e de onde transmitem? Fiz uma gravação da escuta, desculpe a gravação ruim pois o sinal estava fraco. No final da gravação ouve-se o OM em inglês, ou pelo menos parte do que ele diz. Gostaria da ajuda do colega na identificação. Gravação em http://www.ipernity.com/doc/75006/7161493/ 15725, 24/Jan 0911 UNID. Repetindo um trecho de música instrumental, como se fosse um sinal ID. Sinal fraco e com moderada falha de propagação. Segundo informação de colegas é a KHBN 15725 0500-1600 41,49,50,54 100kW 270 degrees Vietnamese, English (Wolfgang Bueschel)ou T8WH of Palau das 0705-1000 UT (S .Hasegawa). As 1000 UT OM fala o que provavelmente foi a ID, mas não entendi. Gravado em meu blog. (Jorge Freitas-B) 73 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia Brasil, ibid.) Jorge, The music on your clip is ``VTC fill music`` which we have heard from many different transmitter sites, e.g. South Africa, when VTC control in London has lost a program feed or is testing. They used to run their own IDs every minute, but I did not hear those, just the music. The talk at the end of your clip sounds like English, perhaps Australian if another new relay of R. Australia is getting underway, but it could be something else. KHBN and T8WH are the SAME station on Palau. It was originally KHBN under US FCC jurisdiction and is still referred to that way by FCC and HFCC, but its proper calls are now T8WH. I looked at the program schedule for Angel 4 at http://www.whr.org/Program-Schedules.cfm#TRANSMITTER_SEARCH and it still shows WHR programs on 15680 during this time period, probably not updated to show the new transmission (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) MORE: See PALAU UNIDENTIFIED. 15800/am, with Abba songs, like “SOS”, “Super Trouper”, “Take a Chance On Me”, etc. and no announcements or IDs. Test or Pirate? Did you know that “SOS” By Abba is the only chart hit where both the artist name and song title are palindromes? In well 1343- 1402* when carrier dropped with no announcements of any kind. 17/Jan (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE DXpedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) 15800, 1344-1403* Abba songs, one repeated twice, dead air between songs like a test broadcast, off without ID. Found while bandscanning. 1-17 (Larry Russell, ibid.) Also reported by Frodge at exactly same time in 10-03. Almost an hour later on Jan 6, I had open carrier here, as in 10-01 (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. UNKNOWNISTAN: 21745, 1739, 23-Jan; French discussion. SIO=1+32, low whine & fady; seems to center about 21745.03. No candidates in EiBi or Aoki (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW + 86 ft. coil dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WYFR is in WRTH, Aoki and EiBi at 1600- 1745, but both show Russian on 21745; if French, should have been // your other log under NIGERIA with WYFR QRM from 15115 (gh, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks to Thomas Morgan for a contribution via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com THE TINY TRAP +++++++++++++ Brian Williams, NBC ``Nightly`` News, afternoon of Jan 26 at 2339 UT, when I still saw plenty of daylight out my window, referred to Haiti as ``that tiny country`` --- and he has been there! The lie that will not die. How do we get influential speakers to engage brain? (gh) LANGUAGE LESSONS See POLAND [non] ++++++++++++++++ MUSEA +++++ 1964/65 INTERVAL SIGNAL MONTAGE/QSL'S From Roger G3XBM's Amateur Radio blog, http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2010/01/shortwave-in-1960s-interval-signals.html Yesterday I found this wonderful link which is a montage of 40 different old shortwave interval signals from almost 50 years ago. Get a coffee, sit back and listen. Imagine you are listening on your one valve radio in your bedroom in 1964. It brings back such happy memories that I am almost tearful with nostalgia. http://garlinger.com/QSL/montage.mp3 A couple of the later ones are more recent. I found Doug Garlinger's webpage where the link is included, has many QSL cards he received as well as links to other interval signals if you click on the cards: QSL Collection 1964-1965 of Doug Garlinger Age 13 (while normal kids collected baseball cards, I collected QSL cards) http://www.garlinger.com/QSL/qsl.html (Mike Barraclough, Jan 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Garlinger went on to become chief engineer, or the like, of World Harvest Radio, accounting for his extensive