DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-123, November 28, 2008 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2008 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1436 Sat 0900 WRMI 9955 Sat 1730 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Sun 1615 WRMI 9955 Mon 2300 WBCQ 7415 [reconfirmed Nov 24] Tue 1200 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 9955 Wed 0630 WRMI 9955 [or new 1437] Wed 1230 WRMI 9955 [or new 1437] WBCQ is also airing thru November, repeats of recent WOR editions, M-F at 2030 on 7415 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 ** ALBANIA. Dear Drita: Being a Radio Tirana listener since 1948, from the age of 14, I have spent a lifetime with the Albanian radio. This listening gave me the incentive to study the Albanian language and Albanian culture and other matters all my life. It is hard to explain why this has happened, was it by chance or God's will, but it has formed my life. My work as a translator of Albanian, my numerous publications about Albanian questions and my marriage with an Albanian woman, Samka from Kosova, all this has its roots in my listening to Radio Tirana. This is why I feel sure nobody has more reason than I to send heartfelt congratulations to Radio Tirana on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary. My tribute goes to the efforts of all those who have worked for Radio Tirana throughout the years, from the late Gjergj Bubani to the technicians, programme producers, speakers and other employees of our time. Radio Tirana and its people have lived through very difficult periods, political and social convulsions and upheavals, but Radio Tirana has been and remains a popular university, giving news, information, culture and entertainment to generations of Albanians and their friends abroad. Long live Radio Tirana! Rrofsh sa malet e larta të Shqipërisë! - [sorry, garbled as received duet to accents --- gh] May you live as long as the high mountains of Albania! From your friend forever, Ullmar Qvick in Sweden (via Drita Çiço, R. Tirana, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. Christian Milling Radio700 told me today that yesterday were online several programs of Radio Tirana, starting with RT Turkish program at 1630-1645 UT, followed with RT Greek at 1645-1700 UT, because the audio line from the studio was open not only for the German program at 1900 UT. Christian started the test around 1600 UT, so Radio Tirana English program to NAm at 1530-1600 could not be the first on line yesterday. Bye for now, (Drita in lovely Tirana Çiço, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nor subsequently: Thanks Glenn. The uncertain English broadcast is the 1530, as they have Albanian on MW but English on SW concurrently at that time. It seems reasonably clear that the six others would air (either already confirmed, or no conflicting broadcast). Wishing you all the best at Thanksgiving, (Kevin A. Kelly, Bedford, Massachusetts, USA, publicradiofan.com, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The webcast is currently in Albanian at 1540 Nov 28 and not parallel with the English broadcast on 13720. This is a very strong signal at my location but with hum and low modulation (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Tirana, Nov 27 at 2105 in English, just barely audible on 9345, and undermodulated too; // 7510 better but also undermodulated. BTW, big news the day before was that Albania has been accepted for NATO membership. R. Tirana, only a trace on 9345, and just barely audible due to low modulation on 7510 despite S9+18 signal level, Nov 28 at 2105 in English broadcast; 2126 recheck with better modulation as they were finishing a show about their 70th anniversary, 2127 IS and off. Now I can catch the webcast of the semi-hour program at 0430+ Nov 29. It was much too loud and thus distorted even with the volume almost minimised. Anniversary talk, history of R. Tirana, started at 0448, concluding by interviewing their primary YL announcer of the 60s+, then a Marxist/Leninist propagandist, but she sounds quite reasonable now. Her name? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. R. Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, 15476, Nov 27 at 2025 definite carrier, bits of music; 2052 was peaking better, music and YL talk, fading S6 to S9+10, average S9; 2057 definite ID as LRA36, and later ``la emisora más austral del mundo`` in sign-off message, 2058 to open carrier. Fade rate here was much slower than the other LRA, 15345; see ARGENTINA LRA36, 15476, Friday Nov 28 at 2053 had the carrier cutting off and on continually; if one did not know real Morse code one might have figured it was a CW transmission, but the dits and dahs were gibberish of variable lengths; stopped at 2100* when the transmitter was turned completely off for the weekend. Hope this does not presage another prolonged outage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. RAE, 15345v, Nov 27 at 2051, heavy flutter, much faster fading rate compared to LRA36, 15476, Antarctica [q.v.], as whenever I get that I compare the signal to Buenos Aires, really not that close but nothing else besides Chile 15410 to compare with in the Southern Cone. 2056 IS and ID routine. Was not hearing any QRMorocco (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Re 8-122: 9475 and 11945 are back, both audible here 1120 November 27. Aoki also lists the three frequencies off air Nov 23 (Mike Barraclough, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RA, 11945 at 1000 UT (my local 4 a.m.) heard for the first time here in Tikizia, Nov. 27, with fair to poor signal. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) ** AUSTRIA. FALLECIO CARLOS ARTURO DEL CASTILLO (Radio Austria) MUNDO DX On Line Mensaje Recibido En ADXB De Manuel Aletrino Hace Unos Minutos. Hola amigos de la Radio, No sé si os habéis enterado de que murió nuestro compañero Carlos Arturo del Castillo (Jacobo Naar). Tenía cáncer desde hace varios años, por lo que dejó de trabajar hace también ya unos 5 años. Pasó gran parte de su jubilación en Málaga, pero tuvo que ser hospitalizado hace varios meses en Viena. Mañana será sepultado. También falleció, una semana antes, nuestro compañero de trabajo Juan Ricardo Olivares. Qué jodida puede ser la vida! Qué tal vosotros allá en Barcelona? Espero que todavía de vez en cuando nos escuchéis. En septiembre de 2009 me jubilaré y quedará cerrada definitivamente esta emisora que transmite en español. Un abrazo a todos, Manuel Aletrino (el último) (via Asociación DX Barcelona, Nov 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) OBIT --- note his final remark implying that R. Austria will continue to broadcast in Spanish until he retires next September? (gh) He tenido siempre gran admiración por Carlos Arturo. Fue una de las grandes voces de la Onda Corta. Él, Brita, Iván Silva Acuña, Néstor Hugo Cárcamo, Guillermo León Ruiz, y tantos otros. Un recuerdo para él y un saludo a Manuel Aletrino, el último mohicano en R. Austria (Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) El recuerdo de la voz del señor Castillo me remite de inmediato a mis primeros años en el DX cuando yo vivía en España allí por los 80. Queda el señor Castillo en la memoria auditiva de muchos de nosotros con su voz pausada pero alegre su buena dicción e inteligencia, Saludos, (Julián Santiago, DF, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. DIRE SITUATION AT ORF --- The demise of ORF's foreign- language programming for shortwave transmission has already been discussed here. But in fact this is just a minor aspect in an affair of much larger scale: ORF is facing bankruptcy in 2012, at least according its management, thus 1000 job positions will be axed by then. This can not be achieved without firing people, something that was taboo until now. ORF will leave its Küniglberg main seat in favour of another location in Vienna. Symphony orchestra, facility management, IT, rights management will be outsourced, the shares in the transmitter operator ORS (at present 60 percent) will be reduced. http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1227287274469 And RTL dismisses rumours that it would be interested in purchasing the ORF 1 TV network as "complete nonsense": http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1227287032032 Rumours about a sell-off exist also for Ö3, ORF's pop music station that is of no particular public value. In such a situation of course nobody cares for shortwave. In an earlier interview ORF head Alexander Wrabetz stated that he wants to close it down, together with the mediumwave service on 1476 kHz. So I would not be surprised if the plug will be pulled without any fanfare on New Year's Eve. If so it would be up to ORS what will happen with the Moosbrunn site. On their website I could not find any mention of shortwave at all, but perhaps it would be too speculative to draw any conclusions from this circumstance (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BANGLADESH. 7250, Bangladesh Betar, big OC and weak tone at 1227 28 Nov. Weak station underneath, sounding like it was in English. CRI is listed here. 1228 IS start but weak audio. Flute music 1230, M with possible ID "This is..", but couldn't copy because of .001% modulation. Talk by M then. 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** BARBADOS. Amigos Escutadas, novamente as emissoras de Barbados em FM em 26.11.2008. Bons momentos de recepção entre 2325 e 0010 UT quando desapareceram. Foram ouvidas as habituais Voice of Barbados em 92.9 MHz, a CBC 94.7 MHz, estas duas com boa recepção e a a novidade desta feita foi a escuta da Quality FM em 100.7 MHz, com sinal mais baixo. As escutas foram feitas com o Degen 1103 e sua antena telescópica. São Carlos é uma cidade de relevo acidentado, são várias colinas, a altitude média é 860 metros. Fiz estas escutas dentro do carro e passeando, procurando um lugar melhor para a recepção, com o sobe e desce da cidade é notável a variação da intensidade ou de emissoras em lugares diferentes, mas não tão distantes ente si, numa dessas, em um descida, a emissora de Limeira em 100.7 sumiu e lá estava a Quality de Barbados, bom, não é tão comodo se fazer escuta assim, mas de vez em quando pode ser bastante interessante. 73 e boas escutas (Samuel Cássio Martins, São Carlos SP, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BHUTAN. 6035, BBS: Got a nice name only e-QSL from v/s Dorji Wangchuk for my reception last Saturday and e-mail report with MP3 audio file. Only bad thing is that they're 100 kW. (24 Nov.) 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) There`s a hard-core DXer for you! (gh) ** BIAFRA [non]. V. of Biafra International, via WHRI 15665, again this Friday Nov 28 at 2015, The Orator with usual anti-Nigerian comments; seemed like he was referring obliquely to Nigeria`s bad reputation on the Internet, among other ways. Loud and clear signal at first, but around 2045 propagation dropped out to a much weaker signal, uncovering the backscatter echo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6134.80, Radio Santa Cruz, 0922-0937, Nov 27, Spanish talk. Local music. IDs. Good-strong signal. Very slight QRM from a presumed very weak Brazil on 6134.95 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL, 4925.2, R. Educação Rural, Tefe, 0152-0202*, 11/26, Lite rock music, then Portuguese M&W in alternating announcements, another man with low-key announcement over lite piano music, then a loud echo ID with mention of "Educação". 0202 transmitter shut down. Weak and noisy. 5035, R. Educação Rural, Coarí, 0208-0215, 11/26, male announcer in PT with lite music fills, jingle ID not really intelligible, but was long enough to be "R. Educação Rural". Very weak and noisy. 9505, R. Record (presumed), in PT, 2226-2241, 11/28, two men with futebol commentary, then interviews. Jingles and ad strings. Fading out fast with somewhat high noise level, so not intelligible enough for solid ID (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 5872, 23/11 0000, Voz Missionária, no ID heard, off at 0010, talks in Portuguese, poor (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, ascolti fatti a Bocca di Magra con Michele D'Amico… con il Perseus e il loop LFL 1010 della Wellbrook, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Previously reported off-frequency/spur around here (gh) ** BRAZIL. 5990, Radio Senado, Brasilia, 0854-0920, Nov 27, local Brazilian music at tune-in. Opening Portuguese ID announcements at 0902. Portuguese talk. Local ballads & pop music. Good-strong signal. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Re 8-122: Observatório Nacional -- Bom dia à todos! Por acaso alguem tem o prefixo ou indicativo do Observatório Nacional Grato, (Eduardo, 27 Nov, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Eduardo, Há uns 15 anos, quando a Embratel era responsável pela transmissão do serviço para a costa brasileira, o indicativo era PPR, mas ele não é mais usado porque o serviço hoje é realizado por outros meios, e a Embratel nem tem mais acesso ao ON. O serviço de Radio posterior que ficou no ar, é PWZ33, Rio Radio. 73, (Denis Zoqbi, ibid.) Reportes para o Observatório Nacional --- Amigos, Acabo de conversar longamente com o Chefe do serviço da Hora Legal, do Observatório Nacional no Rio de Janeiro. Para eles, foi uma grande surpresa saber que o sinal, mesmo experimental esteja chegando em diversas localidades da América do Sul e até na Europa. O transmissor utilizado, é um equipamento que estava sem uso no prédio do ON em Brasília e foi recentemente levado para as novas instalações do ON no bairro de São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro. A antena instalada no momento, é uma longo fio, literalmente uma linha linear sintonizada apenas. Estuda-se a possibilidade de instalar uma antena vertical, mas isso é apenas estudo. Ontem, alguns técnicos estiveram no Observatório do Capricórnio em Campinas e puderam constatar algumas das anomalias que muitos de vocês já reportaram. Neste momento, não há verba e sequer condições de pedir as confirmações de estuda, inclusive por questões burocráticas, mas aceitando um pedido que encaminhei nestas dias, estuda-se neste momento a possibilidade de emissão de um E-QSL, já que seria uma resposta apenas eletrônica. O serviço da Hora legal não tem um e-mail específico para receber estes reportes, então acordamos num primeiro momento, que a instituição de Astronomia a qual faço parte, possa centralizar e entregar em mãos o resultado dos reportes recebidos. Peço o especial favor, de não enviar para este e-mail, mensagens pessoais, devido alto tráfego diário de mensagens recebidas. Interessados em reportar estas escutas do Observatório Nacional, por favor queiram mandar seus informes para denis.zoqbi @ astrocasp.com E o assunto, por favor, queira indicar Observatório Nacional, ou Radioescuta. Este atendimento, pe uma colaboração do Sr. Ricardo de Carvalho, que é o Chefe da Equipe Técnica do Serviço de Hora Legal daquela instituição, pessoa com quem nos relacionamos profissionalmente e gentilmente vai tentar nos atender dentro daquilo que for possível. Agradeço desde já e publicamente por esta ajuda, já que ele nos lê na cópia desta mensagem. Estendemos também este agradecimento à Astrônoma Profa. Dra. Daniela Lazzaro, que muito gentilmente concretizou estes contatos. Muito Obrigado! Aos amigos que puderem reportar suas escutas, favor informar nome completo, e-mail de resposta, o maior número de informações possíveis que caracterizem a sua escuta, e aos amigos que dispõem de receptores digitais e instrumentos periféricos, favor mencionar também suas características, marca, modelo etc. Todas as informações que possam subsidiar questões técnicas que estejam pendentes serão muito importantes. Aos nossos amigos da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, fica sinalizado a possibilidade de agendarmos visitas ao Observatório Nacional, em datas a serem previamente estipuladas por conveniência do Observatório Nacional, já que as dependências do Serviço de Hora Legal não tem acesso público. Por favor, informem este interesse em seus informes para que o Sr Ricardo possa atendê-los. No mais, um grande abraço a todos, com os nossos agradecimentos e votos de boa sintonia! Zoqbi, Denis G Secretário - Geral Clube de Astronomia de São Paulo Diretoria de Radioastronomia e Telecomunicações Espaciais (via DX Clube Paraná, via Marcelo Bedene, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Prezado Denis e Lista, como posso captar a "hora legal do observatório nacional" via internet, com a mesma informação que obteria através da qrg 9999.0? Estou em S. Roque/SP e observo que ela só é audível por aqui, após as 17 horas (horário de verão). Próximo das 20 horas, o sinal praticamente some! Desde já, agradeço qualquer atenção. 