DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-09, March 4, 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 1502, March 4-10, 2010 Thu 2000 WBCQ 7415 9330-CUSB? [9330 was on briefly at start Mar 4] Fri 0130 WRMI 9955 Fri 0430 WWRB 3185 [NEW!] Fri 1530 WRMI 9955 Fri 2130 WWCR1 7465 Sat 0900 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 9510 [second, fourth, fifth Sats] 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 4840 ex-5070 tfn Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Sun 1615 WRMI 9955 Sun 2000 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 9955 Tue 2000 WBCQ 7415 9330-CUSB? Wed 0230 WRMI 9955 Wed 1630 WRMI 9955 Wed 2000 WBCQ 7415 9330-CUSB? 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 ** ABKHAZIA [non?]. 9535. Due to the damage of own transmitter on 9495, finally via phone line Abkhaz Radio was heard again from Russian transmitter on 9535 on 26/2, 0800-0911 with news in Russian from 0900. As usually after end of program at 0910 for a minute may be heard a local Russian FM-net called Avto Radio/Car Radio (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi antenna), March Australian DX News via DXLD) Do we know exact locations of these two transmitters? (gh) ** ALASKA. WE2XRH, the DRM/CW test. I see in Aoki that specific hours are now listed for 100 kW ND Ninilchik ALS 15134W 6006N Data(DRM): 7505, WE2XRH DART (DRM) 0000-0800 1234567 DART b09 4845, WE2XRH DART (DRM) 1600-2400 1234567 DART b09 Nov. 18, 19, 24 [more recently DART gave that as 4850] 9295, WE2XRH DART (DRM) 0800-1600 1234567 DART b09 Jan. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. Hi all, Dunno if it's propagation that is bad this morning but Radio Tirana missing from 13640 at 1530 UT on March 3rd (Gilles Letourneau, Montreal, Canada dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANGUILLA [non]. 11775, DGS missing March 3 at 1621 as I was checking for // to WWCR 13845, see USA; a very weak signal instead with something else, presumably VOA in Persian via Biblis, GERMANY, as scheduled 1530-1630. Maybe Caribbean Beacon, an ID they never really give, will still be off tonight from 6090, which would be more helpful, but don`t count on it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 15345.11, RAE, 2325, 2/22/10. Spanish service. Several references to Nacional. Time pips to 2330. RAE ID at 2338. Few tangos. IS & ID at 2355. Fair signal (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Feb 28, Drake R8B & Perseus SDR, Wellbrook 330S & ALA-100 Loops, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 15345.2, RAE IS recognizable under much stronger but undermodulated Morocco closer to 15345.0, Feb 25 at 2059 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11710.8, RAE Buenos Aires back on this frequency, fair in Portuguese, 0027 26 Feb. As noted in last week's report, would have been better if they stayed on 15345 rather than switched to this more interference- prone channel. Also heard in Japanese at 0113 recheck, still fair (Bryan Clark, Mangawhai, New Zealand, AOR7030+ and EWEs to NE, E & SE, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11710.8, RAE, Buenos Aires, Threw out a piece of wire in a bushy area nearby and listened to RAE in English at 0200 UT. Noise was pretty bad but I heard the IS before 0200, plenty of IDs in different languages and then talk mainly by a female announcer. Played "Rock Me Baby" and some Argentinean?? music. Just had a listen to the French programme on-line and they played "Rock Me Baby" as well before going to the IS and I think it must be internal programming? (Wayne Bastow, Wyoming NSW (Icom R75, Random Wire), March Australian DX News via DXLD) Date? 15345.35v, RAE, 2245-2310, Feb 26, local Argentine music. Spanish talk. ID. Weak but readable. Slightly wobbly, unstable carrier drifting about 10 hertz during this time period (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 11710.692, RAE, 0321, French, talk by woman and into music. Only possible in USB to escape lowside interference. Feb, 27 (David Sharp, NSW, Australia, FT-950, NRD-535D etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 2368.5, R. Symban, Marrickville [NSW]. 0730 26/2. Now up to its predicted 400 watts. Good reception at Bondi, near continuous Greek music. ID 0735, lots of Marrickville mentions (Alex Wellner, Bondi NSW (JRC NRD-535), March Australian DX News via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 3210 kHz --- As The Australian Radio DX club had a stall at today’s Wyong field Day, you meet all sorts of people, and we even managed a few more new members. I met Craig Allen, who has the license for 3210 kHz. Well, Guess what, the HCJB Pifo 1 kW transmitter is now in Sydney’s west, yep I kid you not. His was a chance meeting. And a surprise discussion with Craig. It was only after about 5 minutes of talking to him that the subject came up, as I had no idea of who he was. Yep, the transmitter is at Schofields NSW, west of Sydney, say 20 miles. He has a block of land and is presently installing shortly an antennae. In answer I think to Mauno, in Finland asking about 2368.5 frequencies: I can absolutely advise that he has not transmitted any of the previous licenses, so that rumour is now dead. Craig has a licensed site at Homebush, NSW; this is confirmed. Now we are looking at six weeks at least before any tests, for 3210 kHz. For the benefit of the DXing community, I will suggest to Craig, we will QSL reports. Another frequency is also being looked at in the 60 mb for daylight use, (Sydney time). So, how good was this find of information, pure luck/chance!!!! (Johno Wright, NSW, Feb 28, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. Radio Australia. Nigel Holmes was my guest for the weekend, flying in from Melbourne. Cox Peninsula is no more. It’s a memory. (In case someone wants to keep saying Cox will be revived). Palau is more short term, and in use is also Taiwan, UAE. A further look at an Asian relay is being --- ”examined”. In the fullness of time, an announcement will be made (Johno Wright, NSW, Feb 28, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. QSL: Radio Australia via Cox Peninsula 17665. Last Day Transmission. 70th anniversary card shows the old STC/AWA transmitter used for the last time, and replaced by a new Harris 100 kW on October 10th 1983. Reverse has FD V/Signer Ian Johnson. Has a short note about going on air as 20 December 1939 as Australia calling. Air in 4 weeks for stamp (Johno Wright, NSW, Feb 24, ARDXC via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Harry retirement, Jonno! John Nutting of Radio Australia's "Saturday Night Country", "Jonno" to his listeners, is retiring after 17 years hosting the program. The February 27th program included some tapes of him hosting in earlier days as well as his personal memories. Felicity Urguhart is taking over as permanent host. The program website is http://www.abc.net.au/snc (Mark Coady, Peterborough, ON K9J 6X3, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Lyndhurst transmitter & Control Building circa 1986: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61C6IyWEqZE&feature=related (Ian Baxter, Feb 27, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) 3+ minute silent film to which off-air recordings of VNG timesignal have been added, concluding with announcement of its pending closedown on 30 Sept 1987 (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 6230, VMW, Western Autralia, 1350, 2/26/10. Fair to good signal. Marine weather forecasts. S8 on peaks. VMC & VMW broadcast schedule and frequencies at: http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/radio-sat/voice-services.shtml (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Feb 28, Drake R8B & Perseus SDR, Wellbrook 330S & ALA-100 Loops, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRIA. The MW tower of ORF-1467 Bisamberg, Austria was blown up on 24-Feb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G20Up2937w4 (Jurgen Bartels, Suellwarden, N. Germany, mwdx yg via DXLD) ** AZERBAIJAN. 9677, Voice of Justice from Nagorno-Karabakh (similar case as Pridnestrovia, Abkhazia etc.). Starting in Azeri with IS and ID, later some sentences in Armenian and Russian. Bad modulation. Heard 0600-0626 on 24/2. It has to be aired on Wed and Sat? (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi antenna), March Australian DX News via DXLD) ** BELARUS. In recent times the signals from these small regional transmitters have been quite good in the time frame of their regional program at 0440, being the worst the Mogilev outlet on 7235 followed by Brest-6010. The best signals comes from Brest-6070 and Grodno-7280. Grodno-6040 suffers strong QRM from V. of Turkey until 0458 [via CANADA]. The Mogilev transmitter on 6190 is impossible due to the QRM. This morning the reception of Mogilev-7235 has been better than usual with some moments of intelligible speech being one of this just at the end of the regional output but to my surprise I have heard a "Radio Stolitsa" ID. So no regional program from Mogilev on SW?? (Mauricio Molano, Salamanca, Spain. March 2, dxldyg via DXLD) Belarus R noted as usual in 05-06 UT range on 6010, 6040, 6070 strongest, 7235, 7255 and 7280 kHz. Nothing heard on 7265 kHz channel, absence reported also by Günter Lorenz in A-DX. Also absence of Ukrainian R on 5970 kHz today (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, March 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. BBS – Bhutan Broadcasting System [sic; Service] is still pretty irregular on shortwave 6035 kHz – in last 15 days observations show that some days it was on shortwave between 0130 to 0600 UT and some days between 0100-1500. Lucky ones will get their English Transmission at 0500-0600 and 0800- 0900; when transmission going on via shortwave, it`s also noted the SW transmitter often stops for 30 minutes or more without any notice or announcement and even between the programs. As much I can presume, they are going through power problems in transmitter or the repair work is still going on. Some of my observations - 15th Feb 0100-0530 UT - they were off 16th Feb 0200-0300 UT - they were on 17th Feb 0230-0430 UT - off Although the 98 MHz FM is on 24 Hours round the clock (Partha Sarathi Goswami, India, Feb UADX via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) Today 28th Feb noted with a strong signal at 0050; was it propagation or the new transmitter back?? About the SW coverage, one problem is that unless Bhutan can come down to 4 or 3 MHz, there isn’t much use of staying on 6035 kHz, say 2 hours after sunset or an hour before sunrise. When a small area has to be covered, the near vertical angle of return makes 6 MHz very hard to give proper coverage. The old transmitter may be having cooling problems as well!! (Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, Feb UADX via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. R Gaúcha 600 kHz AM re-ativa IBOC --- Oi, notado sexta Fev 26 2010 à noite Gaúcha AM 600 kHz de Porto Alegre operando com modo IBOC/HD. Os canais imediatamente vizinhos (590 e 610) estão tomados pelo característico ruído brando. 580 e 620 não foram afetados. Usando receptor Sony XDRF1HD HD, o sinal digital soa como FM. Na tela do receptor é exibida a etiqueta "RBS/RADIO GAUCHA". O áudio digital possui um atraso; não cronometrei, mas acho que é de uns 10 segundos. Finalmente, o conteúdo digital não está etável, o receptor fica chaveando entre digital e analógico a cada 45 segundos (Huelbe Garcia, Porto Alegre, RS, Feb 28, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4845, one of the Brazilians with play-by-play of some SBG, producing bad het, presumably with Mauritania, 0020 Feb 28 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 5044.98, Rádio Cultura do Pará, Belém, 0610-0632, Feb 26, Portuguese ID announcements. Local Brazilian ballads. Good. 11749.85, Rádio Voz Missionária, 0525-0550, Feb 28, local religious music. Portuguese religious talk. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions. Better on // 5939.95. 11765, Súper Rádio Deus é Amor, Curitiba PR, 0550-0610, Feb 27, emotional Portuguese preacher. Local religious music. ID announcement at 0601. Poor. Weak. // 9565.21 - poor, weak. // 6060 - weak under Cuba (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** CAMEROON [non]. 9800, Sawtu Linjiila (R. V of Gospel), via Wertachtal [GERMANY]. Daily program by Lutheran World Federation for speakers of Fulani in Africa. Speaker mentioned Cameroon and Nigeria in fair strength signal. Brief music bridges of gospel-type songs with Afro accompaniment. Off without announcement at 1858, 6/2 (Charles Jones, Castle Hill NSW (Sony 2001D with 7m vertical antenna), March Australian DX News via DXLD) ** CANADA [non]. For those who haven`t been keeping up with our DX/SWL/MEDIA programs reference, http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html a reminder that CKUT`s International Radio Report is now getting a regular airing on WBCQ`s Area 51, Sundays at 2230 on 5110. Checked at 2255 Feb 28, Sheldon Harvey was mentioning the imminent Winter SWL Fest #23 that he would be attending, having missed only two of them since they started. Seems Sheldon, ex-host and subbing this year for Janice, does most of the talking now on the IRR. One can also retrieve it from the CKUT archive for 10:30 am Sundays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi, Glenn. Regarding me doing "most of the talking now on the IRR", during the last two weeks, that was certainly the case. This was due to Steve being away for a few weeks and me twisting fellow CIDXer Alan Roberts` arm to come in to the studio to keep me company. Alan is generally a man of few words and, as he said, it had been several years since he was actually on the show, and even then it was only for a couple of guest appearances. Once Steve is back in two weeks, after the Winterfest, things will be getting back to normal. As for me doing most of the talking, I think I learned by example by some guy from Enid, Oklahoma who has set the standard for the past 1500 shows! Just yanking your chain, Glenn. Glad to see that at least one person was listening (Sheldon Harvey, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Having tuned in late to the previous show, I assumed the occasional comments by the straight man were still from Steve, and did not realise it was Alan (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CANADA. Hi folks, I haven't heard radio Canada International on SW for ages. I listen occasionally via the World Radio network. I'm wondering if anyone has details of their English broadcasts to Europe? Are they issuing a QSL card for the Winter Olympics? I Googled "radio canada international" +"English to Europe" but got nothing current. Any advice most welcome. Regards with thanks, (Eamonn Neonman, Ireland, Feb 28, shortwave yg via DXLD) Check their own website for full schedule: http://www.rcinet.ca/english/illustration/schedule/UdpvVb_H09_SW_24h_SIMP.pdf No, nothing explicitly for Europe any more, but you should be able to hear the 1800 UT hour for Africa, and many other broadcasts from Sackville or relays. 73, (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO, ibid.) ** CANADA [and non]. 6160, March 3 at 1340, open carrier atop CKZU Vancouver, with the same SAH we hear after 1400. Therefore, CBC`s RCI not only brazenly interferes with CBC Vancouver during the 14-15 UT hour for its non-direxional relay via KOREA SOUTH in Mandarin, but allows KBS to turn the transmitter on that ill-chosen same frequency at least a third of an hour early. Recheck at 1357, the RCI IS has started (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [non]. Winter B-09 of Media Broadcast (ex DTK T-Systems). Part 2 of 3: [see also USA [non] YFR] Bible Voice Broadcasting Network (BVBN): to West Europe 0800-0830 on 5945 NAU 100 kW / 280 deg English Sun 0800-0845 on 5945 NAU 100 kW / 280 deg English Sat to East Europe 1900-1930 on 6030 WER 125 kW / 060 deg Russian Tue 1900-1915 on 6030 WER 125 kW / 060 deg Ukrainian Thu 1900-1945 on 6030 WER 125 kW / 060 deg Russian Fri 1930-1945 on 6030 WER 125 kW / 060 deg English Sat 1900-2000 on 6030 WER 125 kW / 060 deg English Sun to South Europe 1800-1830 on 7365 WER 100 kW / 240 deg Spanish Sun to North Africa 0900-1000 on 17545 WER 125 kW / 135 deg Arabic Fri to West Africa 1930-1945 on 9510 WER 125 kW / 180 deg French Sat 1945-2000 on 9510 WER 125 kW / 180 deg Adja Sat to Central Africa 1830-1845 on 9510 WER 125 kW / 180 deg Swahili Sun 1845-1915 on 9510 WER 125 kW / 180 deg English Sun to West Central Africa 2000-2030 on 9880 NAU 125 kW / 205 deg English Wed to East Africa 1600-1630 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Oromo Mon/Thu 1630-1700 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Amharic Mon/Fri 1700-1730 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Tigrinya Mon/Tue/Fri 1730-1800 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Amharic Mon/Tue/Fri 1600-1700 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Amharic Tue 1600-1800 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Amharic Wed 1630-1800 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Amharic Thu/Sat/Sun 1600-1630 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Oromo Fri/Sun 1800-1830 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Somali Fri-Sun 1830-1900 on 9730 ISS 100 kW / 131 deg Amharic Sat 1630-1730 on 11875 WER 100 kW / 150 deg Nuer/Dinka 1730-1745 on 11875 NAU 100 kW / 153 deg Fur Fri to Near Middle East 1645-1800 on 5910 WER 100 kW / 120 deg Arabic Wed 1715-1730 on 5910 WER 100 kW / 120 deg Arabic Mon/Fri 1800-1900 on 6110 WER 125 kW / 120 deg English Sat 1830-1900 on 6110 WER 125 kW / 120 deg English Sun 0430-0500 on 7410 WER 250 kW / 120 deg Arabic Tue/Thu 0500-0515 on 7410 WER 250 kW / 120 deg Arabic Fri 1645-1700 on 9460 NAU 100 kW / 130 deg English Mon/Wed 1645-1720 on 9460 NAU 100 kW / 130 deg English Tue 1800-1815 on 9460 NAU 100 kW / 130 deg English Tue 1815-1900 on 9460 NAU 100 kW / 130 deg Hebrew Tue 1645-1745 on 9460 NAU 100 kW / 130 deg English Thu 1645-1715 on 9460 NAU 100 kW / 130 deg English Fri 1830-1900 on 9460 NAU 100 kW / 130 deg English Fri 1645-1900 on 9460 NAU 100 kW / 130 deg English Sat 1630-1915 on 9460 NAU 100 kW / 130 deg English Sun 1900-1930 on 9470 WER 250 kW / 120 deg English Sat 1915-1930 on 9470 WER 250 kW / 120 deg English Sun 1930-2000 on 9470 WER 250 kW / 120 deg English Fri 1700-1720 on 11970 WER 250 kW / 120 deg Arabic Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri 1700-1735 on 11970 WER 250 kW / 120 deg Arabic Wed to West Asia 1800-1830 on 7365 WER 100 kW / 090 deg Persian Mon/Wed/Fri 1800-1900 on 7365 WER 100 kW / 090 deg Persian Tue/Thu 1800-1815 on 7365 WER 100 kW / 090 deg English Sat 1830-1900 on 7365 WER 100 kW / 090 deg Persian Sun 1530-1545 on 9410 WER 250 kW / 105 deg Persian Sun 1630-1830 on 9925 WER 100 kW / 105 deg Persian to Central Asia 1200-1230 on 15565 NAU 250 kW / 070 deg Uyghur Tue/Thu, ex Mon-Fri to South Asia 0030-0100 on 6030 WER 250 kW / 090 deg Hindi Mon-Thu 0030-0100 on 6030 WER 250 kW / 090 deg English Fri-Sun 1530-1600 on 12035 WER 100 kW / 090 deg Urdu Tue/Fri 1530-1615 on 12035 WER 100 kW / 090 deg English Thu 1515-1545 on 12035 WER 100 kW / 090 deg English Sat 1500-1515 on 12035 WER 250 kW / 090 deg English Sun 1400-1500 on 13730 WER 250 kW / 090 deg English Sat 1415-1500 on 13730 WER 250 kW / 090 deg English Sun to East Asia 2000-2100 on 5915 WER 250 kW / 045 deg Korean* Sun, cancelled from Feb.7 * CMI Voice of Wilderness (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 1 via DXLD) ** CANADA. Strong carrier on 5098 kHz --- Hi to everyone! For quite a long time now, I can tune a strong carrier on 5098 kHz, with what seems to be a morse ID done at a fast pace every 30 seconds or so. The carrier is very strong (10/10 on a Sangean ATS-909), day and night, here in Chicoutimi, Quebec. I really wonder what this could be --- military, aviation, navigation aid? If someone have an idea, feel free to tell me! (Eric, Feb 26, ODXA yg via DXLD) I believe CFH at CFB Halifax is the morse station on 5098. In the past they used to also have RTTY weather reports (Mark Coady, ibid.) ** CHAD. 6165, Radio National Tchadienne (N'djamena) (presumed), 0447- 0505, 2/25/2010, French. One long selection of West African pop music. Occasional brief low audio comments by a man over the music. Brief announcements by a man at 0501 followed by talk. Talk by a woman at 0502, apparently in a large room producing a hollow echo, and with what sounded like chairs being moved at one point. Moderate signal strength under very strong Radio Nederland (Bonaire). In the clear after 0456:30 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Chad still active on 6165, noted at 0545 February 27 with talks in French and African music, fair on clear channel with some fading until wiped out by Croatia signing on at 0600 (Mike Barraclough, March World DX Club Contact via DXLD) 6165, Small gap at 0530-0558 UT and chance to listen RNT, this morning March 3, at 0529 UT on S=9+10dB level to decrease at 0558 UT on S=8 level. 0529-0531 UT endless drum beats. At 0532 UT ID in French by female. Ended exactly at 0558:33 UT when signal covered by Deanovec, Croatia powerhouse on co-channel, which came from 3984.90 75mb as scheduled. Followed by chimes interval signal of RNW Bonaire relay co-channel - underneath Croatia - , which started around 0558:45 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, March 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) We can also hear Chad weakly just before 0600, and Croatia oncoming, both totally awayblown by Bonaire (gh, DXLD) ** CHILE [and non]. For early Chile earthquake coverage, BBC World Service uses Twitter as a primary source. The National Public Radio newscast at 4:00 a.m. EST (0900 UTC) on 27 February included a BBC report about the earthquake in Chile: "There are no direct reports from Concepción yet, but someone in Chile has posted on the social network site Twitter that he had no lights, no electricity, and no internet, but that everything was well at home." Listen to audio excerpt. This would seem to be a manifestation of the directive to BBC journalists by Peter Horrocks, the new director of BBC Global News, to use the social media as a primary source. [See previous post.] Let's hope that tweet actually came from near Concepción and not from, say, Dubuque. Presumably the tweet was, as the BBC puts it, curated. If the twitterer had "no internet," then probably the message got through via texting on a mobile phone. Wouldn't the BBC correspondent in Chile have known contacts in or near Concepción that could also be reached via mobile? Posted: 27 Feb 2010 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) See also USA: MSNBC "News at it happens" from TVN Chile. Thanks to a tip from VOA's Steve Herman, I'm watching live video stream of TVN in Chile. This is using an Acer Aspire Revo mini-pc fed via HDMI cable to the family's HDTV, resulting in AD (adequate definition) rather than HD (high definition) video from the scene, but remarkable nevertheless. Commentary is in Spanish, as TVN is a domestic station. The correspondents, anchors, and camera-persons are doing an excellent job. I'm an old shortwave enthusiast, but shortwave was rarely as good as this for "news as it happens." Wishing the people of Chile a speedy recovery. Posted: 27 Feb 2010 Not much tsunami advice from Radio Australia at 12, 13 UTC, but more at 14 UTC. Listening to Radio Australia, I have not been hearing much about the tsunami caused by the Chilean earthquake. No advice for listeners in the Pacific region, Radio Australia's primary target. The newscast on Radio Australia at 1200 UTC was a relay of the domestic ABC radio news, and spoke mostly of tsunami warnings for Australia. Update: At 1400 UTC, the ABC newscast on Radio Australia provided much more specific tsunami information for the Pacific, including French Polynesia. It included actuality of an employee of the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, who explained that the tsunami is not "huge," but enough to "cause concern." Listen to audio. The VOA newscast at 1300 UTC said that the earthquake triggered "a tsunami warning around the Pacific rim of fire," with no further details. VOA no longer nominally broadcasts to the Pacific region, but at 1300 UTC, it is probably audible in that part of the world. With many people living (or sailing) in remote areas, and with limited broadcast satellite coverage, shortwave broadcasting is still important in the Pacific region. See also "Will international broadcasting sound the warning – next time?," Radio Netherlands Media Network, 6 January 2005. Posted: 27 Feb 2010 VOA's Steve Herman tracks the tsunami across the Pacific. Steve Herman, VOA South Asia bureau chief, and also radio amateur W7VOA, has been following amateur radio and other communications about the tsunami caused by the Chilean earthquake: twitter.com/W7VOA. (Refresh often.) Steve's tweets are a primary/secondary source you can rely on. Posted: 27 Feb 2010 (all: www.kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Chile Quake - Live Streaming Online http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tv-de-chile Pictures of destruction. Over 27,000 viewers right now. Reportedly, there are live relays on some US-based Spanish channels, too. Sergei S., 1215 UT Feb 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Telemundo and Univisión pre-empting regular programming but UNI kept running commercials. Above still funxioning March 2 at 2138 check, maybe always, but very jerky video (gh, DXLD) See http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/shakemap/global/shake/2010tfan/ It seems that questions about the Calera de Tango SW site, located southwest of Santiago de Chile, must be asked. First, is it still on air at present? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, 1611 UT Feb 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes! CVC Calera de Tango site survived the quake, still on air with usual good signal here. 17680 at 1812 check with reports in Spanish about the quake, e.g. the airport is closed; no doubt from the Miami studios, as it would be unthinkable to originate anything from Chile itself. Telemundo and Univisión are also covering it on US television (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So at least this antenna is still intact. 31 mB frequencies and HCJB relays still on air, too? See http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/earthquake_in_chile.html Picture 5 is a location close to the transmitter site; photos of it show the mountains in the background under the same angle. Perhaps I overestimate the effects on masts (since the light poles besides the collapsed bridges in Santiago still stand as if nothing has happened), but in light of these pictures it would appear to be a miracle if the antenna facility remained basically undamaged (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) Lots more photos of the damage on that site (gh) I'm just listening to the [HCJB via CHILE] German broadcast on 9835 kHz. It's on air. SIO about 444. 73, (Stephan Schaa, Germany, 2309 UT Feb 27, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, ibid.) I was told that the Calera de Tango site indeed suffered only rather minor damage to the building. It is more of a problem to staff the site; some of the engineers are privately affected (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 1, ibid.) Nice to see CNN International and CNN Chile being fed to CNN USA, No BBC News (TV) in USA though (Andy O`Brien, NY, 1826 UT Feb 27, ibid.) Following text sent to Region 1 Emergency Communications Co-Ordinators and a shorter version will appear on our website shortly. I will pass information to Maritime nets in US as well. Hi, An earthquake measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale hit Chile at 0634 UT today (27th February). I am now receiving information that the local emergency communications group "Red Chilena Nor Austral de Servicio (RECNA)" is active and some emergency communications activities are taking place, mostly with Argentina. Jorge Sierra, LU1AS who is the IARU-R2 Area Emergency Co-Ordinator is asking that the following frequencies are kept clear; 7095, RECNA Control Station Emergency Traffic has also been heard on 7050, 7060 and 7095 with stations trying to contact Chile seeking information about people. Chile is also known to use the following frequencies for emergency communication; 3750, 3738, 7050, 7095, 14200, 14350, 21200, 21350, 28300, 28500 kHz. Since a Tsunami warning is in effect for some countries in the Pacific it would also be useful to keep IARU Region 2 and Region 3 Centre of Activity frequencies clear in case other countries become involved, these are; Region 2 3750, 3785, 7060, 7240, 7290, 14300, 18160, 21360 Region 3 3600, 7110, 14300, 18160, 21360 Japanese state broadcaster NHK is indicating that if a Tsunami was to affect that country it would hit about 22 hours after the initial earthquake. Australia has issues Tsunami warnings for parts of their country. We should know soon if a wide area tsunami has been created, a prediction of arrival times can be found at http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/pacific/2010/pacific.2010.02.27.154316.txt Check the main site of http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/ for updates. I will put the Chile information onto the IARU R1 website soon, I will NOT be putting any specific information for the Tsunami on the website until information is received from Islands in the Pacific to verify that we have a wide area event. I will alert some groups in Region 2 though who may be affected. 73, Greg, G0DUB, IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Co-Ordinator (via Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, dxldyg via DXLD) Google person finder, Chile earthquake: http://chilepersonfinder.appspot.com/ (via Yimber Gaviría, DXLD) Frecuencias activas de búsqueda de personas en Chile --- En la Lista Info-cram se informa que en los actuales momentos están varias frecuencias en 40 metros recibiendo tráficos para localizacion de personas siendo utilizadas entre estaciones de Chile y Argentina. Existen muchas personas de Chile viviendo en Argentina, quienes tienen sus familiares allí; por lo que hay bastantes requerimientos para encontrarlos. Algunas de las QRGs activas son entre otras: 7050, 7060, 7088, 7095 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, March 1, condiglist yg via DXLD) Earthquake/CVC-Chile Dear CVC family, I'm writing from the CV shortwave site at Calera de Tango, Santiago, Chile, after the big earthquake we had over the whole center-southern part of the country. The situation is a bit complicated in the cities affected by the earthquake, because the public transport and communications are not working properly. Also there is a lack of electricity and water in many places. For me, it has been very difficult to get in contact with the rest of the team, but with the hours, it has been possible to get in contact with the enough people to get on the transmitters. Some of the personnel haven't been able to come to work because they are affected and are afraid of the other following earthquakes after the main one, which we feel very often. Also, at the site, there is a lot of glass in the structure and offices, but just one big glass has broken and some small damages in the building, but anyway personnel are afraid of coming and leave their families alone. At least, until now I haven't heard about personal damages to some member of the team or their families, thanks God. Finally, some of the technicians who live near to the site will be able to follow the transmissions until 10PM as normal transmissions. Thanks to Sergio, Antonio Suazo and Ariel who were able to stay. Also, we hope tomorrow morning we will be able to start the transmissions at 8AM as normal, but also it will depend on the transportation availability. We hope the city will slowly come to normal with the days, but we will try to stay ON as much as possible with CVC transmissions and HCJB transmissions as well. I would like to ask you for your prayers for our Team, their families, our site, the transmissions and the country. God Bless you all! Antonio Reyes, Gerente General CVC - Voz Cristiana Chile Fono: +56 2 8557046 Email: antonio @ cvclavoz.cl Web: http://www.cvclavoz.cl/ http://www.cvclavoz.com/ (via Michael Lindner, March 3, A-DX via Wolfgang Büschel, March 3, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD; also via Horacio Nigro) ** CHINA. The Kunmingers are improving their switching skills. Instead of a minute or more of REE IS at 1359 on 7220, Feb 26 at 1359:00 it was just open carrier, and REE IS lasted only a few sex from about 1359:50 before cutting to CRI opening. Of course, Beijing master control should not be sending REE feed at all at this time on this circuit. Amused myself by another check of the 7220 anomaly, Feb 27 at 1359: open carrier until REE IS at 1359:48, then at 1400:00 cutting to CRI opening in Chinese. The Kunmingers still don`t trust themselves to get into CRI at the right instant preventing REE IS from being shortwaved worldwide by mistake. 