collexion of mint WHR QSLs (gh, DXLD) THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF PUBLIC BROADCASTING Smithsonian.com By Marina Koestler Ruben, January 26, 2010 On January 13, 1910, tenor Enrico Caruso prepared to perform an entirely new activity: sing opera over the airwaves, broadcasting his voice from the Metropolitan Opera House to locations throughout New York City. Inventor Lee deForest had suspended microphones above the Opera House stage and in the wings and set up a transmitter and antenna. A flip of a switch magically sent forth sound. The evening would usher out an old era-one of dot-dash telegraphs, of evening newspapers, of silent films, and of soap box corner announcements. In its place, radio communications would provide instant, long-distance wireless communication. In 2009, America celebrated the 40th anniversary of the creation of National Public Radio; thanks to deForest, 2010 marks the centennial of the true birth of the era of public broadcasting. . . http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Radio-Activity-The-100th-Anniversary-of-Public-Broadcasting.html More of this excellent article at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Radio-Activity-The-100th-Anniversary-of-Public-Broadcasting.html?c=y&page=2 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV See MEXICO ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC See MEXICO; USA KEDM +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See BELGIUM; CZECHIA; EAST TURKISTAN; ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INDIA; RUSSIA POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ NEW TYPE OF BPL? Here is an article on an allegedly new type of frequency-hopping Broadband over Power Line (BPL) system, for lack of a better term. The technical information is skeletal, and the question remains as to whether the company can really push data across power transformers (since the iron core in a transformer ordinarily eats up the data signal): http://tinyurl.com/NewBPL (San Diego Union Tribune via CGC Communicator Jan 25 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ SDR RADIO ON-LINE FYI, I have placed my SDR-IQ on-line , it can be accessed and listened to via the Internet when using the SDR-Radio console, that can be downloaded from http://www.sdr-radio.com/Downloads/Jan5th2009TechPreview1c/tabid/211/Default.aspx To listen to radios on-line (as opposed to one's own SDR) simply click on INPUT SOURCE, then REMOTE VIA NETWORK, then BROWSE WEB. A list of radios you can listen to will then be shown. My radio is listed under "K3UK". It is connected to a 270 foot loop antenna in a residential area of western New York. Reception capability is 0-30 MHz, SSB, CW, and AM. ECSS tuning is not yet present. Medium Wave reception (or lower) is subject to local noise. The SDR-radio software is a "technology preview", still being developed but stable enough for general listening. Some of the noise reduction buttons are not yet programmed to be usable. If I am actually using the radio lcoally, the console will not activate (Andy K3UK O`Brien, NY, Jan 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) JUST GOT A NEW/OLD SW RADIO, BRAUN T1000 I just bought a new in the box never used Braun T1000 SW radio. How did I get it? Well, I found a guy when I was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago who used to own a Braun shop in the 60s and 70s. When he closed in 1982, he still have a number of Braun products that he never sold and just kept them. One was a Braun T1000 that had never been opened. How many of you remember this receiver? Did it ever sell in the US? I got it for nothing, 3000HK$ (around 360USD). At the same time I asked him to show me what else he had. I beautiful Braun Cockpit 260 turntable/receiver with shortwave which I also ended buying. Also new in box, never opened (Keith Perron, Taiwan, Jan 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) OK, but what is so special about a T1000 that it is worth $360 today? (gh DXLD) Keith Dude: Here is a link to a photo of this receiver: http://members.tripod.com/cheryldrake_1/id5.html Enjoy! 