DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-11, March 17, 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 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 1504, March 17-23, 2010 Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1900 WBCQ 7415 9330-CUSB? Thu 1900 WBCQ 7415 9330-CUSB? Thu 2100 WRMI 9955 [NEW] Fri 0030 WRMI 9955 Fri 0330 WWRB 3185 Fri 1430 WRMI 9955 Fri 2030 WWCR1 7465 [not 15825 as presumed] Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 0900 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 9510 [March 20, then 2nd, 4th, Sats] Sat 1330 WRMI 9955 Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 Sat 1900 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 6170 Sat 1900 WRMI 9955 Sun 0230 WWCR3 4840 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Sun 1900 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Tue 1900 WBCQ 7415 9330-CUSB? Wed 0030 WRMI 9955 [NEW] 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 ** AFGHANISTAN [and non]. INTERACTIVE RADIO PROJECT STARTS IN AFGHANISTAN The Afghan radio station ARIANA FM started broadcasting Deutsche Welle's radionovela "Learning by Ear" on Friday, March 5, 2010. Germany's international broadcaster has planned 50 episodes – each 15 minutes long – in the two national languages Dari and Pashtu. The radio dramas have been made with young listeners in mind. Deutsche Welle Director General Erik Bettermann welcomed the start of the multimedia project that was produced in Bonn under the auspices of Deutsche Welle's Dari and Pashtu service. "Learning by Ear can be instrumental to the development process in Afghanistan," said Bettermann in Bonn. "We also want to contribute to the acceptance of a modern, democratic business model." The project, supported financially by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, sheds light on topics like political education, health, the advancement of women and girls, drugs and their consequences and tolerance and understanding. "We are building on the overall positive experience we had with the implementation of this innovative project in Africa, which has been running since 2008," said Bettermann. "It's an entertaining and informative way to communicate important educational content." Radio is still the primary media in Afghanistan, but there will be additional "Learning by Ear" material available online. Young people between 12 and 20 years of age make up the majority of the population in Afghanistan. Bettermann said that's why programming focuses on a younger target audience. Deutsche Welle is working with Afghan authors to produce "Learning by Ear for Afghanistan" . As part of the project, they received training from Deutsche Welle's academy. The individual modules were produced with ARIANA FM in Afghanistan. Listener comments will be used in the future to tailor the design of the series. "Learning by Ear for Afghanistan" is broadcast nationwide on ARIANA FM, as well as over shortwave, satellite and Deutsche Welle frequencies in Kabul. Schools can access the series, scripts and accompanying material on the Internet. "Learning by Ear for Afghanistan" will also be made available on CD (DW Press Release via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dx_sasia yg via DXLD) We also hear Learning By Ear, African version, on the 7240 English transmission via Portugal at 0600 (gh, DXLD) ** ALASKA. KNLS Broadcast Schedule Starting March 28, 2010 English 0800-0900 11765 1000-1100 11765 1200-1300 11765, 12105 1400-1500 11765 Mandarin 0800-0900 12105 0900-1000 12105 1000-1100 12105 1100-1200 12105 1300-1400 9615 1300-1400 9920 1400-1500 9920 1500-1600 9920 1600-1700 9920 1700-1800 9920 Russian 0900-1000 9615 1100-1200 9615 1500-1600 9615 1600-1700 11765 1700-1800 11765 (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, March 11, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) ** ALBANIA. 11925 kHz at 0800-0900 UT puzzled me, noted an English 'spoken' program - supposedly ahead of co-channel TRT Ankara in Turkish. Okay, that is the spurious of Cerrik-ALB 11785 English, and 11855 in Chinese, another spur should be on 11715 kHz in Chinese, all separated by 70 kHz spur difference. see also under DXLD, items of 11875RMP, 11910harmonic RNW Nauen 2 x 5955 (Wolfgang Büschel, March 10, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews March 13 via DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA. Hi Glenn and group, I`ve not had a trace of LRA36 any reportings cannot find anything and not even a hint here. Last year it was a regular visitor (Mark Davies, Isle of Anglesey, March 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) No sign of LRA36 15476 lately. They have long periods of inactivity, and it seems to me usually in Feb-Mar, perhaps due to summer rotation of staff. Please keep checking for it (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 6060, Radio Nacional, 0020-0045, March 14, Spanish programming with live sports coverage. Weak under Cuba and Brazil. // 15345.25 - weak but readable (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** ARGENTINA. 15820-LSB, unidentified feeder. 0015-0120 March 13, 2010. Spanish man and woman bantering throughout, with rare song tracks such as "Are We Human, Or Are We Dancers" The Killers at 0020; "We Built This City" Starship 0020; "Miss You" Rolling Stones 0115. Rolled across top-of-hour without any detectable ID (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I can receive Spanish service to seem to be an Argentinian feeder on 15820-LSB now, at 0930 UT on Mar. 16. I can't confirm a ID in poor condx (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 2368.50, 0940-1005, R Symban in Greek talk on democracy, unions, 1000 Greek/Cypriot music, very poor reception (John Kecskes, somewhere in Australia? March 15, Kenwood R-5000 receiver, A/D DX antenna, HCDX via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. RA is not quite back to normal; altho 9560, 9580 and 9590 were doing well before 1400 UT March 12, later in that hour I noticed that 9590 was absent tho it is supposed to run until 1600. 7240 was still on but weakening. ``teddyfnballgame`` in the ptsw yg got a March 10 reply from Nigel Holmes, RA CE: ``RA's Shepparton transmitters were whacked by a cyclone on Sunday 7 March. Several aerials were knocked out including the one which carries 9580 kHz. Repairs are underway and we hope to be back with 9580 tonight. Thank you for your kind comments about our programming, We're glad you've enjoyed our broadcasts over 25 years. Good listening. Kind regards, Nigel Holmes, Chief Engineer, Radio Australia``. Monitored R. Australia from before 1400 UT March 13 to see which frequencies would go or not: at 1358*, 9580 cut off the air amid country music without so much as a goodbye, or retune-to advisory. 9590 remained on the air, 1359 announced as Saturday Night Country program from ABC Local Radio to resume after the news which at 1400 came instead from ABC National. 1440 recheck, 9590 still on unlike yesterday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. Listening to R Australia's becomes more difficult in NAm mornings --- What use to be a great listening experience and an excellent example of world wide propagation was to listen to Radio Australia from the other side of the world on frequencies such as 9580, 9590 & 9475. Readers will know that because of Chinese neglect, Radio Australia is very difficult to listen to on what use to be their best frequency: 9580. The noisy non-compliant transmitter CRI uses on 9570 [via CUBA] makes listening to RA most difficult here in Ontario between 12-14 UT. 9590 is somewhat affected but things have become worse for that frequency as well. CRI signs on at 12 UT on this frequency. I think the programming is Chinese. When all else fails, one could tune to 9475 but now that is blocked by WTWW 9480 :-(. 6020 remains in the clear. Should be only a matter of time tho before this frequency is blocked too (Andy Reid, Peterborough, Ont., March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6020 also has a bad clash yearound 1230-1312 from Vatican via PHILIPPINES, as reconfirmed March 16. RA is well aware of this but feels it is not a problem in its own target area (gh, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4796.5, R. Lipez, Uyuni, 2219-2229, 12 Mar'10, Aymara (listed), talks; 23331, adjacent QRM de CHINA 4800. 4865, R. Logos, Stª Cruz de la Sierra, 2207-..., 12 Mar'10, Castilian, talks, music & songs; 23331, utility QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. CBN AM 780 transmitindo em DRM Olá Pessoal, Depois do Iboc (HD Radio), agora seguem os testes com transmissões digitais em DRM e a R Cultura AM 1200 e a CBN AM 780kHz ambas de SP-Capital já estão transmitindo em modo DRM... Com o auxílio de um simples e pequeno SDR "Elektor" e um Netbook estou tendo a possibilidade de acompanhar os testes. Vejam maiores detalhes, telas e audios demo para uso no programa SoDiRa em meu blog: http://pu2lzb.wordpress.com/ 73 (PU2LZB Renato Uliana, http://www.amantesdoradio.com.br 14 Mar, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Hi Glenn and group, Any chance for some help I m trying to find out if R. Gazeta São Paulo 15325 is still on (Mark Davies, Isle of Anglesey, March 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mark, It so happens we have a long list of inactive Brazilians including 15325 (gh, ibid.) viz.: LISTA DE INATIVAS BRASILEIRAS EM OC E OT Segue abaixo uma lista elaborada por mim referente as emissoras recentemente inativas ou que não deram "baixa" nas frequências: 2380, R. Educadora Limeira SP 3205, R. Ribeirao Preto Ribeirao Preto SP 3245, R. Clube Varginha Varginha MG 3255, R. Difusora 6 De Agosto Xapuri AC 3325, R. Nossa Voz Sao Paulo SP 3365, R. Cultura Araraquara SP ** see below 3375, R. Clube Dourados MS 4765, R. Rural Santarem PA 4785, R. Brasil Campinas SP 4785, R. Caiari Porto Velho RO 4795, R. Difusora Aquidauana MS 4825, R. Canção Nova Cachoeira Paulista SP 4875, R. Roraima Boa Vista RR 4895, R. Globo Manaus Manaus AM 4905, Nova R. Relogio Rio de Janeiro RJ 4905, R. Anhanguera Araguaina MS 4915, R. Anhanguera Goiania GO 4945, Emissora Rural Petrolina PE 4945, R. Difusora Pocos de Caldas MG 4955, R. Clube Rondonopolis MT 4955, R. Cultura Campos RJ 4965, R. Alvorada Parintins AM 5025, R. Vale Do Xingu Altamira PA 5035, R. Educacao Rural Coari AM 5055, R. Difusora Caceres Caceres MT 5055, R. Jornal A Critica Manaus AM 5980, R. Guaruja Florianopolis SC 6030, R. Super R.Deus E Amor Rio de Janeiro RJ ** see below 6040, R. Clube Paranaense Curitiba PR 6050, R. Guarani Belo Horizonte MG 6170, R. Cultura Sao Paulo SP 9615, R. Cultura do Brasil SP 9725, R. Clube Paranaense Curitiba PR 11785, R. Guaiba Porto Alegre RS 11805, R. Super R.Deus E Amor Rio de Janeiro RJ 11830, R. Anhanguera Goiania GO 11935, R. Clube B2 Curitiba PR 11965, R. Record São Paulo SP 15325, R. Gazeta Sao Paulo SP ** see below 17815, R. Cultura Sao Paulo SP (Edison Bocorny Jr., Novo Hamburgo- RS, March 11, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Sic, no accents and no commas between station name and location; I hate to publish this without accuratizing it but the clock is ticking. That`s helpful, but how is an ``inactive`` station defined? One which was on the air only until a certain date in the past? And/or one which still has authorization for the frequency and/or equipment capable of operating once repaired or merely turned on? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Cultura de Araraquara de volta --- Escutei a mesma ontem às 21 horas de Brasília [00 UT] em 3365 nos 90 metros com SINPO 35444 (Edison Bocorny Jr., Capão da Canoa - RS, March 13, radioescutas yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) 6030: A Globo Rio não ocupou esta frequencia? Arrendou para a referida igreja? (Rozek, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. Neste momento, às 1915 UT, a emissora do Sr. David Miranda em 9565 está gerando espúrios em toda a faixa de 31m, de 9000 a 9800 kHz. Pesquisando aqui no grupo, descobri que este assunto já foi debatido em Dezembro/2009. Ou seja, o problema é antigo e com certeza a ANATEL tem conhecimento. Por que será que até agora não tomou nenhuma providência? Acho isso um absurdo! Alguém aqui já formalizou uma denúncia na ANATEL? Recebeu alguma resposta? Ou será que infelizmente não adianta nada e que o dinheiro arrecadado dos pobres fiéis fala mais alto? Eita Brasilzão! (Sancanauta, March 13, radioescutas yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) Prezado colega: Este problema ja vem ocorrendo há tempo, mas acho que os espúrios emitidos nos 31 metros, são oriundos do TX em 9585 Khz de São Paulo, ja que apresenta o audio distorcido. Este mesmo problema acontecia quando este QRG era da Globo de São Paulo em 2008. Vamos acionar a ANATEL! 0880-332001 (Edison Bocorny Jr., Capão da Canoa - RS, ibid.) ** BRAZIL [and non]. 9645.3, R. Bandeirantes, full ID for all SW frequencies with callsigns, March 17 just as I intuned at 0638; only slight het from WYFR mixing product on 9645.0 = 9715 leaping over 9680. These two had been extremely strong a semihour earlier, but now downfaded along with their spur (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 9819.12, Rádio Nove de Julho, São Paulo, SP, 0940-0950, March 11, Portuguese, Time Check, announcement and ID as: "hora certa... 6 y 45 minutos... em Nove de Julho, São Paulo". Greetings to Guarulhos, 34433 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9819 R. 9 de Julho, São Paulo SP, 2204-2229, 13 Mar'10, Portuguese music prgr "Caravela do Fado"; 34433, adj. QRM de CHN 9820 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, ibid.) ** BULGARIA [and non]. R. Bulgaria, 15700, Friday March 12 at 1439 with music including ``Hava Nagila``, but marred by continuous CW QRM on 15699, not noted before; whence? // 11700 but weaker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGERT) ** CANADA [and non]. RCI A10 sked available in PDF: http://www.rcinet.ca/english/illustration/schedule/1curpv_A10_SW_FINAL.pdf 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: CHINA/KOREA Rep/SWEDEN/TURKEY/U.K./VATICAN STATE Radio Canada International - A-10 Technical Schedule for Shortwave from March 28th (0700 UTC) to October 31st, 2010 (0700 UTC) ARABIC 0200-0259 HB 5920, SMG 5950 0300-0359 SMG 7230 1105-1205 SAC 7325 1900-1959 SAC 15235, RMP 15180 1905-2005 SAC 9515 CHINESE - MANDARIN 0000-0059 KIM 9690, KIM 11895 0105-0205 SAC 6100 1305-1405 SAC 7325 1500-1559 YAM 11805, YAM 6110 2105-2159 SAC 9515 2200-2259 KIM 9525, KIM 9870 ENGLISH 0000-0057 KUN 11700 0005-0104 Tue-Sat SAC 6100 0100-0159 EMR 9620 1500-1557 URU 15125, KUN 11675 1505-1705 SAC 9515 1700-1759 Sat HB 5850 1800-1859 KAS 9530, SKN 11765, SAC 17735, SKN 17810 2000-2059 SAC 15235, SAC 17735 2305-0004 Mon-Fri SAC 6100 FRENCH 1700-1759 Fri & Sun HB 5850 1705-1904 SAC 9515 1900-1959 KAS 11765, SMG 13730, SKN 15320, SAC 17735 2005-2105 SAC 9515 2100-2159 SMG 9525, SAC 15330, SAC 15235, SAC 17735 2300-2329 KIM 9525 PORTUGUESE 0005-0035 Sun & Mon SAC 6100 2100-2159 Fri-Sat-Sun SAC 15455, SAC 17860 2200-2229 Fri-Sat-Sun SAC 17860 2230-2259 Fri-Sat-Sun SAC 17860 2300-2329 Fri-Sat-Sun SAC 13710 2305-0004 Sat & Sun SAC 6100 2330-2359 Fri-Sat-Sun SAC 13710 RUSSIAN 1405-1434 SAC 9515 1435-1505 Mon-Fri SAC 9515 1500-1529 WOF 15325, HB 11935 1600-1630 RMP 15325, HB 11700 SPANISH 0000-0059 SAC 11990, SAC 13725 0100-0159 SAC 11990 0205-0305 SAC 6100 1205-1305 SAC 7325 2200-2259 SAC 11990, SAC 15455 2205-2305 SAC 6100 2300-2359 SAC 11990, SAC 15455 DRM Transmissions (Digital Radio Mondiale) ENGLISH 1505-1705 SAC 9800 2100-2200 SAC 9800 FRENCH 1705-1904 SAC 9800 Transmitter Sites EMR = EMIRLER, TURKEY HB = HOERBY, SWEDEN KAS = KASHI, CHINA KIM = KIMJAE, Rep of KOREA KUN = KUNMING, CHINA RMP = RAMPISHAM, UNITED KINGDOM SAC = SACKVILLE, CANADA SMG = SANTA MARIA GALERIA, VATICAN STATE SKN = SKELTON, UNITED KINGDOM URU = URUMQI, CHINA WOF = WOOFFERTON, UNITED KINGDOM YAM = YAMATA, JAPAN (RCI .PDF file via Alexey Zinevich-BLR, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews March 14 [English] via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) ** CANADA. 6030, CFVP (Calgary), 0409-0425, 3/15/2010, English. Country music with male announcer. Mention of Alberta at 0409. Poor signal under Radio Oromiya, occasionally on top for a few seconds, but usually below. First log of them since August, 2009 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Recent pictures that I took of the CFVP 6030 kHz (and CKMX 1060 kHz) transmitter site and antennas are now online at http://www.odxa.on.ca Look under the Broadcasting in Canada section (Harold Sellers, BC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Harold, The CFVP tower looks like a MW tower, which is itself the antenna. This seems unusual for shortwave, or is it even possible? Are there no additional wires or elements we cannot see which are axually the 6030 antenna? Of course it`s only 100 watts. Perhaps someone more familiar with SW antenna designs can comment. http://www.odxa.on.ca/broadcasting.html (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) The tower is the antenna - a vertical, of course - looks like 4 sections x 10 feet. An equally important part of the antenna system are the radial wires buried in the grass, altho I only see one green wire heading down to the ground. I would expect there should be somewhere between 32 and 120 quarterwave radials buried there. 73 (Don VE6JY Moman, AB, ibid.) I agree, Don, there are likely many radials buried in the moist, black earth. The area had quite a bit of water laying on the ground, but that no doubt dries up in the summer. Glenn, I was also surprised to find that it was a sectional tower, rather than a vertical rod or a dipole. It would be interesting to know if this is the original antenna and even the original site. The building did not look old in any way, but it might be the original site and the building having been replaced sometime over history (Harold Sellers, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So would such a vertical really be resonant at 6.03 MHz = approx. 50 meters? Apparently so. If 12.2 meters (40 feet), that would be close to a quarter-wave. Must be non-direxional. Are such antennas common for low power or tropical band stations elsewhere? Surely there is some reason not to use them for higher power or higher frequencies, altho they would be even more compact (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Yes, that's the basic premise for 1/4 verticals - thick verticals (like a tower) are slightly shorter for a given frequency than say, a thin wire vertical, and would have a slightly greater bandwidth. Constructed properly it can handle high power. If you take an ordinary dipole and hang it, it becomes a vertical dipole. If you lay the lower 1/4 wave portion on the ground it becomes a radial (1 radial is far from ideal) and the antenna is just a vertical. Verticals are non directional but may be combined in arrays to produce a variety of patterns (am broadcasters for example). A common ham radio configuration is four 1/4 wave verticals spaced 1/4 wave approx and switched to provide coverage to each of the 4 directions, known as a "four square". I have constructed these for 80 and 160m and they work well. The vertical has a low radiation angle which makes them good for DX but less useful for a small tropical band broadcaster who wants to cover a close in radius of 500 km or so, the majority of the signal will skip over the intended close in area. A simple dipole at relatively low heights (1/4 wave or so) would provide better close in signals most of the time so I suspect more of the tropical band stations would use this antenna but some certainly do use verticals. And as the frequency goes up, the local coverage is even poorer. For the higher bands (speaking from ham band experience on 20, 15 and 10m) horizontal dipole antennas can be combined for wide frequency coverage and gain (log periodic) or a single dipole can be modified with directors and reflectors (as in a yagi) for greater gain than any common vertical array. One exception may be verticals mounted in salt water - they can be very effective but that's not for the majority of us. SW broadcasters typically use arrays of dipoles strung between large towers to achieve higher gain into a certain target area. But stations like WWV and CHU who need to cover a large area use verticals (Don Moman, AB, ibid.) ** CHILE. NHK starts relays via CVC: see JAPAN [and non] ** CHINA [and non]. Music Jammer, 15265, 2320, Music-Chinese, 444, March 9, Continuous Music. Radio Japan heard below the Jammer with an OM with comments [222]. (Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA, Huntington Beach, California, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Vs. RFA in Chinese via KUWAIT, this hour only (gh) Firedrake March 12: 8400 just barely audible at 1325 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9380, FIREDRAKE (China) at 1419 Friday 12.03. Musical jammer. Some selections sounded similar to compositions written by the American composer Aaron Copland. We just may have discovered a new genre - 'Chinacana.' 34334 (Richard Bianchino, Las Vegas, NV USA. Kaito KA1103, 32' longwire antenna, indoor, shortwavelistening yg via DXLD) ?? Had not noticed anything Coplandesque about it, but presumably always appears at this minute past any hour (gh, DXLD) 15550, March 13 at 2324, Chinese with flutter and also SAH? over another station with music, i.e. ChiCom jamming and R. Free Asia in Mandarin via TINIAN during this hour only. Evening here/morning there with plenty of Firedrakes, March 13-UT 14, all //: 13970 at 2327, VP and fluttery with drumming segment 17970 at 2328, much better 16700 at 0035, good signal with flutter, better than 17970 13970 at 0037, better than before, but now weaker than 17970 17645 at 0040, stronger than something mixed with, i.e. VOA Chinese via Tinang, 00-03 18180 at 0041, just barely audible 16700 at 0041, has declined to JBA too Firedrake March 14: 8400 VG but with flutter at 1357 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CHINA/TAIWAN, 9380, Firedrake jamming music noted here, against - supposedly - Xi Wang Zhi Sheng SOH from Taiwan, noted the jammer in 1730-1750 UT time slot, S=7 level (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) China Wang Zhi Sheng SOH (Firedrake) 8400 kHz --- 1240-1310 UT March 15, S9+ signal. Local music being broadcast. Music ended at 1300 UTC, signal carrier remained with no sound until 1305 when the music returned. Very strong signal with some flutter/noise. Heard on both the Yaesu FRG-7 and the Sangean ATS-803A, 25m. random wire antenna oriented north-south. SWLR-RN069, Buffalo, NY (Scott McLean, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11945, Firedrake and CNR-1 echo jamming both used against RFA, 1612 + 1632, March 15. 11720 Firedrake against RFA, 1612 + 1632, March 15. 8400 // 9000 Firedrake against SOH; 1612 + 1632, March 15; // 11795 Firedrake against BBC till 1630, March 15 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake March 16: 8400 good with flutter at 1324, `ramshorn` to drumming-only segment, // much weaker 9000. At 1326 also on // 9380. At 1419 also on 7585 atop something, much weaker than // 8400, and nothing Coplandesque discernible during this Firedrake minute. Aoki has nothing on 7585 at this hour, not even SOH, but Radio of Tajikistan has reserved the frequency so now may be relaying something objexionable to the ChiCom. 9380 FD is there because of SOH, but DW suffers collateral damage, if it has not moved yet. Firedrake, March 17: at 1318 on 8400 good but with heavy flutter. At 1423 found even bigger FD on 9345 against nothing detectable, // 8400. And not on 9380 today. Nothing known to be on 9345 at this time altho the hour has been reserved by Tashkent, so perhaps something new and objexionable to the ChiCom has started (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 8400, March 17 at 1702 UT noted Sound of Hope running a long announcement loop with soft background music. Gave several ID's, some web address and a jingle. No jammer audible. This continues still when writing this at 1732 (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Some incredibly strong signals around today, the strongest being from CRI which was reading 50 dB over 9 on my Icom's S-meter. Interesting result when listening to CRI. Because the sites used were quite a distance apart, even though they were both in Western China, there was a sight echo as the signal from the furthest site took longer to arrive (I would think that was the reason, it was too short to have been long path vs short path). I could hear the echo by using the 'dual watch' feature of the Icom, which is like using a second receiver but it only really works in the same band and mode as the main receiver. The audio levels from the main and sub receiver are balanced with a front panel control. The audio from both of the receivers are fed to both headphone channels, rather than having the main receive in one earphone and the sub receive in the other earphone, as is the case with some of the Yaesu radio's. This means that the echo is easy to hear. CRI 13670 via Kashi, in English, 1306 11 Mar. China Drive prgr. Talking about the high rate of kidney disease in China. Massively strong signal. (s9+50) - (S. Gilbert, UK) CRI 13790 via Ürümqi, in English, 1309 11 Mar. China Drive, //13670 but 10-15dB weaker. Slight echo between the two (using dual receive on Icom), caused by differing sites/distances. (s9+40) - 73, (Sean Gilbert - Buckingham, UK. http://www.hfradio.org.uk Icom IC756pro, Racal RA1972, Inverted Vee @ 10m; Wellbrook ALA1530 @ 3m, MFJ1026, SEM Multifilter, 'Dream' DRM Software, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It seems to me the difference in distance between Urumqi and Kashgar to you is negligible, and likely other factors cause the delay, such as different program feed routings, digital delays somewhere in the chain, possibly some backscatter on one of the signals, or a significantly skewed path. If you could measure the axual difference in milliseconds, that might be clueful (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** CHINA. 4940, Voice of Strait, 1500-1525, March 14. “Focus on China” Sunday program in English; usual canned IDs: ““This is the Voice of Taiwan Strait News Radio” and “This is the Voice of Strait, Fuzhou, China”; news items (slim chance of survival for miners trapped in Inner Mongolia, etc.); promo for China tourism. Today only a 25 minute program; not the usual half hour. 5050, China Huayi BC, 1214, March 15. Program in Chinese; 1230 into non-stop pop Chinese songs; no sign off announcement, just time tips at 1300 and off; well above the QRM from Guangxi Beibu Bay Radio. 5050, Guangxi Beibu Bay Radio, 1300, March 15. Pips about a half second out of sync with CHBC pips; multi-language IDs (“This is Guangxi Beibu Bay Radio”); in Vietnamese; 1304 “Weather Report” with weather for many cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, etc; played mostly pop Vietnamese songs; some AIR Aizawl QRM (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 6010, La Voz de Tu Conciencia (Puerto Lleras) (presumed), 0448-0505, 3/15/2010, Spanish. Upbeat local music. Talk by man and woman regarding "La Familia" at 0454. "Conciencia" mentioned two times at 0501. Good signal with a hint of cochannel interference from another Spanish language station (probably Radio Mil) until 0501:30. At that time RHC attempted to start their English language broadcast with a few 3-5 second periods of talk, then 15-20 seconds of no carrier. Finally successful at 0502, RHC dominated the frequency thereafter (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. INFORMACIÓN SOBRE LV DEL GUAVIARE --- Hola Colegas, Les envío una información sobre La Voz del Guaviare 6035 KHz, donde figura una dirección de correo-e para contacto; ojalá los colegas del exterior puedan comunicarse con esta emisora y obtener algún tipo de verificación; es bueno que les resalten la labor de trabajar en la onda corta para la Amazonia Colombiana. Buen DX, (Rafael Rodríguez R., March 12, playdx yg via DXLD) http://www.colombiauniversal.com/municipiosView.php?id=1019 MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN San José del Guaviare cuenta con aerolíneas que prestan servicio permante entre Bogotá y regiones del oriente lo mismo que con medios de comunicación como la Emisora LA VOZ DEL GUAVIARE que lleva 25 años haciendo presencia desde el Guaviare para Colombia y latinoamérica en la onda corta, frecuencia 6035 kHz en la la banda de 49 metros y en banda preferencial en la frecuencia 1170 kHz cubriendo la orinoquía y amazonía colombiana. CONTACTOS con LA VOZ DEL GUAVIARE Si va a viajar al Guaviare o desea estar más en contacto con esta zona exótica de Colombia, llena de biodiversidad entre la llanura, puede contactarse con anticipación a LA VOZ DEL GUAVIARE, emisora afiliada a la Cadena Radial RCN en los Teléfonos 098 5840154 Telefax 098 5841202 de San José del Guaviare. En Bogotá al teléfono 2265680 Cel 033 2365710 Email: lavozdelguaviare@ hotmail.com con JAIRO HERNÁN BENJUMEA, un colombiano que hace patria desde el corazón de la selva y el llano (via Rodríguez, ibid.) ** COLOMBIA. MinComunicaciones por MINTIC --- Saludos Amigos, Queriendo ingresar a la Pagina del Ministerio de Comunicaciones de Colombia...me encuentro con que han cambiado el nombre por Ministerio de Tecnologias de la Informacion y las Comunicaciones (Mintic). Aunque sigue apareciendo en los buscadores, si busca la palabra Ministerio de Comunicaciones (por ejemplo http://www.google.com.co para que la busqueda sea mas exacta), mientras pasa el tiempo y cambian de dominio. Encontrando la siguiente informacion... Ministerio de Comunicaciones Planea, regula y controla todos los servicios del sector de comunicaciones, los servicios informáticos y de telemática, los servicios de valor ... http://www.mincomunicaciones.gov.co Como ven, dice MINCOMUNICACIONES, pero lo lleva a http://www.mintic.gov.co/mincom/faces/index.jsp :: MINISTERIO DE COMUNICACIONES :: Colombia sede Reunión Regional de la Américas ... Santa Marta, capital del departamento de Magdalena, fundada el 29 de julio de ... http://www.mintic.gov.co/mincom/faces/index.jsp Política de Calidad Nuestro compromiso como Ministerio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones – Fondo de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones es asegurar la eficacia, eficiencia y efectividad en la formulación, coordinación y vigilancia de la Política del sector, así como en el financiamiento y ejecución de planes, programas y proyectos sociales relacionados con las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones, fortaleciendo las competencias de nuestro equipo de trabajo, bajo un enfoque de mejoramiento continuo de nuestros procesos, orientados a la satisfacción de las necesidades y expectativas de nuestros clientes y demás partes interesadas. Pagina web: http://www.mintic.gov.co/mincom/faces/index.jsp (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** CRETE. Here`s a radio-country you will never hear on SWBC. March 13 at 1548, only a couple of signals on 14m, the better being an SV9 on 21272-USB. He was making contact after contact, mostly with 20 over 9 North Americans, merely by saying QRZ? After previous contact. Apparently contest-inspired, but he was still saying a few unnecessary words prolonging the exchanges just a bit, including handle as Mike. Altho he gave call fonetically, his last three letters were difficult to copy since he did not enunciate them clearly, signal was very weak and fading at the wrong instants. Finally at 1555 made out SV9CVY on Crete, and this chex with QRZ.com listing: SV9CVY MICHAEL DIMITRAKAKIS P.O.BOX 257 RETHYMNO CRETE 74100, Greece (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. CUBA ENDURECE SU CONTROL SOBRE INTERNET, SEGÚN RSF [Cuba hardens its control over the Internet] Por EFE PARIS Cuba endureció el control sobre el acceso a internet de sus ciudadanos a través de una mayor restricción a la red y de presiones sobre los blogueros, que logran burlar los cortafuegos del régimen, según el informe sobre la libertad de prensa en internet publicado hoy por Reporteros Sin Fronteras. Junto con Corea del Norte y Turkmenistán, Cuba es uno de los países que ejerce la censura en internet a través de una prohibición casi total del acceso de sus ciudadanos a la red, precisa el informe, que señala que La Habana acompaña esta sequía con un arsenal represivo contra quienes se saltan el bloqueo. Muy pocos ciudadanos tienen acceso a la red en la isla, donde los "exorbitantes' ' costes de acceso y la escasez de medios hacen que internet sea un artículo de lujo. . . [more] http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2010/03/12/673407/cuba-endurece-su-control-sobre.html 73 (via Oscar de Céspedes, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** CUBA. Disclaimer: No portion of this may be referenced or reproduced by the National Radio Club and editors without expressed, written permission (which will be automatically denied). 1140, Radio Musical Nacional, Villa Clara. 0001-0005 March 13, 2010. Fair in mix of others with classical fill, female, parallel 590. 1620, Radio Rebelde, unknown eastern Cuba. 0005-0015 March 13, 2010. Nearly local level with "Mesa Rodonda" weeknight Commie program, female host discussing Mexico economic exchange. Parallel RHC 6000, 9640 and all other MW Rebelde outlets and 5025. 1620, Rebelde FM, unknown eastern Cuba. 0322-0328 March 13, 2010. Checking back, now relaying Rebelde FM with Spanish rock/rap, the apparently regular evening "Música Viva" program. It appears they often flip to Rebelde FM in the eves here (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC audience (Re Radio Sweden [q.v.] Ends Medium, Short Wave) ``Stations that only use SW like RHC keep it for political reasons, but even RHC's audience is made up of only DXERS as was told to me by Manolo de la Rosa just a few weeks ago.`` They even admit it? I'm really surprised! (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Privately, I imagine (gh) ** CUBA [and non]. Major RadioCuba outage, March 12 at 0627: RHC 6010 and 6060 English, 6120 Spanish, 6140 English or Spanish all absent, but still on 6150 in Spanish. RHC check March 12 at 2050: 11760 in English, 11730 in Spanish, open carrier on 11770, no signal on 11800; heavy jamming against nothing on 11600, 11930. More down time, possibly caused by installation of new Chinese copies of American transmitters. 