11910, Feb 28 at 1356-1357* REE IS, at the conclusion of Spain`s relay via Xi`an in Spanish to Asia at 12-14. This is the intentional transmission. Then I switch to 7220 to hear the same IS come on at 1359:47 and mixing with timesignal until 1400 cut to CRI opening in Chinese. But all listings show the lower site is Kunming, so it`s a matter of inability to coördinate switching accurately thru the Beijing master control feed. REE really ought to QSL their 13-second transmission on 7220, but I bet they would deny it. 7220, March 3 at 1359:46 starting REE IS, before cutting to CRI sign- on at 1400, the usual pattern from Kunming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. Jamming Season from China SOON! Well, the time has come that we will see an increase of jamming from China both with firedrake and by putting local stations on SW. The annual Communist Party Congress is just around the corner. This will be starting sometime over the next week or two and will continue until the end of March or early April. 73, (Keith Perron, Taiwan, Feb 25, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) JAMMERSTAN: 8400, 9000, 13970 Crash & Bang Chinese Music Jammer; 2334- 2337+, 24-Feb; 9000 weakest, 8400 a bit stronger, 13970 SIO=3+53, no audio detectable under any of them. Nothing hrd 10000-10500 (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7585 fair with Firedrake atop something else, Feb 26 at 1437; not audible on 8400 for a change. Also very weak FD on 9380 as heard previous mornings, in splash from WWRB 9385. ChiCom jamming on 7585 remains mysterious, as the only thing scheduled at this hour is Vatican Radio in Hindi via Tajikistan. Firedrake Feb 27: not audible on 8400 for a change, at 1347 check and later. 9380, the only Firedrake found March 1 at 1258, good signal here but nothing on 8400 or 9000. Monitoring pause with open carrier at 1300- 1305, then resuming traditional percussion music on 9380. No victim heard but presumably Sound of Hope, and incidentally messing up other stations, DW starting 9380 at 1330. Firedrake March 1: at 1336 on 13625, vs nothing else detectable, but RFA in Tibetan via TINIAN is scheduled, 12-14. Keith Perron reminds us that the Commie Party Congress is imminent, and each spring jamming levels greatly increase. We are certainly seeing that with CNR1 even more pervasive, but seldom bother to log those and try to figure out whether jamming or legit. Firedrake on new frequencies, however, really stands out. March 2 at 1315 it was on 9365 and // weaker 9380; at 1348 weak on 11540 // 9365; at 1349 on 11500 much stronger than 11540. But at 1425 recheck all four of these were gone. At 1441 found one FD, poor on 7560. Consulting Aoki for possible targets: 7560: nothing, so likely another Sound of Hope jumparound. 9365: nothing, unless WRN has started something via Tajikistan, etc. 9380: SOH, but DW in Dari via Tajikistan is also there until 1400. 11500: SOH, another 24h? 1 kW Taiwan spoiler 11540: R Free Asia in Tibetan via Tajikistan, 11-14 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Two NEW jamming sites to come online in China soon! China will be activating two new transmitter sites by June which will be used for jamming my sources in CRI inform me. The locations are: Qinghai (located some 100 km outside Xining City) Guizhou (located some 70 km outside Guiyang City) Each site will house 4 transmitters and the antennas are Chinese copies of Thalès Group ALLISS antennas. Power output is suggested to be around 300 and 500 kW (unconfirmed). Both sites will used Firedrake and echo jamming using CNR 1 as well as some local stations. My sources also told me that in the last few weeks on some occasions CRI's China Drive program was fed to the Hainan jamming site (Keith Perron, Taiwan, March 1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake March 3: found only on 9380, at 1354, against unheard Sound of Hope, and tough luck, DW; QRM from WWRB 9385 BS splash, and WTWW 9480 PPP overload. At 1452 found another FD, on 7580, still unexplained and unlisted by Aoki, and by now not heard on 9380. CNR1 is all over the place as jamming, including some frequencies with echo, removing any doubt it is legitimate, such as 11895, March 3 at 1421. Aoki shows the a*terisked victim as BBC in Chinese via Singapore at 1300-1530. Firedrake music-only jamming on 9365 // 9380, March 4 at 1322, unheard elsewhere (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 9490, VOA World News Now, on 200 degree beam from Tinang, PHILIPPINES at 22-24, is nevertheless quite regular back here in deep NAm. Fair Feb 28 at 2240, but with something else underneath. The only thing scheduled is CRI Spanish, 150 kW from Beijing site at 318 degree azimuth, northwestward, for Europe? It is indeed right across Spain, but the official targets are CIRAF 12-14, most of South America beyond. I wonder how well it does there? Signal goes right down the Brazilian coast, which is not part of the CIRAF target, and focuses on central Argentina, which is the antipodes of the Beijing area. After 2257, VOA is in the clear. Earlier in the hour, WTWW 9480 was too strong to hear much on 9490 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CRI, 6190 via Sackville, March 1 at 0553 ``The Beijing Hour`` upwrapped by British-accented OL, identifying self as Susan Osman, also ID as ``CRI Beyond Beijing`` which is what I have been hearing on KGBC-1540 Galveston TX. Susan Osman? She`s the ex-BBC TV presenter who quit because of a ``culture of ageism``, and moved to China to host a breakfast radio show, but first time I`ve run across her. Google her name for numerous stories about that from early last December. Looks pretty good to me for a 51-year-old (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It appears that "The Beijing Hour" has replaced the more sterile "News & Reports" that was historically the staple of the first half hour (demihour?) of CRI's English language release for at least part of the day. I caught Ms. Osman's program last week one evening; I believe the 0100 broadcast (I don't have all my notes nearby here at work). The program is rather slickly produced --- a far cry from the "Radio Beijing" days (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, ODXA yg via DXLD Unless something different has happened very recently, listeners will get either the "CRI News and Reports" plus a daily feature (i.e.: the usual fare for quite some time) block; or the "Beyond Beijing" music, news and info mag; or "China Drive", which as the title suggests is designed as a drivetime magazine. The latter two programs have been a part of CRI English transmitted domestically in the Beijing region for English speaking residents (on 846 and 1008 MW, I think) for some time and are now finding their way onto more and more external service broadcasts. I wonder if there's an unintentional aspect of this phenomenon driven more by CRI internal transmission routing than anything else. The CRI published (paper and online) shortwave program schedules don't mention either China Drive or Beyond Beijing, but seem to still indicate that all broadcasts carry the CRI News and Reports, etc. block. You'll also find that these features move around quite frequently, without advance warning or discernible logic (John Figliozzi, NY, March 1, ibid.) That's indeed what's new -- as in "very recently." "News & Reports" is now only produced on weekends --- judging from the crumb trails on the CRI website (which is kept up to date pretty well). That also jives with the schedules posted for the domestic MW and FM services. This change was recent -- if you look for the schedule that used to apply to most shortwave releases ("English Service's Programming 55' "[sic]) you get a "file not found" error --- I noticed this last Wednesday after my listening session at a French Creek DXPedition. There is another new magazine program called "Today" that runs two hours per weekday on the domestic services. Again not sure if this will make it SW or not (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, ibid.) [later:] The Audience Relations folks advise me that the "Round the Clock" schedule is the schedule that now applies for English language shortwave broadcasts. Link is here: http://english.cri.cn/7146/2009/01/09/44s442001.htm "China Drive", "Beijing Hour", and "People in the Know" now occupy significant blocks of weekday airtime that used to be filled by "News and Reports" (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, March 3, swprograms via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA [non?]. Colombia / Venezuela ? : ELN montó emisora FM que emitiría desde Venezuela [Ejército de Liberación Nacional, guerrillas] En los últimos días, los cucuteños han podido sintonizar una emisora llamada Antorcha Estéreo, en el dial 96.7 de la F.M., perteneciente al frente urbano Carlos Germán Velasco Villamizar, del Eln. Con mensajes como: "Soldado, no te olvides que estás traicionando a tu propio pueblo", "Somos revolución, construimos poder y triunfaremos", "Un abrazo fraternal para los compañeros de la cárcel Modelo y a las compañeras del Buen Pastor que reportan sintonía frecuentemente", se encuentran al aire en una programación, entre las 11:00 de la mañana a 4:00 de la tarde (1600-2100 UT). Además de los mensajes, el programa cuenta con música variada, entre merengues, carrangueras, norteña y canciones populares y sociales de algunos artistas conocidos y otros anónimos, que llevan impresos versos referentes a la revolución del Eln. El espacio es dirigido por dos hombres y en ocasiones una mujer, quienes utilizan seudónimos y hablan sobre temas especiales del país y del presidente Álvaro Uribe Vélez. También leen comunicados sobre el accionar de la organización subversiva en Colombia y critican a algunos medios de comunicación. El general Germán Saavedra Prado, comandante de la Trigésima Brigada del Ejército, confirmó la existencia de la emisora en F.M. El oficial indicó que se encontraban en las investigaciones y presumían que el programa se estuviera emitiendo desde Venezuela y no desde Colombia, cuya frecuencia se expandiría hasta Cúcuta. Fuente: http://bit.ly/d75qnq (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, March 1, DXLD) ** CONGO. 6115.000, Radio Congo, 1822, French, talk by a woman, many mentions of "Republique", into music after 1825. Low modulation and transmitter had a slight hum. Best in LSB to escape 6120 slop. Feb. 28 (David Sharp, NSW, Australia, FT-950, NRD-535D etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO DR. 5066.35, R. Candip (Presumed), Feb 21 1533-1635* poor, Music and talk, 1635 sign off (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium Feb 26 via DXLD) ** CROATIA. 3984.88, Hrvatski Radio. 0355-0410 February 28, 2010. Very good with local pop vocals, time sounders (two slow, one ultra-slow) 0400, ID and news in Croatian (Gerry Bishop/Terry L Krueger at Krueger's QTH, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3984.90 kHz, Croatian Radio, Deanovec, at 0450 UT March 3. S=9+20dB. News in Croatian language at 0500-0504 UT, weather report (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, March 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 1620 kHz, Rebelde FM. 0257+ February 28, 2010. Big signal, mostly dominating with "Música Viva" program of Spanish techno, several "96 punto 7" references. The (presumably) eastern Cuba Rebelde -- AM network feed -- was weak underneath, parallel 1180 and 5025. The Rebelde sounder was noted while returning from Orlando on February 27th on I-4 downtown, around 2315 or so as well. Back home (Clearwater, FL) on February 28th, Rebelde AM network was strong (no Rebelde FM this day) at 1530 tune-in, parallel 1180 and 5025 (Gerry Bishop/Terry L Krueger at Krueger's QTH, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably to block WDHP USVI 1620 carrying exile programs ** CUBA. 11600, DCJC pulse jamming running later than usual -2200, Feb 26 still going at 2228; presumably provoked by a never-heard R. República transmitter in Central America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. 9955, WRMI Saturday-evening exile block, fair signal with no or maybe minimal jamming, UT Sunday Feb 28 at 0031 discussing the death of hunger-striking political prisoner Orlando Zapata, and Castro`s ``apology`` for it. Same topic when next checked at 0119. According to latest schedule of a week ago, at 0030-0045 it`s Voz de Coordinadora, 0100-0130 Conversando entre Cubanos. Meanwhile at 0030, plenty of heavy noise jamming on 9810 against nothing, ex-República, also 9825 against R. Martí and 9885 against VOA Spanish. 9955, heavy DCJC but mixing about equally with WRMI in Spanish religious program, March 1 at 0544, sounds Catholic, so Vatican Radio? No, latest schedule shows ``En Camino`` during this semihour UT Mondays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. 11680, RNV relay missing Feb 26 at 1526 uncovering something in Arabic, i.e. BBCWS, Rampisham. I know RNV was on a few minutes earlier with broken-English voiceover something in Spanish, but was not going to bother to log it, until its absence became notable. What would Simón say? [see also VENEZUELA [non]] 13740, CRI English relay at 1528 Feb 26, squeal getting worse, and its pitch is affected by intentional talk modulation. The squeal is more obvious by tuning slightly above or below to the sidebands. We wonder if those new ChiCom transmitters being installed on Cuba will get rid of this problem, or will they just be used for a much higher priority task, jamming. 13780, RHC, March 2 at 1350 is splattering at least 10 kHz above and below, ergo, QRMing RHC`s much weaker almost // Spanish frequency 13770. Commie Cubans vs Commie Cubans! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. RADIO REPÚBLICA AND THE DEATH OF A DISSIDENT. "They are glued to the phones at the Directorio. The audio engineer at the group's shortwave radio station takes in a feed that includes shouts of 'Libertad, Libertad, Libertad!' All attention focused on the funeral services for Orlando Zapata Tamayo. The Cuban Democratic Directorate is a low key, yet high energy Cuban exile group based in Miami that documents civic resistance on the Island. ... The funeral of Zapata Tamayo was producing numerous examples of protest and resistance. Zapata Tamayo was a political prisoner, a dissident, who died after an 80-day hunger strike. ... Despite Cuban government attempts to suppress the news of the dissident's death in the age of Twitter, Facebook, bloggers, and the Directorio's Radio Republica, the word is spreading across the island." Hank Tester, WTVJ-TV (Miami), 26 February 2010. Radio República is now leasing time from the Radio Canada International transmitter near Sackville, NB. See Canada and Cuba entries in DX Listening Digest, 25 February 2010. Posted: 27 Feb 2010 (Kim Andrew Elliot, www.kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** CYPRUS [and non]. 15587-15612, strong OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, Feb 28 at 1504, interfering most with WEWN 15610 and something on 15605, while REE 15585 just barely escaped. OTH radar pulsing, presumed from here, March 2 at 1429-1432: 18230- 18380 with several peaks amid, and 18550-18580. OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, March 3 at 1412 on 15258-15283, so 15285 Wertachtal escapable by off-tuning upward. Still same at 1512 recheck. Then at 1516 heard exactly same sound but much weaker on 15738-15763 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA [and non]. R. Prague might want to reconsider retaining 11600 and dumping 13580 in its one-transmitter-at-a-time austerity measures, for Spanish at 1500. March 3 at 1504, could make out RP theme and Spanish on 11600, but co-channel from weaker station with music, plus het. Nothing else scheduled, and not the Cuban noise jamming which starts at 1600, but maybe still to do with the Cuban radio war, or something out of east Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI [non]. Re 10-08: New station - Voix de Djibouti on 15165 Checked at 1500 and 1530 on a number of remote receivers in Europe, nothing heard (Hans Johnson, FL, Feb 25, dxldyg via DXLD) Newly discovered clandestine La Voix de Djibouti, 15165, confirmed Feb 25 at *1530-1629:30*. Had looked for it starting before 1500 as there was conflicting info about correct schedule, but nothing there, until cut on abruptly at *1530, with music, anthem? Then brief announcement, also brief Qur`an, more talk in non-French, mentioning kHz, and a .com. Presumably all in Somali and still so when local noise, power-tooling neighbor overrode at 1610-1619. By 1619 when that cleared up, station had switched to French; sounds like a lot of platitudes. Dave Kenny, who had no such noise interruption, says French started at 1612. Cut off the air at 1629:30* sharp before speaker was finished. So it`s coming from a transmitter site with precision timing, but no clues beyond that. Signal at start was S9+10 with flutter and diminished somewhat during the hour. Tnx to Chris Greenway for uncovering this, which has allegedly been on the air every Thursday since 7 January. More in French only at http://www.lavoixdedjibouti.com/ About time Djibouti, the former French Somaliland, Afars & Issas, had its own clandestine! Website indicates it is that, ``free and independent voice,``, etc. Emissions Radio page axually linxs to mp3 files of the seven/eight broadcasts so far, and there are also apparently full French transcripts on the next page. I did not realize Djibouti was so mountainous, even above the timber line, judging from the only illustration on the website. Hints it may be based in Colorado? (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1501, 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I tuned to 15165 at 1555 and heard a language that could be Somali. At 1600 there was a definite mention of "Djibouti". French noted at 1618. Decent reception (Bruce Fisher, (Lexington, MA, Palstar R30CC, 100 ft. longwire), dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This station is audible right now. Heard from tune-in at 1605 UT with good signal here in the UK on 15165. Talk in Somali with many mentions of Djibouti and ID heard as "Voix du Djibouti" (even when speaking in Somali). Into French at 1612 mentioned "nouveau radio.... Voix du [sic] Djibouti" (Dave Kenny, Caversham, Berks, AOR7030+ / 25m long wire, 1614 UT, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here in Finland good signal on 15165 kHz, ID at 1531:30 as: "Halkan wa Idha'adda ... Odki Djibouti". 73, (Mauno Ritola, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nothing here at 1640 on 15165 (Jorge Freitas, Bahia, Brasil, ibid.) If there's still any doubt about the time of this broadcast, the clip on the Interval Signals Online website includes a frequency announcement in French. Go to http://www.intervalsignals.net and navigate to 'Djibouti' (Dave Kernick, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also heard here in Copenhagen 15.30 until abrupt sign off during a French talk at 1630 on 15165. Fair signal. 73, (Erik Køie, Denmark, ibid.) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 5010 – is it R. Pueblo/Cristal here, or Honduras HREZ, or Madagascar? See UNIDENTIFIED ** ECUADOR [non]. 12025, Feb 28 at 2141 VG signal in Arabic, YL giving a website with English words in it but she spells them with French pronunciation, and then gives an address in Spain! How`s that for multinationalism? It`s HCJB`s Arabic half-sesquihour at 2100 transmitted from Sackville, which HCJB Global HQ in Colorado assured me is really their own ministry, except they dont`t call it HCJB; nor did I hear anything about the obsolete Andes. The website given was http://www.arabicbroadcasting.com which should pull in a lot of generic searchers who aren`t expecting this to be from Christian crusaders. The homepage partly in English is also seemingly secular until you dig further and look at program titles. At 2143 she gave an Apdo. In Málaga, Espagne; 2144 cut to several iterations of the RCI IS and ID, and off. We appreciate the transmitter site not being veiled, unlike Radio República relays, but does this not imply that the Canadian government somehow endorses what HCJB is doing, rather than merely selling them airtime? The casual Arabic listener might even think the program has some produxion connexion with RCI which has other Arabic broadcasts of its own. They ought to include a disclaimer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Ha2, who am I kidding? RCI currently relays 20 frequency-hours a day of ChiCom propaganda, and feels no need to disclaim that] Hi Glenn! Are you sure that this comes from Sackville? I always thought that this transmission is transmitted by VT from Europe?! (Stephan Schaa, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, I am sure. I just reported the RCI IS and IDs at the end. HCJB HQ has confirmed that in the A seasons on same frequency and time via UK site. They feel seasonal propagation variations require these site changes back and forth (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** EGYPT. Incredibly awful signals from R. Cairo, Feb 28 at 0036: 9390 big carrier but whine and undermodulated; 9915 had similar mix of talk and music, but not //, and in contrast was very distorted and overmodulated; they should split the difference? 6270 was open carrier, no modulation unlike somewhat distorted Arabic on 6290. All three of them supposedly carry Spanish starting at 0045 but 9915 and 6270 are not scheduled to open until then. 9390, at 2244 Feb 28, R. Cairo no doubt again the source of strong but unmodulated carrier except for lite whine of slightly higher pitch than 9330, with similar flutter rate; see SYRIA for further discussion. 9390 is supposed to bear the Portuguese service for Brasil at 2215-2330. What a farce (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, R. Africa, Feb 25 at 2101 tune-in to hear a loop of one somewhat musical syllable with the pitch changing as long as it lasts, repeated 270 times per minute. This kept going until 2110 when someone woke up, briefly cut to a different sound, then to R. Africa canned ID, radioafrica @ myway.com spelled out but as announcer was about to give postal address, ``you may also write us. . .`` that was cut off to a hymn introducing next gospel huxter, ``Unchanging Truth``, from the Ojai Valley Baptist Church, California, http://www.ovbaptist.com also spelt. ? but it`s really .org Next to WYFR 15195 via Ascension, about equal strength but separable. Maybe not so easily where both of them aim, at Africa. The strange 10- minute loop hints that R. Africa may have moved from the reel tape into the digital age for which it is not ready. 15190, R. Africa, at 1513 March 3, S9+10 signal, but just barely modulated preacher in English. And he is paying good money for this? So many gullible gospel huxters pays their money and never monitors, a good business for the unethical broadcaster. But the preacher gets the satisfaxion of imagining he is converting Africans (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. 7165, 21/2 1505, Voice of Democratic Alliance, 343, talk in Arabic with music in between mentioning Eritrea, Sudan, Yemen (Tony Ashar, West Java, Indonesia, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Via ETHIOPIA ** ESTONIA [and non]. Re: ``Tallinn Volmet heard on 4645 USB at 0016 January 20, identification "This is Tallinn airport", then meteo information. Reception quality was fair (Giampiero Bernardini, Italy, PLAYDX via DX Listening Digest)`` The club does not usually cover utility voice transmissions except for occasional items like this one where the country has no shortwave broadcast transmitters. Volmet is meteorological information for aircraft in flight. Reports are sent using automated voice transmissions. The Volmet network divides the world into specific regions, and individual Volmet stations in each region broadcast weather reports for specific groups of air terminals in their region at specific times, coordinating their transmission schedules so as not to interfere with one another. Most schedules are determined in intervals of five minutes, with one Volmet station in each region broadcasting reports for a fixed list of cities in each interval, the schedules repeating each hour. However Tallinn is the only Volmet station on 4645; transmissions are listed as continuous. There's a list of Volmet broadcasters, though not updated since November 2007, http://www.dxinfocentre.com/volmet.htm (Mike Barraclough, March World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. 15195, TDP / EOTC Holy Synod Radio, Mons only 16-17 UT --- RUSSIA/ETHIOPIA, TDP brokered "EOTC Holy Synod Radio" via Samara, Mons only 16-17 UT noted transmitter switch-on at 1559:47 UT, S=9+0db straight signal and some deep fades. Program started approx. at 1600:08, sacred chants, but suddenly powerful Ethiopian broadband hissing noise jammer started at 1602:40 UT. From now on, EOTC program was scarcely audible underneath noise. Ethiopian jammer covered at least 15189.6 to 15201.3 kHz broadband. EOTC broadcast probably originate via Samara, Russia transmitter site. Mon March 1st (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) At 1627 very strong here, I can hardly hear the faint jamming noise in the background. 73, (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) Hi Jari, listen to the 1600 UT and the 1652-1700 UT portion of recording, some 1800 kilometers south of Finland in southern Germany. I tuned for few seconds to next door BSKSA Riyadh Holy Quran on 15205 kHz at second #4, so you can compare the intense signals of Ethiopia 15195 kHz and Riyadh 15205 kHz ... 73 wolfy (Büschel, via DXLD) [later 1650 til 1701 UT, Monday March 1st]: Ethiopian jammer covered the EOTC signal in total, at least here in central Europe. Three times noted Horn of Africa flute music underneath jamming noise, i.e. at 1652:30, 1654 and 1655 ... 1657 UT. EOTC transmission seemingly ended at 1658:30 UT. Ethiopian jammer ended appearance today at 1700:30 UT (Büschel, ibid.) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. BELGIUM(non), Cancelled transmission of TDP from Feb. 7: Addis Dimts Radio in Amharic 1200-1300 on 21525 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Sun (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 1 via DXLD) ** EUROPE. Pirates: Mystery Radio: 6220/AM, 2308-2319+, 26-Feb; Rock tunes & ID at 2319. SIO=332 w/ute pulses, LSB helps. (Frodge-MI) Radio Amica: 7610.06/AM, 2336-2344+, 27-Feb; Italian pirate w/dance music; ID by W @2340:54. Fady, SIO=353- on peaks (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. PIRATE. 7610.05, Radio Amica, 2220-2255, Feb 27, Italian ID announcements at 2223, 2228. Pop music by Wild Cherry and others. Weak but fair on peaks (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 7610.05, EUROPIRATE, Radio Amica. 0349-0355 February 28, 2010. Fair with techo music (Gerry Bishop/Terry L Krueger at Krueger's QTH, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. PIRATE. 7600v, FRS - Holland, *0852:30-0920, Feb 28, sign on with opening music. Opening ID announcements at 0858 and 0901. Pop music at 0902. Acknowledged listeners’ reports. Poor. Weak but somewhat readable on peaks. Frequency drifting. Was on 7599.93 at sign on, drifting up to 7600.03 by 0920 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 7600, EUROPIRATE, FRS-Holland, 1031-1039, Feb 28, English. Tried 7600 & 5800 at 1000; nothing but band noise on each. Check again at 1031, just before leaving for work, & heard M announcer in EE into pop tune reminiscent of Elvis Costello/Joe Jackson style; more announcer at 1034; only able to make out the occasional word/phrase, notably, "..going back to 1999.."; brief W announcer at 1037 followed by M with "Free Radio Service Holland" in passing; presumed e-mail addy; only "FRS @.." readable; pop music at 1038; would have like to stay with it, but I had to go to work; weak-poor under band noise with a few peaks. Does FRS transmit via Holland? Yes, I count countries! (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Some ham contest is underway making 15m more active than otherwise, Feb 27 at 1427. I keep hearing stations from France, such as 21217-USB, a station preferring to speak French, which surely is a way to lessen one`s totals, ``appelle contest``, ``à l`ecoute``, and kept saying sixty-thirteen with every transmission. I was still trying to copy his F- call when he quit the frequency, perhaps frustrated with the lack of response, or too close to the next one. 21213-USB, at 1430 F6KNB was making contacts in English and French, with readings such as 59-33. QRZ.com shows it is a club station near Bordeaux with a number of photos: F6KNB, RADIO CLUB RADIOAMPT (post & telecom) 7 allée le sous bois VILLENAVE D'ORNON, 33140, France QSL: F5GGL And on 21230 approx, at 1433, TK5EP, fonetik, CQ Contest. QRZ.Com shows: TK5EP, Patrick EGLOFF Rés. Terra Rossa imm. le pinson D1 AJACCIO 20090, Corsica At 1434 on 21235, F6IPQ: MANUEL LOPEZ POUTET, LE LEDAT VILLENEUVE SUR LOT, FRANCE (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, It's the French HF Championship contest. Open to all, but France and French department contacts with France and its departments earn by far the largest points (Bob Coomler W7SWL, Cloverdale, CA, NASWA yg via DXLD) O, so French language is indeed primary (gh) ** GERMANY [non]. 9560, at 1615 March 1, DW news in English with report on Chinese guy who has been blacklisted since he wrote about Tiananmen Square, and was intercepted before he could board a plane for an apolitical literary festival in Cologne, apparently now under house arrest. His previous attempt last year to attend a book fair in Germany was also big news. This broadcast is at both 345 and 60 degrees, 250 kW each, via SRI LANKA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GOA. 15175, Feb 27 at 1548 strong S9+8 signal but lousy distorted modulation cutting off at softer points; 1550 mentioned Akashvani and then S Asian music. Don`t you believe PWBR `2009` which says this is AIR via Bangalore to E Africa. Current Aoki and HFCC agree it`s now via Panaji, in Gujarati at 1515-1600, 250 kW, 205 degrees. But neither has a way of denoting that the modulation sux, typical for Goa site but not alone in the AIR network. 15175, AIR IS at 1514 March 3, only a few audio dropouts and decent modulation for a change, flutter with S9+5 peaks, 1515 opening Gujarati (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREENLAND. 3815, 2145-2213* 23.02, KNR, Tasiilaq (USB) Greenlandic/ Danish news, KNR newsjingle, advanced music, 24332, occasional QRM from Russian utility calls (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** GUAHAN [non]. 9955, WRMI fair but jamming-free at 2236 Sunday Feb 28 during AWR Wavescan, Jeff White reading script about broadcasting in Tajikistan which will also appear in the next DXLD (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAHAN. 15660, March 2 at 1353 testimony in English about God, pronounced S Asian accent but clearly enunciated, good signal but deep fades, not flutter. 1356 switch to S Asian language giving AWR addresses including one in Maharashtra, music fill to 1359* and off without any ID, which I would have expected from scheduled KSDA. Perhaps they can`t decide whether to say Guam or Guahan? After Bengali daily at 1300-1330, the 1330 semihour is supposed to be in Assamese Sunday and Wednesday, per EiBi, WRTH, HFCC and Aoki, English all other days (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUYANA. A reply from the SW-transmitter builder: I will be going down to Guyana within a month or so to get 3290 / 5950 on the air. They had requested the wrong 5 MHz frequency and I built the transmitter for 5290. I will have it sorted out within a couple months (JAMIE Labadia, Feb 28, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. Re the unID extremely distorted Spanish on 3290/3287 I have heard between 02 and 0355* on two occasions: not on every night, but David Crawford, FL, tells me he was able to identify its ``tortured FM`` as Radio Luz y Vida, nominal 3250; that was my second possibility after HREZ 3340, both of which have been missing from their assigned frequencies (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Looking at 3290 and hear noise, but nothing to report, this with a 90 meter band dipole. Had 3250 possibly a week ago on slightly lower frequency, possibly. 