73, (Assis Moacir Duch, PY2EOZ, Nov 27, ibid.) = 19 and 22 UT, resp. (gh) Assis, O site direto do DSHO é http://www.horalegalbrasil.mct.on.br/ Inicialmente o serviço teria que ser gerado por este link, mas como vocês poderão ver, o serviço está sendo realizado neste momento. As paginas da Internet estão em construção e alguns links sequer existem ainda. ok? Além disso, o nosso interesse em prestigiar e reportar estes trabalhos está muito além do nosso meio que é o rádio. Trata-se de uma iniciativa de funcionários do ON que estão colocando de volta um serviço público que há muitos anos esteve fora do ar. Cabe a nós, prestigiar e colaborar de alguma forma para que ele perdure. Inclusive porque é experimental e todo prestígio é bem vindo. Forte 73, (Denis Zoqbi, ibid.) Consulted by Denis Zogbi "Observatório Nacional-RJ", the official frequency is 10000 kHz with variations (Collins transmitter, not yet calibrated, 300 Watts in experimental phase) 73 (Marcelo Bedene, DX Clube do Paraná, http://www.dxclube.com.br dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Observatorio Nacional em 9999 kHz --- Esta é a minha humilde opinião: 1 - Acho louvável o Brasil ter uma emissora padrão de TEMPO (hora). Seria bom que fosse um padrão de freqüência também, pois até agora, o é apenas para a HORA exata. 2 - Acho infeliz a escolha da freqüência, pois nos impede de receber WWV, que indubitavelmente é o mais preciso padrão de FREQUENCIA e TEMPO (hora) disponível em ondas curtas. Em 10 MHz, WWV nos permite de aferir osciladores de medidores de freqüência digitais, calibrar a taxa de amostragem de placas de som, etc... etc... Com a presença do ON, isso fica impossível! Uma outra freqüência seria muito melhor. 3 - Com relação a estabilidade de freqüência da portadora do ON, no momento, é MUITO RUIM, pois já medi a sua freqüência variando entre 9998.9 a 9999.5 kHz, num intervalo de uma hora, tomando como referencia WWV num analisador de espectro. Isso é inadmissivel para uma emissão padrão! Baseado nestas medições, nem sei se o ON está realmente querendo transmitir em 9.999 MHz ou 10 MHz ? 4 - A sua portadora é modulada por um forte ronco de 60 Hz e seus harmônicos 2 (120 Hz) e 3 (180 Hz) e outros ainda, com quase 20% em AM. Isso também é inadmissível! A modulação parasita de 60 Hz e seus harmonicos pode ser vista aqui: http://www.qslnet.de/member/py4zbz/ON9999kHz.JPG Espero que o ON possa resolver estes problemas em breve. O que escrevi acima está baseado em medições feitas entre 25 e 27 de novembro 2008. 73 de (Roland M. Zurmely, PY4ZBZ, Nov 27, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Escuta de ON nos 9999 --- No meu Grundig YB 400 PE estou escutando um sinal horário no idioma português, uma voz de mulher: muito devil pero audible. 0 Horas: 23 minutos, 20 segundos, um beep. Escuta: Hora: 0223 UT, Freq: 9999 khz. USB (mejor señal - más clara ) SIO: 2-2-2 (CESAR PEREZ DIOSES, CHIMBOTE, PERU, UT Nov 28, radioescutas yg via DXLD) A Divisão Serviço da Hora (DSHO) do Observatório Nacional (ON) tem como objetivos a Geração, Distribuição e Conservação da Hora Legal Brasileira (HLB), conforme Legislação Brasileira, bem como realizar Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento no campo da metrologia de Tempo e Freqüência. O projeto de reestruturação da Hora Legal Brasileira em desenvolvimento na Divisão Serviço da Hora do Observatório Nacional possui três metas. A primeira delas é a transmissão de sinais horários e freqüência padrão para todo o território nacional através de radiofreqüência. Desta forma, todo cidadão em qualquer parte do território nacional terá acesso a informação de hora. Diversas aplicações utilizando os sinais horários e a freqüência padrão, poderão ser desenvolvidas na industria. A segunda meta é implantar a rastreabilidade dos relógios mantidos em laboratórios secundários, que compõem a Rede Brasileira de Calibração (RBC), de forma remota e contínua aos padrões nacionais de tempo e freqüência mantidos na Divisão Serviço da Hora, utilizando-se do sistema GPS. A terceira meta é agregar os relógios atômicos da RBC na Escala de Tempo Atômico Brasileira. No último dia 10 de Novembro de 2008, a equipe do DSHO passou a emitir os sinais horários do Observatório Nacional, na freqüência-padrão de 10.000 Khz (10Mhz), com estimativa de cobertura de ao menos 2/3 de todo o território nacional. Embora estas transmissões estejam no ar em caráter experimental, registra-se a importância de sua manutenção para garantir que a aferição de Tempo e Freqüências-Padrão possam ser re-estabelecidas em âmbito nacional. Na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, o mesmo serviço está disponível na faixa de V.H.F, cuja sintonia pode ser feita em 166.530 e 171.130 MHz. A potência irradiada em Ondas Curtas inicialmente é de 300 Watts e a transmissão em V.H.F. é de 21 Watts. A Diretoria de Radioastronomia e Telecomunicações do Clube de Astronomia de São Paulo – CASP, estará monitorando junto à equipe do DSHO as transmissões da Hora Legal e Freqüência-Padrão do Observatório Nacional em todo o território brasileiro. Reportagens de escuta e informações sobre esta sintonia serão muito bem vindos e confirmados no que for possível. As reportagens de sintonia devem ser enviadas preferencialmente por e- mail, contendo nome, localidade, horário da sintonia e equipamento de escuta, para o endereço eletrônico: denis.zoqbi@astrocasp.com com o Assunto “Observatório Nacional”. Caso preferir, os reportes podem ser enviados por carta para a Caixa Postal 12.622 São Paulo,SP. CEP 04744-970. Com os nossos cumprimentos, Denis Gomes Zoqbi, Clube de Astronomia de São Paulo Observatório Nacional – Rio de Janeiro Ricardo José de Carvalho e Ozenildo Farias Dantas. Secretário-Geral, Divisão do Serviço da Hora Legal (Zoqbi, dxclubepr yg Nov 27 via DXLD) ** BULGARIA. Follow-up on this observation from DXLD 8-122: >>> I tuned to 7200 at about 1548 to hear R. Bulgaria in Russian. Signal strong but with a loud "echo" effect <<< Just checked 7200 at 1520: Very bad rumble of about 30 Hz, but this appears to be a het from co-channel Stubline. And yes, Radio Bulgaria on this 7200 has a clear echo. I think (have no time to look it up right now) the published Radio Bulgaria schedule showed for 7200 1500-1700 both Padarsko and Kostinbrod in use. Did not closer look it up so far, but now it seems that indeed both sites are in use simultaneously? The carriers may well be synchronized by way of locking them to a common reference, but apparently the audio circuits to both sites have different delays. I heard a pre-echo, so presumably Padarsko is the lagging one, perhaps fed through digital audio circuits with a noticeable delay now (I think I noted an improvement of audio quality not too long ago, the modulation of the transmitters still tends to be rather low but some kind of rather narrow audio bandwith and distortion is gone now). At 1430 I had checked 15700 and found a stable, no longer wobbling carrier. So it appears that the transmitter has indeed been fixed yesterday during its 0800-1100 break. Perhaps they just replaced the complete exciter group and took the faulty one to the workshop for further care (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15700 with open carrier, Nov 27 at 1510, no warbling; presumably R. Bulgaria did not turn off the transmitter after end of transmission at 1500, and before another one from 1600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) At 0000-0100 in English, 11/26, 7400 had decent sounding modulation, but was not very strong. So I tried to listen in LSB and the carrier was warbling so badly that it was impossible to hear any audio! And 5900 was lost under the ever-present squeal there (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) But 7400 fixed shortly afterwards, so OK now, right? (gh) ** CANADA. RCI on 9755 at 0005 in English continues to be mostly unheard here. Usually there is no trace at all. Exceptions are 11/26 when I did hear it but only barely audible on occasional signal peaks. Also heard extremely weak on 11/23 and 11/24 both times in Portuguese, even though their schedule in print and online says English is to be here at this hour 7 days per week, with PT an hour later at 0105. A recent note from Bill Westenhaver of RCI assures me they are still on 9755 daily and that he will pass my comments on to their frequency manager. I hope something can be done soon! Their outlet on 6100 just an hour before is very good most every night (but in Spanish). (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, UT Nov 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. If you love harmonica music, like I do, this week`s Vinyl Tap on CBC is a real treat; listening as I compile this report to the first airing, UT Sat Nov 28 at 0305-0500 on the AT/NT zone feed, so delayed +1/2/3/4 hours on CBC Radio 1 webcasts. Also repeats the next night earlier, 0005-0200 UT Sunday, also on 9625 CBC Northern Québec, +1/2/3 hours. And on CKZN and CKZU 6160 and 6160 at their local times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CJOR-600 sign off show --- for anyone who wants to hear the 20 minute salute to the 80 or so years of CJOR/CKBD etc., it's available at http://www.600am.com/pages/4271/ It's near the bottom of the page. I enjoyed it, talk of its movement through the dial, power increases, etc. (Eric Flodén, BC, IRCA via DXLD) ** CHINA. Re 8-122, PALAU [non], 9875 recording --- Hello Terry and Glenn, Yes, it's definitely CNR1, whose Chinese name is mentioned in both recordings. 201438GMT.mp3 (3 mins 42 secs in): "Zhongyang Renmin Guangbo Diantai, Zhongguo zhi Sheng" ("Central People's Broadcasting Station, Voice of China") 202612GMT.mp3 (0 mins 8 seconds in): "Zhongguo zhi Sheng". Regards (Alan Davies, Indonesia?, dxld yg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 6105, Firedrake, 1516, Nov 25, fair. Find no Firedrake now on 9000 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO DR. 5066.336, 22/11 1600 R. Candip, Congo, talks, off at 1630, poor 6210, 22/11 1635, Radio Kahuzi, Congo, long talks, propagation peak, fair (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, ascolti fatti a Bocca di Magra con Michele D'Amico… con il Perseus e il loop LFL 1010 della Wellbrook, Sw blog: http://radiodxsw.blogspot.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO DR [non]. via Meyerton, South Africa, 11690, Radio Okapi, 0403-0420, Nov 27. French/vernacular talk with many mentions of Congo. Canned “Okapi” IDs. Very good-strong signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. Hello everybody! HCJB now uses 15280 kHz to Europe in the DRM Mode with 4 kW and a Rhombic Antenna. Time: 1100-1300 UT. Bitrate is only 14.78 kBit, but audio is very good for that low bitrate. For proper decoding a SNR of 10 - 12 dB is needed. Program lineup includes Música del Ecuador at 1100-1130 News programming in Spanish 1130-1200 Low German 1200-1230 German 1230-1300 As the rhombic targets 35 & 225 degrees, it is maybe possible to receive this transmission in the South Pacific, too. I would be very interested if reception is possible in NZ & parts of Australia? SNR in Germany gets up to 17 dB at my Deltaloop with the "Pappradio" Low Cost SDR connected to a Computer. I`ve set up a little livestream. So if someone wants to test the quality you can connect to: http://schaa.dyndns.org:8080/stream.aac with Winamp or VLC (or every other Software that can decode AAC+ streams) 73, (Stephan Schaa, Germany, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HCJB, 12000, automated ID break in Spanish at 2114:30 Nov 28, still claiming to be on 21455 as well (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also PORTUGAL ** EGYPT. 6289.73, Egyptian Radio, 0003-0019, Initially noted a female in Arabic(?) comments between North African type music. She is joined later by a male. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, November 27, 2008, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, Radio Nacional, Bata, 2245-2259*, Nov 27, Euro-pop music. Spanish talk. Sign off with National Anthem at 2256. Poor in noisy conditions. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, R. Africa, 1715-1804, Nov 26 (Wed.); in English, raspy voiced African-American preacher, no program or station ID at end of his program; BoH "Call to Worship", listeners asked to write to Zion Chapel, 937 Royce Avenue, Holland, Michigan, their website lists this as "Radio West Africa" (?) fair till about 1750, when R. Philipinas began to quickly fade in (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Africa, 15190, Nov 27 at 1819 with preacher, somewhat undermodulated and distorted but no QRM at all so good reception, unlike 2058 when badly squeezed by 15185 VOA-Greenville Hausa about to close and 15195 YFR Ascension (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 5980 NF. Voice of Tigray Revolution, 0258-0310, Nov 27. tune-in to IS. Talk at 0300. Local Horn of Africa music at 0304. Weak but readable. // 5950 - poor, mixing with Okeechobee, Florida (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. 9704.17, 22/11 1732 Radio Ethiopia, music, Fair; 9705, 22/11 1730, La Voix du Sahel, Niger, talks, French, fair (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, ascolti fatti a Bocca di Magra con Michele D'Amico… con il Perseus e il loop LFL 1010 della Wellbrook, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 12120, Ginbot 7 Dimits. On Nov 14 I received this reply by e-mail on my report sent to info@ginbot7.org on Nov 11 in which I raised these two questions: 1) What does "Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio" mean and what is your exact mission ? 