DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-51, December 22, 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 WORLD OF RADIO 1544 headlines: *DX and station news on: Afghanistan, Antarctica, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Congo, Croatia, Cuba, Czechia, Ethiopia, Greece, Guyana, Ireland, Korea North, Liberia, New Zealand, Portugal, Slovakia, Somalia, Spain, Sudan, Uganda, USA, Zambia, Zimbabwe SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1544, December 22-28, 2010 Wed 1630 WRMI 9955 [confirmed, jammed] Wed 2000 WBCQ 7415 [confirmed] Thu 0430 WRMI 9955 Thu 1600 WRMI 9955 Thu 2000 WBCQ 7415 Thu 2200 WRMI 9955 Fri 0430 WWRB 3185 Fri 1530 WRMI 9955 Fri 2130 WWCR1 7465 Sat 0900 WRMI 9955 Sat 0900 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 9510 [second, fourth, fifth Saturdays, maybe] Sat 1500 WRMI 9955 Sat 1700 WWCR2 12160 Sat 1830 WRMI 9955 Sat 1900 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 6090 Sun 0330 WWCR3 4840 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Sun 1630 WRMI 9955 Sun 1830 WRMI 9955 Mon 1230 WRMI 9955 [NEW] Tue 1630 WRMI 9955 Tue 2000 WBCQ 7415 Wed 0130 WRMI 9955 Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html or http://schedule.worldofradio.org or http://sked.worldofradio.org For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://193.42.152.193/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN: http://www.wrn.org/wrn-listeners/world-of-radio/ http://www.wrn.org/listeners/world-of-radio/rss/09:00:00UTC/English/541 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg without delay. When applying, please identify yourself with your real name and location, and say something about why you want to join. Those who do not, unless I recognize them, will be prompted once to do so and no action will be taken otherwise. Here`s where to sign up: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. THAILAND, 9360, Radio Mashaal via Udon Thani, 1102-1132 Dec 14, woman announcer with news in Pashtu. News features with jingle IDs after the news. Fair (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. 11955, R Sadaye Zindagi, via Wertachtal, verified an electronic report to Media Broadcast with an electronic reply in 1 day from Walter Brodowsky, TDF Group SW Project Leader and Key-Account & Product-Manager SW. Walter indicated they were using a 250 kW transmitter in combination with a High gain curtain antenna system HR 4/4/0/5 from Wertachtal using an antenna azimuth of 90 degrees. This is a new broadcasting service from Bible Voice Broadcasting that commenced on Nov 12, 2010. The origin target area is Afghanistan and he mentioned it was amazing that I was able to pick up the back-beam of the signal in North America in such good quality (Richard D’Angelo/NASWA, Wyomissing, PA, U.S.A., DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) For the record: It's a 500 kW transmitter, run at half power. This is often done on Media Broadcast transmissions, since it saves a considerable amount of power costs for which a mere three decibels have to be sacrificed (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) GERMANY, Some MBR changes: Bible Voice Broadcasting Network (Radio Sadaye Zindagi) from Dec. 13: 1600-1630 on 11830!WER 250 kW / 090 deg to WeAs in Dari, ex 11955*,re- 11895 --- ! co-ch BBC in English --- * to avoid BBC in Uzbek (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) CANADA [non]. GERMANY, Frequency change of BVBN R. Sadaye Zindagi in Dari from Dec. 21: 1600-1630 NF 9445 WER 250 kW / 090 deg to WeAs, ex 11830, re-ex 11955/11895 (DX Mix News Extra 21 Dec via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ** ALASKA. There are a few directional stations in Alaska. KRSA-580 is DA1 with main lobes N-S KOAN-1020 is DA-N with most power going NE&SW KICY, as Patrick mentioned, uses a DA after midnight to broadcast to Russia The Anchorage station on 650 had a DA to protect WSM when it came on the air in 1969. The call at the time was KYAK. The station is now non-directional. There's no shortage of vacant land in Alaska, the least densely populated state, but tower construction is difficult and costly. Plus there's not much need for DA's up there given the state's remote location (Bruce Portzer, WA, Dec 12, IRCA via DXLD) I see Dennis in SW Washington indicated before I could that there is at least one directional AM in Alaska. The last I knew there were two, and the other one might be KJNP 1170 North Pole (near Fairbanks). I know they at least used to be, back in the '70s, beaming NW at night. I toured their facilities back in 1975 on my way back to the lower 48, after living in Nome and working for KNOM 780 for a little more than a year. Tom Busch, who passed away suddenly last month, was my boss for the latter part of time I was there. He was directly responsible for building KNOM from 1969 to 1971, left to work in Fairbanks 1973-75 at KIAK 970, and then returned to KNOM as GM from 1975-2005. He was very influential in Alaska radio and a wonderful guy to work for and work with. He was president of the Alaska Association of Broadcasters for a year and a member of the organization for decades. Nome's power is provided by diesel generators, and KNOM, I believe, still gets its power from the city, but has back-up generators at both the studio and transmitter sites. I still get KNOM's newsletter and I try to follow what's happening in Alaska radio. The last time I visited Nome was in 1992 but I hope to return again one of these days. Speaking of the power output of Alaska radio stations, KNOM looked into boosting power to 50 kW from their present 25 kW (days) some years back, but decided it was too expensive. KNOM is 25 kW/14kW. They drop power at night to protect KCAM 790, Glenallen, Alaska. This time of year KNOM is on day power maybe 4 hours a day, but in June they are on day power about 21 hours a day! The difference between winter and summer daylight that far north is pretty amazing! (Stan Weisbeck, Spokane, WA, ibid.) ** ALBANIA. 1457.577, CRI in Czech via Fllaka at 2239 UT Dec 19, usual odd frequency (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. 5870, Radio Tirana (Shijak listed) (tentative) at 2155 on 12/13. W talk in (listed) Albanian, vocal. Poor to fair in noise (Gerry Dexter, Lake Geneva WI, NRD 545, TenTec 340, Mark (MK-1) and Parker balanced doublet antennas, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 5870? Not on this frequency now or ever that I know of. Must be typo for 5970, 2130-2300, 100 kW non-direxional to W Europe (gh, DXLD) ** ANGOLA. 4949.8, RNA-Canal “A”, Mulenvos, 1907-1916, 17 Dec’10, Portuguese, news bulletin; 35342 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, Antarctica, RN San Gabriel. 12/14 at 1345, 12/15 at 1251 and 12/17 at 1422, no signal from Antarctica (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) If LRA36 appear again on 15476, I will certainly report it, but for the record, still absent at the end of a fifth week, Friday Dec 17 at 1444 no trace of a signal. It might be a good idea to seek its unique frequency at other dayparts, in case they have changed schedule again without telling us. Before M-F 12-15, it was M-F 18-21 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See PUBLICATIONS: WRTH 15476, RN San Gabriel. 12/20 at 1450, no signal from Antarctica (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. NEW SOUTH POLE STATION ACTIVE - Over the last several weeks I have learned that the old South Pole Station has been completely dismantled and all ant operations are now taking place at the New South Pole Station (Amundsens Scott Base) including operations from KC4AAA. The new location has been assigned the number WAP-36. An announcement has been made on the WAP web site with all the details, effective dates, etc. http://www.waponline.it/NewsInformation/tabid/178/Default.aspx http://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/spwebcam.cfm The current operator at KC4AAA is Andy WA2DKJ. He has been active for a few weeks. He is on regularly 14243 at 0100-0400 UT. As always I will encourage him to operate during times suitable for Europe and Asia. They are running about 800w and a Telrex 6 element 20m monobander, but have other antennas available as well. Happy Antarctic DX Chasing this season. 73 de Bob K4MZU http://k4mzu.ne (via I.C.P.O. Bulletin (17-24 December 2010), via editor Dave Raycroft, Dec 16, ODXA yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 15344.87, R Nacional Argentina, General Pacheco, Buenos Aires, 2035-2052, Dec 05, Spanish, Live football, ID "...todo la pais - Radio Nacional", 25332 (Patrick Robic, Leibnitz, Austria, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) RAE heard 18 December 2010 at 0250 UT on 11710.7 USB per tip from Glenn’s DX Program List. Heard the opening of RAE’s “DX Supplement” feature program. Difficult reception caused me to move to USB, where the signal was more audible, though still difficult to copy. Program ended at 0255. SINPO=33333/2 (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, Dec 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11710.7, RAE, General Pacheco, 1311-1329, 20 Dec’10, Castilian, interviews, folk music; 35444 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 2368.5, R Symban, Peats Ridge, 1709-1752, Nov 11, non- stop Greek music and songs, 25332 (Alexander Beryozkin, St. Petersburg, Russia, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) See also PUBLICATIONS: WRTH ** AUSTRALIA. Check 120m almost every morning, but nothing from the VL8s has made it here vs the high noise level for several weeks. Dec 20 at 1337, I am hearing music with a YL singer on 2325. Only a weaker carrier on 2485, and unseemed any signal on 2310 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [non]. PALAU/AUSTRALIA, Radio Australia in Burmese again via T8HN Angel 4: 0100-0130 NF 17585 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAs, ex 11780 SNG (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via DXLD) it`s T8WH (gh, DXLD) ** BELARUS. 6155, Radio Belarus, 2120-2152 Dec 12, nice ID followed by news read by two male announcers. Belarussian love song by a man followed at 2135 followed by feature about education in Belarus. Fair with no sign of listed //7360 and 7390 (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) Presumably in English (gh) 6155.00, Minsk Kalodzicy in Russian. An extreme 10 kHz wide signal at 2327 UT Dec 19, powerhouse S=9+40dB here in southern Germany (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. I heard for two days R Bhutan (Nov 21 and 22) as I informed you (listen to the audio clip of SW reception on 6035 here and then live audio from the website of BBS). After this no more heard on SW (Samuel Cássio, São Carlos, Brazil, Dec 2, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) I listened to the audio clip and can recognize the Bhutanese song from my visit there. It is definitely this station! So it means that they probably have had the engineer from India in Bhutan to repair the transmitter and we may expect regular transmissions soon! (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, ibid.) ** BOLIVIA. 4796, R. Lípez, Uyuni. December 16, 2238-2248 Pop music style with Andean flute, male in Spanish talks on Happy Birthday music, Andean music. Unreadable, 23322 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Hi Glenn, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!! I have a few changes and updates we had to execute at some of the newer Shortwave Stations I built. [See also: GUYANA, LIBERIA, VANUATU] The immediate project I am building as we speak, is RADIO JUAN XXIII, in BOLIVIA. The owner is Bishop Stetter. The Frequency will be 6055. It is a 5,000 watt, broadband, solid state transmitter. The antenna I am building I have changed slightly. It is a "LAZY H ARRAY". It will be Four (4) 5/8th wave elements, co-linear fed, horizontally polarized. I am going to orient it so there is a "Major Lobe", aimed at North America. It should give an Effective Radiated Power of approximately 30 to 40 K.W. in our direction. I "BELIEVE", we should be testing down there near the middle of February. I can't commit to that. Just a guess. O.K. Glenn, thank you again, for all you and your listeners do for me. I feel part of a great brotherhood, and knowing that I have the fellows to listen, and let me know how my work is doing, makes these trips away from Shelly and the Kids, much more bearable. Please tell everyone I said Merry Christmas - Happy Hanukkah - Happy New Year. THANK YOU - 73 - (Jamie Labadia, Dec 18, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BONAIRE [and non]. TWR, PJB 800 historical discussion: Nice to hear Bonaire in Spanish with a listenable signal last night, however they did fade away to nothing for long periods of time. Recently read that Bonaire might be returning to their old 500 KW power in the near future. They presently use 100 KW. In their early days, PJB used several different patterns depending on what area they were targeting, and I know they had at least 4 towers. On a flight from Miami back in the 70's, I was seated by an employee of TWR who told me that PJB's signal pattern was directed north after 10 PM EST, in english for the Caribbean and North America. Recently read on the CKLW nostalgia site that PJB had 7 different patterns. That would explain why Bonaire's signal was so strong throughout eastern and middle America in the 60's through the 80's (icangelp, radio-info.com via Artie Bigley, DXLD) PJB used to blast into the Chicago area in the late 60s and 70s (radioman148, ibid.) And in the Dallas area in the early 70's it was really interesting, with PJB battling X-ROCK 80. But even with 500KW they usually lost (jd, ibid.) Quote from: Icangelp on Yesterday at 11:33:48 PM Recently read that Bonaire might be returning to their old 500 KW power in the near future. They presently use 100 KW. Not likely. They scaled back because 800 is so crowded now in Latin America. Quote In their early days, PJB used several different patterns depending on what area they were targeting, and I know they had at least 4 towers. On shortwave, yes. They had masts that held up curtain antennae that could be selected and combined for directionality. Quote On a flight from Miami back in the 70's, I was seated by an employee of TWR who told me that PJB's signal pattern was directed north after 10 PM EST, in english for the Caribbean and North America. Recently read on the CKLW nostalgia site that PJB had 7 different patterns. They had two modes on 800... nondirectional, and a directional mode to aim at Brasil in early morning hours, AST. I visited the site in the 60's, and there was no other way to operate (David Eduardo [Gleason], ibid.) The site was reconfigured several times. I visited in 1996, when the 500 kW transmitter was still there, and they had at least three operating modes then - ND for the Caribbean, south to Brazil and north to North America. It was a five-tower array then, with only the center tower driven and the others used as parasitics. http://www.fybush.com/sites/2006/site-060526.html (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Yeah, that's about the only way that a variety of patterns can be used. One or two of the passive antennas are added, and the lobe is steered. The directionality is nothning like an end fire array such as that of Martí-1180, but ceretaingly can be made to do a 6 to 9 db in back side reduction and consequent increase in the front side. We had one of these on Radio 10, Buenos Aires, 100 kw on 710. The 100 kw at a site quite close to Buenos Aires was not adequate to overcome urban noise, so a passive tower was added to push the signal over Bs. As. a bit more than the non-directional system. Even though the passive tower was only a quarter wave, and the main tower a 1/2 wave, it worked as desired and overcame interference even in the center of the city. The lobe was not sharp, nor was the null. As I recall, the English speaking target was really Jamaica, the Windward Islands, etc. The Spanish target was the coastal SW Caribbean, but a tough proposition due to stations on 800 in Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, etc. At the time I visited, there were 4 shorter towers which had the SW antennae hung from them, and a big (with nothing higher than a phone pole, it is hard to get a reference) perhaps 500 foor insulated tower. It was a beautifully built site, immaculately clean. Of course, the "salitere" or salt air was very corrosive and did great damage to the antenna systems. I really have a hard time believing that the high power AM would be brought back. Not only are there big signals all over on 800, but AM usage in the target area is at a dismally low point, with stations going off the air and not returning; over half of the remaining El Salvador AMs are evangelical and several of the national news and sports nets are gone, removed to FM only (David Eduardo, ibid.) Here in Warminster PA, I've picked up PJB Bonaire on 800 many times at night along with CKLW in Windsor ON/Detroit, after local WTMR signed off (Ryan Howard, ibid.) http://www.arrl.org/news/surfin-beyond-bonaire-it-was-like-magic Surfin’: Beyond Bonaire -- It Was Like Magic 10/29/2010 By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU Contributing Editor …Lauren Libby, W0LD, International President/CEO of Trans World Radio International wrote, “I read with great interest your comments regarding hearing TWR (Trans World Radio) Bonaire as an SWL. We still broadcast from Bonaire on 800 kHz. The shortwave facility is no longer on Bonaire and is covered from Guam, Swaziland and several other locations on the globe.” He added, "We used to be at 500,000 W, downgraded to 100,000 W and are in the process of going back to 500,000 W.” I promised to listen for TWR’s 800 kHz signal this winter... http://www.thebig8.net/intro.html Introduction to The Classic CKLW Page …Note: In March of 2003, I received an e-mail from Kelvin Schubert of Nenana, Alaska, who wrote in regard to the mention of station PJB on this page. He wrote, "Dear Jack, I was reading your web contribution to CKLW. I noticed a comment about PJB, Bonaire one of the 800 kHz stations to give CKLW trouble. I worked at PJB during the late 70's and early 80's. One thing you need to know about the station is that it was legally licensed and operated with 500,000 KW [sic] of power. The station did not have a problem with keeping its pattern nor qualified engineers. It in fact had seven different patterns. The station operated very much like a shortwave station and changed its pattern depending on the language program it was airing. Each night at 10:00 EST the antenna pattern was changed to due north for the English language service. PJB was heard very well up and down the eastern sea board. Depending on the sun spots it was heard better in the north country of Canada. It is my understanding that it has now cut back to operating as a 50KW station airing to the Caribbean region. Thanks for the radio history on your page." And thank you to Mr. Schubert for finally explaining why I often had to reluctantly retune my radio from CKLW to WABC or WCFL or WLS at 10:00 PM, all those years ago! In '09 & '10, employees and volunteers were refurbishing the antenna system for 800 KHZ. I do know the towers needed considerable repair, but I don't know if the makeover was related to a power upgrade made necessary by the crowded condition on the frequency (both via icangelp, ibid.) Scott, thanks for the link to the Bonaire visit. I've never heard PJB/TWR, for I'm far too close to CKLW, I suspect. But as a teenager, I did listen to one of the facilities you feature on that page - Radio Nederland's (now Radio Netherlands in English) Bonaire relay facility. RN had a healthy English language service, including shows like "DX Jukebox" and the weekend entertainment show "Happy Station" (done in both English and Spanish versions by Tom Meijer) (OhioMediaWatch, ibid.) Quote from: Icangelp on Today at 09:06:18 AM ``One thing you need to know about the station is that it was legally licensed and operated with 500,000 KW of power. The station did not have a problem with keeping its pattern nor qualified engineers.`` I was always amused by this kind of statement. In essence, we have a nation made up of some rock in the sourthern caribbean which is not even a signatory to an agreement with Colombia and Venzuela, one of which is visible from Bonaire, which decides it can license an international broadcast station with only minimal respect for existing allocations. Example: when "PJB" signed on, using 800 AM, it was using 500,000 kw just a matter of about 170 miles from a 10 kw fulltime AM serving Maracaible and the Lake Maracaibo area out to places like Cabimas, etc. It became unusable even inside the city limits of Maracaible. And also on 800 was another 10 kw station in Bucaramanga, Colombia. While not affected daytime, the RCN station on 800 was decimated at night, as were stations on 800 in Panama City, Panama and Guayaquil, Ecuador, all duly licensed and pre-existing operations redering valuable services to their communities. On what basis was PJB licensed to destroy the operations of radio stations in at least four countries? (David Eduardo [Gleason], http://www.americanradiohistory.com - Radio's Online Library, ibid.) (all via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4915, R Daqui, Goiânia, GO, new schedule monitored: 0800- 2200. 11830: 0800-2000 (Samuel Cássio, São Carlos, Brazil, Dec 2, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) Please note that this region of Brazil at present has Daylight Saving [sic] time (Ed. Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, ibid.) Heard late at 2206-2215, Dec 09, Brazilian songs, ID: "A Rádio Daqui", 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Spain, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. 4965, Radio Alvorada - Parintins (presumed) at 0434 on 12/17. With a long stretch of piano music. Not parallel to 9430-Zambia (Gerry Dexter, Lake Geneva WI, NRD 545, TenTec 340, Mark (MK-1) and Parker balanced doublet antennas, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Unwarranted assumption, since CVC on 4965 is a separate service and would not be // 9430 1Africa tho both from Zambia, q.v. (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 9587.9, Super R Deus é Amor, São Paulo, SP, 1913, Dec 05, male pastor with emotional religious programme in Portuguese, fading in (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 11780, RNA, Dec 21 at 0626, already on the air earlier than usual, guitar music, habitual morning DJ with reverb. SSOB by far, rivaled only by WYFR 11530, 11580. 5990, Dec 21 at 0828, very strong with romantic Latin music, similar to RNA 11780 but not //. Presumably R. Senado, another 250 kW transmitter at Brasília. WRTH still does not attempt to publish hours for any Brazilian SW stations, but Aoki shows 0850-2100 for this ZYE773. Eibi shows 0750-2100, so go with that: probably starts an hour earlier currently due to DST. These bigsigs are missing from HFCC. Fortunately the other 49m frequency, 6185 for RNA, remains inactive and clear for XEPPM (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 15190, Radio Inconfidência, Belo Horizonte, 0824-0850, 18- 12, Portuguese, male, program: "Trem Caipira", "Agora 6 y 28". Interference from Radio Africa. 33433 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, 27 km W of Lugo, Grundig Satatellit 500 and Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Cable antenna, 10 meters, faced WSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, Dec 19 at 2234, poor signal with Brazilian music, so must be R. Inconfidência; possibly second carrier, but R. Africa normally dominates if on, so perhaps was off earlier on this Sunday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BRASIL, 6010, R. Inconfidência, Belo Horizonte MG, 2246-2305, 17 Dec’10, prgr Desporto pelo Ar, prgr announcements, news bulletin at 2300; 34432; // 15190 fair-good. 15190, R. Inconfidência, 2233-2253, 17 Dec’10, prgr Desporto pelo Ar, announcement for classical music prgr Mestres da Música; 34443, QRM de R. Africa, GNE (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) + many other Brazilian logs in the dxldyg ** CAMEROON. 6005, 0715 17 Oct, CRTV, talk in English, regional politics, 32322 (Dzever Ishenge, Benue State, Nigeria, Dec World DX Club Contact via DXLD) Buea, reconfirmed tho hardly heard beyond Nigeria (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. 6030, CFVP Calgary, 1917 Dec 17, ads for Butterball Turkey and Shell. “Classic Country AM 10-60” ID and into Calgary Stockyard report with livestock market prices. Fair. (Sellers-BC) 6160, CKZU Vancouver, 1755 Dec 17, “The Current” hosted by Linden McIntyre, interviewing native poet. Very good (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, sitting beside Kalamalka Lake, DXing from my car with an Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 6195, CRI strong in English at 0450 on 12/17, presumed via Sackville. EiBi does not show this and Aoki only from *0500 (Gerry Dexter, Lake Geneva WI, NRD 545, TenTec 340, Mark (MK-1) and Parker balanced doublet antennas, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) HFCC shows three hours in a row of CRI English via Sackville at 0300- 0600, but on 6190 (where I always hear it), not 6195 (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. I Love CBC petition aims to save the CBC Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has launched a petition to re-affirm the importance of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The I Love CBC petition was launched on 13 December in response to a statement by Dean Del Mastro, parliamentary secretary to the minister of Canadian Heritage, on 23 November. During a standing committee on Canadian heritage hearing, Del Mastro stated publicly, “Maybe it’s time we get out of the broadcasting business.” Friends of Canadian Broadcasting is calling Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government a significant threat to the CBC and they are collecting signatures for a petition to save the public broadcaster. As of Monday (20 December), Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has collected 48,000 signatures [49,994 at the time of this post], with a goal to deliver 50,000 signatures to members of Parliament. Visit the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting website for more information and to sign the petition. http://www.friends.ca/ (Source: www.straight.com) (December 21st, 2010 - 15:36 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ** CANADA. The Shepherd and EBU "Joy To the World Concert" The annual reading of The Shepherd will be heard on Christmas Eve during the program As It Happens (CBC Radio 1-fw) at 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. (+1/2 hour in Newfoundland). The annual EBU "Joy to the World Concert" will air on CBC Radio 2 on Sunday, December 19 at 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST (Live to Maritimes) http://www.cbc.ca/contact/announcements/ (Fred Waterer, Ont., Dec 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Age Of Persuasion will begin podcasting in January but Terry O. didn't want to just say so, just like that. He wanted one and all to hear his Big Announcement in his own voice: http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/aop_20110103_42814.mp3 (Clara Listensprechen, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHAD. One of those adjacent frequencies [to 6162, presumed ZAMBIA] has RD. Nationale Thadienne, Gredia, on 6165: 1815-..., 19 Dec, Arabic, news (presumed), long names list (obituary?), talks until approx. 1900 and then traditional songs; 44444, adjacent QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Dec 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) CHADE, 6165, RD. Natle. Tchadienne, Gredia, 1815-1927, 19 Dec’10, Arabic, news (p), long names list (obituary?), talks, traditional songs, French used later; 44444, adj. QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6165.00, Chad with typical African music and in French language, S=5 at 0545 UT Dec 20 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE. RADIO FM 45 A 50 MHZ --- BOA NOITE! ALGUEM TEM AS FREQUENCIAS DAS RADIOS FM EM 6 METROS? SEGUNDO FUI INFORMADO É DO CHILE; ELAS ESTÃO NA FREQUENCIA DE 45 A 50 MHZ SE NÃO ME ENGANO. OBRIGADO (RONALDO PU2TRZ LOUVETEL, 19 Dez, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Olá Ronaldo, Verique as frequências, localização e demais dados das emissoras no site abaixo: http://www.qsl.net/ce3sad/6m.html 73's (Ronnan PP2RON Werneck, ibid.) viz.: Confirmed Stations on the air in 2010 from North to South Freq Call Power Watts City Locator Reporter 48,2 XQA-241 1000 Antofagasta FG46 CE1GWR 47,75 XQA-??? 1000 La Serena FG40 CE2NXW 47,9 XQB-010 5000 Santiago FF46 CE3SX 48,3 XQB-155 1000 Santiago FF46 CE3SX 72,6 XQB-146 3000 Santiago FF46 CA3SOC 48,0 XQD-224 1000 Temuco FF31 CE6LWJ 48,3 XQD-205 ???? Valdivia FF30 CE6RC 49,2 XQD-?? ???? Osorno FE39 CE6TAB More soon... El siguiente listado se origina en el organismo oficial que entrega licencias para radiodifusión en Chile, la Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones. Algunos amigos me han reportado recepción en otras frecuencias a lo cual solo puedo decir que son emisiones sin concesión o son estaciones que transmiten fuera de frecuencia. Estas emisoras son RADIOS FM como cualquier otra, NO SON RADIO ENLACES (links estudio planta tx), solo que se utilizan en modo privado para ambientar espacios públicos o privados con música suave. En el caso de XQB-146 transmite en forma exclusiva para buses (omibuses, colectivos o como le llamen tu país) y se llama RadioBus. Creo que en USA le denominan Muzak a este tipo de emisiones. Todas polarizan sus transmisiones en forma circular. Frecuencia Señal Potencia Watts Localizador Ciudad 47,2 XQA-238 FG41 Vallenar 47,2 XQA-237 FF49 Ovalle 47,2 XQC-235 FF45 Rancagua 47,2 XQC-233 FF44 Talca 47,2 XQD-299 FE34 Coyhaique 47,4 XQA-230 500 FG57 Calama 47,4 XQC-234 FF34 Constitución 47,4 XQC-230 FF44 Linares 47,4 XQC-239 FF32 Angol 47,4 XQD-225 FD46 Punta Arenas 47,6 XQA-240 FG49 Iquique 47,6 XQD-219 FF31 Temuco 47,6 XQD-231 FE39 Osorno 47,9 XQA-156 250 FG4Ø La Serena 47,9 XQB-072 1000 FF46 Viña del Mar 47,9 XQB-010 5000 FF46 Santiago 47,9 XQC-166 500 FF45 Rancagua 47,9 XQC-068 1000 FF33 Concepción 47,9 XQD-110 FF3Ø Valdivia 48,0 XQC-232 FF45 San Fernando 48,0 XQD-224 FF31 Temuco 48,2 XQA-241 FG46 Antofagasta 48,3 XQA-284 FG4Ø La Serena 48,3 XQB-178 FF46 Viña del Mar 48,3 XQB-155 1000 FF46 Santiago 48,3 XQD-205 FF3Ø Valdivia 48,4 XQD-218 FE39 Osorno 49,2 XQA-242 FH41 Arica 49,2 XQA-244 FG49 Iquique 49,2 XQA-243 FG4Ø La Serena 49,2 XQB-171 FF46 Viña del Mar 49,2 XQB-163 FF46 San Antonio 49,2 XQC-237 FF43 Chillán 49,2 XQC-239 FF33 Concepción 49,2 XQC-238 FF32 Los Angeles 49,3 XQA-234 FG57 Calama 49,3 XQB-153 1000 FF46 Santiago 49,4 XQC-231 FF44 Curicó 49,6 XQA-239 FG46 Antofagasta 72,4 XQD-006 250 FD46 Punta Arenas 72,6 XQA-229 1000 FG49 Iquique 72,6 XQA-158 100 FG57 Calama 72,6 XQA-157A 800 FG42 Copiapó 72,6 XQA-229 1000 FG49 Iquique 72,6 XQB-146 3000 FF46 Santiago 75,6 XQB-029 FF46 Valparaíso (via DXLD) ** CHINA. The CNR launched a new channel to broadcast in the ethnic group language Uigur Friday and its existing channel for ethnic Tibetan group began to broadcast in three Tibetan dialects the same day. Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 0000 gmt 17 Dec 10 (via BBCM via DXLD) Involves SW; is this really new? (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA [and non]. CRI LAUNCHES FM SERVICE IN BUDAPEST China Radio International (CRI) has launched an FM service in Budapest, Hungary. With this addition, CRI now has a total of 51 overseas FM services. CRI now broadcasts in Hungarian for 11 hours on 92.1 FM in Budapest, which covers the 2.5 million people living in the capital. All of the programmes will be produced in China. According to CRI’s Hungarian website, the frequency is being rented from Klasszik Radio. (Source: China Radio International) (December 19th, 2010 - 15:45 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 3 Comments on “CRI Launches FM Service in Budapest” 1. #1 Keith Perron on Dec 20th, 2010 at 03:16 And what is the West doing? Nothing. The West is just sitting in the waste side doing nothing at all. Don’t tell me governments in Europe can’t budget a few million Euros to do the same in other countries. I don’t believe it. When you consider how much money is wasted everyday, 10million or 15 million is nothing. Scandinavia could be smart. Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden could create one service for the region. I know the EU have the Euronet partnership. My question is what are they doing? I personally think this partnership must be managed the same way as DRM. With typical European burocracy where nothing gets done. I wonder when people will wake up. I know! When it’s too late. 2. #2 jolyon curran on Dec 20th, 2010 at 07:42 Actually there are historical precedents for this. Over centuries the Chinese have mistakenly thought they can buy friendship abroad. The problem is that audiences outside China are better informed than audiences in China. Audiences are selective in what they watch and what they believe. News from Beijing is too obviously just a very unsophisticated propaganda tool, wielded by a very unsophisticated government. Let the Chinese government waste money on their propaganda machines - it won’t change international opinion of it. The hizzy fits the world was treated to by CCTV over the latest Nobel Peace prize just shows where their governments mind is! 3. #3 Kai Ludwig on Dec 21st, 2010 at 13:50 Quite ironic, since this is the frequency abandoned by BBC World Service and RFI in last year: http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/end-of-bbcwsrfi-on-fm-in-hungary Asking what “the West” is doing appears to be another question. I’m absolutely sure that BBC, DW etc. (I exclude the US operations on purpose) would not miss an opportunity to get programmes on FM in Beijing. The real point here is that such an opportunity is unthinkable, while CRI now also manages to get on FM in Europe after leasing airtime on one of the forgotten mediumwave dinosauruses after another. But Keith also reminds me of another aspect: Do you remember all the broadcasting activities around the elections in Belarus in 2006? Nothing like this in this year. Radio Racyja, which used to be funded by the Polish government and used also the 750 kW mediumwave transmitter in Silesia? Now just a small FM operation that just barely reaches Grodno and Brest. European Radio for Belarus, one of the products made by a Berlin-based PR company through a EU contract – what became of this? The Belarus service from DW, arranged through another, smaller EU contract – yes, it still lingers around, thanks to the Russian service being able to put it together without much further expenses. Quite remarkable how all this has been forgotten for the next round that just took place (MN blog comments via DXLD) ** CHINA. 9450, Firedrake jammer at 0439 on 12/18 (presumed) vs. Sound of Hope. (Dexter, WI) 9470, CNR-1 jammer under BBC Singapore at 2221 on 12/14 (Dexter, WI) 9545, CNR-1 jammer weak in Mandarin at 2227 on 12/14 (Gerry Dexter, Lake Geneva WI, NRD 545, TenTec 340, Mark (MK-1) and Parker balanced doublet antennas, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 9545 is vs VOA Chinese via Tinang (gh, DXLD) [and non]. CNR1 jamming, with echo, on several frequencies Dec 20: at 1438 on 9785 big clash with VOA Chinese via Tinang, PHILIPPINES. Same thing on 9825 but not as strong. At 1521 on 7540, BBC Mandarin via THAILAND is getting the same treatment, ditto on 9605 via SINGAPORE. Also // CNR1 jamming on 9450 vs Sound of Hope (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO REPUBLIC. 6115, R Congo, Brazzaville, 1753, Dec 04, animated chat in vernacular, music clip then coverage of a live event in French with drums and cheering, fair (Graham Bell, Cape Town, South Africa, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) 6115, R. Congo, Brazzaville, 1813-1821, French for Radio Journal; it seems they closed shortly afterwards; 32441, adjacent QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Dec 19, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6115, R. Congo, Brazzaville, 1813-1821, 19 Dec’10, French for news bulletin Radio Journal; 32441, adj. QRM; it seemed to be off shortly after the end of the bulletin (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA [and non]. 5954.2, R. República extended (all-night?) broadcast continues, Dec 16 at 0634, but the DentroCuban Jamming Command is now aware of it, with pulse jamming. So far, R.R. is still readable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5954.22, ELCOR - Radio República, 0930-0950, Dec 17, on extended schedule with Spanish talk. Fair level but poor overall reception due to adjacent channel splatter, but at least there is no jammer (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) So perhaps the jamming I heard was unintentional, left over from earlier hours like on so many other frequencies (gh, DXLD) R. República from Costa Rica outlet was audible again this morning on previously reported 5954.24 from 0900 on. 73, (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, Dec 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. 6164.981, Croatian Radio Deanovec in Croatian language, slightly odd frequency at 0725 UT Dec 20. On Dec 19 at 2320 UT on 3985.122 kHz, S=6-8 varying level. 6165.000 even! Croatian Radio Deanovec in Croatian language, S=8 signal at 0730 UT Dec 21. The engineer in Zagreb calibrated the frequency this morning (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [non]. PHILIPPINES, HRT Voice of Croatia in Croatian/English now on air: 0700-1100 on 17860 PHT 250 kW / 150 deg to AUS, ex SNG 100 kW / 135 deg (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) UK, Test transmissions of HRT Voice of Croatia in Croatian/English/Spanish via BABCOCK 0100-0300 on 6110 WOF 125 kW / 294 deg to NWAm Mon-Wed 0300-0400 on 5925 RMP 250 kW / 300 deg to NWAm Mon-Wed 0400-0500 on 5920 RMP 250 kW / 300 deg to NWAm Mon-Wed (DX Mix News Extra 21 Dec via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) Dates, duration? (gh, DXLD) 6110, music from V. of Croatia, Dec 22 at 0128 about the same level as // Germany 7375 but probably not synchronized; not audible on [non non] 3985. 6110 is a test via Woofferton UK at 01-03, 294 degrees, to be followed by Rampisham 5925 at 03-04, and 5920 at 04-05, both 300 degrees, to ``NWAm, Mon-Wed`` per DX Mix News, Bulgaria --- so was this the last of three nights doing it? Perhaps to remind M&B they have competition (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 640, Radio Progreso, Guanabacoa, Ciudad de la Habana. 0040 December 15, 2010 and 0033 December 16, 2010. Noted sporadic wobbling on this one. Always nice (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. DentroCuban Jamming Command with pulsing at same rate, Dec 16 at 0624 on 9955 vs WRMI, 9825 vs Martí [non], and 9490 vs República [non]. Way to go! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also COSTA RICA; USA: WRMI On 6 frequencies at 0730 UT. Habana heute morgen wieder auf 6 Frequenzen zu hoeren. Dez/Jan ist halt Saison hier bei uns fuer diese lateinamerikanischen Signale aus CUB und MEX 6185 auch. 6050 S=7-8 6060 S=9+20dB 6150 S=9+20dB 6039.90, 100 Hz OFF frequency, mit einer Brummstoerung der Interferenz mit Belarus 6040.00 kHz. [I have sometimes heard a trace of RHC on 6040, but not convinced it was a leapfrog 6060 over 6050, rather than receiver overload --- gh] 5040 S=9+20dB, Nachrichten um 0729 UT, 100 kW. A Muckesaeckle schwaecher, Rebelde auf 5025 kHz mit S=9+10dB, only 50 kW (Wolfgang Büschel, Dec 15, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 18 via DXLD) Cuba at this moment has not one, but two transmitters operating regularly on the Tropical Bands -- 60 meters, 5025 R Rebelde and 5040 R Havana Cuba. Both are using Near Vertical Incidence Skywave antenna systems designed and built by us for optimizing the coverage of the Cuban archipelago. Power of the transmitters are 50 kW for R Rebelde and 100 kW for R Havana Cuba. Both frequencies are properly registered with the ITU, Geneva. We may soon start a test transmission on the 90 meters band, that is pending the availability of an antenna capable of operating on that band. The frequency may very probably be 3365, as it was already registered with the ITU for use by R Rebelde. But in the tests will be done with the R Habana Cuba programs. I am now reviewing the time segment for the tests, that will probably be between 0200 and 0600 UT (Prof. Arnaldo Coro, Host of Dxers Unlimited R Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba, Dec 4, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) Cuba on 3365, 5025 or 5040 are not on the frequency list published by the HFCC, dated Nov 02, 2010, so all must be for domestic purposes! (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 ed., via DXLD) That is not the criterion for HFCC entries, which do include numerous domestic services, tho hit-and-miss. It`s because as an outlaw station, RHC refuses to participate in HFCC. The big signals on 5025 and 5040 here belie the NVIS claim – maybe so, but it`s far from the efficiency claimed, bleeding out plenty kW to the rest of the world. Furthermore, since 5040 carries English and French broadcasts it`s obviously intended to reach beyond Cuba, at least to Haiti and other French- and English-speaking areas, duh. Obviously it should bring English best to S Florida where higher frequencies overskip (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) [Re Arnie Coro`s comments in DSWCI DX Window]: All other big broadcasters register on the private organization HFCC meetings, but Arnie Coro reports to ITU Genève list instead, which is less significant (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 18 via DXLD) Haven`t heard RHC`s Esperanto service for some weeks, so try again Dec 19: Prime airing is supposedly Sundays 1500-1530 on 11760 --- no, stays in Spanish past 1514 with Filatelia show // all the other RHC frequencies, 11690, 11730, 13680 with CCI, 13750, 15370, 17750. As usual on Sunday mornings, 12040 is not on the air, never specified as such on the schedules. That transmitter must be one needed for one of the Sunday-only frequencies for ``Aló, Presidente`` (or not), such as 15370 or 17750. No sign of A,P, yet, however, nor at 1548 when I noticed that 17750 audio was rather suppressed, still RHC // others. Since RHC Spanish programs have all moved one UT hour later this winter, unlike previously, maybe Esperanto has also been moved one hour later, to 1600? I check all the frequencies again at 1614: Esperanto on none of them. But now El Hugazo has taken over some of the channels, 17750, 15370 and 13750, but not the other two scheduled, which remain with RHC mainstream, 13680 and 11690, // 11760 and 11730. Let`s have another look at the schedules on the RHC website Dec 19, as always presented in the confusing format you have to unravel. I have at least removed the meter bands: The main one presented in Spanish: ESPERANTO (domingo) San Francisco 6010 07-07:30 UTC Norte Centro y Suramérica 11760/15370 15–15:30/22:30-23 UTC The one on the Esperanto-language page itself is totally outdated: ESPERANTO (DIMANCO) América del Norte 6000 07-07:30 UTC Norte Centro y Suramérica 11760/5965 15–15:30/ 19:30–20/ 23:30-00 UTC América Central 6120 23:30 -00 UTC Buenos Aires 9600 23:30 -00 Esperanto also failed to appear on 15370 at 2230 on some initial B-10 chex but have not tried it past few Sundays. See also NETHERLANDS [non] RHC, Sunday Dec 19 at 1946 found to be in French on both 11760 and 11770, Spanish on 11730, absent from 11690, 12040. Meanwhile, ``Aló, Presidente`` was still consuming three transmitters; see VENEZUELA [non]. 11760 is supposed to be in Spanish until 2000, then English, and no French until 2100, per http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/c_frecuencia/frecuencias.htm At 2125 check, 11760 was again in French, while 11770 and 11730 were Spanish. Esperanto was missing from Sunday 1500 on 11760, instead Spanish. One schedule version claimed Esperanto would also be on 11760 Sundays at 2100, but not. Another says at 2230 on 15370, but that too was in French Dec 19 at 2233, very strong signal but the lo-fi feed/transmitter, very clipped audio. At this time, 11770 Spanish, 11760 off, during this hour on 11670 instead with RNV relay. Apparently the Esperanto service is sporadic, despite the big deal of the World Esperanto Congress in Havano, Kubo last summer. Or maybe the programs are produced but get lost before airing in the confusion of Sunday schedule variations. This Sunday, Portugal was not on 12040 at earlier check 1946, but is on at 2121 with very strong signal, hard to tell if Cuba is now underneath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RHC unusually weak this morning here in Europe, Dec 20. English phone- in mailbag show, by Mrs. Anne Sullivan on micro at 0633 UT. 6050 S=9+15dB, 6060 S=9, 60mb better 5040 S=9+15dB latter Spanish at 0700 UT. 6150 joined later the remaining, at 0750 UT on weak S=6-7. Rebelde 5025 kHz in Spanish language, and played lovely music, S=9+10dB at 0640 UT. RHC unusually weak this morning here in Europe, Dec 21. Like yesterday Dec 20 too. Strange, because Sackville and Bonaire are booming in as usual at same time span (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably refers to 49m channels which were inbooming here around 0830 (gh, OK, DXLD) Since I was up for the total lunar eclipse (yes, it was, and quite dark), made a quick check of a few things Dec 21: at 0830 attempted to hear any trace of HCJB which should have just signed on, under RHC 6050, but could not. RHC Spanish // 6060, 6120, 6150, overkill in the nightmiddle. Arnie is sticking to his guns on 6050 where HCJB is stuck with all those fixed-tuned Galcom radios, Commies vs Christians! Anomalies: RHC 13780 absent Dec 21 at 1450, supposed to be on until 1500 like // 13680; CRI relay 13740 remained as usual. 11760 dead air Dec 21 at 1507 tho 11690, 11730 and 12040 were nominal. Modulation cut on 11760 at 1509 as El Hugazo was manifesting himself guestfully on Voces de la Revolución (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS [and non]. 9388-9413 approx., Dec 21 at 1444, over-the- horizon radar pulsing presumed from here in more or less free space, with WWRB 9385 not yet on, and far enough from V. of Greece 9420. 11695-11720, OTH radar pulsing, presumed from here, Dec 22 at 1505. Main victim is 11720 DW, Russian via Rampisham (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA/SLOVAKIA. As you know the following two BC-stations will close down their Shortwave transmission soon. They will stay only Internet. Pse don't hesitate, to write receptions reports so many you can, to prove, that shortwave is still worth to continue. Enclosed you will find the complete schedule of both. Address reports to the mentioned addresses. Bitte schickt möglichst viele Berichte direkt an Radio Slowakei International - RSI, Mytna 1, SK-817 55 Bratislava, Slowakei: ENGLISH: 0700-0730 13715 15460 1730-1800 5915 6055 1930-2000 5915 7345 0100-0130 6040 9440 Radio Praha - CR7, Vinohradska 12, CZ-12099 Praha 2, Tschechien: ENGLISCH [# not explained; repeat of previous day?] 0800 – 0827 7345 41 100 NW-Europa # 1000 – 1029 21745 13 50 Westafrika # 1130 – 1157 9880 31 100 Nordeuropa # 1400 – 1429 11600 25 100 Südasien # 1700 – 1727 5930 49 100 NW-Europa 1800 – 1827 5930 49 100 NW-Europa 2100 – 2127 5930 49 100 NW-Europa (N-America) 2230 – 2257 7355 31 100 Mittel- und Westafrika 2330 – 2357 5930 49 100 Nordamerika 0100 – 0127 7410 41 100 Nordamerika 0200 – 0227 7410 41 100 Nordamerika 0400 – 0427 7345 41 100 Nordamerika 0430 – 0457 9855 31 100 Ostafrika/ Mittlere Osten Vielen Dank! vy 73 (Harald Süss, ADXB - Austrian DX Board, Postfach 1000, A-1081 Wien, http://www.adxb-oe.org adxbsuess @ aon.at via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ** CZECHIA. Radio Prague will issue QSL cards for the internet! According to Radio Prague’s Mailbox programme of 19 December: “Some of our listeners might be wondering what will happen with reception reports and QSL cards after Radio Prague goes off the air [on shortwave]. After February 1st, Radio Prague will still verify your reception over the internet. There is a new set of cards featuring Bohemian and Moravian castles which will soon appear on our website.” (Source: Radio Prague, December 20th, 2010 - 12:03 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ** DIEGO GARCIA. 4319 usb, Armed Forces Radio, 2340-0007 Dec 12, ABC News programming followed by ID at 0000 (``You are listening to Armed Forces Radio``) by man announcer. AP Network News and Sporting News Radio programs followed. Poor to fair but // 5446.5 (Saddlebunch, FL) was very good (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) 4319 kHz - AFN Los Angeles, Diego Garcia, Recebido cartão QSL, 12 dias. V/S: ilegível no cartão, mas havia sido prometido por e-mail pela MCC Cynthia Harris, DMA/Riv-Command. IR enviado por e-mail. QTH: AFN Los Angeles - Department of Defense, NMC DET AFRTS-DMC, 23755 Z St, Bldg. 2730 - Riverside CA 92518-2017 - USA Muito obrigado aos amigos Thiago P. Machdo e Ivan Dias Jr. pelo esforço e informações que abriram as portas para esta confirmação. Após pesquisa no site da AFN/AFRTS, enviei o IR ao e-mail ContactUs @ MyAFN.net sendo gentilmente atendido pelo Sr. Lawrence A. Sichter (Public AFfairs Office), que prontamente encaminhou meu e-mail à Sra. Cynthia Harris (Cynthia.Harris @ dma.mil). Curiosamente, quando tentei enviar e-mail diretamente à Sra. Cynthia, o e-mail retornou. Cabe também informar que o e-mail qsl @ dodmedia.osd.mil não retornou à minha caixa, mas também não produziu nenhum efeito. Em breve a imagem desta confirmação estará disponível no http://pqslfabricio.blogspot.com/ Forte 73 (Fabricio Andrade Silva, PP5002SWL, Tubarão - SC, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 6025.09, R Amanecer, Sto. Domingo, 0830-0852, Dec 18, Spanish emotional sermon fading out. One of their erratic all- night extensions. 73, (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, Dec 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA, 6024.15, R. Amanecer, St.º Domingo, 2221-2232, 19 Dec’10, Castilian, rlgs. propaganda, rlgs. songs; 43432, adj. QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6025.1, HIIJ Radio Amanacer Int'l (presumed); Spanish, 2157-2203+, 21- Dec; English & Spanish Gospel tunes. Brief announcements in Spanish after ToH. SIO=353 till jammed Radio Martí in Spanish s/on on 6030 at 2200. Then SIO-322 in LSB (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EAST TURKISTAN. 7230, 0525-0540, CHINA, 13.12, Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, Mongolian talk, 0530 "The East is Red" IS, ann, opera, 35333 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with high 28 metres of longwire well hidden by snow, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) 4330, China, PBS Xinjiang, Urumqi. December 22 0002-0011 Kazakh (listed) instrumental Chinese music, male on music segment. Poor, 25222. 4500, China, PBS Xinjiang, Urumqi. December 22, 0011-0019 Mongolian (listed) female talks, Chinese music. Noise behind sounding like jamming, 23322 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 6050, HCJB, La Voz de los Andes, Pichincha, *0826-0836, 18-12, open with flute music, anthem, female, quechua, ID: "HCJB Quito, 690 AM, onda corta, 6050 kHz", Equatorial music. Strong interference from Radio Habana Cuba in the same frequency. 42432 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, 27 km W of Lugo, Grundig Satatellit 500 and Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Cable antenna, 10 meters, faced WSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA: no HCJB audible here at that time (gh, DXLD) ** EGYPT. Updated winter B-10 of Radio Cairo: 0400-0600 9745 ABZ 100 kW / 170 deg CEAf Swahili, new, alt. 11740 0700-1100 17510 ABZ 100 kW / 250 deg WeAf Arabic "General Service" 1015-1215 15060 ABZ 250 kW / 090 deg WeAs Arabic 1215-1330 17870 ABZ 250 kW / 090 deg SoAs English 1230-1400 15710 ABS 250 kW / 106 deg SEAs Indonesian 1300-1400 15065 ABZ 250 kW / 070 deg WeAs Dari 1300-1600 15080 ABS 250 kW / 241 deg WeAf Arabic 1330-1530 15040 ABZ 100 kW / 070 deg WeAs Farsi 1400-1600 15065 ABZ 250 kW / 070 deg WeAs Pashto 1500-1600 15780 ABZ 250 kW / 050 deg CeAs Uzbek 1500-1600 13580 ABZ 250 kW / 330 deg EaEu Albanian 1530-1730 17810 ABZ 250 kW / 170 deg CEAf Swahili 1600-1700 15285 ABZ 100 kW / 160 deg ECAf Afar 1600-1800 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 090 deg SoAs Urdu 1600-1800 12170 ABZ 150 kW / 195 deg CSAf English 1700-1900 9280 ABS 250 kW / 005 deg N/ME Turkish 1700-2300 9250 ABZ 250 kW / 180 deg EaAf Arabic "R.Waadi e Nile"[sic] 1700-1730 15285 ABZ 100 kW / 160 deg ECAf Somali 1730-1900 15285 ABZ 100 kW / 160 deg ECAf Amharic 1800-1900 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg WeEu Italian 1800-2100 9990 ABS 250 kW / 241 deg WeAf Hausa 1845-2000 9940 ABZ 250 kW / 245 deg WeAf Fulfulde, new, alt. 11555 1900-2000 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg WeEu German 1900-2000 9280 ABS 250 kW / 005 deg EaEu Russian 1900-2030 11510 ABZ 250 kW / 250 deg WeAf English 1900-2400 9305 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg WeEu Arabic "General Service" 1900-0030 9295 ABZ 100 kW / 160 deg ECAf Arabic "R.Voice of Arabs" 2000-2115 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg WeEu French 2000-2200 6860 ABZ 250 kW / 110 deg AUS Arabic 2030-2230 9280 ABS 250 kW / 241 deg WeAf French 2115-2245 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg WeEu English 2215-2330 9900 ABZ 250 kW / 245 deg SoAm Portuguese 2300-0030 11590 ABZ 250 kW / 330 deg NWAm English 2330-0045 9250 ABS 250 kW / 241 deg SoAm Arabic 2330-0045 9900 ABZ 250 kW / 245 deg SoAm Arabic 0000-0700 9305 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg NoAm Arabic "General Service" 0030-0430 11590 ABZ 250 kW / 330 deg NWAm Arabic 0045-0200 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg NEAm Spanish 0045-0200 9900 ABZ 250 kW / 245 deg SoAm Spanish 0045-0200 9915 ABS 250 kW / 282 deg CeAm Spanish 0200-0330 6270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg NoAm English (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, R. Nacional, Bata. December 14, 2233-2248 wide variety of musical styles with Spanish romantic, Spanish Pop, flamenco Spanish by female singer, instrumental orchestrated, Hilife. 34233 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, 0616-0645, 19-12, female, comments in Spanish, news about Equatorial Guinea: "La formación universitaria de Guinea Ecuatorial, "Las tradicionales fiestas navideñas". At 0624 sport news. "Hemos llegado al final del diario hablado en Bata". 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, 27 km W of Lugo, Grundig Satatellit 500 and Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Cable antenna, 10 meters, faced WSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, RNGE/"R. Malabo", Malabo, 1536-1604, 19 Dec, Castilian, Spanish football results being read with a musical background, western music; 34443, increasing utility QRM. They were found also in Castilian around 1900, poor to fair reception. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Dec 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) GUINÉ EQUATORIAL, 6250, RNGE/”R. Malabo”, Malabo, 1536-1604, 19 Dec’10, Castilian, Spanish f/ball results, music background, then some western music; 34443, increasing uty. QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Dec 21 at 0620, S9+12 with YL in Spanish. We only hear this sporadically and suspect it is only on the air sporadically. Frequency matched Vatican on 7250, but if I had gone by comparing to MW 1250, would have concluded RNGE on the lo side (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, R. Africa, 1618, Dec 16. Tony Alamo program with woman reading bible passages and Alamo commenting; checked at 1714 to hear ID for the S-O-S Ministries program with a New York address; poor (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, Radio Africa, 1727 Dec 17, in English with preacher, IDed as Owen McLeod at 1736 as he ended his message. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, sitting beside Kalamalka Lake, DXing from my car with an Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, Radio Africa, 0805-0830, 18-12, male, English, religious comments. Interference from Radio Inconfidência. 32432 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, 27 km W of Lugo, Grundig Satatellit 500 and Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Cable antenna, 10 meters, faced WSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) BTW - Today (Dec 20) Radio Africa (15190) was coming in much earlier than usual with decent reception. Noted them at 1516 and then again at 1622 with the Tony Alamo program (Ron Howard, CA, Dec 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 15190, Dec 21 at 2230, awful mix of R. Africa and R. Inconfidência. Bata had Tony Alamo undermodulated and very distorted, ZYE522 with music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. via ETHIOPIA. 7235 NF, Voice of Peace and Democracy, 0357-0431*, Dec 17, new frequency. ex-7165. Tune-in to Horn of Africa music IS and opening ID sequence. Talk in listed Tigrinya at 0400. Some Horn of Africa music. Fair. Weaker on // 9560.04v - drifting up to 9560.14. Thanks to Martien Groot tip (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** ETHIOPIA. 6030, Radio Oromiya, 0401-0435 Dec 13, after the Radio Martí jammer left the air, noted with man reading news in Oromo language with ID and music fanfare at end of news at 0411. Horn of Africa vocal selection followed by long talk by two men. Fair (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX- 340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) 6030.00, R Oromiya, Adama, Geja Jewe, 0445-0525, Dec 13, Oromo talk with frequent short interludes of music, 0454 ID: “Radio Oromiya”, 0458 Horn of Africa music, 0500 news, reports, 0520 Horn of Africa songs, 35333 (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) Dec 13 was UT Monday, when The DCJC and Radio Martí are supposed to be truceful (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. 6110, Radio Fana, *0258-0335, Dec 17, sign on with IS. Vernacular talk at 0300. Some instrumental music. Horn of Africa music. Weak. Poor. Mixing with BBC at their scheduled time of *0300- 0330*. Radio Fana in the clear with a good signal after 0330. Very weak on // 7210 (Brian Alexander, PA, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX Listening Digest) 6110, 18/12 1645, R. Fana - Addis Ababa, Amarico, musica afro, buono (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, shortwave yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. 9705, Radio Ethiopia, 2050-2100*, Dec 17, Horn of Africa music. Instrumental remakes of US pop music. Possible Amharic news at 2057. Sign off with National Anthem at 2059. Good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** EUROPE. 6210, 19/12 1000, Laser Hot Hits, English ID e musica, buono (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, shortwave yg via DXLD) ** FRANCE. GERMANY(non), Radio Reveil Paroles de Vie in French, last transmission on Dec. 30: 1830-1845 on 9760 ISS 100 kW / 142 deg to CeAf Tue/Thu, cancelled from Jan. 4 (DX Mix News Extra 21 Dec via DXLD) ** FRANCE [non]. Amigos de la Lista, Que cada vez haya menos radios internacionales de Onda Corta no es novedad, pero que existan radios que aún sigan activas en OC y no le den demasiada trascendencia a ello como en el caso específico de Radio Francia Internacional, resulta inaudito (!!!).- Como saben, desde el pasado 31/10/2010 ha dado comienzo el nuevo Período de Emisiones de OC identificado como “B-10”, vigente hasta el 27/03/2011, y hasta la fecha RFI ni siquiera ha publicado su nuevo esquema de frecuencias en su Página Web, ni ha dado difusión del mismo por otros medios. Personalmente envié 3 e-mails a la emisora para que me manden su horario de programas en español para este nuevo período de emisiones y ni siquiera me contestaron.- No es como para volverse loco con esta gente ??? A propósito alguien tiene el esquema de esta radio en español ? Gracias !! (Marcelo A. Cornachioni, Argentina, Dec 16, condiglist yg via DXLD) Tenés todo la razón del mundo para opoinar como opinás! Hace muchos años (o nunca) tuvimos un cierre de año tan triste en materia de desaparición de servicios en español en onda corta (y de servicios en onda corta en general) y saben que advierto?: Resignación en los radioescuchas. Naturalmente no se puede armar campañas de apoyo por cada emisora que cierra cuando cierran tantas pero la noticia del s/off definitivo de Radio Praga no tuvo gran repercusión. A proposito, en otro correo mando lo que ya publica la propia pagina web de la emisora. 73 (Arnaldo Slaen, ibid.) La conclusión para mí es muy sencilla. A la onda corta no le dan bola ni los gobiernos ni los oyentes. Entonces termina siendo lógica su desaparición. Lo que también sostengo es que este desisterés generado por los adelantos tecnológicos (Satélite, Internet, etc) tiene un efecto contrario al que supuestamente han querido originar y que - paradójicamente - llaman GLOBALIZACIÓN. La onda corta no se reemplaza. Sino, los invito a realizar un listado de emisoras internacionales que la dejaron a cambio de continuar sus emisiones por Internet. Así como se pierden emisoras de OC sin reemplazo de medio, también se pierden oyentes de OC porque tampoco utilizan otros medios. Una realidad que hay que aceptar. Saludos RGM (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Argentina, ibid.) Re: Que la pasa a RFI ??? Marcelo: no sé qué pasara con RFI pero a mi me mandaron el plan de horarios y frecuencias dos veces al año desde 1983 hasta 2001 con un solo reporte en 1983; después no lo mandaron más, pero igual sorprendió. Arnaldo, resignación de los radioescuchas? Y qué otra cosa se puede hacer? La aparición de un servicio internacional en OC de un país no genera obligación alguna para con sus escuchas de continuarlo indefinidamente siendo un servicio gratuito; además en cada cierre de un servicio supongo que será el resultado de una evaluación donde sin duda el contacto con la audiencia, los reportes y mensajes habrán decaído a favor de otros medios de comunicación. Me parece que nos está jugando una mala pasada la nostalgia que no nos deja ver, o no nos deja aceptar que la radio en OC fue el medio ideal en otras épocas, para satisfacer necesidades de comunicación de los actores de los dos extremos del vínculo, el oyente y la emisora. Hoy hay otros medios alternativos y mejores, la tecnología avanza y arrasa con su predecesora. Igualmente habrá zonas del mundo donde aun tenga utilidad y vigencia como el medio; si no el mejor, el más accesible y siempre habrá emisoras en OC, así como navegan aun los barcos a vela cuando existen hace años barcos a motor y nucleares. Es probable que la OC se recible [sic] y aparezcan más emisoras impulsadas por la nostalgia, el cariño por la actividad como un hobbie [sic] bastante parecido a la radioafición pero donde se pueda emitir música y opinar de muchos temas sin restricciones, eso si, pero claro serán QRP. Seguramente hay o habrá de ese lado, el emisor, muchos que antes solo fueron escuchas. Por suerte la onda media sobrevive, crece bien y seguirá siendo una banda interesante para el radioescucha que no le tema a los estáticos y ruidos urbanos (voto x DX camp Parque Luro). 73s, (Alejandro D Álvarez LU8YD, Dec 18, condiglist yg via DXLD) Saludos colegas, Los esquemas en HFCC, todos via Guiana Francesa: B-10 ahora: 1000-1030 7375, 9825 1200-1230 15515 2100-2130 17630 0100-0130 5995 A-10 antes: 1000-1030 5960, 7375, 9825 (o sólo 2?] 1200-1230 13640 2100-2130 17630 0100-0130 9750 Espero que puedan averiguar si existan ya estas emisiones. Hay que considerar que de vez en cuando hay huelgas reemplazando los programas con música. También en inglés RFI se demora en publicar sus esquemas. Además, hace poco encontré el programa de RFI a través de Radio Educación, México, en 6185 (y 1060) entre las 0603 y 0633 según su esquema de L a V. Tal vez repita la emisión también en OC a la 01. 6185 queda libre de interferencia vaticana desde las 0620, y siempre de interferencia amazónica. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Conosuristas were wondering what became of RFI, since a B-10 Spanish schedule can`t be found on their website, {and three e-mail requests for one went unanswered} so I extracted the schedule registered in HFCC, all via GUIANA FRENCH: 1000-1030 7375, 9825 1200-1230 15515 2100-2130 17630 0100-0130 5995 If at all possible I will be snoozing at 1000. I couldn`t hear 15515 on Dec 19 before 1230, but the band was still dead. Missed checking at 2100, intend to later. But at 0125 Dec 20, discussion of sports was in progress until 0129*, so I am confident RFI is still broadcasting in Spanish on SW; subject as always, of course, to disruptions by strikes, when music will fill (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And also confirmed with excellent signal at 2105 Dec 22 on 17630 (gh) ** GERMANY. SUDWESTRUNDFUNK TO CLOSE MEDIUM WAVE TRANSMITTERS? Based on my limited understanding of German and google translate it seems that Sudwestrundfunk may be closing all its medium wave transmitters by the end of next year. This press item includes a video of the Muhlacker site: http://www.pz-news.de/Home/Nachrichten/Muehlacker/arid,238008_puid,1_pageid,87.html Item on dxaktuell.de listing the transmitters: http://www.dxaktuell.de/ Could German speaking list members say whether I have understood this correctly please as if so will be of interest to other lists and messageboards I use (Mike Barraclough, UK, Dec 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mike, the translation IS CORRECT. Muehlacker mediumwave transmitter location since 1931year will remain only as a single FM transmitter installation and fm+tv transmitter engineer central service point for SWR transmitter in south western Germany. At present the station needs 380.000 EURO main power costs anually. Nine engineers still work as broadcasting and maintenance central point at present. In the 60ties the Muehlacker station had its peak power with SDR and AFN Stuttgart location, served by 69 employees and engineers. This figure given on a recent sightseeing tour in April 2010, when I visited the transmitter stationn for the fourth time in past 40 years. Google Earth shows still the old SW 6030 kHz shortwave dipole, in north-south lobe azimuth direction. SWR 6030 576 kHz Muehlacker 48 56'29.26"N 08 51'08.64"E http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=de&geocode=&q=48%C2%B056%2729.26%22N++08%C2%B051%2708.64%22E&sll=51.151786,10.415039&sspn=19.808511,57.084961&ie=UTF8&ll=48.941678,8.851569&spn=0.005053,0.013937&t=h&z=17 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) And you can DOWNLOAD that 3-minute video report here (19.2 MB): http://www.pz-news.de/cms_media/module_ob/7/3738_1_Sender_Muehlacker_mit_Werbung_NEU2.flv Best regards, (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, ibid.) Sudwestrundfunk to close all medium wave transmitters More German medium wave closures announced today. Sudwestrundfunk will be closing all mediumwave transmitters by the end of next year. Transmitters listed here, includes high power ones on 576 666 and 1017: http://www.dxaktuell.de/?p=1355 German press item here includes video report from the Muhlacker 576 site which has been in use since 1930: http://www.pz-news.de/Home/Nachrichten/Muehlacker/arid,238008_puid,1_pageid,87.html Annual mains electricity cost of station is 380 000 Euro (Mike Barraclough, Dec 16, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) Actually this figure refers to all SWR mediumwave transmitters together. The complete costs to operate them (i.e. including maintenance etc.) sum up to about one million Euro per year. The report also quotes a member of the SWR council, which made this decision, with the explanation that SWR cont.ra, the program carried on these frequencies, will be closed altogether. I find it remarkable that even this circumstance wents by unnoticed by the mainstream media, besides a local editorial office which researches this fact after being tipped of the closure of their local transmitter. And the deadline: "Until yearend 2011." These should be all relevant details in the report (Kai Ludwig, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. 90 years of radio broadcast from Koenigs Wusterhausen, Germany. Repeat of the historical Christmas concert of 22 Dec 1920 via Radio 700 Euskirchen, tx Kall 6005 kHz at 1300 UT Dec 22, 2010. Programmtipp: 90 Jahre Rundfunk aus Koenigs Wusterhausen, Vor 90 Jahren, am 22.12.1920 begann in Deutschland der Rundfunk mit dem Weihnachtskonzert aus der Funkstelle Koenigs Wusterhausen. Als Erinnerung daran veranstaltet die Stadt Koenigs Wusterhausen in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Foerderverein "SenderKW" e.V. am 18. Dezember 2010 15:00 Uhr MEZ/CET eine Neuauflage dieses Weihnachtskonzerts. Kuenstler: Ingrid Raack Hoerspielgruppe Bredow Schule Siegfried Uhlenbrock Theatergruppe Schiller Gymnasium Lutz Jahoda Kinder und Jugendchor Eichwalde Moderation: Ralf Schuricht, Lutz Hoff Maschinensaal Senderhaus 1 Funkerberg Koenigs Wusterhausen Die Veranstaltung wird mitgeschnitten und laeuft stilecht in Amplitudenmodulation ueber den Sender Kall-Krekel am Mittwoch, 22.12.2010 ab 14 Uhr, also zur originalen Sendezeit des ersten Konzertes. Es sind noch 2-3 Wiederholungstermine an den Weihnachtstagen vorgesehen. Ueber Sendezeiten und Frequenzen werden wir noch informieren. SONDER-QSL ist in Vorbereitung. Siehe auch: Mit freundlichen Gruessen Christian Milling Funkhaus Euskirchen e.V. Kuchenheimer Strasse 155 53881 Euskirchen RADIO 700 - Ihr Radio fuer die Region in Ostbelgien und der Eifel auf UKW 90,1 und 101,7 MHz, europaweit auf Kurzwelle 6005 kHz, und weltweit im Internet: (Dec 15) (via BC-DX Dec 18 via DXLD) ** GERMANY [and non]. EMR this Sunday: Date 19th of December 2010 Time 1000 to 1100 UT Channel 6140 kHz Programmes: 1000 Tom Taylor programme, 1020 Mike Taylor (Mail Box programme) EMR Internet radio service on Sunday and Monday Programme repeats are at the following times: 1000, 1300, 1600, 1900, 2200 UT. Please visit http://www.emr.org.uk and click on the “EMR internet radio” button which you will find throughout the website (see the menu on the left). Please send all reception reports to: studio @ emr.org.uk Good Listening 73s Tom - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Relays via MV Baltic Radio & Nexus (ex. IRRS) MV Baltic Radio relay service Schedule for Winter 2010 / 11 Channel 6140 kHz - Time 1000 to 1100 UT 1st Sunday – MV Baltic Radio 3rd Sunday – European Music Radio 4th Sunday – Radio Gloria International Nexus (ex. IRRS) relay service Schedule for Winter 2010 / 11 Channel 9510 kHz - Time 0900 to 1000 UT 1st Saturday – Radio Joystick 3rd Saturday – Radio City [Dec 18, preëmpting WOR, DXPL] (Tom Taylor, Dec 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) GERMANY, 6140, European Music Radio, *1000-1040, 19-12, English, ID: "This is European Music Radio, commencing transmission on 6140 kHz". Male voice, pop music, "In the 49 meter band, this is European Music Radio". 45444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, log in Friol, 27 Km. W of Lugo, Grundig Satellit 500 and Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Cable antenna, 10 meters, faced WSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. RWANDA/GERMANY, Additional frequency of Deutsche Welle in Dari from Dec. 8: 1330-1400 on 15275 KIG 250 kW / ??? deg to WeAs, co-channel DW Hausa also KIG!!! (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via DXLD) I would first consider the possibility that just two program audio circuits are being fed into one transmitter by way of some misconfiguration (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Originally scheduled as Hausa at 13-14 (gh) Frequency change of Deutsche Welle in Hausa from Dec. 24: 1300-1400 NF 15260 KIG 250 kW / 310 deg to WeAf, ex 15275 to avoid DWL Dari Additional frequency of Deutsche Welle in Dari from Dec. 8: 1330-1400 on 15275 KIG 250 kW / 030 deg to WeAs // 12065 TRM and 17860 RMP (DX Mix News Extra 21 Dec via DXLD) Deutsche Welle in Bengali probable to be closed --- In a rare report on international broadcasting, the German regional newspaper Nürnberger Nachrichten on 17 December 2010 carried a report on the downsizing of Deutsche Welle. Beside general information on possible cuts in services and job losses, one foreign language service is specifically mentioned: Bengali. Thomas Senne: Auslandsfunk ringt um seine Zukunft, in: Nuernberger Nachrichten 17. December 2010, pg. 6. Unfortunately, the article is not available on the internet pages of the paper (Dr. Hansjoerg Biener, Germany Dec 19, dx_india yg via DXLD) Sad but DW Bengali was losing the plot. Last I heard it (several months ago), it was a pale shadow of its former self. Funnyly DW Hindi, Urdu and Bengali would cover the same news event in an entirely different perspective. So if in Hindi an event was good than in Urdu it may be entirely opposite. More to do with language specific editor, than consistency in policy, I think (Ashok Satpathy, India, ibid.) ** GERMANY. GERMAN SOLDIERS ARE ADVISED TO WATCH DW-TV The Hotbird/Eutelsat relays of ADR for Afghanistan are "too expensive" at about 1 mln. euro per year. So the German soldiers are advised to watch (and listen to?) DW instead. Another option for those stuck in Afghanistan is to use... online streaming. Personally I think DW is fine but many German politicians are protesting such an option. More details in German: http://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article11757969/ARD-spart-sich-das-Programm-fuer-deutsche-Soldaten.html (Sergei S., Dec 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ahhhh, this nice story. A few days ago it came to the attention of the tabloid "Bild" that ARD took back in last June its Das Erste program off the Media Broadcast multiplex that carries, amongst other things, DW. This Hotbird signal can just barely be picked up in Afghanistan. Actually it can even be received in New Delhi, much to the surprise of Eutelsat, by way of a five metres dish of sheet metal (mesh is clearly inferior for Ku-band), pointed at the western horizon. Now the ARD office in New Delhi is, like a number of other ones, cut off from a return feed. The circumstance of the Hotbird signal being terminated half a year ago became a few days ago more widely known due to a visit of the Minister of Defence in Afghanistan, and "Bild" took the opportunity to launch yet another full-blow campaign against ARD: http://www.bildblog.de/26516/soldatensender-powerplay/ These, well, publications also triggered some outradged comments from politicians, and ARD managers hurried to get their program again on a satellite footprint that reaches Afghanistan. It appears that ARD first approached SES, from which ARD members lease a bunch of Astra 1 transmitters for lots of €€€. SES immediately provided a slot on NSS-12, and the arrangement has been described as "cost neutral". So today Eutelsat struck another PR stunt: Das Erste is again on Hotbird, transmitted for free!! They chose some multiplex operated by a company in Italy. Here Das Erste is now on as a true poor man's signal without teletext and EPG, with bitrates of just 2.7 Mbps for video and 128 kbps for audio, with 16:9 video being letterboxed into a 4:3 signal. Technical details for these SES and Eutelsat signals are here: http://www.ard.de/intern/presseservice/-/id=8058/nid=8058/did=1743178/x1t84b/index.html "Kapazität: 7.6 MHz" is of course nonsense, I think meant to specify a symbol rate of 7,600. No 12,700 GHz signal is listed for NSS-12 so far, I assume it is a SCPC signal (i.e. this DVB feed contains no other programming), perhaps via a transponder that has been activated for the purpose, since these numbers do not appear in frequency lists either. This bird obviously has plenty of spare capacity. It is my impression that ARD became at shortest notice subject of a PR battle between SES and Eutelsat, and it is also my impression that managers like SWR director and ARD head Peter Boudgoust do not even remotely know that the public broadcasting system of Germany here became just that, a plaything of the big boys. I think one can proceed from the assumption that both feeds will disappear soon after New Year's Day without much fanfare. Beyond that many people are worried how ARD hastened to react on the "Bild" campaign and the polemics from some politicians. This is no good omen for the further development of public broadcasting in Germany. By the way, "Welt" is published by Axel Springer Verlag like "Bild", thus usually participates in campaigns against the public broadcasters (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) ** GREECE. Strike at Voice of Greece has led to their playing nothing but continuous music, no announcements that I have ever heard, and it`s not the usual Greek music, but mostly classical. Others have reported jazz. This was first noted here around 0630 on 7475 and 1430 on 9420 Dec 15 with classical; thought it rather strange. Also still the case Dec 17 at 0634 with a violin concerto, good on 7475 and 9420, 0636 segué to a Hungarian Dance on violin and piano. At 1433, 9420 had good signal strength but fluttery, now with Broadway music, 1435 no announcement, on to Bernstein; only poor on // 15650 at 1443. John Babbis sends a story from Xinhua: Violence again erupts during general strike in Athens (2) 09:01, December 16, 2010 [including:] ``Local television and radio channels, Internet news outlets, and the national news agency also did not broadcast news as journalists joined the strike along with taxi drivers and lawyers`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: I think that this is the Mother of all Greek strikes and is slated to last all week. I am sure that everybody at ERA5 has walked out, leaving the Managers to hire strike-breakers with their albums of American music, etc. The radio employees are also hired by the state. On November 30, journalists staged a nationwide strike to protest wage cuts and layoffs. Last week public transport workers struck, leading to the network grinding to a halt in Athens. This week refuse workers, air traffic controllers, bank staff, state-television employees and rail workers are scheduled to strike in separate disputes (John Babbis, MD, Dec 17, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I'm really surprised the Greeks have kept shortwave going to the current extent. You would think the SW broadcasts would be headed to the budgetary chopping block, given that Greece is broke and being propped up by German taxpayers (especially ironic since Deutsche Welle is getting ready to axe much of their SW output.) Would be sad to see Greece leave SW, but when the money runs out (Steve Luce, Houston, TX, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7475, VOG, Dec 18 at 0600 classical music, pause, no hourtop ID or any announcement, more classical. The strike continues preventing normal programming from airing, but I must say I approve of their substitute. 7475, Dec 20 at 0629, VOG fair with talk in Greek instead of classical music fill, so apparently the strike is over, for now. 9420, VOG, Dec 21 at 1443, Greek talk and music, good signal, back to normal (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 7450, VOG Greek music, Dec 21 at 2228, but big het from WWCR-1 7465 spur as constantly plus and minus 15+ kHz from fundamental. The other one on 7480+ did not have a victim (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREENLAND. 3815 USB, KNR, Tasiilaq, *2101-2214*, Dec 02, 03, 10 and 11, Greenlandic talk, flute music, 2130 news, 2148 orchestra music, 2200 KNR jingle, Danish news and reports, 2213 Greenlandic song, 24332, QRM utility talks, incl. *2157-2158* Calls from Russian airports (Bernard Mille, Bailleul, France, mixed in with Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) Comments on R Greenland closing MW and SW transmitters: This is really bad news for DX-ers! Last call for a MW or SW-QSL from Greenland! In January this year the Traffic Chief at the KNR utility SW transmitter in Tasiilaq, Mr. Bo Mogensen, verified my reception report enclosed two US $. His address is: TELE Greenland A/S, Teleservicecenter Aasiaat, Postboks 217, DK-3950 Aasiaat, Greenland. Please see more comments in Miscellaneous (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) I am really curious IF they also will close the 3815 kHz relay for the Fisherboats!! (Erik Koie, Holte, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) 3815 USB, 2125-2135 15.12, KNR, Tasiilaq Greenlandic talk and news, CWQRM 13221 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with high 28 metres of longwire well hidden by snow, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) GROENLÂNDIA, 3815, Grønlands R, Tasiilaq, 2201-2214*, 18 Dec’10, Danish, news bulletin, hymn, abruptly off; 24431, adj. amateur radio QRM splattering from 3814 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re MW and SW deleted from Feb: Harold Frodge responds to this by pointing out that Greenland isn't 'gone' from the radio dial even if this happens: Long & medium-wave utes from Greenland logged by MAREs within the past year: 265 JH Qaqortoq/Julienhab, Greenland 331 FH Frederickstad Greenland, Paamiut A/P 341 SM Sisimuit, Greenland 399 UP Upernavik, Greenland 518 OXI NAVTEX Station W, Nuuk/Kook Island, Greenland THAT is the way to find the sliver lining! :) (MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** GUAM. 5765-USB, AFN, Dec 20 at 1331, news/talk about Korea, so apparently back to original format at the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM. Frequency change of KTWR Agaña in Vietnamese from Dec.19: 1100-1130 NF 11750 TWR 100 kW / 285 deg to SEAs, ex 11840 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. 4052.5-, R. Verdad, Dec 18 at 0556 very poor with talk, intonation sounds English as nominal during final hour of transmission. Dr Madrid continues to have problems with the transmitter, so operation is intermittent and underpowered as he gets advice from Engr. Rafael Borthwick in Canada (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Edgar, Sorry you are having so much trouble with the transmitter. Reception here is usually just barely audible, but I have a high noise level to cope with in that frequency range. And thanks also for the packet received a while ago including your very nice pennant. Unfortunately I must tell you about a problem with that you may not be aware of. When the pennant is folded upon itself, the lettering tends to pull off, that is stick to the opposite part of the pennant it is folded against, when you try to unfold it. Perhaps it would help to be sure a piece of blank, and non-sticky paper is right next to the printed side of the pennant, to protect it. Wishing you a good Christmas season, (Glenn Hauser to Dr Madrid, via DXLD) Thank you, Glenn, for your observation. I had become aware of the sticking problem of the banners already, that it stuck on other papers I sent. That is the reason why I decided to fold it against itself, but it didn't work, as I see. The new ones I just ordered, will be printed on cloth. I think it won't do the same problem. I have to remember sending you one of the new ones. May God bless you (Dr. Édgar Madrid, Radio Truth, Dec 19, ibid.) ** GUYANA. We are going to be changing GUYANA's night time frequency of 3290, and adding a day-time frequency somewhere around 6 MHz. I will be returning to Guyana some time in late January. They are currently operating at 5 kW, but are getting horrible interference on 3290. I don't know what frequencies they will be assigned, but as soon as I find out, I will let you and all of our brothers on the World of Radio site, [know] what the changes are (Jamie Labadia, Dec 18, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BOLIVIA, LIBERIA, VANUATU ** HAWAII. 4 December from 1642 to 1705 UT: 1610: Wonder if anyone has ever heard the TIS in Honolulu for the Hawaii Convention Center? IDs as WTAZ957 with "Aloha", and mentioning the Traffic Advisory and information network, as well as their URL as http://www.hawaiiconvention.com (Walt Salmaniw, visiting Waikiki, IRCA via DXLD) ** HUNGARY. See CHINA [non] ** INDIA. PRASAR BHARTI CEO B S LALLI SUSPENDED NEW DELHI: President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday night ordered the suspension of Prasar Bharti's controversial CEO B S Lalli, who is in the eye of a storm facing allegations of irregularities in the country's largest public broadcaster. More at : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Prasar-Bharti-CEO-B-S-Lalli-suspended/articleshow/7141426.cms (via Alokesh Gupta, Dec 21, dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDIA [and non]. As I am busy packing for my Hawaii trip, I managed to only do a quick scan of 60-meters this morning at 1530. 4775 was not on, but soon thereafter during a third pass, was there. All AIR stations I heard were carrying the home program in English. Even caught a soccer score and English ID around 1538 on one of the channels. I had good audio out of 4940, well over China. Port Blair on 4760 was covered by some ute, but later caught the TWR IS at 1557 covering them. I managed to catch some audio under China on 5050, so all in all, the AIR stations were reasonable. Merry Christmas, as this may be my last logging material before I leave (Jim Young, CA, Dec 20, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. 4880, AIR Lucknow, 1431-1513, Dec 17. Commentary about the upcoming cricket match between India and South Africa; in English and Hindi; sound of the crowd finally heard at 1448 and coverage of the match started; also in English and Hindi; when I left the beach, RSA was dominating the game; // 5010 and 5040 (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA [and non]. AIR Chennai, 4920, 1530-1535, News in English. Here is the first minute, mixing with Tibet. Usually Tibet is the winner! http://www.box.net/shared/zffmdhivho (Mark Davies, Anglesey UK, Dec 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 5040, AIR Jeypore. Dec 19 another day of cricket; India vs. South Africa; tuned in at 1339 for commentary in English; later had actual coverage of the game in English and Hindi, which was not completed due to winds and darkness at the stadium in S. African; at 1345 they switched away for commentary for the news in Hindi; commentary and coverage // 4880 and 5010. After the match was called off, noted still in // at 1502 + 1526 with subcontinent music; the three did not break away at 1512 for the Delhi audio feed (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 5040, *0018-0050 20.12, AIR Jeypore, vernacular ann. R Habana Cuba was already on this frequency at 0010 in English with 45333. At 0012-0026 DX-programme with Arnie Coro calling CQ-DX, then interviews. The 50 kW transmitter of AIR Jeypore warmed up with a carrier tone, followed 0023 by AIR opening with "Vande Mataram" hymn and Indian songs 32332 while RHC was heard with 43333. Fortunately RHC can only be heard during the morning broadcast and not the evening broadcast (IST) (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with high 28 metres of longwire well hidden by snow, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. 9690, AIR GOS Dec 20 with enjoyable music before 1400 and after 1415; also 1437 giving schedule of other English broadcasts during Faithfully Yours mailbag with M&W. Better signal than usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9690 / 11620 / 13710 INDIA AIR. *1330 December 19, 2010. Opening with English General Overseas Service, ID and news. 9690 good but hummy; 11620 weak and hummy; 13710 very good and hum-free. Vividh Bharati commercial service in mostly Hindi on 9870 very good same time. 15050, AIR. 1306 December 19, 2010. Presume the one at near local level with nice Hindi vocals, hummy audio as with most AIR transmitters. Presumed Sinhala service. No parallels found (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Self alongwith 7 other radio enthusiasts went for a DX- pedition at the coastal place called Mandarmani in the state of West Bengal, India. Please find attached some of my logging done during 15th to 17th December 2010. [posted on the dxldyg] During the DX-pedition, we noted many local pirate radio station which were broadcasting local musical request, audio from the Bengali movie etc. One day we went for foxfinding. But could not locate them. All of them were running low power transmitter. Those were audible because of our good beverages. Earlier these pirate channels were noted in FM band. Now noted all over in Medium Wave band. Thanks, (Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, India, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3325, surprisingly good signal in Indonesian, Dec 16 at 1403, mentioning Kalimantan, apparent news from RRI Palangkaraya. Steady S9+12, rivalling only other station on band, WWRB 3185, which was starting to fade. No North Koreans were audible this time, nor was there anything else on 120, 105, 90, 75 or 60 m except Cuba 5025 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4750, RRI Makassar, 1152-1203 Dec 13, Indo vocals with flutes until woman announcer at 1158 with talk in Indonesian, Song of the Coconut Islands and ID with Jakarta news at 1200. Very poor (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX- 340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) ?! This has been off the air since September; no other reports of it; a one-shot revival? (gh, DXLD) Hi Rich, Was interested in the great logs from your French Creek State Park DXpedition. Very nice variety of stations. Am jealous of 6030 reception of Radio Oromiya. I listened a while ago on a Monday and only found Cuban jamming running late, covering their sign on :( One log caught my attention and with all due respect I want to share a few thoughts with you about it. RRI returning on 4750 would be significant news. Are you sure it was them? You seem to give specific details but indicate very poor reception. I ask because I look to Atsunori Ishida http://rri.jpn.org/ as being an expert on Indonesian stations and per his daily monitoring, RRI was last noted on 4750 on September 23 and has not been heard since then, all the way through to December 16. This conforms to my own observations here in California. I listen almost daily and find that either Bangladesh Betar or CNR1 dominates. I confirmed this again today (Dec 17) and found the usual Bangladesh Betar mixing with CNR1, but somewhat stronger (per attached audio). Had several clear IDs (one on recording at 00:06) and many references to Bangladesh. Positive it was them. In the past when RRI was on, they usually dominated; mixing with either CNR1 or perhaps Bangladesh. Today noted Bangladesh sign off at normal 1500*, after which I heard two Chinese stations. Never any hint of RRI today. What do you think? Thanks for any feedback (Ron Howard, via DXLD) Ron, I will need to check my notes/log book from the trip. Unfortunately, I do not have it at home leaving it in the office on Friday for no particular reason. I may have a chance to stop by later today and pick it up. I can tell you that I usually use a template from prior DXpeditions (logs, musing, etc.) to start off the next DXpedition electronic reporting. At Friday's regular NASWA Reading Area DXers meeting someone asked about conditions and I recall stating what a disappointment that Indonesia and PNG were not heard on the tropical bands since those two locations are always important for us east coasters although 9526 was heard at nice levels both days. 73, (Rich, ibid.) ** INDONESIA. 9525.9, Voice of Indonesia, 1246-1402 Dec 13, man hosting Japanese service with Indo vocals. At 1300 woman announcer changed to English program with ID, and man announcer with newscast. Features about economy and culture program were heard as well as a language lesson (``Let`s Speak Bahasa Indonesian`` [sic]) and Music Corner. Poor to fair (fluttery). Again, 1050-1055 Dec 14 with talk by man and woman in English at fair level (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) 9525.96, Voice of Indonesia,*0950-1015, Dec 17, abrupt sign on with listed Korean programming. Religious music. English at 1000 with opening ID announcements. English news at 1001. Weak but readable (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ? No mentions of IADs, which I still hear when I tune this frequency in any language. Some listeners mentally fill in the blanx, overlisten them? (gh) ** INTERNATIONAL [discussion prompted by Greenland et al., closing SW] Even the relatively recent low-power missionary stations that brought back for a fleeting moment rare DX that HCJB and others have supported, never really made it --- witness The Cross R in Pohnpei (gone), Wantok R Light (still on but with much reduced power these days), R Peace (supposedly expanding, but not on the air these days), Dunamis Shortwave in Uganda (rarely, if ever heard, with transmitter problems), ELWA (gone again), R Veritas Liberia (gone), CRN in Papua New Guinea (gone), and on and on the list goes. The only one still reliably operating is R Kahuzi in DR Congo. The story is the same in most cases - unreliable equipment and a lack of trained staff to support the station technical operations (Bruce Churchill, Fallbrook CA in Dxplorer via DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) The smaller local missionary outlets did show promise as DX targets -- and indeed, that seems to remain true in Brazil, where they are still common, though internally the names and organizations shift and change. But the African and Pacific examples you mention do seem to be too small and unsupported to stay on the air consistently. It always seems to take an expensive trip out outbound by an HCJB technician or somebody else every time they break down. I think this is the result of an unrecognized basic problem -- equipment always needs somebody qualified on site. It is more than simply pushing the same on button daily to keep the station working. It is not a cheap an [sic] outreach technique as too many smaller missionary organizations seem to think. Traditionally, religious mission groups recognized the need to train on site medical missionaries to have, essentially, as much medical know-how as, say, a nurse practitioner or a paramedic so they can handle the majority of medical needs of their parishioners. But their organizations have not seemed to grasp the essential requirement of having a technician trained to a similar level on site to maintain broadcasting. Their on site missionaries need enough electronic knowledge to keep their broadcasting equipment maintained with a supply of basic spare parts so the on-site technician can handle anything less than a major equipment breakdown. Some missionary groups have opted instead for buying time on the major rent-a-transmitter operations; but for a mere hour or two on the air. For a longer schedule, that would be too expensive, compared with running your own low powered transmitter. Also, renting time on a major transmitter is a LOT of expensive overkill, if you only want to focus on some African tribal group in the vicinity of your remote mission. But then, maybe an FM station serves better than SW. A little more grasp of reality regarding SW outreach would help these small missionary broadcasting operations. But, surely, looking at the big picture, it cannot be too far in the future when even the VOA and, horror of horrors, the BBC finally decide to pull the plug on SW. Then, indeed, the party will be over, killed by an Internet that has, by then, become truly worldwide (Don Jensen, Kenosha, WI, Dxplorer via DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) ** IRAN. 3965, VOIRI --- Zahedan, 0219-0229* Dec 14, man with recitation from Koran. A man announcer with talk in Urdu language at 0224 followed by piano instrumental music until carrier terminated. Fair with slight amateur radio operator QRM (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) 9830, V.O.I.R.I., 1741 Dec 17, in Swahili, man and woman with news or political commentary; mentions of Pakistan, America, Barak Obama. Good (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, sitting beside Kalamalka Lake, DXing from my car with an Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRELAND. 1752 kHz USB - Valentia Radio, Ireland - 0236-0237 UT 12/17 - Heavy Irish accented male voice opened transmission with "This is Valentia Radio", transmission lasted only one minute, could not make out entire transmission but seemed weather related. Very poor signal just above the noise (Tim Tromp, Muskegon MI, MARE Tipsheet Dec 17 via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ** ISRAEL. 15785, 18/12 1050, R. Galei Tzahal - Lod, Ebraico, MX, buono (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, shortwave yg via DXLD) ** ITALY [non]. 9510, Radio City via IRSS Nexus, *0859-0915, 18.12, tuning music, male: IRRS short wave, Milano, signing on", male: identification in various languages: "Radio City, the Station of the cars", "Radio Ciudad, la voz de los coches", comments in English and pop music. 45444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, 27 km W of Lugo, Grundig Satatellit 500 and Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Cable antenna, 10 meters, faced WSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Pre-empted WORLD OF RADIO on the third Saturday; presumably next week Dec 25 will be the final WOR at this time, unless pre-empted too (gh, DXLD) ** JORDAN. 15290, Radio Jordan (presumed), 1221-1228* Dec 13, non-stop Middle Eastern vocals until carrier terminated without announcements at 1228. Poor with fair peaks. 1156-1230* Dec 14, Middle Eastern vocals to 1200 ID followed by news in Arabic by man and woman. News ended at 1217 with dramatic musical fanfare. Music programming until carrier cut. Good signal today (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) Amman noted still in progress on Dec 14 at 12 to 1230:10 UT close-down at S=9+15dB level in Germany (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 18 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. 6100.00, KCBS Kanggye, 1438-1458, Dec 21, Korean, usual ecstatic sopranos &orchestral pieces sandwiched between CNR echo jamming on 6095 and 6105. Weak but in the clear // 11679.82 only slightly better. Still exactly on frequency, cf DXLD 10-41. 73, (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. KOREA D.P.R., 6250.462, Pyongyang in Korean at 2309 UT, S=8 signal (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also SWITZERLAND [and non] ** KOREA NORTH [non]. UZBEKISTAN/NORTH KOREA, Frequency change of Radio Free Chosun in Korean: 1500-1600 NF 5760 TAC 100 kW / 065 deg to NoKo, ex 6225, re-ex 7530 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5985, Wed Dec 22 at 1423, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze via JSR JAPAN, usual earnest YL in English with description of a 1960 abductee, Koiko(?) Yamada, including her height in cm and feet. Good signal, S9+15 and het from Myanmar just barely audible. 1425 begins wrapping up with complete contact info, ``time for us to come together and fight the dictator Kim Jung-Il, 1430*. There should be English again on Friday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS [non]. Hmong World Christian Radio: see PUBLICATIONS: WRTH ** LIBERIA. Star Radio --- they made us change the frequency from 4025 to 3960. The new expanded 75 meter SWBC band allows operation up to 4100, and 4025 was a nice quiet frequency, but we were forced to move to 3960 kHz. Also, they are only running about 1,200 watts of power, because they let the generator run out of gas while transmitter was on the air. They had bypassed ALL of the protection interlocks, and the collapsing fields and crazy voltage spikes that take place as the generator R.P.M.s slow down, speed up, slow down, etc., were just too much for the P.D.M. modulators to handle, so they blew one of the P.A. amplifiers. I've built a great deal of redundancy in the system, so they are still on the air, but at the reduced power of 1,200 watts (Normal power is 2,500). (Jamie Labadia, Dec 18, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BOLIVIA, GUYANA, VANUATU. Expanded 75m to 4100? I was not aware of any official international action about this (gh, ibid.) ** LIBYA. Glenn: here is something to add to the info on Libya that`s been in DXLD lately: On 15 Dec I had at 1400 UT unusually good reception of Voice of Africa. At 1405 the announcer gave frequencies which included one that I don`t recollect seeing in DXLD. He gave two frequencies; 21695 to East Africa and 17860 to Central Africa. I checked 17860 and heard what I think was DW. Also checked 17800, but think that was DW, too. 21695 started to fade in about 1445, but as usual was not good. BTW, has anyone noted what great African music they play? Best wishes, (Bill Wilkins, Springfield MO, P-mail postmarked 18 Dec, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) As in DXLD 10-50, on Dec 8 they moved from 17800 back to their original frequency 17725. Don`t think they were ever really on 17860, perhaps a typo of theirs, and belated, for 17800. If you did not hear this on 21695, were you really listening to 17725? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK. 5030, RTM, Dec 22 at 1418 S9+15, about equal to Cuba 5025, which for a change was causing no problem to 5030. Lively music, YL announcement, dialog with OM past 1423 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, Traxx FM, 1137-1203 Dec 14, man announcer in English hosting pop music program. Time pips at 1200 followed by ID and news with a woman announcer. Fair (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) Hi Everyone, 7295, TraxxFM, Kuala Lumpur, 15.10 17/12/10 Whilst have received quite a few times before I was pleased to get good reception from time I switched on 15.00 ! It was probably audible for a while before. I have not received mid afternoon before. But then again have not looked. I wonder what else may be around early pm. This is what I heard: http://www.box.net/shared/ud1abq93oj 73 (Mark Davies, Anglesey, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Mark, Very nice with your Traxx FM reception. This must be good DX for the Isle of Anglesey. It is a fun station that I often enjoy listening to. You were fortunate to tune in at 1500. Every day from 1300 to 1500 they are totally blocked at my location with the strong CNR1 echo jamming of VOA. So I have to wait till after 1500 to enjoy them in the clear. Thanks for your fine recording (Ron Howard, California, USA, IBID.) ** MAURITANIA. 7245, Mauritania is now a regular guest in Europe around 07-09 UT and also late afternoon (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 18 via DXLD) 7245, ORTM chanting, poor Dec 18 at 0616, squeezed by English on both sides, from DW and Vatican (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7245.00, MRT just above threshold, male voice in vernacular. French mixed sound, S=4 at 0708 UT Dec 20. 7245.00, MRT with poor fade S=4-6 moving the needle, male voice announcer in vernacular/French/Arabic accent mixed sound, at 0751 UT Dec 21. Lute instrument jingle played (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7245, ORTM, Dec 21 at 0825, fair signal. Two hours earlier only a weak carrier, suspected something else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 1570, XERF, Dec 19 at 0605 anthem by male soloist with orchestra, but not the Mexican NA, 0606 into Spanish conversation. Maybe the Coahuila state anthem plays after the NA at 0600? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 6185, R. Educación, eclectic music format presents Bob Dylan trax one after another, with brief Spanish announcements, tho I never heard them mention his name! Dec 16 at 0638 past 0701 when playing ``Like a Rolling Stone``, until 0707 ID and live DJ giving slightly incorrect timecheck to the second, 0712 onto next set, cumbias by Wilfrido Vargas. Thankfully, no co-channel QRM tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. 7260, Mongolian Radio 2 (presumed), 1108-1134 Dec 13, rising over Chinese station with talks in Mongolian language by man and woman. Music program began at 1115 hosted by woman announcer. Possible ID at 1129 before group vocals with string instrumental music. Poor and mixing with PBS Xinjiang (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** MOROCCO. MARROCOS, 1140.7, SNRT-“A”, site?, 1348-…, 18 Dec’10, Arabic, interviews, traditional tunes & songs; 33442. // 207, 540, 612, 936, and possibly 594 too. This was also observed at another site, on 10 Dec’10, at 2220, and the QRG was 1140.75, audio synchronized with 540 & 594 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Morocco 1140v: explanation. Unlike what it may seem in my today's report on SNRT-"A", it is believed this frequency is the result of faulty transmmitter, not a genuine outlet. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Dec 21, ibid.) ** MOROCCO. 15341.1, RTVM in Arabic with hum but no het, Dec 18 at 1605. The usual shift from 15341.1 to 15345 circa 1500 did not take place today. 15345+, Dec 20 at 1515, undermodulated Arabic with hum, so RTM made the change from 15341.1v today around 1500, and is all set to heterodyne Argentina later in the day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9810 via BONAIRE, RNW Spanish, Sunday Dec 19 at 1210 in ``Cartas @ RN`` program, devoting quite a bit of time to replying to a Cuban listener who keeps writing them, using registered mail, and via the Netherlands embassy in Habana, to complain that RN is deliberately not covering the story of Cuban doctors aiding Haitian earthquake victims. RN says they have covered this story, plus Cuban doctors in Venezuela and Bolivia, and treats Cuba even-handedly, positives and negatives. They have tried to interview some of the doctors but the médicos have to get permission from the Cuban government to speak to foreign media, which has always been denied. Another subject was about the future of RN: sidestepped the issue of whether SW broadcasts would continue, in Spanish, under new funding scheme, but teased with several major topix they plan to cover in 2011y (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS. DUTCH PARLIAMENT BACKS MOTION ON RNW The Lower House of the Dutch parliament has backed a motion from the social-liberal party D66 calling on the government to conduct an investigation into the viability of Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW). The motion notes that the role of RNW has been partially overtaken by technological developments. Parliament now wants the government to investigate what tasks should be scrapped and what tasks can be transferred to other existing organisations. Foreign Affairs In response, the minister responsible for the media, Marija van Bijsterveldt, said that the government sees the motion as "support for its policy.” Earlier it was announced that RNW will in future be financed from the budget for Development Cooperation, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Currently, RNW is funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The transition should take place in 2013. "Before the summer of 2011, the Cabinet will inform the House how RNW and its tasks will be shaped," said the minister. The coalition agreement states that RNW should focus on its core business, without defining precisely what that is. The current tasks, included in the media law, are: informing Dutch nationals abroad, the provision of independent information in countries with limited press freedom, and presenting a realistic picture of the Netherlands for people abroad. Confident The management of RNW is confident about the future. Editor-in-Chief Rik Rensen said: "The vast majority of our journalistic activity is focused on foreign countries. We operate in ten languages and thus cover large parts of the world where people are desperate for our information. And as it happens, the Dutch economy is almost entirely dependent on foreign countries." RNW's Director-General Jan Hoek welcomes the review, saying "It's good to investigate how public money is being spent". Mr Hoek disagrees with the claim that the internet has rendered Radio Netherlands Worldwide superfluous: "In our country nearly all of us are connected to the internet, but it's different on a global scale. Internationally just 28 percent of the world's population has access to the internet." (via Andy Sennitt, Media Network newsletter Dec 16 via DXLD) I can see further cuts being made to RNW's shortwave output, but I would be stunned if the Dutch government shut it down completely. Predictions: Dutch on SW to North America and Australia/New Zealand will be dropped, and the output for Southern Europe trimmed. Possible trims of Dutch to other areas, but not completely eliminated. Spanish SW output discontinued. Indonesian service left untouched. It is not out of the question that the Bonaire transmitting station might be shut down or sold. Madagascar site safe for the foreseeable future (Steve Luce, Houston, TX, Dec 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Differing prediction from my side: Informing Dutch nationals abroad will be deleted from RNW's mission, thus all related activities stop. Perhaps NOS/NPS will instead be considered as responsible for this task and receive some dedicated funding for it, but it seems less likely that they would continue shortwave transmissions. Indonesian on shortwave does not appear to be untouchable, considering that VOA already planned to take its Indonesian service off SW and withdrew this decision only in the last moment for B10 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) From what I found out this summer in Indonesia. I think the Indonesian service will survive. In Jakarta, SW is not big anymore, but when you get outside the city, finding people that listen to SW is much easier. I stayed in Java for a few days; I remember in this small village I stayed, meeting people who would on a regular basis tune to RNW and VOA. But as this change politically around the world I think in the short term the service will survive, but in the long term I don't think it will (Keith Perron, Taiwan, ibid.) ** NEW ZEALAND. 5950, 18/12 1320, R. New Zealand Int. - Wellington English news, sufficient (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, shortwave yg via DXLD) Early log there, also audible here the other way `round (gh, OK, DXLD) 5950, checking whether RNZI Mailbox is on this week, Monday Dec 20 at 1332, but no, it`s some other show about a discovery program for children. The alternate-week appearance was scheduled next for Dec 27, but checking the website: ``Mailbox is on holiday and returns Monday 24 January 2011``. Meanwhile, audio of the last two programs remains available, dated Nov 28 and Dec 12. ``DX report`` feature in both is from Kevin Hand, ZL4QD, about receiving weather fax. Also mentioned http://brogers.dsl.pipex.com for link to Mystery Signals of Shortwave, then linx to new ENIGMA newsletter about numbers stations. Adrian Sainsbury was away again on a holiday, this time to Sydney, so no propagation report Nov 28, but he had returned for Dec 12 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGER. 9704.99, LV du Sahel, 2100-2258*, Dec 17, audible after Radio Ethiopia signed off with French talk. Afro-pop, Euro-pop music. Qur`an at approximately 2253. Sign off with flute IS followed by National Anthem at 2256. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 9705.00, Niger in French on S=8-9 level here in Germany, het by powerhouse TRT 9700 kHz even, 0735 UT Dec 20. 9705.00, in French on S=4-5 level here in Germany, phone-in discussion at 0754 UT, Dec 21 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 7275, R. Nigeria, Abuja. December 17, 0555-0606 Pop music, male in English talks “Nigeria, Abuja; R. Nigeria, listening [to] the people”, news program by male and female. 34433 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) NIGÉRIA, 7275, R. Nigeria (presumed), Abuja site?, 1130-1152, 19 Dec’10, talks; 15331 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7275, S=0-1 lousy prop condition, below threshold, only voice fragments of Radio Abuja regional service noted this morning Dec 21 at 0751 UT. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 9690, V of Nigeria, 1712 14-12 with an ID followed by drums, a hilife song and talks Hausa language. Signal mixed with another station in French at same level but seems as coming from same transmitter. Buzzed audio 4x443 (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, Romania is in French on 9690 at 17-18 (gh, DXLD) 15120.00, Voice of Nigeria, female reader in French - "UNE GRANDE NATION", - at 0700 UT Dec 20. S=5-6 fluttery at this early morning hour. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15120, Voice of Nigeria (list log); 1858-1900:30*, 20-Dec; Thumb harp music; off abruptly without announcement. SIO=3+33 in USB, needed to minimize strong WYFR on 15115 (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9690, Dec 21 at 0823, strong but hummy signal in presumed Hausa from VON as scheduled in WRTH 2011 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 7255, VON, VG with African music during scheduled Hausa, Dec 21 at 2229, back where it`s supposed to be instead of 9690 where we caught it once, and consequently WYFR Portuguese spoken by gringo in the clear on 9690. 15120, Dec 22 at 1529, P-F S9+8, Voice of Nigeria IDs in English, news headlines about Ivory Coast, etc. 1531 http://www.voiceofnigeria.org mentioned. Carrier is unstable, obvious with BFO on. I ask again, is this their brand-new transmitter, or not? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA [non]. GERMANY, 17485, Hamada Radio International --- Wertachtal, *1359-1429* Dec 13, open carrier followed by man announcer with ID and opening announcements in Hausa language. Frequent IDs and features about Nigeria. Fair (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) via Wertachtal, GERMANY, 17485, Hamada Radio International, *1400- 1405+, Dec 17, sign on with local music and opening ID announcements. Talk in listed Hausa. Good signal. Mon, Wed, Fri only (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 17485, Monday Dec 20 at 1400, VP signal with musical drumming, Hamada Radio mentioned in opening of M/W/F 1400-1430 transmission via Wertachtal, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 17485, Hamada Radio International, nothing audible Wed Dec 22 at 1415, but presumed still active with propagation from Germany subnormal, also on 15 MHz band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 3275.9 am, MAC Shortwave, 0055-0110, Dec 19, Paul Starr Christmas Special with talk and Christmas music. IDs. Email address. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 3431, The Crystal Ship notified us of a test on this frequency Dec 20 from about 0050. At 0055 could only hear a trace of a carrier; a little better with music? 0231 but still unreadable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6924.35 am, Captain Morgan Shortwave, 0255-0315, Dec 17, blues music. IDs. Fair but some distortion (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6925 USB, Wolverine Radio, 0145-0230, Dec 19, IDs. Music by Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Foo Fighters, and others. Very good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) see UNIDENTIFIED ** OKLAHOMA. Altho not reported recently I should reaffirm that Enid`s GCN pirate on 99.9 remains quite active, tho occasionally missing, especially weekends. And the Part 15 ``WECS`` 97.7 at Emmanuel Christian School continues with kidloops ranging a few blox, changed each week tho they may miss some updates over the holidays. Week before Xmas they broke format for lengthy Bible readings only, still by halting kids who don`t understand they are being brainwashed (Glenn Hauser, OK, Dec 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. ENID RESIDENT SYNCHRONIZES CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS TO PERSONAL RADIO STATION --- By Violet Hassler, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle Fri Dec 17, 2010, 11:46 PM CST See video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRH9KHbggXk ENID — Christmas light-seekers initially could be taken aback by the radically blinking lights decorating Dick Yuhnke’s yard on Pheasant Run Drive this year. Yuhnke admits the lights on their own are not too impressive. The “old-fashioned” lights strung into a 20-foot Christmas tree and across his yard and home seem to blink on and off at random, dancing to a tune all their own, one that’s frustratingly hard to understand. Until one tunes his car radio to 99.7 FM, and the lights’ choreography becomes clear. And it is impressive. . . http://enidnews.com/localnews/x1666507247/Enid-resident-synchronizes-Christmas-decorations-to-personal-radio-station (Enid Eagle Dec 18 via DXLD) We observed this one evening: 99.7 barely reaches across the street without QRM from KZLS 99.7 ex-Enid station now in ``Mustang``. Gets rather repetitive, mostly jazzed up Xmas tunes requiring lots of flashing (gh, Enid, DXLD) [non] A copycat is in Natchez MS on 90.9: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MS_NATCHEZ_CHRISTMAS_LIGHTS_MSOL-?SITE=RIPRJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-12-20-00-01-23 (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. KOKH-24 OKC has finally added a virtual channel as 25.2, Country Music TV, the one with the guitar/COUNTRY bug in the lower right. First noted evening of Dec 18, but may have been on a while, as I don`t often tune channel-up from 25.1, and there it was. This follows by a few weeks KOCB-33`s activation of TheCOOLTV on its 34.2, and news that KFOR-27 will be adding Antenna TV on January 1 (see U S A). Rabbitears.info already has 25.2 Country, but thinx that KFOR will put Antenna TV on 4.3, and keep weather on 4.2. It also shows that as I suspected, KHLO-LP 17 analog is now on 31 as KHLO-LD, with four possible channels, but 31 is blocked in Enid by KXOK-LD. It also shows a signal I have yet to see, and am getting no indication of it on the meter so far here 100+ km away: KOHC-LD OKLAHOMA CITY OK On the air Display Channel Physical Channel Video Audio Call Sign Network/Programming Nickname Notes 45-1 45.1 480i DD2.0 KOHC-CA Azteca America 45-2 45.2 480i DD2.0 KOHC-CA Religious "TV Vision" (Spanish) 45-3 45.3 480i DD2.0 KOHC-CA Mexicanal 45-4 45.4 480i DD2.0 KOHC-CA Religious "TV Alabanza" (Spanish) (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. Winter B-10 schedule of Radio Pakistan: Bangla 0900-1000 on 9345 ISL 100 kW / 118 deg to SoAs 11570vISL 100 kW / 118 deg to SoAs Chinese 1200-1300 on 9670 ISL 250 kW / 070 deg to EaAs 11510 ISL 250 kW / 070 deg to EaAs English 1100-1110 on 15100 ISL 250 kW / 313 deg to WeEu 17700 ISL 250 kW / 313 deg to WeEu [more like 4 or 5 minutes --- gh] 1600-1610 on 7510 ISL 250 kW / 282 deg to N/ME 11575 ISL 250 kW / 282 deg to N/ME Gujarati 1145-1215 on 9345 ISL 100 kW / 147 deg to SoAs 11570vISL 100 kW / 147 deg to SoAs Hindi 1045-1145 on 9345 ISL 100 kW / 147 deg to SoAs 11570vISL 100 kW / 147 deg to SoAs Nepali 1000-1030 on 9345 ISL 100 kW / 118 deg to SoAs 11570vISL 100 kW / 118 deg to SoAs Pashto/Dari 1345-1545 on 6235vISL 100 kW / 270 deg to WeAs Persian 1700-1800 on 6235vISL 100 kW / 260 deg to WeAs 7470 ISL 100 kW / 260 deg to WeAs Sinhala/Tamil 1230-1330 on 11880 ISL 100 kW / 147 deg to SoAs 15540vISL 100 kW / 147 deg to SoAs Urdu 0045-0215 on 11580 ISL 250 kW / 118 deg to SoAs 15490 ISL 250 kW / 118 deg to SoAs 0500-0700 on 15100 ISL 250 kW / 282 deg to N/ME 17830 ISL 250 kW / 282 deg to N/ME 0830-1100 on 15100 ISL 250 kW / 313 deg to WeEu 17700 ISL 250 kW / 313 deg to WeEu 1330-1530 on 7530 ISL 250 kW / 282 deg to N/ME 11575 ISL 250 kW / 282 deg to N/ME 1700-1900 on 7530 ISL 250 kW / 313 deg to WeEu 9340 ISL 250 kW / 313 deg to WeEu v=xxxxx.4 kHz (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via DXLD) ** PERU. 4746.9, Radio Huanta 2000, 1031-1046 Dec 13, man announcer with Spanish talk, ID and TCs hosting lively morning music program. Poor to fair signal. Again at 1014-1022 Dec 14, lively music program at fair level. (D`Angelo/FCDX-PA) 4775v, Radio Tarma, 1049-1056 Dec 13, man announcer with Spanish talk with group singing in background. ID followed by OA vocals. Poor with heavy splash from CODAR. (D`Angelo/FCDX-PA) 4955, Radio Amauta, 1036-1049 Dec 14, program of OA vocals hosted by man announcer with ID, TC and announcements. Poor (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** PERU. 4826, R. Sicuani, Sicuani. December 22, 0022-0031 Bolero style music, Romantic, “Stand by me” music in Spanish. 23322 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 9430, Dec 21 at 1525, a cappella rendition in Chinese of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. We wonder how far the lyrix stray from the English in order to make it work in Mandarin. Applause, announcement and then chorus with ``We Wish You a Merry Xmas!`` in English. This is FEBC`s extensive Chinese service which also puts quite a good signal here into China [non]. Earlier there was a lot of English talk being Chinesed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9435, FEBC, *2228-2304 Dec 13, IS alternating with man in Indonesian with ID. At 2330 opened with male preacher sermon in English with another man repeating in Indonesian. Poor to fair. In the clear until CRI in Japanese opened at 2300 (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** PHILIPPINES. 11730, R. Pilipinas, *1730-1759, Dec 14 (Tuesday). Many R. Pilipinas, the Voice of the Philippines IDs; in Tagalog; info at http://twitter.com/alan_allanigue/status/9417993452781568 must be outdated, as there was no simulcast today of the Radio ng Bayan's program “Talking Points, but they did carry the “P-B-S Radio ng Bayan news” and a segment with “ASEAN news”; 1800 long series of R. Pilipinas IDs; fair; // 11890 good (thanks to Alokesh Gupta [India] for the reminder about this // frequency); mixing with R. Africa on // 15190. 11890, DZRM Radio Magasin simulcast via R. Pilipinas, *1732-1830, Dec 15 (Wednesday). In Tagalog with cultural programming (talking about Carmen Guerrero Nakpil’s new book “Heroes and Villains” which comments on Saudi Arabia and “O-F-W” [overseas Filipino workers], etc.); IDs: “DZRM Radio Magasin 1278 kHz.” and “simulcast” via R. ng Bayan on 738 kHz. and “Radio Pilipinas overseas radio station”; 1830-1845, English language lesson (British accent) ended with “Cherrio”; fair to poor; did not hear // 15190 (only R. Africa there); // 11730 had transmitter problems and was off the air for a while, as also noted yesterday. 11890, Radio ng Bayan simulcast via R. Pilipinas, *1730-1748, Dec 16 (Thursday). Starts with series of R. Pilipinas, the Voice of the Philippines IDs; 1733 begins the “simulcast” of “Radio ng Bayan Nation Wide, 738 kHz”; same format as last Thursday; listing all the many PBS radio stations; mostly poor reception; // 11730 poor; // 15190 not heard (only R. Africa there). Would be interesting to know just what their simulcast schedule is. Thursday certainly seems to regularly have Radio ng Bayan, but is DZRM Radio Magasin on every Wednesday? Have not checked the weekends or Monday and Friday, so this certainly needs more monitoring (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES [non]. 15350, Dec 18 just as I tune in at 1504, transmitter cuts off the air. Back on at *1505 talk with heavy echo which I think is self-imposed rather than LP/SP, since bits of children singing do not have the echo. This is R. Veritas Asia, Filipino/Tagalog service relayed by VATICAN back to the ME (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL. I've been listening for over an hour to a station on 1035 kHz playing oldies, most of the time armchair copy, with my antenna phased toward Europe and nulling the USA NE. The station IDs after every song, and has frequent promos featuring snippets of songs and flogging their station brand. Problem is, while the music is clear, the IDs are not - spoken fast, with kind of a thick, muffled voice. The last part sounds like 'FM' or 'AM'. I have been googling with no avail. I get the sense that this is a new station, or perhaps more correctly, a very recently re-branded station. I must say, I like the music - a lot of oldies that just don't show up in the rotation on my locals and near locals, all of course on FM as the AM band is more of a DX band than SW around here, given the relatively close proximity to Sackville NB and the million and one stations relayed by RCI (Phil VY2PR Rafuse, Stratford PE Canada, 0207 UT Dec 17, ABDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) Got it! It is 'Star FM' in Portugal, apparently a re-branded Rádio Clube. OK, now I have two favourite DX stations, 1215 Absolute Radio in London England and Star FM. Phasing is Phun. With a flick of a switch, the AM giants from the USA NE and their IBOC get wiped from the aether, with the TAs popping in (Phil, 0221 UT, ibid.) ** ROMANIA. 5975, Dec 20 at 0221, poor signal in French with strange accent. Figured in might be RRI, and that chex for 02-03 on 5975, 310 degrees from Galbeni to ENAm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. While checking for Mongolia on 7260 I found Golos Rossii (Voice of Russia) at *2300 in presumed Russian. ID's in between news items as "Golos Rossii" and "Golos Rossii, Mockba". I tuned into 7260 at 2250 and heard the usual Russian transmitter test tones and that kept me around as I do not know offhand if Mongolia has any Russian made transmitters. I don't see this 2300 transmission in Aoki or EiBi. 12/18/2010 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Registered already from season start. http://www.hfcc.org/data/b10/b10allx2.zip 7260 2300-0400 10-12,27,36 MSK=Taldom site 500kW 285deg RUS VOR GFC Aoki and Eibi are not always complete, due of updates occur rather nearly every day. 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** RWANDA. 6055, Radio Rwanda, 2025-2100*, Dec 18, French and vernacular talk. A variety of Afro-pop, Afro-rap and Euro-pop music. Abrupt sign off. Fair. Note: Rwanda usually stays on the air late on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** SARAWAK [non]. Re: R Free Sarawak via T8WH Angel 4, QSY to 15420 kHz from Dec 11 at 1000 UT. (ex 15680 kHz) http://radiofreesarawak.org/ (Sei-ichi Hasegawa-JPN, dxld Dec 11) PALAU/MALAYSIA, Frequency change of Radio Free Sarawak in Bahasa Malay: 1000-1100 NF 15420 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg to SEAs, ex 15680 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via DXLD) Both channels 15420 and 15680 were empty here in Europe on Dec 12 (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 18 via DXLD) Any heard since?? (gh) CLANDESTINE (Malaysia), 7590, Radio Free Sarawak via Dushanbe, *2229- 2255 Dec 13, open carrier until instrumental music opening followed by a man in Bahasi [sic] Malaysia with long talk. Poor to fair (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX- 340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) 7590, R Free Sarawak, via Yangiyul [TAJIKISTAN], An email report to info @ radiofreesarawak.org brought this response: "many thanks for the recording - great that we are heard from NY! Please keep us informed . . . best wishes, RFS team". Several follow-up messages requesting more information have gone unanswered. The radiofreesarawak.org domain is registered to: Christian Nolle, Christian Nolle Enterprises, 34 Asker House, London, Islington N7 0PP, Great Britain. Phone: +44.7966378765, E-mail: me @ cnolle.com (John C. Herkimer, Caledonia, NY, U.S.A. Dxplorer via DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 1521, quite a het to KOKC 1520, Dec 18 around 2345, and still but weaker at next check Dec 19 around 0145 on caradio. Presumed BSKSA 2-megawatter at Duba in the NW corner, the prime alert for trans-Atlantic MW openings. Pulling any audio separate from 1520 is another matter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 11785, Dec 20 at 1508 ``Saudi buzz`` is back, no modulation audible. Meanwhile 15435, which used to have the same big buzz, remains clear of it but today only a JBA signal there. The closest we can come to finding this listed is in Aoki: 11785 R. RIYADH 0955-1355 1234567 Arabic 500 100 Riyadh ARS 04623E 2430N BSKSA a10 Holy Qur`an (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 17785, BSKSA, R Riyadh, 0803-0818, Dec 04, French, Holy Qur´an with translation, news, ID as "Radio Riyadh" and "Radiodiffusion de Royaume d´Arabe Saudite", 35443 (Patrick Robic, Leibnitz, Austria, DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) Same often oncomes as early as 0750 when English is still being fed into 17785, unofficially (gh, DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. RSI closing SW at yearend! See CZECHIA (WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5020, Solomon Islands BC, Honiara. December 22, 0755-0805 slow music in English, male and female in English talks, top of the hour announcements, Romantic in English. 22332 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALIA [non]. Presumed Radio Damal, The Voice of the Somali People, via Woofferton, England on 11740. 1829:30, Dec 17, carrier on, 1830 upbeat, indigenous instrumental music, 1831 sign-on by man in an Arabic-like language, 1832 rap song in presumed Somali and some English, 1836:30 male speaker. Didn't catch any ID. SINPO-45444. Listened again as they left the air at 1929; signal poor by this time. Also 11970 via Abu Dhabi tentatively them at 1930 s/on with instrumental music. Very poor and too weak to understand any spoken word, but definitely not the same format at s/on as was heard on 11740 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, B.C., dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. See USA: WWRB; PUBLICATIONS: WRTH ** SPAIN. Spanish speaking broadcast station on 486 kHz? I was tuning across the NDB band tonight when I came across what sounded to me like a Spanish speaking Broadcast station on 486 kHz. I made a recording of it for about ten minutes up to and including the time pips at 2200 GMT. This is the first time that I have heard anything like this below the normal Medium Wave broadcast band. I did get a friend of mine near Hinckley in Leicestershire to verify that he could also hear it on his NRD535. Has anybody got an idea what this is/was please? Many thanks (Tracey Gardner, UK, Dec 18, MWC yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) Where can I find your recording? 486 * 2 = 972, so it could be a sub- harmonic of a 972 kHz transmitter. There are 3 medium-power Spanish transmitters on 972 kHz. 73, (Günter Lorenz, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, ibid.) I have just checked the channel and it is there again at 1815 GMT. I would be grateful for confirmation that other listeners can hear it? Many thanks (Tracey, 1821 UT Dec 19, ibid.) Hi Tracey, I'm hearing it hear in Guernsey with a weak signal on my ALA 1530 loop in N/S direction. 73 (Lionel Roithmeir, 1840 UT Dec 19, ibid.) Here in The Netherlands: 1847 UT, I hear a very weak signal, a man and woman talking, but also music. Best on my KAZ antenna 340 degrees. 73 (Max Van Arnhem, Dec 19, ibid.) Hi again Tracey, I am on the MWCircle too, so I will respond to you here. Yes, it is Spanish. It is a RNE station. I can hear the usual news tune and ID of every hour. I have a weak carrier on .003 but no sufficient level for audio. There are 3 transmitters. on 972. All three are in the good directions of my antenna so I should have a better signal. Try to record tomorrow morning at 0625 or 0645 UT. Each station should broadcast different regional programs a these times. At least at 0645. I am not sure if Melilla offers the Andalucía regional at 0625 or they do its own bulletin. The others are Cabra (Córdoba province, Andalucía reg.) and Monforte de Lemos (Lugo province, Galicia reg.). 73s (Mauricio Molano, Salamanca, ESPAÑA - SPAIN, RX site: Aldea del Cano, Cáceres, LAT: 39º17'09.70 N, LONG: 6º19'00 W, RX: PERSEUS, ANT: WELLBROOK ALA1530S+, http://moladx.blogspot.com/ 1849 UT Dec 19, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, ibid.) Hello Mauricio, I will set a DDC recording up for a couple of hours tomorrow morning, to ensure that I catch the information that you require. If this is a sub-harmonic of a 972 kHz transmission, I presume that it means that the transmitter has developed a fault condition that the station may not know about? I'd welcome an explanation as to how a transmitter develops sub-harmonics, if anyone on the list can explain it? Regards (Tracey, ibid.) Tracey, I can hear it in Mid Wales; K9AY Phased array, NRD525. Sig. S2-3. 73 (Andrew Ikin, 2032 UT Dec 19, ibid.) ** SPAIN [and non]. 5965, REE via COSTA RICA, Dec 18 at 0606 opening ``Amigos de la Onda Corta``, soon into ``noticias DX`` most of which have nothing to do with shortwave frequencies, logs or schedules, such as some item about Pope Paul VI. Ironic, as once again has major QRM from Vatican in English on 5965. The 25m //s from REE are not propagating here, nor are they intended to. What a pity that REE and VR insist on colliding as they have for years. 17595, REE, Dec 22 at 1532 news in Portuguese by extremely nasal YL, 1534 French, 1537-1540 English including: state lottery, upon which Spaniards spend average 60 euro per capita; pension reform; anti- terrorism alerts focus on the Sahel; French and German citizens urged to evacuate Ivory Coast as civil war may be breaking out; thousands of students protest university reform in Italy; 3-hour strike in Athens. Allison Hughes IDed herself at closing, and turned over to Arabic. She had really been hurrying to squeeze all she could into her three minutes. Russian is still missing from the advertised mix at 1530-1545 M-F. Did WRTH 2011 get this new service in? Not in the schedule of English broadcasts on page 597 or under Spain, but explained further down on page 474, listing five languages in alfabetical rather than broadcast order. Has correct time for Basque as 1330 M-F, and for Catalan and Galician M-F 2345-2355, plus mentions a repeat of those we were unaware of: next day at 0505-0515; to be confirmed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. 11905, 18/12 1530, Sri Lanka BC - Colombo English/Hindy ID e NX, suff (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, shortwave yg via DXLD) ** SUDAN. 7200, Radio Omdurman, 1512-1528*, Dec 16. Better than normal reception; in Arabic; website given: “w-w-w sudan . . ”; ad; mostly songs; 1526, call-to-prayer for the Maghrib prayer (just after sunset, which was at 1521) and is the fourth prayer of the day for Muslims. Strange sign off time? (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SUDÃO, 7200, SRTC, Al-Aitahab, 1415-1436, 20 Dec’10, Arabic, traditional songs; 35433 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) SUDAN RADIO EUROPEAN SERVICE --- I've been monitoring Sudan Radio's European Service (as I've heard them refer to it) via their website at http://sudanradio.info (so URL not as given in latest WRTH). As in days of yore, it's in French at 1500-1700 and English at 1700-1900, though according to announcements it's no longer on shortwave but on FM 98.0 MHz in Omdurman. This frequency is referred to as "Programme F" in WRTH, and at other times it carries two other services, both in Arabic - can Tarek or any other Arabic speakers here identify them from these clips?: http://www.intervalsignals.net/sounds/sdn-unid_98fm_191210.mp3 http://www.intervalsignals.net/sounds/sdn-unid_98fm_umma_191210.mp3 Incidentally, these are all carried on the audio stream labelled 'Umma' on the website, and I've noted the English and French services are also carried on the Holy Koran programme stream (David Kernick, UK, Dec 20, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 17745, Dec 18 at 1609-1615+ hilife music, good from Sudan Radio Service, currently scheduled 1500-1700 daily, 250 kW, 114 degrees via Sines, PORTUGAL (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here in Copenhagen Sudan R Service is very strong in Arabic from 1600 UT on 11785 Meyerton with frequent IDs 'Sudan Radio Service'. According to WRTH-2011 they go into Zagawa at 1630 two days a week. http://www.sudanradio.info does not work here http://www.sudanradio.org includes two on demand broadcasts PS: The Arabic service on 11785 signed off at 1701. 73, (Erik Koie, Denmark, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN SOUTHERN. Southern Sudan's Bentiu Shortwave Radio and the "promotion of peace." http://www.sudantribune.com/South-Sudan-Vice-President-urges,37302 Sudan Tribune, 16 Dec 2010: "A two-day conference [in Juba] on cross- border security involving Southern Sudan’s three neighboring states of Lakes, Unity and Warrap ... stressed on promotion of peace through radio stations such as the available Bentiu Short Wave Radio in Unity state that can cover all the three states in local languages." (Posted: 18 Dec 2010, kimandrewelliott.com via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) I can find no other information about this station (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) Nor I; can anyone?? (gh, ibid.) ** SWITZERLAND. 765 kHz, RSR Option Musique, Sottens, Switzerland - UT 0344 12/13/2010 - Heard well for about 10 minutes with a looped message apparently announcing their shutdown, complete with falling sweep tone that also repeated. This sweep tone would be something to listen for if trying for this station, unless they are off for good now. "Option Musique" easily understood in the repeated announcement (Tim Tromp, Muskegon MI, MARE Tipsheet Dec 17 via DXLD) ** SWITZERLAND [and non]. Re: I recall & TDP lists that some of the Schwarzenburg SW transmitters were purchased by the North Koreans. I think I have seen notes in the past as to where some of the other transmitters went, but as for the Sottens SW Txer I don't know or can't recall.`` The sellings to North Korea took place in the early to mid nineties. It were two of the oldest transmitters from Schwarzenburg, shut down in 1993 and 1994, respectively, while the newer equipment there stayed in use until 1998. Also sold to North Korea have been two further transmitters of the same model, used at Beromünster until 1995. It is apparent that this equipment has been set up in North Korea as a shortwave facility that is in shared use for Voice of Korea in Japanese on 6070 kHz and Joson Jung-ang Pangsong on 6100 kHz (perhaps they recently gave up this frequency shift, which looks as if its only purpose was to provide a clear separation of both services; I have not looked up this aspect yet). The site of these frequencies is given as Kanggye, which at least would be plausible; it is obvious that the transmission facility is not located in the vicinity of Pyongyang, and it has not been set up at the existing shortwave plant near Kujang either. No more of these early-sixties 250 kW shortwave transmitters appears to have been sold to North Korea. The one from Schwarzenburg has been shut down and destroyed in 1995. The two ones that were in use at Lenk until 1998 (one for own programming on 6165 kHz, the second one only for CRI relays anymore on 3985 kHz) have been scrapped in 1999. The transmitters that remained in use at Schwarzenburg until 1998 (2 x 250 kW and 1 x 100 kW I have in my files) have been purchased by Adventist World Radio, for a new shortwave facility they intended to build in Italy (I have a place name of Arganda in my mind, but can't find such a town right now) at this time. But soon after 1998 AWR abandoned this idea. Last trace was an offer of equipment like antenna switching gear etc. that appeared online around or shortly after 2000 and looked like being some of the stuff that AWR had purchased in Switzerland. No idea what became of it afterwards, although it appears to be the most likely scenario that it has simply been disposed of as scrap metal. Now the Sottens transmitter: It stayed in use for another four years, and it was considerably more modern than all the previously discussed stuff. It was the first phase of a planned modernization project that had been terminated after this single transmitter has been installed in 1989. Upon its closure the representant of Swisscom Broadcast (or whichever organization was in charge at this time) announced on a HFCC meeting that the transmitter is available for sale. I have not read anything about its final destiny. However, about the best I could imagine would be another operator, running identical transmitters, taking it away for spare parts. Anything better (i.e. this 500 kW transmitter again being installed elsewhere) would be a big surprise to me (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 21, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) ** SYRIA. New Year and Seasons' Greetings from Radio Damascus Dear radio friends, I received an email from my good friend at Radio Damascus, Rasheed Haidar, who is heading the English section at Radio Damascus. He requested me to send you all, Radio Damascus listeners, his warmest New Year and Seasons' Greetings on behalf of himself, Mr. Adnan Mohammed (the director of Radio Damascus - the external service of Radio Damascus) and everyone else from the Radio Damascus staff. "I would like to take the opportunity of the seasons' greetings to wish you on behalf of myself, Mr. Adnan Mohammed and all the staff at Damascus Radio a very Merry Christmas; wishing you and all your love ones many happy returns. Would you be kind enough to convey this message to all the Damascus Radio Club Listeners everywhere; I would appreciate it very much. Adnan Mohammed & Rasheed Haidar" Best wishes, (Kris Janssen, Belgium, Dec 20, DX LISTENIGN DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. 8400, Sound of Hope, 1403-1451, Dec 14. In the clear; in Chinese with their normal format of monologues; an American briefly in English; started poor and faded up to almost fair and then back down. Strong Firedrake jamming covered SOH earlier at 1345 (which was not // 6030); FD had not returned by 1451 (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. 7570, Radio Thailand, 1941-1959* Dec 13, woman announcer with ID followed by promotional announcements. Into sports at 1944 followed by ID at 1955 (``You are listening to Radio Thailand news``). Closing announcements by a man and woman at 1957 followed by IS. Poor to fair. (D`Angelo/FCDX-PA) 9535, Radio Thailand, 2040-2051 Dec 12, woman announcer in English with Global News with bells at 2045 followed by broadcast in Thai language; ID by a man announcer followed by hosted by a woman. Fair (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX- 340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** TINIAN. 9385, thanks to late switch by WWRB from 3185 to 9385 at 1508, I was able to hear another weak signal on 9385 at 1506 Dec 21. First guess was Burmese, but listed as Korean from R. Free Asia, starting at 1500, 250 kW, 329 degrees. HFCC also has R. Pakistan in Urdu until 1530 on 9385, but WRTH 2011 shows that on 7530 and 11575 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Voice of Turkey “DX Corner” on 18 December 2010 at 2145 UT on 9610 kHz. Radio Free Europe, Argentina and Radio Prague mentioned, the latter in reference to SWBC’s terminating on 31 January 2010. Also reading of listeners letters. Final ID at 2159 and sign-off. SINPO = 35333, weak signal but in the clear (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, Dec 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But transmission lasts until 2222v (gh) ** UGANDA. 4750, Dunamis BC, Mukono, 1839-1900*, 19 Dec’10, African pops; 35332 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. UBC seems to be on 7195 this late at 1835 UT Dec 16 instead of 4976 (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7194.98, UBC, 0409-0515, Dec 17, tune-in to English news. Radio-drama. English and vernacular talk. Afro-pop music. Christmas music. Some US pop music including Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” song. Occasional chirping birds. Poor. Somewhat muffled audio. Some HAM QRM. Thanks to Jari Savolainen tip. This frequency replaces 4976 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX Listening Digest) 4976, R. Uganda, Kampala, 1838-1855, 19 Dec’10, Vernacular, Afr. Pops, nes at 1900; 44433, adj. QRM de VoRUS on 4975 via TJK (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7194.98, UBC Radio, Kampala, 2003-2038, Dec 21, English, DJ playing US pop ballads & taking phone calls. Unfortunately, however, modulation was so poor it was almost impossible to make out what he was saying. Smothered by superpower VOIRI opening on 7200 at 2026. Usual 4976 was silent that evening. 73, (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, ibid.) ** U K O G B A N I. The Queen's Christmas Message ---- All I've found so far is that the Queen's Christmas Message will air at 1505 12/25 on the BBC World Service. Anyone know of any possible repeats? (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, Dec 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Do they publish via Youtube yet? I looked for it on BBC America but it is not showing in their guide (Andy O`Brien, NY, ibid.) I would expect the Queen's Christmas Message to be posted on The Royal Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/theroyalchannel?blend=3&ob=4 (Larry Cunningham, ibid.) ** U S A. 60, COLORADO, WWVB, Ft. Collins. 1725-1730 December 19, 2010. Weak but clearly present with second pulses, shorter one top of each minute (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 600, Dec 16 at 1803 UT, one semihour before low noon, weak signal on caradio inside Enid with Fox `News` Radio, 1805 ``WMT News Crew [Group?] Update``. This station normally does not quite make it by daytime groundwave, altho I can sometimes get a very weak SAH. Now it`s readable, with some fading, also co-channel underneath, so it`s winter daytime skywave, from Cedar Rapids IA. Then scanned the entire MW band, but nothing much else, even on the hi end at the moment. I need to do this more, at quiet rural locations around low-noon Solstice (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 660, unidentified. 1725+ December 18, 2010. Very weak under Progreso with female Obamacare bashing, 800 number (presumably syndicated sat-fed program). Didn't think about WORL, Orlando until after the fact, but their noon block for Saturday is listed as a local cooking show hosted by a black dude, a no match. Format not fitting SC, LA, TX, AL stations on 660. What's the status of WNFS, White Springs, FL? I find no URL, just the FCC dB listing as 50 kW daytime. Parts of the FCC's web has really been crapping out a lot of late, I might add. The lookup query was dead most of the weekend. Pigs. 660, FLORIDA, While looking up 660 in the FCC dB, noted this in-band TIS/MIS. Really? Anyone know if it's active? Calls sound like FDOT material. Callsign: WPQD502 Licensee: MARION, COUNTY OF Radio Service: Public Safety Pool, Conventional (PW) City: OCALA, FL Status: Active Grant Date: 03/18/2005 Expiration: 06/01/2015 Site: 1 State: FL County: MARION Coordinates: 29 11' 42.9" N, 82 10' 47.3" W Frequency: 0.66000000 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, Florida DX News and "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" are at: http://sites.google.com/site/floridadxn/ DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1200, on caradio Dec 21 at 2149 UT, Spanish from WRTO Chicago dominating, vs English talk from WOAI, with a slow SAH of 20 per minute between them causing deep fades, i.e. 1/3 Hz apart. As the Number One IBOC station, WOAI should be spot-on 1200.000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WASR Wolfesboro NH 1420 test --- Veriesigner David DeVries from WASR-1420 told the Finnish DX-er Markku Jussila in an email today, that they will be testing with 5 kW on Christmas eve. No further details given. 73 (H Sundman, Finland, Dec 20, NRC-AM via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) Still no further details as of late Dec 22. One might expect them at http://www.bcdx.org/dxtestsinfo/ but not even the above appears there (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. 1670, GEORGIA, WFSM, Dry Branch. 1721 December 18, 2010. A high noon local log as we near the winter solstice, fair with sports talk (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1710, Radio Celestial - Bronx, NY. 0209 UT 12/11/10 - I suspected this has been Celestial and I finally got a positive ID on this one playing Latin music, about equal with co-channel Radio Soleil Int'l. Mentions of "celestial" between songs (Tim Tromp, Muskegon MI, MARE Tipsheet Dec 17 via DXLD) ** U S A. 3160, harmonic, WPJK --- Orangeburg, SC, 2152-2216* Dec 12, religious music with man announcer host in English with several nice IDs, local ads and announcements. Nice formal ID and closedown at 2215. First time for me after seeing this reported frequently by Hauser and Alexander on many occasions. Poor to fair (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 38, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially north for the RX-340 and 250-foot wire essentially northeast for the R-8B and a whip antenna for the E1, NASWA yg via DXLD) 3160.04, WPJK, Orangeburg, SC, *1230:50-1245, Dec 18, 2nd harmonic of 1580. Sign on with opening ID announcements and into gospel music. Station promos. Local ads including an ad for a local restaurant. Surprisingly good signal but started to deteriorate after 1245 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3160, WPJK, Orangeburg SC, 2 x 1580, Dec 19 *1233:45 UT S9+18 carrier on, 1234 sign-on and into Xmas music, no Q-toots this Sunday. BTW, I have included my recording of a previous sign-on toward the end of this week`s WORLD OF RADIO 1543 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3160.04 Harmonic, SOUTH CAROLINA, WPJK, Orangeburg. 1718 UT December 19, 2010. Surprised to hear this one (well, winter solstice is near), weak but clear with gospel vocals. 2 X 1580 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Additional transmissions of Radio Liberty in Belorussian in connection with the elections in Belarus and the complex situation in the country: 2200-2400 on 7285 BIB 100 kW / 063 deg // 9510 UDO 250 kW / 316 deg + MW 612 from 2300 0000-0200 on 5830 KWT 250 kW / 350 deg // 9560 BIB 100 kW / 063 deg + MW 612 0200-0400 on 5830 KWT 250 kW / 350 deg // 9735 BIB 100 kW / 063 deg + MW 612 Frequency change of Radio Liberty in Belorussian: 2000-2200 NF 7485 UDO 250 kW / 316 deg, ex 7220 WER 250 kW / 060 deg // 5840 KWT 250 kW / 350 deg + MW 612 Other txions of Radio Liberty in Belorussian: 1600-1800 on 7220 WER 250 kW / 055 deg, ex 1600-1700 WER and 1700- 1800 BIB // 9520 WOF 300 kW / 078 deg + MW 612 1800-2000 on 6150 LAM 100 kW / 055 deg // 9570 LAM 100 kW / 055 deg + MW 612 (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, Dec 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. I was wondering whatever became of VOA`s ``Border Crossings``, world music show, and now I know. It is still on at least one SW frequency at 1505 UT, 12055, Dec 22 after VOA news playing ``Happy Christmas``, 1509 program ID and inviting requests to phone number, so apparently live. Increasingly bothered by splash from WEWN Spanish 12050. Meanwhile 9760 via Philippines was as usual in English Learning hour. 12055 is 100 kW, 108 degrees via Lampertheim, GERMANY during this hour only. I was wanting to look up all the English frequencies in use during this hour, but the A-Z pages are gone! Or moved to inaccessibility. Finally found this page, http://www.insidevoa.com/about/frequencies/ which purports to lead to frequencies. Exhaustive lists of programs and times, including B.C. M-F 1505-1600. You have to click again on each program to get to its frequencies, http://www.voanews.com/english/programs/radio/64958237.html which shows: Africa: 4930, 6080, 12020, 15580, 17895 mhz [sic] Middle East & Europe: 13570, 15530 mhz [sic] Asia & Pacific: 7540, 7575, 12150 mhz [sic] But not including the one I am hearing, 12055! I`m afraid this lineup looks quite out of date, A-10? Compare to B-10 info we had previously in DXLD as of Nov 14, but there may have been more changes by now: English to Africa 1500-1600 UTC 4930 6080 15580 17715 17895 English to Europe, Middle East, and North Africa 1500-1600 UTC 11765 12055 English to Far East Asia, South Asia, and Oceania 1500-1600 UTC 7575 9930 12150 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Clicking on other programs, e.g. Daybreak Asia, does not yield frequencies. I walked over the VOA Public Affairs, but found it empty, probably because of the holidays. It may be 2011 before we determine if VOA will reveal its frequencies. Holiday greetings.... (Kim Elliott, DC, Dec 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I received an email on December 20 from VOA about something different which mentioned, "We are presently reconstructing our website that has the schedules." Presumably that is why we can't see those A-Z pages at present. Regards (Harry Brooks, North East England, UK, Dec 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. The VOA Media Watch blog at http://voanewsblog.blogspot.com/ is going into a "self-induced coma," according to chief writer Alex Belida. He posted on Dec. 9: I had fun writing about various journalism issues. But defending VOA against the many misperceptions out there was, frankly, quite tedious and repetitive - especially in an era where too many people aren't interested in the facts, only their own beliefs. The other problem is that it's really no fun talking to oneself. While I had hoped for a dialogue, there wasn't any evidence of interest on the part of the readership, even though it numbered in the tens of thousands over the last couple years. That has been very disappointing. I had expected otherwise. But I was wrong -- perhaps because, like I just read in a novel, "rationality is the enemy of consciousness." You figure it out. I can't (Mike Cooper, GA, Dec 18, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. LISTEN TO NPR'S FOREIGN EDITOR DESCRIBE VOA AS "A BIT PROPAGANDISTIC." In the questions following the first panel of International Broadcasting and Public Media: Mission and Innovation in the Digital Environment, an event at the New American Foundation on 8 December. See previous post http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/?id=10167 Joe Bruns, now of public broadcaster WETA, formerly of VOA, asked if there was potential for a newsgathering partnership between NPR (National Public Radio) and the Voice of America. Panelist Loren Jenkins, foreign editor of NPR, disagreed with the proposition, because "VOA is there to give the American government's message to the rest of the world and, if you'll excuse the labeling, it's a bit propagandistic." Steve Redisch, executive editor of VOA, disagreed about "propagandistic," but was also skeptical about the potential for a partnership. Listen to audio excerpt. http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/naf081210.mp3 Read this summary of the event by retired VOA deputy director Alan Heil. http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/?id=10286 Posted: 16 Dec 2010 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1543, first SW airing on WRMI, confirmed on webcast at 0452 UT Thursday Dec 16 --- but on 9955, nothing but wall- of-noise jamming. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Next airing on WRMI: 1600 Thursday. Also try WBCQ, 7415, Thursday 2000; WRMI, 9955, Thu 2200 [usually jammed too], Fri 1530; WWRB, 3185, UT Fri 0430; WWCR, 7465, Friday 2130. Complete schedule at http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html 7415, WBCQ, Thursday Dec 16 after 2000 with WORLD OF RADIO, just barely audible here and it`s last week`s 1542 instead of latest 1543, which was available some 16 hours earlier, so WBCQ listeners won`t hear it until next Tuesday at 2000, we hope. Meanwhile, WBCQ has an ``Available Time Slot`` Thursdays at 2200-2415 UT. I checked to hear what they were filling it with, and found they had turned off the transmitter, and the webcast was running silently until 0014 Dec 17 IS & ID, 0015 Amos `n` Andy. WOR 1543, confirmed via WWRB 3185, UT Friday Dec 17 from 0432 after a minute or more of silence; also on WRMI 9955, Friday 1530+ without jamming, making overload from WWCR 9980 more of a problem here. WWCR airings are: Fri 2130 7465, Sat 1700 12160, UT Sun 0330 4840, 0730 3215. WOR via ACB Radio Mainstream was confirmed last week on some even-UT hours Friday thru 0030 UT Saturday, but this week all the streams are down, Dec 17 thru 1600 at least; http://www.acbradio.org/mainstream 15825, Dec 18 at 1606, WWCR has a good S9+22 signal with some fading, indicating that winter sporadic E is in play. Without it, at only one megameter, 15 MHz is mostly in skip zone. Then I check http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&Map=NA and find several 50 MHz ham contacts are underway in the eastern half of the USA. Might make it up into lowband TV or even FM. WWCR`s DX Block is being dropped on Saturday evenings for lack of sponsorship, so from first Sat of Jan 2011, the program which had been following it expands to two hours, as has been wanting to do for some time. The DX programs will be moved elsewhere, but not in one tidy block. Solely an economic move, for no other reason, says Dr Jerry Plummer (Ask WWCR Dec 10, notes by gh for WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So that`s how we find out that one of our most listened-to WORLD OF RADIO airings is going away, 0330 UT Sundays on 4840; as it already did once earlier in Dec, perhaps as an experiment. 0315 has been the only airing of DX Partyline on WWCR. No word yet on what times, if any will replace WOR at 0330 or DXPL at 0315. Meanwhile, the Sat 1700 airing of WOR 1543 confirmed Dec 18 on 12160; and Friday 2030 on 7465 was also very good (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi all, listening to the DX block on WWCR tonight 0300 UT on 4840 kHz on December 19th; it was missing the Ask WWCR program at 0245 so I went to WWCR web site for the program. They talked about the DX block is gonna be dropped from 0300 UT time slot starting the first Saturday of 2011 (UT Sundays) and they say that it's for financial reasons. Richard Keltner's program that is at 0400 UT will expand to take this spot (Gilles Letourneau, Montréal, Canada, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3255, WWCR verified an electronic report of their test transmission with a full data “Special Test” card with image of final amplifier tube used in WWCR transmitters 4CV 100,000 C in 63 days from v/s Phil Patton, Chief Engineer (Richard D’Angelo/NASWA, Wyomissing, PA, U.S.A., DSWCI DX Window Dec 15 via DXLD) 3255 no longer in use (gh) [and non]. 9955, WRMI with WORLD OF RADIO 1543, Sunday Dec 19 at 1654 check, fair signal and free of jamming --- oh, oh, at 1655 pulsing hits just as we are wishing Bob Zanotti a happy birthday #65. But it`s minor compared to the wall of noise gushing on 9965 against presumed and totally untraced R. República. No excuse for jamming 9955 at all, as there is nothing in Spanish or of an exile nature on WRMI any day of the week between 1630 and 2130. Today YFR in Russian via Taiwan on 9955v was not a problem. Further repeats of WOR 1543 on WRMI: Sunday 1830, Tuesday 1630, 2330, Wednesday 0130. Also on WBCQ 7415, Tuesday, Wednesday 2000, maybe Thursday too. WRMI, 9955, has a new schedule grid as of Dec 17, replacing the suspended R. República blox and making several other changes. WORLD OF RADIO has a new time, Monday 1230 replacing Tuesday 2330. See https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AivhtkIEGb3_dENObnZrMkt1YmtUWGxkbkd3TGNzOXc&hl=en All the changes concerning DX programs in English have been made on the latest update of http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html and additional programming changes are in http://www.worldofradio.com/calendar.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WORLD OF RADIO 1543, confirmed on WBCQ 7415, Tuesday Dec 21 at 2024 as I was talking about Saudi Arabia 15250. This was the first airing of last week`s show on WBCQ. 1544 is ready in time for Wed and Thu 2000 UT this week, but unknown whether 1543 may get another play first. [No, 1544 started Dec 22] WORLD OF RADIO 1544, first SW broadcast confirmed on WRMI 9955, Wed Dec 22 at 1635, but poor signal with pulse jamming making it unlistenable; are we supposed to feel favored because it was nothing like the wall of noise jamming on 9965? Tnx a lot, Arnie! Next airings on WRMI 9955: Thu 0430, 1600, 2200, Fri 1530. On WWRB 3185: Fri 0430. On WWCR 7465: Fri 2130 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 3185, WWRB with Brother Scare on later than usual, Dec 21 still going at 1439, 1457, and not on 9385. Finally switched at 1508. Meanwhile I got something else on 9385; see TINIAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PUBLICATIONS: WRTH ** U S A. 9330-CUSB, WBCQ with some GFRN program Dec 17 at 1454 talking about pixels, and a ``strategic preparedness conference`` in Cœur d`Alène, Idaho, survivalist central. Noted because there was rather bothersome RTTY QRM from circa 9328. If it`s a US source, could force WBCQ off, but in other cases, RTTY does not seem to care about broadcast QRM in bandedges. [and non]. 15420-CUSB, Global Spirit Proclamation, the androgynous anapaestic preacher from Fence Lake on WBCQ, Dec 21 at 1847. The reduced carrier was wobbling, with BFO on, something not noted before on a WBCQ transmitter. Way over 15420 BBC via SOUTH AFRICA, which runs until 1900 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. RADIO HOST GETS 33 MONTHS PRISON FOR THREATENING JUDGES http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BK6DE20101221 NEW YORK | Tue Dec 21, 2010 4:33pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A right-wing Internet radio host was sentenced on Tuesday to 33 months in prison for threatening the lives of three Chicago federal appeals court judges after they upheld a local gun control law. Harold Turner, 48, was convicted by a jury in August in Brooklyn federal court following two mistrials. He was arrested in June 2009 and charged with one count of threatening to assault or murder the three judges. Turner used his radio broadcasts to target Judges Frank Easterbrook, Richard Posner and William Bauer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago, who had upheld a local handgun law. He said they had acted in "a manner so sleazy and cunning as to deserve the ultimate punishment." He called for their murder and published their photographs and work addresses online. "Turner's harsh words about these targeted judges, launched by Turner to an audience containing members of violent and extreme groups, prompted the United States Marshal's Service to assign protective details to many of the judges," court documents said. Turner, of North Bergen , New Jersey, worked as an FBI source between 2003 and 2007, U.S. prosecutors said, due to his "popularity with and access to white supremacist groups." But the relationship became "stormy" as Turner began to taunt and make demands of his handlers in exchange for sharing information, they said. The case was presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Walter, who sits in a Louisiana federal court district, after the Chicago court recused itself. Walter chose the Brooklyn locale for the trial. (Reporting by Basil Katz; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Greg McCune) (via Mike Cooper, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) Hal Turner was previously a shortwave broadcaster on a station you would recognize (gh, ibid.) Another version: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NY_BLOGGER_THREATS_NJOL-?SITE=RIPRJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-12-21-12-42-32 (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. 18530, Dec 16 at 1443, WINB x 2 with Brother Scare, unstable carrier as always, but R5, S8 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15385.3, KJES Vado NM; 1949-2007+, 14-Dec; M in English repeating long recitation as if from the Bible (but not). ID at 1959:43 "This is KJES broadcasting from the Lord's Ranch in New Mexico...let me know if you can hear me.", then repeated in Spanish. At 2005 the roboadults started with a child leading this time in Spanish. S20 peaks (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 7506, WRNO still absent Dec 20 at 0223 check. Bill Patalon III in Baltimore got a reply from them Dec 14 that they were trying to locate the problem with the transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WJHR, KVOH, WTWW: see PUBLICATIONS: WRTH ** U S A [non]. GERMANY, Some MBR changes: WYFR Family Radio from Dec. 6/9: 1900-2200 NF 9925 WER 500 kW / 180 deg to WCAf in English, ex 9480 1800-2000 NF 12140 WER 500 kW / 165 deg to SoAf in Solano/Zulu, ex 11820 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, 17 Dec via DXLD) 7240, 1800 12 Nov, WYFR relay via UK, listed in Greek but English heard (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, Dec World DX Club Contact via DXLD) Wolfgang Büschel`s comprehensive YFR schedule from leaflet led to this entry a few weeks ago: NEW - Greek to Greece UTC kHz 1800-1900 7240SKN - English in leaflet... So which is it really now? (Glenn Hauser, Dec 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Frequency changes of WYFR Family Radio in English via BABCOCK: 1500-1600 9895 DHA 250 kW / 105 deg SoAs ex 9495 to avoid TWR Russian 1500-1600 11995 DHA 250 kW / 090 deg SoAs ex 12015 avoid RFI Swahili (DX Mix News Extra 21 Dec via DXLD) Maybe I missed a logging, but being advised from a friend in Edmonton (!) I am now hearing WYFR, Family R) in Swedish at 19-20 on 7240 kHz. Lost it at the change to B10. Thought that the program had been dropped. Merry Christmas, (Erik Koie in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dec 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Could be late registration on the 19-20 UT gap? 7240 1800-1900 27N MSK 250 285 158 RUS NEW GFC 7240 2000-2200 27N MSK 250 285 158 RUS NEW GFC (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** U S A. FLORIDA BOARD OF EDUCATION TO VOTE ON SALE OF WXEL RADIO TO CLASSICAL SOUTH FLORIDA === By Erika Pesantes, Sun Sentinel The Florida Board of Education could move the sale of the WXEL-FM 90.7 public broadcasting station a step forward Friday with a vote approving the sublease of the station's Boynton Beach facilities to Classical South Florida. Outspoken activists and political heavyweights want the board to say no to the sale. Barry University, which has owned WXEL since 1997, is seeking approval from the Board of Education and the Federal Communications Commission to sell the station to Classical South Florida, which is affiliated with American Public Media, a Minnesota public broadcaster. Price tag is $3.85 million. . . http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/boynton-beach/fl-wxel-boe-meeting-20101216,0,3387130.story (via Dino Bloise, FL, Dec 16, DXLD) ** U S A. Within the last few years, there's been a near-universal perception within the radio industry that the AM band has ceased to exist for listeners under the age of 40 or so. No matter how good your programming is, no matter how well you promote it, the current line of thinking says that anyone born after 1970 or so simply isn't going to go to the AM dial to find it. While one can argue some very specific counterexamples, generally sports-related (San Francisco's KNBR rode the Giants championship to #1 ratings in the fall, and my 14-year-old cousin in the suburbs of NYC falls asleep to WFAN every night because he's a huge Mets fan), there's quite a bit of truth there - especially when you consider that the devices many younger listeners use as "radios" don't even have AM tuning capability. If your MP3 player or phone has a radio tuner in it, it's hearing FM, not AM. So what do you do if you're a broadcaster with a program franchise (the talk on WOOD) that still has value in the marketplace? Current conventional wisdom says that if you have any hope of growing your audience, especially among listeners under 40, you have to put it where the audience is, and that's FM, which is why they made the move they made. To be a successful station these days, the thinking goes, you have to be on every platform your audience might be using. If you're a talk station, that might still include a legacy AM frequency (1300, in this case), but also an FM channel, an iPod app, a streaming presence on a consolidated site like iheartradio, and of course a social-media presence as well. It may look like needless duplication, but there's an argument that says that it's simply how you respond to the amazing fragmentation of today's media marketplace. s (Scott Fybush, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. AntennaTV is scheduled to debut 1/1/11, per several sources, including local [Indianapolis] Tribune Broadcasting stations WTTV/WTTK. An interesting interview with AntennaTV's Sean Compton, President of Programming for Tribune Broadcasting, was posted at AVS Forum this evening. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=19660960#post19660960?? Also available here: http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2010/12/our-exclusive-interview-with-antenna.html "Compton previously worked for Clear Channel radio for 16 years and was their VP Programming for 10 years before leaving in April 2008 to run Tribune programming as SVP, which includes the massive change for WGN America and now the creation of Antenna TV. Compton was promoted to President of Programming in May 2010. Compton also oversees programming for Tribune's local television stations and for WGN America. Compton is 36 years old and has worked in radio since he was in high school, and he also says his childhood hero was actually legendary NBC programmer Brandon Tartikoff. Compton is originally from Connersville, Indiana, which is between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, and he grew up watching those TV markets." Apparently, a few people, like this 36-year-old, believe it is okay to air entertaining programming for viewers over the age of 50. Too bad this is no longer the case for a number of radio markets. I've totally stopped listening to Indy radio (Steve Rich, Indianapolis, IN, Dec 16, WTFDA via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) From http://www.antennatv.tv/affiliates/ as of Dec 17 ---- The Antenna TV Family. More on the way New York WPIX 11.3 Los Angeles KTLA 5.2 Chicago WGN 9.2 Philadelphia WPHL 17.2 Dallas-Ft. Worth KDAF 33.2 Washington, DC WDCW 50.2 Houston KIAH 39.2 Seattle-Tacoma KZJO 22.3 Miami-Ft. Lauderdale WSFL 39.3 Denver KDVR 31.2 Cleveland-Akron WJW 8.2 Sacramento KTXL 40.2 St. Louis KTVI 2.2 Portland, OR KRCW 33.2 Indianapolis WXIN 59.2 San Diego KSWB 69.2 Hartford & New Haven WTIC 61.2 Kansas City WDAF 4.2 Salt Lake City KSTU 13.2 Milwaukee WITI 6.2 Harrisburg WPMT 43.2 Grand Rapids WXMI 17.2 Norfolk WTKR 3.2 Oklahoma City KFOR 4.2 Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem WGHP 8.2 Memphis WREG 3.3 New Orleans WGNO 26.2 Wilkes Barre-Scranton WNEP 16.2 Fresno, CA KGMC 43.5 Richmond WTVR 6.3 Des Moines WHO 13.3 Springfield, MO K26GS 26.2 Huntsville-Decatur (Flor[ence]) WHNT 19.2 Chattanooga WKSY 21.2 Davenport/Rock Island [/Moline?] WQAD 8.2 Odessa-Midland KWWT 30.3 Marquette WZMQ 19.2 Enough already, ordering such lists by market size --- who cares, among the viewing public? And is that strictly what they are doing here? Certainly the way it starts out. Is WDC bigger than Houston? Is Sacramento bigger than St Louis?? Is Indianapolis bigger than San Diego? Harrisburg bigger than OKC??!! Etc., etc. So much for almost-continuous weather on KFOR 4.2 and I am sure many other stations. Interview linked above has more info on the programming they plan --- looking for reruns that have not been getting much if any play lately. Will NOT include infomercials, and will NOT be marred by any network bugs (gh, Enid, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) Here's the 2009-2010 listing of Nielson's top 210 DMAs (Designated Market Areas). It's all about the number of potential eyeballs within a given geographical area. http://www.tvjobs.com/cgi-bin/markets/market2.cgi (Steve Rich, Indianapolis, IN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Just noticed this on WTIC-DT. Their 61-2 recently turned on and this is what's showing... http://www.wtfda.info/showthread.php?p=15901#post15901 I like it already (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, Dec 20, WTFDA via DXLD) WGHP recently put 8.2 on the air, and were showing this nice Indian Head test card yesterday: http://img.skitch.com/20101219-1ckca87d9r6wqhpaxut6fxit2k.jpg (Jay Novello, Wake Forest NC, ibid.) WSIU 8 (8-4) Carbondale, IL and WUSI 19/16 (16-4) Olney, IL are both running old time "bulls eye" TPs. Also, WMYO 51/58 (58-2) Salem, IN (Louisville) is still running a TP. 73, (Ed NN2E Phelps, Owner / Operator - Murphy's Law Test Site & Thunderstorm Proving Grounds, ibid.) They have the Burns & Allen Show on the schedule!! Too bad it will be cut to perhaps 20 or 21 minutes to make room for those money making commercials. I wonder if they will be showing kinescopes of the live shows or the later filmed shows? Either one is good however I'll keep hunting up used TV prints of the show on Ebay to show on my Kodak Pageant 16mm movie projector (Robert M. Bratcher, Jr., amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) I wonder how many people actually receive WPIX-11 off the air in the New York area. I'm about 21 miles from the transmitter and with an indoor antenna on one set (others are connected to DirecTV), I have never seen a trace of them or WNET-13 and rarely see WABC-7 decode. On the other hand, the guys that went to UHF like WCBS and WNBC are pretty much solid. The NYC newspapers carried story after story about people in the 5 boroughs losing their TV reception. And, you guessed it, it's a story you are never (and I mean never) going to see on the local TV news. As for the additional channels, it's pretty much a joke in these parts. WNBC is running -2 and -3. WNYW and WWOR are running -2 but they are only repeating -1. The standout is WMBC with 6 channels (yes, 6) of programming (Korean/Spanish/religion/infomercials) PLUS 2 audio channels (Korean and Spanish). On a few occasions, Philly has shown up here on tropo and the situation seems somewhat better there (Joe Fela, NJ, ibid.) SIGN OF THE TIMES? --- 6) CUTTING THE CABLE? Submitted By: Dan Fost Media Outlet: San Francisco Magazine Deadline: Fri, Dec 24, 2010 - 05:00 PM Pacific Standard Time I am interested in the phenomenon of people who are 'cutting the cable' - ditching their cable television service, and hooking their TVs (and laptops and iPhones etc.) up to the Net, to Netflix, to whatever, and getting all the content they want. How easy is it to do this? Who is doing it? What do they miss out when they do it? And does this spell doom for cable companies? I am looking for experts on both sides of the issue, and I'm interested in historical context - Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley, cable now getting penalized for abusing its monopoly, etc. I'm also thinking of a chart that would show various options and identify demographic groups typical of each - teen watches Netflix on phone, Gen-Xer has a Rogu box, Grandpa has rabbit ears. For the chart, I'd love to hear from anyone - ideally in the SF Bay Area - about their own personal experiences. I may or may not identify those people by name in the final article. Click here to respond to this listing (via Bob Cooper, NZ, Dec 18, WTFDA via DXLD) In my experience picking up the phone at the TV station [WSMV Nashville], the one demographic group more likely to have recently switched to antenna reception is the videophile! I would suggest videophiles are more likely to be using antennas because 1. they're more likely to be in contact with other videophiles; the word has spread among them that an antenna delivers the highest available HD signal quality. 2. they're more likely to be willing to make some effort to get reliable reception. The "average" American often doesn't even know antenna reception is *possible*, let alone that it delivers higher quality; and the "average" American is not willing to do anything more than plop a set of Wal-Mart rabbit ears on top of his set (it would be very wrong to characterize antenna users as "Grandpa"). There is also a *slight* tendency towards the financially-strapped, though "frugal" might be a better choice of words (so as to include those who are careful with their money even though they have no shortage of money to be careful with). – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) I think there's another aspect that's missing, although somewhat related to Doug's final point. That is those who can get reasonably- reliable OTA and who are being pushed beyond some "value point" by the increasing prices of cable/fiberoptic service (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, 15 mi NW of Philadelphia, grid FN20id, ibid.) ** U S A. HOUSE PASSES AMENDED LPFM BILL http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=2059546&spid=24698 December 17, 2010: The House has passed a revised version of the Local Community Radio Act, expanding low-power FM services, with the backing of the NAB. The next step for the bill is approval in the Senate. The House vote followed a letter sent this morning by NAB EVP/Government Relations Laurie Knight to Reps. Mike Doyle and Lee Terry, offering NAB support for the new version of HR 6533. NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith said, "The revised legislation will expand the number of LPFM stations in the U.S. while providing full- power radio stations with the protection and clarity we have long sought. NAB salutes today's House action and offers its support for Senate passage as well." The NAB also plans to invite LPFM supporters to an event after the new year at NAB headquarters, to celebrate passage of the legislation. Prometheus Radio Project, which earlier this week arranged for hula- hooping protesters to gather in front of NAB HQ to ask the NAB to let the bill move forward, may take them up on it: The group released a statement saying, "The Prometheus Radio Project celebrates the re- passage of the Local Community Radio Act (HR 6533). We also welcome the news that legislators and the National Association of Broadcasters have reached an accord on the Senate version of the bill, the Local Community Radio Act, S592 -- a bill that would expand low power FM noncommercial radio stations to communities nationwide." (radioink via Artie Bigley, WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) SENATE PASSES COMMUNITY RADIO BILL: LOW POWER FM TO BE EXPANDED NATIONWIDE December 19, 2010, Reclaim The Media, From the Deepmedia blog http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/ With the clock ticking toward the end of this year's Congress, the Senate on Saturday passed a new law which will enable community groups, churches and schools across the country to establish new non- commercial, low-power FM radio stations in their cities and towns. The Local Community Radio Act, which will allow the FCC to issue possibly thousands of new noncommercial LPFM radio licenses, earned broad, bipartisan support after some ten years of organizing by grassroots media democracy advocates from coast to coast. Backers of the bill included a stupefying range of civil rights groups, religious organizations, musicians, unions and garage-bound radio dreamers around the country. Washington State elected officials played a pivotal role in passing the bill into law; Senator Maria Cantwell championed the bill in the Senate, and House cosponsors included Washington Rep. Jay Inslee. "This is a huge win for communities across the northwest and across the country who have been pining for more and better local radio, more support for local music and more diversity on the airwaves," said Jonathan Lawson of Reclaim the Media, a Seattle-based media justice organization which has worked alongside many other advocacy groups since 2002 to expand community access to media, including LPFM. "Senator Cantwell deserves our thanks for seeing this through to the end (via Mike Terry, UK, Dec 19, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) US SENATE APPROVES BILL TO EXTEND LPFM NATIONWIDE The US Senate yesterday passed a new law which will allow for community groups, churches and schools across the country to establish new low-power FM radio stations in their cities and towns. The Local Community Radio Act, which will allow the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue possibly thousands of new noncommercial LPFM radio licenses, earned broad, bipartisan support after some ten years of advocacy by grassroots media democracy organizations. “This is a huge win for communities across the northwest and across the country who have been pining for more and better local radio, more support for local music and more diversity on the airwaves,” said Jonathan Lawson of Reclaim the Media, the Seattle-based media justice organization which has worked since 2002 to expand community access to media, including LPFM. In the past few years, the few groups who have been able to build and launch LPFM stations have shown the tremendous power of low-power radio. In Woodburn, Oregon, KPCN allows immigrant farmworkers to share news, information and music in Spanish and several other Latin American languages. Spokane’s Thin Air Radio and Idaho’s Radio Free Moscow provide those communities with local public affairs and homegrown music programmes—while providing new broadcasters with a place to learn the tools of the trade. (Source: Reclaim the Media, December 19th, 2010 - 14:42 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) 1 Comment on “US Senate approves bill to extend LPFM nationwide” 1. #1 jolyon curran on Dec 20th, 2010 at 03:59 This is a disaster; all it means is more low cost evangelicals filling the FM band brandishing the fear of god and demanding money for their oratory. Inevitably LPFM brings little local flavor to the airwaves as they are primarily chains of religious stations offering syndicated block programming. Worse, they get treated as trading cards. and often trade for very large sums of money when a station gets a foothold in a lucrative market. This could have been something good but it just means another way to make a fast buck (MN blog comment via DXLD) SENATE JOINS HOUSE IN PASSING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY RADIO ACT --- Thousands of community groups rejoice at new opportunity for locally owned media WASHINGTON, DC – Today a bill to expand community radio nationwide – the Local Community Radio Act – passed the U.S. Senate, thanks to the bipartisan leadership of Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John McCain (R-AZ). This follows Friday afternoon's passage of the bill in the House of Representatives, led by Representatives Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Lee Terry (R-NE). The bill now awaits the President's signature. These Congressional champions for community radio joined with the thousands of grassroots advocates and dozens of public interest groups who have fought for ten years to secure this victory for local media. In response to overwhelming grassroots pressure, Congress has given the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a mandate to license thousands, of new community stations nationwide. This bill marks the first major legislative success for the growing movement for a more democratic media system in the U.S. "A town without a community radio station is like a town without a library," said Pete Tridish of the Prometheus Radio Project, the group which has led the fight to expand community radio for ten years. "Many a small town dreamer – starting with a few friends and bake sale cash – has successfully launched a low power station, and built these tiny channels into vibrant town institutions that spotlight school board elections, breathe life into the local music scene, allow people to communicate in their native languages, and give youth an outlet to speak." The Local Community Radio Act will expand the low power FM (LPFM) service created by the FCC in 2000 – a service the FCC created to address the shrinking diversity of voices on the radio dial. Over 800 LPFM stations, all locally owned and non-commercial, are already on the air. The stations are run by non-profit organizations, local governments, churches, schools, and emergency responders. The bill repeals earlier legislation which had been backed by big broadcasters, including the National Association of Broadcasters. This legislation, the Radio Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000, limited LPFM radio to primarily rural areas. The broadcast lobby groups claimed that the new 100 watt stations could somehow create interference with their own stations, a claim disproven by a Congressionally-mandated study in 2003. Congressional leaders worked for years to pass this legislation. As the clock wound down on the 111th Congress, they worked with the NAB to amend the bill to enshrine even stronger protections against interference and to ensure the prioritization of full power FM radio stations over low power stations. Though the amendments to the bill will require some further work at the FCC, low power advocates celebrated the first chance in a decade for groups in cities, towns, and other communities to take their voices to the FM dial. "After ten years of effort, a $2.2 million taxpayer-funded study, and new provisions to address this hypothetical interference, we are finally on our way to seeing new community radio stations across the U.S. This marks a beginning, not an end, to our work, " said Brandy Doyle, Policy Director for the Prometheus Radio Project. "For the first time, LPFM community radio has a chance to grow, and we're ready to seize that opportunity." "All of us at UCC OC Inc. and at Prometheus express our incredible gratitude to Congressmen Mike Doyle and Lee Terry and Senators Maria Cantwell and John McCain for the leadership and counsel during this process," said Cheryl Leanza, a board member of the Prometheus Radio Project and a Policy Advisor to the United Church of Christ, Office of Communication, Inc. "Without their work and the work of their committed staff we would not have come this far. At long last the 160 million Americans who have been deprived of the opportunity to apply for a local low power radio station will get a chance to be a part of the American media." "I am a leadership organizer from the ranks of the poor working with other low-wage workers – fighting for human rights in Maryland," said Veronica Dorsey of the United Workers, a human rights organization in Baltimore. "Low power FM radio would allow the United Workers to expand the message of our End Poverty Radio show, which is currently only available on the internet. End Poverty Radio develops leaders and gives workers a way to tell their stories and be heard – and a low power FM station would reach a lot of people who do not have access to the internet. LPFM is a way for those in the community who are struggling to survive to hear stories that they can relate to, and to know that they are not alone in this struggle for human dignity. We can't wait to work to build low power FM in communities like ours, so we can accomplish these goals." "Civil rights groups and community organizations have wanted low power FM radio for years, and now the chance is here," said Betty Yu, coordinator of the Media Action Grassroots Network, a national media justice network with members in many cities and communities that lost their chance to get low power FM radio stations. "From Seattle, Oakland, and Albuquerque to Minneapolis, San Antonio, Kentucky and Philadelphia, thousands of communities know that having access to our own slice of the dial means a tool to build our movements for justice. We have won something huge in Congress, but the fight is not over. Now we need to work at the FCC to make sure as many licenses as possible can be available in rural communities, towns and suburbs, and America's cities." LPFMs have saved lives in powerful storms when big broadcasts lose power or can't serve local communities in the eye of the storm. WQRZ- LP in Bay St. Louis, MS received awards from President Bush and other organizations post Katrina in 2005, when one of the station operators swam across flood waters with fuel strapped to his back to keep his station on the air. The station proved so important that the Emergency Operations Center of Hancock County set up shop with the LPFM to serve the community after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Bipartisan Senators and House members have expressed support for the Local Community Radio Act as a vital way to expand emergency service media across our nation. "I'm Frank Bluestein from Germantown, Tennessee, one of the several large suburban cities located just outside of Memphis. We have been fighting for the past 10 years to persuade Congress to give communities like ours the opportunity to establish a low power FM radio station. Our city wants to provide community and civic groups, students of all ages, local artists and others the power to communicate over their own LPFM channel," said Frank Bluestein, a media teacher and Executive Producer of Germantown Community Television. "Equally important for Germantown, we need a dedicated communication outlet that will serve the needs of our citizens in the event another tornado rips through town or if any kind of natural disaster hits," continued Bluestein. "In this day and age, emergency management is a must for a city of our size and LPFM perfectly fits our needs. A low power FM radio station can stay on the air even if the power goes out. Low power FM saved lives during Katrina but strangely, the federal government is banning it from this part of Tennessee. That is not fair or wise. We have the right to be as safe as any other community in the US. After 10 years, now is the time! Congress has passed the Local Community Radio Act, and chances are so much greater that groups in towns like mine can apply for LPFM licenses. Germantown is ready to work here and at the FCC to make licenses for communities like ours possible." Grassroots leaders were key in helping Senators understand that expanding low power FM was important and urgent. "Our station provides some of the only local service to Gillette when big storms come through, and it puts great content on the air. That's why so many in our town think it is such a vital resource," said Pastor Joel Wright of the First Presbyterian Church of Gillette, WY, licensee of KCOV-LP 95.7 FM . "Senators Barrasso and Enzi had concerns about expanding low power FM, but they heard from many Wyoming folks who want these stations, and dropped those concerns. Communities of faith and so many others can celebrate that we've jumped this big hurdle to more license being available in cities, smaller towns, and rural communities nationwide. I look forward to working with many other pastors and groups to launch their own wonderful new community voices." "The Media Mobilizing Project works with a huge diversity of leaders across Philadelphia -- from taxi drivers and immigrant communities to students and low wage workers," said Desi Burnette of Philadelphia's Media Mobilizing Project. "Our leaders have been lucky enough to produce multiple programs with WPEB-FM, 88.1 – bringing all of these communities together. But WPEB is a 1-watt station, only covering a few city blocks. Now with the passage of the Local Community Radio Act, Philadelphia has a much greater chance of getting at least one 100-watt station of its own. With low power FM in our community, poor and working people across this region would have an incredible tool to learn together, to understand their shared struggles and conditions, and to work to change them." "Our low power FM radio station has allowed Guatemalan, Haitian, and many other hard-working immigrant farmworkers to communicate in their native languages, and to build the power for dignity and respect in the fields of Southwest Florida," said the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Gerardo Reyes Chávez. "Our radio station, WCIW – Radio Consciencia – has developed womens' leadership, has allowed us to mobilize rapidly in crises, and has helped us transform not just our community but the hundreds of communities inspired by our struggle. We look forward to helping many other farmworkers learn how to build their own stations and how to expand justice on the FM dial." "In the rural areas we serve and all across the country, low power FMs are poised to celebrate and preserve unique local culture," said Nick Szuberla of Appalshop, a group that uses media to preserve Appalachian culture and tradition while working to improve quality of life. "More low power FMs mean that the vibrant, beautiful, and vital voices of America's rural areas and small towns will shine – and it will mean sustainable local resources in times of crisis. Low power FM stations can stay on the air in storms and save thousands of lives. Congress and community radio advocates should be proud of the resources they've won for American communities." "Our group of 150 volunteers here at the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) is extremely pleased that the Local Community Radio Act has been passed by Congress, and will be signed into law by our fellow Chicagoan, President Obama," said Shawn Campbell, a founder of CHIRP. "For three years, CHIRP volunteers and supporters have worked diligently toward the goal of being able to apply for a low power FM broadcast license, and we look forward to working with our national allies and the FCC to make sure new stations are licensed in large markets around the country, including Chicago." "For decades, the Esperanza Center has worked in San Antonio and beyond to bring people together across cultures, and to ensure the civil rights and economic justice of everyone," said Graciela Sanchez of the Esperanza Center for Peace and Justice in San Antonio. "Whether we are fighting for the right to publically protest or to save the water systems of our region, we need to communicate and coordinate to effectively organize. Low power FM in San Antonio can unite people across cultures and issues to work together to make this city better for everyone. We celebrate this victory for everyone and pledge to work with allies to win as many stations as possible for communities nationwide." Over 10 years, hundreds of groups of all walks of life struggled to bring community radio stations to every community possible, and they cannot all be listed here. We would like to thank the coalition who worked weekly to move this mountain including: Free Press, United Church of Christ Office of Communication, Inc, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Media Access Project, the Future of Music Coalition, the Media and Democracy Coalition, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Benton Foundation, the Prometheus National Advisory Committee and Board of Directors. We thank those who were instrumental in this final push including: Reclaim the Media, The Media Action Grassroots Network, New America Foundation, Chicago Independent Radio Project, MoveOn.org, Color of Change, the Christian Coalition, and the National Association of Evangelicals, and Spitfire Consulting. Our partners in supporting community media including the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and the Grassroots Radio Coalition, and Media Alliance, Pacifica, REC Networks, the Alliance for Community Media. We thank those who have helped at key moments throughout these ten years including: United States Public Interest Research Group, Consumers Union, the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, the United Methodist Church Office of Communication, the Indigo Girls, OK Go, Nicole Atkins, the Microradio List, Amherst Alliance, Microradio Implementation Project, Pacifica Radio, Common Frequency, Christian Community Broadcasters, KYES-TV, National Lawyers Guild Committee on Democratic Communications, Virginia Center for the Public Press, every FCC Commissioner since 1999 (except for Harold Furchgott Roth). We thank our radio barnraising partners who have time and again shown up to represent the best of what LPFM can be: WGXC-FM in Hudson, New York with Free103point9; WMXP-LP in Greenville, South Carolina with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement; KPCN-LP in Woodburn, Oregon with Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste; WRFU-LP in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois with Radio Free Urbana; WXOJ-LP in Northampton, Massachusetts with Valley Free Radio; WRFN-LP in Pasquo, Tennessee with Radio Free Nashville; WSCA-LP in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with Portsmouth Community Radio; WCIW-LP in Immokalee, Florida with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers; KYRS-LP in Spokane, Washington with Thin Air Community Radio; KOCZ-LP in Opelousas, Louisiana with the Southern Development Foundation; KRBS-LP in Oroville, California with the Bird Street Media Project; and our very first radio barnraising with WRYR- LP in Deale, Maryland with South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development. "We've built community radio stations from coast to coast and around the country," said Hannah Sassaman, a longtime organizer with the Prometheus Radio Project. 'The faith and perseverance of low power FM's legislative champions and the thousands who pushed the Local Community Radio Act has paid off in incredible ways. After ten years of struggle, it's stunning to know that in the next years, the FCC will work to and begin licensing LPFMs in city neighborhoods, in suburbs and towns, and in rural areas. It's humbling to understand that new young people will gain a love of telling stories at the working end of a microphone or at home listening to their neighbors. And it's powerful to know that these stations will launch leaders in every walk of life to change their communities, and this country. We look forward to launching the next generation of community stations with you." To learn more about low power FM community radio, visit http://www.prometheusradio.org (via Benn Kobb, Dec 18, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) LOCAL COMMUNITY RADIO ACT PASSES IN CONGRESS 7 minutes from Democracy Now! With Amy Goodman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMwl5ywnRss (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) BILL IN US CONGRESS TO LOOSEN LPFM REGULATIONS On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 6533 http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr6533ih/pdf/BILLS-111hr6533ih.pdf which would relax the restrictions on the use of 3rd-adjacent channels by LPFM stations. This legislation has been sent to the Senate in the hope it can be passed before Congress adjourns. The bill *requires* the FCC to relax the restrictions -- it doesn't merely *allow* them to do so. The bill prohibits the FCC from relaxing the restrictions with regard to stations that use analog SCA to transmit radio reading services (these are almost always non-commercial stations, and there are very few LPFMs below 92 MHz). It maintains LPFM and translators as co-equal services -- i.e., a new LPFM cannot bump an existing translator, or vice-versa. 3rd-adjacent LPFMs will be required to meet the same interference protection requirements as 3rd-adjacent translators. In their first year of operation, a new 3rd-adjacent LPFM will be required to periodically announce the possibility of interference and ask listeners noticing such interference to contact the station. Such complaints must be relayed to the FCC within 48 hours. 3rd-adjacent LPFMs "shall be required" to address interference complaints within the protected contour of the affected station and "shall be encouraged" to address all other complaints. Under limited circumstances*, LPFM stations shall address any complaints of interference to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-adjacent full-service stations, even outside the protected contour of the full-service station, as long as the interference happens within the area where co- channel operation of the LPFM would be prohibited. This last part only applies to protection of full-service stations licensed to a community in New Jersey. No kidding. The way they wrote it was "...significantly populated States with more than 3,000,000 population and a population density greater than 1,000 people per one square mile land area,..." NJ is the only such state. A superficial reading might suggest the change in control of Congress in the new year would make it difficult to pass this legislation in 2011 if it doesn't pass now. However, there has been support for LPFM in political corners where you might not expect it. I don't think it's at all out of the question that this could pass in the new Congress after the New Year -- just that it might take quite a bit of time to do so. -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Dec 18, WTFDA via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) If I'm reading the Library of Congress website properly, this bill passed the Senate yesterday by unanimous consent and without amendments. I think it's highly unlikely President Obama will veto it, so it is almost certain to become law. One might expect the FCC to take a bit of time to implement it (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Dec 19, ibid.) ** VANUATU. 7260, R. Vanuatu, Port Vila. December 16, 0803-0815 female hosting listeners by phone in local language but with some words in English, alternating music. At peak 34433 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7260, R. Vanuatu, Port Vila. December 20, 0803-0813 female in local language hosting listeners by phone, alternating pop music; 23332. December 22, 0805-0813 female talks in uncertain language alternating music. // 3945, poor 23332 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, SW40 Dipoles and Longwire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Is indeed on both frequencies now, due to the excellent work of an engineer from Radio New Zealand who is under a Confidentiality Agreement, so I can't say his name, but I am greatly in his debt. He is a remarkable man, as well as the "Ni Vanuatu engineering staff at Radio Vanuatu." Both transmitters are currently running 5 kW, just to save on the power bill (Jamie Labadia, Dec 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BOLIVIA, GUYANA, LIBERIA VANUATU PUBLIC BROADCASTER WARNED BY NEW GOVERNMENT A senior Vanuatu official has accused the Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation (VBTC) of unfair and impartial reporting of the country’s political situation, and threatened it with privatisation. The warning comes in a statement from Richard Kaltonga, who is the public relations officer of the Prime Minister. Mr Kaltong says the VBTC misquoted the prime minister, Sato Kilman, after his election two weeks ago, from which the public was excluded for the first time. When Mr Kilman was about to be elected, VBTC journalists were evicted from parliament by the paramilitary force while other reporters were barred from entering the premises. The action of the security forces came despite standing orders stipulating that all parliamentary sessions are public. (Source: Radio New Zealand International) (December 20th, 2010 - 10:11 UT by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** VATICAN. Vatican City State – Radio Vaticana on 20 December at 0300 tune in on 7305 kHz, with a good signal tonight from Sackville relay, peaking at S9 + 20 dB on the R8A + 100 foot longwire (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, Dec 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also PUBLICATIONS: WRTH ** VENEZUELA [non]. As in previous report under CUBA, ``Aló, Presidente`` was underway Sunday Dec 19 at 1613 on 17750, 13750 and 15370, but only RHC itself on the other two listed frequencies, 13680 and 11690. Recheck at 1946 found El Hugazo still pontificating on the three, but now 15370 is very poor, compared to adjacent RCI on 15365. Furthermore, the regular Radio Nacional de Venezuela service via CUBA at 19-20 is also running separately on 15290, VG signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. YVTO: See PUBLICATIONS: WRTH ** VIETNAM. 6020, VOV-4, Buon Me Thuot, 1347, Dec 20, presumed the one here in ethnic languages mixing with co-channel R Australia which closed 1359. Then wiped out completely by Issoudun DRM on 6015 which appeared that same minute. Unfortunately already gone at 1500 re-check when DRM off again. 73, (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. ARGELIA, 6297.3, Radio Nacional de la República Arabe Saharaui, *0700-0712, 18-12, signing on with anthem, Arabic, ID, mentioned: "Arabia Saharauia", Koran and comments. 45444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, 27 km W of Lugo, Grundig Satatellit 500 and Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Cable antenna, 10 meters, faced WSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) CLANDESTINAS, 6297.2, Polisario Front, Rabouni, ALG, 1219-…, 19 Dec’10, talks, music; 45444; this is still closing at 1300, // 700 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ALGERIA, 6297.204, RASD Tindouf, west Saharan morning HQ prayer program at 0709 UT Dec 20, S=3-4 only. On Dec 19 at 2308 UT S=8 signal on 6297.161 kHz. ALGERIA, 6297.200 even! RASD Tindouf west Saharan morning program, monotonous sound male singer, with children choir in background at 0725 UT Dec 21, S=5-7 fade (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6297.1, SASASAM [? As we explained before, Arabic ID is ``Huna el- estudiohaay al-markaziya al-wataniya, Sowt al-sha`ab a-Sahraui al- mukafa``, as reconfirmed in WRTH 2011], Dec 21 at 0832, S9+18 Arabish talk with utebeeps aside, still in plenty late on Solstice, no help from the lunar eclipse which had me up at this time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. Re 10-50: I notice in their latest sked that CVC has dropped the overnight service on 4965. Pity, as it was always a good indicator of conditions for 60m in Metro Vancouver during the spring and fall especially (Theo Donnelly, Burnaby, BC, Dec 18, ODXA yg via DXLD) Is it really off? Where is that schedule, exactly? (gh) ZÂMBIA, 4965, CVC, Lusaka, 1911-1922, 17 Dec’10, English, songs; 45444. No uty. QRM! (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4965, 18/12 2340, 1 Africa R. - Lusaka EE gospel, suff (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, shortwave yg via DXLD, ODXA yg) I'm not hearing them on 4965 either and their website http://www.1africa.tv/home2.php is still showing a schedule of 0600 - 0800 9430; 0800 - 2200 13590; and 2200 - 2400 9505 (Mark Coady, ODXA yg via DXLD) OK on not hearing them on 4965, but there are two different services. 1Africa mostly (all?) in English aimed at Nigeria (and us), 9430/13590/9505 on the schedule below (which is in UT +2, not UT!), And CVC The Voice, 4965 night, 6065 day, intended for Zambia and closer regions, in various African languages, and some English, I think. So don`t expect to find a schedule for it on the 1Africa page. And apparently there is no link between them on the web. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) And http://www.christianvision.com makes reference to shortwave covering all of Zambia but does not list their schedule or frequencies (Mark Coady, ibid.) Recently there has been some dispute whether 4965 CVC is on the air all-night. I was hearing a weak signal there at 0035 and a stronger one with gospel-sounding music at 0247 December 21. This is a separate service from 1Africa, 9430/13590/9505, also transmitted from Zambia, but not //. In WRTH 2011 you find the latter under South Africa, where the studio is (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See PUBLICATIONS 9505, One Africa, Lusaka. 2114-2200* December 17, 2010. Local level with really professional production. Slick promo strings, URL, UK- accented announcers with fast-paced chatter with Christian themes ("fear is lack of faith"), Christian rock. Closing ID and frequency/time schedule 2158 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. ZNBC-R. 2 (presumed only), on 6162, possibly to avoid TCD 6165, 1816-... (still on as I write this), 19 Dec, English, some chatter & plenty of African & western pops; 43432, QRM de adjacent frequencies. If not ZMB, then I don't know which African station. I shall try to find whether this is actually Lusaka (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Dec 19, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6162, ZNBC-Radio 2, Lusaka, 1816-1927, 19 Dec’10, English, chatter, Afr. & western pops, talks; 43432, adj. QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Carlos, Thanks for your observations! Today (Dec 19) I heard an unidentified station on 6161.93 at 1556. Very poor and adjacent QRM (best in USB); slowly improving; 1559, brief music; 1600, woman with the news in English; 1605 seemed to be the end of the news; 1607 gave website: “w-w-w … ”, but unable to make it out. Not possible for me to ID, but per your report certainly interesting if it's ZNBC/Radio Zambia 2. BTW – Vancouver (Canada) was fairly well noted on their normal, slightly lower than 6160 frequency at that same time (Ron Howard Asilomar State Beach, CA, USA, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It is received from an early morning at Japan on Dec. 16 by some Japanese DXer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDWBMQEvvJ8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6TXQXzIibI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/user/2010DFS#p/u/1/C7CIy3wYHbs by My DX friend in Shimane-pref. I estimate it to be ZAMBIA reactivated (S. Hasegawa, Dec 20, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6162, ZNBC/R. Zambia 2 (presumed), 1556, Dec 20. Christmas songs; 1559 drums; 1600-1610, news in English; back to non-stop Christmas songs (Bobby Helms with “Jingle Bell Rock”, etc.), African Hi-Li, etc. First heard carrier about 1525, but was not till about 1556 that audio showed up; faded up slightly and then down again till very poor by 1645; their local sunset was at 1636; too poor to make out any news items; adjacent QRM. I will defer to the Japanese DXers with their accurate Perseus software, as my E1 tends to show a lower frequency that true. Nice to have Zambia reactivated again (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5915, ZNBC/R. Zambia 1, *0240-0250, Dec 21. 0235 noted test tone mixing with CRI; 0240, tone ended and went to African Fish Eagle IS; 0250 sounded like “Lumbanyeni Zambia”, their choral National Anthem. Much stronger reception than yesterday! 6162, ZNBC/R. Zambia 2 (presumed), 0346, Dec 21. Talk show in English, with African accents; almost able to understand what was said. If I had thought to check here earlier, I probably would have found the African Fish Eagle IS was //, but of course after 0250 the actual programming would not have been the same (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. MADAGASCAR, Voice of People in English / Shona / Ndebele from Dec. 10: 0400-0500 on 11610 MDC 050 kW / 265 deg to ZWE 1530-1630 on 11695 MDC 050 kW / 265 deg to ZWE, cancelled 1800-1900 on 9345 MDC 050 kW / 265 deg to ZWE, new, co-ch R.Bilal till 1830 (DX Mix News Extra, 21 Dec via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 720, 2214*, 11-Dec; U.S. National Anthem s/off. Well under WGN. Heard again on 13-Dec; local announcements; peaking almost = WGN at times. U.S.N.A. started at H:14 but cut off after 15 seconds (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) One could check the official FCC December sunset times for the only two daytimers close to sunset then: WVCC in Georgia, WWII in Pennsylvania. In fact, I just did: WWII is 2145, and WVCC is 2230, so where does that leave us? (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1320, Dec 16 at 1809 UT, Rush from KCLI Clinton OK, the dominant station here, but rumble het also audible near low noon, so must not be too far away; prime suspects Fort Smith AR, Lawrence KS, maybe a couple of Texans. 1320, checking out the low het I am getting against KCLI Clinton OK indicating the other station is off-frequency: Dec 17 at 1827 UT, 5 minutes before low noon, I try the DX-398 in the yard. With KCLI nulled, and BFO I do hear a different-pitched carrier and much weaker. This makes KWHN Fort Smith AR most likely as the source, since KLWN in Lawrence KS is close to opposite from KCLI and would not be audible in KCLI null; further, KLWN is only 500 watts, and KWHN is 5000. Both are non-direxional in daytime (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1510, Dec 16 at 1811 UT, two weak stations; one sounds like the still unID Mexican music, format change in Kansas? And the other in sportstalk about the Clippers; as always, heavy splash from KOKC-1520 (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1710, 0310-0331+, 11-Dec; M in French taking phones calls. Mainly on top with Latino music & Xmas music challenging at times (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, 8GAL unheard again Dec 16, between 1359 and 1402 while R. Rossii 6075 was turning over that motorboaty frequency to Taiwan and jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6925-USB, pirate Dec 22 at 1432 with stilted M&W discussion about ham radio, as if they were trying to make it obvious they were reading a script, 1437 soul music, 1442 SSTV to 1443* but no voice ID heard. Had OTH radar QRM, right in the middle of its range at the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Re 10-50: ``6950.6 AM, Sat Dec 11 at 1342, fair signal from pirate playing ``Dust in the Wind`` by Kansas. Segué to another song and fading out. Latest FRW does not have any logs around this frequency. Please QSL, whoever this was, tnx (Glenn Hauser, P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702)`` This log matches: Radio Ronin Shortwave: radioroninshortwave @ gmail.com Radio Ronin shortwave, 6950 AM 1315-1415 12/11/10, SINPO 24232, signing on with the stones in heavy static. Niel Young, Zepplin, Eagles. Signal improved throughout Show to 45344 (Ragnar Danskjold, Free Radio Weekly Dec 18 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 7235, Dec 22 at 1453, a het with something slightly to one side, bits of audio; stronger carrier went off at 1458 but still a het. Probably has something to do with ETHIOPIA, V. of Peace and Democracy clandestine to Eritrea, longpath, reported here at other times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 7850, the frequency CHU replaced 7335 with, has worked out pretty well, certainly no broadcast interference, and until now no ute QRM either, but Dec 17 at 1427 there is Spanish 2-way on 7852.5 SSB approximately (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Hi Glenn, I have an UNID logging to share with you, in the hope that you might be able to shed some light on it: 14 December 2010 at 2043 UT on 15000 kHz, there was a station behind WWV, presumably Spanish, with a male announcer repeating what phonetically sounded like “Lo Tano” four or five times at approximately ten seconds past the minute. During the time pip only portions of WWV, this was audible every minute from 2043 UTC to 2050 UTC. There were some other words mentioned as well, but I could not copy them. Weak but clear signal between WWV. 73’s, (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ed, This one has me stumped. Have you heard anything further? Sometimes 2-way comms shows up on standard frequencies. Do you think this was involved in timesignaling itself? (Glenn to Ed, via DXLD) Hi Glenn, I have not done any further listening on 15000 kHz in this time slot and unfortunately I don’t have any further details to help ID the station. Your suggestion of a 2-way comm is plausible. This week, I will revisit 15000 kHz in the 2000 UTC time slot to see if I can shed some further light, Glenn (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, Dec 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 15434, that tantalizing carrier hetting 15435 RVA Urdu via VATICAN, is back Dec 19 at 1454. Aoki still does not show suspected V. of Tibet resumed in this area (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 17461, strong open carrier Dec 20 at 1446, amid the ear- piercing multi-carrier whines peaking around 17450, and audible from 17420 to 17480, also a trace of same pitch on 17695. What, o what is this? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Many thanks to Gerald T. Pollard, Raleigh NC, for a quarterly check in the mail for Solstice to P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702 (gh) Glenn, Happy winter solstice! (Martin Gallas, IL, with a contribution via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com) Both acknowledged on WORLD OF RADIO 1544 (gh) A very special "THANKS!" to Glenn for his contributions to the hobby of Short-Wave radio listening. Your tireless efforts are appreciated Glenn! Please continue the fine work OM. Happy Halli-days! (Duane Fischer, W8DBF, swl at qth.net via DXLD) Thank you for all your radio activities over the past year! It has certainly been enjoyable to receive all the great information provided via WOR, dxldyg and DXLD. I appreciate all your hard work for our hobby. Best regards, (Ron Howard, CA, Dec 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ Some preliminary comments from our first perusal of World Radio TV Handbook 2011, which has just arrived. This is always a significant event each year, the prime reference in our field. Striking us as new are a number of entries for major stations giving the date they first went on the air, a nice touch. ANTARCTICA. In the ``National Radio`` sexion, LRA36 15476 schedule is shown as M-F 19-21. As we have been noting, it`s been unheard since Nov 12 on the schedule it had been following from early this year, M-F 12-15, so has it really changed to 19-21, or is that leftover info as in the 2010 edition, before the change to 12-15? Now we have to seek to confirm it during the later span. It was originally 18-21, but colliding with Gabon until 19, no longer active, nor is anything else on 15475 (except 02-05 VOR via DVR), so it might as well run the full three hours, or more. AUSTRALIA. Looking for what WRTH has on R. Symban. It is in the frequency list under 2368. Finally found it in the National Radio, Australia sexion under High Power [sic] Open Narrowcast Stations --- how`s that for contradixion after contradixion? An Aussie thing, no doubt. It`s on page 85 and also is station 85), 2368.5, the only `SW` after a long list of MW and X-band outlets, mostly 400 watts with a few up to 5 kW. So Symban is far apart from entries for other SW stations, all by itself. LAOS [non]. Hmong World Christian Radio gets a separate entry under USA, page 493, shown as Saturday 1300-1330 on WHRI 9540. On Nov 7 we reported that this was not on the WHRI schedule. Their current online schedule shows Lester Sumrall Teachings during that weekly semihour, which probably means they turn off the transmitter during such unsold time. Only way to be sure is to monitor. Maybe it will come back. SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. The Overcomer Ministry has an entry under USA, but it concerns only transmissions from Europe, mostly Wertachtal (and morphing every week or two, so impossible to be current). Far more important in airtime and coverage are the broadcasts via US SW stations, which you would never know are part of this: currently WWCR 9980/5890 and WWRB 9385/3145/3185 (both 24/7), plus considerable blox on WINB, WBCQ. U S A. WRTH keeps publishing official info about some stations, rather than accurate info obvious to a monitor. WWRB is not shown on 3145 under its own entry or in the frequency list. Yet it has been using this frequency for a few years, currently at 02-05, instead of 5745 or 6890, always with Overcomer. This is while other ministries (or big band music) are on WWRB 3185. After 0500, BS moves to 3185 and 3145 goes off. 3145 does not appear in FCC, HFCC, EiBi or Aoki. Nor WRTH. Yet it does appear on the AIR. And on any radio which tunes it in any evening! Yes, just reconfirmed at 0247 UT December 21. I (and others) have been reporting this all along, but the references don`t want to hear it (literally). Well, we don`t want to hear Brother Scare either, but find it exceeding strange that everyone chooses to overlook reality when we try so hard to make it available. Since not even FCC has ever listed it, maybe Dave just took 3145 unilaterally and no one has objected so far? But it`s no secret either, if you look at the Global Three program schedule: http://www.wwrb.org/schedule/global_3/combined.pdf While at the WWRB website, we find a bit of inadequate news: ``The Bible on Shortwave (December 5, 2010) International Radio Station WWRB is pleased to announce the inauguration of The Bible on Shortwave, a new listener-supported program. The Bible on Shortwave brings the Authorized 1611 King James Bible to the world, currently targeting South America and the Caribbean with our 150 Dual Feed Wide Spaced Yagi Antenna seven hours per day. It has long been our dream to be able to bring the Word to the World, fulfilling the Great Commission: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15). All Christians are called to be witnesses to the world, spreading the Gospel to all peoples... Please check back for more on The Bible on Shortwave; further information will soon be posted.`` Like maybe, the times and frequencies? If daytime is involved, that might mean revival of 12180 (or was it really 12172?) WJHR is listed as 50 kW (as supposedly authorized and required by FCC), but a year after it started, it is still barely audible, and obviously, much, much less than that. And schedule is shown as Wednesdays only, 14-22. Surely we`ve heard it randomly on various days of week, but had not paid attention to that. KVOH is still listed for 9975 at 01-08 and 13-15, while in fact it is never active on that frequency, only on 17775 from 15 to 01, sometimes, plus spurs. We have also pointed out repeatedly that 9975 for KVOH is imaginary. WTWW transmitter 2 is shown from Feb 1 on 9990 daytime and 5080 nighttime. We mourn poor WWV 10000 and those who would use it, already blown away most of the day here by overload from WWCR 9980. While 9990 may be outside the narrow standard-frequency band, it is far too close for comfort, as is 9980. VATICAN [non]. VR Spanish via CANADA 9865 at 1130-1200 is missing, as well as the imaginary English at 1200-1215 which is really more Spanish. We confirmed this well after B-10 began on Nov 11. Or is it gone again? We haven`t looked for it lately. Still awaiting the `official` VR B-10 schedule folder, or did we mislay it? Anyway, there they both are on the schedule ``created on 20 November 2010`` at http://www.radiovaticana.org/spa/sched_ame.asp VENEZUELA. YVTO timesignal station, page 669 is shown as 24 hours, while it has not been reported for two or three years. No indication that it is inactive. ZAMBIA. In the international section, p. 500, you find only the CVC service on 4965/6065. It refers to UK for corporate info, but in neither is there any hint where to find the 1Africa service, also transmitted from Zambia, currently on 9430/13590/9505. We finally found that under SOUTH AFRICA, page 472. WRTH does show a website under ZAMBIA, leading to http://www.voiceafrica.net/newtextsite/programmes/programmes.htm where we see 24-hour schedules for each day of the week, but no frequencies mentioned, presumably 4965/6065. Beware: copyright date is 2005 so may be outdated, abandoned. Recently there has been some dispute whether 4965 CVC is on the air all-night. I was hearing a weak signal there at 0035 and a stronger one with gospel-sounding music at 0247 December 21. No doubt there will be further tidbits to uncover in the new WRTH. I have not even got to the receiver reviews and feature articles. And WRTH is soon to take over the `blue pages` funxion of defunct PWBR. Per an ad on page 47, a ``Bargraph Frequency Guide`` will be available on CD from January. This one will have the languages color coded, but that can only go so far; in the sample page, 12 of them + other. Perhaps in future this could be expanded by combining the PWBR monochrome method with colors. No further details yet on cost or how to order, but check http://www.wrth.com (Glenn Hauser, OK, Dec 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) TV Sign Offs Webpage http://www.tv-signoffs.com/index.html I recognize some of Jeff Kadet's material on here. (Curtis Sadowski, IL, WTFDA via DXLD) NEWSPAPER WEEKLY TV SCHEDULES. [this thread prompted my already published item about TV listings in the Enid Eagle --- gh] Portland, Oregon. About six weeks ago the Oregonian deleted the TV Click from the weekend edition; to be replaced by a pay only replacement version. Toronto, Ontario. Last year The Toronto Star replaced the Star Weekly from the Sunday edition; and replaced this with a pay only version. These two newspapers promised more content and presumably more listings of stations. Has this happened and have more newspapers announced or made this change? Presumably these might be as a result of TV Guide ceasing publication about five years ago in Canada. During fall, 2007, I noticed that the American version of TV Guide was full magazine size, and had only four editions, one for each time zone. Phoenix, Arizona. When I was last there during fall, 2007, the Arizona Republic still had a small magazine size weekly TV schedule. Las Vegas, Nevada. During fall, 2007, I noticed that the Las Vegas Review-Journal had a broadsheet weekly TV schedule. This newspaper previously had a small magazine size weekly TV schedule. I invite comments from members. 73. Good DXing (Dave Sinclair, Vancouver, B.C., Dec 9, WTFDA via DXLD) The Champaign-Urbana (Illinois) News-Gazette has a free weekly supplement with TV listings. It only lists main broadcast channels, none of the secondary ones, and the channel line up is the same as in the analog era (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) > Has this happened and have more newspapers announced or made this change? In droves, yes. The one-two-three punch of rising newsprint costs, the widespread availability of on-screen electronic program guides and the DTV conversion has all but doomed the traditional newspaper TV supplement. It's impossible to list all of the hundreds of stations on a typical cable system these days, and even listing the dozens of OTA subchannels now available in a big market can be challenging. My local Rochester Democrat & Chronicle is down to a very skimpy 8- page tabloid on Sundays, and many papers aren't even doing that much. The Boston Globe ditched its Sunday TV book in 2008, if memory serves; it has now contracted with an outside vendor to insert a TV-listings guide in subscriber copies at an extra cost. They still print daily TV listings --- for now. s (Scott Fybush, Rochester NY, ibid.) The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Sunday edition "TV Cue" cost extra and can only be sold with the Sunday paper. Yep, many newspapers are able to get away with charging extra now. It wouldn't be the case if the local TV Guide was still in publication. I liked the TV Guide when it used to sell in the grocery stores. I mainly was interested in local and regional OTA TV channels, not cable or satellite. I used to collect them on family trips. You can find lots of old TV Guides on eBay; just make sure they have the magazine complete. I had bought the LA Edition only to received it with the inside ripped out, the channel listings. So be careful and make sure you want the whole thing. I still see 1950s TVGs from time to time on eBay. It`s kinda freaky seeing Milwaukee having 4 - WTMJ-TV (NBC) 6 - WITI-TV (Ind.) 10 - WMVS-TV (Educ) 12 - WISN-TV (ABC, Dumont) 19 - WXIX-TV, (CBS) LOL! (-John L., Muskego, WI, ibid.) I thought perhaps someone would mention the TV Weekly magazine that has appeared in a few select markets: http://www.iwantmytvmagazine.com/ My understanding of the business model is that you must subscribe to the newspaper and then pay extra on your weekly subscription to have it inserted into whatever day's paper they choose to place it. There is also discussion of eventually having the magazine available in stores, but I'm not sure if that has happened yet. You can find a list of communities where it's published on the web site, and there should still be a sample PDF of the weekly magazine for Atlanta, GA (there was a couple months ago-an odd selection since they're based in Michigan). I was able to pick up a couple copies recently; after hearing about the magazine I got on the phone, made some calls, and found that some newspapers sell individual copies at their offices; Lexington, Kentucky was one of those markets. They charged me $2.99 but that was fine. The Toledo, OH paper assured me, in contrast, that there was no way I could get a copy, which made no sense since somehow the books have to get to the carriers for insertion into the papers-they can't just magically appear! One problem I encountered in calling newspapers was that getting a human at the paper was a challenge; outsourcing appears to be quite common now in that line of work. For example, I tried to call the Madison, WI paper only to find their customer relations were out of La Crosse. It turned out I knew more about the magazine than the paper did; they had no clue about how it was going to work (it had not been rolled out at the time-started in Madison in September). Also of note-apparently you can order a sample copy. We'll see if they'll send a copy of the Myrtle Beach "edition" to me... if anyone out there has any copies of this from their market, please get in touch! The TV Guide edition collector in me is very curious (Matt Sittel, NE, ibid.) I alluded to it (though not by name, having forgotten the name!) in my mention of the Boston Globe having outsourced its TV magazine. At least in the Boston version, the magazine is available to non-Globe subscribers, though at a significant additional cost for mailing. I have a couple of copies here from the weeks when it was inserted in all Globe copies as a teaser to get people to subscribe. It's nothing very special - one feature article at the front followed by some pretty basic grid listings. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) All three of the local papers we read regularly have weekly TV sections. The Kansas City Star started charging 25 cents a week over a year ago and recently added some more pages and moved the price up to 50 cents. The added material consists of celebrity information, games, and movie listings. Most of the movies, of course, are on cable and since we don't have Pay TV is of very little value to us. The other added material is equally of no interest to us and my wife ripped out the middle section with that. Our subscription was renewed last week and we opted to drop the weekly magazine. The Lawrence Journal-World distributes their TV magazine on Saturdays and The Topeka Capital-Journal on Sunday -- both are included without an additional charge. None of the supplements lists any multicast channels, but the Lawrence paper is the most useful since it carries all of the Kansas City, Lawrence, and Topeka full-power stations minus the multicast channels. Lawrence is in the Kansas City Designated Market Area, but all Topeka stations can be received there and all the full-power stations are on the cable system. The Manhattan Mercury does include one multicast station -- WIBW-TV (CBS 13.1) and (MyTV 13.2) are both listed. KTKA's CW programming on channel 49.2) is not included. The three we read have not made any changes to reflect the digital age. The Topeka paper still includes KQTV-2 from St. Joseph although it can no longer be received here since moving to digital channel 7. I have seen multicast channels listed in South Bend, Chicago, Milwaukee and LaCrosse (WI) and would like to know of other papers which list the subchannels (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, ibid.) The Mpls Star-Tribune lists three of the four sub channels for KTCA-TV (PBS outlet). The fourth unlisted is a 24 hour weather channel. No sub channels for other stations are listed. They also are promoting a separate TV 'guide' for a price (John Ebeling, MN, ibid.) The Denver Post has a weekly TV guide in the Sunday Paper, it is 35 pages. It has the local channels and cable channels for a few cable/satellite companies. You have to tell the paper you want to receive this in your Sunday paper otherwise you won`t get it (Craig, Denver, CO, ibid.) Our paper in Rochester lists WHAM's 13.2 CW channel, though that listing goes back to the days when it was a cable-only WB outlet. More recently, it began listing WXXI's 21.2 (World) and 21.3 (Create) subs. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ THE MEANDERING LINE ANTENNA (MLA) To our friends and associates: This attached document is a write up on an antenna design that may prove advantageous to your group or yourself. In one way or another each of you have helped us (the authors of this paper) somewhere down the road and this is being freely given as a gift to say thank you and Merry Christmas. Respectfully, (Art Hernandez and Harold Faretto, Dec 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Posted as an attachment the DXLD yg that date (gh) Here is another article on Harry`s Homebrew site in regard to a Meander antenna: http://www.sm0vpo.com/antennas/balcant2.htm Regards (Tony Magon VK2IC, Sydney NSW, ibid.) MIXING PRODUCTS ON MEDIUMWAVE The signal on 1710 was much stronger last night around midnight but I was a little dismayed at what I heard. It turned out to be a mix of my local 900 and KGO 810 SF so I tried to figure out how an IF image of those two signals could show up on 1710. 455 Khz x 2 is 910 so 1710 - 910 = 800. That doesn't quite fit in but it's not that far off. Does anybody out there know how this can happen with a digitally tuned receiver? And does the signal strength of the fluctuating image depend on KGO's signal as the other part of the mix is a local which is normally steady all the time? There is no trace of any 900 image daytime so I can safely assume that it is the addition of 810 to the 900 that produces the image. Any possible explanation would be welcome. Thanks (Bill in BC Kral, Dec 16, IRCA via DXLD) It`s not that complicated; 1710 = 900 + 810 (gh, DXLD) You're right; that "image" can actually be produced by two station's signals mixing, although that usually happens when they're both strong signals. Interestingly, the mix can be happening external to your receiver. (One station's signal can be introduced into the other station's transmitter and the combination heads out the tower.) Grand Junction CO is a good (bad) example of that happening, where (among others) a 620 signal gets into 1230 and 1340 transmitters, producing images at 610 and 720. You've probably tried another radio by now; if the image is there as well, something like the above may be happening. All sorts of weird things can pop up. I know of a station that generated images only when a tape machine was in the "record" mode. Turns out the bias oscillator in the recorder was mixing with the station's signal. The fact your receiver is digitally tuned may be irrelevant; most of them can deliver the same images as an analog-tuned radio, if the mix is happening outside your radio. What are your other local station frequencies? I can run a prediction program for you. Regards, (Mark Durenberger, CO, IRCA via DXLD) Fw: [Lowfer] Growling audio on MWBC signals Something I hadn't known about Clear Channel stations, apparently they all have this Steve Ratzlaff, IRCA via DXLD) Viz.: Some weeks ago I happened to tune in our local 69 horsepower (formerly) "clear channel" AM radio station (1160 kHz - KSL) and upon listening to it in SSB mode using exalted carrier methods, I heard a rather obnoxious growling on the audio that disappeared when "normal" AM or synchronous AM techniques were employed. Upon inspecting the carrier, I noted that there was a pair of 16 Hz sidebands responsible for the "growling." Curious, I asked the engineer, Randy, K7SL - who I happen to know - and here is an excerpt of his response: "16 Hz is a low speed data stream used to send messages to warranty receivers. These guys are battery operated 10 year lifetime receivers that attach themselves to things like Baby Cribs, Saws, etc. These receivers set off alarms if a factory recall happens. They then give details for the recalls. The data also contains clock correction signals for home user clocks. The clocks currently using WWVB don't get a good enough signal inside noisy environments and the 50kW signal from KSL and other Clear Channel stations cover the the US better. "Currently the signal ... is just a test signal that repeats itself. If [one] looks at night on other strong AM stations [you] will see similar signals. There are other uses for the signal, but I don't remember them right now. All I know for sure is that it eats up a lot of transmitter power. Of course any 1/2 db added to the modulation looks like it is stealing all the power when you look only at modulation levels around 95 to 100% (chuckle). "A word of warning. If you walk too closely to one of these receivers, it might un-attach itself from where it is and jump to the back of your neck and re-attach itself to you. It will then give Aliens control of your mind and you know what happens from there. [I saw this on TV so I know it is true]" So there. I wonder how long it takes before conspiracy-minded people consider this to be a means of mind control? (Never mind... too late!) 73, (Clint KA7OEI/CT, via Ratzlaff, ibid.) I don't think they all do yet, or even many of them. I've yet to see any gear installed for this at any of the stations I've visited. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) I wonder if the source of the "growling" has been mis-identified. 16 Hz, after all, is pretty much below the lower limit of the human audio perception range. Since the station in question (KSL) also runs IBOC, consider the possibility that this is actually the source of the noise. The AM IBOC signal includes a pair of low frequency reference subcarriers (at +/- 182 Hz from the carrier) that are transmitted with a quadrature phase relationship so that they don't produce any audible output (in theory, at least) from an AM detector. If you tune to the signal in SSB mode, however, this relationship becomes unbalanced, and you can hear a low-frequency rumbling sound along with the program audio. Maybe this is the source of the "growling"? (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF, Ottawa, ON, ibid.) I'm probably 400+ miles from Salt Lake City, Utah but 1160 KSL is a good signal here presently (an hour or more after sunset), and on Perseus SDR in CW mode, 8 Hz bandwidth, zoom, I'm easily seeing +/- 16 Hz sidebands relative to 1160.000. The strongest carrier signal (1160.000) is assumed to be KSL, which fits with its IBOC-accurate carrier. In AM mode KSL is what I'm hearing for the dominant station. (I'm also seeing a +35 Hz fairly strong signal which I assume is some non-IBOC station, quite aways off frequency; as well as a -11 Hz weak signal.) 73, (Steve Ratzlaff, NE Oregon, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC See also just above +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Radio Disney's sad devotion to this failed technology is pathetic. What is even more disheartening is that in the early 00's, when IBOC was first being tested, I actually met the head of the whole network which was located in Dallas at the time. I told her all the shortcomings of the system, why it doesn't work very well, and would be a very poor choice for a network whose audience is primarily children on low end radios. Somebody somewhere got to her. Probably a high pressure salesperson from Ibiquity, and they did IBOC anyway. This in spite of the fact that their C-Quam was top rate. And C-Quam radios branded Disney could be made really cheaply (Bruce Carter, TX, 16 Dec, ABDX via DXLD) This may be at least part of the reason why you are noticing missing HD signals these days --- For the past several weeks all Clear Channel stations have been involved in a major (and complicated) software upgrade to all of the components that make up the HD station (Importer, Exporter, Exciter, etc.). As far as I know, this may also be going on in other broadcast groups as well. While our Lexington software upgrades went very well, others were not so lucky and ended up with their HD off the air pending various resolutions from the manufacturers. I think it's a good bet that these guys will all be back on the air as soon as they sort out their particular issues (Girard M. Westerberg, W4GMW, http://www.DXFM.com Lexington, KY, Dec 9, WTFDA via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV See USA: AntennaTV ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See CHINA; VIETNAM [both as QRM only] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Geomagnetic field activity was at predominantly quiet levels throughout the period. At approximately 12/1500Z the field became unsettled to active. The increase in geomagnetic activity was due to the arrival of a Coronal Hole High-Speed Stream (CH HSS). FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 15 DECEMBER-10 JANUARY 2011 Solar activity is expected to be at very low levels with a slight chance for C-class activity throughout the forecast period. Old Region 1130 (N13, L = 331) and old Region 1132 (N10, L = 251) are expected to rotate back on the visible disk on 19 December and 24 December respectfully. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at normal levels on 13 -14 December. Activity is expected to increase to moderate to high levels from 15-20 December. Normal levels are expected for the remainder of the period. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be quiet to unsettled on 15- 16 December due to a recurrent CH HSS. Quiet conditions are expected from 17-18 December and then the return of quiet to unsettled conditions is expected from 15-20 December due to a second CH HSS. Activity is expected to again decrease to mostly quiet levels from 21 -23 December. The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled from 24-25 December due to a third recurrent CH HSS. Mostly quiet levels are expected for the remainder of the period. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2010 Dec 21 1825 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 2010-12-21 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2010 Dec 22 78 5 2 2010 Dec 23 78 5 2 2010 Dec 24 76 7 3 2010 Dec 25 78 7 3 2010 Dec 26 80 5 2 2010 Dec 27 80 5 2 2010 Dec 28 88 5 2 2010 Dec 29 90 5 2 2010 Dec 30 90 5 2 2010 Dec 31 90 5 2 2011 Jan 01 90 5 2 2011 Jan 02 88 5 2 2011 Jan 03 88 5 2 2011 Jan 04 88 5 2 2011 Jan 05 85 5 2 2011 Jan 06 85 5 2 2011 Jan 07 85 5 2 2011 Jan 08 88 5 2 2011 Jan 09 88 5 2 2011 Jan 10 88 5 2 2011 Jan 11 85 5 2 2011 Jan 12 85 5 2 2011 Jan 13 80 5 2 2011 Jan 14 80 5 2 2011 Jan 15 80 5 2 2011 Jan 16 78 5 2 2011 Jan 17 78 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1544, DXLD) ###