3340 has been off for several weeks. Best of 73s (Bob Wilkner, FL, 0020 UT March 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Band scan 0000 to 0110 3 March 2010: [including] 3250, Honduras, Radio Luz y Vida, San Luis, 0046 OM in español, good signal, return to frequency (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach Florida, Drake R8, Icom 746proDL, HCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) ** HONDURAS. 5010 – is it HREZ, R. Pueblo/Cristal, Dominican Republic, or Madagascar? See UNIDENTIFIED ** INDIA. AIR Itanagar: on 4990 kHz is again off the air at least in the last 7 days. They seem to be having quite a few problems with this transmitter. 28/2 (G. Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, Feb UADX via DXLD) Now here comes our Indian correspondent Partha Sarathi Goswami: AIR Kurseong – (re 4895 kHz) talked with stations Assistant Engineer (+91-9434047974) and get to know that the power transformer of the BEL transmitter was burnt, and it came few days ago after rewinding of the core but not functioning properly, hence it will take few more days to repair and start the SW transmitter. He also confirmed that they have only one 1 kW standby SW transmitter which is running but it doesn’t have much coverage out of the Kurseong hills. AIR Kohima – [4850]. It was a very nice experience to talk with Station Engineer Mr. K. K. Regma (+91-94360-01279); he was very pleased and appreciated our listening habits, but he said that it’s a very sad experience that the power supply is irregular for the SW transmitter and their insufficiency of the staff are the main problems running the SW transmission regularly. He also admitted that he likes very much when listeners write from Oslo or USA. Also said they do verify the reports with QSL (Partha Sarathi Goswami, India, ibid.) Grrreat!! Partha, that’s the way to go, the UADX way of digging deep. My report has gone out and hope it gets a QSL (Ed. Victor Goonetilleke, Feb UADX via DXLD) Vande Mataram – info about the controversial national song as opposed to anthem, "I do homage to the mother" heard on many AIR stations such as at sign-on 1318 UT on 9425, 9470: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vande_Mataram (tnx tip from UADX, via gh, DXLD) ** INDIA. 9690, AIR GOS carrier March 4 already on at 1318 with that hum we`d recognize anywhere. Sesquihour transmission to SE Asia does not start until 1330. Music at 1357 check seemed to have less hum that usual but still some. 9425, AIR National Channel via Bengaluru, March 4 at 1320-1321 playing Vande Matarm, the ``national song`` as it does every day at sign-on, 1321 announcement with frequencies; fair (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. The totally unnecessary collision between PNG and Indonesia on 3325 is normally within SAH range, but March 1 at 1316 I am hearing music on 3325, and an AH on the lo side, about 3324.8 with different weaker music. 1318 on 3325 YL DJ speaking Indonesian, seems to take phone call. So apparently it`s 3325 RRI Banjarmasin vs 3324.8 R. Buka. Nothing audible on any of the other 90m PNG frequencies. Next day, March 2 at 1327, I hear music on 3325, no het. 4750 fair with music, Indo talk, March 2 at 1325, RRI Makassar. Any other Indo signals on 60m obscured by noise level; something on 75m obscured by QRhaM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3976.05, RRI Pontianak, 1415-1423+ Feb 25. OM & YL chatting, laughing, taking phone calls. Fairly good signal but Ham QRM. (Wilkins-CO) 3995.03, RRI Kendari, 1432-1452 Feb 25. M fielding phone calls; occasional vocal selection. Good signal, about equal to Pontianak, but without the ham QRM. Slowly deteriorating as ToH neared (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Feb 25, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. Re 10-08: CORRECTION: I heard unidentified RRI station on 4869.9 kHz, not on 4896.9 as last issue. Sorry for my typo (Iwao NAGATANI, Japan, Japan Premium Feb 26 via DXLD) 4869.94, RRI Wamena (presumed), Heard prior to 1200. News after 1200- 1222, then music. Definite Indonesian. Sounded like it might be // 3344.97. Was still getting bits of audio at 1310, then local QRN started. Could still see the signal spike at 1330 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA [and non]. VOI, 9525-, Feb 26 at 1444 still on the air during this hour when it is often absent, YL talk in presumed Indonesian but could be Malay, or has that language been totally dropped? Good modulation. At 1504 non-English song, 1508 ID in English but back to IndoMalay talk. VOI, after a few days on 9525- instead of 9526-, Feb 27 at 1355 found back on the higher frequency, almost --- guess 9525.85 approx. as it`s not so close to 9526.0 as before. Does this mean transmitter #3? Was off the air during most of the 14 UT hour, but next check at 1459, back on with lite music, and het from CRI East Turkistan on 9525.0; 1504 VOI English ID, then warta berita in Indonesian. Seems like VOI is missing at least one day a week, such as Monday, March 1, nothing on 9525v or 9526v at 1304 check. Next morning March 2 at 1314 it`s detectable on 9526-, but very poor due to undermodulation and heavy flutter on this and many other Asian signals. Think I recognized voice of the Banjarmasin guy who appears on the every- Tuesday ``Exotic Indonesia`` excursion. 1405 usual late VOI ID in English, into Warta Berita in Indonesian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) VOI, 9526-, March 3 at 1355, undermodulated music toward end of English hour; off the air during the 14 UT hour, but back on at 1457 check with more undermodulated strummin` `n` singin`, atop het from CRI East Turkistan 9525.0 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 9680, VOI, 1350, 2/25/10. Gamelon and shrieking vocal. Good signal level with some fading (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Feb 28, Drake R8B & Perseus SDR, Wellbrook 330S & ALA-100 Loops, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It`s RRI domestic service, not VOI ** INTERNATIONAL. IN THE AIR AND ON THE AIR WITH MANY CALLSIGNS & MANY LOCATIONS, NBC SW TRANSMITTER - Part 1 In this feature, we go back to the balloon era some eighty years ago, and we trace the history of a small shortwave transmitter that was on the air, and in the air, under three different callsigns. This is what happened. Back during the early 1930s, there was a space race on between the United States and Russia to see who could get the highest first. In 1933, plans were implemented to launch a massive high flying balloon somewhere in the United States. This would be a joint project between the National Geographic magazine and the United States army. The location chosen for launching was near Rapid City in South Dakota, and teams of personnel, civilian and army, made all things in readiness. The balloon when inflated stood at a mind boggling height. There was a strong gondola strung beneath the balloon, and it contained many scientific measuring instruments, as well as an 8 watt shortwave transmitter under the callsign W10XCX. On July 28, 1934, the launch of the Explorer balloon began with a rapid ascent near Rapid City South Dakota. Progressive observations were radioed on shortwave from W10XCX to a 200 watt station on the ground, W10XCW, for onward relay to shortwave W3XL & W3XAL in New Jersey. There are no known QSL cards verifying these relay broadcasts. Just before the Explorer reached a new record height, a tear was noted in the fabric of the balloon, and the entire craft began to plummet towards the ground. In good time, the three man crew parachuted to safety, and the gondola crashed to the ground. Soon afterwards, plans were laid for another balloon flight from the same location with similar equipment and this took place on November 11 in the following year 1935. It would appear that the previously used low powered shortwave transmitter was rescued, repaired and re- installed in the gondola for the next flight. It was still rated at 8 watts and still operating on the same channel 13050 kHz, though a new callsign was given, W10XFH. The balloon, re-designated as Explorer 2, was upgraded and fitted with a newly designed and sealed gondola and the strange craft now stood at a staggering height of 315 ft. This second flight proved to be more successful than the earlier flight and they set a new height record at 74,000 feet, a little over fourteen miles high. During this flight the Explorer 2 personnel talked with ground station W10XFN, and also to the new China Clipper airplane, callsign KHABZ, that was on a test flight in California. Relay broadcasts from the gondola were again carried by the NBC network via their shortwave stations W3XL & W3XAL in New Jersey. NBC in New York issued specific QSL cards for the transmissions from both W10XFH in the air and the 200 watt W10XFN on the ground. During this same era, Pan American Airways, known better as PanAm, were implementing plans to launch an air service across the Pacific. They procured three Martin seaplanes which they named as China Clipper, Hawaii Clipper, and Manila Clipper, though the first one, China Clipper, became the most famous. As part of a publicity plan, a shortwave broadcast transmitter was installed on the plane for its inaugural flight across the Pacific. This transmitter was the previously used light weight unit, known as W10XCX & W10XFH for the balloon flights during the past two years, though it was repaired and modified, with a power increase from 8 watts up to 100 watts. A new callsign was allocated, this time WOEH. The farewell ceremony in Los Angeles for the commencement of the inaugural flight was a gala event. The Captain, with the family name Musick, read a congratulatory letter from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, there was band music, and the usual speeches from participating dignitaries. The China Clipper flew out of Los Angeles California on Friday afternoon November 22, 1935 with a cargo of postal mail numbering 110,000 items, as well as two personnel from the NBC radio network, an engineer and an announcer. The first leg of the flight was to Honolulu, a journey of two thousand four hundred miles, a flight of eighteen hours, at an air speed of 125 miles per hour. The first official flight of the China Clipper, from Los Angeles in California to Manila in the Philippines, took almost sixty hours of total flying time, for a distance of more than seven thousand miles. Overnight stops took place at Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island, and Guam, with the final destination for this historic pioneering flight at Manila. En route, the transmitter WOEH was in use for progressive radio broadcasts to nearby radio stations. On several occasions, these broadcasts were picked up and relayed back to the United States for network mediumwave coverage. One such broadcast was taken on relay by the RCA communication station located at Kahuku on the northern tip of the island of Oahu. Other noted broadcasts were made from Midway Island and also Wake Island. As the China Clipper was nearing Manila on this first occasion, the NBC personnel aboard the plane made a broadcast specifically to the well known mediumwave station KZRM in Manila. During the following year, 1936, the NBC portable shortwave transmitter WOEH was transferred into a Douglas DC plane for a flight to Alaska piloted by the well known aviation entrepreneur, Howard Hughes. Program relays were arranged with the RCA stations at Bolinas in California, KEE on 7715 kHz and KEI on 9490 kHz. Later in the same year, Howard Hughes made another memorable flight in a low winged monoplane from New York to Paris. With him on this occasion also was the same 100 watt transmitter, WOEH. Relay broadcasts in the United States were arranged through the RCA receiving station located at Riverside on Long Island. Even though the relay broadcasts from the transmitter WOEH were heard by international radio monitors throughout the United States and in the South Pacific, there are no known QSLs verifying these transmissions. No, that was not the end of transmitter WOEH. During the next year, 1937, it was incorporated into the electronic equipment of another radio broadcasting station that was on the air in the Pacific and later in Europe. More about that next week (Adrian Petersen, IN, AWR Wavescan script Feb 14 via DXLD) IN THE AIR WITH MANY LOCATIONS & MANY CALLSIGNS - Part 2 On this occasion, we go back to the year 1934 as we trace the very interesting story of a set of radio broadcasting equipment that was on the air in many different circumstances and in many different locations. In our story today, we now assemble a brief outline of several feature topics presented recently here in Wavescan, and we show the connection between each of these historic radio events. We begin with what was described at the time as a light, compact radio transmitter that was designed and built specifically for installation in a high flying balloon. During the space race between the United States and Russia back some eighty years ago, a small light weight radio transmitter was installed in a small gondola suspended beneath a high flying stratosphere balloon. The date was July 28, the year was 1934, and the location was near Rapid City, South Dakota. Test broadcasts were made in advance from this 8 watt transmitter on 13050 kHz under the callsign W10XCX. The balloon did fly high, almost a record height at the time, but a tear in the balloon’s fabric brought about a rapid descent, with the three-man crew bailing out and landing safely with their parachutes, and the gondola crashing into the ground. The radio transmitter that was in use high in the sky was rescued, repaired and rebuilt, and it was used in the next balloon flight at the same location one and half years later. On November 11, 1935, with the equipment and crew sealed into a newly designed gondola, the balloon did achieve a new record altitude, some fourteen miles high. The rebuilt transmitter, with the same 8 watts output on the same channel 13050 kHz was on the air under a new callsign, this time W10XFH. It should be noted that QSL cards were issued by NBC in New York to verify reception reports on this specific occasion. After this successful high altitude flight, the electronic equipment was taken from the gondola and incorporated into other equipment to form a 100 watt shortwave transmitter that was installed into a brand new airplane, the China Clipper, for the inaugural flight across the Pacific. The callsign for this broadcast transmitter was now WOEH. The China Clipper set out on November 22, 1935 for an eight day flight, hopping from island to island with an overnight stay at each island. Several broadcasts were made from station WOEH during this historic event, from such exotic locations as Midway Island & Wake Island. Additional broadcasts were also made while the plane was in the air in between the islands, including a progress report that was intended for rebroadcast from the well known mediumwave station in Manila, KZRM. The National Broadcasting Company, NBC, provided two men for these broadcasts from the China Clipper, an engineer and an announcer. Early in the following year, 1936, the 100 watt transmitter, WOEH, was installed into another airplane for another historic flight, this time with the well known Howard Hughes as pilot. The flight on this occasion was from Los Angeles, up to Nome in Alaska, over to Siberia, and return. Later in the same year, transmitter WOEH was taken on yet another historic flight, this time across the Atlantic to Paris, with again Howard Hughes as the pilot. In the meantime, there was another RCA shortwave transmitter that was installed in the ship Seth Parker for broadcast usage as KNRA during a world tour beginning in 1934. After several mis-haps in the Pacific, the Seth Parker was sold and the 1 kW transmitter was removed. In the next development, all of the previously mentioned electronic equipment was taken again and this time it was assembled into a much larger shortwave transmitter, now weighing five tons and rated at 1 kW. This unit was taken to Honolulu and installed onto a small naval ship that was used as an aircraft tender. The purpose this time was to relay radio broadcasts from the Pacific back to the United States during a major eclipse of the sun in the year 1937. The ship was the Avocet, the transmitter callsign was WMEF, the location in the Pacific was Canton Island, the in-between relay station was RCA in Hawaii, and the ultimate reception station was RCA in California. On all of these above occasions, the major purpose for the usage of the little transmitter that grew and grew on each occasion of its usage, was to feed news reports and commentaries back to the NBC in New York for relay on mediumwave across the United States. However, on each occasion, as was quite common in those days, a secondary purpose for these broadcasts was for direct reception on shortwave for any listener who might be interested. After the solar eclipse in the Pacific, the transmitter was taken back to the continental United States, and placed in storage. However, five years later, this huge five ton transmitter was taken out of storage, renovated, and taken over to North Africa. Then, in August 1943, it was transported to the island of Sicily in the Mediterranean where it was set up and placed on the air in the city of Syracuse. Shortly afterwards, it was re-loaded onto a ship and taken to Bari on the west coast of Italy, where it was then taken by road across the Italian peninsula to the city of Naples and placed on the air again. In its onward journeys, this transmitter was finally taken to the city of Rome, where it was placed on the air as a temporary shortwave relay station for the Voice of America. By this time, this transportable radio broadcasting station was nicknamed as Relic, due to its age and size. So, that is the story of a shortwave radio broadcasting station that started life as a small light weight portable unit at 8 watts for use in a high flying balloon in an isolated country area in the United States in 1934, and it grew larger and larger until it ended its life as a huge 1 kW unit in a distant country eleven years later. Here is a list of its many parts and its many travel adventures:- * 1934-1935 South Dakota 8 watts 2 high flying balloons W10XCX W10XFH * 1935 & 1936 Pacific & Atlantic 100 watts 3 different airplanes WOEH * 1934 & 1935 Atlantic & Pacific 1 kW Ship Seth Parker KNRA * 1937 Pacific Island 1 kW Ship Avocet WMEF * 1942-1945 Sicily & Italy 1 kW Relay station VOA So, what happened to this historic transmitter afterwards? We don’t know, but we would presume, and probably correctly so, that the Relic was just simply abandoned in the city of Rome (Adrian Peterson, AWR Wavescan script Feb 21 via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. THE STORY OF THE GOOD SHIP SETH PARKER The story of the sailing ship Seth Parker is filled with indecision, controversy, adventure and perhaps even intrigue. In addition, the Seth Parker also provides us with a remarkable glimpse of early radio history during its developing era way back some eighty years ago. There is also an interesting sequel to the story of radio broadcasting on the good ship Seth Parker. It all happened this way. In the year 1918, a small sailing ship, less than two hundred feet long and weighing only 867 tons, was built in Portland Oregon for use in hauling lumber along the west coast of North America. It was named the Georgette. Thirty years later, the young radio entertainer, Phillips Lord, purchased the Georgette, installed a diesel engine, refurbished the vessel luxuriously, and installed a decorative radio station in its decks, all for a total outlay of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. This ship in its new condition was renamed Seth Parker in honor of the main character played by Phillips Lord himself on an NBC network radio drama. In addition, the Frigidaire company in the United States installed state of the art refrigeration and air conditioning on the vessel, and they supported the project with their advertising. They also printed an attractive advertising booklet in color, giving details about the Seth Parker and its intended round the world voyage. As part of the publicity campaign associated with the sailing of the Seth Parker, arrangements were made in advance to post attractive envelopes from various exotic ports of call in several different countries. The sale of these envelopes would of course provide additional funding for the entire project. It was on November 20, 1933, that the Seth Parker set sail from New York Harbor with twenty seven people on board; crew, staff, and radio personnel. In fact, NBC provided a 1 kW shortwave transmitter valued at $12,000 and the engineer to operate it, so that radio broadcasts on shortwave could be fed to the NBC radio network in the United States. The broadcast transmitter was licensed with the callsign KNRA, and an additional low power experimental transmitter on the Seth Parker was licensed as W10XG. Beginning at Portland Maine, the Seth Parker called in at several ports on the American east coast, and the first known radio broadcast at the beginning of this venture took place on February 13, 1934, at Wilmington Delaware. Special shortwave broadcasts were made each Tuesday evening from progressive locations down the coast, and out in the Bahamas, and also from Haiti in the Caribbean. However, controversy had already entered the scene at this stage and NBC ended their contract with Phillips Lord. The reasons for this move are unstated, but rumor would suggest that many unsavory and scandalous events were said to be taking place on board the Seth Parker. NBC in New York even made moves to send staff down to Jamaica to remove their radio station from the ship. New network broadcasting arrangements were made, and the ship moved on, down to the Panama Canal, and out into the Pacific. A shortwave broadcast was made from the Galapagos Islands; and the final known shortwave broadcast from the Seth Parker was made in February 1935 when it was some three hundred miles from Tahiti. It was at this stage that additional controversy entered the picture. The Seth Parker supposedly encountered two storms in the Pacific, off the coast of Tahiti, badly damaging the vessel. In fact transmitter KNRA was on the air with an urgent SOS message in April 1935 that was picked up by the maritime station WCC at Chatham, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Chatham Radio forwarded the information onwards to the Pacific and the British Royal Navy was asked to assist. The Royal Navy vessel, HMAS Australia, was diverted to pick up all nine people now aboard the Seth Parker, but the Australia stated that they they had encountered no storms in the area. The Seth Parker was then towed by a tug boat, the Ontario, and brought into Pago Pago harbor in American Samoa. Soon afterwards, the Seth Parker was sold for use in tuna fishing; and ultimately, it was towed to its resting place in an artificial lagoon near Kane’ohe Bay on the island of Oahu in Hawaii where it was scuttled in shallow water. At this location, the ship became a tourist attraction where it finally decayed and was demolished. During its more than a year of spasmodic radio broadcasting, station KNRA on board the Seth Parker in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was logged by multitudes of international radio monitors located in North America and the South Pacific. It is true, these radio broadcasts were intended for relay on the NBC mediumwave network throughout the United States. However, these relay broadcasts were also heard direct, off air shortwave, from many exotic seaboard locations. Several different shortwave channels were in use, and the corresponding land based stations heard in two way contact with KNRA were the RCA communication facilities located at Rocky Point on Long Island, Bolinas in California, and Kahuku in Hawaii. Additionally, KNRA was also heard on occasions in contact with station LSX in Argentina. Back in the Seth Parker era, QSL cards, generic in nature, were issued by NBC from their radio building in New York City. These cards are these days a quiet reminder of the short but hectic era of radio broadcasting aboard the now notorious schooner, the Seth Parker. Oh, and by the way, before we forget. The shortwave transmitter KNRA on board the Seth Parker was rescued by NBC personnel before the ship was sold, and it was integrated with other electronic equipment from another historic shortwave transmitter for use in radio broadcasts in the Pacific and Europe. More about that next week (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script Feb 14 via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. 15690, March 4 at 1333 fair signal with flutter mentioning Iran and referencing the International Herald Tribune; it`s R. Farda, via Sri Lanka during this hour only, then frequency ceded to Portugal which we normally hear after 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRELAND. 6295.000 Reflections Europe, 1645, mostly threshold, but clear English sermon by a man on peaks. Into hymn at 1650 and peaking to about 75% readability after 1700. Sounded like they switched to another program around 1718. Parallel 12255.000 also in, but even weaker. First time heard here. Would be curious to know what power they're running. Feb 28 (David Sharp, NSW, Australia, FT-950, NRD-535D etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Good catch of Reflections Europe on 6295 as well as 12255 - Possibly running 500 to 1000 watts. Ex Radio Fax. Regards (Tony Magon, Sydney, ibid.) 6295, Reflections Europe, 2205-2300, Feb 28, tentative with nglish religious talk. Religious music. Very weak. Very poor with adjacent channel splatter from Cairo 6290 and occasional rtty QRM. No //s heard. Sundays only (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** ISRAEL. Haifa Radio heard on 6000 kHz --- Glenn: There was nice signal propagation this afternoon and night on the 3-7 MHz range I was listening to. Very good reception of many regional broadcasters. One anomaly I did note was 4XZ on 6000 kHz. Perhaps it has been reported before, but this is the first time I've heard it on this frequency. I don't think it was a receiver mixing product considering the Drake has a fairly stout front end, but perhaps a transmitter spur or maybe intentional? 6000, 4XZ Haifa Radio, Israel navy coastal radio station ship to shore communications. 2225, Feb 27, 4XZ given in Morse over and over in CW mode. First noted here before Cuba signed on. Weak to fair signal with rapid fading. I checked it a couple hours later and could hear it under Cuba in AM mode beating against Havana's carrier (David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) David, Wasn`t this previously reported on 5000 or very close to that? Maybe they punched the wrong frequency. Interesting if you can hear it on 6000 again. Hard to imagine they would use 6000 intentionally. Was it just the marker you heard, never succeeding in any contacts? (Glenn to David via DXLD) Glenn: I did not hear any traffic, just the marker. I don't know if it was ever heard on 5000 kHz but I did find a little information on it, though it is a bit dated: http://www.astrosol.ch/53790397a40a2bb01/53790397a40a31504/index.html I would think 6000 kHz is a mistake or maybe a mixing product of some sort (David Hodgson, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6000, 4XZ, Israeli Navy, Haifa. 0426+ CW 4XZ repeatedly, atop weak Radio Habana Cuba (in English). (Terry Krueger, Clearwater FL, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Date? Probably Feb 27 or 28 ** ISRAEL [non]. 9955, Israel Radio via WRN M-F at 0600, via WRMI, I seldom tune early enough to hear before the fill music, but the latter is really nice, March 2 at 0623, electric guitar et al., 0629 WRN ID and introducing Radio Canada Internal. Not sure whether the music fill emanates from Israel or from London but apparently not Miami, where Jeff also has some neat music fill available (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY [non]. Glenn, on March 21, 2010 WORLD OF RADIO will be replaced by Radio Rasant from 1000 to 1030 CET (0900-0930 UT) on 9510. Evening broadcast will be as scheduled [Saturday 1900 UT on 6170]. Regards, (Alfredo E. Cotroneo, Wornex International SRL, Milan, Italy, March 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) i.e. on IRRS/NEXUS-IBA/EGR via SLOVAKIA ** JAPAN [and non]. 11705 via CANADA, NHKWNRJ, Feb 28 at 1400 news all about the quake and tsunami; at closing 1410 caught caster`s name, Michelle Yamamoto (is she semi-French?), the one whose dixion is so precise it almost sounds computer-generated; and since this is the final Sunday of the month, no World Interactive but instead Listening Library, classic story. I am rather sure I copied Yamamoto`s name correctly (unless there is a Japanese name sounding like Michelle??), but searching their website on her name gets zero hits --- it`s hard to find names of any newscasters or presenters, they are so modest, downplaying individuality. Or so it seemed, until I did another search on ``Michelle`` only and got a gallery of TV anchors, including her. I suppose some of the others also double on that inferior medium, radio: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/anchors/index.html I also noticed that Listening Library is ending after the March broadcast, and its hostess is named and portrayed: Yuko Aotani --- http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/listening-library/index.html Program changes always come in April with a new fiscal year. 9535, NHKWNRJ, in Japanese direct from Yamata to NAm, March 1 at 1532 with usual good signal, now playing ``Sukiyaki`` --- It`s a great tune, but I should think NHK would avoid it as too too stereotypical (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Shiokaze, Sea-Breeze via JSR, JAPAN, is back here ex-5985 where it was during February, found March 4 at 1423, YL in Japanese with mandatory sad piano music background, and nothing on 5985. No jamming audible. This 1400-1430 broadcast may have been on 5910 a few days, as we are lacking daily monitoring for it by the vacationing Ron Howard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH. 6600.000, Voice of the People, 1352, talk by a man and woman, into music. Completely readable despite white noise jammer underneath. Parallel 6518.000 also readable with jammer underneath. Feb. 28 (David Sharp, NSW, Australia, FT-950, NRD-535D etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9760 kHz, 1105 27 Feb, KBS World Radio DRM broadcast to Eu. ID is "VT Digital", not "KBS World Radio" as I would have expected. On 9545 (also from Woofferton) the DRM ID is "BBC & DW" as expected. Regards, (Sean Gilbert, International Editor - WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KURDISTAN [non?]. 3919, Voice of Iranian Kurdistan in Kurdish, new frequency after months on 3932 noted at 0355, but at 1413 was on 3936. Rather is jumping to avoid the Iranian jammers. 26/2 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi antenna), March Australian DX News via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non]. V. of Mesopotamia, 7540, 11530: see UKRAINE ** KUWAIT. 11990, After the news in English at 1838, there was a concert of folk songs commemorating Kuwait's National and Liberation Day on 25/2 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi antenna), March Australian DX News via DXLD) ** LIBERIA. A reply from the SW-transmitter builder: In regards to Liberia, (STAR RADIO), I'm not sure what the status is yet. It takes a while to get thru customs, so I doubt if they are on yet. The frequency is 4025 kHz. Chances are I will have to travel there to get them on the air. I'll keep you up to date with that situation also (JAMIE Labadia, Feb 28, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [and non]. Here`s another station without a clue what frequency they are really on! 21695, March 3 at 1405, tune in to frequency announcement in English, ``17850 at 4-6 pm, that is 2-4 pm GMT``, and shortly, ``Voice of Africa from the Great Jamahiriyah``. Have they moved on 16m? Of course not! Still on // 17725, while at 1408, 17850 bears usual BBC Somali via Cyprus (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010 – or is it R. Pueblo/Cristal, Dominican Republic, or Honduras HREZ? See UNIDENTIFIED 5010.010 USB, Radio Malagasy, 1812, noted in passing with great local music, brief talk by a man in French, then more music. Huge S9 + 50 dB signal. Feb. 28. 