DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-19, May 14, 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 1512, May 13-19, 2010 Thu 1900 WBCQ 7415 Thu 2100 WRMI 9955 Fri 0030 WRMI 9955 Fri 0330 WWRB 3185 Fri 1430 WRMI 9955 Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 0800 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 9515 [second, fourth, fifth Saturdays, maybe] Sat 1330 WRMI 9955 Sat 1630 WWCR2 12160 Sat 1800 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 7290 Sat 1900 WRMI 9955 Sun 0230 WWCR3 4840 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Sun 1900 WRMI 9955 Sun 2330 WWCR4 9980 Mon 0330 WWCR4 5890 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Tue 1900 WBCQ 7415 Tue 2230 WRMI 9955 Wed 0030 WRMI 9955 Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1900 WBCQ 7415 Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html or http://schedule.worldofradio.org or http://sked.worldofradio.org For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://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/08:00:00UTC/English/541 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** AFGHANISTAN. Deewa Radio Afghanistan Khost 200 kW transmitter at 621 kHz MW: Hi Glenn, May 9, 2010. Transmission on 621 kHz monitored in Lahore from 1435 UT for Deewa Radio in Pushto. The signal in my region was weak. The local Radio Pakistan MW station in Lahore broadcasts at 630 with a strong signal which almost covers Deewa Radio frequency at times. Regards (Aslam Javaid, Lahore, Pakistan, May 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS. 4760, AIR Port Blair (presumed), 1210- 1305, May 11. In vernacular; phone ringing; ads; subcontinent songs; long conversation; heard after their sunset (1205) and before my local sunrise (1303); almost fair; rather unusual to hear this one so well (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA [and non]. 15476+, LRA36 on Friday May 7: carrier not on until *1208. Meanwhile I was hearing a kid show from China on 15480, which continued to mar 15476 due to hi-pitched voices and music. Figured LRA36 copy would be tough, so moved on to other monitoring, but when I came back at 1253 it had faded up nicely during Andean music: singer, guitar, quena (after all, the Antarctic Peninsula could be considered an extension of the Andes, altho ``Andean music`` applies more to styles of Ecuador-Perú-Bolivia). At 1256 quick ID by OM mentioning ``15476``, back to music, now romantic. By 1258 it`s peaking S9+8 and better than 15480. YL DJ tells story of a ``santa imagen`` which had visited various santuarios around South America; mentioned Córdoba, Tucumán. Apparently the Argies are not concerned about separating church and state, as this government station not only tells religious tales, but is even named for an archangel! 1303 back to music; 1323 YL announcement but fading down. 1339 still audible music; 1431, still a carrier and I reconfirmed that it is a tad on the hi side of 15476, bits of music. Thus concludes the third week of my almost-weekdaily reception during the rescheduled M-F 12-15 transmission. 15476, May 10 at 1300 I can only detect the carrier vs noise level, confirming that RNASG, LRA36 is on the air, but that`s it. 15476 check, May 11 at 1308 finds not even a carrier here tho one detectable from Woofferton 15480. Is LRA36 off? Maybe at this hour but not at 1352, when a carrier is now JBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15476.0, LRA36 (presumed), 1407, May 11 (Tuesday). Heard open carrier, but audio below threshold level; 1505 able to briefly hear some singing; running past their usual 1500 sign off; seemed to go off the air about 1515, as I was unable to note a carrier by 1517 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15476, May 13 at 1301 JBA carrier and het with 15480 UK, but that`s all; a semihour earlier could not even detect the LRA36 carrier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15476, R. N. Arcángel San Gabriel (Esperanza Base), 1329-1350, 5/13/2010, Spanish. Finally able to extract some audio from the weak carrier heard here most weekdays. A few bars of pop / ballad music climbed above the noise at 1329, 1337, and 1346. Gave up at 1350. Good to finally hear them, my first log this year (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15476.0, LRA36 (presumed), 1350-1358, May 13 (Thursday). Best reception so far; clearly in Spanish with rock & roll song; too weak to get any ID; checked at 1418 and found no sign of a carrier. Off- the-air early? (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15476, LRA36, 1300 May 14, JBA carrier, but enough to het UK 15480. Did not improve during following hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Antarctic and LRA36 --- ``I recently had lunch with 3 members of the NZ Summer Party from Scott Base and a member of the USAF based at the South Pole all of whom are ham operators. During our conversation I asked about "LRA36". They all agreed that it`s a relay Station from the South American Continent to Antarctica and can only be heard faintly at times, even at the South Pole (Dallas McKenzie, On 05/02/2010 03:40 AM, HCDX via Van Riel, ibid.)`` I can see how they may have reached that conclusion if they are unable to hear the station. However, the times I have heard LRA36, it consisted of locally produced programming from Esperanza Base. ``They agreed that it could not be considered an "Antartic" Station for Country Purposes`` What's next? Disqualifying Palmer Station from being Antarctic? :) (Rik Van Riel, NH, ibid.) ** ARGENTINA. Hola, 1957 UT [May 11], 13363.5, Argentina Relay, LSB ...SUFF[icient] Ciao e Buoni DX (Mauro Giroletti, Italy, -Swl 1510- -IK2GFT-, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) Relaying what? ** ASCENSION. 21630, May 11 at 1359 the OSOB is a weak one in unID African language, no break at 1400. That often means it`s Hausa, and in fact such is listed from BBC at 1345-1415 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 2485, VL8K Katherine 1118-1131 May 6. Music (C&W?) with YL host; ABC news at 1130. Fair/poor this morning (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. RA 6020: see VATICAN [non] ** AUSTRIA. 15440, May 7 at 1404 nice S Asian music, seemingly secular, but maybe not. I bet it`s AWR via Austria. Yes, at 1404 YL speaking S Asian language; 1410 pronouncing in English a P O Box in Hyderabad, Pakistan, and urdu @ awr.org This is 300 kW, due east from Moosbrunn (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AZERBAIJAN. 9677.5, Ädalätin Säsi Radiosu, Nagorny Karabakh, Stepanakert, 0505-0527*, Apr 10, Azerbaijani talk with some mentions of Karabakh, musical interludes, extremely distorted audio and transmitter hum, 55553 (Alexander Beryozkin and Mikhail Timofeyev, St. Petersburg, Russia, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) Thank you for the correct station name! (Ed. Anker Petersen, ibid.) ** BAHRAIN. 9745-USB, presumed R. Bahrain, Abu Hayan, 0227-0303, May 7, Arabic. Contemporary Arabic music; continuous thru ToH; brief, presumed ID announcement at 0303 then back to music; fair at tune-in; fading to poor/barely audible by ToH (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS [and non]. RE: ``7265, tentatively Belarus Radio, Brest shortwave relay seems back on air again. Was missed, a lot of weeks out of service. Noted in 1800-1830 UT slot on May 3rd, S=5-6, announcement in Belarussian followed by symphonic music concert (wb, dxld May 3)`` 7265: Still I've my doubts about Radio Belarus 2nd program Belaruskoje Kanal Kultura via this SW channel from Hrodna/Grodno. During morning and noon hours the channel is empty, scheduled 1600-2200 UT only. In late afternoon fade in by co-channel Beijing, til 1605 UT close-down. Also Kashi, Urumchi, as well as Polskie Radio Warsaw via KVI in DRM mode use this channel. So small time windows open on this channel at 1605-1657, 1800-1830 [tiny signal on May 8th], and 1900-1927 UT only (wb, May 9) (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, May 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELGIUM [non]. Summer A-10 of TDP stations: Moj Them Radio in Hmong: 0130-0200 on 15260 TAI 100 kW / 250 deg to SEAs Mon/Wed/Fri Denge Mezopotamya in Kurdish: 0400-1400 on 11530 SMF 300 kW / 129 deg to WeAs Daily 1400-1800 on 11530 SMF 500 kW / 129 deg to WeAs Daily 1800-2000 on 7540 SMF 300 kW / 129 deg to WeAs Daily TDP Radio in DRM: 0700-0800 on 6015 ISS 035 kW / 060 deg to WeEu Mon 0800-0900 on 6015 ISS 035 kW / 060 deg to WeEu Tue 0900-1000 on 6015 ISS 035 kW / 060 deg to WeEu Wed 1000-1100 on 6015 ISS 035 kW / 060 deg to WeEu Thu 1100-1200 on 6015 ISS 035 kW / 060 deg to WeEu Fri 1200-1300 on 6015 ISS 035 kW / 060 deg to WeEu Sat 1300-1400 on 6015 ISS 035 kW / 060 deg to WeEu Sun 1900-2000 on 15755 BON 100 kW / 320 deg to NoAm Daily Radio Democracia in Amharic: 0900-1000 on 21555 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Sun Que Huong Radio in Vietnamese: 1200-1300 on 15665 DB 100 kW / 117 deg to SEAs Wed-Fri La Voix de Djibouti in Somali/French/Arabic: 1200-1300 on 17880 UNIDtransmitter/SAM? to EaAf Thu from May 06 1530-1630 on 15165 UNIDtransmitter/SAM? to EaAf Thu till April 30 The Disco Palace in DRM: 1400-1500 on 6015 ISS 035 kW / 060 deg to WeEu Daily 2000-2100 on 15755 BON 100 kW / 320 deg to NoAm Daily Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia in Somali: 1430-1500 on 15540 KCH 300 kW / 160 deg to EaAf Mon/Fri Meleket Ethiopia Radio in Amharic: 1600-1645 on 15195 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Wed EOTC Holy Synod Radio in Amharic: 1600-1700 on 15195 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Mon Voice Asena in Tigrinya: 1730-1800 on 15350 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Mon/Fri+Wed? Voice of Meselna Delina in Tigrinya: 1730-1800 on 15350 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Tue/Thu/Sat Radio Bilal in Amharic: 1800-1900 on 15350 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Daily Suaab Xaa Moo Zoo in Hmong: 2230-2300 on 7530 TAI 100 kW / 250 deg to SEAs Daily (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 10 May, via DXLD) ** BHUTAN. 6035, BBS, Sangaygang, 0010-0115, Apr 13, just a very weak carrier noted without audio (Anker Petersen, Denmark?) But this broadcast from a 30 kW reserve transmitter was audible throughout Bhutan with fair to good reception // local FM frequencies (Anker Petersen, visiting Bhutan, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) ** BHUTAN. BBS has registered some alternate frequencies for the 50 kW non-direxional. Maybe will try them if 6035 QRM gets too bad? 5025 at 00-20; 6080 at 00-10; 6225 at 10-18; 9375 at 07-12; 11695 at 04-12. Meanwhile 6035 is active at 00-17 with English hours at 06, 09 and 16, so no longer at 14-15? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 3310.0, R Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba, 0110-0124, Apr 10 and 13, Quechoa ann and Andean songs. Best heard in USB, poor under powerful utility transmitter, but this QRM was off on Apr 13, 24222. (Anker Petersen, Denmark, and Mikhail Timofeyev, Russia, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) Also heard at 0950-1007, Apr 12, fair with rustic morning program, yippy vocals. Starting to break up by 1007. Noted here many mornings and, sadly, often the only station audible at this hour on 90m along with presumed Brazil on 3375 (John Herkimer, NY in Dxplorer via DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. Re 10-18: ``4976.41, 30.4 2345, R. Lipez. Reklam vid denna tid. Starkare vid 0200. Tydliga ID. Min första loggning med en Flag antenn!! Kul! (Arne Nilsson, Sweden? SW Bulletin May 2 via DXLD)`` Hi Glenn, you reprinted a printing mistake. Radio Lipez is 4796.41 kHz Hope you will re re print correct frequency. 73's (Dario (Monferini), Your funs in Italy, May 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I probably overlooked it because I was distracted by the fact that no DXer ever spells it Lípez, which I think is correct, but no one who has heard it or is a South American familiar with the name will confirm that either (gh, DXLD) Glenn, This is a fact, today Arne Nilsson, Sweden, sent a correction for this one - it should read 4796.41 kHz (Thomas Nilsson, SWB editor, May 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Already corrected in the DXLD archive ** BOLIVIA. 5952.47, R Pio XII, Siglo Veinte, 2305-0020, Apr 10, 16 and 12, Spanish, mostly talks including one interview, march music, dialogue in Quechoa, music clips, parade-style drums and pipes almost good with slight splashes from both sides and RTTY QRM (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa; Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy; and Mikhail Timofeyev, St. Petersburg, Russia, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) But who heard it when on which date? ** BOLIVIA. Rádio Santa Cruz --- Bom dia amigos, Desde as 6h20 desta manhã [probably local = 0920 UT] sintonizo em 6134 kHz (mesma da Rádio Aparecida) a Rádio Santa Cruz, da Bolivia (uma hora a menos que o Brasil). Programa de músicas e notícias. As músicas são bem alegres, porém as notícias não são das melhores. O locutor fala da falta de açúcar e que o produto será vendido no máximo de 3 kg por pessoa, comenta também sobre o desabastecimento de produtos alimentícios e o corte sistemático de energia elétrica. País vive momento crítico na política e a maioria das notícias relata problemas. Notícias tristes - músicas alegres, um contraste. Não encontrei o site da rádio na internet e nem foi possível ouvir la direcion para correspondências. Neste momento (6h55) a rádio Aparecida já cobre o sinal com o "Siga Bem Caminhoneiro) Receptor: Motoglobe, Antena própria, Localidade: Marília - SP (Ivan, May 6, radioescutas yg via DXLD) 6134.80, Radio Santa Cruz, 0916-0930 May 6. At tune in, noted steady CP local music. "5 en mañana (Morning) y 16 minutos ..." lengthy comments in Spanish follow by a male, while the signal remains at a good level (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, WinRadio G305e/pc, 26.27N 081.05W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 1000-1006+, 6134.82, May 06, 2010, Radio Santa Cruz. Booming in at excellent level this morning, with apparent news by woman with many mentions of "Santa Cruz". Complete, clear ID by male at 1005 with AM, FM, and SW frequencies. Then talks by man and woman over gentle flute music. I don't think I've ever heard it so clearly from this QTH (-- Larry Cunningham, Gahanna, Ohio, Kenwood R5000 with random-length condo antenna, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4875, R. Difusora Roraima, Boa Vista, 0308-0330, May 11, English/Portuguese. Contemporary English religious music; fire & brimstone preacher in Portuguese, announcer over music with Santa Maria's, ID at 0329 into ballad; f-g (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, May 13, NRD-545, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED ** BRAZIL. 6159.3, R Boa Vontade, Porto Alegre, RS (presumed), 0138, May 03, the programming was light religious in Portuguese, male and female speakers. I heard it a few months ago too (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) Seems back on the air. Scheduled 24 hr // 9550 (Ed. Anker Petersen, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. DRM is now being tested in São Paulo on 26.04 MHz. This is intended for local reception, but members of the drmna Yahoo! discussion group are reporting occasional reception in the United States and Europe. Posted: 08 May 2010 (kimandrewelliott.com via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) Am currently receiving some of the Sao Paolo [sic] (SP) signal on 26040 right now here in Bisbee. Very weak signal on the Dream waterfall, but it's definitely there. Nothing has come even close to decoding, and the signal is in and out (Brendan J. Wahl, AZ, Fri May 7, 2010 8:21 am, drmna yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) That`s the timestamp on the post as he does not bother to say when `now` was. Zone not specified. If CDT showing for me, -5 that would be 1321 UT, rather early. If MST -7 that would be 1521 UT (gh) I remember old days of sporadic e openings that would last large chunks of a day. I used to hear remote broadcast pick-up FM transmitters in the 26 MHz band. Maybe those days will return! (Fibber, ibid.) Fibber - Just as you were writing that, I was looking at my log so far for 26040. I had an opening here from 1800 to 1900 (roughly), no decoding, no label. Max SNR was just under 10dB. The QTH here was pretty much still within the grayline effect this morning when I wrote that first email, so maybe something else will be seen when it hits Sao Paolo in a while? (Brendan Wahl, ibid.) Darn. Nothing at all here in Atlanta right now (2015 UT). Maybe later. Will keep checking. How much power are they using, and which was is the signal beaming? Anyone know (Tim Lemmon, ibid.) I haven't been able to find any reference to the power level of the transmitter, nor azimuth. Given that it is an experiment in local broadcasting, I have to assume that it may be omnidirectional and rather low wattage. I had two periods of very weak reception today, from 1800 to 1900, and from 2030 onwards until 0200. Only early during the latter period did I get enough signal to grab the service label. Counting when I first saw them at 1330 in the morning, that was three periods of signal presence. Grayline appears to count for the first and last, and mid- day transequatorial skip for the middle. Nothing about the power or antenna configuration is known by Ataliba / PP5AZF. There is apparently another station on the same frequency, run by the federal government, that makes up a two station SFN, but he knows nothing further than that. A DRM listener in eastern France and one in Switzerland both reported reception quite early in the day today, although like mine, it was very short and sporadic. This one's getting out! Well, that's all I've got. If I find out anything else, I'll let you all know. I've sent the data in to Klaus Schneider, so hopefully he'll be able to get the internet schedule updated tomorrow. 73, (Brendan J. Wahl, Bellingham WA, May 7, drmna yg via DXLD) Olá amigos, Captado os primeiros sinais da Cultura São Paulo em DRM, apenas o FAC nos 26045 kHz com SNR de 2.3 dB às 1417 LT. [1717 UT] Por outro lado super sinal da DW via Sines em DRM 15640com full audio em torno dos 15 dB SNR às 1538 LT + Journaline com a dipolo para 20 metros (Flávio PY2ZX Archangelo, Brasil, May 8, radioescutas yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) ??? everything else says it`s on 26040, so which is it? DXing it seems unlikely, but 10m can open with PYs, so why not? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. BRAZIL COULD PICK DIGITAL STANDARD IN 2010 by Carlos Eduardo Behrensdorf, 05.12.2010 BRASÍLIA, Brazil — Although tests and consultations are ongoing, Brazilian regulators are positioning to decided upon a digital radio standard for the country within a year. With a target date for full roll-out of an in-band, on-channel approach to digital radio by 2016, Brazil is expected to make a standards announcement by the end of this year or in early 2011. While iBiquity Digital's HD Radio system has been used on a trial basis by several commercial broadcasters since 2005, there also is interest in Digital Radio Mondiale's DRM30 and DRM+ technologies. Experts say one or a combination of standards could be adopted. . . [much more, and illustrated] Source: http://bit.ly/arE326 (Radio World via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** CANADA. 6030, Calgary - CFVP relaying CKMX (AM 1060), 1412, May 12. CNR-1 was off-the-air, so I was able to hear this in the clear with C&W song and contest for a free stay at a hotel. If CNR-1 is down for maintenance, this is a good chance to hear Calgary without the usual QRM! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Speaking of CBC, I am NOT impressed and I imagine CIDX members who like CBC Radio One, whether on the AM or FM bands, aren’t impressed either. That’s the departure of much-loved radio host Barbara Budd (she’s on As It Happens, among other programs). Apparently CBC Radio has not opted to renew her contract. Their reasoning? They want to get “younger hosts” on occasion in order to attract a younger demographic. That sucks, big time. She’s got fans from all over, judging by the emails and comments, including me. Barbara is “The Voice” and the dulcet warm tones of that voice were what listeners wanted. A younger demographic? There are intelligent young CBC listeners who loved her for that reason; she isn’t the fan who likes Celine (yuck) Dion, Allan Jackson (yuck again) and who likes bubblegum pop (hello Rihanna, Black Eyed Peas, insert stupid talentless person here). Thanks, CBC. But not opting to keep Ms. Budd on, you alienated an awful lot of listeners. Unfortunately CBC seems to want more hosts who are vapid in their on- air delivery and are very annoying. Not the culturally gifted voices of the BBC, or the musical liquid tones of the African stations, or the staunch words of the Voice of Russia. Here in my part of the world, I’m stuck with ditzy female radio hosts at CBC, or worse, males – I know one in particular whose late 20s early 30s-ish, and his squawky voices sounds like he hasn’t hit puberty! How can you take news delivery seriously like that? (Sue Hickey, CIDX Forum, May CIDX Messenger via DXLD) See also NEWFOUNDLAND ** CANADA [non]. 9955, UT Monday May 10 at 0542, ``White Cliffs of Dover`` and big band music; what`s this? Then into reminiscences of VE Day celebrations (which was really May 8, 1945) in the ``Lower Mainland``, code for metro Vancouver; o yes, it`s RCI via WRN via WRMI, as if Sackville did not have enough SW coverage by itself (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA WRMI ** CANADA [non]. GERMANY, Additional transmission of BVBN in Arabic to WeAs: 1730-1800 NF 11860 WER 125 kW / 120 deg, ex 11645 to avoid VOA Kurdish (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) ** CANTON ISLAND. See KANTON ISLAND ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. According to my sources, Radio ICDI night-time frequency will be 3390. Web-blog of Dan Anderson at http://danhcjb.org/ tells us that another transmitter will be installed by HCJB engineers as a gift for Radio Centrafrique at Bangui-Bimbo site. Frequency not yet announced but probably 5035. The website also has photos of antenna installation at both sites. Please note that these two transmitters are low power, rated only as 1 kW (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, May 8, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Photos Uploaded to Web --- I have uploaded a number of photos of the work I am involved with here in the Central African Republic during the month of April. You can view these photos at http://danhcjb.org/africa The work on our projects is going well and I am in good health, although it is not easy because the weather is hot (90s), and things often do not go as we had planned. However, we have already seen that the Lord wanted our plans to change in order to further His work. Please keep me and those with whom I am working in your prayers. In Our Lord’s Service, Dan, April 11th, 2010 Return to Africa Lord willing, on March 30, Dan is returning to the Central African Republic to install two new regional shortwave radio stations. These installations are similar to the one he helped set up three years ago. One installation will provide a second station for ICDI (Integrated Community Development International) near the town of Boali. Most of the work will involve constructing shortwave broadcast antennas on 30- foot poles covering a couple of acres. Like the first Boali station, this one will reach nearly the entire country of the Central African Republic with Christian and community programming in French and other local languages. The new antenna will allow the station to extend its broadcast hours to shortwave bands that are usable during the evening. The other station will be set up in Bangui, the capital of C.A.R., for the national government on behalf of ICDI. The government was impressed by the station we set up for the Christian ministry, and by assisting the government in the name of the ministry we are helping ensure that the door remains open for Christian broadcasting within the country. March 25th, 2010 (Dan Anderson blog as above via DXLD) ** CHAD. 6165, R. Dif. Nat. Tchadienne, N'Djamena, 2137-2158, Apr 09, French talks, ID, songs, African music, 32432/35443 (Alexander Beryozkin St. P., Russia, in dswci DX Window May 5 via BC-DX May 10 via DXLD) In the gap when Croatia co-channel off at nighttime (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) and fade in on 7120 kHz at 1515 UT, noted also at 1720 UT, by (Nils Schiffhauer, DK8OK, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 9/10 via DXLD) 7120 kHz, 1720 UT, SIO 343, mentioning N'djamena. -- 73, (Nils DK8OK Schiffhauer, Germany, Perseus, 96 m delta loop, 42 m windom, May 8, HCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) [and non]. Has RNT switched frequencies again? One window on 6165 is after Bonaire is finished at 0527, but May 10 at 0541 I can only detect a very weak carrier which could be something else, i.e. Croatia now opening at 0500 in A-season. Need to look for Chad in earlier window between Bonaire broadcasts 0427-0459. At 0541, nothing on 7120, that previously used and now out-of-band frequency, which Nils Schiffhauer, DK8OK presumably in Germany, reported to HCDX as active May 8 at 1720 mentioning N`djamena. A weak unID on 4900 is being heard around 2230-2300 by Carlos Gonçalves in Portugal, which I suspect could be Chad instead of its other alternative 4905, but he hears clues pointing to a reactivated Ivory Coast (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Try the 0427-0459 window for Chad on 6165. I found them there on May 8 with an unusually good signal from 0446-0458. The program was Afro pops with announcements in French by a man, and an ID at 0456. Bonaire fired up their carrier at 0458 and their IS at 0459, thereby closing the Chad window (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, May 10, NASWA yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) 6165 confirmed active from RNT, May 11 at 0528 just after RNW Bonaire closed, poor in French with phone number, YL atop SAH maybe Croatia. 0530 drumming for most of a minute, then OM says ``Ici N`djamena . . . bonjour``. Carlos Gonçalves is still trying to get a definite ID on the 4900 in the evenings, but is pretty sure it`s not Chadian (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) FWIW, here in urban Left Coast Land, RNT on 6165 at 0535 is at best a weak carrier tone heard on SSB, with the rarest of occasional snatches of vox. It does not help at all that my local QRM level on 49 meters is gross (S7 or so). Were the noise reduce-able to background, Tchad might have a Tchance. You rural Californians may want to give it a try (Bruce Jensen, California, USA, UT May 12, ptswyg via DXLD) ** CHILE. While CVC has resumed transmitting spurs with the HCJB relay on 11920 (see ECUADOR [non]), with an even stronger signal on its own fundamental 11665, I am not hearing the previous spiky spurs around 11820, May 8 at 2330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake May 7, scanning up from 8 to 19 MHz: no 8400 or 9000, but: 9380, good at 1330 with QRM de Brother Scare WWRB 9385. Aoki shows 9380 has nothing but a 100-watt Sound of Hope transmitter to tie up one of the jammers. I soon find that 9380 FD is NOT // all the others, running from a different playback of the 60-minute concert. 10300, fair at 1333; S9+12 at 1440 11100, fair at 1333 12600, fair at 1336 12980, fair at 1336 13100, fair at 1337 13300, fair at 1437, not heard during the previous hour 13970, JBA at 1352, but at 1437 this one has risen to good, S9+12 Of the CNR1 jammers, noticed that both 11785 echoey and 11805 not echoey, May 7 at 1335 with Chinese talk had the same 1-kHz tone in the mix for about a minute; so it was from the input. See also ANTARCTICA [and non] Firedrake May 8, tuning continuously between 8 to 18 MHz: 9380, good at 1248 and today it is // 10300 et al. 10300, good at 1244 10420, good at 1244 11100, good at 1232, but not here at next check 1353 12960, poor at 1353 16100, poor at 1355 [non?]. 13625, something in Chinese at the unusual hour of 2015 May 8, poor signal. R. Free Asia via Tinian is here overnight at 17-22, but may have been hearing CNR1 jammer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Phenomenal Firedrake signals this morning --- Hello Glenn: Incredible Firedrake jamming this morning across the 15 - 17 MHz bandspread. Listening to a SIO 555 drum boogie on 16700 now at 1238 UT. Even with my antenna pointed at Europe, it is still a solid S9 here in Central Ontario. 73 (Sean Welsh, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake search May 12 at 1320-1328 found none at all between 8 and 18 MHz. E Asian reception not very good, but CNR1 jammers were still making it on 15285, 15265, 11805, etc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake scan 1520 to 1541, May 12. All //: 9345, 9380, 12960, 13320, 15140, 16100 and 17920. All were fair to good (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Now on May 13 I search again between 8 and 19 MHz, and come up with: 8400, nothing, nor 9000 9365, fair at 1347, not 9380 9380, at 1240 10300, fair at 1254, open carrier at 1300; JBA at 1347 11500, VG at 1254, but off at 1259 check 12680, G at 1255, open carrier at 1300 13300, at 1345, not 13340 13340, very good at 1256, to open carrier at 1300, back at 1306 14900, fair at 1348 16062, JBA at 1350, thought I could detect such music, but probably not on this strange frequency 17300, fair with flutter at 1544. None of the previous ones now (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9380, Firedrake (presumed), 1036-1045 May 13, Noted steady Chinese music with plenty of drums and whistles. Signal was fair. Noted a carrier on 10300 and 11100 at 1100 (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, WinRadio G305e/pd, 26.27N 081.05W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 10300, Firedrake, 1018-1210+ May 14, Noted steady Chinese music without any comments, just music. Signal was good at this time. Had checked this prior to 1100 and didn't copy anything here. Also heard a parallel signal on 9830 which was audible prior to 1100. Still waiting for 11100 to fade in (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, WinRadio G305e/pd, 26.27.34.65N 081.05.34.19W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake May 14: had a major set all // each other, except for a minor set (10420, 12960) not // the first set. Also signals were good, u.o.s. And audibly alone on all channels, u.o.s. 10300, at 1247, 1337. None heard at any hour lower than this 10420, at 1247 not // 10300 et al. Not heard at 1336 11100, at 1248, 1336, 1407 12960, at 1251 // 10420; still at 1407 13300, at 1252 14920, at 1252 15140, at 1332 fair, still at 1407, good. Aoki says 15140 is one of those 24-hour 100-watt Sound of Hope spoilers from Taiwan, most of which are out-of-band 15540, at 1331 mixed with noise jamming; 1341 also vs something in Chinese, presumably V. of Tibet via Tajikistan, which today`s Aoki puts on 15547 but variable 15520-15570 and supposed to be over at 1330 16100, at 1255, poor 16700, at 1255, very poor 17300, at 1256, JBA, not heard after 1300 17560, at 1327, fair; another V. of Tibet, 1330-1430 via Madagascar 17920, at 1327, still at 1407 18000, at 1258, trace, maybe imagination under receiver birdie carrier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [non]. Checking 15120 for Nigeria, May 10 at 0553 I hear something in Chinese instead, i.e. R. Free Asia via TINIAN as scheduled 03-07. Then find unsynchronized parallels: stronger 17615 which is a sesquisecond ahead of 15120; 0559 they are playing the Palladio ``diamond`` music as I have also heard repeatedly months ago from RFA. Must be a regular program theme, 0600 ID. Another // is 17880, which has even much better signal here, with audio ahead of 17615. And a weaker one on 15615. 17880 is SAIPAN, the other three Tinian; and as Aoki reminds us, all are *jammed by the ChiCom, but none of that was making it here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 5050, Guangxi Beibu Bay Radio (Nanning 954) (presumed), 1058-1137, 5/12/2010, Vietnamese. Slow contemporary music. Beeps and announcements by man at 1100 followed by more music. Announcements by woman at 1130, then talk by man and woman. Initially moderate signal declining to poor. Weak station heard below them on 5050. Possible second frequency found on 9820 with similar music and program, but not strictly in parallel (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. CNR-1, 1412, May 12 was off-the-air on both 6030 (leaving Calgary in the clear) and 6175.0 (leaving R. Suara Islam in the clear on 6174.4v) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6030, CNR-1. On May 13 noted CNR-1 still off, but CNR-1 programming was used here as jamming against assume Minghui Radio (1300-1400); CNR-1 did not have the usual echo, due to the regular CNR-1 being off; could hear a station in Chinese underneath which was probably Minghui Radio, which broadcasts information about Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa); the “clear wisdom” website is at http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/index.html plus story at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/3/17/83597.html 6035, PBS Yunnan/Voice of Shangri-La, 1238-1300, May 13. In Vietnamese with music program; ToH pips; distinctive “This is the Voice of Shangri-La, brought to you by Yunnan Radio”; light QRM from assume BBS/Bhutan. For the past few days Yunnan has had above average reception (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. CRI Messenger Vol. 20, May-June, 2009 reports on the back cover that “CRI Wins China Journalism Award.” “China Now,” a live daily program on CRI won first prize at the 2008 China Journalism Awards, the most prestigious journalism awards in China, claiming the tile for “best show.” Launched in December, 2006, “China Now” was the first show CRI launched via its overseas FM stations. Previously known as “Beyond Beijing,” the show aims to showcase the real China to the world, by reporting on Chinese society and culture. [The Messenger is a bi-monthly four color newsletter of China Radio International]. 73’s, (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, May 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ha, as if the ChiCom know the first thing about real journalism (gh) ** COLOMBIA. 