DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-074, June 28, 2007 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 2007 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 NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1364: ** tentative Fri 0630 WRMI 9955** Fri 1030 KAIJ 5755 Fri 1100 WRMI 9955** Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 [irregular] Sat 2130 WRMI 9955 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1500 WRMI 7385 Mon 0300 WBCQ 9330-CLSB [reconfirmed June 25] Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Mon 0530 WRMI 9955** Mon 0930 WRMI 9955** Tue 1030 WRMI 9955** Wed 0730 WRMI 9955** WORLD OF RADIO, CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL SCHEDULE: 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 For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL] http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** ALASKA. 7355, KNLS, 0818-0830, June 26, English. ID and contact info at tune-in. Covers of pop standards and DX segment-Radio propagation for Beginners. Poor (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, MLB-1, 200' Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Probably by Carl Mann --- I assume they are re-running over and over his segments recorded long ago? (gh, DXLD) ** ALBANIA. Dear Radio Tirana Listeners, We are pleased to notify the first ever email address of Radio Tirana English Section, as follows: radiotirana-english @ hotmail.com You are kindly encouraged to make your comments, remarks and questions about Albania and everything Albanian via email. Thank You and all the best from sunny hot Tirana, (Drita Cico, ARTV-Head of Monitoring Center, RADIO TIRANA, June 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. Fwd: saludos desde la emisora más austral del mundo Hola Glenn, Acabo de recibir un mail desde la Radio Arcángel San Gabriel donde me señala que estarán fuera del aire por dos semanas, ya que fuertes vientos en la Base Antártica Esperanza le han provocado problemas a su antena transmisora.- Saludos, Luis Valderas ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: miguel tolaba lra36esperanza @ yahoo.com.ar Date: 26-Jun-2007 14:38 Subject: saludos desde la emisora mas austral del mundo Estimado Luis, queremos contarte que desde el 20 de junio hasta ayer lunes tuvimos un problema de antena por los vientos fuertes que hubo en la zona, por lo que no vamos a estar en el aire por 2 semanas aproximadamente. Y por favor tenenos paciencia por la encuesta que en estos dias trataremos de organizarla, muchas gracias. Desde aquí del lugar mas austral del mundo te enviamos un abrazo, Federico, Rosalia, Silvina y Natalia -- ..- -.-. .... --- ... / --... ...-- (via Luis Valderas, CANAL 2 TV SAN ANTONIO, Calle Patria 1951, San Antonio, Código Postal 2662683, CHILE, June 26 DX LISTENING DIGEST) Says LRA36 (15476) will be off the air for two weeks, due to high winds at the base which have caused some problems with the antenna. Winter of course, has now started officially (gh, DXLD) ** ARMENIA [and non]. GOVERNMENT MOVES TO END RFE/RL BROADCASTS IN ARMENIA --- By Ruzanna Khachatrian and Karine Kalantarian http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniareport/report/en/2007/06/A02E3B4D-03F3-4B15-840A-0C865371B5C0.ASP The National Assembly is due debate on Thursday government bills that could end the Armenian-language broadcasts of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a key source of information for a considerable part of Armenia's population. The two bills sent to the parliament late on Tuesday were swiftly condemned by local media rights groups and top opposition leaders as an attempt to muzzle what they regard as the only electronic media outlet not controlled by the administration of President Robert Kocharian. One of the proposed legal amendments would ban the Armenian Public Television and Radio (HHHR) from retransmitting programs of foreign broadcasters. RFE/RL's Armenian Service primarily relies on the HHHR's radio frequencies to air its daily news programs across Armenia. Under the other amendment, the private radio stations, which air some of those programs, would have to pay hefty fees to the state budget. Government officials have yet to explain the rationale for the proposed changes which seem to have taken leaders of the parliament's pro-government majority by surprise. They on Wednesday praised RFE/RL's activities in Armenia but would not specify if they will urge fellow lawmakers to reject the government initiative. "I will express my view once the discussion begins," said parliament speaker Tigran Torosian. "I think we should stay calm and wait until the government rapporteur presents the bill and his arguments in its favor." The opposition minority in the parliament was quick to condemn the bills, with Raffi Hovannisian, leader of the Zharangutyun (Heritage) party, saying that he fears that they are a prelude to ending RFE/RL broadcasts in Armenia. "The prime minister and the government must be mindful of the goals and consequences of their legislative initiatives," said Hovannisian. "Zharangutyun will vote against them. We consider this a blow to the interests of the Republic of Armenia and the rights of our citizens." The condemnation was echoed by virtually all other major opposition groups not represented in the recently elected legislature. "Radio Liberty is the only free broadcaster operating in Armenia," said Vazgen Manukian of the National Democratic Union. "Shutting it down would mean shutting down Armenia. This would be the greatest disgrace of recent years." "Why are they doing this? Because they are afraid of Radio Liberty," said Aram Sarkisian, another prominent oppositionist. "Radio Liberty is the only broadcaster which is independent and not controlled by the authorities." "During all these years our public received objective information only from Radio Liberty's Armenian service," agreed Grigor Harutiunian of the People's Party of Armenia. "In the run-up to the presidential elections they are moving to strip the public of this sole source of objective information." RFE/RL had for decades served as one of the few sources of uncensored information for the peoples of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites. The collapse of Communism enabled the U.S.-funded corporation to legally operate inside the former Communist bloc and reach retransmission agreements with local broadcasters. RFE/RL's Armenian service was likewise able to openly operate in Armenia and lease state radio frequencies until being controversially forced off the air in late 1994 by then President Levon Ter-Petrosian. The move forced the service to rely only on the far less accessible shortwave broadcasts from Europe. Kocharian resumed the retransmission of its programs by state radio shortly after he came to power in 1998. But in recent years, he has repeatedly expressed his displeasure with RFE/RL's coverage of elections and other political developments in Armenia which he says casts his administration only in a negative light. Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, who intends to succeed Kocharian in next year's presidential election, has likewise criticized RFE/RL's news reporting and coverage of last month's parliamentary elections in particular. During the election campaign he specifically faulted the Prague-headquartered broadcaster for quoting participants of rallies held by his Republican Party as saying that they were forced to attend the gatherings by government officials. By contrast, RFE/RL's election coverage has always been praised not only by opposition politicians but also Western election observers. The latter have been far more critical of the Armenian TV and radio stations, virtually all of them loyal to the country's leadership. Armenia's leading media associations take a similar view. Their representatives expressed serious concern at the government bills, saying that their main target is RFE/RL. "They should have officially called it a bill on discontinuing retransmission of the Radio Liberty programs," said Mesrop Harutiunian of the Yerevan Press Club. "I believe that both bills are directed against Radio Liberty," agreed David Sandukhchian, a lawyer at the media support group Internews Armenia. "Their purpose is to at least complicate its work." (via Alokesh Gupta, India, dxldyg via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. More about Radio Universitaria The station announces the following schedule on SW: 1000-1300 UT; 2200-0200 UT; the sign-off is variable Until June 30 relays the FM Station 97.9 MHz. The musical format is Latin American Pop Music. Require letters and e-mails: radiouap @ hotmail.com Postal Address: Radio y Television Universitaria Campus Universitario Av. Las Palmas Cobija, Pando Bolivia Tel 3-842-2141 From July 1, they announce a different shortwave format (Nicolas Eramo, Argentina, June 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I guess in such a type of transmissions, like 60m, I'm not able to get even the 2nd or 3rd skip of that signal. So, probably some fellas who are further than me from Bolivia are luckier on this, but not so lucky on other receiving situations! 73s (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, June 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4732, presumed R. Universitaria, 0143-0155, June 26, Spanish. Music and talk noted between short breaks in RTTY QRM. Poor (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, MLB-1, 200' Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Pronunciation/accentuation of ``Itatiaia`` --- see LANGUAGE LESSONS ** BRAZIL. Brazilian Célio Romais's DX program http://romais.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-06-25T18_55_24-07_00 includes a reference to R. CBN Anhangüera's poor transmitter maintenance and its recent signal on 11770 instead of nominal 11830. If they're right, then my guess about R. Guaíba is wrong - but I'd swear R.CBN was normal on 11830v when I stumbled into the highly distorted B station on 11770, thence my remark. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Except I can`t find the remark referred to. But cf. 7-071: ``A CBN/Anhanguera, em 25 m, é para atuar na QRG de 11830 kHz, porém seu TX está transmitindo em mais ou menos 11770 kHz, harmônico [sic], cujo áudio se apresenta forte, mas saturado. A emissora sempre se descuidou da manutenção de seu transmissor de 25m 11830 kHz e volta e meia é sintonizada fora de sua QRG original. Diferente de sua coirmã a Rádio Brasil Central (Luiz Chaine Neto, Limeira sp, June 15, radioescutas yg via DXLD)`` (gh) ** BRAZIL. Prezados, Apesar de algumas incongruências no texto, vale a notícia de que teremos testes de DRM em onda média promovidos pela Radiobrás (Lucio Haeser, Brasília, June 27, radioescutas yg via DXLD) http://www.agenciabrasil.gov.br/noticias/2007/06/26/materia.2007-06-26.819940759\7/view Sistema regional de rádio digital começa a ser testado em julho Bárbara Lobato, Da Agência Brasil Brasília - Teste para mudança da freqüência de rádio de analógico para digital deve ser feito com exclusividade na Universidade de Brasília (UnB) no mês de julho. Hoje (26) professores da UnB, técnicos da empresa de comunicação da Radiobrás e do Ministério das Comunicações reuniram-se para debater sobre o teste de transmissão da freqüência AM no rádio. O sistema escolhido para a realização dos testes na Radiobrás foi o DRM - Digital Radio Mondiale - que possui transmissão para radiofusão em ondas médias e curtas. Ou seja, freqüencias abaixo de 30 megahertz (MHz). Segundo a chefe do departamento de rádio da Radiobrás, Sofia Hammoe, o teste pretende observar as vantagens e desvantagens do DRM para que se possa estabelecer uma concorrência mais justa entre outros sistemas. "A quantidade de rádios em funcionamento vai depender muito do padrão escolhido para convergência tecnológica do rádio. Mas é preciso ter em mente que as rádios comunitárias, por exemplo, também precisam ter espaço", disse. Para ela, existem alguns padrões tecnológicos que dão preferência aos setores comerciais. "É preciso democratizar o sistema, pois há, atualmente, uma emissora de rádio que ocupa um espaço onde poderia ter quatro". Na avaliação do professor de telecomunicações da UnB, Lúcio Martins, há dois sistemas que podem ser implantados aqui no Brasil: o DRM e o Iboc (In Band on Chanel), também conhecido como HD Rádio. "Ainda estamos em discussão para saber qual será o melhor modelo para utilizar no rádio, da mesma maneira que foi feito com o da TV [quando o Brasil optou pelo padrão japonês para transmissão dos programas]". De acordo com ele, muitas emissoras de rádio já optaram pelo sistema Iboc, pois ele já está disponível há mais tempo no mercado, inclusive no uso dos aparelhos de som. Há cerca de uma semana, o ministro das Comunicações Hélio Costa informou que pretende definir o padrão para a transmissão de rádio digital até setembo de 2008. Alguns empresários radiofusores já têm preferência pelo padrão Iboc, como a Associação Brasileira de Emissoras de Rádio e Televisão (Abert). "Tenho conhecimento de pelo menos umas 15 emissoras comerciais que, filiadas à Abert que já fazem uso do padrão Iboc sem ter o conhecimento de outros padrões", disse o professor da UnB. "Ninguém [empresas de radiofusão] quis optar por testes com o outro sistema. E nós achamos importante para poder estabelecer um comparativo entre os dois sistemas". A freqüência de ondas médias é uma radiofusão para coberturas regionais e locais. Já a freqüência de ondas curtas é mais abrangente, podendo chegar até transmissões no exterior (via Haeser, ibid.) ** CANADA. CBC is confused, but you should not be when referring to the summer Radio One program lineup at http://www.cbc.ca/radiosummer/index.html?copy-shows Wherever it says ``11:30 pm``, it means ``11:30 am``, i.e. 1431/1531/1631/1731/1831 UT (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. Congratulations to Des Davey [Te Kuiti, NZ, FRG 7000 & 50m wire, FRG 100 & 36m Horizontal “L”] for picking up CHU CANADA on 7335 under R Vaticana on 14/5 at 0937 UT. This time station is becoming increasingly difficult to hear due to QRM from the Vatican. My thanks to all the contributors for this month (Ken Baird, June NZ DX Times via DXLD) Geez, it`s not Vatican at that hour but WHRI (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. RHC, 11760 in Spanish 0328 with "Voces de la Revolución" on 27 June, a two minute or so blurb containing recorded quotes from revolutionaries. Fidel and Raul seemingly cranked up the power tonight, along with Rebelde on 5025 but oddly enough, no MW outlets heard. República jamming low level as usual (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Voces de la Revolución also occupies most of the 1400 semihour every day, an excellent time to avoid RHC. Usually old rants by Fidel (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. LA CRISIS DE LOS RADIOS (sic) 2007-6-15 Por Julio Aleaga Pesant, Periodista independiente cubano, colaborador de Cuba Nuestra La Habana, Domingo 10 de junio de 2007. Si alguien pensó por un segundo que los compromisos contraídos por el gobierno cubano con el de España, sobre un supuesto diálogo, suavizarían la política interna cubana. La negación de entrada de receptores de onda corta puestos en premio por Radio Nederland Wereldomroep (RNW), es el botón de muestra de que estaban equivocados. La noticia, hecha publica el pasado 5 de junio por el Director General de RNW, Jan Hoek, indica que el miércoles 30 de mayo, el embajador de La Habana en Ámsterdam Sr. Oscar de los Reyes comunicó a RNW, que lamentablemente su gobierno no respaldaba la entrega de esos receptores, por que: “no puede ser partidario de una acción... que... se asemeja a los propósitos agresivos del gobierno estadounidense.” En enero del 2007, RNW organizó junto con colegas canadienses, un concurso para escribir historias sobre los más variados aspectos culturales de Cuba. El premio sería 500 receptores de radio, a entregar, entre los autores más talentosos. En los últimos meses, la emisora recibió 945 cartas. Al conocerse la noticia entre demócratas e intelectuales, existió consenso y poca sorpresa sobre la forma de actuar de la “dictadura del proletariado”. La periodista Ana Leonor Díaz Chamizo, señaló: “Esa actitud, se corresponde con la política de aislamiento del gobierno militar, que no solo es contra Radio Martí como se puede apreciar. RNW es muy conocida en el mundo por su seriedad y objetividad, al lado de la BBC. Además en el mercado cubano los radios receptores no tienen capacidad de recibir por onda corta. El escritor y periodista Juan Gonzáles Febles señaló: No es raro que la dictadura se preocupe por que los ciudadanos tengan un objeto considerado inocente en cualquier lugar del mundo. Esto constituye una señal más para la UE y..., sobre con quien están tratando. El concurso va dirigido al mundo entero. Solo el gobierno cubano niega la posibilidad de que los ciudadanos tengan un radio. La Directora del Centro de Estudios y Formación de la Mujer (CEFM), en la Ciudad de La Habana Licenciada Miriam Herrera, refiriéndose al hecho señaló: “Impidiendo la entrada de esos radios, se reafirma la censura que sobre la cultura desarrolla el gobierno militar cubano. Consultado sobre la negativa gubernamental, el profesor y periodista Cosano Alen, Director de la Agencia Sindical Press, expresó: “Es parte de la política de control de la información y no es motivo de asombro para los cubanos; además de ser una flagrante contradicción con las provisiones aduaneras que levantaron la prohibición, de entrada de equipos electrónicos, partes y piezas. De esto debiera tomar nota la comunidad europea y pedirle al gobierno que levante esas restricciones de cara a su próxima reunión. El sociólogo Héctor Palacios, conversando sobre el tema dijo: “El (actual) gobierno cubano siempre trata de mantener al pueblo aislado. Así como no deja entrar radios, tampoco deja entrar las señales televisión Internacional; porque mientras más desamparado se encuentre el pueblo de Cuba, mas regocijado estarán los dirigentes comunistas, ya que eso crea un sentido de obediencia ciega. Lo deja claro y explicito la ultima “mesita redonda” de Fidel Castro: Esto no va a cambiar...” El ejecutor de la violación, el Embajador Oscar De los Reyes, es miembro prominente del órgano comunista. Tiene una larga hoja de servicio, en defensa del gobierno militar. Fue nombrado en los Países Bajos en mayo de 2006, cuando fungía como funcionario de la Dirección Europa del MINREX. La decisión del gobierno cubano, de impedir la entrada al país de los radio receptores puesto a disposición de los oyentes por Radio Nederland Wereldomroep (RNW) pone nuevamente en evidencia crítica, la propuesta política del actual gobierno español, despeja dudas sobre la capacidad de apertura del gobierno militar cubano y es un “bonito” gesto del General Castro, de cara a la próxima reunión de la Unión Europea (via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** ECUADOR. HCJB: DRM tests; Pifo to go in autumn --- Enclosed an article about the DRM activities of HCJB, sent out to listeners in Germany. Summary: Some years ago Harris contacted HCJB if they are interested in participating in the development of DRM, because their HC-500 and HC-100 transmitter designs are highly regarded. The current DRM transmissions are run at 4 kW, using old Siemens transmitters (PEP rated as 30 kW by TDP) HCJB had bought from the Swiss military years ago for SSB transmissions. These transmitters were already shut down; they first had to be connected to the antenna system again. Harris supplied their Linux-based DRM-CSB100 content server, the Siemens transmitters have a sufficient linearity for being used without modifications. It has turned out that the most reliable mode for transmissions to Europe is A, actually designed for groundwave coverage on MW/LW, but apparently noise is much more an issue here than multipath propagation. The steerable antenna is used for these transmissions. The (remaining) antennas at Pifo will be dismantled in autumn. Period. "Let's hope that ways and funds can be found to build a new antenna for transmissions to Europe." (Refers to the hinted new site in Ecuador I guess?) The pictures sent out with this article are in the Yahoo group (under "Miscellaneous"). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: -----Original Message----- HCJB und DRM ============= Vor einigen Jahren kam die Firma Harris-Radio wegen des sehr guten Rufs der HCJB-Ingenieure (Konstrukteure des HC-100 und des HC-500- Senders) auf HCJB zu, ob HCJB Interesse daran hätte, mit Harris zu kooperieren und am DRM-Standard mit zuentwickeln. So wurde HCJB unabhängiges Mitglied des DRM-Konsortiums. HC100-Transmitter Zur DRM-Anlage bei Radio HCJB in Pifo: Als Contentserver dient eine Linux-Maschine ( auf dem Bild unten). _Harris Content-Server auf Linux-Basis_ Dort ist die Harris Content-Server-Software, DRM-CSB100 installiert, die sämtliche DRM-Parametereinstellungen übernimmt. Als zuverlässigster Modus stellte sich der Mode-A (eigentlich für Mittel- und Langwelle gedacht) mit einer QAM-16-Auflösung heraus. Denn interessanterweise spielt bei der Übertragung nach Europa das Rauschen eine wesentlich größere Rolle, als die Störungen durch Mehrfach-Signalwege. Darum funktioniert der Mode-A am zuverlässigsten. Die Software beherrscht leider kein Mode-B in der Kombinbation mit einer 16-QAM, sonst könnte die Audioqualität noch einmal von den "17 kBit/s SBR" auf "17 kBit/s Parametric Stereo" angehoben werden. Die 64-QAM Übertragung funktioniert leider nicht zuverlässig von Ecuador nach Europa, sonst könnte die Datenrate und damit die Audioqualität noch einmal drastisch steigen. Die Übertragung der Daten vom Contentserver zu den beiden DRM-Sendern (ein weiterer steht noch als Reservemaschine zur Verfügung), alte Siemens 4KW-SSB-Transmitter, geschieht über ein Glasfaserkabel. Diese Transmitter stammen übrigens aus Schweizer Armeebeständen und wurden dort bereits vor vielen Jahren ausgemustert. _Die beiden Siemens-DRM-Transmitter_ Als DRM-Sender kommen sie so auf ihre alten Tage noch einmal richtig zu Ehren. Sie besitzen zwar einen schlechten Wirkungsgrad, arbeiten allerdings so linerar, das man sie ohne Modifikationen für DRM einsetzen kann. Vor ihrer jetzigen Aufgabe standen sie in Pifo in letzter Zeit ohne Funktion herum und mussten für die DRM-Transmissionen erst wieder mit dem Antennenfeld verbunden werden, da ihre Antennen bereits abgebaut waren. _DRM-Modulator_ Gesendet wird über die einstellbare Richtantenne, dem sogenannten "Schaumschläger", der wie zwei Küchengeräte unter einer Drahtschüssel aussieht. Diese beiden Schaumschläger, auf einem fahrbaren Gestell montiert um die Senderichtung einstellen zu können, sind die Dipole der Antenne. Das kuppelförmige Drahtgeflecht stellt wie bei einem Parabolspiegel den Reflektor dar. Ein 2m hoher Vorhang vor den Dipolen sorgt noch einmal für eine zusätzliche Reflektion. Die Antenne hat einen sehr schmalen Abstrahlwinkel und kann zielgenau auf das Empfangsgebiet fokussiert werden. _Steuerbare Richtantenne für Europa_ Mit dieser Kombination aus den alten Siemens-Transmittern mit nur 4000 Watt und der steuerbaren Richtantenne ist es möglich, sehr gute Empfangsqualitäten in Europa per DRM zu erreichen, wie die zahlreichen positiven Empfangsberichte aus Deutschland, Österreich, der Schweiz und anderen europäischen Ländern zeigen. Mit dem Abbau der Antennen im Herbst (das Antennenfeld in Pifo liegt genau in der Einflugschneise des sich im Bau befindlichen neuen Flughafens Quito), werden diese DRM-Sendungen aus Pifo aber leider der Vergangenheit angehören. Es bleibt zu hoffen, dass sich Mittel (vor allem finanzielle) und Wege finden werden, eine neue Antenne für Europa aufbauen zu können um die Sendungen nach Europa und damit auch die DRM-Tests weiter fortzusetzen. Ich hoffe, diese Rundmail hat einen kleinen Einblick in die DRM- Technik von Radio HCJB gegeben, danke für das Interesse an DRM und hoffe, dass sich viele Hörer weiterhin fleißig an den DRM-Tests beteiligen. Lassen Sie uns wissen, mit welchem DRM-Empfänger Sie uns hören, wie die DRM-Empfangsqualität ist und was Sie zum Thema DRM denken. Schreiben Sie an: Radio HCJB - "Die Stimme der Anden" Casilla 17-17-691 Quito, Ecuador oder per Email: mschaa [at] hcjb.org.ec Viele Grüße aus Quito, Ecuador, Marco Schaa Linkliste: ======= Radio HCJB http://www.hcjb.de http://www.hcjb.org DRMRX-Forum http://www.drmrx.org/forum/ Direkter Link zum HCJB-DRM-Thread im Forum http://www.drmrx.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1717 Informationen zu DRM (Wikipedia) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Radio_Mondiale Dream-Software (Homepage) http://drm.sourceforge.net/ Software Designed Radio "g8jcfsdr" http://www.g8jcf.dyndns.org/ DRM-Software vom Fraunhofer Institut http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/bf/db/produkte/ Geist Elektronik (Elektor DRM-Empfänger) http://www.geist-electronic.de/html/03-2004-bausatz-details_04.html Update für DRM-Empfänger http://www.geist-electronic.de/html/drm2006bausatz-details_06.html Harris DRM-Broadcast Equipment http://www.broadcast.harris.com/product_portfolio/product_details.asp?sku=WWWDRM Sat-Technik Schneider (Dream-Binaries und DRM-Technik http://www.sat-schneider.de/DRM/DRM.htm Bastelseite mit Bauanleitungen für DRM-Festfrequenzempfängern http://www.b-kainka.de/bastel96.htm (via Kai Ludwig, dxldyg via DXLD) ** EL SALVADOR. Re: ``another signal was found about 72.725 MHz but was much weaker and I only hear music during it's brief appearance (Randy KW4RZ Fort Walton Beach, FL EM60qk, WTFDA via DXLD)`` Hi: Nice catch Randy ¡¡. Here is the other station ID. "Super Media Radio, La zona caliente" (72.5 MHz). I haven't any other info about this station, only plays "tropical music" and spanish "baladas". "Saludos" from San Salvador (Humberto Molina, May 27, ibid.) Thanks Humberto. I have not heard that station yet. Still wondering about the one that zeroed in closer to 72.225. Another El Salvador opening brought in 72.9 Radio Selectos. This time I caught the ID with the frequency announced, in the second audio. They played many classic EE hits from the 70's and 80's. ABBA "Waterloo" is in the first clip. (Randy KW4RZ Fort Walton Beach, FL EM60qk, ibid.) What kind of music was on 72.225 (or 72.725??), was instrumental only?? (Humberto Molina, ibid.) My mistake, the frequency was 72.725. It was pop type music in both English and Spanish (Randy KW4RZ Fort Walton Beach, FL EM60qk, ibid.) Well, maybe a spurious or mix signal. These stations have a bad reputation about interfering local 2 m ham repeaters, also for drifting (Humberto Molina, San Salvador, June 25, ibid.) ** FINLAND. New analog license for Pori site http://www.mintc.fi/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=lvm/cm/pub/showdoc.p?docid=1856&menuid=4 Digita's daughter company Digi Waves has received a license for analog broadcasting on MW and SW for the period 1.7.2007-30.6.2010. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, June 27, HCDX via DXLD) Viz.: AM-ääniradiotoimintalupa Digi Waves Oy:lle 21.6.2007 Valtioneuvosto myönsi 21. kesäkuuta Digi Waves Oy:lle toimiluvan AM- ääniradiotoimintaan. Toimilupa oikeuttaa radiotoiminnan harjoittamiseen analogisessa radioverkossa lyhyt- ja keskiaaltotaajuuksilla, jotka on osoitettu Poriin. Lähetteen on käytettävä amplitudimodulaatiota. Toimilupakausi on 1.7.2007-30.6.2010. Digi Waves on helmikuussa 2007 toimintansa aloittanut Digita Oy:n tytäryhtiö (via DXLD) The Finnish government has granted (June 21) a broadcasting licence for transmissions on short and medium wave from Pori, Finland. The recipient is Digi Waves Oy (Ltd), a subsidiary of Digita, Finland, Digita corporate information says. The government office for broadcast licences had announced the licence for application in May. Pori was built in the mid 80s by YLE. Since YLE discontinued its broadcasts from Pori, no one had been a licence holder for any possible services from that station. YLE had no licence requirement as its operations are governed by law. The granting of a licence as such does not, repeat not, mean that some broadcasts would start immediately, or even later, or at all. It only makes it possible for the licence holder (Digi Waves) to solicit for customers, and creates a legal basis for any broadcasts the licence holder could be able acquire. The departure of YLE had not changed the ownership of the station (Digita), but broadcasts (if any) from the base needed a new licence framework. ++++++++++++ This was sent by Juhani Niinisto. I am NOT associated with the broadcasting industry in Finland. I received this public info today, and just thought it may interest someone (Niinisto, June 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So now we finally know why the plan to use Pori for Polskie Radio failed in spring and Nauen had to be throwed in instead. Probably the RNW relays on 963 were possible as special broadcasts without such a licence, but no regular service. The licence now issued is valid from July 1 until June 30 2010: http://www.mintc.fi/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=lvm/cm/pub/showdoc.p?docid=2121&channelitemid=16233&channeltypeid=22&channelid=58 And it is almost needless to say that Digi Wave Oy has its seat at the Digita headquarters: http://www.020300200.com/index.cgi?webid=6749478&lang=fi&state=basic&cat=1 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [and non]. Re 7-073: Hello, I have to admit that I did not further go into the matter of ethnic Germans in Hungary, beyond the circumstance that they were not removed entirely. And I'm aware of only one mention in GDR publications: A book by a Budapest correspondent of East German newspapers, published in 1963, portrays one of them. He lives in a village near Budapest which is the home of many Germans already for generations, speaks German as good as Hungarian and so on. It might be also of interest when domestic broadcasts in German started: This was on New Year's Eve 1956, cf. http://www.pecsiradio.hu/radio_d.htm (where it can be noted as well that they have one of the consoles widely seen on photos of Soviet studios, so this appears to be a Hungarian product, like the Mechlabor tape recorders ubiquitous in USSR studios) And at a glance: Domestic broadcasts in German in Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Croatia ... http://www.funkforum.net/index.php?page=FREQUENZEN Bucuresti: German launched in 1948, limited airtime and censorship while Ceausescu was in force, but was able to always stay on air. Targu Mures: Station founded in March 1958, apparently from the beginning broadcasting in German, too. Together with all other local stations in Romania ordered to stop broadcasting on January 12 1985 at 12:45. Went again on air on December 22 1989. Timisoara: First broadcast in German in 1956. Like the other regional stations ordered off air in 1985, broadcasts again started without delay on December 22 1989. Arad, Resita and Carei all went on air after 1995. Radio Subotica (Serbia, Vojvodina province): Weekly broadcasts launched in 1998. Osijek (Croatia): First German broadcast in 2003. Visas: This story was in the GDR mainly about exit visas as well. For trips into western countries they were issued quite restrictively, with an important exception being pensioners. Teachers etc. had a hard time when they tried to explain this. After the resignation of Erich Honecker it apparently took the officials some days to simply realize how ridiculous and impossible to keep this situation was, but finally on November 9 1989 they decided that "from now on no special prerequisits are necessary for trips to capitalist countries anymore, the permits will be issued at short notice". One of them (Günter Schabowski, if the story is known to this extent) did not realize that the announcement of this had been emargoed until 8 AM the next morning to allow for the necessary orders being given to all border posts etc. So he read it out on a press conference (broadcast live on GDR TV), answered an enquiry from which time on this will be with some stammering "well, according to my informations this is effective immediately, without delay". The result was great TV footage of "the downfall of the Berlin wall", but a bloodbath could have been the result of Schabowski's stupidity as well. So it is not quite true to praise him as the man who teared down this wall, since otherwise ordinary East Germans would have been seen in West Berlin just a few hours later, around noon on Nov 10, without the risk of some border posts running amuck (remember, they were supposed to shoot at defectors). This is of course entirely off-topic here, but perhaps such details are of interest nevertheless (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) There was German broadcasting for ethnic Germans in the USSR, too. The most famous, of course, was a German broadcast on the First Programm of Kazakhstan Radio. Supposedly, it started in 1957 so it celebrates a golden anniversary this year if its still on the air. Back in the mid 80s the broadcast was heard very well in Moscow on 11950 or whatever was the SW frequency of Kazakhstan Radio back then. The German Dept. in Alma-Ata had lots of mail from Germany and was the best QSLer at Kazakhstan Radio. According to the Russian DX sources, Hansjörg Biener is working on an article for Radiokurier / Weltweit Hören magazine. Best wishes, (Sergei Sosedkin, IL, ibid.) ** GREECE. Apodimos and Glenn: I listened to another delightful hour of Greek music of the '60s and 70's on Greek In Style with Angeliki Timms doing the introductions in Greek and English. 7475 and 9420 were received here with excellent reception at 2305-0005 UTC Sunday-Monday. Later at 0200-0300 UTC Monday, there was an interview with a Greek- American here in the States, but it was all in Greek (John Babbis, Silver Spring MD, June 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HUNGARY. A reminder that Radio Budapest will be closing on Saturday 30th June so there are at most only 3 days left to hear them on shortwave. The English schedule for the final couple of days is: 1900-1930 3975 6025 Eu 2100-2130 6025 9525 EuAf 0100-0130 6040 Am 0230-0300 6195 Am On Saturdays Radio Budapest usually carries the "Insight Central Europe" programme produced by Radio Prague rather than its own output, so its likely that Friday 29th will be the final day of actual programming from the station (Dave Kenny, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Goodbye 7950 kHz! What will I be able to log during even poor conditions now :-( (Tim Bucknall, England, harmonics yg via DXLD) i.e., 2 x 3975 (gh) ** INDONESIA. 9680, RRI Jakarta, 1008-1028 June 27 (Wed.), KGRE program #5603; songs by ABBA, Westlife and Aussie singer Guy Sebastian; Kevin interviews actor Tora Sudiro, who is on the popular Trans TV comedy show "Extravaganza"; fair. Heard VOI strong on 9524.97 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. Listening to my usual selexion of webcasting stations this Tuesday, June 26, I did not find a single one of them missing or observing the `day of silence`. No doubt the looming July 15 DMCA deadline is a very real threat to many stations, but it seems that I don`t listen to most of the small private webcasters, anyway. And many of the stations I do listen to are outside the US. However, one very big webcaster, which allegedly has a greater audience by that than on the air in the nation`s second largest market, KCRW, produced a special program about the situation, which was web- and broad-cast over and over on that day, and is still available, well worth hearing: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/ot/ot070626d-day_for_webcasters/media_player_archives?action=listen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [and non]. Re 7-072: English-language Press TV from Tehran is scheduled to start its live transmissions July 2, 2007. That's according to their current promo on mms://217.218.67.244/presslive Many news reports are already available for watching at http://www.presstv.ir/reports.aspx?sectionid=3510301 BTW, Press TV's London correspondent, Amanda Burt, used to work for Russia Today TV in Moscow from RTTV's very inception. She was hosting news programs there. Amanda left Russia just a few months ago. On its site, RTTV disclosed that "sadly" she returned to UK to work on "another TV project." Here's her picture from Russian TV news report about RTTV's first transmission (December 2005): http://www.1tv.ru/owa/win/ort6_videopage.img_iframe?sender=news&p_topic_id=83988&p_sdk_ic=1&p_img_num=3 And here's her older pic from a website of "UK's number one modeling and promotional agency": http://www.right-girls.co.uk/gallery/gallery%20-%20london%20and%20south/pages/London%20Surrey%20-%20Amanda%20Burt.htm Hard to believe but today she veils her head on Press TV. --- Watch her report at mms://217.218.67.244/presstv/070624/18-14%20Amanda-London.wmv Somehow, I doubt that she converted to Islam, though. Another Press TV correspondent, Svetlana Korkina, used to work for a private English-language daily The Moscow Times. Now she reports news from Moscow while wearing a head veil in a traditional Russian peasant style. Interesting to see Press TV's mike next to that of VoA TV at 1:05 at: mms://217.218.67.244/presstv/070623/OUTPUT_21-09%20Nasir-Islamabad.wmv (Sergei Sosedkin, IL, June 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) In addition to Amanda Burt and Svetlana Korkina, another interesting presenter signed up by Press TV is Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist who converted to Islam after being captured by the Taleban in 2001. She used to work for Al-Jazeera and more recently the UK- based Islam Channel. She is a controversial figure, having stood in UK elections as a candidate for the anti-capitalist Respect Party. Ridley's entry in wikipedia is regularly vandalized. Despite her conversion, she continues to use the name Yvonne (Chris Greenway, England, June 27, ibid.) ** ISRAEL. Kol Israel, 11590 at 0335 on 27 June with news [in English]. Very clear and strong signal. Announcer mentioned that channels 1-33 [of what?] are going digital; more details on http://www.iba.org.il The site is mostly in Hebrew. French at 0345 (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. La emisora Galei Zahal sigue cambiando de frecuencia. Ayer 27 de junio se la pudo escuchar con buena señal por la frecuencia de 15790 en diferentes horarios; hoy 28 de junio a las 0610 se la encontró en 15788 y a las 1210 en un chequeo posterior se la encontró en su habitual frecuencia de 15785. Veremos pues en el transcurso del día si sigue manteniendo esta frecuencia o por el contrario sigue cambiando; se desconoce los motivos (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, June 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Around 1300 I could not hear it altho IBA Hebrew was fairly audible on 15760 (gh, DXLD) ** ITALY. BYE BYE ONDE CORTE DI RAI INTERNATIONAL Ciao a tutti, la notizia circolava da mesi --- ma adesso sembra essere arrivata, nella nuova convenzione tra Presidenza del Consiglio e Rai International non ci sono piu' le trasmissioni in onde corte. Leggendo attentamente le agenzie si scopre infatti che nella convenzione, che verra' presentata ufficialmente nei prossimi giorni si parla della diffusione di un nuovo canale di news, la visibilità del segnale Rai International in Italia e in Europa e la prospettiva di un canale sportivo. Delle onde corte si parla solo quando si analizzano le risorse finanziare, ecco che cosa ha dichiarato il sottosegretario Levi all'agenzia AdnKronos: Per le trasmissioni all'estero, la Rai ha infatti "finora percepito 38 milioni di euro": 20 per la ex convezione con Rai International e 18 per le trasmissioni Rai in onde corte dedicate ai Paesi dell'est europeo, che si e' deciso di abolire perche' erano ormai un retaggio anacronistico dei tempi della 'guerra fredda'. "Abbiamo in sostanza riversato i finanziamenti fin qui dedicati alle onde corte sulla nuova convenzione con Rai International, applicando un piccolo taglio di 3 milioni di euro", ha sottolineato Levi Insomma le onde corte sono state abolite perche' troppo antiche, altri particolari ancora non sono stati diffusi e spero di recuperarli presto ma tutti le notizie che ho trovato mettono in chiaro lo stesso punto, la convenzione "onde corte" e' stata abolita per recuperare risorse finanziare per nuovi canali tv via satellite. Qui: http://quomedia.diesis.it/news/4383/rai-international-vicina-alla-nuova-convenzione c'e' un articolo di approfondimento su questo tema. (Andrea Borgnino IW0HK http://www.mediasuk.org/iw0hk June 27, shortwave yg via DXLD) SW broadcasts, especially to Eastern Europe, to be abolished as a relic of the cold war (gh, DXLD) ** KASHMIR. RADIO KASHMIR SRINAGAR REGAINING POPULARITY AMONG LISTENERS --- News Agency of Kashmir 6/26/2007 8:57:23 PM http://naknews.co.in/newsdet.aspx?q=8752 Srinagar, June 24 (NAK): The Radio Kashmir has regained popularity among masses with the increased number of its listeners across the state. The news and commercial broadcasting (FM) section of its Srinagar Station have once again attracted the people by providing them the best news and entertainment stuff round the clock. The Urdu News from Radio Kashmir Srinagar on state hookup is simultaneously broadcasted from Bhaderwah radio station, Drass radio station, Jammu radio station, Kargil radio station, Kathua radio station, Khalsi radio station, Kupwara radio station, Leh radio station, Naushera radio station, Poonch radio station, Rajouri radio station, Srinagar radio station and Tiesuru radio stations. Reports revealed that 70 to 80 percent of the News audience listens to Radio Kashmir Srinagar, mostly in rural areas, while a large number of people listen to Commercial broadcasting’s FM Station and its other allied programmes, thus giving tough fight to other private operators in the state. “Radio news has no match as compared to news broadcast or telecast from other channels or stations”, said Rahim Bhat of Kupwara adding that I am sixty seven and have been listening not only News but its other programmes like Shear Shear Manzir. He said that the F M Station of Radio Kashmir Srinagar has also started attractive programmes like HELOO DOCTOR, AES BUR VIZ VIZ LOL HAYATS, which are very informative. Radio Kashmir Srinagar has been covering the Kashmiri Pandits in all respects, whether it is problem being faced by them in Jammu and other parts of the state or connecting the departed hearts with their old friends in Kashmir. The News and Commercial broadcasting Section of RK has been broadcasting the programmes like ‘SHEAR SHEAR MANZIR’ by News Section and ‘BATE NOV DORER CHONE ZARI’. “One can now get his disease treated while listening radio or can meet his friend through the CB’s FM station while participating in programs like Hello Doctor or Bate Nov Dorer Chone Zari, Raj Nath Wali presently putting up at Nagrota told News Agency of Kashmir, adding that Radio Kashmir has its own craze. (NAK) (via Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9485, Shiokaze - Sea Breeze via Taiwan, *1300- 1330. The Tue. pattern for English ended June 26. After considerable monitoring have finally heard their program in Chinese on June 27, from 1320 to 1330, fair reception (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [non?]. You might like to try what appear to be FOUR Libyan(?) transmitters on air at 1730. The usual 15660 & 11835 are carrying French while 15650 is on air again (it closed this morning sometime around 1100) and this has Libyan music. And 15550 has a speech in alternating Arabic and French. 15660 & 11835 are much stronger than 15650 & 15550. Thanks again and 73 from (Noel Green, England, June 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also UNIDENTIFIED 15650 ** LITHUANIA. Received this from The Mighty KBC: Our new weekly programmes are: Saturdays 2200-2259 UTC 6255 kHz 259 deg. (nights from Sat to Sun). Sundays 0100-0159 UTC 6255 kHz 310 deg. (nights from Sat to Sun). Fridays 2200-2259 UTC 6255 kHz 259 deg. (nights from Fri to Sat). Starting the 6th of July. [Saturdays at 2100-2200 UTC MW 1386 kHz. All via transmitters in Lithuania]. So get used to it, Your weekend will never be the same.... We are counting down to 2008 ....for our daily show!! http://www.kbcradio.eu info @ k-po.com kbc @ planet.nl (via Ydun Ritz, Denmark, June 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LUXEMBOURG [and non]. Re DRM via DXLD 7-073 DIGITAL RADIO MONDIAL DRM schedule effective June 25, 2007 (short waves only) via DX Mix News, Bulgaria, June 26, via DXLD 0000-2400 on 6095 JUN 050 kW / 060 Europe RTL Radio German Re the above listing - there was no DRM signal on 6095 at 2130 UT on June 26th, other than splatter from a DRMer on 6090. CRI in Arabic on 6100 was completely clear of QRM - the only way to hear it when DRM on 6095 was by using USB. On the 27th DRM is on 6095 as usual at 0900UTC. So is LUX shifting to avoid QRM? (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DXLD) However, on June 27 I found that DRM (Luxembourg) had gone off air (6095) at tune in soon after 1900 and CRI in Romanian was a very strong signal on 6090 with strong co-channel from another - possibly BBC via Oman. Frequencies 6095 and 6100 were apparently empty. On checking later (after 2130) I discovered that the DRM I thought I'd heard the previous night on 6090 was in fact coming from 6085 (Ismaning). Using USB on 6090 revealed a clear channel. Ismaning has a "softer" noise level on exact channel than it does in it's sidebands, and this is probably what mislead me. So Luxembourg is no longer 24 hrs on 6095 (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.) ** MEXICO. A few years back, when XHFM-2 Veracruz was an independent, they used the names "Televisa Veracruz" and "Telever." Two days this week I've had short reception of a station using a blue rectangular logo upper right with "tele" written in the top part of the rectangle and "ver" in the bottom of the rectangle. I suspect this is XHFM-2 with a new logo and station name. A week or so back they were still using the name "Canal Dos Super TV." XEWO-2 Guadalajara continues to put their supered text ID upper left close to the TOH and half-hour since their major changes. That new orange-red logo upper right is easy to spot (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, June 28, WTFDA via DXLD) ** MONACO. 9800, TWR, 0800-0817, June 26, English. Religous program. Thru the Bible. TWR URL and postal address. Good (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, MLB-1, 200' Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEPAL. RADIO CENSORSHIP: FROM PIRATE RADIO TO VOICE OF A NATION http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2702425.ece When Nepal came under martial law, a small radio station defied the restrictions. Jerome Taylor reports on the broadcasters who have their nation's best interests at heart --- Published: 25 June 2007 When 20 armed soldiers stormed into Radio Sagarmatha on 12 February 2005, Mohan Bista, the station's chief, knew there was going to be trouble. The King of Nepal had just declared martial law, seized executive power and ordered all news bulletins and political shows to be replaced with music. Draconian restrictions were suddenly placed on all media outlets. King Gyanendra had just turned Nepal into one of the most severely censored nations in the world. All the constitutional and legal protection acquired by the independent press since 1990, when a previous popular revolution replaced an absolute monarchy with a constitutional one, had been wiped out overnight. More than a thousand journalists were sacked and any media outlet that relied on government advertising to stay afloat saw its revenue dry up if it dared to criticise the move. For a small organisation like Sagarmatha, South Asia's first community radio station, which broadcasts from the heart of the Kathmandu Valley, the restrictions threatened to strangle a non-profit station that prided itself on giving a voice to the ordinary people of Nepal. After four days, Mohan decided to simply ignore the new orders. "The government had supposedly allowed us to begin broadcasting non- political shows only," he says, breaking into a broad and mischievous grin. "But we began finding ways to get around the restrictions on broadcasting the news. The Nepali word for news is samachar but we also have another less formal word haalchal which kind of means a casual conversation. So we started calling our news broadcasts haalchal instead." But it wasn't long before the authorities caught wind of what Sagarmatha was doing and ordered the station to stop broadcasting haalchal bulletins or risk being shut down completely. So Mohan came up with a yet another ruse. "There were no restrictions on broadcasting comedy, as long as it wasn't political, so we decided to ask one of our regular comedians to sing the news in a comedy style familiar to Nepalis instead. They let us do that for a lot longer." This type of dogged refusal to bow to King Gyanendra's increasingly draconian rule earned Sagarmatha, also the Nepali word for Mount Everest, a reputation for being willing to stand up to the government and take on the censors at a time when independent journalism in Nepal risked extinction. In 2005 alone, Nepal accounted for half of all the world's censorship cases according to Reporters Without Borders. Now that recognition has gone global. This month, 14 months after a popular democracy movement forced King Gyanendra to relinquish his absolute control on power, Mohan Bista and Radio Sagarmatha received a special award at the One World Media Awards in London, in recognition of its community led broadcasts during such a troubling time for Nepalese media. In an age of 24-hour television broadcasts and streaming internet news, Nepal's radio stations showed that, in non-industrialised nations where a large percentage of the population live in isolated communities, the radio still rules supreme. During the political agitation in April last year which handed power back to the Nepali people, independent radio stations like Sagarmatha played a vital part. In the Himalayan kingdom, where electricity is sporadic and many Nepalis earn as little as £1 a day, televisions were simply an unreliable luxury outside the few cities. For those who did manage to get to a television set, the coverage was either very bland or highly censored. Nepal TV, the state broadcaster, was under the thumb of King Gyanendra and the commercial TV stations had far more to lose if they openly criticised the regime. Radio became the most reliable way to find out what was going on and only the independent stations, which didn't have commercial interests and government advertising revenues to protect, dared to tell the truth. "Radio played a crucial role during last year's democracy movement," says Rabindra Mishra, the head of the BBC's Nepal service, which continued to broadcast a daily half-hour show. "In the entire history of the BBC's Nepali service we had never had so many listeners." The BBC's stringers remained in the country to report the news, even when it broadcast the first ever radio interview with the leader of Nepal's Maoist insurgency, Prachanda. Broadcasting that interview upset the government – when Radio Sagarmatha simply mentioned that the BBC had conducted the interview, police stormed the offices for a second time and arrested five journalists. As the protests increased, journalists found themselves closer to the firing line. According to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, in the month of April, when the protests peaked, at least 225 journalists were arrested and 110 were physically attacked. The previous month there had been just five arrests. It is doubtful that many Nepalis were surprised by Radio Sagarmatha's audacity. Even before the February 2005 coup the station's journalists had shown a healthy disdain for authority. Sagarmatha began life as a pirate radio station broadcasting secretly from – and moving between – supporters' houses. Now that the King of Nepal has humiliatingly ceded power and the country discusses its democratic future, it is radio once again that leads the debate. "We have such a big responsibility now," says Mohan, when asked whether times are better now that the arrests have stopped. "This is a transitional period for Nepal and we still have many social problems. We may be a small country but we have more than 60 languages and dialects and everybody wants to be heard." One of the main debates dominating the Nepali agenda is whether the country should become federal along ethnic lines. Mohan believes that radio is the best means of explaining such concepts to a largely illiterate audience. "The media has to continue to disseminate information about even the simplest concepts like democracy or what a constituent assembly is. We have democracy back again but it's our responsibility to ensure it stays for good this time." As the smile returns to Mohan's face you get the impression that were the monarchy to try to seize power again and silence dissent, the journalists at Radio Sagarmatha would not accept it quietly (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) WTFK? ** NETHERLANDS. Hello from Hilversum, It's been quite a memorable week here at Radio Netherlands. At the age of 82, Dutch journalist Robert Kroon passed away on Sunday in Geneva, Switzerland, where he'd served as foreign correspondent for the past 54 years. Having worked for Time Magazine, The International Herald Tribune, NBC and CBS Radio and, of course, Radio Netherlands, Kroon had also witnessed many historic events. My colleague Hans de Vreij, who knew him well, wrote this tribute. R.I.P. http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/070625kroon On Tuesday, we had a retirement party for Hans Hoogendorn, who is known as "the Voice of Dutch Radio". Although he has reached the age of 60 and retires from full-time work here at Radio Netherlands, he will continue to make promos and jingles for our domestic Radio 1. Hans has one of those voices that were made for radio, and practically everyone who listens to public radio in this country would recognize it, though few would know his name. Many of my generation remember the bombing of Radio Noordzee Internationaal in 1971. Hans was the Dutch voice that was heard calling Mayday on that memorable occasion. A recording of it was played at the reception. The packed turnout of people who wanted to wish him a happy retirement showed the great affection in which he is held by all his colleagues. Yesterday we did it all again, this time for Mike Shaw, who has also retired as Head of English. Mike has worked here for nine years, and became a good friend as well as a colleague. He would often stop by my office to have a "wee word" about football. Mike is a Scotsman and proud of it, so we had the bagpipes and some haggis. Both Mike and Hans were presented with Internet radios, so they can keep listening to their former colleagues. As it happens, Internet radios are also the subject of one of This week's media features: Internet radios - the new shortwave? (Media Network newsletter June 28 via DXLD) See RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM ** POLAND [non]. See FINLAND ** PORTUGAL. Re 7-073, EUROPE, upcoming pirate schedule: Dear Glenn, Thank you for your information. We've been down on the SW coast since Fri. evening, and returned today around dinner time. While there, I noticed no such pirate station on 6261. Maybe that region is within the skip are since the signal is reported to emanate from central Portugal, or then it's simply too weak. I don't know how Dutch & Scottish stations manage to be on the air for so long and regularly. I suppose I'm not far from the truth, if I say such stations here, if tracked by any of the official monitoring stations, would be raided & silenced in very little time. We have two mainland monitoring stns plus a number of unmanned ones scattered throughout the country. Then two other stations of http://www.anacom.pt in the Açores and Madeira archipelagos. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, June 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Eldorado on AIR tonite 23:30 GMT 6261 khz AM tune in turn on drop out yep making a lil px tonite (28-6) 2330 till 0300, 6261 khz as usual... psy rock, free, jimi, janis, the whole nine yards, and plenty trance, acid, house, progressive. always juicy. using about 500.000 watts. no. just 10 watts. =) tune in turn on, drop out. johnny (via SW- pirates via Roberto Scaglione, June 28, shortwave yg via DXLD) ** ROMANIA. See GERMANY [and non] ** SLOVAKIA. Re 7-073: I only use Firefox on Linux. I had a look at the webpage and by looking at the source code can see the problem. A strong tag is opened but not closed correctly (with a ). See the following: VVVVVVVV Fico Says Compromise Reached in Brussels is Good for Us After the protracted talks of EU leaders at their Brussels summit Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert ...
more I guess IE doesn't care too much about bad coding but Firefox does (Wayne Bastow, Wyoming, NSW, Australia, 33 23' 44.29" South, 151 21' 11.99" East, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S S R [and non]. Re 7-073, GERMANY and HUNGARY: ``The point is that the target audience of Gruß und Kuß were Germans who left Hungary at their own will.`` Thank you, Kai! According to Wikipedia, majority of Germans didn't leave Hungary at their own will, though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germans_of_Hungary Granted, Wikipedia isn't the most reliable source out there. About visas. The Soviet nationals needed the Soviet-issued "exit visas" to go to every foreign country. Even those traveling to the Warsaw Pact countries had to go through very rigorous background checks. One of the requirements was a written permission from a local labor union representative who'd vouch for your high morals and political reliability. That wasn't always easy to get. Understandably, the guy who had to sign the document was afraid: "What if you get into some trouble there or run to the West, and then I'll be held responsible. No offense, but I don't really know you that well. Can we return to your request in a year or so?" Sometimes, the issue had to be resolved during a "soul-to-soul" conversation over a bottle of vodka and with a promise of a small "foreign present" for a labor union guy's wife. Ironically, today the Russian nationals applying for entrance visas hear very similar words at various cosulates: "How can you prove that you'd return to Russia?" There are very few countries in the world where Russians can travel visa-free. Back in the mid-90s I heard of some naive people coming to the US Embassy with flowers, chocolates and a bottle of Armenian cogniac. Those were the gifts for the consular officers to speed up the visa application process... The classic Soviet good-will presents didn't work (Sergei Sosedkin, IL, June 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, bribery is an accepted tactic in many other cultures (gh, DXLD) ** U K. There is a new BBC outlet in Arabic on air using 15745 - first heard at around 0740 June 27 and still on air at 0900 plus, now parallel 15180 and 17505 (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. Join me on VOA's Talk to America, this Thursday, 28 June, 1400-1500 UTC, for another discussion about international broadcasting. I will interview Terrence Ripmaster, author of the new book Willis Conover: Broadcasting Jazz to the World. The program follows the news at 1400 UTC (10:00 a.m. EDT) on these shortwave frequencies http://www.voanews.com/english/about/frequenciesAtoZ_e.cfm or via the VOA News Now Windows Media or RealPlayer live audio streams. Join the conversation by calling +1-202-619-3111 or e-mail to talk @ voanews.com Posted: 27 Jun 2007 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Plus expect the usual audio archiving ondemand (gh) Help test the VOA's new online Chat function today (28th June) Thursday, June 28, 1800 UT (2 PM ET) the VOA will be testing its new online chat feature -- slated in July to replace "Talk To America" as the newsmaker interaction program on the VOA. Kim Elliott has invited folks to stop by and put the feature through its paces. Here's the URL: http://www.voanews.com/english/chat.cfm Hope to see you there later today (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, swprograms via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. UNITED STATES, VOA, 5890, 1355, Japanese, 433, June 25, YL with comments plus an OM. Another OM with the VOA ID in English at 1400. Continued in Japanese by a YL. // 11740 [232]. (Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA, Huntington Beach, California, USA, "World Friendship Through Shortwave Radio Where Culture and Language Come Alive", DX LISTENING DIGEST) Make that Korean. Make that Tinian relay, Philippines, at 325 degrees toward Korea. This log proves that WWCR is sacrificing coverage as far as California by having moved to 5890 until 1400 --- all it does is register an I of 3 on VOA. WWCR 5890 is nominally aimed due east, but the rhombic puts a big signal also to the west (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WCAL: A Trust Betrayed --- STORY BY JONATHAN KAMINSKY Nearly three years after St. Olaf sold its radio station to MPR for a pile of cash, it's a long way from living the decision down. Alumni are cutting St. Olaf out of their wills in protest of the decision to sell WCAL Ruth Sylte has spent almost her entire adult life as one of St. Olaf College's most enthusiastic boosters. She attended the school in the '70s, worked there as an admissions counselor in the '80s, and, at the tender age of 24, set up a life insurance policy with her alma mater as the sole beneficiary. "I didn't know what my financial situation might be throughout my life," she explains, "but I made the commitment that in life eternal I would leave a gift to my college." No longer. A few months ago, Sylte notified the school not to expect a penny from her when she dies. The reason is simple, she says: St. Olaf's "secretive and hasty" sale of its longtime radio station, WCAL, and its unwillingness to "repent" for what she says amounts to a terrible betrayal of trust. Nearly three years after the sale of WCAL to Minnesota Public Radio, which converted the classical music station to the Current, anger over the transaction still runs deep. Critics say the college leaders responsible for the $10.5 million deal ignored where the station's money came from and what WCAL did to connect generations of alumni to the school. Now, in what has the potential to become a highly disruptive court case, a judge is weighing whether the sale ought to be voided for violating the wishes of WCAL's donors. . . http://www.citypages.com/databank/28/1384/article15535.asp (via Current [no relation], DXLD) ** U S A. Milwaukee no longer has a commercial classical music station since WFMR switched to smooth jazz (William T. Hassig, IL, June 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Long time classical music radio station "WFMR" 98.7 MHz located near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, overnight on June 25, 2007 suddenly changed from a classical music format to a jazz format with no advance warning about the impending change. A spokesperson for SAGA communications, owner of WFMR, said that the audience for classical music doesn't have the right demographics and is too old for advertisers to consider. Anyway, the station used too much audio processing that didn't do justice to classical music (Paul McCabe, WI, June 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I wonder how many music lovers were fooled into believing WFMR was dedicated and committed to classical? (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. EAS blunder in Illinois --- This mistake resulted in a lot of confusion, as our station, WDWS-1400 in Champaign ended up getting relayed on a local LPTV station on Channel 39 for a while. Evidently Spike O'Dell in Chicago [WGN] found himself being relayed all across the city for a while as well. Here is the release we received (Eric Loy, WDWS Radio, Champaign IL, June 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ---------------------------- Original Message ------------------------ Subject: Press Release - IEMA EAS Test From: iisnews_cms@cms.state.il.us Date: Tue, June 26, 2007 11:10 am (See attached file: 062607 IEMA EAS test.doc) June 26, 2007 Patti Thompson 217/558.0546 (IEMA) 217/836.0742 (cell) FEDERAL TEST OF EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM MISTAKENLY SENDS MESSAGE OUT OVER TV, RADIO AIRWAVES --- Test was part of federal government`s new satellite warning system SPRINGFIELD --- A faulty Emergency Alert System (EAS) message sent out this morning to broadcast stations around Illinois was part of a federal government test of a new satellite system being installed. There was no federal emergency at the time to trigger the message. Andrew Velásquez III, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) said the new satellite warning system was installed in Illinois yesterday as part of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program to install the system in all 50 states. The federal government conducted a test of the new system this morning, but rather than being an internal test the message was sent out to broadcast stations. ``At this time, we don`t know why the federal government used a ``hot`` or active code rather than a test code when they sent out this test message,`` Velásquez said. Velásquez said a test message would not have triggered the system to send the message out over the broadcast airwaves. A total of four messages were reportedly sent out as part of the test. The EAS system replaced the former Emergency Broadcast System. It can be activated by the federal government, by states or by the National Weather Service. In today`s instance it was activated by a federal test. IEMA has received reports from across Illinois about the message, and has learned that the message also was broadcast in areas outside Illinois. IEMA did not receive notice from the federal government that a test of the EAS system was scheduled for today. 1429**07 - 30 - This e-mail is a service of the State of Illinois. If you have any questions about this e-mail or the attached document, please contact the Illinois Office of Communication and Information (IOCI), Room 611, Stratton Office Building, Springfield, Illinois 62706, (217) 558-1548. (via Loy, DXLD) Yesterday WCPTam850 suddenly carried the program of WGNam720 for over 10 minutes after the "emergency" tones. Unable to get to or touch the ac powered radio (I was in the shower) I thought it was just more of the usual tech snafus that plague WCPT, our only left-leaning talk station. The problem cleared before I could get to the radio. This morning in Robert Feder`s column in the Chicago Sun-Times (Wed 27 June) he explained that somebody at the Federal Emergency Management Agency activated the Emergency Alert System causing every station in northeast Illinois, except WGN itself, to carry WGN which had its normal program. WGN is designated as the primary carrier for northeastern Illinois. FEMA failed to tell Illinois Emergency Management Agency officials about the test (William T. Hassig, IL, June 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) IF THIS HAD BEEN AN ACTUAL EMERGENCY ... GOOF SENDS PRESIDENTIAL ALERT CODE OVER THE AIR, HIJACKING ILLINOIS RADIO AND TV TRANSMISSIONS By Phil Rosenthal, Tribune media columnist; Tribune staff reporters David Mendell and Azam Ahmed contributed to this report June 27, 2007 --- In the parlance of the Cold War era that spawned the federally mandated Emergency Alert System, launch codes were issued throughout Illinois on Tuesday morning, automatically pre-empting dozens of radio and television stations as if the region faced nuclear annihilation. Rather than President Bush reassuring citizens after an atomic blast or some other calamity, the audience of many Chicago outlets was treated to the sound of dead air followed by the voice of WGN-AM 720 morning man Spike O'Dell struggling to figure out what had happened. It turns out O'Dell's pair of brief surprise appearances between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. on everything from local public broadcasting to music stations -- an "unintentional disruption," a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman called it -- stemmed from a FEMA contractor's installation of the state's Emergency Alert System satellite receiver in Springfield as part of a nationwide upgrade. The FEMA spokeswoman said the new Illinois receiver inadvertently picked up a closed-circuit test between receivers in Richmond, Va., and Cleveland. While the interrupted morning drive-time broadcasts proved the Illinois system worked, the fact that what's known as an Emergency Action Notification, or EAN -- the highest level of EAS alert, indicating an emergency message is coming from the White House -- could be relayed mistakenly to override stations was a bit of a jolt, sending engineers scrambling at the affected outlets throughout Illinois and in adjacent media markets such as St. Louis. Compounding the error, an actual presidential code, minus any audio explanation, was sent rather than a lesser alert or a notification of a systems test of some kind. In some affected markets, the glitches resulted in interruptions of programming by the EAS tone, sometimes lasting three or four minutes at a time. In Chicago, it triggered a switch to a single area broadcaster -- WGN, which, like the Chicago Tribune, is owned by Tribune Co. -- and included a readout at stations warning not to override the alarm under penalty of law. Also, an EAN is open-ended, not like a test that concludes within minutes. But unlike, say, when Chicago air raid sirens were set off in 1959 to herald the White Sox winning the American League pennant, there's little evidence the public at large was panicked by the false alarm. A spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications said only a few calls to the city's 311 and 911 numbers came in from people wondering what was going on. "If everything is set per the requirement, it should have taken over every radio, TV and cable system," said Warren Shulz, Illinois' EAS chairman and chief engineer for Citadel Broadcasting's WLS-AM 890 and WZZN-FM 94.7 in Chicago, noting the state's new EAS satellite hookup in Springfield had been wired in only a day earlier. "We did nothing incorrect in Illinois, other than hook up a new piece of equipment at the direction of a FEMA contractor," Shulz said. "Someone at the other end ... decided at 7:38 our time to start sending presidential alert codes. Wonderful thing to do." While FEMA maintained this had never happened before, Shulz said a decade or so ago a similar closed-circuit test went awry, triggering inadvertent alerts in Ohio, Hawaii and Louisiana. Illinois emergency management officials, caught off-guard, spent some time trying to sort out the confusion, as well. When state officials called FEMA's regional office, they were directed to Washington. "We assumed there was no emergency when no one came on to address the audiences," said Patti Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. "The system is set up so that if there is an emergency, the president or the governor or someone else in authority can take control of the airwaves. And no one did." The emergency codes were sent four times, and the first two went through the system and were transmitted in Chicago, according to Tom Langmyer, WGN's vice president and general manager. "When we learned what had happened, we took the EAS system off line so that the other two tests were not sent, so they would not disrupt WGN or other stations," Langmyer said in a statement. Rod Zimmerman, senior vice president and market manager for CBS Radio in Chicago, joked that if Portable People Meters, the new ratings system Arbitron is adopting next year, were in place to measure listenership by eavesdropping on what the audience hears rather than having listeners report the stations to which they listen, O'Dell would have seen a huge ratings spike. "Fortunately, we're still in a diary world," he said. Darren Davis, vice president of programming and operations at Clear Channel Radio Chicago, said that despite its flaws, the EAS still is "a system that helps to keep people safe." "The system did work," Shulz said. "If they had just had an audio message saying this is a test and do the 'end of message' correctly, the test would have been a rude takeover of all media, but it would have ended gracefully and no one would have been the wiser. Instead, they provided no audio, and at that point, people started to panic. ... You should never use a hot message code in an uncontrolled situation." - - - Cold War holdover System's purpose: The primary role of the Emergency Alert System is to allow the president to address the public during a national emergency, although it has never been used for that purpose. State and local officials also may use the system to alert the public. History: An early version of the system, called CONELRAD, was introduced in 1951, in the midst of the Cold War. In 1963 it was replaced by the Emergency Broadcast System, which became the Emergency Alert System in 1994. Who participates: All broadcast TV and radio stations, cable TV systems and satellite radio operators must participate in national alerts of the EAS, while participation in state and local alerts is voluntary. Operation: The system is run by the Federal Communications Commission, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service and the states. Testing: The national alert system is tested weekly using an eight- second digital signal. Local alerts a re tested monthly. How the system works in Illinois: The state is divided into 11 local areas. All participating stations within those areas monitor two or more designated local primary stations for alerts. In northeast Illinois, the two local primary stations are WGN-AM 720 and WBBM-AM 780. Sources: FCC, Government Accountability Office (via Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. WDOD Middle tower falls: http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_109364.asp (via George Thurman, DXLD) A sterling example of journalism there --- brief story does not hint WHY it fell, or even if it was accidental or deliberate --- tho apparently unexpected. WTFK? 1310 assuming it is the AM station (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Another episode in the Monster FM story, Shamrock TX --- Re: From the Panhandle: TERRY KEITH HAMMOND IS INNOCENT http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,60822.msg544042.html#msg544042 I have been following Keith’s passion for radio long before he acquired KBKH via his web site for years. In fact I still have pictures of the very radio equipment Keith was accused of stealing on my old 486; which has not seen the Internet since early 2000. Keith like myself has a real passion for radio, so much so, he built what could best be described as a very nice broadcast facility for a low power radio station. Actually it would have been a very nice facility in many medium sized radio markets, the equipment these scam artist with a badge stole from Keith came from his California studio: including the LPB AM transmitter they stole from him. What happened to Keith is a travesty of justice, people write about Keith’s lack of candor, it’s hard to show a lot of candor when you are under attack by the very government that’s supposed to protect you from the crimes, instead is committing them against you and your family. What would you do if the snakes that run places like Shamrock came after you? Lets face it, Keith got it from all directions, from the Chamber to the D.A. Texas’s slimiest conspired to steal the radio station away from Keith with the assistance D.A. (the very D.A. who is now serving time in a Texas Prison). Do you have any ideal how hard it is to get a D.A. convicted no matter how guilty he or she is? On the other hand, it’s pretty easy to convict a dead dog as a D.A. in California once told me. (Remember Nyfong) a lot of innocent people are in prison or death row! All you need is a dirty D.A. and a public defender and you will find yourself in prison innocent or not. Is this the first time a powerless broadcaster had his radio station ripped out from underneath him? It turns out a broadcaster in Taft, California (Shamrock`s sister city) was held at gunpoint while local thugs vandalized the radio station beyond repair. Where were the cops during all this? In the parking lot looking the other way, like Shamrock TX. Taft, California powers did not like someone from out of town running the local radio station they could not control. Ironically Taft’s radio station call letters are now in Texas (KTKR) It’s not limited to radio stations; one gun storeowner in Taft managed to shoot himself three times in the back of the head during what the D.A. ruled a suicide. Unfortunately corruption in government is not limited to Shamrock & Taft, Washington is loaded with it from the top down. A crime has been committed: the victim is Keith and his family (Steve http://www.radiobrandy.com June 27, radio-info.com TX board via DXLD) Which in turn leads to a brand-new postings from Keith Hammond, who has been released from his unjust (?) convixion: http://monsterfm.com/justice/note.htm and about another corrupt and convicted DA in the TX Panhandle: http://monsterfm.com/927/news/050119.htm Or start at the homepage http://monsterfm.com/justice/ (via DXLD) ** U S A. We have a frequency mystery in South Dakota. Pat Dyer and Randolph Zerr have both noted KDLO-3's audio on 65.79 MHz – not on 65.74, where it should be. KDLO's video is on the correct frequency (61.24), and the 65.79 signal is not a spur – KDLO audio is only on 65.79, not on both 65.79 and 65.74. FCC regulation 73.1545(c)(2) requires that a TV station's audio carrier be within 1 kHz of precisely 4,500 kHz above the video carrier. KDLO's frequency error would seem to exceed the regulation by a factor of 50. Maybe more important, I would think this frequency error would case severe audio distortion in TV sets tuned to KDLO. The error is twice the normal peak deviation of a TV sound signal. It's the equivalent of an FM station being 150 kHz off-frequency – of, for example, WQXR-96.3 operating instead on 96.15. Pat and Randolph have noticed this error across several Es openings. I'm amazed KDLO has remained this far off-frequency for this long! (Doug Smith, TV News, July VHF-UHF Digest via DXLD) ** ZAMBIA. 15715, CVC, 1727-1745, June 26, English. Interview re hospital at tune-in. Contemporary religious music between various CVC IDs and promos. Poor under propagation QRN (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, MLB-1, 200' Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [non] This is supposedly Wertachtal for a few more days, as in 7-067: CVC International, English till June 30 (not July 31), ex till May 30 0500-0600 on 9430 WER 125 kW / 180 deg to WeAf 0600-0900 on 15640 WER 125 kW / 180 deg to WeAf 1500-1800 on 15715 WER 125 kW / 180 deg to WeAf 1800-2100 on 13820 WER 125 kW / 180 deg to WeAf (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, June 5 via DXLD 7-067 via 7-074) ** ZIMBABWE. 4828, ZBC, 2306-2333, June 25, Vernacular. Continuous Afro music with occasional CODAR. Poor but improving (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, MLB-1, 200' Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Voice of Zimbabwe checks 26 June 07 --- The presumed Voice of Zimbabwe test transmission was observed on 4828 kHz from 1845 tune-in till 2005 tune-out on 26 June 2007. Only continuous music was observed, with no identification or other announcements. Monitorability was fair to good. The domestic 3rd programme, Radio Zimbabwe, was heard concurrently with fair reception on 3396 kHz. Source: BBC Monitoring research 1530 gmt 27 Jun 07 (via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Saludos cordiales Glenn, quizás tenga relación la emisión no identificada en 15650 con La Voz de África, pero al respecto debo decirle que ni ayer ni hoy e encontrado emisión en esa frecuencia, tan sólo el sábado y el domingo, también debo decir que la voz del locutor que escuché en 15550 me resulta bastante familiar, sin embargo no lo fue en la emisión no identificada, esta emisora principalmente emitía música árabe, prácticamente un tema detrás de otro, no percibí tonos horarios a las horas en punto y a las medias horas, cosa que en La Voz de África si que ocurre. Respecto a la emisora no identificada me surgen algunas dudas, ¿quizás la emisión sea sólo sábado y domingo?, ¿emisión accidental?, pero ¿dos días seguidos?, bueno, estaré pendiente este fin de semana para ver si hay transmisión. 73 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I have been monitoring 15650 on and off for over an hour from first tune in around 0730 UT today (June 27). It is playing continuous Libyan Arabic style music and song, and no announcements have been heard. The signal was also heard on the 26th at around 1000 but much weaker. Today at tune in the signal was peaking to S9+ but it has weakened during the hour with lots of fading. I wonder if this could be a test from the reported site (under construction) in the south- west of the country? I've scanned 17, 15 and 11 MHz for a parallel but cannot find one. The transmitter is still active at 0900+ (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thank you for your info (Raoul Bigoudit) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ Re 7-073: Saludos Glenn, las reglas siguen vigentes, mala influencia probablemente del inglés y para los que usamos el procesador de texto Word con corrección, pues aún mas, Los meses en mayúsculas no las corrige. 73 JM (José Miguel Romero, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BRAZIL GH, Lo que has aprendido en la escuela es a mi entender lo correcto. O sea me inclino por lo que dices al final. Ah... aprovecho a decirte: Talvez no se escribe junto, sino tal vez. Y la castellanización "Oclajoma" suena horrible para mi. I agree that names of days of week, months and languages, are NOT capitalized in Spanish. And the "Oclajoma" sounds horrible to me. 73 (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I write `Oclajoma` more or less as a joke; no one else does, but it should convey the pronunciation more correctly in Spanish --- the SS would not pronounce the H, and there is no K in pure Spanish. Yes, I am still trying to unlearn `talvez`. BTW, Russians would probably spell it Oklagoma, rather than the much closer phonetic rendering Oklakhoma (gh, DXLD) Glenn, First of all I felt free to pass unto Condiglist the Spanish version of this posting, from which you surely can expect some replies of our Spanish speaking colleagues, despite the fact that José Miguel was the first one to reply in Español. Well, you can see that I wrote Español and not "español". In English there's rule not contemplated in Spanish, that we "hispanics" (should I have written Hispanics?) have been learning that days of the week, months and even nationalities and languages are treated like proper names. The only basic rule we learnt at school is the use of capital letters for all proper names, being persons, countries, companies, etc. Nevertheless, and that's my case, after being closely in contact with English publications, I have a tendency to apply some English rules to castellano (again, should I have written Castellano?. We don't estimate that one as a proper name). A simple example. A popular song by the name of "A Taste Of Honey", anyone who translate it to español would only use a capital in the first word, "Sabor a miel". I feel a title song deserves capitals in every word, so I should write "Sabor A Miel". Days of the week. Let's take friday. Of course, you won't write it down that way. For us, viernes is like any viernes, but when you say Viernes Santo, that becomes a proper name. But there's a similarity in both languages. A week is week like any other week. But in both languages you got to use capitals, as in Holy Week, that is Semana Santa. It doesn't seem La Real Academia de la Lengua Española (have you noticed? All capital letters because is an institution) is going to change rules in a near future, despite the tremendous influence we hispánicos English readers have been receiving. I guess anyone can feel free to use his or her personal rules on this. That's part of nowadays globalization (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Glenn!! No sé cómo es lo correcto en otros países latinoamericanos, pero en Argentina ni los meses, ni los días de la semana, ni los idiomas de escriben comenzando con mayúscula. Tampoco llamamos "español" a nuestro idioma nativo sino "castellano". Un saludo cordial, o bien kind regards, (Gabriela, condig list via DXLD) You are right about capital letters in Castilian. Unlike it (I don't know about the other Latin languages of Iberia), Portuguese has names of months in capital letters, e.g. Março, the weekdays follow an untypical method --- check http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dias_da_semana and should be written in capitals too though most people don't do that, and they are usually abbreviated for obvious reasons, e.g. Quarta-feira is 4ª-feira, 4ª-fª or just the most incorrect form of "4ª". And as to language names, they're written without capitals in both Castilian & Portuguese. However, in Portuguese, capitalization is required, if one's referring to the people of a certain place, e.g. "os Finlandeses falam finlandês." Also, in a text where an implicit reference to the language is made, like "o finlandês", then capitalization, "o Finlandês", may be used. PS: check http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%ADngua_galega too. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, June 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ITATIAIA "Não é Itatiáia? Sem acento escrito, pronunciado: Itatiaía? (gh, DXLD)" Re 7-073: Caro Glenn, Saudações. Pronuncia-se Itatiáia. O nome Itatiaia vem da lingua tupi-guarani e significa ´pedra cheia de pontas´. Tem alguns áudios da emissora em: http://www.itatiaia.com.br 73s, (Célio Romais, Brasil, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Célio, Eis minha resposta em inglês para discussão em DXLD: If is stressed on the middle A, then according to Portuguese orthography it needs an accent; otherwise, the stress would fall on the final I, so this still doesn`t answer that question. Perhaps the Brazilians recognize it as a foreign (Tupi-Guarani) name and thus exempt from such accentuation? I see on station website that they never put an accent on it either, in upper or lower case, while they do, properly e.g. on Rádio, unlike in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Glenn, a palavra (do género masculino) é um topónimo de origem índia - -- ver http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itatiaia --- não leva qq. acento gráfico, and the final acute accent mark (~aía) is wrong; itatiaia is pronounced [ee-ta-tee-áya]*, with the á standing for an open vowel, like in ah. *) I'm only trying to write it for an English speaker's pronunciation, just as I'd write [niu] to explain how to read "new" to Portuguese speakers. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, June 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Carlos, The question I am raising, which neither you nor Célio seems to grasp is, (and maybe this means I don`t understand Portuguese rules as I thought I did) --- Regardless of whether Itatiaia is an Indian name, in order to spell it the way it is pronounced, doesn`t it need an accent on the middle A??? In any other common word (I think), the accent in PT would naturally fall on the final I, of which there should be countless examples. If the stress does not fall on the final I (considered a separate syllable, thus penultimate here, not part of a diphthong), then you have to put the accent on the syllable before (or after) it which is really stressed. Is this not so? Thus the need to put the accent on the A of rádio, etc., since it is not pronounced rah-DEE-oh. Isn`t this the same thing? BTW, I listened to a clip from the station`s website Célio provided, and they actually pronounce it more like ee-tuh-CHAY-uh, but that should be beside the point of this discussion. (I wish we could just switch to the IPA as needed and have it come thru correctly). 73, (Glenn to Carlos, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) There is a "rule" of linguistic science that says "The center innovates while the periphery conserves." This is absolutely the case with Spanish and Portuguese. I'd allow that it's case with English, but someone across the Atlantic could be deeply offended if I wrote that! It means that in the birthplace of a language, the population tends to move away from old, traditional linguistic vocabularies and structures more rapidly, while the former colonies tend to maintain the vocabularies and structures extant at the time of colonialization. One could argue that US and Canadian English is more "correct." Luso Portuguese and Ibero Spanish have tended to drift apart. But Brazil, speaking the older Portuguese (much closer to Spanish) has so influenced Portugal that the divergent tendency has been reversed (Charles A Taylor, WD4INP Greenville, North Carolina, IRCA via DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ TROPICAL BANDS IN REVIEW Lecture by Anker Petersen given on the 16th of June 2007 at the DX-Parliament in Laholm, Sweden. Introduction --- Before I talk about the development in broadcasting on the Tropical Bands, I wish to say a few words about what the Tropical Bands are and about my own interest for DX-ing on these bands. I will try not to be too nostalgic, but rather look closely on the past and future development of this broadcasting. . . http://www.dswci.org/specials/misc/2007_tropicalbands.pdf (DSWCI via DXLD) 7 pages including tables, etc. Hmmm, uses lower-case sigma for ç, c+cedilla as in Portuguese; 800 tropical band stations have disappeared since 1973y, and projecting from the current rate of decline (which of course is bound to be far from exact), zero stations should remain on tropical bands in 2029y (gh, DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: BRAZIL; ECUADOR; LUXEMBOURG ++++++++++++++++++++ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ INTERNET RADIOS - THE NEW SHORTWAVE? Descriptions formerly reserved for shortwave are now being applied to Internet radios. John Figliozzi recently had a preview of two new models due for release at the end of the year. http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/070628tiv (Media Network newsletter June 28 via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ OUR EXCLUSIVE AND NOT COPYRIGHTED HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Our nearest star the Sun has been inactive for a very long period, with the daily sunspot count at ZERO for many consecutive days. Now a new sunspot active region is slowly rotating into view, and that will probably increase the solar flux above the extremely low 67 and 68 flux units that it has been hovering as of late. By the way, any solar flux figure below 70 units, automatically sends the sunspot count to ZERO. The latest forecast for the solar minimum is telling us that it may be actually happening right now, but other scientists believe that the tail end of solar cycle 23 will extend until the first half of 2008. The latest solar data are simply typical of minimum solar activity with zero sunspot count, solar flux below 70 units and a very quiet geomagnetic field. The expected average sunspot number for June is expected to reach the rock bottom figure of 5. Expect also some really amazing sporadic E skip openings during the next several days, with multiple hop E skip giving radio amateurs the unique opportunity of working transcontinental DX between Africa, Europe and the Americas (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited June 26, HCDX via DXLD) The geomagnetic field was quiet at all latitudes during 18 - 20 June. Field activity increased to quiet to active levels during 21 - 22 June with minor to major storm periods detected at some high latitude stations. Field activity decreased to quiet to unsettled levels during 23 - 24 June, though active to minor storm periods were observed at some high latitude stations on 23 June. ACE data indicated the increased 21 - 23 June activity was due to a solar sector boundary crossing (away (+) to toward (-)) followed shortly thereafter by a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. The boundary change occurred in a gradual fashion on 21 June (during approximately 21/0000 - 1800 UTC). A brief increase in proton densities was associated with the boundary crossing with a peak of 38 p/cc detected at 21/0911 UTC. A period of increased interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) variability was also associated with the boundary crossing with total IMF intensity peak of 11 nT at 21/0943 UTC and a minimum southward Bz reading of -9 nT at 21/1036 UTC. The recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream commenced early on 21 June, reached a peak of 597 km/sec at 23/1328 UTC, then gradually decreased during the rest of the period. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 27 JUNE - 23 JULY 2007 Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels. Isolated C-class flares are possible during 28 June - 11 July due to the return of old Region 960 (S07, L = 176). No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels during 27 June, 02 - 05 July, and 16 - 17 July. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at quiet to unsettled levels during 27 June - 10 July, though active levels may occur on 30 June due to a weak, recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Activity is expected to increase to quiet to active levels on 11 - 12 July due to a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected during 13 - 17 July. An increase to quiet to active conditions is expected during 18 - 20 July with minor storm periods possible on 19 July due to another recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Mostly quiet conditions are expected during 21 - 23 July. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2007 Jun 26 1853 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2007 Jun 26 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2007 Jun 27 75 5 2 2007 Jun 28 80 5 2 2007 Jun 29 80 8 3 2007 Jun 30 80 10 3 2007 Jul 01 80 8 3 2007 Jul 02 80 5 2 2007 Jul 03 80 5 2 2007 Jul 04 80 5 2 2007 Jul 05 80 5 2 2007 Jul 06 80 5 2 2007 Jul 07 75 5 2 2007 Jul 08 75 5 2 2007 Jul 09 75 5 2 2007 Jul 10 75 5 2 2007 Jul 11 70 15 4 2007 Jul 12 70 10 3 2007 Jul 13 70 8 3 2007 Jul 14 70 5 2 2007 Jul 15 70 5 2 2007 Jul 16 70 5 2 2007 Jul 17 70 10 3 2007 Jul 18 70 15 4 2007 Jul 19 70 20 5 2007 Jul 20 70 12 3 2007 Jul 21 70 5 2 2007 Jul 22 70 5 2 2007 Jul 23 70 5 2 (http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio via DXLD) ###