DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-132, December 27, 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 1440 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Mon 2300 WBCQ 7415 [confirmed December 22] Tue 1200 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 9955 Wed 0630 WRMI 9955 [or new 1441] Wed 1230 WRMI 9955 [or new 1441] WBCQ is also airing recent archive editions of WOR M-F 2000 on 7415; except on Wednesday or Thursday this should be the latest edition. 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 ** ALASKA. KNLS, 6150, with an interesting extended feature report on the Navajo rug market in Crownpoint NM, Dec 25 around 1410, part of a series about stuff near I-40 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. After hearing CFRX at 1905 [see CANADA], I scanned 49m for anything from Europe at that early time, only a semi-hour after low noon here at 1832 UT Dec 25. And I found a weak signal on 5970 talking in French. This fits the CRI relay via Albania, and the only other transmission on 5970 at that time is the Ukrainian domestic relay. Cërrik has the advantage of being aimed 310 degrees toward France, and incidentally North America far beyond. That azimuth, also used by nearby Shijak for R. Tirana North American broadcasts, crosses near Paris, Montréal, Indianapolis and Texarkana, only 4 degrees away from Enid at 314 from Albania. R. Tirana`s new frequency in Albanian to Eu and NAm at 2130-2300, 7435 ex-9345 at 310 degrees, had a fair signal with deep fades at 2230 Dec 25; no co- or adjacent-channel interference (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Old CRI Cerrik A relay site http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&hl=de&geocode=&q=Cerrik+Albania&sll=51.151786,10.415039&sspn=20.75261,39.550781&ie=UTF8&ll=41.014264,19.993529&spn=0.012159,0.019312&t=h&z=16 New CRI Cerrik B relay site, 22 curtain antennas http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&hl=de&geocode=&q=Cerrik+Albania&sll=51.151786,10.415039&sspn=20.75261,39.550781&ie=UTF8&ll=40.997294,19.997756&spn=0.012162,0.019312&t=h&z=16 CRI MW Fllake relay also in Albania http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&hl=de&geocode=&q=Durres+Albania&sll=40.992937,19.997671&sspn=0.006082,0.009656&ie=UTF8&ll=41.364651,19.510217&spn=0.012094,0.019312&t=h&z=16 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, HCDX via DXLD) happy pasting together ** ALBANIA. R. Tirana, 13720, OK in English at 1535 Dec 27, but gone at 1552 recheck, before sign-off time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANDORRA. ESPANA CEDERÁ AL PRINCIPADO DE ANDORRA LA SEDE DE LA HISTÓRICA "RADIO ANDORRA" http://ecodiario.eleconomista.es/espana/noticias/941053/12/08/Espana-cedera-al-principado-de-andorra-la-sede-de-la-historica-radio-andorra.html MADRID, 26 (SERVIMEDIA) El Consejo de Ministros autorizó hoy la firma de un convenio entre España y Andorra para la cesión del edificio y otros bienes de la emisora "Radio Andorra", que ponga fin al contencioso que sobre esta cuestión mantenían ambas administraciones. El texto del convenio recoge el compromiso de Andorra a "asumir las obligaciones que le permitan subrogarse en la posición del Estado español y la sociedad de la que es pleno propietario en los litigios referidos al bien, garantizando la indemnidad de éste y de su sociedad respecto a toda reclamación futura". Además, el Principado se compromete a destinar los bienes del patrimonio de "Radio Andorra" a finalidades de interés público y sin ánimo de lucro. En caso de obtener alguna plusvalía, deberá pagar al Estado español la mitad de esta cantidad. La relevancia histórica de "Radio Andorra" se refiere principalmente a su actividad entre 1940 y 1944, durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, período en el que fue la única radio privada francesa que emitió de forma neutral sin el control de Alemania ni de Francia. Tras un largo periodo de decadencia y de verse envuelta en numerosos litigios, el Consejo General de los Valles de Andorra cerró la emisora definitivamente en 1980, al no renovar la licencia que le había concedido 20 años antes (via José Miguel Romero2, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA. 14243 kHz USB, 0128z: "KC4AAA" (Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station) working "K2UV" (Warren in Suffern NY); gets website URL for KC4AAA; KC4AAA continues to communicate with others, including K1IED in CT. (25/Dec/2008), This is the second consecutive night with my reception of the South Pole station (AL STERN, Satellite Beach FL, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA. 26/12/2008: An official amateur call sign OP0LE is assigned to Princess Elizabeth base (IOTA AN-016, 71 57'S and 23 20'E). Paul, ON3PC will be operating from the base between December 26, 2008 and February 15, 2009. He will be working at the base as a plumber boiler-mechanic and he will be in charge of the communications in supplement. He never made any QSO on amateur radio frequencies and he should appear mostly at the beginning on the Antarctic DX Net that is managed on 14 and 7 MHz. After 40 years of silence, Belgium is back on air from Antarctica (F5PFP, via I.C.P.O. Bulletin (Dec 25, 2008 - Jan 02, 2009) "Islands, Castles & Portable Operations", via editor Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) British Antarctic Survey on 7775 kHz USB --- For those listening now (0240 UT), 7775 USB has strong voice traffic from BAS stations on Antarctica with check-ins on the hour. Callsign used is Skyblue (assumed to be the Sky Blu Logistics Facility). 73 & and Good DX for 2009 --mco (Mike Chace-Ortiz, location unknown, UT Dec 27, UDXF yg via dxldyg via DXLD) 27 Dec 08, British Antarctic Survey, Antarctica, 7775 USB at 0345 GMT [21+ minute file, 4.88 MB] --- Can only read one voice, and that is hard to copy. Perhaps two others, very weak and buried in noise. Chatter at 15 minute intervals: http://www.mediafire.com/?zwyz4nzztl2 (Terry Wilson, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Just before 2 minutes in, mentions doing a radio check on a lower frequency, 5020? Not certain of third digit (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 2008`s race starts tomorrow [Dec. 26] Boxing day RSYC and Race Organisers advise all frequencies are the same as last year (Andrew D" ZL3DX via UDXF) And those would be: Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - HF Comms 6516 / 4483 kHz (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, Dec 25, dxldyg via DXLD) Or INTERNATIONAL WATERS? Or all within Australian waters? (gh, DXLD) Audioclip received from Mark in New Zealand; Right now (0910 26-Dec- 2008 UT), scheduled check-in and position reports from yachts in the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race. 6516 USB. http://blog.libero.it/radioascolto/ 73's (Francesco Cecconi, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. Remember that we are in the last few days of English broadcasts from Austria (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Dec 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I`m not going to get into the complex schedule of exactly when English is supposed to appear instead of German, but just say check for the English segments between 16 and 17 via Sackville 13675; 00 and 01 on 7325 direct, to NAm; 01-0130 on 9840 to LAm. There are also a few other segments to elsewhere. Will the final broadcast be on UT Dec 31 or Jan 1? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRIA [and non]. Re 8-131: "I see a lot of press releases accompanied by ``confidentiality`` boilerplate on the e-mail!" --- It appears to be standard for corporate mail systems to add this clutter automatically to all outgoing messages. It can even be definitely impossible to get rid of it, because it gets added by the server and does not even appear in the original at all. But the real fun are press releases that are embargoed till a certain deadline. Obviously many PR guys have still not realized that it does no longer work. There are no gatekeepers anymore (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, I normally honor embargoes (gh, DXLD) ** BENIN. 1566 Benin, DEC 26 2200: Caught 1566 Benin this evening with repeating interval signal and announcements. The interval signal is not the usual TWR signal. Audio uploaded to the Loco the DX Cat page of http://dxclipjoint.com (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, mwdx yg via DXLD) ** BHUTAN. 6035.0, 1415-1430 [no date] BBS, Sangaygang. English talk, 23322, adjacent QRM. From *1430 covered by Polski R in Belarusian, via Wertachtal, Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, Dec 27, playdx yg via DXLD) ** BIAFRA [non]. For the record, Voice of Biafra International reconfirmed Friday Dec 26 at 2029 still on WHRI 15665, tho just barely audible with backscatter echo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Latin observations from southeast Florida 25 December Listening time 0900 to 1130 and 2300 to 0100, Times heard in last half of December 3309.98, R Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba 1000 and 0000 4409.86, Radio Eco, Reyes noted only 0030 4451.143, Radio Santa Ana, S. Ana de Yacuma 2350 5580.2, Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos, heard once at 1000 with music and OM; regular at 0000 5952.4, Radio Pío XII, Siglo XX 2330 5996.63, Radio Loyola, Sucre weak 1040 to 1100 73s, (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PERU ** BRAZIL. BRASIL, 10000, emisora de señales horarias "Observatorio Naval", 0822-0855, 25-12, tonos con los segundos, a cada minuto identificación y hora en portugués antes del minuto exacto; "Observatorio Naval, 6 horas, 24 minutos, 0 segundos", y así todos los minutos: "Observatorio Naval, 6 horas, 25 minutos, 0 segundos...". 23322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So UT -2 is announced only every minute, not every ten seconds as on the webcast? And we thought it was Obervatório Nacional, not Naval (gh, DXLD) Much better. If they're both using atomic frequency standards, which I'm almost positive they are, the heterodyne with WWV[H] should be practically nonexistent. I'll have to update this on my blog. (Hugh Stegman, Dec 20 UDXF yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 9820, Rádio Nove de Julho, São Paulo, SP, 0959- , December 27, Portuguese, Talk by male, song, ID at 1003 UT as: "Rádio Nove de Julho", "estamos apresentando o programa: Palabra de Deus", other ID as: "a Radio Nove de Julho", 32432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) more below ** BRAZIL. 9615, Rádio Cultura, São Paulo, 2147-2150, 24-12, programa "A Voz do Brasil". Mala modulación. 24322. 9695, Rádio Rio Mar, Manáus, *1000-1010, 25-12, inicio programa, identificación; "ondas curtas 31 e 49 metros, 9695, 6160 kHz, Rádio Rio Mar, Manáus, Amazonas, Brasil", comentarios y canciones brasileñas. 24322. 9820, Rádio 9 de Julho, Sao Paulo, 0841-0857, 25-12, canciones religiosas, identificación: "Rádio 9 de Julho, bom día". 23322. 11725, Rádio Novas de Paz, Curitiba, 0918-0923, 25-12, locutor, portugués, programa religioso. 24322. 11735, Rádio Transmundial, Santa María, 0914-0918, 25-12, programa religioso, identificación por locutor: "Radio Transmundial". 44444. 11765, Rádio Tupi, Curitiba, 2138-2202, 24-12, programa "A Voz do Brasil", a las 2201 identificación como "Super Rádio Deus é Amor", "31 metros, 9565 kHz, 25 metros, 11765 kHz, 49 metros, 6060 kHz. Super Radio Deus e Amor, http://www.superradiodeuseamor.com.br ", "Igreja Pentecostal Deus e Amor". 24322. También escuchada 0845-0859, 25-12, programa religioso. 35433. [more below] 11804.7, Rádio Globo, Rio de Janeiro, 2130-2138, 24-12, locutor, portugués, programa "A Voz do Brasil". 24322. 11815, Rádio Brasil Central, Goiânia, 1802-1806, 24-12, locutor: "O mundo na sua casa", noticias y comentarios, portugués. 34333. 11830, Rádio Anhanguera, Goiânia, 1756-1802, 24-12, locutor, portugués, comentarios, identificación a las 1800: "4 horas, CBC Anhanguera" locutor, noticias. 24322. [CBC? O que quer dizer? gh] 11855, Rádio Aparecida, Aparecida, 1806-1815, 24-12, locutor, locutora, portugués, comentario religioso. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [MM`s full report including more Brazilians, appeared in the dxldyg] ** BRAZIL. 11765.0, 2124-2129 26/12, Rádio Tupi - Presumida, Curitiba, (português) transmitindo "A Voz do Brasil". 35322 (Antonio Laurentino Garcia, PR7BCP, João Pessoa-PB, HI22nu, Radio: IC-R1500 - Antena: 3DX3, HCDX via DXLD) More above So the government show is one UT hour earlier now during DST in part of Brazil, 21-22 instead of 22-23 UT. Tho many stations are evading broadcasting it live, moving it out of prime time, or not at all (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11765, Radio Tupi, Curitiba, 0040-0105, Dec 26, religious sermon in Portuguese. ID at 0100. Fair to good. Weak // 9564.93. 11814.98, Radio Brasil Central, 0050-0110, Dec 26, Portuguese pops/ballads, xmas music. Portuguese announcements. // 4985 - both frequencies weak but readable (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Colegas, Não chega o sinal da Rádio Bandeirantes aqui em Feira de Santana nesse momento na frequência de 11925 kHz, 25/12 às 1107 UT; alguém ha conseguido sintonizar ou está fora do ar? Em 9645 kHz está chegando. 73 (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Feira de Santana Bahia, 1409 UT Dec 26, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) Neither date nor time cited as `at this moment` matches timestamp on post (gh, DXLD) Caro Jorge, Aqui na Paraíba, Sousa, Sertão recebo muito bem a Bandeirante em ambas as freqüências em qualquer hora. Fraternalmente, (Virgilio Pinto Neto. - M.'.I.'., Loja Calixto Nobrega, n 15., GLMPB - REAA. Sousa - PB, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Está no ar sim a Rádio Bandeirantes em 11925, apesar de ter interferência de outras emissoras. Abraço, Jorge (Aparecido Francisco Morato, PY5-AAP - MORATO, 2342 UT Dec 26, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. I just checked, and CHIN is indeed on 1539.985 (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, Dec 7, RealDX yg via DXLD) Yes Barry. CHIN is category "unstable" now. I had it during the last 2 months on +6 Hz, +2 Hz and now -15 Hz (Jurgen Bartels Suellwarden, N. Germany, Winradio G305 & Perseus on dual-feed 30x4m EWE pointing 320 http://dx.3sdesign.de/tv_logs_2008.htm Dec 8 RealDX yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. CINA 1650 was heard here this morning with female station ID at 0543 UT. Weak, but just understandable! (Max van Arnhem, The Netherlands, Dec 24, MWC via DXLD) ** CANADA. I can now confirm that CFRX, 6070 Toronto, makes it this far all day, as just a semi-hour after low noon, Dec 25 at 1905, it was audible, and somewhat readable altho lower into the noise level than at less bright times. The only other significant 49mb signal was 24-hour WBOH, NC on 5920, but CFRX was better. At 2230 CFRX was atop a lot of QRM from Romania, which uses 6070 only at 22-23 in Spanish for SAm (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CBCNQ, 9625, in whack when checked Dec 25 at 1505 with Xmas music special, and also around 1915. CBCNQ transmitter out of whack again, Dec 27 at 1326 when 9625 was quite distorted, and also putting out almost constant spurs matching modulation peaks, ranging 9645 to 9660 or so, worst at 9650, this time also bothering IRAN 9660, q.v. At 1333 CBC mentioned Hydro-Québec; 1516 in French and still spurring 9645 now up to 9665; see GUAM [non]. I don`t understand why this stays on the air, unlistenable on fundamental and QRMing other stations. Notified Sackville and Montreal again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHAD [and non]. New 6165.00, 2130-2233* 22.12, R Chad, Gredia, N'Djaména French announcement, Afropop, 2200 French news, 2225 Afropop and National Anthem - back from 4905 evenings, 44434, QRM Croatia until 2200* Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Altho RNT was on 4905 the morning before, on UT Dec 25 at 0645 nothing heard there, and instead heavy QRM on 6165 with Croatia. At 0647 I was getting African music mixing with talk. At 0655 Croatian talk was on top and at 0657 a song sung by a mezzo(?) soprano, perhaps the Croatian national anthem? The two signals were making a het on the boundary between audible and subaudible, maybe 20-25 Hz? Rechecked at 2230, nothing on 6165 or 4905; may have just missed the sign-off. RNT, 6165 believed still in use instead of 4905, as I was getting a mix with Croatia at 0650 Dec 26, but not as well as 24 hours earlier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6165, RNT, 2210-2232*, Dec 26, Afro-pop music. French announcements. Sign off with National Anthem at 2231. Fair but with slight adjacent channel splatter. 