7105.005, Radio Malagasy, 1323, fading-in nicely with language woman, then into local music to past 1330. Feb. 28 (David Sharp, NSW, Australia, FT-950, NRD-535D etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7105, R. Madagaskira (presumed), 1410-1425 Feb 24. Vocal selections, YL chatting after each song in presumed Malagasy. Fair signal // 6134.95, also fair. A weak carrier noted on 5010 also but too weak to tell if // (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Feb 25, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR [non]. After finally getting on a clear frequency last weekend via PRIDNESTROVYE, R. Mada is missing this Sat Feb 27 from 1530, nothing on 15660, while Miraya FM via SLOVAKIA continues on 15670. Check again Sunday at same time. Has R. Mada decided to quit again? 15660 via PRIDNESTROVYE, R. Mada missing again Sunday Feb 28 at 1530 check, like it was Saturday. WRN tells me the service has not been canceled, so there must be some other problem. Nor can I hear it mixing with Miraya 15670 as it was doing until last week. However, I have not searched the entire 15 MHz band for another possible new frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAWI. MALAWI STATE RADIO TAKEN OFF AIR By Nyasa Times, Published: March 2, 2010 National broadcaster MBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 were on Tuesday off air after electricity was disconnected from the state controlled media, Nyasa Times understands. Full story at : http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/malawi-state-radio-taken-off-air.html (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, March 3, dxldyg via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. SARAWAK, 5030.02, Sarawak FM, 1348-1410 Feb 19. Regional vocals, gal announcer; a few ads and/or program notes. Good signal competing with band noise (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Feb 25, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 5030 was doing quite nicely Feb 27, gaining on Cuba 5025 before 1400, and still audible with singing and drumming music at 1422, now way above the Rebelde level. 5030, RTM Kuching, March 3 at 1402, S9+12 in talk, presumed news in Iban from Wai FM network relay, and would have been quite readable if I understood a word of Iban; some Cuba 5025 music splash, but quite a good signal for Swk. At 1454 music still audible on 5030 once Cuba had almost outfaded (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. WWCR has announced it is moving from 4775 to 4840 as of Monday March 1 at 0300-1200 UT (and as reported, tried it already during the DX Block, Feb 28 at 03-04). Apparently this notice mixes local date with Universal time, for they were still on 4775, UT March 1 at 0604-0630+, so I took the opportunity for one last time to doze off to the soporific wake-up moanings of Mauritania on 4845, unimpeded by QRMashville. That persistent ute slowly pulses on the hi side, which we will no longer be able to avoid by off-tuning to the lo side, even if the WWCR signal fades from full blast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And see also USA: WWCR ** MEXICO. XEQM [6104.8v] ausente, no escuchada el 01 de marzo de 2010 a las 0000 UT por interferencia de Radio Habana Cuba 6110 kHz y luego por Radio Canadá Internacional en español por 6100. Según el horario de transmisiones de la emisora cubana, a esa hora tiene 3 frecuencias en español: 6110, 6120 y 6140, pero 6110 kHz (la más problemática a XEQM) está atrasada una fracción de segundo respecto a las demás de la misma banda lo que hace un curioso efecto semejante a reverberación (Israel González Ahumada, Yucatán, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. 9665, Voice of Mongolia. Starting in English at 1530 and that the broadcasts from 1030 and from 1530 are both on 12085 on 25/2. But 9665 is in using all B-09. Here rumbling with N. Korean home service (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi antenna), March Australian DX News via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA [and non]. 7470, March 2 at 1338 again mostly hum, but some co-channel under in Chinese, so the latter is CNR1 jamming? Aoki shows 7470 with R Free Asia in Tibetan via Ulaanbaatar, 100 kW, 230 degrees at 11-14. HFCC does not list anything from Mongolia except their own broadcasts and RFA certainly does not admit to Mongolia! Recheck at 1437, 7470 still has the same hum, but now modulation, non- Chinese music and talk, presumably VOA Tibetan via Tinang, PHILIPPINES, which both HFCC and Aoki can list overtly. See also USA So is the hum before and after 1400 really from Mongolia, Philippines, or part of the ChiCom jamming? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. RTM missing from 15341 and 15345, March 3 at 1412. HCJB Australia not propagating so missed its chance to come thru unscathed on 15340 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. Myanmar noted today on new 693 kHz MW at around 2300 UT. It’s a bad choice as its neighbor Bangladesh is also operating on same channel with 1000 kW. Maybe it`s to jam their signals? (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Hyderabad, India, http://www.niar.org Feb 26, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) According to WRTH 2010 that would make four MW frequencies in the whole country (gh, DXLD) 7185.77, R. Myanma (presumed), 1412-1433 Feb 19. Vocal music hosted by YL announcer; no BoH break noted. Carrier is of fair strength but can't make much out due to low modulation, as noted by others. Noted daily around this time with the same format (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Feb 25, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 7185.775v MRTV, 1312, local music, then into language man to 1316. Wobbly transmitter, drifting as high as .783. Feb. 28 (David Sharp, NSW, Australia, FT-950, NRD-535D etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) MYANMAR: This month we have been observing Myanmar in depth and some amazing things have come up. This is what we mean at UADX, digging deep. Sarath has been doing a lot of background research and myself Victorg has been observing off the air activity. On around the 12th of February Myanmar made a policy decision to enhance their broadcasting and the following events have since been taking place. For those who are interested in a real study of Myanmar, the following article and background data will be of great interest. For others who are interested in hard schedules to log then, we give you the schedules separately. From Sarath Weerakoon: 5915 kHz, Myanmar Radio, Minorities and distance learning services, coming through daily with fair to good signals at our listening post in Mount Lavinia. 59 + 1015 to 1530 UT. Sign-off in Burmese and ethnic languages. The programmes of 5915 kHz [ex 4725] are undoubtedly aimed at Myanmar's key indigenous ethnic groups, Shan, Karen, Kachin, Arkanese, Kayah, Chin and Mon etc. which form about 30 per cent of the country's population of 52M and to students in remote parts of Myanmar. Very often, educational programmes are aired around 1200 UT and it appears that teaching lessons by radio and TV has become a major medium of distance learning in Myanmar's higher education system. A few months ago, Arakanese news agency, Narinjara. reported, to quote: “The Burmese military junta has extended its ethnic radio programmes to one hour long in order to propagate its strategies and activities among the ethnic nationalities of Burma. The ethnic radio programmes for seven major nationalities in Burma are aired by the Myanmar Broadcasting Service in Naypyidaw, and each nationality gets one hour on air per day in their respective languages. A listener told the news agency: The Arakanese programme is aired every day from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm. Most of the time is used for Arakanese national songs. But the radio airs the policies of the military junta between the songs, one after one, using up nearly 30 minutes. The Burmese military authorities did not allow the airing of Arakanese nationalist songs in the past, but is now attempting to draw Arakanese to listen to the radio programme. According to a local source, even though the Arakanese radio programme airs Arakanese songs through the Myanmar Broadcasting Service, the programme is less popular than the BBC, VOA, and Radio Free Asia (RFA). The majority of people are still listening to those stations to get accurate and unbiased news stories about Burma.” Unquote According to recent media reports from Myanmar, the government is striving to expand the radio transmission coverage to provide regional audiences with more local news and entertainment programmes. The focus is to attract the audiences by the superior FM mode following the success of launching the two City FM stations in Yangon and Mandalay managed by the Yangon City Development Committee and Mandalay City Development Committee respectively. As a part of this move, the Ministry of Information has granted approval to operate eight new FM radio channels in major townships in Myanmar as the reception of short wave broadcasts of the rigidly state-controlled Myanmar Radio sometimes are erratic due to atmospheric disturbances and QRM from other stations. [21 Feb 10] 5915 kHz, Myanmar Radio sign-on 0030, arguably the best from Myanmar Radio, heard in Sri Lanka when the 49 MB is open for propagation [24 Feb 2010] 5985 kHz, Myanmar Radio National service, from +1000 to 1530 UT in Burmese and in English 1530-1600 UT from the studios in Nay Pyi Taw, the new administrative capital of Myanmar, apparently built in secret by the ruling generals and announced to the public about four years ago! The offices of Myanmar Radio and Television [MRTV] moved from Yangon to the new capital, piece by piece in Sep 2007 and completed the transition a year later. It would be interesting to find out how many transmitters in Yangon were relocated in Nay Pyi Taw, which is situated about 320 km north of Yangon. My understanding is that 594 kHz from Nay Pi Taw and the others are relayed by Yangon. [22 Feb 2010] 7185, Myanmar Radio, Sign-on 0030 UT. Following the announcements in Burmese, Buddhist chants / talk to commence the morning transmission past 0100. [24 Feb 2010] 9731.75 kHz, Myanmar Radio, National Service, +0430-0700 UT in Burmese and 0700-0730 in English. ID "This is Nay Phy Taw Myanmar Radio". News and local weather report in English from 0700 to 0710 UT, followed by western music until s-off 0730. This transmission goes off the air just after the closing announcements of the English segment. A few seconds later the carrier of a different transmitter comes on the air followed by a musical interlude and announcements in vernacular. Heard them announcing two frequencies in kHz, Presumably one on MW and the other on SW. * 0730-1000 UT. Appears to be the day time transmission of the service dedicated to the minorites. [23 Feb 2010] SOME HISTORY WHICH IS VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THE DEVELOPING STORY. The radio programme was first launched on 15 February 1946 with one 7.5 kW short-wave transmitter and one 5 kW medium-wave transmitter. In 1957, three RCA 50 kW short-wave transmitters and one RCA 50 kW medium-wave transmitter were added. In 1971, programmes were extended with the use of a new CMEC 50 kW medium-wave transmitter. January 1988 saw the introduction of FM system along with three RIZ 50 kW short- wave transmitters and two AEG 100FM medium-wave transmitters. In the past, FM programmes could be received only in Yangon and its surrounding areas. Hence, the Ministry of Information added three more 100 kW medium-wave machines and one 50 kW short-wave machine and extended the broadcasting time of the main programme and national races language programmes. During the time, 82.83% of the nation's population could receive medium-wave programmes and 53.02% were within the reach of short wave programmes. With the participation of private entrepreneurs in launching FM radio programmes, Padamyar FM in the north of Myanmar is transmitting radio programmes to the people residing in Kachin State and Sagaing Division, Shwe FM in the south of Myanmar to those in Mon State and Kayin State, Pyinsawady FM in the west of Myanmar to those in Rakhine State and Ayeyawady Division, Cherry FM in the east of Myanmar to those in Shan State and Kayah State, Mandalay FM to those in the central Myanmar and Bagan FM to those in Chin State and Magway Division. If the FM stations in Popa, Thandwe, Kyaungkon, Taungoo, Pyay, Minhla, Bilin, Kawthoung, Monywa, Myitkyina, Lashio, Kengtung, Tachilek, Loikaw and Minbu are completed, the people across the nation will be able to listen to Myanma FM radio programmes. Just like the radio programmes of FM, Nay Pyi Taw Myanma Athan is presenting regular and national races programmes clearly with sophisticated technologies. The people from Kachin, Shan and Kayin States and Taninthayi Division have already had access to the programmes of Nay Pyi Taw Myanma Athan. Now most of FM radio stations produce their programmes from 6 am to 10 pm. Soon, radio programmes will be presented to the public from 5 am to 11 pm. Plans have been under way to extend FM radio transmitters in Putao, Phakant, Laukkai, Tamu, Haka, Sittway in the first phase; Mogaung, Mohnyin, Kunlon, Lashio, Kannaydi, Buthidaung in the second phase; An, Peinnetaung, Taungup and Thandwe in the third phase. On completion, the people across the nation will be able to enjoy listening Myanma Athan radio programmes. In addition, Myanma Athan radio programmes were posted on the Internet starting from January 2003 and therefore, the people can listen to the programmes while working. With the success of transmitting radio programmes, Myanma Radio and Television had only 15 TV retransmission stations before 1988. Now, there are 25 retransmissions in Kachin State, 7 in Kayah State, 8 in Kayin State, 11 in Chin State, 24 in Sagaing Division, 17 in Taninthayi Division, 5 in Bago Division, 6 in Magway Division, 6 in Mandalay Division, 2 in Yangon Division, 5 in Ayeyawady Division, 6 in Mon State, 12 in Rakhine State, 82 in Shan State totalling 216 in the country. All these stations are presenting radio [sic] programmes to 91.72 percent population of the whole nation. [From New Light of Myanmar 05 Jan 2010] ON AIR OBSERVATIONS: As stated earlier on the 13th of February suddenly 7185.75 kHz appeared, vacating 7200 kHz to which it had moved in March ‘09 (27 approx) in keeping with the ITU regulations giving Amateur Radio exclusive use of 7000-7200 kHz. Along with the move to 7185.75, two other transmissions have developed as of writing on the 27th of February. A mid-day service also commenced on 7185.75 0730-0930 UT and an evening service at 1130 until close down at 1530 UT. In addition some more changes took place on 9730 starting at 0230 with one hour of English until 0330. And English again 0700-0730. This transmitter goes on till 0730 when Yangon’s old transmitter comes on 10 seconds after 9730 goes off at 0730.10 on 9730.85 kHz and goes on till 1030 UTC. Also an interesting observation has been that audio from the transmitter on 5985 is also heard weakly under the transmissions on 7185.75 and 9730.85 but not on the other frequencies, making us believe that 5985, 7185.75 and 9730.85 are all located in Yangon while probably 5915 is located in Nay Pye Taw, the new administrative capital of Myanmar. To further confirm our belief, we have found that the known Yangon Medium Wave transmitter on 576 kHz is synchronized with 5985 while Nay Pyi Taw 594 kHz which is much stronger is a fraction of a second ahead of Yangon. This also indicates that the programming comes from the new capital Nay Pyi Taw. Therefore what we have discovered is that there are 4 SW transmitters operated by Myanmar Radio, in addition to the 10 kW SW (believed) operated by the Defense Service station at Taunggyi on 5770 kHz. We have not observed any new transmission from the 5770 outfit in February. And finally we have also observed that the third MW frequency of 729 kHz carrying the minority and education services is synchronized with 5915 which is also probably in Nay Py Taw. Thus the schedule as observed is as follows effective 28th February 2010. (Subject to change even as I type!!). It has been fascinating to keep track of what is going on in Myanmar. 5915, 2315-0430, 0730v-1500* // MW 729 5985, 2300-0130, 0930-1600* (English 1530-1600) // 576, 594 7185.75, 0030-0230, 0730-0930, 1130-1530 9730, 0230-0730 English 0230-0330, 0700-0730 9730.85, 0731-1030. Transmitters on 5915, 9730, 594, 729 from Nay Pyi Taw AND 5985, 7185.75, 9730.85 believed to be in Yangon (Victor and Sarath W) Sarath Weerakoon, Mt Lavinia, Sri Lanak: Icom R71E and long wire. Victor Goonetilleke, Piliyandala, Sri Lanka: Icom R71A Log Period and dipoles for 80 & 40m. P.S. report just in from Jose Jacob: Myanmar noted today(27/2) on new 693 kHz MW at around 2300 UT. It’s a bad choice as its neighbor Bangladesh is also operating on same channel with 1000 kW. Maybe its to jam their signals? Jose says he is not sure whether this is an additional transmitter or a move from a regular channel. Ed. Defense Forces Station in Taunggyi (10 kW per WRTVH 2010) However in Sri Lanka this is at 0030-0230, 0830-1030, 1130-1530 on 5770 kHz as monitored here in Colombo (GVG) 7185.75v, comment on Ron Howard`s logs already in DXLD: The Service continues usually till 1528, into the English segment which is off at 1600 but here in Sri Lanka CRI in Swahili is VERY strong co-channel, knocking off the sign-off formalities. I love the Burmese accent of sing song rhythm with a rising end syllable. Kinda sexy with the YL announcer! Ed. (all: Feb UADX via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. RN Spanish, good on both 9865 via Sines, PORTUGAL, and 9895 via Greenville, USA, UT Sunday Feb 28 at 0034 with ``La Fonoteca``, DJ Alfonso Montealegre, who we thought had retired last September. Replaying old shows, or an independent contractor now? Strangely, both pop songs I heard were in English; why? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. In a previous report about NHK via Bonaire on 17605 with classical music during the UT Sat 2300 hour, I mentioned that there was another Japanese semi-hour at 2100. Correxion: the parameters are indeed the same, 170 degrees, but that broadcast is RNW Dutch, as heard Feb 25 at 2106, quite good signal despite aimed across S America, and // 17810 which was running one second behind, no accident to even out power consumption; the latter aimed due east from Bonaire but also good here to the northwest (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. Alf, I cannot stress enough that no DXer email NCC. They will not confirm these reports as they are the corporation's head office, based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Please pass along to your fellow DXers to NOT send any further emails to NCC for any reason. I am volunteering to answer DX reports for our stations, and I will discontinue this practice if reports are sent to NCC. Sorry, but I cannot stress this strong enough. PLEASE inform all DXers you know, and post same on any blogs, bulletin boards or websites you may use. Thanks, Richard King Hi Alf, I just received a letter with a D report of CKCM on 680 kHz on January 27th. 2010 from 02:10-02:26 UTC. He included an American Dollar bill for postage. We will not accept money for postage for mailed DX reports. Besides, One American Dollar does not cover the postage from Canada. Please post, and I've stated this before, we will not accept money for postage, only Self-Addressed, Stamped envelopes with sufficient postage attached. Adolf's DX report will not be answered and the money cannot be returned. Richard King, K-Rock 101.3 / 102.3 (CKXG-FM), Grand Falls-Windsor, NL, Canada (via Alf Persson, Sweden, Feb 27, mwdx yg via DXLD) ?? CKCM is on 620, not 680. This apparently applies to VOCM 590 and several other affiliated NL stations in the 501x) group in WRTH 2010 listings pages 133-134, most of which have individual postal addresses other than Nova Scotia anyway (gh, DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. RNZI with continuous tsunami coverage before and after 21 UT Feb 27 on 17675, reports from Hawaii, warnings to other islands. Unfortunately with the usual adjacent QRM from stronger CVC Chile 17680, which had continuous quake coverage all afternoon. Thus the only two stations directly covering the quake/tsunami on 16m are interfering with each other despite plenty of other clear frequencies on the band as this colossal mismanagement of SW frequencies goes on. Was not hearing R. Australia until after 2200 on 15560 with of course news on same subject, but 2205 into regular Correspondents Report program (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, I too followed this. CVC was clear from tune in at 1935 until RNZI came on at 2100 UT. I can separate them here with some tuning and turning of the log, but since I do not understand Spanish I migrated to RNZI. The one thing that bothered me about the CVC coverage was the constant drum beat background music. This was a disaster, not a dance club. 73 (Mick Delmage, Alberta, ibid.) There was considerable traffic on the dxldyg about online monitoring of tsunami warnings in Hawaii and across the Pacific, but since that fizzled, omitted here (gh) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirates]. 6925 USB, Radio Ga Ga, 2305-2319*, Feb 26, ID. Music by The Allman Brothers, BTO, Santana. At 2319 they announced they would “be off the air temporarily.” Good signal. 6925 USB, Outhouse Radio, 2025-2038*, Feb 27, rock music. ID. Poor signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NORTH AMERICA. USA, HOBBY PIRATES, 6930 USB, Radio Gaga poor with funky music 0540 28 Feb, frequent idents. Logged past 0605 UT. UK/USA, HOBBY PIRATE?? 6925 USB, Radio Impact, British operator, poor- fair with presumed relay from a North American-based transmitter, poor-fair 0700 past 0800 28 Feb. Something still there 0855 but deteriorating signal (Bryan Clark, Mangawhai, New Zealand, AOR7030+ and EWEs to NE, E & SE, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Updating my recent email, after reviewing tape recordings of last evening's pirate activity, I can confirm that Radio Impact was being relayed by US operator Outhouse Radio. A different station was being relayed at 0855 UT - possibly called Centrus Radio or Centrus Shortwave (Bryan Clark, 0239 UT March 1, ibid.) Bryan, There was a well known UK free radio station called Radio Impact which quite regularly broadcast from 1978 to 1980 for two hours Sunday mornings. Maybe a relay of one of their programmes, I have a cassette tape of the Radio Impact story. Here's one of the operators` YouTube channel with two uploads of broadcasts: http://www.youtube.com/user/JeffStuart1 and his mylive page, real name is Barry Gibson: http://jeffstuart.mylivepage.com/ (Mike Barraclough, UK, ibid.) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirates]. 6930 USB, Radio Ga Ga, 1940, Feb 28, rock music. ID. Weak but readable. 6950.7 AM, Pirate Radio Boston, 2010-2020*, Feb 28, pop music. IDs. Charlie Loudenboomer announcer. Email address and Stoneham, MA address. Good. Strong (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NORTH AMERICA. 6925-USB, USA (PIRATE), Wolverine Radio. 0155-0218* February 27, 2010. Good signal. Several alt-rock songs in a row that stumped two modern music experts! Google is your friend. "Stella" was The Tubes. "Sugar Daddy" was by The Hot Toddies, a California all-girl group. Male, "Wolverine Radio" ID at 0217 followed by SSTV data send (presumably the color wolverine critter, as documented elsewhere), off (Gerry Bishop/Terry L Krueger at Krueger's QTH, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. TCS Sunday: Flower Power, Far Out, man! Greetings, mates! The Crystal Ship is going on the air this evening on 5385 kHz AM. Transmission will commence shortly after 2300 UTC, and likely continue through 0030 UTC or later. We'll be grooving to the sounds of the 60s, so break out your peace, love and understanding. If you have misplaced them, we shall try to help you locate them (John Poet, The Crystal Ship, Feb 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST via dxldyg) The Crystal Ship tipped us to another Sunday evening broadcast on 5385, and there it was at 2327 check Feb 28 with music, good signal tho not as strong as Cuba 5025 or Mauritania 4845. More like 5385.2. Unfortunately, too much going on to stop and listen. Still going at 0101 March 1. I am adding their E-QSL recently received for a previous broadcast, to my gallery at http://www.worldofradio.com/QSL.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Crystal Ship on 5385 at 0128 UT playing 50's Rock, Roy Orbison, Beatles, fair with selective fading by 0139 UT in English with announcements (Noble West, Clinton TN, UT March 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. PIRATE - tuned in to 6925 USB on 3 March 2010 at 2335 UT and picked up Radio Free Euphoria. Rock music and clear ID's. Heard the Doors "You're Lost Little Girl" at 2355, followed by offer for an e-QSL for correct reception reports to radiofreeeuphoria @ yahoo.com ID and off at 0005. SINPO=35333. 73's, (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6925-USB, March 4 at 1424 a pirate with novelty songs. The music was so continuous that at first I thought it was carrierless, but during some pauses barely detected a reduced one. Signal kept the meter peaked at S9+12, and needed some attenuation to avoid pumping; SINPOly I would put it at 35544. 1427 faux-cigarette ad mentioning Maharishi, so is it the Voice of the Runaway? 1428 promo Bozo TV on YouTube, so is this WBZO? No, it`s ``Captain Ganja, here on Radio Free Euphoria``, and back to the rest of the show. One suspects there are a lot more pirate program names than transmitters out there. 1437 mentioned that he was going to raid the refrigerator after the broadcast; offering a twisted (?) E-QSL for reports to radiofreeeuphoria @ yahoo.com or captainganja @ wbcq.com and referred to a website for his artwork, but didn`t catch it, only mentioned once. 1440 song about marijuana, 1445 ``Don`t Bogart That Joint``, 1448- 1450* SSTV and off with no further vocalisms (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. 17590, R. Sultanate of Oman, Feb 19, 0450-0504, 34333-33333 Arabic, Talk, Gongs and ID at 0500, News. Also Feb 20, 0512-0522, 34433-33433, Arabic, Arabic music and talk, ID at 0513 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium Feb 26 via DXLD) 15140, R. Sultanate Oman, 1635, 2/24/10. Arabic service. OM & YL in extended talk. Poor to fair, but faded away by 1648 (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Feb 28, Drake R8B & Perseus SDR, Wellbrook 330S & ALA- 100 Loops, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. RADIO ALTURA ON EXTENDED SCHEDULE --- 5014.33, Radio Altura, Cerro de Pasco the strongest Latin on 60 metres tonight (due Radio Rebelde Cuba 5025 on open carrier). Noted with full identification in Spanish 0509 UT 25 Feb. Rarely heard at this time, so maybe special event? (Bryan Clark, Mangawhai New Zealand, AOR7030+ and EWEs to NE, E & SE, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 18057.9, R. Victoria, Lima, third harmonic of 6019.3, could not pull in the fourth morning I tried, but did manage that afternoon, Feb 25 at 2109 with just barely audible singing. We are fortunate its frequency is unique, making re-IDs unnecessary. The R. Victoria harmonic on 18057.9 has not been audible this week. I figured it was just due to propagation, but there could be another reason: Fundamental 6019.3 off the air! Nothing there as I tuned by around 0700 UT March 4. Are others noting 6020.0 stations hetless elsewhen? A mixed blessing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES [and non]. 7480, Vietnamese-like language but not really, March 4 at 1324, atop oscillating/whine jamming. But at 1327 speaker concludes with ``amen``, and then a hymn. Also some intermittent ``running water`` ute QRM. 1329 YL announcement sounds like a different dialect; 1330 mentions Vietnam and Jesus Christ. FEBC, 50 kW due west from Iba site is scheduled in tribal languages only, 13-14. Per Aoki, at 1330 on Thursdays they are going from Stieng Bulo to Katu (also 1300 in Sedang, 1345 in Bru). So why in the world is this being jammed? Maybe because WRN has also reserved 7480 at 13-15 via Tashkent, so is there now something new and offensive to China or more likely North Korea? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES [non]. 11715, this time, Sat Feb 27 at 1509, Catholix vs pseudo-Catholix, RVA via VATICAN had the upper hand over KJES, which amounted to an annoying lo het. 1510 a snippet of Olympic theme music but Tagalog talk to follow seemed unrelated to Vancouver. In homage to American colonialism, the talk included numerous words and expressions in English, such as: ``presidential candidates``, ``interviews``, ``they`re all basically the same``, ``corruption``, ``employment``. 1518 another Olympic theme fragment and on to next topic. Tsk2, The Church is meddling in pilipino politix!! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. 11675, PRES via AUSTRIA, Thursday March 4 at 1339 caught the last part of Multi-Touch, solo-hosted by Swavek Chefs, about reception in the Dominican Republic by a visiting Finn, Reijo, who p-mailed a hefty report plus a postcard, and then someone complaining on the phone from England. Ended already at 1346 music break, 1350 YL with discourse on potatoes, and how they got their names in Polish. I soon found the MT program ondemand which started with discussion of low internet access in Poland: http://www.thenews.pl/radio/multimedia/artykul126796.html Multimedia used to start around 1324, so apparently has been shortened, as 1324 is still the time shown on the player, which however stopped after about 10 minutes before I got to the part where I intuned (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PRIDNESTROVYE. Moldova/Pridnestrovie(?): 6240, Radio PMR Info was that English was supposed to be at 2315 but that didn't happen, at least today! I heard French until 2313, then into German, with IS and ID. German program had MANY mentions of Moldova, and Pridnestrovie. Into English with IS and ID as "This is Tiraspol, the capital of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic" and "Radio PMR" at 2330. Mentions of border disputes with Moldova, Defender of the Fatherland Day/Men's Day (I LIKE the sound of that holiday!) in Russia (Feb 23) - - kind of a Russian Veteran's Day/counterpart to the international Woman's day stuff, and mention of the Deployment of Western troops and weapons in Romania and Bulgaria. They closed English at :42 w/address, and email address of radiopmr @ inbox.ru mentioned, but asking for SASE if you want a paper mail reply apparently; into French after a brief Interval Signal, and going until the TOH when the Radio Moscow IS sounded, and it went into RMWS [sic, sic]. Now the commentary part of the logging. :) Judging from the broadcast I heard, and web resources, there is no love lost between Moldova and Pridnestrovie (or the Pridnestrovskaia Moldovaskala [sic] Respublica" as they say...) yet HFCC calls the transmitter site Kichinev, which, according to the map and the geographic coordinates is well west of the river the Pridnestrovians call the border, so the transmitters appear to be in Moldova proper. Some sources have said the transmitter is actually in Grigoriopol, which IS on the right side of the border to be in Pridnestrovie, which makes a lot more sense. However, 'the usual sources' disagree and HFCC doesn't even list Grigoriopol as a transmitter site. So, assuming for argument's sake that this is from Moldova, how is it that the programming and attitude of the station is so ANTI-Moldovian, and yet it IS on the air (particularly in light of what the PMR sources claim is such an oppressive and censorship loving regime in Moldova!). So, in short, what's up with that? :) Heard well SIO 443+, from 2310-2400* 22/Feb 6240, Radio Moscow World Service [sic] with English news, and talk re current events. BANGING in but there was an annoying rumble (maybe local QRM?...) marring reception. SIO 4+44 until the BoH when the rumble got really bad (SIO 4+32 and started almost sounding like jamming of some sort. LSB helped clear it up, but still not great reception. Could this be spurblobs from Cairo on 6270/6290? There is some sort of digital hash (DRM?) on 6230 ... was that the source? Hard to pin this one down! 0200-0240 26/Feb (Kenneth Vito Zichi, Williamston MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) Since it`s UT Sunday, Radio PMR is back after its 2-day weekend break, Feb 28 at 2252 in English, good signal on 6240. The first thing I hear is propaganda, ``victorious fatherland`` about a 1972 memorial on the 28th anniversary of the liberation of Tiraspol from the Nazis. So now it is the 38th anniversary of the 28th anniversary! Get over it? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. 9470, carrier with intermittent Russian tune-up tones, Feb 27 at 1352 atop AIR Aligarh // but not synch National Channel via Bengaluru 9425. No Russian in Aoki, but in EiBi and HFCC as VOR, Moscow site in Russian to ME starting at 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [non]. 9525, ``Vui Slushaete Radio Eho Kavkaza`` ID at 1800, s/on // 9780 in Russian on 24/2. Resumed broadcast, produced in RL studio but ID is as of different station. Radio Echo of Caucasus (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi antenna), March Australian DX News via DXLD) see also ABKHAZIA ** RUSSIA. My search for further harmonix in the 18+ MHz range is proving fruitful. Feb 28 at 1413, I found some weak talk in a south Asian language on 18450. Since there is nothing on 9225, and the digits in 18450 add up to a multiple of three, this must be a third harmonic, of 6150. Very weak at margin of noise level, kept going past 1430, and at 1458 heard giveaway YFR ``Gott sei die Ehre`` themehymn, and still going past 1500. Cannot // this to 6150 as nothing from Europe would propagate at this hour on 49m. Thank God YFR uses the same music in all its languages. Looked up later, this is Punjabi at 14-16, per Aoki, 250 kW, 110 degrees via Krasnodar site; per HFCC, language not specified, 300 kW, 100 degrees via Armavir, which are really the same place. EiBi agrees it`s Armavir, but language as Urdu. WRTH Feb update seems to have anticipated our question, but like all the others, omits the harmonic: Punjabi Days Area kHz 1400-1600 daily SAs 6090sam (delete), 6150arm (not Urdu) (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. 6075, R. Rossii, Pet/Kam, March 3 at 1359-1400+*, motorboating as usual and impossible to zero-beat, no sign now of 8GAL V/CQ marker on 6074. Once RR was off, weak Chinese on 6075, either RTI or ChiCom jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 11915 // 11930, March 1 at 2230 Qur`an recitations alternating with Arabic talk. 11930 still has leftover DentroCuban jamming pulses against Martí which finishes at 2200. BSKSA Riyadh is scheduled until 2300, 295 and 270 degrees respectively. But both these were off before 2300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. A quick tune around the 21 MHz band with the Icom and inverted vee revealed, amongst some unidentifieds, the following: March 3, 2010 21600 at 1346, BSKSA, Riyadh, In Arabic. OM chanting. Some fairly shallow QSB. //21460. Carrier abruptly switched off in mid sentence at 1355. S-Meter: S9+30 21460 at 1354, BSKSA, Riyadh, In Arabic, // 21600 (but 15 dB weaker), until 21600 carrier off at 1355. OM Chant continuing on 21460. S- Meter: S9+10 21640 at 1332, BSKSA, Riyadh, In Arabic. // 21505. OM interviewing(?) another OM on what sounds like a telephone. Into YL talking over some classical/Arabian type music then second YL joined in. S-Meter: S9+40 21505 at 1351, BSKSA, Riyadh, In Arabic, // 21640 (but 10 dB weaker). Appears to be some kind of play with vocal exchange between YL and OM, then alarm clock bleeping (!). Into OM talking over typical Arab music. S-Meter: S9+30. 73 de (Sean Gilbert, Buckingham, Bucks. IO92MA, Web: http://www.hfradio.org.uk dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SIERRA LEONE [non]. via Rampisham, U.K. 11875, Cotton Tree News, *0730-0800*, Feb 28, abrupt sign on with English news and interviews. Talk about education. “CTN” IDs. Vernacular talk at 0756. Abrupt sign off. Surprisingly good, strong signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** SLOVAKIA. 13625, R. Slovakia International IS and ID in English, good, just barely caught until off at 1427:35* March 2. This frequency is used only for Russian at 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SLOVAKIA. Religious EGR 5990 kHz in English noted on March 2nd at 6-7 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, March 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So is the latter still Tony Alamo? European Gospel Radio (gh) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5020, still hearing an open carrier, as late as 1422 Feb 27, balancing stronger Malaysia 5030 on the other side of fading-out Cuba. At least I can`t make out any modulation on 5020. If SIBC is so impoverished, that they can`t print QSL cards, and had to drop the BBCWS relay overnight because of the electric bill, why are they still running the transmitter anyway? Remember the previous revelation that they could not even afford chairs for their studio (Well, people project better when they are standing up). I hear that they have an Optimod which should produce better audio quality, if there were any (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALIA [non]. SOMALIA'S MOST EXCITING RADIO STATION GOES LIVE ON MARCH 1st 2010 --- By: Abdiqafar shire Bartamaha - Bar-Kulan - a radio for Somalis and by Somalis everywhere in the world, from the horn of Africa to Toronto and all places in between takes to the airwaves on march 1st at 0500 GMT. More at : http://www.bartamaha.com/?p=21881 (via Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DXLD) Viz.: Bartamaha — Bar-Kulan – a radio for Somalis and by Somalis everywhere in the world, from the horn of Africa to Toronto and all places in between takes to the airwaves on March 1st at 05h00 GMT (08h00-09h00 Somalia time). The first broadcasts will be on shortwave, on the following frequencies: 15750 kHz in the 19 meter band from 08h00 to 09h00 Somalia time as well as 9960 and [sic] 9930 kHz in the 31 meter band from 19h00 to 20h00 East African time. [i.e. the same time zone = UT +3] Soon, FM, satellite and live audio streaming will also be available. Check the Bar-Kulan website regularly for more information. Discover a new Somali Radio, a radio contributing to peace, stability and prosperity for all Somalia. A team of dedicated Somali journalists is creating this new space for discussion, exchange ideas, entertainment and education in an effort to include all who are interested security and prosperity to contribute to the dialogue. Bar-kulan is an independent Radio welcoming all political sides, business community, international organizations, such as United Nations, African Union, Arab league, Amisom, organization of Islamic conference, Igad an other countries who interested in Somalia Issues. Bar-Kulan – “Everywhere” A place that brings Somali people together Bartamaha News desk, Nairobi Kenya (via DXLD) Re ``FUNDING AND PURPOSE: UN-aided, to operate in support of UN and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) information operations in Somalia.`` It seems they do not like this description and generally look at the "DX press" with sarcasm. Anonymous post "from the director": "As with any new media outlet, the rumour mill runs rampant before the first broadcasts have hit the airwaves. We have even received reports of people listening to our programmes before the transmitter has been switched on! The most prolific rumour circulating about Bar-Kulan is that it is the mouthpiece of international organisations based in Mogadishu – this is absolutely NOT TRUE. Bar-Kulan invites all who are interested in the peace, safety and prosperity of Somalia to take part in what it is doing. The discussion table is open to everybody, and monopolised by nobody." http://www.bar-kulan.com/2010/02/27/message-from-the-director-of-bar-kulan/ (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) i.e. David Smith. Updated to this version: http://www.bar-kulan.com/2010/03/01/message-from-the-director-of-bar-kulan-3/ (Glenn Hauser, March 2, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NEW BAR-KULAN IMMINENT: Bar-Kulan Radio - New targeted broadcast for SOMALIA --- The station now tells me that their SW schedule from 1 March will be: 0500-0600 GMT on 15750 kHz (UAE); 1600-1700 GMT 9960/9930 kHz (Meyerton). This conflicts with the widely posted details that the transmissions will be from Ascension, and with 17700 given as the frequency for the one at 1600-1700 (Chris Greenway, UK, Feb 25, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-08) The 16-17 on 17700 was just a guess by DX Mix News, confused with SSRS or SSIRI starting a new broadcast there; see SUDAN [non] 9960 or 9930 are likely to be tough to hear here with WWCR 9980 overload, and not much propagation from S Africa. 9960 usually has RTTY on it too. Did anyone confirm the 0500 on 15750? (Glenn Hauser, 1544 UT March 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9960: *1554 UT VT Music. 1600 Radio Bar-Kulan, Opening ann by female, Station Jingle and HOA music. Condx with Good in Japan (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, March 1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, ibid.) At 1610 check also good here in Finland. Is it my receiver, or are they a bit low from 9960 frequency. 73, (Jari Savolainen, ibid.) 9960, at 1558 March 1, VTC ``interval signal`` the low-key music loop, so this must be the frequency chosen for the new target broadcast to Somalia, Radio Bar-Kulan; was not expecting to hear this much with WWCR on 9980 and RTTY on 9960; 1600 opening programming, including Qur`an snippet, by 1605 into Horn of Africa music, and still at 1614; RTTY not there at first, but it was dominating by 1633. Do the horn of Africans really need another SW station playing HOA music? This one is supposedly supported by the UN, altho at the end of the hour, Mike Barraclough in England heard an AWR ID, probably one of many switching errors at SENTECH. Chris Greenway, who broke news of this pending operation, reported the alternate frequency at 16-17 would be 9930, and they have a morning broadcast too at 0500-0600 on 15750 via UAE, but have yet to see any reports confirming that one (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9930 to be in A-10; see below 9960 fair on clear channel at 1637 March 1 with some fading carrying Horn of Africa music. Only slightly [off] here, 9959.96 (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth Garden City, UK, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Bar-Kulan Radio - Opening announcement at 1600 UT: http://tinyurl.com/ykggpvw (Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE, New Delhi, India, http://alokeshgupta.blogspot.com/ ibid.) Many thanks Alokesh. Clearly IDing as "Radio Bar-Kulan" rather than "Bar-Kulan Radio" (as on their website and Facebook site, and email address: barkulanradio [@] gmail [dot] com). The jingle also says Radio Bar-Kulan. These things matter to DXers! (Chris Greenway, ibid.) Horn of Africa music to 1657, announcements by lady, presumed Ko'ran, further announcements, then brief piece of music and Adventist World radio identification before the transmitter was switched off. Chris reported to DXLD that the station is UN aided in support of the UN and African Union Mission information operations (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth Garden City, UK, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Bar-Kulan Radio/Meeting Place to Somalia from March 1, (correction version): 0500-0600 on 15750 DHA 250 kW / 225 deg Somali, A-10 on same 1600-1700 on 9960 MEY 250 kW / 020 deg Somali, A-10 on 9930 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 1 via DXLD) Received a detailed reply from David Smith, Director, Radio Bar-Kulan in less than 2 days for a reception report sent on 1st March, 2010 just after the inaugral txn was over at the usual email ID barkulanradio @ gmail dot com mentioned on their website. Earlier, also received an instant auto reply from Sunni Said Salah, Senior Somali Sports Journalist & Sports Chief Editor. Here's the reply received from David Smith, Director, Radio Bar-Kulan: Quote .... Thank you for your reception report. You heard us on our very first day of broadcast. Your details are correct. This is a brand new radio station so we do not yet have QSL cards. We will get some in the future. We do not even have a letterhead yet! One of our technicians is from India and I am copying him on this reply - I'm sure he will be pleased! Soon we will also be streaming from our internet site so check bar-kulan.com for details. Best and mahadsanid, David Smith, Director ......Unquote (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, March 3, dxldyg via DXLD) 2 Comments on “New radio station launches broadcasts to Somalia” 1. #1 David Smith on Mar 3rd, 2010 at 13:31 Hi Andy, thanks for putting up info on Bar-Kulan radio. You may be interested in knowing that one of Radio Netherland’s best-known voices is also part of this project - Soule Issiaka, former head of the Francophone Africa service and more recently head and founder of the Bureau Afrique de Radio Nederland is the Deputy Director of Bar-Kulan. Together with a team of Somali journalists we are building - one piece at a time - what we hope will be Somalia’s version of Radio Okapi http://www.radiookapi.net Test transmissions are running at the moment on 15750 kHz (Dhabbaya) from 05h00 to 06h00 UTC and on 9960 kHz (Meyerton) from 16h00 to 17h00 UTC. A DSTV audio channel should be operational from about March 24th and live streaming should begin once we have the proper bandwidth to allow us to do so. An FM network is also in the works, with a TX ready to start in Mogadishu and hopefully others in Somaliland and Puntland soon. Bar-Kulan is doing on-the-job training - the programming will increase as capacity grows. Check the website for updates, including summaries of news about Somalia in English. Best, David Smith, Director - Bar-Kulan (Kenya) Director - Okapi Consulting (South Africa) 2. #2 Andy Sennitt on Mar 3rd, 2010 at 13:45 Hi David, Thanks for the additional information. Glad to know that you have Soulé on board. We miss his regular visits to Hilversum, so glad to know he’s still very much involved in radio. Please give him my warmest regards. I’m sure you have seen this recent story about Soulé, but for those who may have missed it: http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/knighthood-for-rnw-africa-journalist Good luck with Bar-Kulan, and of course please keep us informed as the project develops. Andy (Media Network blog comments via DXLD) ** SPAIN. 9690, surprised to find REE here with VG signal, March 2 at 0615, new transmission spurred by the Chilean quake?? For refugees there with shortwave radios who can`t sleep outside in the nightmiddle? Anyhow, morning news show YL was interviewing someone from Radio Cooperativa, which long ago had its own SW somewhere around this 31m frequency! Hearing that, a casual list-logger might assume they were back. But this is certainly REE, // 5965 via Costa Rica but several words ahead of it, and with the usual Vatican clash. Nothing audible from REE on 11895 or 12035, just not propagating. REE does use 9690 at other dayparts, so this could also be a mistake. What will be tomorrow? Bad news now for Romania, which is supposed to have 9690 to itself for French at 0600-0630, totally covered here if really on. As I expected, nothing from REE on 9690, March 3 at 0607, 24 hours after they had a very good signal, apparently transmitted by mistake on that frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See CHINA [and non]. 17595, big empty hole March 4 at 1311 where REE normally inbooms starting at 1300; propagation not responsible as there are plenty of Eurosignals on 16m, and beyond, e.g. TURKEY on 17700. Next check at 1331, 17595 was on with headlines in Castilian. Next2 check at 1352, more Castilian news about Euzkadi, as despite being a ``co- official`` language, Basque is too risky to run even for a pentaminute. And // 11815 via Costa Rica before the co-channel from Turkey starts at 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. The domestic Service of the Sri Lanka broadcasting corporation now identifies as Radio Sri Lanka in its English transmissions. Heaven only know why as the programme content is just the same, government propaganda, Ugh! Only on FM 96.4 The All Asia English transmission is as follows 0055-0330 (Sun 0430) 6005 10 kW, 9770 10 kW, 15745 35 kW Indian Service: 0030-0300 (Sun 0430); 0830-1230, 7190 10 kW, 11905 35/200 kW Middle East Service in Sinhala for Sri Lankans in the Gulf: 1630-1900 11750 35 kW, on Tuesdays 200 kW (Tuesdays the programme is sponsored by the Bank of Ceylon) also carried on 87.6 FM via Lak Handa. Next month we will run a full and comprehensive report on broadcasting in Sri Lanka, so make sure you reserve your copy of UADX!! (Feb UADX via DXLD) ** SUDAN. 7200, SRTC, 0225-0410, Feb 27, tune-in to Arabic talk. Chirping birds. Qur`an at 0237. Arabic talk at 0253. Local music. Poor to fair with weak co-channel QRM and some adjacent channel splatter (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** SUDAN [non]. 7315, R. Dabanga, Issoudun. Fair with ID in Arabic dialect at 0506, // 13800 Dhabbaya stronger but suffers a horrible het on 12/2 (John Adams, Beech Forest Vic (JRC NRD-535 Ewe and Folded Dipole), March Australian DX News via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) 0430-0527 on 7315 and 13800. Horrible het? Like the 1 kHz tone suspected of jamming 13800 from another site in the evening? I assume he refers to the `het` only being on 13800? (gh) 13800, R. Dabanga, Feb 25 at 1607 marred by continuous 1 kHz tone, still there at 1644 when Dabanga was speaking some kind of Arabic and ran a singing ID jingle. This tone seems to be on 13800 whenever Dabanga is, so suspect it is intentional jamming, altho there are more effective ways to do that; or possibly a transmission problem and no one has noticed? Unlikely, since it`s via the well-run Madagascar site of RNW, 1530-1727 daily, 250 kW, 325 degrees. Once again I confirmed this is a DSB tone peaking at 13799 and 13801, not a het on only one side (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. via Slovakia, 15670, Miraya FM, *1400-1648+, Feb 27, sign on with African music followed by a mixture of Arabic talk and African music. IDs. Speeches and crowd noise. No English heard until 1634 with English news at 1634-1644 about the Sudanese elections. IDs. Back to Arabic talk at 1644. No English heard at the usual 1500 time. New time for English or just a one time occasion. Fair to good signal. Via Slovakia, 7385, Miraya FM, *0300-0330+, Feb 28, sign on with Michael Jackson tune and into Arabic talk. Some local music. IDs. Good signal. Via Slovakia, 15670, Miraya FM, 1458-1648, Feb 28, No English heard at 1500. Only Arabic talk and local music. IDs. “Miraya” jingles. English news at 1631-1640. Back to Arabic at 1640. Fair but weak co-channel QRM at 1630 from unidentified station. This is the second day in a row that I have noticed English news at this new time (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) SLOVAKIA, 7385, Miraya FM Radio via IRRS SW at Rimavska Sobota in Slovak Republic: in Arabic scheduled 3-6 UT noted with S=9+20dB level at 0549 UT March 3 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, March 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 17700 noted opening at 1557:50 March 1, easy listening instrumental music, 1559:30 East African music to 1559:55 when Sudan Radio Service announcement in vernacular (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth Garden City, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Some VT Communications changes: Southern Sudan Interactive Radio Instruction* to Sudan, additional frequency: 1600-1700 on 17700 ASC 250 kW / 065 deg Arabic Sat-Thu // 11785 MEY 100 kW/nd *not Sudan Radio Service (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 1 via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) Maybe, but I too heard an SRS ID and e-mail address previously. This could anyway explain why it is not // SRS on 17745. It seems SSIRI and SRS are closely related, both EDC projects (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) ** SURINAME. 4990, presumed R. Apintie, Paramaribo, 0238-0302, Feb 26, English/vernacular. '80s power ballad by Heart; several other pop ballads in English thru ToH; very brief, canned announcement on occasion, no more than one or two words; (Tentative) "Apintie"; poor; best in ECCS-LSB (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4989.97, R. Apintie, 1030 canned ID promo by W during ad block. Fairly decent signal at the very odd late time!! Modulation seemed higher than usual too. More power maybe?? (27 Feb) (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. 9360, R. Sweden opening English at 1530 March 1, 1531 into domestic news starting with shrinking GNP; fair and clear, 125 degrees from Hörby, so we are close to directly off the back, 305 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Frequency change of Radio Sweden International [sic] in Swedish to Asia: 1200-1230 NF 11550 HBY 350 kW / 040 deg, ex 9380 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 1 via DXLD) [and non]. 11550, big collision between R. Sweden in Swedish, and WEWN in Spanish, Sweden slightly stronger and with SAH of a few Hz, March 4 at 1304. Sweden aims 95 degrees, and WEWN 220 degrees, so they imagine they can share the frequency with no such problems from a 350 and a 250 kW transmitter, each of which can really be heard worldwide (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN [non]. 15480, started looking for new transmission at 1411 March 3, but too early; at next check 1511, VG signal with SW Asian music, 1512 talk in unID language, but according to Wolfgang Büschel, it`s IBRA Radio via Rampisham UK, in Dari during this semihour amid 1430-1545 transmission in Pashtu before, Hazaragi after. Why are they sending so much RF into deep North America? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See previous report under UNIDENTIFIED [non] ** SYRIA. 9330, Radio Damascus. Feb. 19 at 2210-2230 in Spanish. SINPO 35443. News till 2212, then local song. Commentary followed at 2217 (Iwao NAGATANI, Japan, Japan Premium Feb 26 via DXLD) 12084.98, 2120, 2/24/10. Arabic vocals. Decent audio for them. Carrier had het or hum. Parallel to 9330 which had much lower audio level. S7- 8 carrier (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Feb 28, Drake R8B & Perseus SDR, Wellbrook 330S & ALA-100 Loops, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 12085, am lucky to get a carrier from R. Damascus, let alone any readable audio; Feb 25 at 2113 there was weak talk seemingly in English, with whine and flutter, ute QRM of intermittent ``running water`` on the lo side, recurrent beeps on hi side. No signal on 9330 despite the absence of WBCQ. English is scheduled on both at 21-22. Enough of that. Kris Janssen in Belgium, voluntary PR agent for Syrian broadcasting, reports in DXLD 10-08: RADIO DAMASCUS BACK ONLINE! Dear radio Damascus friends, After being for a while off-line, it is with great pleasure that I can announce the reappearance of Radio Damascus on the internet. You can download the audio recording of the daily program of Radio Damascus on the internet at the following direct links : http://www.syriaonline.sy/radio.php or at http://www.radio-damascus.net Now also available as a podcast: http://radiodamascusenglish.podomatic.com (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9330, Radio Damascus, 2120-2130, Feb 28, English talk. Local music. // 12085 - both frequencies with strong signal strengths but weak modulation making reception unusable (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) [and non]. 9330, Feb 28 at 2237, S9+10 open carrier with a lot of flutter. Has got to be R. Damascus, as nothing else is ever registered on this frequency except WBCQ earlier, and it was certainly not that. Nothing audible on 12085 supposed to be // for Spanish hour at 22-23, so either off or just way above the prevailing MUF. See EGYPT, similar signal and flutter on 9390, while e.g. Greece 9420 at a somewhat lower latitude path had no such flutter, S9+15. By 2244 I found the 9330 carrier, nominally 500 kW, 250 degrees from Adra, peaking at S9+18. Both 9330 and 9390 had lite whines, the pitch slightly lower on 9330. Perhaps these units are siblings, dating from the good ol` UAR days? As I strained to hear any modulation at all on 9330, I also compared it to other `330 signals such as CHU and decided Syria was a smidgin on the low side. Next check at 2302 found 9330 had gone off, altho registered for a further broadcast in Arabic until 0040. Perhaps the Syrians find it more appropriate to broadcast nothing in Spanish, than nothing in Arabic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAJIKISTAN. Voice of Tajik (Ovozi Tojik). Russian: only 0800-0900 on 7245 kHz (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Rus DX 28 Feb via DXLD) Listener Request: RADIO BROADCASTING IN TAJIKISTAN - Part 1 A while back, one of our listeners in India, Neelakandan Visvanathan in Tamilnadu, sent us an email message containing a request. He stated that it is difficult to obtain adequate information about the radio broadcasting scene in the former Russian republics in Asia, and he requested that we present an uptodate Station Profile on each of these countries. This is an excellent suggestion, Neelakandan, and over a period of time, we will follow your suggestion. On this occasion, we present the first Station Profile in this short series on former Russian Republics in Asia, and we choose the new country, Tajikistan. As the encyclopedias tell us, Tajikistan is a landlocked country, surrounded by five other countries; China, Afghanistan, and three of the other former Russian republics. This country is very mountainous, 93% actually, with mountain glaciers forming the source of all of their rivers. In 1910 there was a major earthquake in Tajikistan and as a result a huge lake was formed, Lake Sarez. Even down to this day, there is a continuing fear that another earthquake will loosen the dam holding back the waters and massive flooding will take place. Tajikistan is an irregularly shaped country 500 miles long with a total area of 55,000 square miles. The total population is around seven million and their capital city is Dushanbe with one million. During the earlier Russian era, the city was known as Stalinabad but in 1961 it was re-named Dushanbe which means Monday in their language, a reminder that their market day in olden times always fell on a Monday. The early history of Tajikistan goes way back some some 5,000 years to the era of its original settlers. This territory was once part of the ancient Persian Empire; and in successive eras, it was conquered by Alexander the Great, and then by the Arabs from neighboring territories, followed by the oriental Mongols, and then by Afghanistan. In the 1860s, the territory of Tajikistan was claimed by Russia. In 1929, Tajikistan was granted full republic status under the Soviet Union, and at the time of the breakup of the Russian Empire, this republic, along with several others, declared its own independence on December 21, 1991. The people themselves are known as Tajik, and they speak the Tajik language which is akin to Persian, and very closely related to other neighboring languages, including Dari in Afghanistan and Uzbek in Uzbekistan. According to the Russian Encyclopedia, the first radio station in Tajikistan was launched in the year 1928. This would have been an experimental facility, which, it would appear, did not remain on the scene for very long. However, two years later, the provincial government announced plans to formulate a radio broadcasting service, and two years later again, the State Committee for Broadcasting was established. Their original radio broadcasting station was established in Dushanbe in 1933 under the Russian callsign RV47, and it was on the air with 2½ kW on the longwave channel, 712 metres, corresponding to 420 kHz. Programming was broadcast for a couple of hours each day and it was presented in three languages, Russian, Tajik and Uzbek. In Tajikistan, there are now three major radio transmitter stations. The oldest of these was constructed in 1933 and it is located in downtown Dushanbe, right next to the large Oktober Hotel. Transmitter Hall No 1 in this double facility contains six mediumwave transmitters; 5 at 7 kW and one at 40 kW, all for local coverage. Transmitter Hall No 2 contains five shortwave transmitters; 1 at 1 kW, 2 at 5 kW, and 2 at 20 kW, all for regional coverage, with communication traffic and broadcast programming. The massive transmitter station located near Yangiyul, fifteen miles south of Dushanbe, was constructed during the Russian era and it originally contained eight Russian made shortwave transmitters at 100 kW each. Separate Transmitter Halls are located between the towers and antenna systems which extend over a distance of two miles. In addition, there were three other transmitters; 1 at 50 kW and one at 150 kW for use on mediumwave, as well as the 150 kW longwave unit. Currently, it is estimated that eight of these transmitters; one longwave, two mediumwave and five shortwave; are all in active on-air usage. The newest transmitter site is located at Orzu near Kolkozabad, some 60 miles south of Dushanbe. This super powered site was constructed in 1971, and it contains a bevy of transmitters and antenna systems. On mediumwave, there were two transmitters at 1 megawatt each, as well as one at 150 kW and one at 40 kW. On shortwave, there were four transmitters at 500 kW each, and these could be operated at half power, or they could be combined in pairs to radiate one megawatt on shortwave channels. In addition to the three massive transmitter complexes just described, there are currently three additional regional locations, each with its own mediumwave transmitter, thus ensuring nationwide coverage of their country from the one central location in Dushanbe. All of the programming from the multitude of radio broadcast transmitters throughout Tajikistan is produced and co-ordinated at the studio complex located in Dushanbe. This is a seven storey blue building that looks like a Russian theatre in its design. Programming for nationwide coverage is presented in two networks, TR1 & TR2. Translated into English, the titles of these two networks would read, Radio Tajikistan National Network and the Voice of Dushanbe. This programming is presented in three languages, Tajik, Uzbek and Russian. In addition, nationwide relays from Radio Moscow are also heard throughout the country. As a back up for their longwave and mediumwave coverage during the past more than half a century, shortwave has also been in use. Originally a pair of 25 kW transmitters were inaugurated on two separate channels, though these were subsequently replaced with 50 kW units. For a long period of time these two units were heard on 4635 and 4975 kHz. These days, one channel is still apparently in use, 4635 kHz. [sic; is this an old script reissued? 4765 has been in use instead for a few years. And 4975 is also active, both heard here a while ago gh] It should also be stated that television was introduced into Tajikistan in 1959, and the first known FM stations were installed around 1993. In recent time, locally owned FM stations have been permitted to go on the air in various parts of Tajikistan. Well, that’s as far as we can go in Part 1 with the story of Radio Broadcasting in Tajikistan, but remember, we are planning to present Part 2 of this interesting information in Wavescan next week (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script Feb 21 via DXLD) THE STORY OF RADIO BROADCASTING IN TAJIKISTAN - Part 2 You will remember that we presented the story of the origins of radio broadcasting in the Asian republic of Tajikistan here in our DX program, Wavescan, last week. This topic was prepared in response to a request from our listener, Neelakandan Visvanathan in Tamilnadu, India. Here in Wavescan today, we present Part 2 in the Tajikistan story, with a focus on the shortwave scene in this former Russian republic. As was mentioned last week, there are three major transmitter stations on the air in the small country of Tajikistan; the oldest is located in their capital city Dushanbe, another is located near Yangiyul 15 miles south, and their newest facility is located near Orzu some 60 miles south of their capital city. Their earliest shortwave broadcasting service was inaugurated in the middle of last century as a relay of the two mediumwave channels over two transmitters at 25 kW each. These two transmitters were tuned to the lower frequency shortwave bands and the intended coverage areas were country localities within Tajikistan and listeners in neighboring countries. Beginning about fifteen years ago, several major broadcasting organizations in Europe and the Americas began an interest in the usage of the high powered transmitters in Tajikistan as relay stations for their own programming. This all began in the year 1994, and since then at least fifteen different international broadcasting organizations have relayed their programming to central Asia and beyond via the Tajikistan radio stations. On March 27, 1994, for example, Radio Netherlands in Hilversum Holland began a relay from the shortwave station located at Yangiyul with 100 kW on two different frequencies, 4965 and 5905 kHz. The programming from Holland was beamed to South East Asia in two languages, English and Indonesian. The BBC London, took out a relay via the one megawatt mediumwave transmitter on 648 kHz located at Orzu for programming beamed to Afghanistan in the Pushto language. Then, in the following year, the BBC announced that they planned to refurbish the high powered shortwave transmitters located at one of the country transmitter bases. Likewise, and during the same era, the Voice of America in Washington DC took out a relay from the same high powered mediumwave transmitter for programming beamed to Iran in the Farsi language. In the year 2005, VOA announced that they planned on constructing their own powerful shortwave relay station in Tajikistan, with a transmitter rated at 500 kW. Other international broadcasting organizations in Europe and the United States that have utilized Tajikistan for the relay of their programming on shortwave, have been:- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Deutsche Welle in Germany Radio Free Asia Radio Free Afghanistan Radio Free Iran Radio Santec in Germany Radio Ap ki Dunya to Pakistan Interestingly, programming from the clandestine DAT Radio was beamed from Tajikistan to the neighboring country of Kazakhstan for a couple of years, though this relay was via the 100 kW mediumwave facility located at Yangiyul. Beginning in July 1996, the Voice of Tibet took out a relay from Tajikistan on 15645 kHz with programming produced in Sweden. This programming was in Chinese and Tibetan and beamed towards Tibet. Another interesting relay from Tajikistan was with programming under the title, the Democratic Voice of Burma. This programming began in 1997 and it was in the Burmese language on 15600 kHz. It should also be noted that Radio Moscow has been on relay from Tajikistan for more than half a century. This programming has been for local coverage as well as for neighboring countries. We should also mention the program relays from Radio Afghanistan that were on the air from Tajikistan for a period of thirteen years, 1979 to 1991, via shortwave stations located in the Russian republics. These relay broadcasts were produced in the studios of Radio Afghanistan in the Kabul suburb of Answari Wat and they were fed to Russia initially via two communication transmitters located at nearby Jakatut [Yakatut --- gh], and later by satellite. It is probable that these relay stations were located at three or four different Soviet locations, though it is known reliably that at least two channels, 3965 and 4940 kHz with 50 kW each, were located at Yangiyul near Dushanbe in Tajikistan. So, what can we hear on radio from Tajikistan these days? If you live in one of the nearby countries in Asia, you can tune in to one of their megalithic mediumwave giants, on 648 801 972 or 1161 kHz; and I might add, several of these units are heard from time to time in the South Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. On shortwave, you can hear their Home Service and External Service programming on any of the three channels 4765 4975 and 7245 kHz. Quite recently, all three channels have been heard with nice signals in North America. The 41 meter band channel with 100 kW on 7245 kHz carries programming in eight languages, running from 0100 to 1800 UTC. As far as relay programming is concerned, this is quite difficult to find these days. It is known that the Voice of Tibet, with programming produced in Sweden, can be heard via Tajikistan on three different channels, 17595 17560 & 17610 kHz. The Voice of Russia from Moscow is heard on four mediumwave channels and also on shortwave. And what about QSLs? It is true, a few QSL letters have been issued from Dushanbe over the years, but not many. Radio Moscow has issued a few QSL cards specifically confirming their relays via Dushanbe, and Radio Netherlands produced a pre-printed QSL card with the Dushanbe relay name actually printed on the card (Adrian Peterson, AWR Wavescan script Feb 28 via DXLD) ** THAILAND. 12095, Radio Thailand, 0034-0059, Feb 28, tune-in to English programming with ad for Thai Airways. Business news at 0036. Sports news at 0048. IDs. Fair signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** TIBET [non]. 7470, S9+22 at 1340 Feb 27, carrier with some hum and whine but no program modulation. R. Free Asia schedule in DXLD 10-06 shows Tibetan via secret site, while Aoki reveals it`s Ulan Bator, MONGOLIA, from which a refund is due the US Government. After 1400 Tibetan continues on 7470 but it`s VOA`s via Tinang (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also MONGOLIA ** TURKEY. 15300, Voice of Turkey, 1333-1345, program of news and comments in English being presented by a female. Turkey is under RFI's signal, so copy isn't entirely pure. Turkey at a poor level and covered up when RFI's signal peaks slightly (Chuck Bolland, March 1, 2010), NRD545, 26.27N 081.05W, Clewiston FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Despite of the poor signal on early morning in US Florida, here in Europe, TRT 15300 kHz is usually on S=9+20dB level. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, HCDX via DXLD) Dear Glenn, I want to send to you The Voice of Turkey's Turkish Broadcasting Programmes translated into English. Some of the music programmes are Let it be mine this song, Weekend and Holiday morning. Please try other programmes. I can help you in Turkish music, or radio hobby and so. Which singer or song do you enjoy? Turkish folk music, art music, religious music? 1) Bu sarki benim olsun (Let it be mine this song) daily 1005-1100 UT 2) Hafta Sonu (Weekend) Saturday 0905-1000 UT 3) Tatil Sabahi (Holiday Morning) Sunday 0905-1000 UT [times presumably shift one UT hour earlier during DST] and special entertainment programmes mentioned bottom of the schedule. Please try to find other programmes. Some programmes give a place to a single song between the speech. Hope that is useful for you. Kind regards. Sincerely, (Mustafa CANKURT, Turkey, March 2, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Many thanks, Mustafa, for all your trouble in translating the program titles! These are in an xls file also showing original Turkish title, and UT broadcast times, now posted as an attachment to the dxldyg. I enjoy all kinds of Turkish music. Unfortunately these times, 0905- 1100 UT are not at all convenient for live listening in North America. Most of the other programs have titles implying they are talk rather than music, tho there are surely some musical breaks, as he says. Live streaming is available, and the SW frequencies are 15480 and 15350 before and after these two hours, and also 11925 during the first hour (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) When I download this attachment, I get file named UNKNOWN_PARAMETER_VALUE with no extension. After you add .xls you can open it (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, ibid.) 17700, VOT with Turkish pop music at 1312 March 4, good signal, from German service as confirmed by announcement at 1314. Starts at 1230, also aimed USward by coincidence. All the language services feature lots of music between talk features, but I was wondering if the Turkish service axually has programs where music comes first. Mustafa Cankurt has gone to the trouble of translating the entire program schedule, so we know what each title means in English. We`ve posted it to the dxld yg as an .xls file which Dragan Lekic says won`t open until you add that extension. It turns out that almost all the show titles imply talk subjects, except daily at 1005-1100 ``Let This Song Be Mine``; and other programs weekends at 0905-1000. SW frequencies then are 15480 and 15350; during the first hour also 11925. In reality, we hear plenty of music on 15350 before it closes by 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. As I also assumed, the Ukrainian radio in February, on usual Bad tradition because of budgetary disorders has reduced a radio announcement. That I have noticed. I observe, that from now on February, 22 not The following transmitters work: UR1 5970 kHz - all day since morning UR3 1431 kHz - with 1700 (former time of the beginning of work) UR1 936 kHz - with 1800 (former time of the beginning of work) It is possible, that time of an announcement for Sowing is reduced also. America. It would be desirable to hope, that After acceptance of the budget the announcement will be restored (Alexander Egorov, Kiev, Ukraine / "open_dx" via Rus DX 28 Feb via DXLD) Sigh; we know Olex speaks much better English as he used to do the DX program on RUI. Sowing = broadcasting! What`s this about America?? NAm service has been suspended pastly or vergeful; it`s still there on 7440 in Ukrainian at 0025 check March 3, whew (gh, DXLD) ** UKRAINE. 7540 with intermittent ``Russian`` tune-up tones, March 3 at 1451, flutter. I.e., the ``Simferopol`` transmitter already on air prior to 1500 start of V. of Mesopotamia relay, KURDISTAN [non], which stays on 11530 right up to 1500; ergo two different transmitters. On 7540 at 1500, timesignal about 4 seconds late, and some music, presumably VOM, but too much splash from 7535 ChiCom jamming vs BBC via Thailand (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. Hi Glenn, all the BBC cutbacks have certainly had an effect. BBC reception was pretty ropey here. 15400 & 17830 from ASC and 21470 from Seychelles were the only ones available even when I was getting evening TEP to Brazil up to 38 MHz. The BBC certainly shouldn´t dare call itself "world" service any more! All the best (Tim Bucknall, Canary Islands, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9410 via WHRI, BBCWS still in English instead of Spanish, at end of hour March 1 at 1258 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Portugal, (relay/presumed), 15425, BBC, 1200-1230 Noted World news in English. Following the news, an ID presented followed by more news and reports about the earth quake in Chile. Both EIBI and AOKI list French for this period on this frequency. At 1229 plenty of promos and ID's for BBC, then at 1230 the signal goes off the air. Nothing followed. Overall, the signal was good (Chuck Bolland, February 28, 2010, NRD545 26.27N 081.05W, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Portugal, (RELAY/PRESUMED), 15425, BBC, *1200-1230*, Noted a program of news and commentary in the French language. If you'll recall, I tipped off BBC on this freq in English, yesterday, 2/28/10 which was Sunday; and included in that tip were remarks stating that AOKI and EIBI both listed the BBC in French on this freq. Consequently, we have a weekend/daily schedule here. English on the Weekends and French during the week. I am not certain about Saturday yet? Will check on it next weekend if I recall? Anyway, you are welcome (Chuck Bolland, March 1, 2010), ibid.) Hi all, BBC on 12095 seems to have some problems. Since 1630 UT on March 2, recorded message repeated, ``this is the BBC, there are no programs on this channel at present.`` (Gilles Letourneau. Montreal, Canada, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Powerful S=9+55 dB Signal, endless loop at 1645 UT, here in southern Germany. BBC English Middle East progr Rampisham 1500-1700, 500 kW towards 95 degrees. BBC English NoEaAfrica Zyyi, Cyprus 1700-2100 250 kW 177 degr. BBC English NoWeAfrica Ascension Isl 2100-2300 250 kW 27 degr. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** U K. BBC SIGNALS AN END TO ERA OF EXPANSION Patrick Foster, Media Correspondent The BBC will close two radio stations, shut half its website and cut spending heavily on imported American programmes in an overhaul of services to be announced next month. More at : http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article7041944.ece (via Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE, New Delhi, India, Feb 25, dxldyg via DXLD) The two ``radio stations`` to be closed are 6 Music and Asian Radio online. Not radio stations at all. Whew (gh) 6 Music is also available on DAB and digital TV, Asian network on DAB, digital TV and mediumwave. Media Guardian reports the Times's claims and ends: "A spokeswoman for the BBC said last night she would not comment on "speculation"." http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/feb/26/bbc-media-radio-internet-website Put it into the context of a report in a Murdoch owned newspaper. 292 people have recommended this comment including me (it's up to 301 since I started typing this!): "I guess with Murdoch the Destroyer and Sons, together with the cronies in the Tory party sharpening their knives, they are all running scared at BBC HQ. Damn you Murdoch - nothing you have done in your life has improved the quality of anyone's life on this planet other than your own. You are truly the epitome of Thatcher and the Neo Con vision for the world; a culturally ignorant morass of obedient, dumbed down consumers willing to pay massive subscriptions for piss poor media. Utterly disgusted at this and the other changes being enforced." Some comments in Adam Bowie's blog including a link to The Times's "nasty and spiteful", in his words and a description I endorse, editorial on this report. http://www.adambowie.com/weblog/archive/002895.html The BBC's report on The Times article gives it some context. The report will be considered by the BBC Trust. "Whether these will be the final decisions remain to be seen." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8538130.stm (Mike Barraclough, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) What's particularly galling about the contents of this report is that, if accurate, the BBC is choosing to abdicate service to two specialized audiences -- one for alternative, independent music makers; the other for the Asian community in the UK. Were the BBC intending to fulfill one of the most important aspects of its public service mandate (i.e.: ensuring services to unserved or underserved audiences), it would seem to me that they would retain these services and jettison the more mainstream ones toward which the commercial radio sector typically gravitates -- Radio 1 and Radio 2. Regardless, targeting relatively inexpensive radio services as opposed to continuing with the kind of comparatively expensive television productions that really do belong on commercial television (e.g.: reality shows like "Last Restaurant Standing", of which BBC Television have far too many) seems as insincere as it is ill-considered (John Figliozzi, NY, ibid.) This Times piece features somewhat more detailed, uhh, revelations: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article7041826.ece The Times also now say Absolute's COO has said they might look at buying 6 Music. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article7042533.ece (Joe Durso in Louisville KY, ibid.) All that reveals is that Murdoch and his journalists don't know how the structure of the BBC works. No wonder they want to abolish the BBC Trust. Statement by BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons; note the final document will be proposals, the BBC Trust will consult widely with licence payers and others and then decide how to act: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/feb/26/bbc-trust-strategic-review (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) DIRECTOR GENERAL MARK THOMPSON TO OUTLINE BBC STRATEGY http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8544150.stm (via John M. Sullivan, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, March 2, swprograms via DXLD) Nothing I have seen indicates that the World Service, Radio 4, or BBC World News -- the services typically of greatest interest to shortwave enthusiasts due to their content -- are being cut as part of this effort. The World Service (and, I believe, BBC World News -- the TV service) is funded separately from the rest of the BBC, which shields it from domestic initiatives but exposes it to the agenda of the British Foreign Office (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, ibid.) Yes, this is all domestic. Early indications are elimination of BBC Radio 6 Music -- an alternative, indie music service -- and BBC Asian Network primarily for the South Asian audience resident in Britain. Plus one third of the budget for the BBC website by 2013. I don't get targeting the radio services because they are dirt cheap to operate in comparison to tv and the web. Furthermore, dropping special programming seems anathema to one of the prime objectives of the BBC charter -- finding underserved audiences and serving them. Lopping off one of the BBC TV channels and ending the practive of programming reality TV trash would save far more. So this is about politics and optics. Someone feels the need to assuage Murdoch (why, I can't figure; what is he, 80 years old?) by appearing to hobble public broadcasting in Britain. But the message back is garbled. BBC management appears to be working to retain all the lowest common denominator commercial-type fare (where Murdoch at least has a valid point) while throwing out some of the stuff that a public service mandate would most appear to support. By saying that the savings realized will be redirected to producing "quality fare", the corporation seems to be trying to have its cake and eat it too. Not at all surprising, but pretty transparent all the same (John Figliozzi, ibid.) I share John's conclusion but would observe that all 3 major parties in Britain have been critical of BBC spending so I don't think we can put this down to just a need to butter up Rupert Murdoch. I think the undercurrent here is that with the large budget deficits and long term debt facing most Western countries, the UK included, there is a sense among the politicians that they need to be seen to be doing something to guard the expenditure of tax dollars. With an election looming within a few weeks to a month or so, the BBC is an easy target among UK politicians. The cuts suggested aren't based on any logical analysis of cost or savings but more about where the easy targets are. The Guardian article pointed out by Rich seems a pretty thorough analysis (Rob de Santos, ibid.) ** U K. SHR shortwave --- I am informed of the following: South Herts Radio shortwave to Europe and beyond? All times UT. Sundays 0800-1200 occasional 5855 1200-1400 occasional 6215 1400-1700 occasional 9865 1700-2000 occasional 3935 KHz. Mon-Thurs 1900-2200 occasional 3935 Saturdays 2200-2400 occasional 7325 I cannot guarantee this but it is worth a DX. This means World of Radio Sunday 1230-1300 occasional 6215 WOR Wednesday 2030-2100 occasional 3935 Our live webstream will be on air as follows: Sunday 28th Feb 0800-2000 UT Sunday 7th March 0800-2000 UT Sunday 21st March 0800-2000 UT More to be announced soon... All reception reports welcome via our contact page, please, including web stream quality and reliability reports, please state your country or nearest city. Thanks. Note: New files and shows uploaded every week to our listen again page http://www.southhertsradio.com/again.html Use the scroll bar to the right of the Humyo player to roll down the index, click on the file to play or use the windows media player for other shows. Best viewed in internet explorer. Listen Live: http://www.southhertsradio.com/live.html Direct Link: http://209.51.162.171/south_herts_radio Note: When our live stream is down, our listen live player now relays PCJ radio. Thank you again to all who support SHR. 73 (Gaz, Feb 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. LET US TRY TO PERSUADE CONGRESS NOT TO ALLOW THE GREENVILLE SHORTWAVE STATION TO BE CLOSED DOWN, as BBG plans to do later this year. Besides writing your own congressperson and senators, these North Carolinians are directly concerned: http://jones.house.gov/ http://burr.senate.gov/public/ We suggest that you emphasize the long-term value of the United States retaining an active international shortwave broadcasting facility within its own borders and under its direct control. All the other relays are subject to restrictions by host countries, or even closedown in an emergency. Contact info can be found on each member`s website. As usual, standard remark that P-mail is thought to be more effective than e-mail (Glenn Hauser, March 1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. 7470, Feb 25 at 1405, Asian language talk, but with a noticeable buzz/hum, 1408 that diminished briefly and then resumed. Aoki says VOA Tibetan via Tinang, PHILIPPINES, due northwest. Surely this service is jammed by the ChiCom, but it doesn`t usually sound like that, so perhaps a transmitter problem. [see also MONGOLIA] 13725, poor signal with something in Mandarin, Feb 25 at 1609. Latest R. Free Asia schedule in DXLD 10-06 shows Mandarin via TINIAN, at 15- 17, which of course must be jammed by the ChiCom, but I only heard one audio, so can`t be sure which. 11575, good signal but flutter, Feb 28 at 0131 with Pres. Obama comment, voice-over in Pashto; 0158 with Deewa Radio ID, address, 0200 VOA YDD jingle. Scheduled 01-04 via Sri Lanka, 250 kW, 340 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 13715, Feb 28 at 1350, VOA Spanish with fill program on Sunday mornings, pop music countdown, a later(?) Johnny Paycheck version of his classic ``Take This Job And Shove It``, which was, of course in a foreign language, English; modulation distorted and spreading beyond nominal bandwidth, carrier somewhat unstable, a shame for a Greenville transmitter to be in such a condition. VOA Spanish, 13715, March 1 as I tuned in at 1337: open carrier --- then I hear the announcer asking questions of a correspondent about the quake, but the latter cannot be heard! This goes on for at least a minute. Screwup in the studio --- they can hear him on the phone or whatever, but neglect to put his audio on the air! During the pauses we can hear some rustling and background noise from the studio open mike. Then we begin to hear only traces of the correspondent, finally outroed as Pablo Ramos in Chile. Meanwhile I checked // 9885 and the same was happening. 1338 VOA jingle in English, and ``Buenos Días, América`` ID with frequencies 9885, 13715, 15590. Then audible correspondent from Argentina on relatively minor damage there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I've heard exactly that on IBB Monitoring recording: http://america.ibbmonitor.com/RMS_Data/Sounds/2010_03_01/SPAN/VOA/QUIT/1003011338@QUIT13715VOASPAN.MP4 So, I downloaded that program as MP3, 128 kbps, 27.4 MB at: ftp://8475.ftp.storage.akadns.net/mp3/voa/latam/span/podcasts/SPANISH_ BUENOSDIAS1330ab0301.mp3 On stereo file I can easily hear the host on both audio channels, but the interviewed correspondent can be heard only on RIGHT channel. So, I guess, someone at Greenville received audio source with full volume on LEFT, and weak volume on RIGHT channel. Regards, DL (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Geez, shortwave is mono and everything should be mixed down before transmission (gh, DXLD) Tsk, so they put only the left channel on air. I seem to recall that such practices on AM stations in the USA have already been discussed here? Such extreme panning on talk content appears to be a bit unusual to me. Perhaps it was an unintended result of installing new studio equipment (I think this has been mentioned as plan for VOA on an earlier BBG budget request). Anyway it is no correct engineering practice to distribute only one channel of a stereo source. It is necessary to sum both channels, and best practice is to do the stereo-mono-conversion with a so-called 90- degrees-filter (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15550-USB, WJHR, Feb 20 +2137-2156*, 15431-25432, English, Talk, ID at 2155, 2156 sign off (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium Feb 26 via DXLD) ** U S A. 4775 WWCR, Nashville. Massive in English with different program to 3215, 0919 on 17/2 (Gavin Hellyer, Ararat Vic (Yaesu FRG- 8800, 80m Longwire, 30m Loop NSEW 6m High, Yaesu FRT-7700 ATU), March Australian DX News via DXLD) 4775, English religious talk, 0954. Fair strength but very noisy with ID at 1000, 7/2. New frequency for them (Dennis Allen, Milperra NSW (Icom R75, DX160, Dipole, Longwire, March Australian DX News via DXLD) 4775, SIO=454 at 0455 with ID in English on 23/02; I have to check whether at those hours there is some edition of World of Radio (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria (Sony ICF 2001, Marconi antenna), March Australian DX News via DXLD) Yes! At 0330 UT Sunday, but now on 4840 (gh, DXLD) 4775, USA, WWCR Nashville, 1020, Feb 24. S8+40 carrier with no audio; still there during several rechecks (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 7480.6, WWCR Nashville TN (presumed); 2201, 23-Feb; Spanish religious program. SIO=322+ with fluttery buzz QRM. Spur from //7465, S30. Spur delta is 7480.6 - 7465 = 15.6. Het detectable in LSB on 7465 - 15.6 = 7449.4. No audio on latter & tough with Greece (presumed) on 7450. Weak co-channel 7465 QRM--sounds like English--studio bleed? (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) These spurs are some I have yet to hear from WWCR; and there is usually a het on Greece 7450 whether WWCR is on 7465 or not. I did try again around 2226 March 4, and there was a weak carrier around 7480.6 but could not match to 7465 (gh, DXLD) Was listening to WWCR on 4775 last night and every hour they made an announcement that the programming now heard on 4775 will be on 4840 kHz "next week". So I just looked at their website and they say this change will occur as of 0300 UT 1 March 2010. So they'll be on 4840 0300-1200 UT after that. (Be sure to make that change on your printed copy of gh's DX-Programs list that you keep by your radio! What? You don't do that? Shame on you! :-) 73, (Will Martin, MO, 2015 UT Feb 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi all, just heard on ask WWCR on 5070 that the DX block from 0300 to 0400 UT on February 27th (UT Feb 28) will be on 4840 kHz tonight only. They are testing and will see if they will use it in the future (Gilles Letourneau, Montreal, Canada, 0257 UT Feb 28, ibid.) Tnx to tip from Will Martin, WWCR has decided to replace 4775 with 4840 from 0300 starting March 1. Tnx to tip from Gilles Letourneau, they were already testing it at 0300-0400 UT Feb 28. This of course affects the UT Sunday 0330 airing of WORLD OF RADIO, originally on 5070. 4840 was pretty weak here at 0315, but I suppose 4775 would have been too under current propagation conditions. 4840 seems to be on the edge of CODAR heard just below it, while 4775 was in the middle of some CODAR, usually not a problem when WWCR was inbooming, but last night around 0600 it was also weakish there interfering with CODAR, which in this utility band presumably has priority. Unclear if WWCR`s latest shift is reactive or proactive. 4840 should have fewer issues with other broadcast stations since nothing but Mumbai is scheduled there at times which will not conflict. As always, there are some adjacent Latin Americans which will be affected. And the biggest signal from Africa, Mauritania on 4845. It also has ute QRM to one side most of the time. See also BRAZIL. The WWCR spur which formerly showed up on 7095 when 4775 leapt over 5935 would now land on 7030. Earlier I happened to tune to 12160 at 2255 UT Feb 27, and stuck because it was playing Bach on synthesizer/authentic instrument. That must have been fill after Golden Age of Radio. 2258 QSY announcement to 5070 with steel drums and shortly off (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4840 signal here in Montreal is fair to good, kind of signal I am used to at this time of the year from WWCR when they were either on 5070 or 4775. I hear them well on my Kenwood R-5000 and fair to good on my Tecsun PL-310 with telescopic antenna. You are right, Glenn, 4775 and 4840, being in the same range, you would have had the same propagation conditions (Gilles Letourneau, Montreal, Canada, 0322 UT Feb 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Glenn, It's Al Parker from Danbury CT. I am listening to the DX Block on WWCR; the 4775 kHz is off for one hour. If you want to hear the show, go to 4840 tonight. This is a one time test. please announce in WOR 1502 show. The signal is 80/S9, with no skipping. Thanks (Al Parker, Danbury CT, 0324 UT Feb 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Can't hear them here at 0325. Their other frequencies are good; wonder why this isn't audible. 73/Liz (Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I'd rather hear 4845 in the clear rather than have it fight this signal out of TN. We have so damn few tropicals out of Africa any more and -- other than the DX block -- I don't find much to like on WWCR. Seems like there's plenty of real estate out there; why do they have to crowd Mauritania? Sorry, but I'm being honest (John Figliozzi, NY, ibid.) See also MAURITANIA Hi all, After a 1 hour special transmission on 4840, WWCR is now back to 4775 at 0400 UT, about the same signal I had on 4840 (Gilles Letourneau, Montreal, Canada, 0401 UT Feb 28, ibid.) Hi All, I agree with a prior post (John F). I'd MUCH RATHER hear Mauritania (4845), than fight interference from WWCR on 4840. Unfortunately, WWCR provides a huge signal at my location (inland NSW), whether it's 4775, 4840 or 5070. What I would like to know, is: When did the tropical bands become available for stations in the USA? Or does the FCC care? I remember, around 15 years ago (if not longer), I complained to WWCR about their then-new venture into the tropical bands. The reply, to put it nicely, was something close to "get stuffed." At least then, it seemed they didn't care what DX'ers thought of their frequency assignments. There's far more real estate on the lower frequencies these days-- since WWCR decided long ago to stake their claim on 60-meters, I am sure a suitable freq can be found if they keep looking. 73s (David Sharp, NSW, Feb 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) As far as US stations and the FCC are concerned, these are not tropical bands. They are fixed bands, and broadcasters may try whatever frequencies they like (unless they are already on a do not use government list), and await any complaints causing them to move again. It seems such complaints come from domestic or foreign utility users, not from other broadcasters (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Superstrong signals from stations such as WWCR lead to strange things, both transmitted spurs and receiver-produced spurs. With the FRG-7, March 1 at 0545 I was hearing two WWCR programs mixing equally on 11825. I had looked for this before but not found it, i.e. 5890 plus 5935. But as I fiddled with the YB-400 next to it to confirm the //, I found that the 11825 signal came and went. It was there only when the YB was turned on, even if it was tuned to the FM band or some other SW frequency. It was also affected by whether I was touching the whip antenna, which had an indoor length of wire clipped on. Anyhow, in this particular case the `spur` was caused by receiver interaxion, but would not have happened at all with non- overloading signals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. WWCR made its change to 4840, ex-4775, ex-3240, ex-3230, ex-4755, not necessarily in that order, heard March 2 at 0555, and as expected put so much splatter on 4845 that Mauritania [q.v.] was unlistenable, altho detectable with usual droning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 13845, WEWN, huge mushy spur from 13835, overriding WWCR PMS, Feb 28 at 1354. The WEWN noise continues unabated even when there is hardly any modulation except random room noises on 13835 during long pauses, mass made for EW television, maybe containing some video axion only. I suppose WEWN took 9390 off the air at 09-13 because that was their most expendable English transmission, but they should take the rest of them off the air too until this be fixed permanently (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CYPRUS [and non] 13845, WWCR, March 3 at 1415, poor signal, YL interviewing someone about New World Order --- that`s not PMS` shtick! Yes, 13845 is now // 7490 with The Power Hour, Joyce Riley! Same still at 1502. March program schedule on WWCR website confirms this is no mistake, she now scheduled on 13845 at 1300-1600 daily. Daily? On 7490 TPH is only M-F with other programming Sat/Sun. 1621 recheck, 13845 has resumed DGS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ANGUILLA; USA: WEWN 13835, WEWN, March 3 at 1415 checking for spur slush on 13845, but WWCR seems to be clear of it, leading to hopes that WEWN is repairing its problem, but further monitoring of its English frequencies at stronger signal levels required (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 10-08: 9370, WTJC, 1300 back on the air, nice signal with music here in SW this morning (Hans Johnson, FL, Feb 26, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 9369.8, WTJC back on the air after two days` absence following haywire spurs all over the place, Feb 26 at 1440 with hymn, 1441 over to hoary old Alex Scourby Bible reading. Strong signal and no spurs for a while, still off-frequency, and rather distorted modulation on fundamental. Recheck at 1502, WTJC now has het from a 9370.0 station, as IBB has transitioned from Udorn to Tinang, upping signal USward; distorted hymn, still no spurs, preacher citing Hebrews XI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9369.76v, WTJC, Newport, NC, 1448-1510, English religious talk. Gospel music. ID and address at 1500. Good. Strong but slightly drifting. Noted on 9369.76 at 1448 and on 9369.93 at 1650 check (Brian Alexander, PA, Feb 26 or 27, DX Listening Digest) 9369v, WTJC upacting again, Feb 28 at 0038 with gospel music splattering 9362-9385 and maybe further but obscured by WYFR 9355 and Cairo 9390. Fundamental itself was distorted and with clicking noises. 