73's, (Noble West, TN, ibid.) Keith, I was the happy owner of one of these receivers in the late 60's. You may not believe me but what I am going to tell you is absolutely true. Someone told the Cuban ambassador to Stockholm that there was a Spanish-speaking Swedish guy in the town of Uppsala who knew how to tune in to Radio Havana Cuba on shortwave, and so he phoned me late one night asking me please tune in to Havana as Fidel was into one of his regular long-winding speeches. I put the tube next to the receiver while going about my own business, thus leaving all the talking to Fidel. The ambassador was enchanted. Not wanting late-night phone-ins turn into a habit, I suggested he purchase a Braun receiver directly from Germany. My friend Jan-Erik Räf, who used to edit Sweden Calling DX-ers when Radio Sweden DX-Editor Arne Skoog was vacationing, still uses a Braun T1000. I sold mine many years ago, but from the late 60's I have kept two UHER portable reel-to-reel recorders. These German-made gadgets are still in good shape (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, ibid.) MEDIUMWAVE COUNTRY LIST? You're talking to the guy who volunteered too long ago with the NRC to create a revised country list and hasn't done it yet after at least 5 years! It's actually fairly complicated, with various traditions of country-counting: (1) Hams seem to count anything that has a spot of water in between as two countries, (2) NASWA has the approach of "once a country, always a country" - so there are three post-war countries in Germany instead of one post-Wall country today - this acknowledges that people don't like giving up countries even though they no longer exist. (3) NRC has an old modified list, with some water separation, e.g. France and Corsica are two countries, Hawaii and Alaska are separate countries, but not nearly as many as the ham lists I've seen. The thing that had me stumped was the Dutch islands in the Caribbean, which have various degrees of autonomy from the Netherlands and with each other with rolling dates for activating the changes. On top of that, DXers are as independent-minded about counting countries as we are about counting domestic stations, e.g. call changes, facility changes, COL changes, etc., so as many as would use an official list an equal number would go their own way! Having said all that, I'm still willing to work on something like this. Maybe some others are interested, too (Jim Renfrew, NY, Jan 21, IRCA via DXLD) Jim, the IRCA has a country list. It was published in last year's DXM and I think it's published every year. I'm sure it's on the website. I just don't hear much foreign DX so I'm not a big country counter. (Martin Foltz, Mission Viejo CA, ibid.) END OF FREE TV New article on the web about the possible end of OTA TV. [off the air] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091229/ap_on_en_tv/us_free_broadcasters_in_peril Let`s try that again: http://www.dailysentinel.com/hp/content/shared-gen/ap/National/US_Free_Broadcasters_in_Peril.html For some reason the link will not work but the article explains the loss of advertising revenue to the cable and satellite companies that is causing problems for the OTA stations across the country. The link below works now http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_free_broadcasters_in_peril (Glenn Boche, South St Paul, MN, W(zero)LUS - EN34, 29 Dec 2009, WTFDA via DXLD) Try putting quotes around it. I really think that this was a preposterous move by the wireless folks that doesn't have a leg to stand on. However, it doesn't mean they won't try, and there are rumors that they are also eyeing the 960 MHz to 1.7 GHz spectrum as well. BTW, just an interesting side note, has anyone seen any RF light up in their area in the 700-800 MHz band? We just had someone come on with an internet service on channels 53 and 55, but otherwise no other stray RF on the bands (Fred/W8HDU Vobbe, Lima OH, ibid.) I used tinyurl.com to shorten the link. Some email programs truncate links over 60 characters. http://tinyurl.com/ydqvm85 I saw a similar story today, which likens free OTA possible departure to VHS tapes: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34619571/ns/business-media_biz/ 73, (Dave in Indy Hascall, ibid.) Whether the much-cited number of OTA homes of 10% is accurate or even understated by 50%, OTA TV in the US will go away. The question is when. I anticipate it will go gradually, with another compaction and frequency auction reducing the spectrum, maybe from the top end, maybe from VHF. Those of us who have not been willing to pay the exorbitant fees for cable to pay for a whole raft of channels and watch maybe 20% of them will have to pony up of go for somewhat-cheaper satellite TV. OTA TV will remain in other countries long enough to keep a good number of us DX'ing for years. And of course AM radio is also on the endangered list, but that spectrum isn't as desirable. I also look for the government to also reduce amateur frequency allocations here before long due to continued declining use (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, 40:08:45N; 75:16:04W, Grid FN20id, ibid.) Maybe some day, congress will get the pay-for-only-the-cable-channels- you-want law passed or figured out. Losing ham radio frequencies; I wish the solar cycle would come back to life. Maybe the ARRL will come up with a "Use it or lose it" contest (Craig, Denver CO. N0BSA, ibid.) I don't think that's the issue. The issue is that like all of the other radio hobbies and a number of other older hobbies, those who actively participate are aging and dying and not being replaced by younger people, and the trends have been going on for decades. To generations raised on computers, email, messaging, texting, the internet, WiFi, iPods, cell phones, and the like, these types of hobbies are not attractive. Ultimately, sections of spectrum used by hams will shrink and at some point ham radio will die out because broadcast radio in general will die out. Even today there are many people under the age of 30 who also don't listen to FM radio at all. Another part of the trend (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, ibid.) The ongoing low solar cycle isn`t helping matters with ham radio activity. I hate to think of pay TV being the only way to watch news and maybe a few other shows per week. We are becoming a subscriber society, which is a hassle to say the least. Having to subscribe to everything (Craig, N0BSA, Denver, ibid.) [Re Vobbe`s question above:] I was at Radio Shack yesterday and they were selling FloTV receivers. These things operate in channels 55 and 56 (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Dec 30, ibid.) Yep! We've had one of those operating here since well before the 6/12/09 transition day. (I was going to post this yesterday, but couldn't remember the name of the service!! Old age bites!!) (Rick Lucas, Rochester, NY, Dec 30, ibid.) Why subscribe to anything? I think that of the 10-20%, sure there are some seniors or others that can't afford anything but OTA but there are some who have made not going with pay TV as a personal choice. Those are the folks that would have high speed internet before OTA TV. There is Hulu and a host of others to get programming. I worked with a lady who was forced to move to Indy from Cleveland due to downsizing. She knew at some point that a job would come available in Cleveland. She didn't even bring a TV with her. Between her hi-speed internet, laptop, PSP and a portable DVD player, she had all that she wanted to watch and either used the networks websites or Hulu to watch her programs. She lived here for a year and said that she thought that not having a TV would be bad but it wasn't (Dave Hascall, Indy, ibid.) Hulu is only good for non-current, commercial entertainment programs. I didn't see anything I cared about there. Those who want to watch live sports events have other internet options; however these are also subscription and not cheap. There are also (again subscription) options for public TV programs. I could afford cable, but I've made a conscious decision that the value isn't up to the cost, and I know there are others who feel the same way. When OTA goes away, that'll be a bridge I'll have to cross one way or another (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) Having to subscribe to and pay for PBS or public type shows is going to be interesting since those are partially tax payer funded. Here locally we have two PBS stations, and I usually watch those more than regular network stations other than the local news (Craig, Denver, ibid.) I am sure their 10% numbers are understated. You know, it's like when survey companies state numbers for things like Arbitron radio ratings. You're like "uh, in 20 years I've never been selected for anything like this, so how do you know your numbers are *really* accurate?!" (Although on a national scale, I think such surveys are good with large numbers to choose from). But anyone who has anything to gain from any situation likely will not state the correct numbers, because if they do, it may impact them in some financial way. Almost everyone I know in my town uses OTA, although many of them ALSO have cable. But the simple fact is --- the cable company that offers service in the southern parts of my city (the remainder of the town and anywhere north of our town has never had