DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-012, February 7, 2009
Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING
edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com
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NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1446
Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215
Sun 0900 WRMI 9955
Sun 1615 WRMI 9955
Mon 0600 WRMI 9955
Mon 2300 WBCQ 7415 [confirmed Feb 2]
Tue 1200 WRMI 9955
Tue 1630 WRMI 9955
Wed 0600 WRMI 9955 [or new 1447]
Wed 1630 WRMI 9955 [or new 1447]
WBCQ is also airing new or archive editions of WOR M-F 2000 on 7415
Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite
and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at:
http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html or
http://schedule.worldofradio.org or http://sked.worldofradio.org
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://podcast.worldofradio.org or
http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php
OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO:
http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html
or http://wor.worldofradio.org
** ALBANIA. Hello all, Listening to Radio Tirana 1530 UT broadcast on
13720 on February 4th, with a very good signal SINPO 44444. Audio
quality is excellent today, this is how it should always be. Very nice
to hear them so well! (Gilles Letourneau, Montreal, Canada, dxldyg via
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Dear Drita and group: As the Albanians say: "Gezimi yne eshte i
pafund" - our joy is endless. At last fine audio from Radio Tirana! I
checked last night at 2130 UTC on 6 and 7 MHz - signal not very strong
but fine audio. This morning 08 UTC 7360 kHz fair reception and fine
audio. On the web at the same time fine audio!
I think it could be worthwhile to promote radio and web listening to
Radio Tirana among Albanian emigrants and also DX listeners who often
like to send reception report and also often appreciate the beautiful
Albanian music.
After this long period with awful reception quality it's a real
pleasure. I tried also Radio Cairo last night on 6255 kHz. Interesting
programme items, but alas, too low modulation degree... They have had
troubles for many years now. Who could help them?
All for now! But "O ju malet e Shqiperise, o ju lisat e gjata.
Shqiperia nena ime, ndonse jam e merguar, dashnine tende nuk kam me
harrue..." are the pathetic sounds now coming through my loudspeaker
in the Radio Tirana morning broadcast: "Oh you mountains of Albania,
oh you high oaks... Albania My Mother, even though I am in exile I
will not forget your love".... Oh dear, I feel really like an Albanian
exile when I listen, it is very very emotional.... tears coming to my
eyes! Kind regards, (Ullmar Qvick, Sweden, via Drita Çiço, Feb 5, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
Re: Audio cilesore e Radio Tiranes per jashte Shqiperise
Hi Drita, yes I can confirm that since you switched to produce via PC
the last days all programs are in good quality. The new produced shows
in German via PC are in perfect quality and the ones coming from
analogue tape are OK. Thanks for the precious work of your engineers
finding the faulty parts Regards, (Christian Milling, Germany, ibid.)
PS: Christian Milling from Radio700 in Germany, realized on 26 Nov
2008 the project for Radio Tirana German Program in Internet at
Radio700 web page http://radiotirana.funkhaus.info:8000 or
http://radiotirana.funkhaus.info:8000/listen.pls
On this occasion there are also several other programs of Radio Tirana
on line at this website (Drita Çiço, ibid.)
** ALGERIA [non]. RTA, fair on 5865 via France with Qur`an, cut off
abruptly at 0657* Feb 7 as transmission had to end, unbeknownst to the
studio (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA. The VL8s were in Feb 4, first time heard here in months.
2485 best with Aussie-accented English talk at 1345; also could hear
weaker carriers on 2325, 2310 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
2325, VL8T Tennant Creek NT, 1120 to 1200 the best signal of the three
NTs. 5 February using Sony 2010XA 73s (Bob Wilkner, S Florida, NRD
535D, R8 and Sony 2010XA modified by D. L., DX LISTENING DIGEST)
2485, VL8K Katherine NT, Feb 6 at 1351 discussing the Universe,
surprisingly good here, S9+12 but deep fades; almost listenable, and
could only detect carriers with BFO on 2310, 2325. Sunrise here was
1328 UT and getting one minute earlier every day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA. A visit to VNG transmission station before it was
closed. The Lyndhurst site near Melbourne carried the ABC domestic
program VLH and VLR beamed to North Australia, but was most famous for
the time signal service VNG:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61C6IyWEqZE
Three minute video with indoor shots, ends with announcement of
imminent closedown (Mike Barraclough, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING
DIGEST) Audio track is entirely recorded off-air from VNG (gh)
** AUSTRIA. Re: 1476 Bisamberg --- 60 kW is correct. The transmitter
is a Thomson M2M, installed in 2000: http://www.hcrs.at/BSBG100.HTM
It's rated at 100 kW but was run at reduced power 60 kW, a level that
had been introduced earlier with the old 120 kW Brown Boveri
transmitters where 60 kW were a specified power level (Kai Ludwig,
Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 6089.95, Radio Bandeirantes, Sao Paulo, 0525-0540, Feb 6,
Anguilla 6090 off the air allowing Brazil to be heard for a change.
Good signal with Portuguese talk. Very weak // 9645.28. Anguilla back
on the air at 0602 check (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11765, Súper Rádio Deus é Amor, Curitiba, Feb 5 at 0628,
wacky wailing David Miranda preaching in Portunhol, overriding BBCWS
English via South Africa with 25 times the power, as listed in Aoki,
which also says ex-R. Tupi is off the air between 0300 and 0900.
Something does not compute. ZYE726 also so strong that it was causing
ACI to RHC on 11760, and one had to side-tune downward to avoid.
11815, R. Brasil Central, Goiânia, music // 4985, Feb 5 at 0630. 11815
only fair, much weaker than 11765 and 11925 Brazilians; 11780 not on
yet.
11925, R. Bandeirantes, São Paulo, such a treat to hear real Brasilian
programming rather than gospel huxters; Feb 5 at 0631 talking about
Carnaval do Salvador; 0632 ``Bandeirantes, a caminho do sol``, meaning
on the way to sunrise, timecheck for 4:30 am --- but that`s DST, it`s
really only 3:30 am; news headlines. Good booming signal. Only on a
fraxion of nites does the MUF coöperate for such reception up to 12
MHz.
RNA, 11780, VG signal Feb 7 at 0638, but split-second audio dropouts
every few seconds, making it unlistenable. Still during a song at 0657
recheck on // 6185, and dropouts synchronized so an audio feed input
problem, not a transmitter problem. This has been ongoing for months;
is no one paying attention in the Brasília control room?
I was somewhat surprised this was incoming, as no Brasilians were
audible on 31m, and no other Brasilians on 25m either, contrary to
previous night, when 11765, 11815 and 11925 also audible. Super-power
makes the difference. Not much else on 25m except CVC Chile also
inbooming on 11805 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. Rádio Mundial AM 1180 - RJ encerra atividades
Uma das emissoras mais modernas do país em termos de investimentos
técnicos encerrou seus trabalhos de forma triste nessa madrugada.
A Rádio Mundial (AM 1180 kHz) dispensou cerca de "40 funcionários"
entre redatores, jornalistas, radialistas, programadores, operadores
de áudio e técnica, e todo setor administrativo.
A emissora localizada na Rua da Assembléia nº10 no 18º andar no centro
do Rio está operando somente com um programa de músicas via
computador.
A Rádio Mundial (razão social Globo-Eldorado), foi arrendada ao
Sistema Globo de Rádio em maio de 2008 por um grupo de investidores. O
canal AM 1180 kHz é uma freqüência internacional e na verdade pertence
a um "grupo chileno" que trabalha em parceria ao Sistema Globo de
Rádio. O arrendamento da empresa e a utilização do nome "Mundial "
eram por 10 anos. A emissora sobreviveu apenas 9 meses.
Fonte: Brasil Rádio News Sábado, Janeiro 31, 2009 (via Marcelo Bedene,
Feb 3, dxclubepr yg via DXLD)
ZYJ463 Rio was once the dