DX LISTENING DIGEST 11-32, August 11, 2011 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 2011 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 1577 HEADLINES: *DX and station news from: Afghanistan, Anguilla, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Croatia, Cuba, Czechia non, Ethiopia, Europe, Guiana French, India, Indonesia, Libya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Serbia non, Slovakia non, Spain, Sudan non, UK non, USA, unidentified SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1577, August 11-17, 2011 Thu 0330 WRMI 9955 [repeated 1576 this week] Thu 1500 WRMI 9955 [confirmed on webcast] Thu 2100 WRMI 9955 [confirmed] Thu 2100 WTWW 9479 [confirmed] Thu 2130 WBCQ 7415 [confirmed on webcast] Fri 0330 WWRB 5051 Fri 0500 WRMI 9955 Fri 1430 WRMI 9955 Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 1500 WRMI 9955 Sat 1730 WRMI 9955 Sun 0400 WTWW 5755 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1530 WRMI 9955 Sun 1730 WRMI 9955 Mon 0300 WBCQ 5110v-CUSB [time varies later] Mon 1130 WRMI 9955 Mon 1530 WRMI 9955 Mon 2130 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html or http://schedule.worldofradio.org or http://sked.worldofradio.org For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://193.42.152.193/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN: http://www.wrn.org/wrn-listeners/world-of-radio/ http://www.wrn.org/listeners/world-of-radio/rss/09:00:00UTC/English/541 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg without delay. When applying, please identify yourself with your real name and location, and say something about why you want to join. Those who do not, unless I recognize them, will be prompted once to do so and no action will be taken otherwise. Here`s where to sign up: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ EDITOR`S NOTE: All gh items from 2300 UT August 8 to 1515 UT August 9 in this issue were during 20+ hour AC outage caused by storm downing powerlines [see OKLAHOMA]. Receivers used on batteries, and antennas: DX-398 and indoor random wire until 0050 UT August 9 DX-398 and short random wire outside on porch until 0210 UT DX-398 and regular outside 100+foot random wire E-W until 1330 UT FRG-7 and regular outside 100+foot random wire E-W after 1330 The local logs were on other convenient receivers not requiring external antennas; other MW on DX-398 with internal antenna. Noise levels were lessened by silencing all the household devices and nearby powerlines; however, by 0205 UT we were hearing some line noise again and could see lights on in adjacent blox. The T-storm noise moved on quickly and was not much of a problem by then (gh) ** AFGHANISTAN. [Re 11-31:] 6102.00, 4.8 1530, R. Afghanistan with news in English for ten minutes then domestic music. Quite strong. At 1555 ID saying “Dear listeners, this was all from the English programme of Radio of Afghanistan about tonight, till then have a nice day” and ended the English program. Strong on my Flag-antenna at 120 degrees. On Aug 3 noted moving up from nominal 6100 to 6102 (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6102.00, 1550-1555 04.08, R. Afghanistan, Kabul, talk in English (presumed) - Reactivated after ten years, but now on 6102, ex 6100, 13332, QRM CRI 6095 with strong DRM Noise (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, heard on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) On August 5, Radio Afghanistan s/on at 1515 on 6102 kHz. Carry on Domestic service in Dari until 1530 UT (S. Hasegawa, Japan, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Afghanistan, Last Night, 07-08-2011 I listened to Radio Afghanistan (English & Urdu Services) at 1530 to 1600 UT English Service on 6100 kHz. Reception condition was found 444 & Urdu Service at 1600-1630 on 6100 kHz same condition (Abid Hussain Sajid, Pakistan, August 8, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6102? Radio Afganistan (English Service Web Page) http://www.rta.org.af/English/ (Abid Hussain Sajid, Mailsi-61200-Pakistan, Aug 7, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Says it`s down for maintenance; check back and/or enter your password? (gh) Welcome back, Kabul / Radio Afghanistan heard in Italy --- Hi folks, 6102 kHz, Radio Afghanistan, 1616 UC, 7th August 2011. Male talk in Urdu, followed by slow traditional Afghani song. Male announcer IDs after the track, at 1622, with mention of "Radio Afghanistan". Another song, then short female talk in Urdu and the carrier vanished from the waterfall at 1630. Received in north-western Italy SDR "Pappradio" driven by "HDSDR" software) and a 10 meters vertical antenna. The signal was almost non-existent at 1530, but became identifiable towards the end of the broadcast. The clip recorded at 1616 is here http://bit.ly/qzNDP3 and the one at 1624 UT, leading to sign off, is here http://bit.ly/oiIm3C with thankings to Alessandro Groppazzi for assistance in checking files content. I also made an entry in my "radioactive" blog, comprising both recordings. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/n6OhZM Cheers (Chris Diemoz, Italy, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Chris, How to pronounce your (other) name? I am not sure which language phonetics to apply to it. Does not seem to be Italian? (Glenn to Chris, via DXLD) I live very close to the border with France and Switzerland, in a land that is bilingual (we use also French). My family name has roots in a Valley leading to the Swiss border, in particular. You should read it using french phonetics: Diémoz, where "i" has the sound of "e" in English, and "e" doesn't sound "i" but like the "e" in "he" (a plain "e"). The final "z" should be made heard softly. I assume the Afghanistan recording interested you. Ciao, (Chris Diemoz, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Heard what was almost certainly Radio Afghanistan (due to their off- channel frequency) for the first time this afternoon, despite trying a number of times since they returned to the air on 1st August: 6102.0 kHz - nothing at all audible at 1530 UT (sign-on time) but at 1619 at last there was a local song audible above the noise-floor. By 1623 signal was just strong enough for the sync detection on the AOR to lock onto 6102 - still the same song. Just past the half hour, there was some brief talk by a man (too weak to ID language or anything) then it was gone at 1631. Despite seeing some loggings from central Europe, frustratingly I think 6102 kHz is just too low a frequency and 1530 just too early an hour for Radio Afghanistan' s signal to make it here to the UK at this time of year. Hopefully as the weeks go by and Autumn approaches, receptio nwill become easier here (Alan Pennington, AOR 7030+ / Wellbrook ALA 1530, Caversham, UK, Aug 9, BDXC-UK yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) 6100/6102 kHz 49 mb from Kabul AFG is meant for the Indian subcontinent and areas around, but never for Albion target. Surprisingly reception in Germany was rather well this past 10 days - trend to be armchair listening when autumn looming. Select 6098 to 6108 kHz range, set to 6 or 10 kHz filter. S=8-9 signal in Finland. At present grey zone at Batumi in Georgia, dark zone in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Probably from Oct 30 in B-11 season, like in B-10 season it will be very difficult to hear anything here in Europe. [as in 11-31] 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, ibid.) 6102.00, traditional Afghani music noted already when listened at 1523 UT Aug 11. S=8 about -82dBm in central Europe. set your rx to 6098 to 6108 kHz range ... 73 wb On 8/11 abruptly on air at 1518, on 8/10 at 1508. Regards/ (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, DXLDyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. Checking R. Tirana, during very poor propagation August 6: at 0028 on 7425, national anthem, 0029 IS, 0030 off as scheduled. Could not hear 9860 for 0030 English to confirm whether both Shijak transmitters are back in use. At 0144, 7425 back on for English but still very poor with flutter, just making out the IS. 7425, UT Sunday Aug 7 at 0144, R. Tirana IS, 0145 complete English schedule gobbling up 2 minutes of this 12-minute broadcast. OMG, she is still saying the 1845 and 2000 transmissions are on 13640. Didn`t I confirm that they had changed the announcement to match reality of 13735 when that switch was made a few months ago? Everything is announced by YL Klara, who I have some trouble understanding, but much better than the Serb on IRS. 0147 `News from Albania` starting with something about China. 0152 talk about aquaculture; 0156 ``have a nice weekend, goodbye from Albania``, theme and cut off the air at 0157:20*. SINPO 45444, but readability would not rate more than a 3. 13625, August 8 at 1433, no signal from R. Tirana again this Monday, scheduled English to NAm, but nothing else from Europe propagating either on this band. Is one of the two Shijak transmitters still down? Only one of them is scheduled at this time, anyway. 7425, August 9 at 0140, English announcement and some classical music. 0142 a talk about climate. 0143 outro English broadcast, IS, 0145 theme and re-sign-on in English, again with wrong frequency 13640 instead of 13735 for 1845 and 2000 in complete English schedule, a frequency apparently off the air anyway at present. R. Tirana is supposed to be off the air until 0145-0200 English transmission, but there it was, either turned on too early, or with additional repeat at 0130-0145? Previously have found the webcast filled with more plays of the English broadcasts between the SW ones. Checked next night, Aug 10 at 0135, 7425 not on. 13625, August 9 at 1427 past 1430, again no signal from R. Tirana. Wolfgang Büschel explained August 8: ``TX #1 is down since August 1st, connected mostly on antennas S-10 and S-15. TX #2 can't be connected to the 13 MHz antenna "S-15" I guess; the Shijak antenna matrix is amateurish, I guess and not flexible to connect to all 15 antennas. TX #2 is mostly connected to "S-01 and S-08" which are in use AT PRESENT`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANGUILLA. 6090 and 11775 continue to be absent for about a week, whenever checked on August 3-4. On August 4, George McClintock, consulting engineer and frequency manager for Caribbean Beacon explains, ``A new antenna curtain (wire portion of the antenna) is being installed. Salt air causes problems for the antenna over a long period of time. No transmitter problem`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST 11-31 via WORLD OF RADIO 1577) ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, Friday August 5 at 1247 and a few later chex, still zero from LRA36, to end another week of silence from the deep- frozen Base Esperanza (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 15344.168, Radio Nacional Argentina, 2132-2145 Aug 7 [Sunday], Some music at tune in, followed with a female talking to a male on the telephone. At 2137 UT heard an ID as "... Radio Público Argentina" followed by more promos. Many mentions of Argentina and then some great Tango music followed. More telephone conversations continue. Signal was good (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, 26N 081W, WR- G31DDC, Excalibur, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 15344+, August 7 at 2003, het with dominant MOROCCO is higher-pitched than usual. This fits with Chuck Bolland`s Florida measurement of RAE on 15344.168 a sesquihour later at 2132-2145 Aug 7. I was checking this because in SW Bulletin, Christer Brunström in Sweden had reported RAE on approx. 15505, August 4 at 2100, ``obviously problem with the transmitter on 15345 kHz. It was difficult to measure the exact frequency``. Nothing audible around 15505 here. The questions are: When CB heard 15505, was it also on 15344v, or instead of that? And, did RAE finally get the message to try a different frequency, altho nothing so far away from 15345 is necessary? Let`s all keep an ear on 15505, and also around 15185 in case there be a matching spur. 6060, August 8 at 0954, RAE IS mixing and producing lo het with wacky wailing Brasilian gospel-huxter David Miranda, i.e. ZYE726, SRDA Curitiba which a few minutes earlier was in the clear (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 15505 4.8 2100 RAE med anrop på olika språk. Uppenbarligen problem med sändaren på 15345 kHz. Det var svårt att mäta exakt frekvens. 3 CB 15505, 08.04 2100, RAE with calls in different languages. Obviously a problem with the transmitter on 15345 kHz. It was difficult to measure the exact frequency. 3 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ASCENSION. 17580: Listeners in #swl on StarChat.net are noting an announcement on 17580 right now to the effect that "This is the BBC ... no programs on this channel at present ... details of services at bbcworldservice.com" df (Dan Ferguson, SC, 1545 UT Aug 4, NASWA yg via DXLD) HFCC shows YFR in English via BaBCock, Ascension at 15-16, 250 kW, 114 degrees; another SNAFU (gh, DXLD) ** ASIA [non]. More and More Frequency changes of R Free Asia: Chinese 0300-0400 NF 13785 SAI 100 kW / 300 deg to EaAs, ex 13800, re-ex 13760, Sun/Mon/Wed/Fri 0300-0400 NF 13800 SAI 100 kW / 300 deg to EaAs, ex 13785, re-ex 13760, Tue/Thu/Sat 0300-0400 NF 21795 TIN 250 kW / 295 deg to EaAs, ex 21735, re-ex 17495/17520/17615 0300-0400 NF 21600 TIN 250 kW / 313 deg to EaAs, ex 21500, re-ex 21695/21675/21580 Tibetan 0600-0700 NF 21820 DHA 250 kW / 075 deg to CeAs, ex 21645, re-ex 21520/21690 1500-1600 NF 11835 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg to CeAs, ex 12070, re-ex 7530/11590 1600-1700 NF 7540 TIN 250 kW / 319 deg to EaAs, ex 5855 1600-1700 NF 9505 SAI 100 kW / 300 deg to EaAs, ex 9455 1600-1700 NF 11595 TIN 250 kW / 295 deg to EaAs, ex 11540 1600-1700 NF 12055 SAI 100 kW / 325 deg to EaAs, ex 12005 1600-1700 NF 17700 TIN 250 kW / 305 deg to EaAs, ex 11870 2200-2300 NF 9690 DHA/KWT/SAI/TIN/U-B? to CeAs, additional 2300-2400 NF 9900 DHA/KWT/SAI/TIN/U-B? to CeAs, additional 73! (Ivo Ivanov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Aug 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Frequency changes of RFA as of August 7: Chinese 0400-0500 NF 21520 TIN 250 kW / 317 deg to EaAs, ex 15120 0500-0600 NF 21755 TIN 250 kW / 317 deg to EaAs, ex 15120 0600-0700 NF 21730 TIN 250 kW / 317 deg to EaAs, ex 15120 [that should clear 15120 for Nigeria if the jammers keep up – gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1577] Tibetan 0600-0700 NF 21475 DHA 250 kW / 075 deg to CeAs, ex 21820/21645/21690 2200-2300 NF 9690 DHA/KWT/SAI/TIN/U-B? to CeAs, add.freq, only Aug.5 73! (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [more] Frequency changes of Radio Free Asia Chinese 0400-0500 NF 21470 TIN 250 kW / 317 deg to EaAs, ex 21520/15120 0500-0600 NF 21830 TIN 250 kW / 317 deg to EaAs, ex 21755/15120 0600-0700 NF 21645 TIN 250 kW / 317 deg to EaAs, ex 21730/15120 Tibetan 0600-0700 NF 21690 DB 200 kw / 117 deg to CeAs, ex 17510 73! (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, August 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. The Northern Territories Australians were also fair tonight [besides INDONESIA 3325], initially audible on their 90 metre channels (2310, 2325 and 2485) at 2035 tune-in, but much stronger after they switched to 60 metres at 2130 UTC (4835, 4910 and 5025). All carried ABC News until 2140 UT. 4835 had a local MW ID "783 ABC Alice Springs". Had all faded out by 2210 (Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, Aug 4, AOR 7030plus / Wellbrook ALA 1530, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) 2310/2325/2485, Northern Territory Service, 1230, Aug 6 with ABC news, then "Saturday Night Country" program 1235. 2310 and 2485 were quite good with nearly perfect copy, but 2325 was distorted and much harder to understand. 2485 audio was about 0.5-1.0 seconds ahead of the other two, perhaps it's taking a landline feed while the other two are via satellite? (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 2310, 2325, 2485, Aug 9 at 1142 just two minutes before sunrise here was able to detect carriers at least from the VL8s, but no 2368.5; tnx to lowered noise level in power outage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 2368.5, Radio Symban presumably the weak signal 1127- 1202, Aug 6, with what I'm willing to say was Greek music, went off at about 1202:30 or so, possibly had woman talking just before it went off (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHRAIN. 9745, Radio Bahrain, 2357-0020, August 4-5, carrier + USB. Audible after Romania 2357 sign off. Local Mid-Eastern style music. Local chants at 0002. Arabic talk. Local pop music. Poor to fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** BELARUS. 11930, Belaruskaye Radio, Minsk, *0400, 5+1 pips into W announcer; M announcer at 0403 with news and soundbites; promos; ID at 0419 into talk; p-f; 8/2 (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale NH, NRD- 545, MLB-1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELIZE. BRITISH FORCES RADIO, BFBS, END OF AN ERA--SIGNING OFF PERMANENTLY IN BELIZE | Channel5Belize.com It is the end of an era for one of the most popular radio stations in the Jewel. So, for the thousands who have kept their dial on 99.1 FM, there is nostalgia in the air. The British Forces Broadcasting Station will cease broadcast at the end of the week. BATSUB is downsizing and the number of British personnel is winding down, thus the decision to sign off after almost three decades on the airwaves. News Five's Delahnie Bain has the story of the radio station that kept up with the times but has fallen victim to financial woes. Delahnie Bain, Reporting Since the early 1980's, the British troops in Belize as well as locals have been tuning in to 99.1FM for music and entertainment. But in the next few days, the British Forces Broadcasting Station, will be turning off its transmitters and saying farewell to the Jewel. BATSUB Commander, Colonel Robert Lindsey, who also leaves Belize later this year, says it is part of the downsizing process. . . http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/59064 (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) BFBS program schedule shows this program airing on Sunday, August 7 at 5pm UK time [1600 UT]: Welcome to the Jungle 17:00 - 18:00 BFBS will be finally turning off its transmitters in Belize on the 5th August after an "un-Belize-able" time in the Caribbean. Neil Carter takes a retrospective look back over the years. Scheduled to run one hour (Mike Cooper, August 6, DXLD) BFBS BELIZE IS ON THE AIR FOR THE FINAL TIME | British Forces News [with 25-second video] http://bfbs.com/news/belize/bfbs-belize-air-final-time-50395.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) Per Glenn's note of closure, has anyone in group ever logged this service? Being MOSTLY English, and being where they should have semi- clear channel, and in a hot spot for Es and even tropo up coast to Texas, just curious (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, WTFDA via DXLD) Might be an unID in various logbooks. Like my BBC-type news, midday, on 88.9 last week with Es to GA FL NC SC and VA. Unusual enough, at least IMO (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) Not all that unusual. There are a fair number of public FM's who run BBC or similar news programs, as occurs also on TV (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, 15 mi NW of Philadelphia, ibid.) BFBS Belize probably sounded much like this http://www.streamingthe.net/BFBS-1-London/p/11044&player=1 Mostly music, etc., not the BBC WS news type format. The Gibraltar one which I get here at time switches over to BBC Radio 5 live in the evenings (phone in, sport news, etc.) (Hugh Hoover, Portugal, ibid.) ** BOLIVIA. Hi Glenn, Seems like Evo wants to keep a tight grip on radio stations in his country. I included this story in our Latin American roundup for this week in El País. http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Bolivia/passes/new/law/to/control/media/elpepueng/20110803elpeng_3/Ten 73s, (Marty Delfín, Madrid, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: BOLIVIA PASSES NEW LAW TO CONTROL MEDIA MEASURE WOULD ALSO ALLOW WIRETAPS WHEN NATIONAL SECURITY IS AT RISK EL PAÍS - Madrid - 03/08/2011 The Bolivian Congress — which is controlled by President Evo Morales' party, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) — on Thursday passed a new telecommunications law that immediately ignited controversy throughout the Andean nation. Members of the opposition and the press consider that the legislation gives the government control over the majority of the electromagnetic spectrum, legalizes wiretaps and threatens private media outlets. According to René Martínez, president of the Senate and member of MAS, the law has now been given to Morales so he can sign it. The law allocates 33 percent of broadcasting licenses to the state, the same amount to the private sector and the remaining third to indigenous and social organizations. The main problem refers to this last percentage, because those groups are normally linked to the president and do not have major sources of income. Critics consider that these groups might turn to the government for funding, which, in practice, gives Morales and his team control over the majority of frequencies and would subsequently put pressure on private media groups. Before the new law, more than 90 percent of the spectrum was controlled by private companies, and the Association of Bolivian Radio Stations (Asbora) expects that around 400 of the 680 registered radio stations might have to close in 2017, when their licenses come up for renewal, to adjust to the new percentages. Associations of journalists and broadcasters have openly criticized the decision because, in their opinion, it threatens constitutional rights, opens the door to the firm control of independent media outlets, and could lead to the manipulation of information. The law also obliges television channels and radio stations to broadcast Morales' speeches without charging the government. Raúl Novillo, president of Asbora, told local newspaper La Razón that the measures were "a serious threat to the freedom of expression." On the contrary, Senator David Sánchez, who endorsed the project, told the BBC that the purpose of the law was to "distribute frequencies more fairly." He argued that the government's ownership of a third of the spectrum did not automatically mean that all stations using those frequencies would reflect the government's positions. In addition to the controversy surrounding the distribution of licenses, the law includes a clause that allows wiretaps in case of a threat to national security, and compels telecommunication operators to cooperate with officials in order to provide any requested material. According to the law's critics, this practically legalizes eavesdropping on communications, because it allows the government to spy on politicians and journalists by resorting to the argument of national security. Martínez denied that the move violates any constitutional rights, adding that "the telephone tapping cases will be regulated in detail to avoid infringing on people's privacy and guarantee individual rights." He also mentioned that a telecommunications authority would be created to issue the operating licenses (via Delfín, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 3309.98, Radio Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba, 0920-1000 various mornings in August [Herkimer-Wilkner] 4409.78, Radio Eco, Reyes, noted 0030 on 3 August [Wilkner, XM-Cedar Key] 4700, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta, 0920 on 9 August, seems to have reduced broadcasting hours, noted off 1000 and 0000 on some recent band scans. 4700 usb "Pathfinder" checking for position 1009 on 30 July [Wilkner; Florida net] 4716.19, Radio Yura, Yura, 0030 on as late as 0326 on 6 August. Seems signing on later that 1030, local fade pattern for CPs on 60 meters. [Wilkner, XM- Cedar Key] 73s de (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4700 6.8 0037 Radio San Miguel, Riberalta med reklam för hjälp mot sexuell impotens och reumatism. Jag har aldrig hört den så bra. HH 4700, 06/08 0037, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta with advertising for help against sexual impotence and rheumatism. I've never heard it so good. HH (Harry Holm, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4715.69 31.7 0237 R Yura med slut-ID. FD 4715.69, 7.31 0237, R. Yura with the closing ID (Fredrik Dourén, Sweden?, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6025 5.8 2345 Tent. Radio Illimani. Jag fick inget ID men prat om Bolivia. Skaplig hörbarhet tills Kina startade 23.58 på 6020 och störde ut Radio Illimani. HH 6025, 8.5 2345, Tentative, Radio Illimani. I had no ID but talk about Bolivia. Tific [decent] audibility until China started 2358 on 6020 and disrupted Radio Illimani (Harry Holm, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 3310.00, 0050-0100 06.08, R. Mosoj Chaski, Cotapachi, Quechoa conversation, only audible in USB due to noise in LSB 32332 AP-DNK 4699.98, 0055-0105 [same date?], R San Miguel, Riberalta man and woman talking in Spanish, 0100 ID: "Radio San Miguel", 25232 AP-DNK 4716.71, 2255-0025, 03+05.08 R Yatun Ayllu Yura, Yura, Spanish talk, Andean songs, good signal on 05.08: 35333, occasional utility QRM (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, heard on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) 6134.81, 2325-2335 05.08, R. Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Spanish ads, songs e.g. about Bolivia, good signal tonight, 45333 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, heard on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 6134.798, Radio Santa Cruz, 0002-0030 Aug 8, Noted a sporting event being broadcast with two males during the work of announcing the playing. This is the best signal I have heard so far this year from RSC. The game is probably football? Signal is Excellent. Carrier still on the air at 0119, but no audio heard. Believe they were just transmitting "dead air" type signal (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, 26N 081W, WR-G31DDC, Excalibur, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Big het here around 0950 August 8, no doubt caused by RSC off- frequency-itis. At this time no major broadcasters listed on 6135, just R. Aparecida, Brasil; and then there`s the nameless Korean clandestine, not supposed to start until 1000 (gh, DXLD) [and non]. 6134.8, August 10 at 1039 quite a heterodyne with something on 6135.0; first words I make out are in Portuguese, so presumed R. Aparecida clashing with R. Santa Cruz on the off-frequency? But the other station with music on 6135 goes off at 1041* unlike a Brazilian, and like the nameless Korean clandestine reported by S. Hasegawa. Then in the clear, RSC has a language lesson presented in Spanish, seems like the other language is Chinese; or Italian? Heard syllables like ``ciao`` but mostly in Spanish, lite musical background. Said ``aprovechemos y valoremos``; 1047 ending les attributed to Instituto Radiofónico Fé y Alegría, ``El Maestro en Casa`` for home-learning. 1048 ID as Radio Santa Cruz and into yippy music. Strangely enough, Googling did not find right away station`s own website, but FAO has a lot about it at http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5600s/x5600s08.htm including a program schedule showing ``El Maestro en Casa - Educación - 6:00 a 7:00 a.m. - Educación formal para adultos - IRFA`` Here`s an article about IRFA which just appeared in the local press: http://www.eldeber.com.bo/vernotasantacruz.php?id=100508231136 Seems EMEC is mainly about literacy. Maybe they are teaching Spanish to the Quechua or Aymara accounting for some of the non-Spanish words. Here`s the IRFA website: http://www.irfabolivia.org/ which linx finally to RSC itself: http://www.radiosantacruz.com.bo/ O no, server can`t be found! Fortunately they are easy to find on 49m (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6134.797, Radio Santa Cruz, 2343-0015 Aug 10, Noted some kind of instructional program where a male and female dictate Alpha numeric items. On the top of the hour, station ID followed by promos then back to the instructional program. Signal was fair. 6134.843, Radio Santa Cruz, 0919-0930 Aug 10, Booming in with non-stop Mexicana music. All the music sounds like it's originating from the same single album. Signal was good. 6134.792, Radio Santa Cruz, 0012-0030 Aug 11, Noted a program of recorded music which was mainly ranchera type music. Noted a male in Spanish comments. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, 26N 081W, Excalibur, NRD545 (NRD545 Remote), Aug 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 3324,984 31.7 2330 R Mundial, B mest prat. AN 3324.984, 7.31 2330, R. Mundial, mostly talk (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7, translated by Thomas Nilsson, for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 3364,989 6.8 2320 R Cultura Araraquara med snabbprat. TN 3364.989, 06.08 2320, R. Cultura Araraquara with fast talk (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, translated by him, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3364,990 31.7 2330 R Cultura, B med mx. Bättre vid 01.00. S4-5 AN 3364.990, 7.31 2330, R. Cultura, music. Better at 0100. S4-5 (Arne Nilsson, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4845,237 26.7 2228 R Cultura Ondas Tropicais med ett fint och tydligt ID.2-3 TN 4845.237, 7.26 2228, R Cultura Ondas Tropicais with a fine and clear ID. 2-3 (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by himself for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4875,87 30.7 0030 OID B? Drev ngt i frekvens och hoppade ca var 10:e sek ca 20 Hz. Nonstop mx, hörde inget ID. Även 31.7 och då hoppade den ca 70 Hz! Är det Roraima som har sändarproblem? AN 4875.87, 30.7 0030, unID Brazilian? Ran slightly in frequency and skipped about every 10 seconds about 20 Hz. Nonstop music, heard no ID. Also 7.31 and then jumped about 70 Hz! Is it Roraima, which has transmission problems? (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) 4875.95, 30.7 0105, R. Roraima with a promo of some kind. HK listened to my recording and said the time difference was 6 hours [UT-4 plus UT+2 in Sweden] thus indicating R Roraima. The next day I found the station at 2216 on 4876.84. Then I could check their webstream and it was R Roraima just as HK indicated. Thanks a lot, Henrik, for taking time to listen. See the picture below showing the serious problems with their transmitter (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4876.7v 31.7 0235 ZYG810 R Difusora Roraima. Mycket ostabil bärvåg. FD 4876.7v, 7.31 0235, ZYG810, R Difusora Roraima. Very unstable carrier (Fredrik Dourén, Sweden?, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4877.16, 0105-0115 06.08, R. Difusora Roraima, Boa Vista, RR, Portuguese announcement, Brazilian pop songs, 35232 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, heard on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 3375.34, Brasil, Radio Municipal São Gabriel da Cachoeira, 1010 to 1030, tnx John Herkimer, 6,7,8 August. [Wilkner] 4878.11, Rdif Roraima drift to .33 then back, 0030 and 0840 to 0900+, good signal with drift, this often the strongest signal on 60 meters in South Florida. 9 August [Wilkner][WORLD OF RADIO 1577] 4878.3v, Rdif Roraima, Noted 7 and 8 [XM-Cedar Key, Florida net] 4878.977, Rdif Roraima, Boa Vista RR, 0037-0050, distorted audio on 3 August, also 6 August 0944 with excellent strength [Wilkner, XM-Cedar Key] 73s de (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4877.22v, Radio Roraima, 0335-0404*, August 5, Portuguese pop ballads. Portuguese announcements. Some US pop music including Dionne Warwick’s I’ll Never Love This Way Again. Pulled plug after short announcement at 0404. Poor in noisy conditions. Constantly drifting between 4877.22 - 4877.31. 4877.20v, Radio Roraima, 0345-0358*, August 8, Portuguese announcements. Brazilian ballads. Sign off with National Anthem. Poor. Weak in noisy conditions. Constantly drifting between 4877.19-4877.27 (Brian Alexander, PA, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX Listening Digest) ** BRAZIL. 10 ago --- Guarujá de volta em 5045 kHz! Estúdio da Rádio Guarujá Paulista [caption] A frequência de 5045 kHz da Rádio Guarujá Paulista, de Guarujá (SP), já está no ar, em período de testes. O equipamento voltou a funcionar na terça-feira, 9, conforme informações do diretor da estação, jornalista Orivaldo Rampazo. A emissora foi captada em Porto Alegre (RS), na madrugada brasileira da quarta-feira, 10, à uma hora (0400 no Tempo Universal) quando Elaine Simone apresentava o programa Madrugada Amiga. Foi irradiada a identificação – já incluindo a identificação em 5045 kHz – e a música Como Nossos Pais, de Elis Regina. Mesmo com potência baixa o sinal era regular. Os interessados em enviar informações sobre a sintonia da emissora devem escrever para: rampazo @ radioguarujaam.com.br (Célio Romais blog Aug 10 via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) Radio Guaruja 5045 kHz No Ar Srs, o tx revisado já está em operação, ainda com 250 watts para testes e ajustes, breve a potencia será elevada. Informes são bem vindos. 73s (Sarmento Campos, Aug 10, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Caro Sarmento: Trata-se da R. Guarujá ou da R.Cultura do Pará, Belém PA, que não capto há já algum tempo? Ontem, 9/8, 2140-2210, captei o que julgo ser a R.Cult.ª, com programa falado e telefonemas, e a retransmissão da Voz do Brasil, às 2200; 13331, embora fosse melhorando gradualmente; QRM de sinal utilitário em freq. adjacente. Melhores 73 e bons DX! (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, Aug 10, ibid.) Carlos, Guarujá Paulista, São Paulo! A "Pérola do Atlântico" está de volta em OT (Sarmento, ibid.) Caro Sarmento: Se é mesmo a R.Guarujá, que é feito da outra em 5045 - a R.Cultura do Pará? Há já um ano, creio, vi na pág.ª internet da R. Cultura uma ref.ª aos emissores, onde se dizia que o tx de reserva era de 500 watt, salvo erro. Ora o sinal que captei esta semana parecia provir de um tx bastante fraco, não resultado de propagação adversa. 73 (Carlos Gonçalves, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. Duas confirmações sui generis [extreme measures, personal contacts it took to get these QSLed] 5940 kHz - Rádio Voz Missionária Recebido PPC assinado + carimbado Cerca de 150 dias V/S: Pastor Reuel Bernardino IR enviado pessoalmente. 6080 kHz - Rádio Marumby Recebido PPC assinado + carimbado Cerca de 150 dias V/S: Pastor Reuel Bernardino IR enviado pessoalmente. Após uma sequência exaustiva de fracassos ao tentar confirmar essas duas emissoras via correio, em março de 2011 contactei um amigo aqui em Tubarão-SC que é membro da Assembleia de Deus, com grande contato também com os Gideões Missionários da Última Hora, e lhe pedi articulasse a confirmação desses PPCs. Entreguei-lhe os PPCs e os relatórios, expliquei o hobby e tudo mais. O amigo generosamente se prontificou a enviar, através de um religioso da ADD que tinha contatos diretos dentro da Marumby. Essa primeira tentativa frustrou-se devido a uma série de desencontros, e os cartões voltaram para as mãos de meu amigo. Pouco tempo depois ele enviou os cartões novamente via um outro articulador que esteve pessoalmente na rádio e, ao conversar com funcionários da Voz Missionária, esbarrou em uma limitação: só quem vai poder assinar os cartões é o Presidente ou o Vice-Presidente dos Gideões Missionários de Última Hora (lembrando que a GMUH possui muitas atividades bem próximas à ADD, inclusive a rádio). Após todas essas marchas e contramarchas, enfim, o Pastor Reuel Bernardino, que é o vice-presidente dos GMUH, foi apresentado ao hobby e, entendendo o espírito da radiescuta/DX, assinou os cartões. Ao me entregar os cartões em mãos hoje, o meu amigo aqui de Tubarão ainda me disse (mas isso ainda é extra-oficial) que a Marumby estaria em processo de extinção. De minha parte, resta informar que quem almejar uma confirmação destas emissoras o fará melhor escrevendo diretamente para a presidência da GMUH. Após os rearranjos institucionais recentes, creio ser esta, atualmente, a única via para tal. Visualização dos PPCs estará disponível em breve no http://pqslfabricio.blogspot.com/ 73 (Fabricio Andrade Silva, PP5002SWL, Tubarão, SC, 10 August, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Olá Fabricio e colegas radioescutas, escreví para eles enviando meu informe de recepção, recebí um certificado, carta assinada e revista. http://br.groups.yahoo.com/group/radioescutas/attachments/folder/1347133923/item/1569370216/view *73 (Reinaldo T. Pires, PY2018SWL (SWARL), Sebastião, SP, ibid.) Ha, so prepared cards were not really necessary; they already had QSL/certificates (gh, DXLD) Nossa, parabéns, Reinaldo, Eu escrevi várias vezes para eles, mas não tive essa sorte (não assim). De qualquer forma também estou feliz com os PPCs! Hehe 73 (Fabricio, op. cit.) Colegas, Da Voz Missionária recebi uma carta confirmatória, revista e adesivos. Da Novas de Paz ainda não chegou. 73's (Arthur Antonio Raimundo, Goiânia GO Brasil, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. 5990, Radio Senado, *0859-0915, August 8, sign on with Brazilian pop music. Opening Portuguese ID announcements at 0900. Good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** BRAZIL. 9665.1, August 6 at 0543 harp music (Paraguayan?), 0545 Brazilian announcements, i.e. 10 kW ZYE890, R. Voz Missionária, Camboriú SC, poorly audible tho registering S9+15. Propagation disturbance had wiped out most signals, but this and some other Brazilians were weakly audible, 9645.3, 9565 mixed with offtime Cuban jamming, 9586.3 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Re: Radio Novas de Paz / Radio Nove de Julho --- Amigos, Recebi uma solicitação de um Dxista da Alemanha que ouviu a Radio Novas de Paz 9515 kHz e a Radio Nove de Julho 9820 kHz e deseja enviar a cada emissora um informe de recepção. Como a informação deve ser a mais real possível, pergunto: alguém da lista fez contato com estas emissoras recentemente com estes mesmos objetivos? Responderam? Qual o endereço utilizado e o contato em cada emissora? Agradeço a resposta de voces, (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo SP, Aug 7, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Rudolf, Eu fiz contato com a Nove de Julho em junho através de carta, porém até agora sem respostas. O endereço: Rádio Nove de Julho R. Manuel de Arzão nº 85 V. Albertina - CEP. 02730-030 São Paulo - SP 73's (Arthur Antonio Raimundo, Goiânia GO Brasil, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. 11815, August 9 at 0342, RBC live announcer with ``boa madrugada de Terça-feira, até 5 horas da manhã``; weak but clear. 