any cable service, us included) --- well, they don't offer most of the channels I currently watch OTA or that my parents watch, and many of those channels have programs outside of prime-time that I enjoy watching that are syndicated and aren't on the networks the cable company provides (if our area even offered that cable service). Being in a town that is smack dab between a whopping 7 markets (a few of them considered major markets), the channels we DID get OTA well, we don't get them anymore anyway. With digital, we lost 22-25 of our regular OTA stations (well, summertime anyway; winter has never been so hot for reception), left with about 3 now due to living in an area of rolling hills, which UHF doesn't appreciate. Still no FOX while CBS and NBC are spotty at best --- unwatchable to a degree. So with that said, for some of us, if they took away OTA, what's the difference? Digital in many rural/hilly areas is doing so poorly, it's almost like a stepping stone to ditching the whole free TV system anyway. Works to their benefit and ours, because if you already lost half or more of your channels you were used to, is the other half really a big deal? You'd think though --- no more OTA means more cable subscribers and more incoming money for the cable companies. Maybe they'd be able to lower the prices for that fact. But --- yeah, not likely. In Korea, I download TV shows via torrents now and then and catch up a few episodes in a few hours. I think more people would do this in the event of no OTA TV. It's technically illegal (despite the fact these shows are shown on *free* OTA TV), and dropping OTA will just encourage such illegal activities. I need food and gas for my car. I wouldn't be willing to pay for cable. Would you?!! (Chris Kadlec, Fremont, Mich., Icheon, Korea, http://www.beaglebass.com/dx ibid.) The newspaper articles in recent days have been somewhat misleading, I think. What's being discussed in Washington - and it's a long way from reality - isn't the complete end of broadcast TV, at least not any time soon. It's a process that would allow individual stations the discretion to leave the broadcast airwaves and to sell their spectrum to broadband or wireless providers. There's also discussion of providing some sort of "lifeline" OTA service in which multiple broadcasters would share a single channel, each one programming a single standard-def service on that channel. While I speak only for myself and not for the public broadcaster that's one of my employers, I know that my station (and most of the others out there) take the idea of full-community service very seriously, and I'm pretty sure that at least for now, there'd be little or no interest in selling off the OTA TV bandwidth we use. But public broadcasters are businesses, too, and if the proportion of OTA viewership keeps declining and the cost of providing that service keeps increasing, perhaps there will come a point when it no longer makes sound fiscal sense to provide OTA service for just a tiny fraction of the total audience. That point will certainly come quicker for commercial broadcasters than for noncommercial broadcasters, and it will come quicker in places like Palm Springs or Binghamton, where cable penetration is already nearly universal, than in a place like Houston where OTA usage is still more prevalent (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) It's also clouded by; a) the networks wanting to ditch affiliates and deal direct with satellite and cable, and b) the wireless folks pushing for additional spectrum, and TV was mentioned as to one place that could "afford" to give it up. (hi hi). I think when all these factors coming together, and writers not really understanding issues from issue, the message passed is normally one of doom and gloom. BTW, Scott, on the January DXAS, I question the business model for IBOC-2 IBOC, in respect to a caller asking the question about an AM station being put on the IBOC-2 channel of an FM. I'm still trying to put my hands around the concept that stations are actually making decent revenues with this, giving listener numbers decreasing, and the fact that the listener now has to have an IBOC receiver. I mean, you take a town such as Toledo OH, and then take a station like WRQN, and if they had something running on the IBOC-2 channel from an AM station, how many people are listening? And how does that equate to ears p/ dollar in ad revenues? Sometimes I don't wonder if in our quest to be high tech, we're going down roads which