4904.97, RNT, *0431-0445, Dec 27, sign on with French announcements. African tribal music at 0432. Weak. Signal usually stronger than this (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5905 [sic: surely means 4905], RNT N´Djamena, 1805-1815, escuchada el 27 de diciembre en francés a locutora con comentarios, emisión de música ancestral, cánticos acompañados de instrumentos de percusión, ritmos muy repetitivos, SINPO 45333 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4904.97, RNT, 2145-2232*, Dec 27, Afro-pops, tribal drums. French talk. Sign off with National Anthem at 2231. Good. Alternating between 6165 & 4904.97. Heard yesterday at this same time period on 6165 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 7220, Dec 27 at 1534, best signal on 41m band with music, Japanese talk, mentioned ``Peking Hoso``. Is PWBR `2009` any help? Of course not! During this hour only has misleading bars for CAR, RFE/RL, Vietnam and Zambia. EiBi B-08 has the answer, CRI Japanese service, 95 degrees from Jinhua at 1500-1557 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. CRI 1521 kHz antenna switch (recording) --- I managed to make an interesting recording of the CRI (CHN) antenna switch on 1521 kHz just before 1200 UT [Dec 26]: http://www.box.net/shared/31gao4fuh2 A difference is huge. You can hear a complete opening ceremonial at 1200 UT in Russian (nice signal). Two minutes of silence (1157-1159) were cut out. This recording was already subjected to a favourable response within MW (AM) mailists so I am sure that some members of HCDX will find it interesting too. Recorded in the western part of the Czech Republic in the middle of Europe, some 700 km inland. RX: AOR AR7030, ANT: longwire, 80 metres, dir 70 degrees. The clicks (interval ca 1.7 sec) you can hear come from an electric fence located some 2km from my site in the same direction. 73 (Karel Honzik, CZE, central Europe, HCDX via DXLD) Hi Karel, Your reception was very impressive, it shows that despite the over crowding on MW, medium wave DX is far from dead. I found the following recording on YouTube, you might be interested to compare locations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5SFy7ZrlQQ&feature=related This is what I assume to be a satellite picture via Google of the transmitting site. Use 44 09 22.71 N, 86 53 58.76 E as the search terms. Information obtained from http://amdx.atw.hu/BC-DX%20839.pdf (Paul, Christchurch, New Zealand, ibid.) ** CHINA [non]. Luxembourg 1440 --- First noticed here. Maybe I was not paying too much attention on this slot being a 10 kHz split! A nice complete and detailed ID on last Dec. 22 at 2059 UT in French "...Ce programme vous est présenté par Radio86, RT Luxembourg et China Radio International" quite easy for me to listen though :-) http://www.quebecdx.com/rtlrelay_1400.mp3 The strange thing about this clip is that even for a non-French speaker, you can feel that when the female announcer in French (with a Chinese accent) at 1min02 is reading the news, it really sounds like a translating machine! (Sylvain Naud, Portneuf, QC, Canada, mwdx yg via DXLD) ** CROATIA. See CHAD [and non] ** CUBA [and non]. Quite a clash on 11760, Sat Dec 27 at 1343, with Cuban music on top of RHC talk in Spanish! This turned out to be BBCWS which is now on a Cuba-binge celebrating the Revolution`s L anniversary; or as they put it, Cuba Season. This being Charlie Gillett`s World of Music, including Ernesto Lecuona, Pérez Prado and at 1353 BBC had Watermelon Man by Mongo Santamaría, 1962 post- revolution. But whence? It`s the OMAN relay until 1400, putting a better signal than usual into here far from its target area, but favorable at 310 or 320 degrees. RHC might want to consider abandoning 11760 in the mornings, like it did 9550 due to interference. Fortunately, RHC was mostly talk, but when they too played music it was a royal mess. BBC off at 1359:30 leaving RHC almost in the clear with something weaker under with timesignal, China? Here`s the BBCWS page for the show, where I went to listen to the whole thing without CubaRM: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/charlie_gillett.shtml (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. WRMI, 9955, Sat Dec 27 at 1335 in Spanish with rambling speaker, long pauses, talking about trabajadores. No jamming audible for a change, and listening for a couple minutes, I could not decide if it was political, but probably so. Sked looked up later shows Radio Cuba Libre at 13-15. Weak signal subject to fadeouts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA [non]. See USA: WRMI ** ECUADOR. HCJB, 11690, still claiming to be on 21455 as well as 11690 and 11960, in automated Spanish ID at 1429:30 Dec 26. Usual heavy RTTY QRM from 11687.5 which I find hard to believe is coming all the way from Crimea (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. See ETHIOPIA. And then: V. of Democratic Alliance, checked the next day at 1514 was still slightly above 9556 with music, 1515 announcement supposed to be in Arabic on Friday; via R. Ethiopia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, Radio Nacional - Bata, 2245-2301*, Dec 25, Afro-pop music. Spanish talk. Sign off with National Anthem at 2258. Weak (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. R. Fana, 6110 at 0421 24 Dec in Amharic. Fair. HOA music. // 6890 poor. R. Ethiopia, 7110 at 0422 24 Dec in Amharic. Good (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7110, Radio Ethiopia, *0259-0310, Dec 27, sign on with IS on electronic keyboard. Opening announcements in Amharic. Chimes at 0300 & talk. Instrumental music at 0302. Good. Threshold signal on // 9704.18. Good reception from both frequencies at 0420 check with Horn of Africa music. 6889.89, Radio Fana, *0255-0310, Dec 26, Sign on with IS. Opening ID announcements at 0258. Horn of Africa music at 0259. Threshold signal. Much better on // 6110 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 9556v making a big het on VOA Korean, 9555.0, Tinang at 21 degrees, Dec 25 at 1458 just before VOA closing at 1500, when I immediately heard ``Addis Ababa, Ethiopia`` mentioned. 1501 Arabic ID ``Huna, Sawt ---`` something, and seemingly in other languages including the word ``Demokrasi``. The signal now good and clear with nothing on 9555 to het it; with BFO I could tell it was varying slightly, sometimes below 9556 such as at 1502, but mostly on the hi side, such as at 1504. Also found the other off-frequency Ethiopian transmitter on 9704.2 or so. This closely matches Brian Alexander`s log on Dec 21, when R. Ethiopia was varying 9556.04 to 9556.32, but at quite a different time, 0703- 0711. This is obviously the same transmitter at Gedja, which had previously been varying much closer to nominal 9560. But it`s not R. Ethiopia programming at 1500. Aoki says it`s Voice of Democratic Alliance at 1500-1600, which in the first half hour is in Arabic on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday; Tigrinya on Tuesday, Thursday [such as Dec 25] and Saturday. There must be a mistake there with both languages shown for day 3 = Tuesday. WRTH 2009 page 492 clarifies that this is clandestine for Eritrea, with Arabic on M/W/F/Sun, Tigrinya on Tue/Thu/Sat. Confusion probably arises from WRTH starting the week on Monday, Aoki and HFCC starting the week with day 1 = Sunday. The second half of the hour is in Kunama M/W/F, Afar Tue/Thu/Sat, and on Sundays Tigrinya; // thruout is 7165, both 100 kW non-direxional. BTW, John Durham on RNZI Mailbox Dec 22 reported 9704.2 as La Voix du Sahel, Niger with news in French at 1900, but numerous logs in DXLD the past few months show 9704.2 is R. Ethiopia, with Niger axually on 9705. So which did he really hear? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. 6220, Mystery Radio, 0745, Dec 25, I don't know the location of this station (perhaps Italy?), but the Radio Habana spur on the same frequency is slightly stronger. Fair copy after Cuba goes off the air. Disco music with usual canned IDs (David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FALKLAND ISLANDS. [Continued from 8-131:] 11 Jonathan Marks December 26th, 2008 - 12:07 UT: The conversation I heard from the Falklands was such that I guess if BFBS-2 closes, they will simply put out BFBS-1 instead. Bearing in mind the cost of radio automation these days, I guess the biggest cost for the channel is distribution. Or they might consider just using one of the UK commercial stations and replacing the news. 12 Dave Kernick December 26th, 2008 - 16:04 UT: During her Lifestyle show presenter Liz Elliot announced “A big thank you is going out to BFBS, they’ve given us their airwaves, so we’re with you islandwide on all frequencies all day”. 13 Andy Sennitt December 26th, 2008 - 16:37 UT: I guess that’s a special arrangement for the Christmas period, to give the local BFBS personnel some time off (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** FINLAND. FINLANDIA, 11720, SWR, Virrat, 1005-1150, 25-12. Programa especial de Navidad. Locutor, finlandés, comentarios, música pop. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. 11675, news mostly about Pakistan, Dec 26 at 1431, which is RFI in Persian at 1430-1500 only, 80 degrees from Issoudun, good but with some long-path echo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. DW CHINESE: EVENTS ESCALATE Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Dec 12: DW Chinese editor Zhang Danhong attacked Chinese dissident Qinglian He for statements she had made in an interview. Zhang Danhong published their attack, which also revealed details from DW's negotiations with Chinese officials, as an "interview", conducted by an intern who got the questions from her. Qinglian He wrote a response and asked DW to publish it. DW refused to do so, forcing Qinglian He to give it to other media, triggering a discussion how a state-funde station can allow that it's being used for private purposes. At DW the news struck like a bombshell, program director Christian Gramsch said in an internal conference that this is more serious than all previous accusations, it flagrantly violates the station's values, those who do not respect these values should leave. The "interview" has been authorized by the German head of the service, a number of staff members tried to prevent its publication. Gramsch: The Chinese service staff failed as a team, points out that DW put itself behind the Chinese service in spite of "numerous inconsistencies" that had been found on the extensive retranslations. http://www.faz.net/s/Rub475F682E3FC24868A8A5276D4FB916D7/Doc~E5960F369292A45FEBEAD211A4CE542CC~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Dec 19: DW director Erik Bettermann in a Bundestag hearing: Matthias von Hein, head of the Chinese service, was removed from this position [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in print only: he will move to the central editorial office, leaving the Chinese service altogether; maybe this has in fact been gathered from Xinhua, see below]. Some other members of the Chinese service will be disciplined. Christian democrats representative in this hearing: Has translations of reports he considers "especially biased and favouring the regime", why were such reports excluded from DW's own retranslation campaign? Bettermann: Not able to give an answer, will make a statement later. http://www.ksta.de/html/artikel/1229426984548.shtml Epoch Times, Dec 22: A Xinhua report about the dismissal of Matthias von Hein was online already in the wee hours of Dec 18, ten hours before the parliament meeting. Here Erik Bettermann confirmed this fact and agreed that the Xinhua publication is really striking. This report appears to be entirely correct. Here is what must be the Xinhua item in question, identificable by way of the two involved German names (Matthias von Hein and Ines Geipel): http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2008-12/18/content_10523333.htm The timestamp 2008-12-18 10:47:22 should refer to local time in China, Google News read out this item still under Dec 17. So it was indeed out ten hours before the matter had first been revealed to the German public. Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng: This Xinhua report clearly verifies that the editors of DW's Chinese service have a direct relationship with China's Communist party, closer than the relationship with their German employer. This is a big problem. DW always emphasises that its Chinese service is not infiltrated, but here we have clear evidence that it is. http://www.epochtimes.de/articles/2008/12/22/386431.html See also Süddeutsche Zeitung, discussing the point of view of an Iraqi journalist who worked for DW Arabic in 2003-2004 and describes it as "distinctively islamistic": http://www.sueddeutsche.de/452380/452/2665016/Ein-Verfolgungsdings.html (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. QSL address for Deutsche Welle --- What is the best mailing address for reception reports to Deutsche Welle? I see two addresses floating around, and is one better than the other? (Bill Harms, MD, Dec 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kurt-Schumacher-Str. 3 > Streetaddress 53113 Bonn Postanschrift: Deutsche Welle > Deutsche Welle own Postalcode D-53110 Bonn Germany (Peter Kruse, Germany, ibid.) The best e-mail address to get a QSL from DW is: info @ dw-world.de The best option is to send the e-mail with an attached file which contains the report form that you can find in DW's web page. Greetings! (Artur Fernández Llorella, Catalonia, Spain, HCDX via DXLD) Dear Bill, This might be the best; Customer Service 53110 Bonn Germany or info@dw-world.de Regards, (Tony Ashar, Indonesia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Bill: My experience on multiple occasions is that sending e-mail reception reports to the above address did not result in a QSL, whereas when I simply printed out the unanswered e-mail reports and sent them via snail mail, QSLs arrived in short order. I used the smail mail address show on DW's website. 73 - (J. D. Stephens, Hampton Cove, AL, USA, HCDX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. 6005, Radio 700, 0810, Dec 25, This is the first time I've heard this station; it`s good to catch some regional shortwave from Europe. The long winter nights allow for decent early morning propagation to the U.S. I don't speak German, but did catch the station ID several times and references to the telephone number as well as the email address. The announcer also mentioned something about DXing European pirate stations and named a few of them including Radio Borderhunter. Good copy (David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6005, 1050-1100* 25.12, R 700, via Wertachtal (100 kW) German interview with a woman, Christmas song - special transmission, 55555 S9+40 dB. After that R 700 was heard from Kall-Krekel (1 kW) with S9 +0 dB AP-DNK 6005, 1250-1320 24.12, R 700, via Kall-Krekel. German announcement, "Schlager", 1300 ID: "Sie hören Radio Sieben Hundert", news from "Det Nordschleswiger" newspaper in Aabenraa, Denmark! 1303 more pop songs 45333. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Radio Gloria International this Sunday --- Date 28th of December 2008, Time 1300 to 1400 UT, Channel 6140 kHz. Transmissions of Radio Gloria will be broadcast over the transmitting station Wertachtal in Germany. The transmitter power will be 100 000 Watts, and we will be using a non-directional antenna system (Quadrant antenna). Good listening and a Happy New Year 73s (Tom Taylor, HCDX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Re 8-131, FALKLANDS: These rumours about BFBS Radio 2 are being discussed here in Germany, too, and there is also a rumour about big changes in the FM distribution of BFBS to come in next year, like replacing the high power frequencies 96.5 and 103.0 MHz by lower powered outlets at the British garrisons. But this remains to be seen. Anyway it appears to be quite sure that BFBS will close down in Osnabrück at yearend, involving a TV transmitter that is the last remaining PAL-I outlet in Germany. After that analogue OTA TV in Germany should still consist of 24 PAL B/G signals and 29 NTSC-M signals, with three exceptions all low/modest power transmitters. Who would have expect NTSC to be one day in use by more German transmitters (AFN ones of course) than PAL? (Kai Ludwig December 25th, 2008 - 1857 UT, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** GERMANY [and non] Re 8-131: >> There's no "AM compatible" mode <<: Actually there is, and it [DRM] had been tested from the very same site on 693 for some time. Unlike IBOC, the digital component is being kept within +/- 4.5 kHz from the carrier, thus the available bitrate is limited to about 11 kbps. I think hardly anybody still disagrees on the opinion that degrading the analogue signal for adding a digital signal in telephone quality is just nonsense. Tonight I checked out Family Radio 1800-2000 on 3975: It's in English, but rather two independent transmissions of one hour each, crudely changing over at 1900 by abruptly stopping one playout and firing up another. The second hour turned out to contain a call-in show, with the opener advising callers to be ready to turn the volume up because it produces a nice effect (well, I suspect Family Radio uses a seven seconds censorship delay) and stating that "however, listeners outside North America may hear a prerecorded program". Indeed, it opened as edition of November 11, six weeks old, with the anchor speaking as if he was drunk (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. See TURKEY [and non] ** GUAM [non]. 9665, Dec 27 at 1516 with S Asian music, QRM from CBCNQ 9625 spur, and also weak het from perpetually off-frequency N Korea. At 1530, giveaway AWR theme and Voice of Hope ID in English, barely audible. Is PWBR `2009` any help? Of course not! Only thing listed during this hour is an alleged 24-hour Brazilian. Aoki and EiBi have the answer: AWR via Wertachtal, 1500-1530 in Punjabi, 1530-1600 in Hindi. CBC shouldn`t bother way over there, but the P`yongyang het must be worse in the target area; could it be that AWR picked this frequency unaware that NK is on it (or rather off it), since that is not in HFCC? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. 7125, R. Conakry. December 26, French, 0718 at tune-in very low signal level but from 0725 a quick enhance revealing a hoped French talks, 0731 announcements about three "communiqués...", seems a list of proceeds and deliberations, including info of names and their respective fields "general (sounded like La Ponty) representant de le république", 0733 folk string & voice music, 0734 as usual abrupt s/off in mid-song. At top 24422 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) That will probably be the details of the joint military-civilian council that has been set up. Yesterday the former government acceded to the demands of Captain Camara and have recognised him as the new Head of State. Apparently there were street demonstrations in Conakry in favour of the coup. Guinea has been a very corrupt country under President Lansana Conté. Camara has promised free elections within two years, after the corruption has been cleared up. The way in which he has conducted himself since taking over, with no bloodshed, suggests to me he is genuine about wanting to improve the lives of the population. There is still international concern about what has happened, but I prefer to be optimistic (Andy Sennitt, ibid.) South Africa still denounces the coup, as heard on the Channel Africa news at 1500 Dec 26 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) See also RUSSIA ** INDIA. AIR GOS, 9690, Dec 27 at 1337 with news in English, 1340 ID and commentary. Has continuous hum/buzz but not so annoying that one must tune away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 9525.90, Voice of Indonesia, *0948-1003, Dec 26, abrupt sign on with talk in unidentified language. Theme music at 1000 & talk. Very weak with low modulation making it impossible to even ID the language (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 9660, Dec 27 at 1326 in a language with both Turkic and Slavic elements, talking about Ukraine and at 1330 about Palestine. It`s VOIRI, scheduled 13-14 in Kazakh, 30 degrees from Sirjan. With splatter/spur QRM from CBCNQ 9625; see CANADA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN. 6055, Radio Nikkei, 1020-1030, Dec 27, local music. Japanese announcements. Poor. Weak. Very weak on // 3925 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [non]. NHKWNRJ, 11705 via Canada, both Dec 25 and 26 with Tales of Genji, fully produced with SFX and music, from the millennium-old classic; finishing Dec 26 at 1429 saying it was the second and final part. Same thing which had been running on last Saturdays of the month instead of World Interactive, no doubt a holiday filler instead of up-to-date programming. This transmission has also been somewhat overmodulated lately. Sackville, please touch it up (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Re: 8-126 Dec 6, 2008 ``North Korea Reform Radio 1300-1330 and Nippon no Kaze 1333- QSY on 9965 kHz from today (Nov. 4) (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1433, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` I heard on Dec 25 1305-1330*, 9965, Korean talk on Christmas and then Romanian Nicolae Ceausescu. Closing by YL cut off. SINPO was increasing from 34433 to 44444 on 1317 (Tony Ashar, West Java – Indonesia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Aoki now says site is Taipei, 100 kW at 2 degrees (gh) ** KURDISTAN [non]. 7540, other-worldly chanting accompanied by strumming, Friday Dec 26 at 1405; strong but flutter and traces of long-path echo, from V. of Mesopotamia, via Ukraine (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UCRANIA, 7540, Dengue Mezopotamya, 2051-2056, escuchada el 25 de diciembre en idioma kurdo con emisión de música folklórica local, piezas melódicas tocadas por instrumentos de viento, locutor presentando tema, identificación “Dengue Mezopotamya”, anunciando frecuencias y página web, locutora “Dengui Mezopotamya...program...”, SINPO 44343 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS [non]. WHRI, 11785, with Hmong Lao Radio Sat Dec 27 until 1459, including rustic music we always enjoy, then off the air for a semiminute, foregoing any ID or OCS, back on at 1500 for Hmong World Christian Radio, http://www.hwcr.us Unclear why there would be any break between these two closely related shows from and for Hminnesota; one of them pays for 250 kW and the other for 100 kW? But 11785 is FCC-authorized only for 100 kW at 315 degrees any time between 1300 and 2300. I could not detect any difference in strength before and after 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. Relays this weekend [sic] via 9290 kHz Sat December 27th Radio City 1000-1100 UT Latvia Today 1100-1200 UT December 30th [sic = Tuesday] RMRC 1300-1500 UT Happy New Year 73s (Tom Taylor, via Mike Terry, in advance on the dxldyg, via DXLD) And nothing on New Year's Eve? If so this RMRC radio club broadcast should be the last ever transmission from Ulbroka (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) Dear Listeners, on the 30th of December 2008 at 1300 UT the last broadcast with 100 kW from the 9290 khz relay service will take place. Reported from the relay Licence holder, a new relay service will start sometime in February 2009 with test tones and alignments. The Transmitter max power will be 10 kW. No more information is available at this time. All the best (Tom Taylor, Dec 27, HCDX via DXLD) Finally some kind of confirmation (although still under pseudonym) for the closure of the Ulbroka station. And check this out: http://www.panoramio.com/map/#lt=56.936500&ln=24.286137&z=2&k=2&a=1&tab=2 Photos not only of the antennas but also of the transmitter building which in fact is the old Stubensee estate house, built in classicism style around 1800. Due to this worthy location the local authorities also wanted to get rid of the transmission facilities, acc. the Wikipedia article about this building: http://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulbrokas_mui%C5%BEa (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. 9770, KBC, 1450-1510, Dec 25, talk about love. “The Mighty KBC” IDs. Pop/rock music. Fair at tune-in. Weak-poor by 1510 due to noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) QSL: The Mighty KBC, 6110. Full data logo, transmitter, tower, and T- Shirt card in 12 days. Report sent via email kbc @ planet.nl (Bill Harms, Elkridge, Maryland, Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. MALI’S ORTM LAUNCHES SATELLITE TV SERVICE FOR NORTH AMERICA Mali’s national public broadcasting authority, ORTM has announced the initiation of free-to-air satellite television broadcasts over the North American region. The programme schedule, principally in French, includes news, sports, art and cultural programming. The official launch of the ORTM TV channel in North America will be inaugurated at a ceremony and press conference with over 250 invited guests. The event will be held on 27 December at the Ramada Philadelphia Airport in Essington/Philadelphia at 3:00 p.m. ET. Amongst the attendees will be Malian government representatives including President Toumani Touré, Minister of Communication and New Information Technology Diarra Diallo, and Ambassador to to the US Abdoulaye Diop. RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd, has partnered with CB Networks who were chosen by ORTM to provide the distribution of the ORTM TV channel on Galaxy-19 satellite. Galaxy-19 satellite was selected for its optimal footprint covering North America and for its high quality satellite signal throughout the United States. Downlink Parameters: Satellite: GALAXY-19, 97 degrees West (formally GALAXY-25) [formerly?] Frequency: 12060 MHz Polarity: Horizontal Symbol Rate: 22,000 Fec: 3/4 (Source: ORTM) (December 25th, 2008 - 11:08 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) We are honoured, and wish many other countries would do this; yet, I fear the Malians overestimate the yearning amongst Americans for TV programming from Bamako; at least it is there for Loren Cox to watch. BTW, what about SW? Mali could have required time to be available on the CRI relay transmitters in order for that deal to go thru (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST, ibid.) Did they make the same fuss when they started on the Central Europe beam of Eutelsat W3A? Btw, what about Radio Bamako on satellite? It’s on air in ORTM’s own C-band uplink from Bamako on Intelsat 801, but apparently not remuxed to either Galaxy 19 or W3A. Concerning the Bamako shortwave site: Isn’t this an arrangement the other way round, i.e. China helped ORTM to upgrade and expand its shortwave facilities, requiring airtime for CRI as part of the deal? (Kai Ludwig, December 25th, 2008 - 17:49 UTC, ibid.) That may be, but Mali`s own SW transmissions altho somewhat audible overseas, are obviously not designed to be a real external service, e.g. for North America. The Chinese facility could have done this for Mali, part of the time (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 5995, RTVM, 2335-0002*, Dec 26-27, rustic tribal vocals. French/vernacular announcements. Sign off with National Anthem. Poor with adjacent channel splatter (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 4845, Radio Mauritania, 0810-0843*, Dec 26, Arabic talk. Local music at 0836. Fair. 7245, Radio Mauritania, 0853-0900, Dec 26, sign on at approximately 0853 with local music. Arabic talk at 0900. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 4800, XERTA, Radio Transcontinental de América, México D.F., 0547-0945, 25-12, canciones religiosas y comentarios, identificación "Radio Transcontinental de América". 25322. 6010, Radio Mil, México D.F., 0553-0920, 25-12, canciones latinoamericanas, comentarios, locutor, locutora. Señal muy débil y con fuerte interferencia de BBC en 6005. 12321. 6185, Radio Educación, México D.F., 0634-0820, 25-12, canciones caribeñas, locutor presentando las canciones, identificación: "Les recordamos que están en la sintonía de Radio Educación, en este 25 de Diciembre, día de Navidad; un abrazo para nuestros oyentes y gracias por acompañarnos". 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. El reto más grande para XEEP Radio Educación en el año 2008 era celebrar sus 40 años como emisora con las siglas XEEP, con la frecuencia 1060 de AM y con el nombre y formato que hasta hoy conocemos: Radio Educación, razón por la cual muchas eran las expectativas de la más grande emisora pública mexicana. Al llegarse el mes de marzo mucha gente se preguntaba si se realizaría este año la Séptima Bienal Internacional de Radio, pues de manos de Lidia Camacho la Bienal de Radio había pasado a ser tarea de XEEP. Al mismo tiempo, la Fonoteca Nacional laboraba aún con poca definición respecto a la fecha de apertura al público de este centro de recopilación sonora, cosa que se cumplió en la segunda semana de diciembre. Septiembre fue el mes de celebración para la Séptima Bienal Internacional de Radio y también para que se editara un libro acerca de los 40 años de vida de esta radio educativa de la Ciudad de México. La participación de concursantes a la bienal no sólo se rebasó, casi se duplicó respecto a emisiones pasadas y además aunó el mayor número de diferentes países inscritos. El miedo era grande, pues el equipo que encabeza la licenciada Virginia Bello en Radio Educación no estaba cierto en la respuesta en asistentes para este evento bianual de radio. El número de asistentes a conferencias y mesas redondas fue tal que la conferencia que empató a los ex directores de Radio Educación para conmemorar su aniversario número 40 hubo de realizarse en el auditorio más grande del CENCA. “Radio Educación, la historia resiente, testimonios y remembranzas” ha sido la publicación que recopila estas cuatro décadas de XEEP, y se avoca a las vivencias directas del personal del 1060 de AM, el oasis de la radio, que ha laborado con tal armonía en el 2008 que para muchos de nosotros suena a madurez, a que, por fin, los trabajadores de XEEP son estimulados adecuadamente hacia el goce de su desempeño radiofónico, lo que ha dejado atrás lo rijoso de su estadía como emisora educativa incomprendida (¿fuente? Via Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Dec 25, congilist yg via DXLD) ** MEXICO. XEOI, 6010, was stronger than usual, Dec 26 at 1352 with government PSA about elexions becoming more democratic; so also checked 6045 and could detect a bit of classical from XEXQ in ACI from China 6040 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Xmas gift from Mexico 0300 UT Fri --- Hola a todos, desde Radio México Internacional, les deseamos lo mejor este día, que sea una navidad llena de salud, prosperidad y armonía en compañía de todos sus seres queridos. Hoy a las 21:00 Hrs tiempo central de México, 0300 GMT, les transmitiremos un regalo de navidad. Esperamos contar con su sintonía: http://rmi.es.mn Saludos Fraternos (Ing. José Antonio Martínez Sánchez, XE1A, NoticiasDX yg via dxldyg Dec 25 via DXLD) Turned out to be a string of unannounced corridas, traditional about Pancho Villa, etc., rather than narcotraficantes (gh, DXLD) ** MOROCCO. 