11925, August 9 at 0343, presumed R. Bandeirantes also audible aside 11920 Iran (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 9695.7, Rádio Rio Mar, Manaus, *1000-1020, 07-08, initiation transmission with identification: "Rádio Rio Mar, onda média, 1290 kHz, ondas curtas, 31 y 49 metros, 9695 y 6160 kHz, Rádio Rio Mar, Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil", male and female with comments, Portuguese, Brazilian songs. 14321. (Méndez) [Must be source of het I often hear on NHK English at 1200 on 9695 gh] 9820, Rádio Nove de Julho, São Paulo, 0457-0516- 09-08, male with religious comments in Portuguese, program "Com a Mãe Aparecida", religious songs. 24322. (Méndez) 11815, Rádio Brasil Central, Goiânia, 0915-0923, 07-08, Brazilian songs, male, Portuguese, comments. 33333. (Méndez) 11915, Rádio Gaúcha, Porto Alegre, 1023-1032, 07-08, noted a man with comments in Portuguese. Very weak signal. 13321. (Méndez) 11925.2, Rádio Bandeirantes, São Paulo, 1015-1027, 07-08, Brazilian songs, male, comments, identification: "Rádio Bandeirantes". 14321. 15190, Rádio Inconfidência, Belo Horizonte, 0932-0946, 07-08, male, Portuguese comments about health and diseases, advertisements, songs. 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) 15190, 2247 UT July 26, R. Inconfidência, Portuguese talk, 24332 (Mike W Barraclough, England, Shortwave Logbook, Aug World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ?? Hearing Portuguese between 2200 and 2445 on 15190, one must be quite sure it isn`t WYFR, and this had only lite interference. With sufficient reception, distinguishing WYFR`s religion-only format from genuinely Brasilian full-service ZYE522 should not be difficult (gh, DXLD) 15190, August 9 at 0054 classical music, same time as heard months ago from R. Inconfidência; temporary local low noise level tnx to power outage, but still a poor signal, and nothing audible for a minute or two, perhaps just low passage in music. 0059 clear Portuguese outro, ``obrigado``, more classical, mentions Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais, 0101 Segunda-feira, nossa senhora. 0150 still in with Brazilian talk, abraços, Clara Nunes cantando `Juízo Final`; 0156 singer sounds like Carlos Gardel. 0200 TC for ``onze horas, Inconfidência, chegando, noticias, p`ra você, --- Inconfidência Notícias``. 0347 still audible with music but much weaker; is it on all-night? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CAMEROON [and non]. 6005, at 0530 15 May, BBCWS relay, ASCENSION, world news in English, 45444 6005, 1400 UT 15 May, Cameroon RTV, news in English, 23232 (Dzever Ishenge, Benue State, Nigeria, Kchibo KK 979, telescopic rod, Shortwave Logbook, August World DX Club Contact via DXLD) CRTV logs are extremely rare, so even tho this is now almost two sesquimonths old, we must make note of it, and the competition (gh) ** CANADA. There has been a lot of talk about the desire of Cogeco in Montreal to put two all-traffic radio stations on the air on the currently vacant AM frequencies of 690 and 940 kHz. It was beginning to look like this was going to easily pass through the hands of the CRTC, with Cogeco originally wanting to put the stations on the air as soon as the fall of 2011. Well, it now looks like that is not going to happen. In fact, it actually may not happen at all. Here are the details. CRTC Issues a Call for Applications in Montreal for 690 and 940 kHz. Ottawa, 29 July 2011 It looks like Cogeco is not going to receive the CRTC rubber-stamp treatment after all for their proposed all-traffic radio stations, in English and French, for 690 and 940 kHz. AM frequencies in Montreal. The CRTC has decided to issue a call for applications for the two AM frequencies currently vacant in Montreal. Here are the details from the CRTC Notice: Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2011-453 PDF version Call for applications for AM radio stations to serve Montréal using the frequencies 690 kHz and 940 kHz The Commission calls for applications for one or more radio stations to serve Montréal using the frequencies 690 kHz and 940 kHz. Persons interested in responding to this call must submit a duly completed application to the Commission by 29 August 2011. The notice of consultation announcing the public hearing to consider the applications received in response to this call will be published on 7 September 2011 and interested parties will have until 22 September 2011 to submit their interventions. Applicants will have an opportunity to respond to interventions by 27 September 2011. The Commission will hold the public hearing commencing on 17 October 2011 at a location to be determined. Introduction 1. In Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2011-336, the Commission announced that it had received applications by Metromedia CMR Broadcasting (Metromedia) for broadcasting licences to operate AM commercial radio services in Montréal using the frequencies 690 kHz and 940 kHz. Metromedia’s applications were to be considered at the 18 July 2011 non-appearing public hearing in the National Capital Region. 2. In light of the interventions received, the Commission decided not to proceed with these applications as non-appearing items. Accordingly, in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2011-336-2, Metromedia’s applications were withdrawn from the 18 July 2011 hearing. At that time, the Commission noted that Metromedia’s applications would be considered as part of an appearing hearing at a later date. 3. The Commission is of the view that a call for applications for one or more radio stations in Montréal using of the frequencies 690 kHz and 940 kHz is warranted and accordingly calls for applications from other interested parties. Persons interested in responding to this call must submit a duly completed application to the Commission by 29 August 2011, using the appropriate application form for a licence to operate a new radio station. Applicants are also required to submit all necessary technical documentation to the Department of Industry (the Department) by the same date. 4. Applicants should note that their proposals will be considered as submitted. If an application is deemed incomplete, it will be returned. If clarifications are required, these will be addressed at the hearing to consider the applications received in response to this call. 5. It should be noted that in issuing this call, the Commission has not reached any conclusion concerning the licensing of any service at this time. 6. Applicants will be required to provide evidence giving clear indication that there is demand and a market for the proposed service. Factors for evaluation of applications 7. In assessing applications for new commercial radio services in a market, the Commission will consider the following factors, which were first set out in Decision 1999-480. Quality of the application 8. In its analysis, the Commission will evaluate the applicant’s programming proposal and commitments in a number of areas. One of these areas is the manner in which the applicant will reflect the local community, including the community’s diversity and distinct nature. Accordingly, the Commission will consider commitments concerning local programming and the benefits that such programming will bring to the community. 9. The Commission will also consider commitments regarding the percentage of musical selections devoted to Canadian content, contributions to Canadian content development and, where applicable, the percentage of French-language vocal music. 10. The Commission does not regulate the format of AM stations. The Commission will however assess the applicant’s business plan in light of the proposed format since the two are interrelated. The business plan should clearly demonstrate the applicant’s ability to fulfill its proposed programming plans and commitments. Further, the Commission will examine the programming proposals submitted by the applicants to determine which overall proposal best suits the market and will make optimal use of the proposed frequency. Diversity of news voices in the market 11. This factor relates to concerns regarding concentration of ownership and cross media ownership. The Commission has stated that it seeks to strike a balance between its concerns for preserving a diversity of news voices in a market and the benefits of permitting increased consolidation of ownership within the radio industry. 12. The Commission will therefore assess how approval of the application would enhance or maintain the diversity of voices available in the market, as well as increase the diversity of programming available to listeners. Market impact 13. The possibility that licensing too many stations in a market could lead to a reduction in the quality of service to the local community remains of concern to the Commission. The economic condition of the market and the likely financial impact of the proposed station on existing stations in the market will therefore be relevant. 14. The Commission will therefore evaluate how the proposed station’s programming, general and core target audience and projected audience share overlap those of stations already present in the market. While the Commission may also consider the profitability of existing stations in the market in its assessment of the impact of the proposed station on existing ones, this will be only one factor in its evaluation. Competitive state of the market 15. In markets with fewer than eight commercial stations operating in a given language, the Commission’s common ownership policy permits a person to own a maximum of three stations, with a maximum of two in any one frequency band. In markets with eight commercial stations or more, a person may own a maximum of two FM and two AM stations operating in any given language. The concentration of ownership resulting from this policy may increase the possibility of competitive imbalance in a radio market. 16. The Commission will therefore consider factors such as the number of radio stations that an applicant already owns in the market, the profitability of its station(s) and the concentration of ownership in that market in making its decision. Importance of factors 17. The relative importance of each of the factors set out above will vary in each case depending on the specific circumstances of the market. Financial summary for the Montréal radio market 18. For the convenience of interested parties, the financial summaries for the Montréal radio market are attached to this notice of consultation. Technical approval from the Department of Industry 19. The Commission intends to consider the applications at a public hearing. However, the Commission advises applicants that it will withdraw any application from the public hearing if it is not advised by the Department that the application is technically acceptable at least 20 days prior to the first day of the hearing. Eligibility of applicant 20. The Commission also reminds applicants that they must comply with the eligibility requirements set out in the Direction to the CRTC (Ineligibility of Non-Canadians) and the Direction to the CRTC (Ineligibility to Hold Broadcasting Licences). Deadlines relating to the hearing 21. The notice of consultation announcing the public hearing to consider the applications received in response to this call will be published on 7 September 2011 and interested parties will have until 22 September 2011 to submit their interventions. Applicants will have an opportunity to respond to interventions by 27 September 2011. The Commission will hold the public hearing commencing on 17 October 2011 at a location to be determined. 22. Notice of each application will also be published in newspapers of general circulation within the area to be served. 23. Applications filed in response to this call must be submitted in electronic form using Access Key. For instructions on how to file applications using Access Key, consult the Commission website at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/forms/form_201.htm Applicants who are unable to file their applications using Access Key should contact the Commission’s single point of contact for small undertakings at 1-866-781-1911. 24. The new Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure (the Rules of Procedure) set out, among other things, the rules for filing, content and format of applications, as well as the procedure for filing confidential information and requesting its disclosure. Accordingly, the procedure set out in the notice of consultation announcing the public hearing must be read in conjunction with the Rules of Procedure and its accompanying documents, which can be found on the Commission’s website under “CRTC Rules of Practice and Procedure.” Secretary General (via Aug CIDX Messenger via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC Radio One is currently in the midst of its summer season, with several programs on hiatus with some interesting short series substituting for them. One that I`m particularly enjoying is `Strange Animal`, a 10-part series looking at various aspects of human behavior; particularly, why we all do the strange things we do. `Strange Animal` airs Tuesdays and Saturdays at 11:30 AM local time (ranging form 1430 to 1830 UT depending on time zone). Several CBC Radio One stations in each zone stream their programming live. If that timing isn`t to your liking, you can listen online or download the audio to your favorite device for on-demand listening. Check out http://cbc.ca for this and other CBC Radio One programs (Richard D Cuff, PA, Easy Listening, Aug NASWA Journal via DXLD) ** CANADA. RCI`s manager may have stated a policy of no longer emphasising immigration matters, but as I tuned across `The Link` sometime between 20 and 21 UT August 8 on 15235, 15330 and/or 17735, they were talking about the Punjabi community in Vancouver, or some such. Am not convinced. [non]. 15125, August 9 at 1515, fair signal with some jazz catches my ear, with YL singer, so VOA? No, into report by Lynn Desjardins on relations between Brasil and Canada. Well, well, another chance to hear RCI in English since it deleted a 1500 broadcast to the USA! Albeit rather indirectly, since 15-16 is scheduled as 500 kW, 212 degrees from Wulumuchi, EAST TURKISTAN to S Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [non]. GERMANY. 7310, Radio Dardasha 7, *0300-0329*, August 6, opening Arabic announcements at 0300 and some Mid-Eastern style music. Arabic talk. Traditional Arabic music. ID. Fair (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) A BVBN service (gh) ** CANADA. Minor correxion to previous report of CFQC-TV-1 on ch 3: Aug 4 tune-in was at 2031 UT, not 2037 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 88.1, CJLR-3, Prince Albert, SASK. Aug/03/11 1157 EDT, English, EXC. Country Rock Music. RDS Readout/ID as "MBC-FM KUQD Country" (I have a Nice Photo of the RDS Readout!!). Male DJ said "It's 10 O'Clock in La Ronge and Saskatoon" at 1200 EDT. Into MBC News by male DJ. Many mentions of La Ronge, Saskatoon and Flin Flon Manitoba!! Spot for the Sask. Lung Assoc. Into MBC Sports at 1205 EDT. This Station is part of the MBC Aboriginal Network in Saskatchewan. NEW STATION, Power Listed as 250 Watts but Contact at Station says power Just increased to 45 KW!! (Robert S. Ross, London, Ontario CANADA, GRID en92, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. Canadian Digital Switch. http://www.interconnectionworld.com/index/display/wire-news-display/1473170690.html (via Hugh Hoover, Portugal, 7 Aug, WTFDA via DXLD) Viz.: SOME CANADIANS WON'T BE ABLE TO ADJUST THEIR SETS; ANALOG TO DIGITAL SWITCH COULD BLANK OUT UP TO TWO MILLION SCREENS The Toronto Star August 6, 2011 Tens of thousands of Canadians may be looking at blank TV screens on Sept. 1. At midnight on Aug. 31, television signals in major Canadian markets will be converted from analog to digital to meet a deadline imposed by the federal broadcast regulator. Despite government and broadcast industry assurances that the transition would be simple, inexpensive and inclusive, industry watchdogs say as many as two million people who receive TV programs via antennae may be left with nothing on their screens but snow. "As many as 1.4 million English-language viewers and 700,000 Francophone viewers may be left without a CBC signal," says Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Public Broadcasting. Morrison said those numbers come from a 2008 study that was commissioned by the Canadian Heritage ministry. "For the most part, these are poorer and older people on fixed incomes who are of no interest to advertisers, but who rely for their news and connection to the community on the CBC, the nearest thing we have in this country to a public broadcaster." The CBC receives 45 per cent of its $1.7 billion annual budget from federal tax coffers and most of the rest from advertising revenue. "Even if CBC/Radio-Canada isn't legally required to reach all Canadians, the prevailing perception is that it's a public resource to which we're entitled," Morrison said. CBC vice-president Steven Guiton confirmed in an interview that, come Sept. 1, no over-the-air CBC signals of any kind will be transmitted in several major English-language markets where the corporation doesn't own stations: including London and Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario; Sherbrooke, Chicoutimi, Quebec City and Trois-Rivières in Quebec; Saint John and Moncton in New Brunswick; as well as Saskatoon, Sask., and Lethbridge, Alta. The English-language signal in Thunder Bay, Ont., went digital Aug. 1 on privately owned CBC affiliate CKPR-TV but will be available only via cable, satellite, digital converter or digital TV. These are among the "mandatory markets" - capital cities, regions with significant cross-border signal traffic and regional centres with more than 300,000 inhabitants - targeted by the CRTC for digital conversion by Aug. 31. On that date, Radio-Canada will also stop over-the-air French-language transmissions in cities where it doesn't own stations: Calgary and Lethbridge, Alta; Saint John and Fredericton, N.B.; Charlottetown, P.E.I., Halifax, N.S.; St. John's, Nfld.; London, Kitchener, Windsor and Thunder Bay, Ont., and Saskatoon, Sask. Following a federal government directive, the CRTC (Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission) set the date for digital conversion three years ago in designated markets in order to keep Canada abreast of global changes in broadcasting technologies. The digital changeover in the U.S. took place in 2009. Ottawa plans to auction off the vacated frequencies for mobile phone, wi-fi and other broadband use for an estimated $4 billion. In an effort to save over-the-air (or OTA) viewers from a complete blackout, the CBC recently applied to the CRTC for permission to continue broadcasting in analog in targeted markets where the corporation doesn't own stations, on a year-by-year basis, "until the technology becomes completely obsolete," Guiton added. The corporation is also spearheading an initiative, now before the CRTC, requiring cable and satellite TV services to provide viewers with a more affordable "skinny basic" bundle of channels for considerably less than the $40-a-month basic package now offered, Guiton said. Both applications are awaiting CRTC approval and that's not likely to happen before Aug. 31. "In the areas designated for digital conversion, affordability is the real issue and if people who now use antennae to get their programming free are given an inexpensive digital alternative, so much the better," Guiton added. "Over-the-air used to be the only means of delivering programming, now it's just a very small part of a transmission spectrum that includes Internet and smartphone platforms, among others. "The CBC can't afford to focus on just one platform. We have to manage resources and serve Canadians on the platforms they prefer to use." CBC/Radio Canada is converting 27 of its owned-and-operated transmitters in mandatory markets at a cost of $2 million apiece. In other markets not designated by the CRTC, served by more than 600 existing transmitters, the corporation will continue broadcasting in analog "for the foreseeable future," Guiton said. CBC figures indicate that 93 per cent of Canadians already receive their TV programming via cable or satellite, he added. The CRTC estimates that OTA viewers account for the remaining 7 per cent, about 850,000 households. CBC/Radio Canada spokesman Angus McKinnon estimates that less than 1 per cent of Canadians - about 200,000 households - will be left without a CBC signal if the CRTC doesn't grant permission to continue analog broadcasts in mandatory markets where the CBC/Radio-Canada doesn't own stations. Those numbers are hotly disputed by Morrison and other industry watchers, including Barry Kiefl, president of Ottawa-based Canadian Media Research Inc. Its 2010-11 survey of TV viewing trends reveals there are significantly more over-the-air viewers in Canada than CBC is letting on: between 10 and 20 per cent of the population, or 1.2 to 2.4 million households. "That's quite a shocking number," Kiefl said. "These are people who don't watch TV as much as the majority, people in remote areas or who are satisfied with less television," he added. Kiefl's research also takes into account households with a single cable or satellite connection where over-the-air TV receivers are used as subsidiaries "in workshops, kitchens, bedrooms, student dorms." "That audience is undervalued by the CBC and commercial networks alike. Some remote communities will be cut off altogether." Morrison said as many as 400,000 viewers in the GTA will be shut out by the digital transition. "The CBC is turning its back on low-income viewers who, as taxpayers, are entitled to a CBC signal," he added. "Sadly, it's CBC/Radio-Canada's audience that will be hit hardest." Morrison and Kiefl also take issue with the lack of information about the digital transition supplied by the networks and the federal government. Canada's TV networks have been required for the past few months to air a minimal number of public service announcements notifying viewers of steps they must take before the deadline - subscribe to a cable/satellite service, buy a digital converter box, or upgrade to an HD or digital TV receiver - and have posted the same information on their websites. But "they haven't made much of a marketing effort, nothing like the campaign undertaken by the U.S. networks and the U.S. government two years ago," Kiefl said. The federal government carries analog-to-digital information and instructions on its website http://bit.ly/jEsd85 but has otherwise stayed out of the picture. In the U.S., where OTA use was higher than in Canada, the Obama government set up a $1 billion subsidy program to help eligible viewers purchase digital converter kits, and even pushed back the deadline to ensure viewers were properly informed and equipped. For a year, U.S. networks blanketed prime-time programming with public service announcements that walked viewers through the necessary changes step by step. "That hasn't happened in Canada," Morrison said. "The campaign here has been exceptionally modest. "You'd think the Harper government might have set aside a small portion, say $200,000, of the $4 billion it will make from the sale of the OTA frequencies to help out Canadians who can't afford to get connected." Shaw's solution Shaw Direct, the satellite signal provider that is part of the media empire that includes a cluster of Canadian specialty channels and the Global TV network, has come up with its own plan to help OTA viewers make the digital leap. It's setting up its own version of the CBC-proposed "skinny basic" package to connect qualifying viewers to its satellite service before the deadline. "The Local Television Satellite Solution is (for) households in 20 designated cities that have been receiving their television services over-the-air, and will lose over-the-air access to their local broadcaster because the analog transmitter is being shut down and will not be replaced by a digital transmitter," a Shaw spokesperson told the Star. "Shaw will provide a household in a qualifying area with a free satellite receiver and dish that is authorized to receive a package of local and regionally relevant signals from Shaw Direct. "There are no monthly programming fees provided that a household qualifies to participate in the program." Eligibility details are available at http://www.shawdirect.ca Stations make the switch How commercial networks are meeting the digital challenge: Global TV will have all 19 transmitters in mandated markets upgraded to digital status by Aug. 31, Ken Stein, senior VP of regulatory affairs at Shaw Communications, told the Star. The network's remaining 76 transmitters, in non-mandatory markets, will be upgraded by 2016, when Global expects to have expanded its service to an additional 200,000 Canadian households, Stein said. He estimates 5 per cent of Global viewers "in remote, rural areas" currently receive the network's signal over the air. CTV is presently converting 23 transmitters in mandatory markets at a cost of more than $24 million, said Matthew Garrow, director of corporate communications and public affairs for the network's owner, Bell Media, which also operates the country's largest satellite TV service. "All areas currently serviced by CTV, A and CTV Two in the fall will continue to be serviced. No CTV or A signals will be shut down, analog (in non-mandatory markets) or digital." TVO, the provincially funded Ontario-wide educational network, is converting to digital in all mandatory markets: Toronto, Kitchener, London, Windsor, Ottawa and Thunder Bay, said network spokesperson, Jeff Rorher. "We're also converting in Belleville, Cloyne and Chatham where we are required to cease analog broadcasting." TVO will keep the same number of transmitter sites it currently operates, nine of which are being converted at a cost of $500,000 each. "We're going to continue to serve the same footprint as we always have," Rohrer said. He estimates 10 per cent of TVO's audience receives the network's signal over the air. In London, Kitchener, Ottawa and Thunder Bay, TVO will cease analog transmission at 1 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16, and begin digital transmission at 6 a.m. the same day on the following channels: London, digital channel 18; Kitchener, digital channel 28; Ottawa, digital channel 24; Thunder Bay, digital channel 9. In Windsor, Chatham, Toronto, Belleville and Cloyne, TVO will cease analog transmission at 1 a.m. Aug. 18 and begin digital transmission at 6 a.m. on the following channels: Windsor, digital channel 32; Chatham, digital channel 33; Toronto: digital channel 19; Belleville, digital channel 26; Cloyne, digital channel 44. Copyright 2011 Toronto Star Newspapers Limited (via DXLD) I must have been dreaming again. I'd thought that perhaps our Canadian brethren might have actually learned something from the problems of the US switchover, but apparently not (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, 15 mi NW of Philadelphia, WTFDA via DXLD) That particular article was not only overly alarmist, but rather incoherent, too. In places like London and Quebec City and Saguenay, it's actually rather unlikely that over-the-air CBC service will be lost, if the CRTC agrees to let the CBC put up lower-powered analog signals. (The article acknowledges this briefly, but only after getting all panicky first.) I'm all for universal TV service, but the reality of providing it in Canada is daunting. It took half a century to fully build out analog coverage across the huge expanse of rural Canada, and one can legitimately ask how much it's worth spending to fully (or even mostly) replicate that coverage in an era when most Canadians who want TV are getting it from other sources, and when all involved acknowledge that the replacement technology won't last 60+ years like analog did. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) My tower guy tells me he hasn't been this busy in 20 years. He's installing lots of new antennas for people to get free HD - and most, if not all, are /not/ poor, and /not /senior, but people in their 20's & 30's looking for better quality & free HD to supplement their cable. Articles like this seem to miss this growing segment of OTA'ers. wrh (Bill Hepburn, Grimsby Ont., ibid.) Ultimately, even in Canada, the cable companies' pricing and bundling practices coupled with in many cases lesser-quality digital signals than OTA are going to drive that (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, 15 mi NW of Philadelphia, ibid.) ** CHAD. 6165, RNT, 2235-2301*, August 6, Afro-pop music. French announcements. Sign off with National Anthem at 2300. Fair to good. Sign off usually at 2230, but on Saturdays sign off is at 2300 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 4940, August 9 at 1150, fair signal with song in Chinese, the best 60m signal from Asia, i.e. V. of Strait, which 5 days and 22 minutes earlier was only a weak carrier and bits of modulation; tnx to lower noise level today with the power off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Martedì 9 agosto 2011, 1254 - 13700 kHz, prob. CNR 13 - Lingshi (Cina), Uighur, talk OM/YL e musica pop. Segnale sufficiente- buono. EiBi 09.00-11.00, Aoki 09.00-14.00 (Luca Botto Fiora, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova) - Italia, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CHINA. 17505, August 9 at 1205, poor signal seems Tagalog talking about Philippines; yes, CRI in Filipino per Aoki, 145 degrees from Xian. Not a signal one would expect here in the morning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENNING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 21470, 0650-0700* UT July 19, CNR1 jammer 45544 // 21645 21690 (Zdenek Elias, Czech Republic, Shortwave Logbook, Aug World DX Club Contact via DXLD) HFCC currently has no IBB registrations including R Free Asia on 21470, but Aoki has at a different time: 21470 0400-0500 MRA * R.FREE ASIA Chi Tinian Isla 36 36 meaning Tuesday and Friday only, and July 19 was a Tuesday. RFA keeps changing schedule, so maybe modified since then (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See ASIA {non] for RFA changes ** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake. 11750 unknown location. 2011/08/03 Wednesday. 1640-1648, Jamming Radio Free Asia from Sri Lanka. Both are quite fadey, and the fading of each does not coincide, so not entirely successful jamming at least in my part of the world. Fair but fadey. Jo'burg sunset 1543 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake August 5, before 1200: 10300, at 1156 I am hearing some very poor Chinese talk, no FD! Presumably a rare catch of Sound of Hope itself 12270, fair at 1157 12500, fair at 1157 13130, very poor at 1158 14720, very poor at 1158 15800, very poor at 1159-1200* Did not get above 16 MHz before 1200 hiatus, if any Before & after 1230: 14950, poor at 1228; none higher 14720, very poor at 1228; none in 13`s or 12`s 11545, fair at 1234, 1246; yes, 11545, not 15545. Aoki has nothing on 11545 to jam, but Tajikistan with SOH on 11550 at 1200-1230, 11555 at 1230-1300. Probably had jumped down another 5 11500, see UNIDENTIFIED; none in the 10`s After 1330: 14720, very poor at 1334; none in the 11`s, 12`s or 13`s; unlike: 14950, very good at 1334 15295, very poor at 1336; Aoki shows vs V. of Tibet 15292 at 1330-1401 16100, very good at 1337 Firedrake August 6, found only these in full bandscans 10-18 MHz following G3 geomagnetic storms, K-index at 12 being 3: 10300, fair at 1225, good at 1258; JBA at 1336 12980, poor at 1227 and 1258 Propagation still hasn`t recovered from geomag storms, so not much Firedrake to report August 7: 7-18 MHz, nothing found at 1143; Cuba had VG signals on four 11-12 MHz frequencies, and not much else above 10 MHz Before 1230: 12270, fair-good with flutter at 1228 12980, very poor at 1228; none higher up to 18 MHz by 1232 After 1400: 14720, good at 1412 13970, fair at 1412 10300, fair at 1415; no others found (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, 8-7-11 the band conditions have been poor 12270, Good at 1155 and 1224, Fair at 1335 12980, Fair at 1155, 1224 and 1235 Good DX (Steve Handler, IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) August 8, 2011, Hi Glenn, Had some extra time today and did a large number of comprehensive frequency checks between 1150 and 1400 covering 7.9 MHz to 18 MHz. 1150-1200, No Firedrake heard on any frequency 11500, Weak 1244 with suppressed audio, first time I have been able to hear them in about a week on this frequency. Nothing lower heard at this time. 12980, Good 1247, Fair 1350 and nothing lower heard at this time. 13920, Weak 1216 nothing lower or higher heard at this time. Later. strong at 1247 13970, Strong 1248 14720, Strong 1351 14950, Fair 1248 nothing higher heard at this time. Heard later Fair 1351 15295, Fair 1352, nothing higher at this time Good Dx - (Steve Handler, IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake August 8: 12980, poor at 1230; no others found including 10300 After 1310: none found 18-12 MHz After 1330: 14950, fair at 1340; none up to 19 MHz 14720, good at 1341 12980, good at 1342; none in the 13`s, 11`s or 10`s After 1400: none from 12 to 18 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Martedì 9 agosto 2011, 1243 - 15795 kHz, CNR 1 JAMMER + AIR GOS Mandarin. Segnali buoni - 1247 - 14720 // 13970 kHz, FIREDRAKE vs. SO HOPE TAIWAN (not heard) Segnali sufficienti-buoni (Luca Botto Fiora, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova) - Italia, playdx yg via DXLD) Hi Glenn, Better band conditions and Firedrake was back in force today. Many checks made 7.9-18.2 MHz today 1140-1330 August 9, 2011 10300, Weak 1144 nothing lower. 11500, Fair 1244 12600, Fair 1147 12980, JBA 1147 nothing higher. Good at 1243 nothing lower. 13970, Strong 1249. Good at 1322 nothing lower. 14720, Good 1249 and 1323 14950, Fair 1323 15425, Weak-Fair 1324 15545, JBA 12 fading in & out 1251 nothing higher. 15970, JBA-Weak 1326 16980, Weak 1327 nothing higher Good DX, (Steve Handler, IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake, August 9, before 1330: 16980, very good at 1322 15970, very poor at 1322 15425, good at 1318 plus buzz, more jamming? 15280, poor at 1318 14950, very good at 1323 14720, good at 1323 13970, very good at 1325 13795, good at 1324, unusual one; Aoki says RFA Tibetan via Kuwait [this was not a full scan as too tedious on 5-kHz steps with DX-398; but checked the regular 12`s and none found, but:] 11500, some very poor talk, not FD at 1325; none in the 10`s [after this I switched to the FRG-7 on its battery pack, 8 x Energizer D-cells ``best used by January 2007`` but whew, still not leaking] Before 1400: 14950, very good at 1345 14720, very good at 1343 13970, very good at 1345 13795, fair at 1345 12025, very poor at 1355 under CNR1 jamming but // 14950 Before 1430: 15780, very good at 1424 14720, fair at 1425; none in the 16`s, 13`s or 12`s Firedrake August 10: 10300, very good at 1250 12500, good at 1255 with brief audio dropout at 1256; none in the 11`s 14720, poor at 1257 14950, fair at 1257; none in the 15`s 16980, poor at 1259; none in the 17`s or 18`s before 1300 The only time I checked today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. AMANDO CÉSPEDES EL GENIO DE LA ONDA CORTA San José, 4 ago (CRH) – Amando Céspedes Marín fue el pionero de las comunicaciones del país, un hombre enamorado de la radio que se encargó de abrir el camino de la radiodifusión nacional, y que en ese quehacer colocó a Costa Rica en el mapa mundial, además de haber sido el primer costarricenses que fue postulado para el Premio Novel de la Paz, cumple hoy 30 años de haber obtenido el benemeritasgo. Fue declarado el tres de agosto de 1981 como benemérito de la patria por la Asamblea Legislativa, a solo tres días de haberse cumplido el centenario de su nacimiento. Céspedes nació el primero de agosto de 1881 en la ciudad de San José, en una humilde casa ubicada en donde está hoy la boletería del Teatro Nacional y falleció el 17 de mayo de 1976, a sus 84 años. Siendo aun muy joven Céspedes se mudo junto a su familia a la provincia de Limón, y aprendió rápidamente a hablar inglés. De igual manera sus ansias de superación lo llevaron a viajar a Estados Unidos a estudiar y se graduó en la ciudad de Chicago, como Profesional en el Arte Fotográfico, oficio al que se dedicó hasta 1926 luego de haber regresado a Costa Rica y haber estableció un estudio de fotografía en San José. Se convirtió en uno de los fotógrafos y radiodifusores más relevantes de las dos primeras décadas del siglo XX, considerado el pionero de la radiodifusión en Costa Rica. En el campo de la radiodifusión, en 1923 captó las primeras señales radiales recibidas en el país por medio de una antena de bambú; el 24 de diciembre de 1927 llevó a cabo la primera transmisión radial de onda larga; en los primeros años de la década de 1920 mantuvo una comunicación fluida entre San José y San Pedro mediante un transmisor- receptor de 5 watts y tuvo una pequeña emisora que operaba con las siglas de TI-4 N.R.H. (Norte–Radio-Heredia) La voz de Costa Rica. Cuando la radioemisora TI-4 N.R.H. cumplió su primera década los radioescuchas estadounidenses le regalaron una torre metálica de difusión de 32 metros de altura, y el gobierno del presidente León Cortes lo exoneró de todo impuesto aduanero y fiscal y fue instalada en sustitución de la antigua antena hecha de cañas de bambú. Céspedes en 1911 incursionó junto a Manuel Gómez en el campo cinematográfico y realizaron la filmación del congreso eucarístico y contratado por el Teatro Variedades, produjo los primeros noticieros nacionales llamado los Céspedes-Journal, que eran producciones semanales que incluían vistas de diferentes lugares del país. Además, entre sus logros también se encuentra haber filmado la primera cinta cinematográfica de 300 metros, convirtiéndose así en el primer camarógrafo profesional costarricense y haber construido la primera radioemisora de onda corta que se establecía en el país y la primera en América Latina y se convirtió en el primer locutor del país cuya voz se escuchó en el extrajero. Amando Céspedes fue merecedor de reconocimientos internacionales entre los que están Benemérito de la Cultura en Buenos Aires, Argentina, Benemérito de la Patria de Costa Rica en 1981, Diploma e insignia de Oro del Illinois College of Fotography Effingham Estados Unidos en 1900 y quinto lugar en el Salón Benedic de Nueva York en 1904. FUENTE: CostaRicaHoy.Info http://bit.ly/rs7wme (Via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DXLD) ** CROATIA. 