are unpaved, no other houses on them, and there is a dead end at the end. However, the guy that sold us the car and the map to get us there made the profit. :) (Fred Vobbe, Lima OH, http://www.hf-antenna.com ibid.) A few other thoughts along these lines... -- Right now, a station's must-carry protection is tied to their OTA signal. Stations that are protected by must-carry (as opposed to retransmission consent) are unlikely to be willing to voluntarily surrender their OTA signal unless some mechanism is in place to ensure continued carriage. -- EXCEPT... that some third-tier stations (I'm thinking home-shopping outlets and ethnic stations other than those affiliated with the three major Hispanic networks) may find the offers from broadband operations to exceed the value of continuing as TV stations. I can see some of these operations disappearing. -- Even in a Palm Springs, and even with a KMIR or KESQ which may be on through retransmission consent rather than must-carry, are they going to be willing to surrender the must-carry "safety net"? (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) This issue came up with a client of mine, and it's been a sore spot with me for some time. I often wonder if we shouldn't be counting points instead of shares. For example, if I own a station that had a 6.0 share in 1999 and that equals 125,000 people, and now I have a 15.5 share which equals 1,250 people, at which point was I more successful? I hear a lot of bragging about the share points, but in a lot of cases I don't see the bodies to support that number being impressive (Fred Vobbe, OH, ibid.) Philadelphia may be an unusual case, but here what's happening is that the AM's being put on FM digital subchannels are all co-owned, so the FM doesn't have to be separately programmed, it can take the AM programming free, and utilize the subchannels which might otherwise have nothing on them. If you're faced with a choice between putting one of your AM's signals on your FM-2 or -3 or picking up programming from elsewhere which is largely similar to a competitor's primary programming, it's not much of a choice. The AM's in question have better coverage in most areas than the digital FM subchannel does, so that isn't an issue (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) Understood, but I have to question, who is listening? Is there really that many IBOC receivers around that Joe Average Listener is seeking out WIP on a IBOC-2 channel. And if there are the radio receivers out there, they must be doing this gratis. I can't see how you could justify charging any amount of money for ads on a -2 station given many factors. I hate to put it this way, but I'm trying to see how one could legitimately have a business model for the expense of doing this, let alone try to sell it as a separate service. It seems more like the old 50/60's where AMs had FM counterparts just to have a signal on the air (Fred Vobbe, OH, ibid.) While that's certainly valid, the question was the number of households relying on OTA only. Which, as Chris noted, doesn't cover those with multiple sets only one of which is on cable or satellite. (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ GEOMAGNETIC INDICES - GEOI Phil Bytheway - Seattle WA - phil_tekno@yahoo.com Geomagnetic Summary December 1 2009 through December 31 2009 Tabulated from daily email status Date Flux A K Space Wx 12/ 1 72 0 0 no storms 2 71 0 0 no storms 3 72 0 0 no storms 4 72 0 0 no storms 5 72 4 1 no storms 6 72 2 0 no storms 7 71 1 0 no storms 8 72 0 0 no storms 9 73 0 0 no storms 10 74 0 0 no storms 11 72 0 0 no storms 12 75 2 1 no storms 13 76 2 0 no storms 14 79 6 0 no storms 15 82 1 1 no storms 16 83 3 0 no storms 17 87 2 1 no storms 18 84 2 0 no storms 19 82 1 0 no storms 20 84 2 0 no storms 21 83 1 1 no storms 22 82 2 1 no storms 23 78 3 1 no storms 24 77 0 0 no storms 25 76 3 2 no storms 26 76 3 0 no storms 27 77 2 0 no storms 28 76 0 0 no storms 29 75 0 0 no storms 30 77 0 1 no storms 12/31 80 1 0 no storms (IRCA DX Monitor Jan 23 via DXLD) WEBINAR ABOUT PROPAGATION http://www.pvrc.org/webinar/2010-01-20%2022.01%20160%20Meter%20Propagation.wmv has a recorded "webinar" concerning propagation on 160 metres by Carl Leutzelschwab, K9LA. It's about an hour and a half long, and is quite intriguing. One point that came up is that the north magnetic pole is moving northwards, and the movement has accelerated in the last decades: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091224-north-pole-magnetic-russia-earth-core.html