DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-158, December 24, 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 1387 **flexible times Tue 1130 WRMI 9955** Tue 1630 WRMI 7385 Wed 0830 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 DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD, which seems to be coming out less frequently? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg without delay. When applying, please identify yourself with your real name and location. Those who do not, unless I recognize them, will be prompted once to do so and no action will be taken otherwise. Here`s where to sign up http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. EMIRATOS ÁRABES, 11675, Radio Solh, 0910-0915, escuchada el 23 de diciembre en idioma afgano con emisión de música folklórica local, SINPO 34333 (Jose Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ENGLAND: R Solh, 9875, 24 Dec at 1710 in Dari/Pashto. Music. Poor signal (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nothing beats 15265 until 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. [SW BCB TX Site Archive] Sites in hi-res in Google Maps: Things are visible much earlier in GE than in Maps. CER Cerrik (CRI), 40.9964N 19.9978E (Jari, OH6BG, Dec 24, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) Hello, also for the first time Cerrik B-site in high resolution !!!! ALB CRI Cerrik SW site-B, 24 SW masts! 40 59'44.87"N 19 59'51.06"E ALB CRI Cërrik SW site-A, much smaller antennas, 40 dipole masts, and 3 non-dir like quadrant antennas. 41 00'49.85"N, 19 59'34.53"E (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANGOLA. 4950, Radio Nacional da Angola, 0139-0230 Dec 18. Man with Portuguese talk followed by Hotel California by the Eagles at 0149. 2+1 time pips at 0200 followed by "Radio Nacional da Angola" ID prior to news. Several IDs after news followed by pop music program including theme from the movie Titanic. Fair (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 29 (December 16, 17 and 18, 2007), Ten-Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX-340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. Radio Continental, Buenos Aires: Fue captada por este servidor el pasado lunes de 17 de diciembre, a través de la frecuencia de los 15820 (SSB) a las 0030 UT. La frecuencia es un enlace perteneciente a la Armada Argentina, retransmitiendo la programación de diversas emisoras de ese país hacia las tropas acantonadas en la Antártida. En ese momento presentaban el progroma "Gira Continental", un espacio dedicado difundir el turismo argentino. SINPO: 43333 (Jorge García Rangel, Barinas, Venezuela, Dec 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 6214.1, R. Baluarte, Ptº Iguazú, 2205-2214, 21 Dec, Brazilian Portuguese, talks, songs; 14331 and better using LSB due to QRM on the USB. Better reception on 22 Dec at 2255 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AZORES, 1503, AFN, Base Aérea das Lajes, Terceira island, 223[sic]- 2242, 15 Dec, talks; 32441, QRM de E[spanha] (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4409.9, R. Eco, Reyes, 2345-..., 16 Dec, Spanish, folk songs, few talks; 24331, sporadic utility QRM. Better on 17 Dec at 2326. (Gonçalves) 4545.3, R. Virgen de los Remedios (?), Tupiza, 2313-2324, 17 Dec, Spanish, talks; 12341, CODAR QRM. (Gonçalves) 4699.25, R. San Miguel, Riberalta, 2239-2255, 21 Dec, Spanish, Paraguayan songs, announcements for local show, communiqués, advertisements; 44343, CODAR QRM. (Gonçalves) 4699.4, R. San Miguel, Riberalta, 2307-2320, 17 Dec, Spanish, light songs, announcement for program "(...)" "de las comunidades para las comunidades"; 33342, CODAR QRM. (Gonçalves) 4796.3, R. Mallku, Uyuni, 2240-2251, 17 Dec, Aymara, talks; 24341, adjacent QRM de China 4800 + CODAR. Better on 18 Dec at 2335. (Gonçalves) 4865, R. Logos via R. Centenario, Stª Cruz de la Sierra, 2237-2250, 17 Dec, Spanish, religious pops (!), talks about Christmas; 34332, QRM de B[rasil]. (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOUVET ISLAND. 3Y, BOUVET ISLAND (Update). Rhynhardt, ZS6DXB, reports (edited): "On December 19th, Petrus, ZS6GCM, was granted temporary permission to operate an Amateur Radio Station for the duration of the 2007/2008 scientific expedition from Bouvet Island. The callsign will be 3Y0E. We would like to use this opportunity to thank Tom V. Segalstad, LA4LN, and Trond Olsen, LA8XM, for the wonderful help and time they dedicated in obtaining permission to operate from Bouvet Island. Secondly, we would like to welcome Colin McGowan, MM0NDX, to the team. Colin has donated a dedicated Web site for the expedition and will act as the webmaster. We are hoping to receive regular logbook updates from Petrus via satellite phone and will have a logbook search page where you can look if you are in the log. The official 3Y0E operation Web page address is: http://www.3y0e.com The site is under construction, and we plan to have it fully operational in a couple of days. Feel free to visit the site on a regular basis for the latest news from Petrus. Emil Stoikov, LZ3HI, has begun design on the 3Y0E QSL card. Emil has donated the QSL card design and printing free of charge. He will also act as the official QSL Manager for 3Y0E. Previews of cards that were designed and printed by Emil can be found on his Web page at: http://www.lz3hi.com We look forward to present you all with the official QSL card when it is done. 3Y0E QSL information is: Emil Stoikov, P.O. Box 8, 6000 Stara Zagora, BULGARIA. Petrus will be notified via Satellite phone of his new callsign and permission to start operating. We certainly look forward to bring you more exiting news in the near distant future." Just a reminder, operator Petrus, ZS6GCM, is expected to be active from Bouvet Island, probably for the next three months. He is with a five member team on the island and is their medic. The operator does have a vertical antenna for 40/20/15/10 meters but no amplifier. He is also a newly licensed amateur and has no experience in pile-ups. So, please go easy on him. Activity will be during his spare time only. Also, Rhynhardt, ZS6DXB, is the 3Y0E Pilot Station and Media Officer. His E-mail address is: zs6dxb @ kats.za.net (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster, DX Bulletin No. 838, December 24, 2007, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Logs Brasil 23-12-2007 --- Hola, 23/12/2007 2240 9685.00 R. Gazeta B 35533 male speaker 23/12/2007 2207 11780.00 R. Nacional Amazônia B 35533 mx LA 23/12/2007 2211 11784.60 R. Guaíba B 25532 mx LA 23/12/2007 2216 11814.98 R. Brasil Central B 45533 mx Beatles, ads 23/12/2007 2225 11915.17 R. Gaúcha B 25532 male speaker Merry Xmas, Feliz navidad! (Mathias Eisenkolb, Germany, AOR AR7030+ ALA1530S+, HCDX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4885, R. Club do Pará, Belém PA, 1905-2001, 15 Dec, football match report, advertisements; 15331 but reached 45444 prior to 2000. (Gonçalves) 4885, R. Difª Acreana, Rio Branco AC, 2232-2248, 18 Dec, news (not A Voz do Brasil though as aired via co-channel R. Club do Pará), songs at 2234. (Gonçalves) 9505, R. Record, São Paulo SP, 1912-1941, 20 Dec, program about dental care, news, infos; 33442, adjacent QRM which got stronger at 1930; then good reception later at 2230. (Gonçalves) 11804.8, R. Globo, Rio de Janº RJ, 1842-1907, 16 Dec, football news, match report; 33442, QRM de Family R. (Gonçalves) 11925.5, R. Bandeirantes, São Paulo SP, 1905-1923, 16 Dec, football news program "Domingo Desportivo Bandeirantes"; 33442, QRM de Saudi Arabia; then rated 44444 at 1930 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) + many more Brazilians in full report on the dxldyg (gh) ** CANADA [and non]. MW FRONT: From across the "pond", Canadian stations were found fading in as early as 1900, viz. 590 VOCM, 740 CHCM, 650 CKGA, the regular ones, then 1660 WWRU [NJ] with its usual programs in Korean would arrive as early as 2000 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 1900 UT = 1530 NST (gh) ** CHAD. 4905 (reactivated), RD. Natle. Tchadienne, Grevia, 1729-1914, 20 Dec, Arabic, announcements, talks, local tunes, vernacular, tribal tunes; French 1859, news, program "Espace Jeune"; 54444; I was unable to monitor its s/on time, but estimate it as being 1600, and 4905 is ex-6165 evenings only for the latter is used during the day. (Gonçalves) 6165, RD. Natle. Tchadienne, Grevia, 1328-..., 19 Dec, French, news; 25332, QRM de Croatia later on only. Check my 22 Dec obs (Gonçalves) 6165, RD. Natle. Tchadienne, Grevia, 1113-1400, 22 Dec, vernacular, talks,..., French at 1340 when signal rated 25342,..., tribal songs at 1450; 13441, QRM de Croatia whose signal is usually felt well after 1400. As from 20 Dec, this frequency was replaced by 4905 for the evening period starting at approx. 1600 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) As usual on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres longwire: NEW 4904.97, 1800-2228*, TCD, 21 and 22-12, Rdif. Nationale Tchadienne, N'Djamena. Back from 6165 with strong signal, French except Arabic 1810-1855, news in both languages, Afropop, stronger than Tibet from *2100, closed with National Anthem 45444, later. 44434. AP-DNK NEW 4904.97, *0427-0610, TCD, 22-12, Rdif. Nationale Tchadienne, N'Djamena French ID: "Ici N'Djamena, Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne" after National Anthem, frequency announcement and program preview, Afropop, first much noise on frequency 35333, but ca. 0500 improving to 45444 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdxyg via DXLD) 4904.5 [sic], RN Tchadienne, 0525, 12/22. Fair, with M in French. It wasn't there when I started checking at 0430. It is listed for *0425 in the 2001 WRTH - the most recent listing I could find. Better level at 2203 hours later. Nice to have this one back! (Gerry Dexter, Lake Geneva WI, NRD 515, NRD 545, eton E-1, NASWA Flashsheet Dec 23 via DXLD) 4904.9, R. Dif. Tchadienne-N'Djamena, 2103 12/22/07, very poor at tune-in; slowing improving to 2150 with talk in French and guitar music (Jim Ronda, Tulsa, OK, NRD-545; R-75; E-1 + Eavesdropper, GMDSS- 2 vertical, and three (!) homebrew FlexTennas (all of which survived last week's ice storm), ibid.) 4904.9, R. N. Tchadianne (N`Djamena), 2225, 12/22/07, in French. OM, YL, OM with several musical bridges, 2228 ID & Afropop, OM talk, 2241 mention of N'Djamena and "Radio Nationale Tchadianne", OM talk; away from the radio between 2240-2247, signal sinking fast when I returned, OM, anthem, off 2301 (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, R-75, Eton E1, Grundig Sat 800 & G4000; 110' random wire, Eavesdropper, Flextenna, ibid.) 4905, Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne, 2219-2229* Dec 20. Lively highlife vocals hosted by a man announcer with French talks. ID and sign off announcements at 2227 followed by orchestra National Anthem at 2228. Fair to good signal (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 29, Ten-Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX-340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, ibid.) 4905, Radio N'djamena [sic], 2049, 12/22/07. Fair at tune-in. Listened until 2243 tune-out. Rapidly improved to steady S9 with lots of Afro Pop and YL announcer. Sounded great with 7030+ synchronous detector (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines IA, AOR AR7030+, Wellbrook 330S Loop, ibid.) 4905, CHAD. R Nationale Tchadienne, 2115-2300*, 12/22/07, French. Hilife music and more hilife music, with DJ commentary liberally sprinkled in, signoff 2300 w/presumed national anthem. Surprisingly strong signal beginning well before local sunset. Fair/good (Mark Schiefelbein, Springfield, MO, Kenwood R-5000 & Eton E1, Wellbrook 330S loop antenna, ibid.) 4905, Radiodiffusion National Tchadienne. 2226-2300*. 22 Dec 07. French. OM announcer with DJ patter between selections ranging from Afropop to Barry White and Michael Jackson clones. Off with presumed NA. Nearly armchair quality. VG (Joe Wood, Greenback, TN, Eton E1 with 21` wire, DX 390, Grundig Mini 100PE, ibid.) ** CHILE. VC, 11745, 24 Dec at 0022 in Portuguese. Awful modulation. Fair signal but not at all readable. Better at 0300 recheck (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 5910, R. Marfil Estéreo via LV de tu Conciencia, Lomalinda, 2338-2354, 21 Dec, Spanish, light songs; 45444. (Gonçalves) 6010, LV de tu Conciencia, Lomalinda, 2334-2352, 21 Dec, Spanish, preaching; 34443, QRM de China which got stronger towards 0000 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHRISTMAS ISLANDS [non]. Glenn, Your note in DXLD 7-157. The visit to Christmas Island [x2] was figurative, not literal. Both are very difficult and expensive to reach in reality, unless one is a refugee trying to enter Australia in which case the former [Howard] administration provided free flights to the internment camp on Christmas Island Indian Ocean. Merry Christmas! 73, (David Ricquish, NZ, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Listened to the RNZI Mailbox Dec 24 at 1330 on 5950. Strangely enough, it ran 27-28 minutes; sometimes, it`s up to 10 minutes shorter. After all the publicity, was a bit disappointed in the Xmas Islands angle. I was at least expecting to hear a clip of VLU2, but all we got was about a minute of background on history of broadcasting for each island, mixed in with other material. Also, shouldn`t ``Kiritimati`` be pronounced ending in -s just like Kiribati? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. Radio Nacional de Colombia: Captada el pasado sábado 22 de diciembre, en la frecuencia de los 680 kHz de la onda media, presentando el programa "De otras partes" conducido por el locutor Jaime Andrés Monsalve, dedicando un especial sobre la música brasileña. A las 0100 UT con un SINPO de 44434 ¡Cordiales 73´s! (Jorge García Rangel, Barinas, Venezuela, Dec 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Barranquilla ** COLOMBIA [and non]. As a result of some correspondence in late November/early December about the Voz de tu Conciencia conflict with XEOI on 6010, Martin Stendal of LVC copied to me some of his correspondence, which gives us a good idea of the problems he faces and his point of view (gh) --- Muy estimado Jeff, Estuvimos apagados durante varias semanas haciendo cambios a nuestro transmisor y antenas para tratar de mejorar la situación con Julián Santiago. También tenemos la obligación ante el Ministerio de Communicaciones de Colombia de permanecer al aire las 24 horas con 5000 vatios de potencia o podríamos recibir una severa multa y sanción y ya no podemos tener la emisora apagada durante la noche. A continuación están algunas cosas de fondo, comunicaciones con Galcom, etc. No sé porque Glen[n] Hauser, un autodeclarado ateo quien había dicho ser imparcial se acaba de ir otra vez por el lado de Julián Santiago. Parece que la programación nuestra de orientación cristiana hacia los actores del conflicto armado en Colombia le molesta muchísimo. [This refers to my monitoring the fact that both stations were again colliding after 0700 UT on 6010, after being requested by Santiago to check it out --- this was a fact, not taking sides. However, there apparently was a misunderstanding somewhere along the line of communication that LVC had `promised` not to do so. FYI, if I had to choose, I would side with Martin (a.k.a. Russ) Stendal against the FARC. This does not mean I approve of his evangelistic mission, but if it reduces bloodshed, it`s does some good. For those who don`t know Stendal`s life story, he was taken hostage by the FARC, but finally managed to talk his way out and according to him, convert some of them to his religion. --- Glenn Hauser] Ya no sé qué más podemos hacer. Parece, según Glen[n] Hauser, que los cambios que acabemos de hacer con mucho costo y esfuerzo no sirvieron para nada. Le agradecemos a usted, Jeff, por sus buenos oficios para arreglar la situación con la 5910. En cuanto a la 6010, ya no podemos hacer nada más, a menos de que tuvieramos el dinero para hacer otro intento. Bendiciones y gracias por su ayuda, (Martin Stendal to Jeff White, Dec 2, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) And he also sent some earlier correspondence about the 6010 and 5910 interference problems; Radio República meanwhile quit not only the latter frequency, but that transmission entirely (unless 5954.1, weak from unknown location somehow replaces it.) (gh) --- Dear Russell, I attended the National Association of Short-Wave Broadcasting conference at HCJB in Elkhart Indiana just recently. The president Jeff White of NASB spoke to me about an overlapping of SW signals with your ministry and theirs in Mexico. Concern might be that one or the other might have to change frequency or a compromise be made. I was then asked to help. Since Galcom USA has so much money involved in the 6010 frequency, a change would be devastating. I just received an E-mail from Jeff and I quote what he has written below. "I want to thank you very much for offering to help the folks at Colombia for Christ (Russell Stendal) with the interference problem they have with Radio Mil in Mexico. To summarize the situation, their transmissions on 6010 kHz are interfering at night with another small shortwave station in Mexico City, Radio Mil, which has been on 6010 kHz for about 50 years or so. (Radio Mil is lower power -- one kilowatt -- and it apparently does not interfere with the Colombian station.) Some time ago, Colombia for Christ asked the Colombian Ministry of Communications for a change of frequency, but it was denied. And now, since they have all of the fix-tuned radios on 6010 kHz, of course they don't want to have to change the frequency. I believe they are using a simple dipole antenna on 6010 kHz with 5 kilowatts, so I would think that this could be made somewhat directional to minimize the signal going towards Mexico. But this is beyond my technical expertise, so I sincerely hope that you can help them with this. The person who is working with Colombia for Christ in Bogotá (and who contacted me initially) is Rafael Rodríguez, who is a shortwave listener. I don't know the extent of his technical knowledge (or his knowledge of English), but he has been working with Russell Stendal. His e-mail is: rafaelcoldx @ yahoo.com If whoever works with them on this problem can inform me of any actions they take, I would appreciate it so that I can keep the people at Radio Mil in Mexico informed and they can see if the interference problem is eliminated or reduced. In the meantime, I am working with Rafael Rodríguez to register the two shortwave frequencies used by Colombia for Christ with the High Frequency Coordinating Conference (HFCC) in Prague, so that future interference problems can be avoided. I really appreciate your help with this matter, as both Colombia for Christ and Radio Mil are excellent institutions which very much value their shortwave transmissions, and I would like for them both to be able to co-exist and carry on their excellent works." Would you review this and let’s talk about it. I have also copied this to Gary Nelson, Chairman of the US Board, so he would be fully aware of this matter. I am sure the Lord will give us the wisdom to sort this out. I await your reply brother. In His previous service, Allan McGuirl, International Director; [cc?] Cheryl, Secretary Galcom International (May 22, 2007, via Martin Stendal, DXLD) Dear Allan, We have been dealing with this matter for quite some time. Here is what has happened: When we got our license on 6010 years ago, the Mexican station, Radio Mil, was apparently off the air. We ran all our tests and the Colombian Ministry of Communications ran their tests (this included many months of them monitoring and then many months of us running a test signal until our final license was approved). Quite a while after we were licensed and after we had already distributed a number of Galcom radios fix-tuned to 6010, one Mexican began to complain. The radio station, Radio Mil, in Mexico has never officially complained to us. It is a doctor named Julián Santiago who is a DX buff and is somehow tied to the short wave repeater of Radio Mil (an AM station on 1000 kHz in Mexico City) on 6010 who has done all of the complaining. Julián has a DX program that is aired on Radio Mil twice a week. [but not for a long time now, due to this problem --- gh] Starting well over two years ago we made a concerted effort to try to minimize our signal towards Mexico. All this just on the observation of Julián Santiago with no other confirmed listener reports of our supposed strong signal strength in Mexico. No short wave listeners of Radio Mil in Mexico have EVER complained to us, nor has the official management of the station. Since there is a dead zone around every short wave transmitter Julián likes to get into the middle of the dead zone around his transmitter and then see if he can hear our station. After extremely costly changes to our antenna system we finally got Julián to admit that our signal was not coming into Mexico at all. By this time it was not coming into Bogotá either for that matter or into most of Northern Colombia. However, this did not fix the problem for very long. Our antenna shift caused our signal to increase in strength into Spain and Europe and resulted in less QSL listener reports for Julián Santiago in Mexico from his DX program that goes out over Radio Mil. So he started to badmouth us again all over the international DX community. When this happened after he had said that he was satisfied with our antenna changes we kind of lost heart in trying to keep on pleasing him, plus our engineer here and Rafael Rodríguez and myself were tired of all this, so we just went and put our antennas how they were at the beginning and figured that Julián would give us the same amount of problem no matter what we did with our antennas. Legally we are only required to meet the standards and requirements of the Colombian Ministry of Communications. There is no international obligation. Colombia has used this frequency for decades and before it was assigned to us other radio stations here in Colombia were on 6010 dating back to the 1930`s. The main time that Julián Santiago complains is in January and February when conditions of propagation are highest for this frequency in the Northern Hemisphere. This Year Radio Mil was off the air on short wave most of the winter, but then Julián started to complain again when it came back on in March. Right now during the summer we are definitely NOT causing him any significant interference. But he has complained strongly about us even when for some technical reason our transmitter has been off the air. I had thought of limiting our transmissions or turning off our transmitter on Sunday nights when Julián likes to get listener reports from his program but the Colombian Government will not allow us to intentionally shut off our transmitter. If we do this we could be severely fined, or sanctioned. I have considered putting our antennas back into an orientation that would minimize the signal to Northern Colombia and Mexico and maximize the signal to Venezuela and Europe. This will not end Julián`s complaints but it will make it very hard for him to say that our signal interferes with Mexico. However it means sacrificing much of Colombia, although it might be good to have strong coverage in Venezuela, even though we have not sent many radios there. The other thing that we could do would be to design and build a Lazy H antenna system which would keep our signal within Colombia. I had talked this over with Wayne Borthwick and if we had the money Wayne could probably come down and do this. This would also have some disadvantages for us, first the cost of thirty or more thousand dollars in towers and materials plus whatever Wayne would need, but then the signal would not reach well into the remote areas of Colombia (most people who do the Lazy H do this because they want to fill in the dead zone around the transmitter (between a radius of 30 and 210 km). We don`t really need to do this because we can fill this gap with our AM and FM signals. Wayne has simulated models with his computer of what would happen with various types of antennas. I am almost certain that if we were to give in to Julián and change frequency that he would probably forget about 6010 and go off the air like he was before we started. He thrives on controversy and sometimes I get the impression that he might not even sleep well if he did not have someone like us to campaign against. If someone donates us money to build a set of Lazy H antennas we will go ahead and do so. There is another station on 6010 in Brazil about as far south of us as Radio Mil is north of us in Mexico. The Brazilians have never complained about us or we of them although there are several time periods when we have to put up with a little bit of overlap. This is normal in Short Wave and stations all over the world experience this and take it in stride without calling each other names or being profane. Both of these stations are around 3500 miles from us and the only times there seems to be a bit of overlap is in the wee hours of the morning for brief periods of time. Please let me know your thinking on this. If you feel from the Lord to help us make some new antennas we are willing to go ahead and do so, otherwise I plan to do my best to change our antenna orientation away from Mexico for the coming winter season. We are also hoping to be able to build a standby short wave transmitter; we really need two, one for each frequency so that we will not run the risk of all those green Galcom radios going dead if we have transmitter problems. Another problem that we have is that a station called Radio República transmits during the summer season on 5910 with an anti-Castro set of programming aimed at Cuba. This is coming out of Germany with about 500 kW of power. The problem is that this signal overpowers our 5910 signal from about 6 pm to about 10 pm Colombia Time and the guerrillas sometimes think that we are the ones doing this because they can hear this anti-communist, anti-Castro station on our green Galcom Radios. We have received a number of threats due to all of this. On the flip side, the Colombian government likes this type of thing and so they listen to it and think that we must be tied into the US government or something big which they suppose is behind these huge broadcasts. This may be part of the reason that the Colombian Air Force has been helping us to drop the parachutes with the Galcom radios. Right now we are working on some new antenna towers that should minimize our signal into Mexico and this should be accomplished by mid Fall. PS: It is also possible that someone somewhere having to do with Radio República found out about us being on 5910 and about all the thousands of Galcom radios that we have distributed into the left leaning guerrilla areas of Colombia and that is why they have chosen to transmit on 5910. Their programming is not all that bad; the only bad part is us being blamed for it. Just about anything that we do down here in these delicate areas is quite a battle. It is a financial battle, a battle to get the licenses, a technical battle to get everything running and to keep it all running, a spiritual battle and so on. There are lots of people like Julián running around and trying their best to stop each and every one of our radio stations. So far, by the grace of God they have not been able to succeed. Blessings, Russ Stendal, June 22, 2007 (to Allan McGuirl, Galcom, via Stendal, DXLD) This whole thing is really a comedy of errors, and there are two root causes: Stendal buying into the extremely flawed Galcom strategy of fix-tuned radios, which means once set, you are stuck with whatever interference may appear; and the fact that neither Mexican nor Colombian administrations understand shortwave and the need for frequency-agility. A couple of minor frequency shifts could have avoided all this --- and still could (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO DR [non]. Since no one, least of all the person who said it, replied to my previous query about the claim that R. Okapi is for both Congos, I checked the general info page about it at Hirondelle, and indeed find mention only of the DR: http://www.hirondelle.org/hirondelle.nsf/caefd9edd48f5826c12564cf004f793d/8603a2d41fc59612c1256b3c004bb371?OpenDocument (Glenn Hauser, OK, Dec 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Re mailing to Cuba -- there is no more parcel post from the US to any other country. International surface mail no longer exists, so the categories listed as available for Cuba are the same as those for virtually the rest of the world (Mike Cooper, Dec 24, DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. R. República`s collision with Marfil: see COLOMBIA; via WDHP: see VIRGIN ISLANDS US ** CYPRUS. 9760, Cyprus BC Corp, Limassol, *2215-2244*, Dec 23, Sign on with Greek music. Greek talk. Local folk music along with radio- drama. Greek guitar music. Sign on & sign off with the same Greek tune. Fair signal. // 7210-fair level but mixing with a strong Radio China International; // 6180-very weak under Brazil. Fri, Sat, Sun only (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 4781.6, R. Oriental, Tena, 2253-2303, 17 Dec, Spanish, talks, children's voices, pps, TCs; 22341, utility QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Radio Africa, Bata, 1145-1329*, Dec 24, Just beginning to fade in around 1145 with threshold level. Slowly improved to a weak level by 1210. Never improved beyond a weak signal strength. Some individual English religious programming suffered from distortion or weak modulation. Sign off with "Radio Africa Network" ID announcement at 1328 along with mentions of RadioAfricaNetwork.com and PanAmericanBroadcasting.com websites, postal address and e-mail address (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 7100, Voices of the Broad Masses of Eritrea ­ Program 1, 0431-0504 Dec 18. Horn of Africa vocal by a man followed by a woman announcer in Tigrinya. After some flashy music, a man began speaking alternating with brief HoA instrumental music segments. The woman began speaking again at 0445. At 0455 a man read the news. 5+1 time pips at 0500 followed by a woman announcer with ID and frequency announcement. After a segment of lively music, another woman began a long talk. Fair. 7175, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea ­ Program 2, *0355-0435 Dec 18. IS with short, brief talks over it by a man and woman. Opening at 0400 with ID and frequency announcements followed by the news. Frequent breaks in transmission marred reception. Good signal when it was on (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 29, Ten- Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX- 340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ORGANS EXPOSE ETHIOPIA'S JAMMING OF ERITREAN RADIO | Text of report in English by Eritrean Ministry of Information's Shabait website on 21 December Asmara, 21 December: Two media organs, namely the BBC Monitoring (BBCM) and the Netherlands Media (RN) disclosed that the TPLF [Tigray People's Liberation Front, dominant party with in Ethiopian ruling coalition] regime's jamming of the Eritrean media has been stepped up to a great extent. In a statement they issued, the two media organizations indicated that the regime's resort to muffling the Eritrean media outlets has been continuing in a stepped-up manner, and that such acts of jamming have been reinforced as of 18 December. In a related report, although the programs of the Voice of America are being muffled in Ethiopia, VOA staff members have been given instructions by their senior heads not to broadcast any report or information about the jamming. Source: Shabait website, Asmara, in English 21 Dec 07 (via BBCM via DXLD) Dimitse Tewahedo SNAFU: See U S A WHRA ** ETHIOPIA. ETIOPÍA, 9558, Radio Etiopía, 1430-1440, escuchada el 24 de diciembre en árabe a locutora con boletín de noticias, titulares separados de un segmento musical, probable referencia al Kurdistán, SINPO 33433 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), Spain, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, YAESU FRG-7700, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Further off-frequency than usual from nominal 9560; is this an approximation? (gh, DXLD) ** FIJI. My favorite Christmas DX memory happened in 1982. My wife and I spent Christmas eve at her parents' place and then attended midnight mass. When we arrived home at about 2 a.m., I decided to spin the dials for a few minutes before going to bed. Tuning around on medium wave, I mostly heard the usual domestic stations I can hear every night. The single exception was a station on 1467, which turned out to be Radio Fiji with Hindi programming. Certainly an interesting contrast to the normal Christmas season radio fare. The station faded in and out, and wasn't all that strong, but I heard enough for a report. The QSL arrived in July. It was the only time I've heard the station here at home, and something I wouldn't expect to hear unless there was a good opening with lots of other down under stations. Merry Christmas everyone (Bruce in Seattle Portzer, Dec 24, HCDX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Re 7-157, Gloria on 6140, then 5965: 6140 is the new frequency for the rotating 1300 UT Sunday broadcasts supposed not to go into effect until January (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. Glenn: I tuned in to the "Greek In Style" program with Adrianna in English introducing songs by Greek composers on the Voice of Greece from 0005 to 0105 UT Monday. Unfortunately 7475 was very noisy and I had to give up after about 15 minutes. I heard nothing on 9420 and 12105 is not audible in this area (John Babbis, Silver Spring MD, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. Tried to listen to R. Maya, as in 7-156, Dec 24 at 0419, without getting the VLC player they recommend; opening URL mms://stream2.radioevangelica.com/radiomaya in WM player, it runs, but with a big buzz, evidently what is being fed from Barillas, traces of speech in unID language underneath; tsk2, have heard it better on 3325 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4750 (Sulawesi). RRI ­ Makassar, 2135-2203 Dec 16. Talk by a man and woman in Indonesian followed by a program of vocals hosted by a woman announcer. Local ID at 2144 before a vocal selection. Another local ID by the woman announcer at 2158 followed by the Song of the Coconut Islands. RRI ID by a man at 2200 followed by Jakarta news. Fair to good at peak but fading over time (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 29, Ten-Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX-340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9526.0, Voice of Indonesia, Dec 24, open carrier on at 0736, on till 0801, into program in English, weak. They did not play their usual gamelan music and English ID recorded loop before ToH (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. AIRBORNE INTERNET MIGHT BRING TURBULENCE By Anick Jesdanun, AP Internet Writer / December 23, 2007 NEW YORK — Seat 17D is yapping endlessly on an Internet phone call. Seat 16F is flaming Seat 16D with expletive-laden chats. Seat 16E is too busy surfing porn sites to care. Seat 17C just wants to sleep. Welcome to the promise of the Internet at 33,000 feet -- and the questions of etiquette, openness and free speech that airlines and service providers will have to grapple with as they bring Internet access to the skies in the coming months. . . http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/12/23/airborne_internet_might_bring_turbulence/ (via John Wesley Smith, KC0HSB, DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Israel`s final week on SW? Winter B-07 schedule for Kol Israel till Dec. 31: AMHARIC 1900-1930 on 6985 9345 [& check this for jamming] ENGLISH 0430-0445 on 6280 7545 17600 from Dec. 15 1030-1045 on 13855 15760 1830-1845 on 6985 7545 9345 15640 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Nov 12 via DXLD 7-136) Here`s the sked, converted to UT, reorganized by gh, clutter removed: KOL-ISRAEL" Short-Wave Programme Schedule - From 28 October 2007 to 31 December 2007 English 0430-0445 N America/W. Europe 9345 6280 @ N America/W. Europe 7545 C America/Australia 17600 English 1030-1045 N America/W Europe 15760 N America/W Europe 13855 English 1830-1845 N America/W Europe 6985 N America/W Europe 7545 South Africa 15640 N America/W Europe 9345 Alternative frequencies when reception conditions require change (@@) Valid from 15.12.07 - 28.2.08 (@) Israel Local Time = UTC +3 [sic! It`s +2 in winter!] Moshe Oren-BEZEQ, Engineering Radio & TV Broadcasting Mobile: +972507632574 Fax: +97239410909 Tel: +97239554120 IBA - Kol Israel Radio P. O. Box 1082, Jerusalem 91010, Israel FAX +972-2-5313376 E-mail: raphaelk @ iba.org.il (via Moshe Oren, Israel, DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-129) The Israel Radio schedule has been posted on israelradio.org at: http://israelradio.org/sw.htm It's not on the IBA's website yet (Doni Rosenzweig, Oct 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-129) Which still says on Dec 24: ``FREQUENCIES ARE VALID FROM October 28, to December 31, 2007 It has not been confirmed whether shortwave transmission will continue after this date`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The IBA has just extended shortwave transmissions of Israel Radio for three more months (Doni Rosenzweig, Dec 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Never mind ** KURDISTAN. 6335, IRAQ, Voice of Iraqi Kurdistan - Salah al Din, 0402-0440 Dec 18. Instrumental music with a man speaking in Kurdish over the music. Kurdish instrumental music and vocals followed the talk. Occasional combination of talks by a woman accompanied by Kurdish instrumental music. Poor to fair but in the clear (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 29, Ten-Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX-340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non?]. CLANDESTINES: 3880, V of Iranian Revolution, site? (No. Iraq?), 1725-1733, 19 Dec, Farsi (?), talks; 22441, jammed. (Gonçalves) 4365.9, V of Communist Party of Iran, site? (No. Iraq?), 1715-1730, 19 Dec, Kurdish (?), talks, tunes; 32441, jammed. (Gonçalves) 4840, V of Iranian Kurdistan (tentative), Al-Sulaymaniyah, IRQ, 1535- 1548, 20 Dec, Kurdish (?), talks; 22431, jammed (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA. 4760, ELWA, Monrovia, 1944-1957, 20 Dec, English, religious radioplay; 44343, adjacent utility QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA [non]. 9525, Star Radio via Ascension, 0708-0731, Dec 24, in English and vernacular, YL with "Star Contact" program, with recorded messages to family members, messages can be given at Star Radio or via e-mail, African music, fair-poor (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 3287.7, R. Nasionaly Malagasy, Ambohidrano, 1833-1849, 16 Dec, French, radioplay; 22341, utility QRM; parallel to 5010 very strong though a bit distorted (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 30 years ago today, on Christmas Eve/morning, Radiodiffusion Nationale du Mali-7110. Sign-on at 0800 UT, Dec. 25, 1977. Don't remember too much about the programming, except that their national anthem was about 15 minutes long!! QSLed in about 2 months; go to http://webhome.idirect.com/~aum108/dx.html to view card. 73 (Mike Brooker Toronto, ON, HCDX via DXLD) ** MAURITANIA. 7245, R. Mauritanie, Nouakchott, 1245-1328, 19 Dec, Vernacular/Arabic, talks, ID, local tunes, advertisements (?), newscast 1300, chanting; 45444. This is not being audible mornings (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. See COLOMBIA [and non], 6010 collision ** MICRONESIA. Just went out to the mailbox and retrieved a QSL from Pacific Missionary Aviation Radio (The Cross). Heard here on October 5, 2007 on 4755.25 kHz from 1115 to 1200. V/S looks to be Roland Weibel, Radio Station Manager, The Cross Radio. I had sent a prepared card, but they have had some nice cards printed up. Very happy to receive this on Christmas Eve! My 222'nd NASWA Country QSL'd! (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, Dec 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. 4830, Mongoliin R, Altay, 2222-2230, 21 Dec, Mongolian, talks, tunes; 24341, CW QRM. (Gonçalves) 4895, Mongoliin R, Murun, 2218-2232, 21 Dec, Mongolian, talks, tunes; 25342; parallel to 4830 Altay (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. 1643v, RTM-"B", site?, 1128-2320, 16 Dec, French, talks,..., English at 1440, French at 1600,..., news at 2200, classical music; 45444 so causing a mess when DXing around this frequency as if the many & powerful sounding Greek pirate stations were not enough! This is still putting an FM-like signal that is simply not adequate for receiving if you leave your rx on the AM/DSB mode, and this is still why I am unable to determine the exact fq except by approximate reading via sharpened bw on AM, thence "1643 kHz". During the day, the signal is stable of course, but oscillates a bit after sunset, and again too, I found no "regular" carrier airing this channel within the band (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. See CHRISTMAS ISLANDS [non] ** NIGERIA. 756, unID out of 3 listed Nigerian stations, possibly R. Oyo, Ibadan, 1840-1909, 22 Dec, Vernacular, talks, phone numbers announced in English, African pop, short and fast drum beat after what I believe was the station ID; 33432, QRM de several stations. This seemed some religious station or then a religious program. (Gonçalves) 4770, R. Nigeria, Kaduna, 1501-..., 22 Dec, English, BBC (?) relay for football match rerport Liverpool v Portsmouth (?); 25332. I checked BBC R5, and it was airing a different match. I observed 4770 on 17 Dec at 1125 when it was barely audible. (Gonçalves) 6090, R. Nigeria, Kaduna, 2231-2239, 20 Dec, Vernacular, talks, tribal songs; 42441, QRM de Belarus; bad audio (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Oklahoma City KOMA 92.5 drops HD. At least one has dumped it. How this will work out in the end remains to be seen. I have stopped using my HD receiver, a Radio Shack Accurian. HD radio DX is discouraging because a station 300 km away can be tuned in at times, but then fade into nothingness (Bruce F. Elving, Ph.D., MN, Nov-Dec FMedia! via DXLD) ** OMAN. 15140, Radio Sultanate of Oman, 1425-1435, Dec 24, Looking for Oman but only hear a weak carrier & no audio (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Re 7-157, 4890 at 0500? --- Olá Glenn, Esta sua observação é verdade, eu escrevi errado, o correto (hora UT) é 0900. O programa a que me refiro (de notícias pela NBC 4890 em 2006) é bem provável que foi transmitido também, não todos os dias, pela 3905 kHz R. New Ireland PNG neste ano de 2007, claro, no mesmo horário (0900 UT). Haviam algumas semelhanças, mas é uma hipótese. 73's (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Brasil, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4775, Radio Tarma, 1049-1100 Dec 24 with typical Huayños type music, signal was at a fair level still, at least for this part of the band. At 1057 live Spanish comments from a male for a few moments, then back into the Huayños music. Weak live ID on the hour, followed by religious music -. This is followed with religious comments briefly by a female. Canned ID at 1104, "...Onda media ... Tarma ..." Signal was fair to poor and getting hit by CODAR. [another log of this below] 4955, Radio Cultural Amauta, 1110-1120 Dec 24. Initially heard clear, clean Huayños music. At 1112, a male in Spanish comments with mentions of "Perú" until 1120 and music follows that. This frequency is clear of QRM, notably the CODAR signal, consequently copy is good of this radio station (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4747.8, R. Huanta 2000, Huanta, 2234-2251, 21 Dec, Spanish, Indian pops, echoing ID; 35342. (Gonçalves) 4775, R. Tarma, Tarma, 2304-2316, 17 Dec, Spanish, program "Antena Deportiva" "a través de las potentes [500 watt!] ondas de Radio Tarma"; 33342, utility QRM. (Gonçalves) 4790.1, R. Visión, Chiclayo, 2338-2346, 18 Dec, Spanish, advertisements, announcements, songs, TCs; muffled audio; 33342, CODAR QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Nueva emisora PERUANA! Alrededor de las 1155 UT aprox capté en los 4990.8 una radio peruana; creí que era Andina de Huancayo... y la sorpresa : "transmite Manantial Radio..." inmediatamente les doy la demas data: Web page: http://galeon.com/manatial Anuncian 960 kHz, pero [sic] en la web page tienen este e-mail address: manantialradio960am@... [truncated by yg] A enviar reportes de recepción. Aprovecho para enviarles un abrazo cordial a todos y cada uno de Ustedes con motivo de la Navidad y Anho Nuevo. 73 (DXSPACEMASTER, ALFREDO BENJAMIN CAÑOTE BUENO, Lima, Perú, Dec 24, condig list via DXLD) But probably the same old off-frequency transmitter as Andina. Website says ``4985 KW onda corta satelital`` [sic]. Another gospel huxter, ``spring`` being a codeword for a fount of religionism. Bad news for Suriname if not Brasil (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Justamente capté en los 4990 kHz la mencionada radio; el transmisor está fuera de frecuencia (5 kHz +) ya que Andina salía por la misma frecuencia. 73 (Alf, condiglist via DXLD) ** QATAR. ANOTHER APPEAL FOR ALJAZEERA ENGLISH TO THE USA. "American soldiers in Kabul and elsewhere religiously watch al-Jazeera's English service. They're not only learning what they're up against. They're learning about the cultures of the people in whose defense they've been deployed. Why isn't the same service available to mass American audiences who still ask the kind of questions -- 'why do they hate us?' -- al-Jazeera answers every day, often by showing how they don't hate us, but hate our ignorance?" Editorial, Daytona Beach News- Journal, 23 December 2007 (kimandrewelliott.com 24 Dec via DXLD) There is no overt U.S. government prohibition against Aljazeera English on a multichannel carrier. Rather, it seems to be a business decision, with political and public relations factors probably playing a role. One Aljazeera English official indicated that a deal with a U.S. satellite television company is in the works (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** RUSSIA [and non]. 5960, Radiostantsiya Tikhiy Okean, 0942-1000 Dec 24. Tuned in late with a male and female in news or commentary in the Russian Language. Afterwards, Russian music for a minute or two. At 0951, Radio France International (full ID on the hour), comes on the air in Portuguese blocking Tikhiy Okean. France continues in Portuguese up to the hour, when it switches to Spanish and gives a full ID. Consequently, Radiostantsiya Tikhiy Okean is blocked effectively for the rest of the period (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RWANDA. 6055, Radio Rwanda, Kigali, 2040-2101*, Dec 23, French / vernacular talk. Local African music. Sign off with short techno-pop instrumental. Very good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAINT BARTHELEMY. ADDED NOTE: Rich, W2VU, states: "Hi all - Just one note regarding FJ - For purposes of CQ awards, it is a separate entity as of Feb 21, 2007, the date that France changed Barthélemy's status. So for the CQ DX Marathon (and any other CQ awards), any contacts with FJ on or after Feb 21, 2007, count as a separate entity. I bring this up only since the DXCC date is Dec. 14, when it was added to the US State Dept.'s special list." For more information on the CQ DX Awards, visit the following link on the CQ website at: http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/awards.html Or the CQ DX Awards homepage at: http://home.earthlink.net/~bfwillia/page3.html (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster, DX Bulletin No. 838, December 24, 2007, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** SAINT HELENA. Re Glenn's reception antenna comment in WOR 1387 item about R. St. Helena. Glenn, I believe antenna problem was on RSH's side and not on the reception side. Why? During the broadcast, when antenna was switched toward North America, around 2145 UT, I heard a bubble type noise and distorted audio. Male announcer said they were having MW tower problems like last year. I checked my log of last year's RSH reception and see the following entries. "2341 UT Listener emails. One email was from Glenn Hauser. Also male announcer gave explanation about signal breakup when switching antenna from Europe to North America. Apparently having unexpected reflections from medium wave tower near Radio St. Helena antenna. 2354 UT, Mention of good signal to the west coast of the USA, but not so good to the east coast of the USA." Surprised no one else mentioned, as far as I know, the above. 73 and Merry Christmas, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Dec 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) They`ve had more than a year to fix that problem, so why not? (gh) 11092.5-usb, "Rádio Santa Helena", Pounceys, 2338-0040, 15 Dec, songs, postoffice info, announcements, address; 25443, then better signal at 0030 despite azimuth change; 25443 and only marginal audio (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) You mean you heard them ID in Portuguese? (gh) ** SCARBOROUGH REEF. BS7H VIDEO REVIEW (by Editor Tedd, KB8NW). "Let me first say I am a big fan of James Brooks's, 9V1YC, videos. They are all PBS quality videos. If you worked the last BS7H operation in May of 2007 (or even if you didn't), you will want this DVD for your collection. There are 58 minutes of pure pleasure in knowing you worked a rare one (or at least tried to). The video gives you the complete lowdown on how Scarborough Reef became DXCC's most controversial entity, the history of the island, past operations, the difficulties of operating from there and the actual operating conditions. This only touches the surface of the video. James's keen eye for great cinemaphotography [sic] is unbelievable in this DVD (probably better to view it on a big screen). The underwater shots and the sunsets and rises are a real joy. There are also plenty of commentaries by key individuals including operators, pilot stations and past operators. You will also see how difficult and dangerous it was for the operators to operate from the four different rocks stations. You will see how operators endured skin cuts on their feet and knees while dragging their boat over the sharp coral reef between their main boat and operating positions on the four rocks. This is only a glimpse of what you will see. This DVD is definitely a five star video." The BS7H video is available at: http://www.dxvideos.com (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster, DX Bulletin No. 838, December 24, 2007, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** SERBIA [non]. 6100, BOSNIA, International Radio of Serbia via Bijeljina, 1948-2006 Dec 17. Caught end of English program with sports scores by a woman followed by a man with ID and postal and e-mail addresses encouraging correspondence. Tuning signal was played for two minutes before a pop vocal song was played. Spanish program opened at 2000 with ID and news. Fair to good signal. 7240, BOSNIA, International Radio of Serbia via Bijeljina, 2110-2200* Dec 16. German program with a man announcer giving the news followed by classical music until 2130 when a woman gave French ID ("Ici Radio Serbie Internationale") followed by the opening of the French program. News followed by classical music. Poor to fair mixing with amateur radio operators (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 29, Ten-Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX-340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 7115, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA. International Radio Serbia (Bijeljina Relay presumed), 0028-0229*, 12/21/2007, Serbian and English. Apparent reactivation of Bijeljina relay. Program of news and talk, primarily by woman, and music. Serbian 0030-0100 and 0130-0200. English 0100- 0130 and 0200-0229. Good IDs (Radio Serbia) at start of each segment following IS. Closing announcements by man at 0228. Transmission got off to rough start with only a strong unmodulated carrier from 0028 until 0034. Good signal with moderate fading. SINPO 44333 at best. Audio adequate but could have been a bit clearer (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, TenTec RX-340, Drake R8B, RF Space SDR-14; Random Wire (90'), PAR EF-SWL (200'), ibid.) Not Italian at 0130-0200 as per possibly incorrect schedule, but Serbian? That would certainly make more sense, but did you axually make sure it was not Italian? I mean to check (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** SIERRA LEONE [non]. 9525, Cotton Tree News (CTN) via Ascension, 0731-0758*, Dec 24, drums, ID "This is CTN", into news in English (items about the minimum wage, police attempt to control traffic congestion in Freetown, etc.), news in local languages, repeated the same news again in English before sign-off, fair-poor till 0736 sign-on of open carrier from Voice of Indonesia on 9526.0, resulting in strong het (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. 4396.4, COPE network station, probably in Jaén as per DF, 2327-..., 17 Dec, talks on football; 54444, just fair audio. Harmonic? Not heard on 18 Dec (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. Christmas DX Memories anyone? All. Best wishes to everyone in this holiday time. Maybe Santa's sleigh can trigger some solar activity for us as the DX season continues... I am sure that we radio buffs all have some memorable holiday DX Logs, some big, some small. Here are two of mine that have stuck with me for many years. I enjoyed writing them and resurrecting the memories into words. Maybe others can relate --- It was Christmas Eve back in the early 1980's or so. It was the first real day off from school to start the holiday break, which was very welcomed to myself as a teenager at the time. Christmas Eve seemed to be the longest day of the year for me, so I would always try to somehow occupy myself every waking moment until all the family, festivities, and gifts started later that evening. I began my morning by going over to the desk in front of my bedroom window, firing up the Sangean ATS-803 radio, and check out the bands. It was snowing and blowing outside my window, adding a very special touch, excitement, and atmosphere to the Christmas season. When I was scanning the 31 meter band, I came across a strong station playing the "Ray Conniff Christmas Album". I knew this record because Mom would frequently play it during the Holidays. I was enjoying the music so I stuck with it. Ray Conniff's "White Christmas" was playing from some foreign land just as it was happening right outside my window before my eyes. It was somewhere around 14-15 hours gmt (9-10 AM local time) when the station broke. They gave ID as "This is the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, Colombo". I was very excited as I pulled out the WRTH to look them up. Sure enough they were on 9720 as I caught the frequency announcement. They also gave a time check which did not sound right to me. The minutes did not correspond to GMT. I then learned about Sri Lanka's time difference ! This may not sound like much but it was a very memorable and special experience to add to some "tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago." The QSL came that hot summer (Stephen Price, Johnstown, PA, Dec 24, HCDX via DXLD) Continued at UGANDA ** SRI LANKA. 4S7DXG (Illegal Operation). Victor Goonetilleke, 4S7VK, Secretary RSSL, reports: "I am sorry to inform you as the Secretary of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka that Ivan, a Ukranian Ham, is operating without a valid licence. He had a Sri Lankan callsign from a previous occasion, and he applied for a renewal which has not been granted yet from the Ministry of Defense. In the meantime he is stealthily operating and also claiming to operate from IOTA 171 Barbaryn Island which needs special clearance from the Harbour Master which he hasn't received, while operating from elsewhere in Sri Lanka, again without a valid license. No one is permitted to land without this clearance on Barbarine. We have brought this to the notice of the authorities. Last time when he was in Sri Lanka he operated with his Maldivian callsign while in Sri Lanka. We are sad to say that any contacts by him should not be counted as valid." (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster, DX Bulletin No. 838, December 24, 2007, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** SUDAN. 7200, SNBC, Omdurman, 1841-1856, 18 Dec, Arabic, talks and local tunes; 43432, co-channel QRM de international broadcaster (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SURINAME. 4990, Radio Apintie, 1014-1033 Dec 17. Man announcer with Dutch talk and vocal selections. ID at 1019,vocal followed by ad string. Poor to fair with some CODAR QRM (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 29, Ten-Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX-340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) See also PERU, 4990.8 ** TAIWAN. ``Banciao`` SW site: see LANGUAGE LESSONS ** THAILAND. 9535, Radio Thailand World Service, 2037-2114* Dec 17. English program for Europe, with national news by a woman announcer followed by announcements from the Royal Kingdom and world news hosted by a man. Into Thai program at 2045 with ID and frequency announcement and news. Fair to good (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 29, Ten-Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX-340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** TUNISIA [and non]. I often listen to RTT 7190 around 0630-0700 for its Arab music tho it`s hardly soporific. For the first time on Dec 24 at 0643-0650+ I heard some deliberate QRHam, some guy exactly on frequency as BFO for his SSB counts, ``1, 2, 3, 4, 5; 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, testing…` Never heard him say anything else or ID. This raises an interesting question. Yes, hams in Americas are totally free to use this frequency, but are they totally free to use it in a one-way 5+ minute `test` without ID? Thinly disguised jamming. BTW, Tunisia is not breaking any rules; this transmission per HFCC at 04-08 is 265 degrees to CIRAF 37, which is Algeria and Morocco; it is just bleeding over here, even tho its 500 kW often makes it the best signal inside the 41 mb in OK. Unlike Croatia/Germany, Russia, Slovakia, etc., which really do broadcast to Americas inside our 40m hamband (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKMENISTAN. 279 kHz, Turkmen R, Asgabat, 2311-2315, 22 Dec, Turkmenian, talks, traditional songs; 15341; parallel 5015 also very poor (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. [Continued from SRI LANKA] Again, it was Christmas Eve back in the early 1990's when I sat down to the R-5000 one local late afternoon to check out the bands. It was a cold and clear afternoon with a beautiful sunset glistening upon a blanket of snow with a nice late afternoon moon in the sky. I started the DX session on 90 meters and then to 60 meters. Both bands had their regular stations propagating. Things were quite normal. However, my interests were sparked when I found a very strong signal on an odd frequency of 4975. The broadcast contained a program of traditional holiday music with a deep voiced strongly accented English announcer. Hoping this was my first good catch of Uganda, I had zero beat the frequency to 4976 and quickly paralleled it to 5026. To my total and utmost surprise, it was them. The signal was armchair quality and the reception of Radio Uganda that Christmas Eve afternoon could have matched my local AM/MW stations. Radio Uganda was holding the meter well into the red zone. The programming consisted of traditional Christmas songs and hymns. One of the songs was the upbeat version "Mary's Boy Child Jesus Christ (was born on Christmas Day)". Others consisted of Mitch Miller carols and songs from many other familiar artists. On that Christmas Eve, my parents, grandparents, and I enjoyed supper to some holiday programming, not coming from WKYE-FM, but from Radio Uganda! As we were heading out the door for church later on, the extended broadcast was still going strong as the announcer said "We will switch programming to Vatican City for Midnight Mass with Pope John Paul II." And they did. With that, I powered down and headed out for my own Mass to start the holiday festivities with a memory I will never forget. We still converse about the "Radio Uganda Christmas Eve" fifteen some-odd years later. Oddly enough, I have never heard Radio Uganda of that signal quality since that Christmas Eve. The QSL came that spring. Does anyone else have any cool memorable Christmas DX ? (Stephen Price, Johnstown, PA, Dec 24, HCDX via DXLD) ** U S A. Don`t usually hear WBCQ 17495 on weekday mornings, but there it was Dec 24 at 1445 with GFRN // 9330. Nothing from DVOBurma via Madagascar on 17495 this date (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Dimitse Tewahedo started as usual Monday Dec 24 at 1900 on WHRA 11785; they play a lot of music, good value for money? But at 1905 the transmission cut off, abruptly back to WHRA in English, announcing frequency change to 7520! OCS, then claimed they were ``now on 7520`` but really still on 11785 which had just opened 6 minutes earlier. 1907 into WHR English gospel music fill programming; still the same at 1944 recheck. Obviously, some glitch caused the program automation to run the QSY announcement at 1905 instead of 1958. Was there any human oversight to prevent or fix this ASAP? Of course not! Will the Ethiopians get their money back? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. The only somewhat unusual signal on 25m, Dec 24 at 1850 was rather muffled talk in unID language, on 11805. Then at 1856 mentions Family Radio, and Oakland. O no, not again. Did not recognize it as Swahili, but listed as such via Madagascar. I am also disappointed that even RNW availablizes its resources to this wacky ministry, seemingly bent on broadcasting via every conceivable SW relay site. This is the 50 kW transmitter aimed 320 degrees for EAf, so not too far from our azimuth too. Note: after 1900 RN uses the same frequency in English, but on much different heading, and via South Africa instead! The least RN could get out of this would be some broadcasts via Okeechobee (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WITH AIRWAVES UNDER ASSAULT, RADIO STATIONS RAISE THE ALARM By ALEX MINDLIN, December 23, 2007, Brooklyn Up Close http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/nyregion/thecity/23hait.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print ON Monday night at 10:27, listeners to the Newark-based jazz station WBGO could hear the legendary Red Norvo plunking away at the final bars of "Have You Met Miss Jones?" The station's signal, at 88.3 FM, blankets the city from Tottenville at the southern tip of Staten Island to Riverdale in the north Bronx. But WBGO fans in the heavily Haitian neighborhood of Flatbush, Brooklyn, could not hear Norvo's glistening arpeggios. At that moment on that frequency, the Flatbush listeners instead heard an echoing voice pitching a wonder pill in Creole. "Haitians!" the man cried over a raucous background of horns and drums. "This medicine cures all maladies! Constipation, depression, high cholesterol, even AIDS!" The intruding signal came from a low-power pirate broadcaster, one of many in Flatbush and nearby neighborhoods that bedevil the major stations by blocking their signals. "They're killing us," said Cephas Bowles, the general manager of WBGO. "They don't respect the F.C.C., and they don't respect the stations that have legally been licensed to operate." According to Mr. Bowles, listeners have been calling in daily with complaints. Brooklyn, over the years, has been home to dozens of pirate broadcasters, chattering in every language from Spanish to Yiddish. The Haitian-American community, with its traditional fondness for radio, is an especially receptive audience. But representatives of licensed stations say that for reasons they cannot pinpoint, the number and persistence of the pirates squatting on their frequencies has been increasing. George Evans, the head engineer at WFUV, the Fordham University radio station, said that a rising resentment about Spanish and Creole pirates had prompted him to solicit listener complaints on the station's Internet home page. The station has received 294 complaints since the notice went up in August, Mr. Evans said, most of them from listeners in Brooklyn and Paterson, N.J. Both Mr. Evans and Mr. Bowles said that they had complained to the Federal Communications Commission, but that the agency was slow to act against pirates. Since 2005, the commission has fined only one pirate broadcaster in Brooklyn, a man named Elroy Simpson of Prospect- Lefferts Gardens, who in January was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. In response to questions, David Fiske, an F.C.C. spokesman, would say only, "We don't comment on our investigative processes." But Mr. Evans of WFUV had some advice for legislators. "Florida has a very strict law where the police will come to your house, seize your equipment and throw you in jail," he said. "That's what they need for New York." (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. WDET: 2 YEARS OF TALK --- DETROIT'S MUSIC COMMUNITY IS STILL HURTING FROM THE FORMAT CHANGE AT ITS BELOVED PUBLIC RADIO STATION December 23, 2007, BY BRIAN McCOLLUM, FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER It was a premium music station for a premium music town. And two years later, they still can't stop talking about the fact that it's gone. It was this week in December 2005 when fans of WDET-FM got the news: The Detroit public radio station, locally beloved and nationally renowned, was massively scaling back its longtime music lineup in favor of syndicated news-talk programming. Passions ran high in the weeks following WDET's abrupt overhaul. Protest groups were formed, demonstrations held, donations withheld. All went for naught. The station's managers held firm to their decision -- a move driven, they said, by cold economic realities. Today, asked if the old WDET might return, the station chief answers with a sympathetic but emphatic "no." By now, the shock has subsided, but the shockwaves continue to reverberate, say many in Detroit's music world. That's not to say there's no audience for WDET's news programming; indeed, listenership has dropped by just 9% -- or less than 15,000 people -- since 2005. But the station's transformation left lingering effects on the local landscape, many say, including difficulty selling certain concerts, developing certain artists and maintaining a sense of community. . . http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071223/ENT04/712230517 (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. Blues format question --- I really enjoy blues music. And am wondering why the format hasn't seemed to catch on. Has a blues- formatted station ever succeeded in a market and/or shown up in a decent way in Arbitron or other audience-measurement ratings? I checked the latest ratings for Jackson MS and Mobile AL, the belly of the beast I'd have thought, and there's no blues to be found... http://www.radioandrecords.com/RRRatings/DefaultSearch.aspx (Saul Chernos, Ont., Dec 24, WTFDA via DXLD) Interesting question, Saul. There is quite a bit of blues in Jackson. It's found locally on WMPR-FM: http://www.wmpr901.com/index.php Now, that station, which has a very interesting history doesn't get rated, but, has always been quite popular. There have been other attempts to do Blues in the Delta, most recently by an AM in Clarksdale (the real epicenter of the Blues world), but, it just doesn't seem to work. It's all about money, of course. The Delta isn't a rated market, so it's tough to say how much of an audience the stations can find. But, money just doesn't seem to be there. Here in Memphis, Blues is also a big deal. The local Classic Rock has dabbled a time or two with Blues, with mixed results. Further, we have an HD stream here with Blues. I really like WRVR-HD2. Very cool -- everything from Robert Johnson to contemporary Blues artists. Even local stuff like Ruby Wilson. Too bad I am probably the only guy listening (Peter, N4LI, Baskind, ibid.) It's called R&B today. What you and I know as Blues (XM 74) is just music for old people. It's like Jews listening to Al Jolson, Irish people listening to Bing Crosby and Italians listening to Mario Lanza. The black equivalent to Standards stations are a few rural gospel stations on AM hidden throughout the belt down US 301 and across US 80 into Texas (Rick Shaftan, NJ, ibid.) Blues is one of those genres of music that isn't "Radio Friendly" to group owners or programmers for a full time station. A Little Rock Urban A/C station, KOKY 102.1 (which has a large play list of older music) hosts a 16 hour block of contemporary blues between 5am and 9pm on Saturdays. The station streams online at this link... http://koky.com/Article.asp?id=104197 Also, I think WDIA 1070 and WRBO 103.5 in Memphis has Saturday blues shows (Fritze H. Prentice, Jr., KC5KBV, Star City, AR Grid: EM43aw http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com ibid.) NPR: Black music for white people. Even in Mississippi, I'll bet less than 10% of NPR's audience is African-American (Rich Shaftan, ibid.) No. WMPR is uniquely targeting the black population of Jackson. NPR is over on Mississippi Public Radio. The station was started by Charles Evers, civil rights leader Medgar Evers' older brother. In fact, if you have ever the movie, Ghosts of Mississippi, which was about the trial of Byron De La Beckwith, the killer of Medgar Evers, there is a scene that takes place in that station. Bill Cobbs played Charles. And, no. Blues is not now R&B. Sure, R&B owes much to Blues as a root, but R&B is now a different animal entirely. It would be just as inaccurate to say that Rock-a-billy is now Rock & Roll. People like Brian Setzer would strongly disagree. Blues may well be the most purely American musical style. In its most pure form, the style one hears in run-down juke joints in places like Clarksdale, Lula, and outside Yazoo City, it is still the sad, Earthy, and totally inspiring musical form it always has been. Makes you wanna reach for a "40" of malt liquor, and just enjoy the evening. You know, nothing goes with a cold beer like Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker. Watch The Blues Brothers sometime, and catch John Lee doing "Boom Boom." Ain't Nuthin' Cooler (Peter, N4LI Baskind, J.D., LL.M., Germantown, TN, ibid.) That's true but like Spike Lee movies and Jimi Hendrix, the blues have largely become black entertainment for white people. R&B definitely isn't blues, but keep in mind that when blues artists like Howlin' Wolf or John Lee Hooker charted, it was mostly on the R&B charts. Over time, R&B has become a term to encompass most black music. We went looking for a Juke Joint after we went to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, but ended up at Abe's at the Crossroads for some fine BBQ (Rick Shaftan, ibid.) I pulled up WMPR 90.1 in the FCC query. Although its 100 kW ERP, it`s got somewhat limited coverage due to its rather small stick: (under 400 ft AGL and 137 m HAAT). Not that that matters, since 90.1 here is yet another K-Love full power relayer (KLRO 90.1, Hot Springs, 38 kW ERP, 296 m HAAT -- and a CP for 100 kW and 260m HAAT) and would require a nice trop duct to override. Still, it`s good to see some pockets of diversity on the FM non-com band (Fritze, KC5KBV, Star City, AR, Grid: EM43aw, ibid.) ** U S A. SO THIS IS CARL KASELL! [pronounced castle] By JOANNE KAUFMAN, December 18, 2007; Page D6 Washington --- Carl Kasell -- the National Public radio newscaster and the judge/scorekeeper/second banana on NPR's weekly call-in quiz show "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!" -- is running late for an interview. But wait, wait. Tardiness is hardly a routine occurrence for the amiable Mr. Kasell, 73, who recently celebrated his 30th anniversary at NPR. (The company took due note of the milestone with a party and the presentation of an impressive fully stocked picnic basket.) Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, at the top of every hour from 5 a.m. through 11 a.m., he delivers a tidy, precise news update without going so much as a syllable over his allotted eight minutes and 30 seconds, and without so much as a glance at the clock by the microphone. . . http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119793136588435187.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. I just saw the video of the attack on the WLS-TV studio yesterday. Someone apparently intentionally drove a car through the studio wall during a live news broadcast! I wonder if this will be considered as a terrorism incident on a Federally licensed broadcaster? Please keep all of the public safety folks and others that will be working on Christmas day in your hearts. Merry Christmas to all (Patrick Griffith, CBT CBNT CRO Westminster CO, Dec 24, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. STATION BUILDING: CONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY IN ESPAÑOLA; IMPROVEMENTS REQUESTED FOR TAOS AND LAS VEGAS By Richard S. Towne, KUNM General Manager KUNM broke ground on our new station in Española at the end of November. Our new station (tentatively called KRAR for Rio Arriba Radio) will beam KUNM programming all up and down the upper Rio Grande valley from atop Black Mesa, just north of Española along the road to Taos. The station will welcome 80,000 new people to our current service area. When I say we broke ground, I really mean it. Once our construction permits were granted in November, we set right to work with our contractor to excavate a small piece of land so we could pour concrete foundations for a short tower and a little trailer atop the mesa. Our new transmitter and antenna are being built and should arrive in Albuquerque right about the first of the year. Installation and testing should take place in February with final FCC authorization to commence broadcasting coming by March. KRAR will be our first new full-power station ever! We’ve been working on this project for many years and it’s exciting to know that KUNM’s unique blend of programming will be available to more of our neighbors to the north. We have also filed applications with the FCC to improve and expand our existing service in Las Vegas and Taos. Las Vegas listeners, in particular, have been extremely patient for an extremely long time while they have waited for us to upgrade our presence in Las Vegas. We hope the FCC will grant our application in January or early February so we can move quickly to building a new and improved service in both areas. Improving service in the Taos area will require us to change channels on our Eagle Nest transmitter, serving Cimarrón, Angel Fire, and the ranching communities along the I-25 corridor toward Ratón. We will be moving from 91.1 to 90.5 once FCC approval is received. All of this seems pretty complicated and frankly, it is. The objective is to bring new and better service throughout the region. We project that more than 60,000 people in the region will be receiving public radio for the very first time, ever. We are very proud to be bringing the service to unserved communities of New Mexicans. If you live, work or travel in the region from Santa Fe to points north and west, you will soon be enjoying a better signal in all kinds of new areas in the north. Most often, these folks live in a “shadow area” where geographical intrusions (hills, canyons, mountains) preclude our transmitter from “seeing” some of our listeners’ radios. Our new transmitter in Española will be “looking” from a different angle. From the Black Mesa site, we can see parts of Santa Fe, Taos, and Los Álamos. We can look right up at Truchas and down toward Ñambe and Ópera Hill. My hope is this new transmitter brings a fresh new signal to folks who have a challenge receiving KUNM. I’ll sure be curious to hear from you when the time comes. KUNM Chief Engineer Mike Stark deserves a room full of gold for his hard work and stunning ability to analyze and synthesize the many factors impacting our multiple transmitters and how they interact in the spectrum. Good engineers share the same genetic propensities of good wizards and in Mike’s case the gene pool has been very, very good. I can only stand back and say Bravo to Mike for his work. I hope you will say the same. Keep tuned in as we move forward with signal expansion and improvements in 2008. This will be our first major signal expansion since 1995 and the most ambitious improvements ever undertaken. We couldn’t do it without your help (Zounds, KUNM 89.9 FM, Monthly Program Guide, January 2008 via DXLD) Pertinent items from Nov-Dec FMedia! --- NM Arroyo Seco *91.3 KRRT NM Eagle Nest *90.5 K213ET (from 91.1 K216CT) h,v NM Española *91.9 KRAR NM Las Vegas *91.9 KRRE Getting Eagle Nest off 91.1 is long overdue, clashing with public radio from Colorado along US 64 eastwards. Also shows in Santa Fe, KSFR 101.1 and KSFQ 90.7 having formally swapped calls, as 101.1 becomes the public radio frequency (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. WCNZ 1660 --- The following announcement was heard this morning at 0636 on 1660: “Relevant Radio stations 1660 and 1410 are sold. Listeners will still be able to hear Relevant Radio programming 24-7 on the web. Be sure to add us to your list of favourites by going to http://www.relevantradio.com Instead ... hear us now, you’ll be able to hear Relevant Radio through your computer, anywhere that an internet connection is available. We regret leaving Southwest Florida, and pray that God continues to bless the diocese of Venice.” Relevant radio programming followed, at least for now. I wonder what will take its place? 73 (Andrew Brade, UK, Dec 24, MWC via DXLD) ** U S A. Re 7-157: LISTEN FOR MIGRATING BIRDS ON LW --- Well, I finally caught it altho the previous poster did not --- this is not longwave, even tho found on the LWCA board -- but VHF: MHz, not kHz! (Glenn Hauser, 0530 UT Dec 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]. 11655, CLANDESTINE. Suab Xaa Moo Zoo via Tainan, Taiwan (presumed), 2337-2359* Dec 17. Man announcer with brief Hmong talks hosting program of vocals. Music cut through nicely but muffled audio made voice a problem. Station sound had a religious feel to it. Very weak (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 29, Ten-Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX-340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** VIRGIN ISLANDS US. 1620, R. República via WDHP, Frederiksted, 2322- 2340, 20 Dec [Thu], Spanish, talks, IDs, references to "la unidad cubana"; 34443, QRM de USA; not parallel to 6135 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. ARGELIA, 6300, Radio Nacional Saharaui, 2300- 2320, escuchada el 23 de diciembre en español, locutor con lectura de la carta final de décimo-segundo congreso del Frente POLISARIO realizado en el Sahara; solicitan el “referéndum para los territorios Saharaui”, solicitan “derecho de autodeterminación”, ”Marruecos mantiene postura de intransigencia y brutal represión en los territorios ocupados”, SINPO 33343 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), Spain, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, YAESU FRG-7700, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** YEMEN. 9780v, R Sana'a, 2125-2215*, 12/17/07, Arabic. Heard just a bit off-frequency under VOA French (via São Tomé), then in the clear once VOA signed off at 2130 with atonal Middle Eastern music and Arabic-language commentaries. Long apparent ID at 2200 w/mentions of "kilohertz", then back to the tunes. Abruptly off 2215. Fair and improving (Mark Schiefelbein, Springfield, MO, Kenwood R-5000 & Eton E1, Wellbrook 330S loop antenna, NASWA Flashsheet Dec 23 via DXLD) 9780, Radio Yemen, 1847-1900, escuchada el 23 de diciembre en inglés a locutor y locutora con comentarios presentando tema musical, música pop árabe y pop melódica occidental, locutor con boletín de noticias, música de sintonía, SINPO 35443. 1900-1915, en árabe a locutora con ID, música de sintonía, comentarios y emisión de música folklórica árabe, SINPO 45444 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), Spain, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, YAESU FRG-7700, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA [and non]. CVC via ZAMBIA? Re 7-151: Hi Glenn, I still have my doubts that CVC is active from Zambia. 9430, CVC, Wertachtal 0500-0600. 13590, CVC, heard at 0600 - site? 13635, CVC, 1100 with Darwin relay ahead of 13590. Is 13590 0600-1400 from Lusaka, Zambia or still from Wertachtal, Germany? 73 (David Pringle-Wood, Zimbabwe, Dec 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CVC would like to inform our Nigerian listeners of the following frequency changes and increased hours for 2008 --- From the first of January next year we begin our broadcasts from 0500 through to 2100 UTC on the following frequencies 0500 to 0600 UT 9430 KHz 0600 to 1400 UT 13590 KHz 1400 to 1700 UT 13650 KHz 1700 to 2100 UT back to 13590 KHz For more information on our Nigerian frequencies please log on to our Website http://www.cvc.tv and find out more about the increased hours, frequencies and programmes on CVC (via Pringle-Wood, ibid.) The above is from http://www.cvc.tv/go/fuseaction/content.more/id/2859/lang/english Meanwhile, the Voice Africa site from RSA is still not giving any details: http://www.voiceafrica.org/radio.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, Dec 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. 6165, ZNBC-Radio 2 (?), Lusaka, 2159-2201*, English, announcements, national anthem; 34433, audible after Turkey sign-off, adjacent QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) cf CHAD ** ZIMBABWE. 3396, ZBC, Guineafowl, 2220-2239, 17 Dec, Vernacular, African pops; 54333, adjacent utility QRM only. (Gonçalves) 4828, V of Zimbabwe, Guineafowl, 1855-1940, 19 Dec, non-stop African pops; 45444. Observed with silent carrier on some occasions, e.g. 17 Dec at 2230. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. MADAGASCAR, 11610, Voice of People, 1750-1756, escuchada el 23 de diciembre en idioma sin identificar, probable dialecto africano a locutora con comentarios al final de la emisión; se aprecia a modo de jammer una extraña musiquilla repitiéndose constantemente, parecen violines mal tocados a propósito. A las 1756 cesa emisión la VoP y se escucha mejor a esa música que se prolonga hasta las 1800, SINPO 33342 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), Spain, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, YAESU FRG-7700, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 7-157, BBCWS on 700: Jamaica is my favourite for this one, Barry! I heard it again this morning. No ID even at TOH! (Andrew Brade, UK, Dec 24, MWC via DXLD) Have you checked the webcast? mms://stream.telegens.com/nationwideradio (Paul Crankshaw, Troon, ibid.) No! I'll have a go in the morning. The nationwide web site is "coming soon"! I just tried the link and got a wonderful old Jamaican talking in patois. Thanks Paul, (Andrew Brade, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. Dec. 24/07, 5880.0 kHz, 0713 gmt, hiss and static, signal strength 9-10, sounds like Spanish. A young woman`s or boy`s voice. "Pinko, uno, quatro..." Spanish numbers and words being slowly recited. Lord knows what kind of contraband is involved. Thanks for all you do, Glen. That's my Dec. 24th dx report (Roy Berger, beside the St. Lawrence River, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, Receiving with a Grundig 800 off the whip, DX LISTENNG DIGEST) Surely Cuban spy numbers on one of their habitual frequencies; not pinko, but cinco = five (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Anyone know who is relaying Bro Stair/Overcomer Ministry on 6220 kHz? Heard yesterday morning and again today, from tune in before 1000 UT and still going strong past 1500. Yesterday was in the clear but today is mixing with co-channel Mystery Radio from Italy(?), both similar strength here. Not sure if this is a new official frequency for the Overcomer or if someone in Europe is relaying it unofficially. Seems to be exactly on channel, 6220.0 kHz with good audio (Dave Kenny, Caversham, England, AOR 7030+ 80ft Long Wire, Dec 23, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Dave, The shortwave pirate blogspot seems to think it was coming from Laser Hot Hits http://shortwavedx.blogspot.com/2007/12/sat-dec-22.html (Russ Cummings, Hull, ibid.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Glenn, First let me say that I think you do an amazing service for the shortwave listening community. I was first involved in shortwave listening in the early 70's building a number of Heathkit receivers. I got away from the hobby and am just now getting back involved. Best Regards, (Woody Pride, St. Louis, MO) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ BANCIAO, THE NAME Re: ``Ian, I remember that ``Pali`` used to be the R. Liberty site as given by the station; never heard of Banciao. How do you pronounce that? Unseems Chinese transliteration spelling. 73, Glenn Hauser`` Hi Glenn, Thanks for your enquiry & interest on the topic. Information about the Banciao site having existed as a very short term/interim (Radio Liberty) site has been provided by Adrian Peterson & Wolfgang, I guess the WRTH would have been a prime reference source? As to who was the original source, I have no idea. I have no contacts within Taiwan who can presently provide me with any further information. When it comes to English representation of Chinese words within Taiwan, one should not get hung-up on the Wade Giles / Pinyin system of Romanised Chinese words. Maybe there is a standard in China, but NOT in Taiwan from my travel experiences - the Lonely Planet Guides for Taiwan will re-affirm my comments. Whilst I am aware of the different versions that exist, I almost equally find them both difficult to contend with (especially initially). With learning a Chinese word I attempt to write it phonetically using best English if not happy with the official romanised representation systems. The English spellings of streets & places within Taipei region frequently differ to the spellings you will see reproduced within the WRTH. The spellings in the street can also differ from that you see in any publication print. I never saw on street signs, buses or at rail stations the spellings of Pali or Panchaio, (although they may exist). I always saw spelt with a B, but you will see in print many variations, e.g. Banciao/Banqiao/Panciao/Panqiao (not often the later though). I adopt my spellings from what I see in the street (street signs/train stations) & sometimes what best befits my ear & how I would write the name. The spelling of Banciao seemed more common on the number 99 bus that I would regularly catch. For the record, I had visited the Banciao locality on about 5 occasions from memory. I hope this & the information below helps a little Glenn. Please read below for further information. Best regards (Ian Baxter, shortwave sites yg via DXLD) FROM ADRIAN PETERSON's WAVESCAN: "Radio Liberty on Taiwan was on the air for a period approaching 20 years. The initial broadcasts went on the air shortwave on May 1, 1955, using at first a 1 kW transmitter, supplemented a little later with a 25 kW unit. (Adrian, was this site specially constructed for Radio Liberty?) The original transmitter location was at Panchao, which is located just beyond the western edge of their capital city, Taipei. This was an interim location while a new base was constructed at Pali, on the coast 20 km north of Taipei." END QUOTE BanQiao: 1955 - 1965 (pronounced as Bun Chao or Barn Chiao, "bun" is a soft pronunciation, slightly closer to a b than a p), but might depend on what part of the English speaking world your from ?? (Dec 24, 2007 re-think --- Maybe best represented phonetically as: Bun1Chow4 - soft 'b & n'. The B/P sound is a close English approximation of actual sound) ' "ow" as in cow. Remember the 4 tones in Mandarin language. I'm never always 'spot-on' with the tones, but that's how it sounds to me. BaLi 1965 - 1996 (or 1994) Miller Liu (last year) gives 1994 closure date. RTI engineering gives 1996 - maybe a difference in last SW broadcast date from site & closure of site?? Best regards (Ian Baxter, Australia, ibid.) Ian, tnx for all the info; `banciao` struck me as Italian-influenced, which seemed rather out of place in Formosa. When transliterating, you never know what sound `c` stands for in English (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ Re: the Sony SRF 59 Phasing Experiment... This might be a better-but more expensive-solution using the digital Sony M37V: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SFR-M37V-Weather-Walkman-Presets/dp/B00008W7LS Wal-Mart has them for around 29 bucks. Oddly enough, Sony offers this set elsewhere as the M37L, minus the TV and Weather channels but with Longwave: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-SRF-M37L-SRF-M37-Personal-Radio/dp/B00008XYJA So maybe the '37 will be around after Feb. 2009 in an altered form, after all (rsmith, DX LISTENING DIGST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ iBiquity asks for HD capability in XM/Sirius receivers Boy, talk about trying to sneak one in under the radar during the year-end "dead time"! (Harry Helms, ABDX via DXLD) viz.: iBiquity signals the end of NAB's satellite radio merger opposition http://www.hear2.com/2007/12/in-every-challe.html (via Helms, ibid.) see also OKLAHOMA PROPAGATION +++++++++++ The expected TV DX winter season openings have happened, recently, with sporadic E skip events around the Caribbean becoming more and more frequent. At least two of the most recent sporadic E opening sent the maximum useable frequency up to the FM band, making reception of FM stations from more than one thousand miles away possible even with handheld radios and their telescopic whip antennas. More about the sporadic E season later. This is the winter sporadic E season that is much shorter and with less number of openings than the spring summer season, that is still several months away, due to start at the end of April as usual . . . And now amigos, as always, at the end of the program, here is ARNIE CORO’S DXERS UNLIMITED’S HF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Solar flux is hövering around 70 units and the A index was still a around 8 units, and it may even go down later in the week. Solar flares are not expected during the rest of the week. But propagation conditions will take a turn for the worst because of what scientists are forecasting as yet another long period of a blank Sun. Sporadic E openings are going to be more frequent as we approach the peak of the winter E skip season, so do monitor the low band TV channels for them (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited Dec 22, HCDX via DXLD) ###