2) I suppose that your transmitter, brokered by my friend Ludo Maes at "Transmitter Development Project" in Belgium, is located in Russia. Can you reveal the more exact location of it for me? "Hi Mr Petersen, Thank you for the reception report. Just a bit on Ginbot 7, we are a political organisation that is trying to bring about democratic change in Ethiopia. Ginbot 7 is month in Ethiopian calendar in which in 2005 an accidental democratic election happened in which the ruling party was so sure in winning, but as it turned out they were resounding defeat but in the end rigged the votes to stay in power and also suppressed by force any protest to what had happened. Ginbot is the equivalent of May in Western calendar. So Ginbot 7 Dimits means the Voice of May 15th in honour of the lost opportunity to bring about real change in Ethiopia! Regards, G7 Org". An interesting explanation of the name, but they did not answer my question no. 2! (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Nov 26 via DXLD) ** EUROPE. FRS December 28th -- Dear FRS Friends, I N V I T A T I O N Following our November 2nd broadcast a few weeks ago, FRS-Holland will again take to the airwaves over the X-Mas Holiday Season. December 28th FRS-Holland will continue a long time tradition. And that means we invite you- the listener to participate. Forward your very own personal New Year Greetings to the Free Radio Service Holland and we will make sure it`ll be read out during our broadcast. You can dedicate your greetings to friends etc. but you can also make a 'general NY Greeting. It can be written or (preferably! ) taped (cassette, CD, MD or MP3 file) and send to our P.O.Box 2702, 6049 ZG Herten in the Netherlands. Of course the easy & quick way is by sending an e-mail to or You can add something special to our December 28th broadcast by participating. So? Don't hesitate and take part in the FRS Party that day. It'll be great fun. Make sure your contribution reaches us before December 5th. We are looking forward hearing from you!!! Tune on the 28th --- it`ll be great fun !!! December 28th FRSH will be on 6220 for at least 4 hours. In addition we hope to be on a different frequency as well, perhaps not our fullprogramming. Pxs will be presented by Jan van Dijk doing a 2008 Free Radio Review in his German Show. Paul Graham will be doing another classic FRS Golden Show playing great 60s/ 70s stuff as well as a feature on a landbased pirate radio station from years gone by. Peter Verbruggen will look back to what happened in the past on December 28th (Day Calendar) en plays a mix of 80s/90s/00s records in FRS Magazine. He will also host a 45 min. FRS Goes DX edition with the latest news from the wonderful world of wireless. Mike Anderson`s DX Welle will feature a mix of DX News and music. During the pxs we will read out November mail and New Years Greetings. There`s a listeners` competition and the Phrase that Pays. In addition a 15 minute Joop ter Zee tribute will be aired. Pxs will most likely commence at 0800 UT/ 09.00 CET and last till 1200 UT/ 13.00 CET. Frequency is 6220 kHz. As said, part of the shows will be repeated on a different frequency, most likely in the afternoon. That day FRS will also be heard via the Internet, perhaps pxs will be repeated a number of times. We will send more mails December and a few days before the broadcast we hope to reveal the afternoon frequency and time-slot. By now all back mail plus all letters/mail from the November 2008 broadcast (!!) have been handled. That implies the all new QSLs from our TX Series have been forwarded to the FRS listeners who responded. Christmas Day Dec. 25th there might be another surprise when FRS- Holland will be co-operating with two other well-known (and long- serving) short wave stations. Details about programming and frequency will be announced as soon as possible. 73s, Peter V. (on behalf of the FRS staff) a Balance between Music & Information joint to one Format. FRS-Holland P O Box 2702 6049 ZG Herten The Netherlands (via Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** FRANCE. FRENCH PUBLIC BROADCAST STAFF STRIKE, PROTEST OVER SARKOZY PLANS | Excerpt from report by French Europe 1 radio on 25 November [First newsreader] Public broadcasting staff are taking action against the bill Nicolas Sarkozy is seeking to introduce. [Second newsreader] A bill that will furthermore be examined at the National Assembly from this afternoon for two weeks [850 amendments to the bill have been tabled]. It is a question of reducing advertising on France Televisions channels from 5 January next and of scrapping it altogether by the end of 2011. The trade unions fear for jobs, in particular, but also for the quality of programmes. France 2 TV's 1300 [1200 gmt] news bulletin has been cancelled and France 3 TV's [lunchtime news bulletin] has been disrupted. [France Inter, France Info and Radio France Internationale radio programmes are also being disrupted by the strike] A demonstration is taking place in Paris at this moment between the Eiffel Tower and the National Assembly. The staff of France 3 South have turned out in Montpellier. Yann Theroux [phonetic] reports: [Theroux] [Passage omitted: background] The priority, one of them explained, is to go out and meet the public to explain what is really at stake with the reforms, concerns bound up mainly with the future of the staff of France 3's local news teams, as Thierry Ville [phonetic], a journalist and SNJ [National Union of Journalists] delegate with France 3 South explains: [Ville] They are concrete concerns regarding a reduction in posts, because in the end we are wondering how we are going to be able to continue working, in the simplest possible terms. Are we still going to have the means to make our programmes? We hear about 900 job cuts. Are these rumours, aren't they just rumours? They are denied on the one side and confirmed on the other. All of these budget cuts increase the fears. [Passage omitted: further background] Source: Europe 1 radio, Paris, in French 1200 gmt 25 Nov 08 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** FRANCE [non]. 5960.00, 1002-1030, R France Internationale in Spanish with news, commentary, fair reception for start, but at 1026 another station heard on the frequency, also started to fade out, end tx at 1030, 27 Nov 08 (John Kecskes, Kenwood R - 5000, Cohuna, Australia, HCDX via DXLD) Now we know he is in Australia, but which state? That`s like saying ``Springfield, USA``. Wiki answers: ``Cohuna, Victoria - (postcode: 3568) is a town situated 274 km north of Melbourne, on the Murray Valley Highway, in northern Victoria, Australia.`` BTW, does he know or care that this is a relay via Guiana French? (gh, DXLD) ** GABON. 9580, Africa No. 1, in French, 2251-2300*, 11/28, group discussion, some phone-in, after program end woman with ID and sked info. Time pips at 2300 were in dead air. Transmitter stayed on. Good, but fading fast (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. ANALOGUE OTA TV IN GERMANY SWITCHED OFF (ALMOST!) Since November 25 2008 no analogue TV transmitters with an ERP of more than 5 kW are on air in Germany anymore. Ochsenkopf ch. 4, the last remaining Band I transmitter in Germany, left the air at 00:16 CET after bidding his farewell by broadcasting the locally generated FuBK test card with superimposed site ID for a bit more than ten minutes: http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=siLrbGwszlc http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/7620/analogabschaltungochsenpe3.th.jpg http://s3b.directupload.net/file/d/1624/i5zu9pde_jpg.htm Some equipment photos: http://electronicbude.de/Senderstandorte%20-%20NRW%20west/Ochsenkopf%20Fgb/Ochsenkopf%20-%20Fgb.htm Half of the ch. 4 antenna was already dismantled (resulting in an ERP of 50 instead of the former 100 kW) while an UHF antenna system for DVB-T has been added to the top of the tower. By firing up DVB-T the Ochsenkopf site went on air on UHF for the first time, previously the analogue transmitters on ch. 23 and 57 were located on the Großer Waldstein site instead, the very same site that was also home of the "Hof" FM outlets of RIAS (they were not co-locatedd with the mediumwave transmitter in Hof). Now it is an FM-only site (Deutschlandradio Kultur with 20 kW on 89.3 = ex. RIAS 1 freq., local stn. Radio Euroherz with 5 kW on 88.0; the former RIAS 2 frequency 91.2 is now in use by Bayerischer Runfunk via Ochsenkopf instead). The last analogue high power TV transmitter to went dark in Germany was apparently Hühnerberg ch. 60 (Das Erste), switched off at 07:54 CET. Below is a list of the remaining analogue TV transmitters in Germany, sorted by power. I think it's somewhat funny reading. The exotic station names for various sites in eastern Germany are local stations, still carried by analogue transmitters for lack of other means of distribution. The "big guys" have only two small analogue islands left. Note that all transmitters use CCIR standard channels, i.e. the video carrier frequencies are the same for NTSC-M than for PAL (to put it simply: these are European, not American channel numbers): 51: Bitburg, AFN, 5 kW, v, NTSC-M 54: Dessau, RAN 1, 5 kW, v, PAL-G 26: Kaiserslautern-Vogelweh, AFN, 3 kW, h, NTSC-M 51: Bitterfeld, RBW, 3 kW, v, PAL-G 49: Angermünde, TVAL, 2.5 kW, h, PAL-G 30: Zwickau-Reinsdorf, TV Zwickau, 2 kW, v, PAL-G 6: Görlitz, ERTV, 1 kW, v, PAL-B 29: Wiesbaden, AFN, 1 kW, h, NTSC-M 60: Leipzig-Holzhausen, Leipzig-Fs., 1 kW, h, PAL-G 48: Osnabrück, BFBS, 0.9 kW, h, PAL-I 31: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, ZDF, 0.6 kW, h, PAL-G 45: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, BFS, 0.6 kW, h, PAL-G 30: Plauen, VRF, 0.5 kW, v, PAL-G 47: Chemnitz-Reichenh., Sachsen-Fs., 0.5 kW, h, PAL-G 58: Auerbach, VRF, 0.5 kW, v, PAL-G 59: Dresden, Dresden-Fernsehen, 0.5 kW, h, PAL-G 28: Geilenkirchen, AFN, 0.4 kW, h/v, NTSC-M 59: Schweinfurt, AFN, 0.3 kW, v, NTSC-M 25: Darmstadt, AFN, 0.25 kW, h, NTSC-M 31: Lauda, ZDF, 0.2 kW, h, PAL-G 28: Ruhpolding, ZDF, 0.12 kW, h, PAL-G 44: Ruhpolding, BFS, 0.12 kW, h, PAL-G 31: Grafenwöhr, AFN, 0.1 kW, h, NTSC-M 38: Büttelberg, AFN, 0.1 kW, v, NTSC-M 48: Bad Mergentheim, Das Erste, 0.1 kW, h, PAL-G 60: Konstanz, Euro 3, 0.1 kW, v, PAL-G 22: Bad Mergentheim, ZDF, 0.06 kW, h, PAL-G 28: Tauberbischofsheim, ZDF, 0.06 kW, h, PAL-G 53: Tauberbischofsheim, Das Erste, 0.06 kW, h, PAL-G 60: Bad Mergentheim, SWR BW, 0.06 kW, h, PAL-G 9: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Das Erste, 0.05 kW, h, PAL-B 39: Heidelberg San Jac., AFN, 0.05 kW, v, NTSC-M 55: Stuttgart-Feuerbach, AFN, 0.05 kW, v, NTSC-M 39: Bamberg, AFN, 0.04 kW, v, NTSC-M 56: Hohenfels, AFN, 0.04 kW, h, NTSC-M 38: Mannheim-Sandhof, AFN, 0.03 kW, v, NTSC-M 43: Tauberbischofsheim, SWR BW, 0.03 kW, h, PAL-G 11: Ruhpolding, Das Erste, 0.02 kW, v, PAL-B 41: Stuttgart-Möhringen, AFN, 0.02 kW, h, PAL-G 47: Heidelberg Shopping C., AFN, 0.02 kW, v, NTSC-M 52: Baumholer Fir Street, AFN, 0.02 kW, h, NTSC-M 56: Lauda, SWR BW, 0.02 kW, h, PAL-G 56: Mannheim Hayes St, AFN, 0.02 kW, v, NTSC-M 22: Bonn (US embassy), AFN, 0.01 kW, h, NTSC-M 5: Lauda, Das Erste, 0.006 kW, h, PAL-B 26: Dexheim, AFN, 0.006 kW, v, NTSC-M 45: Vilseck, AFN, 0.004 kW, h, NTSC-M 47: Baumholder Forest Street, AFN, 0.004 kW, h, NTSC-M 51: Katterbach, AFN, 0.004 kW, h, NTSC-M 58: Schwetzingen, AFN, 0.004 kW, v, NTSC-M 46: Böblingen, AFN, 0.003 kW, v, NTSC-M 22: Ansbach, AFN, 0.002 kW, h, NTSC-M 31: Landstuhl, AFN, 0.002 kW, v, NTSC-M 48: Stuttgart-Vaihingen, AFN, 0.002 kW, h, NTSC-M 55: Germersheim, AFN, 0.002 kW, v, NTSC-M 11: Bad Mergenth.-Felsenkeller, Das Erste, 0.001 kW, v, PAL-B 39: Neubrücke, AFN, 0.001 kW, v, NTSC-M 29: Miesau, AFN, 0.0005 kW, h, NTSC-M (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. That horrible DRM buzz Wolfgang warned us about inmidst the 31m band, is making it over here, especially strong Nov 27 at 1405 on 9540-9545-9550. Per Aoki it`s DW via Woofferton UK, 100 kW, 114 degrees, at 10-16, but the final hour via Skelton instead, a joint venture with BBC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREENLAND. Dear friends, On Nov 25, Greenland had a referendum where 76% voted for a phased and more extreme self-government from the Kingdom of Denmark. This big island has been inhabited for 4,500 years by Inuits. During 1721-1953 it was a Danish colony. Since then Denmark has accepted more and more autonomy to the extent Greenlandic finances allow. One result of the referendum may be that the only official language will be Greenlandic, no longer Danish and Greenlandic. 3815 USB, KNR, Tasiilaq, 2035-2113*, Nov 21 and 22, Greenlandic ann, local pop songs, 2100 talk with poor audio (in Greenlandic, not Danish), one jingle heard on Nov 21 at 2106, abrupt s/off 2113* both days. QRM weak utility or HAM conversation. Inaudible some nights. It seems to be a new schedule - one hour earlier than last winter! (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Nov 26 via DXLD) ** INDIA. 4990, AIR Itanagar, 1450-1500, Nov 26, in English with "Newsreel", fair-poor, light QRM from Hunan. Some days Hunan totally dominates here (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR Vividh Bharati Service, 9870, is usually well audible here in the mornings, mostly music, but Nov 27 at 1435 I was hearing a speech in what I think was English, but could barely understand a word due to heavy accent, polar flutter and some distortion. Outro at 1440 as having been the Prime Minister speaking from the Delhi studio; no doubt about the Mumbai terrorist attacks (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, Glenn, the audio for the Prime Minister's national address was terrible even when tuning in via digital methods. When the address was live, I quickly switched between APTN Direct (A digital TV news feed circuit for broadcasters on Asiasat 2), CNN (Intelsat 8), BBC World News (Intelsat 2) and Indian news outlets IBN Lokmat and MH-1 News (Asiasat 4). All outlets had the same muffled and distorted audio. The whole point of a national address is to provide effective communication; in this case I think that a better microphone and attention to the audio levels would have been desirable. I have a strong interest in events in Mumbai being a regular visitor and frequent guest at the both hotels. I have been monitoring the Indian news outlets. If you are in the Asia-Pacific region and have a C-Band dish the satellites are alive with feeds. Around 15 Indian news channels are running non-stop coverage, you can view many free-to-air on Asiasat 3 and Asiasat 4 (Mark Fahey, Sydney Australia, HCDX via DXLD) I have AIR on 9445 in English with a very nice signal beginning at 2045. News bulletin at 2100 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, Nov 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) And don`t forget English news on the hour (half-hour to most of the rest of the world) on the otherwise Hindi domestic service relays on 9425, etc. (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) AIR VBS cancels programmes --- Standing with the country and the countrymen in this worst ever terror attacks and as a mark of tribute to the departed souls, Vividh Bharati has cancelled all entertaining progs today. Devotional, philosophical and sad songs from films are being aired (Sujoy Chatterjee, via Alokesh Gupta, 0317 Nov 28, dx_india yg via DXLD) Correction: The cancellation of programmes is due to the demise of Former PM Sh V.P. Singh (Sujoy Chatterjee, 0415 UT Nov 28, ibid.) ** INDIA. AIR complete schedule: kHz kW Station UTC Target Area 3945 50 Gorakhpur 0130-0230 Nepali (Nepal), 0230-0300 HS, 1330-1430 Nepali (Nepal), 1430-1735 Urdu (Pakistan) 4760 10 Leh s0130/w0213-0400/0413/Sun 0430 1200-1700 4760 8.5 Port Blair 2355-0300 1030-/1700/1730 4775 50 Imphal 0000/0030-0215 1030-1700/1730 4800 50 Hyderabad 0020-0215 1130-1742 4810 50 Bhopal 0025-0215 1130-1742 4820 50 Kolkata 0025-0215 1220-1744 4830 50 Jammu 0025-0445/Sun 0450 1030-1741 4835 10 Gangtok 0100-0401 1030-1600 4840 50 Mumbai 2355-0400 1230-1730 4850 50 Kohima 0000-0415 1000-1600/1630/1700 4860 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0025-0440, 1220-1330 HS, 1330-1430 Nepali (Nepal), 1430-1930 Urdu (Pakistan) 4880 50 Lucknow 0025-0430 (Sun 0415), 1215-1741 4895 50 Kurseong 0055-0400 1130-1700 (Sat, Sun 1741) 4910 50 Jaipur 0025-0400/Sun 0430 1130-1741 4920 50 Chennai 0015-0245 1200-1739 4940 50 Guwahati 0000-0415 1150-1700 (Sat 1741) 4950 50 Srinagar v2245-0020v (Ramzan period), s0025/w0120-0215 1120- 1739 4960 50 Ranchi 0025-0445 1100 (Sun 1130) -1741 4965 50 Shimla 0025-0200 1235v-1730 (Sat, Sun 1741) 4970 50 Shillong 