has a bit more on this topic. The upshot is that we may receive TA's in North America more regularly in future years, because the auroral zone tracks the magnetic pole, and the southern edge of the zone is moving north with the pole. The other point addresses a possible explanation for the surge in long distance receptions just as the K-index increases at the onset of a geomagnetic storm, as apparently the duct between the E and F layers becomes better defined at this time, and the duct allows transfer of long range signals with little loss compared with ground bounces. http://mysite.verizon.net/k9la/ has a number of articles about propagation, and 160m propagation in particular, and should soon contain the Powerpoint presentation on which the webinar was based. Best wishes, (Nick Hall-Patch, Victoria, BC, Canada, MWCircle yg via DXLD) SUMMERTIME SPORADIC E Just a note to report the amount of Es in the south Pacific this "summer" is markedly down - to date (think 22 July for the reference). Am not aware of any longer term studies between the two hemisphere's frequency of Es in a 'season' and who is to say (1) there is a relationship, or, more important perhaps, whether (2) which hemisphere would be 'first' and first 'second' in any man-created calendar system! (Bob Cooper in NZ, Jan 22, WTFDA via DXLD) I've noticed the SF has climbed recently into the 80s, which presumably is having a deleterious effect on MW TP and TA propagation. SW, though, is sure completely the pits up here in BC with the MUF around 6 or 6.5 MHz in the local evenings. Simply virtually nothing to listen to there at all! My bellwether station is Radio Ukraine International on 7440 which at times can give very nice propagation, but the past few days, zilch! (Walt in Victoria, BC, Salmaniw, 0329 UT Jan 27, IRCA via DXLD) Yes, MUF can certainly lower, but that still leaves lots of stuff on 6 MHz band and below (gh, DXLD) Geomagnetic field activity was predominately quiet during the period. The exceptions consisted of an interval of generally unsettled to active levels from 20/1500 UTC - 21/1200 UTC, and brief periods of unsettled to active levels at high latitudes from 0900 - 1500 UTC on 23 January and 0600 - 1500 UTC on 24 January. Observations from the ACE spacecraft indicated the onset of a co- rotating interaction region at 20/0900 UTC in advance of a coronal hole high speed stream. Solar wind velocity increased from 288 km/s at 20/0800 UTC to a maximum of 534 km/s at 20/2327 UTC, while density peaked at 19 p/cc at 20/1959 UTC. During this period, the southward component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) ranged between +15nT and -17nT. Thereafter, the magnetic field decayed, while solar wind velocity steadily decreased, ending the summary period near 380 km/s. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 27 JAN - 22 FEB 2010 Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels for the forecast period. Isolated moderate activity is possible from 14 - 22 February with the return of Region 1041 (S25, L=052). No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at normal levels through the period. The geomagnetic field is expected to be at predominantly quiet levels for the forecast period. A period of unsettled to active levels are expected 16 - 17 February as a recurrent coronal hole high speed stream is expected to become geoeffective. The geomagnetic field is expected to be at predominantly quiet levels for the forecast period. A period of unsettled to active levels are expected 16 - 17 February as a recurrent coronal hole high speed stream is expected to become geoeffective :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2010 Jan 26 2221 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # Product description and SWPC contact on the Web # http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2010 Jan 26 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2010 Jan 27 80 5 2 2010 Jan 28 78 5 2 2010 Jan 29 78 5 2 2010 Jan 30 78 5 2 2010 Jan 31 78 5 2 2010 Feb 01 80 5 2 2010 Feb 02 80 5 2 2010 Feb 03 80 5 2 2010 Feb 04 80 5 2 2010 Feb 05 80 5 2 2010 Feb 06 82 5 2 2010 Feb 07 84 5 2 2010 Feb 08 86 5 2 2010 Feb 09 86 5 2 2010 Feb 10 86 5 2 2010 Feb 11 86 5 2 2010 Feb 12 84 5 2 2010 Feb 13 82 5 2 2010 Feb 14 80 5 2 2010 Feb 15 82 5 2 2010 Feb 16 84 10 3 2010 Feb 17 84 7 3 2010 Feb 18 84 5 2 2010 Feb 19 84 5 2 2010 Feb 20 84 5 2 2010 Feb 21 84 5 2 2010 Feb 22 84 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1497, DXLD) ###