3984.933, Voice of Croatia, 0100-0115 Aug 8; At tune in noted steady EZL type music. This lasted until about 0108 when a female and male commented in an unidentified language. Comments continued until 0112 when music returns. Signal was poor and crowded with QRM from ARO in USB. Conditions were good this evening compared to previous evenings around this time (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, 26N 081W, WR-G31DDC, Excalibur, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. The history of international broadcasting is one aspect of this hobby that really fascinates me. I have had the wonderful opportunity of meeting many of the engineers and technicians that played a vital role in the design, installation and operation of the first stations here in Cuba that placed our country on the short wave maps. There is a very good agreement among the old timers that 1937 was a very important year for Cuban broadcasting stations, as attempts were in progress to distribute the signals generated here in Havana to the rest of the country. The most logical approach was to contract the services of the Compañía Cubana de Teléfonos, a fully owned subsidiary of the infamous International Telephone and Telegraph company, under the strong rule of Sosthenes Bend. The Cuban Telephone Company was at that time installing its long distance telephone lines using a technology that consisted of placing high gain, low noise audio amplifiers at the telephone exchanges, so that a signal from a radio station could be sent along the copper overhead lines at really far away distances with an audio quality that covered from about 50 Hertz or Cycles per second to 5000 Hertz or Cycles per second, which was perfect for the bandwidth of an AM broadcast station. The Cuban Telephone Company was the only provider of studio to transmitter sites links, because during those early days there were no FM STL's or Studio to Transmitter Links. Each of the most powerful Havana AM stations used the phone lines to connect between the studios and the transmitters located outside of the city, but the lower power station, with a much lower budget at hand, simply installed the transmitters and antennas on the rooftop of the buildings, using a system that was remarkably effective, and that nowadays is known by radio engineers as elevated radials. In order to send the Havana stations` audio to the provinces, the owners had to contract an exclusive circuit with the phone company, and this was the only way that a national network could be established. RHC Cadena Azul, RHC standing for Radio Habana Cuba, and Cadena Azul meaning BLUE NETWORK, simply copied what was done in the United States of America to create the first national radio networks. The only possible second approach to create a national radio network that could bypass the expensive long distance telephone circuits leases was by installing a short wave transmitter here in Havana, and then installing high quality professional short wave receivers at the relay stations located at the provincial capitals. At that time Cuba had six provinces, but Pinar del Rio was very poor and thinly populated so all the efforts of the commercial broadcasters aimed at sending their signals to the 4 other provinces located to the East. So, the owner of one of the stations, Luis Casas Romero, who was the person that had started broadcasting way back in 1922, bought a 5000 Watts short wave transmitter and started to experiment with the relay system; that was soon dropped because it was not reliable at all. Perhaps if both Casas Romero and his son Luis Casas Rodríguez had known a little more about short wave propagation, they could had requested a frequency on the 60 or 90 meters Tropical Band for the use by their relay system, but NO, they simply asked for a 31 meters band frequency that could only be heard at very short intervals at the remote sites, because of the signal just skipping over them. COCO stayed on the air on both AM and short wave, but it never developed a national network, while RHC Cadena Azul at first and later CMQ Radio, did had the money to use the long distance lines and also to eventually install relay transmitters at the five other provincial capitals. Several years later, around 1952, Radio Progreso also jumped into the bandwagon of the national networks, under the expert guidance of senior broadcast engineer Carlos Julián Estrada Castro, who is now 95 years old and still consulting to the Cuban Broadcast Institute. Estrada together with Mario Rivero, Jorge Inclán and Eugenio Jiménez were my mentors, when I started to work at the start up of Radio Havana Cuba at the end of 1960 and the first several months of 1961. Si amigos, yes my friends, oui mes amis, the history of Cuban broadcasting is full of some very interesting and colorful anecdotes that I hope to publish here soon too (Dxers Unlimited weekend edition for Sunday 24 [July] 2011 By Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK DXers Unlimited blog at RHC via DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. More incompetent DentroCuban Jamming Command activity against nothing, wasting precious electricity and regardless of the collateral damage to innocent bystanders: 5890, August 7 at 1131, curtailed WWCR-4 schedule means no Brother Scare, uncovering pulse jamming which is `needed` only 12 hours a week at 23-01 when VOA is on 5890. 9490, August 7 at 1220, residual pulse jamming under something in Korean (VOA at 12-13 via TINIAN per HFCC; Thailand per Aoki); jamming is `needed` only 6 hours a week when R. República via Sackville is on 9490 weekends 23-02. 12000, August 7 at 1227, lite pulse jamming vs weak signal, Vietnam and/or DW/Sri Lanka. Jamming is `needed` only 5 hours a week when VOA Spanish is on 12000 at 00-01 Tue-Sat. Rather than let Cuba jam VOA and get away with it, why doesn`t the USG employ spare transmitter capacity to jam RHC in English, solely as retaliation? Americans entitled to freedom of the press, so repressed in Cuba, would still not be prevented from hearing it at all, but it would teach Arnie & friends a lesson. 9790, August 8 at 0435, CRI Chinese relay is on one of the squealing transmitters, like 13740 in the mornings; also undermodulated. Wall-of-noise jamming check August 8 at 0942: on 9805 vs Martí, 9955 vs WRMI; before 1000 also found on 6030 & 5980 vs Martí, 5955 vs República, the last replaced by 9965 after 1000. Martí audio could be heard only on 6030. At 0930-1000 six days a week, WRMI has R. Eslovaquia Internacional, and on Sundays another program in English, so has Cuba something against Slovakia, like gaining its freedom, becoming non- and post- Communist? More likely stupid incompetence in scheduling jamming. 6050, August 8 at 0955, HCJB in indigenous language is no longer blocked at this hour by RHC which for its own reasons quit all-night broadcasting, but Cuba is still jamming it tnx to bleedover from the roar on 6030, pulsing heard on 6050. 7320, August 8 at 1008, VG signal on AM with cut number tones in code, Cuban spy transmission, probably on regular Monday schedule. Thanks to power outage here, several DentroCuban Jamming Command harmonics not normally audible could be heard August 9: 17670, Aug 9 at 0012, lite pulse jamming aside 17675 DRM from NZ, i.e. 5890 x 3 vs VOA Spanish; still at 0052. First time to hear this one 18090, Aug 9 at 0013, same as 17670 but a bit stronger, 6030 x 3 vs R. Martí; still at 0052 12060, Aug 9 at 0058, pulse jamming, some fades, 6030 x 2 vs R. Martí; still there at 1134 11960, August 9 at 1134, pulse jamming, 5980 x 2 vs R. Martí 11910, Aug 9 at 0058, pulse jamming like 12060, but this one is 5955 x 2 vs R. República 5954v; first time heard, I think. From 01 to 05 UT, RHC English is supposed to be on 6000 and 6050 only, but UT August 9 it was also on a better, clearer frequency, 11760, where we have also heard it occasionally after 0500 instead of 6010. 11760 remained on the air in English when checked at: 0103, 0205, 0240, 0338. Hey, Arnie, now you can turn off 6050 and let HCJB have their only SW frequency back. Ha: 24 hours later, August 10 at 0135 check, 11760 is back in Spanish. SNAFU. 13680, August 9 at 1347, RHC`s Pedro is interviewing Alejandrina, apparently new announcer in the Quechua service, who was drawn to Cuba where there is social justice [at the expense of freedom], married a Cuban and produced a Cubo-Peruvian child. Quechua service connects with listeners from Colombia to Chile; Pedro looks forward to better relations with Perú whose new president has been to Cuba thrice. 14880, August 9 at 1344, very poor signal from RHC, never heard here before: yes, // 13780, but not typo for the leapfrog of 13680 over that to 13880. 14880 = leapfrog of 15360 over 15120 another 240 kHz lower, so it and 15120 end by 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9240-AM, August 10 at 1026, YL 5-digit spy numbers in Spanish, S9+22 but undermodulated. I found this much more interesting than the last thing I just heard from Rod Hembree on 9330 WBCQ. 6000, August 10 at 1104, RHC sign-on frequency announcement is more accurate than the sign-off one circa 0500 with long-gone imaginary frequencies, but it`s still wrong in mentioning only 6000 on this band, while really // better signal on 6150 but undermodulated with squeal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. 9490, Aug 7 at 0014, R. República via RMI via Sackville, CANADA, strong and steady signal well atop the wall-of- noise jamming, quoting Mahatma Gandhi, ID, and later in hour some kind of awards ceremony for Cuban exiles. Is Sat/Sun 23-02 Sun/Mon only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. 15798-15820+, August 9 at 1321, OTH radar jamming, presumed from here aside WWCR 15825 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA [and non]. Subject: WRMI QSLs --- USA: via WRMI 9955. VATICAN RADIO, St. Peters cd; KOL ISRAEL, WRMI cd; R. PRAGUE, Prague Castle cd., all in 2 months. I’m especially glad to get the Prague card. Radio Prague will always be very special to me. It’s one of two broadcasters which I have visited. In the 1980s, when it was still communist, I produced a classical music video in Czechoslovakia. I took off work one afternoon and stopped by Radio Prague and was pleasantly surprised with the welcome I received. They gave me an extensive tour of their facilities, and when I left they presented me with several LPs of music by classical-era Czech composers. (The other broadcaster I visited was Radio Americas in Miami way back in the early 1960s.) (Wendel Craighead, Prairie Village, Kansas, USA, Aug 4, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) See also SPAIN ** DENMARK. QSL recebido após 7 anos --- Prezados amigos, Recebi ontem e hoje vi na minha caixa de correspondençia um QSL. Achei muito estranho pois faz tempo que não escrevo para nenhuma emissora. Ao ler vejo que era um QSL da WMR-World Music Radio, preenchido corretamente. Está informando que a emissora foi escutada no dia 26-06-04 pela frequencia de 5815 kHz. Transmissores localizado em Karup-Denmark. Fiquei muito impressionado, pois eu mesmo não me lembro dessa escuta, talvez pelo longo tempo que ja faz. Alguem sabe me informar mais sobre essa emissora?? -- minha pagina: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/124523 meu blog: http://www.ipernity.com/blog/124523 (Anderson José Torquato, Garopaba-SC, 6 August 2011, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Veja DXLD 11-30 e 11-31 ** DIEGO GARCIA. Diego Garcia is a tough catch for many of us in the central USA, it's the longest short path that's available. It's just about on the opposite side of the earth so we have only short time frames with all dark paths that will allow 4319 to propagate. Maybe I've missed 'em but I don't recall seeing any reports of Diego on 12579. I've logged 4319 just after sunset between the fall equinox and spring equinox (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, TX, Aug 4, ABDX via DXLD) Diego Garcia makes it here into SE Massachusetts every once in awhile on 4319 around 2300-0030. Not really rare but not a regular either. Like JL I've never seen any logs for 12579 (Steve Wood, Harwich, MA, ibid.) ** EAST TURKISTAN [non]. Sri Lanka, Radio Free Asia, 11750, Iranawila. 2011/08/03 Wednesday. 1640-1648 Uighur, talk and music; almost wiped out by Firedrake, but quite readable as Firedrake fades. Fair but fadey. Jo'burg sunset 1543 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR [and non]. 6050, August 10 at 1102, HCJB good talking about leyes but with slow SAH of about 3 Hz. That strong a SAH ought to bring some audio too but none heard. Perhaps MALAYSIA is on-frequency today, but not modulating? Ron Howard logged Asyik FM today at 1240 on 6050.0 with a 3-minute call to prayer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. 9315, August 9 at 0215, undermodulated English news about Egypt, from R. Cairo. Meanwhile nearby 9305 was as usual horribly overmodulated and distorted in Arabic. At 0251, 9315 still in English, undermodulated about Algeria. At 0248 found 6270 on air too, undermodulated plus hum/whine in Arabic. Incredibly, ending at 0257:33 was a 5+1 timesignal, Cairo news theme and news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 03.08.11, 1850 UT, 15190 kHz, Radio Africa, talk, mention Bata, in English, good signal (Ivan Lebedevsky, Pushkin, Russia, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) I hate to keep questioning these logs but: what about R. Pilipinas in English on 15190 at this time? Was the programming religious or not? R. Africa would not normally mention Bata except in a rare ID as its only purpose is to diffuse American gospel huxters. Other reports of this are sorely lacking or inconclusive. Perhaps it is extremely irregular. After 2200 (or earlier carrier) blocked by WYFR Portuguese. 15190 should be in the clear for it 1930-2200 except for R. Inconfidência, Brasil. Let`s have some more monitoring during that period. Inquiries to Pan American in California about the status of R. Africa have gone unanswered (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 09/08/2011 1714, 7180, V of the Broad Masses, ERI, 444, Asmara, programma locale // 7110, Suff 08/08/2011 1759, 7170, V of the Broad Masses, ERI, Asmara, programma locale // 7130, Suff. Ciao e 73 good DX! (Mauro Giroletti, Italy, -Swl 1510-, -IK2GFT-, playdx yg via DXLD) VoBME has been heard on frequencies between 9700-9830 kHz, escaping Ethiopian jamming (WRTH National Section update 1 August via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. 6030, Radio Oromiya, *0322-0340, August 1, sign on with marimba IS. Opening announcements to 0330 in listed Oromo. Local Horn of Africa style music at 0333. Weak. Poor with adjacent channel splatter. Must use ECSS-LSB to avoid noise on high side, but in the clear with Radio Marti off the air on UTC Mondays. Barely audible by 0340. 6030, Radio Oromiya, *0322-0345, August 8, sign on with marimba IS. Opening announcements in listed Oromo at 0330. Local Horn of Africa style music at 0332. Fair but some adjacent channel splatter. Must use ECSS-LSB to avoid noise on high side, but in the clear with Radio Martí off the air on UT Mondays (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** ETHIOPIA. 26.7, 9705, R. Ethiopia, 1230 with ID in English, "this is the international service of R Ethiopia" with news from Africa, Somalia, 1239 with headline news, a rock song 1240, 1243 with ID ``you are listening to the English service of R Ethiopia`` then followed with program from BBC, 253x (Zacharias Liangas, Fourka, Greece, Aug 7, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BBC, really? (gh, DXLD) 9705, Radio Ethiopia, 2010-2101*, August 6, mostly continuous Horn of Africa style music. Amharic announcements. Sign off with National Anthem at 2059. Poor to fair (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. Radio FSM: 6295, 8/3, 2020+ “I am not a gangster station; this is Radio FSM, free radio from the Netherlands” Hi to someone who I think had a SINPO of 35333. Said testing and playing a few records. Hi to Karl from NW Germany. The Offspring “Self Esteem” Nice signal in some static. Played latest World of Radio; interesting stuff. Glenn sounds like he has laryngitis this time. News bits on Crystal Ship bust, Laser Hot Hits frequencies, etc. (Bedford, UK, web receiver via Andrew Yoder, BRS, PA, Free Radio Weekly via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) Euro pirate relay of World of Radio --- From the shortwave dx blog. 6385, 1845, FSM Radio with a weak signal. Can just hear some talking. Sinpo 23122. Also heard 1900 With a relay of Glenn Hauser's World of radio program. Signal has improved to Fair. Sinpo 42333 http://irishpaulsradioblog.blogspot.com/ (via Gary Drew, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That was Tuesday, Aug 9; Irish Paul posts several pirate logs every day; assume times for WOR are flexible as are frequencies (gh, DXLD) ** EUROPE. 6255 16.7 1930 Geronimo Shortwave gick här också: "Broadcasting from Wales" tyckte jag att han sa. S 3 och åskoljud. BEFF 6915 6.8 1920 Geronimo Shortwave verkar vara en ganska seriös pirat. Jinglade för British DX Club och utlovade fem olika QSL-kort. S 3-4. BEFF 6255, 07.16 1930, Geronimo Shortwave went here as well: "Broadcasting from Wales" I thought he said. S3 and åskoljud [untranslatable]. Beff 6915, 8.6 1920, Geronimo Shortwave seems like a pretty serious pirate. Jingles for British DX Club and promised five different QSL cards. S 3-4 (Björn Fransson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [non]. 9825, August 10 until 1029*, just caught a few sex of what I thought was a gospel huxter screaming before cut off the air, but uplooked later it must have been some music fill on RFI`s Spanish service scheduled 1000-1030[sic] via GUIANA FRENCH, 250 kW, 305 degrees, one of the registered CIRAF targets including Oklahoma, strangely enough, at 5 am in a minority language; in fact, OK has become an English-only state despite numerous Indian languages, many endangered, i.a.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-only_movement Of course, RFI has never condescended to broadcast in English, *ugh* to any part of North America; and hardly even in French! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. MV Baltic Radio is on 6140 and 9480 this Weekend Dear Listeners, MV Baltic Radio is on the air this Sunday the 7th of August 2011 MVBR Schedule: 0900 to 1000 UT, on 6140 KHz, with 100 KW, via Wertachtal Germany 0900 to 1000 UT, on 9480 KHz, with 1 KW, via Göhren Germany 1100 to 1200 UT, on 9480 KHz, with 1 KW, via Göhren with a Repeat of RGI programme 1200 to 1300 UT, on 9480 KHz, with 1 KW, via Göhren with a Repeat of MVBR programme PS. MV Baltic Radio relay service Schedule for Summertime 2011/12 1st Sunday – MV Baltic Radio 0900 utc 3rd Sunday – European Music Radio 0900 utc September 4th Sunday – Radio Gloria International 1300 utc NEW EMR Postal Address: European Music Radio, c/o M.V. Baltic Radio, Seestraße 17, D-19089 Göhren, Germany Good listening and good reception! Good Listening 73s Tom (Tom Taylor, Aug 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6140, MV Baltic Radio via Wertachtal, 0905-1000*, 07-08, pop music en English, male with comments in German and English, identification: "MV Baltic Radio", "This is MV Baltic Radio". 44444 9480, MV Baltic Radio via Göhren, 0905-1000*, 07-08, parallel with 6140. SINPO 34433. 9480, MV Baltic Radio via Göhren, 1253-1259*, pop music en English, identification: "MV Baltic Radio". SINPO 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Log in Friol, 27 km W of Lugo, Grundig Satellit 500 and Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Cable antenna, 10 meters, faced WSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. If it`s DW, it can`t be from Germany, so whence are these two roughly equally fair signals only a reverb apart at 0011 August 7 with `Das Magazin`? 12070 is 250 kW, 280 degrees from RWANDA 12050 is 250 kW, 275 degrees from PORTUGAL HFCC shows both with exactly the same partial CIRAF targets, 10N,10SE,11S,11NW,12N,12SW = Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, and South American coastal countries from Venezuela to Peru. Perhaps I missed it, but seems that Rwanda had not been deliberately targeted across the Atlantic, tho it obviously worx well. It already has plenty of antennas like the 280 originally intended for part of Africa. Sines, Portugal site was set up for Europe and Africa, but now it`s aiming west too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE [and non]. 9420, August 9 at 0031, Qur`an from IRAN, no sign of V of Greece. John Babbis says this frequency has been missing for some three days; transmitter down? They should have moved somewhere else if can`t get Iran off it for 13 hours a day, usurped 1630-0530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nothing here on 9420 kHz. for the last 3 days; is transmitter down? (John Babbis, MD, August 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi dear John, On Tuesday Aug 9th, at 1550 UT on air: 9420, VoGRC S=9+25 dBm - and I guess in background little CNR Uighur from Lingshi China. 9935, ERT3 Thessaloniki regional program S=9+20dBm 15630, VoGRC tiny S=4 (only -90dBm weak signal) here in central Germany. 73 (Wolfgang df5sx Büschel, ibid.) Hi Wolfy: 9420 must be back on today; I never get it during daylight here until just before my 2200 UT reception report. Haven't heard from anyone at VOG since October 14, 2010 when Demetri Vafeas e-mailed me his address and the fact that he is now Supervisor of the Frequency Management Department. I suppose everyone at VOG, etc., are pissed at the government and "just doing their job, m`am!" Since VOG redid their web site, I don't know what happened to their Program Schedule; I send requests and they ignore me. They seem to also be ignoring the Iran Radio co-channel interference (John Babbis, via DXLD) REQUEST FOR CURRENT A-11 FREQUENCY AND PROGRAM SCHEDULES --- WHERE DO I FIND THE CURRENT RADIO FILIA, VOICE OF GREECE, AND RADIOPHONIKOS STATHMOS THESSALONIKI A-11 FREQUENCY AND PROGRAM SCHEDULES? (JOHN BABBIS (USA), Aug 9, to ERA5, via DXLD) 9420, August 10 at 0520, VOG must be back on here after an absence as in previous report: music and talk both sound Greek, but 15630 is too weak to be sure it`s //. Iran presumably starts 9420 at 0530 but unchecked then. {Oops, 0530 is when Iran is supposed to stop on 9420; anyhow unheard at 0520.} John Babbis had 9420 Greece again from 2200 UT Aug 9 past 0200 Aug 10. Wolfgang Büschel agrees that Greece is back on 9420 at 1250 August 10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) On Wednesday Aug 10th, at 1250 UT on air: 9420 VoGRC S=9+15 dBm 9935 ERT3 Thessaloniki regional program S=9+5 dBm 15630 VoGRC S=9+5 dBm, here in central Germany (Wolfgang Buschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM. 9560, August 9 at 1400, ID in English from KSDA, ``Adventist World Radio, the Voice of Hope; the following program is in [??] on 9560 kHz``; very poor signal, listed Chinese. Surprised by lack of het from Ethiopia and no R. Australia, but that closes at 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM [and non]. 9910, August 5 at 1147, unison reading of something in Chinese, Bible? With constant het on hi side less than 1 kHz, still same at 1210, and have also noticed it previous mornings. Scheduled is KTWR in Chinese at 1100-1230 except Saturdays. So is it ChiCom jamming or an unfortunate collision with a ute? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. 4055, Radio Verdad, 0000 as late as 0500, religious music, thanks Mark Coady! 7, 8 August [Wilkner] 73s de (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 4055, August 10 at 1106, R. Verdad is already on talking about Jesús, and better signal than it usually has closer to sunrise (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUIANA FRENCH. 15515, August 8 at 1233, RFI`s Spanish service, 250 kW, 295 degrees to eastern Mexico and Caribbean is supposed to end at 1230, but transmitter still on with RFI Musique, nice variety of generally soft pop music, mostly in French and English, including ``Smooth Operator`` by Sade a few minutes later: (Wiki: Helen Folasade Adu OBE (born 16 January 1959; better known as Sade)), which I am told is pronounced Shar-day. Kept a receiver on 15515 to hear how long this overtime would last from laissez-faire TDF Montsinéry opérateurs/opératrices. 1300 had 4- pip timesignal 6 seconds late; usual occasional IDs in French, English, Spanish but no music announcements. Still going at 1308, 1335, finally cut off abruptly at 1344:18*, a 75-minute bonus. We`ve caught them running way past 1230 before. I haven`t heard of any new strike prompting more musique even filling the Spanish time (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. 7125, Rdif Nationale, 0625-0650, August 8, Afro-pop music. Hi-life music. Local cora music. French announcements. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** GUYANA. 3290, Voice of Guyana, 0700 Caribbean Music, excellent signal 1 August, 0900 to 1000 fade out normal in South Florida - elsewhere. [Herkimer-Wilkner] 73s de (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Herkimer being in NY state as usual?? (gh) 3290.000, Voice of Guyana, 0047-0100 Aug 8, There's no consistency it seems with the signals this evening. Some are great while others are terrible. This station is of the latter. Noted a male in steady English language comments which are hard to hear under the manmade noise. Heard the word "Washington" mentioned once or twice during the period. 0053 music. Signal was poor (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, 26N 081W, WR-G31DDC, Excalibur, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Strike call by AIR & DD for 9 Aug 2011 --- Staff unions of All India Radio & Doordarshan TV have announced a boycott of duties for 24 hrs for Tuesday 9th August 2011. Last time when there was such a strike, the transmissions of several AIR stations were very much affected. 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, Aug 5, dx_india yg via DXLD) The said agitation has been differed by the staff unions. Regards (Joseph Martin, India, Aug 6, ibid.) Did he mean deferred?? (gh) ** INDIA. AIR SPECIAL BROADCASTS ON INDEPENDENCE DAY All India Radio will broadcast the running commentary in English and Hindi about the Flag Hoisting and Prime Minister`s speech to be held at Red Fort, New Delhi between 0135-0240 UT (0705-0810 IST) on 15th August, 2011 (Monday) on the following frequencies. English: 4860 Delhi 50 kW 11830 Delhi 50 kW 13620 Bengaluru 500 kW 15050 Delhi 250 kW 17510 Delhi 250 kW Hindi: 6030 Delhi 100 KW 6155 Bengaluru 500 kW 9595 Delhi 250 KW 11620 Aligarh 250 KW 15135 Delhi 50 KW (Note : External Services in Urdu on 6155, 9595, 11620 are replaced by commentary at this time) The Regional SW Stations will start using their day time frequencies about 1 hour or more earlier than usual on 15th August as follows to relay the Commentary. This may provide enhanced reception of stations than on normal days. The UT sign on schedule for that day is as follows with normal sign on timings in brackets. 1. BHOPAL 0130 (Ex 0225) 7430 2. CHENNAI 0130 (Ex 0300) 7380 3. HYDERABAD 0130 (Ex 0225) 7420 4. IMPHAL 0130 (Ex 0225) 7335 5. KOHIMA 0000 4850 6. KOLKATA 0130 (Ex 0230) 7210 7. PORT BLAIR 0130 (Ex 0315) 7390 8. SHIMLA 0025 (Ex 0215) 6020 9. SRINAGAR 0025 (Ex 0225) 4950 10. THIRUVANTHAPURAM 0020 (Ex 0230) 7290 Look out for the rare AIR station in Kohima on 4850 on 14 & 15 August, 2011 as follows: 14 Aug 2011 1000-1600 UT approx 15 Aug 2011 0000-0415 UT approx Reception Reports to : spectrum-manager @ air.org.in OR Director (Spectrum Management & Synergy) All India Radio, Room No. 204 Akashvani Bhawan, Parliament Street New Delhi 110001. --- (Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE, New Delhi, Aug 7, dx_india yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) ** INDIA. 4860, 0025-0035 03.08, AIR Delhi A, Kingsway, Hindi ann, Indian songs - severe hum from the transmitter + CODAR QRM, 22332 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, heard on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. 5010, AIR Thiru'puram (presumed), 1231-1300+ Aug 7. Sounded like English news, but not sure; more talk continued past 1300; not sure of lang. Poor in the band noise and QRN (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 5010.023, All India Radio, Thiruvananthapuram, 0040-0100 Aug 8. Noted a male and female in conversation at tune in. At 0042 a male commences chanting or reciting some kind of prayer which continues for a few minutes. Signal was fair to midline (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, 26N 081W, WR-G31DDC, Excalibur, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Middling? ** INDIA. AIR Vividh Bharati program. AM tests between 0900-1200 have moved to 6110 kHz from former 6090 kHz. Simultaneous DRM tests continue on 6100 kHz (WRTH National Section update 1 August via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. Heard presumed RRI Palangkaraya, Indonesia tonight on 3325 kHz with Islamic verse at 2117 UT tune-in. Later with typical easy listening songs at 2152 through top of hour. Presumably on extended schedule (early sign-on) for Ramadan. Never strong enough to confirm even language but nice to hear something on what's normally an empty channel here (Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, Aug 4, AOR 7030plus / Wellbrook ALA 1530, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) 3325 31.7 1957 RRI Palankaraya INS spelade en paussignal till strax före 20.00 då nationalsången spelades. Var uppe i S6-7 som bäst. Utökad sändningstid vid Ramadan? AN 3325, 07.31 1957, RRI Palankaraya, played a pause signal to just before 2000 when the national anthem played. Was up to S6-7 at its best. Advanced air time for Ramadan? AN (Arne Nilsson, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3325, RRI Palangkaraya, 1158 Aug 6, fair with pop music, brief announcement by woman, into SCI and news from Jakarta 1200 (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3344.969, 04.08 2005, RRI Ternate with a nice tone this night. TN (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3344,973 31.7 1957 Tent RRI Ternate. Körde mx non-stop fram till ca 20.05 då islamsk predikan började. Inget ID vid toth. S4-5. AN 3344.973, 7.31 1957, Tentative RRI Ternate. Drove [?] music non-stop until about 2005 when the Islamic sermon began. No ID at TOH. S4-5. (Arne Nilsson, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3345, RRI Ternate, Kor`anic recitation or a similar-sounding type of religious broadcast starting before 1145 and ending 1227 Aug 6, then M&W in Indonesian, nonstop instrumental music 1229-1239, more talk 1239, then canned announcement mentioning "Er Er Ee (Inter?)Nasional" a couple of times. Then talk by woman which seemed to mention several RRI outlets (Jakarta, Bandung, etc.) at one point. Fair at first but quite good after 1230 (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA [and non]. 4750, August 9 at 1145, at least two stations, with music and Indonesian talk atop; RRI Makassar, and Bangladesh or China (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CORRECTION: My presumed logging on August 8th of Bangladesh on 4750 was actually RRI Makassar. See below. 4750 INDONESIA. RRI Makassar, Sulawesi, 1204 Aug 9. Fading in, Indonesian vocals; at 1235 signal coming up out of the noise and co- channel QRM; 1237-1245 woman announcer talking with some mentions of Islam, 1245-1307 Islamic chants by woman, then man and back to woman, 1307-1334 tune-out male announcer and variety of pop and lite jazz vocals; signal peaked shortly after my sunrise (approx. 1310). Fair- good (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 9525.96, Voice of Indonesia. August 5, the transmitter for this frequency went off the air; gone by 1338 check, but had been heard about an hour earlier in Japanese. 9524.96 was replacing ex: 9525.96 on August 6; from 1047 to 1058 in English with “Music Corner”; 1059 into Chinese; strong signal; fair to almost good (Ron Howard, California, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9525-, VOI after months on 9526-, has switched to the other transmitter, as first noted Aug 6 by Ron Howard, 40 Hz below 9525. Aug 7 at 1216 in Special Japanese giving URL in English, good modulation, xylophone(?) music. 1310 in English, but as usual faded down and tough copy. 1416 the dominant CRI Russian now has a SAH instead of an AH from Cimanggis. 9525-, August 9 at 1312 quick check, poor signal from VOI, yet with the recognizable voice of the RRI Banjarmasin guy, a Tuesday fixture; was much better during previous hour in Japanese (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. RADIO FROM SPACE: A TRIBUTE TO PIONEERS Hi folks, a story on amateur radio from space, you can access it from my blog: http://fromdctodaylight.splinder.com/post/25418520/ground-control-to-major-tom I know it's not about broadcasting, but these experiments opened new boundaries for everyone of us, radio fonds. Ciao to everybody, (Chris Diemoz, Italy, Aug 10, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. Frequency change of VOIROI/IRIB in Hindi: 1430-1530 NF 13830 SIR 500 kW / 102 deg to SoAs, ex 13810*// 11955 * to avoid Brother Stair TOM in English from 1500 73! (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, August 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 11920, August 9 at 0342, VIRI in English with flutter, rather distorted modulation; 0357 recheck it was covered by ROMANIA, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GREECE ** IRELAND. 6930 6.8 1930 Irish Music Radio inledde mitt lyssnande med en Beatleslåt, men sedan blev det mest hemska saker, typ techno. En kvinna läste upp lyssnarbrev från DX-are - inklusive SINPO och allt. IMR hörs mycket varierande, ibland riktigt bra, men med mycket fading. S 2-4. BEFF 6930, 8.6 1930, Irish Music Radio: began my listening with a Beatles track, but then came the most terrible things, like techno. A woman was reading listening letters from DXers - including SINPO and all. IMR sounds very different, sometimes really good, but with much fading. S 2-4 (Björn Fransson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY [and non]. IRRS --- 9435, the station verified an e-mail reception report for a special test transmission from an unkinown or unacknowledged site with an e-mail reply in 10 days from Ron Norton For some unknown reason the station insists on keeping transmiter sites a deep, dark secret (Rich D`Angelo, PA, QSL Report, Aug NASWA Journal via DXLD) I wonder if it is some sort of a tax issue with the Italian government or with the country of transmission (Sam Barto, ed., ibid.) Updated summer A-11 of NEXUS-IBA IRRS Shortwave in English: 0800-0900 9510#TIG 150 kW / 290 deg to WeEU/NoEU Sat 0930-1200 9510+TIG 150 kW / 290 deg to WeEU/NoEU Sun 1300-1400 15610*TIG 300 kW / 100 deg to AS/AUS/NZ Daily 1730-1800 7290+TIG 150 kW / 290 deg to WeEU/NoEU Sun >>>>> new 1800-1900 7290*TIG 150 kW / 290 deg to WeEU/NoEU Daily 1900-2000 7290*TIG 150 kW / 185 deg to CeAF/SoAF Daily >>>>> ex to EU # R. Joystick 1st Sat; R. City 3rd Sat; European Gospel Radio 2nd/4th + European Gospel Radio * Brother Stair TOM 73! (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, Aug 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. 2850, weak with 3+1 pips, then the usual political rants in Korean 1200 Aug 6. 3250 weak march music & male talk 1201 (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 2850, August 9 at 1143 very poor with music; still some lite line noise level from the next block? Where power is on. 5895, August 9 at 1153, noise jamming, not the Cuban kind made up of pulses. Aoki has it but not any target: ``5895 0650-2400 KRE North Korean Jamming Noi 1-7`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Martedì 9 agosto 2011 1234 - 15645 kHz, FREE NORTH KOREA RADIO - Yangi Yul (Tagikistan), Coreano, talk OM. Segnale sufficiente-buono. 1237 - 15720 kHz, RADIO FREE CHOSUN - Kamo (Armenia), Coreano, talk OM e musica, annuncio YL. Segnale sufficiente-buono (Luca Botto Fiora, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova) - Italia, playdx yg via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH [and non]. 3480, listed as Voice of the People, good with long male talk in Korean across ToH 1200, het/carrier on 3481 from presumed N Korea (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA. 17725, no signal at all August 9 at 1423 from VOAFTGJ, despite plenty of other 16mb signals in powerless low noise level (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 17725 - Not even a carrier on air at 1330 UT, Wed Aug 10. WB DXLDYG 17725 Sabrata in Swahili ON AIR again Aug 11 at 1315 UT, today S=7-8 poor signal here in Europe. 73 wb Hello Glenn and Wolfy, It seems that Libya has gone off air again as it was not audible here on 17725 at 1445 / 1500 UT ++ (Noel Green, England, Aug 11, ibid.) ** LIBYA [non?]. NATO psyops on 9376 --- Received in Scotland August 4, no time given on the YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUsaRM8zPoA (Mike Barraclough, Aug 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Plus argumentative comments It says 14:00 hrs z at the beginning of the clip, Mike (Russ Cummings BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) Visual label, and as from Mark Borthwick in Scotland. English except for very brief Arabic parts, can`t be full translation; edited out? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 10125 PSYSOS --- Hi, PSYSOS ...10125 USB on air ! 73 good dx! (Mauro - Giroletti, -Swl 1510-, -IK2GFT-, Italy, 1:04 pm [zone?] 7 August, playdx yg via DXLD) [later:] I'm sorry PSYCHO !!!!Re: 10125 PSYSOS (Mauro, ibid.) Ha ha; it is PSYOP[S] for PSYchological OPerations; anyhow apparently another new frequency unpleasant to hams (gh, DXLD) US airborne radio operation for Libya on behalf of NATO has been heard irregularly on 10125 kHz USB with messages in Arabic and English. Earlier frequencies used are 6877 and 10405 kHz (WRTH National Section update 1 August via DXLD) ** LIBYA [non?]. LIBYA PROPAGANDA WAR: CANADIAN PLANES PITCH IN LIBYA PROPAGANDA WAR First Posted: 7/29/11 12:42 PM ET Updated: 7/29/11 01:00 PM ET http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/07/29/libya-propaganda-war-canada_n_913343.html CATANIA, Italy - Canada has joined an air war of a different kind in the skies over Libya, one where persuasion and sometimes insults are the weapons. Canadian CP-140 Aurora surveillance planes recently started broadcasting propaganda messages aimed at forces loyal to Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. It's a psychological warfare operation, or PSYOPS [sic], initially started by the Americans but now overseen by NATO - the kind of mission western militaries are reluctant to talk about openly. The Canadian broadcasts are relatively benign in comparison to some of the harsher messages NATO has aimed at Gadhafi's troops, in which women's voices are telling them to stop "killing the children." The Canadian messages, in English, are read hourly during patrols along the Libyan coast over AM/FM frequencies that Libyans usually monitor. "For your safety return to your family and your home," says the message, which can be heard over unencrypted frequencies the military uses to broadcast basic information. "The Gadhafi regime forces are violating United Nations resolution 1973." The message goes on to urge Gadhafi's troops not to take part in further hostilities and not to harm their fellow countrymen. The Libyans have apparently yelled back telling the "Yankee pigdogs" to go home. On at least one occasion last week, an Arabic sounding voice challenged the broadcasts. "Who are you talking to?" the voice asked. "Anyone who will listen," replied the other voice who had read the message. Gadhafi's regime has tried to jam the transmissions. A Canadian air force spokeswoman wouldn't talk about the broadcasts, calling it "a NATO policy." She referred all questions to the alliance's southern headquarters in Naples. NATO officials were also reluctant to talk and asked not to be quoted on the record. "Since the start of operations NATO have been encouraging pro- (Gadhafi) forces to lay down their arms," said one military official on background. The "NATO mission is to prevent attacks and threats against civilians and we are doing it with care and precision. NATO will continue to keep up the pressure on those forces which are attacking or threatening civilians and civilian populated areas until that violence comes to an end." The messages are part of a stepped up PSYOPS [sic] campaign which is sometimes referred to in the army as the "black art." Italian aircraft dropped propaganda leaflets over Tripoli last May as part of the increased pressure. At the beginning of the air war, the United States dispatched its secret, specially outfitted C-130J transport plane known as "Commando Solo" to warn Libyan ships to stay in port or risk being destroyed by NATO. Although propaganda broadcasts have been around a long time and reached their zenith during the Second World War, the use of radio and sometimes television messages broadcast from aircraft to bend the mind of enemies goes back to the Vietnam War era. The two Aurora surveillance planes, with crews and support teams from Nova Scotia and B.C., were initially tasked with monitoring the sea lanes around Libya to watch for ships trying to skirt the UN arms embargo. They have also been searching for some of the mines the pro-Gadhafi forces have dropped into the water near major ports. "We support the maritime commander in whatever he requires," said Maj. Jeff Rodger, the Aurora detachment commander who belongs to 407 Squadron out of Comox, B.C. But as the Libyan conflict unfolded, the aircraft have been used more for their ability to spy on ground threats and to catalogue possible Gadhafi regime vehicles and command centres. It is patient and precise work for aircrew who end up on the extended missions that fly right up to the Libyan coastline. Some of the aircrew compared it to cops on a stakeout. "Sometimes, it just as simply as following something for a while to see where it goes and what it does," said Capt. Jerry Collins, of 405 Squadron, based in Greenwood, N.S. Occasionally, they end up witnessing battles -- or the aftermath of fighting -- through their high-resolution cameras and sensors. "They're always jockeying back and forth for position," said Collins. "All we do is take note of it. Times. Places. Positions." It can be tough sometimes to turn away from the displays. "People are losing their lives," said Collins. He added that bearing witness and passing information back so that NATO jet fighters can target Gadhafi forces is "why we're here, to make this stop." The patrols can sometimes be gruelling in the 30-year-old Auroras, which are used for coastal surveillance and fisheries patrols back home. Designed as an anti-submarine warfare plane, the crews jokingly describe it as a "flying Winnebago" for its 1980s decor and aft kitchen where meals can be taken on long flights. By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press (via Media Network via DXLD) WTFK? Of course not! (gh) Are the Canadian messages only in English? No Arabic? (Kim Andrew Elliott, www.kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** LIBYA FREE. Radio Free Libya news in English --- Last week we, Guido Schotmans (Belgium) and myself, have been monitoring Radio Free Libya from Misurata on 1449 kHz. Every evening at 2030 UT or just after 2030 they have a short newsprogramme in English. Reception quality in Belgium and The Netherlands differs from day to day, it's mostly moderate, sometimes quite good. All depends on the interference from Rai Italy on the same frequency (Max van Arnhem, The Netherlands, Aug 3, MWCircle yg via DXLD 11-31 via WORLD OF RADIO 1577) Re 11-31: UPDATE: Libyan rebel radios live on the web Here's the position as of this afternon (9 August): A new live stream of Voice of Free Libya in Benghazi is at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/voice-of-free-libya---benghazi Clearly an off-air relay (from 675 kHz) but fair/good quality. A good stream of Voice of Free Libya in Misrata is at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/misurata It's either a feed straight from the studio or an off-air relay from a good FM signal. The previous Misrata stream (mentioned previously) at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/misrataradio is no longer available. NOTE: According to Guido Schotmans and Max van Arnhem, the Misrata station has been carrying an English segment at or around 2030. (Chris Greenway, England, August 9, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Both streams are not available at 1530 Tuesday 9 August. The message is "We're sorry, the page you requested cannot be found". Regards (Harry Brooks, North East England, UK, ibid.) http://www.ustream.tv/channel/voice-of-free-libya---benghazi is this a MW 675 relay transmission, according to the noise background? After 17 seconds advertising the stream starts already. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/misurata after 7sec sign-on, and 17 seconds advertising the pogram starts. 1616 UT, no problem here. 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** LIBYA FREE [?].‘West plans new state radio for Libya’ - report According to the Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), an independent research and media organization based in Montreal, a 70- page plan detailing Western designs for the occupation of post-Gaddafi Libya, and apparently signed off on by the political leadership of the rebel Transitional Council in East Libya, has been leaked. The CRG says it paints a grim picture of the new regime NATO is planning on installing after the war. According to CRG, the plan includes discussion of a new state radio network that will broadcast orders to the public to support the new government, and warning anti-Gaddafi factions that haven’t endorsed the new regime to stand down. CRG says that the Transitional Council has confirmed the authenticity of the report. (Source: globalresearch.ca)(August 9th, 2011 - 15:04 UT by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) Fishy? ** MADAGASCAR. 5010.02, Radio Madagasikara, 0322-0355, August 5, carrier + LSB. Talk in listed Malagasy. ID at 0325. Local pop music. Fair. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** MADAGASCAR. 17525, August 9 at 1505, something in Hausa mentioning Nigeria is cutting off and on air as I intune; 1506 stays on long enough to hear VOA jingle. Is 1500-1530, 250 kW, 305 degrees from Madagascar. (When there is a transmitter problem the ops should know about, I tend to file under the site rather than in this case USA [non]) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 5964.71, Klasik Nasional (presumed), 1255-1310 Aug 9. Signal in the process of fading out but noted with vocal music to 1300, then 2 pips and presumed news; back to presumed local programming (music) at 1310, mostly unreadable by now (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX yg via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA [and non]. 6050.0, Asyik FM on this transmitter today instead of 6049.6v, since at 1130 August 7, HCJB with timesignal is mixed with music and SAH, no AH (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENNING DIGEST) 6050.02, Asyik FM, 1156-1225+ Aug 9. Heard on this freq today (alternate to 6049.62). Fast, "chipmunk" version of Bobby Vinton's "I'm Mr. Lonely" to just past ToH; then a 2-minute station jingle/hype and into music program, consisting blocks of phone calls followed by blocks of vocal music, with occasional jingles. Good signal (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX yg via DXLD) 6049.6, RTM, Asyik FM, 1345 Aug 9. Malay, DJ took several phone calls, Malaysian pop songs, 1400 time pips, woman with announcement and then man with intro to “Radio Suara Islam” over fanfare music, 1401 Islamic singing by male chorus. Good (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Harold, 6049.6? I was listening today (Aug 9), also from 1342 to 1349 and heard Asyik FM with the same details as you reported, but was on 6050.0. Small MP3 audio attached. Also John Wilkins confirmed this. We need to check daily as to which transmitter is in use. Recent history: July 29 on 6049.6 July 31 on 6050.0 Aug 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on 6049.6 Aug 7 on 6050.0 Aug 8 on 6049.6 Aug 9 on 6050.0 Is nice that Malaysia comes in so well for both of us! (Ron Howard, San Francisco, CA, Aug 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks Ron. I saw John's logging after writing up mine, so I hadn't bothered to determine the exact freq when I was listening (Harold Sellers, ibid.) John Wilkins noted the exact frequency was 6050.02 and Ron Howard was listening at the same time today and confirms it was almost exactly on 6050 today. Thus I have revised the logging. 6050 MALAYSIA. RTM, Asyik FM, 1345 Aug 9. Malay, DJ took several phone calls, Malaysian pop songs, 1400 time pips, woman with announcement and then man with intro to “Radio Suara Islam” over fanfare music, 1401 Islamic singing by male chorus. Good (Harold Sellers, BC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6050.0, Asyik FM via RTM, 1240-1243, August 10. Muslim call-to-prayer (Isha, night prayer); easy to ID as it starts with “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar”, etc. and is broadcast for about three minutes; then back to their music programming. The often reported “reciting from the Qur’an” is very different and usually last much longer than three minutes; fair (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, Traxx FM, 1335 Aug 9. English, female DJ talking about a TV show, pop songs; at 1402 check English news till 1403, then mention of “final hour”, 1408 mention “countdown of Top 10” and at 1415 “Traxx FM” ID and into “number 8” song. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 9635, RTVM, *0759-0807, August 8, abrupt sign on with vernacular talk. Rustic local music. Fair in noisy conditions. Off the air at approximately 0807. I continued to monitor the frequency until 0835, but never did return to the air (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 7245, August 5 at 0142, checking earlier than before for IGIM, and before Tajikistan is supposed to open at 0200, yes, there is a poor signal here, with flutter, and similar programming to previous overnights --- two fellows now conversing in Arabish. So I am more convinced that IGIM has expanded to 24 hours for Ramadan. But the signal is much better later, as at 0522 in chanting altho with ACI from 7250 Vatican. 7245, August 8 at 0439 singing rather than chanting, presumed IGIM on extended Ramadan schedule, squeezed by stronger 7240 DW English via Rwanda and 7250 Vatican in French (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 780, XEMTS Radio Fórmula, Tampico, Tamaulipas. 1059-1105 August 6, 2011. Mexi-tunes, male ID, choral anthem 1104, another ID 1105. 790, MEXICO unidentified. 1106 August 6, 2011. Nonstop news items read y by female, mostly Mexico topics, sports roundup led off by Monterrey fútbol. Suspect XERC Formato 21, México, DF ("F21 790 de Sur" logo on Fred Cantú's site) which appears to be mostly news format (power at 50/1), or XEVA Radio Tabasco, Villahermosa, Tabasco (25/1). Tried the next day before 1100 and Mexi-tunes vocals, but everything in the mud by 1100. Follow-up August 8th: partial ID 1102, "XE [duh]... Distrito Federal", so presume XERC. But shortly before Mexi- tunes, mixing high, so obviously at least one other XE here. Right now, 730, 770, and 790 are channels to watch just prior to and 30+ minutes after sunrise in Florida (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. I am starting to hunt for XEs on MW around sunrise again; Aug 7 the storm noise level had abated unlike evenings. Besides, SW conditions are still depressed. 1570, August 7 at 1154 UT, XERF is running its `missing-persons` PSAs, hoping the missees will be listening and contact their friends and relatives in Acuña and many other places on both sides of la frontera, giving phone numbers, even a PO Box in Wáshington, Misisipí (which is just east of Natchez). Between items exclaimed ``RF`` with a faux- Morse-code sounder. Other Mexicanish signals, mostly music, before 1200 were found on 650, 680, 990, 1010, 1020, 1040, probably IDed last fall; I had hi hopes for 1160, Aug 7 at 1158 with corrido, but no ID at hourtop, just a segué to another in KSL null, still at 1202 as fading out. Intriguing, as none of the 1160s in WRTH 2011 are in border states. Last year`s NRC AM Log does not show any US SS closer than PR and FL, too late for them, and FL is a talker, anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 6185, August 8 at 0959, XEPPM is playing the national anthem at unusual hour, just before 5 am local; usually happens at 6 am and midnight (and sometimes noon and 6 pm?). 1000 full ID for XEEP 1060 with 100 kW, internet, and SW 6185 with tabla and sitar background, more station promotion, then into unannounced modern classical music; still totally without QRM at 1015. [and non]. 6185, August 10 at 1101, Radio Educación is running over again, past nominal 6 am closedown, guy talking about a pueblo, and with a SAH, from Asia? Probably China Huayi as in Aoki but missing from HFCC along with XEPPM, just a wooden Malaysian entry. If XE is not off before 1130, it will be blasted away by NHK in Russian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. HOY INICIA TRANSMISIONES UNA NUEVA EMISORA DE FM Este sábado 6 de agosto será un día histórico para la radio en Morelia y es que a partir de esta fecha, la XEI, una de la estaciones con mayor auditorio y tradición en la capital michoacana en la Amplitud Modulada (AM), arrancará también transmisiones en Frecuencia Modulada (FM), teniendo en el 100.9, bajo el nombre de Máxima, nuevos contenidos y programación dirigida principalmente al sector juvenil. Música en inglés, pop y electrónica, así como programación dirigida particularmente a las personas de ese sector, es lo que se podrá escuchar las 24 horas, los 365 días del año a partir de esta fecha. Respecto a los cambios y la adopción del llamado sistema combo, Eleuterio Salgado Barajas, gerente general de la XEI señaló que este nuevo espacio tuvo una inversión elevada, ya que se echó mano del equipo más moderno. Pero además, el empresario radiofónico con más de 40 años de experiencia, dijo que habrá nuevos locutores y operadores, con la finalidad de brindar un extraordinario trabajo a la población. Recalcó que la XEI seguirá con su programación acostumbrada en AM, para el sector ya arraigado con ella, pero el objetivo es brindar entretenimiento a otros sectores con el nuevo espacio (quadratin via Arnaldo Slaen, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** MEXICO. Sporadic E reached ch 2 from the south, August 6, UT: 1702 on 2, first signs of CCI; 1703 on 2, Azteca-7 bug UR with 32 degrees and 12:03 clock, mostly ads; two or three stations mixing but the A-7 dominant; at 1731 the 7 bug again with 33 degrees at 12:31 clock; 1740 still not exceeding channel 2; 1800 weakening; 1812 back stronger at 1:12 and 33 degrees: UL says EN VIVO and some other word below it; soccer ball bug in LR; interviewing fans in crowd. 1815 gone; 1823 back with net-7 promo. INFO 7 in LL, promo for it lunes a viernes a 5:55 am. Very likely XHTAU, Tampico. 1824 on 2, brief bit of English about Casey Anthony, very likely XHRIO, Matamoros, then right back to Azteca-7 fútbol interviews. 1845 on 3, MUF finally creeps up a bit to recognize a net-5 bug UR, but shortly later opening is done. Fitful sporadic E occasionally visiblized some channel 2 analog DX from the south, UT August 8 from around 0000, bits now and then. Or slow Perseids might be in play around now. 0138 on 2, +V promo, i.e. Más Visión from XEWO-TV, Guadalajara. In and out quickly. 0147 on 2, Acuvue commercial, // but not synched with KOKH-24, `Fox 25` in OKC, i.e. XHRIO-TV Matamoros, soon gone. 0155 on 2 from SW, bug in UR with 37 degrees, a blob to the right of it I have guessed is a cloud, but on Danny Oglethorpe`s photo it looks more like a sun; below that the word CANAL. I can`t see the the word TU before it since it`s in a darker shade. And below that, MDT=CST clock at 7:55, so everything fits for XEPM-TV, Ciudad Juárez, Chihua2. Bit of Es, CCI on channel 2 from the S to SSW, August 8 at 1724; at 1728 a promo for ``Oaxaca es Nuestra`` but probably federal government or Televisa promo broadcast nationwide, not necessarily directly from Oaxaca. Channel 2, signs of weak analog video from the south when I turned on August 10 at 1430 UT, but nothing developed during following hour. 6m Es map showed activity only to the southeast of here within the USA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 7185.75, Myanmar Radio, 1120 to 1135 fade into music, good signal, Victor Goonetilleke quick confirmation, thanks! 8 August [Wilkner] 73s de (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. [Re 11-31:] DUTCH RADIO 1 TO START USING 648 KHZ ON 4 AUGUST Dutch domestic news/information network Radio 1 will begin temporary broadcasts from the former BBC mediumwave transmitter at Orfordness on 648 kHz at about 0900 UT on Thursday 4 August. At the same time, Dutch domestic network Radio 5 will return to its usual frequency of 747 kHz, which has been temporarily used by Radio 1 since the fires at two FM transmitting sites in the Netherlands on 15 July. Cees de Bruin, Director of Distribution for Netherlands Public Broadcasting speaks of an emergency situation: “It is rare that we have to ask for assistance from our British colleagues because Dutch transmitters cannot provide complete national coverage. With the help of Radio Netherlands Worldwide, on Monday we received permission from the British authorities to use the AM transmitter at Orfordness, and immediately we started tests. From 11 am on Thursday [0900 UT] this station will provide national coverage for Radio 1 on AM.” How long NPO will use the British transmitter isn’t yet clear, explained Mr De Bruin: “The mast in Lopik is still running at a very low power. The mast owner [Novec] must give permission to our provider [Broadcast Partners] to bring signals back to the original level. Only then will the problems with FM reception be significantly reduced. Unfortunately it hasn’t reached that stage.” Nationally, there are still problems with FM reception of the public radio networks 3FM, 1, 2 and 4 because of the restrictions currently imposed on the masts in Lopik and Wieringermeer and because of problems resulting from the collapse of the mast in Smilde (August 3rd, 2011 - 22:51 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 13 Comments on “Dutch Radio 1 to start using 648 kHz on 4 August” #1 Jan from Amersfoort on Aug 4th, 2011 at 17:48 Reception in Amersfoort good, around 18:50 transmitter off the air a few minutes; when it came back it was slightly weaker (on an ATS 909x) before 7-8 points depending on modulation. After the switchoff when it came back 5-6 points depending on modulation. The receiver is used indoor on the same location. Is it the spare transmitter that they testing? #2 Andy Sennitt on Aug 4th, 2011 at 18:44 I’m not sure what’s going on, but I think it will settle down in a day or two. NPO wanted to start as soon as possible, so maybe there are a few things that still have to be tweaked. #3 Chris Greenway on Aug 5th, 2011 at 09:36 I wonder which transmitter at Orfordness is being used? Listening this morning, they didn’t seem to be using dynamic carrier control, as was the case with BBCWS on 648 (in which the carrier RF level varies noticeably, depending on the modulation level). That might indicate the use of one of the two old Doherty 250 kW transmitters there, rather than the newer AEG-Telefunken 600 kW sender. That would tie in with Andy’s former comments about the power being only 250 kW. #4 Andy Sennitt on Aug 5th, 2011 at 09:50 Yes, Chris, I think you’re right. Last night I had another look at some emails that my colleague forwarded to me last weekend, and apparently they could get the old transmitter on the air quickly, but said it might take a few days to bring the new one back on air. Given that they had a technical problem which turned out to be a faulty tube, that would have delayed them, so chances are that they have started with the older transmitter. I hadn’t realised there were two 250 kW transmitters on site - the other one must be the backup transmitter referred to in an email. So I think they’re still getting the newer transmitter ready, which may also explain some brief breaks in transmission that some people have reported :-) #5 Chris Greenway on Aug 5th, 2011 at 12:07 Hi Andy. Back in the 1990s, when they were regularly running both 648 and 1296 simultaneously, I believe it was standard practice to have the AEG-Telefunken on 648 kHz (running at 500 kW) and the two Doherty units combined on 1296 kHz to operate also at 500 kW. The method used to combine the two 250 kW Doherty senders is described by Andy Matheson at http://www.bbceng.info/Technical%20Reviews/combining-am-transmitters.pdf Matheson notes that this was also the arrangement on 1296 when Radio Nationaal was broadcast from Orfordness in 2000-2001. #6 Andy Sennitt on Aug 5th, 2011 at 13:19 Thanks for that information Chris. I must admit I’d never paid much attention to the technical arrangements on 648. All I know is that it’s very strong over here regardless of what transmitter they’re using :-) #7 haweeha on Aug 5th, 2011 at 17:35 I’ve got absolutely no trouble at all listening in on the car radio travelling around Holland. Remember that even if only one of the Doherty transmitters is used, the five tower array will boost the signal considerably. 6 dB should be easy. #8 Jonathan Marks on Aug 5th, 2011 at 17:54 Listened to 648 in the car on a trip from The Hague to Hilversum. Actually had no problem with FM reception, so may be FM power has increased again. I thought the audio on 648 was rather muffled compared to the way they processed BBC WS service earlier in the year. Surprised they don’t mention it in the announcements on air, even to say that they can be heard on 648 kHz temporarily before the news bulletin. But no. In that case I bet no one knows it`s on the air. #9 Chris Greenway on Aug 5th, 2011 at 20:23 There’s been a change during the course of today. This evening the transmitter is clearly using dynamic carrier control. As noted above, early this morning I didn’t think it was. #10 Kai Ludwig on Aug 5th, 2011 at 21:29 The modulation right now is pretty bad, muffled with obvious distortion and generally overprocessed; the Coldplay song that has just been played went out as a continuous grumble. Sounds like two Optimods in a row, one in the NPO feed and the other one at the transmitter site, presumably with the same settings as used for the BBC WS before, designated for a plain studio feed that has not already been treated with multiband compression. A pair of the old 250 kW Marconi transmitters should also be in use for RNW on 1296 kHz. That transmission is listed as being run with 300 kW, so it can’t be the Nautel NA-200 installed primarily for the DRM pilot project. And I understand that 250 kW are now the booked power for 648 kHz, right? #11 haweeha on Aug 6th, 2011 at 08:58 @Kai That would mean considerably more radiated power towards 131 degrees from the five-tower array. Of course that means less power in other directions. #12 Andy Sennitt on Aug 6th, 2011 at 11:17 The transmitter operator told us it would take a few days to get the 500 kW transmitter on the air, prior to which they would use 250 kW from one of the older transmitters. The audio signal is being received by satellite at Wooferton, and fed by landline to Orfordness, which is the same procedure as for the RNW transmission. It may be that the audio processing for the satellite feed is different from what we use at RNW. The alternative would have been for Radio 1 to use 1296 kHz, which might have been technically easier, but we are still using it for our truckers’ programme Onderweg for two hours on weekdays, which rather defeats the object of getting a reliable Radio 1 signal 24 hours a day :-( The transmitter operator and NPO are now dealing directly with each other, and my RNW colleague who set up the initial contact is now on vacation. I can see lots of technical comments from listeners on the omroep.nl website, so presumably they will continue to tweak things until everyone’s happy :-) Regarding Jonathan’s comment, I made the same point to someone from NPO who happened to be in the RNW building just after the 648 transmission started. I told him I found it strange that there was no announcement that they had changed the mediumwave frequency, and he replied that the programmers probably didn’t know, but that he would tell them! I think this illustrates how bureaucratic the Dutch public broadcasting system is, with too many different organisations having to be informed. #13 ruud on Aug 6th, 2011 at 14:24 Broadcasters at NPO have no idea how the distribution is organised. Indeed it is ridiculous that 648 is not mentioned on air or in any publication. Now the 180,000 E/month seems a waste. Since today the audio is better, no distortion, still rather low mod. I am getting reports that power is up, and confirmation that DAM is applied. So apparently the AEG-Telefunken is now doing the job. More and more it becomes clear that the whole AM operation and the poor FM reception from main tower Lopik is caused by a simple fight between mast owner Novec (100% state owned) and operator Broadcast Partners. This is confirmed by reports on Radio 1. Novec has put excessive safety demands that cannot be realised or will take at least many months. As it stands BP has proposed a safety programme that can be introduced quite swiftly; they are prepared to pay the costs for this in advance (MN blog comments via DXLD) 648 ORF this last week --- Hi All, Are there any more reports about reception of ORF this week? I ask because at the beginning of the NL transmission it was reported on here that in certain locations received field strength was down by 30dB on what it was prior March 30th. From a colleague in London I now hear that the fs is higher there than before the BBC WS shutdown. So how is it doing? Have we got to inspect the Antenna Tuning Units at ORF to see if there is damage/changes? Thanks for your help, 73 (Dave G4OYX Porter, Woofferton, Aug 7, MWCircle yg via DXLD) David, the day after I sent the report about it being 30dB down, it came back to the level I recorded in Oct 2010. I am about 16 miles away on the back of its beam! 73 (Chris, G3XVL McCarthy, Ipswich, ibid.) Hi Dave, I don't know why the signal was 30db down on 3/ Aug, but since then every time I've checked the channel reception here near York has been good and reliable on my comms set up. Reception during the day on the car radio is not too bad. Is ORF using 250 kW now? 73s (Steve Whitt, ibid.) Technical adjustments to temporary signal on 648 kHz Following comments from technical monitors about the audio quality of the temporary mediumwave signal of Radio 1 from Orfordness on 648 kHz, some adjustments were made to the Optimod this morning, with 2dB less bass and 2dB extra treble. The transmitter operator wants to ‘run in’ the transmitter for a week before making any additional changes as it had been off the air for four months. (Source: RNW Programme Distribution)(August 8th, 2011 - 12:12 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 1 Comment on “Technical adjustments to temporary signal on 648 kHz” #1 Kim Elliott on Aug 8th, 2011 at 13:00 One of the secrets to a happy life is 2 dB less bass and 2 dB extra treble (MN blog comment via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. 6224-usb, ZLM Taupo Radio, 0930 specific weather information 6 August. 73s de (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** NIGER. 9704.99, LV du Sahel, 2200-2258*, August 6, vernacular talk. Local chants. Indigenous vocals. Local tribal music. Qur`an at 2253. Short flute IS at 2256 followed by National Anthem. Five second test tone at 2258 and off. Fair to good (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. RFA moved off 15120, so jammers too, now clear for VON 04- 07? See ASIA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6940.01, XFM, 0404-0415, August 5, ID, rap music. Pop/rock music, including Garbage - Only Happy When it Rains. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NORTH AMERICA. [Pirate]. 6925.14, Radio Free Euphoria, 0558-0606, August 6, pop music. ID. Talk about marijuana. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, Icom IC-7600, two 100 foot longwires, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1020, Sunday August 7 at 1146 UT, strong open carrier from semi-local KOKP Perry, atop XE music; still the same at 1210, what a waste. In August, KOKP is entitled to start day power of 400 watts at 1145, ex-250 watts at night, plenty to mess up KDKA reception here. 1020, Aug 9 at 0314 UT, open carrier again obviously from semi-local KOKP Perry. Might have power outage somewhere along the program feed line from Stillwater, but long before the storm, August 7 before and after 1200 UT, we also caught them providing dead air to their listener (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1520, Aug 8 at 2013 UT, tuning across KOKC to find dead air, for two minutes until resumed programming. Is no one paying attention at this once-great 50 kW clear-channel station? Then checked 1580, KOKB Blackwell, which last year would run dead air for days at a time, but it was modulating. 2017 more dead air on 1520 for at least 20 seconds until JIP a commercial. 780, Aug 8 at 2014-2015 UT, KSPI Stillwater vies with KOMA for the dead-air championship, but only lasted one minute from tune-in. These were several hours before storms really did knock out power in wide areas of OK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. A squall line with lots of lightning and winds up to 95 miles per hour blew thru Garfield Country August 8, toppling lots of powerline poles, and knocking out electricity to our place at 2304 UT. It was still out 20 hours later. We lost access to off-the-air and cable TV and internet, but battery radios allowed us to try to listen to local radio. Here`s what we found first on Enid frequencies: Off the air: 103.1, 1390, 960 On air with open carrier only: 95.7, 107.1, 1640 Translators/low power: Off the air: 88.3, 92.1 On the air: 89.1, 91.1, 93.3, 94.3, 98.5, 104.7, 105.5 At 2314, 89.1 was off allowing KMUW Wichita to be heard again. 100.7 had KPNC Ponca City with a storm warning, knocked off at 2312* as we listened. Of the major local stations, there are two groups, Chisholm Trail Broadcasting on 1390, 1640, 95.7 and 107.1 And Williams Broadcasting on 960, 103.1 Only KGWA 960 does local news ordinarily, so we kept monitoring for it primarily. At 2338 it was back on the air with country music instead of usual talk format, ID as KGWA and KOFM, even tho KOFM 103.1 was not really on the air and they don`t normally simulcast. A few minutes later news director `J. Curtis Huckleberry` appeared with news about the storm and power situation. Into UT August 9 at 0008, a weak QRP signal was on 103.1, ID as KOFM, but with music, not simulcasting 960. Probably on exciter only. KGWA continued local coverage, including winds hitting 95 miles per hour (not a tornado), OG&E says 5500 homes without power. 0020 UT went back to regular programming, Laura Ingraham, yuk. Next check at 0032 UT: 960 off the air again; 1390 still off Open carrier: 1640, 95.7, 107.1 0100 UT, KGWA still off. 0113 it`s back with L.I. 0119-0129 another storm update implying that was it until 7 am, 0129 back to L.I. We are in the dark (literally and figuratively) all night, with no local sources of info, trying to keep cool with natural ventilation only after at 100+ degree day. 1144 UT August 9, 960 carrier is on; 1390 is back to regular ESPN programming. NEVER heard any local info on any of the CTB stations. 1640 still with open carrier (its transmitter site is considerably remote from Enid near Hennessey). 1200 UT, 95.7 KXLS with music, 1390 with ESPN, 1640 OC 960 still OC, 103.1 off 1208 check, 960 now with music segué. 1217 J-Curt finally comes on with recap of last night`s storm info; power outages reached 10,000, but claims most of it is back now thanks to great work of OG&E crews leaving only some highly isolated areas (like us) still powerless as well as the KGWA studio. Well, KGWA is obviously not powerless: they are on the air from studio and transmitter somehow, with some backup altho it obviously did not kick in immediately and stay in. 1325 I can tell that 103.1 has a weak carrier, KOFM exciter only back. I am less than impressed with the preparedness of local broadcast media to cover emergencies such as this (it could have been much worse, a tornado). KGWA admitted that much of the info they had came from the local newspaper, which did appear on our lawn too with no problem. We read therein that OG&E crews stopped from 1 to 6 am to get some rest, as stuff melted in our freezers. While we were at the library in the afternoon starting to compile this report, power finally came back sometime between 2000 and 2200 UT (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1640, August 5 at 1222 UT in a brief hi-end MW scan noting some skywave is still showing, local KFXY is in dead air. Open carrier then goes off at 1229*. Back on as usual later in day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. MOVING DAY SCHEDULED FOR 105.7 TRANSMITTER KGOU's signal serving Oklahoma County, 105.7 (KROU), will be under renovation over the next couple of weeks. Starting Aug. 15, the transmitter and the small building it's housed in will be moved to a different tower location in northeast Oklahoma City. The transmitter will then be wired to a new antenna on the tower. There may be some intermittent signal outages as the work crews disconnect and then reconnect all the different parts in the broadcast chain -- but we hope to keep the disruptions to a minimum. Once the move is complete, we'll be making adjustments to all the equipment to get the best possible sound and coverage from our 105.7 signal. KGOU General Manager Karen Holp has outlined all the details and reasons for this move in a special Manager's Desk report. [previously in DXLD] (KGOU E-Newsletter Aug 11 via DXLD) KGOU web pages have this notice at the top: Fringe FM reception may be affected by atmospheric conditions today: linked to http://aprs.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/ which is the same site used by VHF/UHF DXers for tropo alerts. Good move! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Tropo is up from OKC in the evening after another of our 40+ degree days, but a minor storm skirted Enid earlier. At 0300 UT Aug 6, 48 KWDW is showing with Univisión, and the only other analog LP I can see is on 19 with gospel huxter in English constantly walking back and forth on the stage; also looks like squeezed video, or he has a very narrow face. 0327 outro as Joseph Prince Ministries, via Cornerstone TV. It`s KUOT-CA with 150 kW, but still quite snowy here (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA [and non]. 45, Aug 6 at 0404 UT, Tulsa tropo visiblizes KOTV`s three channels, with PSIP IDs: 6-1 KOTV-HD 6-2 KOTV-CW 6-3 Newson6 I stayed with 6-3 for some news? No, commercial after commercial until finally at 0412 I saw that 10 pm news playback had started, judging from the clock and temp bug in the LR showing 10:02 and 104 degrees(!!). Grafik style on KOTV matches co-owned KWTV-39 OKC, especially the 6 and 9 in white with red background. Still in next morning at 1351 UT when so-called Newson6 is axually running animated kidvid, no bugs, not even e/i, and poorly selected advertising for a Bob Moore car dealership at 1357, then credit roll for `Adventures of Piggly Wiggly`. 1400 `Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?` -- animation on that sure is jerky, cheapo. They would like us to accept it as simply stylistic. Several other Tulsa-area DTVs were decoding, not including KRSC-36, unfortunately, only 144 kW. But yes, unfortunately including KWHB-47, WHT = World Harvest Television as in WHRI on SW, 47-2 named KWHB-D2 with adstring at 1349. One can rotate north and often get KSNW-45 from Wichita at the same time as KOTV-45 is tropo-enhanced. KSNW has no subchannels; what a waste. But then I can sometimes get KPTS-8 on 8.3 with PBS` Create, which OETA will not air. Earlier at 1306 UT, the only analog I was getting, peaking due west was on ch 53, looked like an infomercial for YLs, but it was breakfast time and when I rechecked at 1340 it had gone. I would have guessed first K53EE in Follett TX, 1040 watts of KCIT-15 Amarillo, except there were no signals on 47 and 49 to accompany it as yesterday morning. K53CI in Seiling OK is closer and should be DXable, 815 watts of KFOR-27, but is southerly from due west, and KFOR has local news at that hour. One other possibility, much further, is K53BE, Guymon, 6.56 kW with TBN. I have also been getting signs of analog video on ch 58, not achieving horizontal hold, even when there is no tropo, and hard to find a peak direxion; may be cable radiation? It might also have been a 2 x IF receiver image, except there are no local analogs to produce it (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. FIVE IN A ROW: BBC EASTERN RELAY STATION ON TIN CAN ISLAND At least four small islands in widely separated locations have been designated over the years as “Tin Can Island”. One is a small island in the Tonga group in the South Pacific, so named because the early delivery of postal mail was floated ashore in a sealed cookie, or biscuit tin. Another Tin Can Island is located at Lagos in Nigeria, and it is one of the main cargo ports for their capital city; and a third Tin Can Island is located in “Island Lake,” Minnesota in the United States. The Tin Can Island that we are looking at today, is located off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East. It is better known as Masirah, and it was nicknamed “Tin Can Island” by personnel of the British Royal Air Force who were stationed on the island around the middle of last century. At the time, aviation fuel was air lifted into Masirah in square four gallon tin cans, and it took 270 tins of gasoline to provide sufficient fuel for a Wellington bomber airplane to make a nine hour operational flight. The local people on Masirah built many small homes by filling the empty tins with sand and stacking them on a cement foundation. Thus, Tin Can Island! The island of Masirah is a picturesque though quite barren island, just 15 miles off the coast of Oman on the north eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. The island was named Serepsis by Admiral Nearchos who was a fleet leader with the armies of Alexander the Great. The island itself is just 40 miles long and about 10 miles wide, with its narrowest point at a width of just 5 miles. The island is sandy and barren, though there are scenes of beauty inland. There is an abundance of wildlife on Masirah with unique birds and turtles and tortoises, and also a spectacular coral reef just off shore. The island has been mostly uninhabited right throughout its entire history, except for two particular eras of development. In very early times, Masirah was mined for its copper, and also for its semi- precious stone. During the European colonial era, Masirah was surveyed by British expeditioners who discovered that the island had been occupied by stragglers from the Bahriya tribe who were unfortunately wiped out by an epidemic. And of course, local mainland fishermen have used the island as a a base for their fishing enterprises. However, at the beginning of European settlement, the Royal AIr Force established a primitive base at the northern end of the island in 1942 to serve as a staging point for flights between England and Southern Asia and beyond. The Americans took over the base and enlarged it soon afterwards, but it was handed back to the British once again. In 1977, the British left the island, and once again, it became an American Air Force base. At the height of the foreign presence on the island, there was a total population of 12,000, including some 10,000 local Omani people. As the third BBC relay station in the area, after Berbera in Somalia & Perim at the mouth of the Red Sea Gulf, work on the installation of a new and much larger station began in 1967. Initially, this new BBC relay station at the northern tip of Masirah Island was in operation as a mediumwave only facility, with two transmitters rated at 750 kW each. The first transmitter was taken into regular service on June 1, 1969, and the second unit followed early in the next year. Two main mediumwave channels were in use for the broadcasts from the BBC Eastern Relay Station. One channel was 701, 702 and later 703 kHz, depending on the beam direction; and the other was 1410, 1412 and later 1413 kHz; again, depending on the beam direction. At one stage test broadcasts were carried out on another channel, 1320 kHz. Programming for this BBC relay station was initially provided on tapes that were flown out or shipped out from London, together with live relays taken off the air shortwave from the BBC shortwave station on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean. No live programming was produced at the facility on Masirah. On June 13, 1977, a massive cyclone bore down on Masirah Island, and in advance, some 7,000 people were evacuated from the island or moved inland. This powerful storm lasted five days in the area, wreaking havoc to the local villages, and also to the BBC relay station. When the damage was surveyed subsequently, it was discovered that the powerhouse roof was torn off, the towers for the 700/701 kHz transmissions were felled, and feeder lines to all antennas were badly damaged. However, one set of towers was still standing, the transmitter building sustained only light damage, and the two large transmitters, sustained only superficial damage. However, it took six months to complete repairs to the damaged station, and in the meantime, shortwave relays at other BBC stations filled in for the now missing radio coverage in the target areas. However, after a few more years, the equipment was getting old and needed replacement, so work was commenced on a totally new station, this time on the mainland almost opposite the island. Finally, broadcasts from the BBC mediumwave station on the island of Masirah came to an end at the end of the year 2002, in favor of a new facility at A’Seela in Oman. The mediumwave site on Masirah is now a dedicated bird sanctuary. More about these stations in two weeks time (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script script for June 5 via DXLD) FIVE IN A ROW: THE BBC RELAY STATIONS IN ARABIAN COASTAL AREAS ON SHORTWAVE FROM TIN CAN ISLAND, MASIRAH On three previous occasions here in Wavescan, we have presented the story of three consecutive BBC relay stations installed in the coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula, and these were located at Berbera in Somalia, Perim Island in the entrance to the Red Sea, and the mediumwave station on Masirah Island off the edge of the Arabian Peninsula. On this occasion, we present the story of the fourth BBC unit in the area, the shortwave facility on the island of Masirah. However, before we delve into this interesting information, let us take a look at three other radio facilities on the island of Masirah. In addition to the BBC mediumwave and shortwave stations, the BBC also installed a receiver station nearby with a system of three rhombic antennas. This facility was located in an electrically quiet area, somewhat south of the mediumwave station at the northern edge of the island. This receiver station on Masirah received BBC programming off air shortwave, from transmitters located in England & Cyprus. During the horrendous cyclone on June 3, 1977, high winds downed one of the rhombic antennas, and badly damaged two that remained standing. Because of the concentration of British personnel on the island, associated with the BBC facilities and other projects, consideration was given to their entertainment needs. Tentative plans were considered for the installation of a local TV station to broadcast the programming from BBC TV in England. However, ultimately, equipment was flown in for a single channel receiver facility with a downlink from satellite programming. There was never a local BFBS mediumwave or FM station on the island. However, the Americans did at one stage install their own AFRTS relay station. This facility was a low powered carrier current station, with just 5 watts output on 975 kHz, under an American callsign WIRA. The AFRS station WIRA was on the air during during the early American presence on the island, and it was in use from October 1944 to August 1945. With such an extremely low power output, it is probable that no QSLs were ever issued by AFRTS WIRA. Now we come to the BBC shortwave relay station on Tin Can Island, as Masirah was known colloquially during this era. The mediumwave station was taken into service in 1969, and work commenced on the shortwave unit half a dozen years later. Initially, plans for this new shortwave station seemed to indicate that transmitters rated at 250 kW were considered, though ultimately four Harris transmitters at 100 kW each were installed. This station was located about five miles south of the mediumwave station on the coast. The shortwave station was controlled remotely from the mediumwave facility. At the time of the horrendous cyclone on June 13, 1977, work on the shortwave unit was nearing completion. The main transmitter building sustained major damage, though internal roofing remained intact and the transmitters themselves were undamaged. Due to the need for damage repair, the inauguration of this facility was delayed by several months. The first of the four shortwave transmitters on Masirah was activated on June 25, 1978 with test transmissions of BBC programming. This first transmission was heard by the noted international radio monitor Victor Goonetilleke in Colombo Sri Lanka and he heard them on 7275 kHz. Five weeks later, on August 1, this transmitter was taken into regular scheduling. By the end of the year, three transmitters were on the air with a regular service, and the fourth was activated early in the new year 1979. A score of years later, the BBC electronic equipment on Masirah was outdated and inefficient. Plans were laid for an entirely new station at a new location; and ultimately, this new location was at A’Seela on the nearby mainland area of the country of Oman. In August 2002, the gradual transfer of programming from Masirah shortwave to A”Seela began, and the last broadcast from the BBC station at Masirah took place two months later. Masirah shortwave ended at 21:59:30 UTC on October 7, 2002, on 6030 kHz. For a period of some 33 years, the BBC operated their broadcasting facilities on the island of Masirah for coverage into Africa, the Middle East & Asia. The BBC Eastern Relay Station on Masirah was described as the smallest overseas BBC relay station. The BBC facilities on Masirah consisted of three separate units; mediumwave at the top end of the island, shortwave at five miles south, and the receiver station a few miles distant from both. It is true, the BBC looked upon the entire complex as one single unit, though for convenience of description, we have separated their facilities into two units, mediumwave & shortwave. As mentioned in our program two weeks ago, the northern mediumwave station is now a dedicated bird sanctuary, and the shortwave station is just simply abandoned. In fact you can easily see the two abandoned locations on Google Earth. At the very top end of Masirah, you can see where the old building used to stand, and five miles south and a little east, you can still see the old abandoned buildings. The station is gone, but its memory lingers on for those who are fortunate enough to hold QSLs verifying the BBC Masirah. QSL cards and QSL sheets and letters were issued by the BBC staff on Masirah, and many of those who were active monitors for the BBC in London were able to obtain regular BBC QSL cards specifically identifying Masirah (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script for June 19 via DXLD) ** OMAN. Five in a Row: The BBC Relay Stations in Arabian Coastal Areas - The New BBC Station on Coastal Oman Thus far here in Wavescan, we have presented four topics on the consecutive story of the BBC Eastern Relay Station, at its previous locations; Berbera in Somalia, Perim in the Red Sea, Masirah Mediumwave & then Masirah Shortwave. On this occasion, we present the 5th topic in this brief series, the story of the quite new mediumwave & shortwave station in Oman on the Arabian Peninsula. This is what happened. But first though, some information regarding the country of Oman itself. Oman is just a small country, located on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. It is 500 miles long and 200 miles wide with a population around three million people. The capital is Muscat, and the largest city is Matrah. Interestingly, two small territories lie at a distance from the main territory of Oman, and these are Musandam & Madha, both of which are surrounded by the territories of UAE, the United Arab Emirates and nearby waters. The enclave of Musandam lies at the end of the Musandam Peninsula with a population of 30,000; and in between is the small town, mostly empty, called Madha. To make things more complicated, inside little Madha is Nahwa, a settlement belonging to the UAE with just 40 houses, a small clinic and a telephone exchange. Oman is one of the hottest countries on Earth, with a temperature quite often reaching as high as 130 degrees F, 55 C. Oman consists mainly of desert areas, and in some localities fresh water is available from ancient underground canals. The country’s economy is based upon oil production; tourism is a major source of income; and 20% of the world’s meteorites are found here. The country of Oman traces its origins, and its name, back to the first migrants, who were Arab tribes from a location known as Uman in what is now the country of Yemen. In the early 1500s, Portuguese explorers and traders took over some of the Omani coastal areas, and 150 years later, local rebellions ousted the Portuguese. Then in 1798, Omani chieftains made a treaty of friendship with the British, though still retaining their own independence. * National Anthem - Oman: Brass * BBC Oman, Cont In 1996, the BBC in London signed an agreement with the government of Oman for the establishment of a new international radio broadcasting station to be located near Al-Ashkharah, a little more than 100 miles north-north east of their earlier station on the nearby island of Masirah. This new station, it was originally planned, would contain four shortwave transmitters at 300 kW each and two mediumwave transmitters at 600 kW each. Work commenced on the construction of this new station during the following year, 1997. Three years later, when Merlin came in and took over much of the network facilities of the BBC London, an agreement was signed indicating that Merlin would take over the final design, the construction and the operation of this new relay station, though the BBC would still retain ownership. In July 2002, the BBC issued an initial schedule showing the usage of this new transmitter facility, together with the schedule for the gradual transfer of programming from the old Masirah stations to the new station, now listed as A’Seela. During the next month, August 2002, the transfer of shortwave programming from Masirah to A’seela began, and the final broadcast from Masirah shortwave ended at 21:59:30 on October 7, on 6030 kHz. However, because all broadcast relay functions on Masirah were controlled from the mediumwave station at the top end of the island, then this unit was not closed down until a little later, the end of the same year 2002. And once again, the inevitable typhoon came into the picture, and this was Typhoon Gonu, in 2007. The new BBC station survived, and continued in uninterrupted service. These days, the BBC Eastern Relay Station, located near A’seela in coastal Oman, is on the air with regular program relays by satellite, though the current transmitter configuration is a little different from the original planning. The original specifications were:- Shortwave 4 @ 300 kW Mediumwave 2 @ 600 kW The actual installation shows:- Shortwave 3 @ 250 kW Mediumwave 2 @ 800 kW Although the BBC in London does not issue specific QSL cards, it is possible to obtain a valid QSL from the station itself in Oman. The address as given in the WRTVHB is:- BBC Eastern Relay Station, Box 40, Al Ashkarah 422, Oman (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script for July 10 via DXLD) see also SOMALIA, YEMEN ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3205 - fair with pop music 1158 Aug 6. Long monologue by DJ 1202, mentioning Saturday night a couple of times and giving ID as "Radio (Sandaun?) National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea" (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3205, NBC Sandaun, 1145-1210*, August 6. DJ in Tok Pisin; island songs; 1201 full ID; “Saturday night … N-B-C Sandaun, Maus (Bilong?) Sandaun ... radio station National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea N-B-C Sandaun ... frequency numbers ... N-B-C Sandaun ... 3,205 kHz. ... 10 kilowatt transmitter ... FM ... N-B-C Sandaun 90.7 MHz. ... 5,000 watts, ... N-B-C Sandaun … Saturday night ... N-B-C Sandaun, Maus (Bilong?) Sandaun”; DJ in English with pop/rap/EZL songs; “four minutes past ten”. Today they did not carry the “News in Brief”. MP3 audio at http://www.box.net/shared/x7by0unv1h7qh2h0imoc (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3205, NBC Sandaun, 1301-1318*, August 7. NBC national audio feed; IDs “N-B-C National Radio” and "The Voice of P.N.G."; EZL and island songs; suddenly off; running about an hour past their recently observed sign off times; almost fair (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3205, NBC Sandaun, 1217 Aug 9. American 80s pop song, 1220 ID and TC, song in Tok Pisin. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3205, NBC Sandaun, 1232 Aug 8. Pop music, man in Tok Pisin. Best signal on the band prior to my local sunrise. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1 antenna, Editor of World English Survey and Target Listening, available at http://www.odxa.on.ca dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3205, NBC Sandaun (presumed) via Vanimo, West Sepik, random listening from 1145 to 1336*, August 10. Nice to find them on this late; 1145- 1200 weekly Wednesday program in English directed to teachers; PNG birdcall; news in English with audio suddenly becoming over modulated (distorted), which is not uncommon; YL DJ in Tok Pisin with dedications for pop island songs; 1305 noted “News Roundup” in progress; 1310 relay of the national audio feed for “N-B-C National Radio” till transmitter suddenly off. Did not hear the usual NBC Sandaun IDs or singing jingles; heard several station singing jingles, but were not the usual ones, so perhaps a FM relay? Poor to almost fair. (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3274.992, 4.8 2207. R. Southern Highlands is together with 3365 the most common station from Papua. Today with decent signal but most days quite weak. TN (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3274,994 31.7 1910 R Southern Highlands PNG med OM spkr. Svag. Blir väl starkare med tiden! AN 3274.994, 7.31 1910, R Southern Highlands with OM speaker. Weak. Becomes much stronger with time! AN (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, translated by Thomas Nilsson, ibid.) 3275 vernacular talk 1158 Aug 6, weak (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3325, Radio Buka, 1214 Aug 9. Woman in Tok Pisin, not parallel other PNGs. Poor (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3364.984, 4.8 2005, tentative R Milne Bay with a decent signal this night (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3364,985 31.7 1900 R Milne Bay PNG startade upp. YL ancr. Svag. AN 3364.985, 7.31 1900, R. Milne Bay started up. YL announcer. Weak (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3365 - weak with pop music 1200, male talk 1201 (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3365, Radio Milne Bay, 1229 Aug 9. Pop PNG music. Poor (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3385, Radio East New Britain, 1212 Aug 9. Woman in Tok Pisin with news, NBC News ID at 1213; at1222 check music and time check; at 1226 check was off the air. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3385 - fair 1157 with apparent nonstop pop tunes to 1223* Aug 6 (Bruce Portzer, Seattle WA, Winradio Excalibur, K9AY antenna, results of an unattended recording session, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3905, NBC New Ireland (presumed), 1057-1321 and still on at 1339, August 7. Last heard them in late December; mixture of EZL/pop/religious/island songs; poor with QRN and intermittent heavy ham QRM (Louisiana Post Office net?); 1237-1303 YL monologue in assume Tok Pisin (religious?); 1305 tentative “N-B-C New Ireland” ID; definite mentions of PNG. Nice to find them reactivated! My last MP3 recording of them (December 6) is posted at http://www.box.net/shared/fhirpi5ncz6hcmkb7ljx with ID and address: “N-B-C New Ireland, P.O. Box 477, Kavieng or into studio 984 2489” (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3905, NBC New Ireland, 1137-1210+ Aug 7. Back on the air after a silence of several months. YL talking to 1155, then a bit of music, followed by more talk after 1200. Fair signal but seemed very undermodulated so could not make much out; high QRN here, also, as well as ham QRM. Still there at 1245 per spot checks. On Aug 8 tuned in at 1206 with NBC news in progress // 3385. Back to local programming at 1208 with a couple of "NBC New Ireland" ID's, and an ad; long talk by man 1210-1225, sounded like local news and/or announcements in English, I think; time check at 1226 for "26 minutes past 10 o'clock". Much better copy today but still a QRN problem here. Deteriorating after 1230; carrier still there at 1250 per spot checks (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 3905, NBC New Ireland, better reception August 8 than yesterday; 1019- 1059 Monday program “Government Talkback” in English; 1101 PNG birdcall; NBC National News in Tok Pisin; distinctive sound of conch shell horn and drums followed by local news in English; “You are listening to the news coming to you from N-B-C New Ireland”; 1120 local news in Tok Pisin followed by conch shell horn with ID given over it; 1124 back to the “Government Talkback” show in English with two men chatting about pilots, aircraft, investigations of flying accidents, etc. till 1141 tuned out; Talkback and national news // NBC Sandaun (3205) and NBC East New Britain (3385) (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3905, NBC New Ireland. Noted off the air again around 1200 UT on Aug 9 after a 2-day reactivation (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX yg via DXLD) 3905 PNG. New Ireland, Aug 9, nothing heard during several checks around 1200 (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3905, NBC New Ireland. John Wilkins noted August 9 about 1200 that they were off the air; August 10 not heard at all during numerous checks. Seems only briefly reactivated (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 5960, R. Fly, 1000-1044, August 6. Nice mix of C&W (Reba McEntire “Turn On the Radio”, etc.), pop (Celine Dion “Where Does My Heart Beat Now”, etc.) and island songs along with canned IDs (“Non-stop, Radio Fly”, etc.); no live DJ. Poor; summertime QRN; decent for 1 KW; MP3 audio at http://www.box.net/shared/d5elxzqtgy755el9acsk The 3915 kHz transmitter remains silent. When I returned to my SF condo I found a duplicate Radio Fly QSL card waiting for me. Identical to the one I received in Monterey and same stamps on envelope. Nice of James Kaltobie to send me two of them! (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Update - Radio Fly QSL cards and repair of the 3915 Khz. transmitter Hi Glenn, Michael ("Mikez") Miise (Miise.Michael @ oktedi.com) was formerly the Radio Fly Team Leader Communication, but there have been some changes and he is no longer the correct contact person for Radio Fly emails. The following are emails received from Mikez and James: - - - - - Message from Michael Miise - - - - Also there was minor reporting changes in the company and now Radio Fly team is not reporting to me anymore. So any future correspondence should go to James and Winnie. "Kaltobie, James JK" < James.Kaltobie @ oktedi.com > "Monouluk, Winnie" < Winnie.Monouluk @ oktedi.com > Thank you again for listening to Radio Fly. Cheers, Mikez - - - - Message from James Kaltobie - - - - - - > >From: Kaltobie, James JK < James.Kaltobie @ oktedi.com > >Date: Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 7:37 PM >Subject: Verification Cards Dear all, Radio Fly appreciates the feedback the station has received from listeners like you from all around the world. Radio Fly transmits through both FM and Shortwave frequencies for listeners in the Western Province and Papua New Guinea. The operation of the station is fully funded and maintained by Ok Tedi Mining Limited, copper-gold producer based in Western Province. The station was initially established to serve the communities in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea to cover the vast area of the province and Radio Fly did not anticipate reports from people like you who have extensive knowledge in radio shortwave transmission and thus apologises for the delay in sending you the QSL cards. Once again, Radio Fly appreciates your feedback and wishes you all the best. I just took on the responsibility from another former staff who left the station – to get the Verification cards printed and sent to you. As of this email you should be expecting a card card in the next one or two weeks. Once again, Radio Fly team sincerely apologises for the delay and inconvenience our team may have cost you. Yours Sincerely, James Kaltobie Senior Broadcast Journalist, Radio Fly, Ok Tedi Mining Limited, P.O. Box 1, Tabubil, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. - - - - - Message from James Kaltobie, on August 7 - - - - "Thanks Ron for your continual support. We have already engaged a company technician who will as of this Wednesday start working on getting Shortwave 3915 back on air again." So we should start checking 3915 kHz. from August 10 forward to find just when it will get back on the air again (Ron Howard, San Francisco, CA, August 7, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Fly and the statue [status?] of QSL Cards --- Ron Howard has been doing an excellent job on keeping the lines of communication between himself and the staff at Radio Fly, in an ongoing endeavor. Because of his efforts, I wrote to James Kaltobie, asking on what the statue is of the verifications cards and had they been printed yet. This e-mail was sent too and received from this e-mail address: James.Kaltobie @ oktedi.com ********************************************************************** Reply of August 8th. Hi Edward, We did. We received well over 40 people requesting QSLs. We did not initially expect requests for QSL and there had to have them printed thus the delay in sending you the QSL. I have just finished putting all the cards in the envelops and they yours should be on the way to you this week. Apologies for the delay. James as well as this footnote reply: Hi Edward, I took responsibility of the responding to the QSL from a former employee and just completed all the requests for QSL which should be in the post anytime this week. I just went through all the letters we received and just wondering which colour was your prepared Verification card. I found some blue ones which I have already stamped. Let me know if they are yours so that I can have them sent to you separately. Once again, apologies for the delay. _ PLUS THIS GENERAL RESPONSE:_ [same as to Ron above] E-mail Posted Reply: I wrote back to James thanking him and his staff at all the efforts of posting these verification (QSL) card. As well, I indicate to him that my report was in a brown over-size envelope with CD's, with the Blueish tint Prepared Verification cards. Now I will be waiting for his envelopes (Edward Kusalik, Daysland, Alberta, Aug 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5960, August 9 at 1155 I have a very poor signal with some talk, which I would like to think is Tok Pisin, so maybe Radio Fly. A rare chance with power off here reducing noise level, but DentroCuban pulse jamming was bleeding all the way from 5980 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5960, R. Fly, 0917, August 10. Island pop songs; 0928-0936 in Tok Pisin with local news (items about “water coolers"?) and “national news” (about the prime minister); 0937-1000 YL DJ in English playing pop hit songs; mentioned number of albums sold in USA; 1000-1020 interviews in English and sounded like vernacular; one interviewee was Australian; frequent IDs. The repair of the 3915 kHz. tx was scheduled for today, but still off the air during numerous checks. (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 7324.96, Wantok Radio Light, 0831, August 10. Christian song; the usual impassioned preaching of Dr. Tayo Adeyemi till 0857; more songs; PNG birdcall and NBC National News; news // 3385 NBC East New Britain; poor (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 3329,550 6.8 2320 Ondas del Huallaga med mx i åskbruset. TN 3329.550, 06.08 2320, Ondas del Huallaga with music in åskbruset [untranslatable? On request?]. (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by himself for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3329,575 1.8 0115 Ondas de Huallaga PRU med prat i högt tempo och och tonläge. QRM från CHU men ok med LSB. AN 3329.575, 01.08 0115, Ondas de Huallaga with fast-paced talk and tone. QRM from CHU but OK with LSB (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3329.53, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco, 1020 to 1030, 4 August [Wilkner, YT Plantation] (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** PERU. 3360 Peru [?] has been reported, noted 31 July at 0915 with distorted audio (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida US, August 9, HCDX via DXLD) 3360.00 31.7 0314 OAW4Y R JPJ, Lima. ”Para el Perú y el Mundo, Radio JPJ, fuerza musical del Perú”. FD (Fredrik Dourén, Sweden?, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3360,001 1.8 0110 OID. Jag tycker mig höra SS och en del mx, men det är verkligen inte lätt! Ett ID känns rätt utsiktslöst. Jag får väl vänta på ett bättre tillfälle, HI! AN 3360.001, 01.08 0110 unID. I think I hear Spanish and some music, but it's certainly not easy! An ID feels rather futile. I'll have to wait for a better opportunity, HI! (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 3360.006, 31.7 0126, Radio JPJ, Lima back after transmitter repair work. According to my e-mail QSL they should have been on air already on July 25 but things sometimes do not follow the plan. Altho 6/8 at 2320, but weak. TN (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) Radio JPJ (Perú) en 3360 --- Ayer en horas de la mañana (alrededor de las 1100 UT) se volvíó a escuchar esta estación que hace un tiempito no entraba por Mendoza. Un abrazo (Miguel Castellino, August 8, condiglist yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) 3360, 0950 to 1020 on 9 August, Some fading in of audio. [Wilkner] On Now: 3360 Peru [possibly] at 1016, weak audio, strong carrier. 73s de (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida US, August 9, HCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) 3360: Hoy también se escuchaba bastante bien sobre las 1000 UT. Un abrazo (Miguel Castellino, Argentina, Aug 9, condiglist via DXLD) ** PERU. 4746.98, 0025-0035 03.08, R. Huanta 2000, Huanta, Spanish talk, 15121 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, heard on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** PERU. 4774,955 31.7 0100 R Tarma med ett tydligt ID. Medioker styrka vid denna tid och störningar från AIR på 4775 och nåt skit strax under. Kolla istället in FD:s loggning ovan två timmar senare och lyssna på hur en LA-station kan höras på KV. TN 4774.955, 7.31 0100, R. Tarma with a clear identity. Mediocre strength at this time and interference from AIR on 4775 and some crap just below. Try instead FD's logging above two hours later and listen to how an LA station can be heard on SW (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by himself for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4774.94 31.7 0301 OCX4W R Tarma med fint anrop efterföljt av en låt med ”Los Pacharacos”. http://www.box.net/shared/s6rkfrcpyhndkmrfitxk FD 4774.94. 7.31 0301, OCX4W, R. Tarma with fine call followed by a song by "Los Pacharacos". http://www.box.net/shared/s6rkfrcpyhndkmrfitxk (Fredrik Dourén, Sweden?, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Med anledning av denna loggning skickade HK ett trevligt mail till eder redaktör den 31/7 och skriver så här: I morse gick JPJ hos Fredrik Dourén. Jag har fått en audio, som är ganska beskedlig jämfört med Radio Tarma som var chockerande bra, så bra att jag tycker att jag vill dela med mig av den. Det är alltså Fredrik Douréns inspelning. De sista sekunderna fick det att klicka till i loftet. Försökte gnola en fortsättning, och till min glädje lyckades jag identifiera den. Och dessutom, vilket gladde mig ytterligare, låten finns numera också på youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eDY62dFfn0 Jag minns den från en LP som jag köpte - förmodligen 1974/5 - då jag importerade musik för ARC-are från länderna i Anderna. Mina LP - en hyllmeter - såldes när jag flyttade från Luleå. Lät Josefina lyssna på låten, och hon gillar den också. Det var den som gjorde att Los Pacharacos slog igenom. Jag vill minnas att den också finns på min musiksajt, fast inte i sin helhet förstås. OK, detta var bara en sidokommentar som jag ville dela mig av. /HK As a result of this logging HK sent a nice email to your editor on 31/7 and writes: This morning JPJ went to Fredrick Dourén. I received an audio, which is quite modest compared with Radio Tarma, which was shockingly good, so good that I think I want to share it. Thus, it is Frederick Dourén`s recording. The last second was the clicking of the loft. Tried to hum a continuation, and to my delight, I managed to identify it. And besides, what pleased me further, the song is now also on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eDY62dFfn0 I remember it from an LP that I bought - probably 1974/5 - when I imported music for ARC members from countries in the Andes. My LP - a linear meters [?] - was sold when I moved from Luleå. I let Josefina listen to the song, and she likes it too. It was this that made Los Pacharacos break through. I remember that it is also on my music site, though not entirely understood. OK, this was just a side comment that I wanted to share with you / HK (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4789.928, 29.7 0100, R Vision slightly lower than before. 2-3 (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4939,968 30.7 0030 R San Antonio PRU med LA mx. S5 AN 4939.968, 7.30 0030, R. San Antonio with LA music. S5 (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 4939.97, 2310-2320 05.08, R. San Antonio, Villa Atalaya, Spanish talk, 15221 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, heard on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** PERU. 4954,993 30.7 0030 R Cultura Amauta PRU med ända upp till S7. 4954.993, 7.30 0030, R Cultura Amauta with up to S7 (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 4955.00, 2315-2325 05.08, R. Cultural Amauta, Huanta, Spanish ann, instrumental music, 25222 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, heard on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** PERU. 4974.78 31.7 0255 OAZ4X R del Pacifico anropade i ett pratprogram. FD 4974.78, 7.31 0255, OAZ4X, R. del Pacífico call-in to a talk show (Fredrik Dourén, Sweden?, SW Bulletin Aug 7 translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5039.21, Radio Libertad, Junín, 1010-1030 good mornings with Havana off: blocked [at] 0000. Enjoyable music [Wilkner, XM-Cedar Key] (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** PERU. 5460.279, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar, 0030 noted with music, fair to good strength 3 August. 73s de (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** PERU. 5921.292, Radio Bethel, 0009-0030 Aug 8, Another surprise! Noted a program of white gospel music by males. The signal wasn't very good, but it was strong enough where the audio could be heard and recognized as to content. Station was at a fair level (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, 26N 081W, WR-G31DDC, Excalibur, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Despues Cusco vamos a Iquitos --- Hola Companeros DXistas, todo bien, sigue nuestro gran viaje desde las tierras de los Inkas. En Cusco fue todo bien gracias a la gran ajuda del colega DXista Carlos Gamarra, locutor deportivo y que actualmente travaca en Radio Universal de Cusco (muy pronto en los 6090 kHz); la única emisora activa REGULARMENTE en Cusco es Radio Tawantinsuyo 6173 kHz. La visitamos y tuvimos las QSLs con el sello oficial "verificado control" Fue un gran momento. Buenas noches amigos de las noches --- Dario & Roberto (Dario Monferini, Aug 10, playdx yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) Said R. Universal, Cusco is about to activate 6090 kHz (gh) ** PHILIPPINES. 12120, August 5 at 1332, 6-pip timesignal two minutes late makes it thru the RTTY QRM, apparently emanating from FEBC Bocaue in Burmese at 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA [and non]. Radio Romania ?? 5920, Tiganeshti ?? 2011/08/04 Thursday. 1847-1857* Araona? YL talking, and at 1850 eastern European music and song. Church bells at 1854, with an audible het and increasing QRM from 5915 (ZNBC1, Lusaka) and 5925 (which was talking about Côte D'Ivoire in an African language, presumed BBC WS via Ascension, in Kinyarwanda - per Aoki). No IDs heard. Fair. Jo'burg sunset 1543 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Language here is ARO in EiBi which per his ReadMe means ``Aromanian: Greece, Albania, Macedonia (0.1m)``, i.e. spoken by 100 kilopeople in those a-Romanian countries, but how does it differ from plain old Romanian? Check omniglot.com at http://www.omniglot.com/writing/aromanian.htm Aromanian (Armãneashti, Armãneashce, Rrãmãneasht) Aromanian is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia by about 300,000 people. Aromanian is closely related to Romanian, though contains more vocabulary of Greek origin, while Romanian has absorbed a lot of vocabulary from Slavic languages and Hungarian. . . . BTW, WRTH 2011 does not list any RRI broadcasts in this language, but A-11 supplement v2 does: Aromanian Days Area kHz 1430-1500 daily Eu 7340tig 1630-1700 daily Eu 5980tig 1830-1900 daily Eu 5920tig 11920, good August 9 at 0357 must have just come on covering up Iran which foolishly tries to broadcast English to North America at 0330- 0430. RRI had a string of commercials, apparent domestic service relay, 0400 timesignal, ID and news in Romanian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. I was listening to the longwave NDB/broadcast band this morning, 09 August, and noted two Russian Far East LWBC stations in quite well: 189 kHz and 279 kHz, parallel 5930 kHz with the Radio Rossii programming feed - this morning a particularly good sounding female blues singer was being presented. I noted the following between 1225 and 1235 UT (0525-0535 PDT) this morning (09 August 2011): 189 kHz (Konstantingradokva, Amur, FE) listed at 1200 kW is about 500 mS (0.5 sec.) ahead of the audio on 5930 kHz, and the 279 (Sakhalin Island listed at 1000 kW) is about 50 mS fast compared to 5930 kHz, so at least three different satellite audio-feeds are being used by the various LF and HF transmitters of Radio Rossii in the Russian Far East. Time to send WOR a PAYPAL donation! Have a great day, Glenn - thanks for your hard work! 73, (Steve McGreevy, N6NKS, Keeler, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Re: Voice of Russia - frequency changes in July and August In the case of 1215 the cancelled times are rather 1500-1900. http://german.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/frequenzen/ does no longer show 1215 for the 1500-1600 hour as well and a use for this single hour only would be really unlikely. At present the transmitter is on air 1900-2100 with English. A detail to be researched would be the currently used power level. I dare to wildly speculate that it could be something between 500 and 1000 kW, perhaps closer to the latter, such as the 900 kW I saw specified for 1386 ten years ago. 1494 could now be off air altogether, or are there remaining transmissions outside the 1500-1900 slot? When checking last night after 2000 the transmitter was off. An explicit advice of the cancellation of 11655 has been posted at http://german.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/4007478/53807256.html The withdrawal of Voice of Russia means that the shortwave transmitter at Krasne is off air completely, and probably this time for good. I don't think it is related to the elimination of Radio Ukraine International on shortwave, unless the transmitter operator RRT has decided to shut down the shortwave equipment, which appears to be unlikely because they still keep the site for mediumwave. Or wait a moment: Is 936 still on air? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) w> 1494 could now be off air altogether, or are there remaining w> transmissions outside the 1500-1900 slot? When checking last w> night after 2000 the transmitter was off. Yes, all transmissions were discontinued. w> Or wait a moment: Is 936 still on air? It has been off air since February 1. (Aleksandr Diadischev, Ukraine, ibid.) ** RUSSIA. 6075, August 9 at 1159, VOR IS, 1200 opening Chinese, or rather re-opening, per Aoki before and after 1200 via Vladivostok (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 9800, August 9 at 0027, VOR in English // stronger 9665 via Pridnestrovye, despite Club DX item quoted in DXLD 11-31 that it was one of several transmissions canceled August 1: ``9800 Krasnodar English 22-02 North and Central America Source: Vadim Alekseyev, Club DX # 1057, VOR Russian Service (via Aleksandr Diadischev, Ukraine, Aug 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` Or did the site merely change? There was some CCI, and 9800 was off at 0210 check (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Seemingly a misinformation ! 9800 Krasnodar English 22-02 North and Central America §12015 Samara Russian 13-14 Central Asia *12040 Moscow English 15-17 Europe %12050 St. Petersburg French 18-20 Europe, Africa #15465 Moscow French 17-20 Europe, Africa * VoR in English is still on 12040 kHz at 1520 UT; # VoR in French is still on 15465 kHz at 1950 UT, on Aug. 9; § VoR in Russian is still on 12015 kHz at 1300 UT, on Aug. 10; \\ MW 630, 693, 1323, 1431, 9465IRK, {Chita 9745 not heard}, 13870S.P [%12050 observed still by J-M Aubier on Aug 3.] (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 9/10, dxldyg via DXLD) ** RUSSIA [non]. RT (Russia Today) program host Alyona Minkovski will be guest on C-Span's Q&A on 7 August. Posted: 06 Aug 2011 C-Span website: On C-Span's Q&A, Sunday, 7 Aug 2011, on C-SPAN at 8pm/11pm ET: "Our guest is Alyona Minkovski, host of 'The Alyona Show'. Minkovski discusses her television program, shown weeknights at 6pm and 10pm on RT. Formerly known as Russia Today, RT is a Russian government funded media network. She talks about her program's goal of examining the news not typically covered by traditional media outlets in the United States. She comments on segments of her hour long program which include 'The Tool Time Award,' and 'Alyona's Happy Hour.' Topics range from media coverage of Sarah Palin, to the proposed length of US troop involvement in Afghanistan. She also discusses her parody of broadcaster Glenn Beck in one of her episodes." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Like everything else, this should be ondemand forever at the CSPAN website; yes, watch, read transcript or buy DVD at http://www.q-and-a.org/Program/?ProgramID=1351 (gh, DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 15285, August 9 at 0348 open carrier with buzz and flutter, no doubt BSKSA Riyadh prior to 0400 Swahili service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA [non]. It`s another Saturday night and nothing to watch on public TV since everything is pre-empted by an OETA begathon, so another good chance to check IRS on 9685, which a few weeks ago we caught with an unscheduled English broadcast at 0100 UT Sunday. Tune- in 0058 Aug 7 to music only, too late to hear if there was any English from 0030; 0100 frequencies announced in Serbian, and IS several times. 0101 YL starts talking, and I am at a loss for some time to decide whether she is speaking English or Serbian: her dixion, accent and mike technique make her virtually incomprehensible! Maybe it`s news; at 0105 a pause with music and straining to copy with headphones, I do hear ``International Radio of Serbia, stay tuned, stay tuned, stay tuned`` a few more times. But I tune away frustrated at 0111. Back at 0115 there is music whose lyrix I don`t expect to understand anyway; 0119 another less incomprehensible YL announces about someone winning a music festival, and more music. 0128 an OM signs off giving frequencies only, not times! 0129 a few IS variations and off (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5019,870 31.7 1925 SIBC, SLM. Kom igenom svagt med OM spkr. AN 5019.870, 7.31 1925, SIBC, came through weakly with OM speaker (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) 5019.9, SIBC 0950 to 1001 with Cuba power down on 5025. Much too close to Cuba for pleasant reception of Solomon, 8 August. 73 (Bob Wilkner, NRD 535D - Drake R8 - Icom 746Pro modified, Pompano Beach, South Florida. US, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** SOMALIA. * FIVE IN A ROW: THE FORGOTTEN BBC EAST AFRICA RELAY STATION, BERBERA IN SOMALIA You will remember that we presented here in Wavescan a few weeks back the story of radio broadcasting in the two Yemens, North & South, which today are generally operating as one country under the single title, Yemen. During our research into the interesting radio backgrounds in Yemen, we were reminded again that once upon a time the BBC operated a relay station in that area. In actual reality, the BBC has operated five different relay stations in this general area, one after the other, over a period of time. In coming editions of Wavescan, we will present the story of each of these five BBC relay stations, and in our program today, we begin at the beginning. Here then, is the story of the BBC East Africa Relay Station, which was located at Berbera in Somalia. The coastal city of Berbera, located on the bay in the Gulf of Aden, is an ancient African city, dating way back into Greek times. The name “Berbera”, is taken from the ancient Greek language, meaning “sea oyster”. During the year 1890, an underwater cable was laid from Perim Island in the Gulf of Aden across to Berbera as part of a communication system linking England with Aden and beyond to India & Australia. When the era of wireless communication began, a wireless station was co- sited with the cable station at Berbera and it was on the air with spark wireless transmissions in Morse Code under the rather logical callsign BER. This station was inaugurated before the Great War on January 1, 1912. A subsequent callsign for the Berbera station was VPJ, and additional stations were installed in British Somaliland; VQX at Burao, VSA at Hargeisa & VQY at Zeyla. On November 2, 1959, the British government was officially informed that a relay station for the BBC was already under construction at Berbera in Somalia. However, one year later, it became apparent that the two Somalias, British & Italian, were about to achieve independence and become united into one country, Somalia. It was stated in the British Parliament that it was hoped that the new Somalia would permit the BBC to continue with its usage of the Berbera relay station. However, soon afterwards, it became apparent that the BBC would need to leave Berbera due to differences between the governments of the new Somalia & England. The BBC relay station at Berbera in Somalia was constructed and operated by DWS, the Diplomatic Wireless Service. It was activated in either 1960 or 1961 on mediumwave 701 kHz with programming in Arabic, Swahili and the General Overseas Service in English, but not in the Somali language. The program feed was taken off the BBC shortwave service to Africa, via a shortwave transmitter located at Daventry. The power output of the BBC-DWS transmitter at Berbera is listed as 10 kW, 100 kW or 400 kW. Maybe there was a standby transmitter at 10 kW located at the cable station, but it is probable that a high powered transmitter at 400 kW was not on the air at this isolated location. Thus, we would suggest, the output power of this single mediumwave transmitter was 100 kW. This BBC relay station located at Berbera in Somalia is listed in the World Radio TV Handbook for just two years, 1962 & 1963, and it was officially designated as the BBC East Africa Relay Station. In March 1963, the British government agreed to the closure of the BBC Berbera relay station due to political differences between Somalia & England. The station left the air during the next month, April, at the end of two or three years of active on air service. There are no known QSL cards verifying the BBC Somalia on mediumwave. However, it is possible that a few personnel who could actually tune in this lonely mediumwave station, and who were also serving the BBC as volunteer monitors at the time, did actually receive a much prized valid QSL card from this rather temporary East Africa Relay Station. Two weeks from now, we will continue the story of this BBC relay station, at a new location under a new name. [see YEMEN] (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script script for May 1 via DXLD) See also OMAN, YEMEN ** SOUTH AFRICA. Channel Africa. 5980 Meyerton. 2011/08/04 Thursday. 0327-0355 Talking about food agencies, then on to regional news. Sign off at 0355* as listed (Aoki, EiBi). No ID heard, but clearly Channel Africa as listed. Very poor, almost unreadable. Jo'burg sunrise 0446 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. BBC WS. 3255, Meyerton. 2011/08/05 Friday. *0426- 0701* Observed to start late yesterday, but time was not noted - I missed it. Today it came on abruptly at 0426, not at 0300 as listed by Aoki and EiBi. 3255, Meyerton // 6005 and 6190. 2011/08/06 Saturday. 0340-0350. At 0341 "Science in Action on the BBC". 3255 just fair; 6190 (Meyerton) poor; 6005 (Ascension) fair. Jo'burg sunrise 0445 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Re 11-31:] Hi Glenn, My quest to track down my three mystery signals continues. This morning, once again there was nothing at all on 6195 (Cuba? or Bonaire) or 6510 / 5980 (BBC ?). Working on 6510 = 2 x 3255, I noted on 4th August that 3255 came on late, but the time was not noted - I missed it in the early morning rush. Yesterday (5th August) it came on at 0426, not at 0300 as listed by Aoki and EiBi. It also came on suddenly at 0426; although I suppose it could have been propagation related, it was more like a switch-on. In my log for 2-6 July I noted that 3255 sign-off in the mornings was extended an hour to 0700, and based on timings for the past couple of days I was beginning to think that maybe it wasn't extended, just shifted. However, this morning (6th August) it was already on by 0340. But again, there was nothing on 6510, still using the Sony ICF2001 (its handy in bed!). I guess I'll never get to the bottom of that mystery! I'll make an occasional check on 3255 to see if its apparently variable sign on time really is propagation-related or just plain old Meyerton variable (Bill Bingham, Johannesburg RSA, Aug 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Bad news from Spain --- Some very bad news for us, medium wave lovers - The Spanish Ministry of Telecommunications and Information has started to plan the complete transformation of the country's radio broadcasting facilities to digital from analog. The primary goals of the plan are: 1. The derivation of an allocation plan that will allow for complete continuity of reception of programs throughout the country 2. Promotion of the new service in close cooperation with industry representatives and other stakeholders 3. Testing to assess the feasibility of the use of DRM/DRM+ on medium- wave and VHF bands 4. A study to determine the conditions and requirements for the establishment of a date to finally cease all analog transmission The plan itself is to be complete within 18 months. Source: http://radiomagonline.com/digital_radio/spain-analog-digital-transition-0801/ 73 (Herman Boel, Europe, Aug 4, MWCircle yg via DXLD It might be good & bad news. If they want nationwide coverage of the main networks COPE/SER/RNE, then digital should allow the use of multiple transmitters on single frequency networks. That would dramatically reduce the number of frequencies needed to cover Spain and listeners would not need to return their car radios as they drive around. However, if they want to keep the local content opt-outs on most of the transmitters, then there is a much more difficult problem to solve and then we might end up with every MW transmitter in Spain radiating DRM. That might mean DRM on about a third of MW channels. Before we get too despondent, let's remember how many homes/cars in Spain have DRM receivers. 73 (Steve Whitt, UK, ibid.) Who will pay for this. I think the government have more pressing matters to resolve! Best wishes (Barry :-) Davies, ibid.) ** SPAIN. Heard a promo this morning reminding me of this weird show, `Desde el Infierno` (From Hell), so I made a point of intuning UT Sunday August 7 at 0015. 9535 was best, also audible on 11680, 9620 under Cuba, and weakened 15160. Spooky music, much of it Ligeti-esque and narration to give you nightmares (2-3 am locally). Here`s one program that might benefit from DRM, if it`s working, on 9625-9635 via Costa Rica. The last 81 shows (except this and previous week`s) are audible via http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/desde-el-infierno/ so you can hear what I mean at your convenience. Explained as 0005 UT Sundays on REE, Presentado por: Luis G. Chapinal --- "Desde el Infierno es un programa que procede de las entrañas de la oscuridad, donde encontramos criaturas malignas como vampiros y licántropos. En este espacio se revisan sombras cinematográficas y narraciones extraordinarias pertenecientes a los grandes creadores del género... Lovecraft. Poe, Stevenson, H.G. Wells" 0052 Sr. Chapinal starts wrapping it up until next week with e-mail address but the music continued until 0056 program promos. BTW, I was on indoor antenna this evening due to threat of thunder tho little was heard electronically or sonically (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. [Re 11-31:]?? When was R. Praha ever relayed by Spain; and in Russian? A one-off? 15325 is the current frequency for REE Russian at 1700-1730 in AM, 1730-1800 in DRM (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Since February, shortly after the end of Radio Prague's SW broadcasts, Russian service of Radio Exterior d'Espana has been relaying programs specially produced by Russian service of Radio Prague. The program is on the air every Monday at 1715 UT. One more surprise, Russian service of Radio Slovakia International has its time slot on Thursdays at the same time. Such cooperation was made possible thanks to the International Association of Russian Language Broadcasting Services. Seems that some journalists of those services met one another at the conference held by the Voice of Russia in 2010. Besides, some time ago, Tina Krasnopolskaya, a long-time editor of a DX program at Deutsche Welle Russian Service (1996-2003) and R. Slovakia Int. (2003-2006), made some radio programs at REE, though they were not related to DXing at any point. Currently, the personnel of REE Russian Service consists only of one person, Svetlana Demidova, and I think it's very difficult for her to produce 30-minute programs five days a week. Btw, REE never broadcasted in Russian in DRM mode. --- (Aleksandr Diadischev, Ukraine, Aug 8, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. 7200, R. Omdurman, Al-Aitahab, 0308-0338 Arabic; M announcer with talk; group vocal chant; various announcers with bits of Arabic music and Kor'an chants; M announcer at BoH with echo FX and HoA music bits; p-f; 8/2 (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale NH, NRD-545, MLB-1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. Vatican City. Afia Darfur/Hello Darfur. 5945, Santa Maria. 2011/08/05 Friday. 0303-0318 Arabic. OM's and YL, sounds like news. Mentions of Washington, Sudan, Khartoum, Arabia, Libya. Newsy jingle at 0314 but couldn't make out superimposed ID. Then carried on talking about Sudan. My ID is based on time, frequency and language as per Aoki and EiBi, plus focus on Sudanese news. Fair. Jo'burg sunrise 0445 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 17745, August 9 at 1503, good signal in Arabish from Sudan Radio Service via Sines, PORTUGAL. Last week I remarked that we weren`t getting this any more, unlike the 0400-0500 on 11800 via UK -- - but the reason we`re not is that in summer our daily routine means we are hardly ever monitoring after 1500, instead spending hours typing up the UT day`s earlier logs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN SOUTH. SOUTH SUDAN, South Sudan R. operates also from Bentiu on 558 kHz and 99 MHz (WRTH National Section update 1 August via DXLD) ** SURINAME. 4989,981 30.7 0030 R Apintie SUR med vad som lät som ett rel px. S4-5 och bättre modulation än vanligt. AN 4989.981, 7.30 0030, R. Apintie with what sounded like a religious program. S4-5 and better modulation than usual (Arne Nilsson, Sweden, translated by Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. SAQ: [17.2 kHz] A reminder that the Alexanderson Alternator will be transmitting a message at 0900. It is tuning up now and audible here in Yorkshire. The transmission is “in honour of the late Östen Mäkitalo, “considered to be the father of the Nordic Mobile Telephone system and many times the father of the cellular telephone”. He died on 16th June 2011 at the age of 72, according to Wikipedia (Andrew Brade, UK, 0847 UT Aug 5, MWCircle yg via DXLD) ** TAIWAN [non]. 5950, Aug 9 at 0303, only open carrier via WYFR instead of RTI relay in English; still OC at 0336 or was there JBA modulation underneath, perhaps from something else; should have facilitated V. of Tigray Revolution, Ethiopia, but too much carrier even if unmodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. Radio Taiwan International - Website Fixes. Hi all, I'm happy to report that as a result of my recent emails to my good friends at RTI, that they have fixed a couple of errors on their new website. 1. The frequency schedule has been updated 2. The "Problems Listening" website should now be functional. My other website suggestions are yet to be implemented, but it's early days yet. I also hope to announce in the coming days/weeks another exciting new development at RTI which will be of interest to DXLD readers. This development is as per two of four suggestions made several weeks ago. Stay Tuned. DXLD Member request: Can anyone tell me if they can still listen to RTI Windows Media Player (WMP)program files using Mozilla Firefox? I was able to listen online via the old website, but not the new. RTI inform me that Firefox doesn't support WMP, but it worked with the older website as I had & still have the WMP Plug-In. I updated my version of Firefox, but still no good. But anyway I can play the files with IE & Chrome. 73's (Ian Baxter, NSW, * The guy that first announced the start date of the new RTI website ;-) Aug 10, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Ian, No - it won't play for me in Mozilla Firefox either (using Firefox 5.0 with the Windows media Player plug-in). I have to go to Internet Explorer where it then runs fine (Alan Roe, Teddington, UK, ibid.) ** TAIWAN [non]. Martedì 9 agosto 2011 1240 - 15785 kHz, SOUND OF HOPE TAIWAN, Yangi Yul (Tagikistan), Mandarino, talk OM. Jamming not heard (Luca Botto Fiora, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova) - Italia, playdx yg via DXLD) See also CHINA [and non] ** THAILAND. 15275, Aug 9 at 0019, poor signal in English, from HSK9 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET [non]. Martedì 9 agosto 2011, 1224 - 15543 kHz, V of TIBET - Yangi Yul (Tagikistan), Tibetano, talk OM/YL, Segnale sufficiente- buono, Dalle 1230 su 15542. In sottofondo musica classica *non* cinese in // a 15565. No CNR 1. Nuovo tipo di jamming? (Luca Botto Fiora, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova) - Italia, playdx yg via DXLD) ** TIBET [non]. V of Tibet today on 17560 kHz, from Madagascar, 1400- 1430 UT and accompanied background noise heard here in Germany like "white noise", "the sound of the ocean in a seashell", up and down in sound volume. But jamming was underneath, VoT was much stronger in Europe. 73 wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Voice of Turkey. 5960, Emirler. 2011/08/04 Thursday. 1901- ?? Turkish. YL talking until 1905, then very nice music and songs in Turkish - quickly lulled me to sleep; thank goodness for the sleep function on modern radios. Fair. Jo'burg sunset 1543 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. The Woofferton, UK transmitter site from the air shows the eastern end of the site with transmitter building. The open wire feeders going from switch station to the older antenna arrays can be seen. (This photo comes from the Transmission Gallery on the website run by Mike Brown called MB21 found at http://tx.mb21.co.uk/ Check it out for more excellent photos of U.K. transmitter sites.) (August CIDX Messenger via DXLD) ** U K [non]. Re 11-31, BBC ex Meyerton, 15370 Saturdays only, 1300- 1600 Hi Glenn, I just monitored for the whole three hours, and picked up absolutely nothing. Since I am situated about 25 miles due north of Meyerton, I could well be in the skip zone for a transmission targetted at CIRAF zones 48, 52 and 53. On the other hand, I have in the past picked up both 15170 and 17830 from Meyerton to zones 46, 47 and 52; many times in fact. Although never good reception, at least readable. Can't do a direct comparison with 15370 now, because neither 15170 nor 17830 is currently scheduled from Meyerton at this time slot (Bill Bingham, RSA, 1610 UT Aug 6, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BBC on Saturday August 6, 250 kW / 020 degrees: 1300-1400 15370 MEY Sat only English, ex French on July 30 1400-1500 15370 MEY Sat only Somali, ex French on July 30 1500-1600 15370 MEY Sat only English, ex French on July 30 [WORLD OF RADIO 1577] Frequency change of BBC WS in English: 0000-0200 NF 15755 NAK 250 kW / 025 deg to EaAs, ex 15360 73! (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, August 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. SETTLEMENT REACHED IN WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT BY WIDOW OF RADIO FREE ASIA GENERAL COUNSEL --- Posted: 06 Aug 2011 Washington Post, The Crime Scene , 3 Aug 2011, Keith L. Alexander: "The wife of slain Washington attorney Robert Wone on Wednesday settled a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against the three roommates who shared the Dupont Circle-area rowhouse where Wone was fatally stabbed five years ago. The agreement was reached on the fifth anniversary of Wone’s death. On the evening of Aug. 2, 2006, Wone, 32, was fatally stabbed in his chest and abdomen while spending the night at the elegant home in the 1500 block of Swann Street NW after working late at his job as general counsel for Radio Free Asia. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed." The Blog of Legal Times, 3 Aug 2011, David Ingram: "Kathy Wone said. 'I’m happy to leave the defendants to their own devices. They can continue to rot from the inside-out with the secrets they keep.'" See also the Who Murdered Robert Wone blog. http://whomurderedrobertwone.com/ (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U S A. [Re 11-31:] Amendment to create VOA Sindhi service approved by House Foreign Affairs Committee (updated). Posted: 06 Aug 2011 Update: Pakistan Observer, 3 Aug 2011, Kyle B. King, VOA Senior Editor (PR): "This is in response to a recent letter in Pakistan Observer’s website 'VOA Sindhi programme' by Hashim Abro. The Voice of America is constantly searching for new and better ways to expand its global audience. Decisions about funding for new language services are made by the US Congress. While we await final Congressional action on the recent proposal to broadcast in the Sindhi language, the Voice of America will continue to use the best and most cost-effective ways to reach the people of strategically important countries like Pakistan with accurate and comprehensive news and discussion about the United States and the world." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) waffle ** U S A [non]. 12150, August 5 at 1256, VOA English has been sufficient during this hour, now concluding with Earth-Sky.org about a killer asteroid coming in 2036y. That took only a sesquiminute, still leaving time for a USG Editorial at 1257.6, on Guinea, Ivory Coast and a third African country holding free elexions; Is due west from Tinang, PHILIPPINES; signal drops after 1300 switch to 349 degrees. 15115, August 9 at 1316, discussing new technology in English, with CNR1 jamming, but the English must have been just a clip to be translated on the VOA Mandarin service, during this hour via THAILAND (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Frequency changes for Voice of America: Kurdish 1400-1500 NF 11640 WER 250 kW / 105 deg to WeAs, ex 11645 1700-1800 NF 11640 LAM 100 kW / 108 deg to WeAs, ex 11645 Tibetan 1400-1500 NF 17670 LAM 100 kW / 077 deg to CeAs, ex 17760 Uzbek 1500-1530 NF 17600 KWT 250 kW / 046 deg to CeAs, ex 15780/13755 73! (Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, August 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 7881.0-USB, Aug 4 at 0523, I run across a broadcast, not a 2-way, soon obviously AFN instead of on 7811! Somebody`s finger at Saddlebunch slipped on the frequency pad, but if it`s 24/7, why would they ever be punching in a frequency? Series of typical short features and PSAs, including Dave Ross(?) on CBS Radio Network; 0524 `Soundbite`, 0525 Dan --- with `Today, August 4, in Rock History`, etc. Some het from a weak carrier on 7880, which must be wondering, what the ---? Next check at 1226, still not corrected and on 7881, not NPR `Morning Edition`, but // 12133.5 with more short features, 1228 PSA on UCMJ, 1229 `Air Force Report` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST 11-31, WORLD OF RADIO 1577) 7811-USB, August 5 at 0141 UT check, AFN Saddlebunch Keys is back on proper frequency after having been on mispunched 7881-USB for at least 7 hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5050, 0340 July 16, WWRB, DX program in English, SINPO 45421 (Thomas Burian, Czech Republic, Shortwave Logbook, Aug World DX Club Contact via DXLD) I wonder what that was? Dates in this log are day of the month only, and we have to figure out which month. July 16 was a Saturday, June 16 a Thursday, yet the only known DX program on WWRB, at 0330, is WORLD OF RADIO, Fridays on 5051 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9955, UT Friday August 5 at 0507, WORLD OF RADIO 1576 in progress, readable at peaks over the pulse-jamming, then fading below it plus T-storm noise level (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WOR Heard Today --- Hi Glenn, Just a note to let you know I was able to log World of Radio #1576 today, via WRMI at 1730 UT on 9955 kHz. The signal was audible here at my location, despite very unsettled atmospheric conditions. Thank you for the program, which I enjoy hearing via shortwave! 73's, (Ed Insinger, NJ, Sunday August 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS WORLD OF RADIO 1577 monitoring: first airing confirmed on WRMI webcast, Thursday Aug 11 at 1500; also confirmed on 9955 which signed on at 2059, then WOR at 2100 without jamming except a bit o` bleed from 9965. Also confirmed on 9479 WTWW starting a seminute later, and on WBCQ webcast of 7415 until 2200 August 11. Besides all the many WRMI repeats, other times are: 0330v UT Friday on WWRB 5051 0400 UT Sunday on WTWW 5755 0300v UT Monday on WBCQ 5110v-CUSB 1730 UT Sat & Sun on WRN via SiriusXM 120, also Sunday 0830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WTWW. 5755, Lebanon. 2011/08/05 Friday. 0238-0247, OM with USA accent talking about God and forbidden fruit. Quoting from Leviticus, reeling off lots of reasons why people should be put to death. I couldn't handle it before having my early-morning cup of coffee, so quickly gave up; no ID heard. Good. Jo'burg sunrise 0445 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWCR has finally updated its transmitter schedule, http://www.wwcr.com/transmitter-sched.html dated effective from August 6 --- or has it? Still shows WWCR-4 as 24 hours on 5890 or 9980, contrary to latest `Ask WWCR` explanation, and we have found 9980 off the air before 1400, and Saturday August 6 it was off before 2100, altho on weekdays it had been running until 2100 with something other than Brother Scare in the final hour. The program schedule, however, backdated August 1, does show current usage of WWCR-4: Brother Scare: daily 0500-1100 on 5890 (except UT Sunday from 0400) daily 1400-2000 on 9980 (except Sunday until 2100) Other programs: 9980 Mon-Fri 2000-2100, Tue-Sat 0100-0200 5890 UT Sunday 0230-0400 We were checking the site to reconfirm that the signal on 7465, August 7 at 0017, open carrier except for a big squeal, was indeed WWCR-1, scheduled until 0100, and then 7520 for an hour at 01-02 before starting 3215 at 02. The 7520 station before 01 with poor signal and gospel huxter in English is WYFR. 7520, August 10 at 1037, ``Georgia`` by Willie Nelson, VG signal where nothing was supposed to be at this hour. Then I hear a squeal and know it must be WWCR-1, especially since they are missing from 9985. Yep, soon hear the `World Wide Country Radio` DJ saying he`s had enough of that before the tune is over, 1036 on to ``Georgia on My Mind``, Glen Campbell`s version, I think. Furthermore, the always-parasitic WWCR-1 spurs could be heard with bits of same modulation just below 7505 and above 7535. WWCR registered 7520 for 01-04 and had really been using it for only the first hour of that. But now the transmitter schedule effective Aug 6 at http://www.wwcr.com/transmitter-sched.html does show 7520 instead of 9985 at 09-11. 7520 was off at 1059 recheck, moving to 15825 which is normally inaudible to JBA at the outset (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ### ** U S A. After listening to R. Tirana on 7425, I find that 7415 is on the air with WBCQ, UT Sunday August 7 at 0158; Allan Weiner and friend are discussing early color TV and how it works, TK41 cameras new cost $60,000, etc. Same continued past 0200 without a break. Probably was a playback of `Allan Weiner Worldwide` from Friday night. The last we heard, WBCQ was totally off the 7415 air Saturdays-UT Sundays and the online program schedule still shows nothing between 0400 UT Saturday and 1900 Sunday since `QSO with Ted Randall` pulled out. Brother Scare is still shown as 00-03 UT the other six nights a week. Only fair signal in summer storm noise level; 9330 is always better, but there is nothing on there worth listening to, fully sold. 9330-CUSB, August 10 at 1019, ``shortwave lesson no. 3 on propagation`` punxuated by dog barking. Rod Hembree explains basics of ionospheric layers, refraxion, skipping. Repeat of old ``Radio Weather`` show from years ago, then `Time Tunnel` segment, about what a great scientist Isaac Newton was, morphing into stealth evangelism alleging that SIN attributed everything he accomplished to Jesus. Is part of the almost-continuous Good Friends Radio Network buyout of this WBCQ transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9370-, August 9 at 0030 poor signal in Chinese, one of the little-known broadcasts on WTJC in North Carolina. Off-frequency to the lo side as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 11580, Aug 9 at 0104, Spanish religion, WYFR as scheduled, and with squeal. Then checked 11520 WYFR Portuguese and it too was squealing, but not as much. Add another US station with this problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9365, KAZAKHSTAN. Family Radio, 1358 Aug 8. Theme music, ID and address in Chinese, 1400 s/on in English and quickly going into Bible reading from Deuteronomy. Not like the Family Radio programming of pre-May 21st! Poor (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening lakeside from my car with Eton E1 and Sony AN1 antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9860, Aug 9 at 0210, VG signal from WHRI with gospel huxter asserting ``we are all mind-controlled to a certain extent; they call it faith``, then ducking (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. 13580, August 9 at 1353, WEWN`s squishy-spur transmitter is not only producing major ones at plus and minus 9 kHz, but minor ones at plus and minus 18 kHz, the latter on 13598 messing with a weak signal on 13600, i.e. per HFCC, CRI in Tamil via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5201.5, August 9 at 1404, SSB mentioning calls AAM6RD and AAM6RO, but nothing further heard, maybe closing net. As too often the case with hams and MARS, they don`t like to waste words with ``This is`` to make it clear the call immediately following is theirs rather than the contact! Must be Army MARS and not too far away for daytime propagation. AAM6RD googles right to Texas Army MARS including a photo set including Ken belonging to the first call, viewed by only 19 since last November until me at http://www.raftermranch.com/RafterMRanch/Ham%20Radio/texas_army_mars_ffd10.htm with the streamer saying ``TEXAS ARMY MARS FFD-10 & WALLER COUNTY ARES SET LOCATION RAFTER M RANCH, HOCKLEY, TEXAS``, but not a very flattering portrait of Ken: http://www.raftermranch.com/RafterMRanch/Ham%20Radio/FFD10/AAR6BB-AAR6RD.jpg Hockley in Waller County is just NW of Houston, not to be confused with Hockley County which is the next one west of Lubbock. However, The net schedule at https://www.txarmymars.org/resources/netschedule.php Shows the only Region 6 net at 1401 UT Tuesday is for Oklahoma: Tuesday 1401 UTC 0901 CDT OK KCE KCO, KDC AAM6OK TRAFFIC/TRAINING with KCE the designator for the primary secret frequency = 5201.5? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The rafterranch site visitor count had soared to 105 as of 1610 UT August 10, I bet primarily due to my report (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Hey, what happened to the robot at the USCG marine weather stations? 8502-USB, Aug 5 at 0524 it`s clearly a live human man reciting the geo coordinates and millibars, also mentions National Hurricane Center. There is background noise which surges a bit during pauses, modulation is not so distorted as it used to be, and // 6501- USB. If this schedule is still correct, http://www.yachtcom.info/MarineSSB/index.html showing some frequencies are time-shared by different stations, at 0515 UT on 8502 it`s NMG New Orleans, and at 0515 UT on 6501, it`s NMN Chesapeake. So they are supposed to be // from the same announcer? 6501 is also scheduled at other times from NMC Pt Reyes and NMO Honolulu (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. EDITORIAL COMMENT ON PIRATES FCC rule enforcement work by the Commission (and at times by individual states such as Florida) is welcome on several fronts, not the least of which is to squelch the violent behavior of some pirates. An informed source familiar with the history of Florida's felony law directed at radio pirates comments as follows: "The original impetus for state involvement was a pirate called "Alpha 66" in the late 80s -- actually "Alpha 66 Organización Revolucionaria Cubana d.b.a. La Voz de Alpha 66." Contrary to what we find in most pirate cases, this pirate was political, stirring up the Cuban expatriate community and advocating their violence. The case went to Federal Court for injunctive relief and the defendants never appeared. The transmissions were on the 6 MHz shortwave band. "Another case, a little later, involved a major drug dealer who was also advocating violence and armed resistance to authority and actively resisted arrest." So, it ain't all peaches and cream fighting pirates. The men and women holding the line with these criminals deserve our respect and gratitude (Robert F. Gonsett, W6VR, Editor, CGC Communicator Aug 9 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. N.Y. GOVERNOR SIGNS ANTI-PIRATE BILL Radio World August 5, 2011 Members of the New York State Broadcasters Association are ecstatic over a new law that makes it illegal to operate a radio station without a license. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation making pirate operation in the state a “Class A” misdemeanor. Florida and New Jersey, other states where pirate radio is a particular problem, have similar laws. Proponents say the legislation gives local law enforcement an important tool to help them prosecute pirates and confiscate equipment. New York State Broadcasters Association President David Donovan said licensed radio stations air life-saving information during emergencies, as well as daily news and entertainment, but “many consumers cannot receive emergency information or enjoy their favorite radio station because of technical interference from illegal operators. Unlicensed operators simply ignore consumer protection laws and the public interest responsibilities” that guide licensed radio stations (via Mike Terry, UK, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) ** U S A. Local WILL 580, Urbana, IL is currently running U1 1250/25 while they perform significant maintenance on their two-tower array (replacing guy wires, tower-lighting system, transmission lines, etc.). They typically operate U3 5000/100 with a westward null towards WIBW Topeka, so you may be able to catch them in areas west of Champaign-Urbana where they are normally not heard. They have a significant number of additional listeners in the Indianapolis and Chicago areas where their ERP normally ranges between 5 and 10 KW daytime, so those listeners will be receiving less than half the normal signal strength during the STA. The station is urging listeners to listen online or tune in the simulcast on WILL-FM 90.9 HD3. The main reason for the maintenance is that the guy wire insulators and transmission lines have degraded to the point that any nearby lightning strikes cause the transmitter to shut off completely until station personnel perform a reset. I believe the existing transmitter site was built in 1936 and the existing towers were constructed in 1967 after one of the two original towers collapsed in an ice storm. WILL has requested the STA for 120 days; however, they plan to finish most of the work in a month or so, followed by a partial proof of performance on the DA (Steve Branch, Savoy, IL, 5 August, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) Thx for the info, Steve. How long have they been on STA? Their regular day pattern sends over 7 kW ERP my way. I'll check this weekend and see if they are much weaker. 73 KAZ Barrington IL (Neil Kazaross, ibid.) WILL-AM is noticeably weaker here at Paxton, Ill. Today (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) Hello Neil and Curtis, I believe they started the work on Wednesday. Their normal ERP in my direction is 630/14, so I actually have a power increase. They are currently working on the west tower and transmitting from the east tower; they will switch towers when the west tower work is completed. I can see the tower workers from my house about 2 1/4 miles SW of the site (Steve Branch, ibid.) ** U S A. QSLs are tougher to come by these days, so it's always nice to get something out of the ordinary, and that's happened twice in the past month or so: KTMS, 990 Santa Barbara sent me a QSL letter, and then the v/s also sent along a big envelope containing area newspapers, to tell me a bit about the area. KRVN, Lexington, NE. Sent a nice verie sheet, stickers, and a 200+ page book for KRVN's 50th anniversary back in 2001. Very interesting book, and also covers the other stations of Nebraska Rural Radio Association. In this case my report was for KRVN-FM, but I have no doubt they're just as friendly towards MW reports (Nigel Pimblett, Dunmore, Alberta, IRCA via DXLD) ** U S A. 680, Aug 9 at 0307 the Jim Bohannon theme is recognized, seems to be from NE/SW. His MOR 3-hour talk show is harder and harder to find on the air; used to be on 690 KGGF. Checked here after finding 720 WGN `Extension 720` had two Republican guests on the financial situation, as Milt Rosenberg does not pretend to be fair and balanced. Thought I would give him another try since TV is powerless. So what is the 680 JIMBO affiliate? Our first guess from that direxion is KFEQ St Joseph MO, which really doesn`t provide an adequate signal here, day or night. Jimbo`s official website http://www.jimbohannonshow.com/stationfinder?action=stateSearch&state=MO&programID=309 does not list by frequency, but searching by state, ``KFEQ-AM`` [sic] is on the list but at wrong time, starting at midnight, presumably meaning local CDT = 0500 UT, ``M-F``, surely meaning Tue-Sat. But KFEQ`s website http://www.680kfeq.com/shows/view/?fShowId=9 confirms he is really on from 10 pm to 1 am (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1270, Aug 7 at 1208, several IDs as ``12-70 AM, La Voz del Pueblo``, and plug Univisión 23 noticias in DFW, apparently simulcast on the radio? Is KFLC Fort Worth, on day power of 50 kW by now, with skywave still funxioning less than a semihour after sunrise here (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1630, Aug 7 at 1205, sounds like Ray of Bob & Ray doing old- lady voice, but with organ music, hokey scripted drama, so really `Unshackled`? No, KKGM Fort Worth program schedule shows `Stories of Great Christians` for 7 am Sunday; post-sunrise skywave has kept it in vs adjacent local KFXY 1640 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. It's yours for just 85 cents a watt! QUEEN OF HEAVEN CATHOLIC RADIO, INC. is selling Silent WQHC-A/HANCEVILLE, AL to LA PROMESA FOUNDATION for $10 (From allaccess.com WQHC is an 850 watt, non-directional daytimer on 1170 kHz. Brock Whaley, HI for DXLD) ** U S A. Owner Ed Stolz takes the case of his unbuilt AM to the D. C. Appeals Court --- Stolz has exhausted all his options at the FCC. He was granted the construction permit for a new AM at 1500 in 1984, had trouble getting it built, got the city of license changed from Burbank to Culver City, and obtained ten extensions. The process took so long that other broadcasters complained that the unbuilt KIEV (1500) was messing up their own plans. In late June, the FCC again denied a Stolz petition to revive KIEV, which would have had 50,000 watts daytime and 4,300 watts at night, from five towers. Stolz is now the “appellant” in a case filed at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over FCC-related cases. Stolz is alleging that the agency has been “arbitrary and capricious.” His Royce International Broadcasting Company is represented by Amy Lynn Brown. Stolz also fought determinedly for years to reverse the sale of then-KWOD, Sacramento (106.5) to Entercom. He is currently the owner of Las Vegas CHR “104.3 Now” KFRH. (radio-info.com Friday, August 5, 2011 via Artie Bigley, DXLD) No relation, I`m sure, but KFRH was the call of the carrier-current station at Forsyth Residence Halls, Washington University, St. Louis, where I sort of got my start in radio circa 1963-1965 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. August 5 before 1400 UT, tropo was up from the west, with solid rather than marginal signal from 88.1 KWOU Woodward OK, so after breakfast I check TV: at 1419 Woodward`s KOMI-34 and weaker KUOK-35 are in, so now switch to analog like on July 14 as in DXLD 11-28, and find weak translator signals on 47, 49 and 53. 47 is PBS // OETA with Sesame Street but not synchronized; can`t see well enough to rule out the OETA LR bug, but these three signals correlate as translators in Follett, extreme NE corner of TX Panhandle. The only PBS-47 analog fit in FCC TV Query and W9WI.com is K47BP, 924 watts, licensed to Booker TX, relaying KACV-9 Amarillo, but the FCC map by coördinates puts it much closer to Follett. KACV`s website attributes ch 47 to Follett, in fact. Distance to site calculated by http://www.convertalot.com/great_circle_distance_calculator.html is 214 km = 133 miles. The others assumed: K49BB Follett of KAMR-19 Amarillo, and K53BB Follett, of KCIT-15 Amarillo; latter looks like 700 Club, with the other guy than Pat Robertson. 49 faded before I could figure out programming (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. First Listen: WWWN (FM News 101.1) Chicago Programming & Music --- This essay was written by Sean Ross for Radio- Info.com's Programming & Music column. Monday, August 8, 2011 It’s hard to launch any new spoken-word station from scratch, especially an all-news station. Even with the land rush to put News, Talk, and Sports on FM, many operators have the advantage of an existing AM asset, a ready-made programming source (e.g., ESPN) or at least other similar successful rollout (CBS Radio’s sports FM launches). And it’s no easier when your station is in itself a news story. Or when you’re readying a launch in New York as well. Merlin Media’s much-publicized WWWN (FM News 101.1) Chicago hit the airwaves more than a week ago, beating, by a day, the announced FM simulcast of heritage All-News outlet WBBM-AM on WCFS (the former Fresh 105.9). WWWN isn’t yet streaming, (neither, at the moment, is Classic Rock sister WLUP), but the inevitable launch pains were well documented. Audio of one particularly awkward newscast, which dissolved quickly into silence, then dumped back to music, surfaced within hours. Time-Out Chicago’s Robert Feder, not a fan of Merlin principal Randy Michaels, gave it until Thursday, then called WNWN “a blundering, amateurish, woefully prepared mess.” . . . http://www.radio-info.com/programming/programming-music/first-listen-wwwn-fm-news-1011-chicago (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. KQED TAKES CALM PATH TO NO. 1 IN BAY AREA RATINGS Ben Fong-Torres Sunday, August 7, 2011 When KQED-FM (88.5), which has been around since 1969, hit the top of the Arbitron ratings for the first time in April, the station did not break out Champagne, have a party, hand out commemorative watches or send staff members to a vanquished rival station to streak (run naked) through its offices, as KSAN once did to KFRC. Asked just how KQED did celebrate, Jo Anne Wallace, VP and GM, laughed. "You're going to be disappointed in this answer," she said, "but I tend to look at trends over the long term. And with Arbitron and PPM (its portable meter audience measurement methodology), station managers and program directors always wonder, 'Is there any kind of fluke in this data?' So we didn't celebrate, but we took note of it. But we need to look at May, June and July and see if there's any continuation of that." There is. After a dip in May (during which KQED had a pledge drive), the station was back on top in June. Since launching a news initiative in July 2010, increasing staff and the frequency of locally produced newscasts to 16, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., KQED has pushed past KGO (810 AM) in the overall ratings and been dominant in the prized age demo of 25-54. The station claims to be the most listened-to public radio station in the country. While KQED doesn't carry advertising, it acknowledges program sponsors and offers underwriting opportunities for short (15-second) messages in newscasts. "It's been very successful," Wallace said. Besides the newscasts, KQED produces such programs as Michael Krasny's popular interview show, "Forum," and "The California Report," a daily feature that expands into a half-hour magazine on Fridays. And, of course, there are the NPR staples, from "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" to news from the BBC, "Fresh Air" and "Car Talk." But locally produced news is the engine that drives the station, and, one recent Monday, a dozen staffers joined Raul Ramirez, executive director of news and public affairs, to go over items ranging from a BART shooting to climate change. But the men and women weren't all from the newsroom. They represented "Forum," "This Week in Northern California" and "California Report," and various departments of the station's well-designed website, KQED.org, including Quest, which covers science, nature and the environment; Climate Watch; and interactive, social-media-related features. The staff also heard about KQED's outreach to schools, ranging from providing content to teachers to receiving ideas from students and educators. Building a bridge to younger listeners, Ramirez told me, is only smart. "The (Baby Boomers) are huge for us; they're our primary supporters. But, as a Boomer, I can say we're not the future. We are today. This new generation will embrace the values of public broadcasting, of public media, but they're going to demand respect and participation." KQED also solicits input from audience members through its Public Insight Network. "We ask our website users to be volunteer experts and potential news sources," Ramirez said. All of this helps explain KQED's success. While other stations have seen their audiences age and their ratings dip, KQED is going the other way. "Every newscast ends with a note, 'For more coverage, go to KQED.org,'" said Wallace, "and we've seen growth online, and tremendous growth for radio." Wallace, who joined the station in 1990, noted that, like KCBS and KGO, KQED saw spikes in listenership when big news broke. "Our audience increases, then falls once the news subsides, but not all the way to its original level." Wallace credits the station's steady growth to the work of her staff, which numbers 80, including reporters, hosts, writers, producers and engineers. "We provide important news in headline form," she said, "but beyond that, we are able to provide depth, analysis and context for stories." Ramirez added: "The more complex an issue is, the more likely people will gravitate to us." News director Bruce Koon, who, like Ramirez, came to KQED from the print medium, said, "We try to focus on important stories and enterprise reporting, and we cover the variety of the region. We're trying to establish the Bay Area as the nine- county Bay Area." KQED dropped classical music to go all news and information in 1987. But, Wallace noted, there's plenty of arts and culture available, from musicians, writers and artists visiting both local and NPR programs. Wallace was responding to a recent Radio Waves interview with Matt Martin, GM of KALW, an older NPR affiliate with a smaller signal and audience. Martin said his station differed from KQED in that it offered more local, creative and cultural content. Wallace - who speaks in a measured, circumspect manner - clearly bristled. "I understand Matt's pride in his station, but I don't think what he said is accurate." She pointed out that KQED produced 20 percent of its 168-hour weekly broadcast schedule, including 10 hours a week of "Forum." "We do a huge amount of local coverage, and we partner with organizations throughout the Bay Area (including the Commonwealth Club, the Asia Society, City Arts & Lectures, and universities and museums) to look for events that we might draw from for interesting programming." This column has been edited since it appeared in print editions. Ben Fong-Torres is a freelance writer. . . http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/07/PKC51KG06S.DTL (via Mike Cooper, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) ** U S A. IN SPECTRUM BATTLES, MOM & POP TV LOSES By Janko Roettgers Aug. 4, 2011, 1:00pm PT http://gigaom.com/video/in-spectrum-battles-mom-pop-tv-loses/ [with numerous internal linx] Warren Trumbly and his DIY antenna concealed under a painting. [caption] As far as cord cutting goes, it’s hard to beat Warren Trumbly. Not only did he turn a painting in his office into a DIY antenna capable of receiving free over-the-air TV signals, Trumbly is also the president of KAXT One, a broadcaster that is behind a dozen niche over-the-air TV stations in the Bay Area that exclusively cater to cord cutters. KAXT One is only broadcasting over the air and has been flourishing ever since the digital switch-over two years ago, but Trumbly now fears that all of this could be lost if the FCC goes through with its plan to sell TV spectrum to mobile operators. “Free TV has been thrown under the bus,” he told me during a meeting in his studio in San Jose, Calif. this week. The FCC has been pushing for a while to get some 120 MHz of spectrum from the TV broadcasters and it sell them to the highest bidder. The auction for these frequencies could net anywhere between $6 billion and $33 billion, depending on who you ask. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is opposing these plans and warning that it could lead to the closure of some 210 of its member’s stations. KAXT isn’t part of NAB, but a much small and less influential coalition. Trumbly believes that the impact on low-power stations like his will be far worse. Close to 3,500 low power TV stations would be affected by the spectrum changes, according to NAB estimates, and Trumbly and KAXT One Vice President Ravi Kapur told me this week that they’re uncertain about their future in light of these developments. A proposal by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to tie the spectrum auction to the debt ceiling bill was recently defeated in Congress, but Democrats and Republicans are both drafting bills to get access to some of that TV spectrum, possibly allowing broadcasters to receive a portion of the money the spectrum nets at auction. Trumbly said he’ll get some money at best, and nothing at all in worst case scenarios. “They will get rid of us one way or another,” he said. KAXT runs its radio stations off non-name MP3 players. To be fair, most people would probably never notice if KAXT went off the air tomorrow. It’s a small mom-and-pop broadcaster with none of the glam or clout of the local ABC or NBC affiliates. KAXT has been benefiting from the digital transition two years ago and has since taken that opportunity and run with it. The station managed to cram a dozen TV sub-channels on one frequency and somehow managed to become the only channel 1 in the nation. Its San Jose studio has a bit of technological daredevil flair. Some kids fresh out of high school were busy building a server when I visited. At one point, Trumbly showed me a few cheap no-name MP3 players, only to explain that those were running the company’s digital radio stations. An iPod classic was used as a video server for KAXT’s TV guide. However, there’s also another part to KAXT. The broadcaster is currently home to a number of ethnic stations, including an Indian station and a Spanish-language stations with locally-produced news and entertainment programming. That type of content is resonating with local communities, who increasingly embrace over the air TV simply because subscribing to foreign-language tiers on cable is an expensive proposition without any local tie-ins. Kapur told me that one of KAXT’s three Vietnamese stations recently sold 4000 antennas to its audience. Those communities would be left in the cold if local, low- power TV was to go away, he said, adding: “Over the air TV is the last frontier for independent providers of content.” So why doesn’t KAXT just go online and broadcast all of its programming over the top? It’s a good question, but also a bit of a hypothetical. Bandwidth is still expensive, especially for small outlets. Just ask Leo Laporte from TWiT, who recently had to briefly shut down the live stream of his online tech network on Roku because of too much demand. Multiply this with 12 stations, and you’ll see that there could be a problem, at least in the short term. But for Trumbly and Kapur, it’s also about principle. They just don’t believe that big mobile operators can serve local communities as well as a local broadcaster, and they have a feeling that this is just another step towards more media consolidation. Trumbly also doubted the claims that the wireless broadband services that are supposed to be launched on the disputed frequencies will benefit small towns at all. “The idea that they are going to give broadband to rural communities is a farce,” he told me. The debate around frequency auctions is a murky one to begin with, with some doubting that there even is enough demand for the drastic steps that the FCC has in mind. It’s also a power play between big broadcasters and their advocates on the one side and telcos on the other, with each making the case that they’re better suited to deliver content to consumers. Then there’s unlicensed spectrum, which could be another casualty. Regardless of how the final outcome will look like, Trumbly and Kapur fear that they’ll be on the losing side. Said Trumby: “The independent license holders are on their own.” (via NAB Smartbrief via DXLD) WTFK? W9WI.com has KAXT as the only station under ``Sanfrancisco- Sanjose`` as -CA or -LD on RF channel 42 with various apps and lics. There is also one -CA entry when it was still analog on channel 22. This says it`s RF channel 42, and the ``Channel 1`` came about because of a PSIP conflict with another station on RF channel 23, virtual 22: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAXT-CA ``KAXT-CA was a low-power analog class-A television station. It broadcasted in analog on UHF channel 22 as a network affiliate of Spanish-language Christian television Tiempos Finales TV, formerly being an affiliate of TBN from 1989 to 2003, and of Almavision from 2003 to 2006. KAXT, began digital broadcasting July 31, 2009 with the call sign KAXT-LD. KAXT-LD is the first digital television station to broadcast 12 video streams on a standard 6 Mhz 19.39 Mbps ATSC stream. Using statistical multiplexing technology in the encoders and multiplexer, the system provides variable bit rate compression needed to provide full quality standard definition video across all of the channels with enough bandwidth for radio (audio only) services. Broadcast Engineering nominated KAXT as Station of the Year for 2009 [1], the first low power television station ever to receive such a distinction. On July 31, 2009, KAXT-LD began ATSC digital TV transmissions on UHF channel 42. The DTV virtual channels between KAXT-LD's Channel 22 (physical: 22) and KRCB's Channel 22 (physical: 23) Cotati, had significant overlap that caused a PSIP conflict, forcing KAXT-LD to a new virtual channel, 1.1. The station operates with a PSIP of Channel 1, with 12 different video program streams and eight audio-only channels for a total of 20 virtual channels.`` Says Wikipedia. Own site is here: http://kaxt1.com/ --- not much info but claims that it moved from channel 42 to channel 1, no mention of 22 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. FCC SPECTRUM REALLOCATION Here's a take from one of the editors of TV News Check. In a nutshell, he says the FCC is in a quandary because their 'reallocation modeling software' shows major interference issues in any scenario they try; hmmm (Jim Thomas, wdx0fbu, Missouri, Aug 9, WTFDA via DXLD) Viz.: JESSELL AT LARGE === DELAY ON SPECTRUM MODELS RAISES SUSPICION This is getting ridiculous. The FCC was supposed to make public its technical models for its proposed spectrum reallocation that would make its proposed auction plan possible. Broadcasters are still waiting. It keeps promising, but it never delivers and that's straining the commission's credibility. Until the modeling is made public, broadcasters should remain skeptical — and wary — of anything having to do with incentive auctions. And Congress, too. By Harry A. Jessell TVNewsCheck, August 5, 2011 3:44 PM EDT http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2011/08/05/53070/delay-on-spectrum-models-raises-suspicion (via Thomas, via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [non]. VENEZUELAN BASED TELESUR NOW AVAILABLE TO GLOBECAST WORLDTV SATELLITE HOMES IN NORTH AMERICA. Posted: 07 Aug 2011 "This week Latin American television network teleSUR expanded its distribution capacity to allow the Caracas-based news channel to reach over 100 million homes across the United States. In an agreement signed with Globecast WorldTV, teleSUR is now available free of charge to all viewers of WorldTV, a digital network that sells satellite radio and television to people across North and Central America as well the Caribbean. TeleSUR, which celebrated six years of non-stop programming last month, was first established in 2005 as an alternative to US-based programming on Latin American news and events. Before signing the agreement with WorldTV this week, teleSUR was already available to some 250 million viewers in all of Latin America, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. ... Founded by member states Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay, teleSUR uses the motto “Our North is the South” as part of a stated editorial policy of 'showing Latin America through the eyes of Latin Americans" instead of through U.S.-based networks such as CNN, Voice of America, and others." – (source? via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Available to 100 million homes if the home has a satellite dish, and the dish is pointed to the Galaxy 19 satellite used by Globecast WorldTV, and the occupants of the home speak Spanish (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) And they axually tune it in among all the other programs! So slightly less than 300 million viewers (gh) ** YEMEN. In our radio story, we go first to Southern Yemen, or Aden as it was known for so long, and here we discover that way back, there was a very early cable station located in this small British colony. This underwater cable system connected Europe with the Middle East, Asia and the South Pacific. This submarine cable was laid by the Eastern Telegraph Company and it was opened for communication service in 1879. In 1936, the communication company known as Cable & Wireless, C&W, took over the control of the cable station in Aden. In the meantime, the Marconi company in England established a spark wireless station in Aden during the year 1915. This station formed part of the Marconi international network known as the Imperial Wireless Scheme and it was established for onward communication between England and Asia and the South Pacific. In 1940, a small radio broadcasting station was established in Ra’s Bradley, a suburban area of Aden and it was on the air as required spasmodically, with short broadcasts containing war news, important local announcements and emergency information. This station was closed in 1945. Another very small station was installed in Aden by AFRS, the American Armed Forces Radio Service. This station was located inside an American army base, it emitted just 5 watts as a carrier current operation, it radiated on 1040 kHz, and it was on the air under the callsign WADN. The initial letter W indicated its American ownership; and the three subsequent letters, ADN, almost spelled out its location, as Aden. Station WADN was closed in August 1945. Next on the scene was an informal amateur broadcasting station established with improvised equipment by volunteers at the Royal Air Force RAF base at nearby Khormaksar. This station was inaugurated in 1954 with 250 watts on 1236 kHz. However, two years later, another Royal Air Force radio station was established at almost the same location and it was operated officially as a unit of BFBS, the British Forces Broadcasting Service. Interestingly, both stations on the air force base, were on the air simultaneously, some times in competition, and occasionally in co- operation. The new BFBS station began with just 300 watts on 1025 kHz, though a little more than half a dozen years later, a tangible new facility was constructed at Steamer Point, a new 10 kW transmitter was installed, and the frequency was changed to 1241 kHz. When this substantial station was closed in 1967, much of the equipment and some of the personnel were transferred to the smaller and still rather unofficial radio station at the same air force base. During two different time periods, the shortwave station in Aden operated by Cable & Wireless, C&W, was in use spasmodically for the broadcast of radio programming. In January 1941, station ZNR was heard in both Australia & New Zealand with the broadcast of radio programming on 12115 kHz. The actual callsign in use was ZNR2, and the power output was just 250 watts. QSL letters were issued in confirmation of this shortwave programming that was noted for a few months around early 1941. Then again, ten years later in the early 1950s, similar occasional broadcasts were noted from station ZNR, on the same channel 12115 kHz, but now with an increased power output of 2 kW. During this era, these broadcasts were noted on air for around a year or two. More on Yemen here in Wavescan, next week! (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script March 13 via DXLD) ** YEMEN. RADIO BROADCASTING IN THE LAND OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA PART 2 THE LIGHTNING & NO WIRE COMPANY! In our program last week, we presented the information about the radio scene in Aden, Yemen, with its early mediumwave stations; and the usage of the C&W, Cable & Wireless, communication station ZNR for the occasional broadcast of shortwave radio programming. We also mentioned that Yemen was the home of the legendary Queen of Sheba, who as a new young queen, visited the fabled King Solomon in Palestine. Her home was the now archaeological city of Marib, in the desert areas of Yemen. We pick up the story again today with this information regarding shortwave broadcasting in the southern Yemen, known at the time as Aden. An official government radio station was inaugurated at Al-Hiswa in Aden on August 7, 1954. Initially this was a double facility with a shortwave transmitter rated at 3½ kW, and a 300 watt mediumwave transmitter. Three years later a 7½ kW shortwave unit was installed, followed by a 10 kW unit eight years later again. During the year 1973, two shortwave transmitters at 100 kW were installed. In September 2005, this station was badly damaged in an air raid, leaving just one mediumwave unit active on the air. After the two Yemens were combined, the Al-Hiswah shortwave facility near Aden remained in active use until 1995, when it went silent for a period of about eight years. However, it was re-activated again in 2003 and it is still on the air to this day with two transmitters, one at 50 kW and the other at 100 kW. On the mediumwave scene, two regional stations were inaugurated in southern Yemen, at Al-Mukalla in 1967 & Sayun in 1973. These days though, there are just two major locations on the air mediumwave in southern Yemen, Aden, and these are:- Al Hiswah 100 kW 792 kHz 100 1188 Al Mukalla 50 785 We now go a little north, from Aden Yemen to Sana’a Yemen, and we go back to the beginning of radio broadcasting in that segment of the now united country. The first radio station at Sana’a was established in January 1946, though it is not known whether this was a mediumwave or shortwave facility. Due to similar circumstances elsewhere in the region, we would guess that this new radio station was a comparatively low powered shortwave unit, operating probably on what we would call a tropical shortwave channel. A couple of years later, this station in Sana’a was closed, though some seven years later again, it was re-opened. During the 1960s, two regional mediumwave stations were opened in North Yemen and these low power units were co-sited with already existing communication stations. In 1963, one of these regional mediumwave stations was co-sited with communication station 4WA at Taiz; and in 1969, the other was co-sited with communication station 4WD at Al-Hodeida. The main shortwave station at Sana’a was inaugurated in 1950 with a 25 kW General Electric transmitter from the United States. However, at this stage, the C&W station at Sana’a was also in use for the occasional relay of radio programming, on both mediumwave & shortwave. The company name for C&W is Cable & Wireless. This is a difficult name to translate into Arabic, and when the name is translated back into English, it would read, “The Lightning & No Cable Company”. During the year 1973, two 50 kW Siemens shortwave transmitters were installed at Sana’a and soon afterwards, these were noted on air by international radio monitors in Australia & New Zealand. Channels in use at this stage were 6050 kHz & 9585 kHz. A 300 kW Thomson shortwave transmitter was installed in 1988. These days north Yemen, as part of the united country of Yemen, is noted on only one shortwave channel, 9780 kHz with 50 kW. On mediumwave, eight different channels are listed at four different locations. QSLs over the years from the two Yemens have been very difficult to obtain. From southern Yemen, Aden, we note the following QSLs:- 1962 BFBS Mediumwave 1974 Steamer Point 50 kW 755 Pink antenna card 1981 Communication station 3 kW 5208 kHz Jose Jacob, India And from northern Yemen, Sana’a, we note these QSLs:- 1987 Sana’a shortwave 50 kW 9780 kHz Letter 1998 Sana’a & Mocha Mediumwave Letter 2001 Sana’a 4953 & 9780 kHz Colored card (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script March 20 via DXLD) ** YEMEN. MIDDLE EASTERN CAVE RADIO A few weeks ago, during a spate of research on the topic of radio broadcasting in the troubled country of Yemen in the Middle East, an interesting item of information came to light. This unexpected information tells about what appears to be an almost unknown radio broadcasting station in Yemen, and of all places, it was located in a huge system of Middle Eastern caves. This is what happened. You will remember that there were two countries under the name of Yemen, North & South, for many years and that they finally united a score of years ago. However, long before that, back half a century ago, there was a coup d’etat that took place in North Yemen, and Republicans ousted the Royal family and took over the government. That was in 1962. Those who were loyal to the Royal family, the Royalists, established an encampment inland in a mountainous region in the southern area of Saudi Arabia, just across the border from Yemen. However, soon afterwards, the location of this encampment was moved back across the border into North Yemen near a place called Amara. This new encampment was established into a massive and deep cave complex, in which there were living quarters, government administration, and an electrical system powered by their own generator plant. In May 1964, a representative from the United Nations made an official visit to the cave headquarters of the Royalist movement and he made out a report on his observations. One of the statements found in his document tells that plans were underway to establish a radio broadcasting station in this bomb proof cave system. Foreign aid had been granted for the project, and the station would operate with 5 kW in the 41 metre band. The June 1964 edition of the Australian radio journal, “Radio, Television & Hobbies”, contains a one paragraph statement from the noted international radio monitor, Arthur Cushen in South New Zealand. He stated: Yemen is to operate a new 5,000 watt shortwave station in the 41 metre band, according to a member of the United Nations Commission who has visited this country recently. He reports the Loyalist faction will operate this station from a bomb-proof cave and the station plans to have transmissions in French and English. The question remains: What happened to this projected shortwave broadcasting station? Did it ever take to the air? There are no known monitoring reports regarding the reception of this station in other parts of the world. However, an article in Wikipedia does state that the station did indeed go on the air with information broadcasts aimed at the Republican coalition in Sanaa city. It would be presumed that these radio broadcasts from the cave complex near Amara in North Yemen were quite simple in nature, with an announcer simply reading official statements from the Royalist faction, and maybe some music played from readily available recordings. It would also be presumed that the planned broadcasts in French and English never eventuated. Maybe this station never did receive its 5 kW transmitter, and maybe just a locally available transmitter was in use. Another question remains: Was this station a legitimate broadcaster, or was it a clandestine operation? If you were a Yemeni Republican, you would state that it was a clandestine operation. If you were a Yemeni Royalist, you would claim that it was a legitimate broadcaster in support of what should be the legitimate government. Maybe the real answer could be that it was in fact a legitimate broadcaster operating in the style of a clandestine station (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script for May 8 via DXLD) ** YEMEN. FIVE IN A ROW: BBC MIDDLE EAST RELAY STATION, PERIM ISLAND Two weeks back, we began a short series of topics here in Wavescan in which we are presenting the story of the five BBC relay stations in the Arabian coastal areas, one after the other. The first topic was on the story of the BBC East Africa Relay Station located at Berbera in Somalia. Here now is the second topic in this series, the story of the BBC Middle East Relay Station, located on the island of Perim, at the mouth of the gulf that is labeled in current maps and in the Bible as the Red Sea. The very small Perim Island is a volcanic outcrop just five square miles in area. The highest point is just a small hill at 200 feet above sea level, and vegetation on the island is very sparse. There is no fresh water on the island, and every item needed by people living on the island must be imported from wherever it is available. This small isolated island never had a significant local population in ancient times, and even to this day, the only local inhabitants are a few fishermen who use the island as a base for their fishing enterprises. However, when the island has been used as a base for various purposes, the population of imported personnel has sometimes stood quite high. Perim Island was occupied by the Portuguese in 1513, and subsequently by the French, and then the British. During the 1800s, a lighthouse was erected on the island, and this was around the time that the island served as a coaling station for ships traversing the Suez Canal. In the year 1872, the Eastern Telegraph Company established a cable station on Perim Island for connection with England, Africa, India and ultimately Australia. This cable station was later taken over by C&W, Cable & Wireless, or as it was known in the Arabic language, the “Lightning & No Wire Company”. A spark wireless station was installed at this facility nearly a century ago and this was on the air under the callsign BVQ. On July 1, 1960, the two Somalilands, British & Italian, achieved independence and they united into the one Somalia. As mentioned in our program two weeks ago, it became necessary for the BBC soon afterwards to close their rather new East Africa Relay Station located at Berbera due to political differences between England and the new Somalia. During the year 1964, the equipment from Berbera in Somalia was transferred across the waters and re-installed on the island of Perim, a distance of some 200 miles. While this station was under re- installation, security personnel repulsed a terrorist attack which fortunately inflicted very little damage. This BBC relay station was again co-sited with an old C&W cable station, this time on the island of Perim, and it was installed and operated by DWS, the British Diplomatic Wireless Service. The BBC station on Perim Island operated on the same mediumwave channel as in Berbera Somalia, 701 kHz. The power output of this mediumwave station on Perim has been listed variously as 10 kW, 100 kW or 400 kW. One listing shows the power as 1.5 megawatts, but this is probably the total power generated at the station for all purposes on the island. This re-sited BBC relay station was re-inaugurated as the BBC Middle East Relay Station in the earlier part of the year 1965, probably during the month of April or May. BBC Perim was heard in Australia & New Zealand around local dawn, and this would suggest that the actual power output was 100 kW; 10 kW would not propagate too well to the South Pacific, and 400 kW would require the generation of too much electricity locally on a small island where everything is imported. As was the case with the station when it was at Berbera, the re- located station on Perim took an off air relay from the BBC transmitters on shortwave in England. This programming was in mainly Arabic & English. No programming was produced locally. However, changing political circumstances also plagued this radio station at its new location. The two Yemens, North & South, were united politically, though not always very amicably, and the island of Perim was handed over by the British government to this new entity. It became necessary to again close, and move. During the year 1966, the population on Perim Island was at its all time high, with some 600 people living there. These resident foreigners were serving with the BBC, the leftover of the old C&W cable station, supportive business and social operations, and armed service personnel. In addition, many local people from the nearby coastline of Yemen were resident on the island, as local employees, and also as local opportunists. During this era on Perim, the third station in a row was already under construction at another location in the Arabian coastal areas. Another island, the island of Masirah on the eastern edge of the Saudi peninsula, had been chosen for a larger new mediumwave station. The BBC MIddle East Relay Station on Perim Island closed during the year 1966 in favor of the much larger and newer station on the Island of Masirah after less than two years of service at the mouth of the Red Sea. Three weeks from now, we are planning to present the third BBC station in a row, the much larger mediumwave station on the island of Masirah [see OMAN] (Adrian Peterson, IN, AWR Wavescan script for May 15 via DXLD) See also SOMALIA ** ZANZIBAR. Tanzania, Radio Tanzania Zanzibar. 6015 Dole. 2011/08/05 Friday. 0322-0333, Koran to 0330, then talk in Arabic (not Swahili today, as per Aoki and EiBi). Fair. Jo'burg sunrise 0445 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. Madagascar, Radio Voice of the People, 9445, Talata-Volondry. 2011/08/03 Wednesday, 1626-1628*. English, but cut off in mid-sentence without ID at 1628 (as per Aoki). Poor. Jo'burg sunset 1543 (Bill Bingham, RSA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 11-31, Classical music on 1440 --- Assuming it was KPTO, the signal strength was about what I would expect for listed 2.5 kw day power, and certainly more than the listed 350 wafts [sic] night power. It was dominating the frequency at times (Bruce Portzer, WA, IRCA via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) NRC-AM Log 2010-2011, now a year old says of KPTO as in Pocatello: station in receivership; Classical tape loop, 24 hours, c/o an address in SLC UT (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Hearing the Spanish station on 1710 kHz at 0715 UT with a fading weak signal. New location, now living in Kalama, WA about 23 miles North of our former home in Salmon Creek, WA. Elevation of 1057' on 2.90 acres. Antenna is a long wire 160' long and about 5-6' in height. Radio is a Palstar R-30 cc. Best regards, (Dennis Vroom, Kalama, WA, Aug 8, IRCA via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 4872,5 29.7 2300 OID, lät som PP, mest mx. S/off 23.04. Dålig modulation och ordentliga QRM från den vandrande störningen som håller till i det fq-området. AN 4872.5, 29.7 2300, unID, sounded like Portuguese, mostly music. S/off 2304. Poor modulation and proper QRM from the migrating dislocation dwelling in the frequency area (Arne Nilsson, translated by Google & Thomas Nilsson, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DXLD) Referring to CODAR?? 4872.561, 29.7 2304* UNID with unpleasant modulation and so weak it was impossible to hear the language. Checked this according to tip from AN (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Aug 7 via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 4877.15v, 1008-1033 Aug 5. Religious-sounding vocals; few, if any, announcements until 1031, then into talk or sermon. Fair signal but high QRN level so could not determine language. Frequency varied a few kHz up and down. Brazil? Cruz del Sur? Fading after 1030 (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 9775, August 5 at 1150, again today I am hearing the continuous tone test reported yesterday as 9770, but now it`s closer to 9775. Have a hard time confirming it`s DSB tone rather than a het since the signal is too weak to pin down on the YB-400 with indoor antenna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 11500, fair open carrier at 1235 and 1246 August 5, suspected FD; at 1259, 11500 has some brief tones on and off, Russian- style, so evidently VOR as in Aoki via Tajikistan, supposed to go from English to Hindi at 1300, and after 1300 maybe traces of modulation. This transmitter has had modulation missing before. Aoki also shows Sound of Hope could be on 11500, 24 hours, and consequently Firedrake (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 11810, August 8 at 1345 encountered S9+18 open carrier here, stronger signal than adjacents on 11805, 11815. 1000 Hz tone test came on at 1346:38 until 1347:23 back to open carrier. So checked 17775 where I had heard same a few minutes earlier, and it was off, so same transmitter moved down? On 11810, irregular carrier on-and-off, tone on-and-off continued past 1436 when I quit monitoring. Weeks after these mystery tests started, you`d think they would have the new transmitter(s) all tuned up, and we have also learned never to expect any announcement, ID or even Croatian music any more. I did log some times which are probably meaningless, but since I took the trouble this time, here they are, accurate to a couple of sex: 1345 OC, 1346:38 TT, 1347:23 OC to 1347:48* 1349 TT, 1349:55 OC, 1351:38 TT on and off to 1353:18* *1355:38 OC, then TT, OC, TT to 1356:50* *1358:36-1358:45* OC *1359:13 OC and TT to 1401:26* 1412 still off *1416 OC and TT 1417, OC, 1419 TT on and off 1432 still OC on and off, TT on and off past 1436 The source of the 11810 tests is still mystifying. Only other signals on 25m were from N America and E Asia, rather than Europe, ME or Africa. No listings for 11810 at these hours in HFCC, Aoki, EiBi or WRTH (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Martedì 9 agosto 2011 - 1209 - 15160 kHz, NON IDENTIFICATA, French, news e ID R. Canada Int., poi s/off. Segnale sufficiente. Test tx? Sackville? (Luca Botto Fiora, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova) - Italia, playdx yg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 15165, August 9 at 1214, DRM-like noise, or jamming? Per HFCC, EiBi and Aoki, the only thing at all on this very underutilized frequency is R. Liberty in Kyrgyz at 1200-1230; Aoki says site is Biblis, Germany; HFCC and EiBi say Tinang, Philippines --- quite a contrast, but it`s like IBB to make wild site switches hoping for an improvement (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 17775, August 8 at 1337 despite generally degraded propagation, mystery 1000 Hz tone test is here with S9 peaks; compared to Saudi 17705 with S+10 but undermodulated; DW Rwanda 17800 S9+5; Libya 17725 zero signal. Off at next check 1345 after I found another tone test going on 11810, q.v. Same transmitter? Altho nothing can usually be found in HFCC on the numerous other frequencies doing this for the past bimonth, 17775 has this entry: 17775 1230 1400 37N,38NW DHA 500 300 1234567 270311 291011 D UAE ADM But it`s surely wooden like so many other UAE ones, with nothing shown in WRTH, Aoki or EiBi. It might be a clue to the origin of the tones, but probably not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ### UNIDENTIFIED. 18832-SSB approx., August 9 at 1339, 2-way in Spanish, still at 1410 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Survey - how you listen to WOR I used to listen to World of Radio over the air on the weekly shortwave broadcasts on various stations. But as the years have gone on and my life has gotten busier, it became harder to keep up with the shows listening to them live. A few years ago I bought an MP3 player and got into the podcast scene. And that's how I'm able to listen and keep up with WOR - by downloading it from the web site and listening on my MP3 player (tfhike, Aug 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST0 Again this week, no one new to thank for financial support, by PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com or a check or MO in the mail to World of Radio, P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702 USA (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1577 via DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ FM Atlas #21 Availability Hi Guys: I just ordered a New Copy of the FM Atlas # 21 (Last years Edition) from Bruce's wife Carol who advises she still has lots of them left should anyone require a copy. My 21st Edition is getting worn out from overuse, so I wanted to get a new one!! Will there ever be an updated Edition???? I have no idea, but once these are gone, that may be the end of an era!! You can contact Carol Elving at: fmatlas @ aol.com If you would like to get a new Copy of the FM Atlas. I'm sure she would like to see these in the hands of FM Dxers, rather than stacked on a shelf in her home. I've had every Issue since 1976, and wouldn't be without it, even in this age of "Everything's Available on the Internet"!! 73.....ROB VA3SW (Robert S. Ross, London, Ontario CANADA, WTFDA via DXLD) BRUCE ELVING, PROFESSOR OF FM RADIO http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2011/08/11/bruce-elving-professor-of-fm-radio/ (via Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE, New Delhi, dxldyg via DXLD) more obits DX-PEDITIONS ++++++++++++ ESCUCHANDO LA RADIO EN SAN ANDRES ISLA Hola colegas, Regresando de unos días de vacaciones en la Isla de San Andrés, he publicado en mi blog una reseña de la situación radial de la Isla y captaciones de onda media de emisoras del Caribe. Reseña, fotos y más en http://dxdesdecolombia.blogspot.com/ Buenos DX. (Rafael Rodriguez R., Bogotá D.C. - COLOMBIA, Aug 6, condiglist yg via DXLD) Permalink: http://dxdesdecolombia.blogspot.com/2011/08/escuchando-la-radio-en-san-andres-isla.html (gh, DXLD) MUSEA +++++ The KPH Project In cooperation with the Point Reyes National Seashore, part of the National Park Service, the Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS) has taken on the job of preserving the historic ex-RCA coast station KPH and returning it to the air. Bob Schrader W6BNB writes: To all of you nice MRHS people: I hope you know how much your bringing back the sound of old KPH to those few of us who are still around from the 1930s Sparks ship days and how much it means to us. I worked KPH almost every day on six trips around the world and for a dozen or so trips over to Manila and back to SF, plus a few others trips. I even had the pleasure of seeing old Marshall and Bolinas in operation in 1932 when only a ham (althouh already with a Radiotelegraph Second license) at Central Trade School with old Fred Mangelsdorf and most of his class. While KTK was my home station for four of my six years. I almost daily received passenger messages from KPH and KFS and would also send them our TR reports. KPH was one of the first and last stations I worked from shipboard. That was from 1933 to 1939. Real fond memories! Thanks. Bob Shrader "RS" W6BNB http://www.radiomarine.org/gallery/show?keyword=kphpano&panel=pab1_1#pab1_1 Radio World, By James O'Neal, August 3, 2011 Lovers of "classic" radio gear and facilities should visit the website of the Maritime Radio Historical Society to view Bruce Ecker's panoramic views of the KPH/KSM transmit and receive sites. I'll give you the link in a moment. This is not a broadcast facility but rather a coastal station that was involved in maritime communications. That station, KPH, is located in the Point Reyes Nation Seashore preserve, north of San Francisco. KPH has roots dating to the early 20th century; it was relocated from San Francisco, following the 1906 earthquake that devastated that city. (The call sign is said to have stemmed from the Palace Hotel where the operation was once headquartered.) It was later acquired by RCA, and those with a keen eye will be able to spot some of that company's gear in the very detailed photos available on the website. Following the gradual decline in the radiotelegraphic commercial maritime communications in the age of satellite and computerized data communications, the station was acquired by owners of another such West Coast communication facility, Globe Wireless. Following the 1997 acquisition, KPH subsequently was retired from active service. Fortunately, former wireless operators and volunteers, operating as the Maritime Radio Historical Society, have kept the facility from being dismantled and scrapped. It still lives on and the website photos clearly reveal the fruits of these volunteer efforts. Virtually every operating and maintenance area of the station building has been captured through these photographs. They're unusual too, in that a site visitor can manipulate his/her viewing perspective by zooming, planning and tilting controlled by the computer mouse thanks to the Pano2VR player. It's really a virtual reality sort of display - you can even look up at the ceiling lighting fixtures or the floor tiles. (Just don't go panning or tilting too fast, as vertigo can result!) Virtual tour visitors easily can pick out both vintage and more modern gear that made up the station. In addition to the transmitter gallery (look for the RCA "meatballs"), there's the maintenance shop with its tools and construction/repair materials. A storage area shows the ranks of spare tubes, capacitors and transformers kept in readiness. There are plenty of Teletype machines represented, ranging from 1930s vintage to some of the last machines that company produced. Of particular interest is the "CW Operating Position," with a stack of "Marconigram" message forms alongside a vintage typewriter and hole- punch. Visible too are the temporary files for received messages. Judging from the number of bins, KPH must have handled a really large amount of traffic during a typical day's operation. A nice touch too in this photo is the operator's jacket bearing "RCA Global Communications" on its back above the large "meatball" company logo. Another photo allows website visitors to enter "the SITOR room," chock full of the more modern computer terminals and printers that were employed in the final years of the station's operation. There's even a portal to the outside where transmission line feeders can be inspected close-up. All in all this website is a "must visit" for radio yesteryear junkies - the scenes are so real that you can almost smell the aroma of insulation and other olfactory cues from other transmitter and power system components. http://radioworld.com/article/panoramic-photos-of-kph-ksm-are-spectacular/24060 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) http://www.radiomarine.org/gallery/show?keyword=kphpano&panel=pab1_1#pab1_1 DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See AFGHANISTAN; CUBA; INDIA; ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NETHERLANDS; SPAIN; UNIDENTIFIED 15165 DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV See CANADA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ HOME'S ELECTRONICS CONTRIBUTE TO RADIO INTERFERENCE http://www.dailynews.com/ci_18616157?source=most_emailed There's been a lot of talk over the past few years regarding interference on the AM and FM bands. Actually, the discussion goes back decades, to the very start of experimental radio broadcasts. Indeed, one of the reasons Edwin Armstrong invented FM is that he couldn't stand the interference he heard on his first radio invention, AM. But the discussion has intensified since the Federal Communications Commission allowed digital HD Radio broadcasts. HD Radio, itself, can cause problems, especially on the AM band where stations are very close together compared with FM and television. This is due to digital broadcasts surpassing the bandwidth of regular music or talk programming, and radios sometimes picking up the digital "hash." On AM, it is like hearing white noise over weak stations; on FM, it theoretically can cause radios to become "confused" and make weak or distant stations simply disappear. But is HD Radio getting too much of the blame? As I said, interference has been a problem since the beginning of radio. First it was natural - lightening, for example - and eventually man-made. It is definitely a problem, especially when you consider that 50-watt AM stations could be heard across the country in the 1920s; 50 watts would barely get you across the street today. So what's the problem? LED traffic lights? Power lines? Neon signs? Yes, to a point. All of those have the potential to hurt reception of AM and FM broadcasts. But it turns out that most reception problems are closer to home - your home, and what you have inside it. The cell phone charger you keep plugged in? Noisy interference unit. Your DVD player? Same thing. Your cable box and big-screen TV? You guessed it. And while all of these items have long been known to cause problems for AM stations, Steve Johnson, engineer for Wisconsin Public Radio, found that they cause problems for FM as well. And not just analog FM, by the way -- HD FM is affected too. Johnson took measurements throughout homes in the Wisconsin area, sparked by a 37 percent increase in the number of listener complaints regarding decreased reception of the stations he oversees. He found that interference indoors was higher than outdoors, even if it was just outside the house. It didn't matter if it was an urban apartment, an office, or a suburban house, the result was the same: greatly increased interference and lessened reception indoors. Johnson also discovered that recently manufactured plug-in "wall-wart" power supplies - powering small electronics - were the worst offenders. Some HD TVs and DVD players were bad as well, something Johnson feels may also be power-supply related. Computers, and in fact almost any electronic device, have the potential to wreak havoc with radio reception on AM, FM and even television. Sometimes, Johnson found, it was a manufacturing problem - - such as shielding missing from a battery charger -- and other times it was the actual circuit design. Long-term, Johnson says, broadcasters must insist that products not cause interference -- something that already is a requirement of the FCC but that is obviously not always enforced. Short-term, you may have to move your radio (often a few feet or a small turn will improve things noticeably) or install an outdoor antenna if you are having problems picking up your favorite station. Richard Wagoner is a freelance writer based in San Pedro (via Kevin Redding, Aug 6, ABDX via DXLD) USES OF FM TRANSLATORS MORPH QUICKLY: http://tinyurl.com/XlatorsMorph Be very cautious with FM boosters (including those relaying HD Radio signals). It is easy to lose more coverage than you gain: http://tinyurl.com/FM-Boosterz (Both: CGC Communicator Aug 9 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) RADIO GARDENING - A TREATISE ON THE USES OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION AS AN AID TO PLANT GROWTH There are many forms and frequencies of electromagnetic radiation, a large spectrum of which is utilized in the transmission of radio signals from many countries. The frequency of the transmission as well as the content, name of station, geographic location of the station and also the political leanings of the country can and does have an effect on plant growth. The degree of this effect varies according to the closeness of the relationship between the station/program and the nature or type of plant which is to be enhanced. I will first give some background on how the effect is obtained and will include a partial list of stations and the plants, vegetables and flowers that they most and best affect. The general principles governing this relatively new area of progress are fairly straightforward. All words transmitted are reduced to high speed microscopic missiles of specific shape. This shape varies according to the length, weight and meaning of each word but all these shapes have one thing in common. They are not streamlined or smooth but have all manner of protrusions and extensions on them. Some languages plainly will have more protrusions than others. For example, Albanian, more properly known as Shquip, as well as Sanskrit, cuneiform and most Oriental languages have vast numbers of improbable bits sticking out of them. This explains for example why the Chinese grow marvelous gardens. These sticking out bits, when reduced in size and compressed by transmission then become of an identical size to that of the molecular structure of various plants, vegetables and flowers. When introduced to the internal system of plants the inherent or rather the residual energy left over from transmission have a spectacular effect on the growth of the plant. The plant gets bigger faster and matures far more rapidly. There are obvious advantages to these results and there are only two things a radio gardener has to be aware of. 1] The means of application, and 2] Which stations best apply to which plants. I will first deal with the method. Only one antenna is required per acre and should ideally be centrally fed. A 75 ft. vertical is probably the best but I have obtained excellent results with a quadric-centric circum sloper. This antenna is not widely known so briefly the QCCS consists of four 30 ft. posts, one at each corner of the acre with a surrounding RG 59 co-ax running from the top of one post to the next, thus forming a hollow square. At the middle of each length of coax a 20 gauge copper wire feeder is attached to the coax core. This is led to the centre of the acre, descending [sloping] to a height of 3ft 7 3/8 inches where it is attached to the centre but shorter post. A weather proof tuner is attached to the centre post at the base. This is set to the frequency of the station desired. The plants are seeded in radials in a spoke like pattern, radiating from the centre post. Parallel to the proposed seed rows there must be a ground radial for each row, laid on the surface and not more than 2 3/16 inches from the seeds. The inner ends of the radials are attached to the tuner box. Each centre post can have a pre amp if desired, but this will require a power source and is not really essential. This is the method of application for the radio enhancement of plant growth. A brief, but not complete list of stations compatible with various plants may be of help to those wishing to experiment in this area. BBC - good for Better Black Currants Radio Moscow - helpful for carrots, radishes, red peppers and some apples Radio Kiev - sunflowers RAI Italy - good for grapes and garlic Voice of Greece - eggplants Radio Netherlands - does the trick for tulips and many other bulbs, except Radio Spain - onions Radio North Korea - not good for anything and causes acute depression. I put this together as a spoof on radio and its uses. I hope you find it amusing and perhaps feel inclined to see what reaction it will get from other radio enthusiasts!! When I first wrote this, there was a Radio Moscow, but you get the idea (Alan Rayment of Nelson, British Columbia, Aug CIDX Forum via DXLD) PROPAGATION ++++++++++++ PARALLEL OBSERVATION OF "FREQUENT E-SKIP REGION" IN NEW MEXICO Hello Glenn, Recently while reading your early or mid-July 2011 edition of DXLD, I saw your mention of how you frequently see e-skip from Tijuana and Mexicali, BCN TV stations at your Enid, OK QTH, and I was very intrigued! I too enjoy TV and FM Dxing, and over the years have noted the very same thing as you noted: that a region to the south-west of Albuquerque, NM seems to be a region of frequent sporadic-E cloud formation. It seems northern Texas (centered about Abilene, TX) on the FM broadcast band is the most frequently heard region at my Keeler, California (southern Owens Valley) home QTH. That puts the e-layer skip area over the very same location south-west of Albuquerque, NM too. I even noted this on my "CG-19 World Aeronautical Chart" of this New Mexico area several years ago - see the attached photo. Besides the Very Large Array there, there also is the LANGMUIR LABORATORY FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH and also a private exhibit a friend visited ten years ago of hundreds of pointed poles maybe 10 meters tall said by the owner to attract lightning. I firmly believe that violent-weather regions combined with certain solar-emissions work together to produce the necessary conditions for sporadic-e cloud formation. VHF DXers have all noted days when e-skip "outbreaks" occur globally on certain days, so it is not only weather causing wind-shear at e-layer altitudes but also a certain type or mixture of solar-emissions that spur the formation of such e-skip clouds - and perhaps this area of new Mexico we note has something unusual going on about it! PS: overall not a very good pasr summer of 2011 for E-skip: only two brief FM band openings noted, and maybe 1/3rd the TV openings as compared to 2008 and 2009, and 1/5th compared to 2000-2001! -s- http://www.auroralchorus.com http://www.spaceweathersounds.com 73, (Steve McGreevy, N6NKS, Aug 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tnx, Steve, very interesting. I was really not very serious about connecting the VLA with Es formation, but it is intriguing to find another such observation. I visited the mountain-top Langmuir Lab many years ago, as I wanted to check out VHF DX range from that elevation, and they let me set up my antenna on the building. The question is whether all these facilities are passive observatories or do some transmitting (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) JOURNALISTS NEED BETTER REFERENCES! So here we are with a "quiet sun" and solar cycle #24 going no place and along comes a tiny blip which creates Murdoch-Style (tabloid) panic in the streets. This is just plain BAD journalism and by the way, the 1989 event was VISIBLE in the Caribbean; I was THERE and SAW it! (Bob Cooper in NZ, Aug 8, WTFDA via DXLD) Viz.: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three large explosions from the Sun over the past few days have prompted U.S. government scientists to caution users of satellite, telecommunications and electric equipment to prepare for possible disruptions over the next few days. "The magnetic storm that is soon to develop probably will be in the moderate to strong level," said Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist at the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He said solar storms this week could affect communications and global positioning system (GPS) satellites and might even produce an aurora visible as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin. An aurora, called aurora borealis or the northern lights in northern latitudes, is a natural light display in the sky in the Arctic and Antarctic regions caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. Major disruptions from solar activity are rare but have had serious impacts in the past. In 1989, a solar storm took down the power grid in Quebec, Canada, leaving about six million people without power for several hours. The largest solar storm ever recorded was in 1859 when communications infrastructure was limited to telegraphs. The 1859 solar storm hit telegraph offices around the world and caused a giant aurora visible as far south as the Caribbean Islands. Some telegraph operators reported electric shocks. Papers caught fire. And many telegraph systems continued to send and receive signals even after operators disconnected batteries, NOAA said on its website. A storm of similar magnitude today could cause up to $2 trillion in damage globally, according to a 2008 report by the National Research Council. "I don't think this week's solar storms will be anywhere near that. This will be a two or three out of five on the NOAA Space Weather Scale," said Kunches. SOLAR SCALE The NOAA Space Weather Scale measures the intensity of a solar storm from one being the lowest intensity to five being the highest, similar to scales that measure the severity of hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. The first of the three solar explosions from the sun this week already passed the Earth on Thursday with little impact, Kunches said, noting, the second was passing the Earth now and "seems to be stronger." And the third, he said, "We'll have to see what happens over the next few days. It could exacerbate the disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field caused by the second (storm) or do nothing at all." Power grid managers receive alerts from the Space Weather Prediction Center to tell them to prepare for solar events, which peak about every 12 years, Tom Bogdan, director of the center said. He said the next peak, called a solar maximum, was expected in 2013. "We're coming up to the next solar maximum, so we expect to see more of these storms coming from the sun over the next three to five years," Bogdan said. (via Cooper, ibid.) I've seen similar articles about solar flares in UK newspapers; it is very bad journalism. One of them starts and they seem to copy each other. Recently there was a pre WW2 TV up for auction in London and it was pronounced there were only "3 days" of transmissions then as Crystal Palace burnt down where the transmissions came from and TV didn't restart till after the war. True, there was a fire at Crystal Palace the same month(Nov 1936) as BBC TV started but TV then came from Alexandra Palace, and didn't move to Crystal Palace till 1956, not 3 days of TV then but 3 years before WW2. The story went all over the place and was picked up by some US papers as well and just copied (Hugh Hoover, Portugal, ibid.) Absolutely. The Ap maxed at 50. The Afr at 27. I've experienced Afr over 150 and it wasn't any of the severe events mentioned. But this will continue to happen every time there's a large earth-directed CME. (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, 15 mi NW of Philadelphia, ibid.) An aurora "visible as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin". Wow freaking wow! (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) BIGGEST SOLAR FLARE OF SOLAR CYCLE 24 THIS AM Biggest solar flare of solar cycle 24 happened on the 9th of August, it was an X6.9 big one, and it did cause the classic Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance and the Moss Dillenger short wave blackout that wiped out all short wave reception for some time in the areas of the Earth ... More solar flares may be erupting from active region 1263 in the next few hours before it turns around out of sight from us !!! [...] And now amigos, as always at the end of the show here is Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited's HF propagation update and forecast... The biggest solar flare of solar cycle 24 erupted from active region 1263, that still has a complex magnetic configuration capable of producing more class M and even class X flares. It is expected that the high speed solar particles ejected by the flare will be reaching the Earth around the 11th of August causing yet another geomagnetic storm. Be on the lookout for the very peculiar propagation events that may happen during the next two days, and do take advantage of the unsual propagation that may be happening (Arnie Coro - Radio Havana Cuba's Midweek DXers Unlimited http://www.rhc.cu/ing/news/dxera-unlimited/1979-dxers-unlimited-midweek-edition-for-tuesday-august-10-2011.html ) Also: [Active solar] Region 11263 produced the largest flare of cycle 24, a major X6.9 event at 08:05 UTC [Aug 9]. The CME [Coronal Mass Ejection] associated with the X6.9/2B flare was fast and wide. While the core CME won't impact Earth, there's a slight chance of a weak flank impact on August 11 or 12. Based on currently available LASCO imagery the CME developed into a full halo. The CME could impact Earth on August 11 and cause unsettled to active conditions with a chance of minor storm intervals. (from Jan Alvestad's Solar Activity Report http://www.solen.info/solar/ Aug 9) (via Alan Pennington, Aug 9, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) Biggest X-ray Flare yet, Sunspot Cycle 24 (X7 Aug 9 2011) At 0805 UTC, 9 August 2011, the Sun erupted with an X6.9 (X7) X-ray flare. This is the largest yet in Sunspot Cycle 24. This caused an R3-level radio blackout on the sunlit side of Earth, and, pushed the Earth into an S1-level solar radiation storm that triggered a polar cap absorption event (PCA). Propagation over the polar regions is suffering as a result. Here is a High Definition movie of the X7 flare: 73 de (NW7US / Tomas David Hood, Hamilton, Montana swl at qth.net via DXLD) :Product: Weekly Highlights and Forecasts :Issued: 2011 Aug 09 2323 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/weekly.html # # Weekly Highlights and Forecasts # HIGHLIGHTS OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 01 - 07 AUGUST 2011 Solar activity ranged from very low to high levels during the period. The period began with low activity on 31 July - 01 August, with C- class flares predominantly from Regions 1261 (N15, L=332, class/area Dai/380 on 04 August) and Region 1263 (N17, L=301, class/area Ekc/720 on 04 August). Activity increased to moderate levels on 02 August due to a long-duration M1/1n at 02/0619Z from Region 1261, with associated Type IV, Type II (estimated speed of 1067 km/s), and Tenflare (220 sfu) radio emissions. LASCO C3 imagery indicated a full halo coronal mass ejection with this flare. Activity increased to high levels on 03 August with three M-class flares. The largest of these was an M6/2b at 03/1348Z from Region 1261, with associated Type IV, Type II (estimated speed of 812 km/s). A CME was subsequently observed in STEREO-A Cor2 imagery at 03/1409Z. Solar activity remained at high levels on 04 August due to an M9/2b from Region 1261 at 04/0357Z, with associated Type IV, Type II (estimated speed of 750 km/s), and Tenflare (720 sfu). A CME was also associated with the M9 flare with an approximate speed of 2100 km/s in STEREO-A COR-2 imagery. Activity decreased to low levels on 05 - 07 August, with C-class flares predominantly from Regions 1261, 1263, and 1267 (S17, L=243, class/area Bxo/010 on 05 August). A long duration C1 flare was observed at 06/1807Z. Two CMEs were observed by SOHO/LASCO C2 at 06/1036Z and 06/1736Z, but the majority of the ejecta was directed to the west and not geoeffective. Late on 06 August, a recurrent positive polarity CH moved into a potentially geoeffective position. No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit during 31 July - 03 August. The 100 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit exceeded 1 pfu beginning at 04/0510Z, reaching maximum at 04/0740Z, and ending at 04/1110Z. The maximum 100 MeV proton flux was 1.8 pfu. The 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit exceeded 10 MeV beginning at 04/0635Z, reaching maximum of 96 pfu at 05/2150Z, and ending at 06/0515Z. The 10 MeV proton flux remained enhanced, but below threshold and trailing towards quiet background on 07 August. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at normal levels on 31 July. Fluxes increased from normal to moderate levels during 01 - 02 August. Flux values returned to moderate levels on 03 and 04 August. Normal to moderate levels were observed on 05 - 07 August. Geomagnetic activity was quiet to unsettled, with isolated active levels on 31 July due to a coronal hole high-speed stream (CH HSS). Quiet to unsettled levels were observed on 01 August as the CH HSS subsided. Activity remained quiet on 02 - 03 August. Predominantly quiet levels were observed on 04 August, before the first of three CME shocks was observed transiting ACE at 04/2105Z, followed by a 20 nT sudden impulse observed by Earth based magnetometers at 04/2155Z. A magnetopause crossing was also observed by the GOES 13 and 15 satellites. Quiet to unsettled levels were observed between 04/2100 - 05/1800Z. Two additional shock passages were seen by ACE at 05/1722Z and 05/1834Z, accompanied by a noticeable increase in solar wind density, velocity and magnetic field, which included Bz fluctuation to -20 nT. Activity increased to minor to severe storms during 05/2100 - 06/0600Z due to effects from the CME shock arrivals. Early on 06 August, activity steadily declined from active to quiet levels, before the polarity transitioned to a mostly positive Phi angle and recurrent CH HSS effects began. This triggered an isolated minor storm at high latitudes between 06/1200-1500Z. Otherwise, geomagnetic activity remained mostly quiet for the remainder of 06 August and throughout 07 August. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 10 AUGUST-05 SEPTEMBER 2011 Solar activity is likely to be at Moderate (R1 - Minor) during 10 August, with a chance for M-class flares from Region 1263. Activity is expected to decrease to very low to low levels during 11 - 17 August with the absence of mature spot groups on the disk. Activity is expected to increase to very low to low levels, with a chance for M- class flares from 18 August - 03 September from old regions; 1260 (N19, L=001), 1261 (N15, L=332), and 1263 (N17, L=301). Activity is expected to decrease to very low to low levels 04 - 05 September. However, there is a chance that new, rapidly emerging flux regions could increase activity to moderate or greater levels at any time during the outlook period. The greater than 10 MeV Proton flux levels at geosynchronous orbit are likely to remain above threshold (S1 - Minor) on 10 August, as an event that is currently in progress carries over early into the period. No proton events are expected at geosychronous after 10 August though the end of the period. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at moderate to high levels on 10 and 11 August. Normal to moderate levels are expected 12 - 15 August. Moderate to high levels are expected again 16 - 31 August. Normal to moderate levels are expected 01 - 03 September. The geomagnetic field is expected to be at quiet to unsettled levels, with a chance for active levels 10 - 11 August, due to a CH HSS. Activity is expected to decrease to predominantly quiet levels during 12 - 15 August. Activity is expected to increase to quiet to unsettled levels, with a chance for active levels 16 - 18 August and again 21 - 22 August due to two recurrent CH High Speed Streams. Activity is expected to decrease to quiet to unsettled levels on 23 August CH HSS effects subside. Quiet levels are expected 23 - 25 August, before increasing to quiet to unsettled levels, with a chance for active levels at high latitudes 26 - 28 August due to another CH HSS. Mostly quiet conditions are again forecast to return from 29 August until 03 September, before another CH HSS ends out the period (04 - 05 September) with unsettled and active conditions. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2011 Aug 09 2323 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 2011-08-09 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2011 Aug 10 95 10 3 2011 Aug 11 85 7 2 2011 Aug 12 85 5 2 2011 Aug 13 85 5 2 2011 Aug 14 85 5 2 2011 Aug 15 85 8 3 2011 Aug 16 90 12 4 2011 Aug 17 95 12 4 2011 Aug 18 98 10 3 2011 Aug 19 98 8 3 2011 Aug 20 98 5 2 2011 Aug 21 100 12 3 2011 Aug 22 105 8 3 2011 Aug 23 105 5 2 2011 Aug 24 105 5 2 2011 Aug 25 105 5 2 2011 Aug 26 105 15 4 2011 Aug 27 105 10 3 2011 Aug 28 105 8 3 2011 Aug 29 105 5 2 2011 Aug 30 105 5 2 2011 Aug 31 100 5 2 2011 Sep 01 100 5 2 2011 Sep 02 100 5 2 2011 Sep 03 95 8 3 2011 Sep 04 95 10 3 2011 Sep 05 95 10 3 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1577, DXLD) ###