DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-076, July 3, 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 1415 Fri 0800 WRMI 9955 Fri 1930 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 7290 [NEW] Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 0530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1130 WRMI 9955 Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html 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.worldofradsio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** ALASKA. My SW DX monitoring had been severely curtailed by a huge buzzy line noise problem; finally about a week after I filed a complaint with the electric company, it was gone the morning of July 3, uncovering much lower level line noise which seems like paradise in comparison. All my fingers are crossed. KNLS, best heard in English for a long time, July 3 at 1232 on 9780 with interview about country music composition. Did not catch name of subject, but apparently well-known. Unfortunately marred by Firedrake, but can you believe it, KNLS was axually on top! In their Asian target area, it must be terrible. It is really not a good idea to be on the same frequency as Taiwan in Chinese, even if it were not jammed! A trimonth, or if you prefer, two sesquimonths, into the A-08 season, KNLS has not caught on that they need to get off this frequency pronto. This 1200-1300 outsending is the single English broadcast which is on both KNLS transmitters, and it was also audible tho weaker on 7355, no QRM, which I discovered was running about one second behind 9780. This cannot be accidental, so apparently KNLS is another station with a deliberate time offset to even out power consumption. 1246 ID and into next feature, Profiles of Christian Music. At 1253 Rob Scobie (?) gave complete English schedule: 11765 at 0800, 6890 at 1000, 7355 and 9780 at 1200, and 7355 at 1400, then concluding with ``The Summer Rain`` by Belinda Carlisle. I was not lucky enough to run across Fred Osterman reading tips from DX LISTENING DIGEST, as all the segments are at random in their magazine format, cleverly mixing in sacred stuff with the secular, trapping unwary listeners into getting evangelized. KNLS English is almost Special, slow and clear for the ESL masses in Asia. If only Indonesia would take note (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALASKA. I noticed in the latest Broadcasting Info that KXLJ-1330 [Juneau] is now on the air. This station shouldn't be too hard to receive here in the Pacific Northwest, so it bears watching. A Google search turned up the following website http://www.kxljradio.com It has a link for streaming audio but it came up empty when I tried just now. The format is Air America talk 24/7. With KUDO-1080 and now KXLJ, I think Alaska has more Air America affiliates per capita than any other state (Bruce Portzer, WA, July 3, IRCA via DXLD) Streaming audio is working now, Bruce. Thanks for the info! (Walt Salmaniw, BC, ibid.) Bruce, Yes, KXLJ is on my list. Thanks. I did not know they were on the air yet though. The two Air America stations in OR are KKEE-1230 and KPOJ-620. I don't know if there are more. WA has three I know of, 1090 Seattle, 930 Bellingham and 1280 Spokane. I don't know how many there are in CA. OR lost two, 1600 Eugene and 990 Albany. 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) ** ALASKA. 800 KINY AK Juneau - Applies for U1 10000/7600. A TV antenna mounted atop, but not isolated from, the KINY tower was not taken into consideration when computing antenna height, therefore a reduction of 200 nighttime Watts. Then one day later . . . 800 KINY AK Juneau - Applies for an STA of U1 2500/2500. Quoting from the application: “The electrical grid that serves the town of Juneau, including the KINY transmitter site, is heavily dependent upon hydroelectric power from electric generators located at the Snettisham Dam, in Juneau Borough, some 30-odd air miles to the Southeast of the built-up town area. On April 16, snow slides roared out of the mountains some 25 miles southeast of the town, uprooted transmission towers, and destroyed 1.5 miles of the high-voltage transmission line that links the community of 30,000 to the hydroelectric plant. As a result, the town is now totally dependent upon emergency power from diesel-driven generators. There is a limited stock of diesel fuel on hand, and replenishment supplies must come via barge from refineries a great distance away. In light of this, the Juneau Commission on Sustainability has asked all residents and businesses to conserve electricity to the maximum extent possible. Also, due to the high cost of operating the emergency power generators (and of replenishment supplies of diesel fuel), the cost of electricity is expected to quintuple in the short term. It is estimated that it will take two to three months to repair the downed high tension lines and to restore normal hydroelectric service to Juneau.” [See update below] JUNEAU UPDATE. According to the Juneau Empire dated June 3, 2008: “Juneau’s hydroelectric power has been restored. The city is no longer running on costly diesel. Alaska Electric Light & Power Co. spokesman Scott Willis said the power was back online at 9:17 p.m. Sunday. That’s on the early side of last week’s estimate from the utility company that the line would be repaired early to midweek this week, and much earlier than the company’s original late-July estimate.” So we can assume that KINY is back on regular power (via Bill Hale, AM Switch NRC DX News June 16 via DXLD) And KTOO-3? (gh, DXLD) ** BAHAMAS. 94.9 Bahamas super station in Great!!! Got a nice ID. But WHO are they? (Jeff Rostron, Springfield MA, Sangean HDT-1, Winegard HD 6065P @ 35Ft, 1528 UT July 2, WTFDA via DXLD) ZNM, according to Jim's 'Emisoras' (Bill Hepburn, Ont., ibid.) 100 Jamz, Nassau in now (Jeff Rostron, Springfield MA, 1532 UT July 2, ibid.) ZNS Power 104.5 Nassau now in at 12:06 (Jeff Rostron, Springfield MA, 1607 UT July 2, ibid.) ZNS 2 107.9 Blasting in over 107.9 LP Springfield (Jeff Rostron, Springfield MA, 1638 UT July 2, ibid.) Subject: [Tvfmdx] Today`s Es July 02, 2008 Thru 2:15 Pm [1815 UT] Mostly Miami and the Bahamas 94.9 ZNM Nassau Bahamas "The Bahamas super station" 93.5 Abaco Bahamas Island Accent 100.3 "100JAMZ" Nassau Bahamas 101.9 Bahamas "JoyFM" 104.5 ZNS Nassau Bahamas "Power 104" 107.5 ZNS 2 Nassau Bahamas Very Thick English island accent Religious preaching (Jeff Rostron, ibid.) [Must mean 107.9 as above --– gh] > 94.9 ZNM Nassau Bahamas "The Bahams super station" ***More 94 FM, The Super Station" 5kw - chr > 93.5 Abaco Bahamas Island Accent ***ZNA-FM Marsh Harbor 5kw "Radio Abaco" - variety > 100.3 "100JAMZ" Nassau Bahamas ***ZNJ-FM 5kw - chr-reggae-soca > 101.9 Bahamas "JoyFM" ***Nassau ZNY-FM 5kw - religion-gospel > 104.5 ZNS Nassau Bahamas "Power 104" ***5kw - variety > 107.5 ZNS 2 Nassau Bahamas Very Thick English island accent Religious preaching ***107.9? ZNS-2 5kw - news-sports-talk (JimThomas - Colorado "Emisoras de FM", ibid.) ** BELARUS. 18345, Belaruskae R., 3 x 6115, 1900 3 July, very poor (Tim Bucknall, Mobile, Congleton UK, Icom IC7000 + CB whip, harmonics yg via DXLD) see UNIDENTIFIED for several more harmonix ** BELIZE. Re 8-075: ``FM Es Jamaica? to SC 12:10 EDT: 7/1, Es, fading in/out, 1211, UNID-88.9 English-Jamaican accent - political address. [later:] Reviewed tape and the 88.9 turned out to be Belize-Ladyville (1194 [statute miles?]) which sounded like a live legislative session with mention of the acting director of the Belize Bureau Standards. New Logging (Fred Nordquist, Moncks Corner, SC, WTFDA via DXLD)`` So, is it LOVE FM? Why wouldn't he say? See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOVE_FM_%28Belize%29 (Terry L Krueger, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BERMUDA. FM Es Bermuda to SC at 1115 EDT [1515 UT July 2] 7/2 Es - Bermuda - new country logged: 1110 *ZBM-FM-89.1 BM Hamilton lcl nx ID (883) 1112 *ZFB-FM-94.9 BM lcl events (883) *=new loggings (Fred Nordquist, Moncks Corner, SC, 33.21756N 79.95798W, July 2, WTFDA via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 6134.84, Radio Santa Cruz, 1048-1100 July 3. At tune in, noted a female in Spanish language comments immediately followed with CP type music, i.e. flutes and drums. Music continued until 1053 when recorded ads heard. After live Spanish comments by a male who mentions "Santa Cruz" a number of times. Surprisingly a good signal this late in the morning (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 6104.71, Radio Filadélfia, (presumed) 1037-1045 July 3. Thought this might be Mexico at first, but after retuning, discovered a male in Portuguese language comments. At 1041 he is joined by a female; at least it sounded like a female. Portuguese comments continue until 1044 when Bras music is presented. Signal remained at a poor level (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. QSL Radio Educadora --- 4825 kHz - Rua 13 de Maio s/n - 68600-000 Bragança - Brasil. E-mail fundacaoeducadora @ uol.com.br con lettera e adesivi in 52 giorni. v/s Pe. Mauricio Soares de Sousa Presidente. Si 1 IRC (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli - Italia, via Roberto Scaglione, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** BULGARIA. Nuova entrata nel panorama DRM: si tratta di BNR dalla Bulgaria. La stazione trasmette solo in bulgaro (sai che piacere) e accetta i rapporti per le trasmissioni in DRM al seguente indirizzo: drmbulgaria @ gmail.com La ricezione, pur sufficiente, non mi ha consentito di effettuare una registrazione decente. Giovanni Lorenzi (via Roberto Scaglione, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** CHINA. 4830, China Huayi BC, *1200-1216, July 3, in Chinese, mostly talking, fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 15375 with weak Firedrake aside huge RHC 15370 signal --- Commies vs Commies! July 3 at 1330. Per Aoki, target is RFA Tibetan via UAE. Fortunately there were dizaines of other much stronger Firedrake frequencies with little or no QRM, the closest being 15285; also 11990. See also ALASKA, CUBA for more Firedrake QRM mentions (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHRISTMAS ISLAND, VK9C (Update/Change). The VK9XWW/VK9XHZ/ VK9XOR/VK9XME DXpedition has announced that they have changed their operating dates to July 14-21st (instead of July 8-20th). According to their Web page: "The team will rent a big van for 6 members and all the material and bags, and 2 friends of the team will help with transportation to the Barcelona airport. In the afternoon of July 8th the team will depart to Singapore via Amsterdam and will arrive there the following day and stay in Singapore until July 11th, then they will fly to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur until July 13th. On July 14th, they will arrive at Christmas Island and install as many antennas as possible and start the activity." The official Web site is: http://www.dxciting.com/vk9x/ (Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 864, June 30, 2008 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) Christmas Island [a.k.a. Cocos] in the Indian Ocean counts as a distinct ham radio country for DXCC, per http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/dxcclist.txt --- yet it was filed under Islands on the Air in this bulletin, and IOTA are not necessarily DXCC. And if the prefix for it is VK9C-, why are these calls VK9X--? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. Tnx to my lowered local line noise level, I was pleased to hear REE relay on 5970 as late as 1355 July 3, fair // 15170 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTNEING DIGEST) ** CUBA. CRI relay back on usual 13740, with open carrier July 2 from *1347, 1400 English program, while RHC was on 13760, still past 1440. The day before, CRI was on 13760 and no RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC, 11760, just open carrier, as happens all too frequently, July 3 at 1258, tho 11805, over Firedrake, and 12000, mixing with VOR IS, were modulating as usual. Tsk tsk, that RHC`s uninterfered frequency on 25m is the one they neglect to modulate. Audio was back at next check 1335. I happened to catch the frequency announcement at 1402 on 9550, which it seems is always read live by the announcer, who I suspect is not an SWL or could not possibly make such a slip, this time claiming to be on ``7000 y 6180 kHz`` on 49m; also perpetually claims to be on 9600, which is never on at this hour, always closed at 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. The DentroCuban Jamming Command again blox WORLD OF RADIO on WRMI, 9955, during the scheduled UT Thursday 0530 broadcast, as nothing but jamming was audible here at 0549 check July 3. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Whenever you hear DXers Unlimited without jamming (which is always), remember this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. Observed close downs on 8000 kHz: at 0559 and at 1659 UT, on June 24 (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, June 24, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 3 via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. 5950, Voice of the Tigré Revolution, Mek'elé, 1803-1840, 02 Jul, Tigriniya, news till 1806, tunes, talks, songs, 35433. 5990, R. Ethiopia, Geja Dera, 1811-1835, 02 Jul, Vernacular, discussion (?) (sounded more like some radioplay); 35333; parallel to 7110 & 9704.2. 6110, R. Fana, Addis Ababa, 1815-1838, 02 Jul, Oromiffa (as listed), songs, talks; 35433. 7110, R. Ethiopia, Geja Dera, 1813-1828, 02 Jul, cf. // 5990; 33432, adjacent QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, July 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 5970 and 7210, Radio Fana verified with a full data green background transmitter card in 180 days from v/s Woldu Yemessel, General Manager. The response was sent by registered mail. Stamps on envelope featured the critically endangered Black Rhinoceros with the return address indicating it was from the "Radio Fana Share Company." (Rich D'Angelo, PA, DXplorer June 29 via BC-DX July 3 via DXLD)) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Hi! This one came today (July 2nd) from Addis Dimts Radio for a reception report on June 22nd-programme on 21585 kHz to abelewd @ yahoo.com --- [sic:] ``Hello mr patrick robic, Thank you for listening to addis dimts radio. I received both your emil and letter Thank you for your report it is Correct. Next Sunday we will be on 17875 kHz. I will thank you on air if you listen to it pleas email me`` 73, (Patrick Robic, Austria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) We could have told them 21 MHz would not be supported by prevailing MUF (gh, DXLD) ** EUROPE. RSI 48, 76 and perhaps 41 mb --- Info 2nd July 2008: * Radio Spaceshuttle International is testing its North-European propagation with few watts transmissions during next weekend 4 to 6th July AM and USB: First tests on Friday evening from 15 up to 23 hours on 48 mb: 6235, 6270, 6280, 6302, 6308, 6310 or 6317 kHz. Hoping to be on 6270 kHz, but might change frequency without notice during transmission to a free one! Later tests might be on 76 mb: from 23 UT on ~3927 kHz. On Saturday and/or Sunday we might be on from 13 UT either on 48 or 41 mb (~7375 kHz) Dick of Space; write to: spaceshuttleradio @ yahoo.com (IF ANY CHANCE TO TRY US) (via Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** FINLAND. Dear listeners, Time of Scandinavian Weekend Radio's 8th Birthday transmission on Saturday 5th of July. We are starting 21 hours UTC Friday evening for 24 hours on 1602, 6170/5980 and 11720/11690 kHz. Check our program, time and frequencytables from http://www.swradio.net Lot of more information there as well. +358 400 995559 call and send your SMS's info(at)swradio.net send your e-mails here. Letters and reports for QSL's (add 2 euros/2 IRC's) write to: SWR reports P. O. Box 99 FI-34801 VIRRAT FINLAND Best greetings, (Alpo Heinonen, Scandinavian Weekend Radio, July 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. FRANCE 24 CHIEF BECOMES HEAD OF RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE The head of a new, streamlined French media group, Alain de Pouzilhac, took over as CEO of Radio France Internationale on Tuesday, marking one of the first steps in a controversial overhaul of public broadcasting in France. Pouzilhac is already the head of Audiovisuel extérieur de la France (AEF), a group set up to bring together France’s international media stations: France24, RFI and France’s share of the international French-speaking channel TV5. With Pouzilhac’s new posting, AEF takes one step closer to completion. “I have one ambition: to continue to reinforce RFI,” Pouzilhac said in an interview broadcast on RFI’s French language station on Wednesday morning. “I think that RFI has a very good editorial line, very good information, world-wide coverage. Now there are innovations to be brought in: new technologies that offer fantastic opportunities; everything that is mobile, internet-related. [We are going to] continue to develop radio everywhere around the world.” The former communications executive also said he’d like to expand RFI into areas where it isn’t well-known, specifically targeting Iran, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia. Pouzilhac takes over from Antoine Schwarz, who resigned several months ahead of schedule, saying that he didn’t want to hold up the reforms planned for the radio broadcaster. Prouzilhac has served as the head of France24 since its launch in December 2006 and will remain its president for the next three months, until a successor can be found. (Source: Radio France Internationale)(July 2nd, 2008 - 15:22 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** FRANCE. RADIO FRANCE PARTLY OFF SATELLITE DUE TO DISPUTE WITH PROVIDER --- A number of French radio stations has been taken off the Astra and Hotbird DTH satellites on July 1st. For the public Radio France this apparently concerns France Inter, France Culture, France Info, FIP, France Bleue, France Musique and Le Mouv. Off are also the RTL stations, in detail RTL, RTL 2 and Fun Radio. Not mentioned in the reports I saw so far was Radio France Internationale, so it probably is still on. For Radio France the reason is described as a row with CanalSat France, the Pay TV operator providing these satellite transmissions. It is said that CanalSat wants more money and now made a point by taking the radio stations off air. No further details are available for RTL so far, but it appears to be an educated guess that the situation is the same here. Unfortunately this is another case of the language barrier effectively holding back detailed informations about media developments in France. Even the probably drastic changes ahead for public broadcasting in France are only vaguely known, including anecdotal evidence of an announcer daring to remark "welcome in the studios of ORTF" (which was until 1974 an ordinary state broadcaster, to my knowledge lacking any real independence). Wasn't there the story of CanalSat Horizons willingly throwing RFI out of its package for the African market on NSS 7 to avoid problems in marketing it there? I can't recall the details, so perhaps it was another provider and/or another satellite (Kai Ludwig, Germany, July 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RFI apparently went back on Dish Network at the beginning of May, after being abruptly replaced with a lame French webcaster in late December. Of course, I've heard no mention of this on RFI and see nothing about it on RFI's Web site. Having written Dish Network late last year to complain about RFI being dropped, and having canceled my subscription, you'd think Dish would have contacted me to announce RFI's return, but no, I've heard nothing from them. RFI remains available free-to-air in North America on C-band and Ku-band satellite frequencies. I noticed last week that the FTA RFI feed on Ku-band now carries Meteo Marine at 1140 UT. I used to have to listen to shortwave to hear this. Curiously, the RFI feed on Canada's ExpressVu satellite didn't make the same change and carries regular RFI programming instead of Meteo Marine. Finally, RFI has announced some new programs airing this summer. Details at http://www.rfi.fr/pressefr/articles/102/article_600.asp (Mike Cooper, GA, Jul 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Most of them don`t start until late July or August, with plenty of advance episode detail (gh, DXLD) ** GERMANY. AFN WÜRZBURG TRANSMITTER SWITCHED ON AGAIN --- Re ``Another June 30 closure: The FM outlet of AFN at Würzburg, on 104.9, has been switched off during the late afternoon or early evening.`` And now I read that it has been switched back on yesterday afternoon. Never mind. Still it appears to be just a question of time when it will be finally over. The last US Army unit left Würzburg on May 13, and already by then Leighton Barracks had been described as a ghost town: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=62126&archive=true http://www.schweinfurt.army.mil/sites/news/newspage_167.asp The last relevant facilities were the American schools, and they closed as well on June 6: http://www.schweinfurt.army.mil/sites/news/newspage_176.asp http://www.army.mil/-news/2008/06/17/10093-wuerzburg-american-schools-close-their-doors/ Local press reports indicate that after the final closure at Würzburg AFN plans to move the FM outlet to Schweinfurt, like they did in last year with the former Fürth transmitter which had been replaced by one at Ansbach-Katterbach. At present Schweinfurt has no radio transmitter; it appears that the listed one on mediumwave has either been closed years ago or even never existed at all. A closer look at the official data about AFN mediumwave transmitters reveals such severe inconsistencies that it must be considered unreliable. This also applies to powers; I suspect the often listed 300 W are a standard parameter which not necessarily represents the actual equipment. Also the location of 1107 in the Vilseck/Grafenwöhr area is unclear, and the censored Google imagery is no help whatsoever there. And here are photos of the AFN transmitters at Würzburg and Schweinfurt: http://forum.mysnip.de/read.php?8773,575246,581445,sv=1#msg-581445 Surprisingly the mast at Leighton Barracks can also be seen gloriously at http://maps.google.de/?ie=UTF8&ll=49.790854,9.981814&spn=0.001262,0.00235&t=h&z=19 I'm intrigued about tests of Würzburg-1386 (ex Megaradio) with AFN program audio that were done some years ago. Probably 1386 originated from the Leighton Barracks facility? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, July 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAWAII. NEW WEST GETS OK FOR NEW AM STATION ON BIG ISLAND Hilo-based New West Broadcasting Corp. has been granted a construction permit to build a new AM radio station for Honaunau on the Kona side of the Big Island -- at 1340 on the dial. The company had filed an application in 2004 for the permit, which had been set aside for the Federal Communications Commission's yet-unscheduled Auction 84. New West submitted information clearing up any potentially competing interests in the construction permit, and was able to secure the permit without it having to go to auction. "This is the culmination of three or four years of engineering and legal (work) to get to this," said Chris Leonard, vice president and general manager. The company owns KPUA-AM 670 in Hilo, a news, sports and information station, KWXX-FM 94.7 in Hilo, KAOY-FM 101.5 in Kona and KNWB-FM 97.1 in Hilo. KAOY carries KWXX's Hawaiian-music programming, while the classic-hits format of KNWB is simulcast on KMWB-FM 93.1 in Kona, through a time-brokerage agreement with Louisiana-based Capt. Cook Broadcasting Inc. While New West simulcasts its Hilo FM stations in Kona, plans for the yet-unbuilt AM station are not set in stone. "We're still evaluating that. We still have some more engineering we need to do, to really determine what the future holds for it," Leonard said. He has until Valentine's Day of 2011 to build the station and fire it up. New West also has two additional applications pending for AM stations, but the Honaunau application "was the one we were able to clear." The other New West applications are for AM stations at 1250 and 1300 on the dial, both of which are allocated for Keauhou, also on the Kona side -- and both of which are auction-bound. The applications are among nearly two dozen filed for the upcoming auction. Several AM station construction permits will be up for grabs in the auction, which could mean several more Hawaii communities could be getting new AM stations -- including Laie and Mililani on Oahu; Haiku, Kahului, Kihei, Waihee and Wailuku on Maui; Capt. Cook, Hilo, Honalo Keaau and even Paukaa, on the Big Island. After the 2006 Big Island earthquake, the city considered running its own AM radio station dedicated for emergency information. And State Rep. Mark Takai has proposed a bill requiring the state Department of Transportation to create a county-wide highway traffic advisory radio system on the AM band for traffic reports. It has passed second reading. But just in case any lawmakers with a hankerin' for an AM radio station are reading this, the FCC's window for would-be bidders has long been closed (Honolulu Star-Bulletin 5/20/08 via Dale Park, HI, IRCA DX Monitor via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. I could hardly believe my ears, July 3 at 1307 in routine check whether VOI was on 9525 or 9526 --- the latter, and it was in English! So heavily accented I was not sure at first, but it was not Korean as scheduled during this hour. Has VOI finally heeded my pleas for months, years, that they should put English on during this hour when reception is reliable in C&W NAm?? Or is it another mixup as has happened before in the appearance of their language segments, earthquake-rattled or not? Time may tell. Meanwhile, I listened as much as I could, noting the following content: News by M finished at 1311 with ID. 1315 switched to W announcer who was much more intelligible, but 1318 back to M. 1321 W introduced a music break, 1326 talking about a ``remote area of western Kalimantan``. At 1324 the hum level increased; 1348 end of music program, ID, but more music, sounds like conventional xylophone accompanying singer, but maybe an Indo instrument. 1356 IS briefly and into open carrier with hum. *1357 CRI 9525 with usual musical prélude to Russian broadcast to DVR, thus also aimed at us, and hetting VOI 9526 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hey Glenn, I heard just Indonesia on 9525.97, 1749 UT 3-7. With nice Spanish music and full ID. Today more activity on this band than the past days. The Perseus works great; the antenna was the super Kaz. All the best from Belgium Good DX and 73, (Maurits Van Driessche, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Jakarta, 9525.97 kHz, 1841 UT, Ontvangst zelf iets beter dan daarjuist om 1749 UT. Het program is nu in het Duits tebeluisteren. Gr. Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, July 3, bdx mailing list via DXLD) So Spanish is still running at the previously scheduled time of 1700 and German at 1800 (gh, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. See FRANCE ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS. RADIO MERCUR --- 50th Anniversary of Europe’s first offshore radio station This month marks the 50th anniversary of the first broadcast by Radio Mercur – Europe’s first "pirate" offshore radio station, anchored in international waters off Denmark. It started a revolution in European broadcasting, challenging the monopoly of state-broadcasters and would be copied by many others over the next decade, including Radio Veronica and Radio Caroline. On 11th July 1958, a small German fishing boat, ‘Cheeta I’, was fitted out for broadcasting at sea and left port to anchor south-east of Copenhagen, where it started transmissions on 93.12 MHz FM with an ERP of around 20 kW. The station used a directional aerial, kept pointing in the right direction from the control room on board. The boat was registered in Panama, though after pressure from the Danish government, Panama withdrew registration at the end of August 1958. ‘Cheeta 1’ then claimed to be registered in Honduras, but was later discovered to be in fact stateless. During the night of 17-18 July 1958, ‘Cheeta I’ lost her anchor and antenna and ran aground just outside the Swedish city of Malmö. After repairs, the ship returned to her former position, while the frequency was changed to 89.55 MHz and the transmission power was increased. left: the quite small radio ship ‘Cheeta I’ with only 107 BRT capacity. (The ‘Cheeta II’ was 450 BRT) [caption] As Danish law only prohibited broadcasting from land, the station could operate sales offices and studios on land, the latter were in a house in a high-class suburb of Copenhagen. Most programmes were taped on land and sent out to the ship. Programmes were mainly in Danish, though there were two weekly programmes in English. Swedish programmes were aired under the name of Skanes Radio Mercur from 14th December 1958. This would later evolve into the Swedish station Radio Syd when Mrs Britt Wadner bought the ‘Cheeta 1’ (& later the ‘Cheeta II’). left: Skanes Radio Mercur QSL card. www.radio4all.se – where there are also more photos and clippings plus a sound archive from the Swedish Radio Mercur, later to become Radio Syd. [caption] A second radio ship, ‘Cheeta II’, was rented and started transmitting on 88 MHz on 31 January 1961 from a location very close to ‘Cheeta I’. Both ships broadcast the same programmes except when Skanes Radio Mercur aired Swedish programmes from ‘Cheeta II’, while Radio Mercur kept to its Danish programmes on ‘Cheeta I’. In early 1961 the station carried out Europe’s first experiment with dual-channel stereo transmission, using both transmitters. For the reception the listener needed two receivers! Competition arose when dissatisfied former Mercur employees started another pirate radio station, DCR/Denmark’s Commercial Radio, on 15 September 1961. DCR used the ship ‘Lucky Star’, which was anchored in the Sound close to Radio Mercur ship. While Radio Mercur broadcast pop music and many advertisements, DCR broadcast lighter and classical music, talk programmes and fewer commercials. However, listeners who liked popular music stuck to Radio Mercur, while those who preferred the classical style disliked DCR's commercials. As a result, the two stations merged at the end of January 1962 and continued under the name Radio Mercur. In September 1961, the Danish Post Office issued instructions that coastal radio stations were not to accept traffic from the radio ships unless it was a distress call. Radio Mercur had been using Lyngby Radio. This soon proved necessary - ‘Cheeta I’ stopped broadcasting on 12 February 1962 when it experienced trouble during a gale. After putting out a distress call, the vessel was towed by tug to Copenhagen, where she was impounded. DCR’s ‘Lucky Star’ took over from ‘Cheeta I’ and broadcast Radio Mercur on 88 MHz. By now, however, the days of the radio station were numbered. In June, the Danish Parliament adopted a law banning both unlicensed broadcasting and support services. Just a few days later, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden agreed to bring their anti-pirate laws into effect at midnight on 31 July 1962. That should have been the end of Radio Mercur, but some of the former broadcasting staff came back on air on 13 August 1962. Instead, the station finally went off the air on 15 August 1962, when a force of armed Danish police boarded ‘Lucky Star’. It too was discovered to be stateless – the Lebanese flag flying on its stern was a fake. So ended four years of pioneering European broadcasting. On 1st January 1963, Danmarks Radio, the state broadcaster, launched P3, aimed at a younger audience, with similar programmes to Radio Mercur and several employees from the pirate radio worked on the new legal station. Sources: ‘Offshore Radio’ – Gerry Bishop, http://www.radio-mercur.dk Danmarks Radio (DR) Kroeniken 1960-1973: http://www.dr.dk/kroeniken/tiden/radio/radiomercur.asp and http://www.radio4all.se --- Although these sites are in Danish or Swedish, there are fascinating photos and recordings there (compiled by Alan Pennington, illustrated, BDXC-UK Communication July via DXLD) ** IRELAND. ÉIRE --- I noted a few surprisingly strong, clear FM signals on 27 MHz from the Wireless Public Address System, WPAS, but did not identify any station - or is it just one station using several frequencies? Only language heard was Irish accented English, and the program content was "varied"... mass, with a few periods of silence & some background noise like what I suppose one would hear inside a church: 27065, 1842-..., 02 Jul, 35433 27285, 1844-..., 02 Jul, 35443 27395, 1846-..., 02 Jul, 45444 27595, 1848-..., 02 Jul, 35443 27725, 1850-..., 02 Jul, 45444 At nearly 1900, the signals faded out. The audio quality easily surpassed that of a regular MW local station. Apart from wireless telephones using FM, truck drivers often using bad language and some other less adequate use of the so-called CB on 27 MHz, now this. What more then? (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, July 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Geez, isn`t Sunday morning enough? Guess Wednesday-evening mass is a big thing in Ireland, like Protestant services in America (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** ITALY. Dear Glenn, I saw that you reported this message in Italian via Play DX. This is the English version. Have nice time, Friendly Giampiero Radio Maria World Family decided to start a QSL service, as a friendly attention towards radio enthusiasts. So, after talks with Radio Maria WF President, Emanuele Ferrario, and Radio Maria WF Network Director, Claudio Re, I begun to confirm reports as QSL manager. It is a volunteer amateur service. So far we have QSL letter for Radio Maria Nederland 675 kHz and Radio Maria station in Andrate, Italy, on 26000 kHz AM and 26010 kHz DRM. Mail address: qsl @ radiomaria.org If you prefer a paper confirmation, you can write to my address: Giampiero Bernardini - via Tertulliano 35 - 20137 Milano - Italy. If possible, please, add stamps, IRC, 1 dollar etc., just to help me in answering. We'll appreciate audio clips. We are interested in knowing how you receive Radio Maria. About DRM broadcasting we'll appreciate information about audio quality, a copy of Dream software log and images of Dream software at work. Ciao (Giampiero Bernardini, QSL manager Radio Maria WF, http://www.radiomaria.org/ http://www.radiomaria.nl/ July 1, WORLD OF RADIO 1415, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. KBS World Radio relay via Sackville, 9650 in Korean, but pronouncing station name in sort-of English, starting 1400 July 3 with theme music, horrible audio quality; must be backup program feed via phone lines or something (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. Repetitive electronic melody on 15495, July 2 at 2117, thought maybe an unknown IS, but soon into Arabic, R. Kuwait scheduled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 6049.70, Voice of Malaysia, 1015-1035 July 3, Initially heard only the carrier. Then at about 1023, a male begins to talk in an Asian language. Iban is scheduled. This situation continues with a clear signal until 1029 when HCJB comes on the air and ruins my day. At that time, VOM is no longer audible. So it went from a poor quality to nil heard due to QRM from HCJB (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 11884.70, Voice of Malaysia (Suara Malaysia) via RTM, 1226-1230*, July 3, in Chinese, pop songs, multi-language ID, "This is the Voice of Malaysia" and singing VOM jingle in English, off with choral National Anthem, continues to have terrible audio (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK. 7270, Limbang FM (tentative) via RTM, Kuching, 1342-1400, July 3, in vernacular, pop songs, woman DJ, format and language sounded right for them, no ID heard, poor, mixing with PBS Nei Menggu (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MICRONESIA. V6MP PMA-The Cross QSL. See Password: a-dx Mit einem Freudensprung am Briefkasten entnahm ich heute nach fast 9 Monaten Laufzeit die QSL von PMA-The Cross aus Mikronesien. Ich habe Photos davon auf meinen 4shared Bereich geladen. Alle Angaben zu den Empfangsparametern (Datum, Zeit, Frequenz) sind dort einsehbar (Thomas Lindenthal-D, A-DX July 2, BC-DX July 3 via DXLD) Congrats, QSL of the year in Germany (Wolfgang Büschel, ed., ibid.) You have to enter the password thrice to see both sides full size. Geez, on one side he has marked out his address very messily, and on the other side he has not peeled off the US postal routing strip covering up the signature! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. Re: 5915/5985. As luck would have it they signed off at 1512 UT on 9730.74 kHz, but 5985 and 5770 kHz continue (Victor A. Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, 4S7VK, June 21, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 3 via DXLD) Re 5915/5985 to Victor Goonetilleke. 9730v has been going strong every day this week so far in the local afternoons and evenings. It sounds to me as though it is carrying the Minorities/Education service most of the time, replacing 5040v. There's a terrible heterodyne in the evening after CRI starts up on 9730 (Alan Davies, Chiang Mai, Thailand, June 26, ibid.) I thought that the earlier part of programming on 9731v after 0730 UT was reminiscent of the minorities service with mostly speech-based programming. According to my very limited knowledge of the languages to concerned, some segments on 9731 sound like they are not in Burmese. I'll try to check 9731 again to see what happens a little later in the day. This week, the schedule seems to be something like this: ?2300-?2400: on ?576, 594, 5986v 0000-0130: on 594, 5986v 0030-0130: on 576, 7185v (separate programs from 594/5986) 0130-0230: on 576, 594, 7185v 0330 (SS 0230)-0730: on 576, ?594, 9731v 0730-?1500v: on 9731v 0930-1600: on 576, 594, 5985 (separate programs from 9731v) English: 0700-0730, 1530-1600 UT. Here in Chiang Mai, 576 is a weak but audible signal in daytime. 594 can also be detected in daytime, but is weaker and the audio can barely be heard, especially with splatter from the local Chiang Mai station on 612. Both 576 and 594 are strong after dark. Last night (26 June) I noted that 576 and 5985 appeared to be parallel with 594 for the whole transmission 0930-1600, but with a long audio delay both were about 13 seconds behind 594. My best guess is that Myanma Radio have now moved most production to the new capital city, Naypyidaw, which may also be the site for 594 kHz, and that Yangon still produces its own programming for part of the local morning on 576 and 5986v. But it's all guesswork (Alan Davies, June 27, ibid.) I listened to it also today already from 1030, when programming was local pop and rock, not \\ 5985 kHz. I haven't listened to 5040 kHz a lot; does Minorities program transmit such? Readable signal until 1200 when CRI starts on 9730 kHz. [later] today June 28 at around 1030 UT the programming on 9731v was much more talk than yesterday. And I agree that the language didn't sound exactly Burmese (Mauno Ritola, Finland, June 27/28, ibid.) ** MYANMAR/BURMA. 9730.74, Myanma R., 1429-1536*, July 2, in vernacular (assume the Minorities and Educational service, thanks to Martien Groot of the Netherlands, per DXLD 8-075), identical program format as heard June 30, but running considerably past their recently observed 1512 sign-off time, indigenous instrumental music at sign- off, mostly poor to almost fair by sign-off (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. Location of Myanmar’s AM station [576 kHz] Hi Glenn, Regarding the observations from Alan Davies in DXLD 8-073 and wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 3: seems to be a good possibility that Myanmar's AM station has moved to the new capital, Nay Pyi Taw. This per a March 20, 2008 story http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/20/content_7826113.htm Part of the article reads: "At present, Myanmar has one amplitude modulated (AM) radio station, which is the state-run Radio Myanmar .... The Radio Myanmar, which was traditionally broadcast from Yangon, the former capital, has now aired from the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw beginning this month." Certainly there has been a lot of new activity on the part of Myanma Radio and Television (new schedules, changes in frequencies, etc.). Unfortunately the story does not mention the SW operation and I still wonder about their current location. I was particularly interested in Alan's comment: "It's of note that 5985v is consistently on 5985.76 for the morning transmission, but on 5985.00 in the evening. So likely from different transmitters?" Different transmitters at different locations? Regarding the name of the new capital, Nay Pyi Taw, this seems to be the correct designation per http://www.myanmaryellowpages.biz/govt.htm although I have also seen it referred to as Naypyitaw (Ron Howard, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) BRM Nay Pyi Taw is the new Capital (also spelling in Google Earth) Google Earth imagery in fair resolution, only - tentativelly - two towers visible near 19 45 05.80 N 96 06 14.92 E and 19 45 05.98 N 96 06 18.11 E ``has now aired from the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw beginning this month.`` My GUESSWORK: That means Broadcasting House staff moved to the new broadcasting house at Nay Pyi Taw, latter which was confirmed by the local QSLer guy around six weeks ago [before the hurricane disaster], when German DXers received QSLs of RRs sent to Rangoon in previous years 2006/2007 already ...... Maybe the n e w MW unit 594 and two n e w 49 mb units (5815 test, 5915/5985 on exact .00 frequency readout) have been erected at new capital area. And 5985.00 transmission reported for the first time by Sei-ichi Hasegawa-JPN, NDXC HQ Apr 21 Audio file by Sei-ichi Yamamori on Apr. 23 at 1529 UT: Alan Davies reported of a REMARKABLE time delay [13 seconds] between 594 and 576 kHz signals, when monitored in INS and THA last week: Last night (26 June) I noted that 576 and 5985 appeared to be parallel with 594 for the whole transmission 0930-1600, but with a long audio delay both were about 13 seconds behind 594. My best guess is that Myanma Radio have now moved most production to the new capital city, Naypyidaw, which may also be the site for 594 kHz, and that Yangon still produces its own programming for part of the local morning on 576 and 5986v. But it's all guesswork (Alan Davies, Chiang Mai, Thailand, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 27) But all these 40-50 years old equipment, 1x MW TX unit, and at least 3x SW units, and the masts too will REMAIN on old ancient British colonial empire site at BRM Yangoon Yegu site MW 576 200 kW 5040 5986v 7185 9730v at 16 51 57.20 N 96 09 46.54 E This area is 0.62 miles or 1000 meters wide. COSTS: So it cost too much, expensive for this poor third world country Myanmar to move all this installations to the new capital. MW 576 kHz is meant for southern Myanmar target. Distance between the two capitals is about 215 miles / 350 kilometers. Maybe in future some more modern SW units and antenna arrays [Made in China?] will be erected at the new central capital Nay Pyi Taw ?? btw: BRM_Panglong G.E. 21 00'53.96"N 97 32'05.22"E looks like a triangle antenna mast array - or three helicopter landing places?? (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, July 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR [non]. I have an awful time trying to hear any of the Myanma Radio frequencies. I was hoping extended usage of 9731v would help, but not a trace even of a carrier, July 3 at 1252, under big signal from Taiwan`s Japanese service on 9735, which happens also to be beamed to North America; and a weak carrier from something on 9730. Further chex during following hour also fruitless, even at 1359 when Taiwan had closed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Myanma Radio on 9730.74 was broadcasting today (July 3). I heard them from 1242 to 1300 with indigenous music and singing (lost to the QRM by 1300); 1402-1432 in the clear with non-stop talking in vernacular. Recently reception during the 1400-1500 time period found the reception slowly improving, but not today, was mostly just a weak signal (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. R. Nederland is blocking the last few minutes of RNZI`s transmission on 9655; July 3 at 1250 the IBB PHILIPPINES relay was already on with open carrier, as IBB burns up more kilowatts for nothing. Is RN paying for 70+ instead of 60 minutes of airtime? Made a SAH of about 7 Hz with much weaker RNZI. At 1259 RNZI was off, moved to 6170 [see also NEW ZEALAND], and RNW IS, opening in Dutch on 9655. This is usually audible here, far from the target, 200 degrees from Tinang, tho much weaker than China-via-Canada on adjacent 9650 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. FREQUENCY CHANGE FOR RNW SPANISH FROM 5 JULY The RNW transmission in Spanish at 2359-0157 UT via French Guiana will change frequency on 5 July to improve reception in South America. The current 9895 kHz will be replaced by 7325 kHz (July 2nd, 2008 - 16:14 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. 15720, RNZI, Rangitaiki, 2117-2240, 02 Jul, English, extensive sports report, News About NZ at 2130, etc.; 25422 and still rated such or perhaps a tiny bit better (!) at the end of my observation, 2240. I would have expected the opposite (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, July 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. No trace of usual good signal from RNZI on 9615, at 0552 July 3; instead was hearing good signal on 9610 in African language which per EiBi is BBC Rampisham in Hausa. That went off abruptly at 0559* and still not even a carrier on 9615. Another month, another schedule change at RNZI? But none such notified yet. After some shuteye, checked more RNZI frequencies: at 1250 it seemed to be on 9655, but blotted out by open carrier already from IBB Tinang warming up to relay RN --- see NETHERLANDS [non]. And 6170 *1259 with RNZI bellbird IS, 1300 news. 6170 still audible with music at 1356. Then I check website http://www.rnzi.com/pages/whatsnew.php#239 and find this: ``Transmitter Maintenance 02 Jul, 2008. 23:10 UTC: 1100- 1800 NZT - There will some interruption to our short-wave broadcasts today.`` That means UT July 1 from 2300 until UT July 2 0600 --- but 9615 was missing almost 23 hours later! So what gives? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. Re 8-074: esquema de la BBC en Aseela (250 kW): 1400-1600 15310 63 [sic, referring to days of week below? Language??] According to Frequency Schedule, at 1400-1600 15310 is in English to S As daily, and 63 refers to the degrees of azimuth (Noel R. Green (NW England), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. I had a good look at the PNG stations and I heard these frequencies in the local evening in the period 0800-1400 UT. 3235, 3260, 3275, 3290, 3315, 3325, 3335, 3365, 3385 & 3905 kHz. The strongest was Radio Central [sic: any ID as such heard?? gh], Port Moresby on 3290 kHz which seemed to abruptly end modulating the carrier at random times, although some days it made it to 1400. I think the transmitter may be on all night unmodulated as it was there in the morning still, but unused. I heard these four station in the local morning from 1900: 3335, 3365, 3385 & 3905 kHz. 3335 kHz seemed to relay 585 kHz from Port Moresby in the mornings. 585 kHz was present throughout the day from 1900 to 1400. I also heard Wantok Radio Light on 7325 kHz at various times, but never at good strength. On medium wave I could hear two stations on 585 kHz, two on 900 kHz, the strongest being Radio East Highlands, Goroka, announcing as "KBK FM" and one on 1494 kHz that I believe is Radio Enga. In the past I have heard Radio Morobe, Lae on 810 kHz, but this time the frequency was totally dominated by RRI Merauke, Indonesian Papua which was very strong. I took along my Sony SW ICF7600G and 10 metres of antenna wire (Barry Hartley, NZ, touring Port Douglas, Queensland, June 28, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 3 via DXLD) ** PERU. 4826.229, Radio Sicuani, Sicuani noted at 1100 to 1120 with fair to good signal, om and yl, no music. Back after weeks of silence. 2 July (Bob Wilkner, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 15330, FEBC Bocaue, 1144-1201, June 30, vernacular. M in listed Mon with Bangkok contact info, carrier off at 1145, back at 1146 with IS, music bit and announcer with ID into ballad, M at 1149 in listed Jingpho, music at 1157, announcer & IS at 1201, fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, MKIIB8600, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL. 22080, RDP[I], intermod, 1855 UT July 3 (Tim Bucknall, Mobile, Congleton UK, Icom IC7000 + CB whip, harmonics yg via DXLD) Intermod with what? RDPI is known to be only on 21655 in the 13m band, which is 425 kHz below (gh, DXLD) ** ROMANIA. RADIO RUMANÍA CON NUEVA IDENTIDAD VISUAL ¡Hola Amigos! Reproduzco el correo recibido hoy de la amiga locutora y conductora del programa "Rincon Diexista" de Radio Rumanía Internacional. Les mando un afectuoso saludo y les paso la siguiente información: El miércoles 3 de julio, se lanzó, en Bucarest, la nueva identidad visual de la Radiodifusión Rumana. Eso quiere decir un nuevo emblema para toda nuestra institución y seis emblemas diferentes para sus seis programas: Radio Rumanía Internacional, Radio Rumanía Actualidades, Radio Rumanía Cultural, Radio Rumanía Musical, Antena del Campo y Radio Rumanía Regional. Cada programa se identificará por un color presente en el emblema de la corporación. A RRI le corresponde el color azul celeste. La nueva imagen visual de Radio Rumanía reúne, en una forma moderna, los valores de la institución: la credibilidad, la calidad, la independencia, el respeto por los oyentes, la creatividad, la competitividad, la diversidad y el espíritu de equipo. Adoptar una nueva identidad visual ocurre en el contexto en que, el próximo primero de noviembre, Radio Rumanía celebra 80 años de existencia y demuestra la constante preocupación de nuestra institución por mantener la supremacía en el mercado de la radio de Rumanía y la capacidad de adaptar permanentemente sus productos radiofónicos al medio concurrencial. Radio Rumanía promoverá su nueva identidad visual por medio de una campaña que se prolongará hasta finales de este año. Victoria Sepciu, Radio Rumanía Internacional 73 (via Dino Bloise, FL, July 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So have they retired that weird ratlike mascot with the huge headphones? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) see also U S A: RFE/RL going away ** SABLE ISLAND. CY0 (Update/Freq Change). The 6 meter DXpedition to Sable Island is now up and active through July 7th. Operators Pete/VE3IKV, Dick/K5AND and Chris/W3CMP will be active on CW and SSB. The fixed 6m station (in FN93) will use the callsign CY0X. They will be transmitting on 50.108 MHz. The team requests, "Please do NOT send your grid square as it consumes valuable time during an opening." The operators were very active this past weekend during Field Day. They will also try to activate rare grid GN03 if there is a solid opening using a portable station with a 5 element M2 6M5X yagi with the callsign CY0RA. The team will also plan on being on HF on 20 meters and 40 meters, CW and SSB - but the HF operation will always take lower priority over the 6 meter operation. The special callsign CY0X commemorates the 225th anniversary of the 1783 Loyalist landing in Nova Scotia: http://www.loyalistlanding2008.org QSL via VE3IKV (please include two green stamps). For updates, visit their Web page at: http://www.cy0x.com (Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 864, June 30, 2008 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) Tho to any normal person, Sable Island is part of Nova Scotia which is part of Canada, this qualifies as a separate ham radio country, per http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/dxcclist.txt (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SINGAPORE. RSI Close down. Listening at 1330 UT, RSI is off. Forgot to see whether yesterday there was a closedown announcement. Today, good news is that though RSI is off, all Radio Singapore Home Service SW relays are intact: 6000 Chinese, 6150 English, 7235 Malay, 7275 Tamil. So it appears the announcement applied [only] to RSI? (Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, 4S7VK, DXplorer July 1 via BC-DX via DXLD) That was a pretty short life as shortwave services go. When they were young, in the mid 90's, I sent them a report from Quito. They sent me all kinds of promotional material and were excited to have a listener in Ecuador. Great that the regional services are still going (Rich McVicar, USA, ibid.) ?? The SW closedown was supposed to be at the end of ``next month`` as announced in June, i.e. JULY 31, not June 30. I did not look for 6080 on July 1 or 2. But checking their website http://www.rsi.sg/ UT Thursday July 3 at 0110, it still displays the SW schedules in Chinese, Malay, Indonesian, and yes, English at 11-14 on 6080, 6150, and linx to audio for the ``Wednesday`` broadcast, which started playing but kept buffering. Embedded player page says: ``1. This programme is available after its first broadcast. 2. Due to our webcast procedure, the programme may not start immediately when the clip plays. Please wait a while.`` So I did, tried again, and then it picked up and kept playing. Nothing found on the website either about a closedown. So it still seems to be in limbo. [later:] Kept listening to frequently interrupted for buffering ondemand webcast, and 8 minutes into it just before the 1300 UT News, there was a specific announcement that RSI would be closing down SW on 1 AUGUST 2008. And there would be special commemorative programs about their 14 years on the air, in the last two weeks of July! Someone tell the transmitter engineer to keep 6080 and 6150 going for another month. Reports that R. Singapore International has closed down at the end of June are contradicted by a webcast I heard of the July 2 broadcast, via http://www.rsi.sg/ announcing clearly that they will close on August 1, after two weeks of special commemorative programming about their 14-year existence. The English schedule is 1100-1400 on 6080, 6150, which I have not checked since June 30, but Victor Goonetilleke reported that 6080 was missing July 1, and assumed it was all over. So is 6080 on or off? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I'm listening to the English service of Radio Singapore International on 6080 as I type this at 1220, // to weaker 6150 (under Chinese co- channel). Signal in the clear except for some adjacent splatter, so appears that they will more likely sign-off at the end of this month. Overall good reception (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, 3 July 08, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6080, RSI, 1220, July 3, as Walt has also noted, RSI continues to broadcast, announcement for their special two week commemorative programming at the end of July, mentions being on the air for 14- years, fair, // 6150 (weaker signal and mixing with Firedrake, against Taiwan); 1314-1328, "Singapop" program, songs and interview with musician (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SINGAPORE [and non]. Checking whether RSI is still on the air for another month: July 3 at 1227, very poor signal in English on 6080, presumably this, with even weaker co-channel. Per Aoki, possibilities there are two transmitters in China, one in India; and also HCJB, which judging from 6050 reception could still be barely audible here as about to outfade. Further South Americans much less likely. Walt Salmaniw, BC, confirms that RSI is still active on 6080 as of July 3 at 1220. And Ron Howard, CA, as late as 1328. The previous evening, I let the RSI webcast play for hours, and it continued to be interrupted by very long buffering pauses, but stayed connected. I heard several replays of the announcement that their closedown would be August 1. Apparently the webcast is a repeating loop and you must join it at whatever point, rather than being able to start it at the beginning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. Honiara on 1035 kHz was heard most local evenings in Port Douglas from around 0800 UT to after 1200, often mixed with 2ZB Wellington. I couldn't hear them on the other medium wave frequencies of 945 & 1386 kHz. 1035 kHz should be in \\ with 5020 kHz, but I never heard the short wave frequency, strangely! (Barry Hartley, NZ, touring Port Douglas, Queensland, June 28, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 3 via DXLD) ** SPAIN. Re 8-075: Camping Radio personal Email for reports --- "CAMPING RADIO" campingradio @ gmail.com This pirate station has no connections with Radio Barretina International. ... Mr. Camping (Dario Monferini, July 3, playdx yg via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. LISTENING IN with Darren Rozier - listeningin @ bdxc.org.uk Radio Sweden celebrates its 70th birthday this month. In honour of this, I thought I’d have a little listen to what they’re doing nowadays. The station achieves 70 years of broadcasting in Swedish on 1st July. English and German broadcasts began in 1939 and today Swedish Radio broadcasts in 13 languages. Anniversary programmes are planned for September. The two principle frequencies used by Radio Sweden in Europe are 1179 kHz MW and 6065 kHz SW. I have listened to programmes on both depending on the time of day. There are four opportunities to listen to the half-hour English broadcast through the day. One is at 1630 UTC on MW only, which is impossible to hear in the UK during these summer months. The next is at 1730 UTC which is, again, inaudible on MW but is quite clear on SW. The next is at 1900 UTC on MW only, which is only just listenable and the final one, at 2130 UTC, is audible on both MW and SW, but I’m usually in bed at this time because I have to get up for work at 5 a.m. The station recently shed its German service and there have been significant changes to the English service. I suspect this has happened as part of some cutbacks at SR (Sveriges Radio). A while back each weekday half hour would include some news and some regular feature slots, like the ones on Radio Tirana (see May’s Communication). Saturdays would have different programmes on a rota system, including the music show "Headset" and a news debate show. Now each weekday is simply news and current affairs features and the Saturday show is just a repeat of some of the best of the last week’s news stories. Sunday’s show is "Network Europe", which is the same show that be found on Radio Netherlands (see June Communication). Each broadcast begins with the interval signal "To The Wide Wide World", which is a catchy little ditty, played on a synthesizer. An announcer then gives the frequencies of the broadcast and invites us to stay tuned for the next half hour. This is followed by the programme jingle which mentions quite a few place names across Sweden. Saturday, 31 May The news roundup show, presented by whatever Radio Sweden journalist has been put on the rota for the shift. This one’s my favourite presenter – the very Swedish-sounding Bill Schiller. I heard this one on 1179 MW, but I can’t remember which slot it was as I didn’t make a note of the time. The SINPO was 43333 so I guess it must have been 2130 UT. There was some lightning interference and some sideband splatter coming from Gold’s Foxhall Heath site in Ipswich on 1170 kHz. The show began with a report on the compact on Iraq, which was held in Stockholm. The EU countries receiving Iraqi refugees were encouraging the USA to take more of their share. Sweden has quite a few. There was an interview included in an all-round professional report. The second piece was on the end of the ferry boat and nurses strike. The report was from the very English Dave Russell. Nurses in Sweden were striking for six weeks. They were eventually promised an acceptable pay deal. The third piece was from Gaby Katz (she sounds Irish) on the Green Party conference. They want Sweden to leave the EU. [ed- see this month’s Webwatch for photos of Gaby Katz, Dave Russell and George Wood.] There was then a report from Dave Russell on Swedish aid to Burma. Then they talked about a conference in Dublin centring on banning cluster bombs, but the Swedish government might not sign the agreement. There was a short report on Sweden’s Eurovision entry and a piece on wind power in Sweden. The show closed with an Australian author being awarded the Astrid Lingren Prize. The author said that Australians love ABBA and that ABBA to Ozzies are Australian! Wednesday, 11 June: 6065 kHz – 1730 UTC – 44334 News: (1) Norway and Sweden look towards combining their armed forces. (2) A Swede is found guilty of trying to create a terrorist cell in Morocco. (3) Sweden beat Greece 2-0 at Euro 2008. (4) Possibly the oldest depiction of a human being in Sweden has been noticed on a stone-age tool in a museum. Features: (1) New wind farm with 48 turbines is installed. Denmark is an inspiration, getting 20% of their electricity from the wind. (2) Celebrations of a popular female Swedish author’s 150th birthday. (She is dead, by the way!) A clip is played of her speaking in 1938 when she was 80. (3) Sweden’s Post Museum. Apparently letter-writing is still very popular in the country today, despite us being immersed in the e-mail world. (4) Weather forecast – happens at the end of each programme, and not after the news as you might expect it. Temperatures are always given for Stockholm, Malmo, Gothenburg and Kiruna in the Arctic Circle, which is normally always in single figures. (5) Song: Radio Sweden’s English programmes always end on a song. Today it finished with a Swedish artist’s version of Kylie Minogue’s "On A Night Like This". Kylie was due to be playing a Swedish gig that night. So that’s your lot really. Plenty to listen to if you want to find out what’s going on in Sweden, but not too many cultural, musical or interactive features (such as a DX programme or a mailbag show). Plus, Radio Sweden is another station in the category of Radio Netherlands – slick, professional and very English-sounding. It’s worth bearing in mind, though, that Radio Sweden is the only external service left in the five Nordic countries. 1179 kHz based in Solvesborg, right in the south of Sweden, is also the only MW transmitter left in Sweden, and it’s not 24 hours. It seems Scandinavia are dropping AM like a hot potato, with Finland now FM only, Denmark with only short segments available on 1062 MW at times during the day and Norway now without the superpower 1314 kHz from Kvitsoy. During the summer months you have to struggle to get the 100 kW transmitter at Vigra late at night on 630 kHz if it’s NRK you want, and there’s even talk of that TX closing at some point. Iceland seems to be the only main Nordic country still left with a comprehensive service on AM (LW 189 and 207 kHz). The Faroe Islands are also still riding the mediumwaves on 531 kHz. They call these closures progress. I’d be interested in your opinions on this. Radio Sweden current schedule to Europe, Africa & Middle East: 1430-1500 13820 KHz 1530-1600 11595 1630-1700 MW 1179 1730-1800 MW 1179 (daily) and 6065 (Wednesdays-Fridays) 1900-1930 MW 1179 2030-2100 7395 via Madagascar 2130-2200 6065 + MW 1179. 73s for now and good listening, Darren. Radio Sweden website http://www.sr.se/international (July BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** TAHITI. TAHITI'S RADIO MAOHI PARTIALLY SHUT DOWN French Polynesia's Radio Maohi has been shut down in the west of Tahiti because of debts to the state owned TDF company that provides radio transmission services. The station is linked to the Tahoeraa Huiraatira party which was the dominant political force in Pirae, west of Papeete, until municipal elections in March. Pirae now has a mayor from the ruling To Tatou Aia coalition, leading to accusations that the new mayor is muzzling opposition radio media. Radio Maohi continues to broadcast in other parts of Tahiti where it owns the transmission equipment. In a backgrounder, Jason Brown of Avaiki News, says that Radio Maohi isn't the only station suffering funding problems. Longtime anti-nuclear radio Te Reo Tefana limps along on just one phone line for all calls and faxes for their onair studio, newsroom, administration and advertising offices. A skeleton crew of staff use their own mobile phones, bikes and cars to cover stories for Te Reo Tefana, one of the oldest but most badly resourced radio stations in the Pacific. Given French enthusiasm for good quality coffee, it's a measure of tough times when even the instant coffee jar at the newsroom at Tefana is empty. It's been this way for about two years according to Tefana workers. By comparison, state broadcasters like RFO get roughly US$50m a year, in French Polynesia alone. [According to the WRTH 2008, Radio Maohi operates on 5 FM frequencies throughout French Polynesia, with just 2 on the main island of Tahiti. Te Reo Tefana uses 7 FM frequencies, of which 3 are on the main island. There are over 30 private FM stations in French Polynesia, as well as two state owned radio networks.] (David Ricquish, Radio Heritage Foundation http://www.radioheritage.net July 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN [non]. RTI via WYFR still there UT July 3 at 0200 on 5950, 9680; 0300 on 5950. In April, RTI was surveying listeners in NAm asking among other things if they listen via radio or internet, or both. See DXLD 8-050 and subsequent issues. It was thought they were considering dropping WYFR relays, and indeed they have, but apparently not in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Partly tnx to my reduced line noise level, VOT English on 15450 was audible again, tho not very strong, Thursday July 3 at 1305 as hourtop music break in Live from Turkey was about to end. Too much else going on to stay with it this time, but I heard the Tuesday July 1 edition at 1900 via webcast, when the announcers were perplexed by the just-breaking news of the arrest of generals in the squabble over secularism, lamenting that they did not know what was really going on in their own country (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC INTERNET STREAMS: IMPROVEMENTS IN SOUND QUALITY Pasted below is from the BBC Radio Labs blog. I am very pleased indeed with the iplayerbeta and more improvements are planned: People have been asking about the bitrates and codecs that we're using on national radio within the new iPlayer beta. The quick answer is "they're different per station, they're different whether live or on-demand, and they'll change at least another two times this year". If that satisfies you, you have no requirement to read on. If you want more information, however, I'm happy to help. Note that I'm only talking about national radio, and only for listeners in the UK. First, you'll notice that for "live" we're currently using Windows Media Player rather than Real Player (for most of you - we still give Real to some operating systems). We're doing this because we know online radio is particularly useful in the office, and chances are that Windows Media is automatically installed on most computers, and most corporates won't let you install other software. It should, therefore, 'just work'. I should though say that if you need RealPlayer for your internet radio or your fridge, those streams continue; we've no plans to remove them. (Note, there is such a thing as an internet fridge! Mike) The future for "live" is firstly to significantly improve the bitrate (which we'll do in July). In parallel with that we're working on a way of delivering higher-quality still, using a Flash-based player and an AAC-family stream. We're working with our distribution partners to enable this; the upshot is that it should sound even better but use less bandwidth. For "on-demand", you'll have spotted that we're using Flash, within the lovely embedded media player that you're familiar with for TV in the iPlayer. Under the hood is a protected MP3 stream for now: again, we're shifting over to AAC-family later in the year. The real difference here is the quality - we've significantly improved the bitrates we can offer. For on-demand content, we're launching iPlayer with four MP3 profiles based on the content of the programme: and we're using four different bitrates for these profiles. Pop music (e.g. Radio 1 or Asian Network) is 128k stereo. Classical music (Radio 3) is 192k stereo. Stereo speech (Radio 4) is 128k stereo. Mono speech (Radio 5live) is 80k mono. These are the launch bitrates; we'll tweak things, and moving to the AAC family will reduce the bitrates we use (to make your listening more reliable, whilst maintaining audio quality). Again, the Real listen-again streams that your internet radio uses will still work. Finally, perhaps I might be able to let you into a bit of a dirty secret. For the last six years, the online streams from BBC national radio have been taken from satellite: the same feeds you get on Freesat or Sky. So we've been taking a lossy MP2 audio feed, and then encoding it further into even lower bitrates. As we move into higher quality audio online, clearly this has to stop. So, from July, it will - we'll be encoding everything within Broadcasting House, plugged in to the studio feeds. So better bitrate is only part of the story - it's also better sound. If you've got feedback about radio within iPlayer beta, we're watching your blogs; or if you're blogless, please do comment here. Comments are beneath the item, you need to be registered with BBC message boards: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/2008/06/under_the_iplayer_hood_for_rad.shtml (Mike Barraclough, uk-radio-listeners yg via Rich Cuff, swprograms via DXLD) Probably also explains why the BBC Radio Widget no longer works (Mark J. Fine, ibid.) I know some folks here are BBCR4 and R3 fans, and might appreciate the information. I am not sure how the BBC's capabilities of managing what content is displayed for non-UK IP addresses plays into this (Richard Cuff, Allentown, PA USA, ibid.) Rich, I am not sure either. You may be offered something else entirely different. Test it and see; here's the direct radio link to the beta: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayerbeta/radio [later:] In fact looks like overseas users are going to be offered a different player, my interpretation is sticking with the Real based one, though they say on their comments blog the sound quality of those streams is to improve as well: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/help/faq/development_news.shtml?focuswin (Mike Barraclough, UK, ibid.) ** U K. What was the BBCWS program about the sea before it became "On The Move"? Hi guys - I figure you folks are BBCWS historians as much as anyone. You may remember the WS had a weekly 15-minute program a few years back on transportation called "On The Move." Before it had that name, it was a program specifically about water transportation and matters of the sea. Do you remember its title back then? I'm writing about an RTE sea- focused program ("Seascapes") for the NASWA Journal for August and wanted to reference the old BBCWS program. Thanks in advance for filling that memory gap! (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I have a 1990 London Calling magazine which lists: Seven Seas (15 min) --- Weekly program about ships and the sea with Malcolm Billings. Thurs 2115, rep Fris 0215, 0945 I think that`s probably the one. Its a good thing (sometimes) that I never throw this stuff out :-) (Fred Waterer, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yep, that's it! Thanks, Fred! (Rich Cuff, ibid.) I have been racking my brain for this, and just before opening Fred`s message it came to me: The Merchant Navy Programme. No? Was that the name prior to Seven Seas? 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) The earliest name I remember (from roughly 1987, when I started listening to shortwave purposefully) was Seven Seas (Rich Cuff, ibid.) Two references to the late 1950s: 2. Merchant Navy programme signature tune " A Life on the Ocean Waves" by the Royal Marines Band. The programme originally lasted thirty minutes but was cut back to fifteen minutes. A regular presenter was Alan Villiers, an Australian bosun who became a master of a sailing vessel. http://www.free-internet.co.uk/users/ambrose.jones/Leisure_time.html http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:OSPMsdsg8PEJ:www.seabreezes.co.im/articles/Voyage.pdf+%22Merchant+Navy+Programme%22+on+BBC&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=firefox-a This one refers to the 1970s: I remember listening to the Merchant Navy programme on BBC World Service in the 70s. They had an interview with Thor Heyerdahl about his latest 'venture'. When they asked him whether he had arranged any form of rescue vehicle in case his voyage went wrong he said that he relied in the good will of the merchant marine and SOLAS to get him out of trouble for free. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/100-Desert-Island-Books-t108603.html&st=25&p=1167879#entry1167879 My own memory is suspect in this matter. I started listening to shortwave in earnest in 1978, 30 years almost to the day. My first QSL was for a program on July 2, 1978 (HCJB) but I digress. I don't recall the Merchant Navy Programme as such, but at the time it`s not something I would seek out either. If I have time I'll poke around some of my older BBC material from the late 70s early 80s on Thursday. (Fred Waterer, ibid.) I remember that one, Fred; but I think The Merchant Navy Programme might be a candidate as well. Perhaps it was the predecessor to Seven Seas (John Figliozzi, ibid.) ** U S A. C. Evans Hays, VOA Senior Editor Washington Post Obituaries Wednesday, July 2, 2008; B08 C. Evans Hays, 62, a broadcast journalist and senior news editor with the Voice of America who retired in 2003, died June 20 at Baptist Hospital of Miami of a cerebral hemorrhage. Mr. Hays worked for Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty in Munich before joining VOA in the late 1980s. He headed VOA's Bonn, Germany, bureau for several years and covered stories including German reunification and the Balkans wars. After his VOA retirement, he accompanied his second wife on her State Department assignments to Ghana, Iceland and Venezuela. He maintained a home in Alexandria. Creighton Evans Hays Jr. was born in Denver and raised in Arlington, where he was a 1964 graduate of Washington-Lee High School. He served in the Army in Germany from 1968 to 1970 and was a 1972 social and behavioral sciences graduate of Johns Hopkins University. He began his career as a writer and editor at the United Press International wire service in Richmond. His hobbies included gardening and mountain-climbing, and his memberships included the National Press Club. His marriage to Ellen Hays ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 14 years, Sally Hodgson of Caracas, Venezuela. -- Adam Bernstein Full at: URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070102641_pf.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. IBB Greenville burning taxpayer kilowatts on open carriers long before scheduled transmissions, I just happened across July 2: at 1707-1708:30* on 17895; 1712 on 15410, with CVC JBA underneath; 1714 on 9565, no jamming yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. VOA Spe-cial Eng-lish on 15565, which is Woofferton UK, July 3 at 1330 starting feature about the 1920y elexion and Pres. Harding; also found one second behind at 1339 on // 9465, which is Udon Thani, Thailand, per EiBi and Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. RFE/RL ROMANIA SERVICE TO CLOSE [but not Romanian altogether] (PRAGUE, Czech Republic) After nearly 60 years of providing uncensored news and information to the people of Romania, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Romanian-language service will cease broadcasting to Romania on August 1, 2008. However, Romanian-language broadcasts to Moldova and the Transdniester region will continue. "During the course of nearly six decades, hundreds of RFE/RL journalists, researchers and analysts displayed extraordinary bravery, dedication and commitment to a free and independent press in Romania, often at great risk to themselves and their families" says RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin.” Their contributions to the collapse of communism and in helping to pave the way for a democratic Romania's entry into institutions such as NATO and the EU, will never be forgotten." The Romanian Service began experimental broadcasting on July 14, 1950, and was fully operational by May 1, 1951. For years, its broadcasts were a thorn in the side of Romania's communist rulers who, according to a 2006 Romanian government report, may have been responsible for the deaths of three RFE/RL Romania service directors. In a 2006 address to Parliament, Romanian President Traian Basescu paid homage to the RFE/RL journalists who, he said, "fought with altruism and passion for the knowledge and utterance of the truth…Their unforgettable [Radio] Free Europe broadcasts were the moral conscience of Romanians." The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is the independent U.S. government agency that oversees all U.S. international broadcasting including RFE/RL. "RFE/RL's Romanian service has a distinguished history," said BBG Governor Jeffrey Hirschberg. "The reduction of broadcasts to Romania reflects the important progress made there and the urgent threats to freedom of the press and paucity of reliable information to be countered in other parts of the world." Since Romania's accession to the EU last year, media competition has increased dramatically and Romanians now have access to more than 70 daily newspapers, 300 private FM radio stations, cable TV and the Internet. In 2005, Romanian filmmaker Alexandru Solomon released his documentary, Cold Waves, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the RFE/RL Romanian service's struggle against Communist Dictator Nicolai Ceausescu during the Cold War. Solomon writes in the film's synopsis: "I grew up with it. Every evening, in an underground atmosphere, my father listened to Radio Free Europe as anyone else did. It meant more than information. While Ceausescu’s propaganda had less and less to do with reality, Free Europe’s Romanian section provided - apart from news – some hope." (RFE/RL Press July 1 via DXLD) Another whammy, with BBCWS just announcing it too is abandoning Romanian on the same date (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KVOH spur July 2 at 1709, somewhere between 17922 and 17923, impossible to pinpoint a carrier. Ratchety noise matched modulation peaks on fundamental 17775 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WBCQ again with much better signal than originally on 15420- CUSB, Wednesday July 2 at 1932 with anapestic-style New Mexico preacher; undecided now on gender of speaker. Recheck at 2100, WORLD OF RADIO 1415 started promptly. This time it was off-frequency to the high side, about 15420.4 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Summer A-08 WYFR Family Radio Relays. Part 2 of 2: to West Europe 0400-0500 on 3955 SKN 250 kW / 106 deg German 1700-1800 on 3955 WER 100 kW / non-dir German 1800-1900 on 3955 SKN 250 kW / 106 deg English 1800-1900 on 7320 ARM 300 kW / 290 deg German 1800-1900 on 9615 SAM 250 kW / 284 deg Polish 1800-2000 on 11775 SKN 250 kW / 165 deg English 1900-2000 on 7320 SAM 250 kW / 284 deg German 1900-2100 on 12060 ARM 250 kW / 290 deg French 2000-2100 NF 11970 DHA 250 kW / 330 deg English, ex 1900-2000 on 11875 2000-2200 on 7430 KCH 500 kW / 309 deg English to South Europe 1800-1900 on 9635 NAU 250 kW / 230 deg Spanish 1900-2000 on 7340 MSK 250 kW / 264 deg Spanish 1900-2000 on 9490 MSK 250 kW / 240 deg Italian 1900-2000 on 9635 NAU 250 kW / 230 deg Portuguese to East Europe 1500-1700 on 9956vTNN 250 kW in Taiwan Russian 1700-1900 on 9495 TAC 200 kW / 311 deg Russian 1700-1900 on 9505 WER 500 kW / 060 deg Russian 1800-1900 on 7220 JUL 100 kW / 110 deg Romanian to Middle East 1600-1700 on 11670 WER 500 kW / 105 deg Persian 1600-1700 on 13645 WER 500 kW / 120 deg Arabic 1600-1800 on 7520 SMF 250 kW / 131 deg Persian 1600-1800 on 9925 JUL 100 kW / 115 deg Turkish 1700-1800 on 11670 WER 500 kW / 120 deg Arabic 1700-1800 on 11850 NAU 500 kW / 105 deg Persian 1700-1800 on 13700 RMP 500 kW / 105 deg Arabic 1700-1900 on 15760 WOF 250 kW / 102 deg Turkish 1800-1900 on 7240 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg Arabic 1800-1900 on 11855 WER 500 kW / 120 deg Arabic 1800-1900 on 13720 SKN 300 kW / 140 deg Arabic 1800-1900 on 13780 RMP 500 kW / 105 deg English 1900-2000 on 7240 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg English 1900-2000 on 9495 WER 500 kW / 120 deg Arabic 1900-2000 on 15165 RMP 300 kW / 105 deg Arabic 2000-2100 on 9620 WER 125 kW / 120 deg Arabic East Africa 1500-1600 on 15750 WER 500 kW / 150 deg English 1600-1700 on 9590 MDC 250 kW / 230 deg Swahili 1600-1700 on 11760 WER 500 kW / 135 deg English 1600-1700 on 15750 WER 500 kW / 150 deg Amharic 1600-1900 on 13630 NAU 500 kW / 145 deg English 1700-1800 on 9790 DHA 250 kW / 225 deg English 1700-1800 on 15750 WER 500 kW / 150 deg Swahili 1800-1900 on 5870 MDC 050 kW / 305 deg Swahili 1800-1900 on 13830 WER 500 kW / 135 deg Amharic 1800-1900 on 15750 WER 500 kW / 150 deg English 1900-2000 on 5930 MEY 250 kW / 019 deg Swahili 1900-2000 on 9775 DHA 250 kW / 210 deg English, new txion 2000-2100 on 9635 DHA 250 kW / 210 deg English, new txion to North Africa 1800-1900 on 11600 WER 500 kW / 150 deg Arabic 1900-2000 on 9590 WER 500 kW / 150 deg Arabic 1900-2000 on 11970 DHA 250 kW / 285 deg French 2000-2100 on 5970 WER 500 kW / 150 deg Arabic 2100-2200 on 5915 WER 500 kW / 150 deg Arabic to North West Africa 1700-1800 on 13840 JUL 100 kW / 175 deg Arabic 2000-2100 on 11895 WER 100 kW / 195 deg French 2200-2300 on 5965 WER 500 kW / 195 deg French to West Africa 1900-2000 on 11840 WER 500 kW / 210 deg French 2000-2200 on 6115 WER 500 kW / 210 deg Arabic 2000-2200 on 15195 ASC 250 kW / 065 deg English 2030-2130 on 11985 KIG 250 kW / 295 deg French 2200-2300 on 7115 WER 500 kW / 210 deg Arabic to Central Africa 1600-1700 on 15705 WER 500 kW / 165 deg English 1700-1800 on 21680 ASC 250 kW / 085 deg English 1800-1900 on 13730 WER 500 kW / 165 deg English 1800-2000 on 7395 MDC 250 kW / 320 deg English 1830-1930 on 17585 ASC 250 kW / 085 deg French 2115-2315 on 11875 ASC 250 kW / 065 deg English to West Central Africa 1800-1900 on 13790 WER 500 kW / 180 deg English 1900-2000 on 9685 DHA 250 kW / 260 deg English 1900-2000 on 11610 WER 500 kW / 180 deg French 1900-2000 on 11865 NAU 500 kW / 187 deg English 1900-2200 on 9610 WER 500 kW / 180 deg English 2000-2100 on 9595 WER 500 kW / 180 deg French 2000-2100 on 9485 DHA 250 kW / 260 deg English, new txion 2100-2200 on 9720 WER 500 kW / 180 deg French 2200-2300 on 7285 WER 500 kW / 180 deg English to South Africa 0500-0600 on 9525 MDC 050 kW / 280 deg Portuguese 1600-1700 on 21680 ASC 250 kW / 100 deg Portuguese 1800-1900 on 6180 MEY 100 kW / 015 deg English, new txion 1800-1900 on 9845 DHA 250 kW / 230 deg English 1900-2000 on 3955 MEY 100 kW / 076 deg Portuguese, new txion 1900-2000 on 6100 MEY 100 kW / 330 deg English, new txion 1900-2100 on 3230 MEY 100 kW / 005 deg English 1900-2100 on 6020 MDC 050 kW / 255 deg English (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, July 3 via DXLD) ** U S A. AUGUSTA, GA, 99.9 MHZ PIRATE RADIO STATION WITHDRAWS INTERVIEW OFFER; NEWS 12 CALLS IN. Streaming WRDW News 12 archive at: http://news12archives.com/watch?v=3158 (via Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, DXLD) Launches 3:24 video report, ending with a tease for a followup on the next newscast, but no obvious link to that. Appends VERY rough transcript, SIC, with paragraph breaks added: www.ncicap.org some rough radio waves from 99 point 9 coming from this tower at a house on walnut drive. drive. an underground station... pirating fm radio. we continue with this story only on 12.thats our top story on news 12 first at five. good afternoon, thanks for joing us. im meredith anderson anderson and im tom campbell. 99 point 9 the newest fm radio station in town is also the newest headline maker. maker. the dj we talked to today admits the station is illegal. news 12s lynnsey gardner broke this story. today she has new information on new 12s exclusive pirate radio investigation investigationtom, meredith the man that says hes the owner who calls himself dj shortdog first told me he would sit down for an interview today then changed his mind... so we called into his radio show this afternoon for some answers. you know the media they talking about 99 9 9a new station surrounded by controversy from the lyrics bleep out out31.37if its too explicit, we understand that, we respect that baby, go ahead and change the dial dialto the shoutouts shoutoutsapple valley valley11 pm pkg pkg38.32they giving shoutouts to their people, thats a shoutout. its not called the orifying gang session, call on in and represent your gang. shoot this up! shoot that up! i would never recommend that on the community. community.but the law enforcement community and the fcc are looking at 99 point 9 which they say is illegally run out of this hyde park home.. news 12 called the station wednesday night and asked to see its license dj shortdog told us he would meetwith us and show us a copy but thursday it was a different story. story.36.58dj it was nothing negative. the only negative thing is okay, were underground. were underground and we play a little cussing here and theregardner i respect what you guys are doing i was just asking if it was legititmate and if it was legal. i asked you for a sit down interview and you first agreed to it and now you changed your mind todaydj its ok, its official, no we dont have a license...slap me on my wrist you know what i mean meanwhile licensing may not be a big deal in the mind of this dj..it is as far as the fc is concerned...without one its an illegal operation and the sheriffs office is also taking note note03.15regardless of the activity, if its illegal activity, yes the sheriffs office could take some action actionfor now dj shortdog says hes here for the community and is making this promise 41:07were going to switch it up, were going to play cleaner music, until then we got to work with what we got the sheriffs office says the fcc is planning to come to augusta to investigate 99 point 9. all new on news 12 at 6 oclock well tell you how 99 point 9 first got on investigators radar and well also tell you the fate similar pirate operations have faced once caht.thats all ahead on news 12 at 6 oclock and only on news 12 (WRDW via DXLD) ** U S A. WFBO-LP, CHRISTIAN STATION IN FLORIDA, HIT WITH $24K NAL Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 ) In the Matter of ) Halifax Christian Community Church, Inc. ) File Number EB-07-TP-064 Licensee of WFBO-LP ) NAL/Acct. No. 200832700014 Flagler Beach, Florida ) FRN: 0006871339 Facility ID # 133320 ) ) NOTICE OF APPARENT LIABILITY FOR FORFEITURE Released: April 8, 2008 By the District Director, Tampa Office, South Central Region, Enforcement Bureau: I. INTRODUCTION 1. In this Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture ("NAL"), we find that Halifax Christian Community Church, Inc., ("Halifax"), licensee of low power FM ("LPFM") radio station WFBO-LP, in Flagler Beach, Florida, apparently willfully violated Section 73.845 of the Commission's Rules ("Rules") by operating its station inconsistent with the terms of its station authorization and apparently willfully and repeatedly violated Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended ("Act") by operating an unlicensed radio station. We conclude, pursuant to Section 503(b) of the Act, that Halifax is apparently liable for a forfeiture in the amount of twenty four thousand dollars ($24,000). . . [much more] http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-281511A1.html (via Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W Visit my "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" at: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html or: http://www.geocities.com/geigertree/flortis.html DXLD) ** U S A. 1610 AM RADIO IN DECATUR ILLINOIS/QNN LIST Hello Glenn, I was driving into Decatur, IL, Saturday June 28th at about 7 PM CT, and I tuned into 1610 AM to see if there were any TIS stations about. I heard non-stop music, mostly the Beatles but some other late-60's era music as well. There were no announcements at all, and about a sesquisecond of dead air between each song. Getting back home to a computer I found a listing for a station on 1610 from Richland Community College in Decatur on the network page of Quality News Network: http://www.qualitynewsnetwork.com/radio_station_affiliates.htm That solved the ID of the station, but the station list for the network seems to list a lot of small AM stations like this one. Coming back form Decatur Eastward towards Champaign, the station was still on the air on 1610, with interference from a Spanish-language station playing Mexican-style music, no ID for that one. Take care! (Eric Loy, DWS Sportsnight, WDWS Radio, Champaign IL, July 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, the QNN affiliate list is quite interesting; may contain some more previously unknown Part 15 stations, plus some web-onlies, even in Oklahoma (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Rational Radio, 1360 AM Dallas site up [KMNY] http://rationalbroadcasting.com/ http://rationalbroadcasting.com/index.php/Rational-Radio-Programming-Schedule.html (Artie Bigley, OH, July 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Progressive talk, imagine that, in The Metroplex, with streaming (gh) ** U S A. 1110 AM Dallas / Fort Worth Texas Mr. Hauser; I was pointed towards you in the hopes of being able to track down a potential anomaly with a new signal we have purchased. I was hoping that with your various contacts to see if there has been any weird readings / surges along the 1110 frequency in the Dallas/Fort Worth TX area over the course of the last two months. Thanks, Ed Moyer, Production Manager, (Dallas / Fort Worth), The BizRadio Network 1110 AM KJSA Dallas / Ft Worth 1110 AM KTEK Houston 2651 N Harwood St STE 500 Dallas, TX. 75201 (o) 214.231.2405 (c) 214.675.9112 (f) 214.231.2444 (Moyer, July 2, to gh, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I replied to him: Ed, Would try to help, but I`m not clear what you mean by ``weird readings / surges along the 1110 kHz frequency`` --- some kind of interference, or problem with its own transmitter? Or referring to something on the frequency before your station activated? Regards, (Glenn Hauser to Ed, via DXLD) But have not heard back from him. If anyone has any observations, please contact him directly at Emoyer @ bizradio.com with a copy to me (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KCFR (AM 1340) to switch to FM on July 9 KCFR, Colorado Public Radio's (CPR) news-and-information channel, said it will switch back to the FM dial on July 9. KCFR, heard at 1340 AM since 2001, will move to 90.1 FM, the frequency now used by CPR's classical-music station, KVOD. KVOD will move to 88.1 FM, which previously broadcast Christian music under the brand K-LOVE. CPR plans to put its 1340 AM frequency up for sale. For the time being, KCFR will be simulcast on 1340 as well as 90.1 FM. (Patrick Griffith, CBT CBNT CRO, Westminster CO, http://community.webtv.net/AM-DXer/ http://community.webtv.net/N0NNK/ IRCA via DXLD) ** U S A. TONY SCHWARTZ --- Hi Glenn, 'On the Media' from NPR station WNYC carried a feature on Tony Schwartz on June 27. Schwartz died in June. During his 84 years, he produced over 30,000 recordings, thousands of groundbreaking political ads, media theory books and Broadway sound design, invented the portable recorder, delivered hundreds of lectures and had full careers as an ad executive and a pioneering folklorist. Schwartz suffered agoraphobia and never left his own neighbourhood in Manhattan. [10019] [OBIT] Part of the story related to his interest in amateur radio: "My brother built a one-tube radio which never worked, and I used to go up in the attic and play a spaceship like Jack Armstrong. I was also interested in physics, and the physics teacher was interested in amateur radio. And I first built my own receivers and huge 20-meter antennas, and I built my own little shack where I had a 16 by 16. And I had my radio station in the front, my bed in the back, and I ran a telephone line up to the house, so my mother could call me in for [LAUGHS] supper. I made up short-wave listener cards. I'd speak to them on the radio, and I would tell them how they're coming in. I think the most important thing we can work on in communication is to make the world safer for the people who live in it. People, that's what I was most interested in, people and their life and what they do." The full transcript of the program is available at http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/06/27/04 Best wishes, (Matt Francis, Sydney, Australia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Don`t just read it, listen to the 20-minute segment. Why would he have SWL cards if he was a licensed ham? No callsign ever mentioned, of course, in this otherwise excellent feature (Glenn Hauser, OK, ibid.) ** U S A. [Sporadic E] Season So Far: Quantity : D -- Quality: B+ In normal Es seasons, I care about quality vs. quantity (rather have Montana than 28 relogs of WPBT) --- but this year is an exception - I wanted quantity so that I could get screenshots of my favourite Es relogs before they're gone forever. The only reason I give B+ above is for my shorthaul DTV-4 logging from Lexington, KY; otherwise it would be a B- (NOAA from TN and lots of new FM's helped too). The D is for the long Droughts between openings. And I actually took holidays for this! The irony is --- WDKY-DT will likely be the ONLY channel 4 left in the USA in 2009. (Latest approx. count looks like seven Channel 2's, seven Channel 3's, one Channel 4, fourteen Channel 5's and nine Channel 6's in the USA). Most of my needed western TV states (OR, CA, NV, AZ, ID, AK) will still be on lowband - no WA, UT, NM nor HI though. 'Would really like to see 2 Santa Fe this year (William R. Hepburn, WTFDA, Grimsby, ON, CAN, http://www.dxinfocentre.com TV DX Photos : http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tvdx-I_CXGY.html WTFDA via DXLD) Isn't WHBF staying on 4? (Jeff Kadet, ibid.) Quad Cities IA-IL (gh) You're right Jeff, my mistake! Two channel 4's (Bill Hepburn, ibid.) ** U S A. Indy's WBXI-CA 47 --- What a joke! According to the FCC file, this station is owned by CBS Operations, Inc. http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=70416 I wonder if anyone at CBS knows that for the past two months or so this station airs absolutely nothing most of the time? The transmitter (carrier) is on but feeding no video or audio. It's supposed to be airing the MTV3 Spanish Video channel. When it has recently fed the video channel, you wouldn't want to watch it because it constantly cuts in and out. Sometimes in the early morning, it does feed a weather service which details Indianapolis weather. However, the details of the forecast and the current weather conditions are never correct. This station is a complete waste of electric power and air space (Steve Rich, Indianapolis, IN, July 2, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. RFD --- TV THE WAY IT USED TO BE --- by Lorie Hollabaugh Patrick Gottsch remembers well the day back in the mid-1980s when he set up his first satellite dish for a customer. He monitored the calibrations on a small television on the ground beside him, making small adjustments to lock in the signal. Soon he focused precisely on the satellite somewhere up there in the sky, and boom --- a picture appeared on the set, and a family in rural Nebraska was about to see the world through a much bigger window. “When I installed these dishes, I would follow up to see how people were getting along,” Gottsch recalls. “And everybody kept saying they loved ESPN, the Weather Channel, HBO. But they wondered why there wasn’t any rural programming.” Rural programming was a staple of the television Gottsch recalled from his childhood on a farm outside Omaha, Neb. “When I was growing up, there was an early morning ag report on local TV, a noon market report and a farm family of the week,” he says. “That started going away as TV went more urban, and it just didn’t seem right.” Today Gottsch, 54, is in a position to do something about that. As founder and president of RFD-TV, he leads the nation’s first 24-hour network dedicated to serving the needs and interests of rural and small-town America. Produced and carried via satellite to 31 million viewers in all 50 states from its studios in Nashville, Tenn., RFD-TV is distributed by the DISH Network, DIRECTV and many cable systems across the country, including Comcast, Mediacom and Suddenlink. . . http://www.americanprofile.com/article/26380.html (via Howard Box, Oak Ridge TN, DXLD) ** U S A. A reminder that another quarterly Capitol Steps comedy special is now appearing for the Fourth of July. Most public radio stations run it on 4/7, natch, but some already started 3/7, others 5/7 and one even on 13/7, among the few exact timings known in advance in the long list of affiliates at http://www.capsteps.com/radio/ If nothing local, it`s still on numerous webcasters, and ondemand (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM. Re 8-075: 9730, Voz de Vietnam, 1805-1815, escuchada el 3 de julio en español a locutor y locutora con boletín de noticias; se trata del nuevo servicio de ésta emisora en español sustituyendo al servicio en alemán. Se aprecia fuerte interferencia de DW en alemán por 9735 vía Woofferton, segmento musical, en paralelo por 7280, también muy interferida por REE, SINPO 32442 (José Miguel Romero, Burjassot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A- 108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. RASD Algeria 1550 kHz missing? I just noted at 2250 UT July 2 that the regular signal on 1550 kHz was missing. 73s (Steve Whitt, UK, MWC via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. FORBIDDEN VOICES FROM ZIMBABWE --- From a back room in a London commuter town, a secret radio station is broadcasting the voice Robert Mugabe's government doesn't want his people to hear. http://tinyurl.com/5uayyj The SW Radio Africa studio [caption] It's a constant battle, but exiled Zimbabweans are fighting to ensure SW Radio Africa's programmes reach their compatriots back in Africa. Station manager Gerry Jackson started the station in Harare in 2000, but it was quickly shut down by the government. Since then she and her team have struggled on in the UK against attempts to block the transmission. "It regularly jams broadcasts using Chinese equipment and expertise. We get around that by going on additional frequencies," she said. Current affairs programmes and talk shows reach their home country on shortwave and over the internet, targeting people in rural areas in particular. A special programme called 'Callback' gives ordinary people in Zimbabwe the chance to describe the day-to-day horrors of living under Robert Mugabe's regime. "They're desperate to speak, they're desperate to have their voice heard," Ms Jackson explained. "They're desperate for the world to know what is going on, because they feel let down by the world community, particularly the regional countries who they feel have left them to suffer terrible violence and torture at the hands of the government." Most people in Zimbabwe can't afford to call in, so the radio station provides a local mobile phone to text in contact details. Producers in the UK then call people back - although it's not easy getting through to a country where mobile phone signals are often blocked. There is also an element of risk for the programme's participants, many of whom prefer to stay anonymous. "People are being made to feel afraid, but the opposition is very much alive,' said Callback presenter Mandsi Mundawarara. "People are clinging to the hope that the opposition will one day take over the country and they see a brighter future for themselves and for Zimbabwe." Zimbabweans who do have the courage to air their views tell of their frustration at the recent election. "They wrote our names down and then we were sent to vote," reported an unidentified caller from Zimbabwe. "Then we were told to say to the polling agent that we were blind or couldn't write. The polling agent would say who do you want to vote for and obviously I would say Robert Mugabe. Then they said if they see any evidence you voted for MDC they would check on the list and go around beating everyone who is MDC supporter." Despite these strong messages coming through the airwaves, SW Radio Africa's journalists have only seen change for the worse in Zimbabwe in their eight years of broadcasting (SkyNews July 2 via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 6001.8, with silent carrier, 1837-, 02 Jul, 24432, adjacent and co-channel QRM. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, July 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Woodpecker, approx. 11480-11540, July 3 at 1336-1337* It was quite strong, first found on the hi side as I was tuning down, and went off before I could determine its exact range. Its absence nevertheless was unlamented (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re: ``11695 VT Communications, at 1448 UT 27 June, Carrusel musical + identificaciones "Test transmission" + website, sign-off at 1450 UT, Ingles, 35333 Cordialmente (Tomas Mendez-ESP, dxld June 29)`` Probably Voice of People, [for] Zimbabwe frequency test via Madagascar, scheduled earlier in the day (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX via DXLD) Would RN relay site ever be carrying VTC Merlin IDs?? (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 17435.0, Spanish YL 5-digit spy numbers, VG signal S9+20, stronger than any 16 mb broadcast signal at 1711 July 2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 18990, 1848 UT July 3. [2 x 9495 likely; Aoki: Tashkent with Family Radio in Russian --- gh] 21045.3, unID broadcast station, 1850 UT July 3 [unlikely to be harmonic or 13m mix --- gh] 23350, (2 x 11675) very weak talk, unID language, 1433 July 2 [CRI Urumqi in English per Aoki --- gh] [not ``Urumqui``] (Tim Bucknall, Mobile, Congleton UK, (away from the mains qrm!) Icom IC7000 + CB whip, harmonics yg via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ Westlist back The WestList of AM broadcast stations in the western hemisphere is back online, updated to 01 July 2008. As the source info is the FCC database, it may be different than what's actually on the air. http://www.am-dx.com/fcclist.htm (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, July 3, IRCA via DXLD) Note that for Canadian stations the FCC data is very suspect. CHCM-740 for example is shown as 90 kW when in fact they are only 10 kW, I believe. Many other Canadian stations are shown as being over 50 kW :). 73, (Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, ibid.) Yes, I have seen some typos or simply incorrect entries. That's not the only thing listed at over 50 kW in the US or Canada. But, it does have some use - especially the link to the antenna patterns. Nothing is dead accurate, so dig out the grain of salt when you use it (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, ibid.) THE LEFSETZ LETTER Not sure if you all subscribe to this, or would even be interested in it. Bob Lefsetz has many strong opinions about the music business, and often swerves into discussions of radio, terrestrial and satellite. He sends out emails once every day or two, or you can read them online. His latest email came in while we were discussing BBC Shipping programs [see U K] and I thought I'd pass the information along. Again its not strictly a radio discussion but it often slips into it. He has a lot of interesting insights and opinions. Archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ To subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 (Fred Waterer, Ont., DX LISTENING DIGEST) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ ESTUDIAR LENGUAS CON LAS EMISORAS ONDA CORTA Hace poco leí un artículo en el blog Babel 2.0 sobre que emisoras internacionales ofrecen cursos de idiomas a través de sus emisiones. (Aprender idiomas con los servicios de las Radios Internacionales). En un comentario en el blog añadí algunos servicios que conocía y aún no aparecían en su listado. En esta nota quiero reunir la información sobre el tema que tengo y si alguien conoce de algún servicio sería interesante que lo enviase para ampliar la información. . . (J. Carlos Mena, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) GOOD MORNING, CHENNAI --- By Hema Vijay When Meenakshi, 28, tuned in to the radio, it was only to lighten her daily drudgery of washing dishes and clothes. However, just by accident, the young housewife heard the strains of 107.8 MHz. "It was the dialect that caught my attention. The voice on air sounded different. The woman on the radio was speaking 'slum' Tamil, unlike the anglicised Tamil common on the FM channel," she recounts. Meenakshi lives with her husband and three children in a one-room shanty in Chennai's Teynampet slum. The female voice on the radio reminded listeners about the polio vaccination drive being conducted in the city that day and of the deformities that a polio attack can lead to. "I wound up the washing and dragged my children to locate a polio camp," admits Meenakshi, now a loyal listener of 'Penne Nee Arivaai' (Lady, You Should Know). 'Penne Nee Arivaai' is a community radio programme broadcast thrice a day by M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai. Full story at : http://newsblaze.com/story/20080701111926zzzz.nb/topstory.html (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dx_india yg via DXLD) So Anglicized Tamil --- what does that mean in practise? is considered higher-class than real ``slum`` Tamil, in this casty society? Long live the colonial legacy. With partial English vocabulary, and/or spoken with an English accent? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see BULGARIA; ITALY ++++++++++++++++++++ DTV: USA WDKY RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ CARL G. EILERS RIP Carl G. Eilers, FM stereo and TV pioneer, has passed away at the age of 83. During his 50-year career at Zenith Electronics, he helped develop the stereo FM standard still in use today and became known as the "father of stereo FM radio and stereo television sound." http://www.twice.com/article/CA6572565.html?nid=2402 http://www.radioworld.com/pages/s.0100/t.14217.html (CGC Communicator via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) OBIT DUNG POWER Re 8-075: Glenn, Local radio has long been powered by dung. A quick scan of the MW band any day or night confirms that dung slinging is a major element of today's talk radio format. Just my opinion, I could be wrong (Joe Buch, DE, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###