1540, Radio Cóndor is owned and operated by a private university in Manizales, one of six universities in the city. You may send reports in English or Spanish directly to the Director, Ana María Mesa animesav @ gmail.com The audio stream of the station with news and music, reaching from classical to modern rock, is available at http://www.fundeca.org.co with the following search path > emisora > escuchar en vivo, where two alternatives are available - click either on the text line "Radiocóndor en Listen2MyRadio" or on the icon "Escuche Radio Cóndor Online". The audio stream is unbuffered. The director has asked me to spread this information. You can also read about the city of Manizales and among the universities about the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales, the organization in charge of the station, at the English language website of Wikipedia or at http://www.autonoma.edu.co/web/sitios/cmsimple/english_UAM/index.php Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, May ARC South American News Desk via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. Hola colegas, Les informo la nueva dirección alterna para el envío de los reportes de recepción de las emisoras: Marfil Estéreo, 5910 y LV de tu Conciencia, 6010 kHz. LIBRERIA COLOMBIA para CRISTO Calle 46 Nº. 13-56 Blq. C Apto. 215 Bogotá D.C. COLOMBIA Telefax 346-1419 Teléfono 609 6686 E-Mail: cpclibros @ hotmail.com Igualmente pueden continuar usando la dirección principal en el: Apartado Aéreo No. 67751 Bogotá D.C. COLOMBIA Cordial saludo, Rafael Rodriguez R., QSL Mánager (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, May 11, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. Saludos, Por favor vean el video de HOLANDA / COLOMBIA: TANJA NIJMEIJER, PRÓXIMA A CÚPULA DE LAS FARC para más ir a: http://bit.ly/du40LP El video está en formato mp4 73 de (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia DX LISTENING DIGEST) This less than 2 minute clip in Dutch from RNW (don`t bother with the captions which don`t get you any English) includes a view of the FARC transmitter site. Looks like they have some towers with antennas strung between them. Or had. It`s really about a Dutch woman who turned into a FARC revolutionary (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. Re 10-18, UNIDENTIFIED. 5954.2, noticed a non-standard het against Harold Camping WYFR on 5950.0, i.e. less than 5 kHz, so sought out and measured as best I could this weak carrier, May 2, 2010 at 0046, which of course brings to mind the ELCOR transmitter-test frequency from Costa Rica which may or may not have been involved at some time with Radio República (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-18) UNIDENTIFIED. 0044-0056 UT May 8, 2010; 5955 kHz suffering severe ACI from both 5950 and 5960, fair signal with deep fades, playing one Shakira song after another, all early (Latin American) hits from the 90s: "Ciega, Sordamuda", "Ojos Así" etc. Is Gazeta-São Paulo known to be active at this time? No other Brazilians noted in band except possible 6185 powerhouse (Earl Higgins, St. Louis, Missouri; Degen DE- 1103 with built in whip, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Shakira rings a bell, also reported before on this frequency, or rather 5954+ --- was it really somewhat below 5955 this time? (gh) It's possible it was a bit low, I'm not adept enough with my new Degen DE-1103 to get any sub-1 kHz frequency measurements, if even possible with this cheap receiver (Earl Higgins, MO, ibid.) From DXLD 8-034 ****more than two years ago:**** until the next **** ** COSTA RICA. 5954.1v, "Elcor Transmitter", 2310-2327*, Mar 11, Spanish/English. "Live" Spanish music; pop instrumental & Alanis Morrisette tune with transmission abruptly terminated at song`s end; fair at best with adjacent channel splatter (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R8, R75, NIR10, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60M dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5954.10, ELCOR Costa Rica, (presumed), 2254-2327 March 12, With a program of recorded music of live performances with Spanish language comments and lyrics. No live comments heard during the period. The Station/signal dropped of the air at 2327. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5954.113, COSTA RICA, unidentified "ELCOR transmitter station"; 2320- 2330 28 February, 2008. Excellent, though still squeezed badly by adjacent channel signals, especially 5955. This day, no repeat cycle songs but a mix of Spanish and English pop -- including Madonna's relatively recent "Jump" -- with the usual brief gap between tracks, into open carrier at the normal 2330. 5954.181, COSTA RICA, unidentified "ELCOR transmitter station"; 2228- 2236 9 March, 2008. Already on at 2228 check, vocals. Is this active on local Saturday/Sunday? I haven't had a chance to check (Terry L. Krueger, Clearwater FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-034) Following from the next issue in 2008, 8-035: ** COSTA RICA. 5954.14, 2310-2328 13-03, ELCOR Transmitter tested (presumed) Spanish announcement, Spanish songs. Strong, but very much disturbed by R Taiwan International/Okeechobee 5950 (strong), R Pio Doce, Bolivia 5952.45 (very weak) and Voice of Turkey 5960 (strong), and totally spoiled at *2328 by Democratic Voice of Burma signing on from Wertachtal on 5955 33433 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Wonder what the announcement said, as there usually aren`t any (gh) Re 8-034: Scott, most probably what you have heard on the mystery 5954 transmitter, was Colombian singer Shakira, from whom I've always have considered that overpassed Alanis Morrisette with her vocal imitation. Shakira, as well as Mexican group Maná, are everyday recipes in those test transmissions. BTW Terry, that ELCOR transmitter tests were running between 2300 to 2400, Monday to Friday at the beginning. For the last month or so, they have changed to 2230-2330 and in fact, they are now including Saturdays, as I heard them last March 8. So, here's your chance to check this weekend. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, March 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5954.115, unidentified ELCOR transmitter station, Guápiles; *2227- 2327* 16 March, 2008. Checking from 2205+, and finally this came up at 2227, into Spanish male vocal at 2228. The usual cycled nonstop music format until the last track play ended at 2326, then transmitter off at 2327. So, to answer my own question, this is a seven-day operation. Bet it's all on a timer. Also 2302-2310 14 March, 2008. Good signal but as usual, terribly crushed by adjacent channels. Spanish vocals. Frequencies that are reported to the .000 were arrogantly measured on the IC-R75 (vs. the NRD-535). (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mere speculation --- Could this be the ELCOR source, the TIRN 1140 entry? http://www.aciprensa.com/radio/costa.htm But if so they don't want to say (official site): http://www.gratisweb.com/DIOLIMON/radio_nueva.htm (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Doubt it. I believe it is Raúl who doubts any religious station could be behind 5954, due to the type of music played, FWIW (Glenn to Terry, via DXLD) Suck 'em in with Madonna and then WHAM, hit them with scripture one day. God works in mysterious ways (Terry Krueger, ibid.) ****End 26-month old reports**** Back to the present: ** COSTA RICA. 5954.2, the continuous music tests are back on this odd frequency, May 8 at 2332 hetting WYFR 5950 at less than 5 kHz, and splashed from it. Side-tuning up a bit helps. Romantic music in Spanish, 2341 an announcement in Spanish, only caught one word, `titulado`. Signal is improving, as WYFR gets a bit weaker. 2347 pause of almost half a minute between trax, and no further announcements heard. The song ending at 2351 had applause and cheers. Kept going past 0000 May 9, but from just before then, adjacent channel interference gets much worse with CRI starting on 5960 in Chinese via Sackville. 0026 check, still going with the music. 5960 is splashing more than 5950 even tho it is 2 kHz further away from 5954. Another check at 0057 still, and heavy ACI. And 0102; and last check at 0112 still there. Gerry Bishop in FL says they signed off at 0158 without any announcements being heard. I also heard this May 2 at 0046, but only as a carrier. Based on previous activity 26 months ago, it`s ELCOR, the transmitter manufacturer, which used the same frequency and the same type of programming, presumably to test their products. This was discussed extensively with logs by many others in: http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld8034.txt & http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld8035.txt In March 2008, Raúl Saavedra in Costa Rica remarked, ``Shakira, as well as Mexican group Maná, are everyday recipes in those test transmissions.`` Brian Alexander in PA was monitoring at exactly the same time May 8-9, 2010, also noted the announcement at 2341, music by Shakira and others, and pinpointed it at 5954.15. And Earl Higgins in MO had this as an unID 24 hours earlier: 0044-0056 UT May 8, with ``one Shakira song after another``. I`ll take their word for it as I wouldn`t know Shakira. This of course is now the only active SW station in CR, unless some of the R. República broadcasts are coming from there (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5954.2v, Elcor Transmitters, 2010-05-08, 0044-0056: Guapiles, Spanish. Presumed transmitter manufacturer equipment test suffering severe ACI from both 5950 and 5960, fair signal with deep fades, playing one Shakira song after another, all early (Latin American) hits from the 90s: "Ciega, Sordamuda", "Ojos Así" etc. Glenn Hauser reported a carrier here, on May 2 and similar Latin vocals here tonight (Earl Higgins, St. Louis, Missouri, USA using a Degen DE-1103 with built-in whip, ABDX via DXLD) 5954.15, ELCOR transmitter testing?, 2310-0005+, May 8-9, tentative with non-stop English and Spanish pop ballads by Shakira and others. Brief Spanish announcement at 2341. Good level but poor to fair overall signal quality due to adjacent channel splatter. Very difficult after 0000 due to adjacent channel splatter (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks Brian Alexander for the timely item on the presumed ELCOR 5954 on 5/9. Heard well here in Florida with music, abrupt off at 0158*. No announcements heard from 0028 to sign off, but great signal (Gerry Bishop, Niceville FL, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ELCOR returns --- 5954.16, COSTA RICA, unidentified (ELCOR) 0120-0200* May 9, 2010. The same music loop of mostly Spanish pop -- some live -- and English, as when we last left ELCOR ages ago, when they were appearing late afternoons locally. Previously, they ran two-hour blocks. So, can we assume this is testing 0000-0200? Checks will tell. Local level here in Clearwater. Who is behind this thing, after all this time. Is Raul still in Costa Rica to investigate? (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 2336 tune-in May 9. On a very long sked. Tune-in, local level. The usual looped music of old, including Madonna, as I type (Krueger, 2349 UT May 9, ibid.) 5954+, May 10 at 0026 the ELCOR test transmitter again with continuous music, hets from WYFR 5950 and CRI/Sackville 5960. The latter finished by 0100, so 5954 reception much improved at 0102, still better at 0129. The exact purpose of these broadcasts has not been confirmed by ELCOR. Terry Krueger points out that their undated client list for SW transmitters still exists: http://www.elcor.org/refsw.html Many of those are now history, or never really became history, such as a 50 kW transmitter for a station called ``Ideas`` in Kenya (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So really you were the first to hear the reactivation [see unID May 2 at 0046]. What is the purpose of this after all this time? The same music loop, always. I still wonder if it could be AWR or a similar organization, plodding along and testing. The old ELCOR page is still active: http://www.elcor.org/refsw.html (Terry Krueger, ibid.) My little ELCOR child mystery She signs on at *2157 (that is today, Monday, May 10). Her sweet little signal is great, until WYFR pops up at *2200, then some splatter but still decent copy, oddly best on the ICOM R75 with internal room random wire vs. NRD-535 with dipole. And it is the R75 that we measured her sign-on at (5954.238), but by measurement re-check at 2249, she wished to drift down to 5954.184. So, she drifts a bit while cold. Her format is still the same music loop, or so it seems. Silly Shakira tracks (once a very cute chica, but look at recent photos of her -- not aging well, even in her still-youth), etc. But I digress. The transmission opened with something in English -- sort of a Police- like song -- but probably some other band, since I'm pretty familiar with the Police catalog(ue). (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, May 10, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5954.2, 0320-0359:30, 5/11/10 in Spanish. Mellow Latin (mostly Central American style) music, 0355 talk between 2 men with one after 0358, off mid sentence at 0359:30. I could not make out what was being said due to the QRM from 5960 NHK via Sackville in Japanese and 5950 R. Taiwan I. via Okeechobee. Poor overall, but definitely there (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, g313e & Flextenna, NASWA yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) Latest I have ever seen it reported. BTW, this identity is based on considerable research when it was last active two+ years ago. AFAIK no one this year has heard anything approaching an ID, but the off- frequency and the format match (gh, DXLD) 5954.22v, unidentified ELCOR transmitter, Guápiles. 2333 and 0024 May 11-12, 2010. Quick checks again show Little EL starts out high and drifts down, stablizing. First check at 2333 measured to 5954.22 and recheck at 0024 measured 5954.16 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5954.15, ELCOR transmitter, 0336, May 13, Spanish pop songs to 0356:42 late s/off. Hets RL scheduled 0300-0400 to Northern Caucasus on 5955. 73, (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Martien's log confirms this shifted time. I had no trace of the *2200 sign-on yesterday, May 12th. Tonight, May 13th, ELCOR popped up at *2258 at near-local level with a Spanish New Wave (Police-like) vocal. And as always, it starts out high before the transmitter warms up and settles down closer to 5954.16. Tonight at sign-on, it was measured at 5954.232 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, ibid.) If this is to demonstrate the quality of ELCOR transmitters --- We know how crummy the one is at KJES (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I've heard the ELCOR transmitter the past three nights (5/11, 5/12, 5/13 UT) as early as 0225 all with sign offs 0257-0259 [but see below]. All three nights the frequency is right on 5954.200 on the G313e. There was a sign off announcement last night mentioning a test transmission which I had at 0257. The s/off was so obscured by QRM from Sackville and Okeechobee that it was pretty useless. Tonight there was Spanish heavy metal until 0234, then a transition with a pleasant vocal which I believe was on about the same time all four nights to mellow trans national Latin ballads (the kind of music my Venezuelan and Colombian friends living here listen to.) After 0245 there is industrial music, one probably in English. (I find this music hard to hear the vocals in any language.) The party is still going strong at 0307. [Later:] Sorry, the correct sign off times are 0357-0359 and last night's sign off time was 0357 (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, WinRadio g313e, Flextenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Another victim of DST; but should any of the other times in the 02s also read 03+??? (gh, DXLD) Heard after 0200 with good signal and moderate splatter from 5960 playing Shakira songs as usual. Bet Maná songs are the alternative, altho I quit listening. No signal when I recheck near 0300. Still a mystery in this small country. Once someone told is situated in Guápiles, cantón de Pococí, provincia de Limón, and there is a political party involved on this. Time will reveal. 73s (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, UT May 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. Zadar, Croatia 1134 kHz AGAIN retimed! Dear DXers, Voice of Croatia (Glas Hrvatske) on 1134 kHz via Zadar, 600 kW now airs on a new time segment: 1600-2245z. Regards, (DrAgan Lekic, Serbia, May 8, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 530 kHz Radio Rebelde: Hi. Does anyone know about this station out of Havana Cuba? I'm in SW Florida and pick up pretty well at all hours. I'm surprised I can get it in so well during the day although I'm in Florida and it's not that unusual. Can you direct AM signals the same as short-wave? I know that sounds a little dumb to ask being that I'm pretty sure you can, and if that's the case are they doing this to broadcast to Florida and the gulf coast? (Rocky Rodenbach, Tampa Bay, ptsw yg via DXLD) Did you hear an ID as R. Rebelde, or // known R.R. frequencies? ? This has been Radio Enciclopedia, format easy-listening music. It`s really a jammer, set up to block Radio Marti`s occasional airborne relays from the Keys, but which I think are not happening any more. It is not at all surprising that you get it in SW Florida. We don`t know the power but would not take much on the lowest MW frequency which carries furthest, coupled with a sea-path. Direct AM signals? If you mean can they use direxional antennas, certainly. But the Cubans don`t give any details about their antennas. Probably non-direxional, but if it were, it would likely be up and down the length of Cuba rather than deliberately toward FL. Nevertheless, a lot of Floridians enjoy the music, and at night much further. We get it here in OK, but the 529 beacon in TN can be annoying. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Hi. No, I totally went under the assumption that's what it was by what others were saying. But now that you mention the easily listening I know for sure that's what it is, thank you! I get a good signal here, there's some QRN and real light static, but the main carrier is great! I didn't think I could get a Cuban station in the daytime like that until I tuned it in, and as you say about being almost in the LW range the signal has a good opportunity to make it's way up here. Take care (Rocky R., ibid.) ** CUBA. Radio Havana Cuba-RHC, 5970, 0410, Portuguese, 333, May 10, YL with vocal music. // 6000 [433] (Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA, Huntington Beach, California, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Stewart has previously confused Portuguese with Spanish, but we know this could really happen, as I have caught RHC previously running Portuguese by mistake(?) late at night (gh, DXLD) 5970, Radio Havana Cuba, 1040-1040 May 14. Noted a program of Spanish music and Spanish comments from a male between tunes. Noted a parallel signal on 6150, however 5970 was poor while 6150 was good. RHC on 5970 is not listed in my current copies of AOKI and EIBI database. Something happened at 1048 with the signal on 5970 as it disappeared, but 6150 stayed on the air (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, WinRadio G305e/pd, 26.27.34.65N 081.05.34.19W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5970 is on the current RHC schedule as 07-11 for Chicago; 01-05 for NAm, but it`s also on at 05-07, I think (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. 15380, RHC at 1356 May 7 with severe Qur`anRM, i.e. BSKSA already using this frequency, and making a fast SAH. The two take turns dominating, but Saudi gone at 1404 check. Rumen Pankov`s monitored BSKSA schedule in DXLD 10-18 shows 15380 until 1355 with Qoran Kerim in Arabic. DCJC: see USA WRMI 10034, center of DCJC pulsing at the rate of about 136 per minute, May 8 at 1246. Apparently a stray, or a spur from the wall of noise obliterating WRMI [see USA] at this time on 9955. Occasional SSB QRM, presumably from aeronauts. 15380, RHC, May 9 at 1905 I hear the unique voice of Manolo de la Rosa telling radio-related story of some maritime disaster; thus it is another secret unscheduled time for En Contacto [not Encuentro DX as in my original post; I have to keep trying to distinguish among the various Spanish and Portuguese DX program titles]. It`s 15 minutes long, so I don`t know when it started or whether one could depend on same next Sunday. 9780, DentroCuban Jamming Command grinding away against nothing, May 14 at 0530, as R. República is finished with this frequency at 0400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI [non]. La Voix de Djibouti`s new time of 12-13 Thursdays on 17880 is less likely to make it here, but it occurred to me we merely assumed it replaced the previous time, while it could have been in addition. So May 13 at 1530 I check 15165 just in case --- and hear nothing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR [non]. Congratulations withdrawn! The spurs are back, as bad as ever, from the CVC CHILE transmitter relaying HCJB on 11920. May 8 at 2325 same but distorted audio is to be heard very close to 11900 and 11940, just as a Portuguese ID comes from HCJB on all. The fundamental is also noisy, but this is bleedover from the DentroCuban Jamming Command on 11930 vs R. Martí. A few days ago and at some chex since, the spurs have been gone, but obviously not permanently. Tonight rechecked just before sign-off at 0043 May 9, the center of the spurs has shifted to approx. plus and minus 21.9 kHz, i.e. 11898.1 and 11941.9. 0044 sign-off claims to be on 11920 only! If they are not going to get rid of them once and for all, the least they could do would be to include the spurs in IDs, ha! All three off shortly after 0045* (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. Radio Cairo, 6270 // 9360 // 9250 > 9915, 9305, 11590, 6 May 2010. At 0040 UT I noticed a strong empty carrier on 6270 along with an intermittent moaning sound like an unhealthy bee or an ACARS transmitter with a dying battery. I soon heard an OM speaking over Arabic music, which was followed by a YL. As well as being a bit garbled and distorted, the unhealthy bee had been joined by his friends and now sounded like a tin can full of hornets. I found a fair parallel on 9250 with moderate band noise and lightning static from the thunderstorms Eastward of here and a fainter parallel on 9360. 9250 was off soon after 0045 UT and replaced by 9915, which was so completely distorted and unreadable that it's easily the worst quality broadcast signal I've ever heard. I also found a non-parallel on 9305, with an OM singing the Koran and heavily distorted audio that sounded like a disintegrated speaker cone, and a third program on 11590, with a very weak signal of a YL and then an OM speaking. I heard the single bee still groaning on 6270 after 0100 UT. The transmitter in Abis seems to be infested by bees while that at Abu Zaabal has blown its speakers (Terry Wilson, MI, Eton E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9305, R. Cairo, 1940 May 9 with a highly spurious FMish like signal and quite buzzying across 9200 to 9340!! S20 on center spurious levels to S9 (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11590, Radio Cairo, 2010-04-13, 2310-2314: Abu Zaabal, Egypt. ENGLISH, strong carrier, fairly low modulation, woman announcer "Radio Cairo presents...", short interlude of Middle Eastern sounding music, then talk by man, in the clear (Earl Higgins, St. Louis, Missouri, USA using a Degen DE-1103 with built-in whip, ABDX via DXLD) ** EGYPT. Updated summer A-10 of Radio Cairo: 0700-1100 15800 ABZ 100 kW / 250 deg to WeAf in Arabic General Service 1015-1215 13860 ABZ 250 kW / 090 deg to WeAs in Arabic 1215-1330 17870 ABZ 250 kW / 090 deg to SoAs in English 1230-1400 15710 ABS 250 kW / 106 deg to SEAs in Indonesian 1300-1430 15065 ABZ 250 kW / 070 deg to WeAs in Dari 1300-1600 15080 ABS 250 kW / 241 deg to WeAf in Arabic 1330-1530 15040 ABZ 100 kW / 070 deg to WeAs in Farsi 1430-1600 15065 ABZ 250 kW / 070 deg to WeAs in Pashto 1500-1600 15780 ABZ 250 kW / 050 deg to CeAs in Uzbek 1500-1600 13580 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg to EaEu in Albanian 1530-1730 17810 ABZ 250 kW / 170 deg to CEAf in Swahili 1600-1700 15285 ABZ 100 kW / 160 deg to ECAf in Afar 1600-1800 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 090 deg to SoAs in Urdu 1600-1800 12170 ABZ 150 kW / 195 deg to CSAf in English 1700-1900 9280 ABS 250 kW / 005 deg to N/ME in Turkish 1700-2300 9250 ABZ 250 kW / 180 deg to EaAf in Arabic R. Waadi e Nile 1700-1730 15285 ABZ 100 kW / 160 deg to ECAf in Somali 1730-1900 15285 ABZ 100 kW / 160 deg to ECAf in Amharic 1800-1900 6270 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg to WeEu in Italian 1800-2100 9990 ABS 250 kW / 241 deg to WeAf in Hausa 1900-2000 6270 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg to WeEu in German 1900-2000 9280 ABS 250 kW / 005 deg to EaEu in Russian 1900-2030 11510 ABZ 250 kW / 250 deg to WeAf in English 1900-2400 9305 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg to WeEu in Arabic General Service 1900-0030 9295 ABZ 100 kW / 160 deg to CEAf in Arabic R. V. of Arabs 2000-2115 6270 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg to WeEu in French 2000-2200 6860 ABZ 250 kW / 110 deg to AUS in Arabic 2030-2230 9280 ABS 250 kW / 241 deg to WeAf in French 2115-2245 6270 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg to WeEu in English 2215-2330 9360 ABZ 250 kW / 245 deg to SoAm in Portuguese 2300-0030 11590 ABZ 250 kW / 330 deg to NEAm in English 2330-0045 9250 ABS 250 kW / 241 deg to SoAm in Arabic 2330-0045 9360 ABZ 250 kW / 245 deg to SoAm in Arabic 0000-0700 9305 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg to NoAm in Arabic General Service 0030-0430 11590 ABZ 250 kW / 330 deg to NEAm in Arabic 0045-0200 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg to NoAm in Spanish 0045-0200 9360 ABZ 250 kW / 245 deg to CeAm in Spanish 0045-0200 9915 ABS 250 kW / 252 deg to SoAm in Spanish 0200-0330 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg to NoAm in English (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250.0, RNGE, Malabo, 1928-1930, Apr 29, hi- tempo local pops, interruption by speaker at 1930 in vernacular with clear mentions of Malabo, then music continued, good on LSB owing to utility QRM (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) 6250, RNGE rarely on the air, May 10 at 0538 in Castilian probably news, vs ute beeps, but just as I was starting to BFO the frequency, it cut off the air at 0538:30*, and had not come back by 0552. If EqG ever starts before 0527, will make an interesting collision with another Spanish station on 6250, R. Japón via Bonaire, the leapfrog of 6080 over 6165 RN in Dutch. 6250, RNGE, May 14 at 0537 with report in Castilian, clipped audio. S9+15 mixed with Bronx cheers from utility. 0544 refers to ``Compañero Santiago``, and that seems to be the standard honorific, so are they Commies? 0548 switch to another announcer with very different audio from reverberating studio, thanking the other comrade who was probably on phone. So today they managed to stay on air more than a semiminute after I intuned (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 6030, R Oromiya, Adama, 1851-1900*, Apr 25, choral song, slow pop song, programme ann and frequencies in Oromo, ID, possibly news headlines, reggae-style music clip (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) 6030, Radio Oromiya, *0325-0347 May 3, IS until 0329 when a man announcer gave ID and opening announcements in Oromo language. Music fanfare at 0330, brief talks by man announcer followed by Horn of Africa vocals. Fair to good signal with deep fades (Rich D'Angelo, Wyomissing PA 19610, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B, Eton E1, Eton E5, Alpha Delta DX Sloper, RF Systems Mini-Windom, Datong FL3, JPS ANC-4, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. Hello, tonight noted two different programs on 7165 and 7110 kHz. At 1959 UT hymn and close-down, but noted another different program after 2000 on 7110 kHz - and Guinea Conakry 7125 at 2030 UT too (Wolfgang Büschel, May 7, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 10, via DXLD) 7100, R Ethiopia, possibly replacing 7110 with HoA song. Some low level QRM presumably from Korea at 1602 May 9 with gongs, 34333 (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. via Pridnestrovye, 15540, Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia, *1430-1500*, May 7, presumed. Sign on with Horn of Africa music. Talk in listed Somali. Some local tribal chants. Horn of Africa music. Weak but readable. Mon and Fri only (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** ETHIOPIA. Schedules of several clandestines: see BELGIUM [non] ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. Jamming vs VOA: see KUWAIT ** EUROPE. Laser is now testing on 4015 kHz and it seems a lot clearer when I tried it just now (Gary Drew, 1910 UT Sunday May 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ex-4025? ** FALKLAND ISLANDS [and non]. La Rosa de Tokyo para hoy: LA RADIO DURANTE LA GUERRA POR MALVINAS La Rosa de Tokyo, el programa semanal de DX y medios de comunicación irradiado a través de LS11 Radio Provincia de Buenos Aires (AM 1270 kHz; http://www.amprovincia.com.ar y una importante red de emisoras de frecuencia modulada, amplitud modulada y onda corta de la Argentina y el resto del mundo) La Rosa de Tokyo se irradia los sábados desde las 0900 hasta las 1000 hora de la Argentina (1200 a 1300 horas UT).- En caso de querer escuchar el programa en cualquier momento pueden visitar la excelente página programas DX en http://programasdx.com/larosadetokio.htm El programa correspondiente al fin de semana del 08 y 09 de Mayo (que en días posteriores se puede bajar de la página programasdx.com) estará dedicado a analizar las dos emisoras propagandísticas que transmitieron en ocasión de la sangrienta Guerra de Malvinas. Así, revisaremos los casos de Radio Liberty (dirigida a las tropas inglesas) y Radio Atlántico del Sur (destinada a las fuerzas argentinas). Habrá interesantísimas y reveladoras entrevistas que nos permitirán conocer a estas estaciones del recuerdo. Recuerden que los días subsiguientes podrán volver a escuchar este programa haciendo click en http://programasdx.com/ Un cordial saludo del staff editor (Arnaldo Slaen, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. 6170, Scandinavian Weekend R, Virrat, 1255-1330, Sat May 01, Finnish ann and pop songs, 35233. 11720, Scandinavian Weekend R, Virrat, 0755-1055, Sa May 01, Finnish ann and English oldies like “Down by the River”, 35333 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. 6190, Deutschlandfunk, Berlin, verified for a second time (first time responded to an electronic report this time to a postal report) in 56 days with a full data Satellite card indicating 17 KW from v/s U. Reyler (?). (Rich D’Angelo, PA, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) ** GERMANY: Re 10-18, Radio Krasnoyarsk, exactly Radio Rossii Krasnoyarsk on 6085 kHz in A-10: 6085 co-channel. Rumours these days, Bayerischer Rundfunk Munich Ismaning will cease SW transmission 6085 kHz in DRM for ever, due of budget cuts (Wolfgang Büschel, May 7, dxldyg via DXLD) Perhaps the gossip in detail is of interest: Someone posted under pseudonym that he wrote Bayerischer Rundfunk engineering about a pretty low audio level of the DRM signal, and he says that the reply also mentioned that it is planned to cancel the DRM transmissions as a cost saving measure (this not necessarily means that the money will be cut, rather it will be spend for other purposes instead). http://www.pro-digitalradio.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2636 By the way, Ulrich Wilhelm, the current spokesman of Germany's federal government, has just been elected as new director of Bayerischer Rundfunk, assuming office in next February. http://www.br-online.de/unternehmen/rundfunkrat/ulrich-wilhelm-rudolf-erhard-intendant-ID1271332927323.xml Many people think that this is an absolutely impossible staffing, no matter which good things could be said about Mr. Wilhelm. First Nikolaus Brender, editor-in-chief of Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, has been fired after putting too much of an emphasis on independent journalism (one statement from him: officials used to regularly call the news room, "I brought an end to this"). Now a top government official becomes the director of a large broadcasting organization. So much for the strict separation of state and public broadcasting in Germany (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) ** GERMANY. 15160, LWF Voice of Gospel (Nauen), 1330-1334, 5/10/2010, Burmese. Flute music followed by announcements by man, then traditional Burmese instrumental music. Poor but steady signal (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. 15510, church bells caught my ear, May 9 at 1415, good signal; soon found weaker // 15410; then narration in Russian but with bits of German and English voiced-over. If it`s DW, it can`t be from Germany. Per Aoki, 15510 is 500 kW Rampisham, UK at 76 degrees, while 15410 is 250 kW Woofferton, UK at 58 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAHAN. GUAM, 12105, One of the KSDA Guam transmitters is bad in audio since few weeks now. BUZZY audio noted again from KSDA Guam in Chinese service at 1105 UT May 8th, S=3 weak. But at same time KSDA Indonesian and Su[n]danese program is correct in audio on 15540 kHz in 11-12 UT slot. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) GUAM, Frequency change of KTWR Agat in Korean from May 2: 1400-1500 NF 11750 TWR 100 kW / 335 deg, ex 15425 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) ** GUINEA. The 4900 has been IDed; read on. Most of the posts here were pre-ID. UNIDENTIFIED. Re 10-18, 4900 West African --- 4899.96[.97] station with African-like music, mostly nonstop, then YL-talk 2326-circa 2340, music, no change on TOH, then at 0002 UT: something like a jingle with "... One ..." ?; no signal at 0027 at frequency check (Karel Honzik, CZECHIA, May 3-4, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 10 via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) I add Carlos here, because he was the first to report 4900 kHz. I also left the recording on last night, as it didn't sign off at 2300 as I expected. (At that time I thought it might be R. Centrafricaine). It continued until 0005, and that would suggest a West African country, as Carlos said in his report. Togo used to s/off at 0005 UT, but wasn't that with news and NA? This was more like plug off when music was going. Carlos could confirm that it wasn't \\ with Guinea Conakry 7125 kHz, so still a puzzle. The signal just a bit too weak to understand anything, except the language was French at least at certain times. I'll try to catch the fade-in time, maybe that gives more clue. It drifted from 4899.98 to .94 kHz in the course of the evening, so probably not a brand new transmitter? I left recording on last night and you can hear that it had drifted a bit in the latter part. Attached are two clips at the times Karel suggested, at 2337 and 0002, this is the closest I got to ID. Can any of you catch anything conclusive or familiar? (Mauno Ritola, Finland, May 4, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 10 via DXLD) Dear Mauno & Karel, I could get some signal yesterday, at around 2225, but it was pointless to record any of that - too weak & noisy - not to be compared to what I heard the first time I spotted it. Both the first time and yesterday gave me the impression it can be (north to south) Senegal, Ivory Coast, Togo or Benin, not just because of the antenna used but also because of the French accent. It's rather European, not like the Guinean for instance. I remember the BEN & CTI fqs and the sort of French accent I often heard when they were active, and that's what it sounded like. Hopefully, I shall be observing this again via the Beverage on the 14th inst., but hope any of us solves the mystery by then. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, 1856 UT May 6, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Carlos, I'd need a sudden geomagnetic disturbance to happen in the evening, that might bring the signal here to understandable level. I wonder if anyone has tried in the Americas, after all the sign off is was as late as 0005. 