DX LISTENING DIGEST 10-52, December 29, 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 1545 headlines: *Ending shortwave broadcasting from Argentina, Blagovest, Slovakia *New clandestine for Iran *New frequencies from Eritrea, Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia *Errors from Egypt, India, Russia, Tunisia, South Africa, VOA *Also news of Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, East Turkestan, Mexico, Mongolia, Oman, South Carolina USA *Strange sounds on 13590 SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1545, December 29-January 5 Wed 1630 WRMI 9955 [confirmed] 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 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 Tue 1630 WRMI 9955 Tue 2000 WBCQ 7415 Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html or http://schedule.worldofradio.org or http://sked.worldofradio.org For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://193.42.152.193/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN: http://www.wrn.org/wrn-listeners/world-of-radio/ http://www.wrn.org/listeners/world-of-radio/rss/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/ ** ALBANIA. 1457.573v, RT in Albanian scheduled at 1500-1630 UT, noted at 1520 UT, Dec 25. Weak signal in Germany at this hour, due of London S Asian emigrants program 427 Hertz higher (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. 7530, R. Tirana, Dec 25 at 2122, S9+15 but just barely modulated; however // 9895 is just barely audible. By 2126 I can tell that the music is ``White Christmas``, modulation improving somewhat, 2128 outro English as having been a ``reportage on Christmas celebrations in Albania`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, the sixth LRA36-less week concludes, no trace of a signal Friday Dec 24 around 1350 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 11711-, UT Sat Dec 25 at 0200, RAE 8-note IS, over and over, with occasional IDs in all its languages. Weak and fading in the distance, it sounds so forlorn, and about to be gone forever from SW in one week? I recorded a few minutes for the archives. English is supposed to start at 0200 UT Tue-Sat, but the IS kept on playing. 0215 switched to longer multilingual IDs mixed with other music, and 0217 finally sign-on English program, but by now signal is too weak to copy. It had been reading S9+18 which ought to be sufficient, but much less than its nearest comparison, 11780 Brasília at S9+22. Perhaps the delay was an Xmas-eve problem, and morale is probably quite low (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545 with an audio clip, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA [non]. La historia secreta de la radio montonera: see COSTA RICA: Radio Noticias del Continente ** ARMENIA. Could someone give me the e-mail address of Public Radio Armenia? pr@armradio.am does not exist and the link to the "feedback" page is broken on their website. Thanks! (Jean-Michel Aubier (France), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It's ak @ arradio.am (Mauno Ritola, Finland, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. 2368.488, 1600, R. Symban ett flertal gånger i nov/dec ofta med vad som låter som grekisk folkmusik. Signalen 1-3. OB 2368.488, 1600, R. Symban, several times in Nov/Dec with something sounding like Greek folk music. Signal strength en 1-3 (Olle Bjurström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 26 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Symban 2368.5 kHz --- Noted off air today 26/12 (local). Was on some days ago (Ian Baxter, NSW, dxld yg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 2310, VL8A Alice Springs NT 1010 fair audio 22 December (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8 - NRD535D - 746Pro, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AZERBAIJAN [non]. See IRAN [non]: GunAz TV adds SW ** BANGLADESH. 4750, 27.11 1445, R Bangla Desh med px på lustig engelska om kemiska fabriker i Bangla Desh. Q 4. DO 4750, 27.11 1445, R Bangla Desh with a program in sort of amusing English about chemical factories in Bangla Desh. Q 4 (Dan Olsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 26 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS [and non]. OFFICES OF TWO WARSAW-BASED TV, RADIO STATIONS SEARCHED IN BELARUS | Text of report by Belarusian privately-owned news agency Belapan Minsk, 26 December: Law enforcement officers raided the Minsk offices of two Warsaw-based broadcast media outlets on 25 December. The raids targeted the offices of European Radio for Belarus and the Belsat television channel. European Radio for Belarus, which has an official bureau in Minsk, said that the search had lasted nearly three hours. "They took away a total of 43 items, including computers, the server, voice recorders, photo cameras and portable video cameras," Vital Zyblyuk, deputy chief editor of the radio station, told Belapan. Zyblyuk linked the raid to the recent [19 December] presidential election and the growing popularity of the radio and its website. "We've tried to work impartially, without taking sides, received no complaints," the journalist said. He stressed that European Radio for Belarus would continue its operation in Belarus. "We have 10 journalists, they have not been stripped of accreditation. Tomorrow we will assess the damage and see what can be done," Zyblyuk said. No equipment or documents were seized from Belsat's office, which is located inside an apartment that belongs to former presidential candidate Ales Mikhalevich, as the staff had vacated the premises several days before the raid. The accreditation of European Radio for Belarus expires on 10 November 2011. Source: Belapan news agency, Minsk, in English 1526 gmt 26 Dec 10 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** BELARUS [non]. Free Media Online, 23 Dec 2010, Ted Lipien: "The Voice of America could have played a major role delivering news and information to Belarus by radio, but it did not have that capability due to bad planning and mismanagement at its parent agency. The Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG, which manages VOA, terminated VOA Russian FM, shortwave and medium wave radio broadcasts in 2008, just 12 days before the Russian military attack on Georgia. Such radio broadcasts, especially medium wave (AM) from transmitters in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, or Estonia, which cannot be easily blocked, would have been extremely useful during the emergency in Belarus or any other type of crisis, also in Russia. According to VOA insiders, citizen journalists were able to tell their news to a VOA reporter on the ground, but the Voice of America was unable to deliver the news back to Belarus because it lacked effective program delivery when faced with the blockage of the Internet by the regime in Minsk." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) As a VOA stalwart, Ted did not mention archrival RFE/RL's extensive Belarusian Service. It does transmit on shortwave and (via Lithuania) on medium wave. In fact, in response to the post-election crisis, RFE Belarusian shortwave and medium wave transmissions were expanded to provide an all-night service, per a report from Ivo Ivanov to the DX Listening Digest Yahoo! group, 22 Dec 2010. See previous post about same subject. (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** BOLIVIA. 4409.739, Radio Eco, Reyes, 2250 on 19 December 4451.131, Radio Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma noted at 2250 on 19 December. Seems to sign of a few minutes before 0100 daily 5952.294, Pio XII, Siglo Veinte, om at 2335 very narrow filter (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8 - NRD535D - 746Pro, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4885, 25 DEC, 0115 UT, Rádio Clube do Pará in Portuguese with romantic songs and some R&B. Beautiful, echo and full ID at 0128. Strong signals, no QRM, but fluttery. Incredible! This is quite the Xmas present. 7686 miles away! Supposedly only 2 kW? (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4985 kHz - Rádio Brasil Central, Goiânia/GO. Recebidos: Carta confirmatória, 1 adesivo da Rádio Brasil Central, 1 adesivo da TV Brasil Central, 1 adesivo da RBC FM e 1 cartão de Natal. 265 dias desde a primeira carta (também enviados 2 follow ups por carta e 1 por e-mail). V/S: Fernando Cozac. IR enviado por correio, o mais recente follow up com PPC e SASE (não usados). QTH: Rádio Brasil Central - Rua SC-1, nº 299 - Parque Santa Cruz, CEP 74860-270 - Goiânia/GO. E-mail: rbc.agecom @ gmail.com Visualização em breve no http://pqslfabricio.blogspot.com/ 73 (Fabricio Andrade Silva, PP5002SWL, Tubarão, SC - Brasil, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Plus lots of other QSLs displayed ** BRAZIL. 5045, 27 DEC, 0156 UT, Rádio Cultura do Pará, heard in Portuguese with some Brazilian pops into a full ID by a male announcer at 0159, several commercial announcements and then news read by a woman (or a very light-voiced man). Fair signal level with some ute QRM and a slow fade 73s (Al Muick, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 10000, PPE (Observatório Nacional time station) at 0640 with ID and time announcements in Portuguese at 10 second intervals, Good over WWV Dec 7 (Larry Flaitz, Rochester, NY, Yaesu FT-950 and Array Solutions Dipole, Your Reports, Jan ODXA Listening in via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 11815, Rádio Brasil Central, Goiânia, 1002-1040, 25-12, Portuguese, male, id: ""Rádio Brasil Central, Onda Media, 1270 kHz, 50 kW, Ondas Curtas, 11815 kHz, 7,5 kW, Onda Tropical, 4985 kHz, 10 kW. Radio Brasil Central, Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil", "Programação especial de Natal", "Feliz Natal para todos". 44444. 11915, Rádio Gaúcha, Porto Alegre, 0812-0840, 25-12, male and female, Portuguese, news, "6 y 12", "Em Porto Alegre" "Hoje é Natal, Feliz Natal". 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs 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) ** BRAZIL. 15190, R Inconfidência, 1909 21/12, talks by OM and YL in Portuguese; at 1912 with clear ID as Inconfidência, mention of Brazil and a folk song. Signal S5 over S3 noise floor using preamplifier, 232x2, some flutter by a co-channel signal (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190.0, Radio Inconfidência, 2325-2345, Dec 23, Brazilian music. Portuguese talk. Threshold signal but improved to weak but readable levels on peaks. No // heard (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 15190, Radio Inconfidência, Belo Horizonte, 0857-1010, 25-12, Portuguese, male, advertisements, identification at 0900: "Onda Média, 880 kHz, ondas curtas de 49 metros, 6010 kHz, ondas curtas de 19 metros, 15190 kHz, emisoras da Rede Inconfidência de Rádio, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil", "Você está na Rede Inconfidência de Rádio", "Agora, Jornal Integração, sete horas, bom dia". At 0945 sport news: "Inconfidência, a rádio de todos os esportes". At 0959 interference from China Radio International. 34433 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs 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) ** CANADA. A couple of evenings ago I lucked into two MW stations that have been at the top of my hit list for the last 2+ years. Logged both of these on my Eton E-100 Slider w/ SAT. (Also I was using a really neat little DXing tool, the Koss EQ50 equalizer; it's hooked between the little radio and the headphones.) 530, CIAO, Brampton, ON, 0000 UT, 12/23/10, Caught this one in the null of a very strong R. Enciclopedia (Cuba). Heard mostly talk in what sounded like the Punjabi language along with brief musical interludes. Positively identified by checking their online stream. Really happy with this one! ULR Sta #720 (Kirk Allen, Ponca City OK, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The other: see MEXICO 1610 XEAUCH ** CANADA. Wicked storm battering Atlantic Canada --- Altho originally posted 4+ days ago it looks like this may still/again be applicable (gh, Dec 26, dxldyg via DXLD) Date: Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:48 am ((PST)) We are presently undergoing the second day of a wicked Nor-Easter that is battering Atlantic Canada. We have a few more days of this expected. There are some serious reports of damage. Think of it as a minor hurricane that keeps up for 5 days rather than blowing through. Way worse than Earl. Not as bad as Juan for trees but perhaps worse for buildings given the sustained battering. It feels like we are under siege. Now, to pull it on topic, there might be some DX opportunities. Possibly keep an ear out for 1270 CJCB in Sydney - always possible they might run their 10KW omni by day at night, rather than their usual nighttime east facing cardiod. Don't expect anything from CBI 1140 as they have been 'replaced' by FM and the AM is just hanging on. The remaining NS stations are only 1KW. PEI has no AM stations anymore, all FM. NB - perhaps keep an ear out for 930 CFBC saint John, 810 CJVA in Caraquet [French]. Not really worth trying for 590 CJCW Sussex, and I suspect that 1260 CKHJ Fredericton and 950 CKNB Campbellton are far enough away from the storm. Lots of stations in NL. Possible that 930 CJYQ might rum 25 kW omni, rather than their usual nighttime omni of 3500 watts. Possible too that 590 VOCM might rum daytime at night too. Very much looks like it will remain green here for Christmas. Originally we were to have some snow for Christmas Eve, followed by more rain on Christmas day. Now the forecast remains rain, rain, rain ... Time for every radio station in Atlantic Canada to start playing the Beatles/George Harrison's 'Here Comes the Sun' (Phil Rafuse, VY2PR, Stratford PE Canada, ABDX via DXLD) ** CANADA. CHOO & others, Radio Recollections Hullo AM BCBers, My high school chum forwarded me a link to his "Radio Recollections" site. http://www.radiorecollections.com/ I liked: "Welcome to "Radio Recollections" an on line scrapbook of images and text for fans of radio history. If you can get past the implicit irony of visual recollections of an entirely aural medium, feel free to bookmark this page and check back every few months to see what's new. This is definitely an eclectic work in progress and additional pages will be added from time to time. To begin, an exhibit about the Canadian radio station CHOO 1390 AM which ran from 1967 to 1994." CHOO re-collection directly at http://www.radiorecollections.com/chooradio1.html 73 es happy listening, John - the other John & former host of "Coastal Ceilidh", on CFUV FM102, 1997-2000 -- (J. D. Erskine, Victoria, BC, VA7OTC/VE0JD, CN88hk NA036, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. 9625, just as I tuned in CBC NQ with a story about river icing, cut off the air Dec 25 at 2139, resumed two minutes later. After 2200 news, had a CBC Xmas special featuring tenors. Fair signal and QRMless at this time. 9625, CBCNQ, Dec 28 at 1434 with heavy flutter and Doppler making the frequency wobble --- unlike other transmissions from same site Sackville on 9610, 9650, 11655, which were loud and steady. 9625 must have been bouncing back off the auroral zone, as K was hitting 5 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 11655, Dec 27 at 1521, RCI IS and IDs in English and French, leftover from NHK relay ending at 1500, but why? Off at 1522*. Was atop a much weaker signal, listed as KSDA Guam in Telugu (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST ** CHAD. Glen[n]: I think I'm hearing R N, N'djamena on 6162 (nominal 6165). Yaesu FT-100D, Buckmaster 80-10 meter off center fed dipole, 60' flattop, broadside toward Africa (Des Preston, KB8UYJ, 0418 UT Dec 28, Sent from my iPhone, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Des, The off-frequency 6162 has been reported as Zambia, in last DXLD and in this, q.v. (gh, DXLD) I'm in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I heard the station just before 11 pm local - 0300 UT. French announcements (Des Preston, ibid.) You must mean -0400 UT. Well, Zambia certainly would not be in French (gh) At present at 2214 UT Dec 28, both French language newsreader of R. National, N'Djamena, female and male are noted on exact 6165 kHz (not split frequency). 6165.0, News in French til 2225 UT, S=9+25dB, at 2229:49 UT Chad's National Anthem played til 2230:58 UT. Transmitter in N'Djamena switched off at 2231:14 UT. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi all, hearing Radio Nationale Tchadienne in French with fair signal in Montréal right now, on 6165 at 2215 UT talk and African music on Dec 28. S/off with national anthem at 2230 (Gilles Létourneau, Montréal, Canada, ibid.) ** CHINA [and non]. 5965, Dec 25 at 1511 two stations and motorboating sound (low rumble, like on Pet/Kam 6075); one in Chinese, which is RCI via JAPAN, and the only other scheduled is CRI in Russian via Beijing. Seems rather inconvenient that RCI`s relay partner CRI is on the frequency itself is trying to use for China. So is one of these transmitters defective? Or was the rumble from an external source (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 7105, Chinese with good signal amid 40m hamband, Dec 25 at 2238. Soon found // 7440 echoing and mixing with other signals, but on 7105 at 2246 only a fast SAH, no other modulation audible. It is of course, CNR1 jamming Sound of Hope which uses 7105 only at 22-23. On 7440, the jamming is vs VOA Chinese via Thailand, but also blasts CRI Japanese via Beijing, per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 9415, Dec 26 at 2342, VG signal in Vietnamese, with short / longpath echo. HFCC shows it`s CRI, 500 kW, 193 degrees from Beijing site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA 9820 ** CHINA. 10300, 25 DEC, 0845 UT, Firedrake with the jug band in full swing and going to town. Poor signals without QRM (dunno what they're trying to jam) and slight fading (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 12613, 25 DEC, 1017 UT, XSQ, Guangzhou Radio, CW Marker and SITOR bursts. Good signals, slight fade, no QRM (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 2980.01, Radio Vida Nueva, Barranquilla, 1020-1100, Dec 24, Presumed 2nd harmonic of 1490v. Spanish religious music. Occasional Spanish announcements. Very Weak (Brian Alexander, PA, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX Listening Digest) ** COSTA RICA. 5954.274, Radio República, om comments on Cuba, 2235 usb and narrow filter to defeat jamming, 19 December (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8 - NRD535D - 746Pro, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. Estimados: Les paso el artículo publicado en el sitio del Diario Perfil, sobre Radio Noticias del Continente: http://www.perfil.com/contenidos/2010/12/21/noticia_0021.html Está linkeado el audio de la primera de las tres partes del programa que presenté hace unos años a la Bienal Internacional de Radio, en México. Saludos y feliz Navidad a todos! (Javier Zaffora, Argentina, Dec 23, condiglist yg via DXLD) Viz.: LA HISTORIA SECRETA DE LA RADIO MONTONERA Esta historia ocurrió hace 31 años, en Costa Rica, cuando un grupo de argentinos sentaron en aquel país centroamericano las bases para el lanzamiento de un medio. Uno que sirviera de inyección ante el discurso único que dictadura militar diseminaba en Argentina. Radio Noticias del Continental fue, entonces, esa idea que la organización Montoneros planeó en el exilio como canal de contrainformación a través de la onda corta. Un proyecto modesto, claro, pero ambicioso: desde allí se buscaba apuntar los “cañones” y contar la experiencias revolucionarias de la región. "Había un silencio informativo absoluto, no solamente un fenómeno de tergiversación como la que hay hoy en los países, sino de silencio informativo”, cuenta Carlos Villalba, montonero e impulsor, entre otros, del proyecto. "En Costa Rica, había un núcleo de argentinos. Ese grupo hizo un planteo a Montoneros: en Costa Rica, por las condiciones de estabilidad política, amplitud y tolerancia de las distintas ideas e inserción del grupo" contaban con viento a favor. En síntesis, el horizonte estaba claro. Y los inconvenientes, también: propalar información "con todos los problemas que acarrea la clandestinidad y la persecución", cuenta hoy Villalba, sentado en su oficina de Cascos Blancos, era desde los inicios un "tema". "La radio funcionó entre mayo de 1979 y mayo de 1981, cuando fue clausurada. En el medio ocurrieron varios atentados, los más fuertes fueron en los últimos meses de 1980, que según los miembros de Montoneros tenían sus orígenes en agentes de la dictadura argentina y de otras dictaduras centroamericanas", reconstruye Pablo Waisberg, coautor junto a Felipe Celesia de Firmenich, la historia jamás contada del líder montonero, que retomó la historia de la radio. “También se incrementó la presión política que realizaba la dictadura sobre el gobierno costarricense. Es que el objetivo de ‘romper el cerco informativo’ - ese era el objetivo del proyecto - estaba dando cierto resultado”, completa. La instalación de los equipos corrió por cuenta de un fabricante local, que trabajó sobre la antena romboidal instalada en Costa Rica: “Alguien que tenía una AM local tenía que hablar con él”, añora Villalba sin recordar tres décadas después quién era el hombre encargado de los arreglos. Para constatar la correcta difusión de RNC, un grupo de militantes se repartía en diferentes plazas del país con una radio “preferentemente digitales para clavar la sintonía exactamente en el lugar donde querías, no las analógicas”. En total, fueron cinco los atentados que recibió la radio. El primero en los estudios, en el centro de la ciudad, con una bomba tipo molotov y los cuatro siguientes en el corazón de la planta transmisora con una violencia feroz: aviones pequeños cargados de explosivos, ataques de entre 12 y 15 militares del somosismo, financiados desde Argentina y un último aviso con panes explosivos decidieron el final. “Durante la noche se desmontó el equipo, llegó un camión y salimos con 8 vehículos y nos fuimos de esa planta, a 300 kilómetros de la frontera con Nicaragua y la transformamos en una especie de agenda informativa durante dos meses más”, relata ahora Villalba, que continuó al frente hasta que el proyecto se esfumó. Pero si la más mínima disidencia, en aquellos años oscuros, podía cobrarse una vida, la penetración conseguida por RNC causaba estragos hacía el interior del régimen: “Entendemos que dejó esa experiencia política de hacer un medio desde el exterior que confrontara contra la dictadura argentina pero también aportó al proceso de lucha nicaragüense”, dice Waisberg. por Juan Pablo Mansilla Multimedia: Radio Noticias del Continente - Publicado por Perfil.com, tomado de Javier Ar. Zaffora Fuente: Perfil.com 21/12/2010 TOMADO DE: http://bit.ly/gSsBLr (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DXLD) I was in Argentina in 1976 so I know what the ambiance was like at the time. I listened to CW1 and 10 years later I met the man behind their news service. (I believe that part of my interview with Ariel Delgado has been aired on La Rosa de Tokyo). Many escaping Montoneros were journalists and so they created RNC which ran for two years when the station ground to a stop after five consecutive bomb attacks. Costa Rica --- Argentina [non] Often shown online is a picture of a QSL-card sent from Costa Rican Radio Noticias del Continente, TIRL, to Nils Jakobsson in Sweden in May 1980. I have seen it in several news stories and blogs, most recently at http://www.diasdehistoria.com.ar/content/la-historia-secreta-de-la-radio-montonera The front side of the card, with the actual verie text, is rarer. It can be seen for instance at http://pateplumaradio.com/central/costarica/ticogrph/mcdfront.jpg where it says that the listener submitted an audio tape which was deemed “muy buena”. Why such an interest in a rather plain-looking QSL? The reason seems to be that that this station was a semi-clandestine operation run by exiled members of the Argentine leftist peronist guerrilla group known as Montoneros. Active for two years, from May 1979 to May 1981, Radio Noticias del Continente was airing news and political commentary around the clock, save a 3 or 4-hour hiatus in the local morning. Records at hand show that at least 70 listeners in Norway, Sweden and Finland received a QSL from the station during this period. Two listeners say that they received their QSL’s in 1983 and 84! The Montoneros wanted to create a “socialist fatherland” along Peronist lines. Kidnapping and assassination were permitted means in achieving that goal. Their motto was “Venceremos”, quite similar to the Cuban slogan “Patria o muerte, venceremos” (Fatherland or death, we shall overcome). After several spectacular guerrilla operations, kidnaps and bomb blasts, the Montoneros were declared illegal in 1975 by President María Estela Martínez de Perón, a k a “Isabelita”. She was ousted one year later by a military Junta which initiated a relentless persecution of the guerrillas in an action which has been named “the Dirty War”. Information on what was going on in Argentina at the time was scarce. Censorship was tight. Uruguayan CW1, Radio Colonia, 550 AM, was covering the Argentine news scene day and night but the station was audible only in Buenos Aires and vicinities. Sometimes it was jammed. Radio Colonia anchorman and owner Ariel Delgado, whom I was to meet in Buenos Aires ten years later, said he received death threats by the Junta and was forced to leave the country. He went to Italy and thence to Nicaragua where he spent a couple of years as a news editor with the Sandinista government station La Voz de Nicaragua before returning to Argentina in the mid-80’s when the political situation had changed. Many escaping Montoneros were journalists. Peaceful and neutral Costa Rica was chosen as the site from where they would be able to speak to their fellow countrymen to tell them what they otherwise would not know. The 50 kW transmitter feeding a rhombic antenna, near the town of Grecia, was ready to go on the air in May 1979 on 9615, a frequency formerly used by La Voz de la Víctor. Soon, the local authorities began receiving complaints from other Central American countries. Supposedly, the Argentine government had asked neighbouring governments to help put pressure on Costa Rica. In addition, the RNC crew would have to taste some of their own medicine. Several bomb attacks against the transmitter site and a Molotov cocktail aimed at their San José studio made them reconsider, and in May 1981 Radio Noticias del Continente signed off for good (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ha!!! este artículo [de Perfil] me ha hecho recordar mi juventud. Aquí en El Salvador, funcionaba la radio del arzobipado de San Salvador, la YSAX que transmitía la homilía dominical de Monseñor Romero en esa época. Esta transmisión era de hecho una "cadena nacional voluntaria". Los domingos, todo el mundo la sintonizaba. En una de tantas veces que la YSAX fue saboteada, recuerdo que Radio Noticias del Continente hizo un enlace teléfonico para transmitirla por onda corta desde su planta de Costa Rica. Como en El Salvador la onda corta no tiene mucha tradición, poca gente tenía capacidad para recibir la frecuencia, así que los domingos que sucedió eso muchos vecinos venían a mi casa para poder escucharla. Yo me sentía orgulloso y el gurú de la onda corta en esos días.... ;-) Si mal no recuerdo uno de los técnicos que hacía el enlace desde San Salvador, fue asesinado por los escuadrones de la muerte. Saludos (Humberto Molina, San Salvador, El Salvador, condiglist yg via DXLD) Me acuerdo de esa emisora; se captaba con cierta regularidad en Montevideo. Adjunto una grabación que conservo (no registré la fecha). Dicho sea de paso en ella se escucha de fondo el famoso "pájaro carpintero" que finalmente resultó ser un radar transhorizontal ubicado en Ucrania no muy lejos de Chernobyl (al menos es la hipótesis más difundida). La emisora se identificaba como TIRLR; sin embargo en la QSL que aparece anexa al artículo dice "TIRL". No sé si en algún momento habrá cambiado las letras del distintivo o sería un error tipográfico. También de paso, el periodista Roberto Iglesias que aparece hablando en el audio debe ser, si la memoria no me engaña, un DXista argentino de igual nombre que colaboraba muy asiduamente con Sweden Calling DXers por aquellos días. No consigo recordar las frecuencias que usaban, aunque tiendo a pensar que era en el límite inferior de la banda de 31 m, pero no estoy muy seguro. Aprovecho para hacerles llegar a los colegas DXistas mis saludos de Navidad y Año Nuevo. 73, (Moisés Knochen, Uruguay, ibid.) Agudizando mi memoria, puedo casi asegurar que Roberto Iglesias fue - a decir de su propio testimonio en el audio disponible - aquel experto diexista en utilitarias (de muy joven sabía identificar con facilidad las señales morse) que, junto a Carlos Maslaton, constituyeron los pilares del Argentine DX Club International ADXCI en la década del ´70 (Ruben Guillelrmo Margenet, Argentina, ibid.) ** CROATIA [non]. Thanks to Glenn Hauser for this tip: 5925 UNITED KINGDOM Voice of Croatia (via Rampisham) at 0300 with a woman with "Glas Hrvatska" Croatian ID then a man with English ID and a man and woman with "Croatia Today" - Good Dec 23 (Mark Coady, Peterborough, ON K9J 6X3, ODXA yg via DXLD) 5925, UNITED KINGDOM, Voice of Croatia (via Rampisham) at 0300 // 7375 with a woman with “Glas Hrvatska” Croatian ID then a man with ID and a man and woman with “Croatia Today”, Good Dec 23 – new frequency in addition to 7375 (Mark Coady, Chemung Lake, ON, Eton E-1 Drake SPR-4 and T2FD, Your Reports, Jan ODXA Listening in via DXLD) ** CUBA. 6180, 25 DEC, 0312 UT, RHC in Spanish with interview and man on telephone rambling about everything from the US, to Venezuela to Palestine and Israel. No shortage of political opinions on this day. Fair level with slight interference from a station with Arabic chanting (unID) and slight fading. Another amazing catch at 8117 miles! Transmitter blew the air at 0328 (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. 9550, DentroCuban Jamming Command, Dec 25 at 2138 pulsing against nothing, probably spur from 9565 against Martí via Sackville. 6015, DCJC, Dec 25 at 2312, pulse jamming against something, Romania in English, probably spur from 6030 Martí via Greenville. 5735, DCJC, Dec 25 at 2314, pulse jamming against nothing, not on 5745 where it is `needed` elsewhen against Martí. 12060, DCJC, Dec 25 at 2317, pulse jamming against nothing, 2 x 6030 vs Martí; poor here while RHC 12010 and 12040 VG. 5990, CRI English relay, Dec 25 at 2313 is not only lo-fi but the squealing transmitter. 15230, RHC in Portuguese, Dec 25 at 2318, while 15370 was stronger but extremely distorted in Creole at 2319. For once, both these match the schedule at http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/c_frecuencia/frecuencias.htm 13750 et al., ``En Contacto`` from RHC, edition #52 for 2010, Dec 26 at 1436-1451, after birthday greetings was entirely dedicated to naming its 150 most active listeners (those who wrote to the program this year), organized by country rank. USA and Costa Rica were tied with 5 each. México was #2, and Cuba #1 with 25, the safest SW station for dentroCubans to listen to, but how is reception mostly in the skip zone? 13750 is the Sunday-only frequency intended for ``Aló, Presidente`` later on. At the beginning of E.C. the other Sunday channels 15370 and 17750 were open carrier, but by the end they too were presenting audio, altho 17750 was like last week quite undermodulated. Also on // 15360, 15120, 13780, 13720 (mix 13780/13750), 13680, 11760, 11730. At 1516 check, 11760, which is supposed to be in Esperanto, was still // all the others in Spanish with Filatelia program. Esperanto has been unheard for several weeks now. Still hoping/expecting to hear El Hugazo, but at 1539, 1623 and 1648, all frequencies still on the air remain // with RHC mainstream. 9820, Dec 26 at 2325, RHC in Spanish with Chinese CCI. HFCC shows: Xian, 150 kW, 290 degrees at 2055-0100. Aoki shows it as CNR2 Xianyang 594 site, same power and azimuth, but also Voice of Beibu Bay Radio, 15 kW, 225 degrees from Nanning in Vietnamese Sun-Thu, Chinese Fri/Sat, but are those local or UT days? Anyhow, Commies vs Commies vs Commies! 49 mb check at 1125 Dec 27: RHC 6000 mixing with Harold Camping on WYFR; VG on 6095, also 6140, 6150. Open carrier on 6120, also RHC, or Sackville? 6060 with RNV relay mixing English and Spanish. 15120, Dec 27 at 1450 RHC Spanish with tourism feature about Hemingway`s house in Habana, but fast SAH from understation featuring wailing, i.e. Saudi Arabia`s Bengali service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also NIGERIA ** CUBA. 5025, 27 DEC, 0131 UT, Radio Rebelde with latin music and echo announcements. verified by streaming audio. Very weak at the time I caught it. I will try to get up earlier tomorrow and see if the signal is stronger. Two positive Rebelde IDs. Radio Habana also coming in on 5040 which is supposedly beamed towards North America. Much better signal on this frequency. Haji sent his love and Season's Greetings on Xmas night and last night. One of the rockets hit a contractor compound and killed a person on Xmas night. The rocket last night was very close as it rocked our container buildings. Nothing quite like DXing in the combat zone. Very nice openings to the Caribbean and South America the last couple of nights. I hope it lasts for a bit yet. I never thought I'd actually *want* to hear Cuba over here, but it'll be nice if they QSL! 73s (Al Muick, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 5688-USB, (spy) V21? (babbling numbers woman, anyhow). Nothing between 1300-1400 checks until recheck at 1407 December 24, 2010, already on with bad hum, stuttering numbers live reads, the kids or the unemployed sister in the background of the presumed Soviet-era, crumbling painted block apartment with no air conditioning and maybe a semi-new cheap ChiCom refrigerator. Abruptly off/back on 1408, off for good 1409. Excellent (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. 5905, Dec 26 at 1406 Arabic from BBC London, fair signal and about the same as synchronized // 5875. Both are via Cyprus, 173 and 121 degrees respectively, and presumably long-path (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. 13032-13062, OTH radar pulsing, presumed from here, Dec 23 at 1425 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA. Re 10-51: La buffonata del secolo, la "QSL over IP" (Roberto Scaglione, Sicilia, shortwave yg via DXLD) ** DIEGO GARCIA. 4319-usb, AFRTS, 2355 good signal news items 16 December (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8 - NRD535D - 746Pro, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ARQUIPÉLAGO DAS CHAGOS, 4319 AFN, Diogo Garcia, 2319-2332, 23 Dec’10, music, then NPR’s All Things Considered; 33442, adj. uty. QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, R. Djibouti, Dec 25 at 0328 assertive speech, mostly over the CODAR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 6025.11, Radio Amanecer Internacional, Santo Domingo. 1815 December 26, 2010. Soft Spanish Christian vocals, ID and brief inspirational words by Spanish male, back to vocals. Very good (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EAST TURKISTAN. CHINA, 3950, Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, 2315-2335, 23 Dec’10, tone signal followed by a period of silence, then IS at 2330, Mandarin & English ID, announcements, talks; 45433 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4980, Dec 25 at 0055, just about the OSOB below 5 MHz, W&M talk, sounds Turkic, not Chinesic, bits of music. 0100 5+1 timesignal one second late. Only thing listed in PWBR `2009` is Xinjiang PBS, Urümqi. Also in B-10 HFCC, starting at 2330, 50 kW, 230 degrees, but in Chinese (Zho). WRTH 2011 (under CHINA) shows 4980 as same source, but Nov-Apr only and *inactive, so can`t look up which language service it is supposed to carry. Aoki, however has it in Uighur language and active on the B- 10 schedule, so with the lack of anything else on frequency, and a good transpolar darkness path, I feel safe in presuming it (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hope you logged this stn: http://tinyurl.com/278wa6m (Logged on 27.12.2010 at 1648 UTC, programme continued with phone in programme). I log it with strong audio almost everyday. But noticed this channel in B10 season only. Dmitry Mezin from Kazan, Russia, confirm that it is in Uighur language from PBS. Thanks, (Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, India, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Is YouTube clip on 4980 (gh) ** ECUADOR. 3279.953, La Voz del Napo, Tena 2350 noted en espanol, good signal 14 December (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8 - NRD535D - 746Pro, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. 6270, Dec 25 at 0235, R. Cairo English is just an open carrier with some whine, same at 0240 and 0324 chex, and also had noticed it about an hour before. Thus they do not have to worry about modulation quality. Another Xmas-eve who-cares SNAFU? 6270, R. Cairo, which was open carrier all last evening, is still/again! dead air, Dec 25 at 2207 during the 2115-2245 English to Europe. But by 2235 had managed some lofi, lomod music (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, 0628-0710, 25-12, program of typical Christmas Spanish songs "Villancicos". At 0700 ID by female: "Radio Nacional, Malabo". 34233 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs 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) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Radio Africa, 0802-0815, 25-12, Male, English, religious songs and comments. Good signal, 44444, but at 0857 only Radio Inconfidência on this frequency (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs 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) 15190, R. Africa, Dec 27 at 1536 VP with preacher in English; not yet the convicted child-molesting evangelist `Tony Alamo`, now serving 175 years in Terre Haute rather than Tucson, whom Ron Howard has been observing both at 1600 and 2200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 28 Dec at 1525 there is a HOA station on 4770 in parallel with 7120 and 7165. So apparently Eritrea now here also (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also NIGERIA, so not Kaduna reactivated? (gh) ** ERITREA. 7175, 25 DEC, 0455 UT, Voice of the Broad Masses with a female announcer spinning some music that sounded like a cross between Santana and Reggae. She did have a very nice voice. Fair signals with some fading and no QRM (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. HAPPENING NOW --- 7234, 27 DEC, 1750 UT, UNID, French- speaking station, African accent and music bed with male announcer. Off-frequency and bad het with a carrier on 7235. I think I heard him mention Burkina Faso. Is it possible Radio Burkina is back up on a new frequency? Beat to death at 1800 by 7235 s/on. Otherwise good strength (Al Muick, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [shortly later:] RE my 7234 logging, Alokesh Gupta contacted me with info that Radio Ethiopia was on during that time in French per the new AOKI released 26 DEC. Thanks for the help Alokesh! The reggae-style music leads me to agree with you, but they were definitely off- frequency. Had my hopes too high for Burkina. :-) 73s (Al, ibid.) See also my unID on 7235 with het, in 10-51 (gh) ** ETHIOPIA. 9705, Radio Ethiopia. 2147-2148* December 23, 2010. Presumed them, or at least their transmitter, but well past the 2100 closing time. Not sure if it stayed on up to this point, or maybe fired up after for yucks? Just a minute of Horn of Africa music at tune in before the plug was abruptly pulled. Didn't even have a chance for a frequency measurement; they are usually slightly off-channel (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Beware: NIGER is reported on 9705 after 2100 (gh) ** EUROPE. Laser Hot Hits has switched frequency from 4026 to 4015.0 kHz. Fair strength signal at 0015 UT tonight (23 Dec) on 4015.0. 4026 has been suffering a lot of RTTY interference when I've tuned in recently which probably explains the change of frequency (Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, AOR 7030+ / longwire, BDXC-UK yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) PIRATE, 4015.1, Laser Hot Hits, 0651-0715, 25-12, English pop music, male, comments in English. 35433 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, 27 Km. W of Lugo, Grundig Satellit 500 and Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Cable antenna, 10 meters, faced WSW, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FAROE ISLANDS. Finally heard Faroe Islands-531 again after numerous attempts this year. I probably spend way too much time on 531 kHz but I'm obsessed with this station like Captain Ahab and the white whale! 531, Kringvarp Føroya Útvarpid, Akraberg (62 01'N 6 46'W), DEC 10, 2133-2226 - Noted for the first time this season at fair level under loud Algeria with local folk vocals and man in presumed Faroese parallel to webstream via radiotime.com. News by man at 2200 and back to music at 2205. Played "Jingle Bells" in a Nordic language at 2226 tune-out. DEC 11 2220-2259 - In again fair under Algeria with pop and American Country & Western music parallel to webstream. Played "It's Alright" by The Traveling Wilburys at 2220 (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis MA; JRC NRD-525, 75 x 75 x 60-ft east/west dual feedline Delta with remote variable termination, 350-ft north/south longwire, Mini MWDX-3 phaser, NRC International DX Digest Dec 25 via DXLD) ** FRANCE [non]. 17630, RFI Spanish via GUIANA FRENCH, excellent signal in news Dec 22 at 2105. This service still very much exists, always subject to strike interruptions. The 2100-2130 transmission is 250 kW, 295 degrees for southern USA from NM eastward, Mexico, Central America and NW South America. Yet RFI can`t be bothered to broadcast in English, or even French to any part of the USA. Thus it joins V of Russia in targeting USA via GUF only in Spanish. 13640, RFI via GUF, Dec 27 at 1146, VG with music, lyrix sounded Japanese, 1147 ID in Chinese. Just part of RFI`s eclectic music fill after Météo Marine in French which takes far less than the full semihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [and non]. FRANCE/FRENCH GUIANA/GERMANY MEDIA BROADCAST GmbH (formerly T-SYSTEMS - DTK) B-10 period (31-Oct-2010 - 27-March-2011) B-10 operational DTK schedule of 22nd Dec 2010 - Times are in UTC frq startstop loc pow azi ciraf day broadc 3975 1800-2000 WER 250 ND 28 1234567 YFR 5905 2330-0029 WER 125 75 41,49 1234567 DVB 5930 0200-0300 GUF 500 215 12,14 1234567 YFR 5930 1500-1530 WER 250 75 30S 1234567 IBB 5950 0030-0100 WER 250 90 41 1234567 BVB 5955 0757-0900 WER 500 ND 1234567 RNW 5955 0900-1100 WER 500 ND 123456 RNW 5955 1100-1559 WER 500 ND 1 RNW 5960 1900-1959 WER 100 75 28E,29 7 CHW 5960 2200-2300 NAU 250 210 37,38W 1234567 YFR 5975 0400-0430 WER 100 120 28E 1234567 AWR 6010 2100-2200 WER 250 210 37,38W 1234567 YFR 6030 1900-1915 WER 125 60 28,29 56 BVB 6030 1900-1930 WER 125 60 28,29 3 BVB 6030 1900-2000 WER 125 60 28,29 1 BVB 6030 1915-1945 WER 125 60 28,29 7 BVB 6040 1930-2015 WER 250 150 37,38 1 PAB 6040 1930-2030 WER 250 150 37,38 7 PAB 6045 1000-1100 WER 100 ND 27E,28 1 HLR 6050 1800-1859 WER 100 90 28E 1234567 YFR 6055 1130-1200 WER 125 ND 27,28 17 EMG 6055 1200-1215 WER 250 ND 27,28 1 MWA 6100 1600-1629 WER 100 120 28E 1234567 AWR 6105 0400-0500 WER 250 60 29 1234567 IBB 6105 0742-0850 NAU 100 285 27 1 TWR 6105 0757-0850 NAU 100 285 27 23456 TWR 6105 0812-0850 NAU 100 285 27 7 TWR 6105 1700-1758 NAU 500 105 40 1234567 YFR 6110 1800-1859 WER 125 120 39,40 17 BVB 6120 0400-0600 WER 250 60 29 1234567 IBB 6120 0559-0658 NAU 500 195 1234567 RNW 6120 0859-1100 WER 500 240 23456 RNW 6120 1626-1659 WER 100 105 28 7 TWR 6120 1800-1859 NAU 250 230 37N 1234567 YFR 6130 0330-0400 WER 250 45 27,28 1234567 NHK 6130 1830-1900 WER 125 120 39,40 1234567 BVB 6140 1000-1100 WER 100 ND 27,28 1 MVB 6140 1700-1859 WER 250 60 29,30 1234567 YFR 6145 2045-2115 NAU 125 210 46,47 1234567 BVB 6180 1300-1500 WER 100 ND 27,28 1 RTR 7205 0130-0230 WER 250 105 40 1234567 IBB 7215 0030-0130 WER 250 90 40E,41NW 1234567 GFA 7220 0800-0830 WER 125 ND 27,28N 1 BVB 7220 0800-0845 WER 125 ND 27,28N 7 BVB 7220 1600-1700 WER 250 55 29 1234567 IBB 7220 1700-1800 WER 250 55 1234567 IBB fr 141210 7235 1900-1930 WER 250 105 39N 1234567 FEB 7240 2330-0030 WER 250 75 41NE,43S 1234567 GFA 7300 1457-1530 WER 100 60 28,29,30 23456 TWR 7300 1457-1600 WER 100 60 28,29,30 17 TWR 7305 2100-2200 NAU 500 180 46,47,52 1234567 YFR fr 061210 7315 0300-0330 WER 250 135 48 1234567 AWR 7335 0300-0600 GUF 250 318 10,11 1234567 VOR 7350 0530-0600 WER 100 180 46SE 23456 RMI 7355 1715-1730 WER 100 120 39,40 6 BVB 7355 1715-1800 WER 100 120 39,40 24 BVB 7360 2200-0057 GUF 500 170 12,13,15 1234567 YFR 7365 1800-1815 WER 100 90 39,40 7 BVB 7365 1800-1830 WER 100 90 39,40 246 BVB 7365 1800-1859 WER 100 90 39,40 35 BVB 7365 1830-1859 WER 100 90 39,40 1 BVB 7370 0300-0330 WER 250 135 48 1234567 AWR 7370 0330-0400 WER 250 135 48 1234567 AWR 7375 0000-0400 WER 100 300 7,8,9,10 1234567 HRT 7375 0200-0600 WER 125 325 2,3,6,7 1234567 HRT 7375 2300-0400 WER 100 240 11,12,13 1234567 HRT 7390 1600-1700 WER 250 90 29S 1234567 IBB 7395 0000-0057 GUF 500 215 12, 14 1234567 YFR 7410 0430-0500 WER 250 120 39,40 35 BVB 7410 0500-0515 WER 250 120 39,40 6 BVB 7425 1800-1829 WER 100 240 37NW 1 BVB 9405 1600-1659 NAU 500 94 41 1234567 YFR 9410 1530-1545 WER 250 105 39,40 1 BVB 9430 0400-0500 WER 250 105 40 1234567 IBB 9430 0500-0600 NAU 250 105 39N,40W 1234567 IBB 9445 1600-1630 WER 250 90 40E,41NW 1234567 BVB fr 211210 9460 1400-1559 WER 100 300 18,27,28 1234567 TOM 9460 1630-1915 NAU 100 130 39,40 1 BVB 9460 1645-1700 NAU 100 130 39,40 24 BVB 9460 1645-1715 NAU 100 130 39,40 6 BVB 9460 1645-1720 NAU 100 130 39,40 3 BVB 9460 1645-1745 NAU 100 130 39,40 5 BVB 9460 1645-1830 NAU 100 130 39,40 7 BVB 9460 1800-1900 NAU 100 130 39,40 3 BVB 9465 2200-2300 GUF 500 215 12,14 1234567 YFR 9465 2300-2357 GUF 500 215 12,14 1234567 YFR 9470 1900-1915 WER 250 105 39,40 1 BVB * 9470 1900-1959 WER 250 105 39,40 7 BVB 9470 1915-1945 WER 250 105 39,40 1 BVB 9485 1600-1659 NAU 250 103 29SE 1234567 IBB 9485 1730-1800 NAU 250 140 48 23456 IBB 9485 1800-1900 NAU 250 140 48 1234567 IBB 9485 1900-1930 NAU 250 140 48 23456 IBB 9495 0230-0330 WER 250 105 40 1234567 IBB 9495 1830-1900 WER 250 90 29SE 1234567 IBB 9500 1900-2000 WER 250 150 37E,38 1234567 YFR 9510 1830-1845 ISS 100 138 46E,47 1 BVB 9510 1930-1959 WER 125 180 46,47 7 BVB fr 061210 9515 2000-2100 NAU 250 210 37,38W 1234567 YFR 9535 1800-1859 NAU 500 183 46E,47W 1234567 YFR 9535 1900-1959 NAU 100 215 37,38W 1234567 AWR 9540 1630-1730 WER 250 105 40 1234567 IBB 9565 1400-1500 WER 250 90 40E,41NW 1234567 IBB 9595 1400-1500 WER 250 60 30S 1234567 IBB 9595 1730-1800 WER 100 210 37,38W 1234567 AWR 9595 2000-2059 NAU 500 180 46,47,52 1234567 YFR fr 061210 9605 1600-1630 WER 250 60 29,30 7 EMG 9610 1000-1100 NAU 100 180 28W 1 AWR 9620 2200-2300 WER 500 105 38,39,40 1234567 NHK 9630 1700-1759 WER 500 105 30S,39N 1234567 YFR 9680 1730-1930 NAU 125 100 40 1234567 IBB 9685 1626-1659 WER 100 90 29S,39N 23456 TWR 9695 1900-1959 WER 500 210 37,46 1234567 YFR 9760 1830-1845 ISS 100 142 52,53 35 RRP 9770 1530-1729 WER 250 105 40 1234567 IBB 9785 1630-1659 WER 250 150 47,48 23456 IBB 9790 1200-1230 WER 250 300 27,28 1234567 NHK 9800 1500-1559 NAU 500 84 41E 1234567 YFR 9800 1830-1859 WER 500 180 46S,47SE 1234567 LWF 9805 1800-1829 WER 250 150 47,48 1234567 IBB 9805 2000-2030 WER 100 210 37,38W 1234567 AWR 9815 1900-1929 WER 250 150 47,48 7 IBB 9815 1900-1930 WER 250 150 47,48 123456 IBB 9825 1730-1830 WER 250 105 40 1234567 IBB 9825 1830-1930 WER 250 105 40 1234567 IBB 9830 0559-0657 WER 500 120 28,38,39 1234567 RNW 9840 1800-1859 WER 250 150 37E,38 1234567 YFR 9840 1930-1959 WER 100 180 46SE 23456 RMI fr 061210 9850 0530-0600 WER 500 195 46,47 1234567 NHK 9850 1700-1759 WER 250 120 39 1234567 YFR 9850 1800-1900 WER 250 105 40 1234567 IBB 9875 0100-0257 GUF 250 195 12,14,16 1234567 VOR 9895 0759-0857 NAU 500 220 234567 RNW 9895 0759-0900 NAU 500 220 1 RNW 9895 1559-1757 WER 500 240 36E,37 1234567 RNW 9925 1630-1829 WER 100 105 39,40 1234567 BVB 9925 1900-2200 WER 500 180 46,47,52 1234567 YFR fr 061210 11605 2300-0057 GUF 250 181 12,13 1234567 VOR 11615 1629-1727 WER 500 150 47,48,52 1234567 PNW% 11645 1530-1629 WER 250 90 40E,41NW 1234567 GFA 11665 1800-1900 WER 500 180 46SE 1234567 YFR 11675 1500-1530 WER 250 75 41N 1234567 AWR 11675 1530-1600 WER 250 75 41N 1234567 AWR 11675 1800-1900 WER 250 135 48 1234567 IBB 11690 1700-1759 WER 100 180 37,38 1234567 YFR 11695 1626-1659 WER 100 90 29S,39N 23456 TWR 11705 2030-2100 NAU 250 190 46,47 23456 IBB 11725 1330-1500 NAU 250 70 42,43W 1234567 AWR 11730 0100-0157 GUF 250 306 11 1234567 YFR 11760 1600-1629 WER 500 135 47E,48 15 RMI# 11760 1900-1930 WER 100 210 37,38W 1234567 AWR 11760 1930-2000 WER 100 210 37,38W 1234567 AWR 11775 1700-1758 NAU 125 145 38E,39S 5 ELF 11775 1700-1758 NAU 250 145 38E,39S 14 EFD 11790 1500-1530 WER 250 75 30,31 1234567 IBB 11795 1730-1759 WER 250 135 48 1234567 AWR 11810 1700-1759 ISS 100 126 38E,39S 14 SBO 11840 1200-1230 NAU 250 20 19,20,21 7 EMG 11840 1700-1800 WER 250 90 1234567 IBB fr 141210 11875 1630-1729 WER 100 150 47,48 123457 BVB 11875 1630-1730 WER 100 150 47,48 6 BVB fr 031210 11885 1600-1700 NAU 500 105 40 1234567 YFR 11895 1530-1600 WER 250 75 41N 1234567 AWR 11905 1630-1700 WER 250 150 47,48 23456 IBB 11905 1730-1759 WER 250 150 48 23456 IBB 11915 1700-1720 WER 250 120 39,40 2356 BVB 11915 1700-1735 WER 250 120 39,40 4 BVB 11935 1500-1559 NAU 500 94 41SE 1234567 YFR 11955 1500-1530 WER 250 90 41N 1234567 AWR 11955 1900-1959 NAU 500 177 47S,52N 1234567 YFR fr 061210 11975 0700-0800 WER 100 210 37,38W 1234567 AWR 11975 0800-0830 WER 100 210 37,38W 1234567 AWR 11975 1600-1759 ISS 500 131 47,48 1234567 YFR 11980 1600-1700 WER 250 75 29,30 1234567 IBB 11995 1600-1659 WER 250 120 39 1234567 YFR 12005 1330-1529 WER 250 90 41NE,43S 1234567 GFA 12010 0800-0830 WER 100 210 37,38W 1234567 AWR 12010 0830-0900 WER 100 210 37,38W 1234567 AWR 12015 0500-0600 WER 250 105 1234567 IBB 12015 1400-1500 WER 250 75 30S 1234567 IBB 12015 1800-1900 ISS 500 155 57 1234567 YFR 12035 1500-1515 WER 250 90 41,49NW 1 BVB 12045 1430-1459 WER 500 105 38,39,40 1 NHK 12045 1430-1500 WER 500 105 38,39,40 234567 NHK 12140 1800-1859 WER 500 165 57 1234567 YFR fr 091210 12140 1900-2000 WER 500 150 57 1234567 YFR fr 091210 13605 1400-1459 WER 250 75 30S,40N 1234567 YFR 13635 1345-1415 ISS 250 83 41 1 BVB * 13635 1415-1430 ISS 250 83 41 1 BVB 13635 1430-1459 ISS 250 83 41 7 BVB 13635 1630-1659 WER 250 135 47,48 23456 IBB 13645 1400-1430 WER 100 90 41 1 PAB 13645 1415-1430 WER 100 90 41 234567 PAB 13645 1430-1445 ISS 250 83 41 1 PAB 13655 1400-1559 WER 500 90 41 1234567 YFR 13660 1600-1657 ISS 500 125 48 1234567 YFR 13660 1800-1859 WER 500 165 57 1234567 YFR 13670 1515-1545 WER 100 90 40,41 7 BVB 13670 1530-1559 WER 100 90 40,41 3 BVB 040111 only 13670 1530-1559 WER 100 90 40,41 456 BVB 13680 1230-1559 WER 250 105 40 15 IBB 13680 1230-1600 WER 250 105 40 23467 IBB 13700 1400-1559 NAU 500 95 41 1234567 YFR 13735 1400-1500 WER 250 105 39N,40W 1234567 IBB 13740 1529-1627 WER 500 150 47,48,52 1234567 PNW% 13755 1300-1330 NAU 250 70 42,43W 17 AWR 13755 1300-1330 NAU 250 70 42,43W 23456 AWR 13810 1400-1600 NAU 100 129 28,29,38 1234567 TOM 13810 1600-1759 ISS 100 131 38S,39S 2 BVB 13810 1600-1830 ISS 100 131 38S,39S 156 BVB 13810 1630-1759 ISS 100 131 38S,39S 4 BVB 13810 1630-1830 ISS 100 131 38S,39S 37 BVB 13820 1300-1500 NAU 500 85 41E 1234567 YFR 15285 1230-1459 WER 250 90 41 1234567 GFA 15315 1400-1457 NAU 500 105 41S 1234567 YFR 15325 1400-1459 WER 500 90 41E 1234567 YFR 15495 1200-1230 NAU 250 85 41NE 1234567 AWR 15495 1230-1300 NAU 250 85 41NE 1234567 AWR 15620 1630-1700 NAU 250 135 48 1234567 IBB 15715 0500-0900 WER 250 90 40E,41NW 1234567 IBB 17485 1400-1430 WER 125 180 46SE 246 RMI fr 061210 17485 1500-1559 WER 100 180 46,47,48 1234567 TOM 17545 0900-1000 WER 125 135 38,39 6 BVB 17575 1630-1700 ISS 250 125 48 1234567 AWR 17650 1330-1345 WER 250 75 41NE,49N 1234567 LWF 17725 1700-1715 ISS 250 140 48SW 7 ABA fr 191210 17765 1300-1359 WER 250 90 41 1234567 TOM 17840 0600-0700 WER 250 105 40 1234567 IBB *) 1st Sunday of the month Day 1 = Sunday ... Day 7 = Saturday List of Broadcasters which are using MEDIA BROADCAST technical equipment ABA Radiyo Y'Abaganda (Ababaka) ADM internal name (not "Abu Dhabi Media Company") AWR Adventist World Radio BVB High Adventure Gospel - Bible Voice Broadcasting CHW Christliche Wissenschaft CVC Christian Vision DVB Democratic Voice of Burma EFD Ethiopeans For Democracy ELF Eritrean Liberation Front EMG Evangelische Missionsgemeinden in Deutschland FEB Feba Radio UK GFA Gospel for Asia HCJ Voice of the Andes HLR Hamburger Lokalradio HRT Hrvratska Radio Televizija IBB International Broadcasting Bureau LWF Lutheran World Federation MBR MEDIA BROADCAST (ex Deutsche Telekom, DTK) MVB Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Baltic Radio MWA Missionswerk Arche NHK Nippon Hoso Kyokai PAB Pan Am Broadcasting PNW% {"Press Now". wb.} RHU Radio Huriyo (Xoriyo) RMI Radio Miami International RMI# [Voice of Oromo Liberation Front] RNW Radio Netherlands World Service RRP Radio Reveil Paroles de Vie RTR Radio Traumland (Belgium) SBO Sagalee Bilisummaa Oromoo, Voice of Oromo Liberation. TOM The Overcomer Ministry TWR Trans World Radio VOR Voice of Russia WRN World Radio Network YFR WYFR Family Radio Michael Puetz MEDIA BROADCAST GmbH Order Management & Backoffice Josef-Lammerting-Allee 8-10 D-50933 Cologne, Germany Please send your inquiries and reception reports to: E-Mail: % "Press Now" Witte Kruislaan 55 1217 AM Hilversum The Netherlands T +31 35 62 54 300 website E-mail (MBR/DTK, Dec 22, transformed by Michael Bethge-D via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews) NOTE: this does not include all the broadcasts via GUF, i.e. by R. France Internationale, et al.? (gh, DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. Kept running across DW, aroundtuning Xmas eve: 11725, Dec 24 at 1857, Catholic Xmas sermon in German, later mass sounds. After 1900 playing secular Xmas music in English but German YL announcements, then even Stille Nacht in English. This is 250 kW, 295 degrees via RWANDA. RNZI is also on 11725 at this time, but no sign of it. 11665, Dec 25 at 0140, string of Xmas tunes by Elvis (in English) but announced in German; 0147 more Xmas music in English, then mixture of ``God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen`` with ``Take 5``. `Tis the season for messing around with carols, but breaks the monotony and repetitiveness. Cut off abruptly at 0159:30* without ID or any announcement. This is DW, 0100-0159, 282 degrees from Ascension to CIRAF 7S, 8S, 10, 11, 12N, which means: southern USA from New Mexico eastward; Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, NW South America. So once again we have a non-English [almost] broadcast officially targeted for part of the USA, despite deletion of us as a recognized coverage area years ago. If they overtly broadcast to NAm in English more people might notice and complain (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GHANA [non]. Ghana - AWR, 27 December 2010 at 2100 UT sign-on in English on 9830. Signal audible at times, due to the presence of RTTY interference that appeared at 2101. Just before, the signal was in the clear, as a female announcer said: "On this note, I welcome you to AWR Ghana." Program at 2109 about spontaneous abortion. Interference sitting right on top of the signal, covering and distorting audio (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) AWR may have a studio, office and address in Ghana, but there is certainly no SW transmitter there. This is via AUSTRIA (Glenn to Ed, via DXLD) ** GREECE. 7475, Dec 25 at 0613, two or three Orthodox cantors making quite a sound, never achieving true harmony. This is normally heard on UT Sundays around this time, but must have been celebrating Dec 25 as Xmas. John Babbis reported, ``From 01.00 Friday, December 24, until 09.00 Monday, December 27, Greece Time, (2300 UT Thursday, December 23 until 0700 UT Monday, December 27), ERA5, the Voice of Greece, will be connected with the Christmas program of the Greek Radio`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM. 5765-USB, Dec 23 at 1407, AFN remains active, with Dr Joy Browne talkshow, 800 number. 5765-USB, AFN audible enough to confirm still talking, Dec 26 at 1358, presumably NPR WESUN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. 4052.5-, R. Verdad, nothing there at 1125 Dec 27, so late signing on again; 1138 check, now it`s on with ``Hark, the Herald``, by children`s chorus, language uncertain, then ``Noche de Paz`` in Spanish; fair signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUYANA. 3290, GBC 1015 mixing with PNG, high noise level 14 December (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8 - NRD535D - 746Pro, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 4844, 25 DEC, 0106 UT, AIR Mumbai (tentative) in Hindi with subcontinental music and long talks by male announcer. Off of nominal 4840? Is this a planned move or has there been some detuning or a crystal that has gone for a walk? Strong signals but moderate QRM from a carrier on 4845. 4880, 25 DEC, 0112 UT, AIR Lucknow in Hindi with subcontinental music. Local level signals, but horrible, tinny modulation without any real depth to it (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It`s not uncommon for AIR stations to punch up the wrong frequency (gh) ** INDIA. 5040, AIR Jeypore. Dec 27 another day of live coverage of a cricket match from South Africa with India winning against S. Africa; in English and Hindi; often discussing the amount of time left to play and giving local RSA time; fair; // 5010. At 1530 switched over to the “news at nine” in English from Delhi. News was // 4760, 4810, 4835 (strongest ever heard!), 4840, 4920, 4970, 5010, 5050 and 9425 (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR GOS, 9445 fluttery but better than // 7550, Dec 25 at 2130 about Xmas celebrations in India, saying all religions celebrate it as a holiday, then rather amateurish dramatization of a family`s activities (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3325, Dec 26 at 1351 some music is making it vs the high local noise level, and it almost sounds like Ave Maria. Presumably RRI Palangkaraya (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, Dec 25 at 1333 with ``Silent Night`` in Indonesian, announced in English. I forced myself to listen for 60 seconds in order to count the number of IADs (intermittent audio dropouts), and there were 19, unevenly spaced, most ~3 seconds apart, occasionally with a respite up to 5 seconds (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Voice of Indonesia right on frequency --- 9525, Voice of Indonesia at 1050 with beautiful local ballads and a woman with small talk then a woman with a definite “Voice of Indonesia” ID at 1057 and off at 1059 - Good Dec 27 – bang on frequency this day vs. 9526 (Mark Coady, Peterborough, ON K9J 6X3, ODXA yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) And were the IADs gone? 9524.96, VOI, 1323, Dec 27. Ex: 9525.9. In English; still with the audio hiccups (Glenn’s IADs - intermittent audio dropouts). This lower frequency brings them closer to QRM on 9520 (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9525-, after many months consistently on 9526-, somewhere between 9525.9 and 9526.0, VOI has shifted one kHz lower, as first noted by Mark Coady and Ron Howard on Dec 27, Ron measuring it on 9524.96. This presumably means they have switched to their other transmitter. Also on 9525- here Dec 28 at 1244 with music, Japanese announcements, but poor signal with hi-latitude paths from Asia very attenuated and disturbed. You`d never know this from the 1200 UT report from SWPC: ``Geophysical Alert Message Solar-terrestrial indices for 27 December follow. Solar flux 80 and mid-latitude A-index 2. The mid-latitude K-index at 1200 UTC on 28 December was 2 (10 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours.`` But at 1500, the K-index had soared to 5: ``The mid-latitude K-index at 1500 UTC on 28 December was 5 (82 nT). Space weather for the past 24 hours has been minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level occurred. Space weather for the next 24 hours is expected to be minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level are expected.`` At 1300 in English I could tell they were opening the Tuesday ``Exotic Indonesia`` joint produxion with RRI Banjarmasin, and the IADs were still happening, altho quick and not so frequent as usual. Reception was better at 1427 check during the Indonesian hour when they were also talking about Banjarmasin, Kalimantan, perhaps coincidentally, not the voice of the English-speaker from there (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL. 2010 CLANDESTINE ACTIVITY SURVEY During the year 2010 the activity of political clandestine stations broadcasting on shortwave has remained almost unchanged from last year and is now at 1092 WBHs (Weekly Broadcasting Hours). This is an increase of just 4 WBHs or 0.3% from 12 months ago. The activity of clandestine station broadcasting to target areas on the Asian continent has decreased by 1.9% to 730 WBHs. On the American continent the activity has increased by 8.6% to 214 WBHs and on the African continent activity has remained almost unchanged at 148 WBHs. The most active target areas worldwide are North Korea with 274 WBHs (+22 when compared with last year), Cuba with 214 WBHs (+17) and China P.R. with 189 WBHs (-37). The number of active target areas worldwide has increased from 17 to 20. The new target areas are Malaysia, Uganda and Djibouti (Mathias Kropf, Germany, WDXC-UK Dec 19 via BCDX via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. Personal selexion of music programs: Rafael Martinez, Barcelona: Programes FM BCN/Ona curta amb música L'ONA CURTA AMB MUSICA Nº 55 DESEMBRE 2010 by RAFA MARTINEZ DISSABTE irr. MYSTERY R. -IRREGULAR DIL A DIU, RELAY OCASIONAL D'ALTRES EMISSORES- 6220 irr. R. AMICA -RELAY OCASIONAL D'ALTRES EMISSORES- 7610 INACTIVE FROM DECEMBER 2010 0900 R. JOYSTICK VIA IRRS (1r DISSABTE DE MES) 9510 0900 R. CITY VIA IRRS (3r DISSABTE DE MES) 9510 0945 IRRS "39 DOVER STREET" (2n, 4t , 5è DISSABTE DE MES) 9510 1745 CHINA R. INTL "ESPERANTO KONCERTO" 7245 1830 VOICE OF NIGERIA "TIME FOR HIGHLIFE" 15120 1900 VOA AFRIQUE "DECOUVERTE MUSICAL" 15225 1930 IRRS "39 DOVER STREET" -REPETICIO 6090 1935 VOA AFRIQUE "REGGAE HIP HOP" 15225 2000 VOA AFRICA "MUSIC TIME IN AFRICA" 4940 6080 2015 CHINA R. INTL "ESPERANTO KONCERTO" -REPETICIO-7265 9745 2245 CHINA R. INTL "ESPERANTO KONCERTO" -REPETICIO-7315 9860 2305 R. EXTERIOR DE ESPANA "MUNDOFONIAS" 6125 DIUMENGE irr. R. AMICA -RELAY OCASIONAL D'ALTRES EMISSORES- INACTIVE FROM DECEMBER 2010 0705 R. EXTERIOR DE ESPANA "MUNDOFONIAS" 12035 1000 R. JOYSTICK via R.700 (1r DIUMENGE DE MES)6005 1000 MV BALTIC RADIO (1r DIUMENGE DE MES) 6140 1000 EUROPEAN MUSIC R. (3r DIUMENGE DE MES)6140 1000 R. GLORIA INTL (4t DIUMENGE DE MES)6140 1033 RFI AFRIQUE "L€ ¦´EPOPEE DES MUSIQUES NOIRES"15300 1230 IRRS "39 DOVER STREET" -REPETICIO- 9510 1705 VOICE OF NIGERIA "MUSIC HERITAGE" 15120 1900 VOA AFRIQUE "SOUL USA" 15225 2000 VOA AFRIQUE "DECOUVERTE MUSICAL" -REPETICIO- 9780 12080 2000 VOA AFRICA "MUSIC TIME IN AFRICA" 4940 6080 2300 R. HABANA CUBA "CUBA CAMPESINA" 6140 DILLUNS 1610 RFI AFRIQUE "COULEURS TROPICALES" (DILLUNS A DIVENDRES) 15300 1930 R. EXTERIOR DE ESPANA "EL SONIDO Y LA FURIA" (REP 2330) 7275 2000 VOA AFRICA "AFRICAN BEAT" (DILLUNS A DIVENDRES) 6080 2010 RFI AFRIQUE "COULEURS TROPICALES" (DIL A DIV) -REPETICIO- 7205 6175 2105 VOA "AMERICAN GOLD" 6080 DIMARTS 2105 VOA "ROOTS & BRANCHES" 6080 DIMECRES 1815 VOICE OF NIGERIA "EVERGREENS" 15120 1835 R.TAIPEI INTL "JADE BELLS & BAMBOO PIPES" 3965 1930 R. EXTERIOR DE ESPANA "EL SONIDO Y LA FURIA" (REP 2330) 7275 2105 VOA "CLASSIC ROCK SHOW" 6080 DIJOUS 2000 VOA AFRIQUE "AFRO MUSIC" 9780 12080 2100 WWCR "INTO THE BLUE" 7465 DIVENDRES 1930 VOICE OF NIGERIA "NIGERIAN POPULAR MUSIC" 15120 2000 VOA AFRIQUE "MUSIQUE DE LA CARAIBE" 9780 12080 DIES I HORES UTC. LA SELECCIO DE PROGRAMES ES TOTALMENT PERSONAL I SUBJECTIVA. A mes de les frequencies recomanades, els grans serveis internacionals com la VOA, BBC o RFI en fan servir altres en parallel. Moltes emissores emeten via satellit i alguns programes es poden escoltar als webs d'aquestes en streaming o descarregar en podcast. Per a mes informacio consulteu llistats, revistes, Internet, etc. http://www.bclnews.it/portal/ Us faig arribar els meus llistats de programes. Salutacions i bon any 2011 a tothom. Rafael Martinez, Barcelona (via Dario Monferini, Dec 23, playdx yg via DXLD) ** IRAN. 9585, poor Dec 23 at 1435 Qur`an and then talk in unID language. Fits VIRI`s format of always opening services on the half hour with a few minutes of Qur`aning. Listed as Hindi, 500 kW, 102 degrees via Sirjan. Not too many Hindi Moslems, I expect (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [and non]. LITHUANIA/IRAN, 9770, IRIB Tehran in morning Italian language service via Sitkunai-LTU relay. 0652 UT, Dec 28. S=9+30dB. politics report about Palestine Guerra, occupation by Israel. \\ Direct from Kamalabad Iran, 15085 kHz only S=8 - poor propagation condition today, 13620 kHz at S=9+20dB much better signal strength. But also the very strong Chinese signals from Kashi and Urumchi suffer this morning. 13600, IRIB Tehran via Kamalabad in French at same time span, Holy Quran prayer program sung at S=9+15dB at 0705 UT, and \\ from Sirjan- IRN site 15560 kHz S=8 only (Wolfgang Bueschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 28) ** IRAN [non]. Starting December 29, 2010, a new radio station will start broadcasting on shortwave. It concerns Gunaz Radio, a new service from Gunaz TV. Gunaz Radio will broadcast daily from 1430 to 1930 UT on 7510 kHz in the 41 meter band. For more information, visit http://www.gunaz.tv (Ludo Maes, Dec 24, TDP mailing list via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) Something to do with Azerbaijan, but Southern or `Northern`? Site? FEBC via VTC via Armenia is already scheduled on 7510 at 1730-1800. (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Probably from a Russian site? (Dan Ferguson, shortwavelistening yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_(Iran) often disputed area. To weaken the Iranian muslim government too ? Related with TV bcasts? http://www.gunaz.tv/index.php?t=home 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Those who lament how bad shortwave DXers are should look at the behaviour of satellite DXers. Try googling this station, and you get swamped by plain mentions of modulation bein applied, with nobody caring a second for what this modulation actually is. First: "Southern". http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav122806.shtml They refused rumours of being USG sponsored, but here an Iranian Azeri wonders how this station may be financed (like all the Persian- language TV stations "run by Iranian exiles" -- yeah, sure): http://azarmehr.blogspot.com/2006/01/gunaz-tv-twaddle.html Initially Gunaz TV broadcast also via Turksat but has been removed there soon: http://www.bakutoday.net/iran-seeks-ban-on-pro-azeri-tv.html http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-143852907/turkey-suspends-us-based.html http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2006/4/irankurdistan154.htm At present they are in these typical "unjammable Iran muxes" (also used by BBC Persian or VOA PNN) on Telstar 12 and Eutelsat W3A plus a SCPC signal on the Israelian Amos 3, as if no satellite operator wants to put Gunaz TV in a mux with other customers for fear of Iranian jamming. Thus I would not be surprised if the announced shortwave transmission will be jammed. So far no separate radio channel from Gunaz TV is shown in the usual frequency lists, so it's possible that simply the TV audio will be transmit on shortwave, unless the radio feed simply does not show up in the lists yet or will be put on during the remaining days until launch. Site: Usual suspects for TDP are of course Grigoriopol, Lutch and Samara. Another facility in the CIS would be possible as well. Is the Babcock booking real or just a wooden registration? It's possible that it has been arranged directly with the transmitter operator in Armenia, with "Moscow" not being involved, so such a clash would not be unthinkable (Kai Ludwig, Germany, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, ibid.) A mi juicio, su primer idioma será el azerí, pero unas ciertas emisiones en farsí son tambien posibles. "GünAz" corresponde a Güney Azerbaycan, el territorio ubicado en la parte noroeste de Iran. El azerí es la lengua materna de la gente que vive allí. 73 & felices fiestas! (Dmitry Mezin, Kazan, Rusia, noticiasdx yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) Inaudible here at 1430-1530+ Dec 29, but confirmed in Europe by Wolfgang Büschel and Jari Savolainen, altho quite weak. Details already in dxldyg and next DXLD (gh) ** ISRAEL. 6379, 25 DEC, 0420 UT, 4XZ, Israeli navy, Haifa. CW Marker. Excellent signals and no QRM. Does anyone have a working snail mail or email address for these guys? Thanks (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN. 11665, NHK direct, UT Saturday Dec 25 at 2325 with classical organ music, Bach; // 17605 via Bonaire not making it this time. 9875, Sunday Dec 26 at 1420, NHK ``World Interactive`` answering listener letters. I expected it to be pre-empted as on last Sundays of month by Listening Library, but per http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/listening-library/index.html this is appearing quarterly rather than monthly, Oct 31 and the next one Jan 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CANADA ** JORDAN. [15290] Radio Amman noted signing-on played Arabic singer on Dec 23 at 1157:20 UT, weak at S=5 -110dBm level in Germany. ID and news read by female announcer, fanfare. Comparison TRT on 15350 kHz on S=9+12dB, 15480 kHz on S=7-8 deep fades, even powerhouse REE Noblejas only S=6-7 today, lousy propagation condition today (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 23 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. 6250.5, P'yongyang Broadcasting Station. 1105 December 26, 2010. Korean man ranting monologue, into orchestral/vocals. Good (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5985, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze, via JSR JAPAN, Friday Dec 24 at 1402 in English with news flashes, headlines concerning North Korea attributed to Daily NK, Yonghap, etc., with stingers between them; good, but lite het from Myanmar 5986v continuously audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. JAPAN MAY ENLIST S KOREAN RADIO STATIONS TO CONTACT ABDUCTEES By Argentina Star Sunday 26th December, 2010 (Source: Japan Today) TOKYO — The Japanese government is considering requesting cooperation from South Korean private-sector radio stations in communicating information to Japanese nationals abducted and held by North Korea if a war or similar emergency occurs on the peninsula, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday. By working with the South Korean radio stations broadcasting to North Korea, Tokyo is hoping to notify the abductees of emergency procedures and keep them informed about ports or other locations arranged for their evacuation, the sources added. The government last month decided on an eight-point set of measures that it is planning to implement concerning North Korea's past abductions, such as strongly demanding that Pyongyang conduct a reinvestigation into the current circumstances of the abductees. . . http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japan-may-enlist-s-korean-radio-stations-to-contact-abductees Source: http://bit.ly/ejUb3q (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) The only precedent for South Korean radio stations making time available to other countries is VOA Korean via FEBC Seoul, which started in January 2009. It may take some negotiations for Japan to acquire time on these South Korean stations. Meanwhile, some of Japan's own medium wave transmitters should be audible in North Korea (Kim Andrew Elliott, Dec 26, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non]. 11530, 25 DEC, 0856 UT, CLANDESTINE, Denge Mezopotamya, with Pop music and announcements by female DJ in presumed Kurdish. Very strong signals with a slight fade. No QRM. This is another one whose QSL evades me despite many reports and return postage. Same problem with Airtime Belgium [TDP], its enabler, who also promises a QSL for brokered programs. Bah! (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KYRGYZSTAN. QUIRGÍZIA, 4010, Kyrgyz R, Krasnaya Rechka, Bishkek, 1716-1727, 26 Dec 10, classical music; 35433, but weakish modulation; \\ 4795 worse (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADEIRA. More Madeira MW info from Carlos Gonçalves: "The 1530 kHz outlet, from the Encruzilhadas site (32º 40' 19.63" N 16º 56' 53.96" W, check http://www.mwlist.org/mwlist_quick_and_easy.php?area=1&kHz=1530 - the data I provided has already been inserted in this page), St.º António, a parish that belongs to the Funchal municipality, is using not just 1 kW but 2 kW as I had been informed. The old antenna consists of a simple monopole which has seen better days, and no more refurbishing will be carried out until the new site is inaugurated. .. unless perhaps conditions urgently demand it and PEF wants to keep MW running. As soon as the final preparations at the new 1530 kHz site of Poise are ready, the rather old 10 kW GATES tx will then most certainly be kept at just half its power level due to costs. In terms of use, the Poiso site is brand new, it never worked except for some brief antenna tests using the defunct Santana 1017 kHz 1 kW tx silenced back in early July last, but works actually started some 6-7 years ago (!) after the Funchal municipality granted the station the use of the land for a stipulated period of time. The antenna was erected, say, some 4 years ago or more, and consists of a 50 Ohm fed, folded monopole like the one used by Antena 1 Madeira at Pico das Eiras (defunct) 531 kHz 10 kW, Porto Santo island. In terms of MW, Poiso is bad, and so is neighbouring Pico do Areeiro 603 kHz 10 kW (Antena 1 Madeira) for they're both too high for covering a region which is at a lower level. That may be good for VHF- FM while certainly not for MW. On top of that, it seems certain places, particularly on high ground, have been stormed by extremely strong winds, occasional floods, and snow also plagues those areas. In the case of Poiso, access is carried out by 4x4, not normal vehicles. Funchal in particular, where most of the population live, but also the southern coast of Madeira is best served by MW antennae that are located at a lower latitute, like the old PEF site and the Antena 1 Madeira 1332 kHz 1 kW (Sr.ª do Monte), and also where the defunct Estação Rádio da Madeira 1485 kHz 1 kW was installed. To conclude this, a final word on PEF Santana 1017. It seems after all, that this unlisted fq, I mean absent in official lists like the one at http://www.anacom.pt was experimental during its entire life, with ANACOM's blessing of course. The antenna used there till early this past Summer consisted of a T or inv. L type so I was also told, so pretty much like ordinary NDB rigs. It was nevertheless putting a fair signal in the continent during daytime despite QRM from Spanish stations on adjacent channels; during the evening, one ought better forget about trying to get their signal." (via Mauno Ritola, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, Traxx FM, 1505 21/12, with YL with news in English, 1510 with headlines then songs, S7 max, bad audio seems 'companded' (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, RTM Kuala Lumpur, Presumed, 1153-1200 Dec 24. Noted just music at tune in. At 1159 a male in English comments. Signal too weak to pull out details, but heard a couple of words such as "Welcome". This is followed with the news. A recheck at 1213 produced a better signal with music being heard. Signal was threshold at the top, but was poor by 1213. 7270, RTM, Kuching. Presumed, 1208-1230 Dec 24. Heard some music at tune in, immediately followed by comments from a female. Comments were probably in Iban. After a moment local type music is heard. At 1214 a female in Iban comments briefly then back to music. At 1215 the audio portion of the signal drops off the air while the carrier is still up. Maybe the band is changing? Didn't hear anything more after that. 9750.034, Voice of Malaysia, 1220-1245 Dec 24. Have been listening to this for almost a half hour without realizing it was Malaysia, since the announcer was using a language I wasn't expecting. I still don't know what it was? Indonesian is scheduled, but it sounded more like Spanish to my untrained ear. Gotta get my ear trained. Anyway at 1239 ID was given and I was able to copy "Malaysia" in there. This was followed with music. At 1243 another ID given by a male in possibly Indonesian language. Signal was good (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, WR- G31DDC, 26N 081W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9750, Voice of Malaysia. 1215-1235 December 26, 2010. Indonesian service with male hosting Malay or Indo soft rock/pop vocals, "Suara Malaysia" ID at 1227. Very good (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. S. Aoki received Sarawak FM on 9835 kHz on Dec. 23 at around 1000 UT for the first time. // 5030 kHz. I can receive it by the later reception from around +0000-1430+. 9835 kHz are delay in time lag of the satellite relay than 5030 kHz. Therefore I estimated it to be new transmitter of Kajang TX site (S. Hasegawa, Japan, Dec 26, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) = near Kuala Lumpur, Peninsular Looked for this around 1100 Dec 27 but only very weak signal on 9835 (gh, OK, DXLD) ** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK. 5030, Sarawak FM via RTM, randomly from 1327 to 1600*, Dec 27. In vernacular; pop songs; news. Thanks to Sei-ichi Hasegawa, et al., was able to heard the new // 9835. 9835, Sarawak FM via RTM, randomly from 1327 to 1624, Dec 27. In vernacular; before 1600 noted some adjacent QRM on 9830 and VOV 9839.88 (fair-good). Was // 5030 till that frequency suddenly went off the air after the pip. After 1600 mostly fair to good with choral National Anthem (Negaraku – Lagu Kebangsaan Malaysia) followed by program of pop songs and many IDs. Very nice to have this additional frequency and extended schedule (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9835, Dec 28 at 1534, weak talk and music with CCI. I also looked for it around 1100 Dec 27, but only a very weak signal, so nothing definite here yet. ``S. Aoki received Sarawak FM on 9835 kHz on Dec. 23 at around 1000 UT for the first time. // 5030 kHz. I can receive it by the later reception from around +0000-1430+. 9835 kHz are delay in time lag of the satellite relay than 5030 kHz. Therefore I estimated it to be new transmitter of Kajang TX site (S. Hasegawa, Japan, Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` = near Kuala Lumpur, Peninsular. Ron Howard in CA also had it from 1327 to 1624 Dec 27, on the air later than 5030 to 1600*. Aoki shows AIR Delhi (Kingsway) also on 9835 most of the entire span, and at 15-16 also R. Liberty Turkmen via Lampertheim, GERMANY. As for Malaysia: ``9835 RTM Sarawak FM 0000-1600 1234567 Malaysian 100 93 Kajang MLA 10146E 0301N RTM b10 Dec.24-`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 7245, no signal Dec 27 at 0605, so checked if ORTM was back on 4845 --- not there either, and WWCR 4840 was weakening as skip lengthened. 0618 recheck, 7245 now on with usual chanting, so opened late (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 1240, XERPA, Radio Ranchito, Morelia, Michoacân. 1155-1201 December 26, 2010. Rancheras slowly overtaking WFSX. Thought it was a domestic, but nice, clear "XERPA" ID at 1200 by man, back to rancheras, fading down by 1208 on the last gasp of non-dawn. No slogan heard, just the calls (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. [continued from CANADA CIAO] 1610, XEUACH, Chapingo, Mexico, 0020 UT, 12/23/10, Audible over several spurious signals which I've not identified and seem to usually be present. Pretty much all talk by a W ancr is Spanish. Radio Educación IDs heard with no fanfares. Seemed to be talking about farming/agriculture as there were many mentions of "agrícola." This one is listed as 250 watts. 1196 miles/1925 km from here. ULR Sta #721, LAm #134, Estado de Mexico #22. Geesh, I couldn't have asked for a better DXing session than that one. Those two stations are located apx. 2227 miles from each other. CIAO is about 1196 miles/1925 km from here. I think that Brampton, ON is around 1031 miles and something kilometers from Punkin Center. MW propagation has been interesting lately. Although I've not had much time to really enjoy spinning the dial lately, the two new stations I logged previous to the Canananadian and the Mexhexican were many miles apart as well (Kirk Allen, Ponca City OK, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 6185, Dec 25 at 2303, XEPPM is again on an hour early with music, fast SAH from something but not Brasil. EiBi has already adopted the 2300 opening we reported previously. 6185, XEPPM with musical prélude, Sunday Dec 26 at 2305 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Finally getting some analog winter sporadic-E TV DX. At 2346 UT Sunday Dec 26 I noticed that WWCR 13845 and WEWN 15610 were putting in good signals, as the bands were otherwise dying for longer hauls. A good tipoff that Es is in play. At 0223 UT Monday Dec 27 first noticed video on channel 2. 0225 found it coming from WSW, tucanal bug in UR, so that`s XEPM Juárez. Then on channel 4, Azteca 13 bug in UR, the two vertical lines and three dots to their right (5+5+3) in game/variety show, ``Boing/La Academia``. Briefly glimpsed SONORA in an ad, so that`s XHHSS in Hermosillo. A few good fade-ins from it. Occasional signs of signals on 5 and 6 but by 0248 MUF down to channel 2. Just about gone by 0300 (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Weak video and audio noted on ch 2 analog at 2102CT Dec 26 (0302 UT Dec 27). "tu canal" bug, likely XEPM(?) occasional fade up to color. (Fritze H Prentice Jr, KC5KBV, Star City, AR, EM43aw http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com http://www.twitter.com/KC5KBV DX LISTENING DIGEST) Next morning after finding WWCR 15825 and WEWN 15610 inbooming, and 6m Es maps showing activity in eastern USA, I aimed ENE on ch 3 hoping for WBRA-DT from VA; on separate analog set saw signs of video briefly at 1646 on ch 2 (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) E-skip started with Can FF ch 2 and just flipped 180 deg to Mex. Now seeing XEPM 2 Cd Juarez, solid. 73, (Ed NN2E Phelps, 1748 UT 27 Dec, Owner / Operator - Murphy's Law Test Site & Thunderstorm Proving Grounds, Benton, KY. EM56, WTFDA via DXLD) The Dec 27 sporadic-E TVDX opening mentioned last time at 1646 UT continued, and at 1846 I found signals peaking from the WSW again, on channels 2 and 4 analog, i.e. NW Mexico. Only thing IDed was the Azteca-13 bug in the UR on channel 2 at 1850 UT. Most likely XHFA Nogales, Sonora, the only full-power A13 on 2 in the country per W9WI.com, plus 6 lower-powered mostly elsewhere (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [non]. 'Uncle Fred" is signing off, but he hopes it won't be for long. --- Fred Cantu's last day at Austin CBS affiliate KEYE is Thursday. The newscaster, who has endeared himself to Austinites while anchoring local television newscasts since 1995 at KVUE, KEYE and KEYE's Spanish-language Telemundo affiliate, stresses that he's not retiring and he hopes to anchor somewhere else. Cantu first appeared in Austinites' living rooms in 1990, as the weekend anchor at KTBC when that station — now a Fox affiliate — was still a CBS property. In 1995, he became the morning news anchor at ABC affiliate KVUE, a position he held until 2001 before heading back to CBS to anchor for KEYE. Cantu's most recent anchor position was alongside Michelle Valles on KEYE's morning newscast. http://fwix.com/austin/share/bf2aa7f547/fred_cantu_hopes_he_wont_be_off_the_air_for_long (via Steven Wiseblood, dxldyg via DXLD) He`s best known elsewhere as the proprietor of the excellent reference http://www.mexicoradiotv.com (gh, DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. PREDECESSORS OF VOICE OF MONGOLIA http://english.mongolia800.mn/history/altan_gerege_of_altan_argamjaa.html (via Henrik Klemetz, SW Bulletin via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. 4830, 25 DEC, 0058 UT, Mongolian R., in Mongol, and kickin' it with an instrumental version of "I Just Want to Say I Love You." Great signals with a slight fade. Time pips and beautiful full ID on the hour. 4895, 25 DEC, 0146 UT, Mongolian Radio 2nd Channel, rockin' out for Xmas. Very haunting melody and music, and such good quality that it was actually a pleasure to listen to. Great signals with a slight fade (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. 15341+, Dec 27 at 1512, RTM still here in Arabic, slight het from 15340; but at 1535 check had made the switch to 15345+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR [non]. 5770, Myanmar Defense Forces Br. St., random checking from 1318 to 1339, Dec 27 found them clearly off the air (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. 11655, Dec 24 at 2035-2057* RNW via MADAGASCAR, The State We`re In, very interesting interview with an antiquities smuggler who says he`s saving the pieces from destruxion in their country of origin, Egypt. VG reception, almost as if it were for US (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. 6160, CKZN, Dec 25 at 2304 weather forecast for Maritime cities, all in negative temps; why not switch to Kelvin? Poor with fast SAH, 2305 into music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. [ICDX] NZ Ch 1 received in Arizona --- I understand video buzz was received by N5jeh in Arizona around 0200 UT on the 26th December- "Dec 26 02:05 45.260 S5 with sync buzz ed n5jeh dm65rd" From http://dxworld.com/tvfmlog.html (Hugh [Hoover?], ICDX via Curtis Sadowski, IL, WTFDA via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) Something of general interest off the ICDX list. New Zealand's analog TV service will be ending in November 2013: http://sciblogs.co.nz/griffins-gadgets/2010/12/01/whats-the-future-of-tv-in-new-zealand/ So if you're interested in logging it, you've got just under three years to do so (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) Dec28 01:44 45.2604 MHz vid just started de AC7XP (from http://dxworld.com/tvfmlog.html via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. NIGÉRIA (?), 4770, R. Nigeria (presumed), Kaduna, 1643- 1723, 26 Dec’10, talks, music that sounded like western, not African; 15341. This obs. was made following a request from Sei-ichi Hasegawa in J who caught a signal that made him believe NIG reactivated Kaduna 4770; unfortunately, my own obs. adds nothing of conclusive, except that there’s a carrier which I think comes from the south, so possibly NIG. The last times they were found active, the audio quality left much to be desired, and was often very weak (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Maybe not: see ERITREA ** NIGERIA. 7275, Dec 25 at 0611, very poor signal sounds like it may be in English, no doubt R. Nigeria, Abuja, in the clear this time since Tunisia [q.v.] is on the wrong frequency, 7225 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. Checked out the VON website as announced on my Dec 22 log: don`t you believe their own schedule, full of errors, missing digits in frequencies, and claims to be in Kiswahili and Yoruba at 15-16 on ``1170, 9690 Mhz`` respectively, instead of English on 15120 which has been heard then for months: http://www.voiceofnigeria.org/freq.htm There is also a detailed program schedule grid which cannot be believed, either: http://www.voiceofnigeria.org/programmeschedule.htm 7255, Dec 25 still on at 2302, S9+25 with tone test and hum, after Hausa service which had heard in previous hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 15120, Voice of Nigeria. 1806 December 26, 2010. English with man and woman discussiing Christmas and Boxing Day traditions in Nigeria, Christmas music snips. Clear and very good (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15120, Dec 27 at 1509, VP signal from VON in English but in the clear after RHC and BSKSA closed. HFCC shows Sa`udi on 15120 until 1600, but WRTH 2011 has its Bengali ending at 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA [non]. 17485, Hamada ??? 1428 20/12, talks in an African language suppose Hausa and background music with words spelled letter by letter. Short talks by man then a dead carrier in a few seconds with sign off. Signal S0 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. 3431, PIRATE (No. Am.), The Crystal Ship, 0130, 12/20/10. Weak music, 0133 "This is the Crystal Ship. The official voice of the Blue States Republic." (clearly and loud), more weak music (Mark Taylor, Madison WI, Winradio g313e, Eton E1, Satllit 800, Kaito 1103; Flextenna, EWE, attic mounted Eavesdropper, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 3433 usb, PIRATE (No. Am.), WTCR – 20th Century Radio, 0307-0345* Dec 25. Terrific program of Christmas music mixing blues, jazz and rock tunes not often heard with three IDs noted including closedown which provided e-mail address (wtcr@nyms.net). Good signal (Rich D'Angelo, Wyomissing PA 19610, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B, Eton E1, Eton E5, Alpha Delta DX Sloper, RF Systems Mini-Windom, Datong FL3, JPS ANC-4, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. 1580, KOKB Blackwell, here we go again. Dead air, open carrier, Dec 23 at 1444 UT allowing CCI to be audible from preacherstation, still at 1555; meanwhile // KOKP 1020 was modulating normally. Had resumed programming circa 1830. But once again dead air before and after 2200 UT Dec 27 (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 89.5, something strange audible in western Enid: sporadic bits of Xmas song starting ``Snow is Falling. . .``, otherwise long periods of dead air, and never any other music, Dec 23 around 1930 UT. I suppose it`s someone`s part 15 transmitter; a little further east we hear traces of KWGS Tulsa. Earlier I had heard a jazzed-up Xmas music medley on 99.7 from a house on Pheasant Run at the western edge of Enid, coordinated with flashing light show, as publicized in local paper. This had a very limited range barely reaching across the street to overcome KZLS 99.7 Mustang ex-Enid/Alva; see DXLD 10-51 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. SIGNAL EXPANSION UPDATE: WORK ON TWO STATIONS AT ONCE --- Work is continuing on KGOU's two remaining signal expansion projects in Ada and Woodward, and we've made a lot of progress on the Woodward station in recent weeks. We've had several components installed for the station that will be KWOU, including some on the broadcast tower (pictured). We're still waiting for equipment from the manufacturer for the Ada repeater station. Once it arrives and is installed we can begin testing the KOUA 91.9 FM signal. For more information about KGOU's signal expansion projects, visit our capital campaign pages. It may be a race to the finish line for these two stations, and it might just be a photo finish! (KGOU e-Newsletter Dec 23 via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. KAYE 90.7 Tonkawa, v/l, business card in 8 days after f/u #2. V/s Dean Pearcy, GM (Greg Myers, Holiday, FL, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ** OMAN. 7405, 25 DEC, 0520, Radio Sultanate of Oman, in Arabic with Arabic pop music and announcements by female DJ. Then into some sort of radio play. Pounding signal without QRM and very slight fading (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. Radio Pakistan noted on 7100 kHz (in middle of Amateur Band) with ID, etc. in Urdu at around 1130 today 25.12.2010 with clean signal. Off by 1200. Not heard or seen listed. Sounded like Home Service. Merry Xmas! (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Hyderabad, India, http://www.niar.org dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not heard today, so a frequency selection error, but for which frequency? Merry Christmas, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Dec 26, dx_sasia yg via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3905, 19.12 1355, R New Ireland med mx. Styrkan kan ni se på nedanstående bild. Notera brusnivån, som är c:a -150 dB och styrkan på stationen c:a -110 dB. TN 3905, 19.12 1355, R New Ireland with music. Note the low noise level on the picture, about -150 dB and signal strength about -110 dB (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 26 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 3329.564, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco 1105 on 16 December 4974.824, Radio Pacífico, Lima, music at 1125 on 19 December 4986.481, Radio Manantial, Huancayo with fair signal, noted 2335 on 19 December, 1105 on 16 December (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8 - NRD535D - 746Pro, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5120.45, Ondas del Suroriente, Quillabamba, Cusco. 1044-1050 December 26, 2010. Peruvian folk vocals, Spanish male announcer at 1047. Clear, fair. Presumed the one so didn't stick with it, since Peruvians are of little interest (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 11935, R Veritas??, 1220 21/12, woman with talks in Hmong language. After a flute play, man with short talks then singing among a group that followed him in a cappella style. ID then s/off, S3 over quite strong QRN (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9570, R. Blagovest, via Radio Veritas Asia, Dec 28 at 1511 in Russian with heavy flutter. (VOA Philippines 9760 with English Learning had much less flutter, but 9945 via SRI LANKA even less.) 9570 at 1530 still speech, about Christ rather than classical music. Time is running out for this! ``Under the message received from the head tekh-sluzhby Radio Veritas Asia, station stops translations [sic] in Russian with the beginning of new year (MIDXB No 716 via RusDX Dec 26 via DXLD)`` That means R. Blagovest (Bells), 9570 at 15-16. Axually, I was looking for it Dec 27 but heard nothing from it. WRTH 2011 shows other Russian is 02-03 on 17830, also Blagovest, per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. 15290, Dec 24 at 1553 music seemed S Asian or ME; could Jordan be on extended Xmas eve sked? No! Soon into Arabic mentioning Bucharest, RRI IS. 5975, RRI with nice variety of Romanian Xmas music, none of it familiar, announced in French, Dec 25 at 0245-0257*. 6095-6100-6105, Dec 26 at 0610, DRM noise which one does not hear elsewhen on these frequencies. It`s RRI scheduled in French at 0600- 0630 via Galbeni. 6015, RRI in English, Dec 26 at 2315, no spurjam from Cuba this time; previous report of this on 6020 under Cuba must have been 5 kHz off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6020 drm, RRI Bucharest via Galbeni site in English at 0630-0657 UT Dec 28. S=9+25dB level, signal SNR ratio up to 17.8 dB. "Galbeni ID 300-1, ID: 1001". News, with election report in Moldova item, and EURO popularity poll in Germany, latter the people majority will back the former DeutschMark currency. 9450 drm, RRI Bucharest's German service, both via Tiganesti site. S=9+20dB on 0710 UT Dec 28. Labeled "SNR Tiganesti E1, ID 1001", SNR 22.3 dB. \\ in AM mode on 7210am at S=9+20dB signal strength (Wolfgang Bueschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 28 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Revamped Bulletins from Voice of Russia --- The Voice of Russia has changed the style of its English news bulletins. They now run for around four minutes instead of eight and are read over a music bed with audio punctuation in the form of a swishing sound between each item. Frankly, I prefer the old style. The new style seems to me to make the mistake of emphasising style at the expense of content (Roger Tidy, London, UK, Dec 26, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. God, just heard the first 2 minutes now. Rubbish! Mind you, VOR is not exactly a station I've turned to for news. Personally, I have always felt stations like VOR and RSI [Slovakia?] are not taken seriously by the broadcast industry. VOR has an interval signal and sign on music that sounds as if it was made by someone going to Toys- R-Us and using a Fisher Price keyboard. Also the problem with VOR is production quality. Many jingles when you listen to them sound awful. From what I have been able to figure out, most of the jingles are running at 64k, which is very poor. Most "professional" stations use 128k to 256k in studio. VOR is still one of a small handful of stations that estimate the audience by those who write in. CRI does the same. Not very scientific. Most stations like VOR, CRI, RSI and other are really only around to give jobs to the staff. Audience numbers are not important. If I did want news from Russia, I can always tune into Russia Today [TV], which is more fast paced, an announcing staff far better. Each time I've tuned into VOR, the newscast is out of date. If you follow news on Russia Today, they normally have stories 3 to 4 hours ahead of VOR sometimes more. I know at CRI the practice was and is to record newscast 1 hour before they are broadcast and use it for up to 6 hours (Keith Perron, Taiwan, 0614 UT Dec 28, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, ibid.) ** RUSSIA. 5905drm, V of Russia at 1515 UT Dec 25, S=9+15dB, ID E07003, but couldn't decode the drm stream, no audio filtered due of QRM. 7325drm, Golos Rossii, Mezhdunarodnoe Russkoe Radio, 13-15 UT, noted at 1450 UT on S=9+20dB level, SNR 17.2 dB, ID FF0010 of Kaliningrad enclave Bolshakovo tx, labeled as "Label Service 0". 9675drm, Voice of Russia Moscow Taldom outlet. 1505 UT Dec 25, S=9+5dB, fair up to SNR 12.5 dB. ID E07002. English service news. Text header given as "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all listeners ! ... ". (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9840, Radio Rossii national broadcast program in Russian from Moscow Taldom site scheduled 5-8 UT westwards to Russian community in western Europe. 0645 UT Dec 28. S=9+20dB, news items, "Russia's National Technology Project", special report "New German Bundeswehr Army soldiers" on private voluntaries in future. 11635 drm, Voice of Russia's English program towards East Asia and Pacific. Due to poor propagation signal level, only 7 dB above the average noise level, SNR suffered a little bit this morning. SNR varied between 11 and 18.7 dB, S=9+15dB, but also some audio breaks via my Dream software/soundcard loudspeaker line. At 0732 UT report from Russia, "Pushkin prayed to the Gospel" (Wolfgang Bueschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. 6075, Dec 23 at 1359, R. Rossii, Pet/Kam motorboating carrier and little program audio until 1400 timesignal. Carrier stayed on until 1403, but no sign of 8GAL 6074. 6075, R. Rossii, Pet/Kam, Dec 24 at 1358 nothing audible but the motorboating noise; 1400 timesignal mixing with bong from Taiwan as Chinese started on frequency; RR carrier finally off at 1401:45* but nothing from 8GAL 6074 heard during this quadriminute (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SARAWAK [non]. 7590, R Free Sarawak, 2038 17-12, a discussion with references to tribes of Malaysia. Mentions of the governing party Barisan National, web address, at 2252 Song of Scorpions 'Always somewhere', also noticed by speaker afterwards. Signal 7-9, 45434 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7590, Dec 25 at 2243, poor signal in conversation, cadence sounds IndoMalay, presumably R. Free Sarawak via TAJIKISTAN which has been going for a sesquimonth now at 2230-2330, also in local language Iban. S9+10 peaks but still too poor to make much of it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RFS schedule has changed; details already in dxldyg and in next DXLD ** SAUDI ARABIA. 17615, BSKSA, Dec 27 at 1516, fire & brimstone preacher, vocal range all over the place, unusual for Arabic broadcasts; his voice and/or the playback may be defective. A few minutes earlier, was quite pleasant with Qur`an. See also CUBA, NIGERIA, 15120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SLOVAKIA. ESLOVAQUIA: MENSAJE DE DESPEDIDA DE RADIO ESLOVAQUIA INTERNACIONAL Adiós a la Onda Corta! Estimados radioyentes, como había sido anunciado, a partir del 1 de enero 2011 cesarán las transmisiones de RSI en las ondas cortas. Todos estos anos en vuestra companía han sido de un verdadero disfrute. Les damos a todos nuestros amigos, en las diferentes partes del mundo donde nos escuchaban, las más sinceras gracias por sus muestras de afecto. RSI seguirá transmitiendo via internet. Nuestro propósito es que también con esta modalidad sigamos juntos y podamos todavía compartir muchos anos en mutua companía. End of Shortwave (English) Dear listeners, we are very sorry to inform you that from January 1, 2011 Radio Slovakia International will no longer broadcast on shortwave. The decision was made by the Government and the management of Slovak Radio in order to enable all sections of Radio Slovakia International to utilize modern technology and function effectively. This, however, doesn´t mean we will cancel our daily shows. From now on our broadcast will be available for you via satellite at http://www.wrn.org and via internet at http://www.rsi.sk The good news is our website gets a fresh new design, which shall make it easier for you to access, browse and enjoy our programmes. Our team would like to sincerely thank everyone who’s been in touch with us via shortwave. We hope you will stay with Radio Slovakia International in the upcoming year and we will do our best to satisfy your thirst for information about Slovakia. We look forward to your constant feedback via email, online social networks and letters. Your RSI Team [WRN to North America schedule has RSI at 0130-0200 UT, unfortunately not a time when WRMI is relaying it on 9955 --- gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, and quoting the above] [Last minute info: WRMI has announced it WILL carry RSI on 9955, Tue-Sat at 0130 in English and daily 0330 in Spanish; details already in dxldyg and in next DXLD] ÉMISSIONS EN O.C ... C’est fini! (French) Chers amis auditeurs de nos émissions en langue française, Comme vous ne l’ignorez plus Radio Slovaquie International cesse d’émettre ses programmes, toutes langues confondues, sur les ondes courtes après le 31 décembre 2010. Tout au long des dernières semaines et depuis fin octobre, nos émissions vous en ont tenu informé. Au terme de près de dix-huit années de présence sur le réseau hertzien sur lequel nous avons rencontré la quasi totalité des auditeurs que vous êtes, dont bon nombre a formé un cercle de fidèles réguliers à suivre nos programmes sur les ondes courtes et nous en faire part au travers l’envoi de rapports d’écoutes, nous voulons avant toute chose et principalement les remercier de cette fidélité qui ne s’est jamais démentie, et de leur attachement aux émissions produites par notre section en langue française, mais aussi de l’intérêt porté à notre pays la SLOVAQUIE, ce qui s’y trouve et ce qui s’y passe au quotdien. Cet intérêt marqué ressort de ce que les uns et les autres nous ont écrit et des centaines de questions posées tout au long de notre présence sur les ondes courtes. Nous y avons très sensibles et nous sommes à chaque fois efforcé d’y répondre le plus complétement et promptement possible dans le cadre d’une émission, de telle sorte que chacun de nos auditeurs puisse bénéficier de la réponse données à la question d’un de leurs collègues et ainsi enrichir sa connaissance de la Slovaquie. Un grand merci donc à tous. Pour autant R.S.I ne va pas cesser d’exister, tout au moins au cours de l’année 2011 pour laquelle la garantie de fonctionnement a été assurée par l’ autorité de tutelle au sein du gouvernement slovaque : le ministère de la culture. Tout au long de celle-ci, les collaborateurs de chacune des 5 sections émettant en langue étrangère, et celle en langue slovaque, poursuivront de réaliser leurs programmes quotidiens sans modifications par apport à la période antérieure. Vous pourrez donc vous porter à leur écoute non plus sur les ondes courtes mais sur les supports modernes que sont l’informatique sur internet d’une part, auquel un grand nombre d’entre vous a accès et la transmission par satellite. Nous espérons que vous serez nombreux à franchir ce pas pour conserver le lien établi tant avec la Slovaquie qu’avec l’équipe des collaborateurs préparant et présentant nos émissions en français. Nous vous en remercions par avance tout comme nous en faire part comme vous l’avez fait jusqu’alors. Au terme de ce message marquant la fin de la présence de R.S.I sur les ondes courtes, nous n’oublions certes pas ceux de nos auditeurs qui ne disposant des moyens matériels appropriés pour nous rejoindre sur les deux vecteurs précités, sachant qu’ils vont disparaître, peut-être temporairement seulement espérons nous, de notre horizon, tout comme nous du leur. Nous leur exprimons tous nos regrets les plus sincères, leur disons combien nous sommes désolés de les quitter, tout en les assurant que leur persévérence à se porter à notre écoute sur leur récepteur radio, parfois dans des conditions de réception difficiles, a été très appréciée de chacun des membres de notre équipe, pour qui cette présence était un encouragement à poursuivre notre mission et améliorer nos contributions à leur intention. Nous les saluons tout particulièrement mais sans écrire le mot « adieu » mais simplement « aurevoir » car nul ne sait de quoi demain sera fait. A tous, nous souhaitons de bonnes fêtes de Noël, de fin et début d’année et vous assurons de tous nos meilleurs voeux pour 2011. Einstellung der Kurzwelle (German) Liebe Hörerinnen und Hörer, nach beinahe achtzehn Jahren fast ununterbrochener Ausstrahlung auf Kurzwelle müssen wir Ihnen leider mitteilen, dass Sie uns ab dem 1. Januar 2011 nur noch über Internet und Satellit hören werden können. Wir bedanken uns für ihre langjährige Treue, den persönlichen Dialog und ihre Solidarität mit unserem Sender. Jedoch hoffen wir, dass Sie uns auch in Zukunft als Hörer und Freunde erhalten bleiben. Auf Wiederhören, dopocutia! Ihre RSI Redaktion Krátke vlny koncia (Slovak) Milí krajania, ako sme Vás už informovali, od 1. januára 2011 koncí krátkovlnné vysielanie Rádio Slovakia International v slovenskom jazyku. Po 17-ich rokoch Vám tak budeme denne prinášat aktuálne informácie z domova cez internet a na európskom kontinente aj cez satelit. Korešpondencia, ako aj mnohé osobné stretnutia nás neustále presviedcajú o tom, že naše vysielanie na krátkych vlnách bolo za tie roky Vašim najdôležitejším a najdôveryhodnejším informacným kanálom o Slovensku. Ci už z politického, hospodárskeho, kultúrneho, ale predovšetkým krajanského života. Dakujeme Vám nielen za Vašu podporu, ale najmä spoluúcast na vysielaní. Ako tvorcov relácií pre Slovákov žijúcich v zahranicí nás bude nesmierne tešit, ked nám svoju priazen zachováte aj v budúcnosti a http://www.rsi.sk sa stane Vašou najnavštevovanejšou internetovou adresou (Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia :-( DXLD) Slovak version is full of diacritix which survived into MS Word editing of this DXLD, but probably not into text reduxion (gh) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5019.860, 12.12 1050, SIBC går nu relativt ofta. 2-3. OB 5019.860, 12.12 1050, SIBC can now be heard quite often. 2-3 (Olle Bjurström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 26 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. 11755, Dec 25 just before 2100 as I tune in, VTC fill music loop and off. This had been AWR via Meyerton in Yoruba, preceded by French at 2000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [and non]. Glenn: I've just received my grade on my Master's research paper for my "Cult" class: 93%. If you recall, my topic concentration was solely about Stair's psychological and sociological activities which define a "religious" group as a cult. Having worked for two domestic shortwave stations in my previous life, I had often heard "stories, rumors and innuendo" about Stair. I was shocked that many of the things I've heard were not only true, but were more extreme than I've ever imagined. I was able to find research information from eight different reliable sources; some religious and some secular. I was familiar with Stair's sexual arrest charges, which were reduced in plea bargaining. However, I was completely taken aback about the numerous health/welfare concerns that have happened inside his commune along with the questionable deaths that have resulted. It totally amazes me that Stair has been able to continue with very little interference from law enforcement or the courts. (However, I must praise the local media for doing their homework!) Again, I had to do a lot of listening as part of this paper. I did note yet another error while "God" was talking through Stair. "God" was condemning the U.S. for numerous improprieties and using the word YOUR, as though "God" was speaking to the people of the U.S. Stair accidentally slipped and used the word "OUR" on one occasion, telling all of us that it is really Stair pretending he was "God". I've also noticed that Stair seems to be on the edge of going into the real estate business for Walterboro. He announces the prices of homes that he sees in the area and their general locations, then providing further details on where people can obtain information on moving to the area. I must also chide the numerous AM, FM and shortwave stations that carry Stair. They should really do their homework before putting this cult on the airwaves. However, as we all know, money talks. Whether its Olbermann or Beck, Whoopi or Hannity, O'Riley or Stewart....it's all about the money. 73, (Bill Lauterbach - WA8MEA, Dec 26, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So may we somehow read your opus? Or perhaps you can write a summary (gh to Bill, via DXLD) ** SPAIN [and non]. 9675, REE via COSTA RICA, Dec 25 at 0227 program about ``tiempo mágico`` with strange music; at fades, a fast SAH appeared; would not expect Brasil to be that close to same frequency, but possible. Otherwise good, fortunately, since 6055 direct is squeezed by CUBA on both sides. Who thought that was a good idea? Arnie. 9675 far overshadowed RTI English via WYFR 9680 despite being aimed right at us, 315 degrees, but so is REE at 340 degrees. 7270 and 7275, REE strangely on both adjacent frequencies in Spanish, but separate programming, Dec 25 at 2248. 7275 was // 11940, so I concentrated on 7270. This show in Castilian was about visiting Tíbet, and gave phone number several times, 91-496-2823, unGooglable. 7270 sign-off at 2255 said it was for Europe, to resume in the morning on 9780 DRM and 12035, but then mentioned ``esta emisión`` being to NW Africa on 7275, the frequency I was not listening to. HFCC shows 7270 is 170 degrees to NW Af and 7275 50 degrees to Europe. To confuse matters further, WRTH 2011 does not list 7270 at all, but has a frequency I did not notice, 7265 Spanish to Af at 22-23 following Arabic. REE`s repeat of the 2345-2355 token newscasts in Catalan and Galician at 0505-0515 UT Tue-Sat as in WRTH 2011 is confirmed. Dec 28 at 0505 I hear Catalan, and 0510 the maritime melody on fife introducing ``Informativo Gallego``. Reception was poor on 6055 direct, as well as on 3350, 5965 and 9675 via COSTA RICA. The original broadcast happens to be when no CR relays are on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. 7200, Omdurman, Dec 25 at 0326, Arabic music, chanting and drumming, somewhat undermodulated. 0332 announcement included ``Idha`at . . . Sudan``. 0334 fading (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWITZERLAND. 6368.5, 25 DEC, 0410 UT, HEB, Bern Radio "coastal" station with SITOR bursts and an occasional CQ DE HEB Morse ID. Fair signals with no QRM. 6435.5, 25 DEC, 0428 UT, HEB Bern Radio, // 6368.5 (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. 8400, 20/12 1700 Sound of Hope - Taichung, Chinese talk, suff (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, shortwave yg via DXLD) ** THAILAND. Radio Thailand, 27 December 2010 at 2040 UTC on 9535 kHz. World news after local time check that sounded like: "It's 12 minutes past noon here in Thailand." News about North Korea at 2042 UT and then their abrupt mid-sentence sign-off at 2044, ending the English segment. Fair, fluttery signal (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Original live broadcast must have been at 0512 UT (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** TIBET [non]. 5780, RFA Tibetan, 1525 21/12, mixed with CNR jammer Signal S9 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Site: TAJIKISTAN (HFCC, Aoki) ** TUNISIA. 7225, Arabic at 0611 Dec 25, where none should be, and // 7335, so once again RTT is on wrong frequency, the one it uses previous evenings, instead of 7275. 0621 kids` chorus, which I think is a Saturday-morning staple, 0626:50* cut off abruptly just like it does when on 7275. Since R. Nigeria [q.v.], Abuja is back on 7275 now, we wonder if Tunisia`s shift is deliberate, but it then reverts to 7275. 7275, RTT back on correct frequency Dec 26 at 0605 in Arabic, ex-7225 the night before during this semihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. 11735, VOT IS running late after English broadcast, Dec 23 at 1428-1430*, off right after accurate timesignal. // 12035 was already off. 11735 transmitter should have been preceding another language on another frequency. 11735 was squeezed by RHC 11730 and WYFR 11740 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Re:`` Tests txions of HRT Voice of Croatia in Croatian/En/Sp via BABCOCK 0100-0300 6110 WOF 125 kW 294 deg to NoWeAM Mon-Wed 0300-0400 5925 RMP 250 kW 300 deg to NoWeAM Mon-Wed 0400-0500 5920 RMP 250 kW 300 deg to NoWeAM Mon-Wed (R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 22) Perhaps to remind M&B they have competition, (dxld, g.h.)`` That test outlet from U.K. shows the very seldom used antenna azimuths towards North America, since decline of BBCWS towards CAN/USA a decade ago (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX via DXLD) see also CROATIA [non] ** U K [non]. AUSTRIA, 5875 drm, BBCWS in English via Moosbrunn relay, Current Affairs program at 0720 UT, report from Haiti earthquake disaster. Hurt many children too, and brought them via airplane to US hospital recovery help. S=9+35dB strength, SNR powerhouse roughly around 26.0 dB (Wolfgang Bueschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 28) ** U S A [non]. 7570!! VoA News causing QRM to V of Korea 17-12 at 2300 making an intra-carrier flutter of ca. 10-20 Hz. After 2313 VoK wins the 'battle' of signals reaching to S9. Who in the IBB chose this freq? (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9565, Dec 26 at 1428-1430+ phone interview frequently mentioning Baluchistan, Pakistan; phone side audio kept being interrupted, IADs. Good signal. This is Pashto from VOA`s Deewa Radio, 250 kW, 90 degrees from Wertachtal, GERMANY. More about this very specialized service for NWFP, Pakistan/Afghanistan border region: http://www.insidevoa.com/media-relations/press-releases/a-13-34-2009-01-08-deewa-111607089.html 9885, Dec 24 at 0556, VTC music loop is QRMing VOA English to Africa, making fast SAH. 0600 VOA is in the clear with news of Ivory Coast, but cuts to dead air 0601, finally resumed at 0608 still reporting on Côte d`Ivoire. From HFCC listings here is what must have been happening: IBB is scheduled to switch sites for VOA from São Tomé to Meyerton at 0600! But SENTECH should crash-start rather than warm up before 0600. So it goes when you do so much outsourcing. Does this happen every day? 12055, VOA Dec 23 at 1503 news with long/short path echo, and ACI from squealer WEWN 12050. 1505 Border Crossings, Larry opening show with request and happy birthday to listener in India. Poor here, but // 11765 only JBA thanks to temporary absence of RHC 11760. Both of these are exactly the same parameters, 100 kW, 108 degrees via Lampertheim, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) from 10-51: 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, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) Re 10-51, ``VOA Border Crossings``: I listen to Larry [London] time and again. It can be heard here in Asia; 7575 and 9930 which are the best. A full schedule for the show is here: http://www.voanews.com/english/programs/radio/64958237.html (Keith Perron, Taiwan, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545,DX LISTENING DIGEST) Some outdated frequencies, as I said last week, but has mp3 linx to previous week`s shows (gh, DXLD) Glenn/Harry, The A-Z frequency pages are once again available on the VOA website at http://author.voanews.com/english/about/Frequenciesatoz_a.cfm (Alan Roe, Teddington, UK, 0943 UT Dec 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WEBSITE CHANGE REDUCES RISK THAT VOA BROADCASTS WILL BE INTERCEPTED BY LISTENERS. Posted: 24 Dec 2010 http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=10341 DX Listening Digect Yahoo! discussion group, 22 Dec 2010, editor Glenn Hauser: "I was wondering whatever became of VOA`s 'Border Crossings', world music show... . I was wanting to look up all the English frequencies in use during this hour, but the A-Z pages [frequencies for each VOA language in alphabetical order] 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." DXLD Yahoo! discussion group, 23 Dec 2010, Alan Roe: "The A-Z frequency pages are once again available on the VOA website at http://author.voanews.com/english/about/Frequenciesatoz_a.cfm -- NB: Since taken offline. But there was no way to navigate to that page from the voanews.com home page. Thus isolated, will this schedule be updated? Or will frequencies have to be accessed program by program? (Frequencies are available for Border Crossings, but not yet for other VOA English programs.) A cynic might be tempted to hypothesize that VOA is operating its shortwave broadcasts the way US private railroads ran their passenger trains in the 1960s: deliberately badly. The railroads wanted their passengers to go away so that they could concentrate on their (potentially) profitable freight business. VOA might want its shortwave listeners to disappear so that it can shift budget and resources to television, internet, social and mobile media. Withholding schedule information would be an effective way for VOA to disburden itself of its direct radio audience. The shortwave transmission schedule was, in recent years, difficult to find at voanews.com. Now it is impossible to find. Also, in recent years, there has been no "what's on tonight" or "what's on this morning" grid of English programs. Everything at the website is geared for listening on demand. And, indeed, why listen to VOA on a radio if one has access to the VOA website? One reason is that a person has access to the internet at work, or an internet cafe, but wants to listen to VOA that evening or the next morning at home, where only a radio is available. Or listening to radio via the internet might be inconvenient due to bandwidth issues or per-minute charges. If VOA does intend to restore schedule information, it should look at RFE/RL's useful How to Listen section. For each language, it provides information about listening on demand, via affiliates, direct via shortwave or medium wave (somewhat cryptically labeled "Waves"), and via satellite (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) ** U S A. 9955, WRMI, UT Sunday Dec 26 at 0549, great music from Bolivia, Perú on ``Aires Andinos`` and sufficient non-jammed reception too. Current sked as of Dec 17 shows all these times for it: UT Tue 0330, Wed 1230, Thu 0100 {corrected, not 0000, tnx to Harry Brooks for catching this}, Sat 1200, Sun 0530, 0730 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 18530, Dec 25 at 1458, the Brother Scare organ was playing, weak but unmistakable. On Saturdays only we may enjoy the WINB second harmonic all day from 9265 as 13570 takes a break (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9245.8, Dec 26 at 2220, spur from WWRB // 9385 with Overcomer, but non-Brother Scare speaking at the moment. Very weak and fading. Could not find a match on the hi side, 9524.2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 1544, confirmed on WWRB 3185, UT Friday Dec 24 after 0430. This is one of our earliest and best airings as far as broad coverage of North America. Good audio, too, and never jammed. Also confirmed on WRMI 9955, Friday Dec 24 at 1547, poor signal but no jamming except bleedover from 9965. Scheduled airings on WWCR are: Fri 2130 on 7465; Sat 1700 on 12160; UT Sunday 0330 on 4840 (for the last time?); Sunday 0730 on 3215 --- altho there could be pre-emptions because of the holidays. This Saturday should also bring our final airing at 0900 via IRRS SLOVAKIA 9510, unless pre-empted, but continuing at 1900 on 6090. WORLD OF RADIO 1544 confirmed on WBCQ 7415, Wednesday Dec 22 at 2005, VP signal here, so 1543 only got one play on Dec 21. Meanwhile 9955 had heavy jamming against nothing, as WRMI is off the air weekday afternoons until 2200. WOR confirmed on WRMI webcast at 0430 UT Thursday Dec 23. And on 9955 at 1600 UT Thursday, no jamming but poor signal. Next WRMI airings Thu 2200 probably jammed, Fri 1530. WBCQ 7415, Thu 2000. Also on WWRB UT Friday 0430 on 3185; WWCR Friday 2130 on 7465 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9350, WWCR with IRN/USA `News` at 2203 Dec 25, caster pronounces the island off Yemen ``Socorta`` --- bet he had never heard of it before, but that`s no disqualification for being an agenda-based network newscaster on national and international radio. 4840, WWCR with IRN/USA `News` at 0603 Dec 26, caster pronounces the island off Yemen ``Socorta`` --- bet he had never heard of it before, but that`s no disqualification for being an agenda-based network newscaster on national and international radio. Does that look familiar? Exactly the same mistake was heard 8 hours earlier on 9350. 9985, Dec 27 at 1134, VG with vintage cowboy music. WWCR-1 has expanded from one hour to two on 9985, 10-12 UT, with the second hour M-F being ``Worldwide Country Radio``. 1158 QSY announcement to 15825 and off. By 1202, WWCR-4 had come on 9980 with TOM music. At 1537, found 15825 with preacher had VG signal instead of JBA, tnx to sporadic E HF opening, providing 15610 WEWN likewise. Now`s my chance to try to hear the +/- 15.6 kHz spurs which accompany other WWCR-1 frequencies, 3215 and 7465. Yes, there they are, quite weak but detectable on 15809.4 and 15840.6. Also began monitoring ch 2 for ascension of Es MUF, and briefly saw some analog video at 1646 with antenna ENE (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15550-USB, WJHR with usual over-assertive preacher, rough audio besides being SSB, Monday Dec 27 at 1447, confirming it is not limited to Wednesdays only as in WRTH 2011. Today`s signal aided by sporadic E over short 1-megameter path, rising to good peaks after 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9479, Sat Dec 25 at 2012, WTWW has finally broken away from Pastor Pete Peters. There had been rumors that he was considering allowing some other programming despite his 24/7 purchase of WTWW-1 airtime. What else but QSO with Ted Randall, who has also been involved with this station from the start, did the test broadcasts and produced the IDs. As I tuned in, W4RWL was conveying his Xmas greetings, and then KE5ALK. At 2014 Ted did one of his ubiquitous antenna ads; 2016 song ``How`d you like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island?`` [which one? Ask any illegal immigrant to Australia]. 2019 two more hams with greetings and both said Happy New Year, 2009! Ooops, this is a two- year-old show. Later we consult http://www.tedrandall.com to see what`s up: ``ATTENTON QSO LISTENERS QSO DEBUTS ON THE NEW POWERFUL WTWW SHORTWAVE ON 9480 kc at 1:00 PM Central ---------- The Qso Show For Saturday's Show the correct link is http://tux-support.com:8081/wma/houselive.wma To listen Open Windows Media Player... press the alt key Go to file Then Open URL Copy and paste in the link below. http://tux-support.com:8081/wma/houselive.wma For .mp3 stream for Android Phones http://www.accessnashville.com:8004/listen.pls NOW ON AT A NEW TIME ON SATURDAY EVENING! On 7.415 WBCQ Saturday Nights @ 7:00PM Central`` Frequency is really 9479-, but Ted thinx 9480 is close enough. QSO had been running Sat 19-20 UT on WBCQ 7415, as well as UT Sundays 01-05++, so I check 7415 at 2015: no, not //, something else, an OL talking about Xmas --- unless it was a different QSO interviewing her. {Oops, that was an hour too late anyway.} Since I heard it after 2000, but at 2100 Scriptures for America was back on 9479, QSO must be two hours at 19-21 Sats (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 17520, Saturday Dec 25 at 1950, assertive talk in unknown language, long-path echo too, punxuated by occasional screams, but lo fi audio. 1958 cut to some southern gospel music, WHRI sign-off, to QSY to 15665 and off. In past WHRI has carried some Amharic shows around this time, but nothing to be found on their online schedules to account for this. In the frequency schedules, we find many duplications between Angel 1 and 5, such as 17520 on both of them at 19-20, but apparently that depends on day of week, when you delve into the program schedules. Angel 1: 1900 - 2000 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Sa Bishop S.C. Johnson Program Bishop S.C. Johnson & Elder Conrad Campbell 17.520 Mhz Angel 5: 1900 - 2000 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Sa Bishop S.C. Johnson Program Bishop S.C. Johnson & Elder Conrad Campbell 15.665 Mhz WHRI`s linx to some programs do not include this one, so we Google: http://www.apostolic-ministries.net/memory.htm ``-------In Memory Of-------- Bishop S.C. Johnson Departed This World, February 22, 1961`` But it seems his followers have kept him going a long time, more than three sesquidecades! I wonder if that was really him and his accent so heavy I could not recognize it as English? Same page mentions on WINB, but not WHRI. I did not check whether he was // on 15665 before 2000. Googling Elder Conrad Campbell gets only four hits, all of them leading back to WHR. There are audio files of many of S.C.`s sermons on above site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Re 10-51: WYFR, Family R in Swedish --- Hi Wolfy, I hear no Family Radio before 19 UT, but after the Swedish program they go into English at 20 without any transmitter break. Otherwise, a guess could be DHA instead of MSK as the Swedish transmission yesterday started 1 minute late. AND Polish R External Service starts up to 2 minutes LATE on 9650 at 18 UT from DHA. At the end of the Swedish transmission they give web & email as familyradio.com ( http://www.familyradio.com/index.html ) but when searching for Swedish there is NO MENTION of it! Maybe I should try to write to the email address and ask...?! Kind Regards & Merry Christmas, (Erik Koie, DK-2840 Holte, Denmark, Dec 24, to and via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) http://amp.ibbmonitor.com/rms_data/Scripts/2010_12_23/HELS/RMS_SCRIPT_HELS_101223_230239.TXT This 7240 segment monitored by IBB RMS originates from ARM Krasnodar Armavir in Russia. Don't let ENGL irritate you. 73 UK, 7240, Today Dec 25 undoubtedly YFR (most likely via Skelton) - scheduled YFR Turkish - but heard program in English instead, with western Christmas songs, YFR fanfare 1859 til 1900 UT. Only S=3-4. RUSSIA, 7240, ANOTHER TX ONE - MUCH STRONGER. But as awaited, at 1854:04 UT Armavir Russia tx switched on, and heard with 800 Hz test tone onwards til 1858, started at exact 1900 UT with YFR fanfare. At 1905 UT sermon in Swedish. Fading S=7 up to S=9+3dB in peaks, not much strong tonight. Heavily hit by CRI Baoji-Xinjie in Russian on 7245 kHz S=9+20dB. 18-19 UT YFR via Skelton-UK, 19-21 UT YFR via Armavir-RUS. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 4825-USB, Dec 26 at 2320, Navy MARS net in ``comments`` segment, informal talk about weather, equipment, NCS NNN0KIP. Also heard some AFA- calls, Air Force MARS. Googling indicates NNN0KIP is somewhere in east Texas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1240, FLORIDA, WFSX, Ft. Myers. 1145-1200 December 26, 2010. Fair with seemingly locally-produced investment program hosted by a guy. Canned promo for "... Southwest Florida... 92.5... The Coast (or maybe just a generic "the coast" reference -- in any case, a reference to WFSX-FM, Estero, FL simulcast)..." Slowly overtaken by the Mexican [q.v.], which I thought was merely something domestic (see log). Reappeared poorly but mixing with an unidentified at 1208, playing The Beatles "Hey Jude" then the channel was destroyed by local 1250 WHNZ, Tampa IBOC up at 1215 sunrise-ish (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. [Re 10-51:] I just received a response from Dabid DeVries at WASR-1420 concerning tonight's DX test, as follows: ====================================================================== Hi JD, Merry Christmas. Please send any QSL requests to this email address or mail @ wasr.net I did get your message and yes, I plan on being at 5000 watts at 12Mid tonight Christmas Eve [0500 UT Dec 25]. It will be obvious as I am running ID's and liners but I don't want to give up too much and take the fun out. Let me know if you hear us. Thanks, David WASR - Award Winning Radio 1420 The Winnipesaukee Network, Inc. PO Box 900 Wolfeboro, NH 03894 [note spelling: not Wolfesboro] Studio: (603) 569-1420 Fax: (603) 569-1900 =================================================================== 73 - (J. D. Stephens, Dec 24, IRCA via DXLD) It`s non-direxional; night power is normally 137 watts (gh, 0428 ut Dec 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) There were many reports of non-reception. I monitored 1420 for most of the hour, but only heard a jumble mostly of Xmas music, one ID from WOC. If you want your signal to stand out on Xmas, playing Xmas music is NOT the way to do it! (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WASR 1420 heard in West Michigan --- I'm excited to report that I matched one song with the WASR webstream. This was "Feliz Navidad" heard at 0605 UT. I wanted to match the next song for a strong confirmation, but it never happened. Instead of throwing in the towel, I stuck with it and endured another hour of Christmas music coming from at least two or three different stations. WHK, WOC, WIMS were all dominant with bits of an unid ESPN and probable WFLT with gospel music. Patience paid off at 0710 when I heard a Christmas song end, and then a faint but clear "fourteen-twenty WASR. You`re listening to Christmas in the air". A new state logged tonight and a nice Christmas gift! Thanks to everyone involved with the WASR DX test and Merry Christmas to all! (Tim Tromp, Muskegon, Michigan, Perseus + phased BOGs, Dec 25, IRCA via DXLD) Wow! Thanks to Tim Tromp, I replayed a clip I had saved at 0010 EST and realized I had recorded the exact same ID, "1420 WASR. You're listening to Christmas in the air." Just barely making it in the jumble of WBSM, probable WHK, and a couple of others. Not new here as previously heard several times in the late afternoon sneaking in under WBSM New Bedford. But, DX Tests are so rare now that any one that is heard is a thrill. Merry Christmas, (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts http://www.wtfda.info/showthread.php?t=228 ibid.) ** U S A. 1510, as I tune in to strong clear signal, Dec 23 at 1446, ID as ``Hot Talk 1510, KCTE Independence-Kansas City``, back to Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio; running a few words ahead of // KSTP 1500. It`s 10 kW daytimer with a lobe right toward us, tho I seldom notice it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1790.05, FLORIDA (MIS), WQKP882 (or WQKP883) Pinellas County Emergency Management, Largo (9685 Ulmerton Rd.). 1827 December 26, 2010. Putting out a big spur 100 kHz above the fundamental (and presumably also on 1590.05, but since there's a local station on 1590, not detected here). Not much audio making it, but a massive 60 cycle hum, as with the 1690.05 source. This one may make it well beyond Tampa Bay, since the fundamental has been heard as far away as Titusville, FL. At least one -- if not two others -- operate in synchcro audio (north Clearwater and possibly still central St. Petersburg, though only two calls are given). But [it/they] are on- channel. This one, near my monitoring site, has been off-frequency for forever. Format remains Pinellas County road construction and PSA loops, mostly female, but one male road segment. No update concerning the fact that we've been under a boil water advisory since last Thursday, and expected for another two days. Male calls ID drop, with these calls (ex-WPTI814 for seemingly all used to be used, when on original 940 kHz followed by the move here by all three whence active). Calls do not specify location. But no harmonic on 3380.1 detected (for sure I used to be able to pull it down in the parking lot, near the Largo transmitter, not surprisingly). FCC dB falsely lists a wild list of addresses for the two, and even spells Ulmerton Road incorrectly. Equipment (in general order of use): JRC NRD-535; ICOM IC-R75; Hammarlund HQ-180A; Aqua Guide 705 Radio Direction Finder; Sony ICF- 7600GR; GE SuperRadio III; RadioShack DX-399; Sony Walkman SRF-59; RadioShack Pro-60 handheld scanner; RadioShack Pro-2005 scanner; 1 X roof dipole; 1 X in-room random wire; RadioShack 15-1853 passive MW loop; Scotka active MW ferrites loop (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. 3160.04, WPJK, Orangeburg, SC, *1232-1245, Dec 24, 2nd harmonic of 1580. Several false starts of canned opening announcement, then full complete opening ID announcement. Station promos and into the Gospel Train Show with several “Q-toots”. Gospel music. Weak but readable (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) 3160 Harmonic, WPJK – Orangeburg SC, 1232, 12/24/10, in English. Sign on announcement for 1580 AM, ID’s, train whistle, contemporary version of “Hark the herald angels sing”, start of “Soul Train” program. Fair (Mark Taylor, Madison WI, Winradio g313e, Eton E1, Satllit 800, Kaito 1103; Flextenna, EWE, attic mounted Eavesdropper, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 3160, WPJK Orangeburg SC, Dec 28 at 1233 tune-in, already underway with pumping black gospel music, good signal. Unfortunately, did not sign on late today. The FCC-official sunrise/sunset times for Dec are 1215-2215 UT, but WPJK has kept signing on circa 1230 = 7:30 am local, but does sign off circa 2215, often a few minutes late. In January the proper times will be 1230-2245, so that may give us a semihour more of possible reception in the evenings vs latening sunsets (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. SOUTH FLORIDA RADIO LEGEND NEIL ROGERS DIES By Tom Jicha, Sun Sentinel, 2:09 p.m. EST, December 24, 2010 Neil Rogers, the best known radio personality in South Florida for more than three decades, died at 9:45 a.m. Friday. Born Nelson Roger Behelfer in Rochester, N.Y., he was 68. Rogers, who had been living in Toronto, suffered two heart attacks and a stroke, at least his second, since July. On Nov. 7 he returned to South Florida, where he maintained a home in Plantation Acres, to continue treatments and to be near friends. View a photo gallery. From his first days on the air in the mid 1970s, Rogers courted controversy. Born Jewish, he said he was an atheist in a heavily Jewish region. He mocked all organized religion and infuriated Catholics with his attacks on the pope. He derided senior citizens as people who steal Sweet 'N Low packages from restaurants and called South Florida "an outdoor funeral home." During the Mariel immigration, Rogers was outspokenly against the waves of refugees sent to South Florida. "His audience has never been duplicated," Goldberg said, "and it never will be." More info: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/fl-neil-rogers-obit-20101224,0,1015311.story Via: (Dino Bloise / Frecuencia Al Día. http://programasdx.com/frecuenciaaldia.htm Dec 25, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) ** U S A. FRED FOY, 'LONE RANGER' ANNOUNCER, DIES AT 89 http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/12/fred_foy_lone_r.html (via Ron Trotto-WDX4-KWI, Dec 22, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) Return with us to those thrilling days of yesteryear..... This story has not shown up in many places I normally visit and I thought you'd find it of some interest. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/la-me-fred-foy-20101223,0,2700783.story (Dale Rothert, DXLD) More on Fred Foy: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/arts/television/23foy.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/24/AR2010122402857_pf.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) obit ** U S A. Seriously OT: FEDS ISSUE NEW CIVIL DEFENSE GUIDELINES Hello All, Recently, FEMA has started paying attention to civil defense, and has issued new guidelines and publications about what to do in an attack. They've apparently reconfigured things to account for limited nuclear strikes, either from rogue states or terror organizations. Here is one of the documents they've issued, dealing with the aftemath of an "event": http://www.nagc.com/AboutNAGC/documents/NuclearDetonationPreparedness-CommunicatingintheImmediateAftermath.pdf Radio, television, and NOAA weather radio are the primary means of communication envisioned (Curtis Sadowski, IL, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. Working up the ambition to once again turn on The TV, which will involve a quick reinstall of the $2 Rabbit Ears+UHF Bowtie setup that channels RF. Haven't done such since May, so will have to re- ping, no doubt. L.A. has ridiculous numbers of over-the-air DTV channels, somewhere in the 60s or 70s, literally. 7, 9, 11, 13, 18 & 34 remain on their original RF-channels; all others have migrated to or within UHF. Some stations such as KSCI/18 and KXLA/"44" (RF 51) each boast upwards of eight or nine subchannels, no lie...as I say, I will have to re-ping for an hopefully accurate count. Very 73z (GREG HARDISON, LA CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** URUGUAY. Glenn, can you suggest the best window of opportunity to log SODRE, Uruguay here on the East Coast? (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6125 or 9620? I`m not sure either is active, and never or hardly ever reported beyond Uruguay. It looks like 9620 is otherwise vacant between 0900 and 1200 (Glenn to Ed via DXLD) ** URUGUAY. Emisora Chaná --- Ayer en Cuchilla Alta se recibía Emisora Chaná de Tacuarembó con señal más que aceptable en 49 m alrededor de 5820 kHz. La recepción se mantuvo a diversas horas del dia incluso hoy de mañana también (ya estaba por 5840) (Moises Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, 2333 UT 27 Dec, condiglist yg via DXLD) Ahora en 5821.75 kHz con mi nuevo Kenwood R-5000. Anoche entraba mejor, hoy hay bastante estática. ¡Que venga la lluvia! Saludos (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Argentina, 0039 UT Dec 28, ibid.) Lowpower pirate ** VANUATU [and non]. 7259,959v, 25.12 0820, (tentative), male talk in French. Boring to listen to and no ID. This morning relatively strong. The transmitter is somewhat unstable. See picture below. AHK Anders Hultqvist, Dalarö, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 26 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7260.002, 19.12 0945, UNID. A station in Chinese could be heard clearly on 7260.002. At the same time in the background a weaker station with a carrier on 7259.959 with music also sounding Asian. It was difficult to identify the language. Thus it is impossible to claim that the station this day is Vanuatu. Note the low background noise level, about -150 dB. I listened more today, Dec 26 at 09 UT and I think there might be another station on roughly 7259.96 (or on 7260), it looks like that on my Perseus. I listened at the same time as AHK in Stockholm but couldn’t recognize the French station here. But about 10 UT there definitely are 3 stations around 7260. TN 7260.002, 23.12 1130, China Radio International in Japanese, strength about -90 dBm. At the same time another Asian with chines sounding program but a little weaker, level about -100 dBm. The question is if this one is on 7260.0 or on 7259.956. Both stations strongest on the antenna pointing at 120 degrees, which indicates it might be Xinjiang or Mongolian Radio who are supposed to broadcast at this time. More efforts are needed to solve which stations you hear on this interesting frequency, 7260 (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 26 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7260, Radio Vanuatu, Port Vila, 0750-0810, 25-12, songs, Male, English and vernacular, comments. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs 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) ** VATICAN [non]. 9865, Dec 27 at 1128 OC, 1129 Vatican Radio IS, opening Spanish to Latin America and the Caribbean, but then dumped off the air and never returned at several chex following semihour. Is Sackville, CANADA relay, almost as if operator thought better of doing this transmission. Has it been deliberately suspended? It had ACI from 9865-9870-9875 RNZI DRM noise which runs until 1200. 9865, VR via CANADA, which dumped off the air just as it was starting at 1130 UT Dec 27, was back on the air Dec 28, checked at 1203, in Spanish. This also reconfirms that despite VR`s own schedule copied in many other places, the 1200-1215 portion remains an extension of the Spanish, not English. EiBi: correctly all-Spanish Aoki: English at 1200-1215 ADDX by language, English 1200-1215 with obsolete A-10 frequency 9830, altho ``as of 18 Dez`` PTSW: English only, correctly does not include 1200 WRTH 2011: does not list English at 1200, but not Spanish 1130 either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6297.165, Clandestine - Saharan Arab Republic, 2240 music, good signal 19 December (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Drake R8 - NRD535D - 746Pro, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. Re 10-51: Given that 4965 supposedly operates ND, I failed to doubt that a "1Africa" sked showing it closing at 2200Z would really be different than the tx's overall coverage. If it (4965) is on air beyond 2200 in the same ND pattern, I guess it's difficult to decide why CVC doesn't think they're covering their probably slumbering "1Africa" listeners in Nigeria, any more or less than the same slumbering Zambians two hours ahead in their beds? So why show their service as being out of action simply because it's suddenly 2200Z? Ah, I zapped an e-mail to their UK HQ querying Zambian domestic coverage (specifically 4965), and received a response basically saying the Lusaka office is closed for Christmas, and that someone would git back to me. I'll keep you posted (Theo Donnelly, BC, Dec 23, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** ZAMBIA. Re 10-51: 6162, ZNBC, 2150-2206*, Dec 23, Afro-pop music. Talk. Instrumental National Anthem at 2205 followed by test tone and off. Poor. Very weak. Too weak to catch many program details but did hear definite National Anthem (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHAD ** ZIMBABWE [non]. 9345, V. of People, 1832 21/12, with talks by man, a song, YL with talks about ZWE mentioned many times, phone in. POB mentioned at 1856. s/off 1857. Strong QRM by R Pakistan on 9340 after ca 1845. Signal S3 with reception before 1843 as 23322 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. From 10-51: "WWII is 2145, and WVCC is 2230, so where does that leave us?" WGCR / 720, Pisgah Forest, NC, LSS time of 2215 UT in December (GREG HARDISON, LA CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Does anyone have any idea what Texas station on 1580 kHz might be relaying KMKI? Yesterday, between 0735 and 0806 UT, I heard a station broadcasting Radio Disney programming on 1580 kHz. At 0757 it gave its ID as "This is KMKI and KMKI HD1, Plano-Dallas-Fort Worth". (Richard N. Allen, nr Perry OK, 22 Dec, IRCA via DXLD) Methinks you heard KMIK-1580 Tempe, AZ. As for the Dallas area-COL, stranger things have happened (Pete Taylor, Tacoma, WA, ibid.) I thought AM 620 was a Disney outlet in Plano, unless they've shuffled things around. 1580 has a radio Disney outlet in Tempe/Phoenix (Mike Sanburn, ibid.) 620 in Plano/Dallas is KMKI. 1580 in Tempe is KMIK. Maybe the stations are simulcasting in an effort to reduce staff and expenses since Radio Disney is selling off a lot of their stations? (Paul Walker, IL, ibid.) While KMIK is audible here many nights, the signal heard was in their null. It was on a SSE/NNW bearing with KMIK nulled. Also it was stronger than KMIK (Richard Allen, 36?22'51"N / 97?26'35"W, (near Perry OK USA), ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. I just heard a mysterious Russian speaking station on 1925 kHz. I don't have any clue on what it might be. It sounded like a legal station, but it is on so strange frequency to be a legal station. And the ID was also strange, there were some words in Chinese! Here you can download a 10 minute clip of what I heard. In the middle of that clip is a section with heavy local QRM, you can skip over it. But the best ID starts at 04.10. Please listen to that clip and tell your opinions! http://juhansivut.pp.fi/UNID_1925.mp3 73' (Juha Ojanperä, Ulvila, Finland, Dec 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Clear ID ”Mezhdunarodnoe radio Kitaya” (=International Radio China). Frequencies to Europe are 7255 kHz and 9525 kHz at this time according to the programme schedule. http://russian.cri.cn/741/2008/11/19/1s265082.htm (Reijo Alapiha, Finland, HCDX via DXLD) Juha, This is an interesting recording, to say the least. At :40 and 3:50 I hear "Radio (multi-syllable)" IDs, which a Russian-speaking DXer should be able to recognize (I wasn't able to understand it). The announcement at 4:10 is mostly in Russian but mentions "Ni hao (something) Radio Kitaya" in Chinese, which translates as "Hello (something) Radio China". I also heard "programa" mentioned in the announcement. It sounds like it might be a promo for a Chinese program or a seasons greetings message from CRI. I'm guessing this is a mixing product between two co-located MW or SW transmitters, but I have no idea what the location might be (Bruce Portzer, WA, HCDX via DXLD) Hi Juha, Thanks for the audio clip. I listened to it with Audacity (with filtering etc.). The frecuency 1925 suggests that this may be a harmonic from Pori 963. I have not checked if there was a Russian transmission on 963 at the time, but the program most probably is made by CRI as Bruce suggested. 73 de (Matti Ponkamo, Naantali, Finland, (MOP/OH1GPU, Loc.: KP10AK18), ibid.) It's China Radio International Russian Service. No idea how it appeared on 1925 kHz. I think the time of reception was 18:40-18:51 UTC. CRI Russian schedule on 963 kHz Pori: 03:00-05:00, 17:00-19:00 UT (Aleksandr Diadischev, Russia, ibid.) Juha, I guess you are in your Ulvila QTH, very near Pori. 2 x 963 = 1926 kHz! Didn't check details, but I think they still relay CRI. 73's (Risto Vahakainu, ibid.) I think this was 2nd harmonic of Pori 963 kHz (Risto Kotalampi, ibid.) Yep, that`s what I also assumed. Only the frequency was so strange. But Risto Kotalampi proposed that it could be just a harmonic fq of CRI Pori on 963, which is very reasonable assumption because I live very near that tx in Pori! I just didn't think about that possibility! I think that this "mystery" has been solved! 73' (Juha, ibid.) Many thanks to all who shared their opinion about that unid at 1925 kHz. I checked 963, and indeed, there was same programme going on than at 1925, so clearly 1925 is harmonic frequency of 963! When YLE was still txing from Pori some years ago, transmissions on wrong frequency were very common here, but since YLE has cancelled all SW and MW transmissions, I haven't encountered any phenomenae like this until now, and that's why I didn't even think about that possibility. 73' (Juha, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 3320, Dec 25 at 2309 continuous tone test, exactly same pitch as the pips on CHU; apparently R. Sonder Grense, SOUTH AFRICA which is supposed to program all-night; tho P`yongyang could have propagated, too. 3320, Dec 27 at 1152, open carrier with tone test, or rather het, I think now from a second carrier, this time slightly lower pitched than the adjacent CHU pips. Obviously at this hour it would have nothing to do with South Africa. Nothing much audible from North Korea either below 4 MHz, except a carrier on 2850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. English and Dutch-speaking pirate heard playing English pop songs on 3900 on December 24 at 1551-1714 close down, and again the same evening at 2154. A text number for listeners' messages was read out but could not be copied here. No ID was heard except for several references to the 3900 frequency. Not heard on 25 December or, so far, on the 26th. Does anyone know the identity of this station? (Roger Tidy, London, UK, Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I think it was Radio Spaceman, I got a clear ID from them. 73' (Juha Ojanperä, Finland, ibid.) Roger, I believe it was R. Spaceman, which I had logged at 2216 on 18 Dec, and heard again on the same [3900] fq on 24 Dec. Speaking of this band alone: 3905 Skyline, HOL, 23 Dec, 2310 4035 TRX, HOL too?, 23 Dec, 2317 3905 Bluestar R, HOL, 23 Dec, 2350 4015 Laser Hot Hits, G?, IRL?, 25 Dec, 2252 4100 R. Mistletoe, G?, IRL?, 25 Dec, 2254 (s/off 2314)* 4065 Overijssel R, HOL, 25 Dec, 2307 4050 UNID Dutch, 25 Dec, 2331 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, ibid.) Spaceman confirmed on this blog, which is always worth checking for unidentified pirates, though bear in mind that sometimes pirates use frequencies for only a short period of time and then other stations use the same frequency later: http://shortwavedx.blogspot.com/ (Mike Barraclough, UK, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 6768, Dec 25 at 0132, 5-digit Spanish spy numbers by YL (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 7584, 25 DEC, 0621 UT, CW station repeatedly sending 751 and nothing else. Not a platter or loop because the op made several mistakes and sent a couple of BTs and "dits" to indicate an error. Went SK at 0623. Nothing listed in Klingenfuss (Al Muick, in the dust of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 100m longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. INTERMODULATION ? - or rx mixture? BC station on 10119 kHz. Strong BC station observed on 10.119 MHz (in SAM on flexradio), first in Hungarian m. voice. On 1900z anonunced by m. person what sounded like "Holy Radio" just once. Following transmission was in Croatian language, relig. content. Audio recording avalaible. Conditions RX: F5KA, (SAM, best reception), ANT: end-feed random wire 20 m long, 7m up, E-W. LOC JN76FB 73 de (Jurij S56FC (Jurij Kus Dec 22 via BC-DX via DXLD) Did you check this intermodulation with a 2nd different receiver? Maybe an overload on your rx? Check tomorrow against 3975 WYFR transmission: Media & Broadcast Wertachtal Germany, - registered for WYFR Family Radio: Hungarian to Hungary, Magyar Nyelven 1800-1900 3975WER Srpski za Srbiju - Serbian To Serbia 1900-2000 3975WER (73 wb df5sx JN48OR, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 13590, Dec 28 at 1439, very distorted vocal music piece of 20+ notes repeated over and over at irregular intervals. No good with BFO on, so mode mostly FM; modulation also makes S-meter move. Atop much weaker AM signal, presumably 1Africa, Zambia. At first I thought it was Cairo 13580 with typically distorted Albanian service but that does not start until 1500, when today it was much less distorted. Could not find anything // on 13 MHz band, in case this was a spur. At 1446 the melody started repeating continuously rather than with irregular pauses. At 1453 a couple more notes were added at the end. At 1454 about three syllables were spoken, and nothing more heard to 1507 when I quit monitoring this. Any ideas? Audio clip: http://www.w4uvh.net/13590unid.rm (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Glenn, So another year suddenly draws to a close. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the efforts and valuable information you have placed in DXLD throughout this year. It has helped me continue to enjoy the hobby, despite the fact that more stations have or are planning to leave the shortwave spectrum. Regardless, I am always able to find something new and useful in your excellent publication. It is most appreciated, Glenn and I thank you. Wishing you all good things in the New Year 2011 (Ed Insinger, Summit, NJ, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS See also CANADA; MEXICO ++++++++++++ NEW PAL RADIO GUIDES NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE Latest versions of the PAL Radio Guides covering all AM [mediumwave] and SW [shortwave] radio stations across the Asia and Pacific region are now available from the Radio Heritage Foundation website http://www.radioheritage.net The Pacific Asian Log [PAL] Radio guides list all known AM and SW radio stations operating in the region with detailed information about operating times, languages, location, and much more...across many thousands of individual stations. Information in the new Pacific Asian Log Radio Guides is also useful for travellers, travel agents, corporates and others who need to keep clients and staff informed. The PAL Radio Guides are compiled in Seattle [USA] by our editor-in- chief Bruce Portzer from monitoring reports, official sources and feedback from listeners across the region. Search the two guides online now by options such as location and frequency or download copies for your own personal use. You can also search our other frequently updated online guides to Australian narrowcast AM radio [Australia 1611-1701 AM] and the New Zealand Low Power FM Radio Dial [NZLPFM Radio] Feedback, corrections and updates from users are always welcome and will be incorporated in future versions. Simply email us with your comments to info @ radioheritage.net Radio Heritage Foundation is a registered non-profit connecting popular culture, nostalgia and radio heritage across the region. Free community access to the PAL Radio Guides and other services is available at our global website www.radioheritage.net. Annual supporter subscriptions start as low as US$10 and also offer discounts on exclusive radio books and CD's. Become an Annual Supporter or one of our 150 special US$100 sponsors in 2011! (David Ricquish, RHF press release via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ Re 10-51, 16 Hz Glenn, The system is called "Streamline" and is running on a lot of stations with extensive coverage (class As and some high power low frequency class Bs). My colleagues tell me that they don't think the "warranty warning" is necessarily the entire or even necessarily the real reason for the system. There are other possibilities such as power system load control, for example. bfd3 (Ben F Dawson III, Hatfield-Dawson, WA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: [IRCA] Fw: [Lowfer] GROWLING AUDIO ON MWBC SIGNALS There appear to be a number of stations using this low data rate signal. 850 KOA +/- 16 Hz; 1040 WHO +/- 16 Hz; 1110 KFAB +/- 16 Hz; 700 [ID??] +/- 16 Hz. And some with either a + offset of +14 to +20 and some with a + offset and a different - offset -20 to -14. Of course those might just be other stations off-frequency, hard to tell for sure. Info on the specs of this presumed low-data rate signal would be nice to read about (Steve Ratzlaff, OR, 22 Dec, IRCA via DXLD) ON THIS DAY: CANADIAN MAKES FIRST WIRELESS RADIO TRANSMISSION Many believe that Reginald Fessenden, not Marconi, invented radio. On Dec. 23, 1900, Fessenden transmitted a broadcast by wireless telegraph between two towers on a site near Washington, D.C. There is a fascinating TV programme about this, made in 1979 at: http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/12/23/ (via ODXA via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) This event is curious from a historical perspective. In actual fact there is no definitive proof that this broadcast ever happened. Several researchers have looked into the matter and have found no reports of the event taking place. No newspaper reports, no magazine articles, no reports of the transmissions in the logs of the ships that apparently heard the broadcast, no written records, lab note books or journals either by Fessenden himself or his colleagues, or anyone else who might have been present. It seems curious that such an important event seemingly went unreported. It wasn't until the 1920's and even later in the 1930's that any mention was made of such a broadcast. By this time people's memory's were becoming foggy, with even some of Fessenden's workers who were supposedly present at the event unable to provide definitive information. It is these few "after-the-fact" mentions that the myth of the 1906 broadcast was based on. This does not mean the 1906 event absolutely did not occur. It's just extremely odd that there is no record of it. This was a time of great scientific and engineering advances, such as powered flight, etc. Reporters of the day were keeping their ears to the ground as it were. A voice broadcast out to ocean going vessels would have been something quite amazing, and also very hard to keep secret. It seems unlikely that any sailor on any of the number of ships supposedly hearing this broadcast upon landing on shore would have been more than glad to talk to someone from one of the many publications that were prevalent in those days. By 1906 radio was no longer just a laboratory curiosity, and was familiar to many of the general public who would likely have been aware that radio could only send dots and dashes. This however is a moot point because as mentioned by Harold, Fessenden did indeed transmit speech six years earlier on Dec. 23, 1900. That event was recorded and verified. There is no doubt that it did happen. Why the 1906 story continues to be perpetuated is a mystery since the earlier broadcast is an even more amazing feat giving the state of the art at the time. I suppose it makes a good Christmas story, but so does the 1900 event, even if it was one day earlier on Dec. 23 instead of Christmas eve. Perhaps it was because the 1900 broadcast was over a much shorter distance than the supposed 1906 transmission. As the 1906 story was one of a "surprise" broadcast out to mariners in the cold Atlantic on a Christmas Eve it was of a more romantic nature to the folks of the 1930's who were probably first hearing about this. It made for a good story over the more staid 1900 laboratory experiment, and then became part of the folklore of radio history. Even so it didn't make as big a splash as Marconi, who was much better at publicizing himself. In order to modulate the RF signal Fessenden inserted a carbon microphone in series with the RF circuit. This microphone had to carry upwards of 15A of RF current. It got so hot that it had to be water cooled. Also with that much "juice" going through it, it behooved the broadcaster not to get their lips too close to the microphone while speaking! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall that day. There is very little doubt that Fessenden deserves the accolades for being the first to broadcast voice over radio, just not in 1906 but in 1900. An even more amazing feat I think. And I don't think we can say definitively, as the fellow in the CBC video clip stated, that Fesseneden invented radio. If we take radio to mean the transmission of intelligence by means of radio waves, we may never know for sure. People like Loomis & Ward were at least thinking of the concept way before the likes of Marconi were even born. Perhaps it was even Hertz himself. All it would take would be for someone playing around with a spark and a receiving device to zap off a few letters of Morse code and bingo, that person becomes the inventor of radio - maybe! Maybe it's the first person to patent the idea, but that's a legal definition over a purely scientific one. Makes for a good mystery though for those of us interested in such things. Cheers, and all the best to everyone on this Christmas Eve 110 years later (John, ODXA yg via DXLD) BUDDIPOLE ANTENNA I am French DX Listener with two receivers HF: JRC NRD-525 and 545 and for the last 18 months, I’ve found a combination of Buddipole telescoping whip antennas, with various Clifton Laboratories active antennas, amplifiers and accessories to provide excellent results. Buddipole Telescoping Whips First, a word about the Buddipole whips. Buddipole sells two telescoping antennas, the “Standard Length”, which extends to 9,5 feet (2,9 metres) and a “Medium Length“ with a maximum length of 5,5 feet (1,7 metres.) I own three Buddipole whips, two Standard Length and one Medium Length. (Standard Length whips are black, and the Medium Length is available in either chrome or black.) Both whips have brass studs, 3/8”x24 threaded for compatibility with standard mobile radio hardware. Flex but do not break. In France, autumn and winter regularly bring strong winds and this year is no different. Extend to its full 9,5 ft length, mounted on the balcony rail of my apartment, the Buddipole whips flexed but were not damaged and were always effective. (I made the tilt bracket). Buddipole also has two extension arms available. These extension arms attach to the threaded stud end of the telescoping whip and extend its length. The longer arm is 22 inches (0,56 metres) and the short version is half this length, 11 inches (0,28 metres). I recently purchased two short extension arms and added them to my Buddipole whip with good results. The whip plus extension arm is mechanically solid. Buddipole’s web site is http://www.buddipole.com/ and the telescoping whips and extension arms are in the Antenna Accessories section. CLIFTON LABORATORIES ACTIVE ANTENNA, AMPLIFIERS AND ACCESSORIES As mentioned, my main receiving antenna is a Clifton Laboratories Z1501D Active Antenna, which permits reception between 20 KHz and 30 MHz (usable to well over 100 MHz). The Z1501D uses a Buddipole Standard Length (or optionally, Medium Length) telescoping whip. Signals from the telescoping whip are amplified and impedance matched with a high performance “whip amplifier” that can be seen in the photograph above. It’s inside the rectangular aluminum box. Clifton Laboratories is owned and run by Jack Smith, who started his radio work 50 years ago as a high school student and amateur radio operator, K8ZOA. After retiring, he started Clifton Laboratories to make kits and assembled products for amateur radio operators and shortwave listeners. In my case, I have used Clifton Laboratories’ Z10042AV and Z10046A preamplifiers between the Z1501D and my NRD-545 when listening below 100 KHz. Both work well, but the Z10046A has additional gain (23.5 dB) compared with the Z10042AV (11 dB). The photograph at the right shows how I installed the Z10042AV preamplifier. (The Z10042AV is in a custom die cast box, available on special order from Clifton Laboratories.) The bottom plastic box holds a Z1505A common mode choke and the upper box holds a Z1202A DC coupler and a Z10050A two output antenna splitter.) Above 100 KHz additional gain is not needed, and the preamplifier may be bypassed or the NRD-545’s attenuator selected. Clifton Laboratories Clifton Laboratories main web site is http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com This site is very well done, clear and practical with a wealth of useful information. The "Current Products" page has details on Clifton Laboratories’ main products. Jack tells me that he plans to have several new products introduced in early 2011 of interest to shortwave listeners. He is also willing to modify existing designs for special applications, and will respond to your questions by email. Jack.Smith @ cliftonlaboratories.com The main Clifton Laboratories products available as of writing this paper (November 2010) are: - Z1501 Active Antenna, antenna telescopic whip and its 20 KHz to 30 MHz preamplifier. Three Norton Amplifiers: - Z10040B Norton Amplifier. Classic through-hole component version. - Z10042A Norton Amplifier. Surface components version. - Z10042AV Norton Amplifier. Components optimized surface LW VLW version. New preamplifier high gain - Z10046A High Gain Preamplifier. Splitter - Z10050A for coupling two receivers in a preamplifier. Couplers 13.8 Volt supply - Z1203A DC Power Coupler DC Power Coupler 13.8 Volts. I use the older (and not now available) Z1202A. Common mode choke - Z1505A not on the site but I use the Common mode choke well minimize interference and provide more access to the LW/VLW. This information is non-profit for me but can only be a help to our family of hardliners DX Listeners. Very cordially from Paris city, Capital of France (Bernard MALET, Bernard.malet @ sfr.fr FRENCH DX LISTENER EXPERIENCE FOR SWL COMMUNITY, SW Bulletin Dec 26 via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV See also USA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QUESTION ON DTV COVERAGE AREAS I was just looking at the coverage areas on Doug's site. I was wondering if these are FCC data & measured or predicted? But my real question is, what type of antenna, height & amplifier is needed at the receiving site to get these distances? I have only indoor antennas with amplifier, some of the better rated ones. Yet I have yet to receive some stations only about 17-23 miles from me. The coverage maps indicate these signals can be received at twice these distances. This is just the opposite of FM coverage maps, where I can get stations still in stereo in areas it says they are barely audible or not heard. I'm just using portables with the whip antenna. Still, radio-locator.com shows some co-channel overlaps as FCC pretends FM receivers are as insensitive as their AM sections. Hope my rant doesn't upset anyone. 73, (George Sherman, MN, WTFDA via DXLD) The FCC's coverage maps are predictions, and they're not particularly great predictions either. They're similar to the kind of predictions that were made in the 50s before the computer-aided predictions we have available to use today, but are still used in determining "protected coverage contours." I know the receive antenna height is assumed to be 30 feet, but the antenna I'm not sure of. I think it's something like a 10 dB gain antenna but I don't remember any specifics. On RabbitEars, I have Longley-Rice coverage maps that I believe to be significantly more accurate. Not only do they use the Longley-Rice prediction scheme, which is what the FCC uses to determine interference between stations, but they assume a receive antenna height of 13 feet instead of 30 feet to better reflect indoor reception. You can find a list of 7800-ish of the maps here: http://www.rabbitears.info/maplist.php Which stations are you unable to receive? (Trip Ericson, http://www.rabbitears.info Dec 22, ibid.) HAS THE FCC GONE MAD??? I don't understand what the FCC is thinking in awarding all these new low-power digital CPs to a market the size of Fort Wayne, IN. I realize the FCC sets up the rules and regulations, but this seems insane to me. WFWC-LD (RF 10) @ .3 kW W14DS-S (RF 14) @ 15 kW W16CU-D (RF 16) @ 2 kW W20DG-D (RF 20) @ 7.5 kW W29DX-D (RF 29) @ 2.5 kW W33DC-D (RF 33) @ 15 kW W41DS-D (RF 41) @ 3 kW W49DP-D (RF 49) @ 3 kW W51EQ-D (RF 51) @ 12.5 kW PLUS (yes, more) Applications have been filed for MORE low-power DTVs in Fort Wayne on these channels: 4, 19, 21, 26, 34, 35, 39, & 43 (Steve Rich, Indianapolis, IN, WTFDA via DXLD) For low-power stations, the FCC decided long ago to consider only technical issues when deciding whether to authorize a station. For full-power stations, there are still multiple-ownership limits but that's it. Canada still considers the impact of a new station on existing operations. I would not be at all surprised if the majority of these permits are never built (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) I think Fort Wayne ended up being the worst-case scenario here. What happened was that after the DTV transition and *before* the push really started to once again repack the UHF spectrum to provide more room for wireless data services, the FCC decided to open a window for new digital LPTV applications. But they decided to open it in stages: first to applications for stations to be located in "rural areas," which they defined as being 75 miles or more from a top-100 television market. For the most part, this ended up meaning places like Missoula, Montana and Kearney, Nebraska - places where there's plenty of spectrum but so little population as to make new-station construction a dicey economic proposition even for the most speculative of broadcasters. Fort Wayne, however, was the perfect storm: it just fell out of the top 100 TV markets itself, and it's *just* far enough from Indy and Toledo and South Bend to meet that 75-mile distance standard - and so it ended up, if I'm not mistaken, being by far the largest community eligible for the "rural" window, which is why everyone pounced on it. (It also didn't hurt that FW has only five full-power stations, leaving lots of open channels for new LP digital service.) As Doug noted, the FCC (unlike, say, the CRTC) applies no economic test to new licenses, allowing the free market to flood the zone with as many signals as can be technically licensed to an area. I agree with Doug that it's unlikely all (or even many) of those Fort Wayne CPs will end up being built. Cable penetration in the FW market is quite high, so most of these new stations would be visible to only maybe 10-15% of the people there to begin with. And after the "rural" window, the FCC rethought things, deciding there will be no "urban" window for new LPTVs after all, since the priority for UHF spectrum is now data services instead of new TV signals. So we're not likely to see a Fort Wayne flood like this again... s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC/RDS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ IBIQUITY PROPOSES "AM RDS" Ibiquity (the HD Radio/IBOC folks) and the NAB have released an "AM Digital Data Service System Study Report". This report proposes a data system for AM radio similar to the RDS system available on FM. http://www.nabfastroad.org/AMDigitalDataSSSRpt.pdf THIS SYSTEM SHOULD **NOT** CREATE ADJACENT CHANNEL INTERFERENCE. (hopefully the above sentence will quell any wild rumors of ADDS being the death of AM DX(grin)!) The ADDS proposes to provide: - Station Message Service. - Station Name (call letters) up to 8 characters. - Station Message up to 158 bytes. "Check us out at http://www.wzmf.com", something like that. Presumably the SMS is for information about the station itself. It can change (there are provisions for notifying the receiver the Station Message has changed) but probably not very often. - Program Service Data. - Title - Artist - Album - Genre - Content - Commercial The first four are probably familiar to anyone who's worked with CD- ripping software or MP3 files. Ibiquity proposes to broadcast the ID3 tags for a musical selection. Tags are valid up to 1,024 bytes. The proposal calls for the commercial tag to contain: - Price - Date until which the price is valid - URL (web address to locate the product online) - Type of delivery (some products, like music downloads, can be delivered online -- others may require visiting a bricks-and-mortar store) - Name of seller - Description of product - *picture* of product (in 1,024 bytes???) - Logo ============================ This system does NOT propose to extend the station's signal beyond its current bandwidth. If the station is already using IBOC, it will continue to occupy the bandwidth it already does. If the station is NOT using IBOC, adding ADDS will NOT widen the station's occupied bandwidth. The data is to be transmitted in the unused space between the main carrier and the low-frequency end of the sidebands. Three sets of data carriers are proposed. Only the first set is obligatory; the other two sets are optional but will greatly increase the speed at which data can be transmitted (at the expense of potential self-interference -- it is possible adding ADDS will cause the station to interfere *with itself*). The obligatory set of carriers is at 181.7 Hz either side of the main carrier/station's quoted frequency. Since few AM receivers have much response below 300 Hz, this should be fairly well rejected. These carriers will be 26 dB below main carrier. The optional carrier sets are at twice and three times this separation -- 363.4 and 545.1 Hz. These will be 40 and 45 dB respectively below main carrier. This gets into territory not rejected by the receiver's filtering -- but in most cases 40 dB attenuation should be enough to make them inaudible below ambient noise levels. With just the obligatory carrier set, a data rate of 91.5 baud should be possible. If the optional carrier sets are added, up to 1,098 baud should be possible. The system is designed to be compatible with IBOC. ============================ At this point this is simply a study. It's not (yet) part of the standard, let alone ready for any station to broadcast it, let alone for any receivers to be available. IMHO this is good news for the AM DXer. It is essentially "RDS for AM". Many American FM DXers (myself included) have found FM RDS indispensable for identifying stations running continuous classical music/NPR talk shows/etc... European FM DXers don't believe there are still American FM DXers who *don't* use RDS! (it seems just about every FM DXer in Europe does). It does run the risk of generating additional self-interference, but that's not going to make things any worse for us (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Dec 23, NRC-AM via DXLD) I don't care except if this will cause more QRN. Do you know? (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) I wouldn't worry about it too much, the AM IBOC station count is down from 260 to 235 from February this year. Less air pollution all the time (Bob Young, Millbury, MA, ibid.) Wow! I did not know that. Down 25 stations, I wonder if this will be the trend? Sure hope so! 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) Here's a thread about it that started in February. We monitor Barry's All AM IBOC stations on the air. http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=162344.0 (Bob Young, ibid.) > THIS SYSTEM SHOULD **NOT** CREATE ADJACENT CHANNEL INTERFERENCE. Should, they say. The wording appears less than certain. > Down 25 stations, I wonder if this will be the trend? Sure hope so! I wonder if this is an attempt to revive AM IBOC. Wouldn't they desperately want to? (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) > THIS SYSTEM SHOULD **NOT** CREATE ADJACENT CHANNEL INTERFERENCE. Based on a legacy of P.R. and history, I have no faith in this statement. More Ibiquity putting a turd in a Tootsie Roll wrapper and telling people it's fine candy. The big question overall is how has IBOC helped AM? I've not heard from either the listener or station side one person saying there has been a benefit. On the other hand, IBOC has ruined many listener experiences, especially with sporting events. For example, on your typical car radio, when signals are weak, the more the "hiss" ingresses to the analog portion of the content, producing an effect that the common person feels is a less than desirable signal. While those of us on the list know what's happening, the average guy doesn't, and noisy analog to them means the station is inferior. Recently I purchased a new truck, and on a drive from Lima to Decatur IL did some listening. I was surprised at how many stations I should have gotten just fine, but they were being eaten by their own IBOC or an adjacent channel. In fact, while at the Indy/Illinois line I pressed "Seek" on the radio. It jumped over all the IBOC stations. Again, I know what's going on, but average Joe listener doesn't. And in my humble opinion, stations have only themselves to blame for listener numbers declining by buying that snake oil (Frederick Vobbe, ibid.) Just to be clear, that statement is *mine*, not Ibiquity's. They make no claim in either direction in their document. Reading the technical details, I believe my statement to be accurate. There is a dramatic difference between this proposal and the HD Radio system. The document explaining the RF waveforms for HD Radio audio clearly shows the claims of no adjacent-channel interference would prove wrong. The document jibes perfectly with the experiences of DXers, listeners, spectrum analyzers, and stations. (and conflict with frequently-conflicting PR claims) The document explaining the RF waveforms for this new ADDS system just as clearly show the new signals will be *inside* the analog signal. Now, I am not at all convinced this system will *work* any better than IBOC, nor am I convinced it won't exhibit self-interference -- where the station using it interferes with its own signal. And you can never rule out equipment failure (or, given the poor economic state of AM radio, incompetent engineering) causing the signal to behave in a way not consistent with the spec. But the thing that stands out about this system is that, unlike IBOC which flat out admits it transmits in adjacent channels, this system doesn't even come close to the channel edge. It doesn't have to; the amount of data they're trying to transmit is MUCH less (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) ``Just to be clear, that statement is *mine*, not Ibiquity's. They make no claim in either direction in their document.`` Understood. But I still don't feel the technical claim is based on reality (Fred Vobbe, ibid.) I'm afraid I'm sticking with my statement. Certainly, there was plenty of half-truth and whitewashing applied in the IBOC process. Basically, information in the technical papers that suggested the possibility (probability!) of adjacent-channel interference was ignored, or defined away through legalese. But the technical data itself was, IMHO, truthful. That data clearly showed what would happen if this was deployed. And when it *was* deployed, that's exactly what *did* happen. It's just that nobody *read* the technical data -- they stopped with the PR releases. Of course, Ibiquity is fully guilty of sweeping the evidence of interference under the rug. I don't know that I would have expected any more from any other company... (a certain British firm with a two- character name comes to mind(grin)) I see the same situation here. As with IBOC, I trust the technical data to be truthful. That technical data suggests a strong possibility of self-interference - of which I see no mention in the documents. (it also shows a strong possibility the higher speed modes, with the two additional carriers, simply will not work at non-trivial distances from the transmitter) But the technical data also shows essentially no possibility of *adjacent-channel* interference. Within the disclaimer that I do TV, not radio, the technical paper passes the "smell test". It's easy enough to find things IBOC and its proponents are guilty of. We don't need to find things they're *not* guilty of! -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) Saul DX wrote: ``I wonder if this is an attempt to revive AM IBOC. Wouldn't they desperately want to?`` I almost wonder if this is an admission that AM IBOC has failed, and Ibiquity is trying to salvage some of their investment developing a product that stations might actually buy? (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) It's all hypothetical anyway because this will sink just like everything else has IBOC, ibiquity has been proposing and/or trying all kinds of hairbrained schemes in the past few years to continue to try to sell this junk but it ain't happenin' ma. In fact digital radio is failing globally and rightfully so, the consumers get cheated with every system (Bob Young, Millbury, MA, ibid.) And the receiver? $$$? Merry Christmas y'all! (Mark Durenberger, DXAS, ibid.) Really, with DSP the equation has changed, with regard to adding features to receivers. Witness some of the things we've been seeing in ultralight radios. Witness the amazing performance of HD receivers on *analog* signals. It'll cost some semiconductor firm a few tens of thousands of $$ of engineering to develop the firmware routines to decode this. Divide that among a few million chips sold & it's essentially free in any radio that includes a display. (I do think the cost of implementation *at the transmitter* will greatly limit deployment.) – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) Agree with your sentiment, Fred. Though that is what a regulator is for (Saul Chernos, ibid.) I concur with Doug on this. The only thing that this new system has in common with AM IBOC is its promoter. Other than that, it seems to have more in common with other low-frequency, low-speed data systems that have been tried on AM over the years, right back to the very slow- speed Morse that was sent at subaudible frequencies over some stations as long ago as WWII. (KFI still has some of that equipment stored away at its transmitter site!) Then there was the pilot tone for C-QUAM AM stereo, which was, what, 25 kHz? None of those systems interfered with adjacent-channel stations, nor is there any technical reason to think that they should or would have done so. The sins of Ibiquity (and they are legion) have been on the marketing side. The technical people there have been honest about the details of how their systems occupy spectrum. Even if they've been reluctant to openly state the obvious (you can't put THAT much spectral energy out beyond +/- 10 kHz from an AM station's carrier without slopping over on adjacent-channel analog signals), they've put the data out there to allow others to draw those conclusions. In any event, I remain convinced this is much ado about very little. AM radio is in a much less competitive economic position now than it was when AM IBOC was developed more than a decade ago. (Just look to my east, where Clear Channel is poised to begin simulcasting the news- talk programming of WSYR 570, a station with no signal issues at all, on what had been an urban FM station in Syracuse!) The industry as a whole is in a far less healthy economic position than it was in a decade ago. There's no cap-ex money out there (as I'm sure Fred well knows from his new executive position!) to be spending even the fairly minimal amount of money it will take to install the gear needed to put this particular brand of lipstick on this particular pig. And if they do...well, as Doug has suggested, it could actually be a boon to DXers who'd have an RDS-type data stream by which to identify mystery AM signals. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Vicinity of 25 Hz. (ISTR it varied slightly depending on which of the five initially-approved systems you were talking about, I don't remember which one C-Quam chose) This is a bit higher -- hence the risk of self-interference -- but it's still WAY below where it would escape into adjacent channels. Probably. I do think the rapidly growing use of DSP will make this scheme nearly free in *receivers* in the very near future. It's going to be a bigger problem at the transmitter. Probably much less so at stations that currently have, or have had in the past, IBOC. The big problem will be monetizing it. Those of you who don't DX FM or TV, do not underestimate the extent to which automatic "text IDs" have revolutionized the higher-frequency hobby. For the reasons Scott cites, don't hold your breath for AM-RDS to become universal -- but to the extent it *is* adopted, it will be good news for DXers (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) Could this be the first radio industry development which will benefit more DX'ers than it will "consumers"? Bring it on! (Paul Swearingen, Topeka, ibid.) You're right Bob. With less AM stations running IBOC now, probably by next Winter there will be even less. I think NPR stations may be the last to drop it though as I have talked to two CEs at NPR stations in the past 10 years they think IBOC is the greatest thing since chewing gum. hi. 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) I don't think there's really that much love for the AM IBOC system among the NPR stations with which I'm familiar. We've never used it on WXXI 1370 here in Rochester, and they don't run it on WNED 970 down the road in Buffalo, either. WNYC 820 in New York turned theirs off this year after some of the equipment failed. NPR's big interest in IBOC is the ability to multicast, which the AM system doesn't provide. We are indeed very excited about the FM HD system at WXXI, since it allows us to make our AM news-talk programming available 24/7 via 91.5-HD2 to many areas within our market that are outside the nighttime coverage of our AM signal. In Ithaca, we use the HD2 of our new station, WITH 90.1, to bring full- time classical to a market that's never had a classical station. Over in Syracuse, our fellow public station WCNY-FM uses its HD2 and HD3 to provide the market with oldies/standards and jazz formats that would otherwise be unavailable. The response we get from our listeners tells us that there are people listening and making use of these FM-HD services. They're not going away. In general, NPR stations are trying to get off the AM band whenever possible. WOSU in Columbus, Ohio just bought a second FM, allowing them to go 24/7 classical on the new FM and 24/7 news-talk on WOSU-FM 89.7 and eventually to sell off WOSU 820. WNYC recently bought a second FM signal so that it could make WNYC-FM 93.9 all news and talk. If a full-market FM signal were to become available here in Rochester at a reasonable price, we probably wouldn't hesitate to unload AM 1370. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Scott, Maybe of late the CE's changed their mind. I remember the CE at BSU was all excited about 730 KBSU going IBOC back during the convention in 04. The CE in Southern OR NPR was another that liked it and their 1230 is IBOC and even at this distance I can often hear the hash on 1220 or 1240. Also the CE at KUOW was impressed with it and even their relay at Tumwater WA (1340) went IBOC. Even though the NW does not have a lot of high power IBOC just KEX and KRKO, there are still quite a few lp stations running it and their QRM is still an issue when it comes to logging flea power stations on adjacents. 1220 is a channel I used to like more than I do now because of KSJK Talent OR. That may be moot as Palo Alto, CA 1220 is boosting to 50 KW (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) The reason a lot of NPR stations, such as KDLG and other smaller Ams have gone HD is, they got a grant, that was for a brand new transmitter, with the caveat that it must have HD on it; and it was a use it or lose it deal. They use the grant for exactly what it says or they lose it, and most of these stations ended up needing a new transmitter anyways, so there you go (Paul B Walker, Jr, IL, ibid.) It's a little more complex than that. The grant program you're talking about is called the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP). It's a federal matching-grant program - you go to them, if you're a public broadcaster, and tell them exactly what project you'd like to do. Sometimes it's as big as a new station to bring NPR or PBS service to an area that's unserved, sometimes it's as simple as replacing a damaged part. (We got a PTFP grant this year at WXXI to replace a mask filter that burned up in our TV transmission system.) You're correct, Paul, that the money has to be used for exactly the equipment specified in the grant request - but there's nothing in the grant process that mandates that the grant has to be used for HD. And Pat is quite right that a lot of public radio engineers were much more bullish about AM HD in 2004. For stations that were more or less stuck with AM signals - the ones in southern Oregon, for instance - the hope was that the audio quality of AM HD would help bring listeners over to AM and make their AM stations more viable. And the Alaska stations were hoping they could go digital-only and save considerably on their very expensive power bills. But 2004 was a long time ago in the world of public radio. Streaming media and podcasting were still relatively new back then. Now they're routine parts of the way we do business...in fact, many in the industry no longer call what we do "public RADIO," instead preferring "public MEDIA," since most stations are now just as active with interactive media as they are on the air. In 2004, commercial radio stations were at (or just past) the peak of station prices, so it was impossible to imagine a public radio station replacing its AM service by buying an FM station. Since station values began to return to reality a few years back, it's become much easier for public stations to afford to replace AM signals with FM acquisitions. I mentioned WNYC and WOSU, and they're far from alone - in recent years, the list has included everyone from KUOW to KUSC to Colorado Public Radio in Denver; and I think even the Jefferson Public Radio folks in southern Oregon have been buying some commercial FM signals in northern California to supplant their AMs. So, yes, there was a time when public radio engineers were big on AM HD. But one of the things I really like about working in public radio is that the engineering community is willing to test out new technologies; and to move on if something doesn't live up to its promises. AM HD looked promising a decade ago. It doesn't now, even for public radio. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Scott, thanks for clarifying. 2004 doesn't seem all that long ago to me, but with technology, it was history. hi. Even the CE at KSL in 2007 was quite gungho for KSL going to HD at night, even though they could not receive their AM in HD at the studio. I wonder how they feel about it now? Yet they continue to use it. Everyone in LA seems to have it on AM. Well, not everyone, but a lot do. I hope more stations start to drop it as time goes on (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) KCFR here in Denver bought a 2nd FM and has been trying to unload 1340 ever since; unfortunately they still run IBOC and it and // KCFC-1490 in Boulder (Wayne Heinen, CO, ibid.) As Scott said in an earlier post, we in public radio do like it on FM for the multicasting capability (NPR was really gung-ho about this and STRONGLY encouraged all their member stations to apply for grant money to pay for digital upgrades!), but even that is of limited utility when the vast majority of our listeners don't have HD radios; and we run streams of KSMU's HD-1 and HD-2 services online anyway. As a DXer I've never had much good to say about IBOC, but we don't have any AMs in our little regional network (Randy Stewart, Springfield MO, ibid.) I can see IBOC on FM with the multiple streams, just like TV with the sub channels, but AM? Of course going back to the early days of when IBOC was just being discussed in the 90s, it was never meant for AM, but the powers that be pushed it on AM. It has been as expected a failure on AM (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See ROMANIA; RUSSIA; SPAIN; UK; VATICAN ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Geomagnetic activity was at quiet to unsettled levels on 20 December with active to minor storm levels detected at high latitudes. Activity decreased to quiet levels during 21-26 December. The activity observed on 20 December was associated with a period of enhanced IMF Bt (peak 10nT at 20/0404 UTC) coupled with southward IMF Bz (maximum deflection -8 nT at 20/0758 UTC).
FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 29 DEC 2010 - 24 JAN 2011 Solar activity is expected to be at very low levels with a slight chance for C-class activity throughout the period. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at normal levels between 29 December and 11 January. Flux levels are expected to increase to moderate to high levels from 12-13 January. Normal levels are expected for the remainder of the period. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be quiet to unsettled on 29 December, due to subsiding affects of the aforementioned CME, before decreasing to quiet levels and remaining through 1 January. Activity is expected to increase to quiet to unsettled levels 2-4 January due to HSS effects from a large coronal hole in the northeast quadrant of the disk. The field is expected to return to quiet from 5- 19 January. With recurrent CH HSS effects expected, conditions are expected to be quiet to unsettled 20-21 January, before subsiding to mostly quiet levels for the remainder of the period. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2010 Dec 28 1925 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 2010-12-28 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 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 7 3 2011 Jan 04 88 7 3 2011 Jan 05 85 7 3 2011 Jan 06 85 7 3 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 2011 Jan 18 78 5 2 2011 Jan 19 80 5 2 2011 Jan 20 80 7 3 2011 Jan 21 80 7 3 2011 Jan 22 80 5 2 2011 Jan 23 80 5 2 2011 Jan 24 80 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1545, DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ CAN`T STAND THE WEIGHT Ever try to figure out what the best deal is on toilet paper? Single ply or double? Single rolls, or double? They have to specify the square footage on the package, but that`s not the whole story, only 2- dimensional! Certainly can`t go by appearance or size of package, since some may be fluffed and others compressed. We had figured Walgreen`s $5.00 package for 12 single rolls of double ply was probably best, but the latest one has suspiciously thinner TP, tho upon careful inspexion, it is still double-ply. The only way to make a valid comparison among the multitude of brands and versions is to WEIGH them! Hmmm, no scales in Walgreens, and even some groc stores avoid that complication too, such as Aldi`s. Even for produce, nothing sold by weight, or rather pre-packaged and trust them on the claimed weight, no way to check. OR, more and more fruits are being priced by the piece, disguising the higher cost per-unit-weight. This means we have to start BRINGING OUR OWN scales. Like the ones you hang fish from. Only minor damage will be done to TP packages by punching a little hang-hole in them. See if you get asked to leave and never come back? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###