9575, Medi Un / Radio Méditerannée Internationale, Nador, DEC 23, 0556 - caught the end of the French newscast with an item about a doctor judged for illegal practice of medicine, then music including "Miles Away" by Madonna and an Arabic rhythmic vocal by almost-certainly Nancy Arjam (a Lebanese singer that achieved a certain level of popularity in North Africa as well in spite of the huge amount of Raï listeners). Very good with little in the way of fades; I fell asleep listening to this and I when I woke before 11 AM local (1600 UT) they were still hanging on at a fairly threshold level. An interesting phenomenon: when this is on, the supposed 171 // is either out or totally unreadable; when LW-171 is listenable, this one is absent. SINPO 44533. +DEC 23, 2120 - playing sad R&B tunes; very good with only slight splatter from Gabon-9580 in AM Wide mode which was considerably weaker (at a poor and fadey level). (Bogdan Chiochiu DX'ing from Pierrefonds / Montreal's West Island, QC, using the Sangean CST-818 and the Australian PK's Magnetic LW loop, also using the Sanyo-MCD-S830 boombox AM-FM-tape-CD receiver barefoot as well as the Sangean CST-818 with 15m random wire on SW, HCDX via DXLD) ** MOUNT ATHOS. I would like to ask for your help in a problem that I confront. Recently, the new regulations made by the Greek Ministry of Communications gave the SY prefix to Special call to anyone who wants it. Sadly the men at the Ministry do not understand the importance of the DXCC - Entity Mount Athos to the World of Amateur Radio. Monk Apollo invites you to send an email to the Ministry yme @ otenet.gr and ask them to reserve the prefix SY solely for the use of Mount Athos to eliminate any confusion of the DXCC Entity Mount Athos. Thanks in advance for your assistance, from Mount Athos, the "Garden of Virgin Mary" I send you my best wishes. God Bless you (Monk Apollo, SV2ASP, via I.C.P.O. Bulletin (Dec 25, 2008 - Jan 02, 2009) "Islands, Castles & Portable Operations", via editor Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** MYANMAR. 5770, Myanma Army R., heard at 1325 on 26 Dec with pop music and male announcer in vern. I say vern because WRTH lists "Bamar and minority langs." Not sure which I was hearing. Weak sigs with deep fades, but no QRM to deal with. Rated at 10 kW. Well, all I wanted for Xmas was a Perseus, but instead I got a horrible flu, the Afghan equivalent of a lump of coal. This is one of those special kinds of flu, where all one's bodily fluids try to leave at once because they know the end is near and they don't want to be around when it happens. I've had some seriously bad luck with the flu here. Hope everyone had a great Xmas filled with DX and family. Best 73 de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. Myra Oh concluded the Dec 22 edition of RNZI Mailbox by saying goodbye until Jan 26, so the show is taking a 5-week break, which would also throw off the alternate-week date predixions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGER. 9705, LV du Sahel, 2235-2301*, Dec 27, French pop ballads. French announcements. Qur`an at 2253. Sign off with local flute & National Anthem at 2259. Test tone at 2301 & off. Weak. Poor with weak co-channel QRM and noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ETHIOPIA ** NIGERIA. 6089.85, Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, 2110-2204, Dec 27, talk in listed Hausa. Tribal chants. Covered by Anguilla 6090 at their 2204 sign on. Fair signal strength but poor to fair overall signal quality due to DRM QRM & adjacent channel splatter. Must use ECSS-USB to avoid some of the DRM mess (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Tnx to listings in the VHF-UHF Digest FCC news column, I see that Enid is getting yet another gospel huxter, on FM 90.5. A CP has been granted to a Baptist church in Waukomis, the little speed trap S of Enid on the Chisholm Trail, for a 30 kW station in Goltry, which is another tiny town NW of Enid. What do you bet the church is a front for one of the national g-h networks? Strange thing about this is that the coverage area does not extend as far as Waukomis, and barely reaches Enid, according to the FCC maps. Transmitter site is further beyond Goltry, just N of Jet on the way to Great Salt Plains, so COL Goltry is still within the primary coverage area. The pattern is also pulled in SW toward Fairview, which is where there is another CP on adjacent 90.3, as the KJIL gospel huxter translator there on 88.5, is being upgraded to a real but still low-powered station. These two could ultimately be beneficial in Enid for listeners to KCSC, the classical music station in Edmond on 90.1, which did nothing to prevent a gospel-huxter translator coming on 90.3 in Enid several years ago, degrading KCSC`s audibility here. Could the new 90.5 and 90.3 be enough to knock our 90.3 translator off? If so, it could reappear somewhere else on the dial causing as much if not more damage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. DTV coverage maps: see DIGITAL BROADCASTING ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Wantok Radio Light, 7325, fair in English with inspirational music, program preview at 0812 (John Durham, DX report on RNZI Mailbox Dec 22, notes by Glenn Hauser for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PARAGUAY. Los internautas tienen la posibilidad de escuchar de ahora en más Radio Nacional del Paraguay a través de internet. Este nuevo método de difusión de la emisora estatal se da en el marco de la reestructuración y modernización que ha emprendido la actual dirección de la radio. Fachada de Radio Nacional del Paraguay, que anuncia el inicio de un proceso de reestructuración y modernización. Radio Nacional transmite en dos frecuencias: 920 AM y 95.1 FM, y su local está en Blas Garay 241 entre Iturbe y Yegros. Los oyentes de todo el mundo podrán escuchar los programas en las siguientes direcciones: http://www.desdeparaguay.com/920 y http://www.desdeparaguay.com/nacional “De esta manera, damos cumplimiento con el reclamo de numerosos compatriotas que viven en el exterior y nos ponemos a la vanguardia en materia de tecnología”, señalaron los responsables de la emisora. La audiencia podrá enviar mensajes y ponerse en contacto con los periodistas de la radio de manera instantánea. Agencias internacionales En un comunicado emitido por la radio, señalan que, a través de gestiones hechas por la Secretaría de Información y Comunicación para el Desarrollo (SICOM), Radio Nacional cuenta con el servicio de noticias de dos prestigiosas agencias informativas: Telam de la Argentina y la Agencia EFE de España, que proveerán a la radio información de carácter internacional de manera permanente. “Por otro lado, para la primera semana de febrero está prevista la convocatoria pública para la presentación de proyectos radiofónicos, dirigida a organizaciones, asociaciones e instituciones que tengan interés de contar con un espacio en Radio Nacional”, anunciaron. Dichas propuestas serán evaluadas por un consejo integrado por personalidades del medio de la comunicación y la cultura. También anuncian para marzo la presentación de la nueva programación, que será fundamentalmente informativa, educativa y cultural. “Todo ello se enmarca en el proyecto de convertir a la radio estatal en una radio pública, pluralista e incluyente”, manifestaron los directivos. Fuente: ABC Digital http://www.abc.com.py/2008-12-26/articulos/481718/ondas-de-radio-nacional-del-paraguay-tambien-por-internet (via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia http://yimber.blogspot.com Dec 26, DXLD) ** PERU. Latin observations from southeast Florida 25 December: Listening time 0900 to 1130 and 2300 to 0100, Times heard in last half of December 3329.53, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco, 1020 and 0030 5039.21, Radio Libertad, Junín, 1020 5460.1, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar, 0000 5470.80, Radio San Nicolás, 2310 5486.7, Radio Reyna de la Selva, Chachapoyas, 1000, 0000 6047.15, Radio Santa Rosa, Lima, 0000 6195.8, R Cusco, 1000 to 1100, 0000 73s, (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BOLIVIA ** PUERTO RICO. Heard on an Eton E-1 and 150 foot wire. Thank you to Chris Black for notifying me of reception from Puerto Rico: 580, WKAQ San Juan, PR 12/24 1800 [CST = UT -6] under an XE which I did not identify and English from Tupelo, MS. The programming matches the streaming audio playing music. Super weak. 630, WUNO San Juan, PR 12/24 1825 very weak and under KJSL with salsa / merengue music. Programming matches the streaming audio. Note: Both the PR receptions would have been impossible to ID had it not been for the streaming audio on the net. I could barely hear the stations and getting a match really did the trick. I would bet on a real auroral day these would be a lot better receptions (Kevin Redding, Crump TN, ABDX via DXLD) Heard on an Eton E-1 12/25 with 150 foot antenna that would be an EWE if it was terminated. 1140, WQII San Juan, PR, 2115 [CST]. I guess when they come it comes in bunches. This was the best of all PR receptions because clear as a bell there was a woman SS announcer talking about George Clooney and staring at a goat and then she got to talking about George and the Chupacabra and got giggly. All US ads but SS versions and SS ad for the US Army (Kevin Redding, Adamsville, TN where the mail comes from, ibid.) Kevin, So what was your basis for IDing this as WQII, rather than WQBA Miami or something else? Also webstream //? BTW, per the NRC Pattern Book, WQII has a deep null toward Miami, and WQBA has a deep null toward you. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) I got the news from Puerto Rico while listening. They also were talking about where to go to join the US Army (Kevin Redding, ibid.) ** RUSSIA. "Mezhdunarodnoye Russkoye Radio predstavlyayet..." (the Russian for "MRR presents..."). By the way, they exchanged 1st and 2nd word in the station's name a while ago. So it's now MRR, rather than RMR. 73, (Dmitry Mezin, Russia, Dec 25, RealDX yg via DXLD) In English, IRR, ex-RIR (gh) ** RUSSIA. Looking for Guinea on 7125, Dec 26 at 2330, heard music, but hopes dashed by Russian announcement at 2333. Most references show Russia starting at 0000. But the B-08 VOR sked from Vadim Alexeyev, VOR Russian world service DX program editor via Michael Bethge, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews via Wolfgang Büschel shows: Russian-IRR 2300-0000 7125 Grigoriopol MDA 500 EUR from 01 Nov IRR is International Russian Radio, ex Russian International Radio. No trace of Guinea underneath tho it has been reported sporadically active at various times since the coup (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 12075, Radio Rossii, 1105-1130 Dec 26. Rite after tune in, noted an ID "...Radio Rossii..." in Russian language followed with comments from two males. Usually this frequency is covered with noise and interference, but this morning it sounded okay with a steady signal at a fair level (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida USA, NRD 545, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Good morning from good old Europe. Re 12075. This outlet of Radio Rossii is meant for numerous Russian nationals living now permanently or frequently in Germany or France. Is a powerhouse outlet of Taldom site about S=9+30-40 dB signal level, 1900 kilometres away from Stuttgart, Germany; the main lobe azimuth crosses our town directly.73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RWANDA. 6055, Radio Rwanda, 2045-2100*, Dec 27, Euro-pop music. French talk. Sign off with short electronic instrumental tune along with ID. Good. Strong (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SCOTLAND. 2008-12-25, 1743 kHz, 0717 UT, USB, Stornoway Coastguard weather report, gale warning and 4 day fishing forecast. A merry Christmas and all the best for 2009 (Bert van Rij, Naaldwijk, The Netherlands, BDX via DXLD) Isle of Lewis, Scotland. I remained baffled at logging programs which don`t have the sense to put the date next to the time and the frequency next to the mode (gh, DXLD) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS [and non]. RNZ`s HF specialist technician Steve White just returned from Honiara. Whilst there he repaired the SIBC daytime transmitter, which had been off the air for three years; currently operating on 9540 [sic] kHz. And he also managed to get the 5020 night frequency back on the air [sic] as well. Before that he was in Port Vila, Vanuatu, where VBBC are hoping to install new HF transmitters. Probably will publish frequencies they will be testing on early next year (Adrian Sainsbury, RNZI Mailbox Dec 7, notes by Glenn Hauser for DX LSITENING DIGEST) 9541.5: On 12/26 with very nice signal, by far best heard this season, from 0809 tune with English news by woman. Into feature program at 0810 that included what sounded like several political speeches and a woman narrator. Music program from 0840 with several pop Christmas vocals among other pop songs, man and woman announcers. Frequent recorded commercials heard. Co-channel QRM present after 0900, but not problematic. SINPO 35433 (Bruce Churchill, Fallbrook CA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Solomon Islands, 9541.50 kHz, 0855 Dec 27. Nog tenemen maar zwak! (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. Channel Africa, 17770, opening English at 1500 Dec 26 with accurate timesignal compared to CHU. But only frequency announced was 15235! Current schedules show that frequency is not on the air until 1600 in French, 1700-1800 in English. Another breakdown in communication between the transmitter/engineering/studio departments. Then news starting with RSA government condemning the coup in Guinea (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. REE, 17595, great signal as usual, Dec 26 at 1440 with wide- ranging, well-produced, year-in-review special, arts and politics in Spain and abroad, including controversy over queen`s opinions, death of Paul Newman. We can only hope nothing significant happens in week 52. Wrapping up at 1449 with ID, ``Radio Exterior de España; nuestras frecuencias hablan español``. How true (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWITZERLAND. HISTORIC SWISS MEDIUM WAVE TRANSMITTER CLOSES DOWN SUNDAY --- "The medium wave transmitter at Beromünster in central Switzerland will go silent forever on Sunday night, 77 years and seven months after it first came into service. ... Look on the dial of any decent radio from the past. Beromünster features on the far right along with other great names, for example Lyons, Stuttgart, Vienna, Berlin, Monte Ceneri (southern Switzerland), AFN and Budapest." During World War II, "there were weekly commentaries on the situation from radio legend Jean-Rodolphe von Salis, and everyone was glued not to the box but to the radio. Beromünster was respected, not just in Switzerland, as the only independent German-language broadcaster." swissinfo, 27 December 2008. Its frequency is 531 kHz. Posted: 27 Dec 2008 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** SYRIA. 9330, Radio Damascus, 1827-1931*, Dec 25, tune-in to German programming with talk, local music, instrumental music and some Xmas music. French programming at 1900. Abruptly off at 1931. Poor to fair with somewhat low modulation & hum in audio. Must use ECSS-LSB to avoid WBCQ at their 1858 sign on (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: WBCQ ** TAIWAN. Radio Taiwan International is seeking feedback and comments on our Sunday program "Spotlight." The program, hosted by Angelica Oung, is aimed at introducing different kinds of museums around the island. If you do have a chance to listen to the show either via shortwave or the Internet, please let me know what you think of the show. In the meantime, I would like to wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Sincerely, (Paula Chao, Radio Taiwan International, via Swopan Chakroborty, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. R. Thailand, 9725, good reception but ear-glazing subject, Dec 26 at 1419, YL in clear but slightly accented English reading what sounds like government press release about education policy reform. Loud piano with orchestra music thruout, a modern concerto? Which I would have preferred to hear without the dull talk (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. 12095, Radio Thailand, 0045-0102, Dec 27, English programming with review of upcoming local events. Weather. National Anthem at 0100. Chimes at 0101 followed by programming in Thai. Weak but readable. Stronger than usual (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY [and non]. 7205, best signal on 41m, Dec 25 at 1911 was playing ME music. This must have been VOT`s German service at 1830, 310 degrees from Emirler, so carrying on directly to N America. Was also hearing Greek music on 7450 which is the Makedonias service at 323 degrees from Avlis; nothing yet from VOG itself on 7475, not opening until 2000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. Radio Ukraine MIA at 0400 UT 12/26/2008. Missing in action, maybe just taking off for the holidays????? Usually strong signal here. According to their own website, they should be on the air. Funding problems again in Kiev??? (Blake, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not audible here either at 0425 on 7440. But I don`t usually check for it. Not much from Europe making it on 7 MHz, e.g. no 7375 Croatia via Germany audible either. SF 69, K 1. Where are you? Webcast still running fine with item about Soviet genocide against Ukraine, via rtsp://real.nrcu.gov.ua:7554/encoder/rui.rm And later about New Year trees being counter-revolutionary until 1930. Closing announcement at 0458 still gave all the frequencies including 7440. They previously indicated the additional frequencies 9785, 15635 might not continue in 2009 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. QSL in today from my mail forwarder: R. Ukraine Intl., 15635, f/d "field of grain" card in 57 days for English email report. No v/s. 73 de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. See SCOTLAND ** U S A [non]. SENTECH, Meyerton, South Africa, is now carrying two different VOA programs on 17740 and 17750 between 1400 and 1500. Dec 26 at 1452 on 17750, feature from Al Silverman in Hollywood about the plot to kill Hitler movie, 1455 to 2-minute USG editorial about Sri Lanka where the Tamil Tigers and the Sinhalese should make peace; off the air at 1459:30, as weaker VOA Kurdish on 17740 was also going off. 17750 is aimed 342 degrees, better for us (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. I'm currently listening to several 11 meter stations --- 25910 WBAP Ft Worth, 25950 KOA Denver, 25990 Texas, here in Chicago. No, I haven't had any egg nog. Using my Perseus. FM mode. ??? (Kevin Mikell, IL, 0241 UT Dec 26, NASWA via DXLD) Nice catch. From what I've read those are low-powered feeder links from the studio to the transmitter site, but once in a while they're audible far away thanks to sporadic-E propagation. It's interesting and amazing that you're apparently getting E-skip from more than one location at once! I've heard KOA a few times here before, but never the Texas stations - Missouri may be too close for E-skip from there. If you've got a TV with rabbit ears, it might be worth a check to see if anything interesting is happening on channel 2 or 3 as well (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, ibid.) 11 meters, dead of winter, sunspot minimum. Ah, sporadic-E explains it. Thanks, Mark! KOA is still coming in. The Texas stations are now effectively gone. How I found it? I had downloaded a software update for the Perseus and had clicked on the Icon for the HFSpan utility by mistake and noticed some spikes in the graph around 26 MHz and so checked them out. Glad I did. This was a bit fun (Kevin Mikell, 0334 UT Dec 25, ibid.) I first heard KOA last summer via e-skip and then heard it quite a few times later, though I haven't looked recently. I sent a report and the engineer replied by email confirming it was their feeder link, but he treated it as a ho hum thing, indicating he gets a lot of reports on it. However I have never noted the Texas outlets (Don Jensen, Kenosha WI, ibid.) It`s a common misconception that these are studio-transmitter links. Rest assured that stations such as KOA and WBAP have much more efficient and reliable STLs, on 900 MHz band if they use RF at all. And surely most smaller stations heard on 25-26 MHz. At best they might be backups, but the usual reason for them is for cuing when the station is doing a remote, so the people out there can hear the station`s audio non-delayed, unlike the main frequency. Perhaps the widely-heard ones in Denver and The Metroplex are just left on all the time. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** U S A. The winter sporadic-E season has been a slow-starter, but some reaching lower TV channels has been reported in last few days. Es was certainly in play Dec 26 at 1435 when normally barely audible WWCR 15825 was inbooming during Tony Alamo telling of a huge golden altar suddenly appearing in someone`s Los Angeles apartment, with a midget. OK. . . Still coming in well at 1507 recheck with another preacher (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Glenn: I wish to inform you of receiving World of Radio on WBCQ 7415 at 2135 UT. Signal was strong with sounds like high speed breezy sound and slight fading.Sinpo was 43345, using a Sangean ATS818ACS with a Solarcore outdoor All Wave Recieving Antenna fifty feet on a wooden pole and coax lead attached to bottom. Thanks for doing excellent work on WOR! 73's from (Tennessee, Noble West, Dec 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That would be Friday at 2130, a time unknown to me; apparently another fill-in, coinciding with the time on WWCR 15825. Area 51 on WBCQ, 5110, Friday Dec 26 at 2350 had R. Timtron Worldwide during the first hour; 0001:30 Dec 27 into latest WORLD OF RADIO 1440; axually on about 5109.8-CUSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) REMINDER: Dan Lewis` interview with Glenn Hauser is to appear somewhere around the middle of his show on WBCQ 5110, UT Monday Dec 29 between 0100 and 0300 (gh) WBCQ, 9330-CUSB, Dec 25 at 1913 with `Sound Body` program from Christian Media Network in southern Oregon, YL pushing colloidal silver. What became of the financial show during this hour? Modulation distorted probably because of Syrian carrier on slightly different frequency. It was hard to tell, but I think WBCQ was now very slightly above 9330. Helped to turn on the BFO for proper demodulation of The Planet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also PUBLICATIONS: Jean Shepherd ** U S A. [Re 8-131] Glenn: Our transmitters are not 'home made'. They are Harris - CBT SW-100- F 100 kW Auto-tune shortwave transmitters that we acquired about 8 years ago. The original WGTG transmitters have been scrapped long ago. The other comment: We learned the hard way --- NEVER AGAIN. Now when people call for ANY info about building a shortwave station, we fax them an consulting engineering employment contract right then and there, asking for 100 grand retainer fee right up front. No contract with retainer FEE, no info --- PERIOD! Because of FBN --- NO VISITORS TO WWRB --- EVER (Dave Frantz, WWRB, Dec 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tnx for clarifying this, Dave! But if they are standard Harris transmitters, hardly confidential. Maybe it`s your home-made(?) rhombic antennas which are classified? No, you previously let the cat out of the bag about their superior design (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. WRMI, 9955, Thu Dec 25 at 1508 with Frecuencia al Día over jamming, unscheduled time, instead of R. Prague. Jeff White tells me their new computer playout system skipped a program, but they hope to have everything straightened out shortly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA [non] ** U S A. This may be an opportunity for some rare ute MW catches. They QSL very well. Only catch is that you'll have to copy their CW or RTTY signals well enough to at least catch the callsign … It's repeated frequently and short so that shouldn't be a tough one for the non-Morse crowd (Paul Dobosz, MARE Tipsheeet via DXLD) Viz.: K6KPH WILL PARTICIPATE IN STRAIGHT KEY NIGHT KSM WILL BE ON THE AIR FOR A "MINI NIGHT OF NIGHTS" KSM RTTY BROADCASTS TO BE ON THE AIR It's become traditional for the Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS) amateur station K6KPH to participate in the ARRL's Straight Key Night each New Year's Eve. We'll be on the air again this year but with some added operations on the commercial side as well. For more information about Straight Key Night see the ARRL's Web site at: http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2009/skn.html This year we thought we'd turn the event into a "Mini Night of Nights to give folks who can't hear KSM on CW during our normal hours of operation, especially on MF, the opportunity to copy the station. Several of our classic transmitters will be on the air. To add yet more interest KSM RTTY broadcasts will be on the air as well. Operations will begin at 0000Z 1 January 2009. K6KPH will guard these frequencies for calls: 3550 kc 7050 kc (Transmitter: 1950's vintage RCA "L set") 14050 kc KSM CW operations will be on these frequencies: 426 kc 500 kc 4350.5 kc (1950's vintage RCA "K set") 6474.0 kc (1950's vintage RCA "K set") 8438.3 kc 12993.0 kc (1940's vintage Press Wireless PW-15) 16914.0 kc KSM RTTY operations will be on these frequencies: 8433.0 kc 12631.0 kc Two modes of "RTTY" will be used: Baudot and FEC. Baudot transmissions will be at 170 cps shift, 45 baud. FEC transmissions will be at 170 cps shift, 100 baud. As always reception reports may be sent to the QSL Mistress at: Ms. Denice Stoops QSL Mistress, MRHS PO Box 381 Bolinas, California 94926 USA (via Paul Dobosz, ibid.) What`s a `kc`?? The term is meaningless without a per-unit-time; yet she does use `cps` rather than just `cycles`. Whenever I see this I am tempted to revive MegaHausers, i.e. Megacycles-per-hour, which make more sense (Glenn H., DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. QSL: WWVB, 60 kHz Full data mountain scene folder card in 10 days. Serial No. 233. Report sent to Fort Collins (Bill Harms, Elkridge, Maryland, Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 890 Puzzler --- For over an hour so far this morning, I have been getting an obviously local station at +20 with an eclectic format that is indefinable. Sort of Country, Rockabilly, Techno-pop, Disco, Reggae, Ranchero, and God only knows what all else with that thump, thump teeny-bopper beat. I don't recognize anything, but then I have 300 vinyl jazz albums, so I am not exactly "au courant" when it comes to music. (Couldn't they throw in at least one Miles Davis?) There have been no IDs or local breaks. Just a couple of generic spots from the Radio Advertising Bureau brought to you by "this station" (but they don't tell you what this station is) and for the first time ever, I heard a spot promoting HAM radio by the ARRL? Anybody know what this is? The only think I note for 890 is WAMG but they are supposed to be sports (Chris Black, N1CP, location not given, 1305 UT Dec 26, ABDX via DXLD) WAMG is Dedham MA, 25/6 kW (gh, DXLD) Indeed they are - they're ESPN as "ESPN Boston 890 & 1400," and they wouldn't be S9+20 out there on the Cape, anyway. The ARRL promos make me think this might be something unlicensed - a ham having some fun on a holiday? s (on the air @wxxi; gotta run for the next break J (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Thanks Scott. Not sure why you would say they would not be strong on the Cape. I am still listening and they are still +10. At any rate, at 8:30 am it looks like they went back to sports and regular spots. Is it possible that something went wrong with the ESPN feed so they substituted some generic fill-in? (Chris Black, ibid.) There probably was nothing wrong. Most every station goes to preprogrammed music of some form at Christmas so no one has to be in the station (Kevin Redding, TN, ibid.) Interesting. I would think they should still have to ID though? (Chris Black, ibid.) Not the 24/7 sports and talk nets like ESPN - they have live programming all through the holiday, and it's all run by automation anyway at most local affiliates. My local ESPN (WROC 950) never broke format. So if what Chris had was indeed WAMG - as it sounds like it was - they must have lost the network feed for a bit. It happens this time of year, especially in New England, where they've got all that snow in the dishes... s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) Cool. Yes, that sounds like the logical possibility. It was just a little weird as I had not encountered that before. Thanks (Chris, ibid.) Sometimes in an emergency situation some stations aren't prepared for a loss of programming. Especially with an emergency template in the automation system that will bleat a legal ID on cue etc. In fact, my newscast from Wednesday evening replayed through Christmas day at the top and bottom of the hour after ABC news, due to a certain programmer not taking care of that detail. Fortunately, we need not worry about snow filling our satellite dishes here at WNZF in Bunnell - Palm Coast - Flagler Beach, FL. In fact, the weather was sub tropical in the 70s into the low 80s (Ronald-Charles Gitschier, WYHI, Palm Coast, FL ibid.) ** U S A. WLVE 93.9 FM Switches Formats --- The smooth jazz station Love 94 (WLVE 93.9 FM) went off the air at 10 this morning, replaced by a rhythmic pop station called 93.9 FM-MIA whose tagline is "Move to the music," Clear Channel Radio Miami/Fort Lauderdale announced today. "The station will feature popular up-tempo music from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and today," said an e-mailed Christmas Day press release. "To celebrate the launch, 93.9-FM MIA is airing commercial-free music from artists including the Bee Gees, Madonna, Prince, Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Lopez." The release quotes Brian Olson, President/Market Manager for Clear Channel Radio Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, saying that Love 94's smooth jazz format will be revived on Clear Channel's high-def digital radio network, at 93.9 HD2. A letter posted at the new station's Web site doesn't specify a date for Love 94's return in HD but says listeners should check back after the holidays for more information. I tuned in this afternoon, 3:45 - 4:15 p.m., and the station played The Spinners' Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me, Girl, Ace of Bass' Beautiful Life, TKA's One Way Love, a song I couldn't identify, Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, Human League's Don't You Want Me, Shaggy's Angel, CeCe Peniston's Finally and Michael Jackson's Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground). Posted by Sean Piccoli on December 25, 2008 at 3:17 PM [plus much discussion, mostly negative:] http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/features/arts/music/blog/2008/12/local_radio_station_switches_f.html (via Dino Bloise, FL, USA, dxldyg via DXLD) ** VANUATU. R. Vanuatu, Port Vila, 7260 at 0630 with spoken programme in local language, 0741 [sic, means 0641?] local music; poor improving to just fair by 0716, with local news in English (John Durham, DX report on RNZI Mailbox Dec 22, notes by Glenn Hauser for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN. QSL in today from my mail forwarder: Vatican R., 5915, f/d Logarithmic Antenna card in 88 days for English email report. No v/s but official stamp. 73 de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN [non]. Vatican Radio, Sackville, Canada, 9795-9800-9805 kHz DRM at 2108 GMT. Program in English about the apostle Paul backed amusingly by music from David Lynch's film Dune (the main character of which is named Paul Atreides.) I was waiting for the bit about when Paul's name became a "killing word". Audio file: http://www.mediafire.com/?gnrmnyjjjgm (Terry Wilson, MI, Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** YEMEN. 6005, 1650-1705 24.12, Republic of Yemen R, San'a Arabic songs, announcement 1701 ID, 43444 Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1800-1810, Dec 26 [Fri], English news to 1808. “Spice FM” IDs. Swahili talk at 1808. Local music at 1809. Fair signal. Audio sounded better but still with a slight hum. No unstable, warbling audio for a change. 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1800-1815, Dec 27 [Sat], English news to 1809. “Spice FM” IDs. Swahili talk & a US pop tune at 1809 followed by Swahili talk. Audio good yesterday, but today the audio is starting to get that warbling sound again (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. via Madagascar, 11610, Radio Voice of the People, *1700-1756*, Dec 27, sign on with African music & English-vernacular opening ID announcements followed by vernacular talk. Short breaks of African music. English at 1738. English news at 1747. Closing English announcements with contact information at 1754. Good signal but some English difficult to understand due to thick accents (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1290, Dec 27 at 0638 UT with delayed Jim Bohannon Show, guest discussing Africa. Dominant for a few minutes, then fading. The show abandoned its old website in August, but left it up: http://jimbotalk.net/index.php Now it`s http://www.jimbohannonshow.com/ with useful info on scheduled guests, plus this station finder page http://www.jimbohannonshow.com/stationfinder?programID=309 Unfortunately, you have to click on each and every state, not including GUAM, to see what`s listed, and trying about 25 of the closest ones, did not find a single affiliate on 1290. In order to make an `ID`, I would have had to check every single state on the off- chance that there is only one 1290 on the whole roster, and then could not be sure if it were up-to-date (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1680: Saludos Colegas Radioescuchas y Diexistas del Mundo ! Placer y gusto en saludarlos deseándoles una Felíz Navidad y un venturoso año nuevo a todos. Anoche probando un receptor marca Grundig G5 , después de las 0400 UT capté una emisora no identificada con programas en un idioma que parecía en francés o creole en la frecuencia de los 1680 kHz con señal aceptable SINPO 35333. Algunos de ustedes saben de que emisora se trata? Agradezco su información al respecto! Gracias (Santiago San Gil, Venezuela, Dec 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Most likely the Florida station, where there are lots of Creole- speakers as well as SS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Santiago y demás amigos: Dice el horario de programas en http://www.wokbradio.com/programming2.htm que WOKB emite un programa evangélico haitiano (en creole) de lunes a viernes de 9 pm a 12 de la noche. Esta emisora es la que antes se llamaba WLAA. Para todos los colegas, mis fervientes deseos porque tengan un próspero Año nuevo (Henrik Klemetz, Suecia, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. On Dec. 25 (Christmas Day) at 1926-2018 UT, I listened an Unidentified Radio on the variable frequency of 3260 (from 3260.43 kHz shifted slowly to 3260.52 kHz), with some talks in local language by man after some local chants and vocals (similar to Indian chants). Re-checked at around 2215 UT on 3260.60, and at 2244 UT shifted on 3260.65, with same program format as above. Heard with poor / almost fair audio in LSB with QSB, rustle, humming (mostly nulled with NRD 525 NB) and utes at times. Any idea ?? '73 (Giovanni Serra, Roma, Italy, NASWA yg via DXLD) My idea is Radio Madang, Papua New Guinea, only broadcast station in world listed on this frequency, signing on at 1900 or 1930 --- if it is active. Seems to me there used to be an African here; was it Niger? Most likely tho for you would be second harmonic of a European pirate, like Greece, 2 x 1630v. Try to find a match on one half the frequency. 73, (Glenn Hauser, OK, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 5790, something with music at 1955-2000 Dec 27, possibly in Russian. Nothing listed; mixing product? (Joe Hanlon, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Glen[n], I heard a numbers station on the morning of 12/26/08 at 5881 kHz at 0718 UT. It was a female speaking Spanish and the transmission ended at 0745. Upon checking the Latin news when I got up this AM, I saw that the Colombian Government Killed a top FARC commander on Christmas day and arrested a further 6 FARC commanders on the 26th as well as raided a FARC explosives depot deep in the jungle on the 26th as well. I don't know that the events are linked but I do know that every time I hear one of these stations, there is a major Colombian operation that ends up occurring within a day. Happy Dxing (Rod Payne in NE Texas, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Rod, I really doubt there is any connexion, since these 5881, 5895 and other numbers transmissions in this area are on a regular weekly if not nightly schedule as researched by ENIGMA (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 25/12/2008 0515, 5895, Transmisión en Codigo Morse CW XXX, 44444. Alguien me podría ayudar con ésta???? Sale a diario?? Alrededor de las 0515 horas UT en 5895 KHz http://boxstr.com/files/4469803_ppz0b/codigomorse25112008.mp3 (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Cut-numbers, i.e. 5-digit spy number groups converted to (only) ten Morse code letters for convenience, most likely from Cuba but possibly from USA. There are many more such regular transmissions, some with full carrier, some really CW. Many of these are extremely strong here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, another check for 8GAL, Dec 26 at 1400: certainly not the usual V/CQ marker, but instead a long key-down tone, and indecipherable message for a minute concluding with another long dash. Was not recording to try to figure it out later, but no 8GAL ID heard. Possibly was negatively-keyed by mistake (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Unlike the previous day when it was around 10975, OTH radar pulsing found Dec 26 at 1417 on 11470-11490 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 11532.0, variety of digital noise bursts at 0630 Dec 27 but then just huge open carrier, way over WYFR 11530 with Camping trying to talk thru the big het. Probably same transmitter that does spy numbers, CUBA? Maybe not, as RHC was just barely audible on 11760, while WEWN was VG on 11870, CVC Chile G on 11805. Could have been some winter sporadic E confusing us about which areas could be propagating (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 15315, 15345, Dec 27 at 1511 heard weak pulses peaking around these frequencies, like OTH radar heard elsewhere, mostly out of band but previously reported around here inmidst 19m. Strong DentroCuban jamming against Martí 15330 might have been bleeding out, but if so, indistinguishable to the ear from OTH (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Good morning Glenn Hauser. Before it all ends, just a few words to you to wish you a very happy Xmas Holidays and to thank you deeply for your strong contribution to Short Wave. It`s with people like you, any hobby will last for long. I admire your effort and dedication. So now in the holidays, wherever you live, light up the chimney, light up the fire, pull back your chair, pick your radio and just --- Relax. Very cordially yours (Hector (Luigi) Pérez, NP4FW, San Juan de Puerto Rico) WORLD OF HOROLOGY +++++++++++++++++ HOW DO I CONVERT GMT TO CENTRAL TIME? To visualize it on the globe, the earth rotates once in 24 hours. The earth is divided up into 360 degrees of longitude, which are zero (England) to 180 mid-Pacific, and back again. This means that, during each hour, the earth's rotation moves by 15 degrees. If the time zone boundaries were truly straight, you could say that 60 degrees of rotation takes exactly four hours. By placing a string along the equator's track on a globe, (it would slide off if done elsewhere) and seeing what fraction of 360 degrees is used to get from one point to another, you can divide 24 hours by that same fraction to estimate the time difference. For various political reasons, this is not truly exact. In the example, England (0 deg.) to New Orleans (-90 degrees) is 1/4th of 360 degrees, and is six hours behind, which is 1/4th of a day. With just a bit of practice you can look at a map of the world and estimate to an hour or two, what time it is, then, at any other spot on the earth. when you know the current time at your site. There are a handful of places, such as India, Nfld. now Venezuela that keep time to a 30 minute offset from what it would seem to want to be. Just remember that the GMT date advances to the next day at 2359 plus one minute, while it remains the previous day in the US for 5 to 8 more hours. And, due to the International Date Line it is frequently the next day's morning, in Asia, when still the previous evening here. HTH (Bob Foxworth, FL, IRCA via DXLD) RADIO PHILATELY +++++++++++++++ CUBA: ENTREGAN SELLO 50 AÑOS DE RADIO REBELDE http://www.radiorebelde.com.cu/noticias/cultural/cultural1-271208.html Luis Alejandro Alfonso Peñate [illustrated, but NOT the stamp] Estudiante de Periodismo, 27 de Diciembre de 2008, 9:30 a.m. La Habana, Cuba.- El Museo de la Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba, ETECSA, ubicado en las habaneras calles de Águila y Dragones - donde en 1922 se realizara oficialmente la primera transmisión de radio en Cuba a través de la planta PWX de la Cuban Telephone Company -, fue escenario de la entrega del Sello 50 años de Radio Rebelde. La distinción la recibieron un grupo de trabajadores fundadores de la devenida emisora de la Revolución, al mismo tiempo que fue propicio para entregar el Sello por los 85 años de la Radio Cubana a otro grupo de trabajadores. La directora de Radio Rebelde Mabel Manso Delgado hizo extensivo el reconocimiento a nombre del Consejo de Dirección y aseguró con la entrega de estos galardones, el compromiso de continuar defendiendo con mucha salud esta Revolución. "Ha sido un momento de gran satisfacción compartido con mis compañeros fundadores de entonces... Es un reconocimiento en parte inmerecido porque fue un deber trabajar en esta emisora heroica..." expresó Salvador Word, uno de los laureados con el Sello de Radio Rebelde en su 50 aniversario (via José Miguel Romero, dxldyg via DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ SOMETHING IN THE AIR I am reading a fine book about radio* and have become curious about Jean Shepherd. I would love to hear some of his overnight shows but my limited searching has come up empty. Any ideas on where to find some of his old stuff? Thanks ef * it's mostly limited to US radio, and covers such topics as Imus, Elvis, WDIA, Jon Millar, Bob and Ray, Rock and Roll . . . (Eric Flodén, BC, swprograms via DXLD) Viz.: Something in the air : radio, rock, and the revolution that shaped a generation by Fisher, Marc. New York : Random House, c2007. Call #: 791.44 F53s Subjects Radio broadcasting -- United States -- History. URL http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0713/2006047353-d.html URL http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0713/2006047353-b.html Web Access to:: Publisher description Contributor biographical information Edition: 1st ed. Description: xviii, 374 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-338) and index. ISBN: 0375509070 9780375509070 LCCN: 2006047353 Contents: The magic of radio -- Survivor -- Omaha morning -- Harlematinee -- The transistor under the pillow -- Booze, broads, bribes, Beatles -- Rebel -- Night people -- The jingle-jangle morning -- No static at all -- Playing the numbers -- Niche player -- Shock and awe -- Scattering seeds -- Full of sound and fury -- Back to the future – Magic (via Flodén, ibid.) Are you guys unaware that Shepherd has been on WBCQ for ages? Used to be on weekends, but lately filling an Available Time Slot, Monday 2200-2245 on 7415 plus webcast. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Jean Shepherd: There's a smattering of stuff here: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/AC (David Goren, ibid.) Hello Eric, One of the resources for Jean Shepherd on the net is http://www.flicklives.com Give that a try for starters. It's a great site (Dave Marthouse, The NRC AM mailing list via DXLD) That is probably the pre-eminent site and source of program material. It's run by Max Schmid, who last I knew worked for NYC's WBAI-FM. I recommend it highly. I can fondly recall as a teenager and beyond hearing Jean's programs when he was live on WOR-710. I have a few recordings which I made off-air back in the 1960's on reel-to-reel tape. Most of these I also have on cassette (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ), ibid.) More than you could ever imagine; check out http://www.flicklives.com where you'll find links to Max Schmid's "Mass Backwards" show (heard Tuesday mornings at 5:15 [ET = 1015 UT] on WBAI in New York), which carries - and archives on-line - old Shep shows, as well as to http://sheptapes.com where Max sells CDs full of MP3s of Shep material. http://Shep-archives.com which doesn't appear to be working at the moment, has/had hours upon hours of streaming Shep. Here's another one - http://shepcast.blogspot.com/ - that seems to have gone belly-up, but at least the archives are there. And if you want some fun holiday reading, get your hands on a copy of "Excelsior, You Fathead!," the Shep biography that came out a few years back. Good stuff. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: GERMANY; NIGERIA; VATICAN ++++++++++++++++++++ FCC REPORTS SHOW ANALOG AND DIGITAL COVERAGE OF TV STATIONS Link to maps: http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/ (Juan Gualda, Fort Pierce, FL, Dec 25, ABDX via DXLD) Each market pdf file has many maps in it. The first example in OKC is KAUT-43, DT-40. It shows with half the power from same height, DTV gained a substantial ring around OKC, including Enid as the largest newly captured city. The rings are uncalibrated. Well, we can certainly get the analog altho somewhat snowy depending on the antenna gain. Indeed I am getting solid reception now in DTV with external antennas. Similar but greater gain in coverage is shown for KOCB-34 to DT-33. However, its DT signal here is now one of the weakest, sometimes breaking up. The general trend is gaining some coverage tnx to DTV even with less power. However in the case of KFOR-4, DT-27, a slight bit is lost altho already goes well past Enid. Nevertheless, this has the strongest DT signal from OKC here, the only one I can get reliably on rabbit ears positioned just right. Whether a station loses or gains depends on a combination of changes in ERP, changes in transmitter location (e.g. KTUZ-30 near Norman to KTUZ-DT-29 to the OKC antenna farm much further north), and whether changing from VHF low to UHF, or staying on same band, etc. I see that some of the Tulsa stations are losing coverage in the long run. The map for KTBO-DT-15 ignores the fact that it has been and still is KTBO-14, showing the entire DT coverage area as ``gained``! GIGO. Relay stations in W and NW OK are included in the OKC market; even more extended are all the relays in western Kansas under Wichita- Hutchinson. The USA maps for major networks are of not much use; even when blown up they don`t show clear coverage boundaries, just all the green dots of increased coverage (Glenn Hauser, Enid, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Interesting. Compare the rings for KAUT, first page on http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/maps_report1/Oklahoma_City_OK.pdf to the Service Area Maps: Analog - http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=TV23663.html Digital - http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1251298.html The digital "ring" on the PDF file matches nicely with the predicted digital noise-limited 41dBu service contour. However, the analog "ring" is quite pessimistic by comparison to the predicted analog Grade B 64dBu service contour. The 64dBu analog contour actually matches fairly well the 41dBu digital contour. I wonder if they actually plotted the Grade A 74dBu service contour for analog? Do note that in both cases Glenn is referring to full-license "satellite" stations; LPTVs and translators are NOT on these maps (Doug Smith, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Is someone actually expecting these to represent reality or is this the usual spin to try to make the digital coverages look better than the analog ones - even if it means 'adjusting' them? (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, WTFDA via DXLD) I thought the same thing. The CT DTV coverages are a big time wish. Heck, even the analog coverage they showed was a bit of a stretch. Of course with cable penetration north of 75% in the northeast it doesn't really matter much here. Side question. Anyone know what the stations will save in power costs with the reduced power required for DTV signals? Some show a 10:1 reduction in kw's, granted there are different frequencies involved. But I'm wondering what the broadcasters are expecting to see in savings for using less power to run their transmitters. Of course, they had to sink a ton of money into new TX, antennas and engineering. But I wonder if this was sold as a cost savings measure. Anyone know ??? (Bill, CT, ibid.) Analog coverage maps have always assumed an outdoor antenna at 30 feet - something that's rarely seen outside of fringe reception areas. I will admit to not knowing what antenna height is assumed for most Longley-Rice calculations. I can assure you this hasn't been sold to the industry as a cost- savings measure! That said, there do seem to be power savings in most cases, even where low-band VHF stations are moving to UHF. A quick calculation suggests WKRN-2 here should be saving roughly 27% in power bills on DTV channel 27, while WUXP-30 should be saving about 40%. I am however assuming equal efficiency between analog and digital transmitters and am not sure that's true at UHF. (it is largely true at VHF - the digital is probably somewhat *more* efficient because it's newer...) Remember again that the powers being quoted for DTV stations are average power, while those quoted for analog stations are peak power. WUXP's 5000 kW peak is closer to 1600 kW average; the difference between the station's analog and digital ERPs is 60%, not the 500% it may first appear. – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) Russ, From my use of digital TV in Arizona and now Tennessee, digital coverage IS bigger than analog and better picture. It`s exactly the opposite of IBOC from my experience (Kevin Redding, Crump, ibid.) Interesting, as that seems to be different from what many in the Northeast have indicated, and it may indeed be geographic. I haven't yet gotten out the converter boxes and hooked them up, mostly on account of no pressing need to do so since we're talking about a 21" standard TV here. I know my son had more trouble with DTV last winter when he spent 3 weeks here while moving than he did at either his old or hew new homes, which are 15 and 30 miles west of here, respectively. It's almost as if we're too close to the transmitters here (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, (15 mi NW of Philadelphia ), ibid.) That seems to be exactly my experience here in Toronto (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) I have heard that is a problem. I have little problems getting stations 75-100+ miles out clear as a bell (Kevin Redding, ibid.) I gotta be honest --- these FCC maps for my TV market and the surrounding markets appear to be (almost) VERY accurate. For my specific location, they have pinpointed the coverage gain/loss perfectly, with the exception of WXMI, which would probably be accurate if we weren't in a small valley. They got WOOD right -- loss of coverage and no other coverage by the same network is available (now if they *know* that, why don't they FIX that, maybe by switching some frequencies so we're not smack dab between two DTV Ch. 7s that limit each other's power???). I usually wouldn't trust such maps, but these are surprisingly good - at least for this area, except WPBN. Now that's a stretch, 'cause like I said, DTV 7 (WOOD) extends well into DTV 7 (WPBN)'s supposed coverage area, which entirely wipes WPBN out and WOOD isn't even reliable. Loss of two stations at once there. These maps are all POST-transition, yes? It's showing Ch 9 Cadillac as DTV 9, but it's interim 45 and has a very small coverage area, nowhere near what is shown. I'm expecting in February it'll be back to normal. On analog it was a solid local. Now, on 45... it hasn't yet decoded and we're left barely with a CBS (Chris Kadlec, Fremont, Mich., ibid.) That is my experience with WJAC-DT. The polar plot shows it having a directional antenna facing eastward, but yet posters at AVSForum report receiving it around Pittsburgh. I'm only 1/3rd the distance from 6(34)'s tower and get zip. I ruled out my antenna's location as the problem, since I get WWCP-DT with my WinTV's whip antenna and it is only a few miles closer (Jeff Kitsko, Latrobe, PA, ibid.) It must be geography-related, for sure. My experience is quite different. Here in DC, I'm 5-6 miles from the towers and get absolutely perfect reception with either indoor or outdoor antennas, and I've played around with reception from a USB stick on my laptop in Warrington, PA (also about 15 mi. from Roxborough/Phila but to the NE) and I got all the stations transmitting from there. Also had good experiences in SC, parts of Maryland and VA -- local, not DX. I've definitely had good luck with DTV versus analog TV. The major exception was the same USB stick less than a mile from the DC towers, where I had to fiddle around greatly to get anything except the farther stations (the site had good elevation). The closest tower has four DTV and at least two full-power analogs and is 0.3 miles away; this probably has something to do with that and is probably Saul's problem in Toronto as well. The only thing that worked to improve reception was a long length of high-quality shielded cable to attenuate the signals. Cheaper cables let too much seep in – (Cláudio Leite, KB3RMJ | Washington, DC (FM18mv) I'll weigh in here in that at one and a quarter miles from all of my full power analog and digital transmitters and with an amplified 7' dish, I do get all of my locals successfully! I also receive five of the seven Syracuse digitals at 70-79 miles (depending on the station) and the Buffalo channels broadcasting from the hills south of town (65 miles average). I'd have to agree that the digital service areas seem to be LARGER than the old analogs with a proviso: That is that I can get all of the analogs of the above mentioned stations, but with slightly-to-greatly poorer signal quality than on digital. The "perfect-picture" criterion certainly makes one THINK that the transmitters/coverage areas must be larger --- until you fall off the cliff! (Rick Lucas, Rochester, NY, ibid.) WLNS TV 6 from Lansing is announcing that its digital signal will be "temporarily reduced in strength" on or around January 5 2009 "to continue facility construction". They claim that some over-the-air viewers may temporarily lose the station's digital signal after that date. They are predicting that the work will not be done, and full power (and coverage) will not be restored until "several weeks after February 18." To add insult to the injury, WLNS is announcing that "You can continue to watch WLNS's analog Channel 6 until February 18, 2009, or you can subscribe to cable or satellite to continue to receive the digital signal." They have announced their email for issues concerning this is dtv@wlns.com If you watch channel 6, give 'em hell for suggesting you need cable to continue watching their signal, and suggest maybe their FCC license should be revoked if they don't really want to broadcast over the air. That's what I did, but I haven't seen a response yet! :) Of course these are the same people who suggested it might have been an "accident" that channel 18's signal was added as a second digital stream about a year ago and before the two stations had actually announced they were building a transmitter site together, accident my foot, some tech was playing and I hope I didn't get him fired for noticing! (Ken Zichi, MI, MARE Tipsheet Dec 26 via DXLD) "STEALTH" HD POWER INCREASES [on FM] From radio-info.com ---- looks like the worst chairman in the history of the FCC continues til the very end: If your favorite FM station suddenly becomes buried in noise soon, this may be why: it looks like Kevy Martin is completely ignoring the Congressional mandate for the FCC to stand-down and concentrate on the digital TV changover: "Although the Federal Communications Commission has deferred (for now) any formal action on its inquiry into whether or not to allow broadcast radio stations to increase the power of their digital ("HD") sidebands by a factor of ten, the agency's employing the tried and true method of "creating facts on the ground" by allowing individual stations (or station clusters) to individually apply for special temporary authority to hike their HD power levels. This is taking place even though radio's engineering community is deeply divided on the issue of an HD sideband power increase. Comments filed by the Prometheus Radio Project and Media Access Project (disclaimer: on which I informally consulted) succinctly summarize the dispute. The main question is: is it realistically possible use HD Radio as a tool to improve the existing medium, or will HD intentionally degrade it so that the spectrum's repurposement becomes inevitable - or, at the very least, make its ownership more consolidated?" http://www.diymedia.net/archive/1208.htm#122408 (Bruce Collier, York, PA, 722 ft ASL, FM19px FM setup: Pioneer SX750, Antennacraft CCS1843 V/U/F at 20 feet AGL, WTFDA via DXLD) Do please read the follow-up messages in that thread, in which the original poster is roundly (and correctly, IMHO) excoriated for a rather biased view of this particular situation, in particular his idea that the FCC has been "mandated" to ignore everything that's pending except the DTV changeover. (He's one of the "IBOC Haters" who show up on EVERY forum possible to post a whole series of links, often very outdated and sometimes quite contradictory, that do nothing but attack IBOC.) That's not to say I'm a big fan of IBOC - I think the AM system is a disaster and am glad it's near death - but there's plenty of reason to believe that (a) the proposed increase in digital power on FM won't be the band-ending disaster he envisions, and that (b) the FCC's not going to authorize an across-the-board increase in digital power, anyway. What's happening now - and has been happening for something like the last two years - is that the FCC's granting special temporary authority to a handful of stations to test the effects of the power increase. I was privy to one such test a year ago in Los Angeles - KROQ 106.7 was, very quietly, running with IBOC at 10% (instead of the usual 1%) of analog power. They, very wisely, didn't announce what stations were doing the test --- and there was nary a peep of complaint about interference. And, yes, I drove all over LA listening to 106.7, to the class A second-adjacent signals in the market on 106.3 and 107.1, to the class B in San Diego on first-adjacent 106.5, and didn't note any change to any of those analog signals. That was one test, of course, and what worked in LA might not (indeed, probably will not) work in more densely-populated portions of the FM band (think the noncomm band in the northeast, for instance). That's why NPR Labs did its own testing, and they came to the FCC with an extensive report arguing AGAINST the 10 dB across-the-board increase. Many other broadcasters and engineers came to the FCC with similar arguments. (Our resident IBOC Hater over at radio-info weighed in, too, with an all-caps rant that basically amounted to "IBOC SUCKZ AND SHULD BE SHUT DOWN NOW" stretched out over several paragraphs.) Given how influential public broadcasters (disclaimer: I is one!) have been in testing, implementing, and even (gasp!) succeeding with IBOC on FM, it seems very likely that the FCC - yeah, even the Martin FCC - will give their comments a great deal of weight. I can't find anyone outside Ibiquity itself and the handful of corporate broadcasters (primarily CBS and Crawford these days) still infatuated with the system who think the across-the-board increase is a real possibility anymore. It's true that even a lesser increase will create more noise for DXers, and that's not good news, but just as the initial coming of IBOC didn't create the hobby-ending wall of noise some of us feared, we'll survive this as well --- especially since ANY power increase will cost stations big $$ for new transmitters and antennas, and few stations have the budget to do that right now even if they wanted to. s (Scott Fybush, WXII-FM, Rochester NY, ibid.) To me, this is extremely dishonest. The test is skewed to get the desired results. By keeping it a secret, listeners who are encountering interference have no idea that this can be the reason. They are assuming their radio is at fault, or maybe it is the station they are trying to listen to. They then just tune away. Complain? Who do they complain to? In some cases, you can't even reach the station. The FCC? The average guy out there couldn't get to step one. And I'll bet the listening was done using a receiver with excellent adjacent channel selectivity rather than an "average" run of the mill receiver used by the general public. What this needs is some daylight, maybe a lot of it. Reminds me of the planning of a government overthrow in some third world country. In the meantime, I'm just going to sit back and watch radio destroy itself (Joe Fela, NJ, ibid.) For my listening, I was using the craptastic stock radio in whatever rental car I was driving that particular trip. I think it was a Chevy of some sort. If you actually read the reports that were done on this particular test, you'd see that there were a dozen or so different radios being tried, none of them particularly exceptional, and certainly none of the caliber of, say, the XDR-F1HD (a radio that none of us would have the pleasure of using, incidentally, if HD hadn't existed.) NPR Labs, in particular, has paid a LOT of attention to real-world receiver quality in its testing. One could argue that the industry is doing that in a lot of ways unrelated to HD radio. In this particular case, some amount of secrecy was all but essential because of the incredible amount of emotional response HD has drawn in certain corners of the radio hobbyist community. We've seen some of it here, and of course it's risen to a fever pitch over on the AM lists and even more so on some of the message boards, like radio-info.com. By announcing specific stations involved, the results of the testing could actually have been compromised - I certainly wouldn't put it past some of these people (none of them on this list or in this club, mind you) to submit spurious reports of interference just to skew the outcome of the tests. The tests themselves were publicly announced (just not the specific stations), and anyone who really wanted to know which stations were involved could go digging a bit in public FCC records and find the experimental STAs that were issued for the tests. And the public DID weigh in - one of the things the broadcasters conducting the tests were looking at was the ratings during the test. If listeners had tuned away from any of the stations involved, it would have shown up in the ratings, whether or not the listeners knew why. There was no sign of ratings decreases as a result of the testing. Call it test-marketing, if you will --- Procter & Gamble doesn't publicize when they're trying out a different formulation of Tide in one or two markets, do they? Is that somehow a threat to our democracy, too? s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) There's very little to add to Scott's excellent comments, except... that implementing the 10 dB power increase is going to be VERY expensive. It is likely impractical to use the high-level combining method currently used by most IBOC stations (that method is almost unbelievably inefficient). Stations implementing it will have to replace their transmitters - and in some cases their feedline and antennas. Obviously not cheap. My employer has really put the squeeze on expenditures in this down economy -- and we're in pretty good financial shape with little debt. You can't say that for several of the big radio companies. There simply isn't the money out there for expensive upgrades like this. Especially for IBOC which, unlike DTV, is not necessary for the station to remain in business. So my point is, don't be too worried about this. Even if the FCC *did* issue an across-the-board authorization for a 10 dB IBOC power increase, few stations could implement it (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, WSMV Nashville, ibid.) 102.5 WKLB here in Boston is supposedly running the high power now, and I can notice it. 102.3 WGTX and 102.7 WRNI-FM are deeper in the noise than they used to be. http://radioworld.com/article/71720 (Jeff Lehmann, Hanson, MA, ibid.) I think each one of us has to speak for himself, but the hobby really ended for a lot of us when IBOC came on and covered our adjacent channels, even though we might still be in denial about it. That's how I feel anyway (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, ibid.) Given that a good number of Buffalo and Rochester adjacents are badly trashed for me across the lake in Toronto, in spots like the Scarborough Bluffs which overlook the lake, or even driving around the city (102.7, 98.7, 99.3, the list goes on), I'd have to concur. I'm relatively fine at Burnt River, because I'm far enough from the U.S., etc..., though I strongly suspect I am getting IBOC hash during skip and tropo openings and the like, and that this is causing some degree of signal loss. Given all this, at my end, relatively far away from the U.S., I can only imagine how overwhelming the impact is in larger centres with IBOC locals. The days of DXing with even moderately open frequencies are long gone, and for many DXers there are virtually no channels left where anything other than a powerful signal will come in. There is no denying the dramatic decrease in long-haul tropo logs, for instance, over the years. I don't mean killer-strong signals from 300 miles that are so often reported as DX. Yes, it's interesting to see 200-300 mile stations pounding in, but I mean actual ***DX*** -- weak fluttery signals that take work and good ears to ID. Remember those? It's not that there haven't been good openings. Yes, the band and the stations aren't there for us to DX, that's not the purpose of radio, I get that. But, all the same. I would say that if it gets much worse, I would not bother DXing FM, at least from Toronto. When I've had the thrill of nabbing tropo from 1000 miles away (twice), 400 miles just does so little for me. There is no doubt the hobby is fading, in its decline (Saul Chernos, AC 416, ibid.) And I don't blame you [Bugaj] for feeling that way. I think we established pretty well that you and some of the other central New Englanders ended up in about the worst possible spot for continued DX when IBOC came on, and I'm sympathetic to the plight that you and others face when trying to DX. But remember - or go back to the list archives if need be - what the predictions back then were like. "Nobody will ever DX, ever again!" "The band will be a wall of noise from one end to the other!" "Nobody will even be able to hear their locals!" Some of us observed, even then, that those predictions of absolute doom were overblown - and indeed they turned out to be. I still see postings from New Englanders getting FM DX (hey, Jeff Lehmann!), and I've been able to do some DXing even here under my own set of local IBOCers. And what IBOC taketh away, IBOC sometimes giveth. I wouldn't trade my XDR-F1HD for a tweaked-out MR78...and for all of $50 after rebate! Anyone want to bet that Sony would ever have created a radio like this if it didn't have IBOC in it? Yes, the hobby's changing - but the hobby's been changing from day 1. I bet if we'd had the list when FM got kicked upstairs from 44-50 megacycles back in the forties, there would have been people complaining that it was "the end of DX as we know it," too! s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Over the next two decades, as FM's start dropping like flies when the 20 & 30-somethings no longer listen to them and ads can't support them, the hobby will be alive once again with many empty channels. Ubiquitous wireless internet will be the wooden stake - especially when it becomes ubiquitous at both home and in the car. Other than ethnic stations, rural stations and local news/traffic in the metros, the "push" (broadcast) radio media is doomed as the "pull" (on demand) media takes over. AM radio's implosion will come even sooner. Canada is already heading towards an AM-free world outside of the metros. The last refuge of broadcast radio will be Africa. Lots of awesome long-haul DX days ahead folks. Stay tuned (Bill Hepburn,Ont., ibid.) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ WATERFALL PICTURES re 8-125: WHAT IS IT? NEW PICTURE MODES ON HF? ON LOWER AMATEUR BAND YOU CAN FIND STRANGE THINGS: PICTURES OF LADIES, OR BUGS, BUTERFLIES IN SPECTRAL MODE. IT IS CAUGHT FROM WEBSDR ONLY YET. 73, (TAMÁS Gyebrovszki, Hungary, UDXF yg via DXLD) :-)! Hmmh, side effects from a wicked headrush? :) (Leif Dehio, near Munich Germany, ibid.) Serious repercussions from recreation in the 60's and 70's! (Ed Yeary W4TEY, Harrogate, TN 37752, ibid.) Hi Leif, Nope I had not dope. I am really do not know that pictures where came from. In my receiver can't be heard, only through the websdr maintained by http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ 73, (Tamás, ibid.) Search for Programs like HamDRM, DigTRX, etc., and "QUICK LOAD PRECODED WATERFALL PICTURES" via google. I think that`s what you`re looking for (Kristian / Germany, ibid.) These are in fact audio burst transmissions which are designed to make pictures on the typical waterfall spectrum display. Think of it as a very crude fax. Resolution is on a level with those old Snoopy calendars they used to make on mainframes. Digtrx can do this. Somewhere in the menu there's a way to set "waterfall pictures." I would suspect there's other software to do this. The transmitted sound is very weird, and attention getting to say the least. Some of the pictures are pretty creative. I have a few somewhere on my blog (Hugh Stegman, Dec 19, UDXF yg via DXLD) Sounds pretty interesting. I wonder what kind of bandwidth is used to display the illustration??? Sounds like the resolution is somewhat low. You'd probably have to be somewhat quick to get a screenshot of it if you weren't prepared for it. I'll have to give DIGTRX a try sometime soon. It reminds me of a website http://www.rtty.com that has links to RTTY art. I'd like to try that sometime to see how it works using a soundcard and software rather than a mechanical teleprinter (Dave Edenfield, W8RIT, ibid.) It fits easily in a voice channel. The information rate isn't especially high because the resolution is so low. DIGTRX has high and low continuous tones it uses to set up before the RDFT or HamDRM transmission, and everything else is in short chirps at the right times and audio frequencies between them. The resulting audio mix is really, really strange, and it definitely gets your attention the first time you hear it. Some of these little pictures are actually surprisingly good. They do remind me of greatly scaled down ASCII art on old mainframes from the period after the makers had discovered how to simulate halftones (Hugh Stegman, ibid.) I can see a 10k wide Mona Lisa repro centered on 7045 kHz. So there are several types of pictures transmission having been tested. Some sw: Easypal, Picfall, Digtrx but I don't know any for broader one. 73, (Tamás Gyebrovszki, Hungary, ibid.) That's certainly a new one on me. I wonder if anyone's heard these in the US. I don't think anything 10k wide in that part of 40 could avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention for long in North America. It's likely IARU regions 1 or 3 (Hugh Stegman, ibid.) I have posted a screen capture of the received drawing at: http://i33.tinypic.com/10ylz89.jpg (Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, ibid.) Some artists make music which shows pictures in the spectrum analysis. Example: AFAIR there is more in the web. Aphex Twin is a great artist of electronic music (Sven Dibbert, Dec 23, ibid.) The one I saw a few weeks ago (the pic I posted on a tinypic url) was accompanied by the phrase http://www.radioscanner.ru (Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, ibid.) Try to download the software EASY PAL From internet; it is based on DRM modes and display callsigns and more in the waterfall; the quality of pictures you can receive is impressive, they are at night in 80 meters band. Good luck (XT2AA/ Jack, ibid.) CODAR ENCROACHES ONTO 31 M BAND? Ola' amigos da lista: Escutados os sinais da Rádio Ucránia em 31 metros, transmitindo música durante o programa em alemão, no início da noite de ontem. Durante a escuta era possível identificar com clareza a presenca de batimentos idénticos aos que costumeiramente aparecem na faixa de 60 metros, e que são originados pelo sistema CODAR, que utiliza radares de HF para varredura e observação das ondas dos oceanos. Pela semelhança do batimento, creio que sejam mesmo sinais deste sistema. 9785 24/12 2140 R. Ukraine International, programa alemão, música, QRM CODAR 33433 MV. Um abraço a todos, boas escutas e um Feliz Natal (Michel Viani - Osasco - SP - Brasil, radioescutas yg via DXLD) GRUNDIG [and non] Re 8-131: "Notice it mentioned TV's. That was the OLD remnants of European Grundig stuff" In as far as they still had a development department at Nuremberg. But not so anymore, anything will move to Turkey now, from where parts of the production have already moved on further eastwards. Latest news from this side: Blaupunkt has been sold to a financial investor (in Germany meanwhile known as the locusts) called Aurelius. The new owners state that they still intend to control the company and its factories in Portugal, Tunisia and Malaysia from the main seat at Hildesheim. In other words, it appears that the German "main seat" will be not more than some management offices. Previous owner of Blaupunkt was Bosch. Once they were one of the leading manufacturers of TV equipment, but already in 1986 they brought in their Fernseh division into a joint venture with Philips, called BTS, and withdrew from BTS entirely in 1995. Philips for its part sold the whole thing in 2001 to Thomson, and Thomson purchased in 2002 also California-based Grass Valley, thus the remains of Fernseh GmbH now appear under this brand, besides the name of the parent company. Left there are switchers and film-related equipment like telecines. Cameras and VTR equipment have been discontinued here already in 1986 it seems (VTR discontinued altogether, cameras consolidated on the Dutch side where the ex-Philips LDK line, known in North America as Norelco with other model designators instead, is still around). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Online WebSDR receiver improved! The SDR web receiver has an improved version at the same URL: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ They have added LF plus other ham bands. Great reception! This is the future... NOW! Horacio. More from the website: "News 24 December: Our normal WebSDR, offering access to 48 kHz wide segments of the 80, 40 and 20 meter bands, has been temporarily replaced by a more advanced setup that offers a total bandwidth of 1.2 MHz, spread over 6 bands. In contrast to the normal setup, this one does not use soundcards and quadrature mixers, but a fast analog to digital converter that digitizes the entire shortwave spectrum, followed by digital mixing and filtering in an FPGA. More information, including pictures, can be found on PA3FWM's Software Defined Radio page. Some remarks: This setup is temporary: in a few days, we'll go back to the old setup. The reason for this is very simple: the board with the ADC and FPGA is my only board of this type, and I want to use it for other experiments too. If it all works well, I do intend to build another one for the WebSDR, but that will take time and money. If your internet connection is not very fast, you may want to activate the "almost freeze all but one" option in "waterfall settings". The increased bandwidth makes tuning more difficult, especially on the 300 kHz wide 80m and 20m bands. In future some kind of zoom in / zoom out facility will be needed, to utilize the even wider bands that the hardware supports (up to 1.2 MHz each). There is no amplifier between the antenna and the A/D converter. As a consequence, the sensitivity is not good (the noise figure is about 30 dB), which may be problematic especially on 20m (where the atmosferic noise level is lower, and our antenna is not resonant and thus less efficient). (via Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, Dec 26, dxldyg via DXLD) CHINA STARTS BUILDING WORLD'S LARGEST RADIO TELESCOPE Chinadotcom December 26, 2008 Guiyang (Xinhua) http://english.china.com/zh_cn/news/society/11020309/20081226/15255407.html China officially started construction of a Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the largest in the world, in a remote southwest region on Friday. Preparation and research for the project took some 14 years. The dish-like telescope, as large as 30 football fields, will stand in a region of typical Karst depressions in Guizhou Province when it's done in 2013. Karst depressions are usually located in regions plentiful in limestone and dolomite, where groundwater has enlarged openings to form a subsurface drainage system. The facility will greatly improve China's capacity for astronomical observation, according to the National Astronomical Observatory (NAO), the major developer of the program. FAST's main spherical reflector will be composed of 4,600 panels. Its observation sensitivity will be 10 times more powerful than the 100-m aperture steerable radio telescope in Germany. Its overall capacity will be 10 times larger than what is now the world's largest (300 m) Arecibo radio telescope developed by the United States, according to Nan Rendong, the chief scientist of the project and an NAO researcher. The project, costing more than 700 million yuan (102.3 million U.S. dollars), will allow international astronomers and scientists to discover more of the secrets of the universe based on cutting-edge technologies, said Zhang Haiyan, an NAO official in charge of construction. Scientists have so far observed only 1,760 pulsars, which are strongly magnetized spinning cores of dead stars. With the help of FAST, they could find as many as 7,000 to 10,000 within a year, Nan said. Pulsars have allowed scientists to make several major discoveries, such as confirmation of the existence of gravitational radiation as predicted by the theory of general relativity. FAST could also be a highly sensitive passive radar to monitor satellites and space debris, which would be greatly helpful for China's ambitious space program. The telescope could also help to look for other civilizations by detecting and studying communication signals in the universe. Chinese scientists and officials selected Dawodang, Pingtang County as the site, where a Karst valley will match the shape of the huge bowl- like astronomical instrument. The sparsely populated, underdeveloped region will provide a quiet environment to ensure the electromagnetic waves, the crucial requirement of operation, are not interrupted by human activities. Construction of a new residential area about 60 km away also began on Friday to relocate 12 households. By 2013, when the telescope is to be in operation, all 61 farmers will move to their new houses in Kedu town, with farmland allocated by the government. "The project is beyond my imagination. I'm glad to see that an ordinary old guy like me could contribute to the country's science program," said Yang Chaoli, 68. The project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top planning body, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and its subordinating NAO, Guizhou Province and other departments (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ DAYTIME SKIP ON MEDIUM WAVE BAND 1690, WVON Chicago, 1745 Dec 25, Very low solar activity persists, and with it comes good winter mid-day skip on the upper portion of the medium wave band. "Talk of Chicago, 1690 WVON" noted here in Nashville, TN around a quarter of noon local time with a good strong signal. 400-600 miles seems to be the range for most of the daytime skip in this part of the band. As one drops down in frequency to the middle of the band, D layer absorption reduces the effect and increases skip angle, to make for fair to poor reception in the 300- 400 mile range. Also noted that the 80 meter ham band is open round the clock, with good short skip during the day and 1500+ miles possible at night using 100 watts or less in CW mode. The skip zone seems negligible even in the wee hours of night (David Hodgson, TN, Dec 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I think the daytime skywave on X-band is due more to the low solar angle at the moment, than to the low solar activity. Doesn`t this happen every winter solstice, even at solar max? (gh, DXLD) I don't know, I've only been observing it the last few winters. That may very well be the case, however (Dave Hodgson, ibid.) ###