DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-077, July 6, 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 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.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. Have not heard Radio Solh, 17700 via Rampisham UK for some weeks, and still not hearing it at all on the main rig, FRG-7 with external E-W longwire, but for some reason it can become audible on the YB-400 normally clipped on to a much shorter wire inside the house. July 4 at 1320, music was audible mixed with usual announcements --- have they changed their playlist yet, or still exactly the same music as ever, day after day at exactly the same minutes? The latter, since at 1346-1349 the CD was still skipping/sticking! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALASKA. Unlike July 3, when KNLS was on top, July 4 at 1253 on 9780, KNLS was underneath Firedrake, but could make out KNLS again announcing its complete English transmission schedule (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4732.08, Radio Universitaria, Cobija, Pando. Universitaria noted 1030 with strong carrier only; 0010 under rtty 5 July [Wilkner] 6105.48, Radio Panamericana, La Paz. Rogildo Aragão reports this as active (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, US, Icom 746Pro, NRD 535D, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Alles van het beste terug ,ik heb vannacht niets genoteerd. Condities waren teslecht, het was toch terug 0230 uur locaal. Juist op 5996.27 kHz had ik een mooie carrier waarschijnlijk Bolivia station, Brazilianen ook gehoord. Voor iedereen nog een prettige zondag verder-. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, BDX via DXLD) Viz: 5996.28, Radio Loyola, Sucre, 2210-2220, July 05, Spanish, old Bolivian folk songs and "boleros", announcement in Spanish and identification as: "...estamos con algo diferente, pasando en sábado... Cancionero de Siempre por Loyola", (program named is "Cancionero de Siempre"), 33322. 6025, Radio Patria Nueva, La Paz, 1055-1102, July 05, Aymara, government announcement; news, report (all in Aymara), 24332. 6155, Radio Fides, La Paz, 1105-1110, July 05, Spanish, national news, reports, news and identification as: "....le dijo a Fides....", 22432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Amazonian timezones reorganized so now 3, not 4 different zones in the country: see WORLD OF HOROLOGY ** BRAZIL. A frequência sintonizada no dia 1/7/2008, quando foi ao ar a rádio religiosa Missionária do Brasil (Marumby) pertencente ao Sistema Gideões de Comunicação, é de 5870 kHz e seu comprimento de onda é de 51 metros. Trata-se de frequência bem retirada do "tumulto" de outras emissoras e seu sinal aqui em Limeira sp é forte e claro. Bem estável. O programa ouvido foi "Frente Ampla de Notícias" jornalismo radial da emissora levado ao ar das 8h às 9h30. Até que o informativo é bem atualizado com os acontecimentos do País e do mundo. O objetivo da emissora é religioso, porém espera-se que haja outros programas não- religiosos na sua grade de programação para equilibrar gostos de ouvintes. Assim faz a rádio CVC, assim faz a rádio Aparecida, Canção Nova e outras poucas emissoras religiosas. Emitir religião 24 horas é uma verdadeira lavagem cerebral, enjoa. 73 (LUIZ CHAINE NETO, LIMEIRA -SP- 2/7/2008, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) 24-hour religious broadcasting, he says, is really brainwashing. Yeah! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Guarujá Paulista fora do ar em 5940 kHz --- Já faz cerca de uma semana que este QRG está em QRT. Já a Vóz Missionária, permanece ativa nos 5870 kHz com ótimo sinal. Alguém sabe alguma novidade sobre a Cultura que está ausente a cerca de 2 meses nos 9615? E a Gazeta nos 15325 assim como a Cultura em 17815? Por aqui faz algum tempo que não são captadas, principalmente a Cultura. A Filadélfia começou a sofrer QRM da Canção Nova de Cachoeira Paulista, ficando de fundo nos 6105 kHz. (QRA: Édison Bocorny Jr.; QTH: Novo Hamburgo-RS, July 6, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Quanto à Guarujá Paulista só está no ar a 5045 kHz que, na verdade, não se sabe se é Globo ou Jovem Pan. É um passa-passa danado. O TX de 5940 kHz 49m foi tirado do ar em virtude de problemas técnicos. Ultimamente o áudio estava sem condição de escuta. Pensava-se que estando com a Globo fosse ficar como manda o figurino. Não ficou. Passou a ser conexão da Jovem Pan?? Quanto às outras emissoras de ondas curtas, estão fora do ar por contenção de despesa. 73 (Luiz Chaine Neto, Limeira sp, ibid.) ** BURKINA FASO. RTV Burkina has reactivated 5030 after several weeks. First day I heard it was July 1st, 1845, but not much later. July 2nd it was heard between 1900 and 1950 in good quality, but not any more at 2145. Maybe still testing. 73 from (Münster, Germany, Thorsten Hallmann, July 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BURMA. BURMESE JUNTA NOBBLES SHORTWAVE RADIOS DONATED BY CHINA The Democratic Voice of Burma reveals that the military authorities disabled the tuning systems on 2000 shortwave radios donated by China as part of the emergency aid after Cyclone Nargis. The authorities then distributed the radios in the Irrawaddy Delta and sent photos back to the Chinese to prove that they had been distributed. But the only station the villagers could receive on them was the state- controlled radio station on mediumwave. Read the story http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1507 (July 5th, 2008 - 10:53 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) Take that, junta, I`m filing this under Burma, not Myanmar. But, but, Myanma Radio itself also broadcasts on SW, duh. You mean hobbles? Why should China be offended? Altho we don`t know of SW radios inside China being disabled, they have other methods of preventing dangerous counterrevolutionary ideas from penetrating the Bamboo Curtain. Hmmm, quite a while since we have heard that expression (gh, ibid.) 2 Andy Sennitt July 5th, 2008 - 16:39 UTC --- I guess I did mean hobbles. Not a word I use often, but apposite in this case (ibid.) ** CANADA. CFRC, 101.9 FM, on the web at http://www.cfrc.ca The Queen's University campus station in Kingston, Ontario. When I was a student at Queen's I often listened to CFRC and now, some 20 years later I still listen to it whenever I visit Kingston. They've got a lot of interesting music and spoken word programs. CFRC also happens to be one of the oldest radio broadcasting stations in Canada, dating back to 1923. They were on AM for most of their existence, but moved to FM sometime in the 1990s (Greg Shoom, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. FM RADIO IN USE AT DRIVE-IN MOVIE SHOW. A few in the Toronto area. The Docks on the waterfront used to use 103.9 but that channel is now used commercially. Been meaning to see where it now is, and adding it to my log. There are three screens in nearby Sharon ON (north of Toronto) and a 104.9 in Port Bolster ON, half-way between Burnt River and Toronto on one of the routes I take. Also in Toronto suburbs such as Oakville. I denote what they are, of course, and plan to keep a separate count when I get around to breaking down my Toronto totals. I would do the same, say, for pirates, talking houses, other unconventional low-power uses. There's been a Caribbean-formatted pirate running fairly strong on 90.7 here lately, BTW, in NW end of the city (Saul Chernos, Ont, July 5, WTFDA via DXLD) ** CHINA. V. of Tibet must be on 17565 today, since Firedrake was audible under VOA carrier prior to 1400 Spanish sportscast, at 1355 July 4 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ALASKA ** CHINA. 6060, Sichuan PBS, 1340-1355, July 4, in Chinese, a regular feature during this time period is their daily radio drama, fair. Parallel with 9740, also fair and well on top of BBC. Also // 7225, very weak, under a strong VOA, in Korean. Due to the Voice of Korea being on 12015.12 with a strong signal, unable to hear anything of Sichuan on 12015.0 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 7270, Nei Menggu PBS, 1255-1324+ Jun 30. String music to ToH, then pips and 5 minutes of talk in Mongolian. Regional vocal music followed, hosted by M&W; more talk than music. Fair and // 9750 which was good but mixing, as usual, with NHK (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx via DXLD) ** CHINA. According to Chinese DXer Shifeng Zhang, Reception Research Department of China National Radio is now preparing the new design of QSL card. They now request domestic DXers to wait for a while to get new QSL card. They welcome reception reports, comments, and suggestions on CNR programs. The E-mail address of the department is 0033 @ cnr.cn. Their old QSL card in Chinese and English is shown in my homepage http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~BCLSWL/QSL0010.html Probably this is due to the increasing QSL requests from Chinese domestic DXers (Takahito Akabayashi, Japan, July 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. 11869.45, World University Network (Cahuita), 2202- 2212, 7/3/2008, English. Dr. Gene Scott program. Poor, off-frequency signal, fading below noise level about 75% of the time (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, TenTec RX-340, Drake R8B, RF Space SDR-14, 90' Random Wire, Eavesdropper Dipole, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. Today`s RHC anomaly, July 4: Just as I tuned into 9550 at 1245, I heard one word, ``Habana`` and cut off the air, remained off for at least a few minutes. 9600 was still going OK, as well as the buzzy CRI relay on 9570. 9550 back on at 1347 recheck. Jamming pulses against nothing on 9885, July 4 at 1252. This is a VOA Spanish frequency but only between 2300 and 0200, and only a fraxion of that is specifically for Cuba. This was also bothering ``Jesus Saves`` IS on 9890 at 1256 and Chinese ID as FEBC Manila was about to open Khams Tibetan, per Aoki schedule (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Checking the ``Alo, Presidente`` service Sunday July 6: at 1400, 13750 was already on with Cuban NA, not Venezuelan, opening with RHC diatribe about, what else, the 5 héroes. 11875 open carrier pending A,P, as was CRI English relay on 13740 still until 1404 when modulation had come up on both. Weaker 13760 with regular RHC non // programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. No sign of R. República, July 5 at 2333 on 6135, just DentroCuban jamming command. Usually one can at least detect RR is there, but the proportion of programming audible vs jamming varies considerably. Tuned to its next scheduled frequency, 6155, at 2357 just after Spain had closed, and it was clear. 0000 July 6 jamming became detectable and gradually built up, but no trace by 0016 of RR here either. Propagation? Other European signals were making it, at 2342 check, such as 6055 Spain, 6075 DW/Portugal, 6190 Bosnia. I also looked for RR on 5940, which had been added a few weeks ago to 6135; nothing on 5940 at 2340 but lite jamming pulses, and after 2400 blown away by extreme crackling from WWCR/DGS 5935. Also checked 6185 in case RR had jumped there as a previous alternative, but no. However, RR was very strong at 0209 check on 6100. So why weren`t they audible on the previous two channels? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here`s an answer, up to 31 m, and there may be other new frequencies too in other timeslots (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio República, 9515 at 2215 UT July 4, 'Recuento Informativo' + Identificación + Frecuencias, Español , 43433 (Antonio Madrid, QTH: Rubí, Barcelona (España), CG:41 31'49''N - 01 59'37''E, Rx: Sony ICF2001D+Kenwood R5000+Degen, Ant.: Hilo Largo 25mts+Yaesu FRT7700, Web: http://radioescucha.spaces.live.com noticiasdx yg via DXLD) Following up the absence of R. República from 6135 before 2400 and 6155 after 0000: tnx to a tip from Antonio Madrid in Spain, new frequency at 2200 is 9515. Confirmed here, good atop jamming July 6 at 2310. I was standing by at 2356 for QSY announcement. Overblown drama or dramatic reading about Cuba Libre ended just in time for them to say that next frequency would be 9640 from ``8 pm``, and 9515 cut off at 0000 sharp. So I go to 9640. Nothing except lite jamming in `standby mode``. Finally at 0002 I think, maybe the RR transmitter site is still bringing up 6155? So I punch that it in, just in time to hear a couple words in Spanish, and it cuts off as they realize their mistake. Back to 9640. Still nothing, until after 0004, cuts on for a few seconds in Spanish, off again, back to stay before 0005, taking about genetix. Not as strong as 9515 was, and didn`t really sound like RR, and no ID for the next few minutes till I had enough. Recheck at 0129 and immediately heard R. República ID. 9640 appears to have been quite open for a new occupant, except for one day a week per Aoki, EiBi, UT Sunday: 9640 PAN AMERICAN BC 0030-0045 1...... English 125 90 Wertachtal D 01041E 4805N PAB a08 Maybe in the meantime this transmission has vacated. 9515 was also pretty open at 2200-2400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA [and non]. This is not news, but something which should have been fixed long ago. Since I have run across it again, I am reporting it again: July 3 at 2345, R. Praga Spanish via Sackville badly mixing with R. Habana Cuba with speech in Spanish by some Commie, // 9820. In HFCC listings, there is no conflict since Cuba refuses to participate. But strangely, in Aoki you would not think there is a conflict either, as the Prague broadcast is missing and RHC is shown as M-F only at 23-01 on 6000, but this was Saturday. And it could be a 3-way clash on Sundays only with Varna, Bulgaria greeting the sea, also on 6000. Hello --- is nobody paying attention? Sackville could easily move to some other 49m frequency for this semihour broadcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA [and non]. 9870, CZECHOSLOVAKIA. R. Prague, 0110, 7/6/08, OM & YL doing English news. Not listed at this time by AOKI or EIBI but several mentions of Prague. Easy reception but could clearly hear All India Radio underneath with Hindi vocals and flute music (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, Drake R8B, Wellbrook 330S 1 Meter Loop, Wellbrook ALA-100 68' Vertical loop, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. Radio Africa-Bata: 15190, 1832-1855+, 4 July. Noted with "Christ Gospel Broadcast" from Jeffersonville, Indiana, then full Radio Africa ID, 1853 UT email as radiofrica @ myway.com The usual website and California addresses given. SIO: 343. Gone at 1905 re-check. Not heard July 5th, 6th (Chris Lobdell, Baker's Island, Salem, MA, Eton E1 -100 foot long wire, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** ERITREA/ETHIOPIA. I saw some reports recently for Eritrea sign/offs on 8000. I think it's important to separate logs from the two transmitters active around there, usually at the same times: 7999.4 is usually the weaker signal, presumed Eritrea, but usually off before the listed s/off at 1800. Usually heard late afternoons, but not in the mornings, probably replacing 7100/7175 in the afternoon, when noise jamming appears on these frequencies. The other one, much stronger on 8000.0 straight. This one usually airs programs of <60 minutes length with transmission breaks or carrier only for several minutes around the top of the hour with no ID or IS or something like that heard, but very likely not Eritrea 1/2. This transmitter may be in // with 7175 and/or 5100, but those being much more irregular. 73 from (Münster, Germany, Thorsten Hallmann, July 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 13830, Voice of Oromo Liberation (Sagalee Bilisummaa Oromo) heard on 6 July from 1700 from Wertachtal with weak signal at start, then a set-on narrow band noise jammer, which tuned to the carrier of the victim signal, turned on the noise jamming, which range in effectiveness from 10% to 100% during the first 15 minutes of the transmission. I presume it’s Ethiopia who is jamming the signal. There was 1 minute during which time the noise jammer went off the air and signal remained weak but readable. Spectrum measured as good as I could (about 8 kHz wide). Jammer didn’t seem to drift as much as other days(it stayed locked to the victim carrier). (Dan Henderson, MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Re 8-076: Radio France partly off satellite due to dispute with provider Some more insights: The situation is related to the circumstance that Canal+ has taken over TPS, the former competitor for its CanalSat service, in last year. TPS used Hotbird, and all these transmissions will go anyway, latest rumours say that the plug will be pulled at the end of this month. Other obvious results of the new monopoly are price increases and a new policy to distribute smartcards only in conjunction with a proprietary box which gets "married" with the card. The old contracts for radio distribution with both Radio France and RTL expired on June 30. No agreement about the new conditions could be reached, and CanalSat choose the confrontative route and switched off the affected radio services, with the exception of RFI, whatever their considerations behind sparing RFI may be. It remains to be seen what Radio France and, if they have enough interest in a satellite service, also RTL will do now. For Radio France it is speculated that they will at short notice put their radio programs on one of the two Globecast transponders on Astra 1L, since this provider is already in use for France 24. And re RFI and NSS 7: This story dates back to 2005, and it is related to Cote d'Ivoire. On 15 July 2005 RFI had been kicked off FM in Abidjan, and RFI Afrique had been removed from the CanalSat Horizons package on NSS 7 as of 1 Aug 2005 after Canal+ had been advised by the authorities at Abidjan that otherwise they would interfere with the further distribution of subscriptions in this country. A counter-measure by RFI was, guess what, to put additional shortwave frequencies on air. Meanwhile RFI is again on FM in Cote d'Ivoire but apparently never returned to NSS 7 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, July 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. MV Baltic Radio is on this Sunday On the 6th of July 2008 At 1159 UT on 6140 kHz MV Baltic Radio is on the air from the transmitting station in Wertachtal. We will be using a non-directional antenna system (Quadrant antenna). Good Listening 73s (Tom Taylor, July 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST, and in advance in the dxldyg) ** GERMANY. 6005, Radio 700 special from DX Camp in Langenselbold on Sat July 12, 0900-1100 UT. Die Sondersendung zum DX Camp in Langenselbold findet statt am: Samstag, 12.07.2008. Zwischen 0900 und 1100 Uhr UTC (11-13 Uhr CEST- MESZ) via Wertachtal 100 kW (Christian Milling, Germany, Radio 700, A- DX July 5, via Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Re: German TV closes the last two 50 MHz transmitters --- Here are photos of DVB-T being launched at the Jauerling site: http://blog.ors.at/stories/15367/ It mostly features the Rohde&Schwarz transmitter for channel 21 (switched off, disconnected from the antenna, feed lines connected to DVB-T transmitters instead), but one photo shows also the channel 2A transmitter I'm unable to identify (perhaps NEC? Band I transmitters were apparently a rare breed, not belonging to the contemporary portfolio of transmitter manufacturers). [As Kai Ludwig previously posted]: ``Also in Switzerland (Bantiger/Bern) and Austria (Jauerling) the last VHF channel 2 transmitters were closed down in late November.`` ``Jauerling was actually on the so-called E-channel 2A, which is simply R-1, i.e. video carrier on 49.75, just with 5.5 instead off 6.5 MHz video/sound separation (B instead of D system). This was necessary because a genuine R-1 transmitter is also on air at Prague, less than 200 km away, allowing co-channel operation but not video carriers 1.5 MHz apart. It is indeed still on air, running 150 kW according to http://www.radiokomunikace.cz `` (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. GRECIA, 13170 kHz USB, Olimpia Radio, 29-06-08, 1356-1402. Identificació n emisora, en griego e inglés. SINPO 55555 (Javier Robledillo Jaén, Elche (Alicante) - España, EA5-1028, Rx: Sangean ATS909, Ant: Hilo 7 m, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) coastal station ** INDONESIA. VOI again in English during the 1300 UT hour July 4, so seems to be a deliberate change in schedule. The old lineup was 1200 Japanese, 1300 Korean, 1400 Indonesian. I tuned in 9526 (no, not 9525), at 1240 and found Indonesian announcements and music, not Japanese. 1257 ID and IS in Indo with PO Box. 1258 already into English ID, ``Voice of Indonesia in Jakarta, the overseas service of RRI, on 9525, 11785, 15150, http://www.voi.co.id - -- stay tuned``. 1259 English program summary, including, since I did not catch them all, News, Commentary, Today in History, Focus, Indonesian Wonders, Music for Now, and announcer gave today`s date, July 4. 1311 Commentary was titled ``Education --- the Right for All``. Text was soon apparent at http://www.voi.co.id/news/17/tahun/2008/bulan/07/tanggal/04/id/1561/ Signal was only fair but I could detect lite hum. 1313 Today in History about US Independence Day, thank you. 1315 Focus, on community health. Since CRI 9525 was too much QRM from *1357, I could not tell what language VOI was in for the next hour, but maybe not Indonesian any more. When have Japanese and Korean gone? No schedule at all found on the above website. So I tried to enter this message on their otherwise empty guestbook at http://www.voi.co.id/index.php/guestbook/add/ ``Thank you VERY MUCH, for following my suggestions that you broadcast in English at 1300 UT, when we can hear VOI well in North America on 9526! As monitored July 3 and 4. But what is your new language schedule? This replaces Korean, and also I hear Indonesian instead of Japanese before 1300.`` I am not sure if it registered, as the response was red and only in Indonesian, even tho I correctly entered the code, twice, ``Kode tidak sama`` -- how come Indonesian, one of the world`s major languages, is not among the Google language translation tools? Not seen immediately when I ``view guestbook`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Voice of Indonesia, 9525.97v, 1258-1333, July 4, many thanks to Glenn for spotting this English programming, seems to be a real change in their schedule (1300-1400). What is now on from 08-09, formerly their English time slot? Series of IDs, "stand by for the news", news, commentary about educational assistance, segment about July 4th and USA history, "Indonesian Wonders", fair. A schedule of sorts is posted at http://www.rri-online.com/modules.php?name=SLN_English&op=about_us but is rather questionable, although I do see that 12-13 is listed for Indonesian. As Glenn has often commented on and lamented, the former 08-09 time slot was not the best for listeners in North America. If VOI continues to use 13-14 for English, they should get many new listeners. I will email them directly, to thank them for the new schedule and encourage them to continue with it < voi [at] rri-online.com > (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I think that schedule is long out of date, anyway. Weren`t Thai and Japanese expanded to a full hour each many months ago? So I would not rely on it. They also have English at 1500 instead of 0100 UT, adding rather than subtracting 7 hours from 08 WIB. Seems this sked has been that way for ages. So maybe there still is English at 0800 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I tuned in VOI this morning as well. I did not have as good a signal on my Eton E-100.They were better at tune in about 1225 UT in what sounded like Indonesian to me as I believe I recognized some Indonesian words such as informasi and tuan. Asian [music?] and talk by YL. At 1301 retune, it was not as strong. But i recognized that it was English news by a YL and then a Voice of Indonesia ID. I tuned out at 1315 as it was getting rather weak at that time. I had the frequency as 9526 (Carl DeWhitt, Ponca City OK, July 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I was remembering how "fiebre" Ron Howard was for The Kangaroo Program over RRI while I heard it this Friday 4 July at 0810 on 9680. A real pity that quality of the signal from VOI 9526 isn't as good as 9680. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) 11785, Voz de Indonesia, 1705-1725, escuchada el 5 de julio en árabe a locutor con comentarios, música clásica de fondo, cuña de identificación, posible emisión accidental o cambio de horario, SINPO 34343. 11785, Voz de Indonesia, 1800-1803, escuchada el 5 de julio en español a locutor con presentación e identificación, locutor con boletín de noticias, observo portadora sin emisión en la frecuencia de 9525, ¿cambio de horario?, SINPO 33443 (José Miguel Romero, Burjassot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, ibid.) Jakarta, 9525.97, 1758 July 6. Good signal and clean audio. Talks in Spanish about Indonesia; from 1800 talks in German. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) VOI absent from 9526, Saturday July 5 at 1255 check and also after 1300, when English had been airing for the previous two days (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Guess you didn't have all the luck this Saturday 5, Glenn. I heard in fact VOI 9526 opening at 1300 in English with news by a female announcer. Of course, propagation wasn't at its best but was readable. As I pointed out yesterday, it's a real pity they don't have for this service the same rich signal that RRI 9680 delivers. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) K index was 3 at 12 and 15 UT July 5; maybe that accounts for it (gh) Hi Glenn & Raúl, Possibly VOI (9525.97v) was having some problems on July 5? Heard them in English after 1300, but was just above threshold level, whereas propagation for most other Asian stations on the 5th was good: RRI Fak-Fak (4790.03), Myanmar (5770), Laos (6130) and PNG (3335 & 3385) all heard with well above normal reception. VOI had decent reception on the 4th (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9680, RRI Jakarta, 1042-1050, Noted music initially, then brief Indonesian language comments from person and back to music. Signal was fair. Nothing heard on 9526 this morning (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, NRD545, July 6, 2008, ibid.) But it was heard by 1300: Raúl Saavedra in Costa Rica and Ron Howard in California say 9526 was on the air July 5 at 1300 tho I could not hear it. Audible again here Sunday July 6 but VOI`s clock is really off: at 1252 soft romantic music, 1300 not into English but in middle of Japanese service with YL speaking distinctly. Recheck at 1325, now in English talking about Bali, 1326 ID mentioning the three frequencies, which they never use simultaneously; indeed it is rare for them to use even two, but signal getting too weak, deep fades. Aoki says this 250 kW Cimanggis transmitter is aimed 30 degrees, which is just right for us in CNAm. The great circle route crosses the entire island chain of Japan, tangentially attains about 58 degrees north latitude in SW Alaska, and carries on to Enid some 9800 miles away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9525.93, VOI, 1225, 7/6/08. Japanese service featured pop music and muffled studio audio. Announcements before TOH by YL & OM. Signal didn't move S-meter. Retuned at 1315 to find program in English and continued muffled audio (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, Drake R8B, Wellbrook 330S 1 Meter Loop, Wellbrook ALA-100 68' Vertical loop, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Glenn, I was indeed waiting to hear English from VOI 9526 at 1300 but nothing. It was until my recheck at 1313, news in English was in progress with weakened signal, not as good as 1230 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, July 6, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9525.97, V. of Indonesia 1303-1312+ July 3. English news in progress; commentary followed at 1311. Usual good signal; first time heard with English in this time slot (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. As I was poking around VOI`s website, found this item of interest at http://www.voi.co.id/specialnews/all/tahun/2008/bulan/06/tanggal/15/id/1473/ Sunday, 15 June 2008 07:08 VOI TO TRACE BACK ITS ROLE IN DEFENDING INDONESIA'S INDEPENDENCE. Jakarta (VOI News) - In order to to trace back the historical role of RRI in defending Republic of Indonesia, the Voice of Indonesia is going to organized a special talk show featuring special guests, co- founders during the independence era in 1940s. They are among others Mrs. Ida Rosihan Anwar and Mr. Des Alwi. This interactive dialog will be held on Monday, 16 June 2008, from 10.00 to 12.00 pm. According to Director of the Voice of Indonesia, Sutrisno Santoso, a special program has been arranged to highlight the special event, such as a presentation of a documentary film on "the Voice of Free Indonesia" and gathering. While during the nostalgic gathering, there will be a special performance from "Keroncong Tugu Group" from Jakarta. Bearing the theme of "The Role of RRI's Short Wave in Defending RI's Independence, the dialog also coincides with the 62nd anniversary of the Voice of Free Indonesia, and presents special guests of historical actors. Sutrisno Santoso says the interactive dialog is broadcast live on Pro 3 RRI, FM 88.8 MHz, Pro 2 RRI Jakarta, FM 105 MHz, and Voice of Indonesia SW 9525 KHz. Listeners can also listen to audio streaming at http://www.voi.co.id Hosted by President Director of RRI Public Service Broadcasting, Parni Hadi, the program is also expected to be attended by some high-ranking officials, foreign ambassadors and chief editors of Indonesia's media organizations. (admin) (via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** ITALY. Fairly decent signal from Radio Maria again tonight, at 2210 UT July 5. On 26 MHz AM. Noisy band conditions. But signal is S7. Programme is a Latin mass. Latest I have heard it (Russ Cummings, Hull, England, AOR 7030+, 60ft long wire, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) ITALIA, 26000, Radio Maria, 1005-1025, escuchada el 6 de julio con la intervención del Papa Benedicto XVI, misa con cánticos, intervención en varios idiomas, italiano, latín, francés, inglés, alemán, español “Intervención en lengua española en particular para los peregrinos de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria”, en polaco, la emisión era en paralelo con Radio Vaticano en 9645, SINPO 35433 (José Miguel Romero, Burjassot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A- 108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY. RAIWAY AND VATICAN RADIO LAUNCH DRM TESTS ON 26060 IN ROME From 1 July, Raiway (the facilities company of Italian public broadcaster RAI) and Vatican Radio have started testing DRM on 26060 Khz from Vatican City in central Rome. Mode DRM A - Width 20 kHz, three audio services on the air: RaiWay Roma (AAC+ Mono 20.24 kpbs); AFS, Vatican Radio (AAC+ Mono 20.24 kpbs); RV Worldservice (CELP + Mono 5.26 Kbps). Transmitter power is less than 200 watts, and the antenna is a 3 element yagi (Source: Andrea Borgnino via DRM Software Radio Forums) (July 6th, 2008 - 11:56 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 3 comments so far: 1 ruud July 6th, 2008 - 14:18 UTC This is 20 kHz bandwidth in a broadcasting band. Why not 20 kHz on MW band during daytime; this would enable simulcasting analogue and DRM in one channel, making the introduction of DRM a lot easier. 2 David de Jong July 6th, 2008 - 16:18 UTC RaiWay Roma? That is not a radiostation. Or it is Rai Radio 1 or Raitalia Radio? (Raitalia is the new name for Rai International) 3 Andy Sennitt July 6th, 2008 - 16:28 UTC I assume it’s one of the existing RAI services or a test programme produced for RaiWay. Perhaps one our readers can elighten us (ibid.) ** JAPAN [non]. World of Haiku, sub-program on NHK World Radio Japan`s World Interactive program, is still running, heard on the UT Sunday following the first Saturday, July 6 at 0007-0017 on 6145 via Sackville, the final repeat. Haiku guy seems to be named Shakan, and he concluded by telling of his recent visit to Italy for a conference about haiku, renku, and some other literary mode, where he had a very good time and good seafood. Listeners, including several in the USA, send in short pieces which he improves or reworx into proper haiku format. In English, or Japanese which he then translates. Should be back first Saturday in August, if not skipping a month for vacations as happens to so many RJ programs. BTW, NHK how has a 7-digit postal code, 150-8001 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6020, Shiokaze - Sea Breeze via Yamata, Japan, *1400-1405, July 4 (Fri.), in English, "This is Shiokaze Sea Breeze shortwave program from Tokyo, Japan", "Today's News Flash" reading items from June 25, fair, no jamming. Did notice that Echo of Hope on 6003 had strong jamming (pulsating noise) today (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. According to Tohru Yamashita of Asian Broadcasting Institute, South Korean clandestine station (to North Korea), by South Korean National Intelligence Service, "Echo of Hope" has been using the announcement "This is Echo of Hope from overseas compatriots" to conceal the original broadcaster. But since May 3, 2008 the station has announced the station name as "VOH" in the end of each program. Since July 4, 2008 the announcement as "This is VOH Echo of Hope from the General Union of Overseas Compatriots" has been used. As there is no such a group named "General Union of Overseas Compatriots"; this seems to be a fictitious group. "VOH" seems to be an abbreviation of "Voice of Hope", which is the same meaning as "Echo of Hope" (Takahito Akabayashi, Japan, July 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH. Coastal Radio Station “Seoul Radio/HLG” sent me a printed QSL card (in Korean and English) with a friendly letter after 13 days for my reception report in Korean, enclosed 1,000 won stamp, on their CW transmission. QSL manager was Mr. Woo Hwa Lee. He is also acting as a radio amateur DS1QGG. Address: 680-63 Jayang-dong, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul, 143-707 Korea. Telephone: +82 2 453 1181; FAX: +82 2 453 5002 The station is now a subdivision of Korea Telecom, and using HLF/HLG/HLJ/HLO/HLW call signs. The QSL card is shown in my homepage http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~BCLSWL/TA2000/QSL0010.html (Takahito Akabayashi, Japan, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KURDISTAN [non]. UCRANIA, 11530, Dengue Mezopotamya, 1747-1755, escuchada el 5 de julio en kurdo con emisión de música pop melódico local, SINPO 34343 (José Miguel Romero, Burjassot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. Relays this weekend via 9290 kHz Sat July 5th Latvia Today 0800-0900 UT Radio Joystick 0900-1000 UT Sun July 6th Radio Victoria 1100-1200 UT Latvia Today 1200-1300 UT Good Listening 73s (Tom Taylor, July 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST, and in advance on the dxldyg) ** LITHUANIA. 9875, R. Vilnius, 2340, 7/5/08. OM & YL with news and actualities. Pop music selection at 2348. Discussion of psychotherapy to 2357. Presumed Lithuanian version of disco song YMCA to 2359:45 when signal ended abruptly. Steady S4 signal (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, Drake R8B, Wellbrook 330S 1 Meter Loop, Wellbrook ALA-100 68' Vertical loop, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 5964.94, Klasik Nasional, 1140-1211 Jul 6. Malay vocals to ToH, then 2 pips and 3 minutes of news; back to music at 1204. Good signal. SARAWAK, 7130.03, Sarawak FM, 1158-1220+ Jul 4. Regional music to 1201, then M, followed by Call to Prayer; music and chat followed at 1213. Good signal with spotty ham QRM; // 5030 which was buried by the Chinese station (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100- foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** MALI. 7284.4v // 9635 active, but not always at regular sign/on-off times, both heard later than 1800 and signing on around 1600. 7284.4v can be heard easily in Europe at 0800, if signing on then. 73 from (Münster, Germany, Thorsten Hallmann, July 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MARSHALL ISLANDS. FUEL CRISIS THREATENS MAJURO BROADCASTERS According to reports from Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands in the north-west Pacific, supplies of diesel and coconut oil to the private sector could be completely cut within weeks, forcing four private radio stations off the air. RNZI News reports that a state of economic emergency has been declared, to reduce fuel and power consumption, after the national power utility projects a financial deficit representing close to 20 per cent of the entire national budget. The Marshall Islands Energy Company needs US$8.5m to pay for June diesel shipments and as a down payment for the next shipment, and needs to find the funds within seven days. Steve Clark, manager of The Change 104.1 FM on Majuro says his station has already switched to propane gas in an effort to keep the new christian radio station on the air. The Change 104.1 FM is in urgent talks with New Zealand based partner UCB Pacific Partners to develop solar and wind power energy generation options. Graham Carter, chief executive of UCB Pacific Partners says 'it will take months to raise money, ship the equipment and get it all set up'. In the meantime, the four private FM radio stations on Majuro face a bleak and potentially silent future. Radio Marshalls V7AB the government radio station operating on both AM and FM may remain as the only local broadcaster on air on Majuro should this happen. The Central Pacific Network of the US Armed Forces Radio operates an additional four stations on Kwajalein, which although part of the Marshall Islands, are likely to be immune from the crisis because they're US government funded and serve military installations. For a backgrounder on issues facing Pacific broadcasters, including fast rising oil costs, read 'Pacific Radio Today' at http://www.radioheritage.net the global media platform of the Radio Heritage Foundation. If you know of any other Pacific radio stations facing similar fuel hike problems, please let us know. You can contact us at info @ radioheritage.net (David Ricquish, Radio Heritage Foundation, July 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This makes no sense to me, when 1098 kHz remains on for many hours after their sign-off with an open carrier! (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, HCDX via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 6044.9, Radio Universidad, San Luis Potosí, 1053 carrier and 1102 classical music, weak here, thanks Terry Krueger, 26 June. 6104.9 Mérida, 1100 apparent sign on 5 July, Being heard well in Louisiana, Pensacola and Cedar Key. Various ID slogans and jingles (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, US, Icom 746Pro, NRD 535D, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [and non]. Jamie York's excellent feature on Border Radio was re-aired on July 4 on NPR's "On The Media." Hear it at: http://www.onthemedia.org/episodes/2008/07 The segment begins at 33:50 or so. A more direct link to the segment and comments forum [including Jay Marvin]: http://www.onthemedia.org/episodes/2007/11/16/segments/89005 (Cheers, Al Quaglieri, NY, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MICRONESIA. Better examples of the PMA QSL card, front and back: http://sky.ap.teacup.com/akagebcl/img/1198489036.jpg http://sky.ap.teacup.com/akagebcl/timg/middle_1198489056.jpg (via SW Bulletin July 6 via DXLD) ** MYANMAR/BURMA. 9730.74-78v, Myanma R., 1359-1508*, July 6, in vernacular, spelling out what seemed like a URL ( … slash …slash) and repeating it many times, then read what sounded like some type of list, seemed as if it was also repeated a number of times, indigenous instrumental music and off, mostly poor (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BURMA Myanmar QSL address --- Dieter from far northern Germany got his QSL 2 weeks before hurricane disaster marked via > Union of Myanmar > Ministry of Information > Myanma Radio and Television > Nay Pyi Taw > Myanmar wb # # # # Danke Dieter für die Info. Das wird also in Zukunft die Kontaktadresse sein. Von einer e-mail Adresse habe ich bisher nirgends gelesen. Aber das wird - mit gehöriger Verzögerung - auch noch etwas in Zukunft. Die sind also zwei Wochen vor dem Hurrikan nach dem neuen Broadcasting House Nay Pyi Taw umgezogen. Man kann davon ausgehen, dass die MW 576 und die krummen KW Frequenzen weiterhin aus Rangoon kommen, die 594 kHz mit 13 Sekunden Verzögerung aber aus dem Nay Pyi Taw Bereich. Obwohl bei 350 km Entfernung ist eine Verzögerung von 13 Sek schlechterdings unvorstellbar, das wären ja circa 3-4 Satelliten hops (Wolfgang Büschel, A-DX via wb, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS. RNW ANNUAL REPORT 2007 NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE The Radio Netherlands Worldwide annual report for 2007 is now available online. You can access the report on this page. http://www.radionetherlands.nl/aboutus/whoweare/080704-annual [or directly:] http://wereldomroep.uwprojectstatus.nl/annualreport// If you have any comments, please leave them on that page on our website rather than in this blog (July 4th, 2008 - 10:47 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) It`s too fancy for its own good, with flipping pages. The print is too small for my screen and eyes, but if you zoom in, the edges are cut off and you cannot toggle left-right! Why not make a plain text version available (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST, and Annual Report link page) David Berridge, 06-07-2008 - Canada I must agree with Mr. Hauser that the report is unfortunately unreadable in its present format on screen. By all appearances from the section page titles it seems nonetheless to have covered a through range of Radio Netherlands' broadcasting mandate (ibid.) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Not only is RNW interfering with RNZI on 9655 by an open carrier, but tone test too, as noted July 4 at 1250. SAH of 7 Hz, and RNZI barely audible underneath. This of course is the doing of IBB Tinang, Philippines, but can RNW and RNZI prevail upon them to crash-start as long as RNZI is using 9655 until 1300? Music on RNW`s Dutch service, yay. But once again it`s not Dutch and not classical: July 5 at 2353 tuned in 11970 via Bonaire to hear love duet in English, sounds like Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie, with electronic instrument accompaniment, but abruptly cut off incomplete at 2356 for sign-off in Dutch and NA. What is the point of doing this? RNW was to change from 9895 to 7325 on July 5 for the 00-02 UT Spanish broadcast via GUIANA FRENCH, ex-9895, to improve reception in S America --- guess the midwinter MUF is just too low down there. But, it didn`t. UT July 6 at 0003 still on 9895, nothing on 7325. Change of plans, or asleep at the switch in Montsinéry? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Andy Sennitt July 6th, 2008 - 10:49 UTC I have seen a copy of the email from TDF in which they confirmed that they would change frequency on 5 July. So I don’t know what happened. I have passed your observation on to my colleagues in Programme Distribution (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9595, RNW Dutch, 1200-1600, Wertachtal 100 (300 degrees): Possibly my set is overloading or T-systems has a problem. The signal is so massive that severe splash is occurring from 9565 up to 9625, particularly when music is played! Reminiscent of Kvitsoey on 9590 but at least NRK didn't affect such a large bandwidth. 73's (Dan Goldfarb, England, July 5, dxldyg via DXLD) The same here. A very strong signal at 1530, and dreadful modulation splatter between about 9580 and 9615 on my R-75 using a random long wire (Noel R. Green (NW England), July 5, ibid.) Again the same today? Can't check it, 31 metres from the Wertachtal plant is just skipping over me, noted shortly after 1300. Made a point of checking out the temporary Issoudun arrangements: Both 13700 and 13825 are really strong here, 7235 weaker, already a bit too low for best propagation. Interestingly the audio processing is not the same on all three ones, 13825 sounds almost like Wertachtal on 5955 while 13700 and especially 7235 have more bass. Issoudun is almost two seconds ahead of Wertachtal, so apparently taking another audio source, perhaps direct dial-up from Hilversum? Anyway this alternative source stayed up while Wertachtal had lost modulation at 1315 recheck. Sorry, no satellite receiver at hand here, but either Astra or Hotbird (don't know what they pick up) likely went silent as well. On next recheck at 1325 audio was finally restored. (Kai Ludwig (ca. 50 km north of Dresden), ibid.) RNW Log of July 6: 5955 WER S=6 in dead zone. 7235 ISS S=9+30dB superpower 9595 WER S=6 clean signal, no splatter or similar. 9895 WER S=3 tiny in dead zone 12085 PHT aus Tinang, but usual Dutch non-sport program, S=2-3. 13700 ISS S7-9 fluttery, CNR Lingshi in background 13825 ISS S=9+15dB (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Yes indeed, the splatter from 9595 is VERY bad at my location at 1400. It's audible between 9575 (where RMI [MOROCCO] is good strength and unaffected) and about 9615. On 9585 the RNI signal is S9 - on 9605 similar - and then it tails off in strength by 9615. On the actual frequency 9595 the signal is averaging 30dB over 9 with peaks to 40dB. Audio quality is not good - muffled, and a little distorted. 13825 is averaging about 20 dB over 9 and splattering all over Sweden using 13820, and 13700 averaging about S9+10dB and has a hum in audio, but little adjacent splash. 7235 is averaging about S9 but making a lot of adjacent noise, while 5955 is peaking to S9 with muffled distorted audio. What audio processing is producing signals like this??? (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.) I can not confirm muffled and distorted audio for the Wertachtal transmission on 5955 in the 1300...1330 period. Sure that it was not the program audio source (outside broadcasts, from various venues it seemed to me), i.e. the program did sound OK via Issoudun or any other frequency / distribution method? (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) Re Wolfgang above: ``9895 WER S=3 tiny in dead zone / 12085 PHT aus Tinang, but usual Dutch non-sport program, S=2-3.`` And Wolfgang`s S3 signal is a much louder,10 dB over 9 here at my NW England location, and modulation splash is totally blocking whatever I hear using 9890 and 9900 at 1435. Audio again is muffled. On 12085 there appears to be two signals beating together, and neither are strong enough to ID (Noel Green, UK, July 6, ibid.) ** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI currently being heard on 7145 kHz at 1219 UT, past scheduled sign-off time of 1058 after which it is scheduled to switch to 9655. Nothing on 9655 at 1221 UT July 5th, 2008 (Ian Baxter, Australia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, Ian, caught my attention to find an empty 9655 after 1200, so I went to 7145 and there was RNZI, with slightly better signal, in place of what 9655 delivers. At 1258 the announcer invited to tune 6170, but I didn't hear a thing. Are they facing some technical problems? 73. (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) Hi Raul, Thanks for reply. I have no idea if technical problem or a maintenance issue with RNZI. They are on schedule today (Sunday) with 15720 at 0322, but reception on this frequency not the best at the moment. As for the rest of the 19mb, great signals from the notorious Firedrake on 15680 & Voice of Islam on 15295, pity about the audio. Cheers (Ian Baxter, ibid.) Good reception of Radio New Zealand 15720 up here in the Gresham, OR area (Bruce MacGibbon, ibid.) ** NIGERIA. VON 9690/15120 very irregular in the past few weeks, many transmission breaks. But unlike newspaper report from Nigeria in DXLD suggests, R. Kaduna transmissions seem to be regular on 4770 and are sometimes also reported on 6090. 73 from (Münster, Germany, Thorsten Hallmann, July 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) VON-Lagos, 15120, 1730 UT 4/5 July 08 in English with various feature programs such as "Sixty Minutes", "Africa Hour". Modulation-audio quality varies from program to program so it's not the transmitter's fault but whoever is recording the shows. SIO: 454 (Chris Lobdell, Baker's Island, Salem, MA, Eton E1 -100 foot long wire, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** NORTH AMERICA. Special News: The Crystal Ship has announced that due to a real estate issue, they will be leaving the air within two months. It also sounded like they would not be back on anytime soon, or ever (Joe Wood, TN, Free Radio Weekly July 6 via DXLD) Here’s the entire e-mail from Mr. Poet, regarding the announcement above: Greetings, fellow patriots! The Crystal Ship will be on the air this evening, Thurs July 3rd EDT but technically July 4th UT. Sometime around 0100 we'll be on our usual frequencies of 6700 // 5385. We'll be playing lots of Sousa and patriotic marches in addition to our usual rock and/or oldies fare. It's also possible we'll be on the air early tomorrow morning on one or both of those frequencies. Later at night, probably not. Sat/Sun at this time, quite possibly. It is my unfortunate duty to announce that The Crystal Ship will be forced off the air within the next two months, due to a forced termination of lease by a disloyal, ungrateful, inconsiderate landlord slumlord son of a bitch, who also just happens to be a Republican. (Just an unfortunate coincidence, I'm sure --- for the GOP.). Pardon my French... but I just got "served" today... Anyway, we'll be forced off the air at that point (however long I can play out the rope here, and I don't intend to make it convenient), and I have no idea when, if ever, we'll be able to return. SO --- get yer Crystal Ship while ye can, mate. Editor’s Note: This is indeed bad news for all of us who have come to listen to and appreciate the programming offered by John Poet over the years. We can only hope that something positive will occur and Mr. Poet will find a way to come back on the free airwaves! Keep us abreast of further developments, Mr. Poet (Ed Insinger, NJ, ibid.) ** NORTH AMERICA. PIRATE, WTCR, "Twentieth Century Radio", 6925-USB, strong at tunein 0324 UT July 6 with "mash up" version of Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" to 0326 end, female announcer requesting reports to Box 1, Belfast, New York mail drop. Because of its strength and regular Saturday night (USA) schedule, this might be a good target for Euro DXers looking for a North American pirate. It should be easy for anyone in North America (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Contradicting the announcement I quoted in DXLD 8-074: ``KOSU 91.7 Stillwater announced on June 27: parts to repair relay station KOSN-107.5 Ketchum-Tulsa, damaged by storm, have been received and hope to be back on air (plus 107.3 Tulsa and 101.9 Okmulgee translators) in about a week; was insured but asking for donations to pay the deductible (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` I found this undated item on the KOSU website July 4: KOSU RESTORES SIGNAL TO NE OKLAHOMA LISTENERS After weeks of dodging high winds and thunderstorms, the state's public radio is on the air once again in northeastern Oklahoma. Nature's fury dealt the KOSU radio network a major blow when lightning caused significant damage to its Ketchum transmitter and antenna system during a Memorial Day weekend thunderstorm. As a result, our stations in northeastern Oklahoma, (KOSN) 107.5, 107.3 and 101.9 fm were off the air until Sunday, June 22. KOSU 91.7 fm, Stillwater- Oklahoma City, was unaffected by the outage. The repair time was stretched from a few days to nearly a month because of ongoing high winds and thunderstorms that kept our tower crew grounded. The antenna was finally removed the week of June 16, rebuilt at the tower crew's shop in Broken Arrow and reinstalled June 21-22. We apologize for the amount of time it has taken to repair the antenna system as well as the inconvenience for our northeastern Oklahoma listeners. We are also thankful for their understanding and support during this difficult time. While the damage is insured, KOSU still must pay a $5,000 deductible, and already listeners have pledged nearly $1,000 toward that cost. Help support our restoration of service in northeastern Oklahoma today by clicking here with your pledge or calling 1-800-228-4678. Thank you! (via DXLD) So KOSN 107.5 plus translators were back on the air June 22, but June 27 they were still announcing it would be another week! Stillwater must be out of touch with Ketchum. BTW, with high-gain direxional antennas, it should have been possible to feed the translators directly from the 91.7 signal as backup; I certainly can hear 91.7 driving around Tulsa, if not at the bottom of the pervasive hills. I also received in the P-mail, inside an envelope hand-lettered with my address, the result of a long-forgotten promotion, a KOSU program schedule on a rubberized magnet (magnetized rubber?), designed no doubt for a fridge, and I must keep it away from my tapes! As the fridge is already pretty full I have temporarily placed this 10 x 23 cm item on the case of my computer, where it does not seem to have confused the nearby harddrive. This one correctly shows the times for Friday with Frosty as 7:35 am and 4:44 pm [CT], not the revised times 7:30 and 4:30, which never went into effect, but still on their website http://www.kosu.org/media/KOSU%20program%20grid.pdf (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. WQCL720, the TIS at Great Salt Plains State Park, NW of Enid on 1610 kHz is still running a loop including info about the selenite crystal digging area as if it were open to the public this summer, despite the fact that it is still closed to the public until at least 2009, following the uncovering of toxic vials in 2007. Loop also cuts to relay of Enid`s NWS 162.475 MHz station every few minutes, but virtually unintelligible as not tuned in properly. Nor is it coördinated with when the NWS loops start and stop. We were in the area July 5, 2008 on an aquarian expedition to the artesian spring nearby. The lady at Park HQ was unaware of the selenite problem with the TIS, as she hasn`t listened to it in ages and thinx the feds are responsible for it, anyway, i.e. the adjacent National Wildlife Refuge. Yet there are signs all over the park telling people to tune to 1610. Unwary selenite-hunters have a right to be upset about such absolutely wrong info being propagated. And collapsible shovels for the purpose are still on sale for $9 near the front door of the visitor center. See our previous items about this in DXLDs 7-050, 6- 142, 6-140, 6-104 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Re 8-076, Hi Glenn, I have just read your WOR and noticed your question regarding the identication of Radio Central, Port Moresby. The language used was a local one, probably Pidgin and identification was given as "Central' or "Radio Central" (Barry Hartley, Auckland NZ, July 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 3329.54, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco 1030 to 1045 weak with música, 4 July. 4774.9, Radio Tarma, Tarma, 1030 with good signal, on earlier than Sicuani and La Voz del la Selva, 5 July. 4824.51, La Voz de la Selva, Iquitos, 1058 sign on, strong signal with música andina. 5 July. 4826.43, Radio Sicuani, Sicuani, 1102 sign on 5 July. Very weak signal. Rogildo Aragão logged this on 1 July the first to note its return. 4834, Radio Marañón, Jaen seems silent. 4990.94, Radio Manantial, Huancayo, 0005 and 1045 weak signal on 5 July. 5039.21, Radio Libertad, Junín, 1040-1109 good signal with OM ID. 5460.1, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar, 0000-0030 música "..en Valencia la señorita linda... balle..." 5 July. 5470.80, Radio San Nicolás, San Nicolás, 0006 to 0045, música "Maria en el corazón de mi amor..." 5 July. 5486.7, Radio Reyna de la Selva, Chachapoyas, 1040 to 1130 last ten days (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida, US, July 5, Icom 746Pro, NRD 535D, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND. POLISH RADIO EXTERNAL SERVICE BEGINS LONGWAVE BROADCASTING From July 1, Polish Radio External Service has started broadcasting on 198 kHz longwave. The 198 LW frequency is shared with Polish Radio Parliament, which will continue to broadcast when parliament is in session. At all other times Polish Radio External Service transmits on this frequency. Polish Radio External Service broadcasts in seven different languages: English, Hebrew, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, German, and Polish. English language transmissions on 198 kHz are at 0700 and 1200 UTC, available when Radio Parliament is not broadcasting. The 198 LW frequency can be picked up in Poland and is also able reach Polish diaspora in neighbouring countries, especially Germany, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, providing up-to-date information on what’s going on in Poland. Shortwave, Internet and satellite transmissions remain unaffected (Source: Polskie Radio July 4th, 2008 - 11:54 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) Andy Sennitt comments: Unfortunately, the longwave service won’t benefit listeners in the UK or Western Europe as the frequency is shared with BBC Radio 4. 7 comments so far: 1 Martin July 4th, 2008 - 12:03 UTC. I recall that 225 kHz was also allocated to Poland. If it is, why use 198 kHz? 2 Andy Sennitt July 4th, 2008 - 12:09 UTC. Because 225 kHz carries a different programme 24 hours a day. They are merely making use of a transmitter that would otherwise be silent for long periods. Whether this is financially and environmentally a good idea is another matter. 3 Kai Ludwig July 4th, 2008 - 12:32 UTC The transmitter is leased from Emitel, so there is simply no chance to switch it off when no Sejm (parliament) coverage is on air. And 198 kHz operates 0600-1600 UT (summer, in winter 0700-1700 UT) only, so English at 1700 and 1930 UT will of course never be heard on this frequency. I just noted German until 1200 UT here, so obviously they just put one of the feeds for the shortwave transmitters abroad (i.e. in Germany and France) on air. I should remember to check out the delay tomorrow, it could be as large as a couple of seconds if the Raszyn transmitter is still fed through a terrestrial circuit. Until now Jedynka, the program also carried on 225 kHz, had been put on 198 kHz when no other programming was to be carried. Traditionally 198 kHz had the pop program Trójka, and this was again the case when 198 kHz had been revived, but soon it was replaced by Jedynka. Why revived: The Raszyn transmitter had to be thrown in on 225 kHz when the 646 metre tall antenna of the Konstantynow transmitter crashed in 1991 (btw, otherwise the site still exists, it is said that even the 2000 kW Brown Boveri transmitter installation is still intact), and had to keep this business until the new Solec Kujawski transmitter became operational in 1999. Thus 198 kHz was completely silent all throughout the nineties. In recent years 198 kHz also had live relays of Radio Vatican. This could have changed, at least I recently noted an apparently recorded Radio Vatican programme on Jedynka (the regular program, i.e. also on FM) in the 1645…1700 UT slot. 4 Andy Sennitt July 4th, 2008 - 12:41 UTC Yes, Kai, I see that the ‘How to Listen’ page just mentions the first two transmissions, so I have deleted the 1700 and 1930 ones. The original text comes from http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/?id=86257 but I converted the times to UT. BTW I note that the excellent http://www.emwg.info site already lists all the new details. 5 Kai Ludwig July 4th, 2008 - 13:07 UTC And I now see that also Radio Bis (now replaced by Radio Euro) had been carried on 198 kHz for some time: http://radiopolska.pl/aktual.php?subaction=showfull&id=1214930786&archive=&start_from=&ucat=& http://www.polskaam.radiopolska.pl/raszyn.gif is an uncalibrated coverage sketch, presumably meant to represent the area of acceptable reception and as such quite realistic, at least for the western directions. And an article about the transmitter, including a link to a photo: http://www.polskaam.radiopolska.pl/raszyn.htm 6 Jan-Hein July 4th, 2008 - 16:21 UTC. I wonder if it will interfere with BBC Radio 4 over here in the Low Countries. 7 Roy Sandgren July 4th, 2008 - 18:10 UTC. Polish abroad listen to 225 kHz in cars, trucks etc. One of the strongest signals here in Malmö Sweden 600 km away. http://www.radionord.lv (Media Network blog via DXLD) This will not be good news for Radio 4 and World Service listeners in Northern Europe. Up to now the frequency - which is great when the Polish Radio is not transmitting - was fairly clear in large parts of Europe when Poland was not on air, which was basically during the evening and overnight (Andrew Tett, (Shoreham), BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 15110: Possible error or new frequency for 15455 Samara in German 0900-1000 today. Parallel to 7330 and as free from QRM as the "old" frequency. Needless to say, no clue from the usual databases (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, July 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Quite easy to explain: GTRK Tatarstan is on air 0410-0500 on 15110. It just needs to be the same transmitter (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) 15455: VOR German 0900-1000. Samara is back on the normal frequency this morning. Yesterday's appearance on 15110 must go down as a bizarre error - or maybe a test ahead of end-July changes???? 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, July 5, ibid.) ** RUSSIA. VOR`s motorboating transmitter, 7300, July 5 at 2330, unintelligible audio, just put-putting with rapidly fluxuating frequency. Portuguese scheduled during this hour from Serpukhov, per Aoki, Moscow per WRTH update. This has been going on for years, and in B-seasons on 5900 instead. Such incompetence! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Per reality it's Lesnoy, two 250 kW transmitters, about fourty years old, run as a single 500 kW, with the combining process suspected to be the culprit. http://www.kuvalda.by.ru/radiocentr1/ http://www.lesnoy-sk.ru/images/hist_machti.jpg http://www.lesnoy-sk.ru/images/hist_iluminator.jpg http://www.lesnoy-sk.ru/historyold.htm (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SINGAPORE. Radio Singapore International, 6080. Per tip from Churchill, heard RSI very weakly here 7/4 with IS and sign-on at 1100 with English program. Parts of news heard during fade ups, and one item at the end of the news — announcement that end of broadcast on 31 July, with special programs the last two weeks of July. Bruce, you might keep that in mind; we can hardly hear it back here on ECNA. Very weak; faded out after 13 minutes (Dan Henderson, MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) A very good TP MW morning, so at the conclusion, thought I'd check RSI --- wow, 6080 is booming in at 1245 July 6, with their English program. Checked 6150 to hear a jumble. Seems that Taiwan is dominating, with the Firedrake and RSI underneath (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, ibid.) ** SOMALIA [non]. UAE, 13685, IRIN Radio via Dhabbaya. July 1 at *0830-0900* in Somali. SINPO 25332. Sign-on with local music and ID, followed by interview. Local song was heard at 0844, followed by another interview at 0849. Sign-off after female talk and music. Extended broadcast? (Iwao Nagatani, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) Had been *0830-0845* daily per Aoki (gh) ** SPAIN. With so little audible on 13m these days, I was pleased to get at least weak signals from REE on 21610 and 21570, July 4 at 1356 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. REPORT RECOMMENDS CHANGES TO MAKE SLBC FINANCIALLY VIABLE Anusha Palpita, the outgoing chairman of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) who is also a qualified accountant, has produced his government-commissioned report on ways to make the financially ailing state media unit viable. Anusha Palpita has recommended the voluntary retirement of hundreds of SLBC employees as a measure to make the corporation viable. The survey reveals that there are 1037 employees on the payroll of the corporation. Anusha Palpita has indicated that nearly 400 staff are more than enough to run the corporation. As an immediate measure the report has suggested the voluntary retirement of 400 staff. Palpita has recommended that SLBC could easily survive with seven main channels. He has also recommended cutting the Childrens’ Service and all Provincial Services from 18 hrs to 6 hrs daily. At the Rajarata, Kanthurata and Ruhuna services, there are more than 40 employees in each service, and according to the survey the staff actually needed per service is around 15. Therefore it has been decided to transfer the balance of the staff to the main office in Colombo. Another financial problem is the corporation’s electricity bill, which has shot up by 80 percent this year. With the view to reduce the electricity bill by 40 precent, it has been proposed to appoint a committee consisting of two SLBC engineers and an accountant. The charges for relaying BBC services are to go up by about 400%. At present the BBC is paying just US$35 per hour, and SLBC provides daily 10 hours of broadcasting time to the BBC. Other than that, SLBC gives free air time for Sinhla Sandeshya service and for Tamil Osai. The agreement with the BBC ends in August and it has been agreed to charge US$125 per hour. The Sandeshay Sinhala Service channel and Tamil Osai, which for years have been allowed to broadcast free of charge, are to be charged US$150 and $100 daily (Source: Asian Tribune, July 5th, 2008 - 11:39 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 1 comment so far: 1 Jonathan Marks July 5th, 2008 - 15:54 UTC Wow, that is indeed a serious price hike --- US$547,500 as opposed to US$127,750 a year. No doubt Sri Lanka will not be the only broadcaster to start charging its “customers” rates more in tune with the current oil price (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** SWITZERLAND. Re WOR 1415 summary: ``French service Suisse Romande on 765 also threatened with closure due to RF concerns, but not for a year or two`` RF concerns = best ever excuse to get rid of all this AM trash. At least that's meanwhile the view of some critics, further increased by a TV piece about the tenth anniversary of the Schwarzenburg closure in which the RF matter had been jazzed up as well: http://rapidshare.com/files/126378288/schwarzenburg_schweiz_aktuell_2008-07-01.avi (Kai Ludwig, Germany, July 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN [non]. Apparently RTI is still around via WYFR. USA: RTI relay 5950 at 0252. About Olympics [in English]. Broken audio, local QRN, hard to understand. In Spanish (presumed Taiwan) on 15215 at 0253 w/good signal. 4 July (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. LEGENDARY BBC BROADCASTER WHEELER DIES AGED 85 Financial Times By Sue Cameron July 5 2008 Sir Charles Wheeler, the legendary BBC foreign correspondent who has died aged 85, was always meticulous in reporting the facts but often far from objective. It was one of his great strengths as a broadcaster. "All right! I wasn't dispassionate," he said when reporting on the plight of Kurdish refugees in Iraq. "But I was terribly angry and objectivity flies out of the window . . . what do you want me to do? Interview somebody who thinks this situation is good to balance the story?" His compassion shone through his broadcasts, whether he was covering Germany in the early years of the cold war, where he identified with the East Berliners under the oppressive Soviet regime, or reporting on America's urban riots in the 1960s. "I don't think we should have tried to be dispassionate," he said. "I came to believe that violence was justified in a riot because it made white America listen." . . . http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/559d82da-4a2c-11dd-891a-000077b07658.html (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) OBIT FOOC also played an old report from him in tribute, that the death of JFK Jr., while tragic, was not the huge event its coverage got in the American media. I happened to hear this as KUHF had its wires crossed for its Classical and News ``HD`` streams at 0430 UT Sunday July 6 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) OBITUARY: SIR CHARLES WHEELER HE HAD A NATURAL EMPATHY FOR THE UNDERDOG Page last updated at 10:30 GMT, Friday, 4 July 2008 11:30 UK Sir Charles Wheeler was once described as "the reporters' reporter", someone who believed there was no substitute for being on the spot and talking to the people involved. Some critics accused him of editorialising, but he believed it was wrong to remain dispassionate about issues that were truly shocking. He was born Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler on 15 March, 1923 in Germany and educated at Cranbrook School in Kent. His father worked for a shipping company in Hamburg and the young Wheeler experienced life under the Nazi regime. . . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7402172.stm (via Dan Say, DXLD) ** U K. OLD BBC RADIO BROADCASTING EQUIPMENT AND MEMORIES - HOME PAGE http://www.btinternet.com/~roger.beckwith/bh/menu.htm This is an interesting site with lots of historical information relating to the BBC (Marl Palmer, G0OIW, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** U K. Spurs, 12095, RMP, 500 kW, 95 degrees, English Wimbledon match live coverage. Two strong spurious noted in the 1500-1700 UT slot July 6th, on 11928.6 to 11931.5 and 12258.6 to 12261.5 kHz. Checked on three receivers like Eton E1, AOR7030, and SONY ICF 2010. Same, and harmonic at 24190 kHz at 1605 UT TOO! Deep fades at S=3 to 7 level, shaky labile (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, harmonics yg via DXLD) ** U K. Polish Radio QRMing BBCR4/WS on 198 kHz: See POLAND ** U K. Re 8-076, BBC internet streams: improvements in sound quality. The BBC Widget works fine in MA at 0200 UT, July 4, 2008 (Jim Strader, swprograms via DXLD) I think the WM feeds are available only to UK-based listeners. Only Real feeds are available for all those outside the UK (John Figliozzi Halfmoon, NY, swprograms via DXLD) ** U S A. With the cancellation of some R. Taiwan International relays, WYFR has revised its Okeechobee schedules. Some of the changes take up transmitter time vacated by RTI, altho we still don`t have specific info about exactly which RTI times and frequencies have been canceled. Note the addition of Polish and Romanian, which were probably already transmitted by European relays (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WYFR REVISED SCHEDULES JULY 1, 2008 --- FREQUENCY SORT FREQ (KHZ) TIME (UTC) LANG AZ 5850 0500-0600 SPAN 181 5850 0600-0700 ENGL 181 5850 0700-0945 SPAN 181 5950 0900-1000 SPAN 355 5950 1000-1245 ENGL 355 5950 0000-0200 ENGL 355 5950 2200-0200 ENGL 355 5950 0400-0600 ENGL 285 5950 0800-0845 ENGL 285 5985 2000-0200 SPAN 181 5985 0200-0300 ENGL 181 5985 0300-0445 SPAN 181 5985 0500-0600 MAND 315 5985 0600-0700 CANT 315 5985 0700-1245 ENGL 315 6085 1000-1600 SPAN 181 6085 1600-1700 ENGL 181 6085 1700-1900 SPAN 181 6085 1900-1945 ENGL 181 6175 0900-1045 PORT 160 6915 0304-0400 SPAN 355 6915 0400-0600 ENGL 355 6915 0600-0700 SPAN 355 6915 0700-1100 ENGL 355 6915 1100-1145 SPAN 355 6985 0000-0445 ENGL 355 6985 2300-0000 FREN 355 7520 0100-0145 PORT 142 7520 0500-0600 RUSS 44 7520 0600-0745 ENGL 44 7780 1100-1200 ENGL 222 7780 1200-1345 SPAN 222 7780 0304-0400 RUSS 44 7780 0400-0500 ENGL 44 7780 0500-0600 GERM 44 7780 0600-0700 ROMA 44 7780 0700-0745 POLI 44 9355 0400-0500 ARAB 44 9355 0500-0600 ENGL 44 9355 0600-0700 FREN 44 9355 0700-0745 SPAN 44 9355 1100-1145 SPAN 160 9505 0000-0445 ENGL 315 9505 0504-0700 SPAN 222 9505 0700-0800 ENGL 222 9505 0800-0945 SPAN 222 9550 0800-1100 SPAN 160 9550 1100-1145 ENGL 160 9605 0800-1045 PORT 142 9605 1100-1345 SPAN 222 9625 0800-1000 PORT 140 9625 1000-1100 FREN 140 9625 1100-1200 ENGL 140 9625 1200-1245 PORT 140 9680 0300-0400 SPAN 315 9680 0400-0700 ENGL 315 9680 0700-0745 SPAN 315 9715 0300-0400 SPAN 285 9715 0300-0700 SPAN 285 9715 0700-0800 ENGL 285 9715 0800-1145 SPAN 285 9755 0900-1145 ENGL 285 9930 0500-0600 ARAB 87 9930 0600-0700 FREN 87 9930 0700-0845 ENGL 87 9985 0404-0500 GERM 44 9985 0500-0600 SPAN 44 9985 0600-0700 ITAL 44 9985 0700-0745 PORT 44 11530 0400-0500 PORT 87 11530 0500-0600 FREN 87 11530 0600-0700 ENGL 87 11530 0700-0800 ARAB 87 11530 0800-0845 FREN 87 11565 2100-2200 ENGL 44 11565 2200-2245 FREN 44 11580 0500-0600 FREN 44 11580 0600-0700 ENGL 44 11580 0700-0745 ITAL 44 11580 0300-0345 SPAN 160 11670 1400-1545 SPAN 222 11740 0200-0300 SPAN 222 11740 0300-0400 ENGL 222 11740 0400-0445 SPAN 222 11740 2200-2345 ENGL 315 11770 0800-1045 PORT 142 11830 1300-1645 ENGL 315 11835 0000-0200 SPAN 285 11835 0200-0245 ENGL 285 11855 0800-1145 SPAN 160 11855 2000-0200 SPAN 222 11855 0200-0300 ENGL 222 11855 0300-0400 SPAN 222 11865 1300-1400 ENGL 315 11865 1400-1500 SPAN 315 11865 1500-1600 MAND 315 11865 1600-1645 ENGL 315 11910 1300-1600 ENGL 355 11910 1600-1645 FREN 355 11970 0800-1000 SPAN 151 11970 1000-1100 FREN 151 11970 1100-1300 SPAN 151 11970 1300-1400 FREN 151 11970 1400-1545 SPAN 151 13615 1700-1800 SPAN 315 13615 1800-2145 ENGL 315 13690 1700-2000 ENGL 355 13690 2000-2100 SPAN 355 13690 2100-2145 ENGL 355 13695 1200-1300 FREN 355 13695 1300-1400 MAND 355 13695 1400-1500 ENGL 355 13695 1500-1600 SPAN 355 13695 1600-1700 ENGL 355 13800 1200-1545 SPAN 160 15130 1200-2345 SPAN 285 15190 0000-0345 PORT 142 15190 2200-2300 PORT 142 15215 2300-0200 SPAN 160 15255 2300-0000 ENGL 151 15255 0000-0100 FREN 151 15255 0100-0300 SPAN 151 15255 0300-0400 ENGL 151 15255 0400-0445 SPAN 151 15440 2200-0200 ENGL 285 15600 1900-2000 RUSS 44 15600 2000-2100 ROMA 44 15600 2100-2200 SPAN 44 15695 2000-2145 GERM 44 15695 2200-2245 PORT 44 15770 1200-1400 SPAN 160 15770 1400-1500 PORT 160 15770 1500-1545 ENGL 160 15770 1600-1645 ARAB 44 15770 2100-2200 PORT 87 15770 2200-2245 ENGL 87 17555 1200-1300 ENGL 160 17555 1300-1400 PORT 160 17555 1400-1545 SPAN 160 17725 1700-2000 PORT 140 17725 2000-2100 ENGL 140 17725 2100-2200 FREN 140 17725 2200-2300 PORT 140 17725 0000-0100 PORT 140 17725 0100-0145 SPAN 140 17750 1700-1800 GERM 44 17750 1800-1900 ITAL 44 17750 1900-2000 ARAB 44 17750 2000-2045 ENGL 44 17750 2300-0000 ENGL 160 17750 0000-0100 PORT 160 17750 0100-0245 SPAN 160 17795 1200-2145 ENGL 285 17805 0000-0045 ENGL 142 17805 2300-0000 PORT 142 17845 2304-0100 SPAN 160 17845 0100-0200 PORT 160 17845 1800-2200 ENGL 87 17845 2200-2245 ARAB 87 17885 1700-1745 FREN 87 18930 1600-1800 RUSS 44 18930 1800-1900 FREN 44 18930 1900-2000 ENGL 44 18930 2000-2100 POLI 44 18930 2100-2245 ARAB 44 18980 1400-1500 SPAN 142 18980 1500-1545 PORT 142 18980 1600-2145 ENGL 44 21455 1600-1800 ENGL 44 21455 1800-1900 GERM 44 21455 1900-1945 FREN 44 21525 1600-1700 ENGL 87 21525 1700-1800 PORT 87 21525 1800-2000 FREN 87 21525 2000-2045 ARAB 87 21670 1600-1700 ITAL 44 21670 1700-1845 SPAN 44 LANGUAGE SORT LANG TIME (UTC) FREQ (KHZ) AZ ARAB 0400-0500 9355 44 ARAB 0500-0600 9930 87 ARAB 0700-0800 11530 87 ARAB 1600-1645 15770 44 ARAB 1900-2000 17750 44 ARAB 2200-2245 17845 87 ARAB 2100-2245 18930 44 ARAB 2000-2045 21525 87 CANT 0600-0700 5985 315 ENGL 0600-0700 5850 181 ENGL 1000-1245 5950 355 ENGL 0000-0200 5950 355 ENGL 2200-0200 5950 355 ENGL 0400-0600 5950 285 ENGL 0800-0845 5950 285 ENGL 0200-0300 5985 181 ENGL 0700-1245 5985 315 ENGL 1600-1700 6085 181 ENGL 1900-1945 6085 181 ENGL 0400-0600 6915 355 ENGL 0700-1100 6915 355 ENGL 0000-0445 6985 355 ENGL 0600-0745 7520 44 ENGL 1100-1200 7780 222 ENGL 0400-0500 7780 44 ENGL 0500-0600 9355 44 ENGL 0000-0445 9505 315 ENGL 0700-0800 9505 222 ENGL 1100-1145 9550 160 ENGL 1100-1200 9625 140 ENGL 0400-0700 9680 315 ENGL 0700-0800 9715 285 ENGL 0900-1145 9755 285 ENGL 0700-0845 9930 87 ENGL 0600-0700 11530 87 ENGL 2100-2200 11565 44 ENGL 0600-0700 11580 44 ENGL 0300-0400 11740 222 ENGL 2200-2345 11740 315 ENGL 1300-1645 11830 315 ENGL 0200-0245 11835 285 ENGL 0200-0300 11855 222 ENGL 1300-1400 11865 315 ENGL 1600-1645 11865 315 ENGL 1300-1600 11910 355 ENGL 1800-2145 13615 315 ENGL 1700-2000 13690 355 ENGL 2100-2145 13690 355 ENGL 1400-1500 13695 355 ENGL 1600-1700 13695 355 ENGL 2300-0000 15255 151 ENGL 0300-0400 15255 151 ENGL 2200-0200 15440 285 ENGL 1500-1545 15770 160 ENGL 2200-2245 15770 87 ENGL 1200-1300 17555 160 ENGL 2000-2100 17725 140 ENGL 2000-2045 17750 44 ENGL 2300-0000 17750 160 ENGL 1200-2145 17795 285 ENGL 0000-0045 17805 142 ENGL 1800-2200 17845 87 ENGL 1900-2000 18930 44 ENGL 1600-2145 18980 44 ENGL 1600-1800 21455 44 ENGL 1600-1700 21525 87 FREN 2300-0000 6985 355 FREN 0600-0700 9355 44 FREN 1000-1100 9625 140 FREN 0600-0700 9930 87 FREN 0500-0600 11530 87 FREN 0800-0845 11530 87 FREN 2200-2245 11565 44 FREN 0500-0600 11580 44 FREN 1600-1645 11910 355 FREN 1000-1100 11970 151 FREN 1300-1400 11970 151 FREN 1200-1300 13695 355 FREN 0000-0100 15255 151 FREN 2100-2200 17725 140 FREN 1700-1745 17885 87 FREN 1800-1900 18930 44 FREN 1900-1945 21455 44 FREN 1800-2000 21525 87 GERM 0500-0600 7780 44 GERM 0404-0500 9985 44 GERM 2000-2145 15695 44 GERM 1700-1800 17750 44 GERM 1800-1900 21455 44 ITAL 0600-0700 9985 44 ITAL 0700-0745 11580 44 ITAL 1800-1900 17750 44 ITAL 1600-1700 21670 44 MAND 0500-0600 5985 315 MAND 1500-1600 11865 315 MAND 1300-1400 13695 355 POLI 0700-0745 7780 44 POLI 2000-2100 18930 44 PORT 0900-1045 6175 160 PORT 0100-0145 7520 142 PORT 0800-1045 9605 142 PORT 0800-1000 9625 140 PORT 1200-1245 9625 140 PORT 0700-0745 9985 44 PORT 0400-0500 11530 87 PORT 0800-1045 11770 142 PORT 0000-0345 15190 142 PORT 2200-2300 15190 142 PORT 2200-2245 15695 44 PORT 1400-1500 15770 160 PORT 2100-2200 15770 87 PORT 1300-1400 17555 160 PORT 1700-2000 17725 140 PORT 2200-2300 17725 140 PORT 0000-0100 17725 140 PORT 0000-0100 17750 160 PORT 2300-0000 17805 142 PORT 0100-0200 17845 160 PORT 1500-1545 18980 142 PORT 1700-1800 21525 87 ROMA 0600-0700 7780 44 ROMA 2000-2100 15600 44 RUSS 0500-0600 7520 44 RUSS 0304-0400 7780 44 RUSS 1900-2000 15600 44 RUSS 1600-1800 18930 44 SPAN 0500-0600 5850 181 SPAN 0700-0945 5850 181 SPAN 0900-1000 5950 355 SPAN 2000-0200 5985 181 SPAN 0300-0445 5985 181 SPAN 1000-1600 6085 181 SPAN 1700-1900 6085 181 SPAN 0304-0400 6915 355 SPAN 0600-0700 6915 355 SPAN 1100-1145 6915 355 SPAN 1200-1345 7780 222 SPAN 0700-0745 9355 44 SPAN 1100-1145 9355 160 SPAN 0504-0700 9505 222 SPAN 0800-0945 9505 222 SPAN 0800-1100 9550 160 SPAN 1100-1345 9605 222 SPAN 0300-0400 9680 315 SPAN 0700-0745 9680 315 SPAN 0300-0400 9715 285 SPAN 0300-0700 9715 285 SPAN 0800-1145 9715 285 SPAN 0500-0600 9985 44 SPAN 0300-0345 11580 160 SPAN 1400-1545 11670 222 SPAN 0200-0300 11740 222 SPAN 0400-0445 11740 222 SPAN 0000-0200 11835 285 SPAN 0800-1145 11855 160 SPAN 2000-0200 11855 222 SPAN 0300-0400 11855 222 SPAN 1400-1500 11865 315 SPAN 0800-1000 11970 151 SPAN 1100-1300 11970 151 SPAN 1400-1545 11970 151 SPAN 1700-1800 13615 315 SPAN 2000-2100 13690 355 SPAN 1500-1600 13695 355 SPAN 1200-1545 13800 160 SPAN 1200-2345 15130 285 SPAN 2300-0200 15215 160 SPAN 0100-0300 15255 151 SPAN 0400-0445 15255 151 SPAN 2100-2200 15600 44 SPAN 1200-1400 15770 160 SPAN 1400-1545 17555 160 SPAN 0100-0145 17725 140 SPAN 0100-0245 17750 160 SPAN 2304-0100 17845 160 SPAN 1400-1500 18980 142 SPAN 1700-1845 21670 44 (Evelyn Marcy, WYFR, July 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Family Radio heard in English on 3 July 08 at 1600 UT on 1557 kHz MW (via Taiwan I guess), like in the past (Jose Jacob, India, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, WYFR said their relays via Taiwan were unchanged (gh) ** U S A. Attention those who keep track of all SW broadcasts in French. There is now one on WWRB, as Saturday July 5 at 2335 I was hearing preaching in French, 2336 into ``Faith of Our Fathers`` with French lyrix, but overridden by spoken contact info including a postal address in Tennessee. Rather distorted audio. O yes, ``This Transmitter has been Leased to the Treasure of Truth Broadcast, Altamont, TN``, says the WWRB website, at 6 pm - midnight, timezone not specified, and no further details about programming within, let alone language(s). It`s allegedly at 150 degrees with a ``dual feed wide spaced yagi`` for South America, but plenty strong here westward from Morrison (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWCR, 5935 with DGS service, July 6 after 0000 was suffering from extreme crackling making it unlistenable, and severely interfering with adjacent channels. Recurring unfixed satellite antenna aiming problem, I assume, at Los Ángeles and/or Nashville. WWCR, 5070, July 5 at 2335 was accompanied by a roaring noise peaking at the sidebands around 5062 and less so on 5078 where there was ute interference. The sound also audible when tuned to center frequency 5070 underneath program modulation, which per June 3 sked is ``Repairer of the Breach``. Some crud on the program feed line, which should not be SW transmitted? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Radio Bonnaroo --- I read that the Bonnaroo music and mudfest near Manchester, TN had a dedicated FM station. This is an annual event in June. So, a temporary low power operation? As it turns out, no. One of the links (still up as of today) is: http://www.bonnaroo.com/news/2008/06/10/radio-bonnaroo-08-2.aspx Essentially nothing on the Bonnaroo pages other than this text: 6/10/2008 4:30:46 PM --- Remember to tune your radio dial to 101.5 as you approach Manchester for the unique radio experience that is Radio Bonnaroo. Beginning Wednesday, June 13, and continuing until Monday, June 18, Radio Bonnaroo will offer an exciting, eclectic mix of music and bonus features, including artist interviews, in-studio performances, and special collaborations. Hosted by top programmers and special celebrity guests from around the country, we'll keep you informed with up-to-the-minute announcements, traffic reports, and reminders to help you have the best Bonnaroo experience possible. 6/5/2008 3:47:31 PM --- Tune in to Radio Bonnaroo for some last minute info and fun! DjjD Farmhand will be scouting Tennessee for interesting sites and sounds along the way and reporting live from the festival. We'll also be adding lots of new music and features in the leading up to the festival so keep your ears clean and in working order, you will need them daily and nightly. But an FCC docs search shows it is actually the nearby 3,000 watt WFTZ, Manchester-licensed station covering the weekend event. See: http://www.fantasyradio.com/ [tagline] "Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid." ~ Frank Zappa (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, July 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Manchester TN? They should have put this also on hometown SW station WWRB, making it, temporarily, worth listening to. Maybe next year. But what is it? (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is a four-day, multi-stage camping festival held on a beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee every June. Bonnaroo brings together some of the best performers in rock and roll, along with dozens of artists in complementary styles such as jazz, Americana, hip-hop, electronica, and just about any contemporary music you can think of. In addition to dozens of epic performances, the festival's 100-acre entertainment village buzzes around the clock with attractions and activities including a classic arcade, on-site cinema, silent disco, comedy club, theater performers, a beer festival, and a music technology village. For its peaceful vibe, near-flawless logistics, and unrivaled entertainment options, Rolling Stone magazine named this revolutionary entertainment experience one of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock and roll (from http://www.bonnaroo.com/about/history.aspx via DXLD) ** U S A. Public-television fans have gotten an early taste of what the post-analog TV world is going to be like. Sometime last week, on rabbit-ear televisions across the region, WKOP-TV, channel 15, turned into pure fizz. Public TV has always been ahead of commercial TV in some regards, and WKOP has lately been running public-service ads about switching to digital. But WKOP, the Knoxville broadcaster of East Tennessee Public Television, is not deliberately nudging their viewers out of the analog nest early. “Due to equipment problems, ETPtv is currently unable to broadcast an analog signal on WKOP, channel 15,” goes their statement. “Given the expenses involved, we are unsure if it will be possible to return the analog transmitter to service before the federally mandated DTV transition date of Feb. 19, 2009.” (An FCC site says the transition date is Feb. 17.) (Metropulse, Knoxville TN, July 2 via Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA via DXLD) I did the usual googling and the Knoxville Times [sic] article had more detail. The responses from readers were hysterical in a couple of cases. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jul/02/wkop-pbs-goes-air/ (Fritze, KC5KBV, Prentice, Star City, AR, ibid.) But not the minor facts that WKOP-DT is on the air on channel 17, per http://www.w9wi.com while WETP-DT is channel 41. ``Pure fizz`` means no signal on ch 15, not digital as seen on analog! (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Re 8-076, KJSA-1110: I'm guessing by "weird readings/surges" he's referring to signal strength variations in the DFW metro area on their new 1110 kHz frequency, which is a move from 1120. They have upped the power to 20 kilowatts but the city of license is still Mineral Wells, a fascinating little town (Google "Crazy Water" and "Baker Hotel") west of Fort Worth. He's probably had reports of "dead zones" in his new coverage area and is looking for feedback. He also owns KTEK-1110 in Alvin, Texas, which also runs "BizRadio" programming in parallel to KJSA. In theory, this should give him coverage from metro Houston to the Red River Valley and southern Oklahoma (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17 http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ ABDX via DXLD) Just tell him it's KFAB's IBOC signal --- and see what he says (Paul Swearingen, Topeka, KS, NRC-AM via DXLD) Since it's 1110 more likely it is KMOX's IBOC splash (Wayne Heinen, CO, ibid.) Of course (gh) Ed, A couple of my contacts have suggested it could be HD interference from KMOX in Saint Louis. Their signal on 1120 puts out `hash` on adjacent frequencies, which would certainly reach your area (only) at night, as it does here. Many of us feel that so-called HD Radio on AM causes far more problems than it solves. You might want to complain to KMOX/CBS about this if it proves to be the source Regards, (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, to Ed Moyer, KJSA, via DXLD) Am I correct that the station that is suffering some kind of interference that the owner described as a "surge" is (or was) KJSA, the 20-kW AM 1110 daytimer licensed to Mineral Wells? This station uses a four-tower array to send the equivalent of about 150 kW-ND to the southeast over the 70 or so miles of good-conductivity north-Texas soil between it and third-adjacent KRLD. If so, the towers are of rather average height (a tad less than 80 degrees), which makes the Fort Worth-Dallas metroplex a prime candidate for pretty severe daytime-skywave interference between the station's own high-angle skywave and its groundwave -- at least during critical hours. If so, the most obvious way to try to mitigate the problem would be to add guy-wire top loading, which could increase the towers' electrical length to 105 degrees or so. That might necessitate a power reduction but would not necessarily reduce the signal strength at all. Whether this fix would produce a noticeable improvement is a different question. I wouldn't bet a lot of money on it (Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg @ att.net) eFax 1-707-215-6367, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. California TIS/HAR update --- Last weekend I drove to Stockton and back. CalTrans had activated several long-silent HAR stations to remind people of the new hands-free cell phone law that was about to go into effect. Here is what I noted along I-5: 530, WNWZ660 Castaic Lake Off the air; signs still up. 530, WPFK507 San Joaquín On the air with CalTrans cell phone announcement (female announcer, got out well). 530, WPFK507 South Dos Palos On the air with CalTrans cell phone announcement (female announcer, got out poorly). 530, WPKN315 Tehachapi On the air with city/emergency info. 1230, HAR Anaheim (area) New larger sign on I-5 N near Angels stadium, but there has seemingly never been a station here. 1610, WNXK966 Buttonwillow On the air with CalTrans cell phone announcement (female announcer, got out well). 1610, WNDQ665 Descanso Still off the air; was probably lost in the 2003 fire, or possibly the 2007 fire. 1610, WPNT814 Frazier Park Seems to have been replaced by WPVQ736. 1610, WPVQ736 Grapevine On the air with CalTrans cell phone announcement (female announcer, got out well). 1610, WPET708 Gorman Not on the air. Signs noted several miles south of listed location. 1610, WPET708 Lebec Seems to have been replaced by WPVQ736. 1610, KNEC996 Lost Hills On the air (using these old calls) with CalTrans cell phone announcement (female announcer, got out poorly). 1610, WNXK966 Old River On the air with CalTrans cell phone announcement (male announcer, got out well). 1610, WPFT815 San Joaquín Co. On the air with CalTrans cell phone announcement. 1610, WPET708 Santa Clarita Not on the air. 1610, KNEC996 Saugus Not on the air. 1610, KNEC996 Valencia Not on the air. Signs still up on I-5. Also noted a station on 1610 at Dodger stadium with parking information, advising people to tune to KABC to hear the game. 73, (Tim Hall, Chula Vista, CA, July 4, ABDX via DXLD) Another 1610 TIS: see OKLAHOMA ** U S A. Each year on 12 July, the Maritime Radio Historical Society commemorates the closing of commercial Morse operations in the USA by returning the coast station KPH to the air. KPH will transmit on 426, 500, 4247.0, 6477.5, 8642.0, 12808.5, 17016.8 and 22477.5 kHz. KPH operators will listen for calls from ships on ITU Channel 3 in all bands. The Channel 3 frequencies are 4184.0, 6276.0, 8368.0, 12552.0, 16736.0 and 22280.5 kHz on HF and 500 kHz on MF. Reception reports may be sent to Ms DA Stoops, PO Box 381, Bolinas CA 94924-0381, USA. (RSGB) HISTORIC MORSE CODE RADIO STATIONS RETURN TO THE AIR FOR "NIGHT OF NIGHTS IX" o Stations KPH and KFS will return to the air! o MRHS station KSM will be on the air. o Coast Stations WLO, KLB, NMC, NOJ and NMN may join in. o Amateur station K6KPH, with commercial operators at the key, will be QRV for signal reports. o Operations begin at 1701 PDT 12 July, 0001 gmt 13 July. We usually continue two way operations for about 6 hours but broadcasts on the commercial stations KPH, KFS and KSM may continue after that. You can find out more at http://www.radiomarine.org (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 15120-15140, seems like OTH radar, continuous, but lower-pitched sound varying slightly as if it is going thru phases. In the clear on 15120 and 15140, but mixing with WYFR Spanish on 15130, July 5 at 2252. Since it was fading independently of WYFR I assume it was not coming out of the WYFR transmitter itself as would be first impression, unlike WWCR, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. ESTADOS UNIDOS, 17660 kHz, WEWN Birmingham, AL, 29-06- 08, 1432-1434. Comentarios religiosos de locutores, en inglés. SINPO 44343 (Javier Robledillo Jaén, Elche (Alicante) - España, EA5-1028, Rx: Sangean ATS909, Ant: Hilo 7 m, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ?? WEWN is not on 17660 at this or any time, just Saudi Arabia in French. WEWN English scheduled on 15855 at this hour (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 19220 (2 x 9610). The violin music makes me think it`s Romania; the fundamental was as weak as the harmonic! 1300 UT 5/7/08 (Tim Bucknall, Mobile, The Roaches, Staffordshire, Icom IC7000 + CB whip, harmonics yg via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Consult DX Listening Digest http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html for expert monitoring of the stations that are still transmitting on shortwave, and evidence of those who are not. International broadcasters do not always adequately state their intentions re shortwave. Posted: 04 Jul 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Consult http://www.kimandrewelliott.com for extensive roundup of press concerning international broadcasting, policies affecting it and public diplomacy, and Kim`s expert opinions thereon (Glenn Hauser, mutually admiring, DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ Re: The Lefsetz Letter, 8-076 I should have added that when he gets passionate about a subject, Lefsetz tends to use colourful language. At least one or two of the 7 words the late George Carlin pointed out, that one cannot use on TV, appear on occasion. Reader discretion is advised. If you are easily offended by the odd "F-Bomb" perhaps its not for you. Other than that he's a terrific and persuasive writer (Fred Waterer, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No shit WORLD OF HOROLOGY +++++++++++++++++ TICKING TO ITS OWN TIME By John David Sutter, Staff Writer http://newsok.com/article/3263490/?print=1 KENTON — In this one-street town at the foot of the Black Mesa, there are fewer than 20 people — and all of their clocks are set to "slow time.” Despite the fact that all of Oklahoma — including Kenton — is technically part of the Central time zone, this tiny town at the western tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle is the only place in the state that functions on Mountain time. People here call it "slow time,” or "my time.” The clock in the local post office is even set to Mountain time, Postmaster Bonnie Heppard said. "We observe it because Kenton is just a gathering of people,” she said. "It has no city government of any kind, it's unincorporated, so ... they just chose to stay that way.” ‘There's a whole lot of character out here' In many ways, Kenton is a quirky place that ticks to its own clock. Lately, locals have become concerned with attracting more outsiders to their tiny enclave. Gas prices aren't helping much. But they think the local charm — and the town's uniquely slow pace — do help. "This is God's country to me. There's a whole lot of character out here,” said Keith Hunter, who manages the town's one store — The Mercantile. "You've never seen a sunset until you drive out here three miles and watch one.” Slouched in the back of "The Merc,” wearing green suspenders and a scraggly beard, Hunter said business "sucks” lately. Gas prices are too high for anyone to visit, he said. The town is nowhere near an airport, and it's nearly a seven-hour drive from Oklahoma City. He said most come to Kenton for its oddities — because it's not like the rest of Oklahoma. It has canyons, not plains. It's like New Mexico, not Texas. Bird watchers come to Kenton to see the Vermillion flycatcher. Hikers come to climb three or four hours to the top of Black Mesa, the volcanic plateau that's the backdrop for the town and also is the highest point in Oklahoma, he said. That hike is about the only reason visitors have to care about time while they're in Kenton, said Monty Roberts, owner of the Black Mesa Bed & Breakfast, just outside of town. They only have to leave in time to make it down by dark. Vague terms like "breakfast time” and "check-in time” are used more frequently than numerical time stamps at the lodge, he said. On Sunday mornings, a preacher from Boise City — about 45 minutes to the east by car — come to Kenton to deliver services, said Betty Osbin, 72. He preaches first in Central time, and then does it again on Kenton time, she said, without losing any time at all, really. Osbin said people in Kenton aren't late for appointments when they have them, adding that her Methodist service starts promptly at "10:30 a.m. Mountain time.” ‘Best kept secret' Most people in town seem to end time references with the "Mountain time” addendum. When Osbin says it, she trails off as if she's adding a "you know” or an "and what not” to the end of a sentence. Heppard, the postmaster, said Kenton is mostly OK with the fact that not too many people visit and things are quiet. More visitors would be nice, she said. But the town was already listed as an official ghost town 30 years ago, she said. Despite the fact that Kenton is a renegade place on its own time, she said, no one has plans to change. "It's small, quiet,” she said. "One of the best kept secrets in the state.” (Enid Eagle via DXLD) NOVO FUSO HORÁRIO NO BRASIL --- Acre, Pará e parte do Amazonas terão diferença de uma hora em relação a Brasília MANAUS - O novo fuso horário de três estados da Amazônia começou a valer nesta terça-feira (24/06). No Acre e em parte do Amazonas, a diferença de duas horas em relação a Brasília cai para uma hora. Em todo o Pará, o horário passa a ser igual ao da capital federal. A lei que altera o fuso horário brasileiro foi sancionada pelo presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva no dia 24 de abril deste ano. Com a mudança, em vez de quatro, o Brasil passa a ter três horários diferentes. Segundo o assessor do governo do Acre, Toinho Alves, a população do estado está confusa com o novo horário e a maioria é contrária mudança. “As pessoas não sabem exatamente o que é a mudança, alguns pensam que é uma hora a mais, outros que é uma hora a menos”, disse. Segundo ele, há ainda uma parcela da população que entende a alteração, mas está bem resistente novidade, porque ela foi feita sem ser precedida de um debate, de um esclarecimento das pessoas e porque é uma mudança muito grande no ritmo da vida dessas pessoas. Toinho Alves explicou, em entrevista, que as mudanças vão afetar principalmente o povo acreano, que deve adiantar os relógios em uma hora. “Para as pessoas que vivem em Rio Branco (capital do Acre), que está bem no limite oriental do fuso horário, a mudança vai ser grande, mas não vai ser tão grande quanto para as populações dos municípios do interior do Acre como Taumaturgo, Porto Valter, Santa Rosa, Jordão, Cruzeiro do Sul, Assis Brasil, porque eles estão bem no meio do fuso horário”, disse. As pessoas vão acordar, o relógio estará marcando seis horas, mas ainda vai ser noite, vai ser o que corresponde a 5h. “Essa mudança vai ser sofrida pelas novas gerações, mas principalmente pelas gerações mais antigas que estão acostumadas com o ritmo de vida no horário antigo, que é um horário mais natural, o sol nasce s 6h e se põe s 18h”, acrescentou o assessor. Novos hábitos A mudança no fuso horário exige adaptação dos hábitos da população porque os horários do atendimento bancário, da programação de TV e das provas de concursos, por exemplo, vão ficar com uma hora de diferença em relação a Brasília, no caso do Acre e do Amazonas; e na mesma hora de Brasília, para moradores do Pará. O chefe da Divisão do Serviço da Hora do Observatório Nacional, Roberto José de Carvalho, dá um conselho: “O importante é que as pessoas tomem cuidado para mudar seus hábitos. Uma hora de diferença vai impactar um pouquinho na população, mas depois acostuma”. Para o servidor público Felipe de Paula, que mora no Acre, a mudança é favorável. “Agora a gente vai estar muito mais perto da realidade da programação e da nossa vida. Aquele negócio das classificações, das idades que a televisão coloca hoje em dia, eles colocam programação de 14 a 16 anos às 10h, e às 11h da noite. Aqui para a gente seria outro horário, então seria outro público que estaria assistindo”. Fonte: Agência Unipress Internacional (via Marcelo Bedene, July 2, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) O território brasileiro está localizado a oeste do Meridiano de Greenwich (fuso zero), abrangendo o fuso -2, fuso -3 e fuso -4 (não existe mais o fuso -5), isto quer dizer que em virtude da sua grande extensão territorial, em vez de quatro fusos, agora passa a ter a partir desse decreto 3 fusos horários. O primeiro fuso (-2 horas GMT) sobre as ilhas oceânicas e mais 2 fusos (-3 e -4 horas em relação a GMT) sobre o território Brasileiro. O horário de Brasília (horário oficial brasileiro) continua -3 horas em relação ao GMT. Portanto todo horário sob território brasileiro é atrasado em relação a hora GMT ou UTC (Marcelo Bedene, ibid.) Accompanying map makes it clearer: so all of Pará is on UT -3; all states to the west and south of there, Roraima, Amazonas, Acre, Rondonia, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso Sul, are on UT -4. All the more easterly states are on UT -3. Ignore the little Atlantic islands on UT -2. Now just wait for DST in part of the country next summer to mess all this up. Acre and the western part of Amazonas, i.e. everywhere beyond the 67.5 meridian, are really now on DST already, observing time one hour ahead of what the Sun says. Where there have been changes, SW transmission schedules will be affected, signing on/off one UT hour earlier/later than before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DVB-T: see GERMANY ++++++++++++++++++++ IBOC: see U S A: KJSA DTV: A Useless PSA Just caught a DTV PSA during a break on CNN that shows how haphazard and misleading some of the publicity about the transition can be. Never mind for a moment that it was airing on a CABLE channel that OTA viewers can't see anyway. The spot advises viewers (note the tense) that "starting in January, government-issued coupons WILL BE available..." That's right -- the spot must have been filmed last year, and it is still airing in July 2008, which could lead a viewer to believe that coupons will not be available until January of *2009*(!). I also chuckled at the visuals. The spokesperson in the ad is a female senior citizen sitting in a lawn chair. And in the foreground, displaying snow, is what appears to be a huge old round-tubed B&W TV that must date from the early 50's. So, I guess the implication is that the only people who will need converters are old grandmas with enormous 55-year old DuMont console sets (Stan Jones, Orlando FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not only OETA, but the digital subchannel OETA OKLA, is running DTV STB promos, which of course can`t be seen if you don`t have DTV already (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DTV Article - Mixed Signals Here's something about the DTV transition that ran in today's Tulsa World: http://www.tulsaworld.com/common/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleID=20080706_52_E1_hPubli364661 Some of the concerns and complaints mentioned are seemingly universal. I've also been reading of serious shortages of converter boxes in rural areas. Even the crappy converters Wal-Mart sells are hard to get in those places (Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA via DXLD) See also USA: WKOP DRM [see also ITALY] Re: DRM in the USA [NASB article previously also in DXLD] ----------- ``Messer realizes that the big challenge in the long term for these domestic shortwave DRM applications is that the FCC would have to change its rules to permit domestic broadcasting of digital signals from the U.S. to the U.S.`` ---------- No, the "big challenge" is this: there is absolutely, positively no interest --- from listeners or broadcasters ---- for any domestic SW broadcasting, analog or digital, in the United States. None whatsoever. No one, except for a few thousand radioheads like us, gives a damn about shortwave radio in the United States. The general public doesn't care. That has been the case in the past, is the case now, and will be the case tomorrow. If anything, interest in SW radio in the U.S. has been declining in recent years as it has in the rest of the world. Companies like Drake and Sony aren't discontinuing their shortwave receivers because they're perverse; they're discontinuing them because those receivers aren't selling. If you read Messer's statements and weren't laughing out loud, something's wrong with you (Harry Helms, W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17, http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ July 4, ABDX via DXLD) IF they could get domestic SW broadcasting okay'd and IF someone built the facilities to blanket the continental US with solid, reliable coverage, the key to selling it would be that it was a completely terrestrial version of satellite radio. If it were me, I wouldn't even mention the SW aspect. Put it in a radio that was numbered with channels 1 thru 50 and refer to them that way. Who knows or cares what frequency TV channel 2 broadcasts on? You just flip the TV to 2. It could be SW, MW, UHF, VHF, whatever. The key would be nationwide coverage and good quality digital sound. Having decent programming would help too (Jay Heyl, ibid.) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ OLD SUNSPOT SPOTTED ON FARSIDE, BUT WILL IT LAST? Propagation Forecast Bulletin 28 ARLP028 From Tad Cook, K7RA Seattle, WA July 3, 2008 To all radio amateurs The weeks seem to drag on with no sunspots in sight. An image from helioseismic holography on Tuesday shows a spot on our Sun's far side. We hope it emerges in a week or ten days on our side, and hasn't died out by then. Spots emerge from time to time, but they are all old Cycle 23 spots, and they seem to fade quickly, without much activity. A reflection of recent activity is the 3-month moving average we present every month. With June over, we now know the average sunspot number for the three months centered on May, and it is very low. Instead of rising, the sunspot average has been stalled since late last year around 8.1 to 8.9, and has now dropped to five (ARRL via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) PORTUGAL RECEPTION OF AMERICAN TVDX Regarding Jef's comment "The video looks as bad as on F2" - there is something unexplained here and it shows on any of Hugh's double (or triple) Es reception I have seen posted. The multi-path, quick fading, is NOT typical of E layer prop. Saul suggests multiple video sources and mostly one audio (example WPBT). Another is Hugh is using a bandwidth restricted processing system - such as the D-100 tuner with the IF passband cranked up very tight (such as 1.5 MHz). However, careful study suggests the video fading and the audio lock are not in parallel - whatever it is that is happening at 55.25 upwards to perhaps 57.0 or so is not happening simultaneously at 59.75 (audio frequency). Does anyone know in detail his reception equipment? (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, July 6, WTFDA via DXLD) I'm not a TV DX'er, but I would wonder if one should expect there to be parallel fading, etc. with frequencies 2-4 MHz apart? I repeatedly run two unattended FM tuners into recording software. The FM band is only 2[0] MHz top to bottom, and I rarely am recording two frequencies farther apart than 0.5 MHz. I often do see very similar and sometimes parallel propagation between stations in the same Es event from the same area, but other times, not so (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, 40:08:45N; 75:16:04W, Grid FN20id, FM: Yamaha T-80 w/ APS9B @ 15'; Conrad RDS Decoder; Onkyo T-450RDS, ibid.) ###