0025-0400 1056-1630 4990 50 Itanagar 0020-0400 1000-1630 5010 50 Thiruvananthapuram 0020-0215 1145 (Sun 1130)-1740 5015 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 1220-1841 5040 50 Jeypore 0025-0435 (Sun 0445, Sat 0545 v), 1130-1741 5050 10 Aizawl 0025-0400 1130-1630 5965 50 Jammu 0630-0930 5985 50 Ranchi 0630-1000 5990 250 Aligarh 0100-0200 Sindhi (Pakistan) 6000 10 Leh 0700 (Sun 0630)-0930 6020 50 Shimla 0215-0400, 0700 (Sun 0415-1000)-0930 1130-1230 6030 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0200-0310 1215-1430 6040 50 Jeypore 0700-0936 6045 100 Delhi (Kingsway) 1430-1930 Urdu (Pakistan) 6065 50 Kohima 0430-0510 0700-0900 6085 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 1220-1310 1330-1340 1345-1420 1430-1440 1445-1615/1630/1700/1730v, 1730-1740 6100 100 Delhi 0230-0330 1430-1530 6110 50 Srinagar 0225-0509 (Sun 1115), 0600-1115 6150 50 Itanagar 0700-0900 6155 100 Delhi (Kingsway) 0015-0430 Urdu (Pakistan) 6165 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1230-1500 Sindhi, 1500-1600 Baluchi (Pakistan) 6190 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0730-1030 7105 50 Lucknow 0700 (Sun 0445)-1000, 1005-1006 7115 250 Panaji 1615-1730 Persian, 1730-1830 Malayalam (W. Asia ) 7115 8.5 Port Blair 0315-0400 (Sat 0415, Sun 0500), 0700-0931 (Sun 1000) 7120 50 Jaipur (Sun v0420-0600), 0630-0931 7125 100 Delhi (Kingsway) 0100-0200 Sindhi (Pakistan) 7130 50 Shillong 0656-0930 7140 50 Hyderabad 0225-0445 (Sat 0505, Sun 0500), 0610-0930/0935 (Sun 0530-1030) 7140 100 Delhi (Kingsway) 1550-1615/1630/1700/1730v 1730-1740 7150 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0030-0040 7150 50 Imphal 0225-0400/0530 (Sun 0500), 0645 (Sun 0600)-1000 7160 50 Chennai 0300-0430 (Sun 0530), 0610-0930 (Sun 1130) 7180 50 Bhopal 0225-0447 (Sun 1031), 0630-0931 7195 100 Mumbai 0015-0430 & 0830-1130 Urdu, 1230-1500 Sindhi, 1500- 1600 Baluchi (Pakistan) 7210 50 Kolkata 0230-0401 (Sat, Sun 0501), 0700-1000 (Sun 1030) 7230 50 Kurseong 0620-1030 7235 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0215-0320 0330-0340 (Sun 0355) 7240 50 Mumbai 0530-1035 7250 50 Gorakhpur 0700-0800 Nepali (Nepal), 0830-1130 Urdu (Pakistan), 1130-1140 HS 7255 250 Aligarh 1315-1415 Dari, 1415-1530 Pushtu, (Afghanistan, Pakistan), 1530-1545 English 7270 100 Chennai 1000-1100 English, 1115-1215 Tamil, 1300-1500 Sinhala (Sri Lanka) 7280 50 Guwahati 0600-0930 0945-1145 (Sun 0530-1145) 7290 50 Thiruvananthapuram 0230-0430 (Sat 0530, Sun 1030), 0630-1000 7295 10 Aizawl 0700-0930 (Sun 1000) 7360 100 Chennai 0000-0045 Sinhala, 0045-0115 Tamil (Sri Lanka), 0115-0430 HS 7410 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1315-1415 Dari, 1415-1530 Pushtu (Afghan, Pakistan) 7410 250 Aligarh 1615-1730 Hindi (WeAsia) 7410 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1745-1945 English, 1945-2045 Hindi, 2045-2230 English (WeEurope) 7420 50 Guwahati 0130-0230 Nepali, 0230-0245 Hindi HS, 0245-0300 English HS, 0300-0430 Bangla, 0700-0800 Nepali, 0800-1100 Bangla, 1215-1330 Tibetan, 1330-1430 Nepali, 1445-1515 Bangla, 1515-1530 Hindi HS, 1530-1600 English HS, 1600-1730 Bangla, 1730-1735 English HS, 1735-17 [sic] 9425 500 Bengaluru 1320-0043 (National Channel) 9445 500 Bengaluru 1745-1945 English (W NW Africa), 2045-2230 English (WeEurope) 9575 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 1215-1330 Tibetan (Tibet), 1330-1420 1430-1440 1445-1615/1630/ 1700/1730v, 1730-1740 HS 9585 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1615-1715 Russian (EaEurope) 9595 100 Delhi (Kingsway) 0015-0430 Urdu (Pakistan) 9595 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0700-0800 Nepali (Nepal) 9595 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0810-0830 HS, 0830-1130 Urdu (Pakistan), 1130-1140 HS 9620 250 Aligarh 1230-1500 Sindhi, 1500-1600 Baluchi (Pakistan) 9635 250 Aligarh 0100-0200 Sindhi (Pakistan) 9690 500 Bengaluru 1330-1500 English (E SE Asia) 9705 250 Panaji 2245-0045 English (E SE Asia) 9810 250 Panaji 0130-0230 Nepali (Nepal) 9820 250 Panaji 1300-1500 Sinhala (Sri Lanka), 1530-1545 English 9835 100 Delhi (Kingsway) 0000-0045 Tamil (Sri Lanka) 9835 250 Delhi (Khampur) 0215-0300 Pushtu, 0300-0345 Dari (Afghanistan, Pakistan) 9835 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 1330-1420 1430-1440 1445-1615/1630/1700/1730v, 1730-1740 9870 500 Bengaluru 0025-0435 0900-1200 1245-1740 (Vividh Bharati) 9890 100 Delhi 0730-0830 9905 250 Aligarh 1615-1730 Persian, 1730-1945 Arabic (WeAsia), 1945-2030 French (W NW Africa) 9910 250 Aligarh 0215-0300 Pushtu, 0300-0345 Dari (Pakistan, Afghanistan) 9910 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1315-1415 Dari, 1415-1515 Pushtu (Afghanistan, Pakistan) 1530-1545 English 9910 250 Aligarh 0000-0045 Tamil (SE Asia), 2045-2230 English (Australia/NZ), 2300-2400 Hindi (SE Asia) 9950 250 Aligarh 2245-0045 English (NE Asia) 9950 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1515-1615 Swahili, 1615-1730 Hindi (EaAfrica), 1745-1945 English, 1945-2045 Hindi, 2045-2230 English (WeEurope) 11585 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1230-1500 Sindhi, 1500-1600 Baluchi (Pakistan), 1615-1730 Persian, 1730-1945 (Arabic) WeAsia 11620 250 Delhi (Khampur) 0100-0430, 0830-1130 Urdu (Pakistan), 1130-1140 HS, 2245-0045 English (E SE NE Asia) 11620 500 Bengaluru 1215-1315 Burmese (Myanmar) 11620 250 Khampur 1330-1500 English (E SE Asia) 11620 250 Khampur 1515-1600 Gujarati (EaAfrica), 1615-1715 Russian (EaEurope), 1745-1945 English, 1945-2045 Hindi (Europe) 11620 1000 Bengaluru 2045-2230 English (Australia/NZ/Europe) [wrong power, never combined tx like R Liberty at former Playa de Pals-ESP site. Rather two separate transmitters on very same AIR broadcasting center, via different curtains to different target, like Thomson-Thales Bangalore 500 kW unit aimed at AUS/NZL 120degr; the other Thomson-Thales Bangalore 500 kW unit aimed at EUR 325 degr. wb.] 11645 250 Delhi (Khampur) 2245-0045 English (NE Asia) 11710 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 1115-1140 HS, 1215-1315 Burmese (Myanmar) 11715 250 Delhi (Khampur) 0130-0230 Nepali (Nepal) 11715 250 Panaji 2045-2230 English (Australia/NZ) 11730 250 Delhi (Khampur) 0400-0430 Persian, 0430-0530 Arabic (WeAsia), 0530-0600 Urdu (Haj Season) 11735 500 Bengaluru 0215-0300 Pushtu, 0300-0345 Dari (Pakistan, Afghanistan) 11740 250 Panaji 2300-2400 Hindi, 0000-0045 Tamil (SE Asia), 0045-0115 Sinhala (Sri Lanka) 11775 250 Panaji 1215-1330 Tibetan (Tibet), 1330-1430 Nepali (Nepal) 11830 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0125-0340 (Sun 0355) 11840 250 Panaji 0315-0415 Hindi (WeAsia) 11840 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1145-1315 Chinese (NE Asia) 11850 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0700-0800 Nepali (Nepal) 11935 100 Mumbai 1745-1945 English (EaAfrica) 11985 250 Delhi (Khampur) 0000-0045 Tamil, 0045-0115 Sinhala (Sri Lanka) 11985 500 Bengaluru 0215-0300 Kannada (WeAsia) 12025 250 Panaji 1615-1730 Hindi, 1730-1830 Malayalam (WeAsia) 13605 500 Bengaluru 1515-1615 Swahili (EaAfrica) 13605 500 Bengaluru 1745-1945 English, 1945-2030 French (W NW Africa) 13605 1000 Bengaluru 2245-0045 English (E SE Asia) [see above, 1 x 500 kW at 58degr; the other 500 kW unit at 90deg antenna, wb.] 13620 500 Bengaluru 1730-1945 Arabic (WeAsia), 1945-2030 (W NW Africa) 13645 250 Aligarh 1115-1200 Thai (SE Asia) 13695 500 Bengaluru 0315-0415 Hindi (WeAsia) 13710 500 Bengaluru 1000-1100 English (NE Asia, Australia/NZ), 1115-1215 Tamil, 1215-1245 Telegu (SE Asia), 1330-1500 English (EaSE Asia) 13770 500 Bengaluru 1615-1730 Hindi (WeAsia) 13795 500 Bengaluru 0000-0045 Tamil, 2300-2400 Hindi (SE Asia) 15020 250 Aligarh 1000-1100 English (NE Asia) 15040 100 Delhi (Kingsway) 1215-1315 Burmese (Myanmar) 15050 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1115-1215 Tamil, 1300-1500 Sinhala (Sri Lanka) 15075 500 Bengaluru 0215-0300 Kannada (WeAsia), 0415-0430 Gujarati, 0430-0530 Hindi (EaAfrica) 15075 1000 Bengaluru 0315-0415 Hindi (WeAsia, EeAfrica) [see above, 1 x 500 kW at 240degr AF, the other 500 kW unit at 300degr WeAS, wb.] 15075 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1615-1730 Hindi, 1745-1945 English (EaAfrica) 15135 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0125-0205 0215-0310 (Sun 0355) 15140 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1615-1715 Russian (EaEurope) 15155 250 Aligarh 1745-1945 English (We & NW Africa) 15175 250 Panaji 1515-1600 Gujarati (EaAfrica) 15185 250 Panaji 0315-0415 Hindi, 0415-0430 Gujarati, 0430-0530 Hindi (EeAfrica, Mauritius) 15185 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0730-0930 1115-1140 15235 500 Bengaluru 1000-1100 English (NE Asia) 15235 250 Panaji 1115-1200 Thai (SE Asia) 15260 50 Delhi (Kingsway) 0700-0930 HS, 1000-1100 English (Sri Lanka) 15770 250 Aligarh 0400-0430 Persian, 0430-0530 Arabic (WeAsia), 0845-0945 Indonesian, 1115-1215 Tamil, 1215-1245 Telegu (SE Asia) 15795 500 Bengaluru 1145-1315 Chinese (NE Asia) 17510 250 Delhi (Khampur) 0845-0945 Indonesian (SE Asia), 1000-1100 English (Australia/NZ) 17670 500 Bengaluru 1515-1615 Swahili, 1615-1730 Hindi 17670 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1745-1945 English (EaAfrica) 17705 500 Bengaluru 1145-1315 Chinese (NE Asia) 17715 250 Delhi (Khampur) 0315-0415 Hindi, 0415-0430 Gujarati, 0430-0530 Hindi (EaAfrica, Mauritius) 17740 250 Delhi (Khampur) 1115-1200 Thai (SE Asia) 17800 500 Bengaluru 1000-1100 English (NE Asia) 17810 250 Panaji 1115-1215 Tamil, 1215-1245 Telegu (SE Asia) 17845 250 Delhi (Khampur) 0400-0430 Persian, 0430-0530 Arabic (WeAsia) 0530-0600 Urdu (Haj Season) 17860 100 Delhi (Kingsway) 1115-1215 Tamil (Sri Lanka), 1220-1245 HS 17875 250 Aligarh 0845-0945 Indonesian (SE Asia) 17895 250 Aligarh 1000-1100 English (Australia/NZ) (Bedanta Das, India, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Nov 8 via DXLD) ** INDIA. All India Radio Latest Info: (From latest printed schedule & others) SW: Revised schedule of External Services: Aligarh: (Some transmitters which were off air at Aligarh now back on) 7255: 1315-1415 Dari, 1415-1530 Pushtu, (Afghanistan, Pakistan), 1530-1545 English 9620: 1230-1500 Sindhi, 1500-1600 Baluchi (Pakistan) 11620: 0100-0430 Urdu 15770: 0400-0430 Persian, 0430-0530 Arabic (W.Asia), 0845-0945 Indonesian, 1115-1215 Tamil, 1215-1245 Telugu (SE Asia) Bangalore: 5990: 0100-0200 Sindhi 17875: 0845-0945 Indonesian (ex 15770) 17895: 1000-1100 English The updated SW sked is available in frequency order at: http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos/sw/freq.htm 73 Jose Jacob, VU2JOS National Institute of Amateur Radio Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India Tel: 91-40-6516 7388 Telefax: 91-40-2331 0287 Cell: 94416 96043 http://www.niar.org (via Alokesh Gupta, India, Nov 28, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9525.90, Voice of Indonesia, 1005-1015+, Nov 27, tune-in to English news. ID at 1009. Talk about banking system in Indonesia. IDs at 1014. Fair. Only a threshold signal at 1325 check. Reception here on the east coast is usually best at 1000 with only a weak signal at 1300 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9525.88, V. of Indonesia, 1038-1042, English feature by W over instrumental music ending with ID. ID promo then into and music program. Fair signal. Didn't know that English was sked for this time. I suppose they're quite flexible!! (27 Nov.) 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) They are, to put it politely, but English at 10 has been reported for some months in DXLD (gh) 9525.90, Voice of Indonesia, *1001-1010, Nov 28, open carrier starting at 0948. Sign on at 1001 with Indonesian ID announcement. Into English programming at 1002. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions. Too much noise to pull out any program details (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11785.86, 22/11 1651, RRI Jakarta, pop songs, talks good (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italia, ascolti fatti a Bocca di Magra con Michele D'Amico… con il Perseus e il loop LFL 1010 della Wellbrook, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN. The Day of BCL --- Japanese famous shortwave listener, Mr. Kouji Yamada, 67 years, has passed away on August 19 of a sudden illness. To commemorate his distinguished service for shortwave listening and for many stations which broadcast daily Japanese language servcie, many young listeners have a plan of the Day of BCL (broadcasting listening) on Dec 17, Mr. Kouji Yamada's birthday. They are hoping to hear a special programme concerning the Day of BCL at around Dec 17 from many radio stations which have Japanese language service. I think the contents are his memories and his personality concerning short wave listening by radio stations' members and listeners (Shin-ichi Shiraishi, Sendai/Katsurashima, Japan, Nov 22, DSWCI DX Window Nov 26 via DXLD) ** KALININGRAD [and non]. Re 8-121: "How does one decide what is the correct schedule (or source)?": I noted such contradictions between HFCC registrations and site info from Voice of Russia already years ago, and monitoring indicated that the VOR version was the correct one. Actually not a surprise: What they give is information from actual airtime bookings, handled with the actual transmitter operator. The bodies mentioned in HFCC are some administrational bureaus, and it is hard to understand their role in the process. Perhaps they are rather supervisors like the FCC, Bundesnetzagentur in Germany and so on. I checked out 7340 around 2020, while it was carrying French: A somewhat weakish signal, suffering from next-by China on 7335. Clean, somewhat soft audio, not the typical Bolshakovo modulation. At the same time // 5950 from Bolshakovo had almost faded out here, just 600 km away from the transmitter site. So I have no doubt that this 7340 is indeed Novosibirsk. Btw, a few years ago also RNW used this site during winter in the evening for Dutch to Europe. It remained a one-off, probably because the signal strength left something to be desired (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH. ALL ENGLISH RADIO CHANNEL TO LAUNCH ON 1 DECEMBER Korea’s new all-English-language radio channel will be launched on 1 December, Seoul Traffic Broadcasting confirmed yesterday. The channel, tbs eFM (101.3 MHz), will start broadcasting at 10 a.m. on 1 December. It will consist of 10 news programmes throughout the day, including BBC News twice daily; “This Morning” and the “Evening Show,” which will feature news, weather forecasts, and rush-hour traffic information; “Drivetime” will air world music; “K-Popular” will offer an introduction to Korean pop culture; “Seoul of Asia” will provide information on living in Seoul and its suburbs; and “Up Close,” is a weekend programme on Korean traditional culture, including tips for tourists. The main target audience is the 760,000 foreigners residing in Korea, 5.5 million tourists who visit annually, and employees of 8,183 foreign companies in Korea. The channel will initially serve the Seoul metropolitan area. (Source: Chosun Ilbo) Related story: English-only radio station to debut in Korea [linked] 1 comment so far --- 1 Dave Kernick November 28th, 2008 - 11:34 UTC The station (also to be known as Seoul FM) already has a fully- functioning website at http://tbsefm.seoul.kr This is currently streaming test programming, consisting of music interspersed with programme trailers and promotional announcements, with news at the top of the hour (November 28th, 2008 - 8:59 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. KBS World Radio, via WRN via WRMI 9955, Nov 28 at 2130 opening program of pop world music which turned out to be rap. Note: we do not need KBS to play rap for us by this circuitous route, which anyway was free of jamming for the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KURDISTAN [non]. UCRANIA, 7540, Dengue Mezopotamya, 1840-1850, escuchada el 27 de noviembre en idioma kurdo con la emisión de música folklórica local; a pesar de llegar con buena señal se escucha con un nivel de audio bajo, cuña de identificación “Dengue Mezopotamya”. A las 1847 se escucha a un locutor con unas frases en francés y con referencias a París, tras una nueva cuña de identificación y un corto fragmento musical, nuevas intervenciones en francés, SINPO 44353. Es probable que se trate de alguna emisión especial, ya que son las 1909 y aún sigue activa. Parece una especie de recital en directo con público; se escuchan aplausos después de las intervenciones, ¿Quizás algún evento desde París para la comunidad kurda exiliada? Se escucha música revolucionaria en francés (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. MOI has added some Arabic transmissions via Kabd, 500 kW: 1005-1800 on 11630, 230 degrees; and 1800-2400 on 13600, 286 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) * * LAOS. 7145, LNR Vientiane, 1248 - 1258, Nov 27, Khmer (as per Aoki), male speaker in monotonous drone very similar to what I heard here two years ago, cf DXLD 6-185 & 6-187, songs with a distinct SE Asian flavour. Still there at 1357 recheck, had hoped condx would meanwhile have improved but they hadn't. Noted usual female announcer now but couldn't make out in what language (English listed) to 1411 carrier off after about 10 minutes of dead air. Frequency was blocked by VOR Chinese 1200-1500 last year but clear in B08. Have been monitoring this almost daily for the past three weeks now and am convinced it must be Laos. Does anyone else hear this? (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. Relays this weekend via 9290 kHz Sat November 29th RWI 1900-2000 UT Sun November 30th Latvia Today 1500-1600 UT RWI 1600-1700 UT RWI 2000-2100 UT Good listening 73 (Tom Taylor, HCDX via DXLD) R. Waves International ** LIBERIA. (non). via Ascension, 11875 NF, Star Radio, *0700-0730, Nov 28, threshold signal at sign on. Slowly improved to a weak but readable level by 0725 with English talk. ID at 0729. Into Cotton Tree News programming at 0730 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA. 972 kHz, Radio Jamahiriyah, Sirt, 27 Nov 08 2348 - Arabic singing then into Libyan National anthem prior to sign/off - Fair - Anthem verified by Sylvain Naud and Neil Kaz via RealDX (Chris Black, Cape Cod MA, Icom 756 ProII, R-75, SDR-IQ, ABDX via DXLD) 972, Radio Jamahiriyah, Sirt, 26 Nov 08 2338-2352 - Poor to fair with Kor`anic Arabic chanting/singing with some pauses initially and into Libyan NA at s/off ending about 2352, all // 1053 (that one new !) where there was no trace of UK and little CHUM slop. Earlier at 2210 I // 972 to 675 (new and no Holland today) both weak with Arabic talk. I believe 972 Libya leaves an OC on AN. They also are poorly modulated as there's often a big signal on 972 and little if any audio. Here in my part of the Midwest (Chicago Milwaukee area) there's little on 970 to QRM them. Spain and Germany have also been logged on 972 from here. There's often a 972 het on the car receiver in good conditions. R8A, Phased BOG System at 64 deg. Approx 665 ft // 485 ft. These wires run right on the ground, mostly on my driveway. No transformers or cables or anything. I just run them under the truck door and input the wires directly into the two inputs of the Quantum Phaser. Reception of nearly everything from the E to NE is aided by phase nulling back end stations in the same part of the band. A simpler mini-DXped setup is hard to imagine and when I leave here for home base in IL, I just wind the BOG wires up with cord winders. 73 KAZ Grafton WI (Neil Kazaross, ABDX via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 15295, Voice of Malaysia, Kajang, 0810-0830, Nov 15, popular songs including "I just called to say I love you" by Stevie Wonder. ID in English at 0810: "The Voice of Malaysia, English service" and at 0820: "Voice of Malaysia, broadcasting from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia". The scheduled signing off time is 0830, but the broadcast seemed to be continued even after 0830, 34343. The broadcast was disturbed by heavy noise, but signal was fairly strong and I could enjoy the program (Nobuya Kato, Fujisawa-city, Kanagawa/ Katsurashima, Japan, DSWCI DX Window Nov 26 via DXLD) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS [non]. R. Australia`s Rear Vision show was about the Maldives, and the recent end of the two-sesquidecade Gayoom dictatorship. Heard well at 1335-1355 Nov 27 on 6020. Unless it was in the first few minutes I missed, not a word about Minivan Radio`s rôle. Otherwise excellent show; ends with plans to ``buy a new homeland`` for the 300K Maldivians as their islands are drowned tnx to global warming; maybe in Australia. Already there is no fresh water on most islands, except what rain can be caught. Transcript and audio here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rearvision/stories/2008/2422122.htm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 5995, RTVM, *0555-0640, Nov 28, sign on with guitar IS. National Anthem at 0558. Flute IS along with opening French ID announcements at 0559. Religious recitations at 0602. Vernacular talk. More religious recitations at 0631. Local Afro-pop music & talk at 0638. Fair signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 7245, R.M. 1026-1037, M talk in Arabic and singing with distinctive local string music. Quite good at this time. 1059-1100 announcements by M over music. Sounded like a tone denoting ToH under the talk, then local stringed music bridge, followed by possible news headlines by W 1100-1102. 1102 M returned with talk and more local music. Will try to get a // 4845 when this frequency apparently signs on at 0800 (27 Nov.) 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) ?? I thought this was a single transmitter changing frequency; certainly looks that way from WRTH 2008y listings (gh, DXLD) ** MONACO [non]. Re 8-121: "Although the Monaco address isn't listed" --- simply because TWR's office in Monaco closed at yearend 2004. It had been opened in 1960 for dealing with Radio Monte Carlo, but things have radically changed since. The partner of TWR is now Monte-Carlo Radiodiffusion, a branch of the French transmitter operator TDF. Who is actually in charge of these English programs? TWR Europe in Vienna takes care of airtime bookings, but where are they produced? The same question is of course to be asked for just every TWR broadcast (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. 9575, R. Medi Un, in Arabic, 2243-2251, 11/28, very nice hammer dulcimer type music, man with brief announcement and into Moroccan national anthem. Unsure if s/off as fading out fast anyway (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGER. See ETHIOPIA [and non] ** NIGERIA. 15120, VON (presumed), 1707-1713, Nov 26, in English with news (many items about Africa) and commentary about the Nigerian police, fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. RADIO KANO TO GET NEW DRM-COMPATIBLE MEDIUMWAVE TRANSMITTER Nigeria’s Kano State Executive Council has approved the release of funds for the purchase of a new AM digital transmitter for the state Radio Corporation, Radio Kano. Briefing the press on the outcome of the council’s meeting, the State Commissioner for Information, Barr. Haruna Isa Dederi, said that the decision is part of the government’s effort to comply with the directives of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) that all radio stations must switch over from analogue to digital transmitters nationwide. (Source: Daily Triumph) Andy Sennitt adds: The Kano Broadcasting Corporation is listed with a 50 kW transmitter at Tukan Tawa on 549 kHz, and 25 kW at Jogana on 729 kHz. It’s not clear from the report which transmitter is to be upgraded, or whether both will be. A pattern is beginning to emerge which suggests that the future of DRM will be in countries with a large land mass, where building a network of FM or DAB transmitters would be prohibitively expensive. DRM was originally developed with international shortwave broadcasting in mind, but came several decades too late. However, the effort will not have been in vain if it can be utilised to help improve the listening experience of millions of people in developing countries. But we’re still waiting for a major receiver manufacturer to commit to mass production of DRM receivers. (November 27th, 2008 - 13:32 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** NORFOLK ISLAND. Hi, My name is Geoff & I've just joined this group. I very much enjoy FM/TV/MW DX & enjoy a pretty good setup. There are only 8 local FM stations here in Bombala NSW Australia, so the band is pretty open to DX. My FMDX log from yesterday 28 Nov 08 from 12:36 to 13:00 AEDST. [0136-0200 UT] Norfolk Is (via Es) - 1945 km 89.9 VL2NI (IDs as "89.9 FM" now) 93.9 ABC Classic FM 95.9 ABC Regional 98.2 Triple J Plenty of band 1 TV activity from NZ from 07:15 till 13:00. Tuners: Sony XDR-F1HD Onkyo Integra T-4650 w/ 110k murata filters 12 Element Log Periodic FM yagi FM broadcast dipole (good for band 1 DXing) ICOM R-7100 ICOM PCR-1500 Cheers (Geoff Wolfe, Bombala NSW, dxing.info via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3290, R. Central, 1152 28 Nov, sounded like some sort of radio drama, but playing Island Pop music at 1155 check. 1159 M with song announcement, then "Voice of Hope" Sunday religious program promo mentioning V. of Papua New Guinea and National Radio, then official ID as The V. of Papua New Guinea, National Radio. Usual Bird call/native wind instrument IS played twice, and M with National Radio ID and English news. 1203 studio M with TC and talk, possible local news. Since when have they started using V. of Papua New Guinea IDs?? Besides this, 3345, 3315, and 3305 were also on but those were very weak with barely any audio. 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** PERU. 4955, R. Cultural Amauta presumed the one here at 0026-0035, 11/26, Andean flute music, female announcer in long talk in Spanish. No solid ID, but it's the type of program heard from Amauta in the past (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4991.06, R. Manantial (presumed), 1046 end of canned announcement by M, and into campesina music. Surprised at the strength. Announcements during song, more at 1052 but suffering from noise. 1053 possible mention of onda corta and "la voz ?" 1055 canned announcements again. Fading too fast. Getting some QRM from 4990 het. Got there too late. (27 Nov.) 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) ** PHILIPPINES. 9490, VOA via Tinang, in English, 2215-2220, 11/28, features on a US history museum, very strong signal, but fast and deep cyclical fades. This was strongest signal on this part of the band, with other much closer ones like Morocco and Gabon fading out very fast just after local sunset (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 15190, Radio Pilipinas, 1750-1804, Nov 26, in Tagalog with some English words, fading up to fairly strong signal, mixing with R. Africa (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND. Hi dear Glenn, I checked our DX program season list B-08 of WWDXC against your dxld/WoR website Media Program list, also against BDXC-UK Media programme list, against RMI, Cumbre/WHR and a lot of other broadcaster schedules. Noted still Polskie radio MULTIMEDIA on Thursday from 1323 UT, listened to on internet feed, due of dead zone of the Nauen and Wertachtal sites at my location. despite Multimedia title left out on website http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/ramowka/?id=10 or even renamed that to FOCUS title? http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/news/archiwum.aspx?s=0&k=149 27.11.2008 Rupert Murdoch's media giant has withdrawn from TV Puls leaving a majority stake to the Franciscans in the family-themed station (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So the PRES DX program is still on the 13 UT broadcast, Thursdays at 1323 via Germany on 7325 and 9450, the latter somewhat audible in NAm; BTW, they have made some site and antenna changes on 7325 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Erik, sure the Nauen outlet 7325 kHz I can't hear here in Stuttgart too, due of DEAD zone around the 400-500 kilometers circle. Instead the powerhouse CRI Beijing in Japanese via 500 kW beast from JINHUA is co-channel. Maybe that's different on the British Isles target. 73 de (Wolfy df5sx to Erik Køie, via DXLD) ** PORTUGAL [and non]. RDP Internacional, 12040, Nov 27 at 2021, VG signal with Portuguese announcer going wild over a silly ballgame. Meant to check whether he was still going after 2230, when it would be colliding with HCJB in German. Had noted RDPI earlier the next afternoon on 12040, and still at 2131 Nov 28 // 11965. Finally confirmed RDPI colliding with HCJB on 12040 as expected from scheduling, as I was monitoring at *2229 when HCJB came on in German, and RDPI was still going, unseemed in sports coverage, both quite strong. 2255 recheck, RDPI was gone so not sure exactly when it closed, but its transmission is open-ended (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. I attended graduate school at Columbia University, in New York City. My degree was in Romance Philology. Columbia offered Romanian, and I took it. I wrote to Radio Bucharest (now Radio Romania International) and asked for information about places that produced braille books. They sent me the name of Vatra Luminoasa (shining hearth) the place in Bucharest which served blind people. By this time I knew enough Romanian to write to them, and they sent me some braille books. Some months later, I received a letter, in braille, from a man who was a braille proof reader at Vatra Luminoasa. He asked me to be his penpal, and invited me to Bucharest, to stay with his family. I went, and stayed a month. this was in the early '70's, I guess, at the start of the Ceausescu regime. I later heard that foreigners weren't supposed to stay in a private home, but, I had no trouble. at that time, there was no food shortage in Romania; in fact, I ate very well (Tim Hendel, Huntsville AL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. RRI, English at 2130 Nov 28, best on 6115, also on // 9755 and at 2145 found also on 6030, not yet hit by DentroCuban jamming or Martí. 6030 is Galbeni, as is unchecked 7145, the others Tiganesti (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 7320, GTRK Magadan, 0210-0235, Nov 25; local/regional programming; ID "Govorit Magadan" ("Magadan speaking"), mostly one man talking in Russian, BoH same jingle and ID as heard yesterday, series of advertisements for Magadan. So I can now confirm their local/regional programming is on from 0210-0300. Thanks to the kind assistance of Bernd Trutenau, who listened to the audio clip and provided information for ID and ads (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Re 8-121: "Which program on Sat & Sun ?? from Moldova powerhouse" --- Should be English instead. Same for 1494 (Krasny Bor) and 6055/6175 (both Tbilisskaya). Apparently neither of them has been booked for Mon-Fri only? 7335: It's again listed this season for Chita-Atamanovka 1800-2000, English to Africa. And of course this has nothing to do with the transmissions via Montsinéry to North America in another time slot. (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also KALININGRAD ** RUSSIA. Checking again for 8GAL, 6074, but nothing heard at 1400- 1402 Nov 27; R. Rossii, 6075, closing timesignal was only 5 seconds slow as I checked it against WWV. Only?? What`s the point of a timesignal with no precision at all? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RWANDA. 6055, Radio Rwanda, 2053-2100*, Nov 27, Afro-pop music. English talk with personal messages from listeners. Sign off with short electronic instrumental piece. Fair to poor with co-channel QRM. English listed for Thursday only at 2000-2045 according to WRTH (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAINT HELENA. Radio Saint Helena Day, Nov. 15: Summary of reception quality around the world (much abbreviated by the editor!): Australia Only audible from fade in 2030-2050 fade out when I could just make out a single word. (Stevenson, NSW). From fade in at 2145 to 2340 heard quite well, best reception was 2145 to 2230. (Larsen, WA, both in EDXP-FORUM) Japan No sounds 2000-2100! 2100-2344 heard with 25222 - 35343, except for the transmitter problems. (Wagai). Heard from fade in at 2020-2330 with SINPO at 2030: 25342, 2055: 35443, 2100: 35442, suddenly becoming better 2110: 45444, 2130: 55544, suddenly weaker 2228: 25342. An interesting phenomena that the broadcast towards Europe was heard better than the broadcast towards Japan! (Kato and Shiraishi) India 2000-2100, heard with strong, but very distorted signal, 35442. (Jaisaktivel, Chennai) United Arab Emirates, Dubai Faded in 2020 with some music and talk, very hard copy and fading out. Maybe 11MHz dropped out by 2030 here in Asia. Absolutely nothing with the European beam. Strange at 2237 fair reception then nose dived a minute into the music. Then gone forever. Very strange indeed. (Goonetilleke in DXplorer) South Africa Rep. 2000 - 24433, 2015 - 24422, 2030 - 24321, 2215 - 24432, 2230 - 24433 and 2300 - 14421. (Korinek in DXplorer) Greece Unfortunately, in my area there is a medium level QRN in all bands with a peak on the 11086 kHz with a 20 kHz width and of S3-4 level. This QRM comes possibly from the ADSL lines. This made a disastrous reception of RSH at 2000, but the signal gradually improved with some little reception 251x1 at 2115. (Liangas) Bulgaria 1958-2100, in Sofia it was received with a faint signal but at 21 hours when the antenna was pointed to Europe, the signal faded out and vanished. (Pankov via Romero) Spain 2000-2100, very weak signal in English, ID and talk, 14321. But 2100- 2120, strong signal towards Europe, 44444. (Méndez) Germany, Austria and the Netherlands 2000-2344, log summary according to reports in A-DX Austrian mailing list: Propagation was rather very lousy in Europe too, RSH signal seemed to be poorly received here, much less in signal strength, compared to transmissions in previous years. (Bueschel, Ratzer, Van Arnhem, Volk and other DX-ers). 2000-2330, close to unusable here in Europe, with only few peaks. (Kuhl in DXplorer). Sorry, no reception in Erfurt. (Scholz) United Kingdom I did not hear anything of RSH. However, my noise level is several S points around 11 MHZ from next door's TV. But I always thought 11 MHz might be too high a frequency so late in the evening in mid-November. (Green) Denmark 2000-2344, faint signal with deep fades, talks in English, but only few words were intelligible, some evergreens could be recognized, transmitter problems 2229-2246, 15221-25333. (Petersen). 2030-2310, through much atmospheric noise occasionally very faint talking and music, nothing intelligible. (Bredahl Jorgensen, Koie and Aerenlund Pedersen) Finland 2000-2115, miserable signal here in southern Finland. (Savolainen in DXplorer) Russia 2000-2100, only local noise is here in St. Petersburg with portable receiver and 15 m LW antenna. One more check confirms their weak (unfortunately, too weak) signal starting from 2114 at least, talk, 2116 music. (Timofeyev in DXplorer) Eastern U. S. A. Surprisingly good when opened at 2000, but after a couple of minutes dropped way down. Up again 2032, but back in the soup at 2040, poor- very poor 2130-2200, but I got a couple of song titles; imagination level till 2210, then noted phone call, talk, music, address, but still poor-very poor. Bounced up slightly 2228 as gave names of various clubs, but since 2229 not a peep. "Worst ever" reception here, I am afraid. (Berg, MA) 2000-2344, started out good with "A Life on the Ocean Waves" and "My St. Helena Island." Reception continued to decline through the broadcast. The Japan beam was generally fair to good with some brief spikes to near armchair quality. Europe beam at 2100 was only fair at best but overall still listenable. Good at 2114 with mention that they have had 75 messages. Signal surely is up and down. By the 2230 NA beam, the signal had faded down into the noise and only peaked on a few occasions. This year was somewhat of a disappointment but I always look forward to it. (Herkimer, NY, via DXplorer) 2000-2145, opening with time pips, music fanfare and Gary Walters with ID and opening ann RSHD celebration. Message from the Royal Governor; greetings from Japan Shortwave Club. Fair for the most part although signal was not steady throughout. (D'Angelo, PA) 2025-2230, all water path to Southeast Florida provides fair to very good signal with low rumble and distorted signal, very strong at 2110. Starting to fade 2220, still readable. (Wilkner, FL, via DXplorer). Also heard in NH, NJ and OH. (Ed) Central U. S. A. 2145-2305, ups and downs, very poor to brief bursts of fair reception. Overall, somewhat disappointing. At 2301, fairly good on music, but with speech maybe 25% copy. I can catch words, phrases, mentions of RSH, but getting context is not easy. At the end was only slightly poorer than last year. (Jensen, WI, via DXplorer) 2052-2344, fair level; reading listeners mail. Sudden increase in signal strength and clarity at 2102; now at almost arm chair level; vast improvement over last year. At 2120, signal continues strong but with increasing noise; 2229 distorted audio and gone; at 2248 back to fair-good level; must have gotten the antenna issue sorted out. (Ronda, OK). 2000, too weak to really copy anything said, but lost signal at 2020. Retune 2206-2344: signal about the same as two hours earlier. 2212 improving somewhat. 2229 starts ann in Spanish, but audio breaks up and modulation lost, or barely detectable. 2247 noticed that RSH was back with music, S9+12. 2322 full ID with SW and MW frequencies, asking for reports. QRM on low side worsens. (Hauser, OK). Also heard in IA. (Ed) Western U. S. A. and Canada 2000-2230, audible signal, but weak with a higher than normal noise level. At 2246-2235, the signal took a noticeable jump from S2 to S3 and gradually improved to nearly S4. (Churchill, CA, via DXplorer). Also heard in WA, OR, NV and in ALB and BC in Canada. (Ed) Argentina 2043-2115, songs, ann, IDs, country music, talk, 34443. (Slaen with DX-friends) Brazil 2001-2032, ID, talks, music, 35333. (Freitas, BA) 2020-2200, good signal in Northeast Brazil, 2030-2130 55344, but from 2130 fading and QRN and 35222. (Gouveia, SE, via NoticiasDX) 2010-2030, music with flute and drums, ID, 44433. (Bedene, PR, via HCDX) Colombia 2000-2300, time signal, mention of special broadcast, music, 2229 greeting in Spanish by Santiago San Gil in Venezuela, poor and varying reception. (Rodriguez) Chile 2000+, Anthem and program in English with strong signal on the Pacific central coast of Chile on an ICF-2010, 45554 (Lopez, via Barrera) (DSWCI DX Window Nov 26 via DXLD ** SAINT LUCIA, SAINT VINCENT. Long-haul trans-equatorial FM DX: 96.7, SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES Nice FM, Kingstown, EE, 0020, 25/11, OM, nxs 43343 97.3, SAINT LUCIA Radio Saint Lucia, Castries, EE, 0023, 25/11, OM, nxs 44333 99.9, SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES WE FM, Kingstown, EE, 0026, 25/11, OM/OM, talks 34333 97.3, SAINT LUCIA Radio Saint Lucia, Castries, EE, 2351, 26/11, OM/OM, talks 33333 96.7, SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES Nice FM, Kingstown, EE, 0135, 26/11, OM, nxs 25232 Receptor: Degen DE1103. Antena: LW do Degen DE1103 com aproximadamente 10,62 metros. Escutas realizadas em Bandeirantes/PR. (Rubens Ferraz Pedroso; Bandeirantes – Paraná – Brasil, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) ** SEYCHELLES [non]. UNIDENTIFIED. 11655, perhaps AWR, in Arabic (I think), perhaps from Madagascar. Program in progress at 1735z tune in. Sign off and carrier off at 1757z Nov 27. RNW sign on at 1759z. Signal strength was similar from the unID to RNW. I've posted a 51 second excerpt of this unID station. It's located in the files section and labelled: 112708B.mp3 Audio Unid 11655 @ 1755z Nov 27 (Jerry Lenamon, Waco Texas, Eton E-1, T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST It`s definitely not in Arabic. Sounds more like Amharic to me, but not sure. There are IDs on the clip, as well as a website, if we could just make out what they are saying. The music reminds me of what has been heard on some other Ethiopian clandestines. Madagascar site is certainly suspect, as this neatly fills a one-hour gap in RN transmissions between 17 and 18 UT. Another unpublicized transmission via Madagascar, Andy? Not on the current RNW schedule either (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) No linguist am I. It had some of the guttural sounds that I hear in Arabic. The only thing I recognized was "dot com" at the end of the web address (Jerry Lenamon, ibid.) Listen shortly after the word radio and dimtse is in there I believe, which is a word used in Amharic station names/identifications (Mike Barraclough, England, ibid.) I'm not aware of anything new, but have forwarded your comments to my technical colleagues as it involves 11655. But if you study our technical schedule you'll see that Madagascar already has 3 x 250 kW and 1 x 50 kW transmitters on the air at 1700-1800 UT. Two carry Dutch to Africa, one carries IBB programming (Studio 7) and the 50 kW transmitter is carrying Voice of the People. So I don't understand why Glenn says there is a "one-hour gap". I can't identify the language (if Mike Barraclough says it's Amharic, that's good enough for me). The station name sounds like voice of ????na and has an email address of voiceof???na at ???.com, according to the announcement. Investigations continue. [later:] Could it be FEBA Radio in Tigrinya via Kigali? 1700-1730 smtwtfs SOMALI 11655 25 KIG 1730-1757 smtwtfs TIGRINYA 11655 25 KIG http://www.febaradio.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=40 (Andy Sennitt, RNW, ibid.) I guess that`s it; strange the FEBA usage of 11655 does not appear on any of the online schedules. Both transmissions are ex-11785 as still in EiBi. As for ``one-hour gap`` I was merely referring to an open hour on 11655 between two MDC transmissions, not the complete transmitter usage (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) The language sounds more guttural than Amharic, and the first word sound like "Ezi" which is Tigrigna. FEBA in that language fits: http://www.febaradio.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=38 (Dave Kernick, UK, ibid.) Isn't the ID in the beginning of the clip "Radio Feba..." And the e- mail address sounds like voiceofselamna@yahoo.com 73, (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) Re 11655, 1700-1800 UT --- That 11655 kHz entry on FEBA's schedule seems relatively new? In early VTC/exMerlin schedule of Oct 26 the FEBA service at 1700-1800 UT in Somali and Tigrinya was scheduled on 11785 kHz via Kigali relay in Rwanda. In A-08 season was on 9865 kHz Kigali too. Maybe the irregular service of Voice of Indonesia on odd 11784.86v and weekend services of WHRI on co-channel 11785 forced VTC/FEBA to leave for 11655 kHz channel now? With separate mail I send you a recording summary of 5 minutes of Fri Nov 28th program. Kigali tx on air 1659:13 to 1757:10 UT Signal in southern Germany about S=9+15 dB, weakened a little bit from 1750 UT onwards. Signal strength compared to remaining few stations on 25 mb in this time slot: VoRUS Fr Yerevan 11510 S=6, Zanzibar Tanzania 11735 S=9+20 dB, RVP Madagascar 11610 S=7, DWL Kigali RRW in German same strength S=9+15dB. Strange program mixture put on air, I guess the fault via the VTC control room at London and ISDN or satellite feed today Nov 28th. No program feed, just carrier 1659:13 to 1701:06 UT, when short 1 second connection to some music file. At 1702:11 to 1703:00 UT Far Eastern Korean language program started, female voice. At 1703:00 to 1703.44 UT stop in transmission, just carrier only. At 1703:44 male voice in Korean too, telephone call-in interview by male, connect which lasted til 1708:10 UT. Afterwards only carrier again til 1708:32 UT, when Korean male phone interview connect was heard once again. Korean program lasted til 17.09:30 UT! 9 1/2 minutes too late! Seemingly FEBA's Somali? language program started at 1709:35 UT by female announcer. During program Kenya and Ibrahim mentioned often, many times. 1720 Guitar song by male singer. 17.23 UT Male voice announced internet address www. ...selemna.net and {town?} Adsowa Ethiopia. 1728:30 UT short FEBA IS signature, few tones played. 1728:50 UT annmt: Radio Suwasino/Sibasino/Siwasino like ... 1729 UT frequency given in Kilohertz, and internet address was given again. ?End of Somali service? and station annmt too: "Huna Mikele", and Jesus. 1733:10 UT male prayer in ?Tigrinya? language, echo like audio til 1736:30 UT. 1736 til 1752 UT prayer, organ music, chorus, modern Christian rhythm. 1754:20 UT "Voice of Salamna" ID given, web address given, most likely ? www.salamna.org.net ? all by female. Followed by modern Christian song. 1757:00 UT FEBA's interval signature played with few tones. 1757:10 UT TX off. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks to all for identifying the unID (Jerry Lenamon, TX, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SIERRA LEONE [non]. via Ascension, 11875 NF, Cotton Tree News, 0730-0800*, Nov 28, opening “CTN” ID announcements at 0730 and English news. IDs as “C-T-N". Talk about local election during entire broadcast. They usually go into vernacular talk around 0740 but tonight they were entirely in English. Abrupt sign off. Weak but readable at 0730 but improved to a fair level by 0736 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Pres. Obama is already getting a raw deal from the wacko gospel huxters --- as I tuned by WWRB 9385, Nov 27 at 2037, Brother Scare was repeatedly calling him ``Baruch Obama`` --- is that supposed to be an insult implying he is a Jew?? Or another manifestation of the sheer ignorance of R.G.? And a few minutes earlier on WEWN 11520, Patrick Madrid was excoriating Obama as ``an evil man`` for not being anti-abortion, like a good Catholic. At least we can expect VOA to treat him fairly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. SRI LANKA DESTROYS TAMIL TIGERS RADIO STATION - BUT LEADER SPEAKS ON INTERNET --- The leader of the Tamil Tigers has said Sri Lanka is “living in a dreamland of military victory”, moments after government jets for a second year running destroyed a rebel radio station broadcasting his annual address. Even with a Sri Lankan military offensive besieging the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) self-declared capital, leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran remained defiant in his yearly rallying cry. “The Sinhala state has, as never before, placed its trust on its military strength,” he said, referring to Sri Lanka’s government. “It is living in a dreamland of military victory. It is a dream from which it will awake. That is certain.” Prabhakaran’s speech, usually recorded beforehand at one of his jungle hideouts, went out worldwide on the Internet despite the air raid. Air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said the strike completely destroyed a radio station close to Kilinochchi, the northern town the LTTE has declared as capital of the separate state it wants to create and calls Tamil Eelam. (Source: Reuters) (November 28th, 2008 - 8:49 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. EXTRA GRIMETON RADIO/SAQ TRANSMISSION 2008-12-06 There will be a transmission with the Alexanderson alternator on 17.2 kHz on December 6 2008 at 1045 UT. The reason for the extra transmission is the opening of a new “Alexanderson Institute” at Campus Learning Centre in Varberg, the near by city. We do not require any QSL-reports this time and will not verify. P.S. We still intend to continue with our annual transmission on Christmas Eve (morning), Dec 24, at 08:00 UTC with tuning up from 07:30 UTC. D.S. Regards. (SM6NM/Lars Kålland, Nov 28, via Hugo Matten, Belgium, BDX via DXLD) Has anyone heard this station in North America at the listed times? (Bill Harms, Maryland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN [non]. Hi Glenn, I received a Radio Taiwan International transmission in English from 0300 to 0400 UT at 5950 kHz on Nov 29, 2008 (which was Nov 28, 2008 here in Atlanta). Apparently this RTI transmission was relayed from WYFR in Okeechobee, Florida and as would be expected the reception was excellent here in Atlanta. The main thing I wanted to point out was that this particular broadcast is not currently listed on the Aoki, EiBi, Prime Time Shortwave, BCLNEWS.IT, or HFCC Public Data websites so I assume it is relatively new and may not be well known at this time. The 0200-0300 UT 5950 kHz broadcast in English targeted to the east coast of North America is listed on most of these websites, but the 0300-0400 broadcast targeted to the west coast of North America is not. The 0300-0400 broadcast was a repeat of the 0200-0300. There was an announcement at the end of each of these transmissions which stated RTI's current English language broadcast schedule. The 0300-0400 broadcast is listed on the RTI website: http://english.rti.org.tw/Others/Frequencies.aspx Wishing you excellent DXing! (Bill Hodges, Atlanta, GA, (Kenwood R- 2000 and 50ft long wire), DX LISTENING DIGEST) 0300 broadcast is not new at all; perhaps there was some confusion about whether it would be canceled like many of the others a few weeks ago (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** THAILAND [and non]. Re 8-121: One note, since I often see the term ISDN used too loosely in regard to studio-transmitter-links: It denotes a dial-up connection, run with devices called ISDN codec (Musictaxi, Zephyr etc., etc.). They are used from the start (i.e. not just as fall-back when other feeds fail) especially for such special transmissions, since preparing them is just a matter of dialling a phone number (and hoping that both units will seamlessly synchronize). Fixed audio circuits through fibre cables or microwave links or perhaps still copper are another story. In the case of RNW such circuits were apparently in use to feed the Flevoland-Zeewolde transmitters until the end, since these outlets were way ahead of anything else (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET, 6200, "Holy Tibet" program via Xizang PBS - Lhasa, 1630- 1700, Nov 26, all in English, items about solar energy project in Tibet, about the most popular song in Tibet in the late 1980s, played pop Tibetan songs, segment "Eyes on Tibet ... acquaint our listeners with developments in Tibet", audio somewhat mushy, making it hard to understand all that was said (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Mr. Hauser, Hi, I have been keen follow to your daily DX news around DX Listenning Digest via hard-core-dx.com. Hope that all your works going well. As you aware or not, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation has been arranged in 30 languages in its web page. New web page address is http://www.trt-world.com Sincerely (Mustafa CANKURT, Turkey, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Trying to listen to Live from Turkey later on the one-day- only archive of the 1330 UT Thursday broadcast, we find that there is no bar to move forward immediately 20:00 minutes into the file on the embedded-only player. Instead, all we can do is press fast-forward, which advances the playback at about 5x normal speed, and we can hear the sound zipping by --- and when you after 4 minutes finally get to 20 minutes in, you have to hit pause button, or you will lose where you got to, and then you can hit the same button again which has transformed into play. Beats me why they set it up this cumbersome way. This day it turned out that LfT did not start until 22:50 in. Hamid was the unusual host, YL co-host. And this time instead of just music fill during the TOH break they played an interview with someone about the prospects for Turkish/US relations with Pres. Obama, pronounced Óbama (Glenn Hauser, OK, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. BBG MEMBER TO THE US SENATE (updated). Ted Kaufman, adviser to Vice President elect Joseph R. Biden and charter member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, has been selected by Delaware's governor to take Biden's Senate seat. CQ Politics, 24 November 2008. "Mr. Kaufman has been a dedicated guardian of the journalistic independence of our broadcasters and a passionate advocate of the Agency's mission. He helped lead the BBG to become an independent federal agency in 1999, and set a standard for the bipartisan work of the Board. ... The people of Delaware are fortunate to have a man of such distinction as their Senator." BBG statement, 25 November 2008. Kaufman background. Wilmington News Journal, 24 November 2008. So the BBG is now down to four members, plus the ex oficio Secretary of State. Update: "Ted Kaufman was the primary force behind the shutting down of many Voice of America radio broadcasts, including programs to Russia, a secretive action taken last summer only days before the Russian army attacked Georgia. ... Upon learning of Ted Kaufman’s appointment to the U.S. Senate, a high-ranking Union leader told FreeMediaOnline.org that 'Ted Kaufman was no friend to the employees of the VOA.'" Ted Lipien, Free Media Online blog, 28 November 2008. See previous post. Posted: 28 Nov 2008 [See http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=5293 for linx] (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Do less damage in Senate? ** U S A [and non]. VOA Greenville, 11975, Nov 27 at 1822 with news, VG signal until 1829* African News Tonight. This is another of those needlessly fragmented transmissions, 1800-1830 only, then hitting same target areas from the other side, Thailand, 1830-1900, inaudible here. VOA, 6080 via São Tomé, Friday Nov 28 at 2108 had talk instead of the Music Mix I was expecting, but must have been introductory interview with artiste. Should be much better on // 15580 via Greenville ---- no, just open carrier! Finally brought up audio at 2109 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WBCQ, off-frequency again, about 15420.1 and colliding with BBCWS via South Africa, 15420.0, making a low het and audio also mixing, tho WBCQ on top with Fence Lake NM anapestic preacher, Nov 27 at 1816. WBCQ 7415 with final archive repeat of WORLD OF RADIO, Fri Nov 28 until 2100, to be replaced in December by other programming weekdays at 2030, i.e. Amos & Andy, and the even more racist Herald of Truth, evidently moved from non-propagating 0500-0530 slot. WWCR had new WOR 1436 as scheduled, from 2129 Friday on 15825. Next scheduled airing of latest WOR, via Area 51, 5110-CUSB at 0000 UT Saturday was missing, just music playing on webcast and 5110 seemed absent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. The KVOH triplets make another appearance, Nov 27 at 2047, besides fundamental 17775 with music, S9+18 or so, the matching distorted spurs sounded almost as strong, S9+12, around 17629 and 17921 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. FCC info shows WWRB has changed time on 3215 from 2200-0200 UT to 1700-2100! And from 150 degrees to 0 or non-direxional? But I still hear them in the evening as one would expect, rather than middle of day. Perhaps someone confused ET with UT (Glenn Hauser, Nov 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 8-122, when is DXing with Cumbre really on the air? Also, I had meant to add a line that referred to the citations of "Saturday" and "Sunday" -- it was implied that these were UT days, because the *times* were UT, but WHR and DXw/C have a history of using UT times with North American/US days, so "Saturday" was NOT our Friday night but actually our Saturday night, and should have been cited as "UT Sunday". So all such references need to be verified. I've never understood why these people don't monitor their own programs. I sure would, if I put in all the effort to make them every week! 73 & Happy Thanksgiving! (Will Martin, MO, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. New 670 AM for Albany, NY --- NEW AM STATION PLANNED RADIO EXECUTIVES FROM NEW JERSEY AWAIT FCC APPROVAL FOR 670 ON DIAL By CHRIS CHURCHILL, Business writer, First published: Thursday, November 27, 2008 EAST GREENBUSH — A New Jersey-based duo is hoping to launch a new AM radio station for the Capital Region. Charles A. Hecht and Alfredo Alonso have asked the Federal Communications Commission to allow them to broadcast WVVT at 670 AM, now an unused frequency. [. . .] "The frequency spectrum is pretty full," Hecht said. "We're fortunate because we were able to locate a rare open frequency, and such a good one." Hecht said he expects the FCC to grant the application during the winter. The station is planning to launch by next summer, he said. . . http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=744228&category=BUSINESS (via Kevin Redding, Nov 28, ABDX via DXLD) And the clear channels die further. They will find out that this isn't such a good frequency when they are clobbered by WFAN 660 night IBOC. 73 KAZ sickened at what the FCC continues to do to our AM band (Neil Kazaross, IL/WI, ibid.) Not to mention 50 kW ND WSCR 670 Chicago, which itself is a total loss with stupid ballgame format, a once-great station, WMAQ. Original CP was for Essex Junxion, Vermont, i.e. Burlington, with 50 kW day, 300 watts night, 20 kW critical hours. I believe that Burlington 620 makes it into the MUCH larger Montréal market, with 5 kW beaming north, so 670 from there would have done even better --- except the pattern plot still shown at FCC for Essex 50 kW daytime CP shows it all going south, nothing to the north (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. 4939.7, YVPA, R Amazonas, Puerto Ayacucho (presumed), 0021-0035, Nov 19 only, pop and rustic vocals, announcement in Spanish. Weak amid QRN; audio faded down to almost nil at 0029 and stayed there. First time I have come across them in quite a while, and they have not been there since (Bob Hill, MA, DXplorer via DSWCI DX Window Nov 26 via DXLD) ** ZAMBIA. CVC Lusaka, 9420, Nov 28 at 2133, gospel rock and god-talk in English, way on top of V. of Greece, which was barely detectable as a SAH; website given http://www.1africa.tv (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) {fortunately, VOG could still be heard on 7475} ** ZANZIBAR. RTZ, 11735, Nov 27 at 1821, phone ringing and discussion in Swahili(?); with lo het which might be from the off-frequency Brazilian; RNA 11780 also audible but only fair at this hour. Was going to see if Spice FM news in English would appear again this Thursday at 2000, but not at 2008 recheck, already in music, with the same lo het and beginning to wonder if we have another unstable carrier; sounds like a ripple on it with BFO on, not as bad as Bulgaria was, yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. MADAGASCAR, 11610, 1746-1755 28/11: Voice of People, Talata-Volondry, vernacular ID "This is Voice of People", OM talks, mx's africanas em vernacular. Às 1551 novamente o ID "This is...". SINPO 45433 (Paulo Lins, Belo Horizonte, MG/Brasil, Sangean ATS 909 plus, SW Magnetic Loop - HB, Vertical 6m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 4790.1, 2320-0035+, 11/25, older LAm romantic vocals, long talks by male announcer in SP in echoey studio, later more lively music with different announcer with lots of reverb (besides the existing studio echo). Possibly Perú? (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Peru, 4790, Radio Vision, 0055-0115, Usually I don't report this station due to its format, but this evening they were broadcasting beautiful Huaynos music before the hour, so it sort of "caught my ear" so to speak. After the hour various person began conversing in Spanish language. The topic seemed to be religion. In the meantime, the signal was at a good. level (Chuck Bolland, November 30, 2008, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6090, 0345- 0431, Nov 28, HOA vocals and talk under co-channel AWR Moosbrunn in Farsi, later well atop Melissa Scott. Could not find any // frequency; this is definitely not Holy Qur`an radio listed here. Was wondering if this might possibly be Oromiya on NF ex 6030? (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6215, spy station? *1600-1608, Nov 26, 1557 noted open carrier, ToH suddenly on with segment of assume Korean ballads followed by woman with series of numbers (or letters?) in Korean, fair-good, this is the same station that Dan Sheedy and Dave Valko have also been hearing for the past month, at various times (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WORLD OF HOROLOGY +++++++++++++++++ LEAP SECOND PLANNED Whoopee! We get a leap second this year, at 2359:60 UT Dec 31, as announced on 5000 WWVH at 1403 Nov 27, WWV at 1404. So much for our New Year`s Eve plans (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Note: 8-122 under INTERNATIONAL deals with several timesignal stations, and also see BRAZIL, then and now for the new one on 9999v. On 25000 kHz the Finnish Station from the Centre for Meteorology and Accreditation MIKES could be heard several times during last summer. According to a letter received from them in 2007, they have a license until November 30th, 2011. 