73, (Mauno, May 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Good late evening, Mauno! Sure, that would suit us. Well, I could only try 4900 again shortly after 2100 UT, and what I hear is the "African mystery" plus a QSO with two Italian pirate amateurs using the LSB. They chat about speakers, modulation, LEDs; in sum the usual stuff many amateurs talk about. Others seem to stick on lengthy, boring comparisons of microphones, mic-amplifiers and modulation quality. I don't know whether I'll be patient enough to keep listening and waiting until they QRT, but the WAfr signal seems to be quite bad, possibly even worse than yesterday. 73, (Carlos. 2126 May 6, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 4900: Ciao a tutti, ieri sera ho scoperto per caso un QSO di pirati italiani su 4900 kHz LSB intorno alle 23 locali [2100 UT]; si trattava di 3 stazioni che si identificavano come 2LG, 2RB e Luigi. E' la prima volta che sento un qso simile in questa banda, di solito li ricevero sui 45 metri (6600 kHz) o intorno a 3200. Saluti, (Andrea Borgnino IW0HK - HB9EMK, May 7, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) Also here the signal is now very weak, a carrier only, in fact no modulation to be detected. Like Carlos writes: it cannot be compared with a signal heard on the 3rd of May (Karel Honzík, Czechia, 1247 UT May 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s the timestamp on this message, tho it seems unlikely he would be hearing it at all at midday. Everyone, please include real times in your posts rather than `now` making us guess, later (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Dear Mauno, No time until this moment to send this message, which was only started after trying 4900 again; but the Italian amateurs are pesting the frequency like the other day. Yesterday, however, the conditions were a bit less adverse than usual, no QRM except some avoidable splatter from CHINA 4905 which I would probably not feel with my Beverage: 07 May'10, 2207-2235, French, some music, jingle for "journal parlé" at 2210 which ran continuously until at least the end of the observation; the readability was better during the (female) speaker's speech than during the many reports aired in the newscast, and so so was the accent. Many "national" and "nationale" heard, but "Ivoirienne" too, so, probably, CTI is the country. And I confirm what I said the other day as to their French accent - the speakers, not the others, do resemble more French like than speakers from other French speaking countries around. _______________________ I am using a 6x12x6 m Ewe (or inverted U if you like) beamed like my 270 m long, 145º Beverage, so it's not the same as the most favourable bearing I used during the past Saturday, i.e. via the SAm Bev., 300 m long, 225º. It is, nevertheless, the antenna that provided the quieter signal. That reminds me that I should try a Ewe down on the SW coast QTH too, and compare it against the Bevs. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, via DXLD) Dear Mauno, Thanks, but I deserve no congrats for the moment - CTI is my supposition. Bad condx y/day, Sat., with those Ital. amat. using the ch. again, but better today; I could start my today's obs. at 2229 only: news lasting till 2234, fq (4900) ann (!) followed by Afr. pops. I shall try later, at nearly 2300 when I hope condx won't degrade that much, but fast QRN & fast QSB, even compensating rec. via LoUSB, isn't helping a lot. The condx today are abt. the same as during the day I first found them on 4900, i.e. abt. a week ago, but then the signal deteriorated a lot until 2300. I am eager to receive this next Thurs... unless the Pope's visit won't cast a spell on propagation... A good idea which I haven't explored yet is to find out which countries, if any that is, are about to have any elections soon: maybe this triggers off some unexpected use of radio? 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Carlos, anyway congrats for finding something interesting! One reply from from an Ivory Coast web site says that it can't be RTI, but such replies are not worth much, they may not be aware of a new small transmitter. Here are the nearest upcoming elections in Africa from IFES Election Guide: * Central African Republic - Presidential First Round (Postponed) May 16, 2010 * Central African Republic - Parliamentary (Postponed) May 16, 2010 * Central African Republic - Presidential Second Round (Postponed) May 23, 2010 * Ethiopia - Parliamentary May 23, 2010 * Guinea - Presidential First Round (Tentative) June 27, 2010 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, ibid.) Yes, I am hearing a station on 4900 but the signal is weak even at my location (not helped by the fact we are now in the season of thunder storms). The past 2 nights a signal has started to come in from around 1800, still audible after 2200. I have struggled to make anything out of the static and so far have got no ID. It does sound like French at some times but mostly I hear another language. I can't detect anything in my mornings or daytime. I'll try to keep monitoring but I hope one of your European correspondents with better equipment will be able to identify which country this is (James MacDonell, Nigeria, May 10, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Unidentified African station on 4900 kHz --- For several days I have been checking 4900 kHz to try and identify a mystery African station first reported by Carlos Gonçalves in DXLD on 1st May. The signal is extremely weak here in the UK, but a carrier can be detected most nights, peaking after 2200 UT. On a couple of occasions it has been strong enough for traces of audio - lively music of the style popular in francophone West Africa, with some talk in what sounds to be vernaculars or possibly French. Sign-off time is at 0000/0005 UT. It is not parallel Mali (5995) or Guinea (7125) and does not sound like Chad which has used 4905 in the past (the sign off time would also be too late for Chad which usually closes at 2230). I have heard a very tentative mention of Burkina, though it does not seem to be parallel Radio Burkina's internet audio feed and the station's home page site still lists 5030 kHz. Glenn Hauser says Carlos has heard clues pointing towards a possible reactivation of Côte d'Ivoire, which is certainly an interesting possibility. Both Ivory Coast and Burkina are neighbouring countries with national channels which sign off at 0000 according to WRTH. Observations continue (Dave Kenny, Caversham, Berks., AOR7030+ 25m long wire, May 11, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dave, Both Mauno Ritola in Finland and I observed this station again last evening (Mon, 10 May) when they did close earlier, somewhere between 2200 & 2205; we both also checked GUI 7125 & MLI 5995: not in parallel, but in my opinion even this detail won't say more than that, i.e. they were not parallel. Unfortunately, a QSO of [Italian] amateurs also seems to be regular on 4900, and that spoils the already poor signal from this stn which I still say is from a WAfr country, not MLI, CAF or alike: I am inclined to believe it's SEN, CTI, BEN. The clues, if any, I heard until now are "chaîne national" (not "châine" as written in some WRTH refs.), on 01 May, "journal parlé", 07 May, and "Ivoirienne" (ment'ed. sev. times), 09 May I think. Another clue so to speak is the sort of French accent from the speaker, which is normally a lady. They air a newscast at 2210 that runs until 2230, 2235, it varies a little bit; Afr pops is the usual menu right afterwards. Meanwhile, a local CTI source sent Mauno an info. whereby it was said the stn is not from them because of some details heard on an audio clip. Up here in Lisbon, the sev. antennae I can use simply cannot be compared to the one I used on anther place, a Bev., but I keep observing this almost every day just in case. The only ant. that's helping me getting some signal from this stn is a 6x12x6 m Ewe beamed 145º. Meanwhile, I hope the mystery is solved by any of us, but if not, then I hope to get a decent signal for ID as soon as I make use of the Bev. that suits WAfr. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, May 11, ibid.) One source in West Africa told me that Familia FM (105.3) in Guinea is broadcasting on shortwave 4900 kHz. Station website is http://www.familiafm.com Briefly googling I found only one reference of them being on shortwave. At http://jamesgiroux.ca/adventure/guinea-day-5-timbi-medine/ There's a mention like this: "The technology is cutting edge and doesn't even have a patent yet because to do so would make it public and they don't want to do that yet but it's very cool. I don't know much about it but they've been able to cut the number of watts needed and still hit a radius of about 700 miles with their shortwave signal. It means that all of Guinea is able to receive the moral and spiritual teachings broadcast everyday on Familia." If Familia FM is indeed on 4900, I think it's unauthorized transmitter and no wonder if they keep low profile. Anyway, it's worth checking if there's Familia ID on 4900. [later:] Now on Familia FM website also appeared confirmation: Nouvelle Station PDF Imprimer Envoyer ``Bientôt écoutez la radio Familia en ondes courtes sur 4.900MHz dans tous le pays ...`` So, that's it (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Jari, Many thanks indeed! I told Mauno the other day, that, to me, this station "looks" like some local or regional station (implicitly, government, not private), not a national one. If this is what you mention, then it's private and low, probably very low powered. Both the day before y/day and yesterday, 13/5, the speaker during the usual news bulletins that starts at 2210 right after a jingle, was a male one, not the usual lady, and this time a few more words could be understood, though nothing that specifically points to Guinea-Conakry, except perhaps "bureau politique", something typical of certain African countries - maybe this could be a clue. Yesterday too, together with the many references to the political bureau were also generals' names, and "Camara" is often heard. Names like those in here http://www.rtg-conakry.com/index.php?id=6&tx_ttnews[pointer]=1&cHash=9e4173e0cc are perhaps worth retaining during some check. As to R. Familia's webpage, I found no match for the 2210 news bulletins in: http://www.familiafm.com/index.php/menu-nos-emissions/menu-informations http://www.familiafm.com/index.php/menu-nos-emissions/menu-informations/94-artcile-infos Prior to that 2210 newscast y/day, the sort of music was, apparently, untypical of countries to the south; it sounded more like the one heard on the Senegal, Guinea region which has more common ties with Mali. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear friends, and I have found this (see the clip) in my long recording. Thanks Jari for your advice (Karel Honzík, Czechia, May 14, ibid.) Jari, Congratulations - you have solved the mystery! And congratulations to Karel too - his audio clip does contain the ID. What still puzzles me is why they announced, or use to announce, "chaîne nationale" at the end of their 2210-2235v daily newscast in French, but maybe I can finally find out why later in the day when listening to their webstream, which is working - listening to it as I write this. Meanwhile, try, if you can, to listen to the R. Guinée 7125 news at 2200 and compare the sort of French accent with that of R. Familia's female speaker (again, news is 2210 and runs typically until 2235). 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. 7125, Guinea, R. Conakry, Conakry-Sofon. May 11, 2107 female talks seeming in dialect, 2110 abrupt sign off. 24433 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUYANA. 3289.99, Voice of Guyana, 0205-0300, May 7, US pop music including Ritchie Valens’ La Bamba, and Karen Carpenter tune Local ads. Fair level but poor overall signal due to noisy conditions. Not able to make out much program content due to thunderstorm static. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) On the air now --- 3290 Guyana GBC has been very strong 0900 to 0935, using the noise reducing antenna, with subcontinental music and Bollywood pops. Clear Identification of Guyana at 0900 (Bob Wilkner, Drake R8 and 746ProDL, Pompano Beach, Florida, 0943 UT May 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3289.99, Voice of Guyana, 0800-0900+, May 8, English ID/frequency announcement at 0800 with IDs as “National Communications Network” and “Voice of Guyana”. English religious programming at 0803 with local choral music, religious talk and Hindi vocals. Voice of Guyana ID at 0836. Qur`an at 0837. ID/frequency announcement at 0842. Lite instrumental music at 0843. DJ talk at 0845 with personal Mother’s Day greetings sent out. Poor to fair. Better than usual. Nice to hear quite a few ID announcements. Modulation during the religious talk portions appeared to be a little weak (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3289.9, GBC, Georgetown, 0804, May 8, English. BBCWS relay re Russian coal mine blast; fútbol news; BBC ID into business news; fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH USA, NRD-545, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3289.97, Voice of Guyana, 0915-0940 May 8, Noted a male in English language comments during the period. "You're listening to the Voice of Guyana ..." at 0931. This followed with canned ads and promos. Signal was fair. [non]. Unident 3287.43, 0915-0940 May 8, Noted a carrier/TTY signal on this freq which produces a few second TTY transmission every minute or so. Signal is fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3290, making progress here in logging reactivated GBC. May 9 at 0617 talk definitely in English, probably BBC relay at this hour, but not // 9410, or at least not synchronized. S9+12 but the noise level about the same, so copy difficult. As far as I could tell this was on 3290.0 (compared to 1290.0), not 3289.9 as some report (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3290 kHz, Voice of Guyana at 0714z; good strong signal at S-7 - S-9, but very high QRN/M and only moderate audio. English barely discernible spoken by OM, plus music. Use of SSB helpful, LSB better than USB despite interference from carrier het and RTTY on 3287.44 kHz. Notch filter killed the het, but RTTY - well, just have to put up with that. If I had time, I'd try a reception report - maybe later this week (Bruce Jensen, California, USA, May 11, ptswyg via DXLD) ** HAITI. DX update from northern Delaware: I snagged the below recording this evening (10-May) starting at 2059 local [0059 UT May 11] on 840 kHz with presumed WHAS phase nulled. I'm reasonably sure that this is 4VEH from Haiti. Indeed, I think that I hear "Ici la Cap Haitien, vous ecoutez Radio 4VEH, la voix ..." starting at 55 seconds into the clip. That said, I'd appreciate getting a second opinion from the medium wave DXing community that it was indeed 4VEH that I heard. Many thanks in advance. http://www.21centimeter.com/21centimeter/Recordings/840-khz_2059-Local_10-May-2010.mp3 Rgds, (Pete Jernakoff, K3KMS, Wilmington, Delaware, http://www.21centimeter.com IRCA via DXLD) Yes, says in French ``depuis Cap-Haïtien, vous écoutez 4VEH, la Voix Évangelique d`Haïti. Il est 8 heures.`` Then into Kreyòl. Nice! Shortly a hymn in English (Glenn Hauser, Oklahome, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HUNGARY. 6150, Hungarian Radio, 2010-05-08 *0057-0104: Jászberény, Hungarian, fair, open carrier from tune-in, three second long high- pitched test tone at 0057:55, open carrier to sign on at exactly 0100:00, muddy/bassy audio, announcement by man, short band music then presumed news read by man; decent signal and alone, would be readable, if not for mushy audio. Get this one while you can - transmitter site switches to Germany at end of June, leaving Hungary off shortwave entirely! (Earl Higgins, St. Louis, Missouri, USA using a Degen DE- 1103 with built-in whip, ABDX via DXLD) We`ll see ** INDIA. AIR Jeypore, both 5040 and 6040 off air for last 3 days, but continues to send at 1467 kHz. Jeypore and Bhopal (4880 [Lucknow? See below]) have been the strongest signals in my location in Eastern India. It`s a pity that AIR's SW transmitters are getting weaker by the day. Regards (Ashok Satpathy, May 11, dx_india yg via DXLD) Checked at 1300. Still off air (Satpathy, May 12, ibid.) ** INDIA. 9690, AIR GOS, May 7 at 1331 check in English news about the German ambassador; so in correct language for the fourth day in a row, but poor reception far afield from SE Asia. AIR has always refused to target North America so we have to take whatever we can get (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR carrying T20 cricket commentary --- Following AIR channels were noted carrying running commentary of T20 cricket match between India & West Indes at 1620 UT: 4810 - AIR Bhopal 4880 - AIR Lucknow 4910 - AIR Jaipur 5010 - AIR T'puram (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, May 9, dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. REFERENCE FOR ACTIVE INDONESIAN STATIONS Hi Glenn, Atsunori Ishida (Aichi, Japan) has updated his monitoring results for Indonesian stations. Covers the period May 1-8. Also has audio clips for sign-on, sign-off and some news segments. A nice reference guide! http://www.max.hi-ho.ne.jp/a-ishida/ins/ (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. RRI-Fak Fak reactivated on 4789.97 at +0855 UT May 12. Audio file: at 0959: http://ani.atz.jp/DX/bbs1/img/2453.mp3 local ID: http://ani.atz.jp/DX/bbs1/img/2465.mp3 by XYZ in Akita RRI-Fak Fak on 4790 at 1455* UT on May 12. Local ID at 1100 by male, Jakarta News at 1200, 1300 and 1400. QRM with Azad Kashmir Radio at 1330-1430 on same frequency. de A. Ishida (S. Hasegawa, Japan, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Clips have CODAR QRM, so also problematic over there. The first one incongruously concludes with ``Ave Maria`` hymn (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) Hi All, Apologies if this has already been reported. I just returned from vacation in Brisbane and upon return, heard this (a pleasant surprise): 4789.97-reactivated, RRI Fak Fak, first noted from 0600+ and again at 2200+ with nice local music and occasional RRI News (not heard every hour), In the clear at 2200 but mixing with Radio Visión, Perú, at 0600. Nice to see this one on again. 13 May (David Sharp, NSW Australia, NRD-535D, FT-950, ICF-2010, ICF-SW7600GR, R8, etc.) ** INDONESIA. 4869.93, RRI Wamena 1200-1220+ May 5. Out of music and into talk at 1200 with no SCI or intro. Presume Jak program since // to 3325 and 3344.96. All frequencies poor. Also heard next day (6 May) with Jak program at 1200 (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. In 10-18, one log of VOI reads 9526.87; should be 9525.87 (Chuck Bolland and Ron Howard, May 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Already corrected in the archive 9526-, VOI, May 9 English from 1300, today with quite good modulation and not much hum. I noted the magazine`s segments: News; News Around the Archipelago; This Day in History; This Week --- Top Headlines; News in Brief; By now it`s 1333 when the travelogue, Indonesian Wonders, starts. 1338 Miscellany about a skeleton found in West Java; and finally, Music Corner. [also may be an Editorial after the News] 9526-, May 11 at 1300 opening English on Tuesday as Exotic Indonesia, immediately conversation between Jakarta studio YL and the OM at RRI Banjarmasin plugging simulcast on his FM station. Good signal but too much hum. I keep seeing some reports of this as ``9525``, which is possible from their other transmitter, axually more like 9524.9, but I always hear it just below 9526, so suspect people are not carefully checking the frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9525.87v, Voice of Indonesia, 1308-1339, May 11. Another Tuesday edition of “Exotic Indonesia, a network program jointly broadcast live by Voice of Indonesia Jakarta and R-R-I Banjarmasin”; usual segments of news, editorial, Today in History, Focus and segment from Banjarmasin about the South Kalimantan ceremony for a woman’s 7th month of pregnancy. Please listen to the brief audio attachment (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) in the dxldyg, that is 9526-, May 13 at 1602 with Qur`an, fair signal from VOI. English in the 13-14 hour was nominal, i.e. good signal and sufficient modulation. 16-17 is normally the hour in Arabic, not just for the devotional (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. SOLAR STORM CREATES OUT-OF-CONTROL "ZOMBIESAT" (GALAXY 15) Glenn, Haven't seen this reported in the Digest yet: Space News International: http://tinyurl.com/2wkdnrr http://tinyurl.com/ybysw77 Discovery News: http://news.discovery.com/space/zombiesat-attack-solar-storm-fries-satellites-brain.html Regards, (via Ed - wd8kct Thomas, DXLD) DRIFTING SATELLITE THREATENS US CABLE PROGRAMMING By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN The Associated Press Tuesday, May 11, 2010; 6:57 PM LONDON -- A TV communications satellite is drifting out of control thousands of miles above the Earth, threatening to wander into another satellite's orbit and interfere with cable programming across the United States, the satellites' owners said Tuesday. Communications company Intelsat said it lost control of the Galaxy 15 satellite on April 5, possibly because the satellite's systems were knocked out by a solar storm. Intelsat cannot remotely steer the satellite to remain in its orbit, so Galaxy 15 is creeping toward the adjacent path of another TV communications satellite that serves U.S. cable companies. Galaxy 15 continues to receive and transmit satellite signals, and they will probably overlap and interfere with signals from the second satellite, known as AMC 11, if Galaxy 15 drifts into its orbit as expected around May 23, according to the two satellite companies. . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/11/AR2010051102741.html?hpid=moreheadlines (via NAB Smartbrief via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [and non]. EUROPE'S SMOS 'WATER MISSION' BATTLES INTERFERENCE By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News, Vienna . . .But in some parts of the world, Smos is still being blinded by radar networks, and even TV and radio links. The radio frequency interference (RFI) is a frustration for the mission team. The part of the electromagnetic spectrum in which Smos sees the planet is supposed to be reserved for Earth observation. .... "In Africa, for example, there are a couple of sources - one in Khartoum, one in South Africa," explained Dr Yann Kerr, one of the Smos principal investigators. "They are damaging the signal over much larger areas, affecting a good part of Africa. And this is one of the areas of the world where information on soil moisture for better water resources management is crucial. So it's really a hindrance," the CESBIO, France, researcher told BBC News. . . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8661228.stm (Via Dan Say, BC, DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. 7460, PRIDNESTROVIE, Radio Payam-e Doost (Maiac / Grigoriopol), *0230-0315*, 5/13/2010, Farsi. Man and woman talking over slow orchestral music 0230-0235. Tuned back at 0303 to find man talking over more upbeat music. Middle Eastern music with man talking at 0312 to end of broadcast at 0315. Poor signal, improved somewhat at 0303 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. 13860, could enjoy a bit of Bollywood-influenced music, May 7 at 1353, soon IDed at Radio Farda. Only F-P signal, weaker than Russian on 13870 = VOR St. Pete, and also weaker than RHC leapfrog on 13880. Aoki shows 13860 Farda via Lampertheim until 1300; via Wertachtal from 1400, but obviously on the air as well during the intervening hour, probably from former site. Might have been better after 1400 upping from 100 to 250 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNKNOWNISTAN: 7595, 2245-2302+, 12-May; ME-sounding music; ID spot at 2255+ was "? Radio"; At ToH, M in Slavic-sounding language apparently with sked as mentioned kHz several times; more upbeat music continued at 2302. SIO=3+32 with ute clatter. Extended VoA, Ashna, Farda? 7595, Radio Farda; 2232, 13-May; W in language to ID into vocal music. SIO=252+, need LSB to kill ute (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SRI LANKA site is now scheduled 22-24 with R. Farda since April 16, per Aoki (gh, DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Re 10-18, is Galei Zahal active? 15785.00 even is very poor signal these days (Wolfgang Büshcel, Germany, BC-DX May 10 via DXLD) ** JAPAN. 11705, NHKWNRJ, fair but sufficient signal direct from Yamata intended for Asia, Sunday May 9 at 1400, as we are constantly reminded in NAm by the much bigger Sackville signal 50 kHz lower only in Japanese now. Some ACI from VOK in French on 11710. Now the first minute is spent announcing the frequencies for this transmission, rather than the final minute announcing the frequencies for the next transmission. That is certainly an improvement. News from 1401 to 1411, then World Interactive (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [non]. NHK Radio Japan is testing in Hindi language as per following schedule: 1345-1430 UT on 9585 on 13, 14 & 15th May 2010. Reports to: nhkworld @ nhk.jp Audio Files appreciated (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Via Tashkent. Looks like a direct collision with two other stations, per Aoki! 9585 BBC 1345-1430 1234567 Burmese 100 340 Kranji SNG 10344E 0125N BBC a10 9585 FAMILY RADIO 1400-1500 1234567 Vietnamese 100 225 Paochung TWN 12018E 2343N WYFR a10 The latter of course banned from HFCC, so NHK may not know it exist, only the listeners trying to sort out the three signals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re NHK World via Tashkent-UZBEKISTAN. 9585 BBC 1345-1430 Burmese 100 340 Kranji-SNG BBC Does BBC Burmese STILL use the very same channel at very same time? Does this work well? I've my doubts (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Due to continuous feedback of poor reception on 6155 kHz, Radio Japan Bengali service is testing frequency 11965 kHz at 1300-1345 UT from 13-15 May 2010. Reception reports are welcome by Radio Japan and can be sent to nhkworld @ nhk.jp or bengali @ intl.nhk.or.jp Thanks, (Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, India, May 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also Tashkent (gh) ** JORDAN. 15290, Jordan Radio Amman in Arabic noted at scheduled 1030-1130 UT slot, S=8-9 in southern Germany. Noon service is meant to Mediterranean area, North and West Africa. ID at 1114 UT, excellent audio quality today. Close-down of transmission was midst on sentence at 1135:58 UT May 7 (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KANTON ISLAND. KANTON ISLAND AND HARD TIMES Kanton Island was the home of WXLE-1385, a station in the AFRTS model which I believe had 250 watts and was intended to serve residents who operated the radiobeacon and Pan Am Airways communications. In the early 70's this station (then called Canton Island) made occasional appearances throughout the US. I heard their carrier (presumed, it was then the only station anywhere on 1385) but never any audio. It was often reported on the west coast. A shame to see it has fallen on apparently hard times. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1276382/UK-sailor-Alex-Bond-saves-24-starving-Kanton-islanders-voyage-Australia.html (Bob Foxworth, FL, IRCA via DXLD) I heard 1385 too, IIRC (gh, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9780, May 13 at 1603 very nice music, soprano with harp and flute in slow lullaby-like song, 1605 another like it, 1607 YL announcement in Japanese. Aoki says: 9780 Furusato no Kaze 1600-1630 1234567 Japanese 250 45 Tainan TWN 12038E 2311N JCI a10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KURDISTAN [non?]. Iran. Two different stations under the same name “Voice of Iranian Kurdistan” both broadcasting to Iran were noted at 0305 hours on April 22 on 3922 and 4878 kHz. Source: (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DXprogram May 7, 2010 http://bit.ly/99piMh via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** KUWAIT. 15540, R. Kuwait still in English, May 7 at 2051, poor signal with that YL reading news headlines but mostly uncopiable due to her accent, dixion, speed of delivery, and fading. 15540, Radio Kuwait, May 8 at 2010 with distorted voices in rock music; 2027 hard rock, during English broadcast, fair signal. 15540, R. Kuwait with good strong signal during English broadcast, Sunday May 9 at 1903 with reminiscences of the Gulf War, interspersed with sad music longer than the talk segments, about preparing for chemical weapons attacks by Saddam, how he set 700 oil wells afire, etc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15540, Radio Kuwait; 1930-1938+, 11-May; English rock to 1932:30 Radio Kuwait presents Today in History; 5/11 events -- all British related. SIO=3+53+; nothing on 11990 (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15540, R. Kuwait, VG in English service, May 12 at 1855 with frenetic disco music, lyrix ``Sweet Dreams`` (but not Are Made of This), 1900 drastic cut to lo-key talk about starting a business in Kuwait (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. U S A (non), Summer A-10 for IBB via KWT: 1800-2130 on 5830 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg FAR Farsi 0200-0530 on 5860 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg FAR Farsi 2200-2300 on 5865 KWT 250 kW / 078 deg RFA Tibetan 0300-1200 on 5885 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg FAR Farsi 0530-0930 on 7220 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg FAR Farsi 1730-1800 on 7220 KWT 250 kW / 350 deg VOA Azeri 1600-1700 on 7350 KWT 250 kW / 050 deg RFE Turkmen 0100-0200 on 7430 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg VOA English 1000-1200 on 7435 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg FAR Farsi 1300-1400 on 7435 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg FAR Farsi 2200-2300 on 7460 KWT 250 kW / 058 deg VOA English 1500-1530 on 7465 KWT 250 kW / 050 deg RFE Kyrgyz 2300-2400 on 7505 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg RFA Tibetan 0030-0100 on 7555 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg ASH Pashto 1600-1700 on 7555 KWT 250 kW / 054 deg RFE Uzbek 1830-2030 on 7555 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg ASH Pashto/Dari 2030-0030 on 7555 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg VOA English 1700-1800 on 9310 KWT 250 kW / 078 deg DEE Pashto 1430-1830 on 9335 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg ASH Pashto/Dari/Pashto/Dari 0100-0300 on 9365 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg RFA Tibetan 0100-0400 on 9390 KWT 250 kW / 080 deg DEE Pashto 1900-2100 on 9405 KWT 250 kW / 350 deg RFE Belorussian 1800-1900 on 9840 KWT 250 kW / 350 deg RFE Russian 1230-1430 on 11550 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg AFG Pashto/Dari 1630-1730 on 11565 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg ASH Pashto 1630-1830 on 11580 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg ASH Pashto/Dari 1200-1400 on 11590 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg RFA Tibetan 1500-1600 on 11595 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg RFA Tibetan 1530-1600 on 11615 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg FAR Farsi 1400-1500 on 11860 KWT 250 kW / 080 deg AAP Urdu 0100-0200 on 11975 KWT 250 kW / 078 deg AAP Urdu 1400-1500 on 11975 KWT 250 kW / 078 deg RFA Tibetan 1200-1300 on 12130 KWT 250 kW / 078 deg MAS Pashto 0130-0230 on 12140 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg ASH Dari 0230-0330 on 12140 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg AFG Pashto 1500-1530 on 13755 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg VOA Uzbek 1800-1900 on 13835 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg VOA Amharic 1130-1630 on 15090 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg AFG Dari/Pashto/Dari/Pashto/Dari 1200-1300 on 15360 KWT 250 kW / 080 deg MAS Pashto 0330-0930 on 15680 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg AFG Dari/Pashto/Dari/Pashto 1400-1500 on 15725 KWT 250 kW / 078 deg AAP Urdu 0230-0530 on 17670 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg AFG Pashto/Dari/Pashto 0530-0830 on 17670 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg AFG Dari/Pashto/Dari 1000-1200 on 17750 KWT 250 kW / 078 deg RFA Tibetan 0600-0700 on 17780 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg RFA Tibetan 1000-1100 on 21530 KWT 250 kW / 078 deg RFA Tibetan AAP=Aap Ki Dunyaa AFG=Radio Free Afghanistan ASH=Radio Ashna DEE=Deewa Radio MAS=Radio Mashaal RFA=Radio Free Asia RFE=Radio Liberty FAR=Radio Farda VOA=Voice of America (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 10 May, via DXLD) > 1730-1800 on 7220 KWT 250 kW / 350 deg VOA Azeri [...] > 1900-2100 on 9405 KWT 250 kW / 350 deg RFE Belorussian > 1800-1900 on 9840 KWT 250 kW / 350 deg RFE Russian So the new Thomson antenna is nominally a rotatable one but never used in any other direction than 350 deg. so far? The 46 to 80 degree azimuths should all go out via the existing curtains; at least this would be possible. Anyway at 2025 check 9405 was a modest signal, as such still considerably stronger than Radio Farda on 5830. 7555 (listed Radio Ashna) was completely covered by an ARQ-like signal (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RFE doesn't broadcast in either Russian or Belarusian. So it should be RFE/RL or more specifically RL. Is it the first time RL uses KWT for Russian and Belarusian? (Sergei S., ibid.) But what about the Amharic service using the same bearing as for Uzbek? Maybe they are hoping for something off the 'back' of the curtain, if that's what is being used. The reverse direction would be 226 degrees which seems about right. 1500-1530 on 13755 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg VOA Uzbek 1800-1900 on 13835 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg VOA Amharic 73 (Noel R. Green, NW England, ibid.) It's just part of the battle in which IBB seeks to prove that it can use more transmitters than the president of Ethiopia has at hand, despite all his boast with jamming VOA. At present this Amharic broadcast goes out on nine frequencies, specifically 9620, 11520, 11905, 11925, 11975, 12140, 13835, 13870 and 15730, of which 11925 originates from the Wertachtal plant and 13870 from Nauen. Of course the quite secondary backlobe signal will not be that strong in Ethiopia, but still sufficient for "requiring" to be jammed, too (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KYRGYZSTAN. 4010, Kyrgyz R 1, Krasnaya Rechka, 1520-1530, Apr 09, talk in Kyrgyz, 35433. 4050, R Rossi relay, Krasnaya Rechka, 1520-1530, Apr 09, Russian, 35443. 4795, Kyrgyz R 1, Krasnaya Rechka, 1523-1530, Apr 09, talk in Kyrgyz, 22432 // 4010, QRM: Voice of China on 4800. (Alexander Beryozkin, St Petersburg, Russia, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) ** KYRGYZSTAN. Kyrgyz TV and Radio has appointed Kubat Otorbaev as Director. Otorbaev was chief of RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau. The appointment comes as the interim Kyrgyz government seeks to move from controlling the country's media - Otorbaev's work will include transforming the state broadcaster into a public broadcaster (AIB Media Industry Briefing 6 May via DXLD) ** LAOS. 4412.61v, Lao National Radio via Sam Neua, 1208, May 13. News in Laotian; // 6130; slightly lower in frequency than recently heard (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. Adventist World Radio-AWR, 3215, 0326, Malagasy, 333, May 10, OM talking to an audience. Mentions Amen often (Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA, Huntington Beach, California, USA, Rcvrs: Kenwood R5000 and Grundig Satellit 650, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The 50 kW RNW transmitter at Talata, 20 degrees. That would have been possible only with WWCR-1 off the air, which maybe it was; WWCR certainly would not be in Malagasy. Still, where was the I-3-level QRM from? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. Some changes from RNW's relay station in Madacascar: Voice of People in English/Shona/Ndebele from April 25: 0400-0500 NF 9875 MDC 050 kW / 265 deg to SoAf, ex 9895 [WORLD OF RADIO 1512] WYFR Family Radio in English, additional transmission from May 2: 1700-1800 on 7395 MDC 050 kW / 310 deg to EaAf (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. In 10-18, one mention of V. of Malaysia reads 6175.4v; should be 6174.4v like the others (Ron Howard, May 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Already corrected in the archive 6174.4v, Salam FM, 1606-1611*, May 12. With CNR-1 off the air on 6175.0, was able to hear them without the usual QRM; IDs and reciting from the Qur’an till suddenly off; // 6049.6v. If CNR-1 is down for maintenance, this is a good chance to hear Malaysia in the clear with Voice of Malaysia till 1400, then from 1400 to 1600 R. Suara Islam and then Salam FM till whenever they go off the air (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6174.4v, Voice of Malaysia, randomly from 1225 to 1346, May 13. Mostly fair due to the continued absence of CNR-1; frequent singing V.O.M. IDs; was rather late in starting the R. Suara Islam audio feed; just open carrier after 1400 till I checked again at 1414, to find them // 6049.6v (6174.4 actually had a stronger signal) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, Traxx FM via Kajang 1242-1312+ May 6. Pop music hosted by YL in English; pips at 1300 followed by news, I think; back to music at 1310. Fair at best. SARAWAK - 7270.01 Wai FM via Kuching 1244-1315 May 9. Droning chant to 1250, then pop mx to ToH and 2 pips; presumed news in Bahasa Malaysia followed. Thought I heard a Wai FM jingle at 1211 but not sure. Don't know what the Wai/Limbang schedule is these days (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 940, XEQ Bésame 940, Distrito Federal; toth ID “Aquí XEQ … transmitiendo con 50,000 Watts de potencia”; weak signal, frequency measured at 939.877 kHz; personal first. W 0500 24/3 (Andrew Brade, Holme-on-Spalding Moor, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK, AOR AR 7030 plus and Perseus SDR, Wellbrook phased array 290 , 305m beverage at 220 . Recording on Sony MZ-NH1 minidisc + Total Recorder, May-June MW News via DXLD) 939.88, XEQ, Radio Bésame, DF; “XEQ 9-40 AM” & soft pops, F 0400 28/3 (Barry Davies, Carlisle, Cumbria, England, UK, Perseus, 3.7m x 10.0m Flag + FLG100 amp., ibid.) 940 XEQ México, DF new slogan "XEQ 9-40" o "La Q 9-40" (Héctor García Bojorge via Christer Brunström, WRTH. Via May Central American [sic] News Desk, ARC via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 6104.8, XEQM RASA, Merida, Yucatan, 0543-0630, Apr 21 and 30, hi-tempo pop song, brief ann and more songs, very weak but in clear until BBC s/on at 0600. Frequency clear again from 0630 but, although carrier was there, no audio in South Africa. The 250W signal did pretty well to travel 8000 miles (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, mixed in with Hauser, OK, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) 6045, XEXQ-OC, May 7 at tune-in 1203 playing Pomp & Circumstance #1, a.k.a. Land of Hope & Glory. 1209 check in Spanish talk segment, 1213 other classical music starting. Reception better than usual today; at 1232 still in at S9+12, but the band noise level is growing. Meanwhile, 6010 was lacking XEOI, Radio Mil around 1215; is ordinarily weak but reliable during this hour. 1241 check now it`s audible in Spanish. 6045, May 11 did not tune in until 1228 when XEXQ was holding up nicely, perhaps due to slightly lower noise level than usual, and slightly better propagation. Violin and piano classical music registering S9+12, soon morphing into Romanian-type folk music with lots of fiddling; 1235 fading down some, 1304 JBA. 6045, XEXQ-OC, May 13 at 1235 with operatic excerpts including from Barber of Seville, very poor but hanging in there. Here`s an undated program grid I googled: http://www.uaslp.mx/Spanish/Administracion/DC/ORG/Documents/XEXQ_AM.pdf And the main website: http://www.uaslp.mx/Spanish/Administracion/DC/ORG/Paginas/RadioUniversitaria.aspx En vivo, but is it for their AM, or FM? http://uaslp.sytes.net:8000/live All this does is play a few sex of easy-listening music and stops! It seems SW is still required to hear it. Separate XHUSP-FM schedule: http://www.uaslp.mx/Spanish/Administracion/DC/ORG/Documents/XHUSP_FM2.pdf (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Desaparece Radio Yóol Iik --- XEMQ 810 kHz "Radio Yóol Iik" ya no existe más; en su lugar "Átomo 810" con música en inglés. Sin embargo aún no han modificacio su página: http://www.radioenmaya.com/ XEQM 6105 KHz a las 1220 UT con noticiero de Candela FM, señal ya muy pobre y muy interferida por Radio Habana Cuba, ahora por momentos ausente durante el día por muy baja señal, ni siquiera ameritó registrar archivos de audio. What happened? "Radio Yóol Iik" 810 kHz no longer exists, instead "Átomo 810" broadcasting music in English. Take a look at http://www.radioenmaya.com/ News from Candela FM on 6105 at 1220 UT. Atte: Ing.Civ. Israel González Ahumada, M.I., Yucatán, May 7, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Maya language service was supposedly relayed on SW during the daytime, so does Átomo 810 now get that treatment? 6105 may have QRM from RHC 6110 all the time, but now there`s the DentroCuban Jamming Command plus Radio Martí on 6105 itself, at least 1000-1130, as IBB figured XEQM was expendable when adding that frequency for Martí beefed-up service (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mejor señal de XEQM libre de interferencias (diferencia de la mañana de ayer) ahora al parecer 24 horas con programación de Candela FM; mando enlace al archivo de audio de su señal aquí en Mérida a las 1225 UT hoy 8 de mayo de 2010: http://rapidshare.com/files/384949817/SW6105KHZ-08MAY2010-1225UT.WAV.html XEQM broacasting XEMH "Candela" (24 hrs) instead XEMQ (now "Átomo 810"). Atte: (Ing. Civ. Israel González Ahumada, M.I., May 8, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, ibid.) Mejor señal de XEQM el 9 de mayo de 2010 a las 2135 UT, con canal libre de interferencias y programación de Candela FM: http://rapidshare.com/files/385650564/SW6105KHZ-09MAY2010-2135UT.WAV.html Atte: (Ing. Civ. Israel González Ahumada, M.I., DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Madrugada Mexicana --- Domingo 9 de mayo entre las 0830 y 0930 UT pude sintonizar tres emisoras en banda de 49 metros que operan desde la República Mexicana, llegando con excelentes señales y una programación muy variada, debido a buenas condiciones de propagación en esta banda; así disfruté de: 6010, RADIO MIL, escuchada gracias a la ausencia de la local LV de tu Conciencia; presentando música pop en español con intérpretes como Miranda, Julieta Venegas, Camila. ".. en Radio Mil, vive México..." Promo del programa Lleno de Energía, que emiten de Lunes a Viernes a las 6 de la mañana. Con algo de interferencia desde Radio Inconfidência. 6105, CANDELA, presentando programación musical de cumbias incluído el tema: la pollera colorá; jingle "Candela, la más grande". Anunciando especial programa por el día de las madres. "... la más grande celebración del año... el día de las madres con Candela... felicidades les desea Candela a todas las madres..." Excelente señal 6185, RADIO EDUCACION, Con música instrumental a ritmo de Jazz "...Radio Educación, 85 años; voz de todas las voces..." Anunciando nuevos programas y conductores para varios programas.". ..aquí en el 1060 de Radio Educación... " Escuchas realizadas con el Sony ICF 2010 y antena hilo largo de 15 metros. Buen DX (Rafael Rodriguez R., Bogotá D.C. - COLOMBIA, May 9, Visite mi blog en http://dxdesdecolombia.blogspot.com condiglist yg via DXLD) 6185, R. Educación, May 14 from 0550 with nice Brazilian songs, vs ACI from 6190 CRI Sackville, clear after 0600, and same continued as I dozed off until turnoff at 0650. Not of course to be confused with RNA Brasil which is not on during these hours except UT Sundays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [and non?]. After hearing WWCR inbooming on 15825 the afternoon of May 11, I check for sporadic E opening extending much higher, and now there is one: After 2000 UT, Spanish stations on channel 2, and signs of video on channel 3. Very much in and out, and cannot be sure whether each detail noted comes from same or different stations. When the audio breaks thru, the modulation level is louder than we used to get from US analog stations with a lesser audio/video power ratio. At 2021 on 2, bug in lower right in large light letters as DQTC, probably a program name. At 2022, think I see VENEZUELA in large light letters upper center screen; also almost zero-beat video CCI. This of course does not mean I was really getting double hop from YV land, tho as last summer`s US- analog-free DX season showed, it happens quite a lot. A lot of shows produced in Venezuela are seen elsewhere in Latin America; or used to be, especially novelas. Is El Hugazo now forcing them to mix in politically socialist under- or overtones, which would make them less attractive abroad? At 2045 on 2, ad for ``Buenas Noches, Mamá``, a play or film, 15 de mayo at Teatro de Los Héroes. While every country has heroes, the Mexicans are particularly fond of the word for naming things. Often is short for ``Niños Héroes``. 2048 on 2, live variety show mentions Azteca, which would surely not be Venezuelan. Has different bugs in UR and LR but can`t make them out. Clip of béisbol game, or CCI? Soon replaced by YL anchor. Opening drops off by 2110 UT. 2130 time to employ same antenna for BBC World News via OETA-OKLA 13.2: starting with Gordon Brown resigns, David Cameron overtakes as PM. For a `world` service, BBCWN seems rather obsessed with British news! Time to Google a bit. DQTC has a Mexican connexion, some kind of fan site on Twitter mentioning TV Azteca. But what does it stand for? Could be a way of spelling ``Decútese`` --- except there is no such verb decutar, per my dixionary and Google. Also on Facebook, maybe Myspace. On BN,M and TdlH, that`s a road show, appearing May 18 at a theatre by that name in Chihuahua city, nowhere on May 15, per http://buenasnochesmama.com/gira.html so maybe I misread the date. There of course is a channel 2 in Ciudad de Chihuahua, XHCH, a 100 kW independent outlet of TV Azteca, which I have DXed several times before, so this is all falling into place. 6m Es map also shows activity in this area (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Glenn: los "Niños Héroes" son en efecto héroes. Fueron cinco cadetes del ejército que defendieron el Castillo de Chapultepec contra la invasión estadounidense. Y dos de la naval que lucharon también contra la invasión del ejército estadouinidense. Eran muy jóvenes y se encontraban como la última reserva; por eso se les denominó "niños" que ofertaron su vida antes de claudicar ante los invasores, y tiene nombre: Juan Escutia, Juan de la Barrera, Francisco Márquez, etc. Saludos, (Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, condiglist yg via DXLD) So how old were they, really? ** MOLDOVA. RADIO MOLDOVA INTERNATIONAL CONTEST Radio Moldova International launches contest ``Discover the Republic of Moldova.`` This contest is aimed to encourage the listeners from abroad to listen to the RMI station, motivate them find more information about the Republic of Moldova, familiarize them with the national values, promote in such a way the interest and the image of the Republic of Moldova in the world. The current year topic is Tourism in Moldova. While participating in our contest, you will have the possibility to find out the most picturesque places and legends linked to Moldova. The winner of the contest will have the possibility to visit them, or the Grand Prix of the contest is a trip to Moldova. Only listeners of the RMI station from abroad are eligible to participate. This contest will take place in 15 stages during the period of 17 May to 12 July 2010 with each stage consisting of 3 questions. The first refers to the general knowledge of the participants about Moldova. The second one is related to the tourist attractions of Moldova talked about over the year and the third one is from the stories aired in between the stages. The questions will be broadcast in Monday and Thursday programs and placed on the site http://www.trm.md The answers will be sent by email within a week after they are announced, at the following address moldovainternational @ gmail.com moldova-international @ mail.md They will be scored from 0 to 3 points, depending on correctness. The winners will be nominated, according to the points gained during those 15 stages. The Regulations of the Contest ``Discover the Republic of Moldova`` is on the following site http://www.trm.md We invite you to participate in this contest, test your knowledge, find new things and you will discover an unknown Moldova (Station Direct modified slightly by Richard A. D`Angelo, PA, May 11, NASWA yg via DXLD) No longer on shortwave but clearly designed for ``international listeners`` presumably via Internet (Richard A. D`Angelo, PA, ibid.) ** MONGOLIA. 12085, Voice of Mongolia, Ulan Bator, verified with a full data “Sunset in the Winter in Western Mongolia” card and short personal letter from v/s Densmaa Zorigt, Mail Editor in 51 days via registered mail. Densmaa included e-mail address: densmaa 9 @yahoo.com The letter mentions testing Internet radio and welcomes comments and suggestions (Rich D’Angelo, PA, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) 12085, 12/05 1040, Voice of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, notícias local e música típica, 45444 Achei bastante agradável a transmissão em Inglês da Voz da Mongólia. Há anos não ouvia tal emissora. A escuta motivou a preparar um post bastante especial sobre a referida captação para ser inserido em meu blog, com direito a gravação da escuta, sinal de intervalo e reprodução de um QSL recebido há alguns anos. Até amanhã o material estará disponível no endereço http://ivandias.wordpress.com Equipamento utilizado: Receptor Lowe HF-225, Faseador MFJ-1026, Rotor Philips SDW1850/17, Antena Wellbrook ALA1530S+ 73 (Ivan Dias Jr. - Sorocaba/SP, Brasil, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** MOROCCO. RTM via Nador-MRC site missed these days, but is back on 15341 kHz 09-14 UT May 8th. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 7185.75v, Myanma Radio, 1330-1331*, May 13. In vernacular; interesting mix of two audio feeds; fair. Please listen to the audio attachment (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) in the dxldyg ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Frequency change of RNW in Dutch effective April 30: 0000-0027 NF 6140 BON 250 kW / 180 deg to CeAm, ex 5970 to avoid RHCSpanish (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. CANADA CBC (not the BCN) --- It's not the return of the Great Eastern, but my ears perked up when I heard a promo during As It Happens this evening featuring the voice of the host of "The Great Eastern," the wry satire that aired on the CBC more than a decade ago (via the facilities of the Broadcasting Corporation of Newfoundland, of course). Mack Furlong was promoting his appearance on Radio Noon, the midday program for CBC Newfoundland & Labrador. Sure enough, on the CBCNL web site, one finds: CROSSTALK Fri May 14th: It's a Trivia Day with the one and only Mack Furlong, who has the origins of the tri-colour flag on his mind! Phone in and have some fun --- forward or backward! And under the "crew" section of the Web site, we find: Radio Noon Contributors Mack Furlong - Trivia Mack Furlong is a writer, actor and musician. He lives in St. John's and has had an irritating life-long ability to remember all manner of useless information - just the qualification necessary for a trivia panelist. Every third Friday, Mack joins Ramona for Crosstalk trivia. He brings in a yaffle of questions for you, and invites you to call in to try and stump him. Let's hope propagation allows me to listen via BCN's Funk Islands repeater (Mike Cooper, GA, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The fourteenth is of course the SECOND Friday of May, or do they mean tri-weekly, wherever that fall in any month? It`s 1430-1600 UT. See http://www.cbc.ca/radionoonnl/ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. QSL: Radio New Zealand International, 11725 kHz, 10 March 2010, 0607z-0635z. Partial data card "Voice of the Pacific" with unusual photo of an "antique radio" *made of seashells and natural fiber rope/cloth* on a blanket on the beach. Also nice personalized letter, station info, program guide and freq sked, plus a bunch of stickers :-) For reception report by mail + $2 as requested on RNZI website for postal replies, in 54 days (Bruce Jensen, (California, USA), May 5, ptsw yg via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. QSL: Voice of Nigeria, 15120 kHz, 22 February 2010, 2009z - 2057z, "Zuma Rock, Abuja" (the same card they have offered for many years) in exchange for detailed report + $2US - my full name and address handwritten on back, with printed space for full data, but NO DATA FILLED IN (sigh). I have no idea if they even checked it - but this time, I am assuming this is a valid QSL, 'cuz I know darn well I heard it! I filled the date and frequency in myself, just so I can remember in 20 years! Also stickers, in an envelope with both the Lagos and Abuja addresses on it. Since I sent the report to both addresses, and the card has no signature on it, I do not know from which address it was sent. Se la vie. ~73 days (Bruce Jensen, California, USA, May 5, ptsw yg via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. 15120, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Ikorodu, good reception of their French service from 0700-0757 and English 1500-1559 on Apr 18. Keeping an ear on 15120 I noticed that there was no evening broadcast of VON Apr 18 and no morning broadcast Apr 19 on that channel. Maybe they now switch to the new transmitter station? (Harald Kuhl, Germany, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) 15120, I am not hearing V. of Nigeria when I should be, such as around 0500; or 1907 UT May 9. Airings have been constantly changing as they are bringing new Abuja transmitter online, so is there any reliable schedule? Has anyone else noticed them absent lately? Aoki showed Ikorodu on 15120 was supposed to be in English at 05-07, 15-16, 17-21 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) V of Nigeria was noted here today, 9 May, on 15120 with a strong signal between 1500-1600 (Alan Roe, Teddington, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Glenn, This is the time & frequencies I have heard them on: 1500-1600 15120 1800-1900 15120 1900-2000 7255 (Peter W Hansen, May 9, location unknown, ibid.) [non]. Still seeking VON unsuccessfully on frequencies and times previously audible: 15120, May 10 at 0553 only something in Chinese instead, i.e. R. Free Asia, TINIAN. See CHINA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15120, Voice of Nigeria, at 0712 till 0720 UT, May 6. In English with African news item about the death of the late ex president of Nigeria Umaru Musa Yaradna and the country big loss. World news item on UK election. Greek riots in Athens. SIO 444. VON always well heard in Cyprus (Costa Constantinides, Cyprus, May 7, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 10 via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. 6089.85, Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, 2150-2203, May 8, talk in listed Hausa. Local tribal chants at 2202. Weak but readable. Covered by Anguilla at their 2203 sign on (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1580, KOKB Blackwell, again nothing but an unmodulated carrier, May 11 at 1506 UT. Next check at 1811 it`s distorted with overmodulation! Local sports talk show with Stillwater ad, phone number ending in -1020 matching the originating station KOKP Perry, but ID in passing as `TV 31-1`, so apparently it is simulcast or really originating from the LPTV in Stillwater. 31-1 implies it is now DTV, but W9WI only has this as analog in the channel 31 list: Stillwater KWEM-LP 9.000 0.00 NdH 36-6-31.00N 97-11-46.00W TX-LIC A1 Nor is there any equivalent listing for same on any other channel as DT. If it really is now DTV, could it be that they are just running the radio station audio on one of their virtual channels? This idea seems to be spreading among LP DTVs (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. I don`t scan the local FM band as often as I should, since with the exception of two reliable public radio signals, and KOMA playing oldies, there is nothing but crap to be heard --- gospel huxters or commercials, music of no interest. However, I did tune across FM to refamiliarize myself with what`s not DX, and in case there would be anything new, May 7 and by golly, there was, at 2035 UT a steady local signal on 99.9 carrying the Katherine Albrecht show, today subtitled ``Good News Friday``. Soon became clear that she is obsessed with privacy and any intrusions upon it, especially by government; refers to ``the privacy-liberty-leave-me- alone movement``. Then she played an old song used in an American Standard commercial, ``My bathroom is a private kind of place``, which she found quite funny but appropriate for broader use. 2044 adstring begins with Chinese vitamin supplements. 2049 I retuned as she had already resumed, plugging her website katherinealbrecht.com where there is a program archive, and she mentioned being on Genesis. Ahá, Genesis means it`s a far-right pirate relay, now one operating from Enid. Previously had one in OKC, and there was a big FCC bust of GCN stations in Austin TX. This transmission has artifacts indicating it`s a not-so-hi-bit internet feed. At 2058 she plugs her upcoming second hour, to be about mothers, 2059 plug for listening to GCN on an iphone app, ad for colloidal silver but consisting mostly of anti-government diatribe. 2101 ID only for GCN, no legal or local ID, and into, what else, IRN-USA slanted radio news. Then I extend the DX-398 whip horizontally and slowly do a 360. Clearly this is coming from NW/SE, and in its null there is QRM from another 99.9 station, so GCN really not that strong altho it`s pushing up most of the bars at peak. I shall attempt to DF it further ASAP. As for Albrecht, I never heard her spell her first name. Does she have any idea how many ways there are to spell it? Above is correct, since I wrote this after I looked her up. Her website does not have an affiliate list, tho a glamourized portrait of her. Then to the GCN website to see if any 99.9s are listed around here. It seems they do not have a total affiliate list, but different lists for each program, since stations are free to pick and choose what they want to carry. http://www.gcnlive.com/programs/katherineAlbrecht/affiliateList.pdf lists nothing near here and nothing on 99.9, in fact only 5 AM stations for her in other parts of the country. It might be interesting to dig into all these separate lists to see if any of them are pirates, or GCN distances itself from acknowledging those? Probably. GCN is deeply involved in pirate FM radio, and ought to draw FCC attention, but how can they help it if some local wants to relay them and gets busted? FCC FM Query finds only one legal listing for 99.9 in OK, a deleted application for a translator in Weatherford, which is in exactly the wrong direxion, SW of here, so surely not that: DK260AJ 260 D FX 99.9 MHz APP WEATHERFORD, ETC. OK US BPFT-20020715AAE - 14439 0.092 kW 0. m CREATIVE EDUCATIONAL MEDIA CORP, INC In the GCN null I can hear another weaker station on 99.9. Could be overload from locals on other frequencies, OR: In Kansas, there is a full-power FM to the NW of here, KWKR Leoti, which is NW of Garden City, really too far for such non-DX reception in dead afternoon conditions, and its format anyway is classic rock. Plus another one north of here, KSKG in Salina, more likely. The next afternoon, May 8 I drive to a few spots from central to eastern Enid, and get widely divergent nulls on the signal, so I know it is relatively near. I spiral in on it by triangulation and increasing signal strength, using nothing but the DX-398 with its whip extended horizontally, doing a 360, and noting the number of signal strength meter bars lighting up. At one westerly point it was NW/SE, east of there it was N/S, and at the east end, NE/SW. Therefore I know it is on the south-central side of Enid. In the center of town, strength was 8, in the east 7, but when I got to the south side it was 9. This was with full antenna extension outside the car. By the time I reached the site, it was strength 8 with the antenna fully collapsed, especially when I was standing right under the tower. GCN 99.9 is coming from a business called Northwest Plumbing & Mechanical, Inc., 2400 Leona Mitchell Blvd. Just south of it is an OG&E power plant, with a convenient sign on its gas pipeline terminal building giving its precise coordinates, which I round to: 36.37 N, 97.87 W. Perhaps a GE/clone user can find the spot, altho from directly overhead, this mast will not show anything but a shadow. It is a tall (~100 foot?) self-supporting pole, with what looks like a conventional VHF/UHF TV antenna atop a box, probably a rotor. One of the rear reflectors is missing. But it`s pointed due south, not toward Oklahoma City which is SSE. There is a much smaller yagi antenna above it, which may be the real outputter, altho from ground looks too small to be for mid-FM band. I took a number of photos from outside the property. 1, The antenna flanked by unrelated ``antennas`` in the foreground at the OG&E plant. http://www.w4uvh.net/genid1.jpg 2, DirecTV satellite dishes on the roof next to the pole; may be unrelated. The Genesis feed sounds like it is via internet, and runs about a minute late. http://www.w4uvh.net/genid2.jpg 3, looking up the antenna pole, http://www.w4uvh.net/genid3.jpg 4, close-up of the antennas: http://www.w4uvh.net/genid4.jpg 5, corner of the building next to the pole with Northwest Plumbing & Mechanical sign. http://www.w4uvh.net/genid5.jpg 6, overview of the building and antenna from the street side, with another sign: http://www.w4uvh.net/genid6.jpg Reception is hardly solid driving around Enid, but the motivated can surely listen in most of the city. Emanating from the south side means that Vance AFB is also in the coverage area. (Presumably, if it is not so direxional; have not yet been to Vance to check.) Finally I drove due north on US 81 to see how far the signal would hold up. On the caradio I was losing it by Lake Hellums Road, 7.5 miles from the site. There on the portable, it was inaudible with whip horizontal, making S2 when vertical. So its polarization is more vertical than horizontal, contrary to the look of the makeshift transmitting antenna. I assume this exceeds what can be accomplished under Part 15 rules, but have no way of measuring axual field strength. This contrasts with Enid`s other unlicensed FM station, ``WECS`` 97.7 at Emmanuel Christian School, with a range of only a few blox, which I think really is Part 15-compliant. I`ve reported about it before. Programming there consists of nothing but a one-minute loop changed once a week during terms, with inept announcements by the kids (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And still going May 13 Hi Glenn -- The [99.9] antenna appears to be an old Radio Shack VU-160 VHF/UHF TV antenna. Not made for at least 12+ years and not very efficient at FM. Co-ax is wrapped in a spiral down the pole-not very efficient-probably doubles the length/loss, and maybe RG-59 at that! With most of the reflector elements missing/bent out of the way, it probably produces a figure 8 pattern of a sort. Pole is made from old oil well casing. I had a similar (40 ft) one when I lived in Orcutt, California -- pretty much indestructible. Takes a crane to lower, if it has a hinge plate on the bottom (Jim Pizzi, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Excellent DFing job on your 99.9 pirate. That's about how I do it, only I also have an old Realistic Pro-60 handheld scanner which has FM BCB to accompany the portable. When I'm atop the site I can confirm by disconnecting the rubber duck antenna on the Pro. [non] We had a new pirate locally on 96.7 about 3 weeks ago, but he disappeared as soon as a friend of mine DFed him and pulled into his driveway. He was on only 1-2 days after and hasn't returned since, or seemingly relocated to another channel. He was at a home in Seminole (Pinellas County), with nonstop internet feed of Absolute Radio (Classic Rock format from the UK, the same station that's on FM channels and the big 1215 kHz transmitter). I traced the address back to the FCC dB and found out he is a currently-licensed amateur radio operator. Or soon not to be, if he gets caught I suppose. (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W Visit my "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" at: http://sites.google.com/site/floridadxn/ DX LISTENING DIGEST) 99.9 is still going as usual May 13 as if they had not been exposed (gh, DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. Channel change requested: Oklahoma City 39 KWTV-DT QR from ch. 9, 1000 kW / 478 m, 35-35-52 / 97-29-22 (May VHF UHF Digest via DXLD) They have been operating concurrently on both 9 and 39 for months. Originally analog 9, their transition DT was 39, then when the big switch came, went back to DT on 9. Coverage issues led them to turn the 39 transmitter back on. Apparently KWTV has finally decided to go with UHF. As of May 13 they are still on both. At my location and with my VHF-UHF antenna, there are seldom any reception issues with either, and it`s a toss-up which to pick permanently. However the signal meter slightly prefers 9 (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. US TO IMPROVE PAK RADIO SIGNALS IN TRIBAL AREAS BORDERING AFGHANISTAN Islamabad, May 7 (ANI): Pakistan has signed eight million dollars agreement with the United States for providing two AM transmitters in order to enhance radio transmission coverage in Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan and outreach to remote areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The US Agency for International Development (USAid) will provide two AM transmitters to the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC). United States Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson, Director USAid- Pakistan Robert J Wilson, Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira and PBC Director General Murtaza Solangi signed the agreement on behalf of their respective governments. Kaira said the signing of the agreement titled "Statement of collaboration between the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and the United States Agency for International Development" is an effort to upgrade AM transmitters in Peshawar and D I Khan. He said the key objective of this bilateral collaboration was to expand radio broadcasts in the FATA and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Kaira thanked the US for extending this support to Radio Pakistan, The News reports. (ANI) Source: http://bit.ly/cSTGRT (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DXLD) ** PERU. 1570 kHz - new station: OCU4J Radio Nueva Q FM, Lima Format: FM 107.1 relay - Cumbia music Slogan: Donde manda nuestra Cumbia! Web: http://radionuevaq.huaral.net/ I heard this station on May 5, 2010 at 0228-0345 UT. Thanks to Mauricio Molano of Spain for his cooperation during the investigation around this new station. Audio clip incl. ID and slogan is on my blog: http://radio-dx-blog-kh.blogspot.com/ (see the right column: DX JUKE BOX) (Karel Honzik, CZECHIA, mwdx yg via DXLD) This not-so-new station was heard in Scandinavia last autumn on 1360, QSLing to DXers in Norway, Sweden and Finland. See for instance http://kingsvillagedx.blogspot.com/2009/10/dx-station-of-september-nuevaq-fm-lima.html In February this year Nueva Q FM appeared on 1570 in parallel to 1360. Arguably the first report was this one, "1570 6.2 0613 Radio Nueva Q Lima. Har av allt att döma alltså ytterligare en sändare förutom 1360 som hördes i höstas, eller om 1360 möjligen slagit igen enligt HK som id-ade stationen åt mig. Han berättar också att den hörts i Finland och frågor om stationen har sänts till Peru. JE" http://deradioaktiva.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-03-17T09:21:00%2B01:00 The translation of this log info, dated 0613 on February 6, is as follows, "apparently they are using a second transmitter apart from 1360 which was heard last fall, or perhaps 1360 has closed down suggests HK (=Henrik Klemetz) who helped me identify the station. He tells me they have been heard in Finland too and that an inquiry has been sent to Peru. JE (=Jan Edh)" This inquiry, sent by myself to Alfredo Cañote, did not produce any result, but the answer came as an off-spin to an unid sent in to me by AHK (=Anders Hultqvist). His unid, on 1410, identified as "Bethel, frecuencia celestial", which is a slogan found on the Bethel home page. Also on their home page there was a short note to say that they are using 1360 since March 19. So Nueva Q FM, logged on countless occasions from Febrary onwards on 1570, is no longer in parallel to 1360. In fact, their home page does not even mention that there is an AM operation. This is not meant to play down Karel´s achievement, nor Mauricio´s assistance. My congratulations for nailing this one, Karel! However, when logging new Latin Americans (or stations from the Far East) on MW, I suggest you first check any info that has been circulating among the Nordic clubs and bloggers in order to see if this is really a new one or not. Nueva Q FM is not a new station to Scandinavian DXers. I can hear some people growling at this point. But evidence if overwhelming. Very, very few new Latin Americans or Far Easterners were logged first by European listeners from a non-Scandinavian location. Scientists sometimes argue who was the first to discover this or that. DXers do likewise. 1570 is a case in point. On this frequency not one but rather two Peruvians are making it to Scandinavia, the second one being Radio Carráviz, in Juliaca. The very first logging of Carráviz was made in Finland, although later info seem to imply that the station was first logged by a DXer in Lima. He did not, although his assistance was necessary in order to pin down the identity of the station by phoning some of their advertisers I discovered on the original Finnish recording. Carráviz is not a Spanish word, it is just an acrostic of the owner´s surname, Vizcarra, which no one would be able to figure unless told by the owner himself. Yet the Finnish DXer was close, "Radio Karrabis" is what he reported. The owner, Tito Vizcarra later certified that the first report from Europe was the one submitted by Finnish master DXer JPR (=Jari Ruohomäki). Best, (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, May 7, ibid.) ** PERU. 18057.9, R. Victoria, Lima, I have not logged lately on third harmonic of 6019.3, tho there have been occasional signs of it, but it`s still there, May 8 at 1357 trace of audio, 1435 a bit better with music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Channel 2 (+) --- Decades ago (2) when living in Turks & Caicos, channel 2 Lima was VERY strong on evening TEP as well as quite frequently via Es. Well, at least I believed it was Lima but enough time has gone by cannot be sure of that anymore! Amateur OA4TT is at his ham station until late June (he is from San Diego) 130 km SE of Lima and as has been reported today, works into central USA and elsewhere quite frequently. May would be the best month for this by the way (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, May 11, WTFDA via DXLD) ** PHILIPPINES. 9615, Radio Veritas Asia, 2010-05-10, 1153-1157*: Palauig, Chinese/English, surprisingly strong and clear, Mandarin discussion by man, short orchestral music interspersed with announcements, few seconds of silence then slow, clear English ID by woman "Radio Veritas Asia... Philippines... .935 megahertz..." and carrier cut. Probably referring to switch to 11935 at 1200 (Earl Higgins, St. Louis, Missouri, USA using a Degen DE-1103 with built-in whip, ABDX via DXLD) And see/See VATICAN [non] ** POLAND [non]. Re 10-18: 11675, AUSTRIA, Polish Radio External Service at 1200 with “News from Poland” with Michal Kubicki - Weak at first then rising to Good then back and forth again May 7 - after a good performance during B09, this frequency is far too unreliable for our summer. Too bad that PRES doesn’t put any effort into reaching North America reliably – (Mark Coady, Ont., May 7, ODXA yg via DXLD) Radio Polonia [sic] inaudible 11675 and 11980 at 1250 UT from Boston, Mass area (Gordon C. Erow, May 8, ptswyg via DXLD) Today, 6 May, I am hearing Polish Radio External Service in English at 1700 UT on 9770 (scheduled on 9655) with a strong signal and their programmes "Europol Express" followed by "Focus". I assume, this is still via Austria (Alan Roe, Teddington, UK, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This is on the Polish Radio website: "As of May 5th PRES in English can be heard on 9770 kHz at 18 UTC. The frequency has replaced 9655 kHz at the same hour, the reason being complaints of severe interference filed by another broadcaster. The change has been introduced by VT Group, our tx provider, who apologizes to listeners for the unexpected inconvenience." I wonder who the other broadcaster is? (Andy Sennitt, Netherlands, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Looks like it could be RDPi, Lisbon or a religious broadcaster, Lutheran World Federation (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, ibid.) This change is still a puzzle: -- RDPi, Lisbon registration entry is a fake, known as "wooden entry", is only a reserve frequency and is not on air. -- Lutheran World Federation, program schedule shows later start from 1800 UT onwards. -- the only interfering signal co-channel comes out and could be from Iran in Swahili 1730-1800 UT in a total different target towards East Africa. 935 HQ1/0.4 H horizontal polarisation of the antenna Q quadrant type n the number of dipoles stacked vertically h height of the lowest dipole above ground in wavelengths at the design frequency http://www.antenna.be/hq.html Antenna #935 at Moosbrunn Austria is like steep angle - fountain like - non-direction type, but strong 300 kW of power should cover central Europe as target easily. I heard PRW via Moosbrunn 9655 the other day and had no interference notice. New 9770 channel could be subject of interference of co- channel Kashi China outlet. At first PRW in English was meant to Scandinavia target at ciraf zone #18, towards Norwich, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki - St. Petersburg, via Woofferton site at 58 degrees. But changed later to Moosbrunn site with non-dir antenna to central Europe. wb Is 1700 UT still correct ? (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) PRES were still on at 1700 UT in English on 6 May (Alan Roe, England, dxldyg via DXLD) The Polish Radio website clearly says 1800, though (John Figliozzi, ibid.) Polish Radio confirmed this evening on new 9770 (ex 9655) for the 1700-1800 English broadcast. Very good reception here at 1700 sign-on. Thanks to tip from Alan Roe who first logged this yesterday. 73s (Dave Kenny, May 7, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) 1 comment on thenews website above: Erik Koie, CPH, 08/05/2010 17:54:41, Why didn't VT choose a clear frequency instead of the co- channel CRI?? (via DXLD) 9655 kHz channel is totally free here in Germany at 1700 til 1727 UT, May 7th. At 1728 UT IRIB Tehran smooth interval signal, S=6-7, somewhat back side lobe signal. ID at 1730. "Huna Iran", Iranian hymn chorus at 1731 til 1732 UT. 9770, some S=2 signal - probably - from China till 1658 UT. 9770, Cello symphonic pause music from VT-group control room at 1659:20 UT, followed by PRW ID at 1700 UT even. Poor signal here in Germany. Something of tiny "ground wave" signal noted here tonight. Distance from Moosbrunn to my location is approx. 510 kilometers, not enough, and the PRW signal skips over my head. I understand only spoken English language, but couldn't follow program content. Slight QRM de - probably - China co-channel. Resumen: to follow English service from Warsaw I've to use another time slot or use satellite or website livestream. ENGLISH 1200-1259 11675mos towards British Isles. 11980wof to Scandinavia, St. P. 1700-1759 7265kvi-drm 220degr towards Leicester, Birmingham, Plymouth, Start Point. 9770mos(x9655mos, x9655wof), non-directional (Wolfgang Büschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) 11980, CHINA, China Radio International (Kunming), 1215-1220, 5/12/2010, English. Talk by man and woman with short musical bridges. Poor but steady signal, mixing with slightly weaker English from Poland via Woofferton (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) POLONIA, 11840, POLSKIE RADIO, Tarjeta QSL, esquema, carta personal, V/S SLAWEK SZEFS - English Service, Demoro: 130 dias. Enviado a: thenews @ polskieradio.pl En la carta mencionan eQSL a través del enlace http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/eqsl/eqsl.aspx?r=tn Imágenes disponibles en http://dxdesdecolombia.blogspot.com/ (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogotá-Colombia, May 12, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** PORTUGAL. RDPi has finally (!) reactivated its Africa 144-degree beam. F X 3 –- Not just for relaying f/ball matches; but mostly. Our RDPi - R. Portugal, which has just completed the repair on the 144º African curtain antenna feeder, manages to waste Funds for Football & Fátima in one of their extra broadcasts. As I write, they're relaying Antena 1 covering the so called Fátima ceremonies, this time with the presence the Pope, who's visiting the country since yesterday. Eur 9820 Afr 11945 NAm 13755 SAm 15295 A third "f" might apply to --- fado, but there are no extra broadcasts where they'd be burning kW for this. So, Glenn, a different "f" this time (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, 2206 UT May 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PUERTO RICO. NUEVA EMISORA EN LA" X BAND" CON LA APARICIÓN DE RADIO HUELGA Estudiantes de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR) en Río Piedras lanzaron al aire una emisora, denominada Radio Huelga, que emitirá por el 1650 AM (amplitud modulada), con la posibilidad de cubrir una milla a la redonda. La emisora, debido a su limitado alcance, no requiere de permiso de la FCC (Federal Communications Commision) para operar, se indicó. Radio Huelga fue lanzada al aire al mediodía del viernes 30 de Abril, a modo de prueba, aunque la inauguración fue el 02 de Mayo, a las 4:00 de la tarde. La primera transmisión al aire estuvo cargo de Ricardo Olivero Lora, estudiante de la Escuela de Derecho de la UPR y principal motor para la realización de Radio Huelga. "Bienvenidos a esta histórica primera transmisión de Radio Huelga", fueron unas de las primeras palabras de Olivero Lora. Radio Huelga, transmitirá las 24 horas del día. Olivero Lora enfatizó que "este proceso (huelguístico) requerirá de un gran sacrificio por parte de todos y todas, pero confiamos en la disposición de nuestra gente, sobre todo cuando la inacción sería sinónimo de sumisión y representaría la claudicación a nuestra dignidad como personas". Con esta emisora los estudiantes pretenden abrir un espacio de información en donde se contribuya a la organización de los universitarios que participan de la huelga, así como también se abrirá espacio para programación variada que incluya entretenimiento, foros, paneles y opiniones, entre otros. Además, la transmisión puede ser escuchada en directo por la Internet a través de la dirección http://www.ustream.tv/channel/radiohuelga También está programado abrir un espacio cibernético en donde se puedan publicar grabaciones de la transmisión para descarga en formato de mp3. Al momento ya se cuenta con una página en la red social Facebook, bajo el nombre de Radio Huelga, que cuenta con 680 miembros. (Primera Hora.com) (via Arnaldo Slaen, condiglist yg via DXLD) New X-bander in PR on 1650! But it`s limited range, maybe one mile, so Part 15 as PR is under FCC rules, not likely to be DXable unless they fudge on the power, antenna. Huelga means strike, but this doesn`t explain what the dispute is about. Will it be temporary? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PUERTO RICO. ¿PELIGRAN LAS NOTICIAS EN LAS EMISORAS AM? Luis Penchi desea establecer un mejor balance entre la noticia y el análisis en Boricua 740 -- lunes, 10 de mayo de 2010 Melba Brugueras / Primera Hora En los inicios de la radio AM, el norte de esa frecuencia era la noticia y sí, era posible que alguno que otro comentarista tuviera su espacio, pero la novedad y el acontecer diario eran los platos fuertes. La noticia fue por un buen tiempo la espina dorsal de las emisoras AM, sobre todo en las décadas de los 70, de los 80 y digamos que también de los 90. WKAQ-AM y NotiUno eran ejemplos de ello. ¿Qué pasó después? La tendencia hacia los programas de análisis comenzó a tener más presencia en la programación de las AM. La emisora RadioIsla no fue la única responsable en imponer esta ``moda``? en la radio AM a principios de esta década, pero sí tuvo una gran influencia... Fuente: [más] http://www.primerahora.com/%C2%BFpeligranlasnoticiasenlasemisorasam?-386199.html (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) ** ROMANIA. 15195, great show of continuous Romanian folkmusic with occasional RRI IDs, Saturday May 8 at 1325-1347+, fair-good. This broadcast is at 12-14, 285 degrees from Galbeni to Europe. 17600, May 13 at 1326 RRI YL closing in Chinese with website pronounced in English, IS, vs ACI from REE 17595. Have not noticed this before; is 1300-1330, 67 degrees from Tiganeshti. You may wonder why I don`t spell it Tiganesti as usually listed. That`s because there is really a hard-to-produce sedilla under the s making it sound sh. There is also supposed to be an up-side-down semi- circle accent over the a, what in English we would call ``short a``, as in hat, but likely representing quite some other precise vowel sound in Romanian, and that is also hard to produce in common fonts. If referring to the HS program 1, R. România Actualitati, we should also respell that Actualitatsi, as the third t has a tedilla making it a ts sound. I see the WRTH puts in a few Romanian accents, hit and miss, mostly miss as in these cases (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. VOICE OF RUSSIA ON THE CREST OF A RADIO WAVE © Photo: "The Voice of Russia". Andrei Bystritsky. The world will tune in to the Voice of Russia even in a 100 years from now, the Chairman of the Voice of Russia radio broadcasting company Andrei Bystritsky is absolutely certain on that score. As we can see today, multi-media technologies have already brought radio broadcasting into a new orbit, which has made it possible to broaden the borders and to draw the continents closer. Thanks to the Internet and digital technologies, the audiences in many countries can not only listen to our programmes and see video clips, but also have a good chance to carry out a permanent dialogue with the Voice of Russia radio, Andrei Bystritsky said in an interview on the occasion of Radio Day, which is marked in Russia on May 7th. A 21st -century person is a very busy person. People have less spare time today, and each minute is worth its weight in gold. That is why radio remains the only source of information for many, as actually everybody can listen to the radio, whatever the situation, Andrei Bystritsky says. There’s a large variety of occupations, when people can’t watch the TV screen but can hear the announcer. But whether the radio will be preserved in the form it exists today or whether it will be a system of combined services is quite another matter. There’s no doubt though that as long as radio will have an audience it will remain a reality of today. I think that radio in its essence is closer to theatre art while television – to the cinema art, said Andrei Bystritsky. As is known, radio came into being late in the 19th century. It was at that time that people witnessed the emergence of a world miracle. On May 7th, 1895, the prominent Russian scientist Alexander Popov demonstrated his invention, that is, the radio receiver he made, which proved to be the first in the world at that time. Popov showed his creation at the session of the Physical and Mathematical Society in St. Petersburg. He was happy to learn that his attempt to demonstrate the transmission of radio waves at a distance of …. 600 metres proved successful. Thus, May 7th, 1895, went down in history. Early in the 20th century a radio receiver was regarded to be a miracle too. Regular broadcasts in Russia began in 1924. And in 1945, which marks the year of the Great Victory in World War II, a new holiday, Radio Day, was established in Russia. Numerous forecasts were made that radio would not have a long life. At first, when television came into being, and then when the Internet appeared. But radio hast adapted to modern conditions and remains today one of the most democratic and speedy forms of media. Really, it is very hard to imagine modern life without radio broadcasts, including news, music and other information, which lift your spirits and put you in a good mood. More than 2,000 radio stations have licenses for radio broadcasting in Russia today. More than 50 radio stations broadcast in Moscow alone. Despite cut-throat rivalry, the Voice of Russia, which broadcasts to foreign countries, continues to go from strength to strength and to win new listeners, the Chairman of the Voice of Russia radio Andrei Bystritsky said. We give information to our listeners about events in Russia and inform them of the official point of view on global issues. At the same time, no doubt, listeners in many countries want to know how various topics are debated around the world. Neither do we have restrictions on information about all sorts of events, said Andrei Bystritsky. Today the Voice of Russia, which marked its 80th anniversary last year, is undergoing radical changes. Broadcasts in the main languages and information in the Internet are being increased. More than 500 programmes are broadcast to 160 countries on short and medium waves every day, 162 hours daily. The Voice of Russia broadcasts in 40 languages. Besides, visitors to the site http://english.ruvr.ru/ have access to audio and video clips, and also to multi-media items. The programmes of the Voice of Russia radio are as trustworthy, operational and competent as they were before, the Chairman of the Voice of Russia radio stressed. And today we wish all our listeners good reception on the air and would like to congratulate them on the occasion of Radio Day! Source: http://bit.ly/dpqGff (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, May 9, DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Radio Rossii was heard on 5930 kHz: April 21st and 23rd 1712-1756 on 7220 // 5930 // 6160; At the same time on 4050 there was another program of Radio Rossii. According to the source from Krasnoyarsk, on 6085 the regular time is 2100-1700 there. Radio Rossii in Moscow is 24 h a day on FM and AM (not on SW) and in other zones 14-20 h on the air on SW. One or two days in month there is "prophylactic break". For example European stream on 22nd of April was silenced 0400-approx 1300 on SW. 73 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably this confirms that 5930 is active via Monchegorsk at the 17-18 hour (gh, DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 15291.9 kHz spurious signal 173.1 kHz away from V of Russia Moscow site in French on 15465 kHz at 1720-1740 UT, May 2nd. Auf der krummen fq 15291.9 kHz in French ... 1720 ... 1740 ... UT am Sonntag mitgehoert. O=2/3. http://adxc.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/vor-a10/French 1600-2000 11550 Yerevan ARM 500 Africa 1600-1800 11550 Yerevan ARM 500 Europe 1600-1800 9745 Chita RUS 500 Africa 1700-2000 15465 Moscow RUS 250 Africa <<< (Herbert Meixner, Austria, A-DX May 2 via BC-DX May 10 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Frequency changes of Radio Rossii in Russian from April 26: 1325-1700 NF 9480 MSK 250 kW / 265 deg WeEu, x 9470 >>> unregistered 1725-2100 NF 7215*MSK 250 kW / 265 deg WeEu, x 7220 >>> unregistered * co-channel 1800-1856 Radio Romania International in German, also to WeEu Thanks for this information of Vasily Gulyaev from Astrakhan, Russia (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Summer A-10 for Voice of Russia in DRM mode: 0800-1000 on 12060 MSK 035 kW / 265 deg to WeEu in En/En 1300-1800 on 9750 MSK 035 kW / 265 deg to WeEu in Ru/En/Ge/Fr/Ge 0800-1300 on 9850 KLG 015 kW / 220 deg to WeEu in Ru/Ru/Ge/Ge/Ru 1600-2100 on 9880 KLG 015 kW / 220 deg to WeEu in Fr/It/Fr/Fr/Fr 0100-0500 on 15735 K/A 090 kW / 213 deg to EaAs in Ru/Ru/En/En 1200-1600 on 9445 IRK 030 kW / 235 deg to SoAs in Ru/Hi/En/Hi (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 10 May, via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 9690, R Tatarstan, *0610-0700*, Apr 21, open carrier from 0600, 0610 start of program with IS, ID and bulletin of news seemingly in Russian, very strong signal; was hoping for Voice of Nigeria (active on 15120 this morning). (Harald Kuhl, Germany, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) Summer A-10 of Tatarstan Wave in Tatar and Russian: 0410-0500 on 15110 SAM 250 kW / 060 deg to FE 0610-0700 on 9690 SAM 250 kW / 060 deg to CeAs 0810-0900 on 15195 SAM 250 kW / 295 deg to WeEu (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 10 May, via DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 17785, R Riyadh, 0750-0800, Apr 21, English service, Arab Press Review, ID as "Radio Riyadh" (home service), time check for local time, 0800 start of French service, ID, frequencies, programme preview, recitations from Holy Quran, very strong signal S9+ (Harald Kuhl, Germany, DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) 11784.91v, carrier heard before 1100 UT May 8th. Maybe Djeddah Saudi Arabia transmission in Arabic. Aoki list shows Riyadh 500 kW powerhouse instead 0955-1355 UT, but I've my doubts because of the weak signal and odd frequency. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 17705, May 10 at 1312, two weak stations mixing, one talk, one music. The talker has a very unstable carrier, but could be polar Doppler effect rather than transmitted that way; or is it imposed jamming? By 1317 the unstable one is gone, and the other remains now in talk. Aoki shows we have a collision here between AIR`s jammed Chinese service from Bangalore, and BSKSA General program 1: 17705*ALL INDIA RADIO 1145-1315 Chinese 500 58 Bangaluru 17705 R. RIYADH 1155-1455 Arabic 500 310 Riyadh BSKSA a10 At 1359, 17705 was poor with ME music; 1400 5+1 timesignal within one second of accuracy; the last pip of same pitch but prolonged; theme music and presumed news in Arabic. 15170 has been a regular summer source for several seasons of soporific qur`aning in our late evenings, and it`s again heard May 11 at 0520; trouble is, now mixed with a fluttery Chinese YL. Yes, per Aoki, BSKSA HQS is on 15170 at 0300-0555, while CRI is on 15170 at 0400 in Mandarin via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN, and 0500-0600 in Cantonese by Jinhua-Youbu site 831, which is at 59 degrees, favorable for NAm tho not intended to reach this far. Anyway, HQS should be clear at 03-04 (Glenn Hauser, OK DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9870, BSKSA, 2010-04-21, 2136-2202: Riyadh, Arabic, fair, alone but noisy, woman reading poem (as identified by my friend Fayez al-Herz), came back just after top of hour to find man and woman reading, probably news. Much louder the day before (when this was suspected.) (Earl Higgins, St. Louis, Missouri, USA using a Degen DE-1103 with built-in whip, ABDX via DXLD) Also see CUBA [and non] ** SEYCHELLES [non]. U.K. Frequency change of FEBA Radio in Dari: 1500-1530 NF 11755 ERV 300 kW / 125 deg to WeAs, ex 9830 to avoid RL Turkmen (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) U.K.(non) Some VT Communications changes: FEBA Radio in Somali, 1700- 1730 NF 5935 DHA 250 kW / 215 deg to EaAf, ex 6180# # to avoid VOROI/IRIB in Tajik (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 10 May, via DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA [non non]. Miraya FM QSL --- via IRRS via RIMAVSKA SOBOTA, 15670 & 7385. Usual IRRS La Scala card, with all data except for program name & site, in 6 weeks for a report to IRRS-Shortwave, P.O. Box 10980, I-20110 Milano, Italy (Wendel Craighead, Prairie Village, Kansas, USA, May 10, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Cland [sic] to Sudan 10000!!! IDed as Idaat ...raya" on 0416 today 13th with a pop songs (a love to you ) then with ID, program in Arabic. Then talks with many mentions to Sudan and steady signal at S9, 0427 with Horn of Africa song. Found to be // 9740. Eibi shows Miraya-FM (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re Rimavska Sobota, Slovak Republic, Sudanese Miraya FM program. 9740 - 9480/10000 kHz. Zach, may you can check symmetrical 9480 kHz too ? (Wolfgang Büschel, HCDX via DXLD) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5020, SIBC, 1158-1200*, May 13. In English with sign off announcement and anthem; almost fair. They continue to daily leave their carrier on well past 1400. Is a shame they do not broadcast any programming after 1200! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. AN E-MAIL FROM THE SIBC, BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Hi Glenn, greetings from Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA. Some days ago I have received this answer from Min Sun, a volunteer who works at the SIBC. This was about my reception report sent last February. Of course, I have seen he did not understand my words on DHL. There it goes: Hi Adan, I have not received anything from DHL recently. You have to address it to me if you want a reply or otherwise the package often goes into the administration office. Solomon Islands do not have any non-PO BOX addresses, so you’ll just have to send it to us at PO Box 645 Honiara, Solomon Islands. Regards -- Min Sun, Engineering Volunteer Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation Rove, Honiara E: msun @ sibc.com.sb M: +677 74 93015 [in reply to:] From: Adan gonzalez Sent: Sunday, 2 May 2010 4:46 PM To: Min Sun Subject: RECEPTION REPORT ON SHORTWAVE FOR THE SIBC... My dear friend, Min Sun, I hope you are very fine at the moment. I am writing because I sent you a letter back in February with a reception report. I would like to know if the letter has reached the radio station. My name is Adan Gonzalez and I am from Venezuela, South America. Let me know about that news. In the case you have not received anything yet, please send me a non- P.O. Box address to send you a package via DHL with the report. I would love to get a QSL from you. Thank you very much for your answer. Best regards, Adán González El Carite, La Niña, Catia La Mar, Vargas State, VENEZUELA (Adán, May 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Another Monday, May 10, so another chance to check what REE is doing with its weekly Sephardic show scheduled 1425-1455. At 1428 no carrier detectable on 15385, tho there was a weak one from REE Castilian on 15585, and a much better signal on 17595. European reception on 19m was quite poor, so maybe 15385 was still on; could not find it either on the imaginary oft-announced frequency 15325 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. Re 10-18: Re: SLBC English to be back on 15745 from 7th May onwards --- SLBC English noted back on 15745 kHz today. Regards (Alokesh Gupta, India, 0315 UT May 8, dx_sasia yg via DXLD) Was temp briefly on 15120 11905, SLBC (Ekala), 1220-1230*, 5/12/2010, Tamil. Local music with short announcements by a woman. Announcements at 1230 followed by end of broadcast. Did not switch to Hindi per schedule. Initially poor to moderate signal on a clear frequency, gradually decreasing in strength (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. 7200, R. Omdurman, Al Fitahab, 0230-0250, May 6, Arabic. Wailing vox, sounds like Call to Prayer; brief M announcer; echo FX and passing mention of Sudan at 0248 followed by talk; fair over co- channel VOIRI (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 15710, Miraya FM via IRRS via SLOVAKIA: May 7 at 1402 poor signal in some variety of Arabic; modulation seems noisy; also overridden for a few sex by ``running water`` utility. Soon faded to inaudibility. I was checking this, since on May 1 and part of May 2, this transmission carried something else in English, perhaps a mixup or last-minute substitute from Milano or Rimavská Sobota. Worth looking for that again this weekend (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also SLOVAKIA 9740, CZECH REPUBLIC [sic: note, it`s SLOVAKIA]. Radio Miraya FM (Rimavská Sobota), 0316-0330, 5/13/2010, Arabic. Talk by man and woman. Miraya jingle and mention of Sudan at 0317 followed by upbeat local music. Talk of Sudan, perhaps news, by man at 0324. ID again at 0328 and 0331. Good signal, strengthening (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SURINAME. 4990, R. Apintie, Paramaribo, 0211-0225, May 7, English. Bad covers of Elton John & Chris DeBurg tunes; weak wite lite band noise (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWAZILAND. 9635, May 13 at 1419 I am surprised to hear good signal with the TWR music-box IS at this odd time, then ID in English ``This is Trans World Radio, B----`` and cut off the air! At least it seemed like the first letter was B, as in Bonaire, but of course that is impossible on SW. 9635 is registered for TWR only from Swaziland, but not until 1440- 1525 in Malagasy (except Sundays, French). So maybe this was a test or mistake? Or do they have something now on 9635 until 1420? It would be nice to check the complete TWR A-10 schedule, or at least the TWR-Africa division, but I`m not sure it has come out. WRTH 2010 has B-09 Swaziland (``man`` site) mixed in under SOUTH AFRICA. Could not check at 1419, but May 14 at 1400 there was no sign of TWR or anything else on 9635; see May 13 report. That was probably long- path, BTW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN [and non]. Sweden: I received a copy of the MW and SW English Schedule for Radio Sweden from 28 March 2010, via USPS: Europe/Africa/ME: 1430-1500 on 13820 (85º) 1530-1600 on 13870 (120º) 1630-1700 MW 1179 1700-1730 on 13870 (125º) 1730-1800 MW 1179 1900-1930 MW 1179 2030-2100 9495 (320º) via Madagascar 2130-2200 7460 (280º) via Madagascar MW 1179 Asia/Pacific: 1330-1400 on 15735 (55º) 1430-1500 on 13820 (85º) 1700-1730 on 13870 (100º) 0230-0300 on 9510 (50º) via Madagascar North America : 0130-0200 on 6010 (240º) via Sackville 0230-0300 on 6010 (268º) via Sackville The schedule was accompanied by a letter dated 1 December 2009, in response to a reception report I had submitted, stating that Radio Sweden no longer sends QSL cards. This comes as no surprise at this point in time, but the letter reminded me of the days when I applied to a college and received one of those rejection notifications. It would appear that I am taking the verification process too seriously, but when you have done something for so many years it just becomes a part of you and the hobby! And Radio Sweden was a good station for verifications, in that the staff always responded to reception reports with a QSL card. 73’s, (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, May 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN [non]. U.K.(non) Some VT Communications changes: IBRA Radio in Arabic, 1800-1945 NF 12070 WOF 300 kW / 137 deg to CeAf, ex 11650* * to avoid China Radio International in German (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 10 May, via DXLD) ** SYRIA. 12085, R. Damascus, 2055 5/6/10, poor but readable with songs in Arabic; ID in English at 2059; anthem, English ID, and "welcome" from male announcer (Jim Ronda, Tulsa, OK, NRD-545, R-75 + PAR EF-SWL antenna, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 12085, May 9 at 1857, open carrier with continuous whine less than 1 kHz. Has to be R. Damascus; I think the whine is coming out of the same transmitter rather than a heterodyne. This is between scheduled German and from 1900 French. At 1900 I can make out some music under the whine, seems like military band with national anthem. Meanwhile nothing but Good Friends Radio Network via WBCQ audible on 9330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. I'm not sure if any of you in the US or Europe can pick this up but from 1800 to 1900 UT on 5169-USB you can tune to the Taiwan shipping weather information. The voice is computer generated (Keith Perron, Taiwan, May 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. 9735, good signal from RTI`s Japanese service, 45 degrees USward, so listened to the music for a while, May 10 at 1350, something by Tim McGraw, sounds C&W-influenced tho non-English lyrix. Sign-off at 1357 spelled out website with English pronunciation except for the punxuation, http://www.rti.or.tw but cut off the air before a repeat of that could complete. I am pleased to note that the irregular spurs this used to put on 9730 and 9740 have not been heard in many months. [see also USA: VOA] 11875, RTI Indonesian service on a nice clear frequency, May 8 at 1400 ``Inilah, Radio Taiwan International``, and into warta berita. S9+12, a bit undermodulated. Aoki says 250 kW, 205 degrees from Tainan, so directly off the back would be 25 degrees, close to USward. 1442 playing a slow romantic song (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. DEMOCRACY RADIO IN TAIWAN RAIDED AGAIN BY POLICE Taiwan radio station Ocean Voice, 95.9 FM, in Taichung is back to Internet-only broadcasting following a fourth police raid this year. The pro-democracy station has been denied a licence five times despite an empty frequency. Approximately 20 police raiders descended on the remote Shin-Ser transmitting tower of Ocean Voice for the third time since April. So far this year the Republic of China has confiscated over $360,000 NTD worth of equipment from Ocean Voice. * Read the story from examiner.com * Ocean Voice Radio: illegal radio network in Taiwan (May 8th, 2010 - 16:57 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 1 Comment on “Democracy Radio in Taiwan raided again by police” 1. #1 Keith Perron on May 9th, 2010 at 06:19 They’ll be back in few weeks. This is an ongoing saga. Foot note: a few weeks ago MN reported on a number of stations that were taken off air, more than half of them are already back on-air (MN blog comment) ** TIBET [non]. TAJIKISTAN/CHINA, 15550, Firedrake music was heard poorly in background on May 7th at 1115 UT, but VoT with talk between two men was on TOP. Channel scheduled for Voice of Tibet broadcasts via Dushanbe-TJK at 1100-1230 UT. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Frequency change for Voice of Turkey in Uyghur: 0200-0255 NF 9465 EMR 500 kW / 072 deg to CeAs, ex 7200 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) 15450, VOT, Thursday May 13 at 1302 fair signal in Live From Turkey, Seref telling about how the Russians held him up 20 minutes inspecting his visas minutely; later discussing with YL the British elexion. 1322 Question of the Month plug, 1323 sign-off and IS piano variations for a while longer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKMENISTAN. [tentative] 5130.00, UNID at 1730 UT with a song and a choir, sounding Asian; very weak, maybe a spurious signal? (Karel Honzik, CZECHIA, dxld May 3-4 via BCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) I can hear a station on 5129.97 kHz; sounds like TKM and nothing heard on 4930 kHz? (Mauno Ritola-FIN, dxld May 4, ibid.) ?? sic. These items were not from DXLD or dxldyg (gh, DXLD) ** UGANDA [non]. via France, 15410, Radio Y’Abaganda, *1700-1745+, May 8, sign on with Afro-pop music and African choral music. But into the usual non-stop tape loop at 1706 consisting of tones and tape loop saying “We’re sorry you've reached a station that is unavailable at this time. Please try again later". Vernacular talk at 1734. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions. Sat only (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. More on BBC WS budget cuts --- A brief Guardian article mentions that everything except English might be looking at harsh cuts. See BUDGET CUTS LEAVE FOREIGN OFFICE AND PAKISTAN SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE --- Pakistan is banning the BBC's Urdu broadcasts, but World Service cuts could bring about the same result http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/09/world-service-cuts-pakistan The author draws a parallel with Pakistan's media regulator, which has barred FM retransmission of Urdu language news due to "spin" in reporting (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, May 10, swprograms via DXLD) ** U K [non?]. UKRocksTheWorld Broadcasting Sunday 16th May This just received: Dear Listener, UKRocksTheWorld will be back on the air on Sunday 16th May at 1500 GMT. Frequency: 15760 kHz Target Area: North America (but reception reports worldwide gratefully received). Please tune in and record MP3's of your reception. We look forward to receiving your feedback. ENJOY!!! Regards, The UK Rocks The World Team (via Mike Barraclough, May 13, dxldyg via DXLD; also via Tom Taylor, DXLD) Widely heard last time for one hour and obviously from a major European SW transmitter site, probably VTC UK but not necessarily. We are still waiting to find out the real site, and the real purpose of these transmissions (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U K. 15245, ENGLAND. Église du Christ (Woofferton), *1400-1407, 5/13/2010, French. Religious music at start of broadcast. Religious talk by man at 1401. Moderate signal with only a hint of fading (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, IC-R75, Random Wire (90'), ALA100M Loop (20'), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. From the Heritage Foundation: more uncertainty of the concept of international broadcasting. Heritage Foundation, The Foundry, 4 May 2010, Helle Dale: "Well into the second year of the Obama administration, U.S. international broadcasting services remain in a leaderless state of vacuum. ... Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has stated that he is not about to let the Senate move forward with a floor vote on the six that have been voted out of committee unless he has a chance to interview each nominee personally about their views and qualifications, this according to Josh Rogin, writing in Foreign Policy magazine. ... The Senator is on to something. The board members are political appointees. Over the years, some have been well-qualified, some ineffective and some focused very much on their own agenda and business interests. Some have been so hands-on as to function like executives, running afoul of other management structures. ... The nomination of the new BBG provides an excellent opportunity for Congress to exercise oversight of this troubled institution. The BBG has the important mission of presenting the message of the United States to the world, based on the values and principles on which this nation was founded." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) She laments that the BBG does not have new members "[w]ell into the second year of the Obama administration." Then she admits that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is largely responsible for that, but Sen. Coburn nevertheless garners her praise. She hints that "business interests" of some board members have seeped into their work for the BBG. This is a serious charge. It requires specifics and evidence to back it up. She criticizes Board members because they "function like executives." Because the International Broadcasting Act of 1994 erroneously omitted a CEO to oversee all of USIB, the Board must act as a collective CEO. Among other things, they determine which languages USIB should keep, drop, or add. They specify how much budget should be spent on each available technology. They have to keep order among the entities, who often compete among themselves like a sackful of civets. I would therefore hope the Board members "function like executives." Congress can exercise oversight of the Board, but the Board, not Congress, should exercise oversight of US international broadcasting. That's the idea of the firewall. The BBG's purpose is to ensure that USIB is presenting accurate, balanced, objective news rather than "presenting the message." Audiences abroad tune in because their domestic media are "presenting the message" of their respective governments, rather than presenting the straight news the audiences would prefer to hear. See previous post about same subject (Kim Andrew Elliott, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, ibid.) USC Center on Public Diplomacy blog, 28 Sept 2009, Kim Andrew Elliott: "It is an unavoidable reality of Washington that memberships on federal commissions and boards will generally be political in nature. But, in the BBG, the political connections have usually been accompanied by media experience. The ideal BBG member would be a grizzled journalist with overseas experience, especially in a place where he/she has witnessed the role of international broadcasting in information-deprived nations." (via ibid.) The incoming board is not altogether ideal, but I assume they are quick learners. It is time to seat them so they can get about their important work. Posted: 07 May 2010 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) SENATOR COBURN BLOCKS MOST RECENT ATTEMPT TO CONFIRM SIX NOMINEES TO THE BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), 8 May 2010, Chris Casteel: Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) "was the only Republican senator in the chamber Friday morning when some of his Democratic colleagues tried to push through more than 60 Obama nominees for numerous federal departments, including Treasury, Commerce, Justice and State. ... Coburn gave [Senator Claire] McCaskill [D-MO] a copy of a letter he sent late last month to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to place holds on six nominees for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America. Coburn also put a copy of the letter into the Congressional Record, making his holds public. Coburn said Friday he had questions about the management of Voice of America and wanted to be able to speak with all of the nominees before allowing their nominations to go forward." NationalJournal.com, Hotline On Call, 6 May 2010, Daniel Friedman: "Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has placed holds on more WH nominees, including former George W. Bush press secretary Dana Perino, he said today. Coburn disclosed holds on eight nominees to the Broadcasting Board of Governors including, including Perino and popular author and journalist Walter Isaacson. ... Coburn has said the Board of Governors and subsidiary operations waste money and said he is has concerns about management of the Voice of America, which the BBG oversees." See previous post about same subject. Posted: 09 May 2010 (kimandrewelliott.com via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) ** U S A. DIRECTOR OF RADIO/TV MARTÍ RESPONDS TO CRITICAL SENATE REPORT Miami Herald, 7 May 2010, Pedro Roig, director of Radio and TV Martí: "I am profoundly disappointed in the errors contained in Sen. John Kerry's Senate Foreign Relations Committee report on Radio and TV Martí broadcast operations. First, the audience issue: The report mentioned that 'less than 2 percent of Cubans listen to Radio Martí, and TV Martí has virtually no viewers at all.' I should note that the General Accounting Office (GAO) report calls into question the validity of that telephone survey since only about 17 percent of Cuban households have telephones and because in Cuba 'they might be fearful of responding to media surveys.' ... On the issue of objectivity, the Senate Committee report noted that less than half of respondents in a 2007 survey of recent arrivals thought Radio and TV Martí broadcasts were 'objective.' The report fails to mention that the same survey stated that ``only 7 percent felt that the newscasts were 'biased.' The same 2007 survey noted ``with regard to the perception of the news broadcast by Radio Martí, 74 percent reported that Radio Martí's news broadcasts were 'excellent' or 'good,' while only a very small percentage (5 percent) rated them 'poor.'" See previous post about same subject. Posted: 09 May 2010 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Marti Marathon --- Glenn, My colleague Ron Rackley will be in Marathon very soon retuning the 1180 antenna system after the replacement of the antenna towers, so it should be back in operation shortly. He tuned up this present 4 tower radiation pattern when it was first implemented some years ago, replacing the original 3 tower array, although we did not design the present configuration. It was designed by the late Ralph Dippell, who was a very distinguished consulting engineer, designer of many notable medium wave antennas. These include the original two-frequency diplexed 4 tower antenna in London for IBC when commercial broadcasting was first licensed there, the IBB/VOA 500 kW medium wave antenna at Selibe// Phikwe, Botswana//, and the 12 tower 1190 array in Dallas, the last remaining operating 12 tower array in N. America (Ben Dawson, WA, May 8, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. VOA RUSSIAN LIVEJOURNAL PAGE VICTIM OF CHEEKY HACKER ATTACK Blogger News Network, 6 May 2010, Ted Lipien: Broadcasting Board of Governors executives "ignored warnings from Free Media Online and other media freedom advocates which pointed out that LiveJournal, which was purchased by a Russian company, is highly vulnerable to attacks by hackers and can be easily control[l]ed by the Russian security services. As a result of the BBG decision to terminate most VOA Russian radio and TV broadcasts, its audience reach in Russia has been drastically reduced." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Ted is reporting on the hacking, on 2 May, of the VOA Russian LiveJournal page, in which a lady strikes an unfortunate (depending on your point of view) pose. (By the way, I tried to report this story a few days ago, when it first appeared at Ted's freemediaonline.org, but Google warned me that the site was infected with malware.) Many websites are occasionally hacked, but they are usually unhacked within a few hours. With 1,570,991 Livestation users in Russia, VOA Russian probably would want to risk -- while bolstering defenses against -- an occasional hack attack. VOA Russian could resume radio and television, but distribution would have to be via shortwave, internet, and satellite, which are not presently popular ways to consume those media in Russia. On the other hand, the mere existence of a website does not guarantee success. It must be publicized and advertised through non-internet media. Posted: 07 May 2010 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** U S A. LATEST SALVO IN VOA PERSIAN BROADCASTER'S HARASSMENT SUIT WorldNetDaily, 11 May 2010, Bob Unruh: "A manager at Persian News Network, a division of Voice of America, has family links to the elite ruling class in Iran – and the bias that goes with that, according to a lawyer for a woman suing VOA for harassment after she expressed her pro-Iranian- freedom perspective. The claims have emerged in a lawsuit filed against VOA seeking $150 million in damages for a woman who was dismissed from her post following her expression of support for freedom for Iranians. The case was filed against Voice of America alleging the managers at its Persian News Network knowingly advocated anti-American sentiment in their programs and then used sexual harassment to drive out an anchor who objected." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) -- In a situation such as this, we would look for conservative journals, conservative think tanks, and conservative politicians to jump on the bandwagon. So far, that horizon seems to be quiet. See previous post about same subject. Posted: 13 May 2010 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** U S A [non]. Despite VOA`s new format, ``Press Conference USA on VOA News Now`` still exists, as I heard that outro Saturday May 8 at 1257 on 9510 // stronger 9760, so starts at 1230. Played fill music/theme until hourtop. An opportunity to compare the main PHT Tinang site on 9760, during this hour 250 kW USward at 21 degrees, and PHX or as Aoki specifies it, Tinang II on 9510, 50 kW at 285 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Not only has "News Now" disappeared, but the programming that replaces it seems to be based less on correspondent reports and more on phone interviews and question-and-answer sessions. On Saturday at 1500, I heard a new show, "American Cafe," which began with a Q&A with VOA correspondent Brian Wagner. The program is not yet listed under "Programs" at the VOA English Web site, where there still seems to be no way to find an English program schedule. Later in the "American Cafe" program, I heard a program about a cheese competition that I heard months ago on NewsNow. I guess the shift to magazine programming will, alas, make it easier to run old features (Mike Cooper, GA, May 8, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [non] Here`s a chance to hear the VOA news hour at 16-17 UT: May 13 at 1559, fair 11890 is in YDD sign-on, 1600 news by YL. This is 114 degrees via SÃO TOMÉ. 9760, open carrier May 14 at 1348. VOA via Tinang, PHILIPPINES is currently scheduled to take a one-hour break 13-14 except on weekends, so they leave the transmitter on anyway? What a waste. Rather like RTI Japanese service which also leaves their 9735 carrier on the entire 12-13 hour between two transmissions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. VoA? Lieber Wolfgang, Herrscher aller Schedules zwischen Orent und Okzident! Heute auf 9490, 9590 und 9600 kHz um 0300 UT die VoA ohne weitere Ansage (also auch ohne "The following programme is in Oromo." oder so) mit dem beiligenden. Gestern war da noch nix zu hören. Whodunit? Und welche Geschmacksrichtung der VoA ist denn das? - - 73, Nils DK8OK, Schiffhauer, May 10, Perseus, 96 m delta loop, 42 m windom, to and via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) Hallo Nils, wegen den Wahlen in ETH verstärkter Einsatz der VOA in Amharisch und Oromo?, um den 3-4 Störsendern dort und dem Regime mit schierer TX Masse das Leben schwer zu machen ? Hier drei Sender mit neuer Sendung seit einer Woche um 0300-0330 UT in Amharisch, siehe Bulgarien DX Mix weiter unten. Die Amis sind "mir soan mir"- wie die BayernFussballer, die können die Frequenzanfordung bei der US FCC auch im Nachhinein genehmigen lassen, da muss nicht 'ne Woche vorher angemeldet werden. 0300 UT VoA Amharisch hat 9 Sender im Einsatz: 4960 Sao Tome, 5985 Wertachtal, 6055 Botswana, 7300 Sao Tome, 7310 Wertachtal, 9490 Meyerton, 9590 Wertachtal, 9600 Wertachtal, 9700 Meyerton. Jetzt um 1830 UT Amharisch sind 11 TX im Einsatz 9620 Iranawila, 11905 Wertachtal, 11925 Wertachtal, 11975 Kuwait, 12140 Udorn Thani, 13630 Botswana, 13835 Kuwait, 13870 Nauen, 15230 Kuwait, 15730 Sao Tome, 17565 Greenville. Gruss (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) See also KUWAIT! ** U S A [non]. Frequency changes for Voice of America: 1730-1800 NF 13630 BOT 100 kW / 010 deg, x 11520 Afaan Oromo Mon-Fri 1800-1900 NF 13630 BOT 100 kW / 010 deg, x 11520 Amharic 1900-1930 NF 13630 BOT 100 kW / 010 deg, x 11520 Tigrigna Mon-Fri New additional morning transmission for Voice of America in Amharic 0300-0330 on 6055 BOT 100 kW / 010 deg 7300 SAO 100 kW / 076 deg 11790 IRA 250 kW / 275 deg (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Frequency changes of Radio Liberty: 0300-0400 NF 12025 IRA 250 kW / 348 deg, ex 17825 in Uzbek 1200-1230 NF 15165 BIB 100 kW / 085 deg, ex 15140 in Kyrgyz 1500-1600 NF 12035 BIB 100 kW / 063 deg, ex 12075 in Tatar 1500-1600 NF 9830 BIB 100 kW / 088 deg, ex 7430 in Turkmen Frequency changes of RFE/RL/Radio Farda in Farsi: 0030-0130 on 5925 BIB 100 kW / 088 deg, deleted 0230-0330 on 7370 BIB 100 kW / 088 deg, deleted 0300-0400 on 9480 BIB 100 kW / 088 deg, deleted 0400-0500 on 9635 WER 250 kW / 105 deg, deleted 2200-2400 on 7250 IRA 250 kW / 322 deg, deleted 0830-0930 NF 13860 IRA 250 kW / 299 deg, x 17880 0930-1000 NF 13860 IRA 250 kW / 299 deg, x 13680 1030-1300 NF 17695 IRA 250 kW / 322 deg, x 17880 1000-1030 NF 13860 LAM 100 kW / 108 deg, x 13680 1030-1300 NF 13860 LAM 100 kW / 108 deg, x 13580 1300-1400 NF 13860 LAM 100 kW / 108 deg, x 13795 1400-1500 NF 13860 WER 250 kW / 105 deg, x 13580 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) see also KUWAIT ** U S A. WWCR chex May 7: at 0530, 3215 is back on and so are the other three transmitters. Trouble is, 3215 has Dead Gene Scott, where he is not supposed to be; furthermore, he is ALSO on // 5935 AND 5890! I assume 3 x DGS is an anomaly caused by the recent troubles. At 1250, 15825 is audible poorly, the usual situation here. At 1338 I note that 9980 is inbooming, as is 7490, the latter // weak 13845 with The Power Hower. So everything is getting back to normal; we hope in time for WORLD OF RADIO 1511 first airing Friday at 2029v on 15825. Then we find a new update on the WWCR website May 7 (and the May 6 one has been removed, so we need to check at least once a day): ``7 May, 2010 - Operations at WWCR are returning to normal almost as quickly as the floodwaters rose in the antenna field. Over the past 24 hours, the water level has dropped by 10 feet and about half of the grass in the field is exposed to the clear Nashville sky. All 4 WWCR transmitters are again in service. Chief Engineer Phil Patton also installed several new capacitors and rectifiers in WNQM's Harris DX-50 and brought AM 1300 back "on-air" by noon local time on Thursday. WNQM is operating at reduced power until the weekend when Phil plans to wade into the field to assess flood related damage to the transmission line. Telephone and internet service have not yet been restored. Production Manager Chris Buchanan has brought in a mobile hotspot device to download many of the programs which are delivered via internet. WNQM and WWCR's return to the air is owed to its incomparable staff. State and local officials are giving initial estimates of damage in excess of $1 billion in both the public and private sectors. While our stations have resumed operation and the rains have passed, a return to normal life will take many months for many of our neighbors, friends and employees. Please keep the people of Nashville, Tennessee in your thoughts and prayers.`` Pleased to note that WWCR was able to download and broadcast WORLD OF RADIO 1511 as scheduled, Friday May 7. Tuned in to fair signal at 2031 as I was already talking about Bolivia, so must have started early. By 2053 the signal had jumped to VG, as sporadic-E must have broken out on HF. Ended at 2057:30, so started slightly before 2029. Next chances: Saturday 1630 on 12160; Sunday 0230 on 4840, 0630 on 3215, 2330 on 9980, Monday 0330 on 5890, if on. Further checks UT May 8: at 0520, 3215 and 5890 are missing, but 5935 and 4840 are on with different programming. At 1243, 9980 is missing, 7490 is VG splattering +/- 20 kHz, 13845 is audible, and 15825 is just barely audible? Explained on the WWCR website as of May 8: ``8 May, 2010 - For most of the day on Friday, all 4 WWCR transmitters were on-air. WNQM was brought back into service on Friday, as well. However, WWCR's transmitter 1 and transmitter 4 did not continue service into Saturday morning. As of this posting, no details are yet available concerning the latest troubles. It is certain that difficulties caused by recent flooding in Nashville will outlast the water. Thankfully, our antenna field is now dry!`` Altho the WWCR-4 transmitter was on the air again for a while last week after the flood outage, it continues to be missing as of May 10 while the other three are OK. Nothing on 9980 late May 9, and nothing on 5890 early UT May 10, so no WOR repeats at 2330 or 0330. 9980 still off at 1434 check. No update yet since May 8 on the WWCR homepage. As for WWCR transmitter status, at 2011 May 8, 15825 is JBA; at 2023 I find 12160 inbooming with Pat Boone; 13845 has PMS but much better on Anguilla 11775; 9980 is missing. After 0100 May 9, besides 3215, 4840 and 5935 are also on with separate programming, but 9980 is still missing as it was earlier on May 8. WWCR is still missing one transmitter, #4, May 9 at 0624 --- nothing on 5890, while 3215, 4840 and 5935 were audible. As of 1530 UT May 9, the homepage still has the May 8 update previously quoted. At 1552 I find 9980 still missing but active on 15825, 13845, 7490. WWCR check May 11: at 1912, 15825 is inbooming, so sporadic E is in progress, and it reaches VHF: see MEXICO. 9980 still absent but looks like it will be back soon. On May 11 an update has appeared on WWCR homepage backdated: ``10 May, 2010- Transmitter #1 is back on the air. Transmitter #1 has a matching stub connected to its rhombic antenna; the only one of WWCR's antennas to have one. It was submerged in floodwaters but did not present problems initially when transmitter #1 was brought back up. On Saturday, Phil Patton saw smoke rising from the matching stub. Remarkably, Phil rebuilt it from varied parts already on the property. Transmitter #1 and the matching stub seem to be content with the rebuild and functioning as normal. WWCR's transmitter #4 remains off- air. Parts needed to bring it back on-air should arrive on Tuesday morning.`` I must say I had not noticed any absence of #1 in last few days, i.e. 15825/7465/3215/9985 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 12 May, 2010 - Thanks to the tireless efforts of WWCR's chief engineer over the last 9 days, all 4 WWCR transmitters and medium wave WNQM are back on the air. Transmitter #4 was the final transmitter to come back on-air. It was returned to service on Tuesday afternoon (WWCR website via gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) ** U S A. WWRB INVADES WWCR --- Something very unethical, dirty, unChristian, and perhaps FCC-illegal occurred last night at 01 UT Tuesday. When WWCR was off-air due to the flood, they were invaded by WWRB. WWCR frequency 3215 is one of my presets for 9 pm (01 UT), and when I rolled my dial to 9 pm last night I heard Brother Stair, which surprised me, because I knew WWCR was off-air. I tuned away briefly, and then tuned back to see if he was still there, but I heard somebody from WWRB repeatedly giving their call letters-- ``WWRB, WW Radio Broadcasting`` and telling the listeners that, at WWRB, you would not hear any ``P-A-Y triot, PAYtriot`` broadcasting, which is bad for you. He then advised the listeners that they could continue listening to Brother Star and WWRB by tuning to 3145. WWRB tried to steal WWCR listeners when WWCR was flooded. WWRB is supposedly a ``Christian`` broadcaster, but, based on this, they would have sunk Noah`s Ark. To me, this is outrageous. Is it illegal under FCC rules? (Kent D Murphy, New Martinsville WV, May 5, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) It`s unclear whether you are aware that WWRB is currently authorized to use 3215 until 0100 when WWCR takes over. I haven`t noted before the flood exactly when WWRB normally turns off and WWCR turns on. It would be a good idea for WWRB to go off a minute or two before 0100 as WWCR is about to come on, rather than risk an overlap/collision. Once one SW station gets a certain SW frequency authorized by FCC, the others are free to glom onto it at other times, even immediately before or after the first one, and WWRB has done this several times, notably in the case of 3215 WWRB certainly competes with WWCR, but actually less so now since as Dave Frantz makes clear on the air and in DXLD, he is fed up with the deadbeat `patriot` clients, and has been getting rid of them, at least by attrition, and jacking up the prices for new prospects. It could be argued that WWRB is always trying to `steal` listeners of WWCR, and I`m not sure that running maybe a minute overtime amounts to such an outrage. You would probably hear the same kind of announcement around 0100 on 3215, once WWCR is back in business there, so what? I see that the 01-02 UT Tue-Sat program scheduled on WWCR 3215 is ``Call to Decision``, with Butch Paugh. What`s special about that? Mark Taylor, WI reported an unID on 7449.4, so I checked the next day, May 9 at 0031. There is a very weak spur on 7449.4 from WWCR 7465, preaching and gospel music, along with a match the same 15.6 kHz displacement above, on 7480.6. These spurs are old hat from this transmitter; does the same thing after the QSY to 3215. But they are quite weak so you won`t always hear them. On this date, 7465 started QSY announcement at 0058 and went off at 0058:35; 3215 came on about 20 seconds later during the steel drums. Meanwhile, WWRB, which had been on 3215 before then, broke into Brother Scare at 0057:35 to instruct ``retune to 3145``, ID, back to BS for a few sex, off at 0058:15. Thus there was a 40-second gap from one 3215 station to the next, well-coördinated. I did what Dave told me to do, on one receiver, and waited and waited. Finally 3145 came on at 0102:20 JIP, after forcing me to miss almost 5 minutes of BS! Checking the WWRB broadcast of WORLD OF RADIO 1511, UT Friday May 7 at 0330 on 3185: heavy T-storm noise on the band, but WWRB almost overcomes it. Previous preacher still going until 0332. Then dead air for two minutes until 0334 WOR joined in progress during Antarctica item. Apparently they started the playback at 0332 but did not turn up the volume (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9955, WRMI, checking for the Friday 1430 airing of WORLD OF RADIO 1511: May 7 at 1441 audible but still troubled by lite pulse jamming which occasionally overtakes. Tnx a lot, Arnie! WORLD OF RADIO check on WRMI 9955, Saturday May 8 at 1350. Just barely audible, then upfades a bit and I can recognize me. NO jamming at all, unlike before 1300 wall of noise; tnx a lot, Arnie! See CUBA. More of a problem now were much stronger adjacents, 9950 Japanese, i.e. Furusato no Kaze via TAIWAN; and the usual RTTY on 9960. 9955, WRMI is on the air weekend afternoons unlike, it seems, weekdays. Sunday May 9 at 1853 poor signal in Spanish, seems unjammed, or maybe very weakly, indistinguishable from noise level. 1858 bit of ``Cuba Libre`` song and Ninochka closes this broadcast of La Voz del Consejo, says will return M-F at 9-10 pm = (Tue-Sat 01-02 UT). The weekend broadcasts are Sunday 05-06, Sat & Sun 18-19. By recheck 1901, WORLD OF RADIO 1511 is underway. [and non]. 9955, WRMI, Monday May 10 at 1433 had Roberto Scaglione in his Italian program ``Studio DX`` but some chirping hets at first, a different kind of jamming? See also CANADA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Jeff, Today UT Wed at 0030 right after Studio DX on webcast I heard a preacher instead of WOR. Requested a program schedule (is that reply automatic or manually from you?) which I figured would answer the question but altho dated May 11 it still shows WOR at that time. ?? Or was it just a promo and WOR followed after I gave up? (Glenn to Jeff White, UT May 12, via DXLD) Glenn: The program schedule is manual; I sent it an hour or two ago I think. You heard El Aposento Alto, a 2-minute feature. World of Radio came right after that (Jeff White, WRMI, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, ibid.) ** U S A. 7415, WBCQ, UT Sunday May 9 at 0039, Ted Randall with ``Outlaw Gospel`` show plugging prayforme.com. VG signal, no CCI audible. The current WBCQ schedule claims it`s QSO with Ted Randall, Sat 18-20 and UT Sun 00-03; and still shows QSO Tue 21-23, plus his Radio Disclosure Wed & Thu 21-23. The WBCQ website anomaly page has this: ``Schedule updates, May 5, 2010 -- There are a number of new shows and schedule changes on WBCQ 7415 on Saturdays; here is the new line-up. * Saturday 2-4 pm (1800-2000 UT) 7415 QSO Radio Show * Saturday 4-5 pm (2000-2100 UT) 7415 The Medical Conspiracy * Saturday 5-7 pm (2200-2300 UT) 7415 The Human Food Factor * Saturday 7-8 pm (2300-0000 UT) 7415 Radio Timtron Worldwide * Saturday 8-11 pm (0000-0300 UT) 7415 QSO Radio Show * Saturday 11-12 m (0300-0400 UT) 7415 The Overcomer Ministry The Good Friends Radio Network expands programming on WBCQ 9330 to 9 am-midnight eastern time (1300-0400 UT). The Overcomer Ministry is also in Tuesdays 7-8pm (2300-0000 UT) on WBCQ 7415 in addition to airtime noted earlier.`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yet BS claims he is on: ** U S A. As I tuned across WWRB 9385, May 9 at 1234, Brother Scare was talking about being back on WBCQ 7415, nightly at 8-11 pm ET, because: long hair on men is contrary to what the Bible allegedly requires, and he prevailed upon Allan Weiner to cut his shoulder- length hair, in order to get BS business back. Allan did so and sent him before-and-after photos, the latter showing haircut above the ears. BS praised Allan for being ``obedient``. ? How about all those portraits of J.C. with long hair???? For all we know, which is literally hardly anything, He could have been a skinhead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7415, WBCQ, Monticello ME' 1903-1932+, 13-May [Thursday]; Glenn Hauser's World of Radio #1512 [first SW airing]; 1931 promo for Free Speech Radio WBCQ. SIO=454 on peak, but fady (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15550-USB, WJHR audible May 8 at 2008 with usual preaching. How much longer can they keep up this charade, programming without authorization and running low power instead of minimum required 50 kW. 15550, WJHR detectable on USB, May 9 at 1850 but incredibly weaker than Kuwait on 15540, even more so than Portugal on 15560 with silly ballgame (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15550, WJHR, Milton FL (presumed); 1918-1930+, 11-May; Huxterage from Brother Love; transitioned from Middle East war to depression to victory over sin. 1928 must have switched to mic much further from Bro. Love -- sounding like in a narrow tunnel. USB, SIO=2+53 with deep QSBs (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15385, aside RHC 15380, Sunday May 9 at 1902 a poor carrier with some JBA music; surely KJES on usual schedule with usual defects. 15385, KJES, May 11 at 1920 with singing, but overridden here by one of my local VHF FM 2-way images on the FRG-7; this one is almost continuous, and exactly on 15385; tsk2. 11715, KJES has VG S9+20 signal on 70 degree beam OKward, May 10 at 1323 with catechisms repeated by psychophants, such as ``I am standing at the door``. Undermodulated but enough to copy without strain this time. Next check at 1431 after presumed rotation to 350 degrees at 1400, still good signal, child implores ``please let me know if you can hear me`` and back to catechisms, this time spoken by an adult woman and repeated by a chorus of adults, starting with ``For you are a chosen race``. How PI can they get? (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Summer A-10 of WEWN Global Catholic Radio: Spanish 0000-1000 on 11870 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm 1000-1700 on 12050 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm 1700-2400 on 13830 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm Spanish 0000-0500 on 5810 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm 0500-1300 on 7555 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm 1300-1800 on 11550 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm 1800-2400 on 12050 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm English 0000-0300 on 11520 EWN 250 kW / 085 deg to WeAf 0300-0500 on 9455 EWN 250 kW / 085 deg to WeAf 0500-0900 on 6890 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to WeEu 0900-1300 on 11520 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to WeEu 1300-1600 on 13835 EWN 250 kW / 355 deg to SEAs 1600-2200 on 15610 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to N/ME 2200-2400 on 11520 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to N/ME (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 10 May, via DXLD) 15620 and 15600, spurs from WEWN 15610 quite strong at 2006 May 8, bothering WYFR 15600 in Polish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. 11875, May 9 at 1855 fairly good signal, but low modulation, and noise seems to be coming out of same transmitter. African language, mentions Bible. YFR 65 degrees via Ascension is listed here in Igbo. At 1900 I retune and find a different, weaker signal on 11875. That would be IBRA, 160 degrees via Rampisham UK, which HFCC also considers to be a USA station, rather than Swedish. Aoki shows it`s their R. Ibrahim service at 1900-2030 --- the first semihour in Fulfulde daily, the last quarterhour in Hausa daily. In between, a complex rotation of quarter-hour segments in Tamajeq, Moore, Malinke, Jula, Zarma, Fon and Wolof, depending on day of week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. A moment to cherish: 17845, WYFR Family Radio, Okeechobee FL; 1946, 11-May; Harold droning on Open Forum; caller said, "It's a pleasure to talk to you, how are you doing mother#!cker?" Harold needs a delay & kill switch! Live program? To H's credit, he did not throw a snit (too bad) or engage in any witty repartee with the caller, but cut him off and said, "Let's go on to our next call." SIO=454-; // 17795, SIO=3+53, swamped by QRN waves (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9265, it seems that WINB is encroaching into airtime reserved for the long-silent WMLK on same: May 8 at 2015 with hymn and nothing on 13570, WINB`s normal mid-day frequency. It`s // 9385 WWRB, so the Brother Scare service, as soon IDed by himself at 2018. I hope no one list-logs this as WMLK. Axually WINB staying on 9265 all day Saturday instead of 13570 worx out fine, since the late Elder Jacob O. Meyer piously took Sabbaths off when WMLK axually transmitted, so its official imaginary registration is for 16-21 Sun-Fri, while WINB has it 15-21 on Saturdays only. Sabbath is special for both preachers but they observe(d) it oppositely! Stair adds more frequencies and times than ordinary days. WINB is STILL broadcasting convicted, sentenced and serving time for 175 years child-molester Tony Alamo, as tuned across 13570v May 13 at 1546. Online sked still claims he is on at 16-17, failing to convert UT/EDT correctly. Before 1500, 9265 was still in use at 1439 with Brother Scare, who served much less jail time for sexual offenses, not // or at least not synchro with WWRB 9385 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. DOS NUEVAS ESTACIONES DE RADIO EN ESPAÑOL BUSCAN NUEVOS HORIZONTES [CHICAGO, FM y AM] 11 de mayo de 2010 Chicago, 11 may (EFE).- Dos nuevas estaciones de radio en español en Chicago buscan orientar a los medios hispanos a nuevos horizontes con una mezcla de programas culturales e informativos para satisfacer la demanda de un millón y medio de latinos. Las dos nuevas emisoras, Radio Cosmos WDCB 90.9 FM y Radio Formula WRLL 14.50 AM, se han unido a la decena de estaciones de radio que ya transmiten a la zona de Chicago y sus poblados barrios. "Una radio cultural ese es el concepto básico de Radio Cosmos," explicó Gerardo Quintero, del departamento de producción de la nueva estación que comenzó a transmitir por internet y que en unos días saldrá al aire para los seis condados alrededor de Chicago. La nueva estación es una iniciativa de La Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM) y su estación, Radio UNAM; el Colegio de DuPage, el Instituto Cervantes de España y la Fundación Jesús Guadalupe. La estación, cuyo lema es "Compartiendo La Lengua de la Inmensa Minoría," está ubicada en el centro de Chicago en el primer piso de las instalaciones de la UNAM y promete una programación diferente al resto de las otras estaciones hispanas. . . Fuente: Telemundo Atlanta :: Hispanos http://bit.ly/a6pJAQ (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) ** U S A. 1370, I have been unable to hear KGNO Dodge City KS on daytime groundwave, tho I recall previously having been able to do so, with a weak signal by the time it got to Enid. So is it off the air? KGNO did make it at night, May 8 at 0445 UT, with an ad for a multi- cinema in Garden City, 620+AC phone number, promo Rush, and ID in passing, atop jumble on 1370. This still leaves open the question of whether the daytime power / antenna has degraded, and I will surely look for it the next time I travel N or W from Enid. NRC AM Log 2009-2010 says format is oldies, 24 hour ``AM Gold Radio`` which would seem to be at variance with broadcasting that creep`s talkshow. An ancient station, KGNO is non- direxional day and night, nominally 5 kW, supposedly reducing to only 230 watts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 880, WZAB, FL, SWEETWATER, 2250 [EDT?] 06/05/10 [6 May]. Ad for a water service company in the Tampa Bay area at 2250, then back into program with a promo by Tony Bennet [sic] that "your [sic] listening to 'The sounds of Sinatra." Strong signal over WCBS at times. Gone by 2310. They may have been on day power. Nice program with Sinatra and very strong signal. (DXer: Willis Monk, QTH: Old Fort, TN, ANTANNA [sic]: 149' long wire, RCVR: Drake R-4C, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) Re: [AMFMTVDX] WZAB-880 is actually KLRG --- This is KLRG from Arkansas believe it or not. http://www.tantalk1340.com/ and absolutely huge on 880 here in NE IL on my new southerly antenna. WZAB is located near Miami. 73 KAZ Barrington IL (Neil Kazaross, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, ibid.) ALL THE ADS, AND THERE WERE MORE ADS THAN I MENTIONED, WERE FOR THE TAMPA AREA OR TAMPA BAY AREA. SUCH THINGS AS, "WHEN IN FLORDIA..." [sic] AND ETC. WHY WOULD A STATION IN ARKANSAS GIVE ADS FOR FLORDIA????? TOTAL LENGTH OF TIME LISTENED WAS 42 MINUTES (Monk, ibid., sic all caps) Yes it seems very strange but this has been reported before and confused many a DXer. Click on the link and you'll see that KLRG relays WTAN's network. http://www.tantalk1340.com/ 73 (KAZ, ibid.) ** U S A. HAMILTON HIGH RADIO STATION TO SHUT DOWN DEAD AIR TO COINCIDE WITH END OF DISTRICT'S BROADCASTING ARTS PROGRAM. By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer Updated 9:12 AM Wednesday, May 12, 2010 HAMILTON [OHIO] — After broadcasting for more than 35 years, WHSS-FM, the radio station operated out of Hamilton High School, will go off the air May 28. The dead air coincides with the final class of the schools broadcasting arts program at the Job Development Center. “We know from March of last year that we were discontinuing the broadcasting arts program, but no specific decision had been made on the radio station at that time,” said David Spurrier, who will be retiring at the end of the school year after managing the station and teaching broadcasting classes for 31 years. “That decision was just finalized in the last month or so,” he said. Spurrier said the decision to close the program was based on both a lack of interest and the decline of jobs in radio and television broadcasting. “Broadcasting arts program this year has 20 students, juniors and seniors,” he said. “We’ve had in the neighborhood of 75 or more at any particular time.” A lot of that is due to the changes in technology and the way young people consume music. “When I started, you went to radio for your entertainment,” he said. “When I was in school, I had 15 or 20 albums and people thought that was a huge collection. Now, kids carry around in their pockets more music than most radio stations I’ve worked at.” The program was designed to provide hands-on training so that students could get jobs in radio and television, he said, but because most commercial radio stations are fully automated, there aren’t that many jobs out there anymore. “It’s been a while since I’ve been able to place a kid even part-time in a radio station,” Spurrier said. “There may be only one or two job openings in the whole county in a year when there’s high turnover. “Having a career education program for broadcasting just doesn’t make sense anymore.” The administration has yet to decide whether they should try to sell the broadcasting license or simply give it back to the FCC, he said. More: Their Website: http://www.895whss.com/ http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2010/05/11/hamilton-pulling-plug-on-whhs-fm/ (via Artie Bigley, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) Greater than local implications (gh, ibid.) ** U S A. I am having a lot of trouble getting information. Sometimes Christian radio is plagued by the "touch not God's anointed" syndrome. In other words - actions that would be classified as workplace bullying / hostile takeovers in the secular business world are "justified" when somebody "prays first". This was the situation with the raid on WCIE - that I did get the scoop on. If the people in charge think God is behind it, they should be the first ones to be proud of what they do instead of slinking around and covering up their behavior. All I know is - he was walked out the door one day. I surmise it was over the change of format to praise and worship music - his vision was always one to reach young people and young professionals with upbeat, real CCM. The format when he was in charge - what I remember is one I would call Hot-AC, with Christian rock on Saturday nights. About 20 years ago, the station still seemed to be what I remember from the early days, a really creative Christian oldies show on Saturday night; I was disappointed that the Rock of Love wasn't on, but it was fun hearing the old songs. The change to boring bland praise and worship music must have happened some time after that. It is a scourge I fought for years when I did Christian radio - old fogies that own stations love it - it is "safe" and doesn't offend grandma pharisee with the fat bank account. Those of us who did real Christian rock were always looked down on, talked about, and viewed suspiciously. All the while we were having tremendous impact in the youth demographic, I even did a show that out rated the local top-40 station, and had the DJ at that station listening to ME on his monitor! Astonishing what can be done with Christian radio - but KSBJ lost it somewhere along the line. That station was WAPN in Holly Hill / Daytona Beach. I was even attracting DX'ers from Jacksonville - pretty good for a little 2200 W station on a 350 foot tower! Which I had to climb on occasion to fix an antenna bay. REAL seat of the pants radio, and you really feel connected with the station when you have been up the tower, in the transmitter room swapping 30 year old obsolete transistors, etc. Just to get the station back on the air for your show! WPOZ HD-3 is on my iPhone, and I listen to it to and from work in the car. Christian radio done RIGHT, and having an impact across the country. While old fogie praise, worship, and hymns go, for the most part, with almost nobody listening. Definitely no kids or young professionals. The ones with money who could support a station. Something wrong with that picture somewhere! Oh well, the state of Houston radio mirrors the state of radio around the country. Secular ruled by mega corporations, lawyers, bean counters, and focus groups. Christian ruled by mega churches, old fogie boards, accountants looking at donation checks, and no listener input at all. Neither side of the spectrum - secular or Christian - particularly inspiring the type of devotion listeners used to have for radio. I'm proudly a satellite and streaming listener. When I get in my wife's car with neither, I don't bother turning the radio on. 116 frequencies on AM, 100 on FM, and nothing to listen to (Bruce Carter, TX, May 11, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. Re 10-18: An increase in power for AM stations to overcome digital noise created by computers, cable, etc. (with link to report to FCC. I am not sure if that is funny... or ironic... or both. Isn't that like increases the speed limits on highways because of traffic congestion? Maybe what we need to do is stop the tide of poorly made electronics from arriving on our shores (Colin Newell, BC, IRCA via DXLD) I don't expect the tenfold power increases to happen. For one thing, I don't think it would be possible for stations to raise power to 500 kW (or some other tenfold increase) near the Canadian and Mexican borders without major pattern changes. Most Vancouver & Victoria stations, for example, are 10-20 kHz from Seattle area stations and would need to be afforded their current protection levels. Add to that the economics of huge power increases. Some stations like KJR and KRKO have boosted power to 50 kW, but it doesn't come cheaply. I would expect the jump from 50 to 500 kW to be rather pricey when you factor in the tower upgrades, new transmitter, new power feed, etc., to handle the higher power, plus the higher electrical bill. Would the increased power outputs ever pay back through increased listenership, if the station could actually afford to make the upgrade? I can see a chaotic situation developing where stations that don't boost power lose coverage because of neighboring stations that do. Not to mention the impact on people who live near transmitter sites, and concerns (real or imagined) about r.f. exposure and effects on electronic devices in their homes (Bruce Portzer, WA, ibid.) I agree with Bruce. Economic issues: (1) Look at all the Canadians who are dropping acreage-eating AM DA arrays for monopole FM (2) Look at all the US stations which are dropping night DAs in favor of lower power non-DA night operation (3) I think some, like KMJ, have gone to 50kw solely to cut through today's increased electronic interference and better serve their cities-of-license And yes, it is expensive. KJR had to do it twice; the co-siting with KHHO here in Tacoma obviously didn't fly (Pete Taylor, Tacoma, WA, 12225w 4719n, ibid.) ** U S A. There is another LPTV 6 target that is now on the air testing. W26CX, Memphis TN, has moved from analog 26 to 6 and at this point, I can't find a reference in the FCC database for the new calls. I just talked to the engineer of the station, also in Memphis, via telephone. He told me they are currently testing and are broadcasting Spanish language network Multimedios Monterrey (MX), with local ad inserts. I mentioned that Ed in Kentucky has been receiving their signal and the engineer was impressed. Be on the lookout for this one as the E-skip season winds up (Jim Thomas, wdx0fbu, Milliken, Colorado, (40 miles north of Denver), 5 May, WTFDA via DXLD) The calls are still W26CX. I'm not sure why the FCC is sometimes so slow to assign new calls when a translator changes frequency/channel. (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) The new call sign is W06CR. It's in their Authorization PDF (Trip Ericson, http://www.rabbitears.info ibid.) I just wonder if W26CX (future W06CX) is going to have "radio station" audio as some of the channel 6 analog LPTV have tried (Fritze H Prentice Jr, KC5KBV, Star City, AR, ibid.) ** U S A. An odd one on the radio this morning, I tuned down to 87.7 and heard audio which I thought was satellite initially. But then I heard a "Snap 87.7" ID and mentions of Lafayette Parish (LA), so this is something out of Louisiana. Is this becoming a trend for stations to take over 87.7? I know of Chicago and NYC, but how many other stations are out there on 87.7? I remember some discussion on this topic in the past, but is the FCC now allowing stations to apply for this frequency? (Jeff Kruszka, Pearland, TX, May 5, WTFDA via DXLD) KXKW-LP Lafayette, a LPTV station. You still can't have a radio station on 87.7. But you can have an analog LPTV. There *appears* to be a loophole in the LPTV regulations that allows them to use FM audio modulation standards, and seems to allow aural power equal to visual (3 kW max on channel 6) (back when there were still full-power analog stations, their aural power was limited to 22% of visual). Since the HAAT of a LPTV station is basically limited only by interference to other stations, some of these LPTV-as-radio-station operations can be even more powerful than a Class A FM. The station in NYC tried to stretch it to the point of operating on 87.9 instead of 87.75. They didn't last on 87.9 for long but I'm not sure whether that's because the FCC told them to go back to 87.75 or if it was because there was too much interference from pirates on 87.9. You can't start a *new* analog LPTV (as of a few weeks ago, if you apply for a new LPTV station it must be digital, and applications on file for new analog LPTVs must be amended to specify digital operation or they'll be dismissed). But if you already have an analog LPTV permit/license, you can get it modified to specify channel 6. There's one like this in Miami, and I'm now hearing one just went on the air in Memphis (moved from channel 26) Others off the top of my head are in Anchorage; somewhere in Hawaii; and in L.A. – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) ** U S A. Today is the 40th anniversary of the day that two people from the Ku Klux Klan destroyed the transmitter of Pacifica-owned KPFT [90.1 Houston TX]. According to a source, it is "the first, second and only station in the United States to have its transmitter blown up by terrorists." More info: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2010/05/the_day_the_kkk_bombed_kpft.php Also, there is an older thread on this board discussing the event: http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=75649.0 (via Artie Bigley, May 12, DXLD) ** U S A. Brandon Duke (KJ4SGZ ex: KD0BSH) Shoots Police Officer and is Wounded !! Brandon Duke is a friend of Karol Madera, VE7KFM. Duke's been in some trouble in the past, mostly related to theft and identity theft. According to the news story online, Duke shot at a police officer and missed. The officer returned fire and wounded Duke, who is expected to survive. http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=21969 (Brian Crow, K3VR, May 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING SHUTS DOWN S. MAIN STREET IN LONGMONT Shooting victim taken to Longmont United Hospital By Scott Rochat and Joshua Buck A Longmont police officer exchanged shots with a wanted man and wounded him Saturday morning near South Main Street and Boston Avenue. The officer was not injured in the exchange. His name has not yet been released by police. Police said that around 8:05 a.m., the officer had spotted Brandon Duke, 21, who was wanted by Longmont for misdemeanor assault. When the officer started to approach the man, Duke ran. After a short chase, Duke fired on the officer with a small semi-automatic handgun. The officer fired back, hitting Duke once in the side, said Mike Butler, Longmont public safety chief. "We believe the officer acted in self-defense," Butler said. "His life was clearly in danger." Duke was transported from the scene, conscious and breathing, and taken into surgery at Longmont United Hospital. Police say he is expected to survive. The Boulder County Critical Incident Team is conducting the investigation. Steve Erikson, who lives near McCarthy's Pub, said he heard the shots and looked to see what had happened. "I heard two shots, and I came out, and then I heard about five more," said Erikson. "Then I started to walk out there, and here comes all the cops, so I decided 'Don't walk over there.'" "It sounded like the O.K. Corral around here," said Skip Steigerwald, a nearby resident. Butler could not yet confirm how many shots had been fired, but said that no other people were hit during the incident. The officer has been put on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues. "The officer is shaken, but we believe he'll be fine," Butler said. "He's got tremendous support." Main Street between First Avenue and Ken Pratt Boulevard was blocked off to traffic during the investigation, as was a portion of Boston. Butler said the streets would likely be re-opened later today, but no specific time has been set. This is Longmont's first officer-involved shooting since Dec. 23, 2009, when 38-year-old Anthony Chavez fought with police and tried to take an officer's gun. Chavez, a convicted sex offender, was shot once and survived (via Crow, ibid.) Regarding Amateur Operator Brandon Duke, KJ4SGZ, ex: KD0AIM, KD0BSH, KC0TKB, KC0VRS and KC0UWS, this article in the Longmont newspaper may be of interest: DUKE COULD FACE ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGES Suspect still in hospital after S. Main gun battle By Scott Rochat © 2010 Longmont Times-Call Publish Date: 5/9/2010. . . http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=21980 (via Crow, May 11, ibid.) ** VANUATU. 3945, R. Vanuatu, Port Vila. May 10 English (listed) 0920- 0932 male alternating female talks, short music, 0930 instrumental music returning male talks. Weak, unreadable 24222 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN [non]. 6020, R. Australia caught my attention May 7 at 1220 with a discussion of early aviatrix Amy Johnson, first to fly solo (sola?) from England to Australia, whose autographed helmet is now an artifact. She died in WWII. (I equally lament that ``aviatrix`` is becoming archaic, and advocate the -trix suffix being employed to feminize other occupations, e.g. announcetrix; surely better than ``announcess``). [see LANGUAGE LESSONS] I knew co-channel interference was imminent but had not QSYed to RA on 9580 or 9590 when at 1228 on came music underneath: ``Baby, I`m-a Want You`` by Bread, which is in stereotypical Italian-accent dialect. Does someone have a sense of humor at Vatican Radio or Radio Veritas Asia? This ran for only two minutes as prélude to the VR relay starting at *1230 with bells of St. Peter`s, 1231 into Chinese (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. Venezuela on 6060 kHz at 0000 UT. Perseus SDR and super Kaz antenna + preamp http://www.4shared.com/audio/RWFWZP8y/Venezuela_6060khz_0000utc_9-5.html (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, 1604 UT May 9, HCDX via DXLD) Yes, clip is RNV standard ID with Apartado 3979 address. Not scheduled at this hour via CUBA. Could be switching error, tail end of 23-24 relay on 13680, 15250. Or was it the beginning of a new one-hour broadcast? Need to confirm. No El Hugazo, Sunday May 9 at 1553, checking the Aló, Presidente channels via CUBA 17750, 13750, 12010. Regular RHC was on 11690. Something in Chinese on 13680, i.e. CRI via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15245, R Nacional Venezuela, via La Habana, 0000-0008, May 01, Spanish and English, 55545 (Gordon Snedecor, Portland, Oregon, U. S. A., DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) ?? Has always been on 15250, so were they askew or you? Also is supposed to be at 2300-2400; did it run over, or time misconverted, or have schedules changed?? (gh, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. 1.6% DE LOS VENEZOLANOS ESCUCHA LA RADIO REVOLUCIONARIA 10 de mayo 2010 | 09:57 am - Jolguer Rodríguez Costa Los medios comunitarios surgieron para enfrentar el poder, pero actualmente buena parte de ellos están alineados con el Gobierno. De acuerdo con Conatel, de 1.004 emisoras en el país - entre AM y FM - 656 son privadas, 243 son comunitarias y 105 pertenecen al Estado. El Minci destina recursos a los medios llamados revolucionarios La administración del presidente Hugo Chávez ha invertido en los últimos 4 años 25,9 millones de bolívares para potenciar los llamados medios de comunicación comunitarios, figuras que según refiere la historia surgieron para enfrentar al poder, pero que en la complejidad de la Venezuela actual se da a la inversa: para alinearse con el Gobierno. El éxito del proyecto exhibe, hasta ahora, resultados precarios: en el caso específico de las emisoras de radio, sólo 1,6% de los venezolanos admite que las sintoniza a diario, reveló el capítulo de consumo cultural incluido en el Estudio sobre Pobreza en Venezuela, efectuado por el Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales de la UCAB. . . Fuente: http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/p_contenido.php?q=nodo/136536/Nacional/1,6%-de-los-venezolanos-escucha-la-radio-revolucionaria (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD)) DENUNCIAN NUEVO PLAN DE HUGO CHÁVEZ PARA CERRAR MÁS RADIOS - Infobae.com http://bit.ly/dihYOM (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) ** ZAMBIA. Frequency change of CVC International in English to WeAf: 1900-2200 NF 9540 LUS 100 kW / 315 deg, x 5940 to avoid VOIROI via SIT (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 01 May but not published until 10 May, via DXLD) As reported here, we doubt if it was ever on 5940 (gh, DXLD) That was probably a TYPO 5940/9540 when provided the registration schedule once (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 550, dominant daytime groundwave KFRM from Kansas with a major lobe usward, has a SAH of 4.6 Hz detectable in its deep null on DX-398 from a much weaker station, May 7 at 2022 UT. Most likely KCRS Midland TX which traverses good ground conductivity over the Llano Estacado, and is somewhat closer than KTSA San Antonio or, over bad Ozarkian conductivity, KTRS St Louis. All 5 kW, KTSA and KTRS are non- direxional daytime, while KCRS has a lobe favoring us. Hmm, all three are in the NRC AM Log with news/talk format and two of them have almost identical callsigns. O, for the good old days of KSD (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 3287.45 at 0505-0545 5 May 2010, Radio Madagasikara?!?!? Right now, at 0541z on Wednesday, 5 May 2010, I am hearing a fairly strong sideband het and also AM carrier on 3287.45 kHz. I have been listening to this carrier since 0505z. SINPO is about 25222, maybe even a bit better; hard to tell what any audio would sound like, since the carrier is open, but it is obviously from some distance away. The A10 schedule shows nothing for this precise frequency, but it does show that at 0500, Radio Madagasikara (10 kW?) is normally due to end its transmission on 3288v kHz. Is this possible? This would be a first for me - hearing a near antipodal signal on a band below 60 meters. Awesome propagation on the tropicals tonight! Stoked, and looking for confirmation ~ (Bruce Jensen, California, USA, ptsw yg via DXLD) Bruce, No, I would say that is not possible, or at least not very likely. Local time there is almost 9 am. There has been a utility carrier around this frequency for ages, heard all evening/night in North America and surely not far away. If you turn on BFO you might hear RTTY being sent intermittently. If you ever heard any program modulation on it, that would be a different story. Mainly it`s an annoyance when trying to DX stations on 3290. Remember that above the tropix, the ``tropical broadcast bands`` are really utility bands. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Glenn & Bruce, I hear that utility carrier too just down from V of Guyana on 3290. Right now it's an annoyance, but sometime in the future it may be what we are DXing if things continue as they are. (Chuck Bolland, FL, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. Something on 4050 now quite weak but music audible here in the U.K. I picked this up at 1507 UT; maybe someone can identify. 73 (Gary Drew, South Herts., England, May 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Pirate, or R. Rossii, Kyrgyzstan, not KWMO (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. 4780, Radio Livre, Bolivia? Alguem pode me informar de onde transmite Radio Livre? 0uvi nesta noite YL ID SS ``escuchas a Radio Libre``, música bailable (Ivanildo Gonçalves Dantas, Brasil, 6 de Mai de 2010 5:13 pm [zone?], radioescutas yg via DXLD) The Bolivian closest to 4780 is 4782, R. Tacana, Tumupasa, per WRTH 2010. Maybe a new name or slogan? LA DX shows: 4781.49v BOL # R Tacana, Tumupasa [*0959/2108-0302*](0.96-2.1) Nov09 C SS 0302->0331* (a)"Somos R Tacana" (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 4874.0, 1432-1436'55*, Apr 09, talks in unidentified Caucasus-like language, then sudden close down - strong and good signal including its audio quality (Mikhail Timofeyev in Dxplorer via DSWCI DX Window May 5 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 4875.48, L.A. in unID language (not clear if in Spanish or Portuguese), 5/3 0118-0151 LA ballads; M unclear talk (0124-0138) with brief music pauses at times; slow song; M brief announcement at 0141; continuous music with slow songs / M brief unclear announcements over songs at times; M talk; heard in SSB with strong static crashes; lite splats il [sic] USB at times; poor/very poor with nir 12 (Giovanni Serra, Roma, Italy, JRC NRD 525; Alpha Delta DX-SWL Sloper- S; RG 8 mini coaxial cable; JPS NIR 12 Noise & Interference Reducer- Dual DSP outboard audio filter; Intek PS-35 5 ampere feeder; JRC - NVA 319 external loudspeaker unit; Yaesu YH - 77 STA stereo headphones; Zoom Corp. H2 handy digital recorder MP3 & WAV files; Oregon Scientific radio controlled clock; Interkart framed wall board political world map (1: 46,400,000); the DX Edge-Xantek Inc.(daylight- darkness desk world map), NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Surely Rdif. Roraima, BRAZIL, as per several reports in DXLD 10-18, which apparently he does not consult (gh, DXLD) See also BRAZIL 10-19 UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Recently I tried out my Eton E10 with the 20 foot random wire antenna that came with it. After tuning WWV on 5 MHz and adjusting the antenna trimmer for a strong S meter reading, I tuned down the 60m band. At 4.9 MHz there was a good signal with a male announcer in Spanish. Not wanting to fight the mosquitoes in my back yard any longer, I went inside to try to ID this station using my WinRadio G303i and DX-sloper antenna. I heard nothing but static. I switched antennas to a 60 ft. random wire and still nothing audible at 4.9 MHz. Surely the G303i is not this insensitive! Has anyone else compared the sensitivity of a G model WinRadio to a traditional receiver? I am really hoping a squirrel has chewed my coaxial lead-in for the DX-sloper! (Richard Murphy, San Antonio, NASWA yg via DXLD) I'm guessing that either you may have picked up a spurious signal on 4900. I think I have also done so on that frequency with a different receiver. It is also possible that something was on 4900 only for a short time as I don't recall any stations on that frequency in a while (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, ibid.) I wish people would give basic details when they have a mystery, such as the time. If the IF of the receiver which got something on 4900 is 455 kHz, it would be a 2 x IF image from 5810, which is WEWN in Spanish between 0000 and 0500. Its absence on the other receiver indicates the latter has much better image rejexion (or a different IF). All too frequently signals 910 kHz higher show up on the 60m band, and they are only produced in the receivers. This is of course easy to check if you compare to the real frequency. That`s the first thing to do when you hear something on an unexpected frequency. BTW, there have been some intriguing unIDs reported lately on 4900, but surely very weak signals and not images. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Glenn is right --- Thanks to Glenn and the other folks who suggested IF images as my mystery signal. I was listening at about 0130, which would be when WEWN is in Spanish. I have since discovered that the E10 has an IF shift button to select a different IF frequency just to remedy issues like mine. I am guessing it uses both 450 and 455 kHz, but I am waiting to see whether Eton tech support will actually tell me the IF frequencies (Richard Murphy, May 9, ibid.) Really? I had never heard of such a feature on a SW receiver (gh) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Re 10-18, 4900 West African: see GUINEA !!! UNIDENTIFIED. 5800, WRN Events, 1757-1800, Apr 11, English male voice mirror: "This is WRN Events, the satellite radio channel for the distribution of life events. WRN Events offers a huge coverage area and a quick turn-around (?) of audio on a widely used satellite at an unbelievable low price. Use WRN Events to distribute music concerts, ... events and award ceremonies to your local station affiliate ... in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. For more information, e-mail us at sales@wrn.org ". Website: http://www.wrn.org/ Moderate signal ending at 1800 (Max Van Arnhem, Netherlands, DSWCI DX Window via DXLD) Presumably UKRAINE site, frequency used for English football weekend afternoons (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. DRM covering 5975, 5980 & 5985 first noted May 08 at 2305 and then again May 10 from 2223 tune-in to 2330:00 off when WYFR & Myanma R became audible on 5985. Checked http://www.drm.org but not listed there. No idea what this might be, some kind of test perhaps? If you can receive DRM please help. 73, (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. UNKNOWNISTAN: 6225, Trans-World Radio; 2235-2305+, 13- May; IS & M repeating in only English, You are tuned to the Int'l Voice of Trans-World Radio (IS x 2 + ID). No program or s/on. SIO=343 with occasional ute clatter (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) FWIW, 6225 used earlier only by Meyerton for TWR, WRN/RTE (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. 11690, American OM low-key preacher, May 7 at 2019; fair signal and RTTY on lo side evitable on DX-398 by using USB. Nothing scheduled here in HFCC or EiBi. No relevant hits in DXLD 10-11 thru 10-18. However, Aoki today has this incomplete entry: 11690 FAMILY RADIO 2000-2100 1234567 English WYFR a10 VT So site unknown, but not Okeechobee itself. The speaker at the moment was not Harold Camping (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 17895, strong S9+14 and steady open carrier, May 8 at 1434, brief tone test and off at 1435. Rivaled strongest signals on band such as 17680 Chile, 17595 Spain. Probably Greenville tuning up for the 1700 transmission to Zimbabwe; and no sign of Holy Qur`an from Saudi Arabia, the usual occupant of 17895 on a good day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ WRTH A-10 SUPPLEMENT IMMINENT The free A-10 WRTH pdf supplement should be out any day now; via http://www.wrth.com/updates_new.asp Last year`s was dated 11 May 2009 so it`s overdue this year (Glenn Hauser, OK, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Free, but now asks for donations WRTH SUMMER SCHEDULES FILE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD, FREE OF CHARGE The WRTH Editorial team is pleased to announce that the Summer season broadcasting schedules file is now available to download free of charge from the WRTH website - click on http://www.wrth.com and follow the link "Latest PDF Updates". The file is in PDF format (you will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader, v6 or above to open this file. If you do not have the Acrobat reader, please visit http://www.abobe.com to download and install it). The 100 page file is just over 400 kB in size and contains the following information: Summer / 'A' Season broadcasting schedules for well over 200 international and Clandestine/target stations; Frequency listing of the above stations to facilitate band scanning; Broadcasts in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish and International DRM broadcasts. Please feel free to pass this information on so that we may reach as many SWL's, DX-er's and professionals as possible. For contact details, transmitter sites and much more, please refer to the printed WRTH, which is available to order from the website. We hope you find this a useful accompaniment to the printed WRTH. On behalf of the publisher and editorial team at WRTH, happy listening! (Sean Gilbert, International Editor - WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook), May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WRTVHs on eBAY Currently I have put my entire collection of World Radio & TV Handbooks for sale. 1977 to 2000 (which will be listed later from 1995 to 2000, today.) Follow this link to view these items: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170485486917&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:CA:1123 My reason is for selling so others may have the opportunity of having these publications (Edward Kusalik, Alberta, May 12, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) LANGUAGE LESSONS See also ROMANIA ++++++++++++++++ MYSTERY LANGUAGE VIA METEOR SCATTER Mystery language (maybe Cree?) heard via meteor scatter on 96.9 this morning at Burnt River ON. Posted online... http://www.wtfda.info/showthread.php?p=12676#post12676 Anyone recognize the language? (Saul Chernos, May 12, WTFDA via DXLD) Sounds like Hillbilly, to me, Saul (My Dad was a Hillbilly). I'm hearing... "baseball teams, we took"... Perhaps from the Appalachian area of KY, NC or TN. Maybe, even, north GA. Definitely, south-eastern U.S. 73, (Ed NN2E, ibid.) "You Might Be a Redneck If... Your TV gets 512 channels, but you go outside to use the bathroom." Jeff Foxworthy [Ed`s tagline, ibid.] I also hear "...baseball teams. We took..." While this will surely go in the unID pile - you can probably assume it's a small town station, owned by an individual or small radio group. Big market stations usually neutralize any local flavor and dialect. I agree with Ed that what little I can hear of the accent sounds akin to southern Appalachian, but the station could be elsewhere in the South. That said, there's not a lot of 96.9s in that area of the country. Most of them are big market 100kws (WKKT Charlotte, WXBQ Bristol, etc). Perhaps WSIG in western Virginia "Real Country 96.9" (Bryce Foster - KG6VSW, Murfreesboro, TN EM65, http://www.kg6vsw.com ibid.) Hi Saul, Just wondering if you seriously did not recognize this as English? 73, (Glenn to Saul, via DXLD) I just got back to the internet for non-work (besides checking for reports of skip) this morning and saw the response on the Forums. I'm thinking of a good answer. I swear I didn't recognize it. Honest! The MS clip was short, and I played it back over and over and - for whatever reason - got it into my thick skull that it wasn't English. Actually, my first thought was 'this sounds Oriental, maybe Korean' - then I realized there's a fairly strong station in MB that's Aboriginal (Cree, in part, at least). I thing once I assumed it was not English, I 'heard' what I suspected - which I think DXers often do with suspected words or sounds when listening to their clips. I know I've had little trouble a few times with others' mysteries. I suspect a set of fresh ears helps. Anyhow, I see a couple folks have responded. I've given the clip a listen knowing the words to expect. And sure enough. My ears must be shot. This reminds me of the Monty Python movie, The Meaning of Life - where there's a caption "The Third World" followed by "Yorkshire." As a DXer of 30+ years and having heard foreign AM stations from across Asia, the Americas and Europe, I'm still scratching my head on this one (Saul Chernos, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I need more than a hearing aid --- If I was paid to be a DXer, and this was a job, and I was accountable to someone or something, this surely would have gotten me fired (Saul Chernos, WTFDA Forum via DXLD) [non] Re: Glenn Hauser logs May 7, 2010 --- Maybe I'm just dumb, but I cannot figure out what the [non] abbreviation means in Glenn's logs (Eric Jaderlund, 7 May, swl at qth.net via DXLD) I`ve explained it before, but must be time to do it again. It`s not an abbreviation, but makes the word preceding it negative. Ordinarily, logs are listed by country where they are transmitted from. But in many cases it is not that simple. [non] is inserted when the broadcasts are RELAYED from somewhere else; or when the log involves a broadcast TO that country rather than from it (e.g. clandestine or religious). Sometimes the item deals with more than one country, in which case it`s [and non]. I find this to be entirely logical and necessary, and suggest everyone do likewise; if we care about accuracy and where SW transmissions axually come from and go to. Any item which is conventionally transmitted from the originating country only will not a need a [non]. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) -TRIX Re 10-18: VATICAN [non]. (I equally lament that ``aviatrix`` is becoming archaic, and advocate the -trix suffix being employed to feminize other occupations, e.g. announcetrix; surely better than ``announcess``).(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` Female magicians could be magictrix. Actrix, Waitrix, Seamstrix, Abbtrix, Archduchtrix, Adulterix, Votarix etc. etc. etc. Anyone who wishes to complete the list may find http://www.morewords.com/ends-with/ess/ useful Regards (Harry Brooks, North East England, UK, ibid.) Not unless they filter out the ones ending in -less and -ness which are impertinent (Glenn, ibid.) And even then there would still be filtering to do, chess, confess, caress etc. etc. such is the English language! (Brooks, ibid.) Nobody says, "dominatress" ... (Greg Hardison, CA, ibid.) MUSEA +++++ RADIO LEGEND CORWIN TURNS 100 This was posted to the AM 740 yahoo group by RK Melville: With all the obituaries we've had posted here recently, an occasion slipped by this week that any radio devotee should be paying tribute to. Legendary radio pioneer Norman Corwin, who's been called the "Poet Laureate of Radio's Golden Age" turned 100 this past Monday. NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED presented a short radio tribute which you can hear on their web site RADIO ICON NORMAN CORWIN'S SPLENDID CENTURY by Mary Beth Kirschner . . . http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126414628 (via Fred Waterer, May 7, ODXA yg via DXLD) AMERICAN APPLAUSE CARDS On several occasions in recent time here in Wavescan, we have presented information about the early history of radio cards. In summary thus far, the earliest QSL cards, issued in the United States in 1916, were Reception Report Cards, and they were re-introduced in 1919 when amateur radio was again permitted. Soon afterwards, a new form of radio card was introduced and these are known as Applause Cards. As far as can be determined, the first Applause Cards were printed and issued in the United States in the year 1923 and one of the main purposes of these cards was to draw attention to the programming from a local mediumwave station. In this way, they were a form of advertising. The pre-printed cards were circulated freely, through radio shops and in any other convenient way. The card encouraged listeners to tune in to a mediumwave broadcasting station, listen to the programming, write their comments on the card of what they enjoyed about the programing, and then post the card to the station. It is probable that the station did not respond to the listener with a QSL verification card in reply. Some of these cards were designed with a particular station in mind, with the address of the station already printed on the card. Other cards were printed and issued on behalf of radio manufacturers encouraging listeners to respond with the use of their brand of radio equipment; and still other cards were generic, and could be used with any type of receiving equipment and posted to any station that the listener could hear. It would appear that the earliest of these Applause Cards appeared on the American market in in the year 1923 and our copies advertised radio equipment made by the Dictograph Corporation in New York City. These particular cards were all posted in 1924 during the month of May and they were addressed to an experimental mediumwave station W1XAL in Mattapoisett Massachusetts. The owner of this station was the famous Irving Vermilya who is credited as being the first licensed amateur radio operator in the United States with license number 1. The callsign for his mediumwave station during broadcast hours was WBBG. Our earliest Applause Card with a valid postmark is dated March 23, 1924. It was from a listener in Cincinnati Ohio and addressed to the radio station WHAS in Louisville Kentucky. This is actually a postal card, typed and handwritten in the style of the then current Applause Card, and the listener simply states that he heard a musical item in their evening broadcast. Two other listeners reported hearing the same broadcast, one in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and the other in Baltimore Maryland. The listener in Baltimore described the program as excellent, and the Pittsburgh listener stated that he enjoyed the program. Listener comments on several Crosley cards addressed to the Crosley radio station WLW in Cincinnati Ohio described what they liked about the programming, such as:- We enjoy your programs at all times. We always do enjoy your musical programs. We particularly enjoyed your minstrel music. We enjoy the singing. Two slightly different versions of the Applause Cards issued by the Grebe Radio Company in Richmond Hill New York list the callsigns of their two broadcasting stations, WAHG & WBOQ. It will be remembered that these two Grebe mediumwave stations were the early fore-runners to the CBS shortwave stations that were subsequently installed at Wayne New Jersey and Brentwood on New York’s Long Island. Two Applause Cards from California during this same era in the early mid 1920s present a glimpse of their usage over on the west coast. One card was prepared by the Chamber of Commerce in San Jose and it shows five small pictures in color, representing their early Spanish history, and food production in the well watered areas of the Santa Clara Valley. This is a generic Applause Card that could be addressed to any radio station. The other California card was addressed to the mediumwave station KGO and it is the regular Dictograph card referred to a little earlier and printed in the year 1923. We mentioned at the beginning of this feature on Applause Cards that they were in use in the United States in the early to mid 1920s. That statement is correct, but we do hold one card from another country. This card was printed in Cuba for use in responding to the programs broadcast from station PWX, the mediumwave station operated by the Cuban Telephone Company. The style of the Cuban card indicates that it was copied from the American cards and it would be dated around 1924. The picture on the front of this card shows the station building with the radio towers behind the building. This style of card was also used as a QSL verification card by station PWX. The usage of these Applause Cards in the radio scene in the United States did not continue for very long, no more than two or three years, and they are now regarded as an interesting curio from the early history of radio broadcasting. On the next occasion when we take another look at early radio cards, we will present details regarding the early mediumwave QSL cards (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script May 9 via DXLD) At least one current QSL collector uses his own ``applause cards`` to increase response (gh, DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ MUY INTERESANTE ARTICULO SOBRE LA INTERFERENCIA RADIAL. UNA HISTORIA PASADA Y PRESENTE http://www.radiojamming.info/ Cordiales 73 (Oscar de Céspedes, FL, condiglist yg via DXLD) This is the extensive site maintained by Rimantas Pleikys, Radio Baltic Waves, Lithuania, about jamming (gh, DXLD) "DE LA GALENA A LA BANDA LATERAL" "Para todos los que amamos las radios LIBRO DE LA GALENA A LA BANDA LATERAL UN LIBRO BARBARO DE 412 PAGINAS DIGITALIZADO LO PODES BAJAR DE ACA" http://www.antiquesboedo.com.ar/libro/Radioaficionados%20De%20la%20galena%20a%20la%20banda%20lateral.pdf (via Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, condiglist yg via DXLD) SONY XDR-F1HD FM DX TUNER COMPARISON REPORT by Todd Emslie Introduction Over the years the author has intentionally sought out some of the top performing FM tuners for DX work. With this context in mind, it was pssible to empirically determine if the claims regarding the Sony XDR- F1HDI FM DX performance were true. The ideal setup for testing tuner sensitivity/selectivity is to have a stable weak signal (signal generator, or low powered local). A very weak local area Indian language pirate TX on 90.0 MHz was a suitable stable signal source. Since there are strong local adjacent FM signals on 89.9 and 90.1 MHz, 90.0 MHz is an ideal even channel for selectivity testing. . . [more] http://home.iprimus.com.au/toddemslie/sony_xdr-F1HD_tuner.html (via Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 12, DXLD) Apparently, neither model is available in Europe (Carlos, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See also BELARUS; BELGIUM; BRAZIL; ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GERMANY; POLAND; RUSSIA; UNID 5975-5985 DIGITAL RADIO MONDIALE REDESIGNS ITS WEBSITE DRM Consortium press release, 4 May 2010: "Information about Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) will now be easier to find and more accessible with the launching of the DRM Consortium's new user-friendly and easy- to-navigate website. www.drm.org is online with new added information such as 'What Is DRM Digital Radio?' 'What does it Sound Like?' and 'How Does it Work?' and a whole host of new features which make it the one stop solution for all DRM related information." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) The home page shows alternating photos of people listening to radios, none of which can receive DRM (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) HA!! DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV See also OKLAHOMA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DTV RECEPTION PROBLEMS Back when the fiasco first started :) our company was involved in some tests. I seem to recall that when two digital signals arrived at the same time and same amplitude, there was zero chance for decoding. However, once there was 9dB difference in amplitudes, some of the better boxes were able to start decoding signals. This was evident in the community of Defiance OH where there were several people who had outside antennas. They were 50 miles from Toledo to the ENE, and 50 miles from Fort Wayne WSW, and both had channel 19s. Most people reported that when the antenna was pointed at either community there was no problem. When it was point at us (ironically 50 miles to the south), and the Toledo/Ft Wayne signals were at a right angle to the antenna, then they had problems. The other issue with the (2) DTV issue is most converters are fairly slow to lock up, and some are lethargic when signals are on the edge. For example, if I take our test converter and give it grade A signal, it will lock in about 1.5 second. Give it the same signal but attenuate it to a point 6dB over the threshold of decoding, and then drop off the signal and turn it back on, the lower signal level will cause the box to not decode for about 3-4 seconds. So I suspect that having the RF fading up and down, under DX conditions, is going to cause a few times when decoding is touchy. (Frederick R. Vobbe, W8HDU, 706 Mackenzie Drive, Lima OH 45805-1835 419-228-6223, http://www.hf-antenna.com WTFDA via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC See BRAZIL; USA +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ FEARS OF RADIO INTERFERENCE AS OFCOM LICENSES GIGABIT POWERLINE NETWORKING --- Home Cinema Choice, 5 May 2010 If you're planning on installing a network so you can stream entertainment media around your home, there are three options; cabled, wireless, or powerline. But now it looks like Ofcom has made a serious boo-boo with powerline frequency licensing. Powerline networking works using your existing mains power cable, so it's cheap and easy; just plug an adaptor into a mains socket wherever you want one. But now it appears that Ofcom has licensed powerline adaptors which use frequencies which interfere with FM and DAB radio reception. You might find that when you use these adaptors it interferes with your radio reception; more to the point, you might get radio interference from a neighbour using the system. YouTube poster Nigel Coleman demonstrates the potential problems in a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3yVu5IfaEY He argues that the 2-30 MHz frequency used by previous powerline products was of concern only to shortwave radio 'hams', but the new standard uses a 50-300 MHz range which is likely to cause interference to both FM and DAB. In a telling demo he shows how using a 'gigabit' powerline system interferes with his own radio reception, cutting it out entirely in the case of DAB; and goes on to argue that civil aviation and business radio may also be affected. The video has prompted many viewers to question the effectiveness of Ofcom's technology licensing activity. You can read more about Nigel Coleman's campaign against PLT on his website at http://www.plt.g7cnf.me.uk http://hcc.techradar.com/blogs/team-hcc/fears-radio-interference-ofcom-licenses-powerline-network-adaptors-05-05-10 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Hi Mike, Saw a pair of Comtrend powerline adapters at a boot sale the other day and as it was the end of the morning managed to get them for £2 so I could have a play myself. Actually the cat5 leads with them were worth £2 alone. Anyway set them up between my router upstairs and my Freesat box downstairs and and used them for BBC iplayer. No doubt they did the job OK. Had a tune around with my ICF2001D and the interference was certainly obvious even on amateur bands. Even down the bottom of the garden the interference was still there. I've now relocated them to my junk box where no doubt they will stay until I get a desire to dismantle them for parts. What annoys me is that these things are recommended on the Freesat website which is jointly owned by the BBC and ITV. Perhaps a letter to BBC Eng Info would be worthwhile. Rgds, (Gareth Foster, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) I did email the BBC about this a while ago and I thought they took me seriously - but obviously I was a lone voice so they probably categorised me as a crank. Too many will grumble but actually do nothing themselves to complain to the right people - so those responsible do nothing. Has anyone else properly complained? (Rog Parsons (BDXC 782), Hinckley, Leics., ibid.) Reading the last few messages does make me depressed! Its as though listening on HF and now beyond is possibly going to become a thing of the past. Does the regulating body, Ofcom, understand exactly what they are doing? Do they want us all to communicate via the internet? I did see the video in question and it is as i have said above, is depressing, because it seems the manufacturers have carte blanche to introduce into the market anything they wish (Steve Calver, ibid.) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ CONTRAIL DX Bill Echols, NI5F of Jackson, Mississippi had a comment on the 70 MHz propagation in Europe (where it is an amateur band) and aircraft traffic, contrails, and volcanic ash. Bill writes, "It very well may be that jet contrails provide the normal mechanism for enhanced 70-MHz paths rather than the jet itself. Many years ago it was noted in England that the U.S. stealth aircraft could be detected after the fact by scanning for the moisture in jet contrails between 55-MHz and 70-MHz and comparing that 'signature' against the normal metallic returns; obviously, if there had been stealth aircraft during the observation window, the number of contrail returns would be higher than the metallic returns." "The jets on our stealth aircraft were modified in classified ways to minimize, and in most cases, eliminate this method of detection. I actually remember seeing something about this in amateur literature once; if I remember correctly, it was in an RSGB periodical somewhere in the early 1990s." (QST de W1AW, Propagation Forecast Bulletin 18 ARLP018, From Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, WA May 7, 2010, To all radio amateurs, via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) Highest F2 / Es MUFs Does anybody know the record high MUF for either 1) F2 or 2) E-Skip? (Jacob Norlund, 6 May, WTFDA via DXLD) Hams have recorded around a half dozen Es MUFs reaching into the 220- 225 MHz band and there have been TV channel 13 (210-216 MHz) Es on at least that number of occasions since 1950. Europeans have no amateur assignment at or near 220-225 MHz but there have been their equivalent of our (TV) high band Es into the region of 230 MHz on at least a few occasions. F2 has been recorded across the North Atlantic to around 72 MHz in peak sunspot-solar years. A subset of F2 is TEP or transequatorial propagation involving stations or paths either side of the geomagnetic equator (not to be confused with the 0 degrees latitude geographic equator) and there have been amateur (TEP) reports as high as 432 MHz. TEP apparently does involve the F layer(s) but under different conditions (time of day, paths) than normal daylight F2 MUFs. From Japan to Australia, TEP, 100 MHz reception is quite common but I know of no amateur (144 MHz-two meter) contacts there. Cyprus to portions of South Africa, C aribbean to Brazil-Argentina do experience TEP to 144 quite often, even during or near sunspot cycle minimums (including back in late March of this year). While on the general subject of 'MAXIMUM' usable Frequency (MUF) this note. Back in the early 80s when C-band (4,000 MHz) from USA domestic sats became common in the Caribbean, a new and different reception problem appeared. Whether the large dishes (these were folks with 5-9 meter antennas!) was pointed at a C-band bird more or less overhead, OR, down close to their western horizon, during certain periods of the year (typically Aug-Oct, Feb-April) the otherwise quality C-band reception would not just get weak, it would disappear totally - ALMOST as if by clockwork. As in same time each night for more or less the same length of time (around 2 hours), Then it would slowly or rapidly return to normal until the next night. Those two periods - Equinox - are known for their TEP enhancement at 50-144-432 MHz (amateur) as well as TV and FM bands. That may or may not be a time coincidence but dish reception from Barbados and area (such as Guyana) to the west to perhaps Venezuela simply went away! The same condition persists, although (and there could be a clue here) not as frequent in a time of sunspot minimum as the peak of a solar cycle (such as 2000-2002). The C-band signals have to pass through the ionosphere to get back to ground but to suggest the ionosphere - as mysterious as it remains from the first discovery it existed in the 1920s - is capable of some condition that acts (as a massive attenuator) at 4,000 MHz is way past everything known or understood. And it gets more complex for at the peak of the solar cycle (2000-2002) there were periods (typically 6- 8pm local time which also coincides with TEP) when even 12,000 MHz signals - Ku - were affected. For now it remains a little reported mystery (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, ibid.) We had the same C-Band fadeout thing happen to us even up north in Eureka, NWT (now Nunavut), at 80 degrees latitude. Happens around the equinoxes when the sun passes directly in front of the dish. It is very predictable.... http://www.spacecom.com/customer_tools/html/body_sunoutage_calc.htm I was always told it was because the sun's C-band emissions were stronger than our satellites. Wrh (Bill Hepburn, ibid.) That`s different (gh) There is a DOS program called "Sunout" that we use at the station for predicting the date and time of an outage, based on your Lat/Long and the node of the bird (Fred Vobbe, OH, ibid.) MAJOR UPDATE - ADDED NEAR-REAL-TIME MAGNETOSPHERE SIMULATIONS on http://prop.hfradio.org - the images are near-real-time, and are created by the NICT (Japan) Magnetosphere Simulation computer system. These are VERY cool. -- 73 de (NW7US, Tomas David Hood http://tomas-david-hood.com Contributing editor, Propagation Columns: CQ Magazine, CQ VHF, Popular Communications, May 7, swl at qth.net via DXLD) SPOTTING THE SUN --- By Randy Roughton Airman Magazine March/April 2010 -- NEW ENGLAND OBSERVATORY ANALYSTS HAVE THEIR EYES AND RADIOS ON SOLAR WEATHER AND 2013 http://www.airmanonline.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123193107 A dreamcatcher marks the gravesite of the chief, or sagamore, of the Agawams across from the Sagamore Hill Radio Solar Observatory in Hamilton, Mass. Local legend states that youths desecrated Masconomet's gravesite a few years after his burial in 1655 and Native Americans believed the chief's spirit roamed the coastal New England area until a special ceremony was held in 1993. Much like Masconomet was believed to keep watch over his people, solar analysts at the Sagamore Hill observatory keep their eyes and antennas focused on the sun to protect astronauts, American troops and communications from potentially damaging solar activity. A powerful solar flare could release deadly radiation and require astronauts in the International Space Station to stay in a protected part of the station. In a war zone on Earth, a communications disruption might put troops at risk during an operation. Solar analysts watch the sun for threats to communications that few people even consider in our technological world. "No one is ever really interested in the weather until they are impacted by the weather," said Tech. Sgt. Donald R. Milliman, NCO in charge of operations. "The same is true of solar weather." Solar analysts such as Staff Sgt. Wesley R. Magnus monitor the sun's radio emissions with a radio telescope that uses three parabolic antennas of 28 feet, 8 feet and 3 feet in diameter, along with fixed semi-bicone and tracking antennas. Analysts detect and identify any sudden increases in the sun's radio energy that show solar flares and other activities that could disrupt communications. The solar alerts provided to the Air Force Weather Agency's Space Weather Operations Center protect national space programs, including Space Shuttle operations, military surveillance and communications systems. When the radio detects an event, the analyst has two minutes to send the alert to AFWA at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. Analysts at this New England outpost are anxiously waiting because the sun has been quiet in recent years. "Sometimes the job is like a little child waiting for the first snowflakes of the year," said Sergeant Magnus. "It's about the anticipation and the waiting for something to start happening, but once it does, the go-go is a rush." Anyone working at the observatory is no stranger to snowflakes. Snowfall and other winter weather are elements the Sagamore Hill's four sister solar observatory facilities in the Radio Solar Telescope Network don't face. The other sites are located in much warmer climates. "The Radar Site," as some locals call the observatory, is located in two buildings on a 32-acre tract of land on the steep Sagamore Hill near the New England coastal communities of Gloucester, Ipswich and Essex. The nine-person staff deals with up to 60 inches of snow a year, not to mention storms the locals call "nor'easters" and "Alberta Clippers." Sometimes, a few inches of snow might fall on Hanscom Air Force Base, 32 miles away, while Sagamore Hill could receive a foot. Just getting to work in a winter storm is hazardous, with the ice- covered road leading up the steep hill. Two staff members had automobile accidents in the past couple of years. One person was hospitalized after a collision with a snowplow at the bottom of the hill. During the worst storms, all they can do is park at the bottom of the hill and make the half-mile trip to the building on foot. But, because someone has to watch the sun no matter what the conditions are on Earth, one of the solar analysts sometimes spends the night when a particularly bad storm is expected. During the winter, the job includes shoveling and brushing snow from the antennas and constantly monitoring the weather for heavy snowfall. "The one thing that's definitely unique for this site is we are the only cold weather solar site," Sergeant Milliman said. "All of the other sites are in more tropical weather environments where the only thing they really have to deal with is high rain. Here, we actually deal with high winds, ice and snow, as well as heavy rain. I think it's one of the things that makes our site unique." The observatory's location itself is crucial to its mission to get the best possible view of the sun at its highest point in the middle of the day. The Air Force Cambridge Research Lab chose the site in 1955 because of its elevation and location in the most eastern part of the United States near the Atlantic Ocean. "One of the main reasons we sit on top of a hill, rather than flat land, is the nice view we have of the sun," Sergeant Milliman said. "Believe it or not, our location is perfect because we are somewhat protected from the elements. The tree lines protect us from the snow, except for when we get nor'easters." Solar analysts account for only 12 to 15 of the several thousand weather specialists Air Force-wide. So, a position at one of the solar sites is somewhat of a dream job for many in the career field. Staff Sgt. Heath G. King wasn't one of those who yearned to be a weather forecaster, much less a solar analyst. Hurricanes made the Orlando, Fla., native tired of any kind of weather. As luck would have it, Sergeant King was selected as a forecaster, and after assignments at Shaw AFB, S.C., and in Korea, he found himself at the observatory in 2005. "I came here with a complete clean slate, as far as knowledge of the general layers of the sun," Sergeant King said. "In terms of solar flares, sunspots and other activities on the sun, I learned all of that on the spot through a lot of on-the-job training, trial and error, as well as some interaction with more seasoned analysts who were here before me. I also did a lot of exploration on the Internet." Much of the learning process came on one day -- Dec. 6, 2006 -- a day Sergeant King expected to be another quiet one like most of the days since he arrived at the observatory. "The analyst I was relieving told me everything was quiet. Nothing's going to happen on the sun today,'" he said. "About 30 minutes later, all of the alarms were going off, we were getting updates from all of the other observatories and I was trying to monitor all three computers at one time." The intense solar flare that day, sent a tsunami-like shockwave across the visible face of the sun and caused serious disruptions in Global Positioning Systems. Solar bursts begin with a flare that sends high- energy electrons into the atmosphere. This produces radio waves that disrupt frequencies used by navigational systems. "Primarily, the impact we're most concerned with is on satellites and the space station," Sergeant Magnus said. "These frequencies not only affect the satellites, but all ground-to-plane communications, and anything electronic that sends and receives information. For a warfighter's mission, this can affect anything electronic, including GPS systems and shortwave radios." Sun-watchers saw little solar activity in recent years. Each solar life cycle, an 11-year period that observers note by the number and location of visible sunspots, includes periods of solar maximum and solar minimum. These are periods that indicate the frequency of solar activity. Solar experts called the current solar minimum one of the lowest on record. In 2008, no sunspots appeared in 266 days, the lowest number since there were 311 spotless days in 1913. As of March 31, 2009, sunspots showed on only 12 of the first 90 days of the year. However, solar weather experts expect the number to increase in the next few years, with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration predicting the next solar maximum in May 2013. "When we do hit solar max, we will be ready," Sergeant Magnus said. Tech. Sgt. Julia F. Hagen is eager for the next solar maximum cycle. Unlike most of her co-workers, Sergeant Hagen worked at other solar sites. She trained at the Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., optical solar site in 2007 before working as a solar analyst at the site in Learmonth, Australia. "It was interesting to see both sides of solar observing at both optical and radio sites, but unfortunately it's all been during solar minimum," Sergeant Hagen said. "I think it's going to be really busy and a lot more exciting during solar maximum. We will really have to be on our toes sending out messages, especially when the Space Shuttle goes up." Information gathered by these analysts is primarily intended for the AFWA, whose staff members then pass on alerts to NASA, NOAA, United States Strategic Command, Air Force Space Command and other high- priority programs. Their data often finds a place on the Internet with research by universities and special interest groups. Unlike many of the groups that use the information for research into issues such as climate change and global warming, Air Force solar analysts are more interested in the immediate impact of solar weather. "Just as weather forecasters are concerned primarily with day-today forecasts for flying missions, we're concerned with what's going on in the sun right now, what is going to happen tomorrow, and what has recently happened," Sergeant Magnus said. "Some of the researchers who gather our messages and analyze our data are more concerned with the long-term effects of these solar cycles and how they affect our environment." Sagamore Hill's observatory is scheduled to automate by 2015. When that happens, solar data transmits directly to the AFWA, at Offutt AFB, Neb. From Offutt. Analysts there can pull up data from any solar observatory. "Once they are fully automated, they will be building an essential hub at the AFWA," said Staff Sgt. Stephen S. Ensminger, assistant NCO in charge of maintenance. "The analyst will actually [have] remote access to data from anywhere in the world from this site or any other site." The observatory's remote spot on Sagamore Hill, about 30 miles from Hanscom AFB, requires the staff to take care of its own facility. Sergeant Ensminger, Master Sgt. Yolanda Hernandez, NCO in charge of maintenance, and training supervisor Daniel Holmes are responsible for all facility maintenance, which is sometimes a challenge, considering the age of the equipment. "Some of the parts are so old, they don't even make them anymore," Sergeant Hernandez said. "As things deteriorate over time, getting replacement parts has been a real challenge. We have to do whatever it takes to keep the equipment running." Maintenance includes talking daily to solar analysts about how equipment is working, calibrating radios, weekly inspections and monthly equipment testing. The age of the equipment means maintainers must have a good handle on how it's working, from the antennas to the radios. "It's kind of like having the old dial radio in your car," Sergeant Ensminger said. "You had to track it just right to get the station to come in. That's kind of how these old radios are. There is a bit of finesse that goes into tuning them." The facility is the network's prototype solar radio site, where maintenance specialists go before they report at another site. Holmes, who leads the specialists through two weeks of initial training, takes his responsibilities seriously. "I personally feel the importance of our radios grows every time someone puts something into space," he said. "The more satellites, vehicles and people we have up there, the more important is the job we do here. The whole world depends on us for the accuracy of their measurements and I take that very seriously." The significance of the sacred gravesite, clearly visible from inside the Sagamore site's fence, isn't lost on the staff. Just as Masconomet's spirit watched over the Agawam people, according to Native American legend, Space Shuttle crews and combatant commanders can trust their communications capabilities because someone is keeping watch for them (via Benn Kobb, May 10, DXLD) TRANS-OCEANIC TVDX EQUIPPING What indoor antennas, RF amps and televisions do you recommend? I remember seeing on the net multi-formatted (i.e. PAL, SECAM, NTSC), and they have format converters as well. Since you're receiving DX maybe I should get a multi-format television. Have you DXers ever received TV stations from Europe here in the Eastern US? Is the conditions improving as long the solar activity is rising? (Adam, WTFDA via DXLD) For European TV, I really wouldn't bother anymore. Europe has been converting to DTV and almost all ch E2/E3 channels are closed down. Madrid on E2 just shut down last month. I had been after that station the past two seasons and never got video, just a trace on Spectrum Lab that never broke into video. Jeff Rostron caught audio from Portugal on E2 once. That one is still on for a while. Also one in Italy and a couple (I think) in the Middle East). There's a guy in Maine, Russ Miller, I think, who has seen European E2 video. I've never seen any pictures of his receptions and I don't think any of them are online anywhere. At this point I wouldn't bother spending money on equipment for E2 reception. I'd just go looking for whatever there is on E3, which is the same as our own ch2 here. As far as indoor antennas for 2-hop reception, I wouldn't use one. Two hop signals are not as strong as single hop Es so you need a decent (sensitive) TV and an outside antenna. Use a good preamp with low noise figure (1-2db noise or less). Watch DX Sherlock http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=W2L to see what 50 MHz paths are showing (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, WTFDA via DXLD) If you want to give E2 a try RTP1 Muro Portugal Video Carrier 48.242 67 kW Audio Carrier 53.742 13.4 kW A word of caution: 53.742 is within the 6 meter ham band so just listen careful as to what the audio really is. I got lucky and had singing and music. As for 2XES signal strength, I agree with Mike for the most part that the signals are rather weak, But Mike remember the 2xes event I think was in Oct where Venezuela and Colombia were in as strong as locals! This clip is what 2XES is normally like when received on an good outdoor antenna with mast mount pre-amp. The Clip is from the TVES Network in Venezulea received in Springfield MA on June 28, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6J4rZ3GB1Q Best of Luck, Have fun with the hobby and Good DX (Jeff Rostron - KB1TRQ, Springfield MA, Sangean HDT-1, Winegard HD 6065P @ 35Ft, ibid.) Portugal will give you a good signal on E2 and E3 for at least 2 more years. E2 was received in Australia once via F2 prop. Iceland E3 and E4 still on. There's lots of R1 49.75 video still around. The ham K1T0L in Maine was reporting very strong R1 video quite a few mornings last year. Italy is closing down, Sicily still around on I-A 53.75 MHz video for two more years There's still a lot of Middle East signals on band 1, Iran Jordan Syria but getting a bit distant !! In Africa there's Cameroon E2, also Kenya (due off 2012) (Hugh Hoover, Portugal, ibid.) I didn`t see you mention R1 video as K1TOL, Lefty in Maine often reports R1 video signals at very high levels during the Es season and also remember you have Iceland on E3/E4 and just because the easy ones are gone doesn`t mean you give up as what`s left will be a good catch. Cheers (David Hamilton, Scotland, ibid.) Geomagnetic field activity ranged from quiet to major storm levels during the period. Activity on 03 May reached unsettled to minor storm levels with a brief major storm period at high latitudes as the coronal hole high-speed stream (CH HSS) effects from 02 May continued. Activity continued to gradually decrease during the remainder of the period as the CH HSS gradually subsided. Mostly quiet conditions were observed from 08 to 09 May. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 12 MAY - 07 JUNE 2010 Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high flux levels on 12 May and at moderate levels from 13-15 May. Normal background levels are expected to prevail through 29 May. On 30 May, electron flux is expected to increase to high levels and remain high for the remainder of the period. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at quiet to unsettled levels with isolated active periods from 12-16 May as effects of several CH HSS’s become geoeffective. Quiet conditions are expected from 17-19 May. Quiet to unsettled levels are expected for 20-21 May due to a recurrent CH HSS. Quiet levels are expected to return from 22 -28 May. Unsettled to active with isolated minor storm periods are expected for 29-31 May due to a recurrent CH HSS. Activity is expected to decrease to quiet to unsettled levels from 01-03 June as effects from the CH HSS subside. Quiet levels are expected from 04-06 June. Quiet to unsettled levels are expected on 07 June as another CH HSS becomes geoeffective. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2010 May 11 2021 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 May 11 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2010 May 12 75 10 3 2010 May 13 75 8 3 2010 May 14 75 8 3 2010 May 15 75 8 3 2010 May 16 75 7 2 2010 May 17 75 5 2 2010 May 18 75 5 2 2010 May 19 75 5 2 2010 May 20 75 8 3 2010 May 21 75 8 3 2010 May 22 75 5 2 2010 May 23 76 5 2 2010 May 24 78 5 2 2010 May 25 78 5 2 2010 May 26 80 5 2 2010 May 27 80 5 2 2010 May 28 80 5 2 2010 May 29 80 25 5 2010 May 30 80 20 4 2010 May 31 80 15 3 2010 Jun 01 78 8 3 2010 Jun 02 78 8 3 2010 Jun 03 78 8 3 2010 Jun 04 76 5 2 2010 Jun 05 75 5 2 2010 Jun 06 75 5 2 2010 Jun 07 75 8 3 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1512, DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Announcing a New Podcast From AMERICAN ATHEISTS The Voice of Reason http://www.atheists.info News, Analysis and Commentary of Interest to Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists and other Non-believers... (AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.) (AA May 10 via DXLD) ###