DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-063, May 25, 2008 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 2008 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 1409 Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1130 WRMI 9955 Wed 2100 WBCQ 15420-CUSB [new time; or maybe 1410 already] 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: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org EDITOR`S NOTE: This is a double-issue, trying to catch up with material piled up since 5 days ago. We have had no objexions to issuing larger issues when necessary after a pause. Pay careful attention to the dates of items (gh) ** ABKHAZIA [and non]. R. Australia`s Rear Vision this week, another excellent show, explains the separatist movement here and other problems of GEORGIA; transcript and audio: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rearvision/stories/2008/2244802.htm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. LISTENING IN with Darren Rozier Between 1989 and 1991 Sheila Hughes wrote a regular column in Communication called Listening On which reviewed shortwave stations’ programmes. (See tribute in Communication October 2007). We are delighted this month to be able to reintroduce a regular programme review column, Listening In written by Darren Rozier. RADIO TIRANA My first experience of this station takes me back to 1995 when the English service was available on 1395 MW. Now we have to try and bear with a shaky and rather crackly SW signal. The latest schedules put it on 7460 kHz, just outside of the 41 metre band. The main half-hour segment can be found between 2000 and 2030 UT, which is rather a nice time to listen. This week (Monday 14th to Saturday 19th April) a typical SINPO has been 33433. Not the best signal in the world, but this isn’t helped by the fact that the guys and gals down at RTSH (Radio Tirana and Albanian Television) don’t turn the levels up on their speech properly, making the programme muffled and, at times, virtually impossible to follow. However, here is some of what you can expect on this rather charming channel! Monday 14/04 – Quite a lot of sideband splatter. Not the best signal in the world. Suffers from a lack of compression on the signal. Not enough top end on the EQ. The news is presented in a straightforward no-frills way, which makes a change from the slick way that a lot of international broadcasters now present their English news – in crisp English accents with no hint of the accent of the country where the programme is coming from. It’s very refreshing. The bulletin is five minutes long and contains mainly news about Albania. Subjects included a story on a Catholic cathedral visited by the Pope and Mother Teresa and on Albanians returning from Greece. Feature – "Week in Albania" – 3 minutes – About Albania’s NATO membership. Five minute musical break of Albanian MOR pop. Feature – "Cultural Review" – a bit like an arts and entertainments feature. It included a story about an Albanian band bringing the house down with their rendition of Smoke On The Water. Feature – "Sports Roundup". Today’s programme finished at 2020 UT and the final 10 minutes was filled by Albanian MOR pop. This is not typical of everyday programming on Radio Tirana. Sometimes the full half-hour is utilised. Tuesday 15/04 – News at the top of the hour after a full frequency check for English to the UK and the USA, followed by a menu of what you can expect in the next half hour. Feature – "Daily Press Review" (although this wasn’t on 14 April). This gives a bit more insight into what’s being reported in the Albanian media. The main story was on the Albanian and Bulgarian inter-governmental conference on transport. Business feature – Report on Turkish commercial councillors and the good relationship Albania enjoys with Turkey. Around 30 Turkish companies are operating in Albania. Also report which said that the Albanian economy is getting stronger. Then came my favourite programme - the Mailbag. The following reports were given: Listener from USA – QSL card damaged. Requested replacement. Listened 30th Jan 2008. SINPO 35443. Listener from USA – Listens in Washington DC on 6110 kHz – heard on 31st March 2008 (my birthday!) UK listener (Frances Hearne) – heard Mon 12th February on 7430 kHz (this wasn’t a bad frequency). Regular listener. Spanish-speaking listener. Heard on 20th & 21st March 2008 on 7425 and 6110 kHz (assumedly they’re in the USA). Gave details of programme and asked for a programme guide and QSL card. Asked if there was any chance they could do a Spanish programme. Presenter said there used to be one, but it was stopped in 1990 when the communist regime collapsed. Presenter then gave a list of current languages. Music at 2025 UTC. Thanks, goodbye & theme. Thursday 17/04 – Usual news and press review, followed by "Focus on Albania". Stories included a fuel terminal in one of the local towns and some archaeological discoveries somewhere else. Today’s programme was particularly hard to follow because of low levels on the speech output. Music sounded OK. Saturday 19/04 – A relaxed programme due to a high degree of music. News as usual, then "Mosaic of the Week" – an historical feature which I found very interesting. 5 short pieces were aired: 1. An English 19th Century figure who wrote books and visited Albania. I think something was said about him being a photographer as well. 2. An Albanian town dating back to 4BC which had walls and minted its own coin. 3. The "Jublita" – a traditional Albanian woman’s dress which has been around for 1000 years. It’s traditionally black and white in colour. 4. The first book to be written in Albanian was a prayer book. Only one copy exists and it’s 220 pages long. It has columns, Catholic liturgy, prayers and lists religious holidays. 5. Something about fishermen letting something go in the sea. Possibly a big fish! The final feature was on folk music. Each week Radio Tirana focuses on a specific region of the country and gives a bit of a rundown on its history and on the composers who lived there. Information is then given on around 4 songs and then they’re all played in a row. The presenter then says goodbye, the theme is played and the transmission ends. There is no English programme on a Sunday. Radio Tirana is probably my favourite international radio station. It’s a shame that it’s got a bit of a naff frequency at the moment. A few years back 7110 kHz was used during the summer months. It was as clear as a bell and you could hear everything being said. Maybe they should consider moving back there or, even better, back to 1395 MW. I’m interested on hearing your comments about Radio Tirana also. Above: HQ of Radio Tirana, Rruga Ismail Qemali Nr 11, Tirana. http://rtsh.sil.at/index.html Next month – Radio Netherlands gets the Rozier treatment, and we’ll include their Euronet programme in the mix as well. 73s and good listening – Darren (May BDXC-UK Communication, illustrated, via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. Buenos Aires, 15344.72, 2050 UT, zeersterk met tango muziek en frans gesproken (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, May 21, bdx mailing list via DXLD) Half a sesquihour earlier I was hearing just a het made by this and Morocco, so about 280 Hz apart on this occasion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA [and non]. May 23 at 2001 found a fluxuating subaudible heterodyne on 15345, every few seconds oscillating from 0 to maybe 10 Hz, which means at least one of the two transmitters here is unstable, and we bet it`s RAE, which at least has managed to almost match Morocco, a feat in itself. Just traces of French and Arabic audio, respectively. Earlier this week RAE was as much as 280 Hz low (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Re the new NSW station on 2368.5v, website is http://www.radiosymban.com.au/ and it`s mostly in Greek! Nothing found about SW, just the 151+ MHz transmitters. In Greek it`s spelt Sigma- upsilon-mu-pi-alpha-nu --- In modern Greek, the mp digraph is axually pronounced just b, so the m in the transliteration is silent and redundant. They should spell it Syban! I was hunting for what the name means in English, but that isn`t explained, not even here: http://www.radiosymban.com.au/brief%20profile%20new.htm (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1409, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. I have tried for these two a number of times via DX Tuners in Australia but haven't heard anything. Is anyone hearing - 2368 Radio Symban, 5040 ARDS (Hans Johnson, May, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Hans: ARDS is on 5050 kHz when they are on. Unfortunately, the system has been down for several months, based upon Emails I have received from their home office (Dan Henderson, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. These ACMA 1 kW SW Licences are cheap from the ACMA Yes, Angelo Matsoukas from Radio Symban was on air 2368.5 kHz from Peats Ridge location, 1 kW. The signal was heard at a good level in Melbourne on the Monday morning. The signal was on since 3 pm Saturday 17th May to Tuesday morning around 5.30 am 20th May [so ending 1930 UT May 19 ---- gh]. The signal reached Finland. We never knew he was on air. Only a silly chief editor tuning down that low on a frustratingly bad Saturday night thru static crashes got it! I twigged to who it was half an hour later, and bingo!!! (Keith Ashton, May 24, dxing.info via DXLD) Re: No restrictions on HF SW Radio Formats in OZ --- Whilst that is largely true. The paperwork that comes with the actual license (or at least mine did) suggested getting a section 40. Good luck to the lads. It will be largely an expensive hobby I would say for a while. Also these licenses can be any power level you ask for. When I did the paperwork for mine (the first one issued) all sorts of questions were asked. We modelled the performance on a NAS [?] service. It was figured that the 1000 W power level was needed to overcome the shortened distance for the ground wave compared to a NAS. I was expecting back then that the power bill would be around 150 bucks / month. The 1 kW power bill is about the same for feeding a horse. Wot Aussie Country music to the World? It would get outback. Craig says Another new HF SW station will be also on the air very soon. The frequency is 3210 kHz in Sydney, Analog sound (maybe digital within 2 years) That will be English and pop music I guess Double V Shortwave Australia Radio 2 Double V AM & ZFM Fairfield NSW Phone 02 9726 7841 Listen to Vale Vision Community Radio and TV Association Inc on http://www.radio2doublev.org (Keith Ashton, May 25, dxing.info via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 0755 UT Saturday on 11750 seems to be the new time for HCJB DX Partyline, heard then for two weeks (Chris Hambly, Vic., May 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BANGLADESH. 7250, GOS, heard May 18 & 22, 1238-1300*, in English with news and subcontinent music, "Panorama" program, not able to hear this every day, signal improving by sign-off. 4750, heard May 21 & 22, 1236-1257, in vernacular, with subcontinent music, clear mentions of Bangladesh, mixing with CNR-1 (Ron Howard, Shanghai, China, Eton E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BIAFRA [non]. V. of Biafra International, via WHRI, 17650, Friday May 23: excellent local-like signal, with only occasional quick deep fades to remind us the ionosphere is involved. Main speaker is a very persuasive orator, and it was hard to tune away as he detailed all the charges against the vicious Nigerians. Mostly in English, but at times alternating with Ibo (or Igbo?), a tonal language. 2008 tune-in, was saying that Nigeria had killed 2,000 innocent people, just because they did not want to be Nigerians. 2015, ID in English and talk in Ibo, mentioning Fulani, Yoruba and 1976. 2017, full English ID mentioning origination in Washington, DC; call- and-response song. 2022, News Analysis. May 30, 1967 was the birth of Biafra due to genocide and the brutal prejudice of Nigeria, northern Nigerians in particular; alternating with Ibo. A million-man-march is called for this May 30 to celebrate the anniversary (so next week`s program should be even more interesting). 2035 ID with Washington DC again; Commentary about Nigerian savages, and how Biafra could eventually emerge stronger and free, like Israel, Ireland, France and South Africa. ``Biafra has come to stay``, ``Hail Biafra, the land of justice``. Biafrans all over the world in exile should celebrate independence on May 30, 2008 and display the green, black and red flag with a rising sun in the middle; there is a provisional Biafran government in exile. 2043 referred to ``Nigerian Islamo-Fascists``, (has he been inside the Beltway too long?) and several more comments of a pro-Christian nature. There is a peace march from somewhere to Enugu, May 22 to 30; took a minute or two seemingly naming every town in Biafra. 2053 ``God Bless Africa`` anthem on flute, and more music to 2058* without any WHR ID. According to FCC A-08 schedules, this transmission Fridays only at 20- 21 on 17650, 250 kW at 87 degrees, will be switching to 15665 from June 1 to September 7, then back to 17650 for the rest of the season. Make that June 7 which will be the first Friday after June 1. Nothing about that heard on this week`s broadcast, nor found on their website, with lots of other info, topped by the flag as described: http://www.biafraland.com/vobi.htm The WHR online schedule shows for Angel 1: 2000 - 2100 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Fr VOBI Broadcasts Oguchi Nkwocha 17650 So Oguchi Nkwocha may or may not be the main orator; searching on this name at the biafraland website was unproductive (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4800, by tip of Rogildo Aragão, seems a Bolivian station at May-20, 2240-2308 with many mentions of Bolivia in a news programme “Bolivia en Contacto” with reports from some cities “bloqueo de carreteras en Cochabamba e otras cidades”. At 2302 suddenly religious music and preacher (with that reverberation from a church, sounding like R. Virgen de Remedios) in religious ceremony in memory for some dead persons, mentioning their names. Checked at 0004, May-21, returned that kind of audio heard when it was Bolivia en Contacto, mentioning “Radio Católica Mundial”. In a battle against Chinese station which sometimes suddenly appeared, 32322 73's (Lucio Otavio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, HCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1409, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. Re 8-062 and above: 4005, Tentative, R. Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza, 0220-0330, May 22, Spanish, ID, program "Con los ojos de Maria", relay WEWN, good signal (Rogildo Aragão, BOlivia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Could there be more than one station, or transmitter down there relaying WEWN? Per sked below, WEWN at 00-08 is on 5810 and 11870, so is 4005 really parallel, synchronized? Per HFCC, Vatican 4005 starts at 0225 in `various languages. VR`s printed schedule shows it from 0230 in Slovenian, 0250 Croatian, 0310 Czech, 0325 Slovak, etc., languages not likely to be mistaken for Spanish; 4005 VR only Spanish is at 2020-2040. Note that the bclnews.it archive of A-08 schedules, which is rather hit-and miss, many of them copied from DXLD, and not necessarily updated since beginning of season, for Vatican http://www.bclnews.it/a08schedules/vaticano.htm does NOT include 4005 transmissions which are not from the SMG site but from Vatican itself (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Amigo Glenn, Confirmo realmente ayer escuche con ID, R. Virgen de Remedios en 4005. 4005, R. Virgen de Carmen, Tupiza, 2340, 22/May, Spanish, transmission of Santa Misa, Oración, ID "R. Virgen de Remedios en FM 79.5 [sic! -- gh] y onda corta desde Tupiza, Bolivia"; 2359 Relay WEWN. 73 (Rogildo Aragão, Bolivia, May 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4005.50v, 22/05 2310, Bolívia, Radio Virgen de los Remedios, Tupiza, Spanish, catholic program, with sermon 25322 (poor audio) 73 (Samuel Cássio Martins, São Carlos SP, Brasil, May 23, [original font Trebuchet MS], DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4717, R. Yuara, Aillu Yura; May-21, Spanish, 0919-0933 local pop and folk music alternating short announcements by YL, and numerous canned IDs “...transmitiendo en 4715 KHz...”. Earlier, good 34433 Audio file of R. Yuara, 4717 ID by OM announcing 4715 kHz, May-21, 0919 UT. 117 kb, 30 seconds at http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/eefibra/yuara4717khz0919utc210508b.mp3 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP, Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Lucio Otavio, When you first reported 4717 as Radio Yuara I figured it was a typo and was about to correct it to Yura, but I see you have it that way several times in this report. Where did you get that? WRTH 2008 does have a different full name for it, Radio Aytun Ayllu Yura. Altho there is noise on your clip it seems to me they are saying Yura. 73, (Glenn to LO, ibid.) Hi Glenn, I'm sorry, it was a mistake, no doubt right is Yura on 4717 all times I mentioned it (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, ibid.) ** BOLIVIA. 5952.45, Em Pio XII, Siglo Veinte, 24/5 2207 Nice Bolivian music and Spanish talks, fair, 33333 RX: Perseus, Diff. Antennas. Gr. (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) cf. UNIDENTIFIED ** BOTSWANA. 4930, VOA, 05/23/08, 1540, English. Heard an African- accented English voice while tuning across 60 meters and eventually determined it was VOA's Africa News Tonight, interviewing someone about the violence in South Africa. Did not expect to come across this, especially given my rather humble DXing setup here. No sign of Turkmenistan, which is what I was really hoping to hear. Weak but in the clear (Mark Schiefelbein, Beijing, China, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Radio Gazeta, São Paulo, 15325.030, 1938 May 21, weak Portuguese talks and music. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. R. Imaculada Conceição, 4754.9, 0253-0305 May 13 in Portuguese, bits of beautiful choir hymns interspersed between two M talking. 60 dB signal with superb audio (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL, 0545-0543, escuchada ayer, 20-05, 4754.9, Rádio Imaculada Conceição, Campo Grande. Portugués, comentarios religiosos. 25322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escucha realizada en casco urbano de Lugo, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also here again around 0600 May 22 (gh) ** BRAZIL. 4805, Brasil, R Dif do Amazonas, Manaus AM; May-23, Portuguese, 0947-1003 news, time (0547 AM local - 0947 UT), weather report (max. temperature: 32 C !!), OM outside talks about river transports, 1000 canned ID “...operando em 4805 kHz, Difusora!...”, Diário do Amazonas newspaper ads, eletronic store ads. New Peruvian presumed off, 33233. 73's (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP, Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Re 8-062, 8-061, R. Senado: So they would not be on the air that early, but you don`t mention any frequency offness, so I assume you imply they remain really on 5990? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) `` Glenn, just now Rádio Senado on 5990.00 and Rádio Guaíba on 6000.00 kHz. 73 (Samuel Cássio, Brasil, 1921 UT May 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. BULGARIAN NATIONAL RADIO TO START DRM BROADCASTING TOMORROW --- The German section of Radio Bulgaria reports in the DX program that the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) will start DRM broadcasting tomorrow (May 26). In a first step, the home service "Radio Horizont" will be on air in DRM and in a second step, the foreign services in English, French, German and Spanish will be transmitted in DRM. There is no information given on frequencies or sites. Full post: http://www.drmrx.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1961 (Mike Barraclough, England, May 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) http://www.bnr.bg/NR/exeres/4E629C2E...EE5D414BED.htm As I know from Klaus, Bulgaria has reserved many frequencies for digital use, but they never were on air so far. These QRGs are: 5800, 7500, 11500, 13570, 13850, 13855, 13865, 15725, 15735, 15750, 15770, 15780, 15790, 17560 kHz. Let's see and hear if BNR will start DRM tomorrow and which frequencies will be used. If anyone catches a signal, please report in the forum! (RX: Digital World Traveller http://www.dxaktuell.de Kiel, Germany, DRM forum via DXLD) Sofia, 20 kW, 306 degrees: Mon-Thu 09-12 11895-11900-11905, 13-16 9695-9700-9705 Fri-Sun 06-12 11895-11900-11905 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BURMA [non]. Democratic V. of Burma, via Armenia, 15479 [sic; you mean 15480 or was it really off-frequency?], 1312-1327 May 17 with W announcer and M via telephone, music bridges consisting of happy, upbeat tunes played on accordion type instrument, very much like Shan State revolutionary songs in PBS documentary The Opium Kings, items by M&W with mentions of Myanmar. Solid 50 dB signal in the clear (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CAMBODIA [non]. As I was tuning 12130 for Hoa Mai via KWHR --- see VIETNAM [non] --- I also noticed another broadcast on 12140 at 1246 May 21, in Cambodian. Searches of the online A-08 skeds Aoki, Eibi and WRTH were fruitless, altho RFA is on 12140 after 1400 in Vietnamese. Suspecting Radio Free Asia, I checked their own schedule at http://www.rfa.org/english/about/frequencies.html and there it is: Khmer (2 hours daily) 1230-1330 12140, 15525 2230-2330 7580, 13740 This is a recent change as of May 18, the 12140 site Tinian. Even better signal May 22 at 1258 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CJEU 1670 and CHYW 1630 --- I've read many posts on different message boards inquiring about CJEU 1670, whether it's been on the air or not. The station goes by the slogan of "Radio Enfant" and is on the air, and has been for several years now, but not where everyone's been looking. It temporarily operated with 200 watts on 96.5 FM for a few months back around 2002 or 2003. I know also that it was at 88.5 FM, not sure of the power until just before November of 2005, when it moved to 101.9. I'm thinking and have heard/read that it was running 200 watts and maybe even more. In June of 2006, 101.9 was silenced and I didn't hear a peep out of Radio Enfant until one day just east of downtown Ottawa, I found it on 99.7, with a much weaker signal. It was (and still is) operating at just 30 watts. When CJRC 1150 signed on its new FM frequency at 104.7, CIIO Radio (another low powered TIS station) had to move and got the rights to broadcast at 99.7, again displacing Radio Enfant, which went back to 101.9, where it has been ever since. I know from their website they are installing their antenna and transmitter in a field in Gatineau. I'm wondering if the test that was heard was to see if the 1000 watt transmitter was funxional. There hasn't been a peep at 1670 AM here in Ottawa (at least what you'd expect to hear from a 1000 watt signal just a few miles across the river). On another note, Ottawa DOES have a 99 watt AM station at 1630 with the call letters CHYW, which belongs to the Ottawa International Airport. It broadcasts parking information and flight information in both English and French. With a decent radio it can be heard on Parliament Hill, and makes logging any station at 1630 in my near downtown neighbourhood very difficult. KCJJ can sometimes be heard battling it out (neofoodog, May 21, ABDX via DXLD) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 6030, Radio ICDI from Jim Hocking - "We are still working on adding more time. Right now we are on the air from about 6:00 to 10 AM and from about 3:00 to 7:00 PM. We are trying to raise funding for adding a night and noon frequency but have not gotten that as yet.....We have best propagation at the hours we are running..." (via Hans Johnson, May 23, Cumbre DX via DXLD) So that`s 0500-0900, 1400-1800 UT. Remember, DentroCuban jamming and Martí are silent Mondays only 0300-0900 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CHILE. CVC la Voz, Santiago, 17680, to S & C America, 2334-2337 April 28 in Spanish, M with call-ins. Pulverizing 100 dB signal (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) I am not clear on what dB signal reports like this really mean. Doesn`t the dB have to be compared to a reference point to have any significance? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CHINA. I received Sichuan PBS-1 in Chinese at 0200 on 12015 kHz. It continues now at 0800. Sichuan PBS-1 in Chinese 9740 kHz 24 hrs 12015 kHz Sichuan PBS-2 in Chinese, Tibetan and Yui 6060 kHz 24 hrs 7225 kHz 24 hrs de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, May 21, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1409, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. The 3-day mourning period is over, but still no sign of Firedrake May 22, checking many of the usual spots; at 1256, found 14410 with weak talk instead, most likely CNR-1 jamming against Sound of Hope; 9605 at 1315, CNR-1 jamming against BBC, no FD. I am suffering Firedrake Withdrawal --- the SW bands are not the same without it all over the place. Still no resumption of Firedrake May 23, e.g. on 11785 checked at 1257, at least two Chinese language services mixing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. In China for a few days, so I'm taking advantage to do a little listening to the shortwave bands when I get a chance. Equipment is an Eton E1XM/Sony AN-LP1 active antenna from central Beijing. 17615, "Firedrake"/CNR-1, 0310, 05/24/08. China is still not back to using music for its jamming, heard in this case against listed RFA- Mandarin via Saipan. On this freq (among MANY others) was instead the audio from CNR-1 (confirmed via a check of local FM) with a live press conference about the earthquake, with pauses for English translation for the foreign media. It was clear that Beijing is sometimes using several different transmitters in several different locations to provide firedrake audio, as there was a strong echo effect, often with two or three separate "reverbs" on each sentence. Despite that mess, I was surprised that in the pauses I couldn't hear a trace of RFA underneath. (Mark Schiefelbein, Beijing, China, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Here is some more really great music I`ve found on SW. A year or two ago, the modernizers at CRI cancelled ``China Roots``, one of my can`t-miss programs, but I`ve found something much, much better. From 13 to 16 on 12040, and 22-24 on 11710, I am able to hear what I can only describe as traditional Chinese music --- it`s from somewhere in that area --- and it is just an amazing sound produced by a seemingly improvis[at]ional clashing of cymbals, banging of gongs and drums, fiddling of fiddles, and whistling of flutes. It is there most days when I tune it, and it is almost non-stop music. It sounds like Irish music crossed with the best improvision[at]ional jazz – only much, much better. Maybe you can tell everybody about it, as well as where it is coming from. I`ve heard it said that ``if you don`t know where something came from, it came from China.`` Not in reference to products on today`s shelves, but because everything seems to have originated in China: gunpow[d]er, fireworks, spaghetti, paper, etc., etc. Well, I bet jazz did, too. In the late 1800s, the Chinese came to this country, and probably dwelled in cities alongside African Americans, who said ``wow`` when they heard this sound, and put their own style on it to make jazz (Kent D. Murphy, New Martinsville WV, May 17, by P-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not sure I would go that far; how about democracy, shortwave transmitters, and the alfabet? Kent of course has discovered Firedrake jamming, but doesn`t realize it, since he is not privy to extensive online discussions of it; and it`s gone, at least for now. However, another offline contributor knows about it: (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake music jammer, 11925, 0242-0245 May 10, presumably against VOA Philippines to E Asia, F-G with no trace of target. Firedrake, 15385, 0022-0026 April 29, against VOA Philippines to E Asia. Good copy and no trace of target. Firedrake, 15490, 1305-1307 May 17, against VOA to S Asia, presumably Sri Lanka site, 60 dB with polar flutter, no trace of target (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ?? I don`t find VOA or anything else subject to FD currently on 15490 at this time. The other two check out as stated, Chinese (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. Still no Firedrake almost a week after it went off, presumably for the 3-day quake mourning period. Sunday May 25, FE propagation was good, so found Chinese talk and programming, presumably CNR-1 jamming instead as follows, targets derived from Aoki: 15795 at 1253, over All India Radio, in Chinese. Certainly not a friendly neighbor. What does China have to fear from India? 15465 at 1255, Chinese recitation and singing. This may have been RTI in Chinese as also heard recently, but listed as jammed. What I heard did not seem // the CHR1`s. 15255 at 1253 // 15795, VOA Chinese via Tinang. 14410 at 1332, CNR1, running a bit ahead of otherwise // 12040. On 14410 it`s against Sound of Hope via Taiwan. 12040 at 1330, CNR1, VG over VOA Chinese via Tinang. BTW, this was during a local power outage, not related to the tornados elsewhere in Garfield County yesterday, altho the fact that it took OG&E two sesquihours to repair it may have been. This reduced the line noise level but did not eliminate it, as I tuned on battery power (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. CNR-2/CBR, 2224-2243, May 21, resumed their own programming again after days of relaying CNR-1. During the period of national mourning CNR-1 suspended all music and entertainment programming. Television also resumed regular programming today. Heard on 91.4 FM, 6065, 7130, 7140, 7150, 7245, 7315, 9775 and 9820. IDs "China Business Radio", program "Winner's English" presented by Oscar, segment about a lantern festival with Shirley and Laura. May 23, at 1303 usual "English Evening" program, Aaron talking about the quake. PBS-XZDT, Lhasa, 6200 still with CNR-1 relay on May 23, at 1234. PBS, Lhasa on 4905 // 4920 not a relay of CNR-1, May 23, at 1239. Sichuan PBS services heard most days regularly on 6060, 7225 and 9740. Still has some short segments of CNR-1 relays. Shanghai PBS, 3280 // 4950, heard May 21 at 0811 with CNR-1 relay of a news conference in English and Chinese, followed by an update of the quake (41,353 dead, etc.), with about a 15 second delay behind all the other CNR-1 frequencies. Of course sounded like the local station it is. Easy FM (CRI) on about 87.9 FM, May 21, at 1211 special programming in English and Chinese about the quake, IDs for CRI Easy FM (Ron Howard, Shanghai, China, Eton E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. New 9740, 1800-2210 19+20.05, New relay of Sichuan PBS, Chengdu, via unknown relay. Chinese news, reports and interviews from the earthquake area 34343-45333; heard // Sichuan 6060 (33333) AP-DNK 11845 0240-0250 CHN 20.05 China Business R, Xi'an Chinese talk 15322 // Xi'an on 11835 and 12080 (both 15222). This transmitter is still operational, despite its closeness to the earthquake area AP-DNK (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CHINA [non]. Re 8-062, 9570 Albania vs 9580 Cuba relays: Hi Glenn, the BIG difference is, that Cërrik Albania relay is managed in total by autonomous Chinese national engineering staff. Their service is nearly professional perfect! Only the CRI MW relay on 1458 kHz from different location Fllaka is served by local Albanian staff. wb (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [non]. A mystery of sorts. China Radio International's website and printed schedules have, for some time, listed a station in northern Nevada carrying its programs at 1800 local time on 570 kHz. No call letters or city are mentioned. There aren't any stations in northern Nevada on that frequency. The closest ones would be KNRS Salt Lake City and KCFJ Alturas CA, and neither of them have much signal into northern Nevada. Do they have the frequency or location wrong (there is a Nevada station on 750, for example)? Or is someone in Elko or Winnemucca or wherever rebroadcasting them on a part 15 setup? Northern Nevada seems like a strange target area for CRI (Bruce Portzer, WA, May 24, IRCA via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. 1. The existence of that Cahuita transmitter site came to be not exactly because of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Altho that was the main purpose of Radio Impacto, that Tico-Caribbean property was purchased to fight Panamá's former nearly dictator-drug trafficking regime of Manuel Antonio Noriega. Originally there were two 50 kW transmitters, capable of working in tandem on 980 kHz with three masts for maximum directivity to Ciudad Colón and Panamá Central region. 2. When Radio Impacto folded wings those facilities went to hands of AWR, which for local purposes operated as Radio Lira on 1600 kHz, and today exists only on 88.7 MHz FM. No Costa Rican broadcaster was interested in that white elephant and couldn't afford to pay that power bill. 3. AWR was running the then converted to SW facilities when that terrible 7.5 earthquake took place 22 April 1991 at mid local afternoon, 2157 UT, in a near Cahuita location called Telire. 4. Frankly, I don't remember AWR using that high frecuency of 15460 kHz. If so, DGS dropped it. [I do remember it from AWR --- gh, DXLD] 5. I learnt that the two 50 kW units at La Cruz, Guanacaste, close to the Costa Rican border with Nicaragua, were moved to Cahuita when the CIA tenure ended. BTW, operation was on same 980 fully aimed to Managua. 6. All BC band capable transmitters were upgraded for SW (Raul Saavedra, Costa Rica (former newsreader/DJ for Radio Impacto); wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 20 via DXLD) ** CUBA. R. Nacional, Venezuela, 17705 via Habana to S America, 2338- 2343 April 28, W speaking about Hugo Chávez, highlife instrumental. Outstanding 90 dB signal, audio slightly muffled and reminiscent of Spanish/YL 5-digit numbers station (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Are you sure? You don`t say it was in Spanish or English. RHC itself is supposed to be in Guarani at this time on 17705, and frequently talks about Chávez (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 17750, R HABANA, QUIVICAN, 0202-0209 23-May In Sp. YL doing ballad and closing out w/ classical strings. OM pgm host w/ commentry. Appears to be celebrating unid "hero". fair (Prez-MD) (Prez @ Camp David, MD, Antenna: passive 4 ft vertical @ 40 ft (RF Systems GMDSS-2), Radio: ICOM R75, grounded to concrete entombed rebar, Cumbre DX via DXLD) I have resisted quoting this im-poster, surely demonstrating knowledge of SW/DX far beyond that of the real acting Prez, unless of course, he has a subordinate do his DXing, but the axual items appear to be accurate. In this case, 17750 is normally used by Cuba only for the Sunday morning Alo, Presidente service, so what ongoes? O o, disregard my accuracy comment, as WYFR is scheduled in Spanish on 17750 at 0100- 0245; in that case, I bet I know who the ``hero`` is; but how could one confuse WYFR with RHC?? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 17705, May 21 at 2002 found open carrier instead of Venezuela relay, off at 2003, back on at 2004:30 but nothing further heard next few minutes. Refund. RHC again running open carrier on 11760, normally one of their best morning frequencies, May 23 at 1256, 1305 and still at 1357 chex. Why? Loses feed to transmitter and nobody notices? Other usual frequencies were modulating normally (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. RHC, 13760, May 25 at 1332 over co-channel QRM with a SAH, which must be V. of Korea to Europe: Commies vs Commies. Am I enjoying this too much? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. R. República has resumed broadcasts via Germany. Heard May 22 0147 on 5955, in Spanish, typical fare and not // jammed UK 6155. No jamming yet on 5955, which is Tue-Sat 01-02, 125 kW from Nauen at 285 degrees since May 16. The also have a new live morning show, Amanecer, M-F at 10-11 on 9490 via Sackville, 250 kW at 227 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1409, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Checked again on R. República via Germany, 5955, May 24 at 0144 and immediately heard ID but now mixed with DentroCuban Jamming Command. Not // 6155 via UK had stronger signal and stronger jamming. This is UT Tue-Sat only so will 5955 be clear of both for 71 hours? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Re 8-061, the link to the story about Czech Radio`s 85th anniversary axually goes to a 4-minute preview. The axual May 18 program is here from the 1300 UT version: http://helix.radio.cz:8080/ramgen/rm/EN/08/05/EN080518-13-high.rm It starts 12:39 into the file, but you may want to listen to the mailbag preceding, and runs to 25:00 plus music fill. Two other versions are available for streaming and/or download (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Prague 85th Anniversary QSL received in 6 days for email report to english @ radio.cz Also, received sticky notes pad. To see these, visit http://www.kg4lac.com --- Scroll to Czech Republic on the left and click the link. Images appear on the right hand side. To see larger image, click the link. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, VA USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA [non]. Se anuncia lo siguiente en el programa "Contacto" de ayer: Para Leonardo y todos los oyentes que sintonizan Radio Praga a las 0000 horas UT tenemos una buena noticia. Con el propósito de mejorar la cobertura hacia América Latina, a partir del uno de junio cambiará la frecuencia de ese horario, pasando de los 11665 kHz a los 7275 kHz. Radio Praga había estado haciendo pruebas en esta frecuencia a esa hora, y al parecer le fue bien. En 11665 kHz al menos aquí en Chile, de lo que sabemos por el boletín de FEDERACHI, era virtualmente imposible escucharla en los periodos A; si bien en los B entra muy bien. Esta transmisión es vía Ascensión. Saludos, (Eduardo Peñailillo, Chile, May 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) La noticia no es tan buena, porque los 7275 se encuentran en la banda exclusiva para radioaficionados en el Hemisferio Occidental. Es una violación hacer radiodifusión del Oriental hacia el Occidental. Me pregunto si pretendan alcanzar otra parte. Los radioaficionados deben protestar. 73, Glenn Hauser Not so good news, as 7275 is in a HAM BAND in the Western Hemisphere, and Prague, Ascension have no business broadcasting on it to us. I wonder if they will pretend the target is elsewhere. Intruder-watchers should protest (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 3220, HCJB, Pifo, 1020 to 1030 21 May, local FM quality signal. Quechua, mention of "Cusco" and "dollars" (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Flórida, Noise Reducing Antenna, Icom 746Pro, NASWA yg via DXLD) Once again, something must be very wrong at HCJB, as the NVIS antenna on this frequency is NOT supposed to put a ``local FM quality signal`` into Florida, indeed not much beyond the local area (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR [non]. Re 8-062, UKRAINE [non]. HCJB to CIS 11740, via Rampisham 500 kW: Hi Glenn, one more alternative from WRTH summer schedules: 1600-1615 Chechen .t..... 1600-1615 Russian m.wtfss 1615-1630 Russian daily (Mauno Ritola, Finland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. Egyptian Radio, Kafr Silim-Abis, 6290, to Europe and E NAm, 0143-0145 May 20 in Arabic with Kor`an chants, 80 dB signal had severely distorted audio, definite problem at transmitter (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. 9360, Radio Cairo, 0145-0200+ May 23. Actually I was listening to this prior to 0145, but what caught my attention was at 0145, I heard time ticks(5), then the programming switched to Spanish. Prior to that, the language was Arabic or something similar. An ID was heard at 0145 in English and followed in Spanish by a female. Checked 7270 where I heard a parallel transmission. All hard copy references say the Spanish transmission begins at 0045 vice 0145. At 0159 a silent period is noted. At 0200 time ticks again and female returns in Spanish. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So apparently Spanish and English have shifted later, by a full hour? while some Arabic as already reported shifted an hour earlier due to DST. Further chex needed. This was the latest sked in 8-055 re: 2330-0045 on 9360 ABZ 250 kW / 245 deg Arabic SoAm 2330-0045 on 9735 ABS 250 kW / 241 deg Arabic SoAm 0000-0300 on 6290 ABS 250 kW / 315 deg Arabic GS NoAm 0030-0430 on 9280 ABZ 250 kW / 330 deg Arabic NoAmEa 0045-0200 on 6140 ABS 250 kW / 252 deg Spanish SoAm 0045-0200 on 7270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg Spanish NoAm 0045-0200 on 9360 ABZ 250 kW / 245 deg Spanish CeAm 0200-0330 on 7270 ABZ 250 kW / 315 deg English NoAm (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 30 via DXLD via gh, DXLD 8-063) ** ERITREA [and non]. UNID: Listening in via DX Tuner Sweden and hearing station on 8000 at 1625 May 21. Sounds Horn of Africa, but I don't think it is Amharic, maybe Eritrean. Talk by man in language, one mention of WHO and got flattened by some sort of noise at 1642. Anyone else hearing this? (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Most probably the usual Ethiopian jamming program (talks). At 1702 only the Ethiopian noise-jammer on 8000 and tiny Eritrean signal on 7999.4 (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) Hi Jari - Thanks for the information. Are there any //s to check for this jammer program? Any ID? (Johnson, ibid.) Usually also on 5100 but when I checked today that channel was totally empty. I've had no luck with the ID. Couple of times I've heard the man mentions "democratia dot org" or similar. Must be the end of e- mail address or website. The jammer on 8000 closed at 1730 and Eritrea 7999.4 is now clear. Also ERI 7100 appeared at the same time (Savolainen, ibid.) Thanks Jari's information, weak talk on 7999.4 and much stronger talking on 8000, via DX Tuner Sweden at 1657 (Johnson, ibid.) And one Eritrean transmitter seems to be on 5940, closing at 1800 with N/A like did 7100 and 7999.4 (Jari Savolainen, May 21, ibid.) ** ERITREA. 7100, VOBME, program 1, *0354-0407, May 24, IS. Talk at 0400. Weak but readable. Covered by noise jammer at 0402. Jammer gone at 0404 along with VOBME. VOBME back at 0406 and so was the noise jammer. Both gone at 0407 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 7175, VOBME, program 2, *0354-0408, May 24, IS. Talk at 0400. Weak under Radio Liberty. Noticed noise jammer at 0408 check (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 7209.91, Radio Fana, Addis Ababa, *0255-0320, May 24, IS. Good level but covered by BBC 7210 at 0300 sign on. // 6110-covered by WHRI at 0259 sign on. Radio Fana still audible underneath on both frequencies with mix of lite instrumental music and HOA music (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 9704.20, Radio Ethiopia, 0307-0320, May 24, neat local tribal music featuring local flute-type instrument. Amharic talk. Lite Afro-pop music at 0310. Fair, but better on // 7110. Poor with adjacent channel splatter on // 5990. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 11640.01, *1630-1650, CLA, Friday 16.05, R. Xoriyo, Voice of the Ogadeni People, via Samara, Somali opening fast announcement with Horn of Africa music in background, Call to Prayer, 1632 talk mentioning Ogadenia, 55544. From *1633 weak heterodyne from noise jammer on 11640.00, 51541 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** EUROPE. BRI NEWS UPDATE. Saturday 28th June 08 BRI will present a 60 min show via the KBC 100 kW TX facility from 2130 UT on 6055 and repeated on 6110 from 0200 UT [i.e. UT Sunday June 29, these being Sitkunai, LITHUANIA – Britain Radio International, I think --- gh]. BRI celebrate its 28th year on SW during June.. to be offered this relay via KBC will make our birthday ocassion even more special for which we thank Eric and everyone at the Mighty KBC for offering us some of their valuable airtime. For more info about KBC schedules/freq etc go to http://www.kbcradio.eu/ BRI`s website and to listen online: http://www.geocities.com/britainradio48 Reception reports to our usual email address. britainradio @ hotmail.com 73s Roger Davis. Please spread the word about this special broadcast!!!! ...................................................................... As from the 2nd Sunday of June 08, BRI can be heard via Laser`s 4025 kHz facility to run alongside their programmes on repeat through until the following weekend; we will return to the usual 2 hr show which we had to reduce a while back due to various problems. Of course BRI will enter its 28th year on SW during June so we thank everyone at Laser for offering BRI the chance to move forward with the next phase in our broadcasting history; alongside the relay via Laser we shall still appear from time to time using 6255 kHz 48 mtrs on the 2nd/4th Sunday. Our programmes will also continue as normal via our webstream http://www.geocities.com/britainradio48 We shall add a` listen again` option shortly as another way to hear our programmes at any time of the day or night. 73s (Roger, May 25, bdx mailing list via DXLD) The others being pirate transmitters ** GERMANY. Broadcasting history: Bernburg transmitter --- Today I visited the Bernburg transmitter site, and I had to find that the mediumwave antenna plus doghouse, which still existed in September 2006 http://www.senderfotos-bb.de/bernburg.htm http://maps.google.de/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.810359,11.723496&spn=0.004836,0.010042&t=h&z=17 are gone now. The only things that remain in the triangular antenna grounds are the guard hut and some car searchlights, mounted to lit the stretches alongside the outer fence. The 20 kW mediumwave transmitter, inaugurated around 1947 for Landessender Halle programming (and thus for some time listed as "Halle" rather than Bernburg), was most likely installed in the building with the added two storeys, exactly opposite to the access path of the antenna. I guess the site opened with an antenna on the meadow behind the building, were the new FM/cellphone tower and related equipment containers have been placed, and the remote antenna across the street had been built later, perhaps because the area behind the transmitter building was too close to residual buildings. No traces of overhead feedline can be spotted, so I suspect a cable had been used instead. Bernburg carried Berliner Rundfunk programming once the regional service from Halle had been moved to FM. It appears that after the Geneve schedule came into effect the transmitter operated on 1431; a frequency reshuffling in 1987 resulted in a move to 1170, again shared with other sites like it was the case on 1431. In spring 1990 Bernburg moved for a last time to 657, on air only at night. This was for Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, the regional service from Halle, now expanded to a full program on its own. During daytime it used 657 with 250 kW from Burg, but at night only 20 kW are permissible on this frequency and the 20 kW transmitter at Burg (which actually was a mobile one in trailers) was at this time in use for Radio Aktuell (formerly Radio DDR 1) on 1089, thus this nighttime- only arrangement at Bernburg. 657 had been closed down at yearend 1991, and so the Bernburg mediumwave transmitter went silent after concluding its run with what it all had started, programming from Halle/Saale (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. Greek music fair at 0514 May 23 on 11645. This 05-06 hour from VOG is supposed to be in Albanian, in the Filia service, but did not stay with it till any announcements (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. 4799.80, Radio Buenas Nuevas, San Sebastián, 0415-0433*, May 24, nice selection of local music. Spanish ID at 0422. Local religious music. Closing ID announcements at 0432. Weak but readable. Best in ECSS-LSB to avoid weak het from a presumed Mexico on 4800 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAITI [and non]. 840 WHAS now off for testing! Hi everyone, I just wanted to pass a long that 840 WHAS is now off the air for testing. I didn't hear anything on there when I checked it a few minutes ago (Jeff Kenyon, location unknown, 0239 UT May 25, NRC AM via DXLD) Testing what? Just heard "Santa Clara" mentioned at 2303 - so most likely Cuba. Jim Renfrew, NY, 0304 UT May 25, ibid.) They're running a poor second here. Haiti is topping the channel with FF talk and religious music (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, 0314 UT May 25, ibid.) i.e., Radio 4VEH OK, I think the talker is French. Takes a lot of tweaking of the LSB and bandwidth to find a soft spot in the hiss. I've had it before, but go get'em if you haven't - Haiti is not easy to hear these days except for this one (Jim Renfrew, Holley NY, 0322 UT May 25, ibid.) ** HONDURAS. 3250.00, Radio Luz y Vida, San Luis 1110 24 May with presumed instrumental version National Anthem, "...presenta su programa... santo espíritu", good signal (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Flórida, Noise Reducing Antenna, Icom 746Pro, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. AIR Gangtok [SIKKIM], 4835, 0210-0215 May 13 in vernacular, with Indic music followed by banter between boisterous M & W announcers. Would have been quite listenable if CODAR hadn`t murdered it; P-F (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sorry, more likely PAKISTAN on same frequency, with much more power and much more darkness path; from Aoki, you decide, if this B-07 info is still in effect, daily, Richard is not privy to, being offline: 4835 AIR Gangtok 0100-0415 Hindi 10 ND Gangtok 8840E 2720N 4835 PBC Islamabad 0200-0300 Urdu 100 ND Islamabad API-4 7312E 3327N (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. RRI Jambi, Sumatera, 4925, 2345-2350 May 16, presumably in listed Indonesian with W&M announcers, tribal music with groups of people singing and aboriginal instruments. 20 dB signal, in the clear and good (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) But beware of the other station on 4925, Brasil active at same time: A 4925 5 B R Educação Rural, Tefé, AM 1000v-1530 2000-0200v (Su -0100) P/Vn Evangelical px, d 4924.9 - 4925.1 APR08 B 4925 10 INS RRI Jambi, SJ RRI Cabang Muda: 2200(Ramadan 1830)-0200 (Su -0700), 0800-1400v Bahasa Indonesia, occ. -1600 MAR08 (DSWCI DBS via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9526, Voice of Indonesia, 0940-1000 May 22: Noted a female in Indonesian comments until 0944. At that time, music was presented. Signal dropped off the air at 0945 however, in the middle of music. Sat on this frequency for a few minutes, but signal never came back. While VOI was on the air, its signal was fair. 9680, RRI Jakarta, 0947-1000: At tune in, noted local type music. Following that, a male and female commence discussing current events in Indo language. At 0956, more local type music again. On the hour, ID given by female. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, NRD525, CLEWISTON, FLORIDA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9526 also missing here at routine check around 1300 May 22 (gh, OK, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. In China for a few days, so I'm taking advantage to do a little listening to the shortwave bands when I get a chance. Equipment is an Eton E1XM/Sony AN-LP1 active antenna from central Beijing. In a quick bandscan around 1000 UT on 05/24/08, the following (presumed) North Korean frequencies were noted. Most all of the channels seemed to be playing similar-sounding opera, making it difficult to tell what was // to what. Numbers in parentheses are signal strength as heard in Beijing (a couple of hours before local sunset): 2850 (S5-7), 3250 (S7, I'm pretty certain this was Voice of Korea and not KCBS), 3320 (S5-7), 3350 (S3, weak, QRM), 3560 (S3), 3960 (S9), 3970 (S3, weak), 4450 (uncertain whether it was KCBS or AINDF, S9+), 4557 (S7-9, SSB QRM), 6070 (S9, low audio), 6250 (S9), 6399 (S7), 9650 (S7-9), 9665 (S7), 11680 (S9), 11865 (S9+). Not heard: 3220, 3481 (S4 open carrier), 6100 (though it's not listed as on at this hour). (Mark Schiefelbein, Beijing, China, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. 3220, KCBS Hamhung, 05/23/08, 1720, Korean. This frequency had been off during my previous bandscan of N. Korean freqs, but I found it back on at this time with opera, clearly // to 2850/3350/3960. Also heard again in a check at 1440 on 05/24. In Anker Petersen's Domestic Broadcasting Survey I see this station was last reported in January 07(!); I don't know whether it's been on all this time and nobody bothered to note it, or whether it's a recent reactivation. Fair signal (Mark Schiefelbein, Beijing, China, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA, NORTH. 11710, Voice of Korea, *1300-1310, May 24, IS and into English programming with news, commentary. Very weak. IDed by way of IS (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This varies a great deal here; some days virtually inaudible, others adequate, or quite good, presumably due to hi-latitude path --- or power shortages in the DPRK? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11710, NORTH KOREA. VOK, 1450, 5/25/08. Fair signal with splatter from 11715, KJES, New Mexico. Whine on transmitted carrier. OM & YL trading comments. Martial music at 1453. Organ IS and English ID at 1500. Stronger signal at 1642 retune during French service. Further retune at 1722 shows fair signal holding up with choral music. Seems to be right on 11710.00 at this time (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, JRC NRD-545, Wellbrook 330S Loop, 70' Inverted L, http://www.radiodx.net/wordpress/ Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 18/5 2109 - 9950 kHz (S500), OPEN R. FOR NORTH KOREA - Kamo (Armenia) Coreano/Inglese, talk OM/YL. Segnale buono- molto buono. All India Radio in sottofondo. 20/5 *1600 - 11640 kHz, VOICE OF FREE RADIO - Kamo (Armenia), Coreano, talk OM/YL e mx classica. Segnale sufficiente-buono, Machine gun+bubble jammers!!! (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, playdx yg via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. CLANDESTINE, 9940, North Korea Reform Radio via TWN, 1325-1330, May 18, Korean, talk by male, strong jamming, music, 21441. CLANDESTINE, 11570, Voice of Wilderness (presumed), 1331-1335, May 18, Korean, music, announcement by female, more music, strong jamming, 22432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. New 11540, *1200-1210, CLA, 18.05, R Free Chosun, via Taipeh [sic], Korean talk after fanfare, 25332, AP-DNK New 11540, *1200-1210, CLA, 20.05, R. Free Chosun, via Gavar, Armenia. Korean talk 25333. Not audible on 12125 or 15755 New 11560, *1400-1415, CLA, 16.05, Free North Korea, via Yangiyul, I/S, Korean talk, QRM Pakistan 11565, 34333, AP-DNK New 11570, 1350-1400*, CLA, 16.05, Voice of Wilderness, via Gavar, Armenia, Korean religious talk, 24222, QRM R Pakistan 11565, AP-DNK New 11640, 1345-1400*, CLA, 16.05, Voice of Wilderness, via Irkutsk, Russia Korean religious talk // 11570, 1358 Korean folkmusic, occasional CWQRM, 34333, AP-DNK New 11640, 1620-1630*, CLA, 16.05, Voice of Free Radio, via Gavar, Armenia, Korean talk, 1629 song and close, 35333. From *1627 strong open carrier from Juelich (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN. 4886.21, 0205-0235, CLA, 20.05, Voice of Iranian Kurdistan, via Al-Sulaymaniyah, Northern Iraq, Kurdish Call to Prayer, jammed, 33333; however at 0209 the station jumped to 4860.39 and read news and played folksongs while the jammer stayed on 4886.21! 35444 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** LAOS. 6130, Lao National Radio (presumed), 1557, May 22, Lao? female closing ID ".... Vitthayou ...", one-minute instrumental NA? to 1601:38 carrier off. Weak but frequency was clear as TPBS Lhasa did not appear until 1700, cf my Tibet report in DXLD 8-048. Very unusual to hear this here in late May! (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. RELAYS THIS WEEKEND VIA 9290 KHZ Sat May 24th Radio City 0900-1000 UT and 945 AM 1900-2000 UT http://www.radionord.lv Latvia Today 1000-1100 UT Radio Casablanca 1100-1200 UT Sun May 25th Latvia Today 1500-1600 UT Good listening 73s (Tom Taylor, May 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. RELIGIOUS BROADCASTER WILL TRAIN NURSES AT ITS MADAGASCAR STATION "Six shortwave towers in Madagascar launched a partnership that will bring students from the Third World to Nashville. Madagascar's government allowed Franklin [Tennessee]-based World Christian Broadcasting to lease 85 acres for a radio station, the network's president said. The lease cost was minimal, but because of the island republic's location and unusual topography, the station's signal will reach into Africa, China, India, the Middle East and South America when it launches late next year. To show appreciation, WCB wanted to do something for the struggling country off the African coast, where the gross domestic product is $800 per capita. 'We thought what would help Madagascar the most would be training some folks in pharmacy and nursing,' said Charles Caudill, WCB president." http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080524/NEWS06/805240337/1023/NEWS01 The Tennessean (Nashville), 24 May 2008. See WCB website http://www.wcbroadcasting.org/Updates/LatestNews/updates.php and previous post about same subject. Posted: 25 May 2008 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) COMPLETED AND ONGOING PROJECTS IN [sic] THE INDIAN OCEAN Completed projects: A water well has been dug; a 1½ mile security fence has been built around the site; earth anchors have been placed to support the towers and curtain antennas; a generator building, guard house, staff home, transmitter building and tool and equipment buildings have been built. The first of three diesel powered generators has been placed and is now providing electricity. The towers and curtain antennas have arrived onsite, and the towers will be raised in the fall of 2008. The fourth antenna to Madagascar will also be raised later in this year. The three 100,000 watt transmitters are now being built in Mesquite, Texas. They are digital-ready, and when digital is in use they will provide an FM quality signal and be capable of 4 simultaneous broadcasts (WCB website as above via DXLD) Aren`t there enough gospel huxters on SW in the world already, especially in Africa. Never enough! As far as they are concerned. They were also trying to get their mitts on our tax money under the guise of fighting AIDS thru info broadcasts. ``Six SW towers`` is meaningless. It`s the antennas they support which matter, which could be of several different designs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 15295, V. of Malaysia, Kajang, 25/5 0958 nice local music at 1000 full ID, good 33333. RX: Perseus, Diff. Antennas. Gr. (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. México continúa sobresaliendo en la ONDA CORTA --- 73 desde México!!! Hace unos minutos, encontré nuevamente a la XERTA, Radio Transcontinental de América por los 4800 kHz, 2115 UT, con la retransmisión del programa La Biblia Dice, y posteriormente música cristiana contemporánea en español, e identificación de la emisora en inglés y español, mencionando la frecuencia de los 4800 kHz. SINPO de 3 a 4!! Emisora religiosa, también por internet: http://www.xertaradio.com También les menciono que están audibles las frecuencias de: 6045, Radio Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí. Emisora cultural y educativa. 6010, Radio Mil, emisora comercial mexicana, la única en onda corta. Informó: (Magdiel Cruz Rodríguez, Jiutepec(*), Morelos, México, *Aprox. a 85 km al sur de la Ciudad de México, Sangean ATS-818, Antena V invertida May 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Haven`t been able to pull a trace of 6045 for quite a while now; best chance should be around *1200, but falling into the summer noise level (Glenn Hauser, OK, May 22, DX LISTENINNG DIGEST) Looking for traces of XEXQ, 6045, May 23 at 1249 and traces there were of classical music on definite weak carrier; at first thought it was Ritual Fire Dance, but then recognized some notes from Bolero; battling noise level from Kansas/Nebraska lightning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also SPAIN ** MEXICO. 4800, XERTA, 1005-1015 May 25. Period filled with religious music and talk. At about 1009, noted ID in both Spanish and English with URL as: "www.XERTARADIO.com". Signal was very good. This was my unID last weekend on this frequency when conditions weren't as good as today (Chuck Bolland, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. MEXICO OK'S HD RADIO FOR STATIONS NEAR U.S. BORDER http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=142268&pt=todaysnews COLUMBIA, MD -- May 21, 2008: Mexico's Federal Telecommunications Commission (CoFeTel) is authorizing radio stations within 320 kilometers, or about 200 miles, of the Mexico-U.S. border to begin broadcasting in HD Radio. CoFeTel said in a statement that it gave the OK so stations near the border "can transmit at the same technological level" as U.S.-based HD stations and "provide the benefit of quality service to the radio listening public." Stations that want to transmit in HD must ask CoFeTel for authorization and commit to helping the agency study the technology. "We're deeply grateful to the Mexican broadcasting industry for its decision to join the HD Radio phenomenon," said Bob Struble, President/CEO of HD Radio developer iBiquity Digital. "As the outstanding success we're seeing in the United States is mirrored elsewhere in the world, more and more countries will reap the benefits of this technology's efficient use of spectrum to bring very high-quality audio and data to consumers." (via Kevin Redding, AZ, ABDX via DXLD) ** MOLDOVA. Glenn, To clarify things for the NASWA people as regards the MDA SW sites: The Grigoriopol SW site opened with the first tests in late 1973. This has been confirmed by "insiders". Before that there were no highpowered or FS transmissions from the territory of Moldova (Moldavian SSR) on SW. There are indications that there were some lowpowered SW transmitters before that time in or near Chisinau, possibly for jamming purposes and using HS programmes. The primary sites for transmissions to NAm at that time were Lviv and Mikolayiv (appearing as Vinnitsa, Simferopol, etc. in ITU schedules). The high powered transmitters from 1973+ have always stayed at the same location. There have been no reports or indications of any kind of move, although the transmitters were modernised at a later stage. So the division line is 1973: Home service relays heard up to 1973 and it's Chisinau, foreign service relays from late 1973 up to this date and it's Grigoriopol (Maiac/Mayak to be exact). The R Moscow FS transmissions from Moldova that existed before 1973 were on MW 998 only. This frequency was used to link the North American service to the Bulgarian relays. Because of the systematic disinformation used by Moscow to hide away their real SW sites, QSLs issued by R Moscow stating a certain site have little or no value as a real confirmation of that site or the republic where this site would be located (Olle Alm, Sweden, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The NASWA Country List Committee did have and consider this information. Although other European sources also claiming "inside" or "authorative" information provide slightly different dates, there is little doubt that the Grigoriopol transmitter site opened about 1973. There is some dispute over the extent of equipment at a transmitter site near Chisinau. But there clearly was such a facility, in the 1950s and likely later, as sited (and cited) by the CIA/FIBS, and it contained SW transmitter(s). What would be considered "low" power or "high power" transmitters in the 1950s and today is open to interpretation. Lacking anything more authoritative than memories now 40 to 60 years old, the CLC is not prepared to say when FS transmissions began or ended at this Chisinau site. The CLC has information that at least one SW transmitter (of unknown power) was physically moved from the Chisinau to the Grigoriopol site at some time post-1973. At some point, and for some unknown period of time, it looks likely that SW transmitters existed simultaneously at both Grigoriopol and Chisinau. But specific details seem unprovable at this point. The CLC certainly not disputing that the locations Radio Moscow and/or Voice of Russia marks or has marked on its QSLs may or may not match the actual sites uses. Nor is that issue within the purview of the CLC's duties. DXers themselves may believe or disbelieve that a QSL, whether from RM or some other station, really "proves" anything. Some may believe that RM deliberately provided misinformation about transmitter sites, and others may believe it was more a case of the left hand (Mrs. Stepanova and her successors) sometimes not knowing, or caring very much, what the transmitting authorities were actually doing out in the field. But all of this is simply history, and probably of little interest to most DXers. The real issue, and the one the CLC focused on, is which receptions, over time, should be counted as Moldavia (Moldavian S.S.R.) and which receptions should be counted as Pridnestrovie (Moldavian S.S.R.). Here thing get even more complicated and confusing. There is a date when the former Soviet Union Republic of Moldavia or Moldavian S.S.R. ceased to exist; a date when the new nation of Moldova was created; a date when the insurgent "state" of Pridnestrovie declared its separate status; the elapsing of a period of time, at least one year, that the CLC, by its own rules, must wait to weigh the viability of such a new "state" before declaring it a radio country; a date when troops loyal to Pridnestrovie actually took over the Grigoriopol transmitting facility, etc., etc. In the end, the CLC chose the point where the new breakaway regime began broadcasting its own identifiable programs via the Grigoriopol station. That was the date I cited in my earlier posting. Is it arbitrary? Certainly. Could some other date have been considered the marker? Of course. Several were considered. As with any arbitrarily chosen date, some may agree with the reasoning behind its selection. Others may feel otherwise. So be it (don jensen, chair, NASWA Country List Committee, May 22, NASWA yg via DXLD) OK. It is a well written comment. Anyhow, the transmitter that was moved from Chisinau to Grigoriopol was the 150 kW Shtorm MW transmitter that had been used on 999 from Chisinau and then reappeared on 1467 from Grigoriopol. There is an ongoing research in the matter of pre 1973 SW transmitters in Moldova, but so far nothing in the way of foreign service transmitters has come to light (Olle Alm, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The older WRTH's like in 60ties and 70ties show Kishinev MW 998 kHz only, later accompanied by 1313/1448 kHz. Kishinev has n e v e r even been an USSR Regional station with 50 kW shortwave relay, -- except for some 5 kW Radio Liberty and RFE Romanian jammer units. In all decades USSR kept their dark secret under the vailed site call KCH. 19 years later in WRTH 1992, p137, "Grigoriopol" location was printed out for the first time. Counting radio countries may so simple: NASWA counts two areas separate, -- Moldova itself and also breakaway entity Pridnestrovya. The rest of the world counts one united Moldova, either Kishinev or two regional mediumwaves and plus SW+LW+MW from Grigoriopol Maiac location. Unspeakable example of Kosovo separation from Serbia will give Russia an example to divide Pridnestrovya, Ossetia, Abkhazia, etc. from original area (Wolfgang Büschel, BCDX via DXLD) Moldova, Kichinev KCH 47N00 028E30 --- source HFCC Moldova, Grigoriopol GRI 47N14 029E24 --- source WRTH (Jerry Lenamon, TX, shortwave sites yg via DXLD) ** MOLDOVA [and non]. Re 8-062: 9665, Voice of Russia in English at 0300 with an interesting program of classical music called Music and Musicians, although this program featured a Russian orchestra conductor. 0430 UT with Kaleidoscope. S/off at 0459 UT. Very strong May 18/08 (Mickey Delmage, Sherwood Park, AB, Sangean (Emerson) ATS- 803a portable with whip, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So you had no problem with CRI via Brasília at 03-04 as I do? (gh, OK, ibid.) Well Glenn, tonight at 0300, 9665 is booming in, though terribly distorted, like the days I used to hear the English broadcast of Georgian Radio. Great signal but so badly distorted it was totally useless. Best VoR frequency at this moment is 13635 kHz. Very good. Wait, that is not VoR on 9665, whoever, very distorted, better that 0300. It is 0313 UT. Some mentions of Radio Nacional so perhaps Brazil. Nothing heard before 0300 on 9665 though. Time for Moscow Mailbag. Later, (Mick Delmage, AB, UT May 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Mick, Sure looks like you were hearing Brasil, not Moldova. Agree now? ID should be R. Internacional de China. 73, (Glenn to Mick, via DXLD) For sure Moscow last Saturday the 17th as it was an incredibly strong signal that first caught my attention as we were sitting in the back yard with the portable and whip. As I listened to the complete time block from 0300 tune in to 0500 s/off all in English. Brazil must have been off that night. When I checked Monday the 19th, that is when I heard such terrible distortion, and as you pointed out, must be Brazil. 73 (Mick Delmage, AB, May 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. RESCUE RADIO: NO HAM RADIO IN MYANMAR TYPHOON In Myanmar where tens of thousands of people were killed by a recent typhoon, CQ Public Service Editor Bob Josuweit, WA3PZO, passes on a report from G4HPE of the International Radio Emergency Support Coalition that there currently is no amateur radio relief activity taking place there. The UN has finally been permitted to set up both HF and VHF communications based in the capital city of Yangon. This is for use by the entire humanitarian community, but none of the frequencies in use are in the Amateur bands. (CQ) (Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1606 - May 23, 2008 via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** MYANMAR. 5985.00, 2303-2355, 20.05, Myanma R, Yegu, Yangon. Bamar announcement, folksongs, talk and musical interludes, 35333, but a heterodyne began *2312 heterodyne on same frequency which began broadcasting in unknown language 2330, then 22222 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ?? If it`s a heterodyne it is not on the same frequency, by definition (gh, DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS. A NEW SEASON OF GREENE’S INSIGHT BEGINS Former Radio Netherlands personality Rob Greene is back from spending the winter in Spain, and has started a new series of commentaries in his personal blog Greene’s Insight. The new commentary, published a few days ago, is Never Mind America: The World Needs Obama! http://insite2out.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/never-mind-america-the-world-needs-obama/ If you want to react to something Rob says, please do so in his blog, not here (May 23rd, 2008 - 15:40 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Re 8-061: Hello from Hilversum, It's warming up again here, both literally and metaphorically. I travelled to Gouda last night and noticed that some streets are aleady decked out in orange ready for the European Cup football tournament which gets under way in a few weeks. As usual, RNW's Dutch service is carrying live commentary on matches involving the Dutch team. We won't be providing any commentaries in English, but we will have an English blog which will go live in the next few days. In the meantime, the extra frequencies for the commentaries on the three Dutch matches in the group stages of the tournament have been announced. I don't yet have all the technical details (sites, powers and beams), but this is what I have so far: Dates: 9, 13 and 17 June 2008. All times UT. 1830-2057: 5840 kHz to SE Asia + Indonesia + W Australia 1800-2100: 5955 kHz to SW Europe + NW Africa + Canary Islands 1800-2100: 5990 kHz to Europe 1800-2057: 17485 kHz to South America 1845-2057: 9895 kHz to SE Europe + ME 1759-2057: 13855 kHz to East Africa 1759-2057: 15420 kHz to West Africa [COLLIDING WBCQ; pse QSY? --- gh] 1759-2057: 17765 kHz to the Caribbean + Mexico + southern part of USA The regular transmission beginning at 2000 UT on 6040 and 6125 kHz will also join the football commentary on these dates. Frequency change for RNW Dutch to ME at 1559-1657 UT: China National Radio is on an extended shortwave schedule following the severe earthquake a few days ago. A transmitter in Nanning is using 13840 kHz. To avoid co-channel interference, the frequency of RNW's transmission in Dutch to the Middle East from Madagascar at 1559-1657 has been changed from 13840 to 13740 kHz. Beam change for RNW in Dutch at 0900 on 9795 kHz: As from 21 May, the RNW broadcast in Dutch at 0900-0957 on 9795 from Saipan is beamed 165 degrees instead of 195 degrees, for Eastern Australia/New Zealand (Andy Sennitt, Media Network newsletter May 22 via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. I wrote to RNZI regarding their transmission on 13840 being totally submerged under China until 0200. This is despite my 20m amateur beam being directed from here in Melbourne to NZ. Turning it to the north towards China and all trace of RNZI disappears. This is the response received today:- Thank you for your email. Interference to RNZI 13840 Recently China Radio International began using 13840 kHz. Listening in the South Pacific China’s transmission is clearly audible below RNZI’s programme. It is unlikely China will move and so RNZI will move to another 13 MHz frequency hopefully within a week. The co-channel will be much worse for your location as you are on the extreme side of our beam. In the central pacific which is our target RNZI is the stronger signal with China bubbling away underneath. Regards, Adrian Sainsbury, Frequency Manager (via Morrison Hoyle, Australia, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Frequency Change From 22 May, Effective from 22 May 2050-0158 UT [AM] 13730 kHz, 0159-0458 UT [DRM] 13730 kHz. (RNZI website 25 May, 2008 20:38 UTC via DXLD) Off just in time for Austria starting up at 0500, and nothing else to collide after 1900 per EiBi (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. Radio Broadcasting in the Pacific A Look Back 50 Years to 1958, RNZI Mailbox Documentary May 26 50 years ago, the last of the American baby boomers was born, and radio broadcasting was still in its infancy in most parts of the Pacific. Australia and New Zealand had a combined population of about 12.3m people and shared only 2.6m radio receivers amongst them. The ABC was about to end experimental FM broadcasts in the main centers, and the only FM station in the entire Pacific region was KAIM-FM in Honolulu. The most powerful island shortwave radio station was Radio Tahiti, serving 75,000 local listeners in the year that General Charles de Gaulle became French president and Sputnik 1 fell to earth. Shortwave broadcasting was also the only form of radio in the Cook Islands, New Caledonia and Dutch New Guinea. In Western Samoa, 2AP was celebrating its tenth anniversary. No stations broadcast in Tonga or the New Hebrides Condominium and only a few hours daily came from the new stations in the Gilbert & Ellice Islands Colony and the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. US Armed Forces Radio stations left over from World War 2 were still on the air on islands like Midway, Johnston, Eniwetok, and Kwajalein, and the relatively new Fiji Broadcasting Commission was still using shortwave radio from VRH4 Suva. Papua was served by just one station, 9PA Port Moresby, and KUAM was the sole station on Guam. On tiny Canton Island, KIBS of the Hermit Crab Network entertained airport staff at the lonely stop over point for the new trans-Pacific jet services of Qantas and Canadian Pacific Airlines. Listen to Mailbox on RNZI on Monday May 26 as David Ricquish of the Radio Heritage Foundation takes listeners back to the world of Pacific radio 50 years ago in 1958. Original theme music from popular British radio shows of the era, such as 'Housewives Choice', 'Desert Island Discs' and 'Family Favourites' also features in this radio heritage documentary. Visit http://www.rnzi.com for shortwave frequencies and times, and to download an audio version of the program that remains available on line for four weeks from May 26. You can also download the previous documentary, exploring contemporary radio in Fiji, Nauru and the Solomon Islands. This is available from the May 12 Mailbox program audio. For more information about early days of broadcasting in the Pacific, including stories and images and the popular Art of Radio Hawaii on line exhibition, visit http://www.radioheritage.net An online version of the program script along with images will be available later. Full searchable lists of operating AM and shortwave stations in the Pacific are available free on line in the Pacific Asian Log Radio Guides. An FM guide will be available shortly (David Ricquish, RHF, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. VON, 15120, May 22 at 1847 with news of Nigeria and Africa; fair signal in the clear, fades, modulation better than usual; continued past 1900 when overshadowed by Spain 15110 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) V. of Nigeria, May 23, 2008, 1326 UT, 9690 kHz, News read by YL. Talk by heavy accented OM. Music. ID and address given by YL. Overall Fair/Poor. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, VA USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Per Aoki, VON as of A07 was on 9690 at 08-1630 including English 10- 15; never hear this here, but occasionally AIR in English from 1330; wonder if you would have heard any of that after 1330 (gh, DXLD) 9690, Voice of Nigeria, *0802-0820, May 24, Sign on with their usual theme music. Talk in listed Hausa at 0804. ID. Poor. Weak in noise (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. KOKP, 1020, Perry OK, checked because a tornado was bearing down on the town, May 24 at 2355 --- heard just the tail end of annoying NWS attention tones as it went back to stupid sportstalk. At least they presumably got some government warning on, but not important enough to person the station locally (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Talking House at 3225 Whippoorwill, in NW Enid, gets out pretty well on 1670 kHz, audible on caradio all along west Randolph as far as Oakwood Mall, range of some 2-3 miles, 1640 UT May 22. Probably the same one I have also heard some miles to the NW of Enid into the country. Could also hear this at home QTH during power failure and somewhat lessened line noise, May 25 at 1306 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM ** OKLAHOMA. KOSU has come up with a gem, weekly 5-minute commentaries by an OSU Prof, Duke Pesta, called Classical Gasp --- about all kinds of subjects, not classical music or guitars. Listen to one and you`ll see what I mean and listen to more: Podcast archive: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kosu/.jukebox?action=programs&sortBy=program&browseProgramId=204800# (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. I've just caught BBC World Service, 1413 kHz in Oman between 0030 and 0100 UT with a surprising steady signal. According to WRTH an EMWG, the program was in Dari language. I can say that up to now, this is my longest shot (a little more than 11,000 Km!). Listen to that little clip around 0040 UT http://pages.globetrotter.net/esnaud/mp3/oman bbc.mp3 The program was heard with parallel SW 7165 and a clear ID later on. Caught with my Icom R75, the 55 degrees 950 footer (289m) beverage and the RPA-1 preamp all without the need of phasing (Sylvain Naud, Portneuf, Quebec, CANADA, May 21, mwdx yg via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. Frequency change of Radio Pakistan: 1330-1530 NF 11565 ISL 250 kW / 282 deg, ex 11570 \\ 9385 in Urdu WS 1600-1615 NF 11565 ISL 250 kW / 282 deg, ex 11570 \\ 9385, 15625v in English (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 21 via WORLD OF RADIO 1409, DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. RADIO PAKISTAN TWO NEW 100 KW SHORTWAVE TRANSMITTERS Hi Glenn, As per latest information obtained from Radio Pakistan, the work on installation of two new 100 kW shortwave transmitters at Landhi Karachi is underway. Out of the total allocated cost of US $7.2 Million, 60% amount has been spent so far. Similarly the projects of installation of 100 kW medium wave transmitters at Gawadar (Baluchistan) and Chaman (NWFP) are also underway and out of the allocated sum, 23% and 26% have been utilized so far. The project for installation of 100 kW MW transmitter at Parachinar (NWFP) is being processed (Aslam Javaid, Lahore, Pakistan, May 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also INDIA 4835 ** PERU. R. Visión, Chiclayo, 4790, 0237-0245 May 13 in Spanish, usual program of M preaching to tumultuous crowd over distorted PA loudspeaker. 50 dB signal, excellent (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5014, R. Altura, Cerro de Pasco; May-20, Spanish, 2346-2353, OM talks, should be a general info programme with events anmts, news, sports, 2350 ads about education programme, talks about the people and their rights. Strong, audio overloaded 43333 (Lucio Otavio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, HCDX via DXLD) ** PERU. 6019.44, Radio Victoria, Lima, 0435-0510, May 24, Spanish sermon. Government mandated National Anthem played at 0502-0505 followed by local music & religious sermon. Difficult copy. Must use ECSS-LSB to avoid CRI via Canada on 6020. // 9720-very weak. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PRIDNESTROVYE. Radio DMR, May 23, 2008, *1400-1414*, 12135 kHz. Sign on, anthem, items read by OM. Contact info given. OM "Thanks for listening and goodbye". Overall poor to barely understood due to AFRTS via Key West on 12133.5 USB. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, VA USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. ROMANIA CUTS SW FREQUENCIES; UPGRADES TRANSMITTERS R Romania International announced as the last item in their English news (18 May at 0007 UT on 9775 kHz) that they would be reducing their shortwave frequencies for the next couple of months whilst they upgrade/replace their shortwave transmitters. The revised English schedule they read out had only half the number of frequencies for each broadcast as in their original A08 schedule (see below). Their website http://www.rri.ro also shows details: CHANGES IN RRI'S FREQUENCIES --- You'll soon receive RRI's broadcasts on the short-waves in better conditions. On May 18th 2008, at 21.00 hours GMT, the transmitters in Galbeni, north-eastern Romania will stop functioning and will be replaced by Radiocom with new 300 kW short-wave transmitters. That is why in the following months you can listen to RRI's broadcasts on fewer frequencies. The programs will be broadcast by our transmitters in Tiganesti, near Bucharest. The programs broadcast by the transmitters in Saftica, near Bucharest, the internet and satellite transmissions, as well as the broadcasts and rebroadcasts of RRI's programs by WRN will not be affected by the change. In summer, after the new transmitters of Galbeni start functioning, most of our programs will be broadcast by those transmitters, to allow us upgrade the rest of our old short-wave transmitters, which become more and more obsolete, and replace them with 300 kW transmitters in Tiganesti and 100 kW transmitters in Saftica. We hope the inconvenience created by the reduction of frequencies on the short waves will be compensated in a couple of months by a significant improvement of the quality of reception, required by many of our listeners. Therefore at 1200 UT listeners in Western Europe can tune in to our programmes on 15220 kHz. At 1700 listeners in Western Europe can listen to RRI on 11735 kHz. At 2030 listeners in Western Europe can tune in on 9515 kHz while listeners in North America (East Coast) can tune in on 11940 kHz. At 2200 listeners in Western Europe can tune in on 7185 kHz and those in North America (East Coast) on 9790 kHz. At 0000 listeners in North America (East Coast) can listen on 9775. At 0300 listeners in North America (West Coast) can tune in on 6150 kHz and those in South East Asia on 11895 kHz. At 0530 listeners in Western Europe can listen on 9655 kHz while those in the Pacific area can tune in on 17770 kHz. (via Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, AOR 7030+, longwire, May 20, BDXC-UK via WORLD OF RADIO 1409, DXLD) This upgrade was supposed to start last fall, so they must be running 6-8 months behind (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Today May 22nd also one of the Tiganesti transmitters wandered down. German 0600-0627 UT 7125.00 and 9740, latter wandered to 9734.2 0610, 9733.1 0620, 9732.4 0623, to 9730.6 at 0627 UT. Arabic at 0630-0657: 9700.00 3.4 kHz wide stable. 11730 at 0630, 11726.8 0634, 11721.4 at 0637 UT. wb RRI refurbish Galbeni TX site now. Via remaining Tiganesti and Saftica transmitters: ROMANIAN "Curierul romanesc" Suns only 0700-0756 9700 15260 - 11970 17720 not on air. 0800-0856 11875 11970 - 9700 15450 not on air. 0900-0956 11830 15380 - 11925 15250 not on air. FRENCH 1000-1056 11830 15250*[?] 15380. - 17785 not on air. GERMAN 1100-1156 9525 11775. ENGLISH 1200-1256 15220. - 11875 not on air. ROMANIAN 1200-1256 7165* 11920. - 15195 not on air. CHINESE 1300-1326 11795 15435. ?? RUSSIAN 1330-1356 9790 11855. ?? ARABIC 1400-1456 11945. - 15160 not on air. ROMANIAN 1400-1456 11965. - 9760 not on air. ITALIAN 1400-1426 7170*. AROMANIAN 1430-1456 7170*. UKRAINIAN 1500-1526 7210*. RUSSIAN 1500-1556 7325 9760. SERBIAN 1530-1556 6135*. ITALIAN 1600-1626 9620*. FRENCH 1600-1656 9680. - 11950 not on air. ROMANIAN 1600-1656 9690. - 7205 not on air. AROMANIAN 1630-1656 7135*. ENGLISH 1700-1756 11735. - 9535 not on air. UKRAINIAN 1700-1726 6135*. ROMANIAN 1700-1756 11865. - 9625 not on air. SERBIAN 1730-1756 6105*. ITALIAN 1800-1826 7130* till Sep. 6. GERMAN 1800-1856 7160. - 9775 not on air. ROMANIAN 1800-1856 9625. - 11945 not on air. AROMANIAN 1830-1856 7130* till Sep. 6. SPANISH 1900-1956 11715. - 9775 not on air. UKRAINIAN 1900-1926 5910 7205*. SERBIAN 1930-1956 6130* 7215. [formerly ex6065* ex7140] FRENCH 2000-2026 7215 9655. ENGLISH 2030-2056 9515 11940. - 11810 15465 not on air. SPANISH 2100-2156 9755 11965. ENGLISH 2200-2256 7185 9790. - 9675 11940 not on air. SPANISH 2300-2356 9655 9745. ?? - 11880 11935 not on air. ENGLISH 0000-0056 9775. ?? - 11790 not on air. ROMANIAN 0000-0056 9525. - 11960 not on air. ROMANIAN 0100-0156 9525. - 11960 not on air. FRENCH 0100-0156 6130. ?? - 9515 not on air. SPANISH 0200-0256 5975 9520. ?? - 9645 11945 not on air. ENGLISH 0300-0356 6150 11895. ?? - 9645 9735 not on air. CHINESE 0400-0426 11790 15215. ?? RUSSIAN 0430-0456 7190 9555. ?? FRENCH 0500-0526 7180 9655. ENGLISH 0530-0556 9655 17770. ?? - 11830 15435 not on air. GERMAN 0600-0626 7125 9740. ARABIC 0630-0656 9700 11730. - 9685 11790 not on air. * Saftica 50 kW site. At present RRI Galbeni tx site is on refurbish procedure. RRI broadcasts now on limited basis. Romanian 1700-1756 UT now scheduled on 11865 only. But seems a very old unit in use today, wandered within short time from 11853 to 11851.64 ... now around 11851.02 kHz. No real carrier traced. TX switched on and off between 1702 and 1720 UT many times (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 21, via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Re: Website: PTR-Vladivostok is redesigned --- Re: DXLD 8- 016: R. TIKHIY OKEAN OFF SW: The website for PTR-Vladivostok (Pacific State Television and Broadcasting Company) is back again and has been completely redesigned http://www.ptr-vlad.ru/ but perhaps not totally functional yet. All references to R. Tikhiy Okean seem have been expunged and there are no longer any audio files for it, nor do I find live streaming for AM 810, so Primorskoye Radio may also be gone (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Just found this old mail and tried the Russian website and found at least Radio 810 live in 16, 24, 48 and 96 kbit streams: http://ptr-vlad.ru/radio_online.html 73, (Erik Køie in a sunny Copenhagen, May 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RWANDA. DW Kigali, 15205 in English at 2102 May 23, still with unstable frequency warbling slightly with BFO on, unnoticeable with BFO off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. Hi Glenn, Just wondering if you had noticed the terrible buzzing on 15205 kHz (I am tuned in now at 1550 UT). It seems to be spread all across from 15050 to 15225. What a mess, and it's bothering a lot of broadcasters I should imagine. Have you noticed this in North America? Best Regards (Chris Lewis, England, May 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, of course, it`s that awful Saudi transmitter (gh, DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. For the long time again was heard the Second Program of BSKSA on 9580 kHz \\ 9675 (here stronger but with "middle buzzy" 0350-0410. The "13 m. b. Saudi Effect" was observed for the past 4-5 years in three types, now only two, for example at 1100 UTC 21635 and 21740 with mixed program of fundamental 21670 in Indonesian and 21705 Main program in Arabic, or plus and minus 35 kHz (there is in another time a case with + /- 40 kHz (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 16 via DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA, Riyadh, 15435 to W Europe, 1328-1340 May 17 in Arabic with talks. 70 dB signal, excellent (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by p-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA [and non]. Stubline-Serbia transmission [gone] too? 6100 kHz, 250 kW Bijeljina noted last on May 18th by Paul Gager in Vienna. Also old Stubline 7199.94 kHz unit missing today May 21, at noon and now at 1630 UT too. Only Bulgaria on even 7200.00 kHz co-channel (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, WORLD OF RADIO 1409, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks to tip of Paul Gager in Vienna. 6100 Bijeljina in German is back May 22 at 2000 UT, but not on \\ 7199.94 ! 7200v from Stubline Serbia still missed in past four days too, even the noon service at 1000 UT. May you can check NAm service on 6185 kHz tonight ? wb (Wolfgang Büschel, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) After missing for a few days, International Radio Serbia is back on air via Bijeljina, B-H. May 22 at 2337, resumption of the usual heavy clash between it and XEPPM on 6185, with a rippling SAH and the Mexican on top, but rather sure the other station is Serbian as scheduled, and same situation after 2359 as IRS starts English. Wolfgang Büschel had noted at 2000 the other Bijeljina frequency, 6100, was back on the air in German (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear DXers, Today at 1000 UT I phoned Belgrade, and they told me Predrag Graovac, technical director of IRS will be back in Belgrade on Monday (May 26) till noon local time, and then should I call him. I've been told that tech. director is in BIJELJINA-YABANUSHA TRANSMITTING STATION, and he has been supervising a replacement of electronic tube in the transmitter. Best regards! (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, Serbia, May 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Brother Scare back on WBCQ, 24/7? see U S A ** SPAIN [non]. Quick check of REE Co-Official Languages segment, May 22 at 1250 on 15170 via Costa Rica: opening in Basque, immediately into Castilian news about Euskadi. O well, surely almost all Basques understand Spanish, so why bother with their own peculiar language? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos cordiales Glenn, es un poco complicado explicar esto; es cierto que todos los ciudadanos de España conocen el español, además en España existen varios idiomas oficiales reconocidos, como el vasco, catalán y gallego, otros sin embargo no son reconocidos oficialmente cómo el aragonés, asturleonés o la Jálama. El hecho de que existan unos idiomas reconocidos y catalogados oficialmente ha llevado a que los poderes públicos, colegios, gobiernos autónomos, medios de comunicación, etc. utilicen y promuevan el conocimiento de esas lenguas con el fin de que no se pierdan en el olvido. Desde la llegada a la democracia en España, se han hecho grandes esfuerzos en rescatar, enseñar y difundir esos idiomas, como parte de nuestra cultura; cabe recordar que durante la dictadura de Franco, durante cuarenta años, se persiguió y se castigó a las personas que utilizaban esos idiomas o dialectos, durante cuarenta años se fraguó una cruzada para eliminarlas de España. Por lo tanto, no es de extrañar que desde el ente público de RTVE a través de REE realicen esas emisiones al exterior como gesto; sobre todo va destinado a los dos millones de españoles que se estiman hay en el extranjero. Muchos de ellos viven fuera desde la época de la dictadura y que ya no regresaron, muchos de ellos, vascos, gallegos o catalanes. Que por supuesto conocen perfectamente el español y además muchos de ellos son bilingües. Glenn, esto además de un gesto político, es un gesto social y cultural. A pesar de que yo por ejemplo, soy valenciano, entiendo el valenciano, sin embargo no lo hablo, formo parte de las muchas personas en este país que hemos perdido el conocimiento de nuestra lengua materna (José Miguel Romero, Valencia, May 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Arabic singing on 12015, May 22 at 1926 slightly over constant RTTY, but only poor signal and seems undermodulated; automatic timesignal on halfhour 1930 tipped off that it`s REE, yes, as scheduled eastward from Noblejas. Was not expecting to hear classical music on Friday morning from REE during the 13 UT hour, since Clásicos Populares is now scheduled Mon- Tue-Wed only and there`s a talk show on Thursdays, but there was some May 23 at 1308 on 17595 and via Costa Rica 15170; this show focused on México, 1324 IDed as ``América Mágica`` as on schedule Fridays 1305- 1355, with one repeat UT Mondays at 0005-0055. I checked for XEYU May 23 at 1815 but nothing around 9600. Weak signal on 9600, May 23 at 1936 with song in Spanish repeating the word belísima, or was it morísima? Or was it Italian? Anyhow, one might think XEYU was back except this was on 9600.0, not 9599.3v, and a few minutes later an announcement in French. Faded down and gone by 1950. Looked up later, it`s REE which is in French M-F 19-20 on 9600 at 110 degrees. Beware, as this broadcast could also contain some Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. New 11905, 0630-0640, CLA, Tue 20.05, Southern Sudan Interactive R Instructions, via Kigali, Rwanda. English children songs, ID, talk 35333 AP-DNK New 15215, 0620-0630*, CLA, Tue 20.05, Southern Sudan Interactive R Instructions, via Dhabbaya, English talk and songs 15221 // 15750 AP- DNK New 15750, 0620-0630*, CLA, Tue 20.05, Southern Sudan Interactive R Instructions, via Meyerton. English talk and songs 45434 // 15215 AP- DNK (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. Radio Sweden frequency change on Sunday Radio Sweden’s website says “Because of interference from other radio stations, we’ve been forced to change the frequency of our broadcast in English to the Middle East at 1530 UT. The current frequency of 11590 kHz is changing on May 25 to 11595 kHz.” (May 23rd, 2008 - 15:19 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** SYRIA. Re 8-062: ``Eibi omits the 05-16 broadcast, which I don`t recall seeing reported, and suspect is not really on air`` I have not heard any 'daytime' (in my hemisphere) Arabic language broadcasts from Syria on any frequency for a very long time. If I remember correctly, I think the last I heard were via 13610. The whole of their current schedule on SW has not been monitored, but what I have heard corresponds nicely with the latest WRTH update. The signal is strong enough to hear, but there's hum, and the modulation is very low. The time has surely come to invest in a couple of new transmitters to replace their 1982 Thomson's (Noel R. Green (NW England), May 21, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1409, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: WBCQ ** TAIWAN. 15465 with strange stuff May 22 at 1252, very emotional drama in oriental language with heaving sounds, musical accompaniment; 1255 outro and just music; 1300 5-pip timesignal (all same pitch) and off immediately without further announcement. Here`s what Aoki lists: 15465* R. TAIWAN INT. 1200-1300 1234567 Chinese 100 230 Paochung TWN 12018E 2343N CBS2 a08 15465 R. TAIWAN INT. 1300-1400 1234567 Amoy 100 230 Paochung TWN 12018E 2343N CBSD a08 Which means that it`s jammed until 1300, but not jammed when switching to Amoy at 1300; however, that part was missing, anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA for another log of it? ** TAIWAN [and non]. About Logs and "Logtigers" Perhaps you listen to your favourite radio station and want to promote those programme, as I am for example for R Taiwan. And then: there is no signal on the listed frequency, for days .... You ask: WHY? Some guy not only asked himself but also the radio station and the community in a blog. Some answer: Silly nonlog. Really silly? Not only the content of a broadcast is worth to be considered of, not only in the days of the Cold War there was (and I think already is) to be noted what is NOT content of the broadcast, or even the broadcast is already transmitted. Perhaps they closed their studios rapidly? Only that one language or some more? What about the satellite relais? Internet? Or are there some bills not being payed or not being payed in time? Any other incidents (earthquake!) perhaps leading to technical problems with links, seawatercables etc.? Political reasons? Some problems with the staff (strike? arrest?). Those questions should also be asked by other OMs, and the management of the broadcaster will note: Oh, there are really some really interested listeners to our programmes - and perhaps don't think of cuttings in programmes and languages. It is the background of broadcasts which we must consider much more, not only the "logtigers" but also the programme and favourite station listeners as well. We are the ones especially dealing with information by shortwave radio and then must do it consequently! 73 - we (Walter Eibl, May WWDXC DX Magazine via DXLD) Have we a new DX term? I assume logtigers is a translation of something in German, but what means it exactly? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** TAJIKISTAN. 4635, Tajik Radio 1, 05/23/08, 1425, presumed Tajik. Tajik Radio 1 seems to be a nightly regular here, heard for instance on this occasion with a female DJ playing Russian-esque pop songs. Never very strong, however, and the audio seems rather muddy (though it could just be the subpar reception). Fair (Mark Schiefelbein, Beijing, China, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET. PBS-XZDT, Lhasa, 6200 still with CNR-1 relay on May 23, at 1234. PBS, Lhasa on 4905 // 4920 not a relay of CNR-1, May 23, at 1239 (Ron Howard, Shanghai, China, Eton E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) duplicated under CHINA ** TURKEY. Qur`an recitation with usual long pauses, good at 0510 May 23 on 11980. Figured it was some Arab country, like Algeria relay, but looked up and it could only be VOT Emirler, scheduled in Turkish at 310 degrees toward us. Must default to Arabic for Qur`an since it`s Friday, but what is this doing on a secular state broadcaster??? Or do they do this every day? Is there a struggle at TRT over whether to broadcast Qur`an? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Hut 33 is back --- This is a pretty amusing program. The British know how to do comedy. It started this past Wednesday, there`s a link to listen until the next edition next Wednesday. Fred Waterer 21 May - 25 June 2008 Wednesday, 11.30 - 12.00 noon Hut 33 returns for a second series, from the award winning creators of Think the Unthinkable. Set in Bletchley Park, in WW2, this sitcom focuses on 3 code-breakers forced to share a draughty wooden hut as they try to break German ciphers. Unfortunately they hate one another. Archie, the stroppy Geordie who wants a socialist revolution must now work with Charles, the ultra-conversative snob who rejected him from Oxford because he didn't know how to use a fish knife. Gordon, the child prodigy, wants to be taken seriously, which is difficult in short trousers and tries vainly to act as peace-maker. In theory, 3rd Lieut Joshua Fanshawe-Marshall is in charge of the hut, but he struggles to even find his way there, let alone exercise authority. Minka, their Polish secretary, provides much need efficiency, although she is worryingly keen on extreme violence as the solution to all problems. Off duty, the code-breakers must stay alert to avoid the attentions of Mrs Best, their sex-obsessed landlady who claims to have bedded both Bomber Harris and Goering. The cast are: CHARLES - Robert Bathurst ARCHIE - Tom Goodman-Hill MINKA - Olivia Colman JOSHUA - Alex MacQueen MRS BEST - Lill Roughley GORDON - Fergus Craig Useful Links Bletchley Park: find out about the real code-breakers at Bletchley Hut 33: find out more about the show on Wikipedia James Cary's Hut 33 blog more about the show from the writer http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/hut33.shtml (via Fred Waterer, Ont., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Open carriers on 17530 and 17565, May 22 at 1352, the latter with a SAH and over some co-channel station, music. These are Greenville warming up for 1400 broadcasts in English, Spanish respectively, both signing-on at 1359. This is typical for IBB Greenville, turning on transmitters with open carrier 10-15 minutes before programming. Is this really necessary, Chollie? Seems a waste. And in this case blox something else. Probably the jumpy V. of Tibet via Uzbekistan and/or Chicom jamming, landing on 17565 today. VOA Portuguese to Africa, 9815, May 22 at 1824 concluding Temas e Debates, singing, and into a VOA Editorial. Service over at 1829 but no sign-off; 1830 into VOA English for one minute by mistake, 1831- 1840* open carrier, why? This is Greenville at 91 degrees. I wonder how well 9 MHz gets to Angola over an afternoon path in our summer. Why not use something closer? O yeah, 9815 was via Morocco 12 months ago, no longer an option; several services formerly via Morocco to Africa are now via Greenville. CIRAF targets for this: all of Africa except the northern and southern tiers of countries. 91 from Greenville is centred on Lagos, close to São Tomé, but it misses Guinea Bissau and Angola which are further south, as well as Maputo, but crosses Moçambique near Nampula, if it gets that far (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. If you don`t get enough African music from VOA in English, the French service has a wildly enthusiastic DJ, as noted via Bonaire 17550, Friday May 23 at 2005 giving phone numbers and spelling out e-mail addresses, presumably of listeners wanting contacts. One sounded like cher-US-star, then some Mozambique music. VG signal here slightly out of the target area. VOA in French on 9830, May 23 at 2107 news, ID, mixing with constant RTTY. At 2100-2130 M-F this is São Tomé at 335 degrees; strangely enough, it`s half an hour earlier on Sat & Sun (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WBCQ -- I'm confused --- I've been scanning thru the recent postings here, and what has been mentioned in DXLDs about WBCQ, and I checked the on-line program sked and did some other on-line looking around. I'm still confused. (This is not surprising... :-) So is Christian Media Network gone from WBCQ or not? The James Lloyd "Apocalypse Chronicles" transmissions *are* listed on their own website as being on 7415 kHz in the local evenings, but are NOT on the WBCQ online sked. That network also carries the Cedarstrom "Money Talks" programs, which are also listed on the CMN website as being on WBCQ and they *are* listed in WBCQ's online sked. It's not that I'm a Lloyd believer or the like; it's just that his carryings-on are actually the most interesting of any of the radio preachers. He's not a shouting ranter like Stair, and the stuff he claims seems about as valid as the babble you hear overnight on Coast2Coast AM, in terms of pseudoscience, conspiracies, and supernatural influences. I was happy that he was supporting Allan Weiner and WBCQ and that I had an opportunity to listen now and then. (But I always wished that he broadcast overnight repeats of his daily programs or transmitted his collection of recorded teachings [that he sells on CD or tape] during late-night hours when I tend to listen to SW, like 0400 or 0500 UT and on.) And an aside: Back in DXLD 8-059, 11 May 08, a contributor was wondering if "Cut the Crap with AJ" was gone from UT Sunday, local Saturday evenings on 7415. It was only replaced one week and he was back and is on the current updated sked. 73, (Will Martin, MO, May 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UT SUNDAY 0400: WBCQ "Tom & Darryl" on 7415 -- They're definitely gone, no longer heard and not on the new May 19 WBCQ sked. Is it anything there now at all? Not even The Overcomer is listed but we heard Stair there in past weeks. 73, (Will Martin, May 21, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. WBCQ check May 22 at 1817, during quite poor propagation: 15420 was JBA, I think, vs GB-15410 splatter; I found out too late on Wednesday that WORLD OF RADIO has been moved up to 2100 UT Wednesdays on 15420-CUSB. 9330, said to be on the air this one hour only weekdays, 18-19, definitely on at 1826 but poor with talk show // 7415. At this hour, 9330 carries better than 7415, which is why the client wanted it on, no doubt (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re the earlier reports of WBCQ not transmitting on 9330 or 5110: Well, something has changed in the past day or so. As I type this, WBCQ is transmitting The Overcomer on 9330 kHz, during this 2000 UT hour (Friday, 23 May). I know it is a current live show, because I heard a caller discussing the just-now-announced court case regarding the FLDS polygamists (they won, over the State of Texas) and praising Bro. Stair to the highest about his earlier comments about the situation (which I had not heard). This 2000 UT transmission on 9330 is NOT listed in the online May 19 WBCQ sked. That shows the Overcomer on 7415 and ending at 2000, not continuing thereafter. I hope Allan goes into detail with regard to just what WBCQ is currently transmitting in this evening's "Allan Weiner Worldwide" at 0000 UT on 7415 kHz (& that it is receivable here!). Probably worthy of listening to even if you don't regularly tune in that program. 73, (Will Martin, MO, May 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Brother Stair bought 9330 from 8a-9p then 5110 from 9p-8a all seven days. WOR on same 7415 schedule and Wed 5p-530 [EDT] on 15420. For now nothing on 9330 or 5110. Will add more times as things become more stable here (Allan Weiner, WBCQ, May 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So much for a clear shot at Syria, which never made it here the last few days, not even a carrier on 9330. WBCQ, which shut down 9330 after losing Rod Hembree`s business, not only brought it back at 18-19 May 22, but Brother Scare to the rescue! He`s now on 9330, as heard May 23 at 1953, running about 3 seconds ahead of WWRB 9385. No Syria het even tho Turkey was in on 9460, and Greece weaker on 9420. Overcomer Ministry still going at 2105 with a drama, not B.S. himself at the moment. Then I heard from Allan Weiner that BS has bought 24/7 hours on 9330 and then 5110: Seven days on 9330 at 1200-0100, on 5110 at 0100-1200. Allan also says WORLD OF RADIO will not be back on 9330 or 5110 yet, just on 7415 as before, Thu 2330 and Mon 0415; and 15420, Wed 2100. 15420 was JBA here May 23 at 1959. But I see the 9330 schedule altho updated with B.S., still shows Money Talx M-F 18-19, so that makes it 23/5 and 24/2?? http://www.zappahead.net/wbcq/main.php?fn=sked&freq=9330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So what's the appropriate question here: 1) Where does Brother Stair get all that money? 2) How far is WBCQ willing to slash its air time rates to get a paying customer? Or are both questions relevant?? ;-) (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) They might not have to slash the rate as much as you think. I don't know the specifics but let's make a guess. (Please check my assumptions) 50 kw transmitter @ 50% efficiency = 100 kw load 100 kw x 24 hours = 2400 kwh per day 2400 kwh x $.10 per kwh = $240.00 per day $240.00 x 30 days = $7200.00 per month Or, let's assume a higher cost per kwh 2400 kwh x $.15 per kwh = $360.00 per day $360.00 x 30 days = $10,800 per month So the power costs might be about $7000 to $11,000 per month for one 50kw transmitter. That works out to about $10 to $15 per hour for the electricity. An hourly rate of $30 per hour would yield a monthly income of over $21,000 per transmitter. Even at the higher kwh rate ($.15 per kwh) the margin isn't bad. The important part to the broadcaster is that the contract allows them cover their costs for a period of time, allowing them the freedom to seek other customers (probably at higher rates) for their other transmitters. Regarding where Brother Stair gets his money. I imagine it is from donations. Surely the plethora of radio preachers is adequate evidence to their ability to attract donations. Just think, the air time is probably less than the rent and upkeep of even a moderately sized church building and how many more people can be reached in a month of 24/7 broadcasts than might be members of a local church (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, ibid.) What happened to all the paid programs that were carried by WBCQ on 7415? Notice that 15420 isn't mentioned yet. This is from http://www.overcomerministry.org/content/view/345/95/ Shortwave over 72 hours per day!! Saturday, 24 May 2008 This month and next, Brother Stair is going to be on over 72 hours per day on shortwave radio. The stations WWRB, WBCQ, and T-Systems in Juelich Germany together will be broadcasting many hours throughout the day reaching many parts of the globe. Your receptions reports help us to know what times and stations are important to you and how far the signal is going. Below is the current schedule. SW Radio [sic, what a mess, mixing am, pm, UT, no end times, etc.] 3185 - 12 - 9 AM - 9 Hrs 7415 – 3 – 11 Pm - 8 Hrs 5110 – 9 Pm - 8 Am - 11 Hrs 5745 - 7pm – Midnight – 5 Hrs 6110 - 1400 Utc - 2 Hrs 6175 - 1900 Utc - 2 Hrs 6890 - 6pm - Midnight - 6 Hrs 9330 - 8 am – 9 pm - 13 Hrs 9385 - 9 am- 7 pm - 14 Hrs 13810 - 14 Utc - 1 Hr 17485 – 1500 Utc - 1 Hr (website above via Sergei Sosedkin, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Bro. Stair on WBCQ, etc. --- Allan, Stair says he is also on 7415 at 3-11 pm!! Is this correct? (Glenn, Tornado Alley, to Allan Weiner, via DXLD) Hi Glenn, this is Jennifer again, no it's not. I don't know why he said that; he must have misspoken (Jennifer Ellis Weiner, May 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I don`t know what he said but 7415 is on his website. Meanwhile, May 24 at 2355 I heard ``Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport`` on 7415, so I`m fairly sure that was not The Overcomer Ministry; also Marion was still on at 0110 May 25 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thank you, Glenn and Jennifer! Apparently, the Overcomer Ministry replaced all Christian Media Network programming eff. May 1 2008. That includes quite a few hours on 7415 kHz Mon. thru Fri. (from 2 hours Friday to 7 hours Tue.) Full schedule is here: http://www.zappahead.net/wbcq/main.php?fn=sked&freq=7415 I don't know how current this is but I run into Bro. Stair's preaching on 7415 kHz last Friday (Sergei Sosedkin, IL, May 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Apparently he has occupied much or all of the `open` time on 7415, but most of the regular shows remain. Christian Media Network just pulled out of WRMI too; wonder why? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, You must realize how expensive it is to run a shortwave station, so Paying clients are a must. Check the schedule and you will see Brother stair took most of the time on 7415 vacated by Christian Media Network. If things keep going the way they are I will have to run this place off of a steam engine (Allan Weiner, WBCQ, May 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WRMI, 9955, better than usual, F-G at 2113 May 23, no jamming, as Overnight AM about Mars missions was about to pause for break; guest has website http://www.drsky.com where we see has also appeared on C2CAM. Do NOT go to doctorsky.com, a ripoff paid link site combining night sky with weight loss! Jeff White says WRMI still hasn`t finished fixing up their NAm antenna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WHRI 11785 with Hmong Lao Radio, Sunday May 25 at 1326 was accompanied by very distorted // spur around 11793, plus some pulsing noises periodically. There was some QRM to DGS on 11775, but it did not sound the same, and could not pin it down to 11777 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KVOH, 17775, not especially strong, Spanish religious talk, May 21 at 2019, but just strong enough to audiblize its parasitic spurs on 17920-17921 and weaker around 17630, plus/minus 145+ kHz. They all weakened by 2030 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 8-061: ``5470, WWCR. Apparent spur here at 0926, 17 May. Noted the night before as well. 4915 is a real mess too. 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) The four WWCR SW transmitters on the air at this hour are: 9980, 5935, 5890 and 5070, none of which will produce a mix on 5470. Instead, it`s the co-located WNQM 1300: 5070 + 1300 = 5470. As for 4915, = 9985 minus 5070 during this hour only (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` ?? Back to the drawing board. I must be losing it, as 5470 is only 300 kHz above 5070, not 1300. I finally realized this May 21 at 1618 as I was going thru that issue picking out material for WOR 1409, not to include this. Don`t you believe everything I say. So 5470 remains unexplained. Who can calculate its provenance? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Pastor Pete Peters, via WWCR 9980, May 23 at 2108 with hum, dead air, someone who can count to two making mike chex, feedback; 2110 PPP audible but off-mike, apparently a live outdoor event, inviting/ordering children to come forward and be taught how to sing something for a Sunday performance. 2112 a prayer but barely audible by non-deities despite huge signal; 2114 could barely hear the call but the response blasted in, ``Jesus Christ is king``. 2115, PPP is finally on-mike himself, and immediately offers prayer for the audio crew, ``send us tech-angels to help``. BTW, Laporte CO is not far from the May 22 tornado outbreaks, but no mention of that heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 8-061, there should have been a cross reference to ANGUILLA, re the disposition of KTBN`s transmitter et al., Now the rest of the photos are in the DXLD yg (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. A-08 WYFR Family Radio via TV Radio Waves (TRW): 1400-1700 on 5845 DB 100 kW / 137 deg Hindi 1200-1300 on 5970 K/A 250 kW / 313 deg Korean 1100-1500 on 6135 IRK 100 kW / 110 deg Chinese 1400-1500 on 7215 IRK 250 kW / 224 deg Nepali 1800-2000 on 7240 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg Arabic/English 1000-1100 on 7245 K/A 100 kW / 178 deg Japanese 1400-1600 on 7320 TCH 250 kW / 240 deg English 1800-1900 on 7320 ARM 300 kW / 290 deg German 1900-2000 on 7320 SAM 250 kW / 284 deg German 1900-2000 on 7340 MSK 250 kW / 264 deg Spanish 1000-1200 on 7430 A-A 200 kW / 094 deg Chinese 2000-2200 on 7430 KCH 250 kW / 309 deg English 1400-1600 on 7510 TAC 200 kW / 131 deg Bengali 1600-1800 on 7520 SMF 250 kW / 131 deg Persian 1400-1500 on 9365 TAC 200 kW / 131 deg English 1400-1500 on 9405 ARM 300 kW / 110 deg Punjabi 0900-1200 on 9450 IRK 250 kW / 110 deg English/English/Korean 1400-1700 on 9450 SAM 250 kW / 284 deg >>>>> not active 1200-1300 on 9465 IRK 250 kW / 152 deg Cebuano 1900-2000 on 9490 MSK 250 kW / 240 deg Italian 1700-1900 on 9495 TAC 200 kW / 311 deg Russian 1500-1600 on 9500 NVS 250 kW / 195 deg Urdu >>> from May 13 1200-1500 on 9615 IRK 500 kW / 180 deg Indonesian/Indonesian/English 1800-1900 on 9615 SAM 250 kW / 284 deg Polish 1400-1500 on 9625 NVS 250 kW / 180 deg Tamil 1600-1700 on 9735 ARM 300 kW / 110 deg Punjabi 1100-1500 on 9865 P.K 250 kW / 263 deg Chinese 1000-1100 on 9900 IRK 250 kW / 152 deg English 1100-1200 on 9900 VLD 250 kW / 220 deg Ilocano 1500-1700 on 11505 ERV 300 kW / 100 deg Punjabi/Urdu 1300-1400 on 11520 A-A 200 kW / 132 deg Burmese 1600-1700 on 11630 ARM 250 kW / 110 deg Punjabi >>> from May 13 1500-1600 on 11655 ARM 300 kW / 110 deg Marathi >>> from May 16 1100-1500 on 11725 P.K 250 kW / 244 deg Chinese 1200-1400 on 11895 IRK 250 kW / 180 deg Vietnamese/English 1400-1500 on 12055 SAM 250 kW / 140 deg Gujarati 1900-2100 on 12060 ARM 250 kW / 290 deg French 1400-1600 on 12065 ARM 300 kW / 110 deg Urdu 1400-1600 on 12075 SAM 250 kW / 140 deg Kannada/Marathi 1100-1500 on 12150 A-A 250 kW / 094 deg Chinese 1400-1500 on 13590 SAM 250 kW / 140 deg Telugu 1500-1600 on 13665 KCH 500 kW / 116 deg Marathi 1300-1500 on 13810 A-A 500 kW / 121 deg English 1100-1300 on 13850 VLD 200 kW / 220 deg Tagalog/Indonesian 1200-1300 on 15490 NVS 250 kW / 155 deg Indonesian (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 21 via DXLD) ** U S A. Summer A-08 of WEWN Global Catholic Radio: English 0000-0600 on 11520 EWN 500 kW / 040 deg to ME 0600-0800 on 7570 EWN 500 kW / 040 deg to WeEu 0800-1100 on 9355 EWN 500 kW / 355 deg to SoEaAs 1100-1400 on 11560 EWN 500 kW / 355 deg to SoEaAs 1400-1900 on 15855 EWN 500 kW / 020 deg to SoAs 1900-2200 on 17595 EWN 500 kW / 085 deg to WeAf 2200-2400 on 15665 EWN 500 kW / 085 deg to WeAf Spanish 0000-0800 on 5810 EWN 500 kW / 220 deg to CeAm 0000-0800 on 11870 EWN 500 kW / 155 deg to SoAm 0800-1200 on 7455 EWN 500 kW / 220 deg to CeAm 0800-1200 on 9920 EWN 500 kW / 155 deg to SoAm 1200-1400 on 7425 EWN 500 kW / 220 deg to CeAm 1200-2400 on 17510 EWN 500 kW / 155 deg to SoAm 1400-2400 on 11550 EWN 500 kW / 220 deg to CeAm (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 21 via DXLD) ** U S A. Re 8-062, UNIDENTIFIED 1809 kHz: Saw your request for IDing the broadcast spur. I have been able to hear it barely in Enid OK, but very weak and mushy, around 0630-0700 UT. Wonder if anyone else has been able to ID it? 73, (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO, to K5BG via DXLD) Glen[n], Thank you for listening. It has been ID'ed positively as KREW in Plainview, Texas. Its fundamental frequency is 1400 kHz. If you are hearing it look it up online and give them a call. I have been encouraging everyone who can hear it to call and tell them. Strength is numbers. It has been ID'ed from as far away as Georgia. Thank you for listening. 73, Bob Gill, K5BG, Weatherford, TX, k5bg @ att.net May 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Also from 8-062: ``Unless Radio Soleil is leasing time on WMSX-1410. That would be interesting. A radio station broadcasting illegally on 1710 and legally on 1410 at the same time (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA, ibid.)`` And, while I doubt you are hearing any of these, don't forget the various Florida Haitian pirates (and alleged Georgia one), as detailed on my page as monitored/DFed by others: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, May 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. FL-GA RADIO OBSERVATIONS All logs/non-logs made during local daytime between May 17 and 21, 2008 while traveling to various hiking locations between Clearwater, Florida to northwest Georgia to northeast Alabama to southwest Georgia to northwest Florida and back to Clearwater, Florida. The below logs arranged, in order, by frequency then by state. All frequencies in kHz unless otherwise indicated. Receiver was the stock rental car (Mitsubishi Eclipse). KEYS: MIS are Municipal Information Stations. TIS are Travelers' Information Stations. DISCLAIMER: No portion of the below may be reproduced in any way, shape or remotely conceivable format by the National Radio Club without expressed written permission. And then permission will not be granted. 530 FLORIDA (MIS) Florida State University, Tallahassee; Long male loop babble regarding remote parking (by the Publix) with two shuttle service options and tram loop details for each; threats to all about campus parking without a permit; and promises that this station would carry information in the event of a campus crisis. One DTMF tone. Huge signal, noted (tune-in) on US-27 about five miles north of the I-10 junction, and audible eastbound I-10 through exits 209A/B, where amazingly, Radio Enciclopedia, Cuba, began to co-channel during this early afternoon and eventually dominated to near the I-10/I-75 exchange. This MIS does not appear on the FCC dB, and no call letters announced on the loop. 530 FLORIDA (TIS) WNMY250 Columbia County Tourism Development, Lake City; Reactivated! Not noted on the way up on I-75 on May 17, but active on the return with a huge signal. Long loop by male, promoting local outdoor events such as the Olustee Battlefield; Suwanee, Ichetucknee and Santa Fé Rivers; O'Leno State Park; downtown Lake City and local hotels; proximity to central and south Florida tourist attractions, etc. Opening of loop is, "Hello and welcome to Lake City..." Call letters used within the loop ("WNMY Two Fifty"). Audio somewhat muffled and with a 60-cycle hum, possibly from the recording source and not the transmitter. The signal is huge, audible just south of the Alachua (city of) exit and even just north of Gainesville. 830 GEORGIA (TIS) WQGW543 Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Atlanta; Usual male and female long loop with parking information and factoids (like the highest people traffic airport in the world, with 285,000 humanoids passing through each day). Big signal for a few miles, as always. 1610 GEORGIA (MIS) WPTK859 City of Forsythe; Noted this one on the FCC dB prior to departing, and indeed active. But sadly, one of the most pathetic ones experienced. Nonstop NOAA Weather Radio relay. Extremely low modulation and very FMing/distorted with -- what could be considered for audio -- also fluctuating up and down. Another unsuspecting citizens tax money shocker. 1610 GEORGIA (MIS) WNQB789 Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau; Confirmed inactive while passing through downtown Columbus. A free Visitors Bureau booklet has no reference to this as well, for what it's worth. 1620 GEORGIA (MIS) WPKW668 Perry Area Convention & Visitors Bureau; Still producing a huge signal for miles along I-75 (first noted at the Unadilla exit 121) with the usual long loop of events throughout the year in the Perry area, date/timestamp by female punctuating periodically. 1620 GEORGIA (MIS) WPYC491 City of Rome; Inactive. Passed through the town and no trace of this. 1610 FLORIDA (TIS) WQGS506 Payne's Prairie Preserve State Park, Micanopy; Great signal on I-75, south of Gainesville exits, with a long male loop regarding ecology, wild horses in the area released from Spanish explorers, re-introduced buffalo in 1975, call letters, etc. I traveled US-441 across Payne's Prairie, attempting to locate the transmitter. Not located at the short boardwalk, but peaking around the Bolen Bluff hiking trailhead parking lot just north on US- 441. However, not visible, if located here (maybe behind the trees that are fenced-off). A little north is the excellent Visitor's Center, trails and 50-foot observation tower. Signal is much weaker here. I did not bother to ask the 80-ish-year-old docent about this (pointless). The sole sign promoting 1610 is a crude and fading 8 X 11 inch 'tune to' copy paper posted to the display board at the aforementioned boardwalk, which I photographed for archival purposes. 1620 FLORIDA (non-licensed) "WBUL" University of South Florida; Audioslave song, audible on I-275 all the way to the I-4 interchange, seemingly a bit stronger than previous. 1640 FLORIDA (TIS) Florida Turnpike FDOT, Wildwood Mile Post 304; As always, audible on I-75 in the Lake Panasoffkee bridge area with male and female (Caribe-accent on the latter) generic traffic loop punctuated with female time/date stamps. 87.9 MHz FLORIDA (non-licensed) New Raman Reti Temple ISKON of Alachua, Alachua; no trace of this one, as discovered by D. Potter a few years ago and confirmed silent by him later. However, there's a cool "Hare Krisna and Be Happy!" billboard southbound on I-75, north of Alachua near exit 399. 96.7 MHz FLORIDA WZPH-LP, Zephyrhills; The usual canned 60's bubblegum/Top 40 pop vocals, "WZPH" slogans, legal ID top-of-hour. Audible up to the I-75/I-275 junction. 95.9 MHz FLORIDA WJRN-LP "Caliente 95", Summerfield; Massive signal, audible until Brooksville on I-75 southbound. Never have I heard an LPFM with such a huge footprint. Format is all Texicano vocals, Spanish and English/Spanish government-issued PSA's for OSHA and other government agencies, lots of "Caliente 95" slogans by male. Not live, all automated programming. Noted a canned ID on the way home to finally confirm. All I can say is, look at my FLPRS web page http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html starting at the 103.3 entry and follow the frequency trails, then decide for yourself where this one was, legally, to where it is now. Very clean and fantastic audio and processing to their credit. FCC dB says licensed to the Hispanic-Multicultural Broadcasting Association. 98.7 MHz GEORGIA WSDA-LP, Trenton; "Trenton's own gospel station, 98 point 7 FM" for the not-quite-legal ID. Country gospel vocals. Strong in downtown Trenton. 102.9 MHz GEORGIA WLOJ-LP, Calhoun; Logged in the parking lot of the nearby New Echota State Historic Site. Not-quite-legal "This is WLOJ FM from Calhoun, Georgia" ID. Format is canned Christian serial programs. Also noted with another not-quite-legal (but they at least got the "LP" worked in) "From Calhoun, Georgia, you're listening to Christian Radio for Today, WLOJ-LP FM, 102 point 9" into IRN-USA (whoever they are) network news. 102.9 MHz TENNESSEE WBUZ, Nashville; Heard just after noon local near the peak of Cloudland Canyon State Park (extreme NE Georgia). Great signal with commercials for Publix, First Tennessee Bank, the Bonaroo concert as promoted by stubhub.com, "The Buzz, an EEOA..." and live jock into Tesla's live cover of "Signs" (including the forgot-to- censor "...fuckin' up the scenery..." lyric). Oops, but who was listening that would know... except me. 104.7 MHz FLORIDA WITG-LP, Ocala; "Ocala's RealOldies 104 point 7" slogan, 60's/70's Top 40 hits (Lionel Ritchie, Mary Wells), PSA's for such things as The United Negro Fund. Didn't catch an ID, but per their website http://realoldies1047.tripod.com/ confirmed the one. Good signal in the immediate Ocala area along US-441. FCC lists the licensee as Great God Gospel & Education Station, Inc. 104.9 MHz GEORGIA WHLB-FM, Cartersville; Seemingly live female "WHLP FM, Cartersville, LP" non-quite-legal ID. Modern black gospel vocal format. 105.5 MHz FLORIDA WPZM-LP, Gainesville; Inactive. No trace of this one while in the Gainesville area. 107.7 MHz FLORIDA WMJB-LP, Lake City; Not active. Silent on the way up and back. 107.9 MHz FLORIDA "new" LPFM, Lake City; Listed in the FCC dB as pending. Nothing active thus far. NEED HELP HERE DEPARTMENT: Atop Cloudland Canyon State Park (extreme NW Georgia) the car radio had a strong (presumably) harmonic, mixing product or spur on 530 kHz. I pulled out the ICF-SS7600GR portable and had absolutely no trace of this, regardless of direction. It was definitely an airport beacon, oddly with Morse Code and alternating male voice. But it was too distorted for me to copy. The voice was (totally wrong on copy but this is what it phonetically sounded like): "Wayvan Airport Manchestercana, USA" repeated between the Morse. Off of the mountain, there was no trace of this signal. Anyone able to ID this one, along with the real frequency? [Later:] I am told the source of my 530 beacon/voice loop is: 529 KHz MCW TENNESSEE NDB LYQ, Manchester, supposedly at WWRB transmitter site. So, it was real and not an image! (Terry L. Krueger, Clearwater FL, May 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Later2: Bill Harrison tells me the voice announcement on 529 is "Roseanne Airport, Manchester, Tennessee, USA." (Krueger, May 25, DXLD) Speaking of beacons that used to lurk just above and below the AM broadcast band, remember "NB," the beacon that used to operate on 530 from North Bay, Ontario? They used to put a heckuva signal out in the east (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17, ABDX via DXLD) Yes, I used to hear it. It was also a convention to put such non-ITU calls in quotation marx (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. I was very excited to hear you mention my 3 April reception of WSRC 1480`s third harmonic (4440 kHz) on World of Radio, 15 May, WBCQ 7415. I thought that you might also be interested to know that I received a prepared full-data QSL from the Chief Engineer at WSRC for reporting my reception of that signal. In my report, I asked him if he had ever made field strength measurements of that emission. I was curious about the estimated ERP, since I received it as such strong levels here. He replied that he ``wasn`t even aware it existed``, and noted on the card that my report ``blew him away!`` (Richard W. Parker, KB2DMD, Pennsburg PA, 16 May, by P-mail, retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, no wonder it hasn`t been reported since, once he knew about it and could suppress it (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 8-062: WABC Rewound, 6am to 6pm (local times) [UT -4] Rewound Talk Show with Mark Simone. 6 pm to 8 pm Bob Grant live Memorial Day Special, 8 pm to 10 pm The ABC Country Memorial Day special with Kix Brooks, 10 pm to 1 am. Join us this Monday, Memorial Day and listen to the sounds of WABC Rewound! [. . .] This year we have a special treat. We uncovered several old Don Imus reels from his days jocking at the great WNBC in the early 70's. He is a great talk host now, but people forget how good he was as a jock. You will get to hear it this year during the 9am hour. The fact that he is now our morning man is something special. It is the first time we have added any content NOT from the old WABC days. . . http://www.wabcradio.com/Article.asp?id=713457 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. A GROUNDBREAKING NEWS PROGRAM PRI is three weeks into the launch of our news show, "The Takeaway," and we've already gotten lots of positive feedback from many of you, our listeners. The resounding message is that this show marks a new era in media, where news is delivered in a way that's relevant to you. "The Takeaway" sounds the way people really communicate with each other: conversational, unscripted, sometimes opinionated. If you haven't had a chance to listen, you can do so now, online at http://thetakeaway.org Unprecedented partnerships make "The Takeway" possible. PRI and WNYC co-produce the show in editorial collaboration with the BBC, New York Times Radio and WGBH/Boston. These respected, established and innovative media organizations joined forces to bring you a fresh, live and authentic news format that was sorely missing in media. Our partnership with Liberty Mutual, the exclusive corporate broadcast sponsor of "The Takeaway" as part of its Responsibility Project, is also unprecedented. The Responsibility Project encourages people to think and talk about what personal responsibility means in today's culture. "The Takeaway" and The Responsibility Project are catalysts that spark conversation about topics that are important to the public. Find out more at http://responsibilityproject.com Continued encouragement and support from listeners like you help us make groundbreaking public media possible. We hope that you will tune in to "The Takeaway" on-air, and interact with it online. We welcome your response to the show at pri.org PRI. Hear a different voice. http://www.pri.org (PRI PR mailing list May 21, via Rich Cuff, swprograms via DXLD) While this PR piece refers to a US public radio program and not shortwave radio, many of the aspects of radio programming that drew us (and still draw us) to shortwave listening are likely part of "The Takeaway." Here's some food for thought: I'll bet most of us got our starts in shortwave when US Public Radio was much less robust than it was today. Sure, we could get "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", but there weren't that many nationally-distributed, spoken-word news / analysis / opinion programs around. Shortwave programming from the likes of BBC, DW, RNW, Radio Australia, and RCI / CBC fulfilled our interest in that genre of programming (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, ibid.) What`s wrong with polished reports as in the NPR news magazines??? Yes, it`s conversational, and once Hockenberry interrupted to correct his co-host about something, but she corrected him right back and went right on. Is this really better radio? I recall being more impressed with one of Hockenberry`s previous shows, ``Heat`` -- remember that? It didn`t last very long. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** U S A. Edward R. Murrow, 1908-1965: The Famous Radio and Television Reporter Helped Create Modern News Broadcasting Voice of America 24 May 2008 "VOICE ONE: I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell the story of Edward R. Murrow, a famous radio and television broadcaster. He helped create and develop modern news broadcasting. (MUSIC)..." Read the text and listen to audio at http://www.voanews.com:80/specialenglish/2008-05-24-voa1.cfm (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. KTWO continues its slow downward QSY --- Had KTWO-2 Casper WY in here (Michigan) really strong at 0917 EDT (0717 MDT), noted that they still are not zero beat to WJBK as they should be, then went to my Yaesu and spotted them at 55.25543 MHz (+ or - 20 Hz), instead of 55.26000. They've been like this for at least two years, and seem to be losing a little more than 1 Hz every two day (they had been spotted at 55.2581 about 2 years ago). I still don't know if this is a malfunction, or some scheme to alleviate interference from nearby KOTA-DT (Rob Grant, N8NU, May 23, WTFDA via DXLD) ** VATICAN. Competition for 4005 kHz: see BOLIVIA ** VIETNAM [non]. 12130, May 21 at 1243, sounds like old woman screaming in the field, not clearly enunciated, but presumably Vietnamese on the Wednesday-only 12-13 Hoa Mai transmission via KWHR Hawaii. 1258 announcement in rational Vietnamese, 1259 KWHR ID and OCS past 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. RN de la RASD, 6300, May 21 at 0640, strumming and singing mentioning Sahara; fair with QRM from ute pulsing, and also SAH, presumably RHC mixing product but RHC audio not a factor at the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6300, 0640 UT 20 Mayo 08 SINPO: 34343, Radio Nacional Saharaui en idioma árabe, mx típica, y repetidamente pronuncia "Saharaui" (MAGDIEL CRUZ RODRÍGUEZ, JIUTEPEC, MORELOS, MÉXICO, Sangean ATS-818, Antena tipo V invertida http://entre-ondas.blogspot.com/ DX LISTNEING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 1809 kHz: see USA UNIDENTIFIED. 4805, 21/05/2008 0242-0300, px mx Spanish. 15211 Rec: DEGEN DE1103 (ham dipolo 1/2 wave 80 mb) (José Ricardo Motta de Oliveira, Rio de Janeiro - RJ Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) Likely PERU UNIDENTIFIED. Central America, unID, 5952.47, 1018-1030 May 25. Initially noted a male in Spanish language comments for a minute, then at 1019 a female person begins to talk. She is followed with music. Everything sounds like religious. At 1024 male talks. This is followed by an ID from a female but missed it. Signal was Good. Note: There's a wave file of the above ID at http://www.orchidcitysoftware.com/IMAGE60.HTML If you'd like to try and identify the station? Send me your results if you please? My email is: ka4prf @ peoplepc.com (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Click here to listen to the unidentified station broadcasting on 5052.47 kHz. The ID is given by a female and should be an easy ID. I however, have a "lazy ear" it seems and can't pick out the ID. I think the station is coming from Central America. At first I thought it might be Bolivia, but the signal was too strong for Bolivia I think. However, I could be mistaking. If you are able to copy the ID, please send me an email with the ID. I haven't been able to hear it clearly (Bolland`s website via DXLD) Chuck, Based on the off-frequency which is extremely close to where you and others have reported R. Pio XII before, altho in the evening, such as in DXLD 8-035, 8-042, 5952.45, and the lack of any known Central American around 5952, I would say it is very likely Bolivia. I don`t hear anything identifiable on the clip, but it is not in Spanish. Perhaps someone can recognize it as Quechua or Aymara, ruling out Central America. BTW your audio link says 5052.47 which I am assuming is a mistake (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, Yes the frequency was 5952.47 instead of 5052.47. I think I better withhold any ID from Bolivia? By the time I recorded that sound bite, Bolivia has usually faded into the noise here in Florida. Then again, they might increase power on Sunday morning for obvious reasons? Too many questions (Chuck Bolland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Noted on 10, 11 and 12 May on 6110 kHz starting at 0400 with program in Portuguese and many songs in English, ads at 0430 and speaking in the still [?] of Brasilian stations. Strong interference with Radio Fana ( \\ 7210) and some Chinese speaking station fadein around 0420 (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, BC-DX via DXLD) It`s CVC A Sua Voz, Chile, as scheduled in A-08; however, it seems CVC may now be delaying the start of 6110 until 0900; what`s on 6110 now at 0400, and where is CVC? (Glenn Hauser, May 26, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. I'm looking for an ID on a station on 6860, currently on at 2155 UT 5/23/08 with Arabic or Farsi music and prayer, weak modulation. About S5 signal. Nothing in Passport 2008, and Google only showing some older clandestines that may not be active. Thanks, (Damon Cassell, Salem, MA, swl at qth.net via DXLD) May I suggest that everyone look up stuff in comprehensive and updated online schedules rather than outdated PWBR, or random googling? http://www.wrth.com/files/WRTH2008IntRadioSupplement2_A08Schedules.pdf http://www.geocities.jp/binewsjp/bia08.txt http://www.eibispace.de/dx/freq-a08.txt Where you will find this is Radio Cairo. It has also been reported several times in the last few weeks in DX Listening Digest, http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. Women speaking Spanish, reading five number groups, 1620 UT on 17515, strong signal into Ohio. sinpo 43444. 5/23/08 IC-R70 Yaesu FT2000 2 ele quad at 50 ft, 260 ft windom (Tim McGraw, N8YI, WPE8KHZ Cincinnati, OH, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Glenn, Thank you for World of Radio. It's something we look forward to every week. Best to you and your family. Cheers, (Larry & Jane Will, with a contribution via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ Bookshelf A Life of Sound Ideas By ROBERT P. CREASE May 22, 2008; Page A13 RIDING THE WAVES By Leo Beranek (MIT Press, 235 pages, $24.95) Farm kids tinker with machinery, but 10-year-old Leo Beranek's tinkering took a surprising turn in 1924 when his father, Edward, brought a newfangled device to their home in Solon, Iowa: a one-vacuum radio receiver that ran on the batteries used for telephones. Though licensed commercial broadcasting was less than four years old, Leo's dad thought radio technology looked promising. He suspected that his son might be enterprising enough eventually to make some money repairing the devices. Edward Beranek guessed right about the technology and his son. "My special interest in communications engineering almost certainly began" with the arrival of that rudimentary radio, Leo Beranek writes in his memoir, "Riding the Waves." Mr. Beranek went on to become a pioneer in electroacoustics – the electronic transmission of sound – a technology that transformed music performance and reproduction, engineering, communications, warfare and architecture. Now 93, Mr. Beranek is the second "B" of BBN Technologies, a Cambridge, Mass., company with offices around the world and a legendary history in the acoustical field. . . http://snipurl.com/2aagf [online_wsj_com] (via David Cole, DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITIO WEB DE ENCUENTRO NACIONAL DX 2008 Gómez Palacio, Durango, 1, 2 y 3 de agosto de 2008 Saludos, diexistas, radio escuchas de las ondas cortas y gente normal (je je je): Ya está en función la página en Internet que he construído para el XIV Encuentro Nacional Diexista 2008, está disponible desde dos sitios: http://mx.geocities.com/dxmiguel/xivdx.html [illustrated!] http://mx.geocities.com/comunicacionglobal59/xivdx.html Recuerda que por estar en Yahoo, con alojamiento gratuito, es posible que en determinado momento no puedas acceder a ellas por "exceso" de tráfico (por lo general no soportan a más de tres visitantes simultáneamente. En el caso de las que inician como dxmiguel la situación se complica ya que tengo varias páginas diversas en esa sección). También es posible que se abran muy lentamente por tener bastantes elementos gráficos y de otra índole. IMPORTANTE: por acuerdo de los clubes dx, asistente al Encuentro y que no participe en el Concurso de QSL deberá llevar algún pequeño obsequio para los participantes. Recuerda que tu participación con al menos UNA verificación o QSL te exime de este requisito. Cordiales 73 y muy buenos DX (Miguel Angel Rocha Gámez, May 21, Noticiasdx yg via DXLD) NRC CONVENTION 2008 NEWS AUGUST 29-31, 2008 Friday, August 29 - 31, 2008. 75th Anniversary - National Radio Club, founded in 1933. What better way to celebrate the Diamond Anniversary than to get back together in the familiar surroundings of the birthplace of modern broadcasting. And can you believe it? The city of Pittsburgh is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, too! The host will be John Malicky; one of NRC’s most experienced convention leaders. Just look at what he’s arranging. The Pirates baseball team will play on Sunday afternoon against Milwaukee - very appropriate for the 75th diamond anniversary - weather permitting. Plan to arrive early enough on Friday to take part in studio tour that afternoon, with a pizza dinner being served in the meeting room that night. The grand opening will be held at 7 pm on Friday with a presentation about the history of Pittsburgh rounding out the evening. Saturday morning will feature a tour of the Heinz History Center at 9 am, and you are invited to buy lunch at the Sports Rock Café if you wish. There will be transmitter tours in the afternoon for those who wish to get out and see what broadcasting in Pittsburgh is all about, and then, at 5 pm, the annual group photograph at the hotel. And, of course, there will be lots of time to sit and chat about DXing with other club members in the Hospitality Room. The banquet this year will be in the Greenery Restaurant right there at the hotel. A business meeting will follow, and then the world- famous auction will round out the evening. Sunday will open with the annual NRC DX Examination, and then, at 11 am, we’ll depart for a boat ride to PNC Park, home field of the Pittsburgh Pirates, via the Gateway Clipper Fleet. The game that afternoon is against the Milwaukee Brewers at 1:35; tickets are $14 each, and please reserve yours by letting John know that you plan to attend. Seats will be behind home plate on the 3rd level. Back at the hotel, the Hospitality Room will re-open around 5 o’clock -- WNRC should be on the air by then and we’ll sit and chat until everyone is talked out. The convention will end on Sunday evening. Now, here’s what to do: 1. Reserve your room at the Greentree Holiday Inn, 401 Holiday Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15220: Call: 1-412-922-8100. Be sure to tell them you want the “NRC Rate” @ $75 per room (up to 3 occupants) and be sure to tell them by August 15. 2. Convention Registration is $45 and that includes the pizza party, the banquet, soft drinks and munchies during the three days in the Hospitality Room and, weather permitting, a trip to the history center. 3. Send all auction and “free” distribution items to John (PLEASE mark free items prominently so that they don’t end up in the auction!): 995 Shadycrest Rd - Pittsburgh PA 15216-3046. 4. Send your registration check, payable to “National Radio Club” to: John Malicky, 995 Shadycrest Rd., Pittsburgh, PA 15216-3046. You can also register on line using PayPal at: http://www.nrcdxas.org 5. The train station in Pittsburgh is only 4 miles away from the hotel; the taxi fee is $25 IRCA 2008 FLAGSTAFF CONVENTION, SEPT 12-14 Make your plans now for the 2008 IRCA Convention in Flagstaff September 12-14. This year the convention will be at the Days Inn, 1000 West Route 66, Flagstaff, Arizona. The phone number is 928-774- 5221 and when you call tell them you are with the IRCA as I have a block of 20 rooms. The room rates are $65.00 plus tax for Single, Double Triple or Quad. The registration fee will be $25.00 and you can pay at the door or send a check to the address below. The convention will start on Friday in the Cedar Room at the Days Inn around 9:00AM. On Friday we will have station tours and on Friday night we will have a tour of Lowell Observatory. At the observatory we will get a chance to look through the 24" Alvan Clark refractor telescope, weather dependent. The weather should be good at this time of the year as the summer t- storms should be over by then. This observatory is where the planet Pluto was discovered. On Saturday we will have the business meeting, auction, and banquet. The banquet will be held about 10 minutes from the Days Inn at Black Barts Steakhouse. We will have a choice of Steak, Chicken or Salmon at Black Barts. For those that can stay one more day I will have a Sunday tour of Meteor Crater about 35 miles from Flagstaff the best preserved and first proven meteorite impact site on planet earth. After the tour at Meteor Crater we will go back to Flagstaff and go North to Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monument. Wupatki is very interesting as they have pueblos that are around 800 years old. Transportation to Flagstaff can be by Air (US Airways) daily flights from Phoenix, Amtrak, Greyhound bus and by car. Northern Arizona has many other things to do and some of them are Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. So come to Arizona for the Flagstaff convention. Bill Block, 7716 E. Thelma Drive, Prescott Valley, AZ 86314 billwblock @ msn.com (both: IRCA DX Monitor May 24 via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see BULGARIA; NEW ZEALAND ++++++++++++++++++++ IBOC: see MEXICO DTV DEGRADES CONVERTED STV PICTURES, CUTTING OFF EDGES I don`t yet have any DTV equipment. I do have analog off the air, and extended basic cable from Suddenlink, including the OKC stations. This evening UT May 23 we have tornados in western Oklahoma, calling for constant Severe T-Storm/Tornado Watch maps in LR corner of the screen on KWTV (which BTW practically ignored tornados on the ground an hour earlier unlike the competition KFOR-4 and KOCO-5 with wall-to-wall coverage). On KWTV via cable, the weather map of OK divided into all 77 counties, cuts off east of the two western tiers of counties! This happens to leave in the area currently of concern, but what if it were the other way around, likely to be as the storms move eastward toward us? I turned on my antenna-analog-TV to channel 9, and by golly, the whole state shows on it. This is NOT the normal slight variation between monitors in amount of overscanning (cutting off the edges, which is always excessive. If I had my way and could still adjust them as was once possible, I would underscan them till I can see the black bars at top and sides, so I KNOW I am seeing the whole picture transmitted, even if it is slightly smaller). Nor have I noticed this problem before on KWTV or any other channel. What I think is happening is that Suddenlink is now taking HD from KWTV, however they get it, probably fibre optic, and for us analog customers, converting it to SD, which somehow involves losing more of the picture around the edges. No, the proportions on faces and other round and oval things, including the CBS bug, still appear to be OK, so not in this case ``pulled out`` to fill a 16:9 screen or something in between that and a 4:3 screen. I can`t see how people stand that distortion either on their big wide screens. Then I see that KOCO-5 has the same problem with its weather warning map in the UR corner, but NOT KFOR-4, also in the UR corner, which displays completely both OTA and cable. No doubt KFOR will be next to get this mistreatment. I had previously noticed on my analog cable TV, a barely visible extreme upper-right constant bug: KOCO-DT, now almost covered up by the map. It is NOT to be seen on KOCO-5 via antenna. I am NOT trying to watch KOCO-DT channel 7, or KWTV-DT channel 39! I am trying to watch KOCO-5 and KWTV-9 which still exist in regular analog form. This is what I should be getting on analog cable as long as the analog transmitters remain on the air! Has anyone else noticed such misconversion of HDTV or DTV to plain old TV, on cable or any other medium? Will this happen when I get my STBs? BTW, KOCO-DT via analog cable was constantly breaking up audio, and video, freezing and pixelating, during ABC News Nightline, also ruining the closed captioning, making it unwatchable, as I later discovered in trying to play back the tape. Maybe caused by storms in OKC area? But other channels seemed OK. Fortunately, it was mainly about Madonna. I could have had unmarred reception of same off antenna (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This is a transitional glitch. Here's what I think is happening: Suddenlink is probably now getting the KOCO and KWTV signals you see on analog cable from the DTV transmitters. That's not a bad idea overall - in KOCO's case, particularly, it means that Es and other propagation issues are much less likely to wipe out the cableco's reception in Enid of the OKC signals. (And need I note that it's at precisely the times that storms are most likely to be hitting that Es is most likely to disrupt OKC-to-Enid reception?) The broadcast networks are feeding nearly all their programming these days in 16:9 aspect ratio. An increasing amount, especially drama shows, is shown over analog 4:3 TV in letterboxed mode - black bars at the top and bottom of the picture. Some is "center-cut" - the network pulls out the center 4:3 portion of the picture for the analog SDTV feed and sends that full-frame. At least for the moment, most stations that pass network HDTV are running two separate switching chains for their digital and analog signals. That includes separate graphics generation for things like the weather warnings. (Some smaller stations still have no separate insertion equipment for HD, and actually replace the network HD with upconverted SD when they have to superimpose a local ID, weather warning, or crawl. This looks really bad.) So far, so good - digital viewers get the 16:9 HD, analog viewers get a feed intended specifically for 4:3 viewing. Those of us using DTV STBs with 4:3 displays can choose a variety of modes in which to watch the 16:9 DTV pictures. An "aspect" control on the box determines whether it outputs a letterboxed picture or a center-cut ("zoom") picture. What seems to be going on in Enid is that Suddenlink has its equivalent of the STB set for "center-cut" mode. This is usually the best compromise - if Suddenlink chose "letterbox", when the network or local station is sending 4:3 programming that's "pillarboxed" (bars on left and right to fill out the 16:9 frame), it would end up appearing both letterboxed AND pillarboxed on a 4:3 set, leaving a small image floating in a black box. That's not pretty. But it's still a compromise, because it means that information that falls outside the 4:3 center cut, like the weather bug, ends up getting lost. A lot of the programming now on HDTV is deliberately produced to be "4:3 safe," so that things like score bugs and station ID bugs fall within the center cut, just in case. But some of it isn't, and much more of it won't be in years to come. Some local TV stations that feed substantial analog cable viewing audiences over their DTV facilities are actually using DTV subchannels to provide a 4:3 "SD" feed specifically for those viewers. This is a compromise, too, as it takes up bandwidth that could be used for other programming or for better HDTV pictures. And of course the sunset of analog TV will bring big changes next year. I don't know whether the networks will continue to send out 4:3 SD feeds to affiliates or not. (ABC, for instance, has two completely separate control rooms in New York for its analog and digital feeds; this will change after 2009.) There is a lot of talk in the TV industry right now about how to handle the whole aspect-ratio mess come next year. Many (myself included) think the system should have been designed from the start to include a more useful "aspect ratio" flag that can tell a set-top box, or a cable headend, what the native aspect ratio of any particular piece of programming is, allowing it to letterbox/pillarbox or center- cut accordingly. There's some discussion of that now, but it's a little late in the game. So what to do in the meantime? If I were in Glenn's shoes, I'd drop a polite note to the weather departments and chief engineers at KWTV and KOCO, letting them know that it appears that the cable system in Enid is picking up their -DT feeds and downconverting them to analog, and suggesting they might make their weather alerts "4:3 safe" so that they're seen by all viewers. It may well be that the local stations don't even know the cable company is getting them in this fashion. s (Scott Fybush, ABDX via DXLD) Glenn, I can personally say that I've seen it on Cox Cable in Eureka Springs AR last October. I attended an event held at the Basin Park Hotel and the rooms as well as the bar/restaurant TVs are connected to the normal analog cable instead of the mixed Sat/MATV systems in most national chain motels/hotels. A program was airing on KYTV (NBC) and I noticed that the NBC logo (lower left corner) was only partly visible. I recognized right away that Cox was taking the KYTV-DT (44) signal instead of KYTV 3 (Cox also rebroadcasts the KYTV-DT feed of K15CZ-- the Springfield MO CW station). In the Eureka Springs case, Cox probably takes the DTV feed instead of the analog in outlying areas due to line noise, E skip QRM, etc. Until recently most DTV viewers were HDTV owners, a few DX'ers, and a "captive audience" on analog cable watching downconverted DTV signals. Except for KTHV, none of the Little Rock OTA stations have storm bugs framed for 16x9 --- most drop the pass-through HD network feeds and show the SD feed (including storm bugs) and these are 4x3 safe. Cable operators could show a letterboxed, downconverted feed, but that would alienate analog cable viewers on 4x3 sets complaining of the "top and bottom being cut off". -- (Fritze, KC5KBV, Prentice, Star City, AR, Grid: EM43aw http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com WTFDA via DXLD) I read in a book critical of the media recently. The writer claimed that once a storm has cleared a city they stop covering it leaving people east of the city (rather downstream from the storm which is usually east) in the dark as to what is going on. We had storms move though Austin a couple of weeks ago. Once the storms got to Pflugerville, which is north and slightly east of the city, the station went back to regular programming. While it was approaching Austin we had non-stop coverage which had preempted regular programming. -- (John Mayson, Austin, Texas, USA, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) The OKC stations are not quite that bad, usually, but if storms are threatening both The Metro and outlying areas at the same time, forget us outlyers. That was not the case the afternoon of May 24! (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DTV/ANALOG ODDITY Today, a brief but severe thunderstorm knocked about 8 of the local TV stations off the air for a time. That is to say, their DTV transmitters were knocked off. For all but a couple of these stations, their analog counterparts never went off the air! For many (not all) of these stations, the DTV and analog transmitters and antennas are co-sited. So, what gives? While obviously the two transmitters would probably have separate power sources, why would the digital side go down (some were off for as long as half an hour) and the analog stay up? Are the newer digital transmitters more sensitive to power surges, and perhaps are better protected and have a much lower threshold at which the juice is automatically cut? Or is it simply a deliberate choice that, given analog is still considered the "main" transmitter, reaching more people, if there is not enough power to run both for a time, they have things programmed to automatically shut down the DTV side? Very odd (Stan Jones, Orlando FL, May 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) FINDS HURDLES IN DIGITAL TV SWITCH Hello All, Here's another newspaper article on the DTV transition: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/20/AR2008052001808_pf.html Article summary: The GAO has found some problems associated with the DTV transition. These are: expense of transmitter and tower conversion, coverage area loss, and general bad reception of DTV by large swathes of the population. I expect WTFDA folks to be a bit unsurprised by all this (Curtis Sadowski, IL, May 21, WTFDA via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ MAD ELECTRICITY Despite advance notice in DXLD, I myself missed the Tesla episode on Modern Marvels, last week. Here`s the website about it, which presumably will indicate when inevitable repeats are upcoming: http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=295760&action=detail (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MARINE BAND (NOT THE HOHNER HARMONICA) I have several older multiband portables that cover the "marine band" or "MB," from roughly 1600 kHz to 4000 kHz. I have never heard anything but static on this band(s) (neither on the old sets, nor on a Kaito 1003, which includes the same frequency range), except for some local broadcasters in what is actually now the MW "X" band. Does anybody know anything about the history of this band? Was it at one time actually used for marine communications? (Keith B., ABDX via DXLD) Oh, ye youthful ones! Let's set the Wayback Machine to 1963, when I got my first SW receiver. . . . . In 1963, there was no VHF FM marine band. Instead, short range marine communications, both commercial and pleasure boats, were carried on in the 2 MHz band using AM. If you went down to a boat dock on the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, or major rivers like the Mississippi, you would see these long "loaded" verticals on even small pleasure craft like cabin cruisers. Those were for operation in the 2 MHz marine band. The US Coast Guard also operated there (including their weather broadcasts) and you could also hear telephone calls made from ships through shore operators (these were known as "public correspondence" channels). Night listening was fascinating. From my home in South Carolina, I could hear fishing and pleasure craft from Charleston SC to Cape Hatteras, as well as shore stations working ships on the Great Lakes (I remember a station at Lorain, OH --- whose call sign I can't remember at the moment --- being especially loud in SC). The telephone calls were especially fun to listen to, as many people forgot that anyone with a SW radio could listen in. I remember one married guy who was talking to his girlfriend on shore, and he got into graphic detail about what he wished he could be doing to her! With the establishment of the VHF FM marine band in the late 1960s, more and more stations abandoned the 2 MHz band. SW is still used for marine communications but almost exclusively on frequencies above 4 MHz to cover areas outside the range of VHF shore stations. The 2 MHz range has been empty of marine communications since, IIRC, the early 1980s (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17 http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ ABDX via DXLD) I remember hearing the coast guard, a few shore stations & the Galveston Marine Operator back in the 70's. I used to listen to some of that stuff in the 70's. The Galveston Marine Operator was interesting but it took two radios to hear both sides of the conversation and you had to be close enough to hear the ship side otherwise it was one sided listening. Oh those phone calls were plenty of fun (Robert M. Bratcher, Jr., TX, ibid.) It's still being used for navigational warnings and marine weather on this side of the Atlantic. Canadian coastal stations can be regularly heard here in Europe on 2 MHz. Refer to http://www.coastalradio.org.uk/ and download the M.F. Coastal & Maritime Stations 1608 kHz to 4000 kHz list compiled by Robert Maskill. 73s (Andy Lawendel, Italy, ibid.) REVIEW: COM ONE PHOENIX WIFI INTERNET RADIO Some major international broadcasters have dropped shortwave to North America, but there are new ways to listen. John Figliozzi is enthusiastic about the Com One Phoenix WiFi Internet Radio. Read his in-depth hands-on review of this receiver, which is expected to become more widely available in Europe shortly. . . http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/080522-phoenix-internet-radio (Andy Sennitt, Media Network Newsletter May 22 via DXLD) PHOENIX AIR --- Cartersville Airport, Bartow County, Georgia: Phoenix Air is the contract source (I will not say contract CIA) that allegedly replaces the Pennsylvania Air National Guard 193rd Special Operations Wing for aero Radio Martí operations over the Florida Straits. This is a small part of Phoenix' government operations. You will remember that I recently checked out this airport via Googlemaps and Yahoomaps and then asked someone in the area to follow up, which nobody bothered to do (cowards). So, that meant I had to do it for you. I drove by the airport and eventually entered the only open gate. Here, I photographed some of the Lear Jet-type aircraft (some camouflaged) through the car windows. I then drove across the road to the Phoenix offices (also photographed). The back of the building consists of a parking lot, and covered area under the building that housed several (mostly) black 2007-2009 Mercedes, all Georgia plates. The airport seemingly has virtually no public/private access, despite being listed as owned by the county. There are many large buildings/hangars on the airport, all with Phoenix and "keep out" signage. At the south end of the runway (peripheral road), there is a small area that I was able to make photographs of the entire runway and some of the Phoenix aircraft. Driving back to the runway-proper, I was detected: a small white security pickup tailed me, and the driver pointed for me to pull over. Ha, fool! I whipped onto CR-61 northbound at warp speed, up to nearby CR-113 where construction was a clusterfuck, and blew through the red light. I easily lost him. Then I made a U-turn, headed back south, past the airport (my intended direction all along) undetected this time. Lots of photos made, maybe not the greatest, I need to download them in the next few days. Nobody else stepped up to the plate to do this with my challenge a few weeks ago, so I once again did what nobody else would. Rental car: Mitsubishi Eclipse -- which for fun I had the pleasure of getting up to 162.4 mph briefly -- according to the handheld GPS -- on a lonely and straight SW Georgia road, the fastest I've ever driven on land (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater FL, May 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Terry later sent this revised ``complete story`` ---] CARTERSVILLE-BARTOW COUNTY AIRPORT - south of Cartersville, GA This is the airport where Phoenix Air Group, Inc. is headquartered. Phoenix Air is the company that is now contracted to fly the Radio Martí airborne broadcast missions over the Straits of Florida, allegedly relaying the Pennsylvania Air National Guard's 193rd PsyOps wing EC-130E aircraft. Phoenix Air --- see http://www.phoenixair.com/home.php --- is obviously one of the "private" military services. What surprised me is that the Cartersville airport is for all practical purposes entirely Phoenix, and secured to accommodate them. The office headquarters are across the street (Ga-61). I first entered the parking lot of the offices and drove to the back. Several mostly black late model Mercedes were parked in the covered section connected to the building. All had Georgia plates. I then drove to the only open gate, by the flight service center and fuel area (all branded "Phoenix") next to the tarmac and snapped off a few fast shots of some of the Lear Jet-type aircraft (some camouflaged) and maintenance buildings. (Note: the only non-Phoenix signs of life are some junky weekender Civil Air Patrol trailers near the south end of the runway, close to the Ga-61). Then I drove to the south end of the runway (Bates Road) where a small pull-off allowed me to photograph the north/south oriented runways and several turboprops (the three on the southernmost end were in various states of disrepair/non-flyable, presumably awaiting refurbishing). Next, back to the open gate to attempt more photos, maybe even outside of the car, even though there is no parking designated as not reserved for Phoenix. It was at this point that one of Phoenix' little Wackenhut-types appeared in his white compact pick-up. Barney Fife pointed for me to stop and get out of the car which of course I ignored and sped out of the gate, northbound on Ga-61. Sorry Barney, I don't have time to be detained or lose my Nikon SD card. Having come through the area a few minutes earlier, I knew there was a lot of construction at the Ga-311 intersection, where I lost him at the red light. I waited a few minutes before driving back south, past the airport, on my way to the next destination. I presume Barney got my rental tag number which of course would have been pointless since I'm sure previous security breaches at places like Saddlebunch Keys and the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (CIA) in Key West are on file (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, May 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SOCom SHOWS OFF ITS LATEST GEAR IN WAR ON TERROR By Kris Hundley, Times Staff Writer In print: Thursday, May 22, 2008 TAMPA --- Business may be slow in many parts of the Tampa Bay area, but it's booming at MacDill Air Force Base, home of U.S. Special Operations Command. Charged with fighting the global war on terrorism, SOCom's budget topped $8-billion this year. Nearly one-third is spent on new equipment, creating business for thousands of private contractors. On Wednesday, SOCom showed reporters a few of its latest purchases, specially tailored for Special Forces operations. There was a C-130 cargo plane, tricked out to transmit radio, shortwave and TV signals, In 2005, it was used to alert Iraqi citizens about where and when to vote. Estimated cost of the aircraft, three of which are in service, is about $90-million each. The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle . . . http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article518567.ece (Via Terry Krueger, dxldyg via DXLD) Note the reference to three C-130's (sic) that can transmit on various broadcast bands. It is unclear if these are the EC-130E's of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard 193rd Special Operations Wing. The reference to deployment would seem to indicate so (Terry Krueger, ibid.) A QUESTION ABOUT FM SUBCARRIERS (SCA) IN 2008 Anyone know if any stations are still using this for distributing certain programming (such as Radio Reading services)? -- (Fritze, KC5KBV, Prentice, Star City, AR, WTFDA via DXLD) TUNABLE FM SCA RECEIVERS ARE ILLEGAL One never knows what may turn up when poking about the net, I found the following letter on file at the FCC site. According to their SCA webpage AND this, tunable SCA receivers are apparently illegal. Well, all I have to say regarding this is "FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!" [Viz.:] Letter to Dr. Hossein Haghighi from OET, dated 12/03/1993 -- Audio Division (FCC) USA http://www.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Databases/documents_collection/let19931203.html (Curtis Sadowski, Paxton IL, (on the lam until further notice), WTFDA via DXLD) Hey buddy, what are you in for? Tuning SCA! You're kidding! No, Dr. Elving made me do it! (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, ibid.) I'm no lawyer, but to me the key phrase in the 1934 Communications Act, is "and use that communication for their own benefit". So listening to SCA is only illegal only if you benefit (read: profit) from it. If it didn't include that phrase, then it would be a different story. Otherwise it's not much different than listening to the local taxicab dispatch, or WBAP's 26 MHz cue feed. If they don't want someone listening, then scramble it instead of using an in-the- clear FM subcarrier tunable on a LF receiver. Unscrambling without an authorized descrambler is illegal. Even listening to APCO25 digital transmissions is legal - at least the unscrambled ones. It does appear that legally the tunable SCA-specific decoders may be illegal according to the Act, but since LF receivers aren't "primarily useful for the surreptitious interception of such radio communications", we're all off the hook if we tune SCA that way. Besides, the black box tunable decoder that Bruce E. sold tunes from 10 to 690 kHz and can be used to listen to PLC or carrier current stations transmitted on power lines. That's another main use besides SCA. (I won't even touch on the cellular/cordless phone thing --- that's a USA issue. No such laws in Canada. Just be thankful you don't live in Germany, which has really tough radio laws). (Bill Hepburn, Ont., ibid.) Or the UK which only permits the public to listen to Broadcast frequencies (including SWBC), Aircraft, and Ham-radio radio transmissions. No police dispatch, SW utes, etc. I brought up this topic the other day due to the IBOC discussion and in reality how the FM analog system with RDS will do much that IBOC claims to. In my young youth (about 9-11 years old) while living in Pine Bluff AR, local staton KOTN 1490 would advertise their "Motivational Background Music" service. KOTN at the time operated a "Beautiful Music" station (I remember hearing it played in some offices, that`s my story) on 92.3 (now KIPR 92.3 "Power 92 Jamz"). Apparently the "MBM" was likely a Musiak [sic] franchise that KOTN operated on the 92.3 subcarrier. The radio station's billboard near the station and transmitter (fronting the old US 65 expressway) advertised KOTN, KOTN FM and the "Motivational Background Music". From the responses I've seen, SCA these days has been relegated to Radio Reading on public radio stations. Somewhat off topic, but KETS 2 (when they were on the air) put in a radio reading service on its MTS second audio channel when stereo sound was added in the late 1980's. Its currently on the remaining analog channels as well as KETS-DT 5. http://pages.prodigy.net/arkansas_blindnet/ (Fritze, KC5KBV, Prentice, Star City, AR, Grid: EM43aw http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com ibid.) Sorry, but the ECPA that banned listening to cell phone conversations included SCA. It also banned listening to the studio-to-transmitter links of any station although it carried the identical content that was broadcast to the public. Congress does not understand radio technology (Allan Dunn, K1UCY, ibid.) Luckily it doesn't affect me here in the "true north strong and free". Then again, we have other dumb laws. In Toronto, there are boatloads of ethnic stations on the SCA channels (called "SCMO" channels here in Canada) - more new ones every day it seems. CHUM & CFCA still have 2 channels of "in-house" muzak music. CFNY has an odd one on 67 kHz - KJMJ 580 Alexandria LA (Bill Hepburn, Ont., ibid.) Hi Bill and All, Here in Seattle, KUBE is transmitting a Vancouver Indian-language station of some sort. I've been with cab drivers who were listening to fix-tuned SCA receivers carrying it, as well as hearing it on a modified GE Superadio. By the way, KUOW offers 3 HD feeds, a radio reading service on SCA, and they may still have data on another SCA (Rick Lewis, ibid.) For high quality reception - try hooking up the audio MPX output to a good shortwave radio that tunes below 100 kHz and has FM mode. I use a JRC NRD-535 and it blows away the SCA adaptors and decoders I've used in the past. Way less crosstalk and stronger sounding audio. I use a homebrew switch to switch between SW antenna and FM MPX. I have presets for 67 kHz and 92 kHz. I've listened to 67 kHz audio from Bermuda using this setup (Bill Hepburn, ibid.) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ QST de W1AW Propagation Forecast Bulletin 22 ARLP022 From Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, WA May 23, 2008 To all radio amateurs This week several new sunspots appeared for five days, but they were all leftover spots from cycle 23, not new cycle 24 spots. But this is okay, because at the sunspot minimum we appreciate any spots we can get. May 16-20 saw daily sunspot numbers of 34, 23, 30, 28, and 23. Keep in mind that a sunspot number of 34 does not mean there were 34 sunspots last Friday. Instead, the numbers represent a somewhat arcane calculation that accounts for the number of sunspot groups and the size of each group. The count gets 10 points for each sunspot group, and one point for each spot within the groups, the designation of these different areas within the groups seeming somewhat arbitrary to a layman such as myself. So 34 could mean that there are three darkened areas, with one of them counting as two spots, the other two just one each. Presumably the same number would describe the sun with two darkened areas facing Earth, and each counting for seven spots. Thirty plus four is the same as twenty plus fourteen, but this week there were three areas. For at least a couple of weeks the U.S. Air Force and the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center forecast a planetary A index of 25 for May 21, but on May 20 the prediction was downgraded to 15. The actual planetary A index for that day was 13, while the mid-latitude A index was 9 and Alaska's College A index, taken near Fairbanks, was 19. The earlier number was based on an expectation of returning coronal holes and solar wind streams, which proved to be weaker than expected. Currently they expect quiet geomagnetic conditions and another prediction for a planetary A index of 25 just before the start of summer, on June 17. Geophysical Institute Prague calls for unsettled conditions May 23-24, quiet to unsettled May 25, quiet May 26, quiet to unsettled again on May 27-28, and unsettled for May 29 (via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ###