DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-23, June 10, 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 1516, June 10-16, 2010 Thu 1500 WRMI 9955 [NEW] 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; not June 12] 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 1330 WRMI 9955 ex-Sat Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Sun 1900 WRMI 9955 Sun 2330 WWCR4 9980 Mon 0330 WWCR4 5890 [missing for two weeks; presumed canceled] 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 ** ABKHAZIA. Abkhaz Radio observed on 9535 on weekdays at 0730-0800 in Abkhaz and at 0800-0812(variable) in Russian (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, 12-14 May, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) Abkhaz Radio irregularly is heard 0700-0730 vary on 9535 and 1700-1720 on MW 1350 (May 20-June 2). (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 3, via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** ALBANIA. QSL: Radio Tirana, 7425 kHz, April 17, 2010 during my local evening (have to check time). Partial data card (date and frequency only), unsigned but with a handwritten ending "English Section." Very thin paper stock, picturing an abstract pen drawing of a young woman in traditional garb. with station logo and words "Albania" and "Radio Tirana." In airmail envelope with complimentary postcard of the ancient Butrint Amphitheatre with a handwritten signed note, "Thank you for writing to us, Best Wishes, Radio Tirana" Received in 51 days. This was a very tough station to hear and understand, very weak signal here in WNAm, so I am pretty pleased with this one (Bruce Jensen, California, USA, June 7, ptsw yg via DXLD) ** ALBANIA. QSL: R. Tirana International [sic], 6130, standard full/data ``RTI Traditional Dress`` card in at one month (Nawrocki, NC, QSL Report, June NASWA Journal via DXLD) Ed says that these days you can`t seem to get a response from some stations while others send you a duplicate. This QSL is one of the matter (Sam Barto, ed., ibid.) I believe this is the one and only QSL card design R. Tirana has been using for many, many sesquiyears. It does have an RTI logo and the word International, but we don`t hear them use the I-word on the air (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) 13755 had no OTH radar June 10 unlike anteyesterday [see CYPRUS] after 1400, but checked R. Tirana anyway at 1431: as always, reciting full English schedule. At the beginning of A-10 I confirmed they were announcing new times and frequencies correctly, so have not been paying much attention to it, an obstruxion to getting each English broadcast on the road. But the final item was ``0430`` on a 6 MHz frequency in the 49m band, ergo, this was the old B-09 winter season schedule, since currently the last transmission is 0330 on 7425! Besides getting it correct, I continue to urge R. Tirana to move the transmission schedule announcement to the END of each broadcast. All we need at the beginning is the frequency for the current outsending. Especially when there are two rather than one, so intuners know they have an alternative if the one they are listening to is inadequate. However, this would require each transmission to be individualized, maybe too much trouble. As for reception on 13755, tho S9+5 at peaks, it was no match for CRI via Habana on 13740, at least S9+25 and splashing upon 13755 especially during music. Truly, Cuban transmitters are the bane of shortwave, and it seems they should be avoided even more than 15 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. ZA, (Update). Chris, HG5XA, will be active as ZA/HA5X from the town of Orikum and a beach on the Bay of Vlora between June 10- 24th. Activity will be holiday style, but he plans to activate some lighthouses and/or WFF locations. Please listen to the operator's comments for possible Lighthouse and WFF references, if any. Chris will also focus on some 6 meters and portable battery operations. Also, please remember that this is not a DXpedition, but a family holiday with his XYL Marta, ZA/HA9WM, and twin 5 year old daughters. Operating times will be limited and of lower priority. Chris has now also secured the necessary military and PTT permission to visit and operate from Sazan Island (IOTA EU-169) during this timeframe and will be using the callsign ZA0/HA5X. Exact date(s) for activating Sazan Island is dependent upon several factors, including weather and family program. Therefore, Chris will try to announce plans of activity on the air or possibly via his Web page. During this mini DXpedition, he will attempt to find electricity or a generator, but if that fails, he will reduce his power and be active as long as he can on battery power. QSL via LoTW and eQSL. If possible, please DO NOT send QSL cards. Paper QSLs will be available both direct and by the Bureau using the OQRS (Online QSL Request System) to be launched and announced later. Bureau cards will be sent out using GlobalQSL. The Web site for the ZA/HA5X DXpedition is at: http://za.ha5x.hu (OPDX via Dave Raycroft, ODXAyg via DXLD) ** ANGOLA. 7216.8, R Nacional de Angola, Mulenvos, Luanda, 0105, May 29, hi-tempo Afropop and vernacular announcement, good signal, then audio dropped right off and only carrier left, this is the only time I have heard it over the past few weeks. Nothing on 945 or 4950 (although there is a carrier there just below the frequency) while 1088 continues to run R Nacional in Portuguese (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, DSWCI DX Window June 2 via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) 4949.7, RNA-Canal "A", Mulenvos, 2210-, 04 Jun'10, empty carrier; 45333, [avoidable] het with PERU 4950. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7216.8, Rádio Nacional, 2015, very strong and causing a het against 7215, but absolutely no audio. Checked 4949v but no carrier noted. June 5 (David Sharp, NSW Australia. NRD-535D, FT-950, R8, ICF-2010, ICF-SW7600GR etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, RN San Gabriel. June, 04 1350-1407 male and female ID “LRA 36, transmitindo de su base Antárctica”, slow music in Spanish, studio female with lower audio level “recordamos la temperatura 1 C, sensación térmica –5 C en la Base Esperanza”, 1355 Spanish Pop music selections, male ID, back music selections. 44534, 73's (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15476, able to detect a carrier again here (not 15475), Monday June 7 at 1316, amid a TVI blob from some neighbor`s set which messes up 14- 16 MHz especially. Besides that problem, it seems the sweet spot for almost-daily reception I had in April/May has moved westward to TV- less Asilomar Beach where Ron Howard often has LRA36 around 1500 just before sign-off M-F which runs a bit later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ScreenShot off LRA 36, 15476 khz, 1410 utc --- Glenn, it`s just a carrier; I`m not heard any sound or talks. 73, Perseus and LW antenna +premp, (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, June 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15476, LRA36 audible June 8 at 1350 as I tuned across, the tell-tale 4 kHz het with equally weak signal on 15480, i.e. Poland in Belarussian via Woofferton UK; concentrating on 15476, a bit of modulation was making it at 1352, YL singing. At *1356 a 6-kHz het started from the other side, as BBC Hindi via Cyprus was about to start up on 15470. On 15476, music continued past 1400 to 1405, all three signals equally marginal. By 1445, 15476 had become JBA compared to the others. Fortunately the local TVI blob was absent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, Antarctica, RN San Gabriel. June 08, 1459-1504 Spanish Pop music, end of transmission male announcements “nos encuentra aquí en Esperanza al Mundo; transmitió LRA36”, 1504 audio off, 1505 carrier off. 35533 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, I saw on your post of June 8 that you've picked up LRA36, Antarctica. Like I told you before, I've been sitting on that frequency for days between 1200 and 1500 UT. My problem has to be that I don't have enough antenna but I'm in an apartment so I have to figure out how to remedy that. I'm using an antenna tuner too and the other day I switched to a new, in box, never used Grundig Satellit 750 that seems very sensitive (Rich Brock, Bridgewater/Beaver, PA, June 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Every little bit of sensitivity will help, but even more important is whether propagation happens to favor you (gh, DXLD) 15476, LRA36, June 10 at 1352 carrier detectable, and then some JBA music modulation, 1353 YL announcement. This time it`s stronger than the 15480 station, which is not saying much. 1405 I thought it had outfaded until I touched the tuner and found the carrier was still there, dead air? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. RAE, 15345.1 at 2352 in Spanish with good Latin music. 4 June (Liz Cameron, MI, visiting Port Huron just north of the Detroit suburbs, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15345, R. Nacional, 0211-0228, June 7. Dramatization; IDs “Radio Nacional, Buenos Aires”; list of actors in the performance; BoH pips; 0234-0300: variety of music (Bossa Nova, etc.); pips at ToH and ID; back to more songs; mostly fair, but with some QRN (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 15345v, June 8 at 2001 station in Arabic must be Morocco, right? No, not at this instant as ID is ``Huna RAE`` in multilingual spiel. Usual audible het from Morocco, however, as these abstainers from HFCC continue to butt heads over 15345 just as they have for sesquiyears, neither managing to hit and stay on 15345.00 tho did not attempt to measure how far off RAE was now. And plenty of free channels in the area if one of them would just move! RAE had the advantage, 2003 opening French, ``de 20 à 21 heures TU`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ASCENSION. RADIO BROADCASTING ON LONELY ASCENSION ISLAND - THE BBC ATLANTIC RELAY STATION Last week here in Wavescan, we presented the story of the several different radio stations, mediumwave, FM and communication, all located on lonely Ascension Island, out there in the central Atlantic Ocean, halfway between South America and Africa. We take up the Ascension story again this week, and this time, it is the tale of the BBC Atlantic Ocean Shortwave Relay Station. Here is what happened. During the year 1961, the BBC sent a team of technical personnel to Ascension to conduct a feasibility survey; and during the following year, the British government gave approval for the setting up of a shortwave relay station on Ascension Island for use in rebroadcasting the programming from the BBC in London to the many countries in Africa & South America. During the following year, as a preliminary to the construction of the station, Cable & Wireless, C&W, set up a small shortwave station in a caravan, a trailer home, at English Bay and transmitted a series of test broadcasts. It is probable that these transmitters were amateur or communication transceivers with a power output of 1 kW or less. However, in spite of the low power, these test broadcasts were noted by international radio monitors in Europe & North America. Unfortunately, C&W stated that these test broadcasts were of a private nature and they indicated that they would not issue any QSLs in confirmation. Work on this massive new project on ascension Island began during the next year, 1964, and we should remember that everything had to be imported from England and elsewhere. Ascension was once uninhabited and everyone on the island has come in from another country. Even children born on the island are not granted Ascension citizenship, they are considered to be citizens of their parents’ country. This huge new BBC shortwave station was constructed on the edge of English Bay, located at the northern tip of Ascension Island. The original plans called for four transmitters at 250 kW each and a series of twenty reversible curtain antennas. Monitoring reports during that era tell us that the first transmitter was taken into service two years later again, on July 1, 1966 in the BBC service into Africa. Six months later, the second transmitter was activated, and early in the following year, all four transmitters were fully operational. To honor the occasion, the local postal authorities issued a series of four postage stamps depicting various scenes at the new station. A QSL letter from the station in May 1989 stated that another shortwave transmitter at 250 kW had just been activated, the fifth, and that the sixth would soon be operational. These two latter transmitters were previously on the air at the large and historic BBC shortwave station at Daventry in England, and when Daventry was closed these two units were removed and shipped for installation on Ascension Island. The original BBC Receiver Station was installed at Butt Crater, three miles from the transmitter station, and it contained six receivers and two rhombic antennas beamed for reception from England. However, a quarter of a century later, a satellite receiving dish was installed at the English Bay transmitting station, and Butt Crater was then maintained for standby usage. In addition to the two radio stations, transmitter & receiver, the BBC also operates support facilities for its personnel, and these include a school, hospital, farm, and power generators, as well as local radio broadcasting stations. Currently, it is stated, the British government owes Ascension Island more than one million pounds, and this places the entire island and all of its activities and its nine hundred imported workers into bankruptcy. Over the years, the BBC Atlantic Relay Station has re-broadcast the programming from other well known international radio organizations. In 1994, the first of these new relay services began with the programming from the Voice of America. Twenty years later, RAI Italiana took out a relay from the BBC shortwave station on Ascension Island. Since then a dozen or more other international broadcasting organizations have increased the international coverage of their programming with relays from the Ascension Island shortwave station. Among these extended relay services from the BBC shortwave station on Ascension are the following:- Government Stations NHK Tokyo Japan RCI Montreal Canada CRI Beijing China Radio Prague Prague Czechia RFI Paris France RTE Dublin Ireland Religious Gospel Stations HCJB Quito Ecuador FEBA England WYFR Oakland California USA During the events associated with the brief 1982 war in the South Atlantic, the usage of the Ascension shortwave station was commandeered by the British Ministry of Defence for the relay of two different forms of programming beamed to the Falkland-Malvinas Islands. Beginning at 2300 UTC on May 19, a program service identified as Radio Atlántico del Sur was broadcast daily via Ascension Island. At times two channels were noted in parallel. The final broadcast of Atlántico del Sur was a little less than a month later, on June 15. The other program service beamed to the South Atlantic during this short era was on behalf of the BFBS, the British Forces Broadcasting Service. These two program services originated in London and they were relayed to Ascension Island via communication transmitters located at Daventry. An additional BFBS program relay was on the air during the Gulf War in 1990. It is known that feeder transmitters in England relayed the programming to another transmitter location, and research would suggest that this was also located on Ascension Island. QSL cards, and at times letters, have been issued by many of the organizations whose programming has been relayed over the Ascension Island shortwave station, and these would include:- Voice of America Radio Canada International NHK Tokyo Radio France International As well as the BBC itself and the two program series, Atlántico del Sur & BFBS London (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script May 30 via DXLD) ** ASIA [and non]. 17880, RFA Chinese via SAIPAN is now a regular in the nightmiddle, such as June 8 at 0559; I was hoping to hear Palladio, the diamond-music theme as used to appear around this time, but instead there was a bit of other classical music. At 0600 talk mentioned ``Lao Bai Shi`` several times, which means? After 0600 I was also again hearing most of the CRI European service languages on 16m via Kashgar, East Turkistan, as I previously reported in detail (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AZERBAIJAN. CAUCASUS: Radio Voice of Justice from Nagorno Karabakh, or as they said "Karabakh Republic" in Azeri and some Russian heard today s/on 0525 - 0553 close/down as a new broadcast time or maybe due to the problem with tx - on 9677.4 (June 2). (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 3, via Wolfgang Büschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) Caucasus. Radio Voice of Justice from Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was heard again with a program in the Azer language between 13 and 13.26 hours on 9676.3 kHz. (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, R. Bulgaria DX June 4 via Yimber Gaviria, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) Voice of Justice in Stepanakert, Mountainous Karabagh has retimed its evening transmission on 9677 kHz Tuesdays and Saturdays: from 1500- 1530 to 1300-1330 (WRTH Domestic Update 4 June via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ** AZORES. New Azores TX on 87.7 --- Hi all, considering some of the other receptions that have been going on this season I thought the following may be of some interest to some of you. There is a new transmitter on 87.7 from the Azores that carries RDP Antena 3 its from Pico da Barrosa, Sao Miguel and if its the same power as the other RDP outlets there it is 50 kw. Right now I see paths extending from the N.E US out toward Portugal and the Azores so might be worth a check now and again when things look promising. Regards (Paul Logan, NI, Listening Homepage: http://band2dx.webs.com/ June 2, WTFDA via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ** BAHRAIN. Radio Bahrain was reported with a program in English after 0000 on 6010. Radio Bahrain but in Arabic was broadcasting at the same time on 9745 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, R. Bulgaria DX June 4 via Yimber Gaviria, DXLD) ** BELARUS. Domestic service, MW transmitters operate between 1400- 2100 and SW 0200-2100 except 6080, 6115 and 7265 kHz 1500-2100. SW transmitters may also operate 0200-0100 irregularly (WRTH Domestic Update 4 June via DXLD) 6010, 6040, 6070, 7235, and 7280 kHz have been on the air throughout the day since these transmissions were reactivated. They appear to be more or less 24 hours, but the period 2300-0200 UT is hard to confirm. 6190 kHz can be heard here at BLR sunrise when Germany is still in darkness. 6080, 6115, and 7265 kHz only heard evenings (from approximately 1500 UT) with sign off at 2100 UT or even earlier. On May 26 I heard 6010, 6070 kHz identifying "Radyo Brest" at 1530 UT (Olle Alm, Sweden, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 27 via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 3309.98, Radio Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba, regular reception 1000 and 0000. [Wilkner] 3390.056, Radio Emisoras Camargo, Camargo, return frequency per Dave Valko log. [Wilkner] 4409.8, Radio Eco, Reyes, 0030 to 0040 on 25 May, 0015 on 23 May 4451.2, Radio Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma, seems to sign off before 0100. [Wilkner] 4699.95, R San Miguel, Riberalta and 4700, R San Miguel, Riberalta, seemingly two transmitters or operating on two frequencies 1000 and 0000, both reported by members. [Wilkner & XM] 4700, R San Miguel, Riberalta, 1000 OM with discussion, no music but good signal 27 May [Wilkner] 4716.19, Radio Yura, Yura 1000 with flauta andina, 27 May [Wilkner] 4796.35, Radio Lipez [sic], Uyuni, silent since early May; May 7, noted with music and better signal [XM, Wilkner] 5580.2, Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos, 0010 to 0020, 23 May seems irregular this time period [Wilkner] 5952.482, Pio XII, Siglo Veinte, YL en español 1005 to 1010, 25 May (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, June 4, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro Dallas Lankford modified, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3309.98, Radio Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba, 1005 YL en español, 7 June 4787.671, Radioemisora Ballivián, San Borja, Beni, 0000 to 0020 en espanol 7 June [Muito obrigado a Rogildo Fontenelle Aragão por sua ajuda neste emissões de rádio][sic] (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro DL, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, WORLD OF RADIO 1516 [last item only], DX LISTENING DIGEST) Being heard by several DXers in Florida ~ 2340 June 5 to 0005 June 6 3309.98, Radio Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba 3390.056, Radio Emisoras Camargo, Camargo 4451.2, Radio Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma 4700, R San Miguel, Riberalta 4716.19, Radio Yura, Yura 5580.2, Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos 5952, Pio XII, Siglo Veinte 6134.77, Radio Santa Cruz 73s (Bob Wilkner, FL, 0010 UT June 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4409.9, RADIO ECO. Reyes. 0020-0035 junio 6. Programa de dedicatorias musicales. ID: ``Desde la capital de la provincia Ballivián, Reyes, en el departamento de Beni, República de Bolivia; transmite Radio ECO, 4.410 khz, banda internacional de 75 metros, onda corta``. Buen DX (RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ R., Bogotá, Colombia, http://dxdesdecolombia.blogspot.com/ SONY ICF 2010 Y Dipolo de 10 metros, playdx yg via DXLD) 4700, R. San Miguel, Riberalta, 2237-2248, 03 Jun'10, Castilian, talks, TCs, announcements, folk music, program announcements; 25332. 4865, R. Logos, Stª. Cruz de la Sierra, 2203-2209, 04 Jun'10, Castilian, talks, music; 24331, adjacent QRM de BRASIL 4864.65. 5921.3, R. Difusora Minería (presumed), Oruro, 2225-, 05 Jun'10, Castilian, talks; 14431. 5952.5, R. Pío XII, Siglo XX, 2218-2229, 05 Jun'10, Quechua, phone- ins, Indian tunes & songs; 34433, adjacent QRM. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4699.927, R. San Miguel, 1048, Spanish, time check by man, brief music bridge, then brief talk and into a song. Fair. June 5 (David Sharp, NSW Australia. NRD-535D, FT-950, R8, ICF-2010, ICF-SW7600GR etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6134.82, R. Santa Cruz, 1108, Spanish, convenient ID by man at tune- in, comments by a woman and into local music. Weaker than noted in the past. June 5 (David Sharp, NSW Australia. NRD-535D, FT-950, R8, ICF- 2010, ICF-SW7600GR etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 2379.95, R. Educadora - Limeira, 1015, tentative; just above threshold with Portuguese man and Brazilian-sounding music. No ID heard, even though I stayed with it 'till 1100. June 9 (David Sharp, NSW Australia. NRD-535D, FT-950, R8, ICF-2010, ICF-SW7600GR etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9629.9, Rádio Aparecida, 2115, Portuguese, presumed the one with nice local music and male DJ. Very weak but clear. June 5 (David Sharp, NSW Australia. NRD-535D, FT-950, R8, ICF-2010, ICF-SW7600GR etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 3375.319, R Municipal São Gabriel da Cachoeira, 1000 Portuguese om, music, good signal, 27 May, 0000 also noted most evenings [XM, Wilkner] 4805, Rádio Difusora do Amazonas, Manaus, 0950 on 28 May [Wilkner] 4875.503, Rdif Roraima, Boa Vista RR, 2300 and 1000 regular in Florida, strong signal with excellent music. [Wilkner] 4905.078 tentative, Rádio Anhanguera, Araguaína, 2340 to 0000 on 21 May. [XM, Wilkner] 4985, Rádio Brasil Central, Goiânia, 2300 to 0000 very strong signal most nights, music sports. 1000 weaker signal in local morning (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, June 4, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro Dallas Lankford modified, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) What do you mean by XM in the credit line? (gh) ** BRAZIL. 4875.4, Radiodifusora Roraima, 0904-0920, 31-May-2010, in Portuguese. Program Details: 0904, male announcer with local news and announcement phone calls from listeners 0909, station ID 0910, ballad type song. Signal: Excellent this morning (Ed Wlodarski, N2ED, New Jersey, NASWA Flashsheet June 6 via DXLD) 4875.48, Rdif Roraima, Boa Vista RR, 0945 with exceptionally strong signal 7 June (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro DL, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4875.4, Dif. RORAIMA. Boa Vista. Brasil. 0030-0050 junio 7. Excelente y fuerte señal. Presentado el programa ``Alternativa Gospel.`` En mi portuñol, ``en simultanea ondas medias e ondas curtas para todo Brasil, Radiodifusora Roraima, uma emissora de Governo del estado de Roraima``. Buen DX (RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ R., Bogotá, Colombia, http://dxdesdecolombia.blogspot.com/ SONY ICF 2010 Y Dipolo de 10 metros, playdx yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4914.99 (approx on this frequency), R. Daqui – Goiânia , 6/4, 2220-2312, in Portuguese M with talk (local news mentioned brasileiro, federal, São Paulo) with some announcements, music breaks and many mentions of Rádio Cultura (or R. Cultural ?? May be relaying its programs ??); frequency quote and possible ID at 2300 (unclear); some slow songs and brief M announcements; clear ID at 2311 as "Rádio Daqui"; then possible fade/out or sudden sign/off (since then heard a music program with LA ballads & talk barely audible just over the statics crashes threshold; R. Dif. Macapá??); heard in SSB with lite distorted audio; fast QSB with S 9+5+ of peak; moderate rustle and crackles and lite buzzing; from 2302 and for few minutes, lite QRM co- channel radio, barely audible up-down (presumed R. Dif. Macapá); almost fair till 2311, then signal disrupted. 4914.96, R. Difusora de Macapá, 6/6, 0206-0302, in Portuguese. M talk; LA ballads; M announcements (no much clear); Beatles song "Let it Be"; enhanced M talk with one phone call; two slow songs and brief ballad; M talk starting over song and then with some phone calls (not much clear); brief samba and slow song with two brief unclear enhanced M announcements over song; then another slow song; unclear announcements and ballad; M talk mentioned twice Macapá; brief enhanced announcement; song; M announcement, frequency quote and ID at 0300 (only clear onda tropicais & Macapá); other M talk and slow song; heard better in USB with fast QSB & strong statics crackles; mostly poor but fair at times with and without nir 12 (Giovanni Serra, Roma, Italy. Equipment: 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 WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 5939.97, Rádio Voz Missionária, 0010-0020, June 5, Portuguese preacher. Poor in noisy conditions. Weaker on // 11749.86 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL, 5990, Rádio Senado, Brasília, 2120-2200*, 09-06, portugués, comentarios: "Senado Federal", identificación: "Radio Senado, Brasília, ondas curtas, 5990 kHz, faixa de 49 metros, estaremos de volta manhã às 7 horas". Cierre a 2200. 44444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 49 metros da Bandeirantes SP interfere --- A frequência de 6090 kHz da rádio Bandeirantes de SP, em 49 metros, continua a espalhar harmônicos [sic] em outras emissoras adjacentes da QRG de 5990 kHz e 6190 kHz [+/- 100 kHz] respectivamente Rádio Senado e Nacional da Amazônica, ambas de Brasília. Só consigo sintonizar as duas emissoras de Brasília quando a propagação está fechada para a Bandeirantes. Já avisei a direção da emissora, mas ninguém se manfestou até agora. Será que a direção sabe que tem ondas curtas ou somente o técnico é que sabe? Se algum colega da capital tiver mais facilidade de entrar em contato direto com a emissora, acredito que seja a única alternativa. 73 (Luiz Chaine Neto, Limeira sp, 7-6-2010 segunda-feira, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 9587.11, SRDA (Super Radio Deus é Amor, ex Globo), São Paulo, SP, at 2100 UT on 2 + 3 May. Extremely weak signal on 2 May but a bit stronger on 3 May which alowed me to confirm that the program was in // with 9565 (SRDA in Curitiba). 11829.96, R. Daquí, Goiânia GO. This frequency was not in use for a longer time, then on 17 May I heard what probably was a transmitter test because they switched it off at 5:13pm local time. From 2 June, so already for 3 days in a row, there is a regular transmission which ends at 6pm local time (2100 UT). They always play música sertaneja with a lot of IDs after each song (Karel Honzik, CZECHIA, HCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 9820, R. 9 de Julho, São Paulo SP, 2141-2154, 05 Jun'10, reports on community service, religious meetings, frequency announcement; 43442, QRM de CHINA. If they stick to the right frequency, then the best option is to use either L or USB to get some signal reading underneath the Chinese station, so let's hope they drift a bit again, preferably to the lower side. 9820 ditto, 0932-1225, 06 Jun'10, songs, religious propaganda, sermon (presumed) at 1225 when already very poor; 25432. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) MANY more of his Brazilian and other logs appeared in full in the dxldyg ** CANADA. We don’t often hear much about free radio here in Canada but last month CIDXer Alan Roberts was tuned in to CBC Radio One and heard an interview with an author talking about a new book on pirate radio in Canada. A bit of research on the web revealed the existence of this new book. Here are the details (Sheldon Harvey, Free Radio Scene, June CIDX Messenger via DXLD) ISLANDS OF RESISTANCE: PIRATE RADIO IN CANADA - by Andrea Langlois, Ron Sakolsky, Marian van der Zon - 256 pages, 6×9 inches ISBN-10: 1554200504. Published by New Star Books. The anthology, Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada, hits the street this May 2010! Inspired by a passion for social justice, a defiant libertarian ethos, a desire for autonomy, or for purposes of artistic expression, radio pirates snub the legal edicts of regulated broadcasting. Islands of Resistance puts you behind the eyepatch, giving you a collection of inside views on pirate radio in Canada. While only recently have we heard the major networks broadcast warnings of rising sea levels, since radio’s invention certain Canadians have been concerned by the increasingly centralized medium and its commercial flooding of the airwaves. Occasionally alone, frequently in teams and always illegally, these activists are islands of resistance within the ocean of homogenous frequencies, pirating radio signals for personal, political and artistic expression. In the first book published on the subject, Islands of Resistance gives you a view from the crowsnest of the phenomenon of pirate radio in Canada. Here is a collection of seventeen activist manifestos, artistic treatise of intent, historical essays on the development of radio and its regulatory bodies, sociological examination of pirate radio’s application in new social movements, and personal anecdotes from behind the eyepatch. Just as the new media ostensibly renders the old obsolete, Islands of Resistance unveils the existence of a thriving clandestine counterculture. An invaluable addition to an unscrutinized subject in Canadian media studies, Islands of Resistance appeals to the anarchist, anti-authoritarian impulses in all of us. For more about the book, including some audio clips, visit the Islands of Resistance web page at http://islandsofresistance.ca/ (CIDX Messenger, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, ibid.) Be sure to see the cover art ** CANADA. The licences for both CINF-690 and CINW-940, which have been silent for some months, have been formally revoked by the CRTC. Thus ends the saga of the world`s oldest station, CINW, which started as XWA in 1919. For most of its life it was CFCF. 73, (Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, June 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Revocation of licences 1. Metromedia CMR Broadcasting Inc. has requested the revocation of the broadcasting licences for its English-language radio programming undertaking CINW and its French-language radio programming undertaking CINF Montréal. The licensee has informed the Commission that these stations have not been in operation since 29 January 2010. 2. Given the licensee's request and pursuant to sections 9(1)(e) and 24(1) of the Broadcasting Act, the Commission revokes the broadcasting licences issued to Metromedia CMR Broadcasting Inc. for the above- mentioned undertakings (CRTC via Deane McIntyre, ibid.) A while back, I was looking at some of my old QSL cards (late 60's vintage), and I have one from their shortwave broadcast station (CFCX 6005 kHz). The back side of the card states that they began broadcasting in 1919, although the XWA call sign was not mentioned. This was a red and white card, and they used check marks to denote which of their three stations was being confirmed. Both stations were regularly heard at my home in the Detroit area prior to IBOC being approved for nighttime broadcasts. 73 de (Joe Miller, KJ8O, Troy, MI, NRC-AM via DXLD) This ends the radio reception for travellers on the long drive east from Montreal to other locations along the Saint Lawrence River and further east to NB as these stations were receivable as far east as the Gaspé Peninsula. There is virtually nothing else to listen to other than a handful of locals in small towns along the River. Other 940s and 690s are probably available at night (Bill Kral in BC, IRCA via DXLD) WGFP 940 Webster, MA (near the NE CT state line) with 4 watts at night gets a listenable 5 miles at night and up to 10 on a good night with 940 Montreal off; before, when it was on, they probably didn't even get half of that (Paul Walker, IL, ibid.) ** CANADA. Not much sporadic E Sunday, until 0125 UT Monday June 7 when I found weak analog on channel 2, peaking NNE, turned out to be a silly puck game. This fits CBC as on CKPR, Thunder Bay, an oft- received station. Soon outfaded (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Tuesday evening June 8 sporadic-E TV DX opening was from NNW or so, into UT Wednesday June 9, all analog of course. References are the channel maps at dxinfocentre.com and W9WI.com station listings: 2330 on 2, CTV promo; most likely CKCK Regina tho there are two others further north in SK and AB. CKCK seen countless times before, past 50 years, originally a CBC affiliate 2332 on 4, news in English 2347 on 2, Globalwinnipeg.com mentioned, ``On the Line`` sports. Can only be Minnedosa, MB, CKND-TV-2, 100 kW 2356 on 5, John Deere/SCE ad 2356 on 3 // 4, text graphic in English, sports; CBC exploding pizza bug in LR 0016 on 5, ``CBC News Saskatchewan at 6``, after stox. There are three CBC stations on 5 in SK: CBKST-9 100 kW Prince Albert; CBKT-4 13.l3 kW in Swift Current; CBKT-6 50.2 kW in Yorkton. One might be able to sort them out by offsets, except I no longer have KOCO zero offset OKC to compare with, and no radio capable of such fine tuning. 0026 on 4, CBC promo // 5 Sask 0030 on 4, CBC ``Little Mosque on the Prairie`` sitcom; nice to see this groundbreaking show direct, altho only in bits and pieces. This chex with scheduling on CBKT. On 4 we have CBKST-11, 17 kW in Greenwater Lake SK, and CBKT-1, 100 kW in Moose Jaw, likely the latter; I remember when it was CHAB-TV 0035 on 2, weather in Celsius, mixing with other signals 0043 on 3, sports news, CCI with ads // CBKT on 4 during LMOTP 0043 on 3, mixing with above, French which would be CBWFT Winnipeg, received countless times before; axually, it has two relays on 3 further north in MB, also CBC French one each in SK and AB 0054 on 4, ad for chipmoney.ca, then promo for The National, so it`s still CBC, and back to LMOTP 0057 on 3, also with LMOTP; CCI sports news in English; soon credit roll for LMOTP 0100 on 3, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the CBC satire show, another one we wish we could get other than by DX. Discounting low-power translators, the only two CBC English on 3 in the Prairies are CBCP- TV-3 in Ponteix SK, 18.8 kW, and CBKT-7 in Warmley SK, 100 kW. 0108 on 3, ad for Ezee something 0138 on 6, finally something copied on the hi channel, TD Insurance ad, video only 0158 on 3, Gold Eagle Casino ad. Google finds it in North Battleford, Sask; not to be confused with *Golden* Eagle Casino in Kenora, Ont., nor same latter name in Horton, Kansas = DTV land but nothing on 3 with the demise of analog KSNW. By proximity, most likely CFQC-TV-1 in Stranraer SK The same new TV antenna feeds into a second monitor thru a DTV converter, but so far nothing decoded. There are 2s and 3s in SD and ND all a bit too close for common skip, but possible. 0200+ I tried FM for a while, but nothing Note: while outside Canada we commonly append the channel number to the callsign with a hyphen, we must avoid this inside Canada, as the TV callsigns themselves often have a number in them, as a series of relay transmitters. Distance ranges for above: just under 1000 miles to Winnipeg, about 1050 to Regina, 1200 to Saskatoon (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CAPE VERDE. CAPE VERDE TROPO IN PORTUGAL Had this last year but back again tonight. Radio Cabo Verde 91.6 MHz Distance is approx 1880 miles, more than initially thought. RCV 91.6 is back again now in S Portugal via tropo. Audio file attached with the news at 2200 utc today. http://www.wtfda.info/showthread.php?p=13094#post13094 (Hugh Hoover, Portugal, June 3, WTFDA via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) 13+ minutes; starts right off with time check for Cabo Verde (gh) ** CHAD. Em março de 2009 enviei um relatório de recepção à Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne, junto de 2 dólares bem lacrados com papel carbono, para custear as despesas, pois alguns países da África não ceitam IRC. Hoje recebi minha carta de volta, sem ser aberta e com um carimbo de N'Djamena em cima, além de um outro que constava "Non réclamé". Diante disto, penso que o endereço da referida emissora deixou de ser o "Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne, Boîte Postale 892,N'Djamena, Tchad" Alguém sabe o novo endereço da emissora do Chade? Does anyone know the new address of RNT? Forte 73 (Fabricio Andrade Silva, Tubarão-SC, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Still that address in WRTH 2010 (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA [non]. 7415 RCI English and French via Kashi or Urumchi ? at 1856 - 1900 UT --- CHINA/CANADA, 7415, thought first it was a phantom. But RCI English service 1800-1859 KAS 9530, SKN 11765, SAC 17735, SKN 17810 noted in 1856 to 1900 UT slot June 7th on CRI Urumchi site outlet 7415 kHz, S=9+20dB, with listener letter request and Montreal address at 1858 UT. RCI interval signal til 1859 UT, into RCI French ID til 1900 UT, and suddenly at 1900 UT switch into CRI Czech service announcement, scheduled on 7415 kHz regularly. So, the 9530 Kashi satellite feed from Beijing was put on air via Urumchi gear, or even the satellite feed used for CRI Czech service from 1900 UT? (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Recently Glenn observed the same on another frequency. If I recall it correct in this case the transmitter site finally changed its practice and uncut the audio only at the last moment to prevent the RCI audio from being transmitted. I think it is quite clear that the RCI programme until 1900 is on the same audio circuit than CRI Czech that starts at 1900. Probably such things already happened elsewhere within such airtime exchange arrangements, where the audio of the partner station is routed to the transmitter sites like own programming, through the own main control room. I recall another opening of this kind, not involving a third party but still unsuitable: A transmission of VOA Persian via Wertachtal used to start with "This is Radio Free Europe. Radio Liberty. Praha. Buuup.", the Prague loop from which Washington switched away only in the last moment (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) It was 7200 in the B-season; REE IS was being relayed before cutting to CRI program. IIRC they kept doing it until the frequency changed with season (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. 9505, Voice of Strait, 1255-1300*, June 7. Thanks to a reminder from Hiroshi (via Mauno Ritola); I found VOS in Chinese, with pips and off. About 10-15 seconds later the transmitter started up on 4940 and audio began at 1301. Too bad that the ID in English gets lost in the switch over! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 9525, weak signal in Russian at 2046 June 3; whence? It`s CRI via Beijing site at 318 degrees, something I would hardly expect to hear at this hour with propagation generally pitiful. 11900, June 8 at 1415 fair with SE Asian song with reverb on YL voice; 1419 announcement language sounds more S Asian; mixture of talk and music now also S Asian still at 1440. I suspected a gospel huxter bent on coöpting a local culture, but was I way off. Uplooked later, the only thing on 11900 during this hour is the Sinhalese service of CRI, 500 kW, 258 degrees from Jinhua-Youbu 831 site per Aoki, which BTW still shows the dead-and-buried WWBS Macon on 11900 elsewhen. ** CHINA. Firedrake June 4: 8400, poor in band noise at 1250 9380, fair at 1251; WWRB 9385 not too strong yet 12960, JBA at 1258 and at 1313 13300, poor at 1258; no others up to 15 MHz before 1300; poor-fair at 1314 Firedrake June 5: 8400, fair-good at 1243 10420, fair at 1246 12960, good at 1250 // 10420; very good at 1310 12970, G-VG at 1338 // 13320; ex-12960 12980, G-VG at 1344 shifted from 12970; VG at 1410 13300, good at 1253 // 12960; very good at 1309 13320, G-VG at 1338, ex-13300; VG at 1410 None found higher up to 19 MHz before 1300. 13620, Firedrake-like music, at 1343 June 5, but not // the others. 1344 announcement in Korean, so not a jammer; instead, CRI as scheduled during this hour, 500 kW, 73 degrees via Xi`an (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9380, Firedrake, 0920-0930 June 6, Steady Chinese style music. It doesn't seem like the signal has reached its peak for this morning yet. Consequently, it's only at a poor level so far (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, WinRadio G305e/pd, 26.37N 081.05W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake June 6: 8400-12499, nothing found 1255-1300 12500, VG at 1258 but off at 1300*; back on at *1305 14600, poor at 1307 // 14700; still same at 1352 14700, VG at 1259, NOT // 12500, and 14700 goes to OC at 1300, 1305 resumes; still same at 1352 17920, poor at 1309, // 14700. Shows it pays to keep bandscanning upward for them to show up unexpectedly, and I kept going to 19000 17515, fair June 6 at 1304, CNR1 // 15285; no co-channel audible on 17515, but must be there to jam BBC Uzbek via Cyprus at 1300-1330 only. Thus China asserts pseudo-sovereignty over Uzbekistan, take that! Another poor day for Firedrake, June 7: 8-16 MHz, none found at 1305-1310 16-19 MHz, none found at 1310-1314 tho CNR1 jammer audible on 11805, not on 15285, etc. 8400, `ramshorn` passage just barely audible with BFO at 1324 15140, very poor at 1414; scanned 10-15 MHz again now: nothing else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7280, Firedrake music noted on Tinian channel 7280 in 1700-1900 UT slot, June 7th (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake June 8: 8400, F-G at 1313 9380, P at 1318 16800, G at 1328, 1406, gone at 1446 No others found 8-20 MHz by 1331 Firedrake June 9, using interior antenna during a rainstorm: 8-20 MHz, nothing found between 1325 and 1342, except: 14700, fair at 1335 15140, fair at 1336 // 14700. Aoki says it`s a 24h 100 watt SOH freq 16800, fair at 1338 // others Firedrake June 10: 8400, JBA in noise level at 1306. No others found by 1345 up to 19 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. XINHUA OFFICIAL SHARES DETAILS OF CHINA`S NEWS CLEANUPS - The New York Times June 3, 2010 By ANDREW JACOBS BEIJING -- As the nation held its collective breath, China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, floated back to the motherland, having orbited Earth 14 times in the Shenzhou 5, or Divine Capsule. It was October 2003, and the national broadcaster CCTV carried live coverage of the momentous event, from Mr. Yang's famous pleasantries uttered in space -- "I feel good" -- to the instant that workers opened the capsule door to reveal the pale but smiling face of a hero, offering irrefutable evidence that China's maiden manned space voyage had gone off without a hitch. Or had it? In a lecture he gave to a group of journalism students last month, a top official at Xinhua, the state news agency, said that the mission was not so picture-perfect. The official, Xia Lin, described how a design flaw had exposed the astronaut to excessive G-force pressure during re-entry, splitting his lip and drenching his face in blood. Startled but undaunted by Mr. Yang's appearance, the workers quickly mopped up the blood, strapped him back in his seat and shut the door. Then, with the cameras rolling, the cabin door swung open again, revealing an unblemished moment of triumph for all the world to see... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/world/asia/04china.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print (via Mike Cooper, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 6140, R. Líder, Bogotá in Spanish, 0434 April 29, news, mentions of Colombia, ID ``Cadena Melodía`` pop music with fast talking DJ, local ads and promos, fair with noise (Mark Coady, Ont., International Band Loggings, June NASWA Journal via DXLD) ?? Must have been a one-off reactivation as never reported lately by anyone else. I would not expect to hear it, at least not without severe interference from Romania which is currently scheduled on 6140 at 04-05 in Romanian to Europe, 300 kW, 285 degrees from Galbeni. By then, Cuba had left 6140 for 5970. Seems to me that R. Líder has made one-off showups previously, maybe to keep their license active (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. 5954.2, ELCOR. Escuchada gracias a la información en el DXLD y como señalan en la misma presentado música sin parar de ritmo tropical, empezando transmisión desde las 2300 con cierre variable 0100 sábado, 0000 el domingo. Cada 20 minutos se repiten las canciones. Chequeando mi bitácora DX encuentro que en esta frecuencia 5954.2, medí hace algún tiempo una transmisión de Radio República. RRR Buen DX (RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ R., Bogotá, Colombia, http://dxdesdecolombia.blogspot.com/ SONY ICF 2010 Y Dipolo de 10 metros, playdx yg via DXLD) Yes, R.R. was apparently carried by same briefly some months ago. Note he says they repeat the same music every 20 minutes. Has also been reported as late as 0400 (gh, DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. FARO DEL CARIBE DOCUMENTA SU HISTORIA CON LA COLABORACIÓN DE SUS OYENTES El proyecto de documentar la historia de la Emisora desde sus orígenes y a lo largo de estos 62 años de trayectoria se ha fortalecido este año aún más al querer, con la ayuda y colaboración de todos nuestros oyentes recopilar material histórico como fotografías impresas y digitales, material audiovisual, notas de prensa, almanaques y cualquier otro tipo de documento, objetos alusivos como llaveros y otros con los diferentes logos que ha tenido Faro del Caribe a lo largo de su historia son parte de esta colección de material que formará parte de la base histórica de la emisora radial cristiana con más trayectoria en el país. Para la emisora, conocer hechos históricos importantes y personas que han marcado el caminar de este Ministerio a lo largo de 62 años es un hecho de suma importancia, ya que se comprueba día a día que la visión y el propósito con los que fue fundado el ministerio a finales de los años cuarentas sigue en pie y vigente, teniendo claridad en cuanto al llamado de Dios para predicar y proclamar el santo evangelio de nuestro Señor y Salvador Jesucristo a Costa Rica y a todas las naciones para cada día más personas le conozcan de una forma real. Parte del material recopilado será utilizado para decorar el nuevo edificio con el fin de que las personas que visiten las nuevas instalaciones conozcan hechos históricos importantes en torno al ministerio. Si usted cuenta con material que considera que puede ser útil para la base histórica de Faro del Caribe, por favor comuníquese al Área de Relaciones Públicas de la emisora al teléfono 2286-1755 o al correo electrónico relacionespublicas @ farodelcaribe.org y sea parte de los constructores de este proyecto tan importante. Fuente: http://bit.ly/dlLfp5 (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, June 5, DXLD) See also SPAIN [non] ** CROATIA. 6164.95v, Croatian Radio via Deanovec little 50 Hertz odd, S=9+20dB. June 5th at 1640 UT. Produced a hum hiss against China Radio International exact even frequency, at Urumchi Xinjiang, in Turkish language co-channel. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. You never know which language RHC will be airing on 5040; June 4 at 0609 it was back to Spanish. English was on 5970, 6010 and 6060, phone interview with some YL from the National Lawyers` Guild supporting The Five, filing amicus briefs. Big hum during the interview one could assume was due to the phone connexion, except there was no such hum on 6060. BTW, BDXC-UK Communication reports hearing Arnie say that with the success of 5040, RHC may try 3 and 21 MHz next. Useful tidbits like that are lost in his usual topix about homebrew, propagation, etc., pretending to be such a radio/shortwave enthusiast while he represents a regime that spends countless pesos trying to block radio signals. And I haven`t listened to DXUL in weeks. It`s a lot easier to skim his scripts for anything significant, but he`s been in another long spell of not posting them weekly on his blog or RHC, as I suppose even he does not enjoy unrestricted internet access in that police state. [Later: he says in next edition it was just because he was too busy with his professorial duties, but now the term is over] Meanwhile, the Thursday 2100 June 3 airing of WORLD OF RADIO on WRMI 9955, was totally inaudible under the DentroCuban Jamming Command wall of noise. Tnx a lot, Arnie! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) With RHC now successfully using 5040 kHz in the 60 metre band, Arnie Coro who presents DXers Unlimited, has said tests might be conducted on a daytime frequency in the 21 MHz band. There might also be tests on the 3 MHz band (Dave Kenny, DX News, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) 9640, RHC`s Mesa Redonda frequency which breaks away from mainstream programming at varying times between 22 and 24 but not on the air every day, June 4 at 2310 had lo-fi play-by-play of a béisbol game, mentioning ``lanzador`` (pitcher), a dead giveaway to which SBG it is. Crowd noise was extreme vs the announcer despite his enthusiasm, several times yelling ``Cuba Campeón``, apparently in a contest against an ``equipo norteamericano``. Either it was just ending or this was no live game at all but just reliving past glory, as 2313 went into music, discussion of some Peruvian earthquake killing 5 kilopeople. The only Mesa Redonda // is nominally 6000, and also audible there, plus R. Rebelde 5025, but it`s not likely correct to classify 9640 and 6000 as R. Rebelde too; just carrying the same network program at this hour. Meanwhile, mainstream RHC Spanish with much higher fi was on nearby 9660, // 6110, 12020. 12020? See PORTUGAL [and non] 11760 RHC, as I tuned across Saturday June 5 at 2109, DXers Unlimited, a show immune from jamming, was underway in English so I decided to stop and listen, especially since Arnie was axually giving some DX tips on trop bands, something he normally denigrates on other shows; as an example of the plus side of low solar flux. Apparently had just mentioned some 120 mb stations he had heard, and then 90 mb: 3290 Guyana until sunrise; close to 3329.5, Ondas del Huallaga, Perú at 5 am local [1000 UT we have to know], with CHU 3330 QRM. He pronounced the town Huanúco, while it`s really Huánuco, so this yanqui knows more about Perunciation than he does; quickly confirmed in a couple of atlases where the accent goes, as well as the WRTH. 60 m: he`s heard on 4700 R. San Miguel, Bolivia just before daybreak and it vanishes abruptly after sunrise. Also couldn`t resist a plug for the Cubans on 5025, 5040: R. Rebelde 24 hours, and RHC 21-11 UT. Then he changed the subject to diodes and my ears glazed over but listened half-attentively until music fill started at 2123. Have not been hearing the 37v/multiple plus/minus kHz spur galaxy from RHC`s 15360 transmitter in the mornings or 15370 in the afternoons for the last few days. Not sure if they are eliminated or merely that poor propagation has not been inbringing enough signals to audiblize them, and 19m currently suffers from some neighbor`s TVI much of the time. But June 6 at 1301 I am almost convinced that the spurs are absent as 15360 is fairly strong. 13880, RHC Spanish leapfrog of 13680 over 13780, June 6 at 1308 attained S9+12 on the FRG-7 meter, while the fundamentals looked like huge S9+25, tho hard to be precise at top end of its scale. See also VENEZUELA [non] The secret third airing of RHC`s Spanish DX program ``En Contacto`` recurred at exactly the same time this Sunday as last Sunday: June 6 at 2144-2157:30, best here on 15370, also audible and synchronized up to a reverb apart on 11730, 9660, 6110, and just barely audible this early 5040; an echo apart on 15380, 12030, 9660 from the other transmitter site. Unihosted by Manolo de la Rosa last week and this; we miss his wife Malena Negrín and wonder where she is. After usual birthday greetings to a couple listeners, continued reminiscences of the foundation of RHC almost 50 years ago. At the end Manolo mentioned that the RHC anniversary series airs martes [wanting to say local Mondays?] a las 0140, sábados 2240 TU; apparently E.C. is carrying excerpts from that. After a brief bit of one of the countless renditions of ``Guantanamera``, next show was about José Martí. No spurs audible from 15370. 13680, RHC with hoary old Fidel speech in ``Voces de la Revolución``, June 8 at 1412, while 13780 was just open carrier with equally big signal. No doubt kept on the air as fulcrum in order to maintain the leapfrog on 13880, // 13680 but fading in and out, and with co-channel clix probably spurring from the jammers on 13820 against Radio Martí (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also VENEZUELA [non] ** CUBA. EL APAGÓN DE LA TELEVISIÓN ANALÓGICA EN CUBA 20 respuestas sobre la televisión digital. Por Gabriel Dávalos Most of the TVs currently in Cuban homes can only receive the signal from analogue. La mayoría de los televisores que hay actualmente en los hogares cubanos solo pueden captar la señal de la televisión analógica. "Shall be useless when the country make the transition to digital television? ¿Quedarán inservibles cuando el país haga la transición a la televisión digital? http://www.envivo.icrt.cu/tecnologia/77-el-apagon-de-la-television-analogica-en-cuba (via Chris Dunne, Pembroke Pines FL, April 29, WTFDA Forums via DXLD) When we copied the start of the original from a Google translation, it mixed in the English; you may choose one or the other (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. CREAN DOS NUEVAS PROVINCIAS EN CUBA http://www.bedincuba.com/mapa_cuba_fisico_politico.htm Cuba creó este lunes dos nuevas provincias, Mayabeque y Artemisa, tras la división de la de La Habana (rural), con lo que la organización política administrativa quedó con 15 territorios provinciales y un municipio especial, según reporta la radioemisora Radio Rebelde. Las máximas autoridades del Partido Comunista (PCC) y del gobierno local de la provincia de La Habana sesionaron, con la presencia del primer vicepresidente del Consejo de Estado de Cuba, José Ramón Machado, para tratar la nueva división territorial, informó Radio Rebelde. La isla se divide ahora en las provincias de Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Ciudad de La Habana -donde está la capital-, Matanzas, en el occidente; Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Santi Spiritus, Ciego de Avila y Camagüey, en el centro; Las Tunas, Granma, Holguín, Santiago de Cuba y Guantánamo, en oriente; y el municipio especial Isla de La Juventud. Mayabeque asumirá los actuales municipios de Santa Cruz del Norte, Jaruco, Madruga, San Nicolás, Nueva Paz, Batabanó, Güines, Melena del Sur, Quivicán, Bejucal, y como capital se designa a San José de las Lajas. Artemisa acogerá a los territorios de San Antonio de los Baños, Mariel, Caimito, Bauta, Guanajay, Alquízar, Quivicán, y se sumarán los municipios pinareños de Candelaria, San Cristóbal y Bahia Honda que tendrán como capital a Artemisa. Con esta nueva estructura los habaneros contarán con capitales de provincias y una mejor organización política, productiva, económica y social. Fuente: TeleSURtv.net - Crean dos nuevas provincias en Cuba http://bit.ly/9L5THJ NOTA: En el mapa aun no estan incluidas las mencionadas arriba. (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DXLD) ** CYPRUS. QSL: BBC East Mediterranean Relay Station. Handmade card received in 9 days. Sent written report with 1 IRC (Jonathan Kempster, London, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) So an unique QSL? Made by their hand or yours? (gh, DXLD) ** CYPRUS. 15268-15293, OTH radar, presumed from here, rapid clicking June 5 at 2057; generally poor propagation and fortuitously not interfering with any audible broadcasters. That does not mean OTHR has any right to invade broadcast bands. 13755, OTH radar pulsing, presumed from here, June 8 at 1414. Not on 13760, and 25-kHz bandwidth probably masked on lo side by CRI/Habana 13740. I should have checked between 1430 and 1500 to see whether it was QRMing R. Tirana on 13755; but, beware (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And see ALBANIA ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 6025, R. Amanecer, 0303-0442, June 7. IDs for “Radio Amanecer Internacional”; segments of religious songs and religious (or health?) talks; poor to almost fair. Glad to find this still doing well. Believe was running well past their normal sign-off time, but not sure just what their current schedule is (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 6025+, June 7 at 0625 as I was stepping 1 MHz between 4025 and 5025 on the FRG-7, also found unexpected fair signal on 6025, in Spanish; low-key W & M conversation about medical issues. This one is slightly on the hi side compared to 5025, but also a rippling SAH from a weaker signal slightly offset from it; with BFO on, it`s even more obvious there are two senders. 0629 broke for canned PSAs/promos about the symptoms of autism, espíritu santo, and gave several phone numbers starting with 707 or 787; also a US toll free 866-. 0631 resumed medical discussion; kept listening hoping for some clue as to origin, but none heard so gave up at 0651. It helped to be within the weekly Monday truce in the Cuban/American radio war on adjacent 6030 tho there were still traces of jamming there. I presume it was R. Amanecer Internacional, as the Seventh Day Adventists are obsessed with health, and this station has been known to run overnight on occasion, not usually. Then I check the program schedule at http://www.ra.do/plunes.html and find for 2-3 am Monday: Clínica Abierta. That makes the log definite. BTW, the imaginary new US station KTMI in Oregon is registered for 6025 at this very time, 0600-0800, 50 kW, 70 degrees. What could the CCI really be? Aoki shows also on the 6025 air at this hour, Enugu, Nigeria, maybe possible if active, a bit late for it, and really too early for Vietnam or Malaysia. Maybe Bolivia sometimes runs all-night too? (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6025, R. Amanecer, 0303-0442, June 7. IDs for “Radio Amanecer Internacional”; segments of religious songs and religious (or health?) talks; poor to almost fair. Glad to find this still doing well. Running well past their normal sign-off time and as also noted by Glenn as late as 0651. On Monday it does indeed help that 6030 is free from Cuban jamming and R. Martí (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6025, unlike last night, R. Amanecer Internacional apparently not on, as undetected June 8 at 0558; altho too much ACI from CRI via RCI on 6020 until 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Re 10-22, the 88.7 FM station received in England: lost in the shuffle was the fact that Henrik Klemetz identified it, listening to the clip. He helps out a lot of DXers this way (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 4814.95, Radio El Buen Pastor, Saraguro, Loma Loja, 1006 on 27 May (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, June 4, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro Dallas Lankford modified, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. 9305, R. Cairo, Abis, in Arabic at 0054, June 6. Male vocal mx, no instruments, but didn't sound like recitations. ERTU Domestic Prgm. Good, audio distorted (Grundig G3, Mike Bryant, Louisville, KY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) For many decades Radio Cairo around May 1st shifted only Arabic programs (because are relayed from their Home Services?) by 1 hour due to the DST there (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, RNGE/"R. Bata", Bata, 1859-1918, 04 Jun'10, Castilian, Afr. pops, newscast 1900; 35343; very weak modulation till it was almost gone (2040). 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) GUINEA ECUATORIAL. 5005, Radio Nacional, Bata, 2146-2208, 09-06, canciones africanas. 24322. (Méndez) 15190, Radio Africa, 1610-1622, 06-06, inglés, comentario religioso, locutor. 23322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, R. Africa, Bata, on 15190 at 2112 in English, June 4. Congregational singing of gospel music. Heavily-accented M urging listeners "to be ambassadors for Christ." Into "Hope for Today" program at 2115. Good (Sony ICF-2010 w/ KIWA filters, Mike Bryant, Louisville, KY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, Radio Africa, 2115-2135, June 6, English religious talk. Radio Africa ID announcement at 2130 with contact information followed by gospel music. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** ERITREA. 7175, 05/Jun 1957, Voice of Broad Masses 2, in vernacular. Local pop music. At 1959 UT male talks, then what appears to be an anthem. Without modulation the 2001 UT. At 2002 end of transmission. Moderate signal (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana Bahia 12 14´S 38 58´W Brasil, Degen 1103, Dipole antenna, 19 meters - east/west - Balun 4:1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 6030, Radio Oromiya, *0321-0330, June 7. Another Monday with no Cuban jamming or R. Martí here; usual repetitive xylophone- like IS; unusable after distinctive IS (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 9704.2, R. Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 0420-0433, June 2, vernacular. M announcer and brief, classical-like music bits; HoA music from 0427 thru tune/out; fair-poor, too much band noise to hear anything on // 7110 (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD- 545, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7110, 05/Jun 2005, R Ethiopia, in Amharic. Pop music rap style. At 2005 UT local pop traditional music. Good signal (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana Bahia 12 14´S 38 58´W Brasil, Degen 1103, Dipole antenna, 19 meters - east/west - Balun 4:1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [non]. 17630, RFI via GUIANA FRENCH, June 4 at 2059 surprised to hear them in Brazilian, 2100 sharp into Spanish. Must have turned on transmitter a bit early and not cared they were frustrating countless Brazilians with a SW broadcast they are not supposed to get. May have been in Portuguese already on 21690 which has been running for hours, and previously heard in languages other than scheduled French-only, due to satellite mixup? There is no Brazilian at all on the RFI SW sked, just Portuguese to Africa at 1700-1800 daily to CAf, WAf via 15530 Issoudun per the WRTH A-10 update. Hmm, 21690 is not on that RFI schedule at all now, but I heard it poorly in a quick check after 2100 June 4. It is, however, on the HFCC A-10 schedule for 17-22, 500 kW, 75 degrees from GUF, only in French. This of course raises questions about the uptodateness of the full RFI sked in WRTH update. RFI is notorious for failing to display its accurate current schedule on its own website, should anyone be tempted to believe that (e.g. also not specifying morning English is M-F only). 17630, still did not tune in early enough to determine exactly what is happening with the unscheduled Portuguese broadcast of RFI via GUIANA FRENCH: June 5 at 2058 music is underway, 2059 closing announcement in Brazilian, ``até a próxima``, but then instead of going right into scheduled Spanish at 2100 we had more than a minute of dead air, or rather hummy air until Spanish news was joined in progress at 2101:05. Then checked unscheduled 21690 and it was JBA but in French. Having missed carrier-on the last two days for the 2100-2130 RFI Spanish on 17630 via GUIANA FRENCH, I tuned in very early June 6 before 2050, but this time it did not cut on until *2058:50, musical modulation from 2059, sounded like hilife but could not determine lyrix language; possibly Portuguese as before, but no announcement. 2100 4-pip timesignal 6 seconds late, opening RFI Spanish at 11 de la noche en París, noticias, good signal but with some hum (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [and non]. RFI Podcasts --- This is new to me or else I just wasn't looking in the right place. I found a place on the RFI website where you can download English programs for later use without having to be online to listen: http://www.english.rfi.fr/broadcasts (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, June 8, NASWA yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) I think this function was available from RFI before the term "podcast" was coined; one could simply download the MP3 files. The international broadcasters that offer this function include the BBC World Service, RCI, Radio Prague, Radio Bulgaria International, REE, Deutsche Welle, Radio Netherlands, Radio Sweden, Voice of Russia, China Radio International, Radio Australia, Radio New Zealand International, Bangladesh Betar, KBS World Radio, the VOA, and Radio Damascus --- there are others as well. REE's offering is recent; the BBC World Service recently added "Newshour" to the programs available via podcast/download. There are several software packages that allow you to capture either live or on-demand audio to a computer and save as an MP3 file even if the broadcaster doesn't specifically offer the material for download. It's certainly a different way of thinking about what "radio" is, and it's part of what torments broadcasters in deciding how best to serve North American listeners in the face of an aging shortwave listener base and changing listening habits. That's one reason I set up an e- group called "InternetRadio" and also write a column for the ODXA website called "Click!" (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, ibid.) I tried like heck to find it on RFI's site before and was only able to grab it off the internet but not download it to my desktop. The page I found last nite is different from the previous podcast page I used to visit (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, ibid.) Interesting! What strikes me is that the key issue of the 1970s SW world has bubbled to the surface again. Then, within the clubs, the "Great SW War" was raging. The question was, DXer or SWLer? Which was the key element of the hobby? Listening to programs on SW for their information or entertainment value? Or listening to try to hear distant, rare, difficult to log stations simply because they were distant, rare and difficult to log. In SW history, traditionally, the DX approach predominated. The DXer dominated the clubs. With the advent of huge, powerful SW stations, putting solid listenable copy in the US, the SWL element grew and began demanding, and winning, respect in the hobby. The ancient notion that an SWL, one who actually listened to programs for content, were MERELY an incomplete novice DXer who, in time, would learn enough, know enough to become a REAL DXer, went out the window as a result of the "Great SW War" of the '70s. Now here we are again. DX types (and for better or worse, that still describes my approach, personally) understand that, largely, except for some limited 3rd World targets, DX has ceased to exist. DXing is slipping into oblivion. But, for the SWL, the new Internet platforms DO constitute a different way of thinking about what radio is. It is just a different, and more reliable way to hear those programs that always interested the SWL type. And it is why the various internet platforms really don't attract those of us who still are anchored to the old mentality --- if it isn't rare and hard to hear, it really isn't worth tuning. DXing is dead or surely dying. SWLing, it seems, is still alive, without the SW, which, I guess, makes it "Ling" (Don Jensen, WI, ibid.) I agree I used to be of the mindset that DXing was much more intellectual than SWLing. DX is hard to find; now that antenna is fixed, I am enjoying that again where I can find it. However, Ian McFarland's prediction to me of some 25 years ago has come true. Once I collected all the QSLs, I became more of a program listener (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, ibid.) As predominantly an SWL, you've captured it well, Don. Having said that, there still is "something" - a sine qua non - about shortwave that can't be replicated by these other platforms. A sense of distance --- of exoticness (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, ibid.) Exactly! DXing! Indeed, and somewhere within your SWL soul clearly there dwells at least a bit of the DXer. That, somewhat sadly these days, constitutes a much larger part of me. dnj (Jensen, ibid.) Oh yes! I would much rather listen to a station directly over the air than via internet and have told many stations just that (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, ibid.) Why did there ever have to be such a dichotomy between the SWL and the DXer? For sesquidecades in my personal tuning and in my writing, editing, and broadcasting I have embraced both with equal enthusiasm. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** GAMBIA [non]. Hi dear Jeff, UNID via Media & Broadcast 15225 kHz, RMI provided ? 15225, 1815-1830 UT zone 46 221deg 218ant 7=Sat 2205-311010 NAU 125kW RMI --- Maybe a religious station, Saturdays only. Please, tell me the organization behind this outlet, thanks (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 5 via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) Hi Wolfgang. This new program for the Gambia began on May 22. It's 15 minutes per week, and the program is in various local languages as well as English segments. The organization which sponsors and produces the program is the Save the Gambia Democracy Project. Their website is http://www.savethegambia.org All the best. (Jeff White, WRMI Radio Miami International, June 6, via Büschel, ibid.) They had a clandestine SW broadcast before but I don`t recall the details (gh, DXLD) Das Save the Gambia Democracy Project http://www.savethegambia.org hat seit dem 22. Mai 2010 wieder eine Kurzwellensendung: 1815-1830 UT: 15225 (Nauen 125 kW, 221 degr) Samstag. Englisch und afrikanische Sprachen. Die Sendungen sind die Wiederaufnahme eines frueheren Exilprogramms. Nach Testsendungen im April 2005 hatte das Save the Gambia Democracy Project von Juni 2005 bis Maerz 2006 eine woechentliche halbe Stunde aus Juelich. Die Sendezeit wird erneut ueber den Sendezeitmakler Radio Miami International bei Media Broadcast angemietet. Die Exilgambier stehen der politischen Lage im Gambia natuerlich kritisch gegenueber, haben aber fuer dieses Urteil aber auch Menschenrechtsorganisationen auf ihrer Seite. In einem Ranking, den Freedom House und andere Medienrechtsorganisationen im Mai 2010 zum Tag der Pressefreiheit veroeffentlicht haben, liegt Gambia mit 81 Negativpunkten gleichauf mit Russland auf Platz 175 von 196 bewerteten Laendern und Gebieten. Zum Vergleich: Deutschland hat 17 Minuspunkte; das bestbewertete afrikanische Land ist Mali mit 25 Negativpunkten. (Dr. Hansjoerg Biener-D, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 6 via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) Apparently Gambia is in need of having its democracy saved since one ranking of press freedom puts it at 175 out of 196 countries (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** GERMANY. RECENT PICTURES OF JUELICH TRANSMITTERSITE Dear friends. As you already know (or perhaps not) The Juelich Transmitter site owned by Christian Vision has been sold to a project management buro. This Buro will develop a holiday resort with restaurants and holiday houses on the premises. As a result The towers are in the proces of demolition. Two days ago on sunday I made a trip to Juelich (230 km). I took a long walk around the site and took some 50 pictures. All the curtains have already been taken away. Also the coax feeder lines are gone. Next step will be to take away the towers. Only 3 or 4 will be left to serve as a kind of museum. I took 53 pictures and posted them in the photo section [of the yg below]. Hopefully you enjoy them. Regards, (Jan Oosterveen, Netherlands, June 7, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) 53 pictures of Juelich site via http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shortwavesites/photos/album/937896367/pic/list?prop=eupdate access only with yahoogroups password (BC-DX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Does anyone have an up to date schedule for the relay at Wertachtal Germany. This is regarding various transmissions on 6140 kHz usually Sundays anywhere from 0800 to 1100 UT. I used to know what stations were on rotation like European Music Radio, Radio Gloria and MV Baltic Radio. Each station had either the first, second or third Sunday slot etc. I would appreciate if anyone has a current update of Sunday broadcasts or even the odd Saturday morning transmission to the UK and Europe on 6140 they could post here please. 73 (Gary Drew, South Herts, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6140 MV Baltic Radio on Sunday after 1st Saturday of the month. 0900-1000 UT summer 1000-1100 UT winter. European Music Radio 3rd Sunday. Gloria on 4th Sunday. See http://www.biener-media.de/de-jul-2.html scroll to MVB item. "Winter 2009/10 10.00-11.00: 6140 (W-100/125 kW, nd) 1. So MV Baltic Radio, 3. So European Music Radio, 4. So Radio Gloria International 6140 -- Other stations on a single day on renting request (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) See here: http://www.mvbalticradio.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=99&Itemid=49 (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) ** GERMANY [non]. 9865, DW via WSHB, f/d card in one month from the DW Customer Service Department (credit missing, QSL Report, June 2010 NASWA Journal via DXLD) ??? Time warp as WSHB has been gone for years, and I don`t recall their relaying DW, tho possibly. Or maybe the DWCSD doesn`t know this yet? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. Hi Glenn, I presume this special transmission from Radio Rasant will pre-empt WOR on Saturday. Best from Berlin, (Thomas Voelkner, June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: The latest program from Radio Rasant (student radio project at the secondary school in Sundern, North Rhine-Westphalia) will be broadcast internationally via NEXUS / IRRS on Saturday, June 12, from 0800 to 0830 UT, on 9515 kHz via transmitter in Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia. Reports are welcome via postal mail to: Radio Rasant, Rotbuschweg 28, 59846 Sundern, Germany. Web: http://www.radiorasant.org (via Thomas Voelkner, Berlin - Germany, ibid.) ** GREECE. 4854.7, Greek pirate, 2145-past 2300, May 14 and 15, heard by Arne Nilsson, in northern Sweden. As I do not speak Greek I sent the audio to Dario Monferini in Italy and to Zacharias Liangas in Greece. Liangas replied to say that this sounded like Radio Nikolas Dinamitis, but he was unsure of the location (which was not announced). Monferini sent the audio to Francesco Cecconi, in Taranto, who came back to say that this was Stathmos Nikolas Dynamitis, located in Tyrnavos, near Larissa. This is the station´s third harmonic, he said. Usually they are on approx. 1625, now apparently on 1618.2. Thank you Dario, Zacharias and Francesco for checking Arne Nilsson´s audio file (Henrik Klemetz, Boraas, Sweden, DSWCI DX Window June 2 via DXLD) ** GREECE. Radiofonikos Stathmos Makedonias, 7450, QSL card signed by Tatania Tsioili and post card ``Thessaloniki`` received in 21 days. Address: ERT S.A., Subdirection of Technical Support, P.B. 11 312, GR- 541 10 Thessaloniki, Greece (Sergej Rogov, London N4, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) No longer transmitted from Thess, just Avlis V of Greece, 15630 at 2105 in Greek with music. Excellent sig-solid S9. // 9420 good. Makedonias 7450 barely audible 3 June (Liz Cameron, MI, visiting Port Huron just north of the Detroit suburbs, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15630, V of Greece, Avlis, in Greek at 2102, June 4. Greek vocal music, one of the best music sources on SW. Very strong (Sony ICF-2010 with KIWA filters, Mike Bryant, Louisville, KY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. R. Familia is a new Christian station operating from Timbi- Madina on 4900 kHz with 1 kW between 0600-2400v in French, Pular and Maninka. Web: http://www.familiafm.com (WRTH Domestic Update 4 June via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) There we have the location (gh, ibid.) 4900.00, Familia SW (presumed), On May 23 at 2326-0005*, African music, short ID "Familia", tentative national anthem before s/off. O=1-2 (Patrick Robic, Leibnitz, Austria, DSWCI DX Window June 2 via DXLD) 4899.990, June 3, 2139, Familia FM audible with sort of Highlife music. French announcement at 2200. Seems to distribute another program than their FM transmitter on 105.3. They are not parallel with http://familiafm.streamon.fm/ (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) GUINEA-Conakry, 4900, Familia FM, site? 1912-2130, 03 Jun'10, French, talks about family law, African songs, news in French at 2210; 25332; rated 35333 at 2100. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. 7125, R. Guinée, Sonfonya, 1228-, 06 Jun'10, vernacular, African songs; 25433. They aren't on all day, there are breaks, but seem to be somewhat irregular. To be frank, I haven't bothered to make a schedule yet, sorry. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7125, Radio Guinea, Conakry, 2139-2150, 09-06, francés, locutor, comentarios, canciones. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUYANA. 3290, Guyana, GBC, 0923 OM with specific birthday greetings "just in case you missed the last disc..." Early Bird Programme, quote from Minister of Agriculture, 0940 religious message. 28 May. Fades out rapidly 1000. 0000 to 0020 with Country and Western Music on 23 May (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, June 4, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro Dallas Lankford modified, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Being heard by several DXers in Florida ~ 2340 June 5 to 0005 June 6: 3290 GBC. 73s (Bob Wilkner, FL, 0010 UT June 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. 3250, Radio Luz y Vida, San Luis, 1100 religious programming widely heard in Florida to 1215. [XM, Wilkner] (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, June 4, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro Dallas Lankford modified, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) XM? 3250.130, 2342, Radio Luz y Vida, San Luis, Spanish talks by male, noisy. Perseus SDR +Marconi and LW 100 meter long (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, HCDX via DXLD) Presumably June 3 ** INDIA. 4800, AIR Hyderabad, 2345-2400, May 20, Hindi announcement and songs, special early broadcast, maybe because of cyclone. 43433, CWQRM and much weaker Voice of China (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window June 2 via DXLD) ** INDIA. Re: Glenn Hauser logs May 29, 2010, VBS? Hi Glenn, I heard them on a recent vacation/DXP. AIR 9870 at 0050 in Hindi w/Vividh Bharati. Good signal (Liz Cameron, 4 June-Port Huron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR Vividh Bharati on 17510 kHz --- 4th June 2010 --- AIR Vividh Bharati (VBS) on 17510 when checked at 0850. Relaying the "Manchaahe geet" programme. At 0900 male announcer - "Vividh bharati ke Shrota'n kaa hum shortwave 9870 khz mei swagat hai" (We welcome VBS listeners to shortwave 9870 khz). Opens to a special programme on songs filmed on yesteryear superstar Dharmendra. At 0904 abruptly changed to instrumental music intro followed by scheduled Indonesian (?) service. Quick check at the VBS usual frequency of 9870, which continued with the regular VBS programme. Either AIR is testing new frequencies for VBS or (more likely) the usual goof up by the transmission technicians (Ashok Satpathy, June 4, dx_india yg via DXLD) Sorry to say, that`s trueness at least on Delhi and Goa tx sites, which engineers produce 'own goals' each week. Except the excellent engineering team at Bangalore 500 kW site to praise, which works on very professional level. 73 wb df5sx wwdxc (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, ibid.) I understand technicians at Delhi have a more complex work of sorting and sending correct feeds to various transmitter locations. Still, it`s inexcusable and only demonstrates incompetency. On a good day, transmissions from Bangalore are excellent. The national channel at 9425 ex BLR is great most days. Such a shame that the studio feed from Delhi is so muffled. They can at least invest in a few good microphones and better acoustics (Ashok, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, ibid.) I don't think the problem with studio acoustics, (You can try listening them via satellite) actually the problems lies in feeder system, and transmitter, BES is the consultant they are now very busy to pushing purchase of some new DRM transmitter but no body is working to upgrade the old transmitters in use, the txrs should be replaced with digital ones, the audio feeding and modulation units needs to be replaced and obviously we need to replace few technicians too. But this all things are very hard here as we have a democracy of unions and strikes (Partha Sarathi, India, Dxindia yg June 4 via BC-DX via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ** INDIA. All India Radio: A fading memory [re: Classical Music] Jun 08th, 2010 -- Dr Vasumathi Badrinathan Read 'The Asian Age' story here: http://www.asianage.com/music/all-india-radio-fading-memory-785 (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, http://alokeshgupta.blogspot.com/ dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. BES Review Oct 2009 - Mar 2010 issue BES Review Oct 2009 - Mar 2010 issue is now available for download; here's the link: http://www.besindia.com/Review%20Oct'09-Mar'10.pdf Contains an article titled "Broadcasting in a bygone era" by M. I. Suryanarayana with some rare AIR photos. BES Review is a quarterly publication of Broadcast Engineering Society (India) containing articles on latest development in the field of broadcasting and related science. The journal is provided free to its members. Others can obtain a copy of the journal at a subsidized rate of Rs 50/per copy or Rs 150 for four copies published in a year --- (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, June 4, dx_india via DXLD) ** INDIA. A VISIT TO ALL INDIA RADIO HEADQUARTERS, NEW DELHI By T. R. Rajeesh All India Radio (AIR) is one of the world’s largest radio networks still going strong on shortwave. AIR started broadcasting in January 1936. Since then it had a steady growth. Currently All India Radio has 54 shortwave transmitters, 149 MW transmitters and 172 FM transmitters. They have national area coverage of nearly 100% and an average listenership of 350 million. All India Radio broadcasts in 11 Indian and 16 foreign languages. I had an opportunity to visit the All India Radio Headquarters on 28th April 2010. My good friend and famous DXer based in New Delhi, Alokesh Gupta, arranged this visit. We also had a great DX friend with us --- the Chairman of Danish SW Clubs International, Anker Petersen for visiting the station. We also visited All India Radio High Power Transmitting Station at Khampur, Delhi, which is one of the largest antennae fields of AIR located in 255 hectares in the swamp outskirts of Delhi. All India Radio headquarters is located in Parliament Street, New Delhi. We started early, picked up Anker from his hotel, parked our car at nearby metro station & walked down to AIR headquarters. There is strict security arrangement in the entrance. When we asked permission to enter the building the first impression of the reception staff was negative and then Alokesh informed them that we came with previous appointment to B. K. Oberoi, the Deputy Director of Engineering in the Spectrum Management and Synergy (SMS). They called Mr. Oberoi and upon his instruction they took us inside. Another security check was conducted & security staff asked Anker Petersen to deposit his camera at reception desk. All India Radio has three buildings. The old one was built during the British reign and it is constructed in the shape of a round cassette spool. This building is now used as a radio museum as well as with some recording studio and offices of the officials. There is a new building with 4 floors exclusively for the Spectrum Management and Synergy (formerly Frequency Assignment Division), Planning & Transmitter Maintenance. This building also has the office of the Director General of All India Radio. There is also another new building (New Broadcasting House) where the External Service Division and state of the art digital studios are located. We have had a very good tour through all these buildings. The pictures of the three buildings are included herewith. At first we were introduced to the Spectrum Management Division where a young handsome gentleman who is the Deputy Director of Engineering welcomed us. Alokesh introduced Anker Petersen and me to Mr. B. K. Oberoi, the most cheerful person having a real helpful mind for DXers (Incidentally he also issued several direct QSLs from Regional AIR Stations when he was Station Engineer). Mr. B. K. Oberoi, the DDE (SMS) took us to his chief Mr. M. S. Ansari, the Director (SMS). There we had very interesting as well as exciting talk on the shortwave medium, its challenges and future. Anker Petersen gave his tropical band monitor survey of Regional AIR stations and showed the threat by Chinese SW stations which blocks or even jams AIR transmissions of regional transmitters in the North East India. They told us that nothing can be done at HFCC Conference and related forums. Also China put another transmission over the entertainment channel Vividh Bharati (9870 kHz) SW broadcast. The verification policy of AIR also discussed with Mr. Ansari and Mr. Oberoi. The common complaints for not having a steady verification or neglected reception reports are introduced over there. They have lot of pending reports held with them for verification. As currently the verifications are done through a particular official channel. When a reception report is received by the SMS Division they send the report with the note of the Director SMS to concerned language departments or regional stations for verification of programme contents. After verification the concerned section after verification of the programme content shall send back the report with a note whether it is eligible for verification with QSL Card. Regarding verification policy they said that they plan not to QSL Medium Wave and FM broadcasts in future. Mr. Ansari also stated that a quick way to dispose the reception reports by directly verifying by the SMS division is also under consideration. The DDE (SMS) Mr. Oberoi told that reception reports for AIR General Overseas Service mostly came from Finland, Germany and U.K from the European target area. It is from the U.S most reports are received, even though they are not targeting to North America. AIR General Overseas Service is well heard in the U.S and when asked why they are not beaming to the Americas, they mentioned that it is matter not decided by them. Incidentally All India Radio rarely receives reports from listeners from European countries other than those mentioned above. We talked about DRM transmission experiment by AIR. Alokesh Gupta monitors regularly for AIR on DRM transmissions. They said that AIR will convert some transmitters (nearly 10%) to DRM capable in the near future. Also DRM capable MW transmitters and in DRM plus on FM is also planned for next phase. All India Radio is very keen to know the results of their 1745-2230 DRM transmissions to Europe on 9950 kHz in English & Hindi. After having a very good enjoyable time with Director (SMS), we had a very good tour around the premises, with Mr. B. K. Oberoi. In the New Broadcasting House, we met the Superintending Engineer in charge of the Studio Complex, Mr. P. K.J ain. In front of him there was an Audio Monitoring system through which the programmes from 12 studios can be simultaneously monitored. He asked about our hobby, the scope of DRM and explained about the studio facilities in the building. Mr. Pandey, Assistant Engineer took us to the studio complex where we saw 12 digital modern, state of the art studios. He explained about the method of live, recorded broadcasting from the studios. We also visited the External Services Division where the Deputy Director, Ms. Nayyar Sadrudin received us. She enquired about the broadcasts we listened to and when Anker handed her a recent reception report from of a recent General Overseas Service, she called the announcers he mentioned in the report! Mr. Kaushik Roy, the frequent hosts of mailbag programme “Faithfully Yours” and Mr. Sanjiv Baruah came to the room. We had very enthusiastic talk over there for a long time. Mr. Sanjiv Baruah said that many listeners are demanding pictures of AIR Buildings, transmitter sites and studios etc. as QSL pictures instead of the current Archeological and Monument Cards and the programme hosts said that they also think it is a great idea. We were amazed to find that Mr. Sanjiv Baruah is the son of former All India Radio Director General Mr. U. L. Baruah, who wrote the one and only authoritative book on AIR “This is All India Radio” published back in 1983! They also presented a big colorful folder of AIR external services and some AIR brochures as a souvenir to us. After visiting External services Division, all of us proceeded to the old red coloured building where we saw the Radio and TV museum on the ground floor. Lots of old receivers are kept over there like Philips, Grundig from 1920-30s, old TV cameras etc. We returned after watching the museum and took some photos with our good friend Mr. Oberoi outside the AIR gate. Our thrill of watching AIR High Power Transmitting Site at Delhi Khampur may be written in another article in the upcoming editions. Direct E-mail ID for General Overseas Service: goesdair @ yahoo.co.in This email ID is informed by Mr. Sanjeev Baruah during the visit for writing directly to AIR External Service. This can also be used for requesting frequency schedules and programme comments. The Spectrum Management Division of All India Radio welcomes reception report from European target area and reports and monitoring observations for DRM transmissions are especially appreciated. AIR is using DRM mode transmission to U.K and Europe via Delhi Khampur with 35 kW (250 kW output is not used!) from 1745 to 2230 UT on 9950 kHz in English & Hindi. The analogue General Overseas Service in English can be heard in U.K and Europe from 1745 to 1945 on 6280, 7550 kHz and from 2045 to 2230 UT on 6280, 7550 and 9445 kHz. The reports may be mailed to: The Director, Spectrum Management & Synergy, All India Radio, Room No.204, Parliament Street NewDelhi-110001, INDIA. Email reports are welcomed to: spectrum-manager @ air.org.in [Courtesy: This article is written with the great assistance and support of Alokesh Gupta who arranged the visit and made some factual corrections in the article which I wrote using his laptop! Also special thanks to Anker Petersen for photos and support and it is for meeting him, I decided to make a 2850 km journey, to New Delhi by train that took 44 hours to reach the destination! DXing means building friendship beyond the borders!!). (T. R. Rajeesh, Thrissur, Kerala, visiting New Delhi, India, DSWCI DX Window June 2 via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9525.85v, Voice of Indonesia, Cimanggis in Spanish news at 1700-1710 UT June 5th. S=9+10dB. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9526-, VOI, June 8 at 1318 with weekly Tuesday ``Exotic Indonesia`` hookup with RRI Banjarmasin. YL there mentioned one frequency, ``9.25 kHz`` which I doubt. At first I thought she was trying to say 9.525 MHz, but per http://www.rribanjarmasin.info/ there are two different FM programs on 92.5 and 95.2 MHz, the latter being the one usually mentioned during this show. 1317 ``Today In History``. Of note was the good punchy modulation today! Which shows VOI can do it if it wants to, and we expect that every day from now on, ha. Really helped against the staticrashes. 1339 recheck, Mahendra was just wrapping up his segment, sorry I missed it, ``that`s all from Banjarmasin, bye2`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Earlier (1302) she did give the correct frequency (“9525 kHz.”). Also RRI Banjarmasin today did give their frequency of “95.2 MHz” (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9526-, VOI, second day in a row with good modulation; keep it up! June 9 at 1322, News In Brief, including item about a scout jamboree involving Malaysians; 1324 next segment by a different YL harder to understand, about classical music mentioning Beethoven`s Fifth (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9526-, VOI, good modulation June 10 for the third day in a row! 1310 mentioning anniversary of the mutiny on the Bounty; strangely enough, this was toward the end of the (current) newscast, soon followed by repeating headlines. 1311 commentary about Obama cancelling his visit to Indonesia again; they seem a bit miffed. 1314 Today in History (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4789.96, RRI Fak Fak, 1202-1224, June 7. Relay of the Jakarta news; ends with choral Anthem; // 9680; not // after the Anthem; better than recent receptions; today had lighter CODAR QRM than usual (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. Bye Bye, Dr. Demento http://www.3news.co.nz/Dr-Demento-ends-his-radio-show/tabid/418/articleID/159591/Default.aspx (Clara Listensprechen, June 7, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sad to see his show go; I enjoyed it. I know of a friend of mine who had all his shows on tape through the years. He will be missed on the radio side (Ron Trotto, IL, ibid.) Yes indeed. The news was such that I forgot to post due source credits -- the news came to me via Weird Al Yankovic via Twitter, and Al called it an end of an era. Too true (Clara, ibid.) This is sort of a non-story. For the last few years webcasts have been banned from the dwindling number of real radio stations axually airing his show, so people had to pay to listen via his website. (I don`t begrudge him this; has to make a living somehow, but I`ve done without.) If you were close enough to a station broadcasting the show to hear it on the air, you were very lucky. It seems the present web- only arrangement will continue, so it`s hardly a retirement. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Well, it wasn't official before, and he was still on a scant few stations, apparently. Now it's official, and now he's doing only webcasts (Clara Listensprechen, ibid.) When I was in California I listened to Dr. Demento every Sunday night on 94.7 KMET back in the late 70's. In December 1977 he introduced "My Bologna" a ditty by Weird Al Yankovic, a fellow student at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo! In the mid 1980's KMET changed to New-Age "The WAVE" and I believe that the good Doctor moved to 93.1, if I am not mistaken. I will miss him dearly and there was nothing like listening to Barnes and Barnes "Fish Heads" or "Party in my pants" (Steven Wiseblood, TX, ibid.) Dr. Demento going off the air! http://drdemento.com/ June 6, 2010 A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT... This weekend, the Dr. Demento Show will have its final broadcast on KIYU, KLOO, WLVQ (QFM96), WRKH (The Rocket) and KOZT (The Coast). This was a very painful decision for the Doctor; he really hates to let it go after almost 40 years, but he has come to agree with his manager and his family that it's necessary. The broadcast has been losing money for some time. THE GOOD NEWS -- Dr. Demento intends to continue producing new shows every week for http://www.drdemento.com for the foreseeable future. A new one will be available Saturday morning, June 12, and more new shows will be posted every Saturday thereafter. Also, if you live in or around Amarillo, TX, you're in luck. By special agreement and due to contractual considerations, a version of the internet show will be heard weekly on KACV-FM there, at least through the summer. The Doctor wishes to express his grateful appreciation to everyone who's been listening in Alaska, Oregon, Ohio, Alabama and California, and hopes all of you will give the http://www.drdemento.com broadcast a try. Stay deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemented! (rec.music.dementia via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** ISRAEL. 15785, Galei Tzahal, 2310-2340, June 5, Euro-pop and US pop music. Hebrew announcements. Fair. Stronger on // 6973 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** ITALY. 26000, R. Maria, Italy: 1625 18 May, just making it thru noise first time this year, O=3 (`RC`, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) 1711 18 May OM religious talk in Italian tnx Russ Cummings for tip, SIO 244 (Dave Kenny, England, ibid.) 1722 18 May, VG copy of talk and music, songs, big catch! SIO 454 (Steve Calver, ibid.) They all got the same sporadic-E opening (gh, DXLD) R Maria 26000 booming in today 1200 UT (Mark Davies, June 5, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) These snippets about Radio Maria are interesting, as they show how a propagation threshold is behaving; if/when this reception becomes more consistent, I doubt if Italian CBers will be far behind on 27 MHz. This will show that the Sun truly is starting to wake up, after its recent prolonged Siesta (Ken Fletcher, UK, ibid.) These openings on 26 MHz from Italy to UK are sporadic E, which has nothing to do with the ``Sun waking up``, or even a negative correlation. Es happens primarily every summer, and also brings in VHF DX on the lower TV channels and FM. Distances there are typically 1-2 megameters, sometimes a bit more or less. It`s only about 1 megameter from Milan to London, far too close for the higher F2 layer to be in play, which brings us worldwide propagation on 11 metres at solar max. On rare occasions even now, 10 and 11 metres may bring in further signals due to some disturbance, trans-equatorial propagation, or multiple-hop Es; but I suspect we shall have to wait for solar max to have much chance of hearing R. Maria across the pond (if it still exist). It is well to be conscious of the different propagation modes and their effective distances, not only on VHF but HF. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Oklahoma, ibid.) Just checking bands this pm (7th June) at 1445 on 26000 kHz and Radio Maria is there with a fair to good signal; no qrm and a little qrn but qsb is deep at times. Copying mx and yl/om as before (Steve Calver, Letchworth Garden City. Herts. RX. Perseus SDR. ANT. Longwire in loft, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** JAPAN [non]. MADAGASCAR. 17690, Came across a very strong carrier just at 1214 UT. Madagascar on air here very early, S=9+15...25dB only carrier. Realized regular scheduled NHK French service from 1230-1300 UT, booming in then (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11655, NHKWNRJ June 10 at 1415 with unusual programming, continuous unannounced soft jazz on piano with bass, until finally 1432 Japanese talk. Sackville relay must have been filling during program feed outage. Refund on the way to Tokyo? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. DPR Korea, Radio Voice of Korea was heard in Sofia with a program in English after 18 hours on the tropical frequency of 3560 kHz, as well as on 15245 kHz. Three different programs in the Korean language are reported at 17 hours – one on 6399 and 6251 kHz, the other on 9666 and 11681 kHz and the third on 15245 kHz (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, R. Bulgaria DX June 4 via Yimber Gaviria, DXLD) I would not call 3560 a ``tropical frequency``. It is not in a tropical broadcast band, merely a feeder in what amounts to a fixed band used anywhere outside the tropix. Furthermore, the 75m broadcast band 3900/3950-4000 is often lumped in with tropical bands, but it is not, available in Region 1 and 3 temperate zones too (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH. KBS to shed 20% of jobs by 2014 KBS, the largest broadcaster in South Korea, says it will trim about one fifth of its executives and staff by 2014 in what is seen as the biggest rationalization program in its 84-year history. It will make as many as 1,100 executives and employees redundant, reducing the number of staff to 4,400 from 5,500. Its union is strongly opposed the restructuring plan. Mindful of the opposition, KBS said the planned rationalization program is moderate, considering that some 800 people will retire naturally by 2013. The remaining 300 will be trimmed by merging similar positions or transferring other minor jobs to affiliated companies. “The cuts are at the level of natural downsizing and the role of the public broadcaster will not be harmed by the move,” Ahn Hee-goo, a senior KBS representative, told reporters. “We will not carry out any artificial reduction of manpower.” KBS also said it will decide later this month how much it will raise monthly fees charged to TV viewers. “We are going to report detailed plans in regard to the increase of the fees to the board by the end of the month,” the representative said. The reform plan calls for the reorganization of departments and headquarters into those more focused on customer needs. To that extent, the Audience Relations Centre will be upgraded to the Audience Relations Division, a move the broadcaster says will help embody the value of monthly television fees all viewers pay. They will recruit employees as an integrated broadcasting group - this is currently divided into reporters and producers. “In the long term, we will cut down the cost of labour to less than 30 percent from the current 37 percent,” the official said. KBS sought a report from the Boston Consulting Group to come up with the reform plan. However, the KBS union and the KBS headquarters of the National Union of Mediaworkers (NUMW) both opposed the plan. The union said it would stop any reform plan that had not been discussed with it. “The company’s restructuring plan is totally unacceptable and practically impossible,” a union member said. A group of KBS employees, who quit the old union last year when a strike was voted down, established the station’s branch of the NUMW in December 2009 and it was elevated to the headquarters of the NUMW in January. The new union also raised objections to the management’s plan. “We basically oppose the reorganization and the layoffs are not acceptable at all,” an official for the new KBS union said. (Source: Korea Times) (June 7th, 2010 - 16:57 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) 1 Comment on “KBS to shed 20% of jobs by 2014” 1. #1 Jonathan Marks on Jun 8th, 2010 at 10:56 It is about time. Korea excels in animation, on-line gaming, and is probably the most websavvy on the planet. Then there is KBS which seems to be in a complete time warp, government broadcasting in the style of the 1980’s. They should be asking themselves what they could do with a 40% reduction - at the same time embracing new platforms (Media Network blog comment via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN. On 3930 (jumping to avoid the IRAN jammer in range 3927- 3937 kHz) is Radio Voice of Iranian Kurdistan (no known location of transmitter) and Radio Voice of Kurdistan is not existing on SWs for just 2 years (but was on the air on FM in 2009 during the Es layer in June) or more. There is another station with same name but with different programr on around 4778-48882 [sic] kHz most likely from another country/transmitter. Both stations for now are with UNID locations (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. 15540, R Kuwait, Sulaibiyah, in English at 2049, June 4. US light pop music, M with ID, TC "It's 1150, Kuwait local time," same M into "1150 News" with first several items dealing with Gaza blockade. Strong (Sony ICF-2010 w/ KIWA filters, Mike Bryant, Louisville, KY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT [and non]. 17750, June 3 at 2125, nice ME music, fair but fadey from R. Kuwait Arabic. I still find it remarkable that any ME station would deliberately broadcast to C&W NAm at this hour, but glad they do. See also USA: WJHR When I first heard R. Kuwait in Arabic to C&W NAm on 17550, I figured that if it opens at 2000 as scheduled it would clash with VOA French to Africa due east from Bonaire until 2030; but did not get around to checking this until June 8 at 2006: yes, indeed, roughly equal levels, song in English followed by announcement in French at 2008, mixed with Arabic talk (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 21540, R Kuwait in Arabic with more than fair signal of S=9+15dB at 1200 UT June 6. Co-channel REE Noblejas in Spanish on weekends was very weak UNDERNEATH, and latter hardly readable (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KYRGYZSTAN [non]. GERMANY. 15165, R Liberty in Kyrgyz via Biblis [1200-1230 UT] noted with distorted audio, a little late before transmission end at 1229 UT, avoid to cross check, whether that sound was jamming program by Chinese mainland friends ... \\ 15265 Udornthani, 17730 Iranawila (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS [non]. 11785, Hmong World Christian Radio via WHRI, June 5 at 1320 with lo-fi preaching, later presumed hmyn in traditional style with shades of Beatle riffs, atop but heavy CCI from ChiCom jamming and VOA Chinese via Tinang, Philippines, 250 kW at 332 degrees. WHRI is 100 kW due NW from Furman, intended primarily for all the Hmong in Hminnesota. Altho conditions from E Asia vary a lot, on a good morning those signals are in heavy competition with WHRI even in CNAm. I wonder why HWCR, Saturdays 1300-1330, puts up good money for this terrible frequency which could easily be changed to a clear one. It used to be 500 kW, which helped, but too expensive. Stayed on past 1330 with a preacher in English. BTW, Aoki still hasn`t caught up with the A-10 scheduling for HWCR, still showing B-09`s timing of 1500-1530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA. 4024.985, June 3, 2020, Star Radio rather weak with talk. Sign off 2109. According to their website the are testing on the Short Wave from 5 to 9 in the morning and 6-9 in the evening (UT). (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4025, another check for Star Radio, June 4 at 0609. Can detect a very weak carrier but still too much summer QRN. Again I can tell it is ever so slightly lower from its frequency than Cuba is from 5025, and Thomas Nilsson, Sweden confirms this by measuring Star 15 Hz low on 4024.985 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HI, Glenn, love these logs! I tried out 4025 kHz last night around the 0600-0700 hour, and sure enough, a pretty good carrier presented itself on SSB, probably corresponding to Star Radio, Liberia. Here in California I am not expecting to be able to actually hear this station but once in a blue moon, so I would welcome any & all reports of the activity and audibility of this station. Thanks! (Bruce Jensen, California, June 7 ptsw yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) 4025, Star Radio. June, 04 0713-0740 two male in English discussion outside (heard some reverb) “community... development... Liberia... human rights”, 0732 music as a bridge, studio male “Star Radio broadcast”; degrading, 25432. June, 05 0705-0720 studio male “Liberia”, outside English discussion by male and female, studio female “joining party... organization of development... Star Radio... Monrovia... Liberia”. Some storm static, 25333, 73's (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4025, Star Radio, same story as before with very weak carrier detectable some 15 Hz on the lo side, but far too much T-storm QRN, June 5 at 0545. I had hoped for an improvement in the S/N ratio as the nearest storms were in northern Missouri, 300-400 miles away. I`ve always wondered why these low SW frequencies are preferred for the tropix, where there should be even worse T-storm noise, at least during the rainy season; or is there? (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4025, Star R. 0555-0602. Although the signal strength was quite sufficient, the modulation was extremely low. Could just barely make out some music and what sounded like a M announcer very briefly at 0601 between songs. If the modulation stays the same, there's no hope for this one until the QRN levels lower, probably in Fall. Also, totally wipes out any chance of hearing Laser Hot Hits except later in the morning late in the year. (5 June) (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) Agree Star needs to modulate. No match for the summer storm noise here so far. As previously reported in DX Listening Digest, LHH already moved to 4015 and then to 3940. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Yes, Star R. seems tough here, so I can imagine how difficult it would be out in the midwest. Thanks for the note about LHH moving. They're one of the barometer stations I use to gauge propagation from Europe (for Pirates). I'll admit I don't keep watch of the DX news as closely as I should these days. Just too many other things to take care of. 73 (Dave Valko, ibid.) 4025, 05/Jun 1958, Star Radio Liberia, *presumed*, in English (identified). Pop music. At 2100 UT OM talks, then mory music. At 2103 UT male talks, maybe the ID, but the modulation is still very low compared carrier signal. Went off the air the 2107 UT. 73 and good listening (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana Bahia 12 14´S 38 58´W Brasil, Degen 1103, Dipole antenna, 19 meters - east/west - Balun 4:1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4025, Star Radio, 2009, tentative; carrier noted here in sideband, and an occasional "whisper" of talk by a man. Don't know who else would be here but this one is a LONG WAY from a positive ID. June 5 (David Sharp, NSW Australia. NRD-535D, FT-950, R8, ICF-2010, ICF-SW7600GR etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4025 Star R, site? (Monrovia?), 2048-2106, 05 Jun'10, Vernacular, talks, news in English at 2101; gone at recheck 2115; 44343, adjacent RTTY QRM. Noted s/off at 2108 on 06 Jun'10. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4024.99, Star Radio, 0618-0640, June 6, presumed. Very weak with talk. Too weak to even ID the language. English listed (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 4025-, carrier slightly on the lo side detectable June 7 at 0615, VP and bits of audio too presumably from Star Radio, but not enough signal and modulation vs the storm noise level, this time from northern Kansas which hit us 5 hours later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4025, Star Radio. June 07, 2053-2102 tribal music, male in English talks, 2102 abrupt s/off. 25422 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4025, could not even detect a carrier from Star Radio, June 8 at 0558, tho T-storm noise was no worse than usual. 4025-, another check for Star Radio, June 8 at 0610, carrier just barely audible and as usual slightly on low side compared to Cuba 5025. Slightly stronger at 0628 allowed some modulation to be JBA; local sunrise enhancement effect? (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4025-, Star Radio carrier, presumed, June 10 at 0615, detectable vs QRM and as usual slightly low compared to Cuba 5025 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 7105 (USB + carrier mode), RTV Malagasy, June 9. Is this something new? Do not recall them being here in USB before or heard with such a good signal via long path! 1301: variety of music (ballads, pop, Hi-Li, etc.); 1325: ID and sounded like choral National Anthem; 1332-1345 talking (Malagasy?); // 6134.9v (poor) and 5010 (poor in USB + carrier mode). Not very often I can clearly hear all three! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 5030, RTM Kuching-Stapok, Sarawak, 1455, May 29, male/female singers with strong drum backing, ID as “Radio Malaysia” at 1500 and female speaker with news in Bahasa Malaysia, fading in. 6049.64, RTM, Kajang, Kuala Lumpur, heard at 1418, May 29, female speaker, could have been Bahasa Malaysia, web addresses ending in ‘MY’, high-pitch flute instrument accompanying male singer, no IDs heard, fading in (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, DSWCI DX Window June 2 via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK. 7270.47, Wai FM via RTM, 1351, June 9. In vernacular; 1400-1405: news which started and ended with the usual “Limbang” jingle; followed by DJ with pop songs. Has been over a year since this was last off frequency and it certainly helps getting away from PBS Nei Menggu on 7270.0 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 5995, RTV Malienne Bamako, 0635, June 4, Arabic. Kor'an chanting; fair with splash via huge 5985-Okeechobee (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 4845, R. Mauritanie, Nouakchott, 0921-0940, 05 Jun'10, Arabic, talks; 25442. QSY 7245 shortly after the end of observation. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 4800, XERTA, Radio Transcontinental seems silent (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, June 4, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro Dallas Lankford modified, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 6045, still no XEXQ-OC carrier even, June 4 at 1244. It might have faded out now a sesquihour after Enid sunrise, but Radio Mil was still audible on 6010 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Still missing June 10 ** MEXICO. 6010, Radio Mil, México D. F., 0740-0755, 06-06, canciones latinoamericanas, a las 0742 canción identificativa: "Vive México en Radio Mil". Muy débil. 13321. (Méndez) 6104.8, XEQM, RASA, Mérida, 0514-0600, 10-06, canciones latinoamericanas, locutor hablando con oyentes, español, locutora: "En apoyo del desarrollo mexicano", anuncios, locutor: "Este programa musical", "Cero horas y cuarenta y nueve minutos, bienvenido", "Saludos a nuestros oyentes de Valladolid", "La más grande". A las 0559 eclipsada por la BBC en la misma frecuencia. 24322. (Méndez) 6185, XEPPM, Radio Educación, México D. F., 0609-0720, 10-06, música clásica, identificación 0703: "XEPPM, Radio Educación, 1060 de amplitud modulada, transmitiendo desde la Ciudad de México con 100.000 watts de potencia, y en onda corta, 6185 kHz, banda internacional de 49 metros, Radio Educación, 85 años", "Radio Educación, cultura y entretenimiento para todos los públicos", "Dos de la mañana con 4 minutos" (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) XEQM a las 1215 UT con noticiero. Señal baja e interferencia de RHC. Ahora XEMQ en 810 kHz transmitiendo señal de XEW. Envío archivos de audio. http://rapidshare.com/files/397443737/SW6105KHZ-10JUN2010-1215UT.WAV.html Atte: (Ing. Civ. Israel González Ahumada, M.I., DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. [Re 10-22] Yesterday's TV from Mexico --- Seems that Glen[n] Hauser and I saw a couple of the same Mexican stations yesterday. At 1715 edt on ch 3 for about 30-45 secs)the channel was a mess) video of a woman behind a desk (no audio) with a TV 3 logo in the UR (almost exactly like what's seen in Danny's Mexican logos) XHP Puebla - the logo is exactly the same, 2052 miles. Also seen at 1913 edt on ch 6, Azteca 13 net logo UR (two bars, three dots), many possibilities. Antenna both times pointed towards Louisiana. At 1824 edt on chs 3 & 6 animation with what looked like penguins/foxes?? in space suits - no logos seen. Spent most of yesterday on FM as the TV looked like pre transition analog E-skip, got lucky with XHP. Crazy to see chs 2-6 three or more deep with stations 1600+ miles. I wish I understood Spanish, and now after I've mastered Canadian, they'll be gone in a year or so—HI (Jim Pizzi, NY, June 3, WTFDA via DXLD) '3-2-1- Penguins!', a popular cartoon series made by Big Idea Productions of Lombard, Illinois. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_910owLRg4 (Curtis Sadowski, IL, ibid.) The toons I saw had fishbowl type helmets and the characters looked like foxes/pointy nosed dogs and maybe penguins and othe animal types. I guess I'll have learn Spanish AND watch cartoons -- who knew DXing would get so difficult. Th-th-th-th-thats all folks (Jim Pizzi, ibid.) ** MEXICO. June 4 was a dry day for TVDX, but weak southward signals in Spanish from Mexico showing sporadically the morning of June 5 1430-1620+ UT, mainly on channel 2, sometimes higher, so there is hope. You`d never know it from DX Sherlock but the Es I`m getting starting 1855 UT Monday June 7 is southward from Mexico up to ch 3. 1905 on 2, plug ``4TV, Televisión de la Ciudad`` from Televisa. According to W9WI.com the only 2 relaying XHTV (part of the time, XHGC-5 too), is XEFE in Nuevo Laredo. [but see below] 1908 on 2, TVT bug in UR, seVale program name bug in LR, with the V exaggerated like a check mark, gameshow with adult people in jumpsuits leapfrogging, etc. Seems one team is red and the other blue. TVT = Televisión Tapatía, XEWO-TV Guadlajara, which I have been getting for nearly 50 years since starting to TV DX in Enid in 1961y. Maybe I even got it in OKC before that. 1915 on 2, mixing with toons no doubt from net-5. 1921 on 3, promo MegaCine 5; then among all the bugs I made out in the LL the ``CN`` Cartoon Network one as in the US. 1923 on 2, net-5 bug in UR, toon featuring a Woody Woodpecker clone. 1925 on 2, TVT promo, included full-screen TVT italic-caps logo with the Ts connected to the V, on orange background for a split-second. Hope I have it on tape. 1928 on 2, video from seVale gameshow, audio from toon. 1929 on 4, brief fade-in with commercial grafik, looks like Lujan. 1934 on 2, more TVT promos during government PSAs. 1952 on 2, fade-in with very loud audio, news from Televisa. Suspect some Mexicans are still running 2:1 video:audio power ratio, while US analogs long ago reduced to 5:1 or even 10:1. [see below] 2000 UT opening just about gone, it seemed, but: 2010 on 2, political talk show, candidate being interviewed, says at bottom, ``elecciones 2010, el 4 de julio``. Note: I am just reporting what I am able to log, in case the info is helpful to others; and not pulling my hair over how difficult it is to get definite local IDs from Mexico. Nor do I care about racking up stations-logged totals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, that could have been a variety of stations. Many Televisa independents carry programs from XHTV-4 (4TV), but they cover the 4TV logo upper right with their own logos. Some of those promos for XHTV don't get taken out by the local stations. In fact, XHY-2 Merida does not even cover the the 4TV logo upper right (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, Mexico TV DX Tips http://www.tvdxtips.com DX LISTENING DIGEST) XEJ-5 Juárez also in. Their audio gets out a heck of a lot better than their video (Jeff Kadet, IL, WTFDA via DXLD) A bit of TVDX later in the evening June 9, UT June 10: at 0230 ch 3 from west, documentary? At times heavy CCI from almost same offset, 3 or so large bars. Likely scenario: XHBC Mexicali vs XHQ Culiacán, both zero offset per W9WI.com. The offset designers obviously did not take into account the needs of DX viewers in OK. At 0240 on channel 2, brief fade in with Azteca-7 net logo, and here the only likely is XHENT, Ensenada BCN, 50 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MEXICO TV DX COMMENT Has anybody on this list besides Jeff Kadet, Jeff Kruszka, Dave Pomeroy, Matt Sittel, Fritze, and a few others ever noticed that DXers who receive a lot of TV DX from Mexico keep IDing the same few low- band stations? (We receive many stations, yet ID few.) Have you noticed that most of the IDs come from independent stations that often run a unique logo in a corner of a screen (usually UR)? Have you noticed that XHCH-2, XHIT-4, and XHFI-5 Chihuahua are often IDed by local commercials? Unfortunately, the Chihuahua network relayers are rare among Mexico network relayers. They run more local ads than almost any other Mexico network relayers I've ever received. Their ads are usually easier to read than the few-second, small text IDs. Es from Mexico has always dominated Es here, with the channels often packed with multiple unIDing stations. Mexico is a very large country compared to Central America and Caribbean countries, so there are many, many network relayers. Does anybody remember that Jeff Kadet and I use a separate TV for each Es channel? That has been one of the keys to my success with Mexico TV. If you report TV DX from Mexico, I will give my honest opinion. I'm sorry if the truth offends anyone here. This is just a reminder, and not a deliberate attempt to offend anyone. These are just the facts. BTW, I've been posting Mexico tips with pictures this year on the Forums, but they get lost in the new posts. Maybe we need a special section on the Forums for TV DX ID tips (not just for Mexico), and that will be a place for everybody to share and find tips (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, June 7, Mexico TV DX Tips http://www.tvdxtips.com wtfda via DXLD ** MEXICO. XHRIO - No Sound? Hey all: I've got XHRIO-2 here in Virginia really clear with color and very little static, but the sound seems silent (Trip Ericson, 1950 UT 8 June, http://www.rabbitears.info WTFDA via DXLD) Maybe there was some on their SAP, if any, in one language or another? This is the Fox affiliate for the RGV (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. 12085, Voice of Mongolia, Ulan Bator, 1008-1014, 09-06, programa en mandarín, locutora, comentarios. 24432 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) V. Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 12085, 0859z (IS) through 0930z in Japanese and at various times the next 1.5 hours. SINPO = 13221, improving to 25332. The early part of this full 2-hour block starts off weak, but by the 1-hour mark it is strong enough to write a fair reception report. Unfortunately, that puts it in the cusp of the Mongolian- Mandarin language block, neither of which provides an especially easy translation. After the 1.5 hour mark it switches to English, but not before it briefly goes off the air to reorient the antenna to a near N-S pattern, thereby negating the influenced of improved propagation path. Oh, well - there's always September (Bruce Jensen, (California, USA), June 7, ptsw yg via DXLD) ** MOROCCO. 595 (1 kHz off channel, again!) RTM "A", Oujda, 1335-..., 07 Jun'10, Arabic, talks; 33551, QRM de PORTUGAL. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 5770, Defence Forces BC, Taunggyi, 1514, May 29, slow talk in vernacular, at 1524 the audio level dropped sharply and by 1530 the carrier was gone. 5985.8, Myanma R, Yangon, 1432, May 29, talk in vernacular with lilting accent, signal fading in, later switched into English at 1530, good peaks (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, DSWCI DX Window June 2 via DXLD) Myanma Radio in the Burmese language heard in Sofia on 7200 from 2325 to 0026 after it had been for two months on 7186. With another program Myanma Radio was received after 0005 on 5986 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, R. Bulgaria DX June 4 via Yimber Gaviria, DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS. Hello from Hilversum, Well, the Dutch election campaign is finally over, the voters have had their say, and we're now set for weeks of haggling to see which political parties will form the next coalition government in the Netherlands. Of course, the main issue is how to deal with the economy, but the larger-than-expected number of votes for the right-wing Freedom Party (PVV) has also become a major issue, and it's not clear yet whether the PVV will be invited to help form a coalition. Apart from his extreme views on immigration and Islam, its leader Geert Wilders is on record as calling for the abolition of Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Other parties also want to make cuts in public broadcasting, but the PVV is only the party that has gone as far as calling for RNW to disappear. Needless to say, we'll be following the coalition negotiations closely on our website and in our broadcasts. I should stress that the the parties which form the coalition are going to have to make compromises, so even if that includes the PVV it doesn't necessarily mean that we're about to disappear (Andy Sennitt, Media Network newsletter June 10 via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS. RNW`s listener research --- I sure am tired of hearing Radio Netherlands say they discontinued SW to North America after soliciting feedback from listeners and getting few responses. I recall the announcements. They were general and something to the effect of "we'd like to know how and when you're listening to us." How many times every day do we hear broadcasters ask us to contact them for comments about their programs and reception? If I sent an e-mail or mailed a letter every time an international broadcaster asked for feedback, I wouldn't have time for anything else. (And certainly no time to "go to our Web site," "comment on this story," etc etc.) If Radio Netherlands had made it clear that this meager, indistinct request for information about listener habits was an important survey that would determine the fate of shortwave broadcasting to North America, I'm sure more people would have responded. But, no, it was easier for RN to make a few vague program announcements, act upon it as if it was valid research and then make an abrupt decision a few weeks later. Surely, before placing even a single "nail in the coffin," a broadcaster ought to do more to check for signs of life than simply mumbling "you still alive?" for a few moments before sealing the box forever. How often must I write RNW to ensure they remain available on free-to- air satellite in North America? Must I write daily, weekly, monthly? Once for each different broadcast time? Once for each weekly show? Different correspondence for listening via WRN? Must I write each time I record a program and give it to a friend? I hope someone can clarify before any other major decisions about distribution are made (Mike Cooper, GA, Jun 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST via dxldyg) ** NETHERLANDS. SWITCH ERROR IN RADIO NETHERLANDS STUDIO In the 80's and 90's I frequently visited the recording of the sunday programmes Happy Station and La estacion de la allegia presented by Tom Meijer. Through this programmes, I got a lot of friends everywhere in the world, which nowadays are still my friends. On Sundays the programmes were transmitted. If I heard an interesting programme which I considered worthy to archive, before the next transmission i drove to the Flevo transmittersite to record the program with a mobile recorder and a shortwave receiver in the backseat of my car. On the parking of the site I recorded the program in the best possible quality without any fading. On 10/04/1987 at 2026 utc after a recording session i was playing around with the dial of my receiver I came across a very strong signal on a frequency that was not normally used in the summerscheme of Radio Netherlands. (9850 kHz, 31 meters) I started recording this transmission out of curiosity. At 2027 UTC the transmission started with the intervalsignal followed by a frequency announcement in Dutch. Strange however after the time signal a transmission in Indonesian started. That week I contacted the RN frequency bureau, to tell them my findings. They told me that I had quite a special recording because that day there was a satellite outing in the connection to their Madagascar Transmittersite. Therefore they used the reserve transmitter (100 kW) with a very narrow beam directed to Madagascar to supply them with the necessary programs. The engineer however made a mistake on the switchconsole in the continuity center. As a result the frequency announcement for the dutch transmission which was running at the same time for the target area as Caraibic, North and South America and Europe was transmitted. You can download The fragment which is 7:47 mins long from Mediafire Name of the file : RNW-04101987-9850kHz-2030UTC.mp3 Link : http://www.mediafire.com/?043u0iym1ym Enjoy, Regards, (Jan Oosterveen, June 9, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. 6250, NHKWNRJ in Spanish with mailbag, UT Sunday June 6 at 0526; R5 = fully readable on fair signal, but cut off abruptly at 0527*. That`s because this is the leapfrog mixing product of Bonaire NHK relay on 6080 over RNW Dutch on 6165, and that fulcrum is finished at 0527 while 6080 is not. No sign of Equatorial Guinea on 6250 before or after 0527. It usually does not cut on until after 0530, often not at all. A recent report from Europe claimed EqG before 0530, but I think this spur is capable of being heard there too and urge everyone everywhere to listen to 6250 long enough to tell whether it`s Radio Japón in the 0500-0527 period. A quick comparison with 6080 should answer the question. 9715, RNW Spanish via Bonaire, Sunday June 6 at 1213 amid Cartas a RN mailbag show, still not hosted by our erstwhile ex-colleague Jaime Báguena, who I hear is on medical leave; we wish him the best. Interviewing a Brazilian, Leonidas from Evangelista, MG, attempting to speak Spanish but with a heavy Portuguese admixture, who anyhow has been an RN listener for a bidecade. I think it would be better just to speak pure Portuguese on his side and let the listeners figure it out or learn a bit of it. E for effort anyway; my impression is that Spanish speakers are far less willing to attempt Portuguese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGER. 9705, La Voix du Sahel, Niamey, 1148-1220, 07 Jun'10, vernacular, African songs, talks; 15431. The propagation conditions must have been quite adverse, too tiny signal, and I bet they're on reduced power, but then the usually strong Mali 9635 was also too bad. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 756, R. Oyo (presumed), Ibadan, 2112-2124, 06 Jun'10, vernacular, talks, tribal tunes; 44433, QRM de PORTUGAL, viz. the tiny Antena 1 transmmitter at Lamego 1 kW. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 6089.9, R. Nigeria, Kaduna, 2228-, 04 Jun'10, vernacular, talks; 54433, noisy carrier, adjacent QRM. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 9690, 05/Jun 0849, Voice of Nigeria, in Hausa. Local music and at 0850 UT male talks which seems to play a recording of an interview outside. At 0852 UT local music. 0855 two men take turns to speak, always with short local music. At 0859 female talks in English. Weak signal until 0903 UT. Returning to the frequency at 0934 female and male talks with moderate signal (Jorge Freitas, Feira da Santana, Bahia, Brasil, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7255, fair signal and OSOB (meaning 7200-7300 41m) at 2152 June 6, in African language; 2254 still in an African language, but a few other signals starting to show, making it the SSOB. Per Aoki, at 21-22 V of Nigeria is in Fulfulde, 22-23 Hausa, from the old Ikorodu site. No one seems to know for sure to what extent the new site at Abuja is in use by now, but we never see more than one frequency reported at any one time. Will Ikorodu be closed down completely or has it already been? BTW, VON is not in HFCC, another thing they need to get in order to reduce the risk of collisions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R Nigeria [sic], 15120 at 1540 with extensive news. Fantastic signal- sounds local. 4 June (Liz Cameron, MI, visiting Port Huron just north of the Detroit suburbs, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Info about confirmation Nigeria --- Dear Glenn, during those days with my radio Sangean ATS 909 I listen to the first time the emissions in English spoken of Radio Nigeria, so with this one I'll want ask you if you know this radio station confirm regularly the reception reports and if I must send him dispatch cost. Hoping in your news, I say good bye (GABRIELLI, Dario, ITALY, June 8, eMail: dario_gabrielli @ libero.it DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dario, I really don`t know about this. You could search the DXLD archive to see if anything has been reported. Are you aware of the QSL Information Pages? Lots of info there, but may not be up to date. http://www.schoechi.de/qip.html 73, (Glenn to Dario, via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA [and non]. 99.9, the GCN pirate we tracked down in Enid has been heard whenever checked except for one previous brief absence, but it`s gone again the afternoon of June 4, checked around 2010 UT and later during that hour. Still missing at 0125 UT June 5. 99.9, GCN pirate in Enid still missing June 5 at 0530, 1330, 1600 UT chex. They had picked a good frequency to minimize the risk of interference complaints, as it`s used by no real OK station. Altho locally on one of my radios, DX-398, the RDS says I am getting an image on 99.9 from local KOFM 103.1. GCN might have moved and I have not searched the entire band for it elsewhere. That`s the nice thing about piracy; no paperwork to change frequencies. Or if busted, it`ll be a while before the FCC publicizes a NAL, but if FCC-watchers see one concerning Enid, let us know. GCN Enid pirate on 99.9 still missing, I think, evening of June 5, but I am hearing some other signals, as area tropo enhancement is up with the humidity. Mainly ``Country 99.9 KTCS`` which fancies itself an OK station, 0127 UT June 6 talking about some shindig in Sallisaw, but its COL is nearby Fort Smith AR. FCC FM Query tigermaps are not funxioning when I need them, but longitude of its site 94-40-50 indicates it is in fact an Oklahoma station, about 192 miles distant. Occasionally KLUR Wichita Falls TX, 177 miles, would overtake it thru nondirexional vertical caradio antenna. Just to be sure these stations were not masking the local low-power pirate, I drove by the site again and was still hearing them, nothing from GCN. The antenna I photographed is still up pointing south. While I was on the way I tuned thru the entire FM band and did not find GCN anywhere else. 99.9, the GCN pirate in Enid is back after missing a few days, afternoon of June 7 in various chex around 2030-2130 UT with same talkshow YL as when I first heard it. She had visited Australia and admitted to ignorance of timezones by waking up her family back in the USA with phonecalls in our nightmiddle. Usual spotty signal driving around Enid, including being totally wiped out by stoplite noise downtown. It also has problems with the real AR and TX stations near the borders I was hearing in its absence, so my previous remark about choosing a good frequency, clear in OK is inoperative. Altho it might be hard to find anything better in our overloaded and cluttered FM band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. 15355, R Oman, 6-8 0240, Arabic talk, pop mx, instl mx on stringed instrument, chorus, ID, anmts, groovy guitars, chimes, EG ID, nx but much weaker by then (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 5960, Radio Fly (tentative), 1102-1205+ June 3. MoR vocals, M in English who spoke only twice briefly between 1102 and 1130, but more often after that. Could tell it was English but really could not make out very much, and did not hear an ID. Fair at best and // 3915, which was generally poor. Both frequencies peaked around 1145 UT. 3915 faded quickly after 1200 but 5960 hung around until at least 1230, per spot checks, although much weaker by then. Noted again on 4 June but not as well and could not make much out, although format seemed to be the same as on the 3rd (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 60-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 5960, R. Fly (presumed) 1011-1022, nothing but some sort of live sporting event. M doing the announcing, sometimes excitedly, along with crowd noise. Faded really quickly by 1022. Could easily have copied it, but I have nasty local QRN exactly on top. Wasn't // to Australia. (4 June) (Dave Valko, PA, HCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) Meaning R. Australia, I assume; there have been reports that some of the sports on Fly are relays of 2GB in Sydney (gh, DXLD) Radio Fly sometimes performs live broadcasting of the rugby at about 0900 UT. This program may be Radio 2GB-Sydney (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nice reception this morning of Radio Fly, 5960. Sports commentary underway at 1015, into a tune by Anne Murray at 1030. 4 June (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5960, Radio Fly (tentative), June 4. Weaker signal than yesterday. 1304-1329 heard with non-stop music (island songs and pop songs in English), but today had a few 1-2 minute gaps between songs during which I could make out some faint Chinese, from assume PBS Xinjiang. From 1329 to 1343 only had open carrier and could not detect any music audio; 1343 again non-stop music till 1359 short announcement and back to music (sounded like some C&W songs in English). Today unable to hear them on 3915 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5960, R. Fly (presumed), music program today at 0955 check. Not as strong as yesterday and way too much QRN. Got a few e-mails saying the sports event I heard yesterday was an Australian Rugby match between the Tigers and the Bulldogs (Tnx to Nigel Pimblett, Dan Sheedy, and Ron Howard). (5 June) 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) 5960, Radio Fly, 1301-1406, June 5. Much better reception today; both PBS Xinjiang (mostly talking in Chinese) and Radio Fly took turns dominating here and mixing together; non-stop music; mostly pop songs in English (Air Supply with “I’m All Out of Love”, etc.); no break at BoH; 1402-1404 announcers; back to non-stop music. Had no problem today positively confirming that this is // 3915. Seems this one hour window has the best reception for me, as it is just after my local sunrise at 1249. Found reception was better on my E5, rather than on the E1 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5960, Radio Fly 1129-1215+ June 7. Usual format of vocal music, M announcer; actually heard a couple of ID's. Best reception so far of this new station but still could not make out much of what was said. A short announcement by the M at 1201 was followed immediately by one by a YL. More music followed, with no more announcements heard after that. Deteriorated after 1200, although could still detect it at 1230 and later (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 60- foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 5960, Radio Fly, 1304-1406, June 7. Non-stop music (island songs, Steve Perry with “Oh Sherrie”, Rod Stewart with “This Old Heart of Mine”; instrumental “Take It Easy”, etc.); 1358 into English with what seemed to be local PSA (at 00:48 on audio attachment mentions: “if you have photographs of event”); mostly poor; // 3915 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Fly Radio, 5960, various times 0600-1100z. SINPO = 13221. Always a bridesmaid but never a bride, Fly R. gave a notable carrier every time I sampled the frequency, but only occasionally did I hear the faintest hint of audio. Everyone is hearing this thing, so what I am I doing wrong? QRM from stations adjacent came and went, never a big problem. Noise was bad, as is usually the case (Bruce Jensen, (California, USA), June 7, ptsw yg via DXLD) Radio Fly, a community radio station in Kiunga and Tabubil in Western province, operating earlier on FM, has started now from Kiunga on 3915 and 5960 kHz shortwave with 1 kW. Website: http://www.oktedi.com/community-and-environment/community/radio-fly-and-otv (WRTH Domestic Update 4 June via DXLD) ** PERU. 3329.53, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco, 0930 to 0950 most days, IF notch for CHU, music and YL. 0046 on 25 May [Wilkner] 3329.67, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco, 0950 to 1020 yl and om alternating, good signal, 7 June 4746.94, Radio Huanta 2000, Huanta, Ayacucho 1003 sign on 27 May 4774.9, Radio Tarma. Tarma on at 0730 while looking for 4025 Liberia. 2 June. [Wilkner] 4789.93, Radio Visión, Chiclayo, usually on, but off 24-26 May, Strong but slightly distorted signal [Wilkner] 4824.232, La Voz de la Selva, Iquitos, 0953 noted 27 May, 0045 on 25 May [Wilkner] 4950, Radio Madre de Dios, 1030 to 1040 on 25 May. [Wilkner] 5039.21, Radio Libertad Junin, 1055 with RHC off, also noted when RHC silent 1055 to 1120, no 0000 logs, 1107 on 21 May. [Wilkner] 5120.461, Ondas del Suroriente, Quillabamba 2345 on 24 May (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, June 4, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro Dallas Lankford modified, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Being heard by several DXers in Florida ~ 2340 June 5 to 0005 June 6 4774.9, Radio Tarma, Tarma 4824.49, La Voz de la Selva, Iquitos 4835.10, [tentative], Radio Marañón, Jaen 5485.45, Peru- [no details] 6019.65, Radio Victoria, Lima 73s (Bob Wilkner, FL, 0010 UT June 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4746.938, Huanta Dos Mil, 1120, Spanish, very good with mensajes by man, brief music bridge and into ad string. June 5 4824.34, La Voz de la Selva, Spanish, 1204, news (or similar) by man, many mentions of "Iquitos" but fading rapidly. June 9 4939.965, R. San Antonio, 1137, Spanish, very strong, with mensajes by man, several mentions of 'Lima," music bridge at 1142 then time check, "Son las siete menos dieciocho minutos." June 9 4954.97, R. Cultural Amauta, 1129, Spanish, presumed with huaynos and soft Spanish ballads, weaker than Huanta 2000. June 5 5039.185, Radio Libertad, 1137, excited man with local music, brief talk by a woman (sounded like a canned announcement), best in LSB to escape het, high side. "El Condor Pasa" used often as music bridge. June 5 5120.41, Ondas del Suroriente, 1151, Spanish, presumed with nice huaynos with mention of "Quillabamba" by upbeat man. June 9 5921.24, UnID, possibly Radio Bethel? 1144, per World of Radio 1513, weak with Spanish talk but only about 30% readable. Best in LSB to escape 5925 slop. June 5 9720.03, R. Victoria, 0640, Spanish, sermon by soft-spoken man, parallel to 6019.26. June 6 (David Sharp, NSW Australia. NRD-535D, FT- 950, R8, ICF-2010, ICF-SW7600GR etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. (?), R. Los Andes *OR* R. Virgen de la Alta, 5030, 1035- 1040z, SINPO = 22432. Heard what sounded like a Spanish language song followed by talk by a female host, who then unexpectedly went into a chant in a language that did *not* sound like Spanish. Only other possible in that time slot is Malaysia RTM Sarawak in Malay, and it clearly did not sounds like *that*, so - this gets a tentative from me. R. Rebelde 5025, as usual, rains on its parade a bit. Will give this some more time as time permits; the signal was rather good for what is likely to be a 5 kW station (Bruce Jensen, (California, USA), June 7, ptsw yg via DXLD) ** PERU. 3329.4, ONDAS DEL HUALLAGA. Huánuco, Perú. 0130-0220* junio 6. Programa ``La vida es bella``. Anuncios de ONPE, Policía Nacional del Perú, Sombreros La Pastorita. Luego de las 0200 pgm: ``Por las rutas del recuerdo`` con cierre a las 0220 : ``amigos, amigas en este punto del tiempo detenemos nuestra transmisión al final de otra jornada de trabajo; esperamos que nuestros programas hayan sido de vuestro completo agrado. En nuestras labores hacemos una pausa para volver dentro de algunas horas cuando el Sol anuncie otro día --- recuesta ahora tu cabeza en la almohada azul de la noche y entrégate al hermoso mundo de los sueños. Radio Ondas del Huallaga, les dice hasta luego``. No hubo Himno Nacional. 4747, RADIO HUANTA 2000. Huanta, Perú. 1105-1110 junio 7. Jingle: ``...ahora en FM estéreo es tu Radio Huanta, Huanta 2000, una experiencia diferente, en Huanta 2000; si tu quieres escuchar música del corazón, con música romántica te entrega mucho amor, es tu Radio Huanta, Huanta 2000``. 4940, RADIO SAN ANTONIO. Villa Atalaya, Perú. 2245-2310 junio 5. Micro programa: ``El pan nuestro de cada día``. ID: "...Radio San Antonio, una radio cultural, misionera y educativa en los 95.5 FM; en la onda corta 49-40... Radio San Antonio, una radio diferente..." música balada. 4950, RADIO MADRE DE DIOS. Puerto Maldonado, Perú. 0130-0155* junio 7. Larga tanda de anuncios comerciales, Comercial Ucayali, Caja municipal de Arequipa, Móviles Claro, Caja Tacna. ``anuncie en Radio Madre de Dios --- asegure sus ventas e incremente sus negocios``. Con cierre a las 0155 anunciando apertura a las 1030 UT. 5921.3, BETHEL RADIO. Arequipa, Perú. Notada con cierre aprox. 0200 y apertura a las 1130 UT. Escuchada en varios horarios pero siempre presentado largas predicaciones y sermones en vivo; la única identificación que escuché fue ``Bethel Television``. Buen DX (RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ R., Bogotá, Colombia, http://dxdesdecolombia.blogspot.com/ SONY ICF 2010 Y Dipolo de 10 metros, playdx yg via DXLD) 5921.23, R. Bethel, Arequipa with religious programing every night in May + early June around 0000-0100 UT (except of Sat/Sun night of 30/31 May). Ex 5949. Thanks to Henrik Klemetz who pointed out the frequency change. Heard already on 5 May at 0025 (Karel Honzik, CZECHIA, HCDX via DXLD) ** PERU. 6019.3, Radio Victoria, Lima, 0605-0630, 10-06, locutor, español, "La Voz de la Liberación", locutora, anuncio actos de la Iglesia Pentecostal Dios es Amor", "Ingresen sus donativos en la cuenta ... del Banco de Crédito de Perú". 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Regarding postal address for Radio Victoria, Peru (typically 6020v kHz) --- Just returned to me as "undeliverable-unknown", was a letter, originally sent to one of the traditional postal addresses for R. Victoria in Peru: Sr. Enrique Silvio Ramos Radio Victoria Jr. Reynel 320 Mirones Bajo Lima 1, Perú This matches the address in the 2009 Passport to WBR and also various sources on the Web. I do not have the current WRTVH address. Another address for RV I used earlier actually got it to its parent Pentecostal Church: Iglesia Pentecostal Dios es Amor Av. Arica 248 Brena Lima 05 Perú ...but the person at the latter address, while kindly responding by e- mail, did not appear to understand about verifying reception reports, merely thanking me for listening to R. Victoria and making me one of their "Friends." Just so you know :-/ (Bruce Jensen, California, USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Av. Arica 248, Breña, Lima (WRTH 2010 via DXLD) 6019.25, Radio Victoria, 0910-0920 June 6, Noted steady music at tune in. At 0914 Spanish language religious comments from a male who is probably David Miranda, identified by his style. Signal best heard in LSB due to a het caused by a station on 6020 (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, WinRadio G305e/pd, 26.37N 081.05W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Have not logged the third harmonic of R. Victoria, 6019.3, for quite some time altho I often look for it in my morning scans around 1230- 1430, when I used to hear it. So June 8 I check at 1927 instead and there it is on 18057.9, preacher in Spanish yelling a semi-dozen times of day, probably when he is scheduled on station. Just barely audible and could not make out much else vs noise level until 1942 tune-out. But previously identified, on unique frequency there is no doubt this is what it was (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. R. Pilipinas Overseas, 11730, QSL card signed by Ric G. Lorenzo (Audience Relations), sticker, letter and programme schedule received in 40 days. Rp was 2 IRCs (Sergej Rogov, London N4, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** POLAND [non]. 11675, once again I run across PRES English to Europe with bits too surviving USward, on a Friday, one day too late for Multi-Touch. June 4 at 1232, YL with sports report, pause for music break, 1240 more about a boxer who wants spiritual support. Yeah, right, theirs is a violent god. Beat their brains out to glorify the Lord on your side (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL [and non]. 11630, new frequency [sic] for RDPI to S America M-F at 23-02 Tue-Sat, ex-12020, VG with no QRM at 2307 June 4 // 9715 to NAm. So RDPI finally took my advice to get off 12020 where they started the A-10 season at the end of March, then collided by RHC which went on same frequency in April, both to S America, with RHC certainly at fault! But getting RHC to coöoperate, make any concession to a fellow SW broadcaster, is futile. After all, as an outlaw nation, Cuba even thinx it has the right to jam anything deliberately. A bit earlier at 2305 I had noticed no sign of RDPI under RHC on 12020 so went looking for it elsewhere. The collision lasted most of April and May (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Aoki, EiBi and the HFCC public file have shown this on 11630 since at least early April. So was it inactive before now? Just checked the RDP website. It shows 11630 to northern SAm ("Venezuela") and 12020 to "Brasil". 12020 was still in use earlier this week when I checked it (Dan Ferguson, SC, ibid.) I believe you are right that 11630 was already in use. Possibly 12020 was just missing today, late coming on, but should have been detectable if on. We`ll have to wait till Monday to try again. RDPI has four alternate frequencies for exactly the same transmission to Venezuela: 11880, 11940, 13660 and 15295, so one of those may well be the replacement. Or should be as long as Cuba is on 12020. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Re my previous report of RDPI on 11630 instead of 12020 at 2300 June 4: As Dan Ferguson points out, 11630 was already in use for this transmission, so would not be a replacement for 12020. Possibly 12020 was just missing, or late coming on, but should have been detectable under Cuba if on. We`ll have to wait till Monday to try again. RDPI has four alternate frequencies for exactly the same M-F 23-02 Tue-Sat transmission to Venezuela: 11880, 11940, 13660 and 15295, so one of those may well be the replacement. Or should be, as long as Cuba is on 12020 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) TDP registered 9715/11655 300kW zones 6-8 towards NoAM. 11630/13700 100kW is scheduled northerly zones 10-12 and 11880/11940-x12020/13660/15295 300kW southerly zones 12-15 at RDP night service to Americas. Same target REE 11945 next door! (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Following up on last Friday`s report: RDPI heard on new 11940, checked at 2315 UT Monday June 7, // 9715 and 11630, ex-12020. Nothing on the other possible alternates 11880, 13660 or 15295. The schedule for Brasil at http://tv.rtp.pt/canais-radio/rdpi/ondas_amaf.htm still shows 12020 for M-F 2300-0200 Tue-Sat. 11940 would not have worked while CVC Chile was putting out a spur around there from 11920 at the same hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yeah, noted here on 11940 from 2300, parallel to and much weaker than 11630, which makes sense since 11940 is beamed toward Brazil and 11630 toward Venezuela. How many Portuguese speakers are in Venezuela? (Dan Ferguson, ibid.) I don`t know but there are about 900 kilopeople in Portuguesa state, in W Central Venezuela. There is a historic connexion, from a wave of immigration long ago, I think (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) 11940 was not 'available' in the HFCC public file which unfortunately is no longer updated after initial publication shortly after the beginning of the broadcast season (Ferguson, ibid.) I thought I heard that HFCC had decided to availablize some updates during the season. Sure need to (gh, ibid.) Frequency change of RDPInternacional/Radio Portugal in Portuguese: 2300-0200 NF 11940 LIS 300 kW / 226 deg to Brasil Mon-Fri, ex 12020 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 8 June via DXLD) Glenn, According to the RDPi frequency manager, there has been only one change (since Fri., 4th June), and that was due to QRM from a "stn that does not share international fq coordination": SAm 2300-0200 Mo-Fr 11940 (ex-12020) 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, June 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RDP Internacional, 11905, QSL card ``RDP HQ``, frequency schedule and letter from Paula Nunes Teixeira received in 41 days for email report to: paula.teixeira @ rtp.pt (Sergej Rogov, London N4, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 5930, R. Rossii, Pet/Kam, June 6 at 1200 time-signal, only heard one (last?) pip about 5 sex late, cutting thru the motorboating, Russian talk presumably news. On Sundays no QRM from Costa Rica; but RR provides its own QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. I asked V. of Russia why they were using 7440 kHz, a frequency traditionally used by Radio Ukraine International. Their reply, "Russia's Ministry for Communication and Media allocated this frequency to the Voice of Russia." I also asked VOR if they knew why RUI was off the air. Their reply. Totally ignored my question. Not even a "We don't know anything". 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, Virginia, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi! I understand how frustrating it is not to receive a reply from someone after taking the trouble to ask someone something. But, one thing I can't understand, why on earth would you had to ask anything regarding Radio Ukraine to the officials sitting at Voice of Russia head quarters; Doesn't that sounds too bizarre? I mean, even if they knew the real reason why RUI is off, don't you think they are not authorized to comment about something other than VOR officially? Please don't take this otherwise, I myself is willing to know, why would RUI is not being heard on that frequency lately, since that's the only broadcast I was able to listen from Ukraine over here in my location, though not regularly. Regards (Paul, India, ibid.) Paul, I asked VOR simply to see if Russia is involved with RUI's disappearance. There has been some speculation to that effect. Sometimes an apparently innocent question can lead to revealing answers. I have a very good relationship with VOR. I've been honest with them. I've given them, at times, unflattering comment. In return I've gotten some frank and honest answers that actually surprised me. Didn't hurt to try; one never knows unless they ask. No offense taken. 73, (Kraig Krist, ibid.) I fully agree with Paul. Note that even RUI itself hasn't provided a coherent explanation for being off the SW. Moreover, I'm a bit surprised that Kraig got any reply from VoR. - Usually the international stations ignore such specific frequency-related inquiries (Sergei S., Russia, ibid.) Sergei, I think VOR likes seeing the old Radio Moscow items at my site, http://www.kg4lac.com They've made comments on the items many times :) 73, (Kraig Krist, ibid.) Dear Kraig - Very strange thinking, ;-) Ukraine is not a colony of Kremlin. Once I would ask Mexicans or RCI Montreal authorities whether Greenville ceased the cross Atlantic broadcasts ... btw. much of the R Moscow broadcasting house Ul. Pyatniskaya 25 staff is unaware of technical frequency matter. And same is evident on many other broadcasting houses worldwide too. My guess, its more fruitful to keep track of the opening procedure at Lvov in ...2340 to 2400 UT range, compared to Yerevan, Armavir or Grigoriopol openings. 73 wolfy df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, ibid.) Wolfy, I realize the Ukraine is not under Russian domain. However, with the pro Russian election win in the Ukraine coupled with RUI's disappearance, people have speculated Russia is involved. A non answer by VOR might indicate they are actually involved, but can not say anything about it. If they truly were not involved I would have expected, "We know nothing about it". Simply ignoring the question makes me wonder. 73, (Kraig Krist, ibid.) Kraig: The sources tell me that BBC, DW and RNW stopped their SW services in English to North America due to Russian pressure :) (Sergei S., ibid.) Hi Sergei, This discussion goes pretty interesting. I want to know more if you could share. We here in India normally think Russia is now a Venom less Snake - the US has the most control over International affairs, but your views are different. Please continue. Thanks & Regards, (Partha Sarathi Goswami, Siliguri – 734001, Dist. Darjeeling, West Bengal, INDIA, ibid.) He was kidding! (gh, DXLD) ``Paul, I asked VOR simply to see if Russia is involved with RUI's disappearance. There has been some speculation to that effect.`` Somewhere else? I have not seen such speculations here, and I would consider such a scenario as plain conspiracy theory. What has been suggested, also by yours truly, is that VOR has been put on 7440 because it is no longer in use by RUI, because the transmitter was idle. This is something completely different. It has also been commented that this arrangement seems to indicate that no further RUI transmissions on shortwave can be expected for the foreseeable future, and I agree with this assessment. ``I have a very good relationship with VOR. I've been honest with them. I've given them, at times, unflattering comment. In return I've gotten some frank and honest answers that actually surprised me.`` The German service meanwhile gives these frank and honest comments also on air. Well, in this case it was no doubt a honest answer as well. They have been told that they are now also on 7440, and that's just all they know. As Wolfgang already wrote: Editorial staff just does not know such details of program distribution. And this concerns not only VOR but simply every broadcaster. It's no different at RUI: They vaguely know that their shortwave frequencies are off at present, received some hints about "technical" problems (which in all likelihood simply are a lack of money), and that's likewise all they know. They just put their programs together in the studio and have no idea how they go out, how they sound on air. They know only the studio side. Perhaps the mention of the Russian ministry of communications should be explained, too: I understand that the offices of the well-known Anatoly Titov, who plans the VOR frequencies as long as one can remember (wasn't he in charge for this already in the USSR days?), still belong there. 7440 must have been offered to him, and he just accepted the offer (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``Another SW change (in addition to VoR English using 7440 0000-0200 for its NA coverage) is that VoR German can be heard from 0900-1000 on 11655.`` Via the very same transmitter --- http://german.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/frequenzen/ Indeed like 7440 added on June 1st, cf. http://german.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/4007478/8831904/ When was the Krasne shortwave site used for transmissions to Central Europe the last time? The schedules I saw since the mid-nineties always showed overseas target areas only. It could be that it is the very first time for this particular transmitter, installed in the space until the mid- or late eighties occupied by three old 120 kW transmitters that were used for Central Europe, reportedly not only by Radio Moscow but also by Radio Habana Cuba. So far I checked 11655 once a few days ago and found it rather poor, like already skipping over me. This made me wonder if again Bolshakovo is in use, in spite of the unusually high frequency. Well, Krasne is not much farther away (750 vs. 600 km), so 25 metres is still a too high frequency for eastern Germany. It's perhaps good in western Germany, but still 31 metres would perhaps be a better choice. "Again Bolshakovo" since this transmission went out there on 7330 (in earlier years 9720 has been used) until March 2009. Back then VOR German has been taken off shortwave, apparently resulting in an amount of listener complaints sufficient for prompting VOR to restore shortwave for the evening service within 12 days. Only the noon transmission was still on mediumwave only until now (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11655 VoRUS German 9-10 UT --- Re: New 11655 kHz from which TX site ? I'll ask Andrey at Taldom site - or Mikhail in St.P. -, whether this outlet comes from Moscow site as usual (12060MSK and 15780MSK, 15455SAM in summer in previous pre-DRM years), - or from KLG. Kai reported about only fair signals in Eastern Germany, that implicit probably Kaliningrad outlet? Here is my log of proper stations heard here in 9-10 UT slot June 6th in southwestern Germany. 11645 AVL S=9+10dB 11655 ??? S=9+45dB ? MSK, KLG, SAM ? 11740 SMG S=9+30dB 11830 GAL S=9+35dB 11995 SIN S=9+25dB 12020 LIS S=9+20dB 12060 MSK S=9+20dB 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello, perhaps I was not explicit enough: See http://german.