9369v, WTJC observations Feb 28: at 2150 the music had a continuous crackle, which I previously described as clicking. By now, WWRB had closed 9385, so we only had to sort out the spurs from WTWW and WTJC. At 2232 could hear WTJC music splattering down to 9340 and up to 9380- 9400. At 2303 the WTJC splatter ranged from 9330 to 9410. Altho it had not been especially problematic the day before, spurring all over the place, WTJC nevertheless missing from 9369v, March 3 at 1450. Preventive maintenance? 9369v, WTJC back on at 1321 March 4 with distorted hymns, 22.5 hours after having been absent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WTWW has not been on the air this week, as George McClintock has still been working on the equipment and waiting for a part from Continental. But he says he is quite impressed and pleased with the transmitter. Further program tests are scheduled Feb 28-March 2 with live broadcasts hosted by Ted Randall from the annual National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, starting Sunday at 1800 or 1900 UT on 9480, and also all-day Monday and Tuesday ending at 2200 March 2. Ted will be asking probing questions as he interviews many religious broadcasters attending the convention. FCC has now authorized WTWW to use 9480 straight through from 1200 to 2400 UT, no longer switching to 9475 at 1900-2200; and 5755 after 0000. Has YFR quit 9480 via Germany at 19-22, or no longer computed to be an official collision? Here`s the NRB schedule of events http://www.nrbconvention.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=9319 but that doesn`t mean what`s heard on WTWW will follow that exactly. George also says that program tests at other times will probably come from Pastor Pete Peters, as already on the stream, but a final decision on WTWW programming has still not been made. Expect an announcement about that next weekend (Glenn Hauser, OK, Feb 27, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WTWW on 9480 testing with PPP, starting just after 1630 UT today // WWCR 9980. Good signal here in Iowa. Must be doing maintenance as they go, because at 1730, they were off again. Now at 1745, they seem to be trying to turn transmitter back on, but it keeps shutting off. Now back at 1750 UTC with some hymns (Thomas Nyberg, Feb 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Just got a call from George McClintock at 1832 UT. Says they had some problems, filling with PPP at the moment, but should go live from NRB around 2000 UT. 9480 (Glenn Hauser, Feb 28, ibid.) WTWW, Lebanon TN on 9480 mixing with WYFR via Germany at 1930 UT in English with "Scriptures For America" program, followed by music, then Live from the NRB Convention at Opryland Hotel in Nashville, hosted by Ted Randall. Good signal, pinning the S meter of the Sangean ATS818ACS using 100 feet coax dipole (Noble West, Clinton TN, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) If WTWW start their transmissions before 2200 UT, there will certainly be collision, at least here in my point of view. Now, 2017 UT, WYFR on 9480 kHz with a good signal (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil, ibid.) WTWW was already on the air, just had not yet started the program from NRB. It`s so strong here that no trace of YFR, which is southward via Germany. However, that was audible in the skip zone around Lebanon TN too. My full report follows ASAP (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) 9480, WTWW Nashville TN very surprised to hear this so well for the first time at 2219 28 Feb with live broadcast from NRB Conference. Tuned in thanks to Glenn Hauser tip (Bryan Clark, Mangawhai, New Zealand, AOR7030+ and EWEs to NE, E & SE, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9480, WTWW`s program testing resumed Feb 28, heard until 2032 with Pastor Pete Peters who seems to be the default audio source, but we must not assume he will wind up the 24/7 occupant; then switching to gospel music. Next check 2111, had started live remote from the National Religious Broadcasters convention at Opryland in Nashville, Ted Randall interviewing some religionists bashing public education. Extremely strong signal with splatter as far as India on 9445, which used to have a clear shot here with its relatively weak signal. At 2217 I could even match a music spur on 9298 with 9480. And then further peaks around 9325, 9350 and 9445, still at 2233 during talk. WTWW splatter range varies, but at 2235 I can hear the audio as far as 9520 on the other side. Now we have two huge signals from TN in the daytime on 31m, this and WWCR 9980, each splattering and desensitizing significant portions of the band. Inadvisable to try to listen to anything closer to 9480, but relented a bit later, perhaps with slightly weakening fundamental strength; see CHINA 9490. Next guests discussed how Christianity is doing in China. At 2201 the WTWW canned ID from near the banks of the Upper Cumberland River, was skipping words, and then some music was wowing heavily for six minutes, as if a tape were snagging, if not a warped LP; or is this a modern digital effect? 2208 another canned ID, this time no skipping, and more music. Still buggy, I guess. 2220 next check, Ted is interviewing someone from Galcom about their marvellous solar-powered fix-tuned radios, e.g. in Colombia they can get not one but two frequencies! Switchable between 5910 and 6010 for different degrees of evangelism from Colombia para Cristo. Ted thinx these are really cool and seemed to have persuaded his guest to give him one. Strangely enough, in the previous hour they were decrying the fact that in North Korea, radios are fixed-tuned. How is this any different? It`s all about mind control. Claims to have distributed 800,000 of them in 125 countries. Galcom guy admitted that there is not a hidden tuner inside, but instead ``an electronic device locks the chip to the proper frequency and it cannot be retuned once it is set``. I am baffled how some members of the SWL/DX community do not totally reject Galcom and the very idea of fixed-tuned radios! We have also highlighted how counter-productive this approach can be if QRM develops on your deeply committed frequency! Fortunately, their Colombian victims can also get Cuba and Sweden on 6010, Romania on 5910, among others, HJDH QRM permitting. At 2301 off the 9480 air, but right back on at 2302, and into another interview at 2304. Still going at 2354 with huge signal. George McClintock told me they would continue with this in the evening on 5755, and more the next two daytimes on 9480. He was also concerned about co-channel QRM on 9480, reported from San Francisco and he could also hear it about 25 miles away from the site. In Bahia, Brasil, before 2200, Jorge Freitas was hearing nothing but the other station. That of course was YFR via Nauen, Germany, which is why WTWW previously had to shift to 9475 while it was on 9480 at 19- 22. Aimed 185 degrees toward Africa, computer models may show no collision, but what do they know? Next check at 0100 March 1, WTWW had switched to equally forceful 5755, probably an hour before then, starting Music for His People show, i.e. Aryans benefiting from Christian Identity, on the Scriptures for America feed, seems // 9980 WWCR which by now was quite weak (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I hear English at 1030 UT on 5755 kHz now. WTWW in on air at 5755 kHz now? (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, March 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5755 is also audible here in the NW of England at 1050 UT. The signal is weak and only just over the local noise level (Noel R. Green, ibid.) 5755, Just heard an ID as WTWW, Lebanon, USA at 1100 UT. Good signal except just before 1100 some sort of utility came on frequency. Before 1100 there was religious programming (Wayne Bastow, Wyoming, NSW, Australia, 33 23' 44.29" South, 151 21' 11.99" East, March 1, ibid.) Thanks Wayne - also to S.Hasegawa. I could tell that it was religious programming before 1100, but the signal was too poor to hear the ID at 1100. 73 (Noel R. Green, UK, ibid.) Off just before 1200 UT (Wayne Bastow, Wyoming, NSW, Australia, ibid.) Probably switched back to 9480 at that time. 9480, WTWW already very loud and clear S9+25 at 1300 March 1 carrying Pastor Pete Peters, ID still as running equipment tests. Such an overloading signal required the entire 31m band to be tuned with attenuation and/or de-tuned preselector; same huxter on 9980 WWCR, and we can`t detune the preselector from both at the same time without going down to 8 MHz. However, as far as we could tell, 9480 was not radiating spurs at this time. Presumably fill programming until ready for more live stuff from the NRB. Other listeners in Europe, Asia and North America were hearing WTWW also active overnight on 5755 until 1200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9480, WTWW Lebanon TN; 1618-1632+, 1738-1800+, 2238-2245+, 1-Mar; first time segment was Paster Pete Peters (PPP) ragging about other "lying bastard" preachers; also mentioned "Queersville"", but didn't catch the context; no BoH break; 2nd segment was Ted Randall interviewing people, including PPP, at the Nat'l Religious B'casters Assoc. convention in Nashville; ID promo at 1746+, but none at ToH. 3rd segment was T.R. still at the NRB convention, plus Jeezus pop music; ID promo at 2244+. S30 with many complete audio dropouts. (Harold Frodge, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Peters resents being called a hater; yet you only have to listen to him for 5 seconds at random to hear how hatefully he rants. PPP racist crap is a great way to drive away new listeners, and I don`t check again until 1805. Now it`s back live from NRB, Ted Randall interviewing someone about repentance. OMG, now it`s Pastor Pete Peters himself, live and in person with his exaggerated country accent. Barf! PPP is upfront about targeting white people, Anglo-Saxons and their northern European ilk, rather than cur- dogs. WTWW continues `testing` with extremely strong signals on 9480, March 1 around 1800 with more live interviews from the NRB convention in Nashville; but missing around 2030. Must have been a transmitter failure; back on by next check 2200 with Ted Randall. At 2355 Pastor Pete Peters was advertising some DVD, but then to open carrier, about to switch to 5755. More nauseating PPP the next morning March 2 at 1310 onwards // WWCR 9980. NRB convention coverage is supposed to finish at 2200 March 2; then what? I keep looking for WTWW second harmonic on 18960: it was just barely audible at 1432 March 2, but may have been receiver-produced due to overload; it should become stronger on 18960 once we get some sporadic E short-skip, if it is really radiating. 11510 is where to look for double the night channel, or even triple on 17265. 5755, WTWW with bigot PPP, March 3 at 0604, VG signal so I compared it to // 5890 via WWCR, and to my surprise, WWCR was noticeably weaker, non-solid signal. Normally propagation from the two nearby stations is the same, but this time the skip zone boundary must have been on the edge; and/or azimuths from their rhombix made the difference. 9480 at 1449 March 3, still PPP, who apparently is the only programming now that the NRB is over, and lite squeal on the modulation, more noticeable offtuning to the USB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. It`s only Friday, Feb 26, but WINB has prolonged 9265 past usual 1400*, at 1441 with Brother Scare praying to Almighty Yahweh, then taking a call from a brother in Virginia, who is listening on 3215 (not now!), echoed a sesquisecond later on WWRB 9385. At 1501, 9265 with Hallelujah Chorus, WINB ID and address, muffled, but back to BS in progress. Seems Stair does not build in any station-break pauses, so he gets interrupted and de-interrupted by stations which axually care to legal ID. What a pro operation! Still going at 1530 on 9265. Looking for more 18+ MHz harmonix, after hearing Russia q.v. on 18450, I came to a weak hymn by YL on 18530, Feb 28 at 1417. Since the digits in 18530 do not add up to a multiple of 3, this can`t be a third harmonic, but a second, i.e. 9265. Has to be WINB in Pennsylvania, immediately confirmed by // 9265. Don`t think I`ve ever heard a harmonic from them before. Carrier unstable just like it is on the fundamental, warbling against the BFO (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Roughly eight months after being convicted and four months after being sentenced to 175 years for multiple counts of child sexual abuse, Tony Alamo`s 13-14 UT broadcast on WINB 9265 has finally been replaced by a lesser ex-convict, Brother Scare! As monitored March 1 at 1302 and still at 1330, 1458. Not // WWRB 9385 or at least far from synchronized. Meanwhile also looked for the WINB second harmonic, and there is Stair again, clearly readable on 18530 at 1458 // 9265, and 14 seconds behind the German relay on 17485. 9265 and 18530 are still on the air at 1520, instead of the usual 2-hour weekday break at 14-16 between Alamo and Alamo. Has WINB finally canceled Alamo? NO! There he is still during another of his three daily scheduled hours, 1612 on 13570, so was the extended BS earlier an anomaly? Has the online WINB sked been updated accordingly? Of course not! Still shows Alamo M-F at 13, 16 and 20 UT. WINB probably harmonicizes as well when on 13570v, so keep an ear on 27140 if there is any propagation and you can stand to tune between CB channels. 18530, Brother Scare on second harmonic of WINB 9265, March 4 at 1437 quite readable, but soon downfading as I must have caught it on a propagational peak; nice to know anyway that Red Lion and Enid are linked in this way (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. 9955, WRMI still rather weak when audible at all, and presumably has still not got the NW antenna fixed which used to give them a much better signal USward. UT Fri Feb 26 around 0150, altho not jammed, I could not hear WORLD OF RADIO at all, but confirmed it was on the stream as scheduled. At 1448 French talk for Haiti with lite jamming pulses. 1509 R. Prague English relay without jam, about Olympix. Now it has SAH and CCI from Taiwan. WRMI, 9955: Saturday Feb 27 at 1415, AWR Wavescan in progress with Cuban jamming pulses at the rate of approx. 127 per minute, i.e. from a single transmitter, rather than a wall of noise from multiple sites. S/N ratio had worsened however by a semihour later when WORLD OF RADIO was in progress, and WRMI`s own signal was much weaker than 9950 Palau 345 degrees with Furusato no Kaze in Japanese; and much, much, much weaker than WWCR from 9980. 9955, WRMI at 1251 Thursday March 4 in Portuguese! Soon identified as Encontro DX, the program from R. Aparecida, Brasil. Well, not only about DX as they soon played Johnny Mathis` ``My Love for You``, in English. No jamming now, but obliterated at next check 1301 when R. Libertad had presumably started. The 11-13 weekday block was briefly and temporarily occupied by an extra transmission of R. República, but now I suppose is refilled by numerous other DX program repeats et al. I am trying to get the latest schedule ASAP, probably including some revived WORLD OF RADIO times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 17775, KVOH music strong enough at 2229 Feb 26 to audiblize whining spur noise blob around 17920 and the weaker one around 17630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Upon visiting WRNO's website, I noticed they touted that coming soon, they were going to broadcast 24/7 in the coming weeks. They say they will have news, sports, talk shows and mainstream / independent music. So I wonder if they'll actually use 15590 or use 7505 24/7. Think they'll get the rights to Saints football? (Thomas Nyberg, IA, Feb 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Have they ever started broadcasting since their promised return a year or so ago? I haven't been listening, so I may have missed them (Chuck Bolland, FL, ibid.) WRNO has been on consistently at 0200-0500 UT ONLY, for the past sesquiyear on 7505+ (0100-0400 during DST). They did do some brief tests during other dayparts, but not lately. They were already promising imminent 24h operation a semiyear ago, so don`t hold your breath (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) They are on 7505 from 0200 to 0500 but only when the feel like it, maybe once or twice a week. No set days at all and more often, they are off than on the air when they are supposed to be (Pat Blakely, SC, ibid.) Chuck: Since WRNO's HQ are located in Texas, I doubt they will air pro football games; music yes, but not like it was when The Late Joe Costello ran it for nearly ten or fifteen years. It started in 1982, broadcasting rock music, then added GH's "World Of Radio" and other programs. Since the passing of Costello, new owners bought the station and kept the transmitter going in New Orleans, per FCC requirements. 73's, (Noble West, TN, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see UNID 7505 Dear friends: Thank you for providing a great radio service on the short wave! I noticed on your website that WRNO is looking into launching a 24x7 broadcasting. Do you have an approximate date for that? Will you use only 7505 or other frequencies, too? Somehow I cannon get your online streaming. Is it working? Yours, (Sergei S., to wrnoradio @ mailup.net Feb 28, via dxldyg via DXLD) Just got this written response from WRNO: Dear Sergei: Thank you for your email. We appreciate you emailing us. We are working on launching a 24/7 broadcasting. We do not have an approximate date yet. We will be using 7505 mostly but will also use 7355 and 15590. Our online streaming is not working at this present time we are working on a new website and new streaming service. Keep checking us out from Moscow. Thank you WRNO Worldwide Staff (via S., ibid.) ** U S A. Dave Frantz of WWRB has invited WORLD OF RADIO to be heard on 3185, UT Fridays at 0430 probably starting this week, and we assume shifting to 0330 UT Fridays from mid-March once DST is in effect. This should be a good time for reception across North America, 11:30 pm Eastern, 10:30 Central, 9:30 Mountain, 8:30 Pacific. It will also be one of the earliest airings when the information contained is freshest. Also Dave says he may play WOR at some additional unscheduled times when a half hour is available. Dave says he has been working on upgrading WWRB programming, getting rid of anti-Semitic and political shows by attrition, requiring infomercials to post surety bonds, which none have been willing to do! (Glenn Hauser, OK, Feb 27, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. 15420v, WBCQ reduced open carrier already on at 1546 atop BBC and producing audible het; not checked again until 1615 when the BS was in progress, Feb 27 Sabbath-morning-only broadcast from Walterboro (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Qualche breve ascolto di questa notte: 5110 - 0023 UT - WBCQ - Monticello, ME, USA - Parlato in inglese - ins/suff. Buona domenica! (Roberto Rizzardi, SWL 3782, Porto S. Stefano (GR) Italy, Lat 42N43 - Long 11E12 - Locator grid JN52NK, Feb 28, Sangean ATS909, Telescopic and 7 meters indoor long wire antenna, Website: http://diarioradio.blogspot.com/ Skype: robybenjy playdx yg via DXLD) WBCQ hits UK shores --- this from shortwave dx blog... Mon March 1, 5110: Radio Ramona via WBCQ, USA with heard at 0003 with station ID and into instrumental song "Green Onions." Good, steady signal. 44444. http://www.shortwavedx.blogspot.com/ Great to hear that! (Gary Drew, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Altho Area 51 is no longer on SW 5110 weekday evenings, WORLD OF RADIO is supposedly still on the webcast schedule at 0100 UT Fridays --- we check almost every week and it has not really been there either. This week, March 5, the stream was labeled instead ``Live from the SWL Winterfest``. But the programming was some pre-produced lofi narrative. Possibly they will fire up the SW again for this special event until Sunday morning? (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Add KJES to the roster of US shortwave stations putting out spurs. March 2 at 2022 I found very distorted Spanish centered about 15557.6, S9+12 level, modulation soon matched to KJES on 15385 which was S9+22, much stronger than usual; despite this, 15385 was undermodulated, with usual catechisms, i.e. zombie crowd repeating what the leader just intoned. Another weaker spur in between around 15532. However by next check 2032, 15385 had faded way down and the spurs had disappeared. Probably got a sporadic-E boost uncovering the spurs. Axually, undermodulation on fundamentals has a positive correlation with spurs elsewhere (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENINNG DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. GERMANY (and non), Winter B-09 of Media Broadcast(ex DTK T-Systems). Part 2 of 3: [see also CANADA [non] BVBN]: WYFR (Family Radio): to South Europe 1800-1900 on 6120 NAU 250 kW / 230 deg Spanish to East Europe 1700-1800 on 9885 WER 250 kW / 060 deg Russian 1800-1900 on 5965 WER 250 kW / 060 deg Russian to South East Europe 1800-1900 on 6050 WER 100 kW / 090 deg Romanian 1800-2000 on 3975 WER 100 kW / non-dir Hungarian/Serbian to North Africa 1700-1800 on 11685 WER 125 kW / 180 deg Arabic 1800-1900 on 9845 WER 250 kW / 150 deg Arabic 1900-2000 on 9500 WER 250 kW / 150 deg Arabic to West Africa 1900-2000 on 9695 WER 500 kW / 210 deg French 2000-2100 on 9630 NAU 250 kW / 210 deg Arabic 2100-2200 on 6010 WER 250 kW / 210 deg Arabic 2200-2300 on 5960 WER 250 kW / 210 deg Arabic to West Central Africa 1800-1900 on 9465 WER 500 kW / 183 deg Hausa 1900-2200 on 9480 NAU 500 kW / 185 deg English 2000-2100 on 9595 WER 500 kW / 180 deg French 2100-2200 on 7305 WER 500 kW / 180 deg French to East Africa 1600-1700 on 9445 NAU 500 kW / 150 deg Oromo 1600-1800 on 11955 WER 500 kW / 150 deg Amharic/Swahili to Near Middle East 1600-1700 on 9430 WER 250 kW / 120 deg Arabic 1700-1800 on 9850 WER 250 kW / 120 deg Arabic to West Asia 1600-1700 on 9880 NAU 500 kW / 105 deg Persian 1700-1800 on 6105 NAU 500 kW / 105 deg Persian to Central Asia 1400-1500 on 13605 WER 250 kW / 075 deg Uzbek to South Asia 1300-1500 on 13820 NAU 500 kW / 084 deg Bengali 1400-1500 on 13655 WER 500 kW / 090 deg Sindhi 1400-1500 on 13840 WER 500 kW / 105 deg Punjabi 1400-1500 on 15325 WER 500 kW / 090 deg Oriya 1400-1500 on 15315 WER 500 kW / 105 deg Malayalam 1400-1600 on 13700 NAU 500 kW / 095 deg Hindi 1500-1600 on 9800 NAU 500 kW / 084 deg Gujarati 1500-1600 on 11610 WER 500 kW / 090 deg Kannada 1500-1600 on 11935 NAU 500 kW / 094 deg Tamil 1500-1600 on 13790 WER 500 kW / 090 deg English, but not Feb. 26-28 1500-1600 on 11985 RMP 500 kW / 085 deg En via VTC not Feb. 26-28 1600-1700 on 9405 WER 500 kW / 090 deg Hindi 1600-1700 on 11830 WER 500 kW / 090 deg Urdu to South America 2200-2400 on 9465 GUF 250 kW / 215 deg English/Portuguese 2200-0100 on 7360 GUF 250 kW / 170 deg Portuguese/Portuguese/English 0000-0100 on 7390 GUF 250 kW / 215 deg Spanish 0200-0300 on 5930 GUF 250 kW / 215 deg English (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 1 via DXLD) Additional transmission of WYFR Family Radio via TRW from Feb. 26: 1500-1600 on 9380 KCH 500 kW / 105 deg to WeAs in Pashto or Dari ????? (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 1 via DXLD) ** U S A. 4050-, Feb 28 at 0024, country music barely audible at peaks, no doubt once again, 3 x KWMO 1350 Washington MO. Slightly low in frequency as also previously detected. 4050, March 3 at 0608 country music audible, no doubt KWMO, Washington MO, 3 x 1350 as previously IDed with same format. Why do I keep reporting this? Because it is something which should not be there, an anomaly. More pertinent question is why many other DXers are not reporting it? Altho 4050 is always weak and frequently not audible, the fact that it appears at all shows something is wrong with KWMO`s harmonic suppression. If this were normal, we would also be hearing countless other MW stations on their third harmonix every 30 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. "CNN, Fox News and MSNBC struggled to get live updates from Chile, declared a 'state of catastrophe' by President Michelle Bachelet. CNN spent a large amount of time translating directly from CNN Chile and MSNBC, which usually broadcasts documentaries and newsmagazines rather than live news coverage on the weekends, struggled to find last-minute anchors." Kate Stanhope, TV Guide, via seattlepi.com, 27 February 2010. At 2345 UtC, cnnchile.com is loading very slowly. Posted: 27 Feb 2010 (www.kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) I believe it was David Shuster who got the task at MSNBC tho we rarely saw him on screen. Until this we thought he was a pretty good anchor, but he is such a landlubber that he had to be told by someone in Hawaii that the times of normal tides change from day to day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. I pulled out my old AM stereo receiver and turned it on to see who was still broadcasting AM stereo (if anyone). I could find no one broadcasting it in my local market (Atlanta). But later that evening I was tuning across the band and found one broadcaster still broadcasting it. (At least the LED lit up). It was WLS 890 in Chicago. Of course the program was in mono, but they were transmitting the pilot tone for CQUAM to make the LED light up. Amazing, after all these years (Lou Johnson, GA, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGSET) Maybe, but CQUAM can show false positives, if there happens to be a subaudible het of a certain frequency, it will fool the CQUAM into lighting up and even sounding like binaural (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. MAN DIES TRYING TO SET UP ANTENNAE FOR PIRATE RADIO Sun Sentinel, By Rachel Hatzipanagos, February 28, 2010 A man who was trying to set up an antennae [sic] for a pirate radio station was electrocuted in the backyard of his home Sunday, police said. Authorities were called to the home on the 1100 block of Northwest 18th Court at about noon, said Fort Lauderdale Police spokesman Frank Sousa. Details were still sketchy, but authorities said the electrocution appeared to be accidental. . . http://www.orlandosentinel.com/fl-radio-electrocution-20100228,0,6055644.story (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. 1617.8 +/-, FLORIDA (PIRATE) Radio Keenam, Orlando. 1630+ February 27, 2010. First noted when tuned to on I-4 near Conroy Road, eastbound, with a strong but overmodulated and dirty signal. The usual Kreyol talk, possibly Internet-fed source. Later, using Gerry's Kaito portable, confirmed off-frequency on the low side and seemingly drifing. (Gerry Bishop/Terry L Krueger) 1640, FLORIDA (TIS), Florida’s Turnpike DoT, near Orlando; at I-4, MP 259. Big signal as always, with Turnpike construction-related alerts while on I-4 eastbound near Orlando. (Gerry Bishop/Terry L Krueger) 1640, FLORIDA (MIS), WQDC927, City of Casselberry. 2200+ February 27, 2010. Noted with the usual strong signal while in the Altamonte Springs/Casselberry/Longwood vicinity with NOAA weather radio relay, brief male ID and local city meeting events dropped in. (Gerry Bishop/Terry L Krueger) 1650, FLORIDA (MIS), WQDC703, City of Orlando. 2200+ February 27, 2010. Male city events loop, not a very big signal footprint. (Gerry Bishop/Terry L Krueger) 1700, FLORIDA (TIS), WQEV986, Orlando International Airport. 1645+ February 27, 2010. Weak signal on I-4 eastbound nearest to the airport. Male parking information loop. (Gerry Bishop/Terry L Krueger, FL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See PUBLICATIONS ** VANUATU. 5055, R. Vanuatu, Feb 20, 0834-0902, 35333-33332, English, Talk, ID at 0857, // 3945 kHz (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium Feb 26 via DXLD) 5055, Radio Vanuatu. Feb. 24 at 0910-0956 in vernacular. SINPO 34333. Talk till 0914, then local pops. Telephone interview was heard at 0930. ID at 0939, followed by music program (Iwao NAGATANI, Japan, Japan Premium Feb 26 via DXLD) ** VANUATU. Re: "Plural and present tense, but I assume you don`t really mean at the time reported, local noon, even in Finland in Feb? (gh, DXLD)" Prural should be obvious, because SIBC was reported originally together with VBTC. And yes, I really mean that carriers for these 60 mb signals become visible still around 1000 UT, three hours before they produce any audio. That's what makes carrier monitoring worth while! Today Vanuatu on 5054.97 kHz had already some audio just before their current sign-off, at 1225v, and also 3945 kHz carrier was visible and signed off at the same time. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Feb 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5055, R. Vanuatu noted on 2/27 from 0800 tune with S2 sigs, improving to S3 by 0815 with no QRM but N4. Man in what seemed like French from 0800 to 0826.5, then into vocal/instrumental music and woman ann. Signal was much improved over previous loggings earlier this week - the transmitter may be up from the 1.5 KW noted a few days ago. The signal level was competing favorably with SIBC on 5020 which in turn was holding its own against the usually lethal R. Havana [sic] on 5025. Perhaps just outstanding Pacific condx this night. [Later]: 5055, After reviewing my recording last night (2/27 UT), R. Vanuatu was heard with a pop vocal to 1212.5 followed by a woman with s/off announcement to 1213 and then the Vanuatu anthem to 1214. However, the carrier stayed on and at 1218.5, there was an Island group vocal with soft guitar instrumental to 1222 (very pretty). Then after about a minute of carrier with no (or very weak) audio, the carrier finally went off at 1223. The signal strength for the last audio segment was the best of the entire 0800 to 1223 period. I did not hear the s/on but should have been at 0700. At 0800 the signal started at S2 but gradually improved to S3 and near s/off was nearing S4. This was definitely not a 1.5 kW transmitter signal. Maybe not a full 10 kW but more than 1.5 kW (Bruce Churchill, Fallbrook CA, Feb 27, Cumbredx via DXLD) 10 kW transmitter but initially running at 1.5 (Adrian Sainsbury, RNZI Mailbox Feb 22, gist note by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) A reply from the SW-transmitter builder: Hi Glenn, thank you for responding. I got back on Friday, but have dysentery so not been feeling well. As of Wednesday, February 24th, here is what we accomplished. 