73, (Patrick Robic, Austria, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ MAGNA UPDATED Hi Friends, I just updated and uploaded the newest version of Magna* Database. It can be found at http://www.orchidcitysoftware.com/IMAGE59.HTML for downloading. As usual it's free of charge - no strings. Download the Magna.zip and expand it, then run setup.exe. It loads automatically. Keep in touch (Chuck Bolland, FL, *Name Change "Pars.exe" Nov 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) PACIFIC ASIAN LOG AM RADIO GUIDE Covers the Region and now Fully Updated and Available for FREE The classic Pacific Asian Log of mediumwave [AM] radio stations on air across the entire region has now been updated. Produced by Bruce Portzer in Seattle WA, this extensive radio guide covers literally thousands of AM radio stations and is hosted by the Radio Heritage Foundation. It draws on monitoring by many volunteers across the region, as well as information directly from broadcasters so it's accurate and up to date. You can search the database or download a pdf version for your own non-commercial use by visiting http://www.radioheritage.net/PAL_search.asp Amongst the stations you'll find on 1602 AM are 2CP Cooma [Australia], All India Radio, Ziro [India], JOKC Kofu [Japan], HLQE Sabuk [South Korea], Radio Reading Service, Levin [New Zealand], and DZUP Quezon City [Philippines]. The most powerful station listed in the region is 50 kW Radio Khost, located in Afghanistan. You'll find the Pacific Asian Log Radio Guide useful for business and vacation travel [just print out the stations from the countries you're visiting], radio monitoring, advertising and PR campaign media planning and much more; it's up to date and it's free. The Pacific Asian Log traces its origins back to radio station call lists first published in New Zealand during the 1930's, and is volunteer supported and produced as a free service for everyone. Donate Now to Upgrade PAL this Holiday Season If you'd like to make a donation towards upgrading today's Radio Guides with even more information please use your VISA or Mastercard this holiday season and click on the donation button. The Radio Heritage Foundation, host of the Pacific Asian Log Radio Guides, is a registered non-profit organization connecting radio heritage and popular culture across the Pacific (David Ricquish, RHF, Nov 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ UPCOMING GRUNDIG PORTABLES Glenn, in the new PWBR '09' book look at those Grundig ads -- you might notice they are planning to launch two new portable SW radios next year: The G5 is likely to be replaced with the G3 Voyager, which is the same as the G5 except that it will include synchronous detection and a USB/LSB button which makes for improved SSB reception. Also new is the G8 Traveler II portable, which only has selectable SW bands, up/down tuning and a tuning knob but no keypad, memories, etc. (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIOSHACK COUPONS IN ENTERTAINMENT BOOK Many of you might have purchased those Entertainment coupon books which offer hundreds of discounted or two-for-one offers for shopping, restaurants, events, etc. -- note also that if you still have that 2008 book there are two coupons from RadioShack that'll save you $10 (US) off any qualifying purchase of $40 or more, good until Dec. 31; the 2009 books also have those coupons included, with an expiration date of Dec. 31, 2009. So if you want to buy a shortwave radio for someone special for Christmas, here's an opportunity to save some $$$ while you're at it (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Nov 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Perhaps you are referring to something I noticed in my spam folder, 2009 Entertainment Book. You don`t find out what it costs until you click on the link, and I am not about to do that. The message I got is post-dated December 2, yet the fine print says the offer including free shipping expires Oct 31. Sounds fishy to me (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) OFFICIALS EXPLORE JAMMING JAIL CELL PHONES By Lisa Sandberg - Express-News Web Posted: 11/26/2008 12:25 CST http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/Prisons_to_test_cell-phone_jamming.html AUSTIN — Texas prison officials, worried about smuggled cell phones inside their correctional units, are planning to demonstrate cell phone jamming technology next month, even though current federal law forbids states from using such methods. Texas prison officials say they’ve invited a Florida-based communications company, CellAntenna Corp, to test its jamming technology on Dec. 18 at the Travis County Jail. The demo idea was put forth by Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, the House Corrections chair, after the Florida company successfully tested its jamming technology Friday at a maximum security prison in South Carolina. “We think it’s in the best interest of Texas citizens to make sure inmates don’t have access to cell phones,” Madden said today. Prisons around the country are increasingly worried about contraband cell phones in their midst. In Texas, 10 death row inmates last month were discovered to have placed nearly 2,800 calls from an illegal cell phone. The recipient of several threatening calls was none other than State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, the powerful chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Gov. Rick Perry ordered an immediate systemwide lockdown. A massive search at all 112 units over the next three weeks turned up some 289 cell phones and cell phones parts, including 18 on death row. Phones and phone parts haven’t just been found under mattresses. One death row offender was found with a cell phone in his rectum. Prison officials here and elsewhere say they’re ready to clamp down but are stymied by a 73-year-old federal law barring states from using jamming technology. Madden said he isn’t advocating violating the federal law; he thinks there’s momentum in Congress to overturn the ban next year. He’s also interested in other technology that is not banned, like gadgets that detect cell phones when they’re in use. Meanwhile, South Carolina prison officials say they’re encouraged by how well the jamming technology worked when put to the test at one of their prisons on Friday. Spokesman Josh Gelinas said the jamming device blocked out signals only in the visitation room — proving that the technology could be limited in scope so as not to interfere with public signals (via Pat Dyer, WA5IYX, TV/FM Skip log via DXLD) ALUMINUM SIDING AFFECTS AM RECEPTION? Re 8-121: Glenn - Something I've been wondering myself. Living in a rental unit, we are currently being upgraded with aluminum siding. I should know in about a month or so. Bummer; I just bought a Drake SPR- 4 (Stephen, N0CRS, Maple Lake MN, Nov 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Stephen, But are you using an inside antenna with it? Should be no problem anyway with an external antenna (Glenn to Stephen, ibid.) Glenn - Yes, all my antennas are indoors. I'm trying to remain positive about the outcome as there are many ideas floating in my head now. One homebrew antenna is made from parts from a walker, a tuned loop. This works very well. This loop can always be made to mount near the window and see what RF it catches. There is always the YB-400PE going away from home-portable mode. Will keep you and others posted. (Stephen, ibid.) 2000-FOOT TOWER I don't know if it's a re-run or not, but tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 10 PM EST the National Geographic Channel and NatGeoHD will be showing a "World's Toughest Fixes" episode which involves the changeout of an antenna on a 2000' tower. I know I'll be watching!! Well, since nobody else has mentioned it yet, I thought it was a good show, much better than Tower Dogs! (Jeff Lehmann, Hanson, MA, WTFDA via DXLD) I just finished bowling right before 9:00 pm Central on Wednesday and then hit the bar for a beer. The Bucks game was over, but then the Hooters Swimsuit Pageant came on. Next thing you know all other TVs got switched to the Hooters Swimsuit Pageant. I would rather they would have put the National Geographic Channel on to see the tower climb and work! Instead I was stuck watching naked women on TV at the Bowling Alley! (John L., Muskego, WI, Nov 27, ibid.) John, you might need to spring for a DVR (or a DVD-R); one question, were those TV's in the bar showing stretched pictures of the pageant? BTW, the station in that program (_World's Toughest Fixes_) that had the antenna changed was KDLT 46/DT 47 Sioux Falls SD (Fritze H. Prentice Jr, KC5KBV, Star City, AR Grid: EM43aw http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com ibid.) For anybody that missed the program NATGEO will be re-airing it Sunday at 6 pm EST [2300 UT Nov 30]. My DVR is all set for the re-air as I was at a Thanksgiving party that night (Jeff Rostron, Springfield MA, ibid.) With another run next Tuesday, as well. Can't wait to get home (I'm on the road for a week, visiting the in-laws in Indiana) to watch it in HD... s (Scott Fybush, NY [non], ibid.) TEST PERSEUS IN QST Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolf-Henning Rech (DF9IC) comments: I just had a look into the PERSEUS review in QST 12/2008 a friend of mine gave me to read. What nonsense! "It is worth noting that the Perseus is not confined to a Windows environment. (...) If Linux is your pleasure, Microtelecom encourages you to try the popular Linrad application..." - OK, this is simply a misunderstanding how Linrad supports PERSEUS. But the review author should not blame Nico for his own mistake. Looking on the measurements, I doubt very seriously their measured gain compression values. Either the ADC is overdriven or not. This does happen around 124 dB @ 500 Hz BW typically. No idea why and how ARRL lab measures something different. I just repeated one of their measurements here in my home lab - Blocking gain compression 14 MHz preamp off in 20 / 5 / 2 kHz spacing at 500 Hz BW ARRL 117/105/ 99 dB DF9IC 124/124/124 dB There is just no gain compression at all as long as the ADC is not overdriven - as expected. The bizarre story continues with their IP measurements. Most of us know that IP has no meaning for direct sampling receivers like PERSEUS which is reflected well in the fact that the ARRL values change by 25 dB depending on the intermodulating signal level. The dynamic range is evaluated at MDS level which is useful. Well, so far. But if you look into the "Key Measurements Summary" the indicated IMDR and the IP values stem from largely different signal levels, and do not correspond to each other. A dummy reader (maybe 90% of all) who is just referring to this "Key Measurements Summary" gets a lot of useless and partially wrong information. If you compare the K3 review (January 2009) to the PERSEUS review based on this summary you may think the K3's close-in blocking performance is by far superior because the numbers are 25-35 dB higher. No, these figures just do not include reciprocal mixing which is the dominating mechanism in close-in blocking performance in any modern (post-70s) RX - if they did include it the PERSEUS would be superior to the K3. Are these people in the ARRL lab and the editors such dummies or are they biased? 73 Henning (A-DX via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: ECUADOR; GERMANY; NIGERIA ++++++++++++++++++++ IBOC: USA: WVVT IBOC DETERIORATION One of the advantages of the SDR type radios is seeing the spectrum. It really helps when trying to null a pest or see if there are TA/TP carriers. Great for seeing if LSB or USB will give the best audio. And, it shows in good detail the IBOC sidebands. AM stations have slight seasonal parameter changes in their antenna systems due to water around the ground system. IBOC requires a very tightly controlled set of parameters. When these drift, things change and not usually for the better. Unless a station is frequently monitoring these changes, it can put things out of tolerance. This usually shows as added interference. One of the crucial tuning tests is a set of spurious sidebands around +/- 27 kHz on either side of the main carrier. It needs to be -65 dB from that carrier level. When all is good, it shows on the SDR as a very slight fuzz on either side. When it is pretty obvious, then it's probably out of range. When setting up WDDZ-550 for day IBOC, I was able to match what the consultant's spectrum analyzer showed against what the SDR displayed. I got a pretty good idea what is good and what is not. Installation of IBOC is usually done by an out of town consultant who's there only for that task. Then the station has no spectrum analyzer and is blind to changes. DXers have better eyes and ears than most engineering staffs. In Providence, there is another station with day-only IBOC and I've noticed a significant jump in their +/- 27 kHz sidebands. I'll chat with their engineer next time I see him, though I don't think there's anything he can do without the proper equipment. I have to wonder if the IBOC stations have budgeted for frequent enough checks to keep their stations in compliance with the FCC Rules and Regulations. My guess is no. So, if a local is trashing stations beyond the first adjacent, they may have a problem. I really wish that the SDR-14 Spectravue software had a way to store perhaps a hundred readings and display the maximums. That would bring it pretty close to the multi-thousand dollar consultant's equipment (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, Nov 27, IRCA via DXLD) DEADLINES ARE EXTENDED FOR IBOC POWER INCREASE COMMENTS Radio World Newsbytes November 25, 2008 http://www.radioworld.com/pages/s.0100/t.16311.html Got an opinion about the controversial HD Radio power increase? The public has more time to file comments with the FCC about the proposal. The commission okayed a request filed by the group Media Access Project on behalf of low-power advocate Prometheus Radio Project. The initial deadline was next Friday, Nov. 28; now it's Dec. 5. And reply comments are now due Dec. 12 to MM Docket 99 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) This refers to increasing the IBOC power percentage on FM only, I believe (gh, DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ GEOMAGNETIC SUMMARY JULY 17 2008 THROUGH NOVEMBER 25 2008 Tabulated from email status daily. Date Flux A K Space Wx July 2008: 17 66 10 2 no storms 18 65 9 2 no storms 19 65 7 2 no storms 20 65 6 2 no storms 21 66 2 1 no storms 22 66 3 2 no storms 23 66 9 3 no storms 24 66 13 3 no storms 25 66 19 2 no storms 26 65 13 2 no storms 27 66 6 1 no storms 28 66 4 2 no storms 29 66 7 2 no storms 30 x x x x 31 x x x x August 2008: 1 x x x x 2 66 4 2 no storms 3 66 4 1 no storms 4 66 2 2 no storms 5 66 6 1 no storms 6 66 3 1 no storms 7 66 3 1 no storms 8 67 6 2 no storms 9 66 4 2 no storms 10 66 4 4 no storms 11 66 19 2 minor 12 66 13 2 no storms 13 66 9 2 no storms 14 65 6 1 no storms 15 65 4 1 no storms 16 66 5 1 no storms 17 65 3 1 no storms 18 66 5 2 no storms 19 67 9 5 minor 20 66 27 3 no storms 21 67 12 2 no storms 22 66 5 2 no storms 23 67 6 0 no storms 24 68 3 1 no storms 25 68 3 1 no storms 26 67 3 0 no storms 27 67 2 2 no storms 28 67 3 0 no storms 29 67 2 2 no storms 30 66 3 2 no storms 31 67 3 1 no storms September 2008: 1 67 3 0 no storms 2 67 2 0 no storms 3 66 3 0 no storms 4 66 2 3 no storms 5 66 7 3 moderate 6 66 29 1 no storms 7 65 6 3 no storms 8 66 9 2 no storms 9 67 6 3 no storms 10 67 12 1 no storms 11 x x x x 12 67 4 0 no storms 13 67 3 0 no storms 14 66 1 1 no storms 15 66 0 1 no storms 16 67 5 3 no storms 17 68 16 2 no storms 18 69 10 1 no storms 19 67 4 1 no storms 20 67 9 1 no storms 21 68 5 1 no storms 22 68 3 1 no storms 23 68 2 1 no storms 24 59 5 1 no storms 25 69 3 1 no storms 26 68 4 2 no storms 27 68 3 1 no storms 28 68 3 2 no storms 29 67 2 2 no storms 30 67 3 0 no storms October 2008: 1 67 3 2 minor 2 66 4 3 no storms 3 66 8 2 no storms 4 66 13 2 no storms 5 67 14 3 minor 6 67 14 2 no storms 7 67 6 1 no storms 8 67 4 1 no storms 9 67 2 1 no storms 10 68 1 0 no storms 11 69 0 1 no storms 12 79 2 5 strong 13 71 25 4 strong 14 x x x x 15 71 10 2 no storms 16 70 6 2 no storms 17 71 7 1 no storms 18 72 5 1 no storms 19 70 4 1 no storms 20 69 1 2 no storms 21 70 7 3 no storms 22 69 5 1 no storms 23 69 4 3 no storms 24 68 6 1 no storms 25 67 4 1 no storms 26 68 1 1 no storms 27 68 1 2 no storms 28 67 3 0 no storms 29 67 1 2 no storms 30 x x x x 31 67 13 3 no storms November 2008: 1 67 13 2 no storms 2 68 6 1 no storms 3 67 1 0 no storms 4 69 2 1 no storms 5 70 1 1 no storms 6 68 1 0 no storms 7 69 1 0 moderate 8 69 0 2 no storms 9 68 16 2 no storms 10 68 14 3 no storms 11 69 3 1 no storms 12 71 2 1 no storms 13 71 2 1 no storms 14 69 3 1 no storms 15 68 2 1 no storms 16 68 3 2 no storms 17 68 10 1 no storms 18 68 1 0 no storms 19 70 0 0 no storms 20 69 0 0 no storms 21 70 1 1 no storms 22 69 0 0 no storms 23 69 1 0 no storms 24 69 3 0 no storms 25 68 1 3 no storms (Phil Bytheway, IRCA DX Monitor via DXLD) ###