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/frequenzen/ A bit down the page the second table, "Liste der Senderstandorte" ("list of transmitter sites"). The first table has not been updated so far, but this one has, with 11655 quickly added at the bottom. And it clearly says "Lwow". What should perhaps be explained, too: "Very same transmitter" as 7440 because usually the newest one, finished around 1992, is in use at Krasne. They have a second one from 1972, but reportedly they do not use it for regular operation at present, since never more than one frequency is on air since 2007, after nothing was on air at all between 2002 and 2007. Another musing: So it's not just about 7440, since at least one further transmission (perhaps even further ones have been added and are just not known yet) for VOR started. Looks indeed as if RRT, the organization in charge for the broadcasting transmitters in the Ukraine, actively offered the transmitter to VOR. All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) Now, at 0120 UT June 6 on 7440 kHz, Voice of Russia in English. Although not a broadcast sent to Brazil, Voice of Russia arrives here with a good signal. Male and female voices alternate (Jorge Freitas, ibid.) I've picked up Voice of Russia World Service on the Radio Ukraine frequency of 7440. VOR knows me well; I send them reception reports and e-mails regularly so three days ago I sent them a message about them using that frequency, and/or transmitter, whether it's temporary or permanent. They have always replied to my messages quickly but this time they haven't sent a reply?? Wonder what's going on? Take care (Rich Brock, Bridgewater/Beaver, PA, June 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Do we know for certain that VoR is on RUI's transmitter on 7440? Not just a coincidence? (Bruce Jensen, CA, June 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Additional frequency for Voice of Russia: 0000-0200 on 7440 LV* 600 kW / 303 deg to NoAm in English WS 0900-1000 on 11655 LV 600 kW / 303 deg to WeEu in German * probably tx (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 8 June via DXLD) See UKRAINE ** RUSSIA. Radio Voice of Russia English Language Service is on the air from 14 to 19 hours on the tropical frequency of 4975 kHz, from 14 to 16 hours on 9455 and from 15 to 21 hours on 12040 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, R. Bulgaria DX June 4 via Yimber Gaviria, DXLD) ** RUSSIA. there is no any Voice of Russia AM program being transmitted by our Moscow Taldom transmitters now. The amount of AM programs had been extremely reduced by the end of March. Voice of Russia ordered us only DRM transmissions for 6 hours. Such the crisis influence (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 7, via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) Apparently he is quoting someone unknown (gh) ** RUSSIA. Spurious Voice of Russia ... in French 1900-2100 UT to AF/SoEUR ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nils Schiffhauer" Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2010 :07 PM Subject: [A-DX] Nebenwellen: Voice of Russia ... ... muß man gehört haben: nominal 12030 kHz, aber gut plusminus 300 kHz verzerrt zu hören; in Französisch. – (73, Nils DK8OK, Perseus, 96 m delta loop, 42 m windom, A-DX via Büschel, dxldyg via DXLD) RUSSIA 12030 fundamental of VoRUS French service via Novosibirsk, S=9+30dB signal in Germany, \\ St.P. 12050 kHz S=9+15dB. 12030 with few total distorted spurious signals, like 12019 - 12038 kHz fundamental, 11908 - 11948 12106 - 12153 peak 12130 - totally terrible 12171 - 12177 peak 12174 12216 - 12254 peak 12238 thanks Nils 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** SAUDI ARABIA. For just 2-3 years maybe, there are not broadcasts on SW of their Second program on 9580, 9675 and 11855 kHz but is existing the invention of HFCC and it is delivering (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 15380, collision between BSKSA with Qur`an, and RHC Spanish, June 7 at 1311, as they take turns dominating, still at 1330. BSKSA HQS is 500 kW, 310 degrees USward at 12-14 despite Cuba at 11- 24. Of course, Riyadh was there first (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. SAUDI ARABIA LAUNCHES WEBSITE TO STREAM LIVE TV, RADIO PROGRAMMES | Text of report in English by Saudi state-owned official news agency SPA website Jeddah, June 08, 2010, SPA - The Minister of Culture and Information, Dr Abd-al-Aziz bin Mohieddin Khoja launched here today [8 June] the Live Transmission Website of Saudi TV and Radio Channels http://www.sm.gov.sa which will allow visitors from all over the world to watch or listen to all programmes broadcasted by the Saudi TV and Radio Channels. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Dr Khoja said that the website emanates from the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz Al Saud who is keen on continuously providing the Saudi students on scholarship abroad with all news about the Kingdom. Source: SPA news agency website, Riyadh, in English 0000 gmt 8 Jun 10 (via BBCM via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) I was able to listen to BSKSA`s 1600+ English radio on webcast already years ago, so not new; don`t know about TV (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) 1 Comment on “Saudi Arabia launches website to stream live TV/radio” 1. #1 Richard Cuff on Jun 10th, 2010 at 15:40 It appears that 5 of the 6 radio services are represented; the link itself points to an all-Arabic page but this page http://www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com/main/g3212.htm lists the radio services (Media Network blog comment via DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. 7290, like a local supply noted strong English religious service of IRRS via Rimavska Sobota, S=9+25dB, En at 1848 UT, seldom heard so strong, due of usual dead zone around SVK. Monday-Thursday 1800-1900 UT June 7th. I guess European Gospel radio http://www.nexus.org/NEXUS-IBA/Schedules/mon.htm (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5019.92, SIBC 1000 to 1020, May 26, splatter from Rebelde often a problem (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, June 4, Drake R8, Icom 746Pro Dallas Lankford modified, Noise Reducing antenna, 60 meter band dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SIBC, 5020. By the way, I think that SIBC Honiara is leaving their transmitter on 5020 kHz on overnight unmodulated. I don't check often, but over the last week I have checked twice and there is certainly a strong carrier there. I thought they couldn't afford the electricity bill and dropped BBC overnight? Very strange if it is them. Trouble with their transmitter remote control units perhaps? (Pacific downunder mail via William Hague-UK, NWDXC June 5 via BCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) I made the same observation last winter; OC after 1200 until fadeout (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ** SPAIN [non]. Costa Rica: 3350, R. Exterior de España via Cariari de Pococí with Spanish punk rock and OM Spanish announcements including some with an echo faked me out to think it might be a local station, and there was no ID heard. Went into Alice Cooper's "I wanna be elected" at 0427 then time pips and mention of "España" at BoH and into news. Back to English & Spanish blues music with Spanish announcements at :35 SIO 43+3+ improving to SIO 444 as static waned. The selection of music they played was pretty cool -- an eclectic mix of stuff like Alice Cooper, someone who sounded a lot like Kris Christopherson [sic] and a Spanish group with wailing harmonica that almost sounded like the Blues Brothers. Neat stuff! ID as REE at :57 and at ToH. 0420-0500 24/May (Kenneth Vito Zichi, Williamston MI, MARE Tipsheet June 6 via DXLD) That was a UT Monday; program grid shows ``Costa [de] Tormentas`` during that hour (gh, DXLD) [and non]. REE, June 6 during the 20 UT hour, VG on 15110 direct, 17850 via Costa Rica, with the new transmitter, no longer relatively muffled, was playing some great Indian classical music with tabla, etc. In the 21 UT hour on same, also audible on weaker CR relays 11815 and 9765, some dramatic readings accompanied by Ligeti, and other mysterious music. The A-10 program grid we have courtesy http://programasdx.com/principal_archivos/parrillaree10.pdf merely shows ``Tablero Deportivo`` for these hours on Sundays, so I suppose these shows were merely filling in for absent or early-ending silly ballgames. Did not catch any announcements, so don`t know the titles, but ``Mundofonías`` and ``Pangea`` scheduled nearby sound like good candidates (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. REE COMMENCES DRM BROADCASTS TO NORTH AMERICA Radio Exterior de España (REE) has started DRM transmissions to North America at 0000-0200 UT on 9630 kHz. REE already broadcasts in DRM to Europe at 0500-0900 on 9780 kHz. More information in the programme “Amigos de la onda corta” which you can listen to (in Spanish) on this page. http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/audios/20100604/las-emisiones-drm-ree-hacia-norteamerica-amigos-onda-corta/790400.shtml (June 8th, 2010 - 15:22 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) Hmmm, we scooped REE itself on this, with original monitoring (gh) ** SRI LANKA. SLBC's Korean Service on 15120 1030-1130 via DW Trinco will cease temporarily from the 4th of June. SLBC instead starts another hour of Hindi to India on 11905 kHz via Trinco 355 beam with 200 kW 1530-1600 UT. Reception reports will be welcome to Engineer, AM Services, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, P. O. Box 574 Colombo. SLBC in association with the Union of Asian DXers will QSL all reports on all its SW broadcasts during June. If the project is successful we will extend it. 0055-0330(Sun 0430) 6005, 9780, 15745 English to Asia, 0020-0500, 0830-1230, 11905, 7185, 1530-1630 11905, 1615-1830 11750 SLBC is also progressing with the installation of a 50 kW MW transmitter in Puttalam on 1125 kHz to beam to South India where there are large numbers of Sri Lankans who fled the war over the last 30 years, and also to strengthen the coverage to the North of Sri Lanka (Victor Goonetilleke, UADX. -- G. Victor A. Goonetilleke 4S7VK, "Shangri-la"' 298 Madapatha Road, Piliyandala. Sri Lanka, June 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, SLBC, has come back to the frequency of 15745 kHz and was heard with a program in English of its own between 01 and 0130 on 9770 and 15745 kHz, also announcing the frequency of 6005 kHz. After 0130 it became relaying a religious program from the USA. SLBC was also heard with programs in local languages after 0020 on 7190 and 11905 kHz, and after 1630 on 11750 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, R. Bulgaria DX June 4 via Yimber Gaviria, DXLD) ** SUDAN. 7200, R. Omdurman Al Fitahab, 0336-0402, June 2, Arabic. Various announcers with commentary, talks, (presumed) ads and brief Arabic music selections with one sounding like a cover of Queen's "We Will Rock You"; pips/ID at ToH followed by M announcer with news; fair-good (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. Radio Miraya was received on its new frequency of 9480 kHz between 04 and 06 hours, announcing that it also broadcasts in Arabic and English from 03 to 04 hours on 9470 kHz, from 0430 to 16 on 15710 and from 14 to 17 hours on 15650 or 15710 kHz (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, R. Bulgaria DX June 4 via Yimber Gaviria, DXLD) Is this correct? I still hear DW in German on 9480 at 04-06 via RWANDA! IRRS is still registered for 03-06 on 9740 (GH, DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. MADAGASCAR, R. Dabanga (via Talata), 11500. Confirmation card `` Independent news from the heart of Darfur`` from Anne Haaksman, and sticker received in 10 days. Return postage was 1 US$. Address: Radio Dabanga, Press Now, Witte Kruislaan 55, Nl-1217 AM Hilversum, The Netherlands (Sergej Rogov, London N4, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. June 3, 2010 - 17745 kHz Sudan Radio Service 1530-1700 UT, Arabic & Sudanese mix - good signal from Sines, Portugal with little fading 17700 kHz, S. Sudan Interactive R. (SSIRI) from Ascension Island, 16- 17 UT. Good Signal, with slight fading, talk in vernacular, in Arabic Thanks & Regards, (Partha Sarathi Goswami, Siliguri – 734001, Dist. Darjeeling, West Bengal, INDIA, June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWAZILAND [non]. TWR English via SOUTH AFRICA, 11640, which was burning 500 kW without modulation yesterday, had resumed modulation June 4 at 0623 check. African-accented preacher about a dagger in someone`s belly and their entrails coming out. I suppose something from the Christian holy book; yes, out of context, and I quickly tuned away, but who needs any such disgusting violence? TWR should be ashamed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN. Swedish yachters petition the minister of culture, Mrs. Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, to intervene in order to rescue the overseas transmissions of Radio Sweden. The background is that two months ago the management of Swedish Radio (SR) decided to cancel the traditional short- and mediumwave transmissions. From November 1 listeners are referred to the web service of SR, so that in practice a computer with an Internet connection is required instead of a broadcast receiver. This could become expensive both for yachters and ordinary tourists (Svenska Dagbladet 18.5.2010 via Claes-W Englund via Ullmar Qvick-SWE, ARC MV-Eko, Olle Alm-SWE, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 2 via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ** SYRIA. 12085, at 2251 June 4, fair signal with undermodulated ME singing, along with hum/whine, must be R. Damascus; 2256 better modulation as YL made announcement in Spanish; 2259 choral NA with band, 2300 Arabic ID, pause, about to go off? No, resumed Arabic talk, undermodulated. 2302 music, 2303:20* suddenly cuts off during music. Meanwhile I had just checked 9330 to see if I could detect a //, but too much WBCQ even on the LSB altho its modulation is primarily on the USB. WRTH A-10 update does show both for Spanish at 22-23, tho 12085 is daggered as irregular; and no Arabic on SW at all, so 2300-2303:20 was just overrun from a program feed not supposed to be aired (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 12085, Radio Damascus, 2133-2150, June 5, English programming with local music. IDs. Talk about Israel and the Gaza blockade. Strong but equally strong hum in audio making reception difficult (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 12085, R. Damascus, June 5 at 2104 whine slightly louder than the ME music playing, announcement in English mentioning a www where no doubt reception is better, program summary, bits of music mixed in with the words. Brief piece of march music and 2107 starting news with slightly better modulation on a different voice. First item had an anti-Israel orientation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 12085, R. Damascus, June 6 at 2119 during English hour with whine, still talking about Gaza, somewhat better reception than yesterday, but still requires too much strain to follow; besides, I know it`s going to be an anti-Israel diatribe. 2125 music; 2127 ``News and Views`` switched to YL announcer, also about the flotilla; 2141 weakening. But still there at next check 2159 in English; just before 2202, switched to Spanish ID but immediately went off the air. After apparent beam reversal from 98 to 278 degrees, per Aoki, back on two minutes later at 2204 with open carrier, somewhat weaker, and made out no Spanish talk until 2210. 98? Yes, their only SW broadcast in English is for Australia (does it inboom in the mornings there?), while the earlier one 340 degrees for Europe, also USward at 20-21 has long been suspended, replaced by a one-hour break. So we`re lucky to hear it at all in North America (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Damascus International [sic], 9330, v/s Amalia Puga, Secretary. Email: radiodamasco @ yahoo.com (playdx via June NASWA Journal QSL Report via DXLD) Sounds like the Spanish department (gh) ** TAIWAN. TAIWAN TAKES ON UNDERGROUND RADIO Aljazeera.net June 10, 2010 Taiwan's government says it is making big gains against criminal operators of underground radio stations. Over the past three months, the office of the prime minister has been personally overseeing a crackdown on advertisements for fake and harmful drugs. So widespread is the problem and so good the marketing that the government has made the issue a top public-health priority. Al Jazeera's Steve Chao reports from Taipei by video at http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/06/201061061222159207.html (via Mike Terry, DXLD) Interesting report; will Keith contradict? ** TAIWAN [non]. FRANCE/TAIWAN, 6155, RTI English service via Issoudun powerhouse towards GB & IRL, 1800-1900 UT, S=9+10dB - but I guess much stronger signal on the isles, 1835 UT on June 7th. Enjoyed sweet Taiwanese music in 1835 to 1845 UT slot, June 7th (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TATARSTAN [non]. 15110, Tatarstan Wave/GTRK Tatarstan, via Samara. RE: 10-21: My May 24 reception (*0410-0500*) of all non-stop music was an anomaly. June 2 and 7 heard with the usual segments of news/reporting/talk, as well as nice selects of songs (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. And regarding Sporadic E FM reception - On May 31, 2010 received radio stations from the Bangkok, Thailand, Balance FM 90 MHz, and DED National Radio 90.5 MHz from Bangkok at approximate distance of 1,640 kilometres (1,020 mi). YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h19ytwv3i8k and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f553y9nVQhk Thanks & Regards, (Partha Sarathi Goswami, Siliguri – 734001, Dist. Darjeeling, West Bengal, INDIA, June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TUNISIA. The registered A10 schedule of R. Tunis in HFCC has several mistakes. Here is schedule based on radio listening in May: 0255-0508 9725 12005 0355-0625 7275 0555-0808 7335 1555-1958 9725 12005 1655-2108 7225 1855-2308 7345 Times ending in 08 are variable (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** TUNISIA. 9725, RTT, Sfax, in Arabic at 0427, June 6. Traditional- sounding ME female vocals. Surprisingly strong (Grundig G3, Mike Bryant, Louisville, KY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. 4750, R. Dunamis Shortwave, email: mail @ biblevoice.org v/s Cynthia Violette viocyn99 @ yahoo.com Addr: HAGCM, P O Box 425, Station E, Toronto, Ont M6H 4E3, Canada. If you report direct to Uganda use: v/s Bwayo Katami Richard, Program Presenter. P O Box 4260, Kampala (playdx via Sam Barto, QSL Report, June NASWA Journal via DXLD) ** UGANDA. 4976, UBC Kampala, 0312-0334, June 2, vernacular. Lite Afropop; various talks and (presumed) ads from 0318 until more music at 0326 thru tune/out; poor & very weak by BoH (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4975.96, Radio Uganda, 2050, English, good signal strength but over- modulated, making copy difficult. Nondescript talk between a man and woman. June 5 (David Sharp, NSW Australia. NRD-535D, FT-950, R8, ICF- 2010, ICF-SW7600GR etc., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. I asked RUI if they were permanently gone from shortwave. Their reply follows. "Dear Kraig, We hope to return to shortwave in the near future. No way, RUI is not permanently gone. Thank you again for your interest. Kind regards, Dana Smolyak Chief Political Correspondent English Section Radio Ukraine International 26, Khreschatyk Str., Kyiv, 01001, Ukraine http://www.nrcu.gov.ua " 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, Virginia, June 9, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7440: see also RUSSIA Ahh, the power of positive thinking! :) Seriously, I'm a bit surprised it has taken RUI so long to restore SW. Someone should write to RUI and tell them that VoR already took over their transmitter and two frequencies. Maybe that will hurry them up. I read somewhere that Yanukovich's administration already fired over a thousand top officials. Perhaps, that is somehow related to RUI's SW troubles. I do expect them to be back on SW (Sergei S., ibid.) The two announcers on the June Hello from Kyiv now online where their future on shortwave was discussed a lot said: We still don't know exactly when and how Radio Ukraine International is going to broadcast on shortwave. We all hope that Radio Ukraine International will be back on shortwave bands. He (a listener who wrote in) is worried about the absence of Radio Ukraine International's shortwave signal and all we can tell him is that we're worried too. Hopefully shortwave transmissions will reach North America soon. http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=780 (Mike Barraclough, June 9, dxldyg viA DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Financial Times (UK) about BBC World Service Reducing the sums spent on expensive shortwave transmissions that reach most parts of the globe is one of the motivations for a reshaping of the BBC's overseas operations, Mr Horrocks said in a Financial Times interview. [...] Yesterday, the government announced a 3 per cent cut in the budget of the Foreign Office, which funds the World Service to the tune of £272m annually, and BBC managers expect further cuts. [...] "There is a powerful symbolism about universal availability, but if people haven't got the [shortwave] sets and they aren't listening, keeping it going for its own sake, for metaphysical reasons, doesn't make a lot of sense," he said. Countries such as Burma and Somalia, where there was no prospect of a substitute for shortwave, would remain covered "for the foreseeable future", he said. But in the next five years, other shortwave services were likely to be phased out. No final decision on which would go had been made because future funding was unclear. Most senior managers think the Arabic and Persian services will be left untouched as they play a crucial part in addressing the damage done to Britain's reputation in regions where the Iraq war and military presence in Afghanistan rankle. This suggests that English language radio and other language services will be worst hit. Mr Horrocks would not say which areas might be cut. Decisions would depend "on the funding hand we are dealt". [...] See "World Service to change focus" or, an almost identical version, "BBC World Service 'must shift online'" via http://news.google.de/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=de&hl=de&q=%22Peter+Horrocks%22&cf=all&scoring=n&nolr=1 ... which is a necessary dirty trick to read FT articles without registration. The same method also works with online services of the German Axel-Springer-Verlag, if one really wants to read their stuff (sorry, can't resist from adding this remark). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 6, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U K. The "silent period" begins for the BBC World Service and key on-demand offerings --- For the duration of the World Cup, "World Update", "Newshour" and "The World Today" won't be offered on-demand or as podcasts due to rights issues. However, these programs will still be streamed live. The "Global News" and "Newspod" offerings, which are not taken off the air but are assembled separately from the various news programs, will continue to be available on-demand and for download (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, swprograms via DXLD) Geez, SBGs trump all (gh) ** U K [and non]. Since tweets were fluttering from BBC and ABC about the Israelis about to board the Rachel Corrie, I wanted to get some real breaking news about the situation from the BBCWS at 0600 UT June 5. Tuned in 9410 a couple minutes early for sufficient signal, but it went off at 0559*! Yes, RMP is sked to end at 0600. What else? 7310, where I have heard BBC before around this time: almost sufficient there with CCI but 0600 opens Network Africa and it`s not on their radar. Then that signal drops way off by 0601. Meyerton at 328 degrees must have run over a minute, overlapping Ascension at 65 degrees opening at 0600. The BBC conspires against my hearing them. R. Australia was good on 13 and 15 MHz, but they are obsessed with stupid ballgames on Saturday afternoons (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9410. BBC, Rampisham, at 0417 in English, June 6. W with BBC World News, report on improving relations between India and Sri Lanka. Strong, perhaps the best BBC English broadcast audible at this location (Grundig G3, Mike Bryant, Louisville, KY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. South Herts Radio is on air today (Sunday June 6th) and all being well it should remain live streaming until 1900 UT / 20.00 UK. The website has been updated to reflect a few more changes. World of radio is now only broadcast at 1130 UT / 12.30 BST Sunday and that will remain its regular slot. This should be advertised as webcast only. There is no official repeat airing anymore. Basically, South Herts Radio is an on-line radio station with micro power FM relays in various parts of Hertfordshire. We now say that we rely on other people to relay our internet feed onto shortwave. The frequencies page shows this at http://www.southhertsradio.com/frequencies.html I do not want to damage the reputation of SHR so I will simply say that the webcast is only on air 'most' (but not all) Sundays and we do provide a 24 HR FM service with unscheduled programming via these low power relays. There is no official shortwave service now. I hope you enjoy our output and I am still supporting DX with listen again features / downloads etc when the SHR webstream is down. Listen Live: http://89.238.166.194/south_herts_radio http://www.southhertsradio.com/live.html Listen Again: http://www.southhertsradio.com/again.html For the record - our new strapline: South Herts Radio - International radio from South Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. 73 (Gary Drew, SHR, June 6, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. SENATOR LUGAR ISSUES MAJOR REPORT ON US INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING Senator Richard Lugar website, 9 June 2010: "U.S. International Broadcasting: —Is Anybody Listening?— Keeping the U.S. Connected," is a 91-page report by Senator Lugar [and, presumably, his staff] to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "One of [the issues facing US international broadcasting] is the growing concern over the ability of U.S. broadcasters to reach their desired audiences. Sometimes this is due to crowded media markets, such as in the Middle East, where our voice is one among many. Other times, our voice is silenced or suppressed, including in China, Iran, and Russia, which use intimidation to prevent local affiliates from carrying U.S. programming or use sophisticated technologies to shut down satellites, jam radio transmissions or block Internet sites. Each of these issues requires its own response, but without a new [Broadcasting Board of Governors] in place providing appropriate direction and guidance, these difficulties will only grow more pronounced." http://lugar.senate.gov/issues/foreign/diplomacy/ (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) I'll have comments when I have a chance to read it. Recommended reading, in the meantime. Posted: 10 Jun 2010 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** U S A [and non]. 17585, VOA Greenville, June 4 at 1428 still running Music Mix, cut off in mid-song at 1430, uncovering takeover by a weak Botswana also on 17585, the latter with news/talk, so there is still a total disconnect between what Afro-listeners hear in the two halves of this hour. 9830, something in French June 3 at 2110 about equal level with the RTTY infesting 9830. It`s VOA via São Tomé, M-F 2100-2130, 100 kW, 335 degrees to WAf and USward. 9510, VOA Tinang II // much better 9760 Tinang I, PHILIPPINES, Sunday June 6 at 1220 in ``Our World`` science-technology show with Environment Report segment re cybersickness [redlined by MSW spellcheck, but then so is spellcheck; hyphenating almost solves these problems, but cyber still not accepted by itself!], then other items, 1230 into Issues in the News, panel discussion starting with Gaza blockade (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. 11605 with audible lo het, June 6 at 1357. Not Firedrake, and can`t match any of the audio to CNR1 for sure. 1400 clash ends and R. Free Asia introduces Vietnamese weak but clear. Until 1400, RFA is in Tibetan via Tinian, per Aoki and of course it must be jammed with something. RFA changes site at 1400 to Taiwan for Vietnamese. Come to think of it, if the Taiwan carrier was on before 1400 it was probably off-frequency causing the het, RFA vs RFA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. A-10 IBB CHANGES [BOTSWANA/GERMANY/KUWAIT/PHILIPPINES/SAIPAN/SAO TOME/SOUTH AFRICA/ SRI LANKA/TAJIKISTAN/TINIAN] VOA Kinyarwanda broadcast via Sao Tome 6100 (ex6095) at 0330-0430 UT; on 7340 kHz via Iranawila (ex Lampertheim). VOA Swahili sce via Botswana on 7380 kHz at 0300-0330 UT. VOA Burmese and English sce via Tinang-PHL at 2300-0030 UT on 7430 kHz, (ex Iranawila). VOA Chinese service via Tinang-PHL on 9510 kHz (ex 50 kW Tinang movable exPoro unit) at 2200-2300 UT. VOA Vietnamese sce via Tinang-PHL on 7565 (ex7555) kHz at 1500-1600 UT. VOA Deewa program in Pashto via Kuwait on 9390 kHz at 0300-0400 UT, (ex Iranawila). Also on 9700 kHz (ex9690) at 1300-1400 UT via Iranawila. VOA in Pashto via Iranawila on 11535 kHz at 0300-0400 UT, (ex Kuwait). VOA in Kurdish[tent.] via Lampertheim on 11875 kHz at 0500-0600 UT. VOA English via Tinian on 12075 kHz at 1200-1230 UT, (ex Iranawila). VOA in Portuguese via Meyerton on 9800 (ex12120) kHz at 1800-1830 UT Mon-Fri. Radio Azadi in Pashto via Biblis on 7370 kHz at 0230-0330 UT. R Azadi in Dari/Pashto via Kuwait on 15090 kHz at 0830-1130 UT, (ex Udorn Thani). R Farda in Persian via Kuwait on 7435 kHz at 1200-1300 UT, (ex Iranawila). Delete 9480 kHz R Faarda Persian 0300-0400 UT Biblis. Additional R Farda in Persian via Lampertheim on 9505 kHz at 1900-2130 UT. Radio Farda in Persian on 15690 kHz IRA 0230-1000, LAM 1000-1100, IRA 1100-1200, LAM 1200-1300, IRA 1300-1400 UT. Additional Radio Mashaal in Pashto on 12130 kHz new 0700-0900 and 1200-1300 via Iranawila 500kW, 0900-1100 UT via Udorn Thani. Radio Mashaal in Pashto, addit via Udorn Thani on 15360 kHz at 0800- 0900 UT, also at 0900-1100 UT via Iranawila. Radio Mashaal in Pashto, addit via Wertachtal on 15715 kHz at 0700- 0900 UT, also via Udorn Thani on 15740 kHz at 0700-0800 UT. RFree Asia in Korean via Dushanbe-TJK on 7210 kHz at 1500-1600 UT, (ex Iranawila). RFree Asia in Uighur via Saipan on 9350 at 1600-1700 UT, (ex Iranawila). RFree Asia in Tibetan via Tinian on 9875 kHz at 2300-2400 UT, (ex Kuwait). RFree Asia in Burmese via Tinian on 9945 kHz at 1630-1730 UT, (ex Iranawila). RFree Asia in Cambodian via Tinang-PHL on 11540 kHz at 1330-1400 UT. RFree Asia in Vietnamese via Saipan on 13740 kHz at 2330-0030 UT, (ex Tinian). RFree Asia in Chinese via Saipan on 13760 kHz at 0300-0700 UT, (ex Tinian). RFree Asia in Chinese via Dushanbe-TJK on 15635 kHz at 0300-0700 UT, (ex Tinian). RFree Asia in Burmese via Saipan on 17835 kHz at 0030-0130 UT, (ex Tinian). RLiberty Caucasian service in Avar, Chechen, Circassian language via Lampertheim on 7290 kHz at 0300-0400 UT, (ex Biblis). RLiberty Caucasian service in Avar, Chechen, Circassian language via Lampertheim now 15545 kHz at 1500-1600 UT, (ex 7205). RLiberty Russian broadcast via Wertachtal on 9530 kHz at 1500-1700 UT, (ex Biblis). RLiberty Turkmen service via Lampertheim on 9550 kHz at 0300-0400 UT, (ex Iranawila). RLiberty Russian service via Lampertheim on 9600 kHz at 1900-2000 UT. RLiberty Belarussian service via Biblis on 9725 kHz at 1500-1600 UT. RLiberty in Russian via Biblis on 11860 kHz at 1500-1700 UT. RLiberty in Tatar/Bashkir via Lampertheim on 12035 kHz at 1500-1600 UT, (ex Biblis). RLiberty in Tajik via Lampertheim on 12055 kHz [x11895] at 1400-1500 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 2 via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Some IBB changes: Voice of America 0330-0400 NF 11665 LAM 100 kW / 132 deg, ex 12110 Somali 0330-0430 NF 6100 SAO 100 kW / 100 deg, ex 6095 Kinyarwanda Mon-Fri 0500-0600 NF 11875 LAM 100 kW / 088 deg, ex 11645!Kurdish 1300-1400 NF 9700 IRA 250 kW / 340 deg, ex 9690^Pashto-Deewa Radio 1400-1500 NF 15330 LAM 100 kw / 077 deg, add.freq Tibetan 1500-1600 NF 7565 PHT 250 kW / 275 deg, ex 7555 Vietnamese 1600-1700 NF 11665 IRA 250 kW / 259 deg, ex 12110 Somali 1700-1800 NF 11665 UDO 250 kW / 264 deg, ex 12110 Somali 1700-1800 NF 11940&BIB 100 kW / 085 deg, ex 11935 Georgian 1700-1800 NF 9800 SAO 100 kW / 335 deg, ex 11955 Portuguese 1800-1830 NF 9800 MEY 250 kW / 335 deg, ex 12120 Portuguese Mon-Fri 1800-1900 NF 15230 KWT 250 kW / 200 deg, add.freq Amharic 2230-2300 NF 11840 SAI 100 kW / 310 deg, ex 11705 Special English 2300-2400 NF 13805 UDO 250 kW / 030 deg, ex 13755 Special English ! to avoid ERA Voice of Greece in Albanian ^ to avoid All India Radio in English from 1330 & strong co-ch China Radio International in English Radio Liberty 1500-1600 NF 9725 BIB 100 kW / 063 deg, ex 9530 Russian 1500-1600 NF 15545 LAM 100 kW / 077 deg, ex 7205 Avari/Chechen/Cherkasian 1500-1700 NF 9530#WER 250 kW / 060 deg, ex 9725 Belorussian 1600-1700 NF 11860 BIB 100 kW / 063 deg, ex 9725*Russian, re-ex 9530 1900-2000 NF 9600@LAM 100 kW / 055 deg, add.freq Russian 1900-2130 NF 9505@LAM 100 kW / 104 deg, add.freq Farsi Radio Farda * to avoid RTTunisia in Arabic # 1530-1625 strong co-ch Voice of Turkey in Azeri @ effective from May 28, but really not yet active (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 8 June via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. FCC has updated its private SW sked as of 4 June: http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A10FCC02.TXT Now be on lookout for a 3 instead of a 2 for next update (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. A different problem at WWCR, June 4: 13845, at tune-in 1304 I find the carrier cutting on and off at a rate varying slightly between 2 and 3 times per second, giving us alternate syllables of whatever Joyce Riley is trying to say, while // 7490 was OK. 1306, 13845 stays off for a while; 1310 it`s back with more of same, but the rate has increased so one can hear slightly more of the modulation; 1319 still. Not checked again until 1432, still cutting on and off. Strange they haven`t noticed at least a sesquihour after this started. I was about to fire up the computer and attempt to notify WWCR about it, but at 1443 transmitter stayed off, and still at 1518. Next check at 1925, back to normal. Meanwhile, 15825 which was absent June 3 morning was back on at 1306 June 4, and audible with a bit of a boost from sporadic E which would not reach VHF this time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1515 monitoring chex: On ACBRadio webcast at 0300 UT Friday June 4, and on WWRB webcast at 0331. WWCR 15825: Friday June 4 at 2050 confirmed, but cut off incomplete at 2058:10 as I was about to give the URL for the SW survey; then QSY announcement to 7465, and off quickly. If they have to be off 15825 by 2058, need to start WOR playback by 2029 since it typically lasts about 28:43. 15825 signal was F-G anyway, with some Es help but still not reaching VHF. WOR getting cut off due to impending frequency change is an age-old problem, but sometimes WWCR does start the playback early enough. 9955, WRMI, June 5 at 1347 with YL preacher in English, then singing, no jamming, but weaker than Taiwan transmitters on both adjacents. So scratch the WORLD OF RADIO airing previously on Saturdays at 1330. Next chance: WWCR 12160 Saturday at 1630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Altho it still appears on the June 1 WWCR online program schedule, the 0330 UT Monday airing of WORLD OF RADIO on 5890 was missing again June 7, some preacher other than PPP this time and not // WTWW 5755. So I have removed it from my schedules, without having received any explicit info about its replacement, and contradictory info from the pdf. As for the missing Saturday 1330 WOR airing on WRMI 9955, it was heard at the same time on Sunday instead by Harry Brooks in England on the webcast, and again at usual 1515 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX WORLD OF RADIO 1516, LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: World of Radio on WRMI.net --- While waiting for Radio Prague at 1400 today [Sunday June 6] I heard the end of an unscheduled broadcast of World of Radio. The last wrmichart xls schedule shows En Camino at this time. At 1359, the end of the propagation report, then closing announcement to 1400, followed by about a minute of silence before WRMI ID and then Radio Prague at 1401. So WOR presumably at 1330-1400. I'm currently listening to WOR 1515 on WRMI.net at 1539. Regards (Harry Brooks, North East England, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) WOR was moved from 1330 Saturday to Sunday because a new program began on Saturday (Jeff White, WRMI, June 8, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WORLD OF RADIO 1516, confirmed on first WBCQ airing, 7415, Thursday June 10 after 1900, barely audible here vs noise level. The webcast was not working. But now there is an earlier airing on WRMI, new time 1500 Thursdays in the schedule update June 8; the former Happy Station slot. See top of this issue (Glenn Hauser, OK, DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Glen[n], this is to inform you that WORLD OF RADIO will not be on IRRS-Shortwave next Saturday at 1000 CET on 9515 kHz. One of our members will be using this slot. Regards (Ron Norton, NEXUS-Int'l Broadcasting Association, June 9, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I.e. second Saturday, June 12 at 0800 UT, NOT, see GERMANY; but presumably still 1800 UT on 7290 (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ** U S A. This evening around 0230 I noticed a very weak AM signal on 6940 kHz, mainly just threshold audio, which I originally thought might be a pirate broadcaster. I finally ID'd the programming as Alex Jones, so this must be a WWCR spur. At this time, WWCR airs Alex Jones on 4840 kHz. Any idea what combination of transmitters would produce this admittedly very weak spur? (Brandon Jordan, TN, UT June 8, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4840 leapfrog over 5890 another 1050 kHz higher. Or 2B - A if you prefer (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** U S A. I haven`t bothered to belabor it lately, but WEWN has done NOTHING to fix the nasty spurs accompanying its English-language transmitter, approx. plus and minus 10 kHz, impacting whatever stations are foolish enough to approach it that closely. As outpointed before, it happens that the most obvious victims are WYFR and WWCR. E.g., June 8 at 1345, Joyce Riley on WWCR 13845 is getting mushed by the spur from WEWN 13835. One of the Spanish transmitters has a different problem, continuous squeal of slightly varying audio frequency, e.g. June 8 at 1345 on 11550, but that is self-flagellation, not such a problem for the neighbors. Do all the WEWN English frequencies drag with them the plus/minus 10 kHz mushy spurs? Some are more obvious than others as they collide with unwitting neighbors. June 9 at 0619 when 6890 is in use, I turn on the BFO and tune up and down: sure `nuff, there they are around 6880 and 6900, tho no broadcasters to beat against. Fortunately for WYFR, they are far enough away at this time on 6875 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. One of our fellow free radio enthusiasts (thanks, the_axis) showed us some SDR scans of WHYP showing a nice wide 12 kHz footprint, better than twice the legal 5 kHz limit imposed on licensed broadcasters. We've also observed that the faux religious broadcaster operating WYFR in Florida spews out at least that much bandwidth in clear violation of their license. WYFR is a constant pest to free radio operators with their super-high powered crap broadcasts on 6915 and 6985 that frequently vomit our far in excess of a 5 kHz footprint. The crazy old coot that runs WYFR says that the world's gonna end in a couple of years, so two possible outcomes are possible: we will have only two more years of his nonsense and then it won't matter, or the end of the world will not come and his operation will be dismantled in disgrace and parts of his transmitters will be picked up at salvage sales by free radio operators. ~ (Larry Will, MD, Free Radio Weekly June 5 via DXLD) Axually, less than one year now (gh) ** U S A. Altho still dated effective March 14, after DST had begun, and still failing to display a 4-hour difference between ET and UT, the WINB program schedule now shows some different times for disgraced sexual predating evangelist ``Tony Alamo``, arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced and serving 175 years: M-F 11 am, 2 and 3 pm (yes, one hour and another hour back-to-back), i.e. 15-16, 18-20 UT, as I was not hearing him earlier on 9265, June 7 at 1317 but instead an apocalyptic acolyte of Brother Scare, soon back to the voice of the Last Days Prophet of God himself, who did not have to serve anywhere near 175 years (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WTWW, Lebanon TN, 5080. Sent e-mail via Pastor Peters http://sfawbn.com/contact.php Received no detail card in 22 days from WTWW picturing ``President of WTWW George McClintock in front of the 100,000 watt shortwave transmitter``. WTWW address on card is: 6611 Ormond Dr, Nashville TN 37205 USA (but is postmarked Cheyenne WY 820). (Alan Pennington, England, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) Cheyenne being the regional postal centre for Laporte CO (gh, DXLD) WTWN [sic], 5755: my report which was sent to the Lebanon TN address was returned by the USPO as insufficient (Marlin Field, MI, QSL Report, June NASWA Journal via DXLD) Because you wrote WTWN? ** U S A. 11715, KJES, June 10 at 1500, S9+15 but just barely modulated, an exercise in piety; Yahweh mentioned, not the God of the Pope, from this pseudo-Catholic station, and 1501 child pleading for reports with ID (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. Haven`t run across WJHR in a while, but did so June 4 at 1925, weak USB preaching, what else? on 15550, while neighboring KUWAIT 15540 AM was also too weak to copy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15550 USB, WJHR, Milton, Florida, 1510-1535, June 5, fire and brimstone preacher. Fair signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) As I was checking for Chávez, June 6 at 1608, punched up 15550 and some talking was JBA on USB, no doubt WJHR in its futile unlicensed transmission. Why bother? So the unipreacher can claim he has a worldwide audience and prompt donations? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. Updated A-10 schedule of World Harvest Radio: WHRI Angel 1 // WHRA Angel 5 0000-0500 5920 DXWC 0130-0200 Sun; 0330-0400 Mon; 0430-0500 Mon-Fri 0500-1100 11565 1100-1200 7315 1200-1300 5920 1300-1400 9495 Sat/Sun 1400-1500 17510 Sat/Sun 1500-1600 17510 Sat; 15195 Sun 1600-1900 17520 1900-2100 15665 2100-2200 13660 2200-2300 9785 2300-2400 5920 Sun-Fri; 9690 Sat WHRI Angel 2 0000-0400 5875 DXWC 0200-0230 Sun 0400-0500 7365 Sun-Fri; 9825 Sat 0500-0800 7365 0800-0900 11565 0900-1000 7365 1000-1200 9425 Deutsche Welle in German 1200-1300 9410 BBC in Spanish/English Mon-Fri 1300-1600 9840 Sat/Sun 1600-1700 9840 1700-1800 9840 Sun-Fri; 17520 Sat 1800-2000 9840 2000-2100 13660 2100-2200 9690 2200-2400 15640 Deutsche Welle in German T8WH Angel 3 0700-1100 9930 1100-1200 9945 IBRA Radio in Chinese 1200-1500 9930 1500-1800 9905 Radio Free Asia in Chinese 1800-1900 9955 1900-2200 9905 Radio Free Asia in Chinese 2200-2300 9930 Sat, Hmong World Christian Radio in Hmong 2200-2230 T8WH Angel 4 0000-0030 15225 Radio Australia in Indonesian 0030-0100 15710 Hmong World Christian Radio in Hmong Fri 0100-0130 15640 Radio Australia in Burmese 0130-0300 15710 0300-0400 15700 0400-0430 17800 Radio Australia in Indonesian 0430-0500 15700 0500-0530 17800 Radio Australia in Indonesian 0530-0700 15700 0700-1000 15725 CVC International in Indonesian Mon-Fri, now cancelled 1000-1100 15725 1100-1300 9965 Radio Australia in English 1300-1430 9965 Radio Australia in Chinese 1430-1500 9960 Furusato no Kaze in Japanese 1500-1530 9975 Nippon no Kaze in Korean 1530-1600 9965 Nippon no Kaze in Korean 1600-1630 9965 Radio Australia in Burmese 1630-2200 9930 DXWC 1930-2000 Sat/Sun 2200-2400 11875 Radio Australia in English WHRI Angel 6 0500-1200 5920 DXWC 1000-1030 Sun 1200-1300 7315 1300-1330 11785 Sat/Sun, Hmong World Christian Radio in Hmong Sat 1330-1600 11785 Sat/Sun, DXWC 1330-1400 Sun 1600-2300 11785 DXWC 1830-1900 Sat 2300-0500 7315 DXWC=DXing With Cumbre [all IMAGINARY unless CONFIRMED BY MONITORING - -- gh] (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 8 June via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Effective June 20, 2010, Adventist World Radio introduces emission of two new langs to AFG/PAK - Pashto Sun/Tue/Thu/Sat and Sindhi Mon/Wed/Fri 1530-1600 on 15260 MOS 300 kW / 095 deg to WeAs, but at same time AWR used adjacent frequency 15255 via WER 250 kW / 075 deg in English to Nepal, Tibet (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 8 June via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Online A-10 schedule for Adventist World Radio is full of errors 0000-0200 on 17880 SDA 100 kW / 315 deg, not 15300 in Chinese 0300-0330 on 9505 WER 250 kW / 135 deg, not 9845 in Oromo 0330-0400 on 9505 MOS 300 kW / 100 deg, not 6090 in Farsi 0400-0430 on 6065 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, not 6145 in Bulgarian (ex 0500-0600) 1000-1100 on 12010 SDA 100 kW / 315 deg, not 15495 in Chinese 1030-1100 on 15320 SDA 100 kW / 315 deg, not 11780 in Mongolian 1300-1330 on 11860 SDA 100 kW / 285 deg, not 15275 in Bengali 1330-1400 on 11860 SDA 100 kW / 285 deg, not 15275 in Assamese Sun/Wed 1330-1400 on 11860 SDA 100 kW / 285 deg, not 15275 in Hmong Thu/Fri 1330-1400 on 11860 SDA 100 kW / 285 deg, not 15275 in English Mo/Tu/Sa 1330-1400 on 9720 SDA 100 kW / 345 deg, not 11845 in Russian 1500-1530 on 9405*SDA 100 kW / 220 deg, not 9530 in Telugu 1500-1530 on 11880 MOS 300 kW / 120 deg, not 15595 in Turkish 1500-1530 on 15255 WER 250 kW / 090 deg, not 15335 in Punjabi 1530-1600 on 15255 WER 250 kW / 075 deg, not 15335 in English 1600-1630 on 7340 WER 100 kW / 120 deg, new txion in Bulgarian 1600-1630 on 9820 SDA 100 kW / 300 deg, not 6090 in Urdu 1630-1700 on 11740 SDA 100 kW / 300 deg, not 6090 in English 1730-1800 on 15155 WER 250 kW / 135 deg, not 17575 in Oromo 2100-2200 on 9620 SDA 100 kW / 330 deg, not 11790 in Korean * totally blocked by Radio Liberty in Azery (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 8 June via DXLD) ** U S A. QSL: WXMM-FM “Kung Pao Radio” 100.5 MHz Norfolk, VA. F/D Virginia prepared QSL card (with US Chinese New Year stamps!) plus P/D prepared letter & press release in 10 days from v/s Paul Campbell, “Former Director of the Ministry of Technical Development for Kung Pao Radio”, now just Chief Engineer for Max Media--Hampton Roads, for US mint stamps. (The conversion to a ‘Classic Chinese Hits’ format was a ruse between formats, and I have the only QSL reflecting this transition!) (no credit but probably like most other items in this column: Alan Loudell, DE, June CIDX Messenger via DXLD) ** U S A. WWCR 13845 and 15825 were both inbooming at 1312 June 7, so HF sporadic E is in progress. How high can it go? CB also hopping with one of many stations on 27 MHz band at 1335 claiming to be in Virginia. That doesn`t mean 10m hamband will be hopping as well, tho surely there is no sharp MUF cutoff at 28000. Not a single SSB signal to be heard there, just letting their beacons run, one a K2 and another a WA4, both weak and fading in and out at 1340. Before 1500 I onturned the TV but nothing yet reaching channel 2 in the following sesquihour tho DX Sherlock showed sparse activity on 6m (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1670, Mesalands Dinosaur Museum, Tucumcari NM; 12:53 AM MDT [0653 UT], 28-May; Short loop tape about the museum & events; no call ID (Harold Frodge, NM, MARE Tipsheet June 6 via DXLD)) ** U S A. WHY STATIONS ARE LICENSED TO NEIGHBORING SMALL TOWNS Quoting Randy Zerr KW4RZ in another forum: Nice DX. That must not be the actual legal ID for 98.9 KTUX. ID is "Shreveport / Bossier City" used to live there in the 90's and listen to them when they were playing hit music as "Tux 99". I have not learned the reason stations are licensed to neighboring small town names. This may be a bit lengthy... - Firstly, before a commercial FM station can exist, a channel must be allocated for its use. Initially, channels were allocated by the FCC on their own motion. However, once FM became commercially viable, these channels were grabbed up, at least any place with enough population to make a station worthwhile. In their initial allocations, the FCC gave more channels to larger cities, some to outlying important towns, and some to the very largest sub-central cities (Berkeley, Long Beach, Elgin, Newark, Cambridge, etc...). - So today, if you want a new station (except possibly in Alaska...) you have to get a new channel allocated. Or moved from somewhere else. - The Communications Act charges the FCC with ensuring an "equitable distribution of service". The Commission has interpreted this as meaning, that a petition to provide a first station to a community that doesn't already have one is preferred to a petition to add additional stations to a community that already has at least one station. If I petition to allot 108.1B to Hartford, Connecticut while Mike Bugaj petitions to allot the same channel to Newington, the channel will be allotted to Newington, [0] as that city has no FM stations. - This also means the FCC will not allow you to delete the last channel from a city in order to move it someplace else. - To get a channel allotted to a city, the petitioner must be able to show a location exists where a station could be built on that channel without interfering with any other existing station (or previously- filed application) and while delivering a "city-grade" (usually 60dBu) signal across most of the city in question. ====================================== So, let's say you're a broadcasting company in Clarksville, Tennessee. You'd like to add another station to your cluster, but none are available to buy at a price you're willing to pay. A check of the FCC database shows that if you purchased WDBL-FM Springfield, you could move it to Clarksville without interfering with anything. And WDBL-FM is cheap. So you buy WDBL-FM and petition to change the city-of-license from Springfield to Clarksville. And the FCC denies your petition. Because there are already two FM stations in Clarksville. Moving WDBL-FM to a city that already has stations doesn't result in a "favorable arrangement of allocations". OK, so you don't petition to change the city-of-license from Springfield to Clarksville. You petition to change it from Springfield to Oak Grove, Kentucky. This time, the FCC grants it. Because there aren't any existing stations in Oak Grove. You're bringing Oak Grove its first local service - you're creating a favorable arrangement of allocations. (never mind that neither the station's studios, nor its offices, nor its transmitter need to be in Oak Grove. Never mind that 100% of the programming is directed at listeners in Clarksville.) Why specifically Oak Grove? Really only two reasons: 1. It didn't already have other stations. 2. It's within the 70 dBu principal city coverage contour of the station at your desired transmitter site. You probably could have just as well chosen Tiny Town (actual name), Hammackville, or St. Bethlehem (again, actual name..) [0] not really, the FCC staff will simply laugh their heads off at both of us, making it impossible for them to add the dismissal of our petitions to the day's Daily Digest posting (Doug Smith W9WI Pleasant View, TN http://www.w9wi.com May 24, WTFDA Forums; further comments: http://www.wtfda.info/showthread.php?t=4445 via DXLD) ** U S A. unID DTV-3 with no text ID --- who the hay on ch. 3 doesn't give a text ID? Video was in OK for a few seconds off and on. It was a commercial station. This station is showing an informercial "How Do I Look" and at least remaps (stays on) channel 3. Also got the LPTV on ch. 6 in Lubbock with lots of local ads. 73, (Jeff Kadet, Macomb IL, June 2, WTFDA via DXLD) Jeff, Sounds like KHPK-LD-3, DeSoto, TX, last I knew, still didn't have any PSIP. Last year when I caught it, Danny and the station's receptionist, plus a local viewer via AVS Forum, verified what I had seen. Tough to ID when they don't provide the info (Steve Rich, Indianapolis, IN, ibid.) Jeff, what Steve said is still the case. There was no PSIP ID on the DFW LDTV 3 as of a few weeks back (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA June 3, ibid.) ** U S A. FCC Site: The End-All Be-All ?? Paul B. Walker, Jr. wrote: ``I get your point, but when it comes to what stations are off the air, the FCC's list is the authority, not Freshwater's.`` Well, no. The FCC's list is the authority as to which stations have voluntarily reported themselves as silent to the FCC. The FCC's list is the authority as to which stations are at risk of having their licenses cancelled a year after reporting themselves as silent to the FCC. But the FCC's list is not at all authoritative when it comes to telling DXers what we actually want to know: which stations are REALLY off the air, whether or not they've reported it to the FCC. For that purpose, there is no single authoritative list. The FCC's list is a good starting point, though some of the stations listed there have returned to the air without notifying the FCC. Lee's list is a good one. We try to keep tabs at 100000watts.com on who's really silent, whether or not it's been reported to the FCC. So does Barry McLarnon, and so do Wayne and the NRC Log. Put them all together and add the real-time info you can get from this and other lists, and you start to get a picture of reality. s (Scott Fybush, IRCA via DXLD) To reduce this further, as a DX'er, I don't care who has notified FCC whether they are on. I care about who is on or off. FCC's data isn't great, but many other sites are maintained from FCC data. This is somewhat similar to comparing data on IBOC stations from iBiquity's lists versus listener-compiled lists, where iBiquity has an incentive to make thier list look bigger. On things which are often reported to various sites by listeners, of course, it all depends on who reports what to whom (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ), [15 mi NNW of Philadelphia], ibid.) ** U S A. FCC KEEPS ORDERING PIRATES IN NEW YORK AND FLORIDA TO CUT IT OUT http://www.news-press.com/article/20100604/CRIME/100604014/Pirate-radio-station-busted-by-Fort-Myers-police and: From radio-info.com (no specific hyperlink that archives this found): about 1 hour ago From this morning’s TRI Newsletter: “Just since mid-May, the New York office has mailed nearly a dozen “notices of unlicensed operation” to operators in Manhattan (at 94.5), Brooklyn (90.5, 102.3), Queens (90.5), the Bronx (102.3, 106.9, 104.5) and even suburbs like Mt. Vernon (101.5).” A Radio-Info analysis of the FCC database shows plenty of letters being written to operators in South Florida, too. There were pirates in Miami at 101.1 and 95.9, at 98.5 in Ft. Lauderdale and 103.9 in Deerfield Beach. If the operators don’t shut down, they could be subject to a followup letter and investigation – and a $10,000 fine. Other FCC field offices have recently written up unauthorized FM operations in the San José area and Colorado. Meanwhile, Florida’s unusual state law governing pirate radio led to an actual bust by the local police department last week in Ft. Myers Authorities confiscated equipment and arrested two DJs (via Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W Visit my "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" at: http://sites.google.com/site/floridadxn/ DXLD) ** U S A. LA MEGA 87.7- WASHINGTON DC AREA --- Heard presumed "La Mega"/ "La Nueva" from the Washington DC area (Oxon Hill MD?) on 87.7 tonight with Latin music (not sure of the exact style), State Farm ads, mentions of Washington and Northern Virginia and mentions of "La Radio de la Familia Latina". Very strong enhancement to the west tonight after thunderstorms. Did I miss any mention of this station? I knew it was proposed but when did it sign on? I believe they are using WDCN-LP channel 6 signal. – (John Cereghin WDX3IAO KB3LYP, Smyrna DE, June 3, My radio page www.pilgrimway.org/dx ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. NYC Analog TV DX --- The meek have inherited the Earth. Seen from a location at Stamford Harbor, CT: Channel 6 WNYZ-LP NYC - Charlie Chaplin silent movie video with Russian audio feigning an FM station. Can it be any more bizarre? Personally, I liked the camera looking at the fish tank better. Channel 17 - W17CD - Stamford, CT - GCN religious programming via a lousy digital receiver. Confetti and audio hits passed on to their analog transmitter. Channel 26 - W26CE - Manorville, Suffolk County, NY - Test bars with "W26C" on screen See what you are missing? NTSC analog lives! (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, FN31, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. PUBLIC BROADCASTING IN THE DIGITAL AGE The Wall Street Journal carries an interview with Vivian Schiller, president and chief executive of National Public Radio (NPR) who predicts Internet radio will take the broadcast tower's place. NPR is a public-service organization with a mission to provide for an informed public and a goal of universal access. The interview covers the changes NPR has made to bring their broadcasting to a modern audience and in the interview Vivian Schiller says: "In the next five to 10 years, Internet radio will take [the broadcast tower's] place, and there's no reason why we should be fearful about it. In fact we should embrace it, especially on mobile. Mobile is the second coming of radio. It has been a godsend for us, because mobile devices are so easy to take with you, and you can listen to any stream you want." "...whether they're listening via an Internet stream or broadcast, it's identical. So why do we care?" Read the full Wall Street Journal interview at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704764404575287070721094884.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews (via Southgate http://www.southgatearc.org/news/june2010/npr_in_digital_age.htm via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Inside Music Media: NPR’s War Against Radio This link below takes us beyond the basic shortwave remit of NASWA, but might be interesting to those who found the discussion about podcasting and "radio" to be of interest. NPR is perhaps the closest domestic model to the list of international broadcasters I named earlier, so their attitudes and interests are worth looking at. http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com/2010/06/nprs-war-against-radio.html (Richard Cuff, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** U S A. HIMAN BROWN DIES AT 99; PIONEER SYMBOLIZES 'AN ENTIRE ERA OF DRAMATIC RADIO ENTERTAINMENT' In this August 1943 photo, Himan Brown works in a CBS radio studio in New York. (Associated Press/ June 6, 2010) Brown, whose career in the fledgling medium began in the late 1920s, may be best known for creating 'Inner Sanctum Mysteries,' which debuted in 1941, and 'CBS Radio Mystery Theater' decades later. By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times June 9, 2010 | 12:44 a.m. Himan Brown, the pioneer radio producer and director of "Grand Central Station," "Inner Sanctum Mysteries" and other popular shows of the 1930s and '40s who returned to the airwaves three decades later with "CBS Radio Mystery Theater," has died. He was 99. Brown died Friday of age-related causes at his longtime apartment on Central Park West in Manhattan, said his granddaughter Melina Brown. In a career in radio that began in the medium's infancy in the late 1920s, the prolific Brown's credits include "The Adventures of the Thin Man," "Bulldog Drummond," "Dick Tracy," "Flash Gordon," "The Adventures of Nero Wolfe," "Terry and the Pirates" and many others. Along the way, he directed stars such as Orson Welles, Helen Hayes, Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. . . Source: Radio pioneer Himan Brown dies at 99 - latimes.com http://bit.ly/8ZA7me (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-himan-brown-20100609,0,3058430.story (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/07/AR2010060704512_pf.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) obits ** VANUATU. 1715 UT on Friday 4 June had a quick listen to 60 meters. Mostly quiet, and Vanuatu was absent with their overnight unannounced music programme on 3945 & 5055 kHz. Dunno yet if that's permanent (Pacific downunder mail via William Hague-UK, NWDXC June 5, via BC-DX via DXLD) See also SOLOMONS ** VANUATU. 3945, R. Vanuatu, Port Vila. June 08, 1019-1026 female in English talks, short music, male outside segment. Degrading, 25322 5055, R. Vanuatu, Port Vila. June 09, 0950-1010 male in English talks outside, female studio, 1000 flute music on top of the hour, female announcements “Vanuatu”, male talks. Seems //3945 wich was very poor. 23422 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN [non]. 9830, R. Vaticana, June 6 at 1209, Sackville relay vs ever-present RTTY at about equal level, demonstrating how out-of- touch some SWBC frequency managers are with the real world; and surprised to hear not English as scheduled from 1200, but Spanish! Some churchman with a heavy Italian accent interviewed about Paul by a native SS; 1211 ``nos despedimos hasta mañana`` and into IS. Spanish is supposed to be at 1130-1200 only, so what became of English? A hitherto unknown Sunday variation? BTW, official name of station in Spanish is Radio Vaticano, but Italian version Vaticana overrode (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Vatican Radio special broadcast heard Sunday 6 June from 0805 tune-in on 15550 in French. This was a live transmission of the Eucharistic Celebration for Pope Benedict XVI visit to Cyprus with French commentary. Programme ended at 0850. Also caught this coverage just before closure on 9625, but don't know what language that coverage was in. This afternoon, found this on the Vatican Radio website at: http://www.vaticanradio.org/en3/trasm_spec.asp "Live Broadcast from 08.20 a.m. - in French for Africa on kHz 15.550 SW, for the Rome area on MHz 103, 8 FM and via Internet on Channel 2 - in Spanish for the Rome area on kHz 1.260 MW and via Internet on Channel 4 - in Italian for Italy on kHz 5.965 SW, for the Rome area on kHz 585 MW, MHz 105,0 FM and via Internet on Channel 5 - in Portuguese for Africa on kHz 17.720 SW and via Internet on Channel 6 " No mention of 9625, and I guess that the time given is in Central European Summer Time [UT +2] (Alan Roe, Teddington, UK) ** VENEZUELA [non]. CUBA, R. Nacional de Venezuela --- my report was sent to the Florida address and returned by the USPO with ``vacant`` stamped on the envelope (Marlin Field, MI, QSL Report, June NASWA Journal via DXLD) ``Aló, Presidente`` check Sunday June 6 at 1608: Nothing on 17750, 13750, 13680, 12010, and RHC itself on weakly vs RTTY on 11690 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Commies vs Commies --- it seems the Cubo-Venezuelan alliance is not as firm as you might think by listening to RHC, or RNV; and could this explain the increasingly rare occasions that RHC axually relays El Hugazo`s Sunday show? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Caracas, Venezuela --- CUBANS IN THE MILITARY A top Venezuelan general has resigned in protest over Cuba`s growing influence on the Venezuelan military. Gen. Antonio Rivero said Cuban officers have been sitting in on top-level meetings, gaining control of intelligence on communications and underground bunkers. ``They know which weapons they have in Venezuela that they could count on at any given time,`` Rivero said.` `They`ve gone beyond what should be permitted and what an alliance should be.`` Analysts say Cuba has beefed up its presence in Venezuela because it fears that mismanagement by President Hugo Chávez is imperiling its own economy. Cuba depends on subsidized oil it gets from Venezuela in return for Cuban medical and military aid (The world at a glance, The Week, June 11, via DXLD) ** VIETNAM [and non]. 11840, poor in Vietnamese, June 3 before and after 2100. Since I was getting China direct on 9525, could this be Vietnam direct? No: it`s VOV via Skelton UK to Europe at 2030-2130, 300 kW, 110 degrees. 9550, open carriers just before 1300 June 5, then two stations start modulating at once, roughly equal levels, one in Vietnamese and the other in Chinese. They are about 3 Hz apart. In Vietnamese it`s CRI as scheduled in Aoki, 500 kW, 193 degrees from Beijing site. In Chinese, it`s VOV, 100 kW, 27 degrees from Hanoi-Sontay site. So the two Commie stations basically cancel each other out as they have been doing on 9550 for years, a trans-border shouting war (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. 13590, 1Africa, June 10 at 1410 hyper YL DJ with SMS numbers, bits of music mixed, then into gospel rap, ``Praise the Lord`` just about the only lyrix. Stronger than usual, S9+12, but still heavily CODARed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE. 4828, Voice of Zimbabwe, Gweru. June 09, 2144-2201 male talks in English alternating short Jazz music, many mentions of “Zimbabwe”, 2159 female talks. At peak, 33533 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE. ZBC WORKERS THREATEN STRIKE OVER 'LOOTING' AND SALARY DELAYS Workers at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) are said to be threatening strike action after accusing management of looting licence fees and splashing out on luxury cars, while failing to pay salaries on time. Reports say workers got their April salaries 4 weeks late (around the 20th May) and the same situation is anticipated for the May salaries. Its alleged top managers at the state propaganda station have splashed out on luxury vehicles worth more than US$1 million. In addition they are being accused of buying generators and plasma screen televisions using money looted from licence fees. This money is meant to finance the operations of the broadcaster, including paying salaries. Chief Executive Officer Happison Muchechetere denied the allegations as mere 'bar talk' and asked if those making the allegations were auditors. He admitted buying generators, but argued these were used by his managers to monitor their programmes when there was no electricity. He also boasted that ZBC had the highest paid employees in the country. ZBC now relies on licence fees to fund its operations after most advertisers shunned the station owing to its annoying and relentless ZANU PF propaganda. Zimbabweans in urban areas, who have the money, have installed satellite dishes to watch foreign television channels (Source? Via David Pringle-Wood, Zimbabwe, June 6, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 5 June: 5099.63, harmonic of Greek (?)pirate on 1549 with Turkic music then LA. Not // 1700 kHz and seems having inner carrier fluctuations (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6025-, checking for R. Amanecer, D.R., again June 9 since its unexpected overnight appearance June 7, but absent at 0612; I do, however have a very weak carrier slightly on the low side like 4025 Liberia compared to Cuba 5025, and unlike Amanecer which was +. Is Enugu, Biafra, Nigeria, active? 6025-, FRCN Enugu, BIAFRA, suspected source of barely detectable carrier, June 10 at 0615. WRTH 2010 has it as inactive/irregular, so can someone in the area confirm whether it has been on lately? Offset is just about identical to Star Radio, LIBERIA below 4025, which has been measured at -15 Hz. If 6025 were Dominican Republic, it was slightly on hi side of frequency when heard 3 nights ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 7190, Eritrea?, Ethiopia? 1745-, 04 Jun'10, vernacular, HoA music, talks; 35433. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 7495-7515 approx., huge noise blob at 2108 June 4. It might have come from some household appliance, but my major noise sources were off and this did not repeat at periodic intervals up and down the dial. And it was gone at next check 2254. Could not have been trans-oceanic, but relatively near, and would really ruin WRNO if on during its hours 00-03. Or could it have been WRNO itself `testing`? They are after all, registered on 7505 from 22-16 and were initially heard testing on it beyond those hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Amigos, Alguém poderia informar quem está transmitindo em 7842 kHz LSB? Ouvi há pouco (06.06, 1840 UT) um sinal que transmitia mx estilo sertanejo, mas depois me confundiu com musica gauchesca (aquela gaita característica de mx gauchesca). Como o sinal está fraco demais, apenas os picos da transmissão se ouvem. Mas a emissão está lá. Agradeço alguma pista dos colegas. 73, (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo, SP, Rx: Kenwood R-1000, Ant.: 20 m cordoalha + Sintonizador de antena TEB STA-1 + Pre-selector II, MFJ-1040B http://radioways.blogspot.com http://www.ondascurtas.com radioescutas yg via DXLD) Brazilian pirate has been reported around here (gh) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks to William T. Hassig, Mt Prospect IL for a check in the mail to P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702 (WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) As you may or may not have noticed under this heading in the last several DXLDs, and at the mid-break in WORs, there have been no financial contributions recently. I know times are tough for many of us, and that includes me. I am not one to go on a constant fund- raising effort, even tho my initials are gh, but am finding it increasingly difficult to justify continuing to deplete my own time and resources to keep DXLD and WORLD OF RADIO going. Many more people sending a small amount = a few people sending a larger amount (Glenn) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ BAHAMAS CRUISE FOR SHORTWAVE LISTENERS AND BROADCASTERS NASB's 2011 Annual Meeting to be held on the High Seas At its recent 2010 annual meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, the U.S. National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB) decided that next year's meeting will take place on the Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas cruise ship from May 13-16, 2011. The ship sails round-trip from Miami to the Bahamas. The NASB had been considering an offer by member station Radio Miami International to host the 2011 annual meeting in Miami. But initial planning revealed that it would be less expensive and easier to organize the meeting on one of the many ships that sail from Miami, which is known as the "cruise capital of the world." "Many of the cruise ships, like the Majesty of the Seas, are equipped with full-fledged conference centers nowadays," said Radio Miami's Jeff White, who is currently president of the NASB [and also a cruise agent]. "They offered to provide us with meeting rooms, audiovisual equipment, etc. which are at least as attractive as what hotels on land offer, and those facilities are free of charge to us. Plus we'll have the added benefit of offering conference delegates a very interesting itinerary which includes stops at Royal Caribbean's private island CocoCay and at Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas." "Hotel rooms on land in Miami typically cost between $150 and $200 per night just for lodging," added White. "On the ship, it will cost $100 per night per person, in double occupancy, and that will include lodging, three meals per day at a choice of restaurants, a wide variety of entertainment and transportation." The cost for an inside cabin with private bath on the three-night cruise is $299.00 plus $66.41 in taxes, based on double occupancy. "Since rates are based on double occupancy," said White, "we thought this would be a perfect opportunity for meeting delegates to bring along their spouses and family members, who will have plenty of activities to keep them busy both on the ship and on the islands while the delegates are in meetings." For many years, the NASB has invited shortwave listeners and anyone else with an interest in shortwave radio to take part in its annual meetings, and at least a few listeners participate each year. "But in 2011," said Jeff White, "we hope a lot more shortwave listeners will join us on the cruise because of the exotic venue and the reasonable price. And both the ship and the Bahamian islands are exotic places to do some interesting shortwave listening and DXing. We're also expecting to have presentations by shortwave broadcasters from the U.S. and other countries on a variety of topics that will be of interest to broadcasters and listeners alike." Royal Caribbean 's Majesty of the Seas was built in 1992 and was refurbished in 2007. The ship holds over 2700 passengers and around 1000 crew members who come from all over the world. "It's like a miniature United Nations onboard," commented White. The conference center has three main meeting rooms with state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment and a business center with computers and Internet connections. There is even cell phone service onboard for those who have activated international roaming on their phones. The Majesty of the Seas has two main à la carte restaurants, as well as a large buffet restaurant, a pizzeria, a deli restaurant and 24- hour room service, all of which are included in the basic cruise fare. There is a fast-food restaurant, a coffee shop and an ice cream parlor which are available for a small extra charge. A large theater is the scene of a Las Vegas-style stage production each night with musicians, magicians and comedians. Other facilities include programs for various age groups of children and teenagers, discothèque, game room, Internet cafe, casino, spa, gym, rock climbing wall, several lounges with musical entertainment, a small shopping area, swimming pools, Jacuzzis, sports deck and more. The ship's cabins all have private bathrooms, flat-screen TV's and other standard facilities. Passengers can explore the ports of call on their own, or they can take a variety of optional excursions ranging from snorkeling trips and glass-bottom boats to sightseeing tours and swimming with dolphins. The NASB cruise rate of $299.00 is guaranteed for those who register before October 27, 2010 with a deposit of $100.00 per person ($200.00 per cabin). The balance of the cruise fare does not have to be paid until March 4, 2011. A brochure about the cruise and a registration form are available on the NASB website, http://www.shortwave.org Click on "Annual Meeting." For an e-brochure with photos of the ship, send an e-mail to info @ wrmi.net with "NASB 2011" in the subject line (NASB June 6 via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See INDIA; RUSSIA; SPAIN ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM+ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Fruitful DRM+ Symposium in VHF Band III http://drm.org/index.php?p=news_item&uid=202 (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dxldyg via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HD Radio editorial Found on Radio Business Report --- some in the industry are now screaming that the emperor has no clothes! There are only 2 HD AMs left in DC --- Radio One's graveyard 1 kw's, WOL 1450 and WYCB 1340. Hope springs eternal? Editorial: The fact is that iBiquity doesn't care about interference because the only date in their calendar is the day the FCC approves their petition to sunset analog broadcasting. Then, interference won`t matter. Theirs is a game of delay and misdirection. They will point to conflicting reports, lack of listener complaints, and any other straw man they can come up with to while away the time until they petition for analog FM to end. iBiquity's business plan has, all along, been to end analog broadcasting and claim all that spectrum for data bandwidth, which they would size control and sell a to lot of people paying THEM. The fact that the "killer app" -- the multicast channel -- is a loss leader until they can sell THEIR share of the data bandwidth has somehow been missed. If broadcasters think that the conversion to IBOC only will be painless, guess again: Take a look at how much of your ad revenue will belong to iBiquity when ALL of your ads have 100% of their audience over the digital signal. There's a reason an iBiquity spokesman kept repeating the same mantra to us in 2004 when we confronted him about the mathematically inescapable limitations and flaws in their technology; "We have our business plan." They will point to digital television and its survival, but there's an important difference: No ONE company controlled all of digital television. No one had to sign contracts and fork over five figures just in licensing fees to put DTV on the air. And no one has to pay a percentage of their ad revenue to DTV's inventors. Also, as heavily as Cheap Channel is invested in iBiquity, it's little surprise that as the largest single radio licensee, they are all for everything iBiquity wants. The pushback has happened and they`re terrified because people who aren't on their payroll are now making the quantitative measurements. The only question is: Is the FCC bought and paid for as well? --by Paul Strater, broadcast engineer in Chicago, IL (via Bruce Collier, York, PA, 722ft ASL, NRC-AM via DXLD) In the old days the FCC was run by engineers who read and understood technical jargon. The only lawyers were the ones the engineers instructed to write the laws that appear in Parts 15, 73, and 74. Now, the majority are lawyers, many of whom are new to this country, and most of which couldn't tell what AM from FM is. They rule by what is not the common impressions we have on interference and actual experiences with RF, but by what qualifies as "legal" according to words. As we know, the FCC addresses IBOC just from the transmission side and what is legal according to the FCC's lab's definition. It does not address the home listener, or the billions of legacy sets out there. It also does not look at the fairness of whom owns the spectrum and how to best manage it. Can you imagine if the FCC lawyers worked in medicine? :) (Fred Vobbe, OH, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DTV CONVERSION ON CABLE I am the proud owner (or rather lendee) of ten DTV converter boxes. Not for broadcast but for cable. My local monopoly, Suddenlink, suddenly deleted some of my extended basic cable channels, e.g. Comedy Central, so I called to inquire what happened. After navigating the phone tree a real human being finally explained that system is being ``upgraded`` to digital and we have to go in and pick up as many converter boxes as we need, free of charge unless we cancel service and then must return or pay for them. Since I have at least 5 TVs and 5 VCRs, I figured I needed ten boxes, and while raising eyebrows, they were handed over. Trouble is, they employ channel 3 and 4 out only, no line out, so I can`t use them with tuner-less newer VCRs anyway. And can no longer program VCRs with tuners on multiple channels, just one at a time! Furthermore they only work with the IR remote, so running two or more of them in the same room is problematical. The clerk heard my complaints about this NOT being an improvement, then asserted that DTV conversion on cable is an FCC requirement; they would not be spending a gigabuck on this if they didn`t have to. I maintained that the well-known mandatory DTV conversion applies to broadcast TV only, so who is right? Of course, Suddenlink doesn`t bother to availablize (at least on Basic) virtual channels such as OETA OKLA. I also find that my distribution amplifer to some of the more distant sets apparently doesn`t get enough cable signal to them so the converters can`t find all the channels (not above C48, while they need to go to C74). Maybe if I get another inline amp that will suffice, tho I have my doubts. An additional problem I suspect is that the converter is axually picking the higher-tier DTV versions of the basic channels and turning them into analog on the accustomed 2-75 channels. No telling what frequencies these higher-tier originals are on, and the distrib amp may be rolling off/attenuating them. Ideas? 73, (Glenn Hauser, Enid, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGST) This is exactly what they did here with the local version of comcast cable chanels. His comment "An additional problem I suspect is that the converter is axually picking the higher-tier DTV versions of the basic channels and turning them into analog on the accustomed 2-75 channels. No telling what frequencies these higher-tier originals are on, and the distrib amp may be rolling off/attenuating them." is the closest. My understanding is that it was not picking and choosing from already positioned avalible digital channels, but they have a frequency block and 'squeeze' several channels with digital compression, the 'converter' then pulls the requested channel from the 'squeezed' block as requested. And yes only one out at a time. :( (Paul Pepka, Kokomo IN Comcast customer, via John H Carver, Jr., DXLD) Back when broadcast TV was switching to digital, I read or saw where cable TV was not required to start switching until 2012. Although my recollection might not be exactly right, apparently there is a milestone date for cable switching, just as there was for broadcast. Because the newer VCRs do not include an analog tuner, I have kept a couple of old analog VCRs to pass the signal through (i.e., to use as a converter from the digital box to the newer line-in VCR). (Dick W., ABDX via DXLD) Glenn, We have Comcast here in Denver and they did the same thing in late April; the boxes cost $6 a month for the first 2 and $13 for any more after that. We have 5 TV's; it is a pain. Comcast says this is so they can provide higher speeds for "CHSI -- Comcast High Speed Internet". They have limited us to just our local channels without the boxes; they are Motorola boxes and to be real honest they don't work all that great - the picture always blocks and the sound is not lined up with the picture, and if the Emergency Alert System gets activated, the boxes freeze and there is no text, just the alert tone and then it takes 5 min after the alert has ended before they reset. It sucks. Later (Paul Armani, Denver, ibid.) We had acquired a number of analog TV's through the years stuck in rooms all over the house. When the great digital conversion came last year, I had to switch to cable from Direct TV because Direct TV didn't carry one of the local channels I wanted. I rented a Motorola box for an old RCA-XL TV that wasn't cable ready and then fed the direct outputs into a little TV transmitter I bought from eBay which sends an analog signal on a vacant UHF channel to other TV's in the house. Here is a link: http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-UHF-Audio-Video-Transmitter-Sender-TV-DSS-DVR-/180517946628?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a07b54504 It works real well. The only caveat is that you have to change the channels at the box which sometimes means some walking. The little gadget transmits about 500 feet. I proved this with my Sony Watchman. However, if you get one, it drifts a little from cold start to hot, so wait about 30 minutes before setting up the channel you want to transmit on (Bob Smoak, Bamberg, S. C., ibid.) I don't claim to be an expert on this, but from all the cable TV ads before the OTA DTV conversion I got the clear impression cable simply needs to carry the signals and get them to your TV. How they do that is up to them. If HD Channel 2 OTA (or whatever new channel the old OTA 2 is now on) comes in on channel 1102 on your cable box, that's fine. It just has to be available to customers who want it. They were supposed to have all this dealt with before the OTA DTV conversion. And I can't see what any of this has to do with moving Comedy Central off the extended basic roster and into the digital channel range. What's far more likely is that they're moving much of their system to digital to make better use of their available bandwidth. My local cable is going to start doing addressable broadcast (or something like that) where all 9000 channels are not sent into the "last mile" of cable all the time. The less watched channels are sent into any particular "last mile" segment only when someone on the segment is actually tuned to that channel. This requires use of a two- way addressable cable box or compatible equipment with some kind of cable system-provided interface. Many Tivos and such will require their own digital cable box and IR blaster. It should be interesting to see how much of a lag there is when tuning to a channel that isn't currently being sent into my neighborhood. Between the DVR and the channel listings guide I don't do much channel surfing anymore so it's unlikely to be a big issue for me, but I can imagine some dedicated surfers might get upset when it takes five seconds between channel changes. If this opens the way for me to get 100 Mbps internet access, it's fine with me (-- Jay Heyl, ibid.) I later discovered that Comedy Central had been moved from C58 to C72, along with a few other changes without notice, or deletions in Extended Basic. The now vacant(?) channels are 17, 18, 23, 24, 57, 58 and 59. At first I guessed they had individually been converted to DTV so I was just seeing snow; or maybe they are standing by for new channels to be added on them; or maybe they are being avoided for RF interference issues (tho 20 is worst around here, and no coincidence CSPAN is on it). Now I wonder if these are compressed channels as explained below (gh) On 6/9/2010 4:51 PM, Glenn Hauser wrote: > The clerk heard my complaints about this NOT being an improvement, then asserted that DTV conversion on cable is an FCC requirement; they would not be spending a gigabuck on this if they didn`t have to. I maintained that the well-known mandatory DTV conversion applies to broadcast TV only, so who is right? > You are very correct on this. The clerk is confusing over-the-air change from analog to digital with high definition with the cable company use of digital compression to obtain more standard definition channels. The cable companies are under pressure to provide more and more channels, more high speed Internet and supply high definition to those subscribers who have invested in new sets. They can only do this by digitally compressing multiple analog channels into the 6 MHz bandwidth of a single analog channel. It appears to me that they can put six or even up to eight standard definition channels into each 6 MHz, and they are doing this in some of the channels above channel 72. The FCC apparently is requiring the local OTA and PEG channels that can be viewed on a cable ready TV set to remain so until June of 2012. But the many cable only channels we are used to viewing on those sets must be compressed. So as to not lose customers, they are providing digital adapters for those not using the digital (not to be confused with HD) boxes. >An additional problem I suspect is that the converter is axually picking the higher-tier DTV versions of the basic channels and turning them into analog on the accustomed 2-75 channels. That is what they are supposed to be doing. >No telling what frequencies these higher-tier originals are on, and the distrib amp may be rolling off/attenuating them. Ideas?> They are located above cable channel 72. But be aware that some channels like 95 to 98 are actually in the FM band (Allan Dunn, K1UCY, 10 June, WTFDA via DXLD) Yes, they just started using 97-99 for home shopping channels! I can`t think of a better graveyard for them, with FM RF QRM (gh, DXLD) MUSEA +++++ BBC News - BLETCHLEY PARK WWII ARCHIVE TO GO ONLINE http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/10239623.stm Historians of radio and WW II frequently mention the UK's Bletchley Park as an important aspect of how radio was used...and how messages were decoded. Those historians may find the referenced article of interest (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, NASWA yg via DXLD) VINTAGE RADIO MUSEUM NEAR DUBLIN (This is a wonderful museum near Dublin that I was able to visit with some fellow DXers last year, its well worth a visit - Mike). Since the beginning of May and until the end of October, the Vintage Radio Museum in Howth is open everyday from 11am till 4pm. [UT+1] A trawl through the visitors' book reveals that the majority of visitors are from outside Ireland who have heard of the museum by word of mouth or through the internet. Sadly, many Irish people do not seem to appreciate what is on their own doorstep. The museum is run on a voluntary non-commercial basis by Pat Herbert, an enthusiastic collector of radio memorabilia for the last 50 years. A trip to Howth including a visit to the museum is highly recommended, especially during the summer months. Visits by small groups or clubs are particularly welcome. Recently, the museum was rated second in the "Odd Museums" category of the Dubliner magazine. The Howth Martello Radio Group operates an amateur radio station, EI0MAR on most weekends and other amateurs would be more than welcome to visit and operate the station by prior arrangement. The antennas are on the roof of the Martello Tower. A Cobwebb antenna, kindly donated by Jack EI7HX, and a 40-metre dipole with each half in the shape of the letter W cater for HF while a home-brew Slim Jim caters for 2 metres and 70 centimetres. Contact details and more information are on the website http://www.ei0mar.org You can also email to info /at/ ei0mar.org or telephone to 086- 8154189. (Southgate http://www.southgatearc.org/news/june2010/vintage_radio_museum.htm via Mike Terry, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) 'Collectors Corner' in the October 2009 issue of Communication features the visit to this museum. Also can be read in full colour online at http://www.bdxc.org.uk - follow link to Articles Index page then tab down to the EDXC conference reports. Also on the Articles Index page is a comprehensive list of 'Radio Museums in the UK & Ireland' (BDXC-UK moderator, ibid.) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ 50 HERTZ AC POWER IN THE USA THRU THE FORTIES With the early days of television, it might interest some to know that in 1947-48-49 there were substantial areas in markets such as Los Angeles where the local power company provided 50 cycle - NOT 60 - current. Think about how the analog TV sets referenced the local power line FREQUENCY for a multitude of functions. So RCA - one example - produced 50 cycle TV sets (a 10" cost US$422 whereas the standard 60 cycle cost $375). Sections of NYC were in the same position - and from memory without checking - older portions of Chicago, Philadelphia. So it would be possible in a very ancient rummage sale to discover a 50 cycle TV set design even today! So you moved from one area of LA to another and had to go buy a brand new TV set! (Bob Cooper in NZ, WTFDA via DXLD) I've certainly not exhaustively reviewed all early receiver designs, but --- I don't recall seeing any (in the all-electronic TV era - no motors) that used the power line frequency. Consider, that if the power line was being used to derive the vertical sweep, how would you derive a 60 Hz sweep from a 50 Hz source? It would be trivial today with a single IC but would probably require an entire extra chassis full of tubes in that era. I think the difference between a 50 Hz TV and a 60 Hz TV was solely in the power transformer. As I understand it (magnetics & fields are my weak area...) losses are higher in an iron-core transformer at lower frequencies. So to keep heat buildup under control, a larger, heavier transformer was necessary. Could be larger filter capacitors were also necessary, to filter out the lower-frequency hum. That's one reason switching power supplies are so popular today: step up the power line *frequency* to 70-80,000 Hz or so, and you can use a much smaller transformer and smaller filter capacitors. From what I've read, all of Southern California had 50 Hz power until Hoover Dam went online? Besides the 50Hz areas, there were also areas with 25 Hz power, and even with DC. Mom told the tale of burning out a projector in nursing school in the early 1950s in Milwaukee; she didn't realize the building where she was doing the demo had the wrong power frequency (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ PLT in EMC Journal The radio pollution caused by mains home networking devices features in issue 88 of the free magazine EMC Journal. The PowerLine Telecommunications (PLT) Interference Range Contest is covered on page 5. There are two prizes of VR120 wide-band hand-held Scanner Receivers, one for finding the worse polluter (greatest range) the other will be awarded for the entrant whose detection distance is closest to the average distance claimed by all entrants. John Woodgate's Column on page 16 covers attempts to standardise the polluting PLT system and it reports that CENELEC TC205 has produced a 56-page report on cases of inadequate immunity of some products to PLT and PLT-like signals on the mains supply in the frequency range 9 kHz to 150 kHz. Page 12 has a report that RFID could effect Pacemakers and Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators (ICDs). The EMC Journal issue 88 can be read at http://www.nutwooduk.co.uk/pdf/Issue88.PDF (Southgate http://www.southgatearc.org/news/june2010/plt_in_emc_journal.htm via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) WIDE AREA ACCESS-BPL LIKELY EXTINCT IN AUSTRALIA The latest appraise of Broadband over Powerlines has it cautiously described as appearing to have ''all but vanished from the Australian telecommunications landscape''. That's the view of Wireless Institute of Australia BPL Working Group Chairman, Phil Wait VK2DKN, who also observes that the use of Access- BPL in the United States is diminishing rapidly, with the latest Access-BPL shut-down occurring in the City of Manassas. There has been eight Access-BPL trials in Australia since 2004 but they appear to have stopped in 2007. In his annual report to the WIA he said that Smart Metering trials in Australia appear to have bypassed Access-BPL in favour of other technologies. Phil VK2DKN said, "In short, Access-BPL did not achieve the critical mass required to guarantee its commercial future in Western nations. "However Access-BPL has found markets in developing nations, where the existing wired infrastructure is poor or non-existent." While BPL using power lines as an internet enabling technology (Access-BPL) has failed, In-House BPL using the internal wiring or a home or building is now the major market for BPL equipment manufacturers. "In the UK more than 800,000 pairs of in-home BPL modems have been installed by British Telecom, with continuing interference complains to the UK regulator (Office of Communications) Ofcom ... (which) appears to be unable, or at least very reluctant to act," said Phil VK2DKN. To make matters worse for UK radio amateurs, it appears that a type of In-house BPL adaptor can emit a radio frequency signal up to 37 0MHz. There has not been one complaint in Australia about interference from In-House BPL, but vigilance is being maintained in case products that cause interference come on to the market downunder. (Jim Linton VK3PC via Southgate http://www.southgatearc.org/news/june2010/bpl_extinct_in_australia.htm via Mike Terry, June 5, dxldyg via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ SUNSPOT NUMBERS LOWER THAN FORECAST The sunspot trend charts on Solarcycle24.com are showing a significant drop in sunspot activity in the first quarter of 2010. The smoothed average sunspot forecast for the end of April, for example is 25 but the actual figure for April is as low as 10. The sunspot trend charts and more can be viewed at http://solarcycle24.com/sunspots.htm (James Welsh, Propagation Report, June BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) Glenn, some observations of today June 6. We had very loud signals on 11 and 10 mb (26.5 to 30 MHz), CB, Divine services on Irish church transmissions, ham radio operators from Scandinavia, UK, Ireland and Mediterranean, Near East, North Africa. Avlis, SMG, Albania, Bulgaria, Kuwait etc. from southeast were all very strong on 25 to 13 mb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SPORADIC E FROM VOLCANO ASH CLOUD? Hi, Glenn! The recent mention of Sporadic E from the shuttle re-entry trail made me think of this: Were there any radio propagation effects reported from that Icelandic volcano's ash cloud over Europe? Or was that at too low an altitude to affect radio, despite all the effect on aircraft? 73, (Will Martin, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Will! I am not calling the shuttle thing sporadic E. More likely I think now is that the absorbing D-layer below it was disrupted, and let the E-layer funxion as at night. Too bad I could not check TVDX during that opening. I should have checked FM on the caradio but there was too much AM DX, and at that time it didn`t occur to me that there could be a similar opening above 88 MHz. There were a lot of reports from Europe trying to correlate DX with the ash cloud. I don`t think there was anything definite. What they did notice was the lack of the sporadic VHF signals they used to get which must have been bouncing off airplanes instead of meteors, or tropo scatter. The ash cloud would not have gone high enough to get anywhere near the E layer. I think. Tho there have been interesting correlations between lightning going upward to have some effect on E. And please note that altho the ash cloud was wreaking havoc with Europe at the same time I was getting the daytime MW DX, the ash was nowhere near this part of the world so did not even consider it could be involved (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The geomagnetic field began the week at unsettled to active levels with minor storm periods at high latitudes. Activity levels decreased to quiet to active levels on 01 June and were mostly quiet for 02 June. An increase to quiet to active levels with some minor storm periods at high latitudes was observed on 03 June and lasted through about mid-day on 04 June. Activity declined to generally quiet levels for the remainder of the period. The elevated activity for 31 May - 01 June and 03 – 04 June was due to a high speed stream from a favorably positioned coronal hole. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 09 JUNE - 05 JULY 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 levels at the beginning of the period from 09-10 June. Normal background levels are expected until 26 June when another increase to high levels is expected due to recurrence. Normal background levels are expected to resume after 01 July. The geomagnetic field is expected to be unsettled for 09 June due to persistent effects from a high speed stream. Quiet levels are expected for 10-14 June, followed by an increase to mostly unsettled levels on 15-17 June in response to a high speed stream from a coronal hole. Quiet levels are expected for 18-24 June, followed by another increase to unsettled to active levels for 25-28 June in response to a recurrent coronal hole. Quiet levels are expected to prevail for 29 June - 05 July :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2010 Jun 08 2051 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 Jun 08 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2010 Jun 09 70 8 3 2010 Jun 10 70 5 2 2010 Jun 11 70 5 2 2010 Jun 12 70 5 2 2010 Jun 13 70 5 2 2010 Jun 14 70 5 2 2010 Jun 15 70 8 3 2010 Jun 16 70 8 3 2010 Jun 17 70 8 3 2010 Jun 18 72 5 2 2010 Jun 19 75 5 2 2010 Jun 20 75 5 2 2010 Jun 21 75 5 2 2010 Jun 22 75 5 2 2010 Jun 23 75 5 2 2010 Jun 24 75 5 2 2010 Jun 25 75 12 3 2010 Jun 26 75 15 3 2010 Jun 27 72 15 3 2010 Jun 28 72 8 3 2010 Jun 29 72 5 2 2010 Jun 30 72 8 3 2010 Jul 01 72 5 2 2010 Jul 02 70 5 2 2010 Jul 03 70 5 2 2010 Jul 04 70 5 2 2010 Jul 05 70 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1516, DXLD) ###