15360, March 13 at 1455 had heavy mix from something in Persian, but RHC stopped at 1458, uncovering RFI closing announcement until 1500*. Since as an outlaw nation, Cuba refuses to participate in HFCC, TDF may be officially unaware that Cuba is colliding. See also USA: WRMI RHC observations March 13-UT 14: 17705 at 2320 in Creole (definitely not French), mentioning Cuban cities, P- and E-mail addresses; audio distorted but S9+12. This semihour is supposed to be in Portuguese, both per WRTH 2010 and RHC online sked presented in Spanish. Creole is supposed to be at 0100-0130 on 13790. By 0038, 17705 was inaudible, presumably off, but French (definitely not Creole) was on 13790, as scheduled. 17705, March 14 at 2248 check, RHC in French (definitely, not Creole). Supposed to be in Guarani at this time per WRTH and its own schedule http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/c_frecuencia/frecuencias.htm Next check of 17705, March 15 at 0009, lofi Cuban jazz piano music, then into propaganda in Quechua about the ``terremoto`` in Haiti and how much Cuba has aided the victims. Come on! The Quechua surely have their own word for earthquake, experiencing them long before first contact with the Spaniards, and don`t need to depend on Spanish for that term. RHC announcers continue to mess up their own frequency listings, so ignorant are they of their own true transmissions. March 15 at 1457 on 15360, gave these to be in use from 1500, in usual Soviet-style out- of-order: 13770, 11730, 11760, 11800, 6110. But what about 11690? That is always on air too, confirmed at 1506 check vs RTTY. RHC still on 6180 at 1315 March 16, and still on 9600 at 1332, both of which supposedly close at 1300. Confused apparently by local DST time shift so running an hour late? The DentroCuban Jamming Command continues to attack the French to Haiti service of WRMI, 9955, during its new hour of 13-14 M-F, pulsing mixed with it at 1338 March 16 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. R. Martí has shifted its programming one UT hour earlier due to DST in Miami, and Habana compliantly goes along with it by matching its own clox to USA EDT = UT -4. Sunday March 14, on 7405, Arte Latino show all about ``Guantanamera`` and Joseíto Fernández, in progress at 1340, i.e. starting at 1330 instead of 1430 as in winter. No jamming audible either on this frequency; possibly the DCJC has become confused. While Martí programming has shifted, there may not be any UT change in transmissions and frequencies until A-10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7405, DentroCuban Jamming Command, vs. R. Martí, March 17 at 0605 with a different disruption, a continuous ringing sound of several quickly alternating pitches, and no noise wall. With BFO on, can detect many different slightly offset carriers, rather like the wideband whine often heard in the daytime centered on 17450. However, RM was still readable, if one could mentally tune out the tones. 6030, another jammed RM frequency, March 17 at 0610 had the same ringing sound but this one also mixed with usual noise wall and RM not copyable here. However, at 0633 I noticed that R. Martí was coming in much stronger on 6030, well atop the jamming, discussing the hunger- strike death of political prisoner Zapata Tamayo. Propagation must have shifted considerably, altho it seemed like RM had just turned up its power, presumably not an option (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, March 15 at 1527 on 19090-19115; and still at 1602 recheck. Also on 13858-13883 March 15 at 1611. 18015-18040, OTH radar pulses presumed from here, March 17 at 1434 as I was on my way to check 18057.9 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, Radio Djibouti. 0318-0324 March 14, 2010. Seemingly Afar (not Somali or Arabic) emphatic male through tune-out. Strong (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 6050, HCJB, La Voz de los Andes, *0826-0920, 17-03, Inicio de la programación con música de flautas e himno, Quechua, identificación, locutora: "HCJB, La Voz de los Andes, 690 AM, onda corta, 6050 kHz. Bonito programa de música del Ecuador con comentarios en Quechua. 34433 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW7600G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6050, HCJB. 1244-1301 March 13, 2010. Clear but fairly weak with Spanish female, the standard HCJB three short, one long time sounders at 1300, ID (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Still occasional het here with off-frequency Malaysia, mornings before 1300 at least; see also UNIDENTIFIED (gh, DXLD) ** EGYPT. Radio Cairo, 15080 via Abis, in Arabic (I think), 1338 15 Mar. Incredibly distorted audio. Worst I have ever heard R. Cairo. OM announcer. Overall this signal is not useable. Urgent repairs needed! Switched to FM and the signal is just as understandable as it was in AM, if not slightly better! (s8) 73, (Sean Gilbert - Buckingham, UK. http://www.hfradio.org.uk Icom IC756pro, Racal RA1972, Inverted Vee @ 10m; Wellbrook ALA1530 @ 3m, MFJ1026, SEM Multifilter, 'Dream' DRM Software, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. Tentative Radio Cairo schedule in A-10 season 6255 1500-2245 ABS 250 315 Ge, Fr, En 6270 1600-1800 ABZ 250 90 Urdu 6270 0045-0330 ABZ 250 315 Sp, En 6290 1900-0700 ABS 250 315 Ar (General program) 6860 1700-1900 ABS 250 5 Turkish (alt 9280) 6860 1900-2000 ABS 250 5 Russian (alt 9280) 6860 2000-2200 ABZ 250 110 Ar 9250 1500-1600 ABZ 250 50 Uzbek (alt 13840, 15780) 9250 1700-2300 ABZ 250 180 Ar (to SUDAN Wadi El Nile program) 9250 2330-0045 ABS 250 241 Ar 9280 2030-2230 ABS 250 241 Fr 9295 1900-0030 ABZ 100 160 Ar (V of Arabs, alt 11540) 9305 1900-0700 ABS 250 315 Ar, Sp, Ar 9360 2215-0200 ABZ 250 245 Port, Ar, (Sp?) 9915 0045-0200 ABS 250 252 Sp 9990 1800-2100 ABS 250 241 Hausa 11510 1900-2030 ABZ 250 250 En 11550 1500-1600 ABZ 250 330 Albanian (alt 13580) 11590 2300-0430 ABZ 250 330 En, Ar 12170 1300-1600 ABZ 250 70 Da, Pa (alt 15065, 17800) 12170 1600-1800 ABZ 150 195 En 13860 1015-1215 ABZ 250 90 Ar (alt 15060) 15040 1330-1530 ABZ 100 70 Persian 15080 1300-1600 ABS 250 241 Ar 15285 1600-1900 ABZ 100 160 Afar, Somali, Amharic 15710 1230-1400 ABS 250 106 Indonesian 15800 0700-1100 ABZ 100 250 Ar (General program) 17810 1530-1730 ABZ 250 170 Swahili 17870 1215-1330 ABZ 250 90 En (Gordon Brown-UK, NWDXC Mar 13, via Wolfgang Büschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, "R. Bata" irregular during period Fri. 12- Sat. 13 Mar: audible on 12, silent the next day. 6250 "R. Malabo" not heard 12-14 Mar (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Radio Africa, 2110-2120, March 14, very strong but overmodulated audio producing a somewhat distorted signal. Very emotional English preacher (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 15190, R. Africa still broadcasting child-sex evangelist convict Tony Alamo, his bored tones immediately recognizable at 2216 March 14. Next check at 2251 the signal was off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 6030, Radio Oromiya (Addis Ababa) (presumed), 0404-0425, 3/15/2010, Oromo. Talk by man, occasionally joined by woman. Horn of Africa music at 0421. Moderate signal with cochannel CFVP audible below them, but generally only a minor annoyance (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6030, R. Oromiya, Geja Dera (or Geja Jawe?), 1749-1805, 13 Mar'10, Vernacular, talks, chanting; 24432, increasing adjacent QRM. 6890, R. Fana, Geja Dera (or Geja Jawe?), 1902-1920, 12 Mar'10, Vernacular, talks, interviews; 35433 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. GERMANY/ETHIOPIA, 11810, Voice of Oromo Liberation via Wertachtal noted 1700-1800 UT, Suns only. But JAMMED heavily by Ethiopian broadband HISS jamming (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. 15195, EOTC Holy Synod Radio, via TDP via Samara, RUSSIA, Mondays only, March 15 at 1608 fair with Horn of Africa music atop DRM-like noise jamming. Thus DRM-promoting TDP is hoist with its own petard. Why not use real DRM as jamming if you have such a capable transmitter? However, Jim Ronda in Tulsa was not hearing any jamming when he tuned in at 1620 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Hi Glenn: I got intrigued by your Flashsheet report on this opposition station so I gave it a listen this morning beginning at 1620; evidently the Ethiopian jammers must have neglected their duty since this Monday there was no HoA music or jamming noise -- just a long talk by a man in Amharic. The signal was quite good until 1628 when fading began; still audible with talk at 1636 recheck. What do you know about EOTC Holy Synod? (Jim Ronda, Tulsa OK, March 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not much, but there may have been some background in DXLD a while ago (gh) ** EUROPE. -PIRATE. 15060.14 Cupid Radio, 1500-1544+, March 14, pop music. ID announcements. Acknowledged listeners’ reports. Threshold / very weak but occasional peaks up to weak to fair levels (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** FRANCE [non]. 21690, RFI via GUIANA FRENCH, March 16 at 1802 in French, not Spanish as had been reported previously at this time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Bremen 936 kHz, Ulm 711/1413 kHz Radio Bremen has switched off its 936 kHz transmitter on Wednesday (March 10), assuming that hardly any listeners still tune in. The decision is not final yet and could be revoked if complaints demonstrate that the assumption is wrong. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=86175&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=295486116966&aid=-1&oid=295486116966&id=100000698834974 Listeners who already called Radio Bremen have been told that their reactions indeed get explicitly registered, so apparently this is not just sweet press officer talk and already writing off 936 kHz would be a bit premature. It has so far not been deleted either from http://www.radiobremen.de/bremeneins/info_und_kontakt/frequenzen/frequenzen102.html Not a first; in last year RMC flew such a kit as well. In this case the number of received calls was sufficient for not having done with 216 kHz but restoring it instead. Of course in this case such a outcome was pretty more likely than in Germany. For the time being this example has been posted for how 936 sounds in Germany now: http://hf-freak-arne.bplaced.net/audio/VoiceOfIran_936kHz_20100312_1900UTC.mp3 A permanent closure would be remarkable because the whole transmission facility is not more than 11 years old. It uses a cheap antenna construction, as explained in detail at http://www.waniewski.de/id534.htm (link to the subpage with the best photos). This antenna has been repainted just four years ago, in green, since it is not subject to flight security rules with its height of just 45 meters. Must have cost them a considerable fraction of the power bills for one year. A word about the programming: From 1999 to 2002 the transmitter carried Funkhaus Europa. In 2001 Radio Bremen closed down its Radio Bremen 3 program and put Funkhaus Europe on its FM frequencies, thus they decided to use 936 for Bremen Eins (the former Hansawelle) again. Time and again special programmes went out, apparently for the last time the ARD-Olympiaradio during "Beijing" (probably also during "Vancouver", here 936 has not been announced in advance but the DW relays on shortwave have not been either). Also on March 10 Südwestrundfunk changed the frequency of its transmitter at Jungingen near Ulm from 711 to 1413, apparently in doing so reducing the power from 5 to 1 kW, at least according to http://www.swr.de/frequenzen/radio/mittelwelle/-/id=3646/1yw1vsg/index.html During the second quarter the AM service of SWR cont.ra via the remaining 711 transmitter at Heilbronn/Obereisesheim will cease and the frequency be used for DRM tests instead, as explained at http://www.swr.de/frequenzen/-/id=3786/mrfxfv/index.html 1413 is an old Süddeutscher Rundfunk (one of the Südwestrundfunk predecessors) frequency, during the eighties it was in use with 3 kW from Bad Mergentheim and with 200 watts from some further sites. After 1990 Süddeutscher Rundfunk closed some of its MW gap fillers and consolidated them on 711, amongst them Bad Mergentheim which has been shut down in 1999, followed by Heidelberg in 2004. All these transmitters were necessary because the Mühlacker main transmitter on 576 operated co-channel with Wöbbelin (until 1979 the even closer Wiederau instead). Here you can still read a page full of complaints about Wöbbelin returning to the air in 1999, reportedly running again 250 kW with new Thomson solid-state transmitters: http://www.magischesauge.de/magischesauge_schwerin.htm Now Wöbbelin is gone for good, the masts have been demolished in 2005. If you want to know what became of the transmitter building: http://www.myspace.com/fabrikwoebbelin (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Jülich plans --- A German investment group is interested in purchasing the Jülich transmitter site, now offered for sale by Christian Vision, and presented its plans to the municipal parliament, including a restaurant in the transmitter hall and a radio museum for which they intend to keep three of the towers. Now the plans will be reviewed, especially if they really provide added value or would just create competition for existing businesses. http://www.az-web.de/lokales/juelich-detail-az/1237237?_link=&skip=&_g=Investor-plant-Freizeitpark-auf-der-Merscher-Hoehe.html As reported, regular transmissions from Jülich ceased on Oct 24, but at present the site is still being maintained, which according to the Media Broadcast schedule involves firing up one or two transmitters on workdays between 1630 and 1700 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 13, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. DW cuts Transmission hours for Hindi & Urdu languages, drops morning broadcasts Deutsche Welle has cut back transmission hours for Hindi & Urdu languages for the forthcoming A10 (Summer) broadcast season to be effective from 28th March 2010. DW Hindi transmission hours has been cut by half, presently it has two 30 minutes slots at 0130 & 1500 UTC (0700 & 2030 hours IST), the 0130 UTC (0700-0730 IST) transmission will be dropped from next season. Similarly DW Urdu had three half hour tranmission slots at 0200,1430 & 1700 UTC (0730, 2000 & 2230 IST), out of which transmissions at 0200 & 1700 UTC (0730 & 2230 IST) will be dropped for next season. There have been cutbacks in transmission hours for Chinese & Russian languages as well & Kisuaheli broadcasts to Africa has been dropped. According to sources DW plans to reduce/drop most of the shortwave during next one year. After clinching the FM distribution partnership at Bangladesh, DW is working on FM partnership in India. DW Hindi/Urdu Schedule summer season (wef 28 Mar - 30 Oct 2010) HINDI --- 1500-1530 UT (2030-2100 IST) on 1548, 6180, 9540, 9655 kHz (All via Trincomalee) URDU --- 1430-1500 UT (2000-2030 IST) on 1548, 9655, 13840 (All via Trincomalee), 15595 (Krasnodar) (Alokesh Gupta blog March 13 via DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. NETH ANTILLES/PORTUGAL/RUSSIA/RWANDA/SINGAPORE/ SOUTH AFRICA/SRI LANKA/UAE/U.K./USA DW A-10 in German DW-RADIO Summer A-10 Schedule Deutsch / German Service. Zeit/UTC Frequenz Station Leistung/kW Azimuth Zielgebiet 0000-0100 1548 TRINCOMALE 400 35 Sued-Asien 0000-0100 6075 SINES 250 50 Europa 0000-0100 6165 TRINCOMALE 250 15 Sued-Asien 0000-0100 9430 SINES 250 275 Mittel-Amerika 0000-0100 9505 RAMPISHAM 500 85 Sued-Asien 0000-0100 9845 RAMPISHAM 500 260 Mittel-Amerika 0000-0100 12050 KIGALI 250 280 Mittel-Amerika 0100-0155 9430 SINES 250 275 Mittel-Amerika 0100-0158 6165 TRINCOMALE 250 15 Sued-Asien 0100-0200 1548 TRINCOMALE 400 35 Sued-Asien 0100-0200 6075 SINES 250 50 Europa 0100-0200 9505 RAMPISHAM 500 85 Sued-Asien 0100-0200 9845 RAMPISHAM 500 260 Mittel-Amerika 0100-0200 12050 KIGALI 250 280 Mittel-Amerika 0200-0300 6075 SINES 250 40 Europa 0200-0300 7410 RAMPISHAM 500 95 Nahost 0200-0300 9825 SINES 250 75 Nahost 0300-0357 9825 SINES 250 75 Nahost 0300-0400 6075 SINES 250 40 Europa 0300-0400 7410 RAMPISHAM 500 95 Nahost 0400-0500 6075 SINES 250 40 Europa 0400-0500 9465 KIGALI 250 180 Sued-Afrika 0400-0500 9480 KIGALI 250 30 Ost-Afrika 0400-0500 15605 TRINCOMALE 250 270 Ost-Afrika 0500-0557 9465 KIGALI 250 180 Sued-Afrika 0500-0557 9480 KIGALI 250 30 Ost-Afrika 0500-0600 15605 TRINCOMALE 250 270 Ost-Afrika 0600-0700 6075 WOOFFERTON 300 105 Europa 0600-0700 9480 WOOFFERTON 250 70 Europa 0600-0700 12045 KIGALI 250 210 Sued-Afrika 0600-0700 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 120 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 0600-0700 15605 WOOFFERTON 250 158 Nord-u. West-Afrika 0600-0700 17820 KIGALI 250 295 West-Afrika 0700-0800 6075 WOOFFERTON 300 105 Europa 0700-0800 9480 WOOFFERTON 250 70 Europa 0700-0800 12045 KIGALI 250 210 Sued-Afrika 0700-0800 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 120 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 0700-0800 15605 WOOFFERTON 250 158 Nord-u. West-Afrika 0700-0800 17820 KIGALI 250 295 West-Afrika 0800-0900 6075 WOOFFERTON 300 105 Europa 0800-0900 9855 BONAIRE 250 230 Australien u. Neuseeland 0800-0900 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 107 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 0800-0900 15650 TRINCOMALE 250 120 Suedost-Asien u. Australien 0900-0959 6075 WOOFFERTON 300 105 Europa 0900-0959 9855 BONAIRE 250 230 Australien u. Neuseeland 0900-1000 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 107 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 0900-1000 15650 TRINCOMALE 250 120 Suedost-Asien u. Australien 1000-1100 5905 BONAIRE 250 ND Mittel-Amerika 1000-1100 6075 RAMPISHAM 500 110 Europa 1000-1100 9425 CYPRESS CR 250 152 Latein-Amerika 1000-1100 15650 TRINCOMALE 250 120 Suedost-Asien u. Australien 1000-1100 17635 TRINCOMALE 250 75 Suedost-Asien 1000-1100 21780 KIGALI 250 85 Suedost-Asien 1100-1155 15650 TRINCOMALE 250 120 Suedost-Asien u. Australien 1100-1155 17635 TRINCOMALE 250 75 Suedost-Asien 1100-1200 5905 BONAIRE 250 ND Mittel-Amerika 1100-1200 6075 RAMPISHAM 500 110 Europa 1100-1200 9425 CYPRESS CR 250 152 Latein-Amerika 1100-1200 21780 KIGALI 250 85 Suedost-Asien 1200-1300 1548 TRINCOMALE 400 35 Sued-Asien 1200-1300 6075 RAMPISHAM 500 110 Europa 1200-1300 9565 TRINCOMALE 250 345 Sued-Asien 1200-1300 17845 KRANJI 100 315 Sued-Asien 1300-1355 9565 TRINCOMALE 250 345 Sued-Asien 1300-1400 1548 TRINCOMALE 400 35 Sued-Asien 1300-1400 6075 RAMPISHAM 500 110 Europa 1300-1400 17845 KRANJI 100 315 Sued-Asien 1400-1430 1548 TRINCOMALE 400 35 Sued-Asien 1400-1500 6075 RAMPISHAM 500 110 Europa 1400-1500 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 107 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 1400-1500 15275 KIGALI 250 30 Nahost 1400-1500 17840 SINES 250 80 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 1500-1555 15275 KIGALI 250 30 Nahost 1500-1559 6075 RAMPISHAM 500 110 Europa 1500-1559 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 107 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 1500-1600 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 75 Ost-Europa 1500-1600 17840 SINES 250 80 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 1600-1700 6075 WOOFFERTON 300 105 Europa 1600-1700 6150 KIGALI 250 190 Sued-Afrika 1600-1700 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 120 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 1600-1700 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 75 Ost-Europa 1600-1700 15275 WOOFFERTON 300 128 Europa u. Nord-Afrika 1700-1759 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 75 Ost-Europa 1700-1759 13780 WOOFFERTON 250 120 Sued-Europa u.Nahost 1700-1759 15275 WOOFFERTON 300 128 Europa u. Nord-Afrika 1700-1800 1548 TRINCOMALE 400 35 Sued-Asien 1700-1800 6075 WOOFFERTON 300 105 Europa 1700-1800 6150 KIGALI 250 190 Sued-Afrika 1800-1900 6075 WOOFFERTON 300 105 Europa 1800-1900 6150 KIGALI 250 190 Sued-Afrika 1800-1900 9545 WOOFFERTON 300 170 Nord-u. West-Afrika 1800-1900 9735 WOOFFERTON 300 152 Europa u. Nord-Afrika 1800-1900 13780 SINES 250 40 Europa 1800-1900 15275 KIGALI 250 295 West-Afrika 1800-1900 17610 WOOFFERTON 250 158 West-Afrika 1900-1955 15275 KIGALI 250 295 West-Afrika 1900-1956 13780 SINES 250 40 Europa 1900-1959 9545 WOOFFERTON 300 75 Europa 1900-1959 9735 WOOFFERTON 300 152 Europa u. Nord-Afrika 1900-2000 6075 WOOFFERTON 300 105 Europa 1900-2000 9545 WOOFFERTON 300 170 Nord-u. West-Afrika 1900-2000 17610 WOOFFERTON 250 158 West-Afrika 2000-2100 6075 RAMPISHAM 500 110 Europa 2000-2100 7330 TRINCOMALE 250 120 Australien u. Neuseeland 2000-2100 9545 SINES 250 40 Europa 2000-2100 9875 KIGALI 250 115 Australien u. Neuseeland 2100-2155 7330 TRINCOMALE 250 120 Australien u. Neuseeland 2100-2155 9545 SINES 250 40 Europa 2100-2157 9875 KIGALI 250 115 Australien u. Neuseeland 2100-2159 6075 RAMPISHAM 500 110 Europa 2200-2300 6075 SINES 250 50 Europa 2200-2300 9465 RAMPISHAM 500 227 Sued-Amerika 2200-2300 9775 KIGALI 250 85 Suedost-Asien 2200-2300 11865 SINES 250 235 Sued-Amerika 2200-2300 17820 CYPRESS CR 250 152 Latein-Amerika 2300-0000 6075 SINES 250 50 Europa 2300-0000 9465 RAMPISHAM 500 227 Sued-Amerika 2300-0000 9775 KIGALI 250 85 Suedost-Asien 2300-0000 17820 CYPRESS CR 250 152 Latein-Amerika 2300-2355 11865 SINES 250 235 Sued-Amerika 2300-2358 5955 TRINCOMALE 250 120 Suedost-Asien all other DWL language sections show still their present B-09 winter schedule (DWL via wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews March 10 via DXLD) And finally the whole A10 schedule of DW published. http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_pdf/0,,5058957,00.pdf 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, March 11, dxldyg via DXLD) English already in 10-10; and gh picked best frequencies for non- targeted North America in WORLD OF RADIO 1504 ** GOA. 15175, AIR Panaji, 1514, March 13. AIR IS; assume in Gujarati; sub-continent songs; frequent breaks in the transmission (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see INDIA ** GREECE. 15650, VOG in Greek at 1801 March 16, rather than B-09 scheduled 15630 at 1600-1950; mistake? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAHAN. 15320, KSDA during AWR Wavescan, UT Sunday March 14 at 2251, good with report from Philippines segment about volcanoes, the Provincial Mindanao Network (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAHAN [and non]. AWR Short Wave Broadcast Schedule A10 (2010-03-28 to 2010-10-30) Version 02/2010-03-05/pub DAILY = 1234567 u.o.s. Site Start Stop Language Service Area kHz m kW Days -------------------------------------------------------- SDA 0000 0200 Mandarin C/N-China 17880 16 100 SDA 0000 0200 Mandarin NE-China 12025 25 100 SDA 0000 0030 Burmese Myanmar 15510 19 100 SDA 0030 0100 Karen Myanmar, Thailand, China 15510 19 100 SDA 0100 0200 Mandarin S-China 15615 19 100 TAI 0100 0200 Vietnamese Vietnam 15445 19 100 7 MOS 0200 0230 Urdu Pakistan 6140 49 300 MOS 0230 0300 Panjabi Pakistan 6140 49 300 MDC 0230 0330 Malagasy Madagascar 3215 90 50 WER 0300 0330 Oromo S-Ethiopia 9505 31 250 WER 0300 0330 Tigrinya Eritrea 6065 49 250 SDA 0300 0330 Russian E-Russia 17645 16 100 MOS 0330 0430 Farsi Iran 9505 31 300 WER 0330 0400 Amharic Ethiopia 9815 31 250 WER 0400 0430 Bulgarian Bulgaria 6065 49 100 WER 0400 0430 Arabic Iraq, Arab Peninsula 9845 31 250 MOS 0430 0500 French Morocco, Algeria 6155 49 300 WER 0700 0800 Arabic Morocco, Algeria 11980 25 100 WER 0800 0830 French Morocco, Algeria 12010 25 100 WER 0800 0830 Kabyle Morocco, Algeria 11980 25 100 WER 0830 0900 Tachelhit Morocco, Algeria 12010 25 100 NAU 0900 1000 Italian Italy 9790 31 100 1 SDA 1000 1100 Mandarin S-China 15510 19 100 SDA 1000 1100 Mandarin C/N-China 12010 25 100 SDA 1030 1100 Ilocano Philippines 11925 25 100 1 SDA 1030 1100 Ilonggo Philippines 11925 25 100 45 SDA 1030 1100 Tagalog Philippines 11925 25 100 23 SDA 1030 1100 Cebuano Philippines 11925 25 100 67 SDA 1030 1100 Mongolian N-China, Mongolia 15120 19 100 SDA 1100 1200 Mandarin NE-China 11775 25 100 SDA 1100 1200 Mandarin C/N-China 12105 25 100 SDA 1100 1200 Mandarin S-China 12080 25 100 SDA 1100 1130 Indonesian W-Indonesia 15540 19 100 SDA 1130 1200 Sundanese Indonesia, Malaysia 15540 19 100 1357 SDA 1130 1200 Javanese Indonesia, Malaysia 15540 19 100 246 SDA 1200 1300 Mandarin S-China 9720 31 100 SDA 1200 1300 Mandarin C/N-China 12105 25 100 WER 1200 1230 English NE-India, Bangladesh 15435 19 250 SDA 1200 1300 Mandarin NE-China 9800 31 100 SDA 1200 1300 Korean Korea 9880 31 100 WER 1230 1300 Bangla NE-India, Bangladesh 15435 19 250 SDA 1300 1330 Japanese W-Japan 9805 31 100 MDC 1300 1400 Vietnamese Vietnam 17670 16 250 SDA 1300 1400 Mandarin C/N-China 12105 25 100 SDA 1300 1330 Bangla Bangladesh 11860 25 100 NAU 1300 1330 Uighur W-China 15320 19 250 17 NAU 1300 1330 Mandarin W-China 15320 19 250 23456 SDA 1300 1330 Japanese Japan 11975 25 100 SDA 1330 1400 English Bangladesh 11860 25 100 237 SDA 1330 1400 Hmong Thailand 11860 25 100 56 SDA 1330 1400 Lao Cambod, Viet, Thai, Laos 11880 25 100 57 SDA 1330 1400 Thai Cambod, Viet, Thai, Laos 11880 25 100 246 SDA 1330 1400 Russian E-Russia 9720 31 100 NAU 1330 1500 Mandarin W-China 15320 19 250 SDA 1330 1400 Assamese NE-India 11860 25 100 14 SDA 1330 1400 Khmer Cambod, Viet, Thai, Laos 11880 25 100 13 MOS 1400 1430 Urdu Pakistan 15440 19 300 SDA 1400 1430 Sinhalese Sri Lanka 12130 25 100 SDA 1400 1500 Mandarin S-China 9700 31 100 SDA 1400 1430 Chin Myanmar 9560 31 100 SDA 1400 1500 Mandarin C/N-China 12105 25 100 SDA 1430 1500 Burmese Myanmar 11885 25 100 MDC 1430 1528 Malagasy Madagascar 3215 90 50 SDA 1430 1500 Karen Myanmar, Thailand, China 9560 31 100 MOS 1430 1500 Afar Djibouti, NE-Ethiopia, Somalia 17610 16 300 SDA 1500 1530 Mizo NE-India 11895 25 100 MOS 1500 1530 Turkish Turkey 11880 25 300 SDA 1500 1530 Tamil S-India 11870 25 100 SDA 1500 1530 English S-India 11720 25 100 WER 1500 1530 Panjabi N-India 15255 19 250 SDA 1500 1530 Telugu S-India 9405 31 100 ISS 1500 1530 Nepali Nepal 15160 19 250 SDA 1530 1600 Malayalam S-India 11870 25 100 SDA 1530 1600 Kannada S-India 11720 25 100 SDA 1530 1600 Marathi C-India 11895 25 100 MOS 1530 1600 Pushto(**) Afghanistan, Pakistan 15260 19 300 1357 MOS 1530 1600 Sindhi(**) Afghanistan, Pakistan 15260 19 300 246 ISS 1530 1600 Hindi N-India 15160 19 250 WER 1530 1600 English Nepal, Tibet 15255 19 250 SDA 1530 1600 Hindi C-India 11905 25 100 MOS 1600 1630 Urdu Pakistan 15260 19 300 SDA 1600 1630 English S-India 11720 25 100 SDA 1600 1630 English C-India 11805 25 100 WER 1600 1630 Bulgarian Bulgaria 7340 41 100 SDA 1600 1630 Urdu N-India 9820 31 100 SDA 1630 1700 English N-India 11740 25 100 WER 1630 1700 Somali Somalia 17575 16 250 MOS 1630 1730 Farsi Iran 9825 31 300 WER 1700 1730 Arabic Iraq, Arab Peninsula 9445 31 250 MEY 1700 1730 Kiswahili Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda 9600 31 250 WER 1730 1800 Kabyle Morocco, Algeria 11915 25 100 MEY 1730 1800 Masai Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda 9600 31 250 WER 1730 1800 Oromo S-Ethiopia 15155 19 250 MOS 1800 1830 Bari S-Sudan 9755 31 300 2 MOS 1800 1830 Moro S-Sudan 9755 31 300 1 MOS 1800 1830 Acholi S-Sudan 9755 31 300 7 MEY 1800 1830 English SW-Africa 3215 90 100 MEY 1800 1830 English E-Africa 9610 31 250 MOS 1800 1830 Juba Arabic S-Sudan 9755 31 300 3 MOS 1800 1830 Zande S-Sudan 9755 31 300 6 MOS 1800 1830 Dinka S-Sudan 9755 31 300 5 MOS 1800 1830 Col English S-Sudan 9755 31 300 4 MEY 1800 1830 English Botswana, S.-Africa, Zimbabwe 3345 90 100 MOS 1830 1900 Arabic Libya 11660 25 300 WER 1900 1930 Arabic Morocco, Algeria 9765 31 100 MOS 1900 1930 Hausa Nigeria 11955 25 300 NAU 1900 2000 Arabic Morocco, Algeria 15260 19 100 NAU 1900 1930 Fulfulde Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal 15205 19 100 MOS 1930 2000 French C-Africa 15220 19 300 WER 1930 2000 Tachelhit Morocco, Algeria 9765 31 100 WER 1930 2000 Ibo E-Nigeria 15205 19 250 MOS 2000 2030 Dyula Burk. Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali 11955 25 300 WER 2000 2030 French Morocco, Algeria 9765 31 100 WER 2000 2030 French Cameroon, Niger 11755 25 100 MOS 2030 2100 French W-Africa 11955 25 300 WER 2030 2100 Yoruba Nigeria 11755 25 100 SDA 2100 2200 Mandarin C/N-China 11750 25 100 SDA 2100 2200 Korean Korea 9620 31 100 SDA 2100 2130 Japanese W-Japan 11850 25 100 MOS 2100 2130 English W-Africa 11955 25 300 SDA 2100 2130 Japanese Japan 11980 25 100 SDA 2130 2200 English W-Japan, S-China 11850 25 100 SDA 2200 2300 Mandarin C/N-China 15215 19 100 SDA 2200 2230 Sundanese W-Indonesia 11850 25 100 1357 SDA 2200 2230 Javanese W-Indonesia 11850 25 100 246 SDA 2200 2230 Indonesian W-Indonesia 15320 19 100 SDA 2200 2300 Mandarin NE-China 12120 25 100 SDA 2230 2300 English W-Indonesia 15320 19 100 SDA 2300 2400 Mandarin NE-China 12120 25 100 SDA 2300 2400 Vietnamese Vietnam 15320 19 100 SDA 2300 2400 Mandarin C/N-China 15370 19 100 Site: ISS = Issoudun MDC = Madagascar MEY = Meyerton MOS = Moosbrunn NAU = Nauen SDA = Agat TAI = Taipei WER = Wertachtal Days: 1 = Sunday 2 = Monday 3 = Tuesday 4 = Wednesday 5 = Thursday 6 = Friday 7 = Saturday Note (**): Preliminary start date: June 20, 2010 ---- (via Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE, New Delhi, India, March 11, dxldyg, tidied up by Glenn Hauser for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAHAN. KTWR A10, Effective Date: March 28, 2010 China Cantonese 1330-1400 Mon-Fri 9975 Hui 1230-1300 Sun 9370 Hui 1230-1300 Sat 9975 Mandarin 1500-1600 Daily 7395 Mandarin 0930-1100 Daily 12105 Mandarin 1015-1100 Mon-Fri 11590 Mandarin 1100-1200 Daily 11590 Mandarin 1130-1200 Daily 9975 Mandarin 1100-1230 Mon-Fri 9910 Mandarin 1230-1315 Mon-Fri 9370 Mandarin 1230-1330 Sun-Fri 9975 Nosu Yi 1200-1215 Daily 9975 Korea Korean 1400-1515 Mon-Fri 15425 Korean 1400-1445 Sun 15425 Korean 1400-1500 Sat 15425 South Asia English 1400-1435 Tu,We,Fr-Su 9975 English 1400-1425 Mon&Th 9975 South Pacific English 0830-0910 Mon-Sat 11840 SE Asia English 0820-0900 Sun-Fri 15170 Indonesia Balinese 0900-0915 Fri-Tue 15200 Indonesian 0945-1030 Daily 15200 Madurese 0915-0945 Daily 15200 Sundanese 1030-1100 Daily 15200 Torajanese 0900-0915 Wed-Thu 15200 Myanmar Burmese 1200-1245 Mon-Fri 13765 Burmese 1200-1300 Sat-Sun 13765 Sgaw Karen 1300-1330 Daily 9585 Vietnam Vietnamese 1100-1130 Daily 11695 Vietnamese 1400-1415 Mon-Fri 9920 Vietnamese 1400-1500 Sat-Sun 9920 South Asia Kokborok 1230-1300 Mon-Fri 11870 Kokborok 1245-1300 Sun 11870 Santhali 1300-1315 Daily 11870 Mus/Beng 1315-1330 Sun-Mon 11870 Assamese 1330-1400 Mon-Fri 12075 Santhali 1330-1345 Sun 12075 Manipuri 1345-1400 Sun 12075 Trans World Radio - Guam PO Box 8780, Agat, Guam 96928 USA Reception reports to : ktwrfcd @ twr.org Online form at http://www.twr.asia/twrasia/discover/about_twr/qsl_form (via Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE, India, March 11, dxldyg via DXLD) ** GUAHAN. 13362 (USB), GUAM. AFRTS (Barrigada), 2130-2145, 3/14/2010, English. Man and woman with NPR All Things Considered programming (news, sports, short musical selections). Poor signal with fading. Parallels noted from Key West (5446.5 - very good, 7811 - good, 12133.5 - good). (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) I must remember to look for this; I usually skip the utility-laden bottom half of the 13 MHz band when scanning (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** GUINEA. 7125 observed inactive for some days now (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, March 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAWAII [and non]. Pipeline from here on 10 and 12 meters March 13 at 1949-2000 UT; at least nothing else from the Pacific or anywhere was heard besides these S9+10 hams, but huge uninhabited areas may have been propagable, even other islands with negligible hamactivity. They were all mainly working mainland stations as far as W4. I am not bothering to copy the calls of most of the contactees, as I am not interested in QSLing any of them, but such details might be scavenged by bellabarbas. All these calls are definite tnx to fonetix. At 1949 on 28454, KH7HI on the southeast side of the Big Island At 1952 on 28420, KH6CB At 1955 on 28325, KH7TI, 100 watts At 1958 on 24932, KH7XS, calling DX outside N America only, but at first had to settle for WP4EJH, also heard weaker on same QRG. QRZ.com says KH7XS is a club contest station up for sale. Did Hawaii run out of KH6 calls? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAWAII. KUPA coming back: More at: http://www.starbulletin.com/business/20100303_After_3_years_KUPA-AM_prepares_a_resurrection.html (Blaine Thompson, 3 March, NRC-AM via DXLD) Look for a very short vertical tower, or a just a longwire. The duplexed tower sites are full up. Honolulu has a history of longwire use as tower space (everyone shares) is very limited. 1370 used a longwire during their very brief appearance a few years ago. The signal was very poor. But, a short tower, or longwire means more skywave radiation at night. No sign of them yet. The move from 1380 to 1370 years ago was to allow the power increase of 1380 in Washington, and to escape a mean second harmonic from 690 whose tower is closer to town (Brock Whaley, Honolulu, ibid.) ** HONDURAS. 3250, at 1143 March 15, hymn in Spanish, fair, i.e. Radio Luz y Vida, HRPC. Seemed to be a second carrier slightly offset, which would be Korea North (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. 630, Radio América. 0251-0313 March 13, 2010. Male remote, commercial block 0301, "Radio América, Radio América" 0304, supermercado spot, "Radio América, Radio América" again at 0306, back to remote and news items. Fair-to-good, but no parallels between all the listed 570-650 kHz outlets found. 630 is listed as two 1 kW sites: Chuloteca and La Ceiba. Most of the América outlets used to be easy here, but not so any more. In fact, this is the first log in ages, albeit having not really tried. Pardon the lack of proper accents as I quickly copied. This is the 'complete' listing of MW/FM Radio America, Honduras channels per their subpage. More details than the WRTVH 2010: http://www.radioamerica.hn/miniplayer.cfm Danli 650 / 98.7 Juticalpa 620 Tegucigalpa 610 / 94.7 San Pedro Sula 620 / 99.1 Chuloteca 630 / 99.1 Comayagua 620 / 94.5 Tela 570 / 99.3 Santa Barbara 99.3 Olanchito, Yoyo 650 / 94.7 La Ceiba 630 / 99.3 Puerto Cortes 99.1 La Esperanza, Intibuca 94.5 Catacama 93.1 Santa Rosa de Copan 610 / 99.3 Tocoa, Colon 94.7 Ocotepeque 610 / 99.3 Marcala, La Paz 94.5 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR Kohima 4850 kHz on air right now [1454 UT], tuned in since 1230 UT check in. Off air at 1600 UT (Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE, New Delhi, India, March 14, dx_india yg via DXLD) 4850, AIR Kohima, March 14. Was off-the-air on March 12 and 13. Heard today from 1224 to tune-out at 1450; mostly in vernacular except at 1303 in English with “today’s and tomorrow’s program highlights”; frequency given for both 639 kHz and SW; in English from 1350 to 1400 with the news/weather and from 1400 to 1440 with the show “Calling All Nagaland” with “Sunday evening western music program Yesterday Once More, coming to you from the studios of All India Radio Kohima” playing old hit songs (Jim Morrison with “Love Me Two Times”, etc); caught them going off-the-air at 1600. Continues to have a few breaks in their transmission; almost fair with some CW QRM. 4850, AIR Kohima, 1310, March 15. Totally covered by assume OTH radar (strong pulsating noise); in the clear by 1333 with the usual program format; news item about the 175th anniversary celebrations of the Assam Rifles. Normally Kohima is stronger than Shillong (4970), but today Kohima was much weaker and had strong CW QRM; at 1400 started the pop music show, but found off-the-air at 1424 check. March 16 was off-the-air. 4965, AIR Shimla, 1436-1500, March 16. Program of sub-continent songs; 1500-1512 talk, but too weak to ID language; 1512 switched over to Delhi programming. Not often I hear this one! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 7270, AIR, Chennai. 0136-0145 March 13, 2010. Good with cool Hindi sing-song warbling vocals with sparse instrumentals. No trace on 4920. 9870, AIR "Vividh Bharati" program, Benguluru. 0120-0348 March 13, 2010. Local level with Hindi pops, Vividh Bharati ID 0130, commercial block (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 11620, March 15 at 1612 tone, fading down at 1613 and then into AIR IS, 1615 opening Russian, news, 1621 Indian song. Fair with flutter, 335 degrees from Bangaluru per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Hi Glenn a couple from India, 15175, AIR Gujurati, Goa, carrier 15/3/10 at 1513 YL (lang?), terrible audio and then Asian music but cutting on and off, seem to be having problems, 333 15050, AIR Khampur 15/3/10 at 1420 OM and Asian music, 333 but clear (ish) (Mark Davies, Island of Anglesey, North Wales, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GOA All India Radio, 15050 via Delhi, in Sinhala, 1328 15 Mar. YL singing Bollywood type song. Then OM with slower song. Audio level dropped very noticeably when songs finished and OM announcer started. Audio so low it is difficult to hear more than an occasional word against background noise on the signal. (s2-s7). 73, (Sean Gilbert - Buckingham, UK. http://www.hfradio.org.uk Icom IC756pro, Racal RA1972, Inverted Vee @ 10m; Wellbrook ALA1530 @ 3m, MFJ1026, SEM Multifilter, 'Dream' DRM Software, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR STAFF STRIKE ON 17 MARCH 2010 --- On 17 March 2010 a mass casual leave with day long strikes at AIR Stations has been announced by unions of AIR. AIR has made contingency plans. Its worth monitoring AIR stations (for any interruptions) on that day. AIR Delhi (Khampur 250 kW) The following schedule of Air Delhi (Khampur 250 kW) External Services which was off air for many months is now noted back: 17510, 0845-0945 Indonesian (SE Asia) 1000-1100 English (Australia/NZ) 17670, 1515-1615 Swahili, 1615-1730 Hindi (E. Africa) etc. AIR Panaji (250 kW) Both the 250 kW SW transmitters of AIR Panaji carrying External Services were not heard for some months but one transmitter is noted back on the air with the following schedule now. 15210, 0400-0430 Persian, 0430-0530 Arabic, (W. Asia) 15235, 1115-1200 Thai (SE Asia) 11775, 1215-1330 Tibetan (Tibet), 1330-1430 Nepali (Nepal) etc. 12025, 1615-1730 Hindi, 1730-1830 Malayalam (W. Asia) http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos/new.htm 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, Telefax: 91-40-2331 0287 Cell:94416 96043 http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos dx_india yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) DOORDARSHAN, AKASHWANI EMPLOYEES TO GO ON MASS LEAVE TODAY Express News Service Posted: Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010 at 0253 hrs Pune: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Doordarshan--Akashwani-employees-to-go-on-mass-leave-today/591875 The National Federation of Akashwani and Doordarshan Employees (NFADE) began its sixth phase of agitation with their single demand to 'repeal Prasar Bharati', the Broadcasting Association of India. As part of the agitation, all employees of All India Radio and Doordarshan will go on mass leave on Wednesday, a release said. "With demotivating factors all around, it is becoming extremely challenging for professionals within the organisation to keep the standards high," said Nilesh Ghatole, coordinator, NFADE (Pune unit). 'Our experience in the last 12 years indicates that Prasar Bharati in its present form is neither financially viable nor professionally well-equipped to face modern challenges,' the release said. A major part of Prasar Bharati's annual expenditure is coming from the government. "While the revenue generated by Prasar Bharati is used for the rest, the pay, perks, pension, gratuity and the career progression on 45,000 employees are not secure," said Ghatole (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, March 17, dx_india yg via DXLD) AIR BENGALURU EXTERNAL SERVICES AFFECTED Today For AIR External Services in Kannada at 0125-0300 on 11985 15075 changes were noted. At first Home Service (?) program heard till 0225 UT then continuous instrumental music without any announcements till 0250 followed by news. Must check up other schedules. 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, March 17, ibid.) A strike at AIR was scheduled by the unions for March 17, but if so, no effect noted on GOS 9690, at 1343 usual M announcer reading commentary about trade with China, IMF; outro by W and 1345 program summary for rest of the sesquihour in IST. Fair reception with usual hum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA [non]. TWR INDIA A10 LOC FREQ START STOP CIRAF PWR AZI SLEW ANT DAYS LANGUAGE DB 7545 0000 0015 41 200 125 0 2/4/1 23456 BENGALI DB 7545 0000 0045 41 200 125 0 2/4/1 1 HINDI DB 7545 0015 0045 41 200 125 0 2/4/1 23456 BHOJPURI DB 7545 0015 0045 41 200 125 0 2/4/1 7 NEPALI NVS 11930 1300 1315 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 234567 GARHWALI NVS 11930 1300 1315 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 1 KASHMIRI NVS 11930 1315 1330 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 23456 DOGRI NVS 11930 1315 1430 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 1 7 HINDI NVS 11930 1330 1345 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 23456 HINDI NVS 11930 1345 1400 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 3456 HINDI NVS 11930 1345 1400 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 2 TIBETAN NVS 11930 1400 1415 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 3 AWADHI NVS 11930 1400 1415 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 2 BRAJ BASHA NVS 11930 1400 1415 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 4 HARYANVI NVS 11930 1400 1415 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 56 HINDI NVS 11930 1400 1415 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 5 HINDI NVS 11930 1415 1430 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 23456 BHOJPURI NVS 11930 1430 1445 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 1234567 HINDI NVS 11930 1445 1515 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 1234567 PUNJABI NVS 11930 1515 1530 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 7 HINDI NVS 11930 1515 1545 41 250 180 0 4/4/1 23456 HINDI IRK 7320 1245 1300 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 7 KUI IRK 7320 1245 1300 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 1 SANTHALI IRK 7320 1300 1315 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 7 HO IRK 7320 1300 1315 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 1 KUMAONI IRK 7320 1315 1330 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 7 BENGALI IRK 7320 1315 1330 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 123 MARWARI IRK 7320 1315 1330 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 56 MEWARI IRK 7320 1315 1345 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 4 PUNJABI IRK 7320 1330 1345 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 1 BONDO IRK 7320 1330 1345 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 567 DZONKHA IRK 7320 1330 1345 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 23 MAITHILI IRK 7320 1345 1400 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 7 BUNDELI IRK 7320 1345 1400 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 1 KURUKH IRK 7320 1345 1415 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 23456 MAITHILI IRK 7320 1400 1415 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 1 BUNDELI IRK 7320 1400 1415 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 7 ORIYA IRK 7320 1415 1430 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 567 KURUKH IRK 7320 1415 1430 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 12 MAGAHI IRK 7320 1415 1430 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 34 MUNDARI IRK 7320 1430 1445 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 1 7 SADARI IRK 7320 1430 1500 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 23456 SINDHI IRK 7320 1445 1500 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 1 7 CHODRI IRK 7320 1500 1515 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 1 7 BHILI IRK 7320 1500 1515 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 234 GAMITH IRK 7320 1500 1515 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 56 VASAVI IRK 7320 1515 1530 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 45 DHODIA IRK 7320 1515 1530 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 6 KHARIA IRK 7320 1515 1530 41 250 224 0 4/4/1 23 M0UCHI SAM 11685 1500 1530 41 250 140 0 2/4/1 1234567 URDU SAM 11955 1600 1615 40 250 140 0 2/4/1 7 PASHTO SAM 11955 1600 1630 40 250 140 0 2/4/1 23456 PASHTO SAM 11955 1615 1630 40 250 140 0 2/4/1 7 DARI [via Dushanbe, TAJIKISTAN; Novosobirsk, Irkutsk, Samara, RUSSIA -- gh] Submit reports at : http://www.twr.in/technical_info.htm ------ (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, March 11, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 3325, March 16 at 1257 conversation in Indonesian, one of them on phone, 1259 mentioned Palangkaraya but no specific ID heard, same kept going past 1300; fair signal. 3325 is RRI Palangkaraya; also something on 3345, Ternate? Both also have PNG stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3325, RRI Palangkaraya, 1323-1405 Mar 12. Two M chatting and taking an occasional phone call; interspersed with regional music including some kroncong; the last 15 minutes to 1400 was all music; local IS and news followed. Good signal, though had deteriorated considerably by 1400. 3344.96, RRI Ternate, 1319-1340+ Mar 13. Surprisingly good signal with vocal music and male announcer. Began deteriorating after BoH. 3976.06, RRI Pontianak, 1331-1404+ Mar 14. Seemed to be a news or actualities program from Jakarta, with items separated by short music bridges of regional music; back to local studio at 1349 with music to ToH, then another talk segment. Fair signal but ham QRM. 3995.03, RRI Kendari, 1302-1332 Mar 14. Short Jak program to 1306, then brief announcement by local announcer and segued Indo vocals to 1332 tuneout. Generally fair with hams and band noise. 4749.95, RRI Makassar, 1316-1408 Mar 11. Regional music hosted by M who was also taking phone calls; continued past ToH. Good at tune-in but slowly fading away after 1330 (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 4750, RRI Makassar presumed the musical signal still holding up more than an hour after local sunrise, March 13 at 1353, but local noise level has gone up. Likewise on March 12 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 9526- absent again March 12 at 1329 during the English hour, but 9680 RRI was good with Indo call-ins. 9526- still absent during 1400, and at 1522 check. VOI missing again from 9526v, March 13, before 14 during the English hour and after 14 during the Indonesian hour, while RRI 9680 was incoming well from same Cimanggis site. But at 1607, a signal with Qur`an, which must be VOI, on 9524.9, not 9525.9, but no het from Kashgar. Ishida says the VOI 16 UT hour is sometimes in Indonesian, sometimes Arabic, tho his most recent entry of March 7 had it in Spanish. 9524.9, VOI again on its alternate frequency instead of 9525.9, March 14 at 1404 during music, good signal, fair modulation. 9524.9, VOI at 1132 March 15 in Chinese with strange accent, pausing to give station URL pronounced in English. Ishida indicates they are consistently in Chinese during the 11-12 hour. 9525-, VOI, March 16 at 1329, undermodulated talk in English, seems scripted item and not in the voice of the Banjarmasin guy who surely was on elsewhen this Tuesday. Also suffers from hum, adjacent interference from both sides, and flutter. Strangely, RRI 9680 at 1333 was not only much better modulated as usual but without the flutter even tho they are from the same site. Therefore, the main variable must be the transmitted azimuths, 30 degrees on 9525 and 316 on 9680, per Aoki. Theoretically, 30 USward should be much better here, but also getting upmessed in the auroral zone. If 9680 is really aimed NW from Cimanggis, its relatively good reception here to the NNE is even more remarkable, and how does it avoid the flutter? 9524.9, VOI not in English at 1315 March 17, but instead slow Chinese with heavy accent; undermodulated with hum. Retune 1401 to find Celtic/Indonesian music playing with drone, perhaps in tribute to St. Patrick, cut off abruptly at 1403:40* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. END OF ANALOGUE CNN ON ASTRA By Robert Briel March 15, 2010 07.23 UK CNN International will cease broadcasting in analogue on the Astra position at 19.2 degrees East on March 31. The channel will remain available as a free-to-air service in digital. At the moment, most of the satellite’s analogue viewers live in the German speaking part of Europe, as there still is a large number of analogue DTH homes in Germany and Austria. A rolling text warns viewers of the analogue signal of the upcoming switch-off. Also, a special German language web page is now online to inform viewers. http://www.cnngoesdigital.de/ German public and private broadcasters are still transmitting analogue versions on the satellite, but they have now decided to terminate these broadcasts in April 2012. Source: http://bit.ly/d6phRz (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** IRELAND. ATLANTIC RADIO 6400 ST PATRICKS DAY BROADCAST Irish free radio station Atlantic Radio noted here March 17 at 1405, 60's and 70's pop music and announcements, SINPO 34433. This is a special broadcast for St Patricks Day and will continue until tomorrow morning. More information and link to website in the entries for March 17 and 16 at: http://shortwavedx.blogspot.com/ Frequency as in thread title, exact at the moment is 6400.75 (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth Garden City, UK, 1417 UT March 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Put the online stream on as the signal, which was strong, suddenly dived around 2030. At the end of the broadcast they said that the programming would be repeated overnight on medium wave and FM but that the shortwave transmitter was going off (Mike Barraclough, 2120 UT March 17, ibid.) ** ITALY [non]. SLOVAK REPUBLIC. Radio Rasant transmission on Saturday March 27, 2010 via IRRS broker and Rimavska Sobota tx site in Slovak Republic. Dear OMs, amateurs and shortwave listeners, On coming Saturday there will be a new programme relayed from Radio Rasant. It will be the first transmission this year. This programme will be relayed on Saturday 27th of March 2010 at 0900-0930 UT on 9510 kHz via IRRS, Rimavská Sobota transmitter site in Slovak Republic. Students from different continents have explored about the protection of drinking water and why it is important to protect water. They will point out the importance of the industrial countries in this discussion. The whole programme will be in German. All non-German reports will be synchronized simultaneously. All participating students - these are more than 100 - would be happy about your comments and reports. Please send your mails to We appreciate snail mail. Please send your letters to the address mentioned below. Greetings from Sundern, Sauerland, Germany Reinhard Marx; Tamara Tuchel, Jennifer Merschmeier, Kira Gonzales, Jana Friedetzky, Carmen Wittiber -- on behalf of the students from Burkina Faso, Germany, Egypt, Japan, Iran and from the Faeroer- Islands. Liebe OMs, Funkamateure und Kurzwellenhoerer,am kommenden Samstag gibt es eine neue Ausgabe von Radio Rasant. Es ist die erste in diesem Jahr. Sie wird ausgestrahlt am Samstag 27. Maerz zwischen 1000 h und 1030 hrs MEZ-CET auf 9510 kHz via Nexus, dem Sendezentrum Rimavska Sobota tx site in der Slovakischen Republik. In dieser Sendung haben Schuelerinnen und Schueler aus verschiedenen Erdteilen untersucht, wie wichtig der Schutz unserer Trinkwasserreserven fuer den Fortbestand der Menschheit ist und welche Rolle dabei die Industriestaaten haben. Die Sendung wird in deutscher Sprache ausgestrahlt. Alle nichtdeutschen Beitraege werden synchron uebersetzt. Die beteiligten Jugendlichen - es sind mehr als 100 - wuerden sich ueber eine rege Resonanz auf ihre Sendung freuen. Kommentare und Empfangsberichte zur Sendung schicken Sie bitte per Mail an Uns waere jedoch ein handgeschriebener Brief lieber. Schicken Sie ihn bitte an die unten angegebene Adresse. Viele Gruesse aus Sundern, Sauerland, Deutschland Reinhard Marx; Tamara Tuchel, Jennifer Merschmeier, Kira Gonzales, Jana Friedetzky, Carmen Wittiber -- stellvertretend fuer die Schuelerinnen und Schueler aus Burkina Faso, Germany, Egypt, Japan, Iran and from the Faeroer-Islands (Reinhard Marx-D, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews March 15 via Büschel, DXLD) At first the wrong date was given, March 21 a Sunday instead of March 20 Saturday. Then they moved it anyway to the following Saturday 27, so this item, in 10-09 no longer applies, and presumably WORLD OF RADIO WILL appear this Saturday March 20, pre-empted March 27: ``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`` 6170, 13/3 1900, IRRS Milano EE World of Radio by Glenn Hauser ottimo (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, shortwave yg via DXLD) ** JAPAN [non]. 11705, NHKWNRJ via Sackville in English, March 12 at 1415 starting Radio Japan Focus, about the future of television, i.e. merging with internet, and there are such devices already on the market in Germany for $900, HbbTV, a hybrid format co-developed by Germany and France. This is part 2, following part 1 on March 11, audio available for the moment, one week? via http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/program/index.html The Radio Japan Focus theme starts with a disco tune, Backstabbers, which would seem to have a rather negative connotation. Enjoy this transmission while you can, because it appears it will be dropped in A-10, altho Yamata goes back to 11705 from 5955 for English at 1400 to Asia. A new Sackville relay is projected for 1300-1500 on 11655, but may be all in Japanese (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [non]. 5920, March 13 at 0019 just tuned in as NHKWNRJ English broadcast was ending with frequencies including 5970 via Rampisham. Thought they had made a mistake as this was heard and scheduled on 5920 via Skelton, until I remembered that the frequencies announced at the end of any broadcast are only for the *next* one, i.e. 0500 when there is 5975 via Rampisham. 9875, March 17 at 1308 NHK IS prior to peculiarly-timed English broadcast at 1310-1340, and next check 1317 in English news. This is another transmission destined for extinxion in a sesquiweek with the onset of A-10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Or rather, standardizing start time to 1300 as below -- ** JAPAN [and non]. NHK World - Radio Japan Tokyo - A-10 Schedule Arabic 0400-0430 ME 5980ar 0700-0730 ME 11905is 2015-2145 ME 1377ar Bengali 1300-1345 swAS 6155uz Burmese 1030-1100 seAS 11740sn 1430-1500 seAS 11740sn 2340-2400 seAS 13650 Chinese 0900-0930 AS 6090 1200-1230 AS 6090 1300-1330 AS/seAS 6190 11740sn 1430-1500 AS 6190 1530-1600 AS 6190 1600-1630 seAS 11730 2230-2250 AS 9560 2240-2300 seAS 13650 2340-2400 AS 15195 2340-2400 seAS 17810 English 0500-0530 AF/EU 5975rmp 11970is 0500-0530 AS 15325 0500-0530 seAS 15205uz 17810 0500-0530 NAM 6110sa 1000-1030 OC/Hawaii 9625 9825 1000-1030 seAS 9605 11780uz 1200-1230 NAM 6120sa 1200-1230 OC 9625 1200-1230 seAS 9695 1200-1230 EU 9790wer 1300-1330 AS 11985 [used to be 1310-1340] 1400-1430 seAS 11705 [note as above the sa relay is gone! --- gh] 1400-1430 AS 11985 1400-1430 EU/AF 21560is [so more English cancelled, no more at 2200; or even 0000-0020 6145 via Sackville! --- gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1504] French 0530-0600 AF 9850wer 13840md 1230-1300 AF 17690md Hindi 1345-1430 swAS 5975uz 7400uz [9585uz] Indonesian 0945-1030 seAS 6140sn 1315-1400 seAS 11705 2310-2340 seAS 17810 Japanese 0000-0100 AS 11855 11910 0000-0100 seAS 13680 0000-0200 ME/AS 15415 0100-0500 ME/AS 17560 0100-0500 seAS 17810 0100-0700 AS 15195 0200-0300 seAS 11780sn 0200-0400 SAM 11935bo 0200-0500 CAM 5960sa 0200-0500 AS 15325 0500-0800 ME/AS 17700 0530-0900 seAS 17585 0530-1000 AS 15325 0700-0800 AS 6145 6165 0700-1700 AS 9750 0800-0900 SAM 9825 0800-1000 seAS/AF 11740sn 15290is 0800-1200 AS 17895 0900-1000 SAM 9795sa 0900-0930 seAS 11815 0930-1000 seAS 11815 1000-1200 ME/AS 15590 1000-1700 seAS 11815 1200-1400 ME/AS 15460 1200-1500 ME/AS 17660 1300-1500 CAM 11655sa 1400-1600 AF/swAS 13655 1500-1700 AS 11865 1500-1700 AF/swAS 12045sn 1500-1700 EU/AF 17735is 1600-2000 AS 13710 1700-1900 EU/AF 11945is 1700-1900 AF/ME 13740dh 1700-1900 AS 6035 7225 11995 1700-1900 SAM 9835 1900-2200 ME 9560 1900-2200 seAS 11665 1900-2400 AS 11910 2000-2100 OC 9625 2000-2200 AS 6085 2000-2330 AS 11725 2100-2200 OC 13640 2200-2300 ME 9620wer 9620wer 2200-2400 AS 11855 2200-2400 seAS 13680 2200-2400 SAM 15265bo 2330-2400 ME/AS 15415 Korean 1130-1200 AS 6090 1230-1300 AS 6190 1400-1430 AS 6190 1500-1530 AS 6190 2210-2230 AS 9560 Persian 0330-0400 ME 5995is 6155is 1430-1500 ME 12045wer Portuguese 0230-0300 SAM 6195ch 9485ch [9510ch] [New relay site for NHK: CHILE] 0930-1000 SAM 6195ch 9485ch [9510ch] [meaning either 9485 or 9510?] Russian 0330-0400 EU 6130wer 0430-0500 EU 6130si 0530-0600 AS 11715 11760 0800-0830 AS 6145 6165 1100-1200 EU 9760wof, Fris only, drm mode 1130-1200 AS 6185 1330-1400 AS 6190 1600-1630 EU 738mo Spanish 0400-0430 SAM 6195bo 0500-0530 CAM 6080bo 1000-1030 C+SAM 6120sa 6195bo Swahili 0330-0400 AF 5995is 7395md Thai 1130-1200 seAS 11740sn 1230-1300 seAs 9695 2300-2320 seAS 13650 Urdu 1430-1515 swAS 5985uz 6200uz Vietnamese 1100-1130 seAS 9695 1230-1300 seAS 11740sn 2320-2340 seAS*13650 Relays: ar = Gavar Yerevan, Armenia bo = Bonaire, Neth Antilles ch = Santiago, Chile dh = Al Dhabayya, UAE ge = Germany, wer Wertachtal is = Issoudun, France md = Madagascar mo = Moscow, Russia sa = Sackville, Canada si = Sitkunai, Lithuania sn = Kranji, Singapore uk = UK, rmp Rampisham, wof Woofferton uz = Tashkent, Uzbekistan (NHK Radio Japan, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Mar 13 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. Current state of news sources In 1983 on our first trip to Czechoslovakia we met and stayed with a family in Prague. In a discussion about world events they mentioned that they listened to both Radio Moscow and Radio Free Europe and felt the truth was somewhere in the middle. Now, today in the United States we find ourselves with partisan newscasts needing to do the same thing trying to put together information from all directions trying to figure out where the truth lies. We don't have cable or satellite and no daily access to Fox News or CNN but now rely heavily on radio and television (on NPR and PBS) news from the BBC and CBC. I have seen newscasts from Aljazera (probably spelled wrong) in Asia and found them much different than I expected. Nothing like what we heard in the USSR on Radio Moscow. Our favorite program was "Warmongers Weekly" and, of course, featured Americans as the warmongers. We got caught up in a democracy demonstration in Prague in 1989 and watched coverage that evening on Czech television. I had been a photojournalist part-time at KMBC-TV in Kansas City and WIBW-TV in Topeka and watched the Prague news with great interest. I was amazed at how well they edited the footage of the days events to totally distort the day's events. Of course, I knew that it could easily be done. When I asked a young man in the family who spoke English how the Czechs would find out what really happened, he said they had a system of tape distribution using newscasts from West Germany and Austria, duplicating the tapes and sending them around the country. Some also used children's disk sleds made in the Soviet Union to fashion satellite dishes to enable viewing of western satellite signals. A family we visited near the Austrian border watched stations from there. Of course, East Berliners could listen to and watch broadcasts from the west. All of this is virtually impossible today in North Korea where I visited last summer. The North Koreans have been able to totally isolate their citizens from information from outside in a way that was not possible in Eastern Europe. State newscasts showed no international news one evening we watched, although a former South Korean president who was friendly with the north had died that day. We saw that on the night's BBC World News which was to our surprise available in the hotel. When we asked our guards (officially called guides by the North Koreans) what they thought about the death, they said they had no knowledge of it. I wondered but didn't ask if the BBC was available in their rooms. One guard guarded the other guard so they were both probably afraid to watch even if it was. We were shown the TV tower in Pyongyang and I asked how many channels they had. There was one channel which broadcast daily for five hours and a second channel that operated on the weekends. I knew the answer but still asked if people near the border watched television from South Korea. I was told they didn't as they wouldn't want to. The same response came when I asked about radio from the south. The two countries use different TV standards -- the south is NTSC and I think the north is PAL, but maybe SECAM. Radios must be preset to North Korean frequencies as I have read reports that the south will sometimes send over radios on balloons. Anyone caught with one of the radios can be punished severely and they are advised to turn them into authorities if they find one. Nobody can be trusted, so compliance is apparently pretty high. Television production of the newscasts was pretty poor, taking us back to the 50s level of production in North America. Only three stories were covered one night I watched -- the construction of a new highway bridge, some additional highway production and a tour group at one of the museums. All three stories were lengthy. There was also a weather report for the whole country. Between the time my wife and I witnessed the demonstration in Prague (some of my photos were published in the publication of a human rights organization in New York since their person there was roughed up and his film confiscated), and the next time we visited Prague after the fall of communism, the Soviet channel (in Russian) in Prague was airing CNN. Quite a switch. The impact of media was demonstrated in Prague when a 12-year-old boy asked me "how many murders I had seen." He was surprised that I had seen none. He had seen too many American movies. Several years later he was able to come to the United State and spent six weeks at our house. When we took him to Chicago to fly back home, we spent some time in the city and walked in The Loop area. He saw a Chicago police car and wanted his picture taken next to the cruiser which was under the "L" tracks. As I took his picture he said, "This is America." I guess Topeka, Kansas did not fit the image in his mind. After Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union I was fortunate to be able to spend a few days with a Georgian astrophysicist at an observatory in the mountains near the border with Turkey. We had a long discussion one evening about capitalism and communism. He was still a communist, as the Soviets took good care of their scientists and the resulting conversation showed how much we are influenced by the media and our education. It was a friendly and revealing evening (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, 3 March, WTFDA via DXLD) Hi Dave, They're still doing the balloon thing: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=895586 (Curtis Sadowski, IL, ibid.) Dave's thoughts were really interesting and as far as I know, totally accurate (foreign news like the BBC is available only in tourist hotel rooms in the north; Koreans are forbidden to watch these channels). If I have enough leftover money, I'll probably make a stop up in Pyongyang during the late summer months or so and can check out the DXing situation, or make an attempt at it, not that there is much to listen to up that way, although more if I were able to get my MP3 player radio in. I quite regularly can pick up Pyongyang FM in my town during a few hours each evening when it's actually on the air, and it's pretty uneventful listening. We certainly have a major propaganda operation here in the South and I can admit at times it can dwarf the North's propaganda machine, but we don't hear about the South's propaganda here. Talk of North Korea is pretty sparse. In school we discussed the years the Korean War took place, and high schoolers have no idea - 1940s, 1960s?? It's just like --- left out. Koreans are trained from a young age to avoid these issues in their entirety, although you can read all the North Korean news at the Chosun Ilbo North Korea site http://nk.chosun.com/ which is from South Korean reporters and for Koreans, but just news, not the extra propaganda. So even wondering about North Korean radio or whatever is like, a non-event. No one wonders because they've been trained not to. It's --- strange. Everything I've heard suggests TV in the north is PAL. Radios in balloons --- well, North Korea is a big country and the government can't stop everything. The border area is pretty built up around here and many people from my city work in North Korea every day. The rules are very different in Kaesong and most of the government's strict rules don't apply in that part of North Korea. Radios and chocolate snacks and all sorts of things come in and out of the South and into the North on a daily basis. They tend not to go far beyond Kaesong though, but that is a special industrial region of the North that is open to border crossing a little like the US and Canada's crossings --- with a few dozen soldiers here and there. I'm not sure if I understood what Rick said, but people from North Korea who live in the south tend to avoid returning to the north, you know, because they'll be killed or put in prison camps. The immigrants from the North aren't treated well in the south at ALL. Most of them regret coming to South Korea and life isn't necessarily better for them here. Plenty of racism to go around and you can spot a Northerner by their accent alone. There is no train that currently goes between the two countries. Well, not that actually runs anyway. The guards are pretty good in their search at the border. As a foreigner, they let me across the border pretty easily with my documents, but Koreans, they're a whole different story. I am always curious to find out more about the TV and radio situation, but naturally, no one knows because those who have modified their TVs and obtained radios obviously do NOT tell anyone, haha. I suspect some of the rules may, hopefully, be relaxed with the handing over of power later this year. And for the record, news sources in Korea are almost exclusively government-run, or at least government-owned. Doesn't mean they're any less reliable I've found, but I also supplement my news with the Chicago Tribune :) (Chris Kadlec, Icheon, Korea, 30 miles SE of Seoul, 150 mi SE of Pyongyang, http://www.beaglebass.com/dx March 5, WTFDA via DXLD Good luck with that, Chris. Here's a documentary that will show you what you're up against- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4gL3eAHVs That customs form mentions radios, etc. If you DO get it in, don't openly listen to it. Try it in bed under the covers with ear buds. And DON'T take notes. Just remember what you heard. I can't imagine making a recording of their radio that way would be a good idea either. No sense in becoming trapped in a prison for spies that way (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) The color system (PAL vs. SECAM vs. NTSC) doesn't really matter; a mismatch only means you'll get the programs in black-and-white. However, the frame rates and channel frequencies *do* matter. It's my understanding South Korea uses NTSC, which is always paired with the U.S. 15734/29.97 sync rates.# Whether the North is PAL or SECAM, it is almost certainly using 15625/25 sync rates.# If the sync rates differ, many TVs will not be able to lock in a picture. Also, 15625/25 is generally used with a wider RF channel. The separation between channels differs -- "Channel 10" may be 192-198 MHz in the U.S., but it's different in PAL/SECAM countries (like North Korea). Some NTSC channels happen to line up with different PAL/SECAM channels, but most don't. You won't be able to tune them in on a PAL/SECAM receiver. The separation between sound and picture carriers is also greater. This means even if you *can* tune in the NTSC video on the PAL/SECAM receiver, it'll be looking for sound on the wrong frequency. Multistandard receivers are not unheardof (though they probably *are* unheardof in North Korea!) # - The British reportedly experimented with NTSC color at 15625/25, but decided to use PAL instead. # - Argentina uses PAL with 15750/30. (essentially the same thing as the U.S. standard) (Doug Smith, TN, ibid.) That's correct. People from North Korea in the South throw their radios out train windows before they get to the border on the way North (Rick Shaftan, NJ, ibid.) Here's some background information on TV in North Korea. First of all- what it is that's on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Central_Television Second, what the evening news is like: http://www.elufa.net/krt-tv/houdou.html Third, how it comes in down in South Korea: http://www.youtube.com/user/ThankfulGuy (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) See also NEW ZEALAND [and non] ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. A SMALL SHORTWAVE STATION RUN BY A DEFECTOR HAS ONE SMALL MISSION: TO BRING DEMOCRACY TO NORTH KOREA As a transition of power from Kim Jong-il to his son looms, scepticism about the leadership is growing.As a transition of power from Kim Jong-il to his son looms, scepticism about the leadership is growing. Free North Korea Radio is giving voice to a growing opposition to the dictatorship, writes David McNeill in Seoul BEGGARS HAVE returned to the streets of Pyongyang, income disparities are growing thanks to a botched currency reform, and simmering anger at the government threatens to boil over. Ordinary North Koreans are increasingly waking from their long nightmare and blinking in the light of a once unthinkable scenario: life without ailing leader Kim Jong-il or his family of hereditary parasites. “He is a hypocrite who only cares about himself,” one told Free North Korea Radio (FNKR). “We would be better off without him.” Despite being vacuum-packed by the Kim dictatorship and sealed off behind a once-solid technological firewall, North Korea is increasingly leaking bad news – and much of it is coming from this Seoul-based broadcaster. Run by defector Kim Seong-Min, the small shortwave station has an apparently simple mission: to bring democracy to one of the world’s most paranoid, secretive nations. . . [more] http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0315/1224266295743.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD; via Alokesh Gupta, dxldyg via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. CLANDESTINE - 9779.89, Furusato no Kaze (presumed) *1600-1630* Mar 13. Japanese with opening announcement, a few minutes of choral music, then talks; closing at 1621 with e-mail and web address given, sounding like info @ rachi.go.jp and http://www.rachi.go.jp respectively; ended with 5 minutes of instrumental music to 1629. Good signal but never can pull out an ID (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non]. Denge Mezopotamya is back on the air. Excellent reception here in eastern Belarus on March 14 starting at about 0845 UT on 11530 kHz. (I'm using SONY ICF-SW7600GR with a telescopic antenna.) First I heard Kurdish songs non-stop followed by exact time beeps at 0900, station jingle and ID. Then a 10-minute news bulletin in one of the Kurdish dialects read by a single male host (a rather low sound level). Back to exotic Kurdish songs from 0910. No station ID or any announcements at 0930. Programming is different from what it used to be. In the past the station carried mostly talk shows with some music features. Now it's just the opposite. - Tons of Kurdish songs that you won't hear anywhere else. The station seems to be using a makeshift studio (Sergei S., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It had been back on for about a week after missing only a couple days following raids in BELGIUM (gh) 7540, UKRAINE, Denge Mezopotamia (Mykolyiv), 2044-2101*, 3/14/2010, Kurdish. Traditional Kurdish music. Occasional short comments by man or woman over music. Music changed to more anthem-like at 2058. Gone at 2101. Poor signal with fading, above the noise about 75% of the time (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. 13650, Radio Kuwait. 0403-0410 March 14, 2010. Excellent with Arabic female hosting a seemingly kids program with kiddie Arabic vocals (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11670-11675-11680, DRM from MOI (Ministry of Information) making a buzz against REE Spain 11680, as I was hunting for its Sephardic broadcast at 0115 March 16. This buzz has a different sound to it than your usual DRM, so I wonder if that correlates with the very low bitrate that DRM monitors have been reporting from Kuwait. Does the bitrate affect the sound of DRM when heard on AM? Strangely enough, this broadcast is not in HFCC, just D = non-digital from Kuwait on 11675 starting at 0315. But it is here: http://www.drm.org/for-listeners/live-broadcast-schedule/ at 2200-0300, 350 degrees to ENAm, 120 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KYRGYZSTAN. KYRGYZ ACTIVISTS RALLY IN PROTEST AT BLOCK ON US-FUNDED TELEVISION AND RADIO BROADCASTS -- By Leila Saralayeva (CP) 1 hour ago BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Several dozen activists and opposition politicians rallied in the capital of Kyrgyzstan on Monday in protest against what they say are government efforts to block the broadcast of U.S.-funded radio and television programs. Critics of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev say the government is trying to silence Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Kyrgyz service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, as part of the authorities' attempt to stifle independent reporting. Since coming to power in 2005, Bakiyev has tightened his grip over the impoverished former Soviet nation, prompting fears of deepening authoritarianism. Radio Azattyk has been unavailable across most of Kyrgyzstan since Wednesday after several of the station's local partners revoked their rebroadcasting deals. "Our partners, which relay our radio transmissions, say they have come under pressure and been threatened with having their license revoked, so they unilaterally broke their contracts with us," said Radio Azattyk reporter Bektash Shamshiyev. Most Kyrgyz people rely on state-controlled broadcasters as their main source of news, but those stations have failed to cover a series of protests against rising costs for heating and electricity. "Radio Azattyk is the only radio station that informs the public about what is really happening in the country," said Ak-Shumkar opposition party leader Temir Sariyev. RFE/RL says its Kyrgyz television affiliate station has also been threatened with having its license revoked if it continued to air popular political analysis programs. Presidential office spokesman Almas Turdumamatov denied the government was behind Radio Azattyk's problems. "As I understand, Azattyk's problem is with private companies that have refused to relay their broadcasts," Turdumamatov said. Several media outlets that cover Kyrgyzstan have seemingly fallen victim to a co-ordinated media blackout in recent days, including a handful of prominent Central Asia-focused news sites, which have been inaccessible to Kyrgyz Internet users since Wednesday. Dinara Oshurakhunova, head of the For Democracy and Civil Society coalition, said numerous news outlets were blocked after they reported on an arrest warrant recently issued by an Italian judge for a U.S. businessman that has been advising the Kyrgyz government. All Central Asian countries - which also include Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - are ranked by international rights groups as the some of the world's worst offenders for absence of free expression. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America are also banned from broadcasting from within Uzbekistan. Source: http://bit.ly/9PldIC (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) RFE/RL loses its radio and television outlets in Kyrgyzstan (updated: BBC, too, maybe). "Radio Free Europe's popular Kyrgyz television and radio programs have been off the air in the capital city of Bishkek since Wednesday, shortly after affiliate managers reported that they had been pressured by Kyrgyz officials. RFE/RL's Bishkek television affiliate station 'Echo of Manas' was warned by Kyrgyz authorities that they would face difficulties in renewing their broadcast license if they continued to air the Kyrgyz Service's widely viewed 'Inconvenient Questions' and 'Azattyk Plus' programs. Radio affiliates in Bishkek and the northern city of Naryn have also stopped carrying Kyrgyz Service programming. ... The broadcasting of RFE/RL programs was halted just days before expected rallies and protests marking the fifth anniversary of the country's so-called Tulip Revolution." RFE/RL press release, 12 March 2010 (www.kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Not mentioned in the press release is that RFE/RL Kyrgyz remains available via shortwave: 1200-1230 UT on 9465 and 13755 kHz, 1500-1530 on 7480 and 11790 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) Update: "The BBC's local-language service in Kyrgyzstan experienced an unexplained interruption today, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported, sparking concerns the U.K.-funded broadcaster might share the fate of other media outlets suffering setbacks there. One of three BBC broadcasts was unavailable today, although its 9:00 p.m. program was back on the air." RFE/RL, 15 March 2010. Posted: 16 Mar 2010 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** LIBYA. 15215, LJBC Sabrata in French "Voice of Africa" program with phone in program, terrible distorted small 2 kHz wide audio feederline quality - phone in from somewhere in Africa, at 1655 UT March 14 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, Radio Madagasikara. 0327-0345 March 14, 2010. Excellent with deep-voiced Malagasy announcer, into fantastic highlife vocals. Carrier plus USB mode (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6134.95, R. Madagaskira (presumed), 1407-1429 Mar 13. Vocal music, YL announcer in [unknown] language. Seemed // to 7105 but too much QRM from two Indonesian hams chatting to tell for sure. 6134.95 was fair/poor until 1429, when it was blitzed by a strong station signing on 6135 (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR [non]. 15660, presumed R. Mada International, Saturday March 13 at 1540 with speech, poor signal via PRIDNESTROVYE, but unusually better than ex-collider Miraya FM via SLOVAKIA on 15670 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADEIRA. Madeira update --- Back in January 09, the folded monopole used for 531 kHz 10 kW at Pico das Eiras, Porto Santo island, was destroyed in a storm. Being a tower of this type, it meant it could be used as a mast for the VHF-FM antennae too, and it was indeed the case. A new tower for these antennae was erected soon after that. This RTP-radio facility is located west of the this island. I have just been informed that the RTP administration decided not to reactivate the MW outlet since full coverage is being accomplished by VHF-FM. Now it remains to be seen whether the Pico do Areeiro tx 603 kHz 10 kW, Madeira island, has the same fate. The tower collapsed two days prior to the recent sad events in Madeira when floods and mud slides destroyed property and killed some 40 people. Pico do Areeiro is located north of the capital, Funchal. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Lisboa (12/3-2010), MWC yg via DXLD) WRTH 2010y indicated there are still three other MW outlets in Funchal, but none on Porto Santo island, which however, does not seem to be considered a separate radio country (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 11884.49v, Voice of Malaysia, 1210-1213*, March 14. Pop music; assume the Bahasa Indonesia program; suddenly off (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED 6050 ** MEXICO. 6104.8, tell-tale het from XEQM, March 16 at 1422 against something Asian on 6105.0. Otherwise, have not logged Mérida for some time with readable audio which used to be possible after 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. "Buenas escuchas." --- Anoche fue buena oportunidad para escuchar algunas señales mexicanas en OC. XEPPM Radio Educación en 6185 a las 0435 UT el 13 de marzo de 2010 sin interferencias de Radio Nacional da Amazônia; XEOI Radio Mil en 6010 KHz a las 0445 UT sin interferencias de Radio Habana Cuba; XEQM en 6105 KHz a las 0500 UT sin interferencias de Radio Habana Cuba ni Radio Canadá Internacional aunque la señal era débil y probablemente oscilando entre bandas laterales; XERTA y XEXQ ausentes. Por la mañana a las 1135 UT XEQM todavía demasiado débil y al fondo de Radio Habana Cuba, las demás ausentes. Envío enlaces a archivos de audio esperando les sean útiles a usted y los demás colegas. http://rapidshare.com/files/362833518/SW6010KHZ-13MAR2010-0445UT.WAVhtml http://rapidshare.com/files/362833768/SW6105KHZ-13MAR2010-0500UT.WAVhtml http://rapidshare.com/files/362834015/SW6105KHZ-13MAR2010-1135UT.WAVhtml http://rapidshare.com/files/362834203/SW6185KHZ-13MAR2010-0435UT.WAVhtml Atte: (Ing. Civ. Israel González Ahumada, M.I., Mérida, Yucatán, March 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [and non]. 6185, quick check of XEPPM, March 12 at 0802 found it still in the clear with DJ and eclectic music, no QRaMazon. Brazilian DXers have confirmed that RNA 6185 has been off the air for several days, preceded by a modulation problem. 6185, March 13 at 2335 romantic music in Spanish, so XEPPM already on earlier than scheduled *0000, and advantageous since there is no QRM at this hour. It might come back at any moment, but RNAmazônia is still missing from 6185. From April 4, the slightly more sensible start-date for DST in México, 6185 will normally begin at *2300, but now? Here are the program grids ``for the month`` updated 15 Feb, first concerning MW 1060 and then the separate evening schedule for SW 6185: http://www.radioeducacion.edu.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1319&Itemid=254 After 0000 a long conversation about earthquaxe. The Saturday 18+ CST show was Planeta 1060 in November, and now it`s shown as Los Contertulios. Google translates that as The Coterie; while the word is unknown to my Random House dixionary. Planeta 1060 sounds more likely for an earthquake discussion. The papacy is not the only other institution on 6185; Vatican Radio does not start until 0300+, but at 0056 March 14 was hearing Russian tune-up tones underneath, 0100 VOR opening Spanish. That`s via St Petersburg-Popovka site at 265 degrees, previously obscured by Brasília, and of course a terrible collision in most of Latin America with XEPPM a poor third if at all until 0600. 6185 also gets squeezed from a few sex before 0100 with very strong Vietnam via Canada cutting on 6175, and Serbia [non] on 6190. 6185, March 15 at 0615, XEPPM had SAH and QRM from Vatican, which went off at 0619* clearing frequency for R. Educación, which however does not seem as strong as it used to be. Nominal 10 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6185, XEPPM (Mexico City) (presumed), 0440-0450, 3/15/2010, Spanish. Fast paced Mexican music with occasional talk by man. Frequent mention of Mexico. Poor to moderate signal with bothersome cochannel and adjacent channel interference (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC- R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONACO [non]. 17260-USB at 1200 19 February, R. Monaco with news in French // 8728, SINPO 25411 (Arthur Miller, Wales, March World DX Club Contact via DXLD) To be an hour earlier during DST? ** MONGOLIA. Hi Glenn, This one has been a tough catch in South Florida; haven't heard Voice of Mongolia for years. 12085 kHz, March 13 from 1030 UT, 22452, weak but audible, Mongolian news and press report in English, Mongolian music until 1055 UT (Victor Latavish, Naples FL, Icom IC-R75, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. For the past week it seems to me that ALL the Myanmar stations have had well above average reception. There are also some new developments. 5770, Myanmar Defense Forces Br. Station has been the strongest of all the Myanmar stations during the past week, from about 1400 to 1500. 5915, Myanma Radio - Minorities and Distance Learning Services, 1347- 1450, March 16. Series of non-stop lectures for mathematics (“the 10th power minus . . .”), etc. Surprisingly good against CRI QRM, almost equal in strength! 5985.75v, Myanma Radio. Believe this is the Yangon transmitter (noted slight drift to about .77), but much weaker than normally heard via the Naypyidaw transmitter usually on 5985.00. March 15 at1320 pop songs; 1330 heard their usual distinctive indigenous theme music followed by the usual chimes. Could not hear them at 1530 check. March 16 found off-the-air at 1339 check, but was heard earlier, so looks as if they sign off much earlier now than their normal 1600*. [non]. 7185.75v, Myanma Radio, checked from about 1315 to 1515, March 14, 15 and 16, but noted off-the-air. Perhaps down for maintenance to fix the two different audio feeds that I have heard being broadcast at the same time. 5770, Myanmar Defense Forces Br. Station, randomly from 1232 to 1527*, March 17. Covered by OTH radar at tune-in; 1330 in the clear with distinctive bugler and military marching band; in vernacular with mostly pop songs and short segments of talking; indigenous theme music at sign off; reception only poor to fair today. 5915, Myanma Radio, 1228-1512* (ex: 1530*), March 17. 1228-1330: in vernacular with music show; 1330-1512*: educational programming of the Minorities and Distance Learning Services in vernacular with teacher and student talking; lectures; segment completely in English (language lesson); usual indigenous theme music at sign off; reception better than normal, but still CRI QRM. 5985.77v, Myanma Radio still via the Yangon transmitter, randomly from 1232 to tune out at 1533, March 17. Today had their normal full schedule; started out very poor and increased to almost fair;1529 usual indigenous theme music and into their English segment. 7185.75v, Myanma Radio, continues to be off-the-air on March 17 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. [Re 10-10] Laut dem Techniker Jan Peter Werkman: "Then a few minutes later we also tried 17840 kHz on 50 degrees in AM on the 3rd transmitter to compare propagation between 15760 and 17840 kHz. But this test only lasted a few minutes as the SWR was not good so we decided to shut down that transmission. This all at about 1300 UT." ...danke in die gesamte Runde fuer diesen Tip! Hier 24 dB, 18,44 kbps, Stereo, keine Aussetzer. Sehr schoen: \\ laufen die gespielten Titel mit (obwohl: I will survive von Gloria Gaynor haette ich noch gewusst...). Allerdings wird als Location "United States" im Label angegeben. Haben die USA nun das mit Bonaire gemacht, was sie mit Grenada & Cuba schon versucht hatten?! [Ludo Maes' Firma sitzt in Florida] \\ dazu natuerlich im Internet: so dass man - wie bei RNZI - alle drei Verteilwege miteinander bequem vergleichen kann. Hinsichtlich der Radioaktivitaeten aber ist die Site veraltet (Nils Schiffhauer-D, DK8OK, A-DX March 8) Die DRM-Sender auf Bonaire sind schon ziemlich lange aktiv, die duerften dort seit 2003 DRM ready sein - wenn nicht sogar schon etwas laenger. Ich glaube zuletzt nutzte RNW die digitalen Sender vor drei- vier Jahren. Jedenfalls: Hier gewinnt (hoereindrucksmaessig) tatsaechlich das digitale Signal, die Aussetzer bei 20 dB SNR halten sich einigermassen zurueck und sind nur kurz. Das AM Signal ist nicht ganz so fein (Douglas Kaehler-D, A-DX March 8, all via BC-DX March 13 via DXLD) Thank you for the entire round this tip! Here are 24 dB, 18.44 kbps, Stereo, no dropouts. Sehr schoen: \ \ running plays with (though: I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor I would have known ...). However, as location for "United States" indicated in the label. Have U.S. is now made with the Bonaire, Grenada & Cuba, with what they already tried who? [Ludo Maes' company based in Florida] \ \ in this course Internet: so that - as with RNZI - all three distribution paths with each other easily can be compared. Concerning the radioactivity, but the site is obsolete (Nils Schiffhauer DK8OK-D, A-DX March 8) The DRM transmitter on Bonaire are already quite a long time active, which is expected there since 2003, DRM to be ready - if not even a little longer. I RNW believe used the modified digital transmitter before three to four years. Anyway: here (gaining hoereindrucksmaessig) is actually the digital Signal, the dropouts at 20 dB SNR keep back somewhat and are only briefly. The AM signal is not quite so fine (Douglas Kaehler-D, A-DX March 8, all via BC-DX March 13 via Google translation which still leaves a lot to be desired, via DXLD) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. 2598-SSB, March 14 at 0111, YL with weather for the Labrador Coast. It was in Feb and March of last year when I logged VCP4, Placentia on 2598, as in DXLD 9-020, but during a different part of the hour rotating with others. Per page 34 of the document referenced http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/folios/00026/docs/part-2ae-2008-eng.pdf starting at 0107 UT on 2598-J3E is MCTS St. Anthony/VCM (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. 11725, RNZI, March 13 at 0606, SSOB, YL giving cyclone Thomas warning for Tuvalu and Fiji with distances in miles, Cyclone Ului for Vanuatu with distances in kilometres. 0608 joining RNZ National with birthday music request show in progress, classical at the moment with Radetzky March. I wasn`t sure of the name of the U- cyclone, but figured it would be easy to look up. Not: There are multiple name-lists for Pacific storms depending on the region and on the country submitting them, some of them lacking any U-s. But the RNZI website had the info; alternate spelling of Thomas is Tomas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. From the Radio NZ International website http://www.rnzi.com/pages/whatsnew.php#282 Quote Update RNZI Power Supply Problem 15 Mar, 2010 18:53 UTC It is taking much longer than expected to complete repairs. We hope to have our full schedule operating sometime this week. Due to the failure of a Mains Breaker at the RNZI transmission Base we are only able to operate one transmitter at the moment. This means we have had to reduce the hours we broadcast in AM and in DRM. The AM service will available from midnight to 0650 NZ time, 0750- 0950, 1050-1400, 1500-1600, 1700-2400 [subtract 13 for UT] DRM will be available from 0650-0750, 0950-1050, 1400-1500, 1600-1700 NZ time. We regret these interruptions and hope to have normal services back to normal as soon as the repair work is completed. Unquote -- (via Mark Nicholls, Chief Editor/Webmaster, NZ Radio DX League http://radiodx.com/nzrdxl/ dxldyg via DXLD) 6170 kHz, 0945 UT. S9+ signal, little noise. News about Vanuatu and New Guinea. Broadcast dropped out briefly at 0953; again at 0955 for good. A check of the RNZI website did not list this particular frequency at this time, may have been a temporary assignment (Scott McLean, NY, March 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, both temporary one-transmitter schedule and subsequent two- transmitter both show 9765 AM in use at this hour, no 6170 until 1300 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) But, as of earlier? --- Adrian Sainsbury (RNZI) advises that the Mains Breaker has been fixed late last night (NZ Time) and RNZI is back to normal operation with both transmitters For their full broadcasting schedule visit their website http://www.rnzi.com -- (Mark Nicholls, Chief Editor/Webmaster, NZ Radio DX League http://radiodx.com/nzrdxl/ March 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. Current News Sources --- Have followed the "news thread" and in particular enjoyed the detailed analysis from Dave Pomeroy [see KOREA NORTH [and non]]. Our 62 channel cable system (fed from 11 satellite dishes which vary in size from 90 cm to 7.2 m) includes the following NEWS channels: (1) CNN International, (2) BBC World (Asia), (3) Al Jazeera, (4) Bloomberg, (5) RTV Russia (in English), (6) VOA International, (7) TVNZ7 - A NZ 24x7 news channel, (8) ABC (Australia) News, (9) France 24 (in English), (10) Singapore News (in English) and (11) Deutsche Welle - in English. Additionally, we have significant news coverage from (12) SBS Australia, (13) Fiji One TV, (14) TV7 Australia, (15) TV9 Australia, (16) TV Ten Australia and (17) a 24 x 7 USA origin service that carries the evening ABC-CBS-NBC-PBS newscasts as well as a generous helping of 'Fox News' and CNN National - the USA home version; and, (18) NHK English (Japan). I suspect nobody anywhere has more news options than our cable viewers - delivered into their homes. One of our local motel cable customers has a 120-day customer who actually comes here from Holland each (NZ) summer because of this extensive coverage - this person (I hesitate to say 'news junkie!') apparently sits in front of the motel's 21" Philips TV screen 24 x 7 absorbing the reports! We carried for a time the Iran English language news service (24 x 7) [Press TV] but the production qualities were so bad it made no sense to tie up a channel with it after a six month experiment. We have also carried from time to time CCTV China News (English) but as others have commented, the "editorial integrity" of any story involving China or the Asian region was so suspect that we replaced it with France 24. News is no longer a proudly presented Edward R. Murrow/Walter Cronkite product and it has not been since at least 2001 or before. It has become a tool of "mass persuasion" motivated by whatever the origin group believes will best serve their agenda(s). Quite by coincidence, on one of our (3) locally created channels tonight there is running Edward R. Murrow's 'McCarthy years', 'Harvest of Shame', and 'See It Now'. Sadly (I suspect) very few will actually sit and watch any of these three; 'news bytes' and 'talking points' have overtaken the typical viewer's 15 second attention span. From "PBS is Liberal" to "Fox is Conservative", there are shades of grey, black and white ALL of which must be filtered by cross checking of their "facts" and the viewer's common sense. Last week, an American couple in their 60s from Colorado, who own a vacation home here, returned for their annual summer visit. Her ladyship called me DEMANDING that we give them 'Fox News' 24 x 7 OR she was going to desubscribe from cable and go to our Ku-band competition. Think about that - you are a reasonably well-off American couple, own a vacation home (of some extensive size I might add) and will be here for 90 days - your annual visit. BUT unless - UNLESS they could have Fox News on their three cable connected TV sets, they were not going to be able to stay here! Seriously. No - we did not cave in to their demand (there were technical, legal and financial reasons in our decision). But to travel 7,500 miles and NOT be able to stay here UNLESS you had Fox News 24 x 7??? (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, March 4, WTFDA via DXLD) Hi Bob, I'd have asked them what it was off FOX News they wanted to see. I suspect they're fans of one or two of the commentary shows. If they were, say, a Glenn Beck fan, torrents of his TV show are posted daily by fans on the various torrent sites. While the video quality on this isn't HD, it is quite good, and the commercials are edited out. Still, I think they were acting like jerks to insist on having it. Probably thought all you needed to do was flip a switch or two (Curtis Sadowski, Paxton, Illinois, ibid.) ** NORTH AMERICA. Pirates Saturday evening March 13-UT 14: 6925, at 2336, distorted music on SSB; 0006 ``Outhouse Radio, fixin` to get off here in a bit``. 0006 ``Flight of the Bumblebee`` on jazzed-up electronic instrument. Next check at 0018 it was gone. Please QSL? 6952.6 AM at 2336 weak music; 0004 stronger, M&M talk; 0018 now S9+10 with music but undermodulated. Perhaps someone can ID this by its odd frequency. In fact, earlier on March 13, Brian Alexander in PA reported: 6952.55 AM, WHYP, 1503-1518+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. 6876, at 2220 March 14, music but too weak vs local noise. Much stronger at next check 2255. Figured it was The Crystal Ship, and confirmed by John Poet when I opened my e-mailbox later. He said he might switch to 5385 at 2330, and at my next check 0024 UT March 15, there was 5385.3 with comedy bit made up of out-of-context clips from records (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: TCS Sunday: "That Awful Seventies Station!" Greetings, Pirate Radio Disciples! Tonight, The Crystal Ship will be going on the air at about *2200 UT, or 6 pm E.D.T, on 6876 kHz AM. There is just a possibility that we will stop and retune to 5385 kHz AM around 2330 or after, if we want to continue at that point. The theme of tonight's show will be, "Sounds of the 70s", OR, "That Awful Seventies Station", depending on what gets played! Probably, a little of each. BTW, anyone desiring to QSL should send a separate report with the necessary info, date, time listened, etc. Please do not reply directly to this Email with a report you want QSLed, as it may get lost. I think I had another report from last weekend to QSL, but I can't seem to find it. If that's you, please resend it and I'll get on it (John Poet, The Crystal Ship, 2147 UT March 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6876 AM, The Crystal Ship, 2210-2325, March 14, IDs. 70s pop music. Fake ads. Very good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) The Crystal Ship - 15 March 2010 from 0035 tune in on 5385 kHz AM, past 0130 with a very good "70's Music Show." Female ID at 0102 UTC: "You are listening to The Crystal Ship on a frequency of 5385 kHz shortwave." SINPO=35333, nice signal on AM using AM SYNC mode on the R8A with end-fed longwire 100 feet long. John Poet mentioned he is running approximately 100 watts. 73's, (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, March 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5385 kHz, 0150 UT March 15, SIO 555. The Crystal Ship (pirate) on air playing such 70's favorites as Ray Stevens' 'The Streak', Billy Swans' 'I Can Help', Clint Holmes' 'Playground In My Mind'. Strong signal here in Buffalo, NY area (Scott McLean, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. UNID: 6900 at 2045 UT March 14 in English with "Free Radio Weekly" report, fair to good signal in TN, using Sangean portable and coax dipole antenna. 73's, (Noble, West, TN, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6900 kHz, 2152 UT March 14, about an S6 with noise - apparent pirate outfit ID'd themselves as 'KGIG'. Some rather incongruent music was played from time to time, with the announcer talking about 'WHYT shortwave' and other free radio outlets. Bathroom humor was offered. Also, talk about how 7415 kHz 'used to be' the preferred pirate frequency. A man named George went on about all good things 'Pirate Radio' 6900 kHz, 2206 UTC - just when you thought it couldn't get weirder, the broadcast degenerated to an announcer repeating, with echo, 'Radio Bunny' over and over and over...followed by more pirate radio news... 'almost live, from the ionosphere'... (Scott McLean, Yaesu FRG-7, 25M longwire - Buffalo, NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6924.43 AM, Captain Morgan, 2250, March 13, Blues music. Twilight Zone theme music. ID. Weak (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6924.4 USB, Barnyard Radio, 1950, March 13, punk music. ID. Poor. Weak but readable (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6952.6 AM, WHYP, 1445-1500, March 14, rock music. ID. Discussion about pirate radio. Good signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6955.27 AM, WMPR, 2157-2206*, March 14, electronic dance music. Computer voice ID. Good. “WMPR-Micro Power Radio“ ID (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** OKLAHOMA. Enid`s own part-15 FM station continues to broadcast brief loops by children, some of whom are incredibly unqualified to be announcers, on 97.7, which can be heard with a few blox of the kilochurch on West Garriott (US 412). Lately there has been lots of background noise on the recordings to make it even worse. On March 13 at 2205 UT, briefer than usual without the usual platitudes of a Bible verse, birthday greetings, historical note, but just ``Happy spring break``, ``the last sixth-grade trip``; no made-up ``WECS`` call letters as before but ID only as ``the young voices of Emmanuel Christian School`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1640, KFXY, Enid OK; “The Score, 16-40 KFXY Enid, Oklahoma” heard weakly, followed by Sporting News Flash, vW [very weak?] 0800 31/1 (Andrew Brade, Holme-on-Spalding Moor, East Riding of Yorkshire. AOR AR 7030 plus and Perseus SDR, Wellbrook phased array 290 , 305m beverage at 220 . Recording on Sony MZ-NH1 minidisc + Total Recorder, March MW News via DXLD) Rare catch overseas ** OKLAHOMA. Re 10-10: More about KTLR 890 OKC: Checked at 1650 UT Friday, a deeply-accented huxter was attempting to negatively correlate children out of wedlock with gardening. That must be Watchmen on the Wall. Here`s KTLR`s own schedule grid showing little of interest, just more gospel huxters, posing as mere ``Community Talk``, including Brother Scare noon Sundays, and Spanish Saturday afternoons: http://www.ktlr.com/engine/emw.exe/*qshome=home&st=561&rec=4&kw=news&parm=4&trec=2&lktype=6&snum=1 Also shows sign-on and -off times month by month. The same company http://www.tylermedia.com/ owns KKNG 93.3, Disney 1560, Jack FM 97.3, KTUZ-FM La Zeta 106.7, Telemundo affiliate KTUZ- 29, plus low-power Univisión outlets in Woodward/OKC, Tulsa! Gee, I thought TM and UNI were heavy competitors. I should think Univisión corporate would be chafing about its inferior signals in the OK markets; or does off-the-air really not matter any more (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. Hi Glenn, March 12, 2010. Radio Pakistan Bangla service was monitored in Lahore today at 9375 kHz from 0900 to 1000 UT. The transmitter buzz was remarkably lower, SINPO was 54444. I think it could be API-9 the new transmitter instead of API-3 listed for this broadcast. There were no transmitter breakdowns during the transmission which are peculiar for API-3. The programme content of Bangla Service is better as compared to other external services of Radio Pakistan but the recent change in time from 1200 UT to 0900 UT is inappropriate for any external service. The local time in Bangladesh is 3 pm at the time of transmission. Now opening announcement at the start of transmission has also been introduced in English language. Regards (Aslam Javaid, Lahore, Pakistan, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello Aslam and Glenn, It would be interesting to know what has happened to API-9, as it had a very short "life" on air. There is no listing for it on the Rewat frequency schedule that was sent to me. API-3 is a 100 kW Continental transmitter installed in 1968, so maybe they have found some spares to improve it's output? API-4 is a 100 kW Russian built unit from 1974, and the two of them may be in different buildings. Both were producing very poor signals when I last heard them during Irani at 1700-1800 UTC on 6280 and 7485. The only way to broadcast at more appropriate times would be to utilise API-4 only between 1330 and 1600UTC when Pashtu and Dari are using only API-3, unless, of course, API-4 is being utilised for a domestic service that I don't know about. Attached is the Summer schedule (A-10). Note that the early morning services between 0115-0200 Bangla, 0215-0300 Hindi and 0400-0430 UTC in Gujrati are not listed, and assumed to be dropped (Noel Green, England, ibid.) Viz.: PAKISTAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION Frequency Management, 303 Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan HF BROADCAST SCHEDULE A-10 Effective From 28th March, 2010 to 30th October, 2010 Language kHz MB UT Target Far East Chinese 9670 31 1200-1300 42, 43, 44, 45 11510 26 42, 43, 44, 45 South East Asia Urdu 11580 26 0045-0215 44,45,49,50,51,54,55,59 15490 19 44,45,49,50,51,54,55,59 Bangla 15620 19 0900-1000 41 11570 26 Nepali 15620 19 1000-1030 41 11570 26 South Asia Hindi 9345 32 1045-1145 41 11570 26 Gujrati 9345 32 1145-1215 41 11570 26 Sinhali 15650 19 1230-1300 41 11880 25 Tamil 15650 19 1300-1330 41 11880 25 Irani 6235 48 1700-1800 40 7485 40 Iran, Gulf & Middle East Urdu 17835 17 0500-0700 37 - 39 15100 20 38, 39,46, 47 Urdu 7530 40 1330-1530 37 - 39 11575 26 38, 39,46, 47 English 7530 40 1600-1615 37 - 39 English 11565 26 38, 39, 46, 47 11585 26 37-39 Urdu 15100 20 0830-1104 17, 18SE, 27 - 29 [English 1100] West Europe Urdu 17720 17 0830-1104 17, 18SE, 27 - 29 [English 1100] Urdu 7530 40 1700-1900 17, 18SE, 27 - 29 Urdu 11585 26 17, 18SE, 27 - 29 Afganistan & CIAS [sic] Dari 6235 48 1445-1545 40 Pushto 6235 48 1345-1445 40 (via Noel Green; tidied up by gh for WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DST in 2010: Pakistan All locations Thursday, April 15 to Monday, November 1 (Timeanddate.com via gh WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) So look for most or all the above times including English to shift one UT hour earlier, like last summer, putting Pak, WEST of India on UT +6, AHEAD of it in time (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Hi, March 14, 2010. Radio Pakistan Nepali service was monitored in Lahore today at 1000 UT at 9375. Signal was strong. SINPO was 55444. The transmitter buzz was at a minimal level. Programme content was: religious song in Urdu followed by Pakistani film songs in Urdu, News in Nepali at 1015 UT resumption of film songs at 1020 UT. Whenever I monitor Nepali service, I have noted that songs/music in Nepali language are not broadcast from this service. Since this transmission is music based, I wonder why Radio Pakistan cannot arrange some Nepali songs despite the fact that there is an agreement of cooperation between Radio Nepal and Radio Pakistan. Regards (Aslam Javaid, Lahore, Pakistan, March 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks for your report, Aslam, It seems that 9375 via API-3 is doing extremely well currently. Unfortunately there is no propagation to me on 9 MHz at 1015 UT and so I can't try it myself. But the same transmitter should operate on 11525 for Sinhali and Tamil at 1230-1330 so I'll see what I get on there. I would guess that the programme producers should be able to buy Nepali music CD's somewhere in Islamabad if they went out to look! But perhaps the policy is to only broadcast Pakistani music? I used to hear occasional programmes featuring western style pop music during World Service to Europe when it opened for a while at 0730 UT, but now it seems only Pakistani music is played whenever I listen. By the way, I've been trying to find out if the 10 kW transmitter at Rawalpindi is still operating on 4790. It used to carry Rawalpindi III programmes around 1300 UTC. Have you heard it recently? Regards and 73 from (Noel Green, ibid.) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3385, Radio East New Britain, 1236-1304*, March 16. In Tok Pisin; DJ playing pop songs; suddenly off; poor. Did not hear a station ID, but definitely PNG. Have not heard PNG for a while now, so I am glad they are still on SW (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4950, Radio Madre de Dios, 1040 to 1050, yl "Madre de Dios" in sentence followed by ID for Radio Madre de Dios, instrumental music, into vocal accompanied by rustic Peru music. Good signal until rapid fade 15 March 4955, Radio Cultural Amauta, Huanta, 1045 to 1115 long talk by OM, not music at all, 15 March 5039.18, Radio Libertad Junín, 1050-1110 fade out, rustic OA music, Very Strong signal, "..en pueblo de ....Radio Libertad...por ejemplo ...sin embargo...en Peru.... en todos los dias...atencion Junin ..seis en la mañana..." 15 March (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach Florida, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro DL, 60 meter band dipole ~ Noise Reducing Antenna, HCDX via DXLD) ** PERU. 5485.6, coming in well, R Frecuencia Popular, 3-15 0043, flute instrumentals, excited talks, possible ID, TCs, improving by 0120 (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, NRD-515 and broken Eavesdropper, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** PERU. 18057.9, March 13 at 2315, believe I was hearing wacky wailer David Miranda, but at 2316 to ad for some other preacher appearing in person March 17. Most of the hams on 18 MHz at this time were SS, including an HK4. I should have checked R. Victoria`s fundamental 6019.3 as at this hour it could also have been audible; it certainly was an hour later hetting CRI via ALBANIA 6020.0. Chuck Bolland in FL has also measured it on 6019.30 before sunrise (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 6019.30, Radio Victoria, 1057-1105, Reported this earlier today, but using a different receiver, the WJ HF1000. Noted a male in regular Spanish comments this morning. After the hour a female comments. Music follows. Signal was poor with Het QRM (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, March 13, 2010, Watkins Johnson HF1000, 26.27N 081.05W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3/11 2315 UT - Using the USB feature on the 2010, I tuned up slowly to 6019.3 and was able to detect a carrier, albeit EXTREMELY faint and getting battered by 6020 (although to a much lesser extent than at 2359, when CRI was on). Could not hear anything on 18057.9. 73, (Rick Dau, Omaha, Neb., ABDX via DXLD) Peru, 6019.27, Radio Victoria, 0151-0200. Noted a female in steady Spanish language comments. Not sure whether they were political or religious, but sound rather emotional. Signal was poor (Chuck Bollkand, March 13, 2010, NRD545, 26.27N 081.05W, Clewiston FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) In which case the third harmonic would vary to 18057.81 (gh, DXLD) 18057.9, March 15 at 1524, VP but recognizable signal from wacky wailing David Miranda, 3 x 6019.3 from R. Victoria, Lima. Chuck Bolland found the fundamental slightly lower, so the harmonic might vary as low as 18057.8; really somewhere in between at this time, I think (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 9520, RVA at 1329 March 12, English ID and Sinhala about to start, G signal helped by absence of Indonesia from 9526. Retune at 1457 to hear IS and off after Telugu service. Then at *1458 on 9570, English IDs with jazz background, introducing Russian service, really R. Blagovest starting with its big bells. Suspect this is the same Palauig-Zambales 250 kW transmitter, stronger here on 9570 after beam change, altho both far from USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non] Radio Veritas Asia, Manila - A-10 Shortwave Transmission Schedule 28 March to 31 October 2010 Bengali 0030-0057 11945 1400-1427 11870 Burmese to Myanmar 2330-2357 9720 1130-1157 15450 Filipino 2300-2327 9720 Filipino 1500-1553 15350-SMG Vatican State [ex 11715 in B-09 vs KJES --- gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1504] Hindi 0030-0057 11710 1330-1400 11870 Hmong 1200-1227 11935 Kachin 2330-2357 9645 1230-1257 15225 Karen 0000-0027 11935 1200-1230 15225 Mandarin 2100-2257 6115 1000-1157 9615 Russian 0130-0230 17830 1500-1600 9570 Sinhala 0000-0027 11730 0000-0027 9865 1330-1400 9520 Tamil 0030-0057 11935 1400-1427 9520 Telugu 0100-0127 15530 1430-1457 9685 Urdu 0100-0127 15280 0100-0127 17860 1430-1457 15435 SMG Vatican State Vietnamese 2330-2357 9670 0130-0230 15530 1030-1127 11850 1300-1327 11850 Zomi-Chin 0130-0157 15520 Transmitting Station: Palauig, Zambales. Transmitters: 3 x 250 kW Antenna Type: 3x HRS 4/4/0.3 4x HRS 4/4/0.5 8x HR 2/2/0.5 Geographical Location: 119 50; 15 28 N [sic, wrong on the ocean side, wb.] rather PHL Radio Veritas Asia, Lipay, Palauig at 15 28 02.00 N 119 54 50.00 E SEND CORRESPONDENCE TO: Radio Veritas Asia Frequency & Monitoring P. O. Box 2642, Quezon City 1166, Philippines E-mail: Website: FTS/2010.08.03-A10-00-1 (RVA via Victor Goonetilleke-CLN 4S7VK, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews March 15 via DXLD) ** POLAND [non]. UAE, 9650, Came across 'dimmed' Polish Radio Warsaw in English via VT-group Al Dhabbaya relay at 1800-1900 UT, only suffers by fair S=6-7 level. Also low modulation, like noted previously also on DWL transmissions in 49 mb last winter. This location has never been observed with reliable signals from VT-group relay arrangements towards Europe (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. AUSTRIA/NORWAY/UAE/U.K. Polskie Radio Warsaw A-10 BC schedule 28 March 2010 to 31 Oct 2010 BELARUSS. 1330-1429 11955rmp 15480wof 1630-1659 17760wof ENGLISH 1200-1259 11675ors 11980wof 1700-1759 7265kvi 9655wof GERMAN 1130-1159 9435wof 9610wof 1530-1559 9495wof 1930-1959 6035wof 6135wof HEBREW 1800-1829 11865skn POLISH 1030-1059 11790ors 15265wof 1530-1629 11640wof 2100-2159 6155skn 7245wof RUSSIAN 1100-1129 15265wof 15460wof 1300-1329 15480wof 17860uae 1430-1459 11760wof 1800-1829 11730wof 1830-1929 15155wof UKRAINIAN 1430-1459 15500wof 1500-1529 11615wof 15265wof 1830-1929 11730wof (PRW A-10 March 14 via Wolfgang Büschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) ORS must mean Moosbrunn, Austria, formerly known as MOS. One of the 17 UT frequencies should be in DRM, presumably Kvitsoy, NORWAY (gh, DXLD) ** PORTUGAL [and non]. Re 10-10: 15690, two stations mixing about 7 Hz apart, both with music at 1356 March 10. At 1358, Portugal`s NA, 1359 RDPI ID for 15690 to the ME, and the other station stops. It`s R. Farda until 1400 via SRI LANKA, and Portugal is not supposed to start until 1400; at least this frequency is in use M-F only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also MADEIRA Glenn, Your comment coincides with what I always thought about throwing ISignals + IDs and perhaps the country's national anthem just a few minutes before the actual scheduled/registered time: why not starting on the registered time instead?! To save "precious" minutes just because a newscast on the hour is also scheduled? Perhaps, and certainly so in the case of many stations, among which the RDPi is a mere example, but not a rational method, or to put it mildly, not that "tidy" as far as signal collisions are concerned. But then who's to change this old practice? 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) OTOH, many stations finish and go off the air at least 3 minutes before hourtop reducing the chance of overlap. Cases like 15690 could be coördinated individually, but too much trouble (gh, DXLD) ** ROMANIA. 15170, RRI Romanian service, QRM-free since on Saturdays only, REE/Costa Rica is absent, March 13 at 1435 with Bach organ music, interrupted at 1438 to move on to Handel, and every few minutes to other composers, Liszt, Franck. Great music and very good reception, but RRI suffers from ADD, or expects its audience to, thus airing only snippets of longer worx which deserve full treatment. Cut off abruptly at 1456*. Much weaker 11940 was //, and subject to DentroCuban jamming spreading from 11930 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. Tentative A-10 schedule of Radio Romania International: ARABIC 0630-0656 11730 11790 15180 15400 1400-1456 11820 11945 15160 15490 AROMANIAN 1430-1456 ^7320, not Macedonian 1630-1656 ^5980, not Macedonian 1830-1856 ^5955, not Macedonian CHINESE 0400-0426 *11700 17780 1300-1326 15435 17600 ENGLISH 0000-0056 7335 9580 0300-0356 7335 9645 11895 15340 0530-0556 *7305 9655 17760 21500 1100-1156 15210 15430 17510 17670 1700-1756 *9535 11735 [also 1700-1730 +DRM 7350 Kvitsoe Norway] 2030-2056 9690 *9765 11880 11940 2200-2256 5960 7435 9790 11940 FRENCH 0100-0156 7335 9560 0500-0526 *7215 9450 9655 11790 1000-1056 11830 15240 15380 17785 1600-1656 9680 11950 2000-2026 6065 *7295 GERMAN 0600-0626 *7230 9740 1200-1256 9675 11875 [also 1600-1700 +DRM 7460 Kvitsoe Norway] 1800-1856 7215 *9610 ITALIAN 1400-1426 ^7320 1600-1626 ^5980 1800-1826 ^5955 ROMANIAN 0000-0056 7535 9525 0100-0156 7535 9525 0400-0456 6140 7350 0700-0756 9700 11970 15260 17720 "Curierul romanesc" Sun 0800-0856 11870 11970 15110 15450 "Curierul romanesc" Sun 0900-0956 11830 15240 15380 17600 "Curierul romanesc" Sun 1200-1256 ^7300 11920 15195 1300-1356 11920 15195 1500-1556 9855 11895 1600-1656 7205 9690 1700-1756 9625 11970 1800-1856 9625 11970 1900-1956 9690 11970 RUSSIAN 0430-0456 5945 *7390 1330-1356 11835 15140 1500-1556 *7380 9690 SERBIAN 1530-1556 ^6025 1730-1756 ^6125 1930-1956 ^6125 SPANISH 0200-0256 7400 9520 9645 11945 1900-1956 9700 11715 2100-2156 9755 11965 2300-2356 6100 9655 9745 11955 UKRAINIAN 1500-1526 ^5945 1700-1726 ^6135 1900-1926 ^5910 ^ Saftica 100 kW, all other Galbeni and Tiganesti 300 kW. * DRM via Saftica 100 kW; Galbeni or Tiganesti 300 kW. + DRM via Kvitsoe, Norway 65 kW (RRI-RRO schedule via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews March 13 [English] via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) ** RUSSIA [and non]. HERITAGE IDEAS TO COMBAT RUSSIAN ANTI-AMERICANISM INCLUDE BUDGET INCREASE, NEW BUREAUCRACY (updated). "The Kremlin is using anti-Americanism as a strategic tool for pursuing domestic and foreign policy goals. Through media controlled or owned by the state, the Russian government is deliberately spreading poisonous anti-U.S. propaganda at home and abroad, blaming many of Russia's problems on the West, particularly the United States. The partial success of this policy exposes a number of serious failures in U.S. public diplomacy, which has been in decline since the end of the Cold War. To counter Russian information warfare and to consolidate democracy and freedom in Eastern and Central Europe, the U.S. needs to reinvigorate its public diplomacy efforts, using both traditional TV and radio broadcasting and new media to reach the peoples of the former Soviet satellites and post-Soviet states." Abstract from "Russian Anti-Americanism: A Priority Target for U.S. Public Diplomacy," Ariel Cohen and Helle C. Dale, Heritage Foundation, 24 February 2010. This is a detailed paper (with several footnotes) about an important subject. . . http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=8451 See my comments on this separate page. http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/?id=8450 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** RUSSIA. Re SWEDEN: ``VoR doesn't run its own live streaming. It's still done by some charitable partners in Germany. So much for Bystritsky's promises of a bright new online future about a year ago!`` Well, I think these promises were not that exaggerated. I now see a well-designed website that in German offers current news, plus scripts and on-demand audio of the radio programmes (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAINT KITTS & NEVIS. 555, Radio ZIZ. 0317-0322 March 13, 2010. Big carrier, but threshold audio with accented English man. Hard to tell but almost sounded preacher-like (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAIPAN. 11650, March 16 at 1340 religious talk in Turkic language, and some nice music, then almost all praise music until 1359 ID unexpectedly in Russian as KFBS, Saipan, Radio Teos, and off. Good signal but slight het from something off-frequency. Per EiBi, WRTH and Aoki, none of which mentions the Radio Teos ID, on Tuesdays at 1330- 1345 it`s in Udmurt, 1345-1400 in Tatar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SEYCHELLES [non]. FEBA Radio Broadcast Schedule, Summer A10 28th March to 31st October 2010 Tx Site Codes - ARM Armavir Russia MOS Moosbrunn Austria ASC Ascension Island NVS Novosibirsk Russia DHA Dhabayya TAC Tashkent Uzbekistan KIG Kigali Rwanda WER Wertachtal Germany MEY Meyerton S. Africa Day 1 = Sunday (ITU Convention) NORTH INDIA, NEPAL, TIBET - A10 summer schedule Days Frequency Metre Site Time UTC 1234567 Languages kHz band code ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0015-0030 smtwtfs BANGLA rural 7485 41 TAC 0030-0045 s..w... HINDI 7485 41 TAC 0030-0045 .mt.... MIXED LANGUAGES 7485 41 TAC 0030-0045 ....tfs BANGLA 7485 41 TAC 0045-0100 smtwtfs HINDI 7485 41 TAC 1200-1230 smtwtfs TIBETAN 15215 19 DHA 1430-1445 smtwtfs URDU 12025 25 DHA 1445-1500 ...wtfs KASHMIRI 12025 25 DHA 1445-1500 smt.... MIXED LANGUAGES 12025 25 DHA 1500-1530 smtwtfs BANGLA rural 7485 41 TAC SOUTH INDIA - A10 summer schedule Days Frequency Metre Site Time UTC 1234567 Languages kHz band code ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0130-0200 s...tf. TELUGU 9725 31 DHA 0130-0200 .mtw..s MIXED LANGUAGES 9725 31 DHA 1400-1430 s...... ENGLISH 12025 25 DHA 1400-1415 .mtwtfs MALAYALAM 12025 25 DHA 1415-1430 .mtwtfs MIXED LANGUAGES 12025 25 DHA PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN - A10 summer schedule Days Frequency Metre Site Time UTC 1234567 Languages kHz band code ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0200-0300 s...... URDU 12035 25 DHA 0200-0230 .mtwtfs URDU 12015 25 DHA 0230-0300 .mtwtfs MIXED LANGUAGES 12015 25 DHA 0200-0230 smtwtfs PASHTO 9725 31 DHA 0230-0300 smtwtfs DARI 9725 31 DHA 1400-1445 smtwtfs URDU 9500 31 NVS 1445-1500 smtwtfs MIXED LANGUAGES 9500 31 NVS 1430-1500 smtwtfs PASHTO 9830 31 ARM 1500-1530 smtwtfs DARI 9830 31 ARM 1530-1545 smtwtfs MIXED LANGUAGES 9830 31 ARM AFRICA, ETHIOPIA, SUDAN - A10 summer schedule Days Frequency Metre Site Time UTC 1234567 Languages kHz band code ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1600-1630 s...tfs AMHARIC 12125 25 MEY 1600-1630 .mtw... GURAGENA 12125 25 MEY 1630-1700 smtwtfs AMHARIC 12125 25 MEY 1600-1630 smtwtfs ETHIOPIA 11655 25 ARM 1630-1700 smtw... TIGRINYA 9865 31 DHA 1630-1700 ....tfs AMHARIC 9865 31 DHA 1700-1730 smtwtfs OROMINYA 9630 31 KIG 1730-1757 smtwtfs TIGRINYA 9630 31 KIG 1700-1730 smtwtfs SOMALI 6180 49 DHA 1730-1800 smtwtfs ETHIOPIA 5890 49 MEY 1830-1845 smtwtfs FRENCH (Cent+West Af) 15250 19 ASC 2145-2215 .mt.tf. HASSINYA/PULAAR (WAf) 11985 25 ASC MIDDLE EAST - A10 summer schedule Days Frequency Metre Site Time UTC 1234567 Languages kHz band code ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0800-0830 smtwtfs ARABIC 15280 19 MOS 1900-1930 smtwtfs ARABIC 7230 41 WER 1900-2030 smtwtfs ARABIC 9550 31 KIG ------------------------------------------------------------------- Schedule Engineer, FEBA Radio, Ivy Arch Road, WORTHING BN14 8BX, UK. WEBSITE: http://www.febaradio.info A10bs01 dated 03.3.10 rww -- Source: http://www.febaradio.net/word/a10_all.doc 73 (via Dragan Lekic, Serbia, and Alokesh Gupta, India, March 11, dxldyg via DXLD) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5020.00, 0900-0920, SIBC with music, adverts for Central bank, 0905, news, financial report, 0917 ID, SLBC Happy Isles (John Kecskes, somewhere in Australia? March 15, Kenwood R-5000 receiver, A/D DX antenna, HCDX via DXLD) ** SOMALIA [non]. BAR-KULAN IS ON THE AIR. Bar-Kulan – the meeting place – is the new voice for Somalis, by Somalis and about Somalis. Broadcasting from studios in Nairobi and drawing content from a network of correspondents throughout Somalia and around the world, Bar-Kulan’s aim is to be the radio of reference for Somali speakers everywhere. Bar-Kulan’s primary audience is young people. As is the case anywhere in the world, the future is in the hands of the youth. Creating a virtual venue for discussion, education and entertainment, is a role Bar-Kulan is cultivating in the belief that an informed population is a population better prepared to make decisions. Test transmissions have been on the air since March 1st on two frequencies: 15750 kHz in the 19 metre band from 08h00 to 09h00 local time (0500-0600 UT) and on 9630 kHz in the 31 metre band from 19h00 to 20h00 local time (1600-1700 UT). These tests have included specially selected Quranic verses; reports on internally displaced persons, and refugees; interviews with prominent Somalis and, of course, the best in Somali music – new and old. Today marks the start of what is the most exciting phase of any new radio station – the launch of live programming. The addition of FM service in Mogadishu on 98,0 MHz brings with it live news bulletins, expanded spoken-word content and an expanded broadcast day (08h00 – 13h00 & 18h00 – 22h00) for those within the footprint of FM reception. Mogadishu however is just the beginning – negotiations are underway with local authorities across the Horn of Africa to obtain permission to install relays in the major urban centres; FM service for Puntland is set to be the next stage in network expansion. Thanks to generous support from the United Nations, Bar-Kulan has been able to construct an infrastructure enabling it to cover the entire Horn of Africa on shortwave, a growing number of urban centres in Somalia on FM, all of Africa on DSTV and soon live streaming as well. Our website – www.bar-kulan.com – compliments the radio service with added interactive value, including English-language content for Somalis in the Diaspora and all those with an interest in Somali content. Management and staff at Bar-Kulan are extremely pleased to have the honour of facilitating dialogue amongst Somalis in the belief that our actions are contributing to a better future. That’s why we’re making sure that Bar-Kulan is everywhere. Bar-kulan “Meel Walba” Info: David Smith – Director Bar-Kulan Tel: +254 (0) 712 406 704. david@okapi.cc Soule M. Issiaka – Deputy Director – Bar-Kulan Tel: +254 (0) 720 636 769. isoule@okapi.cc (via Harald Kuhl, March 16, media network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) The point of this release for anyone axually trying to listen to it is that they give a different frequency for the 16-17 broadcast, 9630, than the initial one, where many of us heard it, 9960. Has it really changed? Please confirm by monitoring. If it did change at some point, how can they claim that it has been on 9630 from the outset? Also DX Mix News said the A-10 frequency was planned to be 9930. This and 9960 are/were via South Africa, while 17750 via UAE (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) ** SPAIN [and non]. She finally got it right! Weekly Sephardic broadcast from REE at 1425-1455 Mondays, March 15 at 1453 schedule announcement on 15385 axually said ``15385`` instead of 15325. No fading this time during fourth digit, so I am certain of what the hostess said. Also gave for 0115 Tue to SAm, 11795, which is yet unconfirmed, and 9650 at 0415 Tue to NAm --- both contrary to B-09 HFCC registrations as 11780 and 9690 respectively; 11780 would face huge collision with Brasília. [Later:] Another fruitless search for REE`s Sephardic service to South America, scheduled for UT Tuesdays 0115-0145 on 11780 per some sources, 11795 announced on the previous 1425-1455 broadcast heard on correct 15385. At 0113-0117 March 16, nothing at all on 11795. Usual huge signal from Brasília on 11780 with music. Spain however had a respectable signal in Castilian on 11680 to S America, so I really think I should have been able to detect something under RNA on 11780, at least the REE IS, if anything was there. Could the broadcast be on some totally different unknown frequency? I did search the entire 25 m band (only) and did not find any sign of it. Also checked 9690 and 9650, registered at 0115 or 0415 as alternates: nothing. At 0413 UT Tue I tuned to 9690 to find VG signal with REE IS, and 0415 fanfare, sign-on in Ladino claiming this is on 9650, and the 0115 on 11795! It will be a banner day if all the announced and transmitted frequencies for these judeo-español broadcasts ever match up. How can one produce a SW broadcast week after week and not care enough to find out what frequencies it is on? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) REE`s co-official language Catalan was missing from its token pentaminute slot 1340-1345 UT March 17 on 17595, via Costa Rica 15170, 11815, with music fill instead. 1345 into Gallego with sea-shanty tune, and 1350 ``Basque`` segment not in Basque but instead Castilian immediately talking about ``la lucha contra ETA``. Only a few words of Basque heard in the 1355 outro, which are safely recorded and cleared of objexionable content. From A-10 this M-F segment presumably will shift to 1240-1255 on all available frequencies (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. 7190.04, Sri Lanka BC, 1226-1234*, March 16. In vernacular with subcontinent singing; choral anthem at sign off; poor (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Heard daily in ?Sinhala from 1630 UT on 11750 kHz and splashes from 1657 Mon-Fri from REE in Russian on 11755 kHz. At 1630 UT the program is s/on directly from Home Service without any IS and ID. (Mar 8-11) (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, March 11, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews March 13 via DXLD) 11750, SLBC Ekala 300 kW unit in Sinhala to ME foreign workers, noted S=9+20dB, March 14th at 1730-1740 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11905, S Asian music at 0116 March 16, fair signal from SLBC. In my early DXing years, before all the hi-power relay stations, it was quite a thrill to pick up Radio Ceylon from the opposite worldside for the first time, and this brought back a bit of that. QSL from 1959 on 15265: http://www.w4uvh.net/ceylon.jpg (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. 7200, SRTC, Al-Aitahab, 1833-1849, 13 Mar'10, Arabic, discussion, Arabic tunes; 34433, adjacent QRM only (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. via Slovakia, 7385, Miraya FM, 0315-0600*, March 14, local music. Arabic talk. Many “Miraya” jingles. English news at 0402-0411. IDs as Radio Miraya and Miraya FM. Back to Arabic programming at 0412 with local music and Arabic talk. Fair signal. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** SUDAN [and non]. Whenever I hear R. Dabanga via Madagascar on 13800, there is a tone on it, which must be jamming from Sudan. It`s not a het, as reconfirmed March 15 at 1610, peaking at 13799 and 13801, i.e. a carrier modulating at about 1 kHz DSB. There are lots of other target/clandestine broadcasts into Sudan, but not aware of any others being jammed. I wonder if R. Dabanga knows about this and/or is doing anything to combat it: apparently not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. ASCENSION ISLAND, 17700, Southern Sudan Interactive Radio Instruction to Sudan, noted here in southern Germany at 1600- 1700 UT from Ascension with Arabic by S=9+10dB level (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SURINAME. 4990, Radio Apintie (Paramaribo), 0401-0430, 3/15/2010, Dutch. Easy listening pop vocal music short announcements by a woman. Poor to moderate signal, peaking 0420-0425. Best signal in years, finally making it out of the noise for extended periods (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX-340, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN [and non]. RADIO SWEDEN ENDS MEDIUM, SHORT WAVE Radio Sweden will terminate its medium and short wave broadcasts this October 31st in favour of web services – with Swedish Radio management stating that is the best use of resources and in line with international trends. The English-language service is to continue on the web and on national broadcasts. The Russian output will be available on the web as is the German now. Among the immigrant languages, Albanian, Assyrian-Syriac and Bosnian- Serbian-Croatian are to be terminated on the same date. Meanwhile, Arabic and Somali – the largest immigrant language groups here at present – are to be boosted. The same applies to Romani – one of Sweden’s five official minority languages. The Persian service is to include even Dari spoken by the rapidly increasing number of Afghan refugees coming to Sweden. Kurdish broadcasts remain unchanged. Swedish Radio’s output in immigrant languages will be available on the web and broadcast nationally. Source: http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=2054&format=1&artikel=3562645 (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, March 16, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``The Russian output will be available on the web as is the German now.`` And it appears to be a good example for what happens when such a service from the old shortwave world becomes an online offering, losing its roots in broadcasting. Now it is text content with some added podcasts. These podcasts are being posted Mon-Fri only and have a varying length around 15 minutes. One could be of the opinion that stuff like 30 minute radio magazines are a relic of the past. Anyway, in such cases this kind of stuff just disappears (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: Another Nordic country shutting off shortwave when we need them most. Sad Time in broadcasting and DXing now. 73's, (Noble West, TN, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) As much as it is sad and as much as I support SW as a broadcast medium, I do understand. Audience size. Unless someone can come up with exact figures on how many people tune in at a given time, it will continue. As we all know, there was hope a few years ago with DRM, but receivers never came on the market. Yes, I know, some people will say there is one model, but unless you can buy a DRM receiver at your local electronics show [sic], DRM is dead as a dodo. If I look at the stats for HS listeners, 99% of the response from the show is from downloads and streaming. Stations that only use SW like RHC keep it for political reasons, but even RHC's audience is made up of only DXers, as was told to me by Manolo de la Rosa just a few weeks ago. CRI adds frequencies for political reasons as well. The audience department, even when I was there, said that for every one letter or email from someone who listens to VOA [sic] shortwave, there are at least 30 who listen via the internet. Recently with all that happened with Radio Prague announcing they will keep SW, this is only short-term. I guess that in two years they will also drop it. The only regions to use SW these days are parts of Latin America, most of Africa and parts of Asia. In Asia it's also changing fast. In Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, there is no need, Vietnam. China is a different case. But if you want to reach an audience in the first tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dalian etc., SW won't work because people don't listen to SW. In areas of the country that are still far behind and have no internet connection, you find many that listen to SW for domestic radio in Inner Mongolia, Western China and others. It's true this is a huge audience, but if any change was to come to China, this part of the population have no power. If I speak for myself, yes, I do tune to SW daily, but I tune for news. And where do people tune for news? BBC, VOA, RA, NHK, RFI, DW and RNW. Why do I listen from SW? These stations have such strong signals, they are as clear as many local MW stations. If their signals were as poor as, let`s say, VOR or RCI, I would tune in via the net. When I travel, I always bring a small Sony ICFSW1 with me. But again, I have never just tuned around to listen to stations I can pick up. For example, if I want information on Prague, why would I listen to Radio Prague? I have no need. I can find the information elsewhere. If I want information on Russia, RT does a much better job than VOR. Over the next 2 or 3 years, you will see more and more of the smaller stations like Radio Sweden turning off HF. It's a reality. As I was told recently by someone at a major international broadcaster, "how can we justify spending millions of Euros on SW, when only a very small number of DXers listen and just request QSL cards". We all know the positive use of SW, but unless someone can come up with a viable way to promote it, SW will only be used by some small countries and religious broadcasters. It's a shame (Keith Perron, Taiwan, ibid.) It will be interesting to see if Radio Sweden bothers to start using streaming audio, like virtually every other major broadcaster does, when they move to "web services". They will lose even more listeners if they don't. Regards (Harry Brooks, North East England, UK, ibid.) It's already there: http://www.sr.se/webbradio No live stream of P6, instead an on-demand offering of programmes in other languages than Swedish, probably due to all the third-party programming P6 relays, too. But the programmes in question are, as far as I know, recorded anyway. One could argue that they could set up a webstream that carries the Sölvesborg/Hörby program output. But there just will be no such program output after October anymore (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) I think the big challenge for most external radio services is many of them waited so long to use new technology. If I'm not mistaken, one of the first international broadcasters to be on web was Radio Netherlands (I think Andy can correct me on that one). I remember in the early 1990s some people were saying they were crazy, just like when they started adding audio. But it would not surprise me that nowadays RNW has a bigger listener base and different than they did. And for streaming when I use my wifi radio, RNW has the best sounding audio of any international broadcaster running at 128k (stereo). DW uses 64k (mono), BBC WS comes up also at 64k (mono), some international broadcasters like VOR come in at 32 (mono) and sound flat. If Radio Sweden has a stream at 128k that is stable, stereo it will take off. Yes, it's true they are late starting off, but if they do something different and unique they will survive. The big public broadcasters including the smaller ones have been very slow to react to new technology, just like Universal, BMG and Sony Music when it came to music downloads (Keith Perron, ibid.) VoR doesn't run its own live streaming. It's still done by some charitable partners in Germany. So much for Bystritsky's promises of a bright new online future about a year ago! [reply: see RUSSIA] RT seems to follow any other popular TV channel in providing a rather shallow picture of whatever they report on. Besides, in a recent year they've been concentrating on the US coverage. If you are getting them on a cable in the US you are pretty much stuck with RT America during your evening prime time. In this proposed shutdown of both MW and SW R. Sweden seems to be following a faulty approach of "all or nothing." Why not keep AM 1179 in the evening hours and a few SW broadcasts to key markets? SW broadcasting can be done relatively inexpensively these days. I mean even Happy Station can afford it ;) Of course, SW audience is going down worldwide. But it's still there (Sergei S., ibid.) 'All or nothing' is not a 'faulty approach' but economic logic. There are a lot of fixed costs associated with running a shortwave or high power mediumwave station - maintaining the transmitters and antennas, paying the rent for the land and the building, and of course staffing the place. All these costs do not decrease just because you decide to switch the transmitters off for more hours of the day. You will save on fuel to power the transmitter(s), but at the end of the day what it means that you have a facility that's only being used to, say, 20% of its capacity instead of, say, 70% of its capacity. To someone counting the money, that doesn't make a lot of sense (Andy Sennitt, Netherlands, ibid.) However, this does not really apply when you are buying time from an existing site somewhere else still with multiple other customers, like Madagascar. It all comes down to the hourly rate and whether it`s worth it (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Thanks, Glenn! When I wrote about "a few SW broadcasts" that R. Sweden can still run I was thinking in terms of renting air time on overseas SW transmitters. I'm sure the costs must be prohibitive for a SW operation in Sweden. Andy might be right when it comes to 1179. It's unfortunate that this frequency has been jammed by Romania for as long as I can remember. It sounds as if Romania is using a higher power than ITU allocation. Or maybe it's a wrong antenna pattern. But not long time ago I did manage to receive R.Sweden on 1179 in Hurghada, Egypt (Sergei S., ibid.) ``Why not keep AM 1179 in the evening hours`` It is not much more already now, on air 0455-0700 and 1645-2300 (Sat - 2400) if I gather it right at a quick look. Now what will happen with the transmitter? Will Teracom*) shut it down and have done with it, or will they seek another customer? More CRI on the European mediumwave dial? The same question of course applies to Hörby, too, but I guess here a shut-down is by far the most likely scenario. *) The operator; the transmission facilities are leased by Sveriges Radio but not their property. [and non] Another aspect: In future also RNW and RCI will have to lease more airtime for cash, as the result of loosing SR as partner who transmits some of their services in exchange for airtime. Of course they could instead reduce their services. It will be interesting to see which option they will choose, especially RNW for its huge Dutch service. (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I saw no mention of satellite in the announcement. RS currently distributes its daily programs via WRN on Sirius/XM radio (as well as through the internet and other WRN outlets). I've written and asked them how (or if) this decision affects that platform. Will report back, but does anyone else know the answer at this point? (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, ibid.) The snowballing effect continues. You can be certain that other similar-sized European broadcasters will take note of the RS shortwave shutdown and will ask themselves some hard questions. We got lucky with the Radio Prague decision to simply downsize transmitter output, although I think they're just putting off the inevitable for a little while. In the next year or so we will probably see the shutdown of what's left of Radio Budapest and Radio Austria International on SW, and I'm sure those holding the purse strings in other European capitals are sharpening the knives (Steve Luce, TX, ibid.) Hi Everyone, Radio Sweden will lose me as a listener, and I have tuned in since the early 70's. To put it another way: I am in front of a blasted computer all day at work, so the LAST thing I want to do, is be in front of a computer while at home. It's so much NICER to listen to the radio. I really regret Radio Sweden making this decision. But I stand by the fact, I will NOT listen to them on the Internet. 73s (David Sharp, NSW Australia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 18+ more comments along the same lines: http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/radio-sweden-to-become-an-internet-only-station#comments (Media Network blog via DXLD) Radio Sweden A10 sked, which is, as I understood, to be the last SW-MW one for this station. http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/international/artikel.asp?Artikel=3510260 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, dxldyg via DXLD) ** SYRIA. 9330, Strong audio for German 1800-1900 and French 1900-2000 and low audio for 1630-1700 Tu[rkish?], 1700-1800 Ru and 2100- ? English on Mar 8. Better quality sound was on MW 783 kHz 1830-1900 in Ru. On Mar 10th from 1824 UT began a program "Briefkasten" (Letterbox) in German on 9330 kHz. Nothing observed on 12085 kHz maybe due to the conditions? Often in the background on 9330 kHz is heard also additional program, maybe from some TV progoram in Syria (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, March 11, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews March 13 via DXLD) ** TAIWAN. Move about SOH on 17520 to 17580 kHz --- I can receive mysterious SOH via Taiwan to change frequency for every several minutes at around 2230 to 0930 UT on 17520 to 17580 kHz. It is recorded 12 hours of Mar. 9 to 10 as follows. 9-Mar 22:21:30 17520 22:28:15 17560 22:35:23 17550 22:42:45 17560 22:50:28 17570 22:58:39 17520 23:03:41 17580 23:09:49 17560 23:17:31 17520 23:23:35 17530 23:28:48 17540 23:38:18 17580 23:43:30 17530 23:50:38 17580 23:59:01 17560 10-Mar 0:04:15 17570 0:10:14 17580 0:19:50 17570 0:29:05 17580 0:36:30 17530 0:44:03 17540 0:49:16 17580 0:59:18 17540 1:03:38 17560 1:09:48 17570 1:17:00 17520 1:25:25 17580 1:33:10 17520 1:39:04 17560 1:47:55 17520 1:54:22 17540 2:04:02 17530 2:10:00 17560 2:17:00 17520 2:22:40 17580 2:28:26 17530 2:37:09 17520 2:43:29 17540 2:50:59 17580 2:59:16 17540 3:05:00 17520 3:15:39 17560 3:21:41 17540 3:30:25 17520 3:38:41 17580 3:44:40 17570 3:51:09 17520 4:00:51 17560 4:08:30 17570 4:14:52 17550 4:23:50 17580 4:30:00 17570 4:39:02 17540 4:43:34 17550 4:57:28 17570 5:06:35 17550 5:15:30 17560 5:25:19 17580 5:31:44 17560 5:38:14 17530 5:47:18 17540 5:53:28 17530 6:01:00 17540 6:08:48 17550 6:18:07 17520 6:26:58 17530 6:33:00 17570 6:41:12 17520 6:46:05 17580 6:53:34 17570 7:00:00 17530 7:09:49 17540 7:16:28 17570 7:24:16 17540 7:32:48 17520 7:39:05 17580 7:48:35 17520 7:57:06 17570 8:04:32 17550 8:11:45 17580 8:17:56 17570 8:27:23 17540 8:34:43 17530 8:43:04 17540 8:51:58 17580 8:58:04 17530 9:07:44 17570 9:15:15 17580 9:22:43 17530 9:32:00 17580 9:40:10 0 Will they examine ability for Chinese monitoring? These do not have the jamming from China. de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, March 12, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. Black broadcasting --- Just working on next month Tribute To Radio which will look at Black broadcasting coming from Taiwan. Many groups based in Taiwan use government transmitters to broadcast programs to the PRC. I many cases these broadcasts are illegal, by international law. The problem is the government in Taiwan and many of these groups like Falun Gong and other use the HAM bands to broadcast, is that because Taiwan or the Republic Of China is not a part of the ITU or any other international HF organization they don't need to follow international broadcast law or frequency use. The reaction from the Taiwan government is well if the world had the guts to stick up to China who blocks us from wanting to join the ITU then maybe there would not be a problem. The Ministry of Communications told me last week. "Let us join the ITU and we will do something, but as long as we are prevented from being a part of the UN body, we will not do anything (Keith Perron, Taiwan, March 15, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The term ``black clandestine`` isn`t used much these days. Is that not exactly what you mean in this sense? Googling that term led first to this rather thorough 7-year-old article about IRAQ with lots of clips: http://www.dxing.info/articles/iraq.dx ``Radio Tikrit is a rare case of a "black clandestine" station, initially pretending to be a pro-Saddam station, but in just two weeks time, it radically changed the tone of its broadcasts, now sharply criticizing the Saddam regime and urging Iraqi soldiers to defect.`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN [and non]. Radio Taiwan International A10 March 28, 2010 - October 31, 2010 UTC Days Tgt Freq Site Pwr ----------------------------------- Mandarin 0000-0200 daily NEm 860 WBGR N/A 0000-0100 daily CHN 1422 TWN 50 0000-0300 daily CHN 9660 TWN 100 0300-0400 daily NEm 6875 WYFR 100 0400-0500 daily NwA 5950 WYFR 100 0400-0500 daily CHN 1008 TWN 600 0400-0600 daily CHN 11885 TWN 100 0400-0600 daily CHN 11640 TWN 100 0400-0700 daily Scarmento 1210 KEBR N/A [sic] 0400-0600 daily SeA 15290 TWN 250 1000-1100 daily CHN 1422 TWN 50 1000-1500 daily CHN 6085 TWN 300 1000-1200 daily CHN 1503 TWN 600 1000-1400 daily CHN 9780 TWN 100 1000-1400 daily CHN 6150 TWN 100 1000-1700 daily CHN 11665 TWN 300 1000-1700 daily CHN 603 TWN 500 1000-1700 daily CHN 7385 TWN 100 1000-1700 daily CHN 1008 TWN 600 1100-1300 daily CHN 11710 TWN 300 1100-1700 daily CHN 9680 TWN 100 1300-1330 daily CHN 1503 TWN 600 1300-1400 daily SeA 15265 TWN 250 1300-1500 daily SeA 7445 TWN 100 1400-1500 Daily CHN 7270 TWN 300 1300-1700 daily CHN 1098 TWN 300 1400-1800 daily CHN 6075 TWN 100 1400-1800 daily CHN 6145 TWN 100 1500-1700 daily CHN 7365 TWN 300 1600-1700 daily CHN 1503 TWN 600 2200-2400 daily CHN 11710 TWN 300 2200-2400 daily CHN 11885 TWN 100 2200-2400 daily CHN 6105 TWN 100 2200-2400 daily SeA 11635 TWN 100 2200-2400 daily CHN 6150 TWN 100 2300-2400 daily CHN 9685 TWN 100 2300-2400 daily CHN 9660 TWN 100 2300-2400 daily CHN 7270 TWN 100 Hokkein [a.k.a. AMOY! As in WRTH --- gh] 0100-0200 Daily CHN 1422 TWN 50 0500-0600 Daily CHN 1422 TWN 50 0500-0600 Daily CHN 1008 TWN 600 1000-1100 Daily CHN 15465 TWN 100 1000-1100 Daily CHN 1422 TWN 50 1200-1300 Daily SeA 11715 TWN 250 1200-1300 Daily CHN 1206 TWN 100 1300-1400 Daily CHN 11625 TWN 100 Hakka 0200-0230Daily CHN 1422 TWN 50 0230-0300daily NwA 15440 WYFR 100 0230-0300daily NEm 860 WYFR N/A 0430-0500daily SeA 15320 TWN 100 0730-0800daily NwA 1210 WYFR N/A 1030-1100daily SeA 15270,11625 TWN 100 1230-1300daily NeA 6105,11915 TWN 100/250 1530-1600daily SeA 11550 TWN 100 Cantonese 0200-0230 daily NwA 15440 WYFR 100 0200-0230 daily NEm 860 WYFR N/A 0400-0430 daily SeA 15320 TWN 100 0700-0730 daily NwA 1210 WYFR N/A 1000-1030 daily SeA 15270,11625 TWN 100 1200-1230 daily CHN 11915,6105 TWN 250/100 1500-1530 daily SeA 11550 TWN 250 English 0100-0200 daily Sas 11875 TWN 250 0200-0300 daily NEm 5950 WYFR 100 0200-0300 daily CNm 9680 WYFR 100 0200-0300 daily NeA 5950 WYFR 100 0230-0300 Daily CHN 1422 TWN 50 0300-0400 daily NwA 5950 WYFR 100 0300-0400 daily SeA 15320 TWN 100 0500-0600 daily NwA 5950 WYFR 100 1100-1200 daily SeA 11715,7445 TWN 250/100 1600-1700 daily CHN,SAs 11550 TWN 100 1600-1700 daily SAs 13840 Issoudun 500 1700-1800 daily CAf 15690 Issoudun 500 1800-1900 daily Weu,ENG 6155 Issoudun 250 [via WORLD OF RADIO 1504] French 1900-1959 daily Eu 6045 Rampisham 250 1900-2000 daily Africa/WAfrica 15690 Issoudun 500 Spanish 0200-0300 daily SAm 7570 WYFR 100 0400-0500 daily CAm 7570 WYFR 100 0600-0700 daily NwA 5950 WYFR 100 2000-2100 daily WEu 3965 Issoudun 250 2300-2400 daily SAm 17725 WYFR 100 0200-0300 daily SAm 9840 Montsinery 500 German 1900-2000 daily Eu 6185 Skelton 250 2100-2200 daily Weu 3965 Issoudun 250 Russian 1100-1200 daily NeA 11985 TWN 100 1400-1500 daily CRu 15225 Issoudun 500 1700-1800 daily Moscow 11705 Issoudun 500 Japanese 0800-0900 daily NeA 11605 TWN 250 1100-1200 daily NeA 9735 TWN 250 1300-1400 daily NeA 9735 TWN 250 Vietnamese 0000-0100 daily SeA 11655 TWN 100 0900-1000 daily SeA 15270 TWN 100 1100-1200 daily TWN 1422 TWN 50 1300-1400 daily CHN,TWN 1206 TWN 100 1400-1500 daily SeA 11550 TWN 250 Thai 1300-1500 daily TWN 1422 TWN 50 1400-1500 daily SeA 11635 TWN 100 1500-1600 daily SeA 1503 TWN 600 2200-2300 daily SeA 1503 TWN 600 2200-2400 daily SeA 7445 TWN 100 2300-2400 daily TWN 1422 TWN 50 2300-2400 daily SeA 7555 TWN 100 Indonesian 0300-0500 daily TWN 1422 TWN 50 1000-1100 daily SeA 11520 TWN 100 1000-1100 daily SeA 11550 TWN 250 1200-1300 daily TWN 1422 TWN 50 1200-1300 daily SeA 11625 TWN 100 1400-1500 daily SeA 11875 TWN 250 Code for Area and Countries Af-Africa CHN-China CAm-Central America Eu-Europe ME-Middle East NAm-North America NEm-North East America RUS-Russia SAm-South America SAs-South Asia SeA-South East Asia TWN-Taiwan RELAYED VIA: WYFR, USA; Skelton, UK; Issoudun, Montsinery, France AM KEBR AM 1210 kHz, Sacramento CA, USA Mandarin: 2000-2300, Cantonese/Hakka: 2300-2400, local time WBGR 860 EST DST Mandarin A 2000-2100, Mandarin B 2100-2200, Cantonese/Hakka 2200-2400 (via Alokesh Gupta. New Delhi, India, dxldyg; not tidied up by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) We already explained in previous seasons that the 860 and 1210 kHz stations have negligible signals at night; therefore they won`t publish what the power is, just not/applicable! At least they finally got the KEBR calls right (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TUNISIA. RTT, 7275, still cutting off amid programming at 0626:20* during YL singer, and continuing on // 7335 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. 4976, R. Uganda, Kampala, 1920-1941, 12 Mar'10, English, talks about social development & women's rôle in society; 54433, somewhat muffled audio, adj. QRM de VoRUS 4975 via TJK (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4976.06, Radio Uganda, Kampala. 0324-0327 March 14, 2010. Clear and fair with highlife. Somewhat low modulation (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Bob Geldof complains about BBC World Service report (update: and calls for BBCWS director et al to be fired). "Bob Geldof and the Band Aid trust are to report the BBC to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom over a World Service report that millions of pounds raised for famine victims in Ethiopia in 1985 were actually spent on weapons. A group of Britain's most respected agencies – including Oxfam, the Red Cross, Unicef, Christian Aid and Save the Children – are joining Band Aid in writing an official complaint to the chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons. They are to complain of the 'false and dangerously misleading impression' created by a report by the BBC World Service's Africa editor, Martin Plaut, which alleged that 95 per cent of the $100m in aid which went to the northern province of Tigray in 1985 had been diverted for military use by the rebel forces which held the area." Paul Vallely, The Independent, 6 March 2010. Update: "The real story of this sorry saga is the intense systemic failure of the World Service, that cherry on the cake of the BBC's reputation. It's a rotten old cherry these days. And I am as bereft as a jilted lover. Of all the taxes I pay, I pay only one gladly – my licence fee. I am Mr World Service. I have done ads promoting the BBC, I have written and spoken in its defence, it is indeed the BBC who started me and others on this African journey; I believe it must, at all costs, be retained very similar to what it is now, albeit cutting away the deadwood and slack. ... Martin Plaut, Andrew Whitehead [editor, news and current affairs] and Peter Horrocks [director of World Service] should be fired. There should be an immediate investigation into what went wrong; steps should be taken to rectify the identified faults; and the World Service must work very, very hard to re-establish its glorious trust and hard-won reputation as the world broadcaster of excellence." Bob Geldof, Comment is Free, The Guardian, 9 March 2010. "A BBC spokesman said the World Service would continue to defend its report. 'This was a well-researched programme and the BBC stands by its journalism,' he said. 'We are happy to repeat that there is no suggestion that any relief agency was complicit in any diversion of funds'. However, a senior BBC source told the Guardian that there was concern about the amount of criticism that 'a relatively obscure documentary [which] didn't even mention Band Aid' had attracted." Sam Jones and James Robinson, The Guardian, 9 March 2010. "The Independent asked for an interview with Mr Whitehead but a BBC spokesman said: 'Sorry, we won't be able to accommodate your request.'" Paul Vallely, The Independent, 10 March 2010. "Plaut is a first-class journalist. He hasn't just come to this. He was actually there on the frontlines in Tigray, with his wife, a nurse, in 1984, as the famine was brewing." Rageh Omaar, Comment is Free, The Guardian, 8 March 2010. Posted: 14 Mar 2010 (for linx see http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=8499 via DXLD) ETHIOPIAN AMBASSADOR SECONDS GELDOF COMPLAINT ABOUT BBC WORLD SERVICE REPORT. "The row between Bob Geldof and the BBC escalated into a diplomatic dispute yesterday as the Ethiopian ambassador called for an apology from the World Service after it reported claims that aid money meant for famine victims had been spent on weapons. Peter Horrocks, director of the World Service, has said he fully supports the report, which featured one former Ethiopian rebel saying 95% of the money that flowed into famine-hit Tigray in 1985 was spent by the TPLF militia on guns. ... Now ambassador Berhanu Kebede has told the Observer that he expects a full apology from the BBC, which has 'destroyed its credibility in Africa'." Tracy McVeigh, The Observer, 14 March 2010. Bob Geldof "has called for everyone involved to be sacked, including the reporters, the producers and the head of the BBC World Service, Peter Horrocks. He probably wants you sacked too, if you heard the report." Ron Liddle, The Sunday Times, 14 March 2010. "The BBC stands by its story. But they can’t both be right." Richard Dowden, Daily Mail, 15 March 2010. Posted: 16 Mar 2010 (see http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=8534 for linx, via DXLD) ** U K [and non]. UK transmitter sites on Google Street Maps Google Street Maps extended its coverage to most of the UK on Friday. I've been spending ages viewing the house I grew up in and the surrounding area which I haven't visited for years :) There's a thread on the Digital Spy radio forum Google Street View Radio Stations and Transmitters Game which has currently got 96 posts, most with more than one site/studio, mostly domestic but here's the post with links to Wooferton, Rampisham and Skelton: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=39015486&postcount=58 Google Street Maps now has nearly national coverage of Spain, France, Italy and the US according to UK newspaper articles (Mike Barraclough, March 16, dxld yg via DXLD) ** U K. South Herts Radio Returns --- Hi, This message is for all broadcast partners of South Herts Radio, Regular listeners and DXers. SHR had to take a break recently but it will return to live streaming on Sundays as follows: Sunday 21st March 0800-2000 UT Sunday 28th March 0900-2100 UT (clock change U.K. summer time) 8 am - 8 pm UK Time. Sunday 11th April 0900-2100 UT / 8am - 8pm UK time. More live stream dates to be confirmed. Our low power FM and MW local services have been off air this past week but will be restored in time for March 19th. 90.9 MHz FM parts of South & East Herts 24 hrs a day 97.9 MHz parts of West Herts 24 hrs a day 102.5 MHz parts of North Herts 24 hrs a day 666 KHz AM to parts of North Herts / 999 AM parts of south Herts 24 hrs a day. New occasional shortwave in U.K. time from Sun 21st March and entire A10 season: 3935 KHz (76 meters) Mon-Fri 1900-2200 / Saturdays 2200-2400 6255 KHz (48 meters) Sundays 0800-1400 5835 KHz (52 meters) Sundays 1400-2000 We continue to support free radio and DX, we pay tribute to the pioneers of offshore radio and we continue to provide local programmes to the south Hertfordshire community of the United Kingdom but all are welcome to listen. Several of our own new shows have now been made and will be added in time for Easter and we will update all our listen on demand and listen again services between now and then. Busy times ahead to bring you more great radio. Please can anyone answer this question - I listen to WRN on Sky channel 0122 and Glenn's world of radio is always as scheduled but they keep moving DXing with Cumbre. Does anyone know what time it airs for the U.K. I read the timetable but when I tuned in last week it was something else. I am hoping WRN start broadcasting on national DAB. 73 (Gary and the team at SHR, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) SHR - International service this Sunday Sunday 21st March 2010 programme schedule.. UT 0800-2000 Live Streaming on the internet http://www.southhertsradio.com/live.html http://209.51.162.171/south_herts_radio 08.00 - 12.00 Vintage SHR - Rebroadcasts from offshore and inland pirate radio plus various documentaries about all forms of radio from yesterday and today. Listen Again (shortwave 6255) 12.00 - 12.30 DX'ing with Cumbre - Marie Lamb brings DX News. Listen Again (shortwave 6255) 12.30 - 13.00 Glenn Hauser's World of Radio - DX radio news for enthusiasts. Listen Again (shortwave 6255) 13.00 - 14.00 The Happy Station Show with Keith Perron. Listen Again (shortwave 6255) 14.00 - 14.15 DX Partyline - DX information with Allen Graham. Listen Again (shortwave 5835) 14.15 - 14.30 Australian DX Report (ADXR) with Bob Padula. Listen Again (shortwave 5835) 14.30 - 15.00 Frequency Cast - UK TV & Tech from Carl & Pete. Listen Again (shortwave 5835) 15.00 - 17.00 The Best Of Gary Drew - Gary's finest moments on various radio stations over the years. Listen Again (shortwave 5835) 17.00 - 17.30 Pirates Week with Ragnar - The U.S. pirate radio scene. Listen Again (shortwave 5835) 17.30 - 20.00 Our Music with Brendan & Tim - Join Brendan Bradley and Timmy Wing for their own selection of music and fun. Listen Again (shortwave 5835) This weekend is 30 years since MV Mi Amigo sank on March 20th 1980 and vintage SHR will play material to reflect this. Local services are now restored in the U.K. all 24 hours a day. FM in selected parts of each area only: 90.9 Potters Bar, East Barnet, Cockfosters, Hadley Wood, Waltham Cross, Hoddesdon, 97.9 Hertford, St Albans, London Colney. 102.5 parts of North Herts, 106.7 parts of South Cambrideshire. VHF 863.5 in parts of South Herts / 864.5 in parts of North Herts. MW 999 in parts of South Herts / 666 in parts of North Herts. Listen again anytime http://www.southhertsradio.com/again.html The SHR live web player streams PCJ radio when our own live stream is off air. SHR - Community radio from South Hertfordshire (Gary Drew, March 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. LUGAR INTRODUCES BILL TO PERMANENTLY AUTHORIZE RADIO FREE ASIA U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar introduced legislation that would promote the free dissemination of information in East Asia through the permanent authorization of Radio Free Asia (S. 3104). Sens. Kaufman (D-DE), Franken (D-MN), and Inouye (D-HI) are original cosponsors of the bill. Congress created Radio Free Asia (RFA) in 1996 to broadcast news into Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, North Korea, Tibet and Vietnam in local languages and dialects. The hope at the time was that the nations served by RFA would loosen their grip on censorship as their economies modernized and living standards improved; however, these reforms never materialized. The human rights non-governmental organization Freedom House, which monitors press freedom throughout the world, has noted that censorship and intimidation of the media have worsened in the areas served by RFA, particularly in the last five years as documented in its annual Freedom of the Press Index. RFA still can only reach most of its audiences through short-wave radio and via the internet using proxy servers. Governments routinely jam AM transmissions and hack into RFA’s websites and servers. RFA has been funded by Congressional appropriations each year since it began broadcasting but it has never been permanently authorized. Rather, its continued existence is dependent on annual legislation extending its life by another fiscal year. “Recent high-profile cyber attacks underscore the reality that certain governments still believe in blocking uncensored news from their citizens,” Sen. Lugar said. “Permanent legal authority for Radio Free Asia would send a strong signal that the U.S. supports freedom of the press across the globe.” (BIG News via Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, March 13, dxldyg via DXLD) "Governments routinely jam AM transmissions and hack into RFA’s websites and servers." Senator Lugar press release, 11 March 2010 (www.kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) "AM" as in amplitude modulation, the mode used on both shortwave and medium wave? Or the common American term for the medium wave band? RFA transmits mostly on shortwave, and it is mostly the shortwave transmissions that are jammed. Long-term authority for RFA would mean long-term division of scarce transmitting, newsgathering, and talent resources between RFA and VOA. And because the two stations often cover the same news, it would also mean long-term duplication of effort in a time when the US government should be finding savings and efficiencies. I am not saying RFA should go away in order to give VOA broadcasters more job security. I am saying that the two stations should merge, combining their strengths in order to compete more effectively in an increasingly competitive Asian media environment. Posted: 13 Mar 2010 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) see also KYRGYZSTAN ** U S A [non]. 7225, strong open carrier March 17 at 1339, but this time no SSB hams riding it. No doubt it`s IBB Tinang, PHILIPPINES, warming up for its takeover of 7235 at 1400 from TINIAN in VOA Korean service, which before then was quite weaker on 7235 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. VOA Creole normally makes DST shifts to one hour earlier despite lack of DST in Haïti, but want to be convenient for Washingtonians. With all the additional transmissions prompted by the quake, how this all shakes out may be more confusing than usual. March 14 at 2210 I found 11905 on the air, but not 13725 or 15390; all three had previously been used for one of the overt hours at 22-23. Those may all have been running now at 21-22, unchecked yet. At 2244, 11905 was still going and 7590 had been added. The latter used to start at 2300 to fill in a gap. At 2302 Lavwadlamerik was to be heard only on 7590 and 5835. At 0018 on 5835, and nothing on 7465 even tho WWCR is on 7490 during that hour now. At 0115 LVA on 5835 and 7465, not 5890 or 7590. Perhaps this will all start to fall into place by Monday or later this week, with no help from the outdated and incomplete VOA A-Z language schedule. VOA Spanish also timeshifts, surely causing nothing but confusion everywhere but Cuba which like a lapdog, keeps its clox in step with the nonsensical USA DST change dates. The evening broadcast is supposedly daily at 00-01 on 5890 and 9885, but both frequencies absent March 15 at 0005 check. Was this already on at 23-24, or taking Sunday night off? After 0100, A Fondo, which is falsely shown as daily on the A-Z schedule, was nowhere to be heard on listed 7340, 9415 or 11625. When it comes back by UT Tuesday, will it have shifted one hour earlier too? [Later:] As expected, Lavwadlamerik has shifted transmissions one UT hour earlier due to DST in USA, not Haïti. March 15 at 1129, 9505 with Yankee Doodle Dandy sign-on, 1130 cut to outro by Roland César, THEN English intro as ``Welcome to the Voice of America, in Creole!``, and on into news by other announcers starting with Ciudad Juárez killings of three American officials. Also on // 6135 via Bonaire, so that`s earlied too. No frequencies announced, and I wonder how many SW listeners in Haiti knew they had to start tuning in an hour earlier. This should have been announced frequently during the previous week. 1639 check, the ex-*1730 broadcast is underway, VG signals on 15390, 17565. The VOA A-Z schedule has been updated, matching our monitoring already, and finally inserting the extra broadcasts which have really existed ever since the earthquake: Creole - NEW! 1130-1230 UTC 6135 9505 [M-F only per lite blue color coding] 1630-1830 UTC 15390 17565 1830-2000 UTC 15390 2000-2200 UTC 11905 13725 2200-2300 UTC 7590 11905 2300-0000 UTC 5835 7590 0000-0100 UTC 5835 7590 0100-0200 UTC 5835 7465 Also had a very strong S9+22 open carrier on 15370, March 15 at 1504 with split-second transmission break, suspected Greenville tuning up for later broadcast on 15390. Not clear why not on 15390 itself as before. VOA Spanish also makes DST timeshifts, despite the fact that only Cuba observes DST matching USA. At 1138 March 15, 9885 good with news about Colombia, presumably the Andean segment, but nothing audible on 13715 or 15590, former frequencies from 1230; entire 15 MHz band was still dead, and on 13 MHz nothing but a weak signal from RFI via TDF GUF on 13640. VOA A-Z schedule has now updated Spanish too: 1130-1200 UTC 9885 13715 [M-F only per lite blue color coding] 1200-1300 UTC 9885 13715 0000-0100 UTC 5890 7340 9885 [Tu-Sa only per lite green color coding] 2300-0000 UTC 5890 9885 The 00-01 hour must be ``A Fondo``, the joint produxion with R. Martí, formerly at 01-02, and only one of its previous frequencies retained, 7340, while the other two are same as previous hour in straight VOA Spanish. I wonder if any or all of the R. Martí frequencies are off now at 00-01 as a result. And it looks like the phaseout of Greenville is underway, broadcasts which used to be on three frequencies reduced to two (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Aquí tenemos la respuesta de uno de los técnicos de Radio Martí en la frecuencia de 15330. CORDIALES SALUDOS / GOOD LUCK / (JUAN FRANCO CRESPO, E-43800 VALLS-TARRAGONA (ESPAÑA-SPAIN-ESPAGNE-SPANIEN), DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: We have occasionally used 15.330 mHz to relay Radio Marti. We used that frequency from Delano, California until that facility was closed and have used it from time to time from Greenville, North Carolina. My records show we have not used 15.330 mHz since the winter of 2008- 2009. Our shortwave frequency schedule is arranged by the International Broadcasting Bureau depending on antenna and transmitter availability plus the best frequencies to reach Cuba at that time of day. We are awaiting our schedule for Spring and Summer of 2010. If you like I can forward you a copy once I receive it. Regards, (Don Mansfield, Chief, Technical Operations, Radio Marti (305)437- 7064, march 11, via Crespo, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also CUBA [non] Juan Franco, This is nonsense. 15330 is in constant use from Greenville during the B-season, every day between 14 and 20 UT, but not in the A-seasons. What exactly had you asked them about 15330? (Glenn Hauser, to JFC, via DXLD) No reply ** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1503 monitoring: WRMI lists a new airing, Thursday 2200, but did not know about it in time to check March 11. May apply only to webcast, not SW, anyway. Confirmed on 9955 at 0130 UT Friday March 12. At 1530 Friday, reception too poor to tell with Taiwan stronger, but no jamming; however, confirmed on webcast at that time. All these one UT hour earlier from next week, and the Tuesday night broadcast is rescheduled a further hour to be at 0030 UT Wednesday, just like Friday. 9955, WRMI, Saturday March 13 at 1441 voice of gh in WORLD OF RADIO 1503 detectable under Cuban pulse jamming, and so weak that 9950 Palau was stronger and hetting. We are still waiting for WRMI`s 317-degree antenna USward to be repaired and back in service at certain hours; meanwhile everything is on the 160-degree toward Caribbean and S America. From March 14, all WRMI program times move one UT hour earlier, so this airing of WOR will be Sat 1330, when jamming could be even worse. Tnx a lot, Arnie! At 1911 UT Sunday March 14, WORLD OF RADIO just barely audible on WRMI 9955, mixed with pulsing from the DentroCuban Jamming Command. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Has been scheduled for some time Saturdays and Sundays at 3 pm ET, now 1900 UT. This also confirms that WRMI is on the air Sunday afternoons, unlike weekdays. The latest WRMI program schedule grid has been posted on the DXLD yahoogroup. 9955, WRMI, Wednesday March 17 at 1530, WORLD OF RADIO 1504 confirmed on its first SW airing this week; no jamming audible, but signal weak, still on the SSE rather than NW antenna. Next airings are Thursday 2100 (not on SW?), UT Friday 0030, and 1430 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. ACB Radio Mainstream, http://www.acbradio.org/ --- Still running last week`s edition 1502 on webcast at 0100 Friday. Notified them immediately, but still 1502 instead of 1503 at next check 1700. WOR appears every two hours UT Fridays, 12 chances to hear it, but apparently not including #1503. Unless next week it be on instead of 1504? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) New 1503 finally aired at 2300 March 12 ** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO, 3185, Coming in here very well tonight. Nice, 73 (Mick Delmage, Alberta, Kenwood R5000, K9AY, 0438 UT March 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I.e. WWRB at 0430 UT Friday, henceforth 0330, so may come up against the sun further north/west at deep summer (gh) Nothing from WWRB heard at 0009 March 14: 3215 and 5050 not on the air. But 5050 was at 0103, as were 3215 and 3185 at 0110, all with separate programming. WWRB has also moved a UT hour earlier: At 0119 March 15, 3145 was already on with Brother Scare, 3185 with other programming, and WWCR on 3215 which WWRB now uses only until 0100, then changing to 3145 which continues to be an unregistered frequency, tho perhaps the FCC knows about it. 5050, very distorted modulation with Bible reading, March 17 at 0615, and splattering down to 5035, less so on the hi side. Completely blox Brasil on 5045. Must be WWRB, the occupant of 5050 earlier, and not the first time it has been heard on later than usual. At 0630 recheck, carrier still on but no modulation or splatter, so Pará was again audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO on WBCQ: new 1503 edition confirmed at 2000 UT Thursday March 11, but on 7415 only. Sometimes 9330-CUSB stays on for part or all of the following semihour. From next week, times will be 1900 Tue, Wed, Thu. Area 51: missing the past few weeks from scheduled 0100 UT Friday time, but was back March 12 altho starting several minutes late, now on webcast only, not 5110. WBCQ normally shifts all its programming one UT hour earlier when DST starts, since it runs on local clock time. This is especially problematical for its lowest frequency, 5110 with Area 51, which now has another hour of daytime absorption to contend with, and growing, as we zip past the equinox in another week. The Sunday transmission had been starting at 2200 UT with Pirates Week, and 2230 International Radio Report, so are these now one hour earlier? Checked the webcast and P.W. had already started at 2100, but 5110 not audible here. Meanwhile, Marion`s Attic has shifted to 2100 UT Sundays on 7415; that was JBA here, but it took another hour before 5110 became JBA at 2218 check with something else. March 14-20 program scheduling for Area 51 is now available at http://www.worldmicroscope.com showing something else replaced I.R.R. at 2130 Sunday, this week only? It still shows WORLD OF RADIO (webcast only) at 8 pm Thursday, i.e. now 0000 UT Friday. Same website/blog also has lots of audio from the SWL Winterfest, including the 6-hour non-broadcast Saturday night March 6. Also: ``This may be the last year the Fest is held at the Best Western Towamencin; the location for next year’s event is undermined at this time.`` How about moving it to the center of the country, so I might appear (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) English at 1700 UT from WBCQ Kennebunk on 15420 kHz, S=8 level, ahead and severe interference to BBCWS news from Meyerton outlet (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 4840, 13/3 0500, WWCR - Nashville EE predica ottimo (il segnale !!!!) (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, shortwave yg via DXLD) 13845, WWCR-2 missing, Saturday March 13 at 1447, tho WWCR-1 was quite audible on 15825. However, this allowed the hash from WEWN 13835 to be clearly detectable around 13844, as well as 13826 close to R. Martí. At 1541 on 15825, Martha Garvin`s Musical Memories was running, as she reminisced about her disabled Uncle Henry who still praised God from the pew. 1530 Sat is one of her intentional times on current schedule. 13845, WWCR-2, altho missing earlier March 13 at 1447, was back on at next check 2327 with DGS, and no problem from WEWN now on 13830. WWCR-3 streaming silently March 13 at 1745 check during WORLD OF RADIO, both on the mp3 and the real. Then at 1749 the real player starting cutting in and out of extremely sped-up audio, as if a tape in fast-forward were sporadically hitting the heads. WWCR-1 streaming did not have this problem. Fortunately, VG broadcast of WORLD OF RADIO on 12160 was unaffected and this week did not go into looping either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also WTWW above From next week on WWCR 3215, WORLD OF RADIO will be at 0630 Sundays, but this week something else was still on at that hour, so presumably WOR went out at 0730 UT March 14, one more time before the clockshift. WWCR-3 already on 5070 instead of 12160, March 14 at 2218 UT. Instead of previous practice, keeping about the same UT frequency schedule before and after DST change date, while programming all moved one UT hour earlier, the new schedule just posted at the last minute for the next two weeks until A-10 begins, shows most of the frequencies are also changing one UT hour earlier than before, e.g. 12160 to 5070 at 2200, and 5070 to 4840 at 0200 instead of 0300. It really does not make propagational sense to go from 12 to 5 MHz an hour *earlier* when the sun is setting *later* and later; that`s one of the `benefits` of our wonderful DST nonsense. This means the DX block now at 0200-0300 UT Sundays, including WORLD OF RADIO at 0230, will remain on 4840 instead of 5070 as we had anticipated; and the Friday 2030 UT airing will remain on 7465 instead of 15825. We can`t complain about that. In CDT and UT, showing nominal powers and azimuths, here`s the full WWCR B09 Schedule March 14, 2010 to March 28, 2010: from http://www.wwcr.com/transmitter-sched.html Transmitter #1 - 100 KW - 46 Degrees 12:00 AM-04:00 AM 0500-0900 3215 04:00 AM-06:00 AM 0900-1100 9985 06:00 AM-03:00 PM 1100-2000 15825 03:00 PM-07:00 PM 2000-0000 7465 07:00 PM-08:00 PM 0000-0100 7490 08:00 PM-12:00 AM 0100-0500 3215 Transmitter #2 - 100 KW - 85 Degrees 12:00 AM-07:00 AM 0500-1200 5935 07:00 AM-07:00 PM 1200-0000 13845 07:00 PM-12:00 AM 0000-0500 5935 Transmitter #3 - 100 KW - 40 Degrees 12:00 AM-06:00 AM 0500-1100 4840 06:00 AM-11:00 AM 1100-1600 7490 11:00 AM-05:00 PM 1600-2200 12160 05:00 PM-09:00 PM 2200-0200 5070 09:00 PM-12:00 AM 0200-0500 4840 Transmitter #4 - 100 KW - 90 Degrees 12:00 AM-06:00 AM 0500-1100 5890 06:00 AM-08:00 PM 1100-0100 9980 08:00 PM-12:00 AM 0100-0500 5890 (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WWCR, Pastor Pete Peters overmodulating and distorting, March 17 at 0618. 5080 WTWW with same problem but not quite as bad, so apparently fed that way via uplink. Stations which plug into such a network without constant human supervision are at mercy of the originator to maintain proper modulation. PPP was promising some major expansion of his egotistic outreach, kept secret until revelation at a Branson gathering of male Aryans in June (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. In a previous report I said that the WTWW transmitter is a Harris 100; George McClintock corrects this March 12: no, it`s a Continental 418, solid state modulated, very reliable. (We had also been discussing the Harris, which he is glad he does not have because of various problems with that model.) Any interruptions in transmission now are because he turns it off to work out some ``tiny bugs`` before programming begins in earnest at the end of March. At 2052 UT March 12, 9480 was just going from open carrier to off. Next check at 2157, it was on with PPP. I was standing by to hear WTWW`s new 5080 ex-5755 from the very first instant. At 2358 March 12, 9480 was in open carrier and shortly off the air. It took a few minutes to come up on 5080 with open carrier, starting at *0003:30. Meanwhile I was listening to the utility on 5078 by tuning to 5080-LSB on the DX-398. It was sending out data pulses 26 times per minute, each consisting of multiple quick tones. After WTWW came on, I could still hear it on the side when tuned to 5080-AM, but stepping up to 5081 with narrow bandwidth got rid of it. Wide bandwidth required stepping up to 5083, getting a bit too far off WTWW itself. Next check of 5080 at 0212 March 13, just as PPP was mentioning the new frequency and asking for reports on it, along with the other two frequencies he was on, 5070 and 5890. 5070?? Yes, I was not aware that besides 24h on WWCR-4 5890/9980 he is also scheduled for one hour live UT Tue-Sat 02-03 on WWCR-3 5070 [from next week, 01-02]. Hmm, how convenient having him on two frequencies only 10 kHz apart for comparison. Strength seemed about the same here, maybe WTWW a little stronger. On 9480 at 1402, double audio on the PPP feed, one of them giving outdated WTWW frequency info including ex-9475 and ex-5755! 307-AC phone number and e-mail for reception reports. At 1405 only one audio, but modulation problems, same as via WWCR 9980, ergo Scriptures for America fault (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Listening to new 5080 WTWW tonight off and on from 0000 to 0400 UT. Good signal, but a lot of teletype interference. It distorts the audio where I'm at in Sumner, Iowa (Thomas Nyberg, UT March 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) WTWW 5080 also audible at fair strength in the NW of England around 0730 UTC with no interference or nearby UTE's audible here. This one was not quite as strong as WWCR on 4840. 73 (Noel R. Green, ibid.) ** U S A. Checking whether WTWW would broadcast a second night on new 5080, despite ute QRM from and to 5078: March 14 at 0009 still not on the air, and not on 9480 or 5755 either. OK on the FRG-7 but I noticed on the YB-400 which is subject to 910 kHz = 2 x IF images, 5080 had a weak `signal` in Spanish, from CRI via Cuba on 5990. Tho it`s not really there, stations should anyway avoid being 900 or 910 kHz below strong signals on many similar receivers. I was monitoring other bands during most of the hour, but next check at 0103, 5080 was on with PPP singing, which overcame the 5078 QRM but when he started talking it resumed audibility. WTWW check March 14-UT 15: tune-in 9480 at 0001 and still on with country gospel music, shortly off at 0002*. This time the QSY to 5080 was quick; in fact they got there before I did tho I had waited a few sex before punching in 5080 on the DX-398 keypad. Same music continued in progress, presumably from the PPP feed. I thought they might have shifted the changeover time with DST. See also UNIDENTIFIED 9480 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNID, 5080 (tentative: WTWW, Lebanon in Tennessee, USA), 1008-1015, March 14, English, Religious talk by male (in English), 24422, Strong QSB (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, 5080 kHz are WTWW. "The Scriptures for America Worldwide" program until 1058 UT. ID as "Ladies and gentleman, WTWW will cease broadcasting on this frequency....." at 1059 by male. Fair to Good condx in Japan (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, ibid.) WTWW 5080, 1145+, 3/14/10, in English. PPP with his usual rant. ID and sign off 1159 (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, ibid.) But S. Hasegawa reported they were closing 5080 an hour earlier; which is correct? (Glenn, ibid.) I can't speak to what happened earlier, since I didn't get to the radio until 1130 this morning (6:30 AM new Central Daylight Time local.) When I got to the top of 60 meters, WTWW was blowing in on 5080. I hadn't seen the information saying they were going to be there, so I looked it up. (It didn't seem like WWCR would have returned there, so WTWW seemed likely.) I tuned away until 1155 or so (since I can't stand to listen to Pete Peters for that long) then re tuned for the sign off just before 1200 (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, ibid.) As for WTWW on 5080, the service continued after 1100 UT on Mar. 14, s/off was 1200 as Mark Taylor reported it (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, ibid.) WTWW is still running 5080 until 12 UT, noted March 15 at 1137 with PPP versus the ute beeps on 5078 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WTWW, 5080 at 0050+ 17 March with PPP, ID at TOH. Excellent reception but wonder why we need another station with him on it. 73/ (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The question is not what WE need, but what WTWW needs --- and what PPP needs; he may still be deciding which one to keep (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. WINB, 9265, still Brother Scare until 1500, but Friday March 12 at 1522 also still running child-sex-criminal evangelist ``Tony Alamo``, convicted and sentenced to 175 years. What a lucky prisoner he is, still able to minister unto the world. At the moment, he and Michelle were doing a mailbag, from some other Arkansawyer. Bonus: harmonic on 18530 audible at 1525, carrier more unstable than 9265, as to be expected, warbling with BFO on. WINB, 13570, with disgraced child-marrying evangelist `Tony Alamo`, March 12 at 2048, and quite distorted modulation as is only apropos. 9265, WINB without Brother Scare, March 17 at 1321 but fill music not // 9385 WWRB; and then a weight-loss commercial, more music. 1330 Overcomer Ministry theme music and now // 9385 but some 2.5 sex ahead of it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 13570, WINB Red Lion, funky bohemian like signal, like "rasp ssb mode" sound at 1710 UT, English sermon, S=6-7 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WJHR - received a "non QSL" letter from G.S. Mock stating: "Thank you for listening to WJHR Radio International. WJHR is dedicated to providing the very best in christian radio broadcasting. As of yet we are still in the testing phase of our broadcasting. We just installed a log periodic antenna and you should hear us even better than before. P.S. When you heard us we were running 100 watts to an 11 element HY-Gain log periodic at 100 feet." Date heard: 25 February 2010 from 1637 to 1700 UTC on 15550 USB mode. 73's, (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, March 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WJHR HAS BEEN BROADCASTING ILLEGALLY Glenn, In DXLD and elsewhere, WJHR Milton FL has been reported with what would appear to be programming. FCC rule 73.712(a) limits an international broadcast station conducting equipment tests to voice ID and tones only. http://www.hallikainen.com/FccRules/2010/73/712/ I inquired to the FCC about the status of this station. The Commission responded that this station has a construction permit and has not filed an application for license. The station can only do equipment tests, not actual programming, until a license application is filed and program test authority (PTA) is granted. PTA and licensed operation must be at 50 KW PEP (Benn Kobb, March 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ! That might explain why it has not been heard or reported lately. It had been most active in Feb during the local afternoons, but I have not heard it at all in March on 15550-USB. And it was obviously nowhere near 50 kW. Note to mention this on WOR 1505, as too late to include in 1504 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WTJC, 9370, March 15 at 0012 in lofi Arabic talk, 0013 hymn in a minor key, 0015 more sermon. Had not tried to measure it lately, but now it`s only slightly low, not more than 40 Hz or so. On Feb 26 I had put it at 9369.8, and Brian Alexander found it drifting as low at 9369.76. They`ve picked just the right time to broadcast in Arabic, when most speakers are sound asleep (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WTJC, 9369.95 at 0044 17 March with First Noel. I guess they don't play Irish drinking tunes. Moderate. 73/ (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) WTJC, 9370, stronger than usual in the nightmiddle, March 17 at 0604 and accompanied by dirty spurs matching 9370 modulation peaks, each spreading from 9340 and 9400 but worse on the lower side. They may be there all the time but audiblized only when the fundamental inbooms (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 17540, March 14 at 1443, YL sermon on KJ vs other versions, long pauses in `live` service recorded ``tonight``, 1445 referring to Ephesians VI: 12. VG, at least as strong as WYFR 17760. Nothing ordinarily heard on 17540 during morningly bandscans, but this is registered daily at 14- 15 only, from WHRI to NAf/ME, i.e. Tunisia to Oman. Must be in use only on Sundays, or just started (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) For the first time in past two years I heard reliable signals from US stations in 13 mb again. 21640 WHRI noted on S=4 level at 1635 UT March 14th. YFR from Okeechobee Florida in Russian noted with S=7 level on 21745 kHz at 1640 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1280, KSOK Arkansas City, Kansas [the town rhymes with the state], a semi-local, missing March 13 at 1945 UT. I believe this also happened a few weeks ago inexplicably. By the time I was in the car, at 2200, hoping to inpull something else, it was back on as if nothing had happened, lengthy self-congratulatory ID, including ``The absolute best in classic country, in south-central Kansas, and north-central Oklahoma``, KSOK, Ark City. It`s a daytimer and I still haven`t got around to hooking up my AM stereo tuner to see if it retains C-Quam (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. This item via the IRCA, listen out for an FM announcement on 820 WBAP. Oldies radio station KPMZ/96.7 FM "Platinum 96.7" is now a lost classic itself. On Monday morning, 96.7 will begin simulcasting news-talk station WBAP/820 AM, which like KPMZ is owned by Citadel Broadcasting. Friday's flip was one of the more offbeat Dallas-Fort Worth format changes in recent memory. Around 9 a.m. Friday, the station went without DJs, and shortly before noon, it played its last song, Steam's Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye. Then it went goodbye, with a moment of dead air followed by an hour of country as "The Texas Twister," which was the format that preceded Platinum. The oldies station began airing in late June 2008. At 1 p.m., the station became "Reagan Radio," airing speeches by President Ronald Reagan. Tyler Cox, WBAP's operation manager, said that "Reagan Radio" will continue through the weekend and that the WBAP simulcast will begin Monday morning. "As you look at where the bulk of where radio listening takes place in this market and every other market, it's on the FM dial," Cox said. "We've certainly done exceptionally well [on AM], but when you look at situations in other markets where AM stations have added FM simulcast partners, it's just greatly increased the reach and audience size of the radio station." Cox added that even though WBAP has the nation's most powerful AM signal, some listeners, especially younger ones, will listen only to FM. "The average 30-year-old, many of them don't know what the AM button on the car radio stands for. Never have sampled it, and never will." (Barry :-) Davies, UK, March 14, MWC via DXLD) ** U S A. What amazes me about WBOB's application for 50 kw is that they did not consider at all WISW (5 kw/2.5 kw) on 1320 in Columbia, South Carolina. Here is a link to the FCC site. When you pull it up, scroll down to Page 9 and look at the map of stations considered. I sure don't see WISW in Columbia which is not that far from Jacksonville. I just can't figure out that one.* (Robert Smoak, ABDX via DXLD) Here's how that works: The current FCC rules for daytime AM allocations are based entirely on signal-strength contour overlaps. For a co-channel station, your 0.025 mV/m contour can't enter into the 0.5 mV/m contour of the other station, and vice versa. (0.5 mV/m is about as weak as we DXers would consider "armchair" copy, 0.025 mV/m is almost unreceivable.) Thanks to the miserably bad ground conductivity of the inland southeast, WISW's 0.5 mV/m doesn't come anywhere near WBOB's 0.025 mV/m. WBOB's 0.025 doesn't even get to Albany or Macon going inland, though coastal conductivity pushes it north to the Outer Banks. WISW's 0.5 is the purple line on the radio-locator map: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WISW&service=AM&status=L&hours=D It doesn't make it out of South Carolina at all, and doesn't even make it up the road to Powell in Newberry. Did I mention that the ground conductivity is really, REALLY bad there? Note that 1320 in Birmingham, which is even closer than Columbia, also doesn't enter into WBOB's calculations. duTreil, Lundin and Rackley, the consulting engineers who did the WBOB application, are among the very, very best in the business. If they don't know what they're doing, nobody does. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) ** U S A. Disclaimer: No portion of this may be referenced or reproduced by the National Radio Club and editors without expressed, written permission (which will be automatically denied). 1690, FLORIDA (MIS), WQKP882 & WQKP883, Pinellas County Highway Advisory Radio (Largo and Clearwater). 2155+ March 14, 2010. New calls, new loop, and confirmation only two transmitters are active! Tune-in to horribly overmodulated audio, with looping: [synthetic male] "From the Pinellas County Traffic Control Center, you are listening to WQKP882 and WQKP883, operating on 16-90 A-M. [synthetic female] "Thank you for listening to Pinellas County Traffic [unknown word(s)] Highway Advisory Radio Station, broadcasting on 16- 90 A-M. Should there be a traffic event [unknown words] within Pinellas County, this station will broadcast important travel information pertaining to that event. Thank you for listening." Also, the Largo (Ulmerton Road) transmitter is now on-frequency, whichever call sign is Largo. The third transmitter, at the St. Petersburg fire station at 3101 5th Ave., is inactive per my check a few months ago, though the stick remains on a telephone pole in an open lot next to the facilities. So, no more NOAA Weather Radio audio relay, which was at least something marginally useful (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1710 kHz Pirate, Vancouver, WA --- Yesterday while driving the Ford Escape around Vancouver, WA I noticed a distorted signal on 1710 kHz. Weak signal and seemed to be playing ethnic music. Location was on Mill Plain and 164th street. Was I drove West the signal vanished. Time was 1:45 PM PST [2145 UT]. Today I'm getting very weak audio at times on 1710 kHz. Seems to be same type of music as yesterday. I posted the reception on Portland PDX forum. A fellow in Hillsboro, OR detected a faint carrier on his icon with the bfo on. I'll be at Costco this afternoon which about 5 miles Northwest of yesterdays location. If I can hear the station I will try and track it down (Dennis Vroom, Salmon Creek, WA, 26 Feb, IRCA mailing list via DXLD) Good tracking, Dennis. What with the dishes, it is not impossible that it is relaying the same program as the one we tracked down to the southern fringes of Everett. I'm waiting for one to show up in Federal Way; every time I go to Costco or Winco I invariably hear Russian being spoken (Pete Taylor, Tacoma, WA 12225w 4719n, ibid.) Hi Dennis, Great detective work! The Russian communities in western Washington seem fairly well connected, so maybe the Vancouver 1710 kHz Russians got the pirate idea from the Puget Sound community? I wonder if the programming is the same, or similar. 73, (Gary (in Puyallup, WA) DeBock, ibid.) Hamilton claims that their RangeMaster gets out well with the proper antenna and person installing the equipment. Link below. http://www.am1000rangemaster.com/ (Dennis Vroom, Salmon Creek, WA, ibid.) 'Heck of a website rangemaster has!!! There is a list of links to stations that operate with their equipment. I clicked on the link for KFHX 1620 in Fountain Hills AZ and was listening to a great rock and roll show a little while ago. FUN STUFF!! (Mike Sanburn, ibid.) My wife and I found the area that the Pirate station on 1710 kHz is broadcasting from. The broadcasts are in Russian, with classical and opera being played. The station has a nice signal for 3/4 of a mile, then the signal starts to fade. On the way back home we were able to hear the weak fading signal 4 1/2 miles West of the location. The area in Eastern Vancouver, WA is in a very expensive neighborhood with some areas being gated. Using the volume control on the Escape radio we kept lowering the level and soon were able to get within probably 1/8 mile of the transmitter. No antennas were seen, only a few satellite dishes. Many huge pine trees in the area. It reminded me of when some of us at the IRCA Flagstaff convention tracked down the station with the long wire antenna. We used the volume control as a sort of RF control. For instance, the volume was lowered and the closer we got to the transmitter site, the louder the audio got. The volume control was set to six and the signal vanished within 1/8 of a mile from the transmitter area. Much like the Seattle area Russian station heard this past summer, but not as strong in the signal department (Dennis Vroom, Salmon Creek, WA, 26 Feb, IRCA mailing list via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) The Russian speaking station on 1710 kHz in the Vancouver, WA area is still on the air. Driving in the Delta Park area of Portland, OR near Portland Meadows race track the signal was weak and improved was we drove (East) towards Portland PDX airport. Over the 205 bridge and headed back to Vancouver, the signal improved. Woman speaking in Russian and about 2 miles pass the 205 bridge and the signal vanished. Signal seems to be better in the South, Southwest direction (Dennis Vroom, Salmon Creek, WA, March 6, Ford Escape, IRCA mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. 16914 CW, KSM (ship to shore) 1915, March 13, Morse code bulletin containing various nautical news stories including one about a rogue wave that hit a cruise ship off the coast of France killing a couple people and injuring 20 others. Strong s9+ signal. Also heard on 12993 with slightly weaker signal. They were not running traffic, just the automated bulletin today (David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) KSM is shore to ship, somewhere in California, has nothing to do with a certain terrorist, or with WSM (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. 650.08, WSM Nashville TN; C&W music, "WSM" anns W/Fpks 0421 30/1 Rha (Ronald Hagensen, Ottersberg, Germany. AOR7030+, 22m at 315 , 28m at 290 , 325m at 345 & 115m at 065 , coupled with the Mizuho AT-2000, March MW News via DXLD) I thought that WSM was one station which for sure was very accurate on frequency, but 80 Hz off? Looking at the rest of the logs, most of which do not go into decimals, I see he has a few other North Americans slightly off, none so seriously as WWKB 100 Hz low, ``1519.90, WWKB Buffalo NY; CNN News & weather F 0610 16/2 Rha`` Axually worse than that for WWKB with his other log: ``1518.90, WWKB Buffalo NY; "The Joey Reynolds Show", toth ID "this is WWKB" with CNN Radio news; drifting below the normal frequency of 1520 kHz! F/G 0700 21/1 Rha`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I would be at least 95% sure WWKB is NOT 1.1 kHz off frequency. Was tuning around this evening on my way home from a dinner date, spent some time at the top of the band definitely including 1520. There was no sign of a het. Not really in a good position to check WSM right now -- still a chance of lightning overnight, not going to hook the antennas to the ham rig. I do rather doubt WSM would be 80Hz off. [Later:] Just checked and: - No sign of a het on 1520. I'm quite confident WWKB is not off frequency. - WSM zero-beats on 650. They're spot-on as well. -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, 0403 UT March 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Doug, Note the dates on these logs in Jan and Feb. I am sure someone else would have reported if they were still, again, or habitually off. I was wondering if WSM could possibly have been that far off, however briefly. And if his reporting WWKB even further off might detract from his credibility (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** U S A. IBOC on the retreat? Noticed WBBM IBOC off this evening, leaving WABC in the loud and clear on 770. Hopefully, this is a permanent thing. (Curtis Sadowski, Paxton IL, Feb 24, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) As long as WBBM is owned by CBS, and as long as the current top engineering management at CBS remains in place, no AM IBOC outage there (or at any other CBS AM that's running IBOC) will be permanent. The same is probably true of Crawford stations; it is emphatically not the case any longer at most of the other groups, especially Citadel. s (Scott Fybush, Rochester NY, WORLD OF RADIO 1504, ibid.) Glad to hear WTIC's IBOC is off; it won't last, alas, since CBS policy is still to repair AM IBOC when it breaks. IBOC was off here in Rochester at WHAM 1180 and WHTK 1280 for a while, but it's back on now. It's my understanding that Clear Channel, which owns both stations, is now leaving it to regional engineers' discretion as to whether to keep AM IBOC operating. s (Scott Fybush, NY, March 15, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) Nearly every night, I have a dream where all AM IBOC HD Radio exciters have been turned off, all NRSC filters have been removed and all compressors have been scaled back. It's a beautiful dream. Without fail, I wake up with a start and hear Steve LeVeille on WBZ getting clobbered by KDKA's HD Radio jamming. Heartbreaking! Some dreams do come true, don't they? (Karl Zuk N2KZ, ibid.) The beast will die. The marketplace has cut off its head, and it now wanders around awaiting the inevitable slow death spiral (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ), ibid.) ** U S A. W60AI NYC Analog off air --- W60AI, one of the last analog TVs in the NYC area, has left the air as of March 1, 2010. It was carrying Home Shopping Network. W60AI was originally a translator for pay TV Wometco Home Theater with transmitter located on the World Trade Center before its demise. Recently, it was broadcasting from atop a tall business building in midtown Manhattan. I have not seen any indication of its replacement LP DTV on RF channel 41 yet. WMBQ-CA on Channel 46 now is the last surviving analog TV from NYC with the religious Cornerstone Network. This station has poor technical standards with quite random sync, color lock problems and other oddities. When they do not have a program to run, they go to a live camera shot with NOAA Weather audio. The format should be called 'just barely TV.' For the record (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, 2 March, WTFDA via DXLD) 87.75 Why don't we try to make a listing of all the stations currently on 87.75. We have WNYS in NYC and a pirate in Boston. There's one in Los Angeles and there has to be more. I think the station in SoCal could make it to New England via 2Es and that NYC could make it to the west coast the same way. What other stations are we missing on 87.75? -- (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT USA, March 13, WTFDA via DXLD) This sounds like a job for Doug Smith! It shouldn't be hard to figure out what analog LPTVs still operate on channel 6. Off the top of my head, there's also WDCN in the DC area, one in Miami, one in Dallas, WLFM in Chicago (smooth jazz), and WGCE Greece NY near me here in Rochester (Deutsche Welle TV)...plus the various Canadian and Mexican full-powers still in analog on 6 for now. Listing the pirates might be more of a challenge... :) (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) There are still literally *hundreds* of analog -LP and -CA stations on channel 6. Those which I believe are behaving like radio stations: AK Anchorage KNIK-LP 920 watts Pacifica AZ Phoenix K25DM 950 watts "Retro Jams" (or is this a TV channel?) CA Indio K06MB 3,000 watts (rumor) CA Los Angeles KSFV-CA 499 watts Almavision, religious (Almavision TV or Almavision radio?) HI Hanamaulu KESU-LP 3,000 watts "Coast FM": soft adcon/Hawaiian IL Chicago WLFM-LP 3,000 watts smooth jazz LA Lafayette KXKW-CA 3,000 watts classic country // 105.3 NY New York WNYZ-LP 3,000 watts (what *are* they doing these days?) [see below] TX Lubbock KFMP-LP 3,000 watts modern rock I'm certain there are more. What's WDCN in D.C. up to? Listed powers are visual, but due to loopholes in the rules I believe it's legal to operate the aural transmitter at the same power as the visual, for a -LP station. I was actually listening to an analog TV-6 signal on the truck radio this morning. Almost certain it was WRTN-LP Alexandria, Tenn -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) Retro Jams was a TV service at one time, if it isn't still. It was owned by Equity Broadcasting (Trip Ericson, http://www.rabbitears.info ibid.) Before I left California last summer, KSFV-CA's slogan was "Guadalupe Radio", with Mexican religious programming. They definitely branded themselves as an FM station - a lot of people had "87.7 Guadalupe Radio" bumper stickers (Bryce Foster - KG6VSW, Murfreesboro, TN (EM65) http://www.kg6vsw.com ibid.) I DXed that one by sporadic E (gh, OK) WNYZ-LP NY: Leased-time Korean radio during the day, "Indie Darkroom" indie rock at night, last I heard s (Scott Fybush, ibid.] When I heard them this week Indie Darkroom was on at 10 in the morning so the schedule may have changed again (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, ibid.) I haven't heard one word of Korean on 87.75 so far. Maybe the Koreans are on WNYZs HD-2. Maybe the F2 skip just isn't there. (Sorry - LOL) The 'Indie Darkroom' seems to be somehow connected to the same person or people who had 'The Jared Witham Show' looping on other similar NYC LPTVs before the analog shut-off era - in early 2009. I think this 'Franken FM' is without any real identity. As an observer, I can only comment: 'What's the point?' but I bet somewhere, somehow, somebody thinks they are making money (or possibly will someday) on this kooky arrangement (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, FN31eh, ibid.) ** U S A. On the March 12 program, Bill Moyers mentioned that his Journal on PBS was coming to an end as of April 30. In case we missed it, he originally announced this last November 30: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/bill-moyers-to-leave-weekly-television/?src=twt&twt=mediadecodernyt And read the comments (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. MULTI-TASKING TV REPORTERS DON'T BRING NEWS Friday, March 12, 2010 [letter to the editor] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/11/AR2010031104421.html Howard Kurtz illustrated the vapidity of television news reporting in his March 8 Style column, "In lean times, multi-tasking TV reporters aren't just in front of the camera." Scott Broom and WUSA-TV add nothing to the story of the U.S. Postal Service's revenue woes by spending the day getting "local reaction." Yes, some people remember when stamps were cheaper, and other people don't use the mail as much because of electronic communications. But none of this is news. Almost anyone who's been awake during the past decade knows this already. Gathering the real news about the Postal Service would require going to meetings and talking to the postal workers union and members of Congress. But this "one-man band" is instead fixing his hacked Facebook page. Journalism? I think not. Mike Cooper, Stone Mountain, Ga. (via Mike Cooper himself, dXLD) ** U S A. WABC's Ron Lundy has died: http://www.musicradio77.com is reporting the death today of Ron Lundy, fondly-remembered DJ there from 1965 to 1982. RIP (Steve Francis, Alcoa, Tennessee, March 15, IRCA via DXLD) A FINAL FAREWELL TO RADIO'S 'SWINGIN' NIGHTWALKER' AND WCBS-FM'S RON LUNDY --- BY David Hinckley DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Wednesday, March 17th 2010, 4:00 AM WCBS-FM's Ron Lundy passed away on Monday. Ron Lundy was never one of the flashy boys of radio. But it's no accident he was an anchor on two of the most successful radio stations of the last 50 years. Lundy died Monday of a heart attack, several weeks after suffering heart failure and a series of strokes. He was 75 and had been retired at his home in Bruce, Miss., since he left WCBS-FM in September 1997. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/03/17/2010-03-17_lundy_long_run_built_on_fun.html#ixzz0iSU5bM3v (via Ron Trotto, IL, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Good Website for XE Station DX'ers If you are chasing XE radio stations, I think this website will be of interest to you ... http://www.davidgleason.com/hispanicformats.htm Although it's primarily designed with Spanish language stations in US radio markets in mind, I think it gives DX'ers a good taste of what XE music sounds like so that we'll be able to identify the "selecciones musicales" we hear (ranchera, banda, nortena, cumbio, tropical, balada, etc.). I'm hoping it will help us with identifying stations and their formats. 73 and Good DX'ing, (Stephen H. Ponder, N5WBI, Houston TX, March 15, ABDX via DXLD) ** VANUATU. R. Vanuatu on 5054.97 kHz broadcasts non-stop music with after a end of program at 1216 UT on Mar. 13 again. The condition is good. I can't receive it on 3945 kHz at 1500 (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, Japan, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) How long was the music still broadcast on 5054.97, 1500? (gh, DXLD) [and non]. Yesterday, 13 March, I observed on 5054.96 Vanuatu BTC. Very weak signal, but just a peak (if I can say it) at 1850-1915 with music, talks, news, music again. Later very good signals from Australia on 4835, 4910 and 5025. Nothing around 5020. RX: Perseus, ANT: Welbrook LFL 1010; QTH: Bocca di Magra (La Spezia, Italia) Ciao My SW blog: http://radiodxsw.blogspot.com/ (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. 15120, R. Nacional de Venezuela via Cuba, 1955- 1956*, March 15. Happened to just catch them with sign-off announcement in Spanish and brief IS; good signal (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Normally on 15290 during this hour for years, and it was again March 16 at 1925 check, so apparently 15120 was a mistake (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. DIEXISMO & COMUNICACION --- Una nueva historia en D&C e Historias de Radio. Esta semana dedicada a recordar el origen y desarrollo de la emisora Ondas Porteñas de Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, que acaba de cumplir 60 años al servicio de la comunidad. No dejen de escuchar los históricos audios proporcionados por José Elías Díaz Gómez que complementan el relato: http://www.dxradiomonitor.freehosting.net http://www.historiasderadio.podomatic.com (Daniel Camporini, Villate 4534, B1605EKV Munro [Argentina], Tel.: 1561573411 March 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6297, R. Nacional de la RASD, March 13 at 0715 with some really nice traditional music; 0720 YL DJ in Arabic dialect, good reception. 6297.1, March 14 at 2221, some very enthusiastic talk, and somewhat staider announcement at 2241, R. Nacional de la RASD. Missed hearing anything definitely in Spanish as supposedly happens at 23-24; next check at 0003 March 15, open carrier still on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ALGERIA: 6297.18, Radio Sahuari Nacional [sic] (presumed); 2142-2203+, 14-Mar; Arabic news & commentary throughout; only heard one mention of Sahuari during news. SIO=3+33- with splash from uncopyable Egypt (presumed) on 6290 & ute pulses (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [and non]. 6050, het still audible at 1328 March 17. On the lo side it`s surely Sarawak, and 6050.0 assumed to be HCJB, which is certainly the case an hour earlier, but by now could it be Tibet instead, per Aoki the only other station scheduled? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, One small point: the station on 6049.6v at 1328 would be RTM with their relay of Asyik FM (at 1400 changes to the R. Suara Islam program via RTM), but it is not via Sarawak. Believe it is via Kajang, located about 13 miles from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. At my location the 6050.0 station/het is always Tibet for that time period. Most days the het is not too bad for the stronger RTM signal (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tnx for the reminder. Another annoying error in Aoki, which shows RTM Sarawak, Sibu (only) on 6050 (gh, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 9300-USB, Spanish 2-way, March 13 at 1405 spirited conversation, still going at 1436 check. 9300-SSB, Spanish 2-way (or more like multi-way), March 14 at 0047; one of them with engine noise. As in previous report, I had heard same at 1405, 1436 March 13, so this frequency may be a reliable one. I wish some native speakers would monitor these contacts for any clues as to their provenance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Shortly after WTWW [see USA] left 9480 at 0002 March 15, for 5080, I checked 9480 again at 0006 and there was an open carrier, still at 0011. Strong, but not as big as WTWW had been. Presumably VOA GB tuning up for its next broadcast on that frequency which would not be until 0530-0630 M-F in French to Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 9800, March 16 at 1335, something with hum of same pitch as AIR on 9690, so much of it that could not discern the language under. I thought sure it must be another AIR transmission from same site, Bengaluru, but none such listed, in HFCC or Aoki, just VOR in Russian, 500 kW, 150 degrees from Irkutsk. Instead it must be a common transmitter problem; I am not adept at estimating such pitches, but may be 100 Hz = 2 x mains frequency 50 Hz, as others have reported, equivalent to 120 Hz hum from 60 Hz areas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 11845, March 16 at 0117, low-pitched buzz here somewhat like a junior Saudi Buzz. Only thing listed is a CRI 500 kW transmitter at Xi`an; out of order? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. But probably RHC with R Nac de Venezuela program on 17750 kHz at 16-17 UT, poor S=6 level (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) March 14 was one Sunday I did not check at all for Aló, Presidente via CUBA, having been a no-show for many weeks (gh, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ JUST UPDATED: DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html WORLD OF RADIO SCHEDULE: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html MONITORING REMINDERS CALENDAR: http://www.worldofradio.com/calendar.html (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) WORLD OF HOROLOGY +++++++++++++++++ DAYLIGHT SAVINGS [sic] TIME Daylight time is the actual "standard" now, being in effect for nearly eight months a year. Nothing standard about Standard Time any longer. Why don't the politicians just go ahead and put EST on Atlantic Time, CST on Eastern, MST on Central and PST on Mountain, LEAVE THEM THERE and forget about "Daylight Saving Time"? We're two-thirds of the way there already, and it would end the twice-yearly clock changing (Steve Francis, Alcoa, Tennessee, March 13, IRCA via DXLD) Why not just make the work day (for those lucky enough to still have jobs) from 8 am to 4 pm????? (Mike Sanburn, ibid.) I find it amusing that the people who think about the value of DST are the same ones who put themselves right into the middle of the rat race doing that 8-5 thing. They sacrifice all of their free time (the one thing that CANNOT be replaced) by 0800 traffic, 1200 lunch traffic and 1700 traffic. Where I used to live, I could never find work because interviewers looked at my 60-mile oneway drive to work and thought how long it would take. By staggering work schedules out 60-90 minutes later, I could cover that 60 miles in the same time it took them to drive 8 miles. Stagger lunch by the same amount and I could actually have time to leisurely eat my lunch. Stagger the go-home time and I had my choice to where to eat and where to shop. Of course I didn't feel the slightest need to sit in front of a TV every night and become a vidiot like most do. Along with the time savings, I could get 30 mpg with the car when it would only get 20 in bumper-to-bumper. That saved me 2 gallons a day there too (Mike (still cynical) Hawkins, ibid.) see also PAKISTAN MUSEA +++++ POP SCIENCE ARCHIVES The people at Popular Science have placed their entire archives online: http://www.popsci.com/announcements/article/2010-03/new-browse-137-years-popsci-archive-free The older issues have a lot of radio and television related articles, including ones on the technical aspects of DX'ing (Curtis Sadowski, IL, March 8, WTFDA via DXLD) ANALOG TVDX PHOTOS FROM CALIFORNIA http://www.auroralchorus.com/tvdx.htm (via Mike Bugaj, WTFDA via DXLD) RADIO-ARCHIVES - NEW WEBSITE Hello, here ist my new website: http://home.arcor.de/radio-archiv This radio archives contains recordings of shortwave and mediumwave radio stations. The oldest recordings were made in the year 1969 when I started my DX-activities. Essentially I received the stations at home in Germany. Some of the transatlantic mediumwave stations I heard on DX-camps in Denmark by using more appropriate antenna technology. Unfortunately many of the recorded radio stations have stopped broadcasting on shortwave and cannot be heard any more. On that reason this web page can be regarded as a historical document, too. Happy listening to the audio files! (Michael Schnitzer, Germany, March 13, HCDX via DXLD) MEDIA NETWORK VINTAGE VAULT Looking through the Media Network Weblog, I noted that a "vintage vault" of old MN shows from its 1981-2000 run on Radio Netherlands is now available for download at this URL: http://jonathanmarks.libsyn.com Among the topics covered are cold war broadcasting, Central American clandestines, and the Falkland Islands. Another oppurtunity to hear the best of what was a great "must-listen" on Thursday evenings many years ago (Joe Hanlon, NJ, March 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DX-PEDITIONS ++++++++++++ LAPLAND DXPEDITION REPORT ON DXING.INFO In case you haven't already noticed, there's a new Lapland DXpedition report on DXing.info at http://www.dxing.info/dxpeditions/lem291rep.dx The 291st DXpedition to Lemmenjoki did not yield coveted Aussies or Kiwis, but AM conditions to North America and the Far East were pretty good most of the time. Also a bunch of interesting stations from Mexico and the rest of Latin America were heard. And as you can see in the photos, Lapland is very beautiful this time of the year. 73 (Mika Makelainen, March 13, DX LITENING DIGEST) MIDDLE EASTERN LISTENING Recently, my wife and I visited our daughter in Qatar. Most of the time was taken up with family visiting and exploration of part of the world that was quite unlike home. Part of the exploration, however, was performed by an RF Space SDR-14 receiver driven by a Wellbrook ALA100 single turn loop antenna. Quite a number of 190 kHz wide files were recorded for a couple of minutes around the hour and half hour, not so much for DXing, as to get a flavor of the local band in Doha, Qatar and in Dubai, UAE. With luck, they might provide some background for identifying DX that might be heard outside the Middle East (we may have to wait for the next solar minimum here in western North America though). The files can be found at http://www.4shared.com/dir/33283068/89d677f/sharing.html They are identified in the filename by "Doha" or "Dubai" depending on the listening location. After the location is the center frequency of the file, followed by time and date of recording. I haven't had too much time to go through these yet, though ID's on stations from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Iran and Tajikistan (VoA-972, but that's supposed to be the transmitter site) have been noted without much effort. If you don't own an RF Space receiver, you can download the Spectravue software to play the files from: http://www.moetronix.com/svdownload.htm and it will give a taste of listening with a software defined radio if you haven't already experienced it. There's other software that will play the files, but Spectravue was written specifically for this family of receiver. Best wishes, (Nick Hall-Patch, Victoria, BC, Canada, March 15, IRCA via DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ WINTER SWL FEST 2010 Audio from the event: http://www.worldmicroscope.com (gh, DXLD) A REVIEW OF THE HFCC A10 CONFERENCE by Dr. Jerry Plummer, WWCR The A10 HFCC Coordination Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 1-5, 2010. The theme, or key, of the conference was "Developing Friendship." Domestic U.S. shortwave broadcasters were represented by Tom Lucey of the FCC, George Ross and Mike Sabin of Trans World Radio (Guam) and Dr. Jerry Plummer, representing the NASB and WWCR. A total of 118 attendees were present for the Conference. Regarding climactic conditions in Kuala Lumpur, temperatures in the Fahrenheit scale typically were 92-94 daily and 73-76 in the evenings. To me, it felt like Punta Cana, but no pool or ocean nearby. However, it was generally tolerable, and being located directly in the "Golden Triangle" of KL offered much dining and shopping activities, with a myriad of varied type restaurants, offering all imaginable types of fare-as well as a milieu of merchants, offering everything from knockoff Rolex watches to "reflexology" sessions (i.e. massages). The meeting opened promptly at 9:30 Monday morning, and the opening included welcoming remarks by several members of the Board, including Horst Scholz of Deutsche Welle; Oldrich Cip, Chairman of HFCC and representative of Czech Radio; Geoff Spells of VT Communications; and Bassil Zoubi of Arab States Broadcasting Union. Upon completion of the opening remarks, the coordination activities began, and ran through Friday morning. The conference room was a spacious, well-equipped area with plenty of room for all members, including room to suitably place extra chairs across each table for visiting representatives to sit and discuss collision correction. The wireless network worked well, including external Internet access; although (as expected) peak times of activity slowed down overall speed. However, the system was usable the entire time. The print server never was operable to several representatives, but anything needing to be printed could be at the four workstations located at the back of the conference room. A meeting was held Tuesday afternoon for the G8 representatives and Steering Board regarding the Russian contingent(s) and its requirements entries. GFC, as one group, and TRW and RAM as another group, previously separately entered requirements. If I understand correctly, one group was VOR and the other two combined for all "retail" sales to out of country leased transmitter time. GFC told the G8/HFCC group that they were now responsible for all Russian shortwave coordination activities, and requested the HFCC to announce as such, and to remove all entries not posted by GFC. The HFCC, preferring to not become politically involved, declined to do so at the current time. Thus, there are 173 duplicate entries in the database. To quote the HFCC: Wording of the Russian Delegation for the HFCC Conference Minutes: "The delegation of the Russian Federation gave explanations regarding 173 radio broadcasting requirements which were submitted on 01.02.2010 on behalf of the General Radio Frequency Centre (GFC) of Russia within the process of the HFCC Conference. "The above mentioned radio broadcasting requirements fully duplicate the requirements submitted by the Radio-Agency-M Ltd. (RAM) and TV Radio Wave (TRW) organizations with the used technical facilities to broadcast radio programs from the territory of the Russian Federation . Only the name of the Frequency Management Organization (FMO) was changed in the above requirements. "Coordination of new 173 radio broadcasting requirements was carried out by the GFC organization at the HFCC Conference. In doing so the former requirements of the TRW and RAM organizations which were duplicated should have been ignored within the process of the HFCC Conference. "To avoid confusion and misunderstanding in the work of the HFCC conference the delegation of Russia requested the HFCC Steering Board to delete the RAM and TRW requirements with the use of technical facilities to broadcast radio programs from the territory of the Russian Federation from the list of the requirements to be coordinated. Answer of the SB for the HFCC Conference Minutes: "The HFCC Steering Board thanked Alexander Stadinchuk for the detailed explanation for the duplication of requirements of RAM and TRW via facilities in Russia by GFC. However, the SB stated that it cannot accept the request to delete the corresponding RAM and TRW requirements for those transmissions from the territory of the Russian Federation. The reason for this is that both RAM and TRW are members of HFCC and the SB does not have the authority to delete requirements of any member. The SB states that the duplication of requirements significantly hampers the informal co-ordination process. On this occasion the Steering Board of the HFCC suggests to the Administration of the Russian Federation to work with the three FMOs on the territory of the Russian Federation with the aim of eliminating the duplicated requirements and to resolve this difficult problem. As RAM and TRW are not present at the joint HFCC/ASBU/ABU-HFC meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, the SB will inform them of this matter." Coordination flowed smoothly all during the week, with no computer or network anomalies. Much interaction was noted among all members during the coordination times. For the first time that I remember, no group dinner was held at the Conference, although a Friday afternoon tour was arranged, which included trips to the 500 metre Communications Tower, as well as KL's skyline Twin Towers. The tour also included a visit to Malaysian radio studios and a trip to a local group of craft shops. During the conference, the Group of Experts met (Wednesday) and offered the following information on the Friday Plenary (closing) statements: G. of E. documents will soon be placed on the website for everyone to review. Regarding the new software showing target ID by polygon, the testing is going well. It will offer clearer and better collision calculation. Antenna design frequency, used in the requirements file, must be filled in. It is used for calculation of collisions. A warning message will be displayed whenever a requirements file missing this information is entered. More information regarding a new antenna program will be coming in future. Older DOS versions of the plotting software should not be used; consider using newer software. A list of minutes from Punta Cana of requests and their updates will be issued shortly. Geoff of VTC says that ITU is considering adding DRM to its system, which includes HD Radio, etc. This will be reviewed in April, 2010 for acceptance. The following items came from Geoff, also: 26 MHz DRM for local broadcasts services proposal is in the ITU pipeline. A proposal for DSP for new receivers was not approved, but will be reviewed again in April, 2010. G9960 includes a proposal regarding powerline devices to extend range to 200 MHz. The intention is greater bandwidth for data services, but also offers tremendous interference for many bands, outside of shortwave, too. Much discussion has occurred over this proposal. Oldrich addressed the need to increase access to shortwave listeners, particularly via the HFCC website. Currently, the public access database is updated twice per year, and there was a vote to update the public record more regularly. The delegates approved this measure. Regarding finances, Geoff reported that 2008 was a lean year for the HFCC, but 2009 year-end numbers indicated that things were back financially where the HFCC should be. Geoff says that this is partially because member arrearage has been paid. He noted that Czech law has changed, and there is a chance that the HFCC will be exposed to a value added tax. This must be investigated more to determine if the HFCC is applicable to this taxation law change. Results will be forthcoming. Horst chaired the election activities, where two posts were to be voted on: Chairman and System Coordinator. Oldrich Cip was the only candidate for the former, and was unanimously elected. Gerald Theoret of Radio Canada International and Sergio Salvatori of Vatican Radio were co-elected to the System Coordinator position. Upon election Oldrich called for an increase in public awareness of the HFCC and its functions. Oldrich noted that REE Spain, who had been absent for two years, will be back next time; and that an FMO name change was awarded for DTK changing to MDK. It was noted again about the duplication of requirements due to the Russian situation noted above. In closing the Plenary meeting, Oldrich thanked the ABU for hosting and orchestrating the Conference (NASB Newsletter, March 2010 via Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DXLD) SIGUIENTE ENCUENTRO DIEXISTA MEXICANO: TAMAZUNCHALE SLP 2010. Saludos. Información sobre el XVI Encuentro Nacional Diexista, a celebrarse los días 30 de julio a 2 de agosto de 2010 en Tamazunchale, región Huasteca, Estado de San Luis Potosí en la República Mexicana. Por lo pronto, fotografías e información sobre Tamzunchale, ya están en: http://encuentrosdx.blogspot.com/2009/11/xvi-encuentro-diexista-2010.html Información y fotografías de los quince pasados encuentros diexistas en México, están en: http://encuentrosdx.blogspot.com/ Aprovecho para invitarles a visitar mi red diexista: Sobre antenas hechas en casa: http://antenasautoconstruidas.blogspot.com/ De regalos que he recibidos de radiodifusoras: http://recibidodelaradio.blogspot.com/ Sobre diexismo en general: http://galeon.com/diexismo/principal.htm Cordiales 73 y muy buenos DX (Miguel Angel Rocha Gámez, XE2ITX, México, 13 March, Noticias DX yg via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ Eton E-10 If you don't have one, they are on sale at Universal Radio. The original price was $159 and the sale price is now $59.98. Not a bad deal. I have one and some others have it as well and its a pretty decent unit. http://www.rffun.com/catalog/portable/0110.html (Kevin Redding, Crump TN, March 12, ABDX via DXLD) CURIOUS RADIO AT WAL-MART Just read a blog posting on the following: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mutant-V-Tube-1B-AM-FM-Radio-with-Vacuum-Tube-Preamp-and-MP3-Playback-MIG-VT1.1/12961524?wmlspartner=GPA&sourceid=44444444440190320057#Item+Description I wouldn't wonder that it's probably the first tube radio any big retailer has sold in recent years (Curtis Sadowski, March 11, WTFDA via DXLD) HUNDT COMES CLEAN: THE INTERNET TRUMPS BROADCAST TV Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt gave a speech at Columbia University in which he candidly talks about his decision to promote the Internet over broadcasting as the one and only "common medium" for the United States while he was chairman of the FCC between 1994 and 1997. And he said the FCC National Broadband Plan to be released next week will be the culmination of that policy and the beginning of the end of the broadcasting era. Click on the link below for the full story: http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2010/03/12/daily.4/ (via Greg Hardison, CA, DXLD) And be sure to read all the comments! DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See also BRAZIL; CANADA; ETHIOPIA; ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GERMANY; JAPAN; KUWAIT; NETHERLANDS ANTILLES; NEW ZEALAND; POLAND; ROMANIA; SWEDEN; CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES ARNIE VS DRM DRM, Digital Radio Mondiale continues to call my attention regarding the way it is used by those broadcasters that have decided to invest their resources using that transmission mode. I would like to ask each and everyone of the executives of those stations that are using part of their budget on DRM transmissions, if they have an idea of how many DRM capable receivers are in operation around the world. My expectations are that if those who provide the station's with their operating budgets learn about the NON EXISTANCE, of DRM Digital Radio Mondiale capable receivers around the world, they will immediately take the logical and sound decision of bringing those broadcasts to a screeching tires halt. At this moment, there is no reason to broadcast on DRM more than short experimental transmissions, and those stations that move their regular Amplitude Modulation short wave programming to DRM are for sure loosing more than ninety nine percent of their potential audience. No amigos, I am not against DRM or the development of digital radio technology, but at this very moment, when there are practically no short wave receivers that are DRM capable available at a reasonable cost, broadcasting using DRM is a real waste of valuable resources. The DRM Consortium hasn't even negotiated for a free software package that can be downloaded from a website by anyone interested in picking up the DRM short wave broadcasts, so that they can pick up the programs using a slightly modified receiver connected to a computer. My last search for a free software package to decode the DRM short wave programs was a total failure... the only software package found was available only after paying a rather substantial amount of money, something that I don't think many short wave listeners are willing to do. So here is once again my advice to those who are trying to promote the use of Digital Radio Mondiale for high frequency decametric bands broadcasting; do your homework, find out how many receivers are presently in use, and where they are located --- then target your DRM transmissions to those areas of the world, while at the same time go into an all out effort to promote the design, assembly and sales of at least a medium priced DRM capable short wave radio, while at the same time making available as free and open source software a DRM decoding package. And last but not least, to the station managers presently running DRM broadcasts on the short wave bands, please instruct your frequency managers to very carefully select the operating frequencies and also instruct your senior engineering staff to be sure that the DRM signals are not causing harmful interference to other stations using Amplitude Modulation standard transmissions on the internationally assigned short wave bands !!! (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited Feb 23 via DXLD) And jammers too! DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC See BRAZIL; USA: WBBM, WHAM, WTIC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Things One Learns When one reads comic books!?? I meant, of course, "Graphic Novels". I half forgot the comics term is now reserved for the adventures of Betty and Veronica. Speaking of which, am I the only one who thinks Archie hooking up with Veronica is ALL WRONG??? Anyway, back to the reason for the post. I found a comic, er, graphic novel by a French guy, Guy Delisle, about his adventures working in Pyongyang for a French animation firm. The thing is a real hoot - seems he stayed at the same hotel as the fellow in the Youtube travel videos I sent yesterday [see KOREA NORTH] - kind of odd seeing that place as line drawings. Anyway, while Guy was there, he ran into a couple of French engineers on assignment to install DTV in Pyongyang. I figure if they were there for that, the North has the European standard for DTV. Chris might do well to obtain not only a PAL TV, but some receiving equipment for DVB-T. That is, assuming he is within direct range of the DPRK capital city (Curtis Sadowski, IL, 5 March, WTFDA via DXLD) Speaking of DVB-T, dealextreme.com from Hongkong has several DVB-T and DVB-S items of interest: http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.dvb-t 73, (Dave in Indy Hascall, ibid.) FWIW, it's my understanding South Korea has adopted ATSC (being one of the few countries not bordering on the U.S. to have done so) – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) Hi Dave, I'm sure Doug won't mind me hopping in, but the answer may be found here: http://broadcastengineering.com/news/broadcasting_korea_sticks_atsc/ (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) Why is this Doug? Is it because Korea and China have tooled up for ATSC tuners for the American DTV conversion? (Dave Hascall, ibid.) I don't know. I would suggest the DVB-T market in Europe is at least as large as the ATSC market in North America. IIRC China has established a third system for its domestic market. Point being, in terms of economy of scale, Korea would be just as well-served to pick any of at least three systems. The fact that they use NTSC (and the American frequency plan) for their analog transmission probably has something to do with it (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) http://broadcastengineering.com/news/broadcasting_korea_sticks_atsc/ In the last paragraph, in particular. I concur with the first sentence and disagree with the second. ATSC was chosen in the U.S. because of the better coverage. Far more power is required to cover a given area with DVB-T than to do so with ATSC. This wasn't a problem for European broadcasters, who are used to using multiple relatively low-powered transmitters to cover a service area. In the U.S., a broadcasting license conveys authority for only one transmitter*, you have to cover your whole service area with that one transmitter, or find channels to license translator or satellite transmitters. There isn't the spectrum to do so in some areas, and nationwide, broadcasters simply aren't used to having to find multiple transmitter sites & pass their programming around. The second sentence seems to imply DVB-T is not suitable for stationary or HD use. The standard as originally deployed indeed didn't support HD (?!, a serious oversight). It has since been amended, switching to MPEG-4 compression in the process. Because of DVB-T's relative immunity to multipath, it would likely work a lot better than ATSC in indoor-antenna situations where reflections kill ATSC signals. While American broadcasters don't have experience with the use of DVB- T to reach our audience, we *do* have experience with the COFDM modulation at the center of the DVB-T standard. While we've been converting our broadcast transmitters from analog to digital, we've also been converting the transmitters in our live trucks.** The live truck transmitters are actually dual-mode -- they can operate in either COFDM or the VSB modulation used for ATSC. At least I *think* they can. We've never felt the need to select VSB. COFDM is **magic**. It works perfectly in places where analog live shots were so full of multipath you couldn't tell what you were looking at. There's an area of downtown Nashville where a lot of entertainment events happen. Riverfront Park, 2nd Ave. North, Lower Broadway, the Ryman Auditorium. This area is at low elevation. It's shielded from our tower by a hill a few blocks to the west, and from our remote receive site downtown by other tall buildings. There were a limited number of spots where we could get a usable analog live shot; even then it tended to be badly "posterized". A tech can strap a 1/4 watt COFDM transmitter with built-in antenna to the back of his camera & go take a walk down Lower Broad to the river. His signal will be 100% stable. I like it when technology works. I'm very happy when a technology works this well. I think Sinclair had the right idea when they suggested broadcasters should have been allowed to choose between COFDM and 8VSB. – * although after the DTV conversion, we began authorizing Distributed Transmission Systems and DTV Replacement Translators... ** paid for by Verizon, who wanted some of our live shot spectrum for cell phones. Yes, the spectrum was valuable enough to justify buying new remote broadcast equipment for every TV station in the United States (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) I have to agree. COFDM would have been a better choice. But as you may be aware, there was a lot of politics with the selection of 8VSB. But as I recall, the COFDM power levels were higher than 8VSB (Frederick R. Vobbe, W8HDU, Lima OH 45805-1835, ibid.) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ GEOMAGNETIC INDICES Compiled by: Phil Bytheway Geomagnetic Summary February 1 2010 through February 28 2010 Tabulated from email status daily. Date Flux A K Space Wx 1 75 6 3 no storms 2 75 10 4 no storms 3 74 11 1 no storms 4 74 1 0 no storms 5 78 1 1 no storms 6 88 4 1 minor 7 90 3 2 moderate 8 94 4 2 minor 9 91 2 1 no storms 10 91 3 1 no storms 11 94 6 1 no storms 12 96 7 1 moderate 13 94 4 1 no storms 14 89 3 2 no storms 15 88 15 3 no storms 16 87 14 3 no storms 17 87 5 3 no storms 18 85 5 0 no storms 19 84 5 2 no storms 20 84 2 1 no storms 21 84 2 1 no storms 22 84 4 1 no storms 23 84 3 0 no storms 24 83 3 0 no storms 25 83 2 2 no storms 26 81 1 0 no storms 27 79 1 0 no storms 28 78 2 1 no storms (IRCA DX Monitor March 13 via DXLD) Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet levels at all latitudes during 08 - 09 March. Field activity increased to quiet to unsettled levels during 10 - 11 March with brief active to minor periods at high latitudes. Activity increased to quiet to active levels on 12 March with a brief period of minor storm at high latitudes. Activity decreased to mostly quiet levels during 13 - 14 March. ACE in situ solar wind measurements indicated a coronal hole high-speed stream (CH HSS) occurred during 10 - 13 March. The CH HSS peak velocity was 577 km/sec at 12/0601 UTC. Interplanetary Magnetic Field changes during the CH HSS included increased Bt (peak 9 nT at 10/1521 UTC) and periods of sustained southward Bz (minimum -7 nT at 10/1515 UTC). FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 17 MARCH - 12 APRIL 2010 Solar activity is expected to be very low with possible isolated periods of low levels during the forecast 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 most of the period. However, moderate to high flux levels are possible during 08 - 11 April. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at quiet to unsettled levels during 17 - 18 March due to weak CME effects. Quiet conditions are expected during 19 March - 06 April. Activity is expected to increase to quiet to active levels during 07 - 08 April due to a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Activity is expected to decrease to quiet levels during 09 - 12 April. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2010 Mar 16 2151 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 16 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2010 Mar 17 84 7 3 2010 Mar 18 84 7 3 2010 Mar 19 84 5 2 2010 Mar 20 84 5 2 2010 Mar 21 82 5 2 2010 Mar 22 80 5 2 2010 Mar 23 80 5 2 2010 Mar 24 80 5 2 2010 Mar 25 80 5 2 2010 Mar 26 80 5 2 2010 Mar 27 80 5 2 2010 Mar 28 80 5 2 2010 Mar 29 80 5 2 2010 Mar 30 80 5 2 2010 Mar 31 80 5 2 2010 Apr 01 80 5 2 2010 Apr 02 80 5 2 2010 Apr 03 82 5 2 2010 Apr 04 84 5 2 2010 Apr 05 84 5 2 2010 Apr 06 84 5 2 2010 Apr 07 86 10 3 2010 Apr 08 88 10 3 2010 Apr 09 88 5 2 2010 Apr 10 86 5 2 2010 Apr 11 84 5 2 2010 Apr 12 84 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1504, DXLD) ###