5055 is on at about 3,500 watts, and 3945 is on at 7,000 watts. But, due to the unstable A.C. power infrastructure, I had to design the protection circuits to be very sensitive. The systems will "fold-back" the transmitters to 2,000 watts if it senses any kind of spike or surge in the A.C. power feeds. It may take the staff at Radio Vanuatu a few days to respond and clear the "fault mode" power cutback. So, there's a good chance you may be hearing them at 2,000 watts at certain times. I just wanted a situation where they remain on the air, but with no "catastrophic" failures until the infrastructure becomes more reliable. The antennas for each frequency are two fan dipoles, in phase, side by side. They are broadside north by northwest, by south-south east. Unfortunately, the U.S. is in the "null" of both services if you follow the "great circle" path. The 7260 frequency won't be used until next January or February, depending on how the cycle progresses. The staff hasn't finished the QSL. design so they weren't ready when I left on the 24th. I`m going to be in constant communications with them, so will keep you posted with any updates. Within the next couple weeks I will be joining your service. Yes, there are more new stations but I don't have the details on frequencies yet. Glenn, please thank everyone for the help, and keep me posted on how Radio Vanuatu is doing signal wise. I'm also curious on how the audio sounds. This new design I focused on trying to have great audio quality. It would be nice to get critical reports on how the audio compares with the "big guns". Thank you so very much for the assistance you've given me. Your website has been a godsend to me (JAMIE Labadia, Feb 28, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GUYANA; LIBERIA ** VATICAN [and non]. 7335 continues with a big collision, roughly equal levels from VR in English direct, and VOR in Spanish via Guiana French, March 1 at 0550. The two overlap between 0330 and 0600, with VR in various east European languages, some beam changes along the way. Strange thing is, VR is supposedly in Bulgarian at 0540-0600. Also strange is that Stewart MacKenzie keeps old-list-logging VOR 7335 as from Chita site. Rechecking collided 7335, March 2 before 0600, this time seems to be in scheduled Bulgarian, at least non-English, under stronger VOR via GUIANA FRENCH closing Spanish, IS, but carrier not cut before VOR opening in English, ``This is Moscow`` went out, reminding us that for that we have to try inferior 9840 or even more inferior 9855. Meanwhile, Tunisia took over the collision duty in Arabic from 0600 on 7335, as Vat went into Scandinavian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) FROM 07.03.2010 MORNING ONWARDS VATICAN RADIO WILL PLAN TO CHANGE ONE OF ITS FREQUENCY. NEW MORNING HOUR FREQUENCY 9580, (ex 5895 kHz) 0025-0040 UTC - URDU- 7335, 9580 KHZ 0040-0100 UTC - HINDI- 7335, 9580 KHZ 0100-0120 UTC - TAMIL- 7335, 9580 KHZ 0120-0140 UTC - MALAYALAM 7335, 9580 KHZ 0140-0200 UTC - ENGLISH 7335, 9580 KHZ (K. RAJA, CHENNAI DX CLUB, 21, J.P OIL STREET, OLD WASHERMENPET, CHENNAI-600021, INDIA, March 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN [non]. VR relay in Dushanbe finally makes it here, UT-3/3 at 0150 in English on 5895 (Aoki: 250 kW / 137 deg.) // to stronger 7335-SMG with talks and then regional news at 0155, off at 0159 with ID, IS; SIO 333. From 3/7, 5895 is to be replaced with 9580 (Joe Hanlon, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, still Dushanbe, but may have a slight problem here with CRI via CUBA on 9580 (gh) ** VENEZUELA [non]. Another Sunday check for possible ``Aló, Presidente``, 1638 UT Feb 28: Zilch on 17750, 13750, 13680, 12010, 11690, its nominal frequencies via CUBA. RHC itself audible on 11730, 11760, but not on 11690, 11800 or 13770. Beginning to wonder if El Hugazo has given up on the Sunday marathons, but you never know. BTW, the opposition has started a countershow, ``Aló, Ciudadano``, not on SW either. 11680, RNV via CUBA, VG signal March 3 at 1505 momentarily in English. English? Hardly. Make that broken English, about what else, Chávez activities. OM speaker is worse than the YL, as first of all the translation from Spanish is far too literal, and secondly, he tries to pronounce English words as if they were Spanish, making them only intermittently understandable. Add to that his poor dixion which would hardly qualify him as an announcer in Spanish itself. What`s his registration number as a licensed announcer, anyway? In Venezuela you supposedly can`t go on the air without such authorization, as e.g. bolivarian apologist Adán González proudly cites his number. Nitpicking like that could get a private broadcaster forced off the air for violating the rules. 1508 canned outro by better announcer as having been ``Informative Short News`` a program title a native English speaker would never come up with, and Windows boot-up logo used deliberately as a transition. Are they aware of this in Redmond? RNV anyway is good for laughs. And we are still waiting for Calabozo to fire up, removing the [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]. Voice of Vietnam via Sackville, 1 March 2010 on 6175 kHz. Carrier and lovely IS on at 0228, followed by news, music and feature of the week on furniture, shipbuilding and wood carving skills in the ancient city of Hue. ID'd as "This is the Voice of Vietnam broadcasting from Hanoi. Interestingly, announcer gave address as Voice of Vietnam, 45 Batrieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. WRTH 2010 lists the "old" 58 Quan Su Street address, which I recall from the Vietnam War era. (And on my QSL letter from 1972). (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** YEMEN. Republic of Yemen Radio heard on 9780 at 1825 February 25, Western pop music, short anthem, identification and news bulletin in English at 1830, fair strength, some co-channel interference but Yemen quite easily readable. On March 1 they were audible but below stronger Radio Liberty in Russian to the Caucasus 1800-1900 (Mike Barraclough, March World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. Voice of Tanzania on 11735. While listening to "As it Happens" on CBC Radio One, Wednesday evening 24 February, I heard an interview re a power outage on the island of Zanzibar since 10 December 2009. Industries and businesses are relying on diesel generators and tourist industry badly affected, etc. There had been a breakdown of the submarine cable linking the island to the mainland and should be repaired by the end of February. Also not the first time that this has happened. I immediately thought that this may be why there has been no reception of VOT on 11735 recently. I did a Google search "power outage in Zanzibar" with lots of hits. From Wikipedia: a critical spare part (a "splitter") was being sourced from overseas. The cable was laid in 1975 with a projected working life of 25 years. It has now served almost 35 years, 10 years after it was due to be replaced. During May and June 2008: almost a month without mains electricity. A grid failure on 21 May, 2008 was followed by a power surge which damaged the submarine interconnector cable. Power was restored on 19 June, 2008 (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario. Feb 25, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Interested to read a blog of a friend who has visited this island off the Tanzanian coast last week. He says there's been a mains power outage across the city for at least the past 2 months. So not surprising we don`t hear RTZ 11735 regularly (Bryan Clark, Mangawhai, New Zealand, AOR7030+ and EWEs to NE, E & SE, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1710: Hoorde deze week 15-2 voor het eerst Radio Soleil (tentative ) uit de Caraiben op 1710 kHz. Programa was in het Frans gesproken by xyl and om (0328 UT); dit was tamelijk goed tevolgen voor ongeveer 10 a 15 min. Later om 0410 ging het terug goed, met typische Caraibische gospelmuziek. Echter nogal veel ruis, en condities varierend. Een opname bleef dus spijtig genoeg uitgesloten! 73, (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, Feb 17, bdx mailing list via DXLD) R. Soleil is the name of one of the Haitian stations but not known to be on this frequency (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1710; 2315-2330+, 23-Feb; Spanish religious program; heard clear, La Palabra de Dios, on a peak. Poor, in/out with music station (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 4755, re 10-08: Krasny Bor site near St. Petersburg, mixing product of 7215 and 5985. What's my winnings? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 5010: Spaans programa, op 5010 kHz, 2217 UT. Zou wel eens Pueblo Domenica kunnen zijn. Goede ontvangst (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, 27 Feb, bdx mailing list via DXLD) Hallo Maurits, Dit is Radio Cristal Internacional, Santo Domingo. (Max Van Arnhem, Netherland, 28 Feb, ibid.) Max en Maurits, Ik heb hier ook geluisterd en geen ID gehoord. Ze waren in de USB mode denk ik. Ik had daar de beste audio. In de lsb mode was niets te horen op 5010. 73 (Hugo Matten, Netherlands, ibid.) Ja, maar dan is het Madagascar, vaak alleen in USB te horen. Maar was het dan wel Spaans, Maurits? 2217 UT is ook wel erg vroeg voor de Dom. Rep. Madagascar heeft wel vaker later op de avond nog programma's, vaak zonder ID's (Max van Arnhem, ibid.) Was zeker LA mx, Max, en Madagascar zit altijd enkele HZ beneden de frequentie, is het zelfde px. als vroeger bij Domenica [sic] (R. Cristal) (Maurits Van Driessche, ibid.) Maar LA mx is nog geen Spaans programma! Heb je ook Spaanse aankondigingen gehoord? Verder ligt Santo Somingo om die tijd volledig in daglicht, dus ontvangst om 2217 UT is nogal onwaarschijnlijk. Madagascar is alleen in USB te horen en Cristal gewoon in AM (Max Van Arnhem, ibid.) Ja enkele woorden in het spaans om 2231 UT, in het verleden hoorde ik R. Cristal iets later. Dus ik ben bijna zeker! (Maurits Van Driessche, ibid.) Max en Maurits, Ik heb hier nog een opname (om alle twijfels uit te klaren). Op 59 sec hoor je daar een soort (ID??) jingle (Hugo Matten, ibid.) Dit is Madagascar, Hugo (Maurits Van Driessche, ibid.) Same date there was just as much confusion amongst North Americans: 5010, HONDURAS. HRMI, R. Misiones International, 2345, 2/27/10. Presumed the one with non-stop music. Good S8 signal. Music through TOH at 0000. Never heard any spoken word through 2316 tune-out. Music ranged from a ranchero style to a highlife-sounding style (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Feb 28, Drake R8B & Perseus SDR, Wellbrook 330S & ALA-100 Loops, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5010. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Radio Crystal Internacional, 0054-0120, 28- February-2010, Program Details: 0055, Afro pop type music 0110, Ballad by male singer, 0120: Afro pop music. Signal: Good, AIR underneath, station on later than prior reports (Ed Wlodarski, N2ED, New Jersey, NASWA Flashsheet via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) Except: I don`t see anything identifiable in either report to distinguish Honduras from DR. Checked next several evenings and nothing on 5010. Maybe it`s a Saturday night special? Make a point of checking then. Afro-pop? Oh oh: Don`t forget that Madagascar sometimes rarely runs all-night. The music they play could include also some that is LA- sounding. But it is on carrier +USB, no LSB, and that should be the clincher, lacking any definite ID. 5010, nothing to be heard at 2254, 2327 and 2355 chex Feb 28, altho Jerry Strawman in IA had something with continuous music 24 hours earlier, which he presumed to be Radio Misiones Internacional, Honduras. That has occasionally appeared on this sesquiharmonic of 3340, where it has also been missing for weeks. My first guess would have been Radio Pueblo, Dominican Republic, which is less sporadic and more secular. Cuba was already well audible on 5025 at 2254 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [and non]. 5055, looking for Vanuatu, Feb 26 at 1345; may have been trace of carrier, but instead found hand-keyed CW, including multiple-dot correxion notices. Call sign after DE was JTT55? Not sure of the last two numbers, but definitely JTT something, so presumably Japan unless tactical call. Nikkei 3925 and 6055 were in well at the time, as I had just tuned down one MHz to be sure I was on exactly the right frequency for Vanuatu. 5030 Sarawak was also audible, and carrier from 5020 Solomon flanking Cuba. 1350 into long message with no IDs heard. 1400 some SSB QRM started, but fortunately on low side. 1401, JTT-- finally said K. Pause and then on and off to 1408, back again at 1412, intermittently. Possibly part of this was from another station in contact, but frequency/pitch, strength and style all sounded the same. Searching on that callsign I got a relevant hit from Igor in an old Spooks newsletter at http://www.cvni.net/radio/nsnl/nsnl032/nsnl32ms.html --- ``A unid Japanese station on 5052 kHz, callsign JJV56. Copied at 0951 UTC on 15-12-2000. Info wanted. de jjv56 qrk 4 k de jjz37 qrk 4 k de jjt44 qrk 4 k de jju22 qrk 4 k de jjt88 ar qrk 4 ii qsy k de jjt55 r va **************** de jjv56 r va de jjz37 r va de iit44 r va de jju22 r va va`` ``va`` sent as a single character ...-.- with no break is usually rendered as ``sk`` -- is making it ``va`` a Russian convention? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6934, Spanish language broadcaster here in AM mode 0605 28 Feb but suffering severe QRM from fax/digital type transmission on 6936 (Bryan Clark, Mangawhai, New Zealand, AOR7030+ and EWEs to NE, E & SE, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 7505.65a; 2147-2200+, 23-Feb; Just an S5-6 het, no audio; WRNO warming up? No sign on at 2200 (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I`ve also noticed a similar het on FEBC mornings on 7505: (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. 7505.6 approx.: I often hear a het on FEBC PHILIPPINES 7505 which is in Mandarin, Cantonese 1400-1630; e.g. March 2 at 1439. Since this is close to the real WRNO frequency during its only broadcasts at 0200-0500, I am wondering if they leave the exciter on the rest of the day, producing this weak spoiler signal? Or could it have something to do with WE2XRH, the DRM/CW test from Alaska, q.v., which claims to use 7505? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) USA, 7505.64 odd - Came across of WRNO English sermon by female(!) "...talk about teenagers....", at 0540-0548 UT, March 3, S=8-9 signal in southern Germany (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 10-08: 13645, nothing there yet on Thursday Feb 25 in several chex between 1607 and 1645; however, propagation was relatively poor today altho Saudi was still audible on 13710. An unID 13645 station was reported last Friday and Saturday from Brasil with a very good signal, so need to check again next two days. That frequency came up as once used by the clandestine V. of Southern Azerbaijan, which was for northern Iran, in 1998 and did not make another appearance until 2003 on another frequency, so it`s about time again, tho probably will turn out to be something else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 13645, last Friday`s sensation, a big signal heard in Brazil between 16 and 17, speculated to be V. of Southern Azerbaijan, a no-show here this Friday Feb 26. Even before Albania closed 13640 at 1558, could hear weak 13645 signal, no doubt India, which went off at 1559:30* and then monitored straight thru until 1639, hearing nothing at all except occasional ute noise pulses. Maybe Saturday? Or another once-yearly transmission like Öömrang, a mistake, or sporadic, who knows. I hope they were also looking for it today in Brasil, but no further posts about it yet on the radioescutas group (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No joy checking for this at 1640 on a number of computer receivers in Europe. Nada in Florida as well (Hans Johnson, Feb 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 13645, one more check for last week`s mystery, heard in Brasil between 16 and 17: zilch, Feb 27 at 1610 and later past 1630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: [radioescutas] Re: Não-identificada em 13645 KHz Gostaria de escutar a gravação do Fabrício. 73, (Guilherme Glenn Hauser, radioescutas yg via DXLD) OK, I have it. Which part of the recording would you like to listen to? I think that a part of the program and the last minutes will be useful. Right? I haven't monitored regularly 13645 during this week, except Tuesday, when nothing could be heard. Tell me which parts you'd like listen, and I'll send mp3 for you. Thanks for the interest (Fabricio Silva, 27 Feb, ibid.) Not got it yet (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. 13705, good signal from something in French, March 1 at 1336, but then monitored VOA Spanish on 13715. When I got back to 13705 at 1344, it was gone. Nothing scheduled here on any of the current online references. The closest would be CRI at 13-14 via Kashgar on 13710; could I have read 5 kHz off? Don`t think so as it would have been obvious 5 rather than 10 kHz away from VOA. Did not think to recheck for this 24 hours later; how about 48? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 15480, March 2 at 1445, good signal in an Arabic- influenced SW Asian language, heard the words ``kitab`` and ``Bible`` mentioned. Nothing scheduled here now. TRT in Turkish is listed until 1400 (or 1355) and on Feb 18 I had Turkish talk here past 1500 // 11815, so that was certainly TRT on late, but it was gone Feb 20. This time I would have guessed it`s some Christian gospel-huxter. As I am about to dispatch this, the answer comes in from Wolfgang Büschel: ``IBRA Radio 15480 Rampisham UK, 500 or 250 kW, 76 degrees. Pashtu 1430-1500, Dari 1500-1530, Hazaragi 1530-1545 UT. [Hazaras living in rural areas speak Hazaragi, an eastern dialect of the Persian language] http://monitor.ibb.gov/rms/rms_server_check.html RMS IBB Monitoring 14:39:32 IBR PASH 15480 AM RMP`` 73 wb (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also SWEDEN [non] Wolfy was replying to this: Subject: UNID on 15480. UNIDentified station in Dari or Pashto or Farsi noted today 1500-1545 on 15480. Excellent reception here in BUL. Please check today from 1400 or 1415 or 1430 or 1445 until 1545 UTC 73! (Ivo Ivanov, via Büschel, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 15570, S9+18 open carrier at 1410 March 3, surely another Greenville warmup for upcoming broadcast really on 15580 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ I hereby enclose another small gift for WORLD OF RADIO. I could number on the fingers of both hands, or maybe even one, the number of programs I have missed! Congratulations on 1500! (Tim Hendel, AL, with a check in the mail to P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702, WORLD OF RADIO 1502) Contribution in appreciation of all your radio-related work. Another matter. I was cleaning up my listening post and happened across the letter from Grove Enterprises when they refunded my subscription to Monitoring Times. I canceled my subscription and I told them it was because they decided to end the ``Global Forum`` column. In the letter from GE, they give the reason as ``cancelled sub because of glenn hauser``. I wanted you to hear directly from me on this matter. I did not cancel because of you. I guess GE refuses to accept the truth and put their spin on things. 73 (Kraig KG4LAC, Krist, VA, with a check in the mail as above) World of Radio is my favorite source on shortwave information, thanking you for doing so as a public service. I remain forever, yours sincerely, (Li Ming, Maanshan City, 243011, CHINA, from a reception report to WRMI 9955 for Friday Feb 26 1530 UT WOR broadcast, via WRMI) Union of Asian DXers --- I really like the careful analysis of Asian broadcasting that appears on their web site. I wish there was a group of DXers doing similar work somewhere in Central or South America. (Glenn Hauser does a great job on Latin America, BTW) Hats off to Victor and his associates (Richard Murphy, NASWA yg via DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ INFORMATION STATION SPECIALISTS Reasonably accurate (a couple of FL ones definitely inactive). They sort-of got it right for Pinellas -- 1690 top-end -- which is where they are now after moving all three (not eight) from 940. http://www.theradiosource.com/articles-news-ears-across-america.htm [maps and long lists of TIS station clients, some with weblinx] (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W Visit my "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" at: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA for his latest TIS/MIS FL logs RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ MULTI-USER ONLINE SDR This was mentioned in another group and I thought I would pass it along. Here http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ is an online SDR that accommodates multiple simultaneous users. A LOT of simultaneous users. When I tried it, there were over 100 people using it, all in full control of their own little piece of the radio. Pretty impressive. Your browser will need both Java and Javascript enabled. There are several waterfall displays, all being updated in real time, giving you a good view of what's happening over a very wide range of frequencies. I tuned in a couple LW stations, some MW, and the ham bands were crammed full of transmissions in languages I didn't understand. I have to say this is one of the coolest online radio applications I've seen (Jay Heyl, Feb 28, ABDX via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC See BRAZIL +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM see: ALASKA; KOREA SOUTH; PRIDNESTROVYE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 6085, GERMANY, BR-B5akt, Munich. On-screen ID & language, but not triggering decoded audio, 0800. SNR to 10dB. 5BR Journaline also indicated as part of the stream, but not resolved. 28/2 (Seager). 9610, PORTUGAL, DW, Sines. Rock solid signal, English news from *0800, then “Living in Germany”, SNR to 19dB, 28/2 (Seager). 9870, NEW ZEALAND, RNZI. Operatic selections 0851, SNR to 21.0dB, 17.08 kbps stream, 27/2 (Seager) 9780, SPAIN, REE, Noblejas. Spanish promo and a few bars of Men at Work Song, 0813. Pretty steady, SNR to 18.6dB, 28/2 (Craig Seager, Bathurst NSW (Icom R75, Drake R8A, Folded Dipole, Dream® DRM Software), March Australian DX News via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ THE AZORES ON 2 METERS? --- BOB COOPER. The Azores Challenge This is circa 1992 but in fact the roots go back to 1957 or 1958. When Ed Tilton (amateur W1HDQ) suggested to Huge Gernsback, publisher of Radio Electronics from the dawning days on the 10s (that would be 1910s) that I replace him as 'TV-FM DX Editor' for Radio Electronics in 1956, my life took a new turn; I was 18 at the time. Tilton was the 'World Above 50 Mc/s' editor at QST and the ARRL (American Radio Relay league) bosses decided Tilton should not be writing for another publication; even if the subject had nothing (or very little) to do with amateur radio. Tilton had visited in my home in 1956 (Fresno, Ca.) and did his best to convince my father "Bob would be best served if he went to University and obtained his EE degree." My parents agreed with Ed, and so off I went in 1956. By 1958 I would be re-enrolled at San Jose State in Journalism but that is another story. It was in 1957 or 1958, my memory dims, when as 'TV-FM DX Editor' for Radio Electronics I received a lengthy letter from an American Air Force chap living on the Portuguese island of Terceira in the Azores. He had come home one day during June to a complaining wife who said their local AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) FM station, operated by the staff at (the American) Lajes Field on Terceira, was being blocked out by 'strange signals'. The letter writer was a ham and his FM radio, to receive AFRTS-Lajes, was nothing more complex than a table set with a whip antenna. Upon investigation he found dozens of FM radio stations all over the dial, stable and clear; over a few hours he identified the signals as originating over an area from southern New Jersey to Boston and above. As a ham from California, W6-something which I have misplaced, he knew and understood 'DX' when confronted with it. The distance in statute miles exceeded 2,200 for any of these signals and they lasted for hours, then several days. I was naturally totally intrigued by this report. Fast forward to 1992. My wife Gay (amateur VP5GG/ZL1GG) and I (K6EDX/ZL4AAA) were arriving on Terceira in early June. We had flown first to the USA, then to London where we purchased some antennas (10m, 6m, 2m) to go with our from-New Zealand 10-6 and 2m 100 watt transceivers. Then we flew to Lisbon with the growing pile of baggage, and headed the next day to the Azores. We wanted to land in Terceira, one of 17 Azores islands but the airline (Air Portugal or something similar) would only take us to San Miguel. In advance I had communicated with an Azores amateur and he assured me in fax messages I could operate as CU2/K6EDX on 10, 6 and heaven forbid 2 meters. In our luggage I also had a triplestandard 14" TV set purchased in London and a Heathkit AJ-15 FM tuner along with a London- sourced log-periodic antenna which claimed it would resonate from 50 to 500 MHz. The objective was to spend 30 days in the Azores, operate on 10/6/2 meters and pay close attention to the possibility that the FM band reception experienced back in 57/58 might repeat while we were there. If it did - well - we would make an effort to contact North America on 144 MHz. A guy with a table top radio experiencing full FM band stereo reception at sea level at the Lajes Field American base living quarters from America seemed like a pretty good indicator of what we might expect. Nobody had yet made a two meter contact from Europe (the Azores so qualifies) to North America and perhaps we could do it. The Air Portugal (or whatever) plane did not go to San Miguel after all; bad weather interceded and we ended up on Terceira in the middle of a downpour. The airline told us they would attempt to get us to San Miguel the next day and we declined; we were by accident where we really wanted to be in the first place! Two days later we had made contact with Jamie Eloy (CU3AK) because his house displayed a tri-band beam at roof level, had rented a car, and found a one-month rental at Biscoitos on the north shore of Terceira. Two more days and Gay and I had a 3 element ten meter beam, a five element six meter and an 11 element two meter stuck on some second hand pipe at the rental house. Just in time for a major solar event that shut down every HF (high frequency) band and turned six meters into a white noise experience. In our rental car, from our +50' sea level rental home, we wandered about ending up on a plateau that tops Terceira at 2,000+ feet where I discovered the FM set in the car was absolutely overloaded with Portuguese and Moroccan and Gibraltar FM stations. It was our first but hardly last experience with the 900 mile 'eastern path' which under the influence of a stable high pressure area just seemed to be 'open' 24 x 7. The interesting thing here was that at our almost-sea level location there was no sign of this reception; height counted for something. Alas, nothing that spoke English save for the Gibraltar UK Forces Service. Nothing from the USA. As the solar event sub-sided, 50 MHz appeared; first there were Europeans (in their thousands all anxious for a CU3 QSL card) and then VE1s in Nova Scotia quickly followed by the entire Eastern seaboard from approximately Virginia north. Now we had something, or so we thought. Six meters would open for hours, our triple-standard TV set using the questionable log antenna, displayed pictures as high as American channel 4 and I quickly tired of watching Boston's WGBH with heavy co-channel from WCBS on channel two. One might think that 2,300 mile reception would never become dull; trust me, it does. This went on for days, usually around 4-7 pm local time but on some days when I turned on the gear at 7 am there would be WGBH - again. Over the course of 24 days (we lost the first few due to the solar event) WGBH was there 15. On (very) rare occasions it would be replaced with channel 2 (and 3 and once 4) further inland - WLWD Dayton (3,005 miles) was seen several times along with WJBK Detroit. The best of the best was KJRH Tulsa (3,662 miles) briefly one late afternoon; triple hop sporadic E I suspect. FM? Once - briefly - from the USA, most certainly double hop Es, from a New Jersey coastal station. Alas, nothing that even came close to 'table top radio with a whip' reception as the chap reported in the 50s. On 50 MHz we worked New Mexico at about the same time as Tulsa was in on channel 2, the furthest west penetrated in the days we were on Terceira. In the opposite direction, east, life was continuously busy. As an aside project, bored with what was happening to the west, I elected to attempt to pin down the exact (as in to the nearest ten hertz) frequency of the more than 50 USSR TV stations operating on 49.75 MHz. By measuring as best I could with the ham transceiver (an ICOM IC- 575H) the Russian TV carriers, plotting these measurements (such as 49.7508) against the amateur and FM band signals I was hearing (hundreds, more, from Europe simply poured in on Es) a list of 'probable locations' for these mysterious Russian 49.75 (nominal) TV transmitters was created. On six meters / 50 MHz, more than 50 countries were worked in that less than month period. Two meters? In the middle of a strong Es opening I briefly heard a Gibraltar station - once; we did not complete a contact although whenever six was open to Europe and I had a band filled with non-English (or British) FM signals the 100 watt two meter rig was transmitting. Jamie Eloy, CU3AK, would turn out to be a treasure. His uncle worked at Lajes as a trained meteorologist with more than a decade of experience. His access to records covering the 50s was unlimited and we spent hours and hours going through the faded and filed maps for 'North Atlantic Weather' during the mid 50s through to 1960. He understood precisely what I was looking for, and dragged out map after map showing 'The North Atlantic High' stable and unmoving for days on end, enveloping the entire area from the American coast to Terceira. "Many years, from late May until early July, it is one continuous non-moving high pressure area" he explained. "But not this year." I had chosen the wrong year to be there. "This year it is a much smaller stable high sitting between here and the Spanish and Portuguese coast" he explained with current maps. I told him how this affected VHF (and UHF) propagation and he in turn brought out isosonde soundings for the last few weeks. Sure enough - there it was, at least for the east end of Terceira where the balloons were launched; at around 2,000 feet, a sharp temperature jag in the readings, followed at 2,500 by a moisture jag. To anyone who understood how two meter and higher frequency signals traveled from Hawaii to California, it was a lesson in "here too". And it totally explained why in driving to 2,000+ feet on the Terceira 'plateau' with our car instantly produced the FM band filled with Spanish and Moroccan stations. Alas, it was in the wrong direction for our intended North American reception. So what had we proven? Not much save the Azores has incredibly nice people and delightful seafood and if we had been smarter a direct flight from Boston (once a week at that time) would have saved us huge dollars and endless hassle as we attempted to move our far over limit baggage half way around the world. The Azores is still there, and the challenge to reach North America on two meters remains (March WTFDA VHF-UHF Digest via DXLD) Geomagnetic field activity was at predominantly quiet levels during the period. Real-time solar wind observations from the ACE satellite showed frequent weak fluctuations in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The total field, Bt, varied primarily between 3 and 8 nT, while the southward component, Bz, varied from +8 and -6 nT. Solar wind speeds ranged between 283 km/s and 409 km/s. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 03 - 29 MARCH 2010 Solar activity is expected to be very low, with isolated periods of low levels, through the period. 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 predominantly quiet on 03-14 March. Quiet to isolated unsettled levels are expected on 15-16 March, due to a recurrent coronal hole. Activity is expected to return to quiet levels for the rest of the period. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2010 Mar 02 2351 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 Mar 02 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2010 Mar 03 80 5 2 2010 Mar 04 82 5 2 2010 Mar 05 84 5 2 2010 Mar 06 85 5 2 2010 Mar 07 85 5 2 2010 Mar 08 85 5 2 2010 Mar 09 85 5 2 2010 Mar 10 85 5 2 2010 Mar 11 85 5 2 2010 Mar 12 85 5 2 2010 Mar 13 85 5 2 2010 Mar 14 84 5 2 2010 Mar 15 82 8 3 2010 Mar 16 82 7 3 2010 Mar 17 82 5 2 2010 Mar 18 80 5 2 2010 Mar 19 78 5 2 2010 Mar 20 78 5 2 2010 Mar 21 78 5 2 2010 Mar 22 78 5 2 2010 Mar 23 78 5 2 2010 Mar 24 78 5 2 2010 Mar 25 78 5 2 2010 Mar 26 78 5 2 2010 Mar 27 78 5 2 2010 Mar 28 78 5 2 2010 Mar 29 80 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1502, DXLD) ###