DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-110, October 7, 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 SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1429 Wed 2100 WBCQ 15420-CUSB Thu 0530 WRMI 9955 Thu 1430 WRMI 9955 Thu 2330 WBCQ 7415 Fri 0100 WRMI 9955 Fri 0800 WRMI 9955 Fri 1930 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 7290 Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 Fri 2300 WBCQ 5110-CUSB Area 51 Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Mon 2200 WBCQ 7415 [temporary, reconfirmed Sept 29] Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 0530 WRMI 9955 [or new 1430] Wed 1130 WRMI 9955 [or new 1430] Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org EDITOR`S NOTE: This is a VERY big issue, about 3x normal size, covering six days of material. If I take a little break, I start falling behind and have just now caught up, for the moment, almost. ** ABKHAZIA. The telephone "wind sound" before and after (but sometimes) the start and final of Abkhaz Radio on 9495 kHz remind me on RAI net on MW in the past - they had same sound with fading. So as is the offer of Mr. Wolfgang Bueschel there are two txs on 9495 kHz. Probably one from Sukhumi and with Studio 1 and another from approx Krasnodar with Studio 2 (that's why sometimes the sound is of "phone" type and the Sunday's nx in Ru are under the title "nx from the head quart of keeppeace forces"). It is very unusual that on Abkhaz Radio for many years at the beginning of the programmes they never said what time is. Usually on all radios the transmissions are starting with "it's 7 o'clock" or some similar. Seldom on AR at the end of the transmission said 'the next news bulletin will be at 15 hours (=1100 UT). (Sept 25). For B-08 TWR in Ru 1500-1600 is 9495 kHz (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, Sept 25, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Oct 2 via DXLD) Sukhumi Abkhazia 9494.76 til s-off at 0807 UT. 9490/9495 QRM in B-08 season: 9490 0500-0600 Hörby 500 kW 125 deg Mon-Sat SWE P1 Radio Sweden 9495 1500-1600 Moosbrunn [Austria] 100 55 daily Belarus/Russian TWR 9495 1600-1630 Nakornthani [Thailand] 250 325 BBC 9495 1630-1645 Juelich 100 100 DTK (Wolfgang Büschel, Sept 26, ibid.) ** ALASKA. Lots of Alaskans are in tonight. I have KICY 850 Nome coming in at S9+15 dB at the moment with old Gospel music. KNOM-780 is tearing up KKOH [Reno NV], KYUK-640 is dominant [over KFI presumably]. KFQD 750 is topping KXL [Portland OR] (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, 0438 UT Oct 7, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** ALBANIA. Winter B-08 schedule of Radio Tirana ALBANIAN Daily 0000-0130 on 6110 SHI 100 kW / 300 deg to NoAm 0000-0130 on 7485 SHI 100 kW / 310 deg to NoAm 0730-0900 on 1458 FLA 500 kW / 338 deg to WeEu 0730-0900 on 7360 SHI 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu 0901-1000 on 1395 FLA 500 kW / 033 deg to WeEu 0901-1000 on 7360 SHI 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu 1500-1630 on 1458 FLA 500 kW / non-dir to WeEu 2130-2300 on 6005 SHI 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu 2130-2300 on 7510 SHI 100 kW / 300 deg to NoAm ENGLISH Tue-Sun 0130-0145 on 7485 SHI 100 kW / 310 deg to NoAm 0245-0300 on 7390 SHI 100 kW / 300 deg to NoAm 0330-0400 on 6110 SHI 100 kW / 300 deg to NoAm 0430-0500 on 6100 SHI 100 kW / 300 deg to NoAm ENGLISH Mon-Sat 1530-1600 on 13720 SHI 100 kW / 310 deg to NoAm 1945-2000 on 7465 SHI 100 kW / non-dir to U.K. 1945-2000 on 11645 SHI 100 kW / 310 deg to NoAm 2100-2130 on 7510 SHI 100 kW / 300 deg to U.K. 2100-2130 on 9345 SHI 100 kW / 310 deg to NoAm GERMAN Mon-Sat 1905-1935 on 1458 FLA 500 kW / 338 deg to Germany 2031-2100 on 7465 SHI 100 kW / non-dir to Germany GREEK Mon-Sat 1645-1700 on 1458 FLA 500 kW / non-dir to Greece FRENCH Mon-Sat 1830-1900 on 7465 SHI 100 kW / 310 deg to France 2001-2030 on 7465 SHI 100 kW / 310 deg to France ITALIAN Mon-Sat 1800-1830 on 7465 SHI 100 kW / 300 deg to Italy 2001-2030 on 6120 SHI 100 kW / 300 deg to Italy SERBIAN Mon-Sat 1900-1915 on 6010 SHI 100 kW / non-dir to Serbia 2115-2130 on 1458 FLA 500 kW / 004 deg to Serbia TURKISH Mon-Sat 1630-1645 on 1458 FLA 500 kW / non-dir to Turkey (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Oct 7 via DXLD) Above is a tentative schedule, not yet finalized (gh, DXLD) ** ANGOLA. RNA REJUVENESCE ENTRE AS BODAS DE PRATA E AS DE CORAL A Rádio Nacional de Angola (RNA) tem em curso um plano de modernização técnica e tecnológica inclinado a cobertura de todo o país.O objectivo é transportar as suas emissões ao maior número possível de cidadãos do território nacional. Eduardo Magalhães, à propósito do dia da RNA, que se assinala este domingo, informou que para esta empreitada foram adquiridos e instalados meios técnicos de última geração, como estúdios, viaturas de reportagem com estúdio, viaturas de reportagem satélite, motos de reportagem, sistema de comunicação por satélite, e outros meios. . . fuente: RNA http://www.rna.ao/ngolayeto/noticias.cgi?ID=23360 (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DXLD) About upgrading the network, digitalizing studios, but nothing specific about transmitters, least of all, SW (gh, DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA. LRA36, Arcángel, 15476.020 kHz, 1910 UT Oct 1. Spaans gesproken (vrouw), informatie en lokaal nieuws (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 2325, ABC Northern Territory, 1232, 10/3/08. Best of three 120 M outlets. OM & YL presenting news feature. Poor signal (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8B, Alpha Delta SWL Sloper, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. R. Australia, via WRN, via CBC Overnight, via 4-hour delay, via CBU via CKZU, 6160, Vancouver, Sunday Oct 5 at 1228 with Roger Broadbent ending ``Australian Express`` program, and I do mean ending, since he said it was time to give the show a rest and from next week, a new show called ``Australian Bus`` [? Not sure of second word] would ensue. He also mentioned CBC Overnight, so the show was specially re-packaged for that even tho it is, rather was, heard on RA direct at other times. 1230 into another RA show, Innovations, with Desley Blanch. Weak but clear signal on 6160. RA, 6020 and 9580, Tue Oct 7 at 1339, in ``Australian Express`` show hosted by Roger Broadbent. This must have been the same one I heard a few days earlier via CKZU, for it was the finale of the series after three sesquiyears. One of the usual sub-features was in progress, Dr Kate Burridge (sp?), professor of linguistix at Monash University, speaking about how things have changed in English with an extra -g- pronounced after -ng- in some words and not in other words. Roger then admitted that she was not an intentional contributor on RA, but he picked up her talks from a domestic network; then interviewed her on phone about how pleased they were that she thus got an international audience, especially in Canada via CBC Overnight. She used to do a separate show called ``Lingua Franca`` . But now referred to as ``A Way With Words``, not to be confused with the public radio hour/podcast originating in San Diego. Or for those who may be opposed to the whole idea of verbal communication, ``Away with Words``. Wrapping up show, Roger explained the derivation of ``swan song``, and said from next week, a woman named --- Jarvis would present its successor ``Australian Bight``. This is what I previously said sounded like ``Bus``. But the second word is still ambiguous until we see it in print. Bight was the first spelling I thought of, since that is the name of the sea off the south coast, Great Australian Bight, but it could also be Byte or Bite; hmm, or even Bait, per Aussie pronunciation. Normally loud and clear 9580 from R. Australia had some weak co- channel from VOA in a SE Asian language, Oct 6 at 1237, as RA`s Late Night Live was interviewing a female doctor who had served in Tennant Creek and other places. It was just barely audible and first thought it might be receiver cross-modulation, but nothing like that elsewhere on 31m. Have not noticed this before, so something new? Maybe not; per Aoki, Laotian began April 14, Tinang at 283 degrees, 1230-1300 only. VOA Washington ID at 1259 and off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 15230, CVC The Planet, in English with gospel rock countdown at 0930 GMT on 2 Oct. Very slick production with PSAs including one where the announcer lists over twenty reasons to give someone why you do not want to have sex, including this gem: "I'm not old enough," and the more structured: "I'm concerned about my future education and earning possibilities," and "money isn't that important to me." The PSA was almost two minutes long. Gotta hand it to the Holy Rollers, they got all the bases covered. Wonder how this is working for them? Very good signal with some fading (Al Muick, Afghanistan, Oct 2, HCDX via DXLD) The Planet? I believe that slogan is already taken (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. Surprised to hear some news in English on 6155, Monday Oct 6 at 0610, giving temps in the Alps, 0611 into French. Had some splatter from RHC music on 6140. 0615 into German talking about Pulcinella, and music followed a bit later. This has to be OE1, but these newscasts are not accounted for in WRTH nor in the page they refer us to: http://oe1.orf.at/service/international_en In fact, there is nothing about French at all. If you change it to _fr it is nicht gefunden. Signal was rather weak, and I had to be sure it wasn`t Croatia instead on 6165 which does have a bit of English at 0600. Would it be too much to ask for Austria to provide an accurate and complete schedule of its foreign-language broadcasts on SW? Well, yes, it would, obviously. Which home service program is axually being relayed at this time? According to EiBi, 6155 is totally in German from 0400 to 1205 when they start doing the language rotations. Aoki is even less informative (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROGRAMMSCHEMA http://oe1.orf.at/service/schema 08:00-08:15 CEST [0600-0615Z] von Montag bis Freitag: Morgenjournal (II) mit Nachrichten in englische und franzoesische Sprache Mit freundlichen Gruessen, (Dragan Lekic aus Subotica, Serbien, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) And searching the 24 hour grid, there are no more mentions of engl. or frz. (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Glenn, Possibly the reason these short English & French newscasts aren't listed in the OE1 International foreign language output (apart from laziness) is that these news bulletins are really just intended for domestic listeners. Unlike the content of the Report from Austria news bulletins (and the Spanish news bulletin), these are just brief headlines of international news plus local weather. There is little Austrian news included, unless it's something major like an election. Incidentally, last weekend on the Postbox segment of Report from Austria, Murray Hall announced that OE1 will continue on shortwave in 2009 after all, but all English, and I would guess Spanish programming will cease. Maybe the Austrian ex-pat. community complained about losing the shortwave relay of OE1, but complaints from foreigners about the loss of English carry little weight with ORF managers (Will F., dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ORF sources confirm that the relay of the First Home Service program via Moosbrunn might be discontinued soon, but no final decision will be taken before the future use of the site is established (Glenn Hauser, Oct 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHAMAS. 1540, ZNS-1 Nassau, Oct/02/08, 2012 EDT, English, GOOD in KXEL Null. No sign of CHIN Toronto!! Male DJ spoke at 2012 EDT. Gave ID as "AM 1540 The National Voice of the Bahamas". Gave phone number for station as 502-3800. Another full ID as "AM 1540 The National Voice of the Bahamas". Into pop music song by female singer. 2014- 2017. Then into "island music" with male singer 2017-2022 EDT. Under KXEL by 2022 EDT (Robert S. Ross VA3SW, London, Ontario CANADA N6A5K1, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** BANGLADESH. 4750.0, Bangladesh Betar (presumed), 1448-1501, Oct 4, subcontinent music and singing, poor to fair, best in USB, QRM on the low side was probably RRI and/or China (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS. History of the transmitter sites in Belarus (former USSR) http://victorcity.dxing.ru/Europa/minsk.htm Kalodziscy founded in 1931, and Sasnovy included 1170 kHz Zarya directional antenna system from 1962y (NWDXC via BC-DX Oct 2 via DXLD) ** BELGIUM. FLANDERS CALLING IN THE POST-SHORTWAVE ERA Radio Vlaanderen International, international service of the Ditch speaking community of Belgium, gave up on shortwave in 2005. At the time, they promised to maintain content in English, French, and German via http://www.rvi.be I can’t find any English there now. (And whatever happened to the great international broadcaster Frans Vossen?) But I knew, by previous explorations, that English content is available from Belgium. First I visited the website of RVI’s domestic parent VRT: http://www.vrt.be After further exploring, and dumb luck (I would never be able to find it again), I did happen upon http://www.deredactie.be There, as well as the original Dutch, English, French, and German can also be clicked. The English site, which also has the easy-to-remember URL http://flandersnews.be has several news stories about Belgium available as text. Some are also presented as video reports, and some just have background video. It’s an impressive service and a good example of post-shortwave international broadcasting (Kim Andrew Elliott, Kim`s Column, Oct NASWA Journal, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Continued at ITALY ** BHUTAN. 6035, BBS, 1401-1425, Oct 3, in English, news (item about an accident that will be investigated, mentions taxi, etc.), announcements ("to qualify for the scholarship …"), into their Friday talk on Buddhism, poor. This has not improved as much as I had hoped for (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. 6035, BBS. What a great way to start the day! Dragged myself out of bed at 0000 on Oct. 7 and started to check on 6030 above, when I noticed the signal on 6035. BBS was there and a fair level with prayer chanting, but getting some QRM from unID station underneath and the house generator spur on 6032. Chanting ended at 0018 and there was some talk in Dzongkha into some traditional music with flutes, then a piece of pop music that almost sounded like upbeat traditional music. They took a huge hit from the carrier on 6025 at 0039, but still strong and at 0032, talk by a man in Dzongkha, positive station ID, into horn-blowing and talk. Just to confirm this whole thing, I went to their website, http://www.bbs.com.bt and took the live stream for a few seconds and it was // to what I was hearing on 6035 (Al Muick, QTH: Kabul, Afghanistan, RX: WinRadio G303e, Ant: 100m longwire, HCDX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 6075, R. Kausachun Coca. Nice CP folk music at 1004 tune- in 3 Oct. Another song started at 1010. Then canned promos at 1012 by 2 men with ID, FM frequency 9?.? (possibly 90.5), MW could only copy "amplitud modulada" and SW as "6,075 onda corta banda internacional de 49 metros", possibly transmission times, another clear ID, then program shouted. Fairly strong with moderate fading and some co- channel QRM. Glad to get this one. 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Radio Causachun Coca, Lauca Ñ, Chapare, Bolivia, is on 6075 kHz with a 10 kW transmitter of the Continental Lensa brand. Pánfilo Condori Choque, general manager of the company that installed the transmitter, says that the antenna system consists of two loop antennas with reflectors. Each antenna is supported by two 15-meter towers, and the reflector is located six meters from the radiator. The location of the antenna is at 16 59'48,00" S 65 13'40,25" W. The antennas are at 265 meters above sea level (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Oct 6, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Henrik, Saw your logging on Causachun Coca. I was wondering if the name of the radio Station is Casusachun Coca or Kasusachun Coca? I see both spellings here. Since you spoke or communicated with the General manager, I thought you might know for sure? Thanks (Chuck Bolland, FL, ibid.) Hi Chuck, I have not heard Radio Causachun Coca other than on audio clips sent to me directly or thru postings online. My reasons for spelling the first word with a C were outlined in my posting # 30828 on this list, and a few days later in DXLD. Please read that posting. I have been in touch via email with the manager of the firm which imported and installed the equipment to ask him for the power of the transmitter. I have not spoken nor been in touch with the station. JOPACH is the name of the firm and a list of their jobs can be found online. Hope this explains the whole thing (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, ibid.) A lot of questions will never have to be asked if you read DXLD thoroughly. Otherwise, why do I bother? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 3310, R. Mosoj Chaskis, 0150, 9/30/08. fair with songs; into talk in Quechua at 0157 (Jim Ronda, Tulsa OK, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 3310, R Mosoj Chaski, 0038 UT Oct 5, best ever with talk by W (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Manitowoc WI, NASWA yg via DXLD) 3310, Mosoj Chaski (Cochabamba), 0057, 10/5/08, in Quechua. Talk by man to 0100 off. Fair. Odd ute tonal signal followed – like a single note on a vibraphone. Thanks to Sheryl Paszkiewicz for the tip (Mark Taylor, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) In case anyone is wondering why I have yet to report this station --- yeah, sure --- my problem in Enid is that there is a local mixing product on 3310, 24 hours, (2 x 960) + 1390. I suspect that KGWA and KCRC are unaware they are combining forces to thwart me (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4716.70, Radio Yura, 2335-2355, Oct 3, Spanish talk. Bolivian flute music. Weak but readable (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 5580.2, Radio San José. San José de Chiquitos, 2320 to 2335 weak signal with music, fading in. Seems to be maintaining a regular schedule. 3 Oct (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, South Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5580.30, Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos, 2225-2233, October 04, ¿Spanish? Romantic songs in Spanish non stop, 24222 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) At 2330 Oct 6, noted in southeast Florida: 5580.25, Radio San José. San José de Chiquitos. 73s (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA [and non]. Article on Bolivian political divisions with map of Bolivia illustrating support and opposition to Pres. Evo Morales. http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12260915 Infant Mortality rates: Bolivia - Infant mortality rate: 52 per 1,000 births Denmark Infant mortality rate: 4 per 1,000 births United States Infant mortality rate: 6 per 1,000 births Guyana Infant mortality rate: 47 per 1,000 births (Robert Wilkner, FL, Oct 7, NASWA yg via DXLD) Basically per map, backing Morales are the highlands in the west; opposing: the lowlands in the east (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Looked for R. 9 de Julho again on 9820 between 0005 and 0030 UT Oct 2, but only traces of some signal there. What was its original frequency before it was banned from SW? Certainly not 9820, which was then considered out-of band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WRTH in the mid-1970s listed the station on 9620 (Dave Kenny, DX News, Oct BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** BRAZIL [and non]. Brazilians even on Stuttgart log tonight. Zanzibar 11735 is OFF since 1-2 weeks ? On repair? 73 wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Oct 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: ZANZIBAR/TANZANIA 11735 Insel Sansibar scheint seit einiger Zeit nicht mehr auf. Der relativ neue chinesische Sender ist wohl in Reparatur? Dafür gibt's heute einige Brasilianer im 25 mb. Fade-in ungefähr 1745 UT und recht starke Signale um 2000 UT. 11724.93, R. Marumby in Port. eine 7.5kW Station aus Curitiba PR. 11734.92, um 1755 UT, jetzt bei 11734.90 als R. Transmundial, Sta Ma RS. Um 1955 UT S=7-8, so circa 30 uV. 11804.74, R. Globo, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Port. 11813.96, die ungerade Station ist REE Costa Rica! nicht der Brasilianer. 11815.00, R. Brasil Central - Sucessos, Goiania GO, \\ 4985. 11829.86, R. CBN Anhangueera, Goiania GO 11915.11, R. Gaucha, Pto Alegre RS, Portug., liegt HEUTE schön über den sonst superpower BSKSA Riyadh auf 11915.00 kHz. 11925.20, R. Bandeirantes, Sao Paulo SP, um 2003 UT. 73 wb 4.Oct (Wolfgang Büschel, A-DX via DXLD) Dear Wolfgang, I must tell that "Fade-in ungefähr 1745 UT und recht starke Signale um 2000 UT" is not entirely accurate, well, at least as far as my own experience & SW coast location are concerned. Propagation permitting, one can actually receive them from s/on in the morning up to the evening time when they start to fade out or simply sign off of which R. Transmundial is a good example - it signs off well before other "colleagues" of them. At 1745 & earlier, reception is usually disturbed by other co-channel (international) stations. Also, on many occasions, certain Brazilian stations on 25 m are not audible simply because they're off the air, e.g. R. Aparecida 11855, R. Globo 11805v, R. Brasil Central 11815v. On the other hand, it's also a matter of selecting the right sort of antenna. In my case, using a dipole type antenna means other co- channel stations are well heard almost covering the B signals whereas the South American Beverage usually erases the offending signal and greatly enhances the B stations. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 1690, 4/10, 0410 Prob. CHTO - Toronto. Greco talk OM e song in EE (segnale troppo basso ed evanescente per essere la pirata greca) suff (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli Italia, shortwave [sic] yg via DXLD) DX'ING FROM WINNIPEG MB, RECEIVERS: ICOM ICR-70 / DRAKE R8, ANTENNAE: 4 FOOT UNAMPLIFIED BOX LOOP / QUANTUM LOOP/, 155 FOOT OUTDOOR WIRE / 100 FOOT INDOOR WIRE / MFJ 1026 PHASING UNIT SPECIAL: 1690, CJLO, QU, MONTREAL, 10/04 2220 ET, Poor signals under WVON with some instrumental music then into Rap. The were // the internet feed to insure I had them. Now on the air. NEW. COMMENTS Not much to report of late as conditions have been bad here. But you never know what you will hear unless you keep trying. 73 and Best of DX (Shawn Axelrod, VE4DX1SMA, REMEMBER ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN HEAR FOREVER, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. CFVP, 6030, Calgary, Alberta, Oct 4 at 1254 with ``Country Gold Countdown``, mentioned a Canadian contest, fair with no jamming, but over some weaker co-channel. After 1300 blown away by Firedrake (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CKZU: see AUSTRALIA [non] ** CANADA [and non]. ``CBC North Quebec`` is the ID, not ``Northern``, on 9625 heard after the news at 1310 Oct 5 and before starting The Sunday Edition at 1311. Native-accented announcer included 800 phone number twice for contact. TSE first hour was about the US economic crisis, the rest about global warming. Listenable until 1330 with some difficulty due to SAH of approximately 9 Hz, Sackville most likely the one more off-frequency, and mixing with religious music from Asia which per Aoki is FEBC Hmanila in Hmong. That`s a lot better than WYFR, also on 9625 and wiping out CBCNQ, a collision between adjacent countries which should never have been allowed to happen, but the frequency managers for both must keep agreeing it`s OK at HFCCs; who cares about the listeners? Okeechobee is currently scheduled on 9625 at 1100-1245, not to mention a couple more hours via overseas relays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. The revived CFRX is now performing this funxion all night on 6070: If propagating at all, makes a rippling subaudible heterodyne against CVC Chile, the stealth evangelical outlet in Spanish originating in Miami, making it more unpleasant to listen to, so it is not a total waste. At best, CFRX signal is accompanied by a bit of undermodulated audio, as noted for example Oct 5 at 0541 check. I doubt that anywhere in the CFRX `coverage area`, such as wherever its maximum signal skips down in the middle of the night, the ratio is any more favorable for it, 100 vs 1 kW, tho proximity counts for very little in the shortwave scenario. They can`t even hear it in much of southern Ontario nor even a few miles away by groundwave in Toronto (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6069.95, CFRB [sic], 1718 3 Oct, end of political report with CFRX [sic] ID at end, traffic report, ad block with promo ID "We need to talk. Pick up the phone and call 416-872-1010, toll free 0-800-561- CFRB. Now here are the ?? on news-talk 10-10 CFRB" at 1023. Fairly strong but modulation only abt 25%. 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) Did you get the calls reversed, or did they really mention the SW call on the air during normal programming? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. The CRTC has approved the application of CKKW- 1090 Kitchener ON to move to FM (99.5 MHz, 2.1 kW). With only 2.1 kW on FM their service area will be small compared to what it presently is ( I am very familiar with this station as I lived in the Kitchener- Waterloo area for several years) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2008/db2008-277.htm CKKW Kitchener – Conversion to FM band 1. The Commission approves the application by CTV Limited (CTV) for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in Kitchener, Ontario, to replace its AM station CKKW. The terms and conditions of licence are set out in the appendix to this decision. 2. The Commission received numerous interventions in support of this application. 3. The proposed FM station will continue to broadcast an Oldies music format targeting adults between the ages of 40 and 64. Approximately 124 hours per broadcast week will be devoted to local programming. The station will broadcast seven hours and 50 minutes of spoken word programming per broadcast week, including one hour and 39 minutes of news. 6. As set out in the appendix to this decision, the licensee is authorized to simulcast the programming of the new FM station on CKKW for a transition period of three months following the commencement of operations of the FM station. Pursuant to sections 9(1)(e) and 24(1) of the Broadcasting Act, and consistent with the licensee’s request, the Commission revokes the licence for CKKW effective at the end of the simulcast period. The station will operate at 99.5 MHz (channel 258B1) with an average effective radiated power of 2,100 watts. 73, (via Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Wow; another Canadian AMer going to FM with considerably worse coverage. Is no one listening to AM in Canada or to CKKW on AM? 73 KAZ wondering why they'd want to do this ?? (Neil Kazaross, IL/WI, NRC-AM via DXLD) Here's the logic, as I understand it: The CRTC is very strict about stations selling ad time in, or overtly aiming their programming at, areas outside their immediate local market. That's why there's still a Hamilton radio market - if they were playing by US rules, all those stations, which have adequate-to-good signals over nearby Toronto, would be operating from Toronto studios as "Toronto" stations. So there's no benefit to CKKW from maintaining the fairly broad coverage it enjoys on AM. There's a big cost, because it's (if memory serves) a nine-tower array that's difficult to maintain, on land that would be quite valuable if it were sold. And, yeah, almost nobody's listening to AM outside the biggest markets anymore. s (Scott Fybush. NY, ibid.) I wonder how many people in the Kitchener-Waterloo area would actually miss the signal on 1090. They can still get their fix of Gordon Lightfoot, Edward Bear, The Guess Who and The Ugly Ducklings easily on other Canadian oldies stations on 1050 (CHUM), 1150 (CKOC) and 1460 (CJOY). Although I wonder if CJOY gets hammered at night by WKDV ("La Kaliente") out that way too? (they sure do at night in Toronto) 73 (Niel Wolfish, Ont., ibid.) Another thing to keep in mind is that comparing U.S. and Canadian FM powers is like comparing apples and oranges. In the U.S., the quoted power of an FM station with a directional antenna is the power in the direction of maximum radiation. If a station radiates 50 kW 350 degrees around the circle but 5 kW for 5 degrees either side of due north, the FCC calls it a 50 kW station. In Canada, the quoted power of an FM station with a directional antenna is the average of the power in all directions. If the sample directional station above were in Canada, the CRTC would call it a 47.5 kW station. The Canadian FM engineering database does show the peak power. (the same figure the FCC reports) For CKKW-FM it's 5 kW - maybe not enough to match their 10 kW AM coverage but a lot better than 2.1 kW! (Doug Smith, ibid.) Good luck trying to avoid getting hammered by WDCX-99.5. This Buffalo bible-belter does have listeners in southern Ontario, though they're a tight squeeze in between CBL-99.1 and CKFM (i.e. Virgin Radio)-99.9. They even claim to be a Toronto station on their website http://www.wdcxfm.com/ So when did the CRTC start allowing oldies formats on FM? 73 (Mike Brooker, Toronto, ON, ibid.) This QRM problem involving WDCX was even indicated on their coverage map submitted with the CRTC application. If you look at the WDCX coverage map at it even includes Kitchener! I seem to remember that they could be heard in Waterloo on a reasonably good FM radio when I lived there in 1976- 1983, unless I have confused them with another station. ``So when did the CRTC start allowing oldies formats on FM?`` On paper they don't - half of the hits must be post 1981 or so. Some stations comply by including a lot of 1980's hits as "oldies" like CFXL-FM 103.1 here in Calgary 73, (Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, ibid.) ** CANADA [and non]. Check out the free program "Where's That Station" for US AMers. http://www.dobe.com/wts/index.htm There's also the FCC AM database, of course, at http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amq.html (Dave n2chi, MWDX yg via DXLD) Dave, thanks for those links. I checked out both of them and, just for fun, used the FCC database for BC and came up with an astounding number of new permits, including a couple that make absolutely no sense whatever: there are two CPs listed for 530 and 540, the former in Surrey and the latter in Vancouver. Now, since these two communities are only about 20 miles apart and the Vancouver ap is for 50 kw, it doesn't seem logical to me. Looking at the coordinates, the towers would have to be practically touching as well. There doesn't seem to be any other information available at the moment to help clarify the issue. Interesting situation (Dave Bennett, BC, ibid.) ** CANADA [non]. I hate to deal with matter like this in DXLD, but if you are in Joe Talbot`s hotmail address book you may get spam from someone who has hacked into it, asking you to send ``him`` money in London UK. It`s the address with his latitude and longitude back in Alberta. If anyone has an alternate address or phone for him, please try to notify him about this (gh) ** CHAD. 4904.97, RNT, 2220-2232*, Oct 2, Afro-pop music. French announcements. Sign off with National Anthem but pulled plug midway thru anthem. Fair to good. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE. 9635, CVC-La Voz, Santiago, 2100-2259*, Oct 3, perhaps Chuck Bolland’s unidentified. Poor to fair with Spanish talk. Religious music. LA music. “CVC-La Voz” IDs at 2258 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Radio Interview re Firedrake - Download the mp3 --- If you share my interest is radio and television jamming signals. you may enjoy a radio interview I recently did with Keith Perron (ex CBC Canada & China Radio International, Radio Havana Cuba) about finding the Firedrake Radio Jammer on Chinasat 6B. http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/27356&47036 You can also read more about the subject here: http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html Cheers, (Mark Fahey, Australia, Oct 5, HCDX via DXLD) Mark, Very good. So Keith is in Hong Kong now? Is he with any particular broadcast station? I was surprised that neither of you mentioned that the original source of the FD performance has apparently been traced. There is a youtube excerpt showing a HK orchestra apparently playing the same music. Regards, (Glenn Hauser to Mark, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) As in 8-099 ** CHINA [and non]. Trans-Pacific conditions were poor on 120, 90, 75 and 60 m the morning of Oct 2, but Firedrake was still making it on 49m, e.g. at 1340 on 6095 // 6085 // 6030. I see people still running across this ``traditional Chinese music`` on many frequencies and wondering what it is in various DX publications, despite discussions of this for years in DX LISTENING DIGEST, which I cannot force people to read in order to be well- informed. Perhaps part of the problem is that Firedrake is not listed as a `station` in WRTH or PWBR, even tho it has become one of the world`s major `broadcasters`. Interesting to compare CRI transmitter sites at 1346 Oct 2: 9570 via Habana had very low modulation, making squishing sound at peaks. 9650 via Sackville, // but offset, had much better modulation but was splattering/spurring out to plus/minus 10 kHz, and more weakly to plus/minus 20 kHz. No CRI audible on 9560 vs R. Australia, unlike a previous day, so maybe that was a fluke or depends on unusual propagation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [non]. 3303 (USB), Zhoushan Maritime Meteorological Radio, checked Oct 1, 1400-1412 but heard nothing, Oct 2 checked from 1100-1112 and 1400-1412, but still heard nothing. Believe they must have changed their schedule again, but I do not have a clue as to when they are now on the air. Do not think it was poor propagation, as I was hearing Changjiang Maritime Security Information Center both days 8794 (USB), Changjiang Maritime Security Information Center (presumed), random checking between *1347-1425*, Oct 1 & 2, in Chinese, repetitive IS (EZL orchestra music), reading some type of lists (assume it's the water traffic information for the Changjian River, a.k.a. Yangtze River), short musical bridges between lists, read by different women announcers, before sign-off a series of about 19 pips, poor-fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 5075, Shanghai PBS/Voice of Pujiang, 1320-1351, Oct 5 and 6, has changed back to their winter frequency (ex: 9705), fair, last heard here around April, noted the usual // 4950 (fair) and 3280 (weak). 6035, PBS Yunnan, 1241-1252, Oct 5, with traditional Chinese music, well on top of BBS/Bhutan, just a month ago BBS was much better, // to spur on 6043, by 1401 BBS in English was weak and still under Yunnan; Oct 6 no BBS at all heard after 1401, only Yunnan. 7225, Sichuan PBS-2, 1506-1517*, Oct 3, traditional Chinese songs, almost good reception, in the clear after VOA 1500 sign-off, // 6060 (fair, 1515*), these two frequencies are never in sync for sign-off, usually 1-4 minute difference (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 9600, PBS Xinjiang, heard on 3 Oct at 0436 with fair to good sigs, but deep and slow fades. Some banjo music, DJ patter and telephone call-ins in the Mandarin language. Good modulation and professional presentation (Al Muick, QTH: Kabul, Afghanistan; RX: G303e; Ant: 100m longwire, HCDX via DXLD) ** CHINA [and non]. This Federachi bulletin for Oct is illustrated with lots of CRI Olympic QSLs as one of the contributors sent them reception reports for many different language services: http://federachi.multiply.com/journal/item/48 There seems to be something wrong with the html encoding, with some entire paragraphs hotlinked to somewhere; most of the logs are undated and thus of not much use, and also some questionable ones, previously dealt with here, e.g. CONGO on 9610, so beware (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) QSLs: CHINA RADIO INTERNATIONAL: 7130 KASHI; 9570 CERRIK, ALBANIA; 5990 HAVANA; 9690 NOBLEJAS, SPAIN; 6020 SACKVILLE. Full-data (including sites) National Stadium, National Aquatics Centre, Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium, & Olympic Sports Centre Stadium cards, all in 1 month. Also bookmark & personal note from Ying Lian, English Service, on larger “One World One Dream” card with logos of various CRI services. Address: China Radio International, P.O. Box 4216, CRI-2, Beijing 100040, China (Wendel Craighead, Kansas, USA, Oct 3, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Can a note be ``personal`` from a collective name, Ying Lian? (gh) ** COLOMBIA. During my usual tune through 49m today (Oct. 3) I found La Voz de tu Conciencia dominating on 6010 at 0715. After a talk by a male, which I thought had religious content, the ID was given at 0720 in both Spanish and English - frequency too in the latter language. A music and song programme followed. Signal strength was weak to fair. This frequency is usually dominated by Brest (BLR) before 0700, but this had faded by 0715, although it was obvious that other(s) were also still present. CLM appeared to be using as near 6010 as I could determine - when previously identified some time back it was always on the low side. On the other hand, their other station (Marfil Estéreo) was heard on about 5910.1 with popular Colombian melodies, and this signal was slightly stronger than 6010. It's a regular around this same time, but naturally does vary in strength from day to day (Noel Green, NW England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO DR. 6210, 3/10 1915, R. Kahuzi - Bukavu, vernacular talk YL suff (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli / Italia, shortwave yg via DXLD) Radio Kahuzi, DRC, 6210, 1735 UT Oct 6. Tamelijk goed tevolgen, met vernacular talks (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** CROATIA. Winter B-08 schedule of Croatian Radio HS-1 in Croatian: 0558-0857 on 6165 DEA 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 0858-1457 on 9830 DEA 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 1458-2157 on 6165 DEA 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 2158-0557 on 3985vDEA 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Oct 7 via DXLD) ** CUBA. 6220, Radio Habana Cuba; 0402-0407+, 4-Oct; M&W in Spanish with commentaries re Centroamerica. SIO=3+32+ with ute bursts; // 6060, S30 sig; nothing on 6300 (Harold Frodge, MI, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Because 6220 is ex-6300, now 6060 leapfrogging over 6140 instead of over 6180 (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. RHC`s English program at 23-24 UT is supposed to be only on 9550 --- to Rio de Janeiro? To the Caribbean? Who knows? But I was monitoring 11800 at 2301 UT Oct 1, and guess what --- RHC opening English, not unusual for this frequency to be running overtime past scheduled 2300* in Spanish. So I then checked 9550 --- just open carrier! Then I checked 9600 --- and there was RHC English // 11800. Modulation on 9550 came up around 2303. It came to pass that 11800, bothered by QRDRM from 11790-11795- 11800 HCJB with 4 kW aimed 110 degrees from Pifo, cut off sometime between 2305 and 2307, but 9600 kept going past 2330 as if it were intended. BTW, RHC does not announce its frequencies at the beginning of English hours, which is a very good idea since they change from day to day, and the studionix are in no position to know them, unlike an axual monitor in faraway Oklahoma. Also, while listening to RHC on 9600, I could barely hear the Vatican IS underneath at 2314, but did not notice whether they still had a 2.5 minute English service just before it; RHC was much stronger. DentroCuban Jamming Command was busy jamming nothing the evening of Oct 2, early UT: at 0010 on 9515 vs R. República which closes at 0000 (but heavier jamming on its axual frequency 9640 to the extent that RR was inaudible); also against nothing on 5890 and 6110, which are VOA Spanish frequencies not opening until 0030 and then not exclusively for Cuba. RHC, 13680, Oct 3 at 2106 in English, quite muffled audio, and running about two words ahead of // 11760 which had good audio. My theory now is that this 13680 broadcast is via one of the decrepit transmitters mostly used for CRI relays with similar-sounding crummy modulation. Why not? It so happens there are no CRI relays via Habana during this period, 2030-2130. Meanwhile RHC Spanish at 2107, much better on 13760 // 11750 and // 11800 with SAH and audio mixing from R. Bulgaria Spanish. Propagation from Habana was very good Oct 4 at 1245 on 31m, such that very strong RHC 9600 mixed with CRI relay on 9570 putting a leapfrog mixing product another 30 kHz below on 9540, where much weaker audio from both could be heard at once. DentroCuban Jamming Command attacking VOA Spanish, 5890 and 6110, UT Sun Oct 5 after 0100 when VOA was talking about the embargo, but jamming continued at 0130 in non-Cuban VOA program ``Club de Oyentes`` which started with Mercedes interviewing on phone Ricardo ---, a Colombian photographer, about Armenia, Quindío. Another day, another SNAFU at RHC, broadcasting contrary to its own schedule: Oct 6 at 2110 checked 13680 for the scheduled English broadcast. Nothing there. However, at 2112, on came RHC in Spanish, not English. It was // 13760 and leading it by about two syllables. 13680 as usual with inferior modulation and weaker signal, but no interference, unlike 13760 from 13755 Portugal. At 2115 I checked the 25mb frequencies. 11800 was in English instead of scheduled Spanish, SAH with R. Bulgaria in Spanish, and // RHC English as scheduled on 11760, just a reverb apart, much stronger than 11800. So basically, the programming on 13680 and 11800 was exchanged. Uncross those patchcords or feedlines! At 2118, 11750 in RHC Spanish was suffering from a SAH of roughly 10 Hz, as often happens from a station in Chinese, with hymns. Per Aoki at 21-22 this is KSDA Guam, aimed due northwest, but plenty problematical for RHC over here, more like northeastward. At 2136, 11800 had gone into Kriyol, while 11760 was in French; 11750, 13680 and 13760 in Spanish. At 2208, 13680 still in RHC Spanish instead of scheduled French, and this time over NHK if it was there at all; 11800 in French instead of Spanish. Spanish very good on 11750, the co-channel now gone. 11760 was off. At 2210, I checked 17705, and found RHC Portuguese quite strong, but distorted. That encouraged me to check for higher harmonics, and sure enough, there was lite bubble jamming on 18090, 3 x 6030 against R. Martí, intruding into the hamband (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Unidentified Cuban on 1040 --- I have uploaded a file recorded Sept 28. Need some help. It is clear that they announce Radio Cadena Habana, but perhaps they say that they will send programs from Radio Cadena Habana? There is a frequency mentioned (1040?) just after one minute of the recording. The Cubans have moved around lately so this may very well be Radio Cadena Habana. My Spanish is not good enough to solve this one! (Gert Nilsson, Scandinavia, Oct, RealDX yg via DXLD) Gert, This is Radio Cadena Habana, la frecuencia popular. Somos la Radio de La Habana, la radio que te llama hoy y siempre... Says that they are coming in like a ton of bricks (como un cañón) in motor cars on the island, being heard in the Caribbean and Central America!! Mentions at least one FM freq, 99 something, and on AM at least 1140. /The fq annct is tough to digest/. As the Guantánamo station on 1070 appears to have moved to 1020, there is a good possibility that the 1080 outlet now is the one on 1040. Interesting to note their phone numbers, 838 14 68 and 838 14 69. I wonder if they´d put you through. Well worth a try next time you hear them (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, ibid.) I've heard "Radio Guamá" a couple of times recently on 1020. Is this a different station from the one you are referring to, Henrik? (Paul Crankshaw, Scotland, ibid.) Thank you Henrik! I will try to send them a mail if I can locate their email address. I don't think they would understand my Spanish if I called them.... (Gert Nilsson, ibid.) Paul, I was referring to my posting on the MWC net on Sept 29, which went like this, "Cuban move from 1070 to 1020? Radio Trinchera Antiimperialista, CMKS, Guantánamo, noted on 1020, at 0500 on Sept 13. Used to be on 1070." A verbatim reprint can be found in Glenn Hauser´s DXLD #8109 dated October 1. Have you been hearing Radio Guamá on 1020 later than Sept. 13? (Henrik Klemetz, ibid.) ** DENMARK. Yesterday and today I noted very weak DRM on 243 kHz. Is Denmark testing DRM? (Jurgen Bartels, Suellwarden, N. Germany http://dx.3sdesign.de/tv_logs_2008.htm http://fewo.3sdesign.de - Holidays at Northsea coast Oct 7, mwdx yg via DXLD) Yes, low-powered tests with 30 or 50 Watts, but 500 Watts intended later. Tschüß (Martin Elbe http://home.wolfsburg.de/elbe/ ibid.) Viz.: From Oct. 3rd DRM tests on Kalundborg 243 kHz, IDing as "DR Kalundborg Current Affairs", "Test Transmission". 1 kHz test tone and same signal strength (30 watts) as during tests in March/April. Observed at my place in southern Jutland less than 150 km away from transmitter (Ydun Ritz, Denmark, Oct 5, dxing.info via DXLD) ** ECUADOR. HCJB`s Kulina service on 11920, Oct 1 with carefully enunciating preacher referring to Matthew XXIV, pronounced in Portuguese, at 2253 and again at 2256. I figured they would have moved much further into the NT by now, since my last log of this on May 10 found them also citing Matthew XXIV. Either they`re really hooked on this chapter, or more likely, they have recorded only a few programs in this exotic language and play the same ones over and over. And just like 5 months ago, the speaker was faded out rudely at 2259:30 with no outro or closing, just in time for the automated introduxion to the Portuguese service which follows. 3220, music and unID language, fair signal Oct 4 at 0120, so I first thought of Africa, but must be only HCJB in Quechua, supposedly NVIS. BTW, the 90-degree ``azimuth`` shown in Aoki means straight up, not due east! WWCR does not open 3215 until 0200. Surprised to find HCJB on a third frequency in Spanish on the 25 m band, Oct 7 at 1308 on 11920, ``Cruzada con Luís Palau`` show, going into hymn, much weaker but synchronized // 11960, and always-RTTYed 11690. Will this be accounted for in the ID break to follow? Of course not! At 1314:30 still playing ancient outdated recording claiming to be on ``11690, 21455, 11960``. Is 11920 a mistake? It so happens that HCJB does use that frequency at a very different daypart, 2245-0230 in Kulina and Portuguese, so did the automation erroneously bring it up in the morning, or did they decide to make use of a spare transmitter at this hour? 11920 still audible at 1413 but now with some lite QRM co-channel, and also splash from the DentroCuban Jamming Command on 11930. QRM could be China in French via Albania, or BBC in English via Thailand, both starting at 1400 per EiBi (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. New DRM schedule from HCJB, 4 kW: The 11790-11795-11800 Portuguese broadcast at 2300-0100 and the 15355-15360-15365 German at 2000-2200 have been replaced by: 0830-1030 on 11620-11625-11630 in German, 43 degrees 1500-1700 on 11700-11705-11710 in Portuguese, 131 degrees (Glenn Hauser, Oct 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) New transmissions of HCJB Global in DRM from Oct. 1: 0830-0930 NF 11625 OUI 004 kW / 043 deg to WeEu in Spanish Mon-Fri 0900-1030 NF 11625 OUI 004 kW / 043 deg to WeEu in German Sat/Sun 0930-1030 NF 11625 OUI 004 kW / 043 deg to WeEu in German Mon-Fri 1500-1700 NF 11705 OUI 004 kW / 131 deg to SoAm in Portuguese Cancelled transmissions from Oct. 1: [THESE WERE DRM --- gh] 2000-2200 on 15360 OUI 004 kW / 035 deg to WeEu in German 2300-0100 on 11795 OUI 004 kW / 110 deg to SoAm in Portuguese (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Oct 7 via DXLD) OUI? How about QUI, as in Quito, really meaning PIFO (gh, DXLD) ** EGYPT. R. Cairo notes Oct 2: at 0012, 9360 with open carrier, or almost so: straining to make out any traces of modulation I thought I heard ``Qahira`` mentioned; this is scheduled in Arabic to S America. Meanwhile, 9280 at same time had good modulation with Arabic music; this is English to North America at 2300-2430, commonly mis-listed as Arabic, e.g. in Aoki, since schedules emanating from ERTU repeatedly overlook this English broadcast and people are also ignoring my correxions about it in DXLD! Here`s another chance to do so. At 0014, also checked 6290 and found that good in an Arabic drama, W&M alternating (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [and non]. On Oct 1 I did not get around to checking 15190 for R. Africa until 2250, too late for modulation but not too late for a big open carrier they had not yet turned off. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Heard Oct 1, at 2144 with preacher (not Tony Alamo), fair signal, but the audio did not sound quite right, not really bad but not normal for them, suddenly at 2147 the audio went off, leaving just a strong open carrier, checked 2147-2206 + 2216 + 2226 and continued to find just the OC with no audio, just as you also noted at 2250, so over an hour of OC. Very light QRM today (very faint WYFR IS at 2200) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Africa, 15190, big carrier at 1954 Oct 2, just barely audible modulation. Why can`t some stations ever get their act together and keep it together? If you don`t have any significant modulation, can`t you tell that is the case at the transmitter and just turn it off? What`s the point of burning the kWh? Bulletin: you can`t have one without the other and claim to be `broadcasting`. Well, you can the other way around, SSB modulation and no carrier, but this isn`t that. Maybe RA should consider that if they can only rely on one of the two. Not that we really care, since all they broadcast are gospel huxters, even those facing criminal charges of child porn and sexual abuse. I listened to a few seconds of Tony Alamo on WINB and right away heard him talking about fornication. {BTW, I see on the Tony Alamo website that linx have been dredged up proclaiming that he has been cleared! But if you look at them, those are old stories from a previous brush with the law in 1991!} (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, *0502-0525, Oct 3, sign on with brief 10 or 15 second Spanish announcement followed by National Anthem. Hi-life music at 0504. Spanish announcements. Fair to good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, Radio Africa, 2240-2251*, Oct 2, English religious programming. Radio Africa ID announcement at 2248 with email address, & address in Accra, Ghana. Good. Strong. Very weak WYFR heard underneath (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Africa, 15190, Oct 3 at 2153 with big carrier, fair modulation level, sounds like Tony Alámo conversing with someone. 2159 WYFR sign- on in Portuguese. Any R. Africa ID at 2200? Of course not! Roughly equal level at the moment and virtually zero-beat so couldn`t really tell how much of the big carrier came from Bata and how much from Okeechobee. Sat Oct 4 at 2159, no trace of R. Africa on 15190 as on previous days, just strong open carrier, and WYFR opening Portuguese // 15665. 24+ hours later, Sun Oct 5 at 2204 nothing but WYFR heard on 15190 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Via remote receiver in Europe: 15190 R. Africa missing when checking at 1100 Oct 5 (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Checking 15190 again Sunday Oct 5 at 2204, all I could hear was WYFR in Portuguese, so presumably R. Africa still missing. However, around 0600 Oct 6 and 7 I was hearing RNGE 6250 in Spanish. Axually at hourtop they are usually playing music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, Radio Africa (presumed); 1620-1626+, 6-Oct; Gasping English preacher; 1625 audio abruptly off, couple of tape garbles and into different English religious program in progress. SIO=353- (Harold Frodge, MI, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ERITREA, 5940, V. of the Tigray Revolution at 0414 UT Sept 28. Presumed this one with man and woman in local language, up-tempo Horn of Africa vocals past 0430; very muffled, telephone-quality speech audio. \\ 5950 at first [mi]xing under, then equal to, WYFR (Bob Hill, MA, DXplorer via BC-DX via DXLD) ** ERITREA/ETHIOPIA. V. of the Broad Masses of Eritrea (VOBME) observed around 1500 with weak signal but much stronger at 1657 retune. Transmitter cut out at 1700 but back at 1701 with sign-off at 1800 UT (Edwin Southwell, England, DX News, Oct BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) Presume 8000 kHz (Dave Kenny, ed., ibid.) Another station is also heard around 8000 kHz and mainly noted during VOBME`s short transmitter breaks at the top of the hour for a minute. This seems to be a station broadcasting in Arabic and I noted Call to Prayer at 1700 on Friday 5th September. VOBME has a stronger signal; the other station is weaker. Jamming has been noted while Eritrea has a short transmitter break and when Eritrean radio`s signal is weaker due to propagation (Edwin Southwell, Hants., ibid.) 7999.4, 1730 14 Sept, unID, VOBME Asmara? Weak signal after station on 8000 had signed off; this station off itself at 1732; SIO 131 (Tony Rogers, Birmingham, England, HF Logbook, Octt BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) 8000, 1620 Sept 12, VOBME presumed, OM talk between Afro songs, vernacular, SIO 343 (Edwin Southwell, ibid.) 8000, 1710 13 Sept, unID, Eritrean opposition? Tune-in to talk in unID language (presumably an Eritrean language) with mentions of Asmara, HoA instrumentals, closing announcements at 1730 and then off, SIO 343 (Tony Rogers, ibid.) ** ERITREA [and non]. 7999.41, 1650-1702* 02.10, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea, Asmara. Vernacular announcement, Horn of Africa music - also after 1700. 22332, jammed by ETH on 8000 with a different programme. 8000.01, 1700-1703* 02.10, Ethiopian jammer relaying HS programme in Amharic, jingle, news (tentatively), 34333. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. Hi to all, Listen to my new audioclip. Radio Oromiya, clandestine station, Ethiopia, 6030 kHz, 29th sept. 2008 at 0400 UT in Oromo language, with ID and int. sig. http://www.hb9gce.ch/Radio%20Oromiya_20080929_ 35221_6030.mp3 73 de Andy http://www.hb9gce.ch (Carl Andreas Stumpf, playdx yg via DXLD) Not clandestine (gh) I received R. Oromia, Ethiopia on 6030 kHz at -1900*UT (ex. 1800*) on Oct. 4. QRMed of BBC-Arabic. When would you extend broadcast from? (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Oromia heard on 6030 kHz at 1735-1900* UT on Oct. 5. http://ndxc.org/aoki/binews/ai/oromia-20081005-1852_6030.mp3 de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The change must have happened fairly recently, but on the other hand when they started operation, they were sometimes on until 2000. BTW, also on 6030 kHz R. Maranatha/Hit Shortwave from Bishkek is heard again here in Finland with rather good signal around 1530, before Oromia signs on at 1550. Some QRM from China of course. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, ibid.) ** ETHIOPIA. Saludos Cordiales amigos de las ondas cortas, que "acortan" distancias: Con gran satisfacción les comparto que en éstos días descubrí por primera vez a dos de las tres emisoras de onda corta de Etiopía, un país al noreste de Africa. Radio Fana, idioma amárico, 6110 KHz, (audible también en los 7210 KHz, pero con pobre señal y mucho ruido) en horarios de 3:00 a 4:00 UTC, con SINPO de 2 a 3. Música y comentarios informativos. (2 Octubre 2008) Radio Ethiopia, en idioma amárico, 7110 KHz, con un SINPO de 3 a 2. Música y comentarios informativos. (2 Octubre 2008) [¿hora?] Gracias a los colegas que me auxiliaron para identificar a Radio Ethiopía. Les invito a visitar mi blog: http://entre-ondas.blogspot.com Ahí encontrarán unos fragmentos de las escuchas realizadas (MAGDIEL CRUZ RODRIGUEZ, Jiutepec, Morelos a 85 kms. al sur de la Cd. de México, SANGEAN ATS-818, Antena tipo V invertida de 7,55 por lado, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 9560.28, 1805 13 Sept, R. Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, presumed, talk in unID language, HoA music; drifting down to 9559.8 and back to 9560.28; off at 1833; SIO 232 (Tony Rogers, Birmingham, England, HF Logbook, Oct BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 15650, *1730-1830* CLANDESTINE, Friday 03.10, Voice of Oromo Independance, via Juelich, Germany, Amharic. Opens with Horn of Africa folksong, talk with a few musical interludes, 23242. QRM Spanish speaking station. At *1752 began a severe noise, probably jamming from Ethiopia with QSA 3 which signed off at 1902* Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Via Samara, Russia, 21555, Ginbot 7 Dinst Radio, *1700-1729*, Oct 4, talk in listed Amharic. Short breaks of local music. Threshold signal-very weak. Fair to good on // 17655. Tues/Thur/Sat only (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. This is what I heard recently on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire: 5980, 1000-1105 Sat 04.10, Scandinavian Weekend R, Virrat, Finnish / English. It is now using 5980 instead of 6170 at 0600-1300 (during summer!) in its monthly broadcast. Miki with "Musicbox" playing a lot of English pop songs, weak, improving to 25232, heard // 11720 AP-DNK 11690, 0815-0915 Sat 04.10, Scandinavian Weekend R, Virrat. Finnish / English, obviously a test with a long conversation in Finnish, followed by statements in English from the EDXC Conference in Vaasa by Dario Monferini, Torre Ekblom and Jyrki Talvitie 33333 - 34232. QRM Voice of Croatia via Wertachtal, not // 11720! 11720, 0900-1105 Sat 04.10, Scandinavian Weekend R, Virrat Finnish / English DX-talk in Finnish, "Musicbox" with English pop songs, several ID's 35444, but at times deep fades 25233, heard // 5980. No QRM until Beijing signed on at *1059 with Voice of Minorities programme in Uighur. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) So they were on two 25m frequencies at once, 0900-0915, thus two 25m transmitters (gh, DXLD) ** FRANCE. Observations on RFI English schedule since 6 September: 0400 M-F 9805, 11995 0500 M-F 11995, 13680 0600 M-F 97965, 15160, 17800 0700 M-F 13675 ?till 0730? 1200 daily 21620 announced but not heard 1600 daily 15605 (+maybe 17605, not heard) (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, DX News, Oct BDXC-Communication via DXLD) ** GEORGIA. GEORGIAN REGULATOR SLAPS FINES ON RUSSIAN BROADCASTERS Georgia's National Communications Regulatory Commission has fined two Russian media outlets the equivalent of 36,000 US dollars each for broadcasting in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the two breakaway regions which declared independence from Georgia in August, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on 2 October. The commission imposed the fines after ruling that the two outlets - the Vesti FM radio station, which is owned by the Russian state through its VGTRK media holding, and Channel One, Russia's most watched television channel, which is also controlled by the state - had broken Georgian law by broadcasting in the two breakaway regions without a licence. "Under the law 'On rules for business activities in Georgia's occupied territories', there are standards operating in Abkhazia and South Ossetia which require that a licence be obtained for the use of frequencies in these regions," a spokesman for the commission told RIA Novosti. "Russia's Vesti FM radio station and Channel One have not obtained broadcast licences for Abkhazia and South Ossetia. On that basis their work in these regions of Georgia is illegal." The spokesman added that both broadcasters had been sent notification of the ruling. The commission also said that, if the fines go unpaid, they will be increased to 1m Georgian lari, the equivalent of 720,000 US dollars. Source: RIA Novosti news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1218 gmt 2 Oct 08 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** GERMANY. I've determined that if Biblis has free time before transmission, it will open carrier on xx59:10 or xx59:11 or xx59:12. If the transmitter has a pause of at least 15 minutes up to several hours, it will end transmission at xx00:01 or xx00:02 or xx00:03. If the Biblis transmitter has to switch frequency immediately, it will drop a carrier at xx58:57 or xx58:58 or xx58:59. And only few seconds before TOH transmission starts. The station's engineer decides which seconds will be used in automated schedule. I must say I really don't understand why so many variations are used (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Two reasons I guess: -- a tx unit is always pre-warmed up with few hundreds watts ONLY. -- before the PC automatic driven procedure fires up the final stage tube booster, the automatic antenna switcher has to switch from the new transmitter unit to the new meter-band antenna via a driven matrix between xx59/29 and xx00/30. -- If two or more transmitters at one site start new service on new frequency and/or new antenna via matrix path, they can only boost step by step at one time. (Example: start 10 TV sets in your living room via a 8 Ampere fuse at one time, fuse-protection) (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) An impression how Biblis transmissions actually sound: I must say those Biblis transmitters (Continental) and audio processing units are giving almost the best quality on short waves. You can hear every instrument in music jingles. One month ago I couldn't sleep, so I DXed, and during my listening, I compared at 0030z the following: R Farda, Persian 7280 kHz, Wertachtal, 105 deg R Farda, Persian 7350 kHz, Biblis, 105 deg And absolutely the Biblis transmitter had the best audio quality. Of course, R Farda was playing some grate music, and the signals were very strong. If I must to grade audio quality between 1 and 10: WER 8, BIB 10. Regards & good night! (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, Oct 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. 13810, Bible Voice Broadcasting via Nauen, 1659 with Horn IS into Tigrinya programming on 02 Oct. Signal was weak but otherwise in the clear, so it was intelligible. They were aiming at East Africa, so it's a decent catch for me off the side lobe of T-Systems' antenna. Listing in WRTH is under Canada for headquarters. OM announcer was going to town with what seemed to be a real fire and brimstone sermon, interspersed with African gospel chanting and music. 73, (Al Muick, Afghanistan, Oct 2, HCDX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Re: Will today be the last day of Radioropa? ``Now it remains to be seen what will happen in Saxonia, provided that the Sächsische Zeitung report was correct.`` Insiders say that it of course was correct, but Technisat withdrew from purchasing BBC Radiocom Deutschland GmbH before the sale had been completed. So the relays of BBC and RFI in Saxonia will continue without changes for the time being. It remains to be seen what will happen later. Either BBC and RFI will keep their direct commitments to Saxonia, will seek for another buyer/partner or simply pull the plug (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Oct 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. 7475, NO ID, 0220-0230, escuchada el 6 de octubre en inglés a locutora con entrevista a invitado, hablan de forma pausada, parece una entrevista de caracter cultural, hablan de "Hamlet", terminan conversación con fragmento de música clásica, SINPO 45444 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Como dice en MONITORING REMINDERS CALENDAR para LUNES TU: 0200-0300 VOG Partial English show, title? 7475 9420 15650 [unconfirmed lately] Es decir Voz de Grecia. Hubo más en griego? 73, (Glenn, ibid.) Saludos Glenn, la emisión se mantuvo en inglés hasta las 0300 UT; creo que luego no hubo emisión. 73 JMR (José Miguel Romero2, ibid.) ** GREENLAND. 3815, 2045-2108v* 29+30.09, KNR, Tasiilaq (USB) (tentative) Greenlandic/ Danish pop songs, 2100 talk (news ?) 12111. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) If you are not sure, could it be a pirate in Europe playing Greenlandic / Danish pops songs on this frequency as spoiler? (gh) 3815 USB, KNR Tasiilaq (0.2 kW) (tentative), 2045-2107*, Sep 28 and 29, seems reactivated, non-stop screaming pop songs which did not sound like this station two years ago, but more like an Europirate, 2100 talk which could be news in Danish. Disappeared as usual without ID or closing ann or music. Occasional CWQRM and Russian utility conversation, 24332. Also heard Sep 30 at 2102-2109*, talk in UNID language. Strong telefax QRM 2027-2102* (Petersen, and Ritola in Cumbre DX, DSWCI DX window Oct 2 via DXLD) Re 8-109, 3815 reports: trying via a number of remote receivers in Europe, no joy so far (Hans Johnson, Oct 5, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** GRENADA. 540, GBN Klassic AM, St. George's (12 04'N 61 45'W) OCT 5 0300 - Presumed, under CBT; BBC World Service. GBN relays the BBC after 0200 UT (Bruce Conti, Camden ME; SDR IQ, MWDX-5, terminated Delta antennas 15 x 20-m east and 15 x 27-m south, Mid-Coast Maine DXpedition, Oct 4-5, mwdx yg via DXLD) ** GUAM. On 9900, Oct 2 at 1357 found VG signal in what sounded like an Indian love song; 1358 ID in S Asian language with postal address, ``namaskar`` and off immediately at 1359* Is my PWBR `2008` next to the radio any help? Of course not! I risked spraining my wrist for nothing. It shows something starting at 1400 but nothing ending at 1400. So as usual one must consult the much more accurate and up-to- date online resources, once the computer is turned on. Aoki shows KTWR Guam, daily 1345-1400 in Santali, 100 kW, 285 degrees. Eibi spells it Santhali and in the readme explains that it`s spoken in India by 5.5 megapersons, and in Bangladesh by 150 kilopersons. WRTH says target is E Asia rather than S Asia. All agree it is the only KTWR broadcast on this frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. Radio Verdad – Radio Truth: A todos nuestros amigos de Radio Verdad: Mis mejores saludos a todos. Muchos se preguntan: ¿Qué pasó con “Radio Verdad”. Lamento mucho, pero, por el exceso de trabajo, hasta ahora va nuestra información oficial: El día lunes 22 de septiembre, como a las cuatro de la tarde (hora de Guatemala), cayó un espantoso rayo sobre la antena de nuestro transmisor de onda corta, a pesar de tener 3 pararrayos con 3 puntas cada uno, el pararrayos del transformador eléctrico y el “chispero” propio del transmisor, debidamente calibrado, y un blindaje a tierra con cable número 2, con rejilla profunda de cobre. Como consecuencia, se quemaron casi todos los transistores de potencia, y otros menores, de los dos módulos de salida. De modo que, estamos fuera del aire, y no sabemos por cuánto tiempo. Yo creía tener suficientes transistores de reserva, pero, no alcanzaron ni para un módulo. Nuestros transistores son muy extraños y difíciles de encontrar en todo el mundo, y trabajan con 600 voltios. De modo que, tendremos que pedir que nos los fabriquen en los Estados Unidos. Agradecemos a los amigos Magdiel Cruz, de México, Dino Bloise, de Miami, y otros amigos, que ha divulgado la información. Esperamos también la ayuda de Christer Brunström, de Suecia, y HCJB. También, agradecemos los muchos correos de solidaridad que hemos recibido de los “diexistas”. Ahora, sólo nos queda pedir a Dios su ayuda, para volver pronto al aire. Por de pronto, les invito a escuchar nuestra señal por Internet, en la siguiente dirección: http://www.radioverdad.org Édgar Amílcar Madrid, Director y Gerente --------------ENGLISH – INGLÉS---------------------------------------- To all Friends of “Radio Truth”: I send you my best wishes. Many may ask: What happened to “Radio Truth”? I am sorry, but, because excess of work, it is now that I send you the official information. On Monday, September 22, at 4:00 p, m. (Guatemala time [2200 UT]), a disastrous lightning [bolt] fell upon our SW transmitter antenna, despite having 3 lightning rods, with 3 tips each, the electric transformer lightning rod, and a well calibrated sparky devise inside of the transmitter, with a good grounding using number two copper wire. As a consequence, we got almost all power transistors burned out and some smaller ones, on our outcome two modules. So, we are off the air, and we don’t know for how long. I though I had enough spare power transistors, but they were not enough. Our transistors are very strange, and difficult to find in all the world. They work on 600 volts. So, we’ll have to ask them to be produced in the United States. We appreciate our friends Magdiel Cruz, from Mexico, Dino Bloise, from Miami, and other friends, who have spread out this information. We expect the help of Christer Brunström, from Sweden, and HCJB also. We are grateful for the sympathy expressed by many “Dxers”. Now, we have to ask God to help us, for coming back on the air. On the mean time, I invite you to tune our signal over Internet, on the following address: http://www.radioverdad.org (Édgar Amílcar Madrid, Manager and Director, Oct 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. R. Luz y Vida, 3250.0, Oct 4 at 0121, announcer in Spanish with birthday greetings to someone in Guatemala. I see this station is missing from Aoki listings, tho quite regularly reported. EiBi has it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HUNGARY. Correxion [sic] for B-08 schedule of Hungarian Radio in Hungarian: 0200-0300 NF 5995 JBR 250 kW / 306 deg to NoAm, ex 6135 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Oct 7 via DXLD) ** HUNGARY [non]. GERMANY B-08 schedule of Hungarian Radio in Hungarian via Media Broadcast 0100-0200 on 5980 WER 250 kW / 300 deg to NoAm 0200-0300 on 6145 WER 250 kW / 300 deg to NoAm 0500-0830 on 6145 WER 250 kW / non-dir to WeEu Sun 1100-1200 on 3975 WER 250 kW / non-dir to WeEu 1200-1300 on 17690 WER 250 kW / 090 deg to AUS 1500-1800 on 3975 WER 250 kW / non-dir to WeEu 1900-2000 on 3975 WER 250 kW / non-dir to WeEu 1900-2000 on 9845 WER 250 kW / 090 deg to AUS (alt. 9895) 2100-2200 on 3975 WER 250 kW / non-dir to WeEu 2100-2200 on 5970 WER 250 kW / 300 deg to NoAm 2300-2400 on 6025 WER 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu Sat/Sun 2300-2400 on 9665 WER 250 kW / 240 deg to SoAm (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Oct 7 via DXLD) That`s quite a surprise, since we thought SW broadcasts originating in Hungary were on their last legs (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** INDIA [and non]. 4920, AIR Chennai, 1415-1431, Oct 5, in vernacular, ads, subcontinent songs, BoH ID for A.I.R., almost fair, totally dominating Tibet (// 4905) on this frequency. Normally Tibet has better reception; Oct 6 Tibet well heard at 1348 with very weak AIR under them (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Picturesque All India Radio Kurseoung [sic] http://alokeshgupta.googlepages.com/AIR_Kurseoung.jpg (Source : All India Radio via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, DXLD) 4895, 2325-0035 28/29.09, AIR Kurseong. Vernacular songs, early morning Mahalaya broadcast, 34333, QRM Mongoliin R // 4830 Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. RADIO: A FRIEND IN NEED, A FRIEND INDEED Ashok Kumar Panigrahi Radio can rightly be called as a friend in need, a friend indeed. Once again, it proved that even amidst the glare of hundreds of TV channels and glossy magazines, it remains the trusted well wisher of the common folks during the floods in Bihar. . . http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=142806 (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, DXLD) ** INDIA [non]. 9855, *1530-1630* UZBEKISTAN, 28.09, FEBA, via Tashkent, Hindi announcement, Sitar music, long talk with advices to the people in heavily flooded Bihar province, 1557 sad songs, 55434 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. AIR GOS, 9690, again making it Oct 2 at 1348, good modulation, but over some co-channel QRM also producing a ripple-fast SAH {Maybe V. of Nigeria, previously heard on rare occasions at this time?}. Woman was speaking clearly in English in a tribute to Gandhi, pro-non-violence, ``dialogue is the only way to prevent terrorism``. Outroduced at 1353 by less intelligible YL announcer, so could not copy the attribution, into rap music and immediate tune-out (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Re 8-109, AIR DRM on 9945-9950-9955, All India Radio starts regular DRM tests to Europe --- Long time DRM Member All India Radio started regular DRM tests on 2nd of October from Khampur, Delhi (India) into Europe. The broadcast is at 1745-2230 UTC on 9950 kHz. More information in the DRM Live Broadcast Schedule. (Source: DRM Consortium) Rob K, October 7 comments: And there was me thinking that the purpose of broadcasts, and the testing thereof, is to provide a service to an audience. I’d be happy to listen to AIR by satellite, partly because there’s a good range of Asian channels on Astra 28.2 and others, to which this would be a useful addition. Would I buy a DRM receiver, assuming that the tests are successful (whatever that means) to listen to a solitary Asian channel on a box separate from my main sources of information and entertainment and which is likely to suffer from the effects of SID as well as locally generated noise? (October 7th, 2008 - 10:20 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) Oh no, more jamming against WRMI 9955, where, ironically Jeff White is the DRM promoter in North America (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Can just barely see them on the waterfall. Of course there is no decoding at present 20:11 UTC. 10/02/08. Sincere Best Regards, 73,s (Eric//KG4OZO// Atlanta, Georgia, drmna yg via Alokesh Gupta, DXLD) AIR was decodable for a few minutes "Down Under" this morning - see my post at: http://www.drmrx.org/forum/showpost.php?p=50641&postcount=56 73 (Chris Mackerell, Wellington NZ, Oct 3, ibid.) ** INDIA. I received an Indian TV sound in Hindi on 60.75 MHz at 0422- 0536+UT on July 24 '08 in Japan. Over 5000 km! http://oyunna.web.fc2.com/20080724hindi6075.wav Program was documentary until 0430, after TV drama or movie. I don`t know an Indian high-power station in E3 channel. Please give me advice (RX: IC R-9000, ANT: ALA1530+) (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, Oct 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Uploaded an audio File again. http://ndxc.org/aoki/binews/ai/unid-20080724-0422hind6075.mp3 (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, Oct 6, ibid.) In a huge country like India you`d think here would be multiple transmitters on every channel, including E3. The problem is getting a complete and accurate listing. In 1969-1970, I frequently got E4 New Delhi, including video, whilst DXing from Thailand. WR[T]H 2008 devotes about one inch to TV in India with no attempt to list any specific channels. Hunt at http://www.ddindia.com Lotsa luck. For instance, the page about DD transmitters does not bother to go into channel numbers either: http://www.ddindia.gov.in/About+DD/Doordarshan+Transmitters (Glenn Hauser, OK, ibid.) ID at 08:46 Min: Doordarshan, Kashmir Channel. Regds (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, ibid.) Thank you very much, Alokesh. The reception of Doordarshan is the first time and the most long-distance record for me. It is received a signal seeming to be several times India on E4 ch (67.75 MHz) so far in Japan. However, all of them are unconfirmed (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, ibid.) ** INDONESIA. Opname van daarjuist 1545 UT Oct 6, Palangkaraya 3325 kHz. Om 1600 ID "Radio Republik Indonesia" op 4 seconden in bijlage. Sterk signaal,maar de audio is aan de zwakke kant (best koptelefoon). Antenne was LW100meter +Perseus. Gr. Maurits Glenn, recording from Indonesia, strong signal but audio are sometimes weak. I`m now more on the mediumwave, for TA DX. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Omdat de tropenband het nu iets beter doet tegenover anders. Zit ik nu al uit teluisteren vanaf 2005 UT Oct 2 op 4789.973 kHz. Hier zit blijkbaar Indonesia, Fakfak. Met typische lokale muziek. Signaal is zwak, maar toch tevolgen. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** INDONESIA [Re: 8-109, Oct 1, 2008 - 4925 RRI-Jambi (presumed), 1326-1341, Sept 30]. On Sat Oct 4 1445 I heard dangdut music request by phone program hosted by OM Adi, callers of which from Muara Sabak and Rantau Puri. 1502 “.....bersama RRI” jingle, IS then OM IDing “RRI Pro Satu Jambi”. The next 50 minutes program: “Jelang Malam”, oldies request by phone 074165995 (Tony Ashar, Depok – West Java, Indonesia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thank you Tony. I appreciate your feedback. Is very nice to have someone located in Indonesia to confirm these stations with positive identifications. Thanks again. Wish you good listening! (Ron Howard, CA, ibid.) ** INDONESIA. 11784.86 on air VOI with Indonesian language news in at 1400 UT, fair signal today Sept 26. \\ VOI stream 128 kb/s on MS IE Media Player, VLC-Player, Winamp. On Firefox started Media Player by hand! Schedule like 0800 En, 0900 Kor, 1000 En, 1100 Chin, 1130 Jpn, 1200 Ins, 1300 En, 1400 Malay, 1500 En[but break approx. 1506 til 1545 UT on SW and antenna switch from 30 to 315 degrees], 1600 Ins, 1700 Arabic, 1800 Spanish, 1830 German, 1900 French, and 2000-2100 UT English (Wolfgang Büschel, Sept 26, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Oct 2 via DXLD) 11785.94, VOI, 1445-1520*, Oct 2, in English, checking for their usual 11784.83v and heard nothing there. Open carrier on 11785.94 caught my attention, was below threshold level, steadily improving, by 1458 could hear English and several VOI IDs, ToH into news in English, I expected the usual 1501 sign-off, but was surprised when they completed the news and went into Today in History, Indonesian Wonders, etc., fair by the time they suddenly went off, moderate CODAR QRM. As Mauno Ritola has recently commented on, seems that VOI is in a constant state of flux; we never know exactly where they will be or what language we will hear (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) VOI was on 11785.98 kHz from 1600 UT, today Oct 2nd. They use three different transmitters; one is +xx.90...98 kHz, like 9525.96 or 11785.98. Another -x4.86, the third unit or -x4.74 kHz. (9524.xx / 11784.xx). Similar happens at Sana'a Yemen, where either two different transmitters like 9779.65 or 9780.04 kHz on oscillation ... or at Abkhazia where two former jamming units on schedule like one day on 9494.74, the other day on 9495.55 kHz instead. wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Jakarta 11784.450 kHz, 1948 UT, Program in het Frans, goed signaal maar zwakke audio (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) 11785.95, VOI, 1459-1505*, Oct 3, what a difference a day makes! Yesterday they were coming up from threshold level and today they had a strong signal. Announced they had been broadcasting in Malay and were going into English, started the news in English but cut off in mid-sentence, no CODAR heard today; Oct 4 noted 1504*, heard with the weekend QRM from WHRI on 11785.0 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA?? 11785.97, V. of Indonesia?? Only a weak carrier here, probably Indonesia at 1725. Carrier on 11784.45 at 1818 check with just strains of audio. No chance to get any positive indications it`s Indonesia. (3 Oct.) 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) Today VOI again on the transmitter of 970...980 Hertz above xx.00. Just noted at 1555 UT [when CRI in Russian from Urumchi 500 kW powerhouse 11790 closes] on exact 11785.97 kHz, 35 uV signal on Eton E1 Lextronix set. ID in American accented English at 1601:10 UT. wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Oct 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see LAOS [non]. WHRI vs VOI 11786v VOI, 11786, Oct 7 at 1414 with quick ID in English, then back into woman talking in presumed Malay. Poor signal, heavy flutter, but at this hour no het or any other QRM. Lately they have been on 11786 rather than 11784-11785 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. I catch your SW show sporadically, as I'm all over the spectrum quite randomly; hope you're well. RN is about to leave shortwave. I can't follow all these SW stations to the damned internet --- for cryin' out loud, I'm on 26.4K dialup! Radio is so much more fun anyway! Best, (Chuck Ermatinger, Oct 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: Who hears "ex short-wave" stations using a computer? Listening to international broadcasters and other streaming audio over the Internet is great, but I'm starting to wonder if it's going to last much longer. Increasingly I'm finding that stations in the U.S. are blocking access to their streaming audio for listeners outside the United States, for licensing or legal reasons. The latest I stumbled across was 1180 WHAM in Rochester, NY, yesterday, when I tried to listen to its stream and got a message saying listeners in Canada are no longer allowed to receive it. (This is silly, since we can listen to WHAM over the air on a real radio, but there you go). So far this seems to be a purely American issue, but I'm wondering how much longer it will be before it spreads to other countries (Greg Shoom, ODXA yg via DXLD) I've encountered a similar problem with Cool 96FM in Belfast, telling listeners outside the UK that they're not longer streaming around the world. Radio stations must not deny listeners outside the U.S. the opportunity to listen to their stations! (Richard Clifford, Oct 6, ibid.) In these two examples we're talking about commercial, for-profit stations, right? Being a bit cynical here: Remember, these stations don't generally exist to serve listeners. They exist to serve advertisers. One wonders if the VOA will apply this logic at some point. Since they're not allowed to serve (or even acknowledge) a domestic audience, they might, at some point, decide to employ one of these IP address location systems and block those of us in the USA from listening. Nowadays, advertising is getting so quantitative in terms of spending and measuring the impact of that spending that advertisers will not want to pay for advertising if the odds are good that they're paying for an audience not interested in their offering. Notice also that this discussion has migrated away from the "international broadcasters" that Sr. Coro spoke about. That is one of the key differences when considering Internet-delivered audio vs. shortwave: a local broadcaster can be every bit as global as the BBC World Service just by providing an audio stream (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, ibid.) See a parallel thread under NETHERLANDS ** IRAN [non]. 7460, USA, R. Payam-e Doost, in Farsi to Iran. OM talk with nice instrumental music at 0312 on 02 October. S/off right at 0315 after a string of IDs. Nice strong signals, S4 without any jamming. This is the Bahai'I Faith getting their 2 cents in. 73, (Al Muick, Afghanistan, Oct 2, HCDX via DXLD) What does USA have to do with it? Site is Grigoriopol, Moldova, per Aoki. No listing for it in WRTH 2008 under Clandestine section, Iran (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAQ [non]. R. Free Iraq: see SUDAN [non] ** IRELAND. 549, Hot Country CIMR, Monaghan OCT 5 0300 - Nostalgic vocal, canned ID in English, "This is Hot Country CIMR," a weak signal under heavy interference from 550 kHz. Thanks to Jean Burnell of RealDX for help identifying this (Bruce Conti, Camden ME; SDR IQ, MWDX-5, terminated Delta antennas 15 x 20-m east and 15 x 27-m south, Mid-Coast Maine DXpedition, Oct 4-5, mwdx yg via DXLD) This one is making quite a splash amongst European DXers. Why would ``CIMR`` pretend to be Canadian? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** IRELAND. Via remote receiver in Europe: Reflections Europe. Thanks Brian Alexander's tip. Heard them with Jack Van Impe at 1900 on 3910 and 6295. Untraced on 12255 (Hans Johnson, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** IRELAND [non]. RTE, via WRN via WRMI, 9955, Oct 3 at 2110, Irish accent talking about the EU, good S9+15 signal and no jamming! For one minute. Then at 2111 pulse jamming at the rate of 132/minute started, or maybe faded in. RTE still rather readable as WRMI signal peaked and jamming dipped. This broadcast is M-F 2100-2130, and there is another M-F at 1800-1830. At 2130 switched to Romania, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. 15785.03, Galei Zahal, 1734 3 Oct, program of local instrumental and vocal music hosted by M in Hebrew. 1756 canned announcements including clear ID by W. Music bridge, then 1800 fanfare and tone denoting ToH, and apparent news brief by M. 1802 jingle mentioning "The sounds". Fair at best with a lot of fading. 6973 also in but too early. 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) 15785, Galei Zahal; 1642-1702+, 6-Oct; M in Hebrew with Motown tunes to 1650 then traditional music; promos 1658-1700; ToH GZ ID!, not often heard, and into news. SIO=252 at QRN level; improved substantially toward 1700. Nothing detectable on 6973 (Harold Frodge, MI, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Israel Radio yearly one day shutdown --- As every year, due to Yom Kippur, all of the Israel Radio networks will not be broadcasting from this Wednesday afternoon, until Thursday evening, Israel time. All Times below Israel STANDARD time (UT +2). As of 14:06 Wed, Oct 8, all of the networks (I have no idea about REKA, or Reshet Dalet) relay Reshet Bet, until Reshet Bet goes off the air. Actually, that should really be 14:00, since the hourly news comes from Reshet Bet. When the networks come back on the air at 19:00 on Thursday, they relay Reshet Bet for one hour, before continuing their own programming. Reshet Bet schudule: No programs broadcast: Wed Oct 8 16:06 - Thurs Oct 9 19:00 On Thursday: Broadcast tests from studio: 18:15-18:45 40% Tone at 18:45 Reshet Bet interval signal 18:57 19:00 broadcasts resume. [LOCAL TIME UT+2] == As of now, at least, I'm not sure of REKA's schedule, or if the Persian shortwave broadcast will occur on either of those days, considering the schedule (Doni Rosenzweig, Oct 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY. Another example of post-shortwave international broadcasting: you can still hear the news in English from RAI Italy. Go to http://www.rai.it then click on Radio, then click on RAI International Radio, then click on Notturno Italiano. This is an all- night RAI program heard in Europe on medium wave. It’s available from 2220 to 0400 UTC (2320-0500 UTC after October 26), or, hour by hour, on demand. News in Italian is transmitted at the top of the hour, followed by news in English at about 5 minutes past, followed, sometimes, by news in French. The rest of Nottorno Italiano is in Italian, but most of it is an eclectic mix of music, nice to listen to while you’re doing something around the house (Kim Andrew Elliott, Kim`s Column, Oct NASWA Journal, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** ITALY [non]. SLOVAKIA Winter B-08 of NEXUS-IBA IRRS Shortwave from Milan, Italy: 0530-0630 on 5990 RSO 150 kW / non-dir Eu/ME/NoAf EGR English Mon-Thu 1030-1300 on 9510 RSO 150 kW / non-dir Eu/ME/NoAf EGR English Sun 1400-1430 on 15725 RSO 150 kW / 095 deg India/SoAs EGR English Sun 1500-1800 on 15650 RSO 150 kW / 160 deg EaAf/Sudan MIR Eng/Ara Daily 1900-2100 on 7290 RSO 150 kW / 160 deg Eu/ME/NoAf EGR English Fri-Sun EGR=European Gospel Radio MIR=Miraya FM Radio,Sudan (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Oct 7 via DXLD) ** JAPAN. Previously around 1300 on R. Nikkei, we have heard English lessons and German lessons, and on Thu Oct 2 at 1302 there were French lessons for Japanese listeners, on 6055, about goings-on in Paris (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KASHMIR. Channel E3 TVDX to Japan: see INDIA ** KOREA NORTH. Re UNIDENTIFIED, DXLD 8-107 & 8-108 – Glenn's drifting station is indeed North Korea (Voice of Korea), heard at 1104 on Oct 2, on 6068.30 in Japanese, // 3250, both poor, mostly talking, 1125 distinctive music that matched up on both frequencies, so VoK really is a drifter, as I heard them on 6072.09 on Sept 23 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6020, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze via Yamata, Japan, 1427-1430*, Oct 3, sign-off announcement in English, North Korea has found this frequency and is jamming with pulsating noise, the good news is that the Shiokaze signal was well on top, also heard light QRM from Vietnam; Oct 4 jamming also present, so perhaps they will shortly change frequency again (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 7530, R Free North Korea, via Yangiyul, Tajikistan (presumed), 1857 Test tones till *1900-2058*, Sep 26, 27, brief fanfare and ann, Korean talks till 1956, song, more talk past 2000. The Korean speech tone sounds entirely different from the strident, staccato delivery on KCBS! Extremely faint at first, steadily building to almost fair level by 2000 despite constant sharp fades (Bob Hill, MA via DXplorer via DSWCI DX window Oct 2 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Additional frequency for Voice of Wilderness in Korean: 1300-1400 9330 DB 100 kW / 070 deg to NoKo from Oct.1 \\ 11640 IRK (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Oct 7 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9905 OPPOSITION. Open Radio for North Korea (via Gavar, ARMENIA), 2142–2200, 10/4/08, in Korean. Radio drama (woman over piano music, man,20then interaction between, ending with woman over piano music), contemporary Korean vocal, 2157 brief song, 2158 woman with announcement including English “Open Radio for North Korea”, “Pomp and Circumstance”, 2200 off. Poor with grinding jamming (Mark Taylor, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. I received the test broadcast on 9965 kHz that used opening music of Nippon no Kaze at 1530-1600* UT on October 1. At 1558 replaced [by] English Service of WHR via T8WH. Probably that Nippon no Kaze is transmitted by T8WH, Palau from B08 sked. http://ndxc.org/aoki/binews/ab/furusatonokaze_test-20081001-1553.mp3 de S. Aoki (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, Oct 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Just music until 6 minutes in, WHR ID, and T8WH Palau. See also PALAU (gh, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. CLANDESTINE - 11690, Nippon no Kaze (presumed), *1500-1530* Oct 4. Long opening routine, followed by Korean talks; closing announcement at 1525, mentioning e-mail address info @ rachi.go.jp (same as Furusato no Kaze) and website http://www.rachi.go.jp Could not make out any ID's - the Korean ID's must not sound anything like they do in Japanese. Good signal from Darwin transmitter (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW. Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. KBSWR, 9650 via Canada, Thu Oct 2 at 1240 in English with Korean language lessons on the theme of bank transaxions. One really needed printed material to follow it. And even better, some printed won (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KURDISTAN [non]. 11530, CLAN, Denge Mezopotamya, in Farsi at 0435 jammin' with pop music on Oct 2. S4 sigs and no QRM and only light QSB. Call me crazy, but the music sounded like a combo between traditional Arab, Judas Priest and Sparks! I actually sat and listened for awhile. We've had the last three days off here in Kabul for the Eid al Fitr holiday and it's been a lot of fun just DX'ing! Looks like I picked up all the religious and clandestine DX today. QTH: Kabul Afghanistan. Receiver: WinRadio G303e. Antenna: 100m longwire. 73, (Al Muick, Afghanistan, Oct 2, HCDX via DXLD) Possibly they have some Farsi, but WRTH shows only Kurdish (gh, DXLD) ** KUWAIT Radio Kuwait not heard on 11990 at 1800 in English over the past few days; perhaps they have ceased this service (Edwin Southwell, England, undated, DX News, Oct World DX Club Contact via DXLD) Not audible here September 30, they were on 15110 0715 tune in to 0756 off October 1; assume English service though just pop songs, no announcements (Mike Barraclough, ed., ibid.) ** KYRGYZSTAN. Re ETHIOPIA: BTW, also on 6030 kHz R. Maranatha/Hit Shortwave from Bishkek is heard again here in Finland with rather good signal around 1530, before Oromia signs on at 1550. Some QRM from China of course. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Oct 6, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED ** LAOS. 6130, Lao National Radio, 1415-1435, Oct 6, recently they have not aired their usual 1415-1430 programming, but had played indigenous music instead. Today had exceptionally good reception, very strong signal (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS [non]. WHRI, 11785, with Hmong Lao Radio, Sat Oct 4 at 1348, with het from V. of Indonesia. Usually it`s on the low side, but this time on the hi side, about 11786. This correlates with measurements by Ron Howard; and Wolfgang Büschel, who says VOI has three different transmitters which operate on three slightly offset frequencies from the nominals. WHR now has a third Hmong program, which I ran across UT Sunday Oct 5 at 0112 on 5875, excellent clear reception, no fading or distortion and a good time to record some more exotic music. This was singing accompanied by a hi-pitched and repetitive drone on a string instrument bowed back and forth. 0117 announcement in Hmong and more music; ended at 0129, back into English. Per online sked, this is Hmong North Radio, under the auspices of one Liaj Sou Vang, UT Sundays at 0100-0130 and also UT Saturdays 0000- 0030, both via Angel 6, WHRI. On this time and frequency it must also be intended for Hminnesota rather than Laos. It`s not clear what organization is behind this, and none of the Hmong programs are in the program links list at http://www.whr.org/Links.cfm Even a Google search gets zero hits to ``Hmong North Radio`` so it must be so new Google has not even found it on the WHR schedule pages. Ditto his or her full name. (The other shows are Hmong Lao Radio, Sat & Sun 1300-1400 on 11785, and Hmong World Christian Radio, Sat 1400-1430 on 11785, also Angel 6, and all of them recommended for their exotic music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA [and non]. Front page: One of the masts at the Latvian short and mediumwave transmitter site at Ulbroka just outside Riga. This Blaw-Knox MW radiator mast with its unusual diamond cantilever design is one of only a few such masts that exist in Europe. This mast was originally sited in Germany, but moved to Latvia as war reparations after WW II. When visited on 9 September none of the Ulbroka transmitters were on the air as the site is usually only used for weekend SW transmissions on 9290 including ``Latvia Today`` and various commercial programmes. Latvian Radio no longer broadcasts on MW altho this mast at Ulbroka is reportedly used at weekends for low power transmissions from Radio Nord on either 945 or 1485 kHz (Photo taken by Dave Kenny during the post EDXC conference visit to Latvia). Another Blaw-Knox mast can be seen at the BBC`s Lisnagarvey site near Belfast. The Lisnagarvey mast, which was installed in 1936, is still standing but is now missing its top section (Oct BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ** LIBERIA. 6070, ELWA, Monrovia, 2240-2300*, Oct 2, religious music. Closing announcement at 2258 followed by National Anthem at 2259. Weak. Poor with adjacent channel splatter. Mixing briefly with CVC Chile at their 2300 sign on. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA. 21695, Voice of Africa, 1530-1559*, Oct 4, surprisingly strong signal. Also a good, strong signal on // 17725 but signing off at 1603. English news at 1534. Commentary at 1543 about the problems of democracy. IDs (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. Frequency change of Mighty KBC Radio in English from Oct. 5: 0200-0258 NF 6145 SIT 100 kW / 310 deg to NoAm, ex 6110, Sunday only (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Oct 7 via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 5964.93, Klasik Nasional FM via RTM, 1301-1317, Oct 1, in vernacular, news (mid-way through the news: "Radio RTM Kuala Lumpur"), a regular feature now after the news at 1310 is a long version of a choral Anthem followed by singing station jingle ("Klasik Nasional"), pop songs, fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 5995, RTVM, 2100-0001*, Oct 3-4, French talk. Wide variety of rustic tribal music, Afro-pops, & instrumental music after 2200. Some vernacular talk. Sign off with National Anthem at 0000. Fair signal but poor after 2300 due to adjacent channel splatter. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. R. Mauritanie, 4845, still on at 0118 UT Oct 4 with speech in Arabic, strongest station on band below 5 MHz. Was not listening closely but went off somewhere around 0130; however at 0156 check there was still a carrier on about 4845.2, maybe this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. I finally had a chance to check XEPPM`s program with an English title ``On the Road`` per their website SW schedule for 6185, at 0015 UT. Oct 2 at 0015 music, then segué into a romantic song in Spanish, but by 0019 the announcer was talking and it soon became clear that this is a series presented in Spanish about Jack Kerouac`s ``On the Road``, at its fiftieth anniversary. Plus hiway SFX, and even at 0020 the theme music to ``Ruta 66``. Now we know. Wikipedia: ``On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was written based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was inspired by jazz, poetry, and drug experiences. While many of the names and details of Kerouac's experiences are changed in the novel, hundreds of references in On the Road have real-world counterparts.`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Have barely been able to detect a carrier from XEXQ lately, but heard much better Oct 2 on 6045: 1222 tune-in, good modulation with classical cinema music from an epic western, familiar but I could not place it. No announcements. Much better copy than under-modulated CFRX 6070 with 4x the power; and also better than XEOI 6010 which is also 4x the power, nominally, further than SLP and normally has the upper hand in this time period. At 1230 a SAH of 72 per minute started from another 6045 station, = 1.2 Hz, but no detectable modulation and not too obtrusive. However, online schedules do not show anything starting at 1230 on 6045. Rechecking at 1249: Spanish announcement in progress mentioning Universidad Autónoma de San Luís Potosí, which is all one needs for a definite ID, besides the paucity of classical music on SW, any other 6045 station in particular. Now the QRM had changed a lot with a fast SAH, flutter, and het or tone: the latter no doubt from Vladivostok warming up for the VOR Chinese broadcast at 1300. At 1257, XEXQ was playing Albinoni`s Adagio, an extremely beautiful piece for which all other stations should QRX or QRT in deference. But no! At 1300 Chinese talk started from VOR. Recheck at 1332, VOR had faded down and XEXQ again dominant with some more classical music, and was still stronger than 6010 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 9730.77, Myanma R., 1437-1448 + 1518-1539*, Oct 3, mathematical lesson with many equations in vernacular with English terms ("minus … squared … minus … complex number ... minus … equals ... equal to …"), indigenous music at sign-off, almost fair except for adjacent splatter. 9730.77, Myanma R., 1440-1458, Oct 5, in vernacular and English, continues to provide a lot of educational programming, spelling words in English, lesson in business English ("The goods under consideration are inferior goods … If more buyers enter a market the cost … the demand will rise", etc.), mostly poor (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [and non]. RAPIDLY FADING SHORTWAVE --- Of particular importance to us in the the North American Shortwave Association is Radio Netherlands’ decision to quit English-language shortwave broadcasts to North America. This is a big one, following the BBC and Deutsche Welle abandonments of shortwave English to North America, as well as similar moves by Kol Israel, HCJB, Radio Vlaanderen International, RAI, Swiss Radio International, etc. German shortwave expert Kai Ludwig wrote: “This marks the end of shortwave as a relevant broadcast medium in the USA and Canada. The programming still transmitted on shortwave in and into North America should be of interest to very small niche audiences only. In some cases it may even damage the reputation of the medium further.” The RN announcement on September 15 conveniently buried the lead, mentioning first the availability of the station’s programs via public radio stations, Sirius satellite radio, and the internet, then, finally, down in the middle, mentioning that “we have decided to end our shortwave broadcasts to the region” as of October 26. As for those newer media, RN via public radio stations is very overrated. RN may have several “affiliates,” but chances are the program you want to hear is not on a station in your community, at least at an hour you would like to listen. The Sirius option is only for Sirius subscribers. The best bet is internet access. And even though internet radio is now receivable on internet radios, these nifty new devices are still not as portable as battery-powered shortwave radios. As an exercise, I have been listening to Radio Netherlands on my Tangent Quatrro wifi internet radio. It is based on the Reciva list of internet stations. Via shortwave, Radio Netherlands was the only station from the Netherlands (with the exception of the occasional pirate). Via Reciva-based internet radio, there are 439 radio stations available from the Netherlands. The Reciva database is a mess, with stations added on request even though they might already be available. For Radio Netherlands, the following are available on the menu: 1) radio Nederland en español, 2) Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, 3) Radio Netherlands, 4) Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 5) RNW 1 NL, 6) RNW 2 English, 7) RNW 24, 8) RNW 3, 9) RNW 3 Español, 10) RNW and Radio Netherlands. Some are separate streams, some are redundant. But it is a reasonably reliable way of hearing Radio Netherlands in English. The only improvement I would ask for is on-demand RN programs on Reciva-based internet radios, as is the case with BBC World Service and BBC domestic radio networks. Of course, RN programs are available on-demand for online listening or downloading from http://www.rnw.nl So far, there are about 75 responses to the RN announcement about dropping English shortwave to North America. Not surprisingly, most oppose the decision, and many of these mention the portability of shortwave radios compared to other media. Some of the responses are resigned to the decline of shortwave, and a few even support the decision. But there will be no major Save Radio Netherlands Shortwave campaign. After the vigorous effort to convince BBC World Service to keep its shortwave to North America, spearheaded by Ralph Brandi’s http://www.savebbc.org (still available and worth reading), ultimately did not succeed, U.S. shortwave listeners, I think, concluded that further resistance would be futile. Indeed, other stations have been leaving shortwave with distressing regularity (Kim Andrew Elliott, Kim`s Column, Oct NASWA Journal, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) See also BELGIUM; ITALY Radio Netherlands Going Forward --- Perhaps Andy Sennitt can answer this. What is going to become of the transmitting site in the Netherlands Antilles? Is it to be decommissioned or used for other services? (Mark Coady, Co-Moderator, ODXA Yahoogroup, Oct 1 via DXLD) Andy can, but I can too. I already exchanged e-mails with Andy. The transmitter-hours that were used for English to North America will be used for Spanish language services augmenting what are currently being used -- no net change in transmitter hours (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, ibid.) This was also answered some time ago in DXLD; is no one paying attention? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) So the transmitter will remain "hot", with all of its overhead. Hey, throw us some crumbs, guys. If you're going to have the English content on the web (and thus produced and paid for), feed an hour or two a week through the transmitter. Why would that be so bad? It seems like virtually a no-additional-cost situation (Curt Phillips W4CP, Raleigh, NC USA, ODXA via DXLD) Depends on how you count your beans. I also recently suggested they keep one English hour a night and delete the other two which are duplicates, anyway (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Who hears "ex short-wave" stations using a computer connection? Dear amigos: It would be very interesting to run some kind of social research a.k.a. "listeners survey" to learn more about who listens to international broadcasters using an Internet connection. The research must be done taking into consideration not only different countries, but also different areas of the same country. For example, in developed nations like Canada, there are areas that are served using satellite links down to the homes of the users of the Internet, while in other areas, dial-up continues to be the only option, and still at other locations users may enjoy even a very fast fiber optic link!!! If the data from such a survey * that I anticipate will cost a lot of money * will be made available to the decision makers at the international broadcast stations that so far have operated using the short wave bands to distribute their service, my perception is that much better decisions will be taken, and in many instances the return to short wave use will be implemented at short n[ot]ice, especially if the decision makers don't want to have as a permanent audience the control room operator of their station, because nowadays transmitters usually run automatically using remotely controlled units. Comments invited (Arnie Coro, Host of Dxers Unlimited, Radio Havana Cuba, Oct 2, ODXA yg via DXLD) One of the challenges with this type of research is that those who interact with a broadcaster via the Web don't consider that any type of "hobby" unless they started out as shortwave listeners years ago. They just listen, or browse text. Radio Netherlands actively solicited input for the past year -- via their website, perhaps via other methods -- regarding how listeners *heard* their broadcasts. Their recent decision was based in part on responses to that survey. Surveying us in this group will thus introduce a bias to the process -- because everyone here has some sort of attachment to radio. One fact is that, here in the USA, broadband Internet access (as a percent of total home Internet access) became the majority method of Internet access in 2004. The year-over-year increase was 13 percentage points, or 34% overall. I am sure there remains differences in access method when one considers rural versus urban/suburban listeners. See this link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-5314725-7.html 90+% of my listening is either downloaded to MP3 files, streamed via a PC, or listened via an "Internet" radio. I'd be happy to continue this conversation off-line if anyone is interested. I have been personally studying trends in shortwave / satellite / rebroadcast / webcast tradeoffs for 10+ years (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, Editor, "Easy Listening", NASWA Journal, ibid.) Group, I am writing to ask people to please visit the Radio Netherlands website and post your comments about their plan to end English language shortwave broadcasts to North America on October 26th. If enough people contact them about this, maybe they will reconsider their decision (Denny Dollahon, Oct 4, ptsw yg via DXLD) Great idea -- here's the link. http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/080912-shortwave-america (Rob, ibid.) RN considers the decision already made after a year or more of `research`. The comments are merely for listeners to blow off steam. As I said before, RN could keep one of the three English hours to NAm and get off the hook. English hours will still be produced for other targets, so playing back one more time should be no big deal. The news could even be repeated from the last previous English broadcast, admitting that it was recorded earlier, as some other stations do, e.g. Turkey, Sweden, or leave out the news on overnight/early morning repeats local time, as Radio Japan does at 2200 and 0000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, I am sure that Radio Netherlands will be happy to hear from any listener but frankly, the time to be doing this was months, if not years ago. A few e-mails or letters won’t change anything at this time, IMHO. Unless you can muster hundreds if not *thousands* of responses, they will be ignored. Moreover, it isn’t shortwave enthusiasts they need to hear from, its program oriented listeners. I don’t have any special insight into the decision by RN but I’ll bet if you divide the average number of listeners by the cost per minute of delivering the service it is vastly higher than any alternative means of delivery. Sadly, the numbers of shortwave listeners in North America has declined to the point that a few or a few dozen messages won’t change the fundamental situation. There aren’t enough people listening anymore to justify the costs of providing the service. Perhaps world events might again necessitate shortwave to North America in the future, but I wouldn’t count on it. I wish you luck on your campaign. -- (Rob de Santos, Columbus, OH USA, ptsw yg via DXLD) We tried hard when the BBC discontinued the North American Service, but they just laughed at us and said in effect, "SW is no long the avenue we can afford to spend money on to North America, when our biggest audiences are in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the South and Western Pacific!". Of course the problem with all of this is in the event of a national emergency such as a nuclear war. We will not be getting any news from outside the US. But, I guess it is worth at least an e-mail (Bob Clark, From the Foothills of the North Cascades, ibid.) One huge advantage of internet-based delivery schemes over all other methods is the instant and complete nature of statistical information available. A radio station can know on a daily, hourly, or even by the minute, how many users are "listening" (streaming or downloading a podcast) and, with just a bit of analysis, approximately from where each accessed from. OTA shortwave can't compete in this regard. Short of having all listeners e-mail once a week a "listening log" to a clearing house similar to an Arbitron diary, they would have no idea when someone is listening at a statistical level anywhere close to internet. More of the "just-in-time" "me" world applied to international broadcasting (Kevin Anderson, via Richard Cuff, swprograms via DXLD) A follow-up note: One of the metrics that both the BBC World Service (in 2001) and Radio Netherlands (in 2008) used in deciding to curtail shortwave usage to North America was "cost per shortwave listener". Back in 2001, the BBC published an assessment of its "audibility" in each target region -- that is, how easily the station could be heard in various geographies. This was when the BBC made use of Antigua and Sackville (as well as the UK) to reach North America -- before they pulled the plug. The BBC found that its audibility in North America was not as good as it was in West Africa, South Asia, Europe, Southern Africa, the Middle East, and the Pacific Islands. Meanwhile the BBC also calculated a cost per listener -- looking at the transmitter-hours that served the various targets and then dividing by the number of listeners to reach a cost-per-listener. They found that the North American audibility was lower than most areas, and the cost per listener was higher than most areas. That wasn't a good combination. Radio Netherlands pretty much went through a similar exercise over the past year. They didn't develop this audibility assessment, but they did estimate their audience in various regions and also look at the transmitter cost to reach that audience. Once again, the cost-per-listener for North America was higher than in other English language regions. Given the decline in North American listener feedback (vs. other regions) and given the maturity of North American media vs. media in English-speaking Africa, Asia, and much of the Pacific, North America became a lower priority for RNW and they decided to shift SW resources to services where SW was a more important delivery method -- Spanish speakers in Latin / South America. Much like Radio Australia has noted, RNW believes that it can reach many of its its devoted North American listeners via Internet delivery, and the costs for that are much less (by RNW's calculations) than the shortwave costs. The moral of the story: "vote early, vote often:" If you value a broadcaster's presence on shortwave and listen to it regularly, tell them so, and tell them why these alternate platforms don't work for you. That type of "letter writing" won't work for RNW at this point -- the analysis is complete, and the decision has been made -- but it might be helpful for other broadcasters on the fence (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, Oct 7, swprograms via DXLD) See a parallel thread under INTERNATIONAL INTERNET ** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI`s current schedule at http://www.rnzi.com/pages/listen.php still shows a gap in DRM service from 1158 to 1551 UT, but Oct 4 at 1257 there was DRM on 6165-6170-6175, surely RNZI; it stopped at 1258 and RNZI AM came on at 1258:50 with bell bird, 1300 accurate 6-pip timesignal and into the 2:00 news. Did not sign on as RNZI, but at 1307 gave full ID over music, and then into Pacific news show ``Tagata o te Moana`` which was about a conference in Wellington dealing with four underdeveloped countries in Melanesia. This show is 1308-1330 UT Sat and Sun, instead of Dateline Pacific on weekdays. As far as I listened, Tagata+ was really in English except for a greeting in some other language, Maori? Then scanning 41m at 1312 I found DRM on 7140-7145-7150, surely RNZI as well; a frequency not currently scheduled for DRM at any hour altho it has been in the past. Did Rangitaiki decide on its own to resume DRM during the former break without telling the website? RNZI, which was inexplicably in DRM the day before until 1258 on 6165- 6170-6175, missing again like it is supposed to be per its own schedule, when rechecked Oct 5 at 1228. Another anomaly from RNZI: Oct 6 at 1413, surprised to hear YL with marine weather on 9615, mentioning knots and swells. Sounds like the regular coastal forecast from RNZI. Are they on 9615 instead of scheduled 6170? No, they are on BOTH, and both in analog during what must again be a break in the DRM service, so the DRM-capable transmitter can be run on AM via a second frequency. 1416 time check as 15 past 3, RNZI ID, music, dramatic reading, apparently. Per RNZ National schedule for the All-Night Programme Tuesday 7 October 2008 or if you prefer, Ratu 7 Whiringa-a-nuku 2008, this is what I was hearing: 3:15 The Year of the Horse, by Sam Mahon (RNZ); 3:30 NZ Books (RNZ); no mention of the coastal weather forecasts. Still audible poorly on both at 1432 final check. Per RNZI`s posted schedule effective until Oct 18, 9615 AM is supposed to be on the air only at 0459-0658 and 1851-1950. Has the automation gone haywire again? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. 6170, 1400-1505 04.10, R New Zealand International, Rangitaiki. English news, ID, pop music 34343, QRM from Croatia on 6165. RNZI scheduled here at present in DRM at 0659-1258 and 1551- 1850, and in AM at 1300-1550. 6170, 1330-1515 06.10, R New Zealand International, Rangitaiki. English chatting, music, 1500 time signal, ann "Radio New Zealand News", 33343 - 34343. QRM Over-the -Horizon -Radar first strong, then becoming weaker. I checked 6170 when the DRM transmission from RNZI was broadcast at 1615, but its noise did not reach Denmark, probably due to low transmitting power during DRM. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. ZLXA Reading Service, Levin, 3935.060 kHz, 0620 Oct 4. Good signal from ZLXA, with news by female. Only for 10 minutes, after this more noisy. RX:Perseus,with new software V.1.1C. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. R. Nigeria Kaduna, measured 6089.92 on Oct 1st (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. NIGERIA - N4.8BN VON STATION READY IN 2009, SAYS THE STATION'S DIRECTOR-GENERAL --- Daily Triumph 3 October 2008 http://www.triumphnewspapers.com/n68s3102008.html The Voice of Nigeria (VON) transmitting station in Abuja will be completed by the first quarter of 2009, according to Alhaji Abubakar Jijiwa, the station's Director-General. The cost of the project, located in Lugbe on the Airport road Abuja, has been put at N4.8b. Jijiwa told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja that construction work at the project site had reached 80 percent completion while the civil works were 100 percent ready. ``Most of the equipment in terms of transmitters, antennae, mast systems and generators are already on site at the moment,'' he said. The Director-General said that on completion, the project would produce the first radio station with capability to broadcast in digital and analogue systems, within the Short Wave Bands. ``If the budget works out well in 2009, we should be able to roll out the project in terms of getting it commissioned in the first quarter of next year. ``When that project is completed and commissioned, it promises to be the biggest in Africa , whether North or South of the Sahara ,'' Jijiwa said. He explained that the new transmitters would expand the international coverage of the station, because it would be heard worldwide. `` The station has the capability of a rotating antenna that can target any country in the world when desired, '' he said. On digitisation, Jijiwa said there was no cause for alarm over the country's road-map to digital broadcast migration, beginning from June 2012, compared to South Africa which had set November 1 as start-up date. `` South Africa is working hard to roll-out its digitisation programme in good time in preparation for the 2010 World Cup. ``In reality, South Africa will not fully digitize until 2010 but they are going to start skeletal movement from analogue system, just like it is being done in the UK . ``I do not think that there is anything much Nigeria can learn from South Africa in terms of broadcasting; they might have better facilities in terms of equipment but in human capacity, we are far ahead of them, '' he said. Jijiwa is the Chairman of Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), a voluntary umbrella body for all broadcast stations in the country and the President, Commonwealth Broad-casting Association (CBA). (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Same from original source: http://www.voiceofnigeria.org/von-abuja.htm (via Scott Walker, Thorsten Hallmann, DXLD) Ha3! Without decent transmission equipment, ``human capacity`` makes no difference. There is no comparison between VON`s crummy audio and only one funxional SW transmitter, and the well-maintained multi- channel SENTECH facilities carrying Channel Africa. That will be hard to beat, with just how many transmitters and excellent audio are they getting? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably the digital system is DRM, although VON is not presently listed as a DRM Consortium member at any level. Posted: 04 Oct 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) I have noticed that their audio seems to have improved lately. Copy on 15120 is excellent this afternoon in central PA (Scott Walker, New Cumberland PA, 2050 UT Oct 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. KFOR-TV 4, DT-27 generally gets low marx on OK broadcasting discussion boards for its technical expertise, so I will add something else: whenever they cut in and out of the network, such as for weather capsules in the Today Show, or near the end of NBC ``Nightly`` news to promo the upcoming local news, there is an audio glitch. Unbecoming for what should be a professional operation (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. The newspaper ads that KNID ``has moved`` from 99.7 to 107.1 continued every day for almost a week, contradicted by axual monitoring confirming that it was still simulcasting on both frequencies, with the latter legally IDing as KZLS North Enid. Finally, Oct 4 at 2130 UT on the caradio I noticed that 99.7 was missing, so that transmitter, originally KXLS Alva-Enid, but always intended to be an Enid-market station, site halfway between the two near Helena, has finally been turned off. (KXLS started out as much- needed competition to the duopoly controlling all commercial broadcasting in the Enid market, but after a few years was bought out by one of them.) 99.7 allocation and consequent station is moving to Mustang OK, SW of OKC, a poor little town which until now has lacked any local radio service! That is about to change once the transmitter is moved(?) into the new site, and oh, by the way, just happen to cover the much larger market of OKC. I assume it will be audible also in Enid when it appears, but nothing like the local signal it used to be. So what has become of 107.1? Now I hear a legal jingle ID at 1400 UT Oct 5 on that as ``KNID North Enid``, so just as I predicted, the call KZLS was just a temporary place-holder (Glenn Hauser, Enid [non-North] OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. 15140, Radio Sultanate of Oman, 1436-1500, Oct 4, tune-in to end of English news broadcast. US pop/Euro-pop music at 1440. Chimes/gongs at 1500 & into Arabic talk. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15140, R. Sultanate of Oman, heard with fair sigs at 1400 on Oct. 6. Started off with Arabic news, into English R&B music. Audio died around 1409 and left dead air until transmitter was shut off at 1425, reappeared at 1427 and audio back at 1429 in time for cool chimes and bell IS, Three Stooges-style national anthem, ID and news by YL in English. Went to their website and the shortwave schedule is still from 2004! (Al Muick, QTH: Kabul Afghanistan, RX: WinRadio G303e, Ant: 100m longwire, HCDX via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. 4790, R Pakistan, Islamabad, has not been heard on this frequency at 0045-0100 since June (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX window Oct 2 via DXLD) Used to be a.k.a. Azad Kashmir Radio too (gh) ** PALAU. 9965, Oct 3 at 1249, VT Communications test transmission loop announcement with music, reference to website http://www.vtplc.com/communications At first I thought it was exactly 60 seconds long, but more like 65 as it started over later and later in each minute, until off abruptly at 1300* Was good with some fades. KHBN scheduled before and after this hour on 9965, a.k.a. T8WH. This station is really a one-of-a-kind hybrid, with two or three callsigns, under both FCC and Palauan administration, relay business both from IBB and VTC and being purchased (or part of it?) by World Harvest Radio. VT Communications test loop in English heard again Oct 4 at 1249 on 9965, only fair and not as good as 24 hours earlier. VTC refers us to their website, but anyone wanting real info about their SW operations will be disappointed, no time and frequency schedule, and even in HFCC they are playing games, not registering their transmissions of Radio República. VT Communications test loop on 9965 via T8WH, tho never identified on- air as such, which had been heard the past two days, missing Sunday Oct 5 at 1247 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also KOREA NORTH [non] ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 7324.96, Wantok R. Light, Sep 18 0758-0809, 35333, English, Music, ID at 0806, (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium Oct 5 via DXLD) ** PERU. 4835.49, Radio Marañón, 1014-1030 Oct 4. Tuned in this frequency earlier and only heard the carrier; the audio didn't fade in until 1014 with a male in Spanish language comments. Still weak, so not able to catch substance of his comments. At 1016, hear a female in there talking too. At 1018 huaynos music. Signal remain threshold. 4826.45, Radio Sicuani, 1022-1030 Oct 4. Noted a male in Spanish language comments which continue for the period. Signal was fair. (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545 & R390-A, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Compare to exact frequencies reported below ** PERU. 3329.53, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco, 0240 weak in LSB, OM and music, 0300* carrier off, CHU notched. 4 Oct. 4826.53, Radio Sicuani, Sicuani 2310, Het from 4828 ZBC Zimbabwe, this with music and stronger signal than earlier in the week. 3 October (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, South Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4826.48, Radio Sicuani, 1018-1030 Oct 5, Noted a male in Spanish language comments. Suspect this was news, since heard place names from other countries. At 1029, TC followed by ads and/or promos. Signal was steady but remained poor. 4835.48, Radio Marañón, 0132-0200 Oct 5, Noted a female in Spanish comments with a male. Don't know the significance of this exchange since the signal is rather poor. But a recent notation for this station says that their signoff is at 0230, so there's plenty of time left to provide an answer maybe? It was unusual in its tonal quality which made it seem significant. After a few minutes a third male begins comments at 0136 which is followed by a brief promo and then huaynos music. Unfortunately, the assumption that this station would remain readable to 0230 was erroneous. The signal faded into the noise and could barely be heard much after 0145, but the carrier was still on the air at 0200. That being all I could hear, I dropped it leaving the above question unanswered. I hope it doesn't keep me awake tonight, worrying about it? (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4955, Radio Cultural Amauta, Huanta, 2340-0005, Oct 3-4, continuous Spanish talk. Tentative. Very weak (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. At 2330 Oct noted in southeast Florida: 6173.83, Radio Tawantinsuyo, Cusco, with very narrow filter. 73s (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** PORTUGAL [and non]. Heard at 2345 UT on a R-390A set at 16 kHz bandwidth: 9715 kHz, RDP Internacional with some rather lively music and superb, wideband fidelity. With the exception of a bit of fading, this brutishly strong signal is remarkably FM like in fidelity. Now, if only I could find FireDrake at this hour of the evening - brash Chinese music complete with gongs would sound so nice on the R- 390A on 16 KHz bandwidth :) (Phil Rafuse. Stratford PEI Canada, Oct 2, ABDX via DXLD) Phil, What is RDP? (Kevin Redding, TN, ibid.) It`s Portugal's International broadcaster, with a wickedly powerful signal beamed to the east coast of North America. I was tuning around last night, bored with the fare on MW. I stumbled upon this super strong, super clear signal. 9718 on the dial, and I know the R-390A is out about 3 KC at that point [need to do the endpoints on the PTO but I'm not that brave plus it`s fun to do math in my head and it makes me feel better about flunking Grade 12 math :)] so I figured 9715 and confirmed that on the R71A. Then I pulled out the 2008 Passport for Worldband Radio [SW for the man/woman on the street]. According to Passport, they shouldn't have been on yet, but I know how schedules flop around so much. So I went online, got their online feed - and except for a delay, it matched. I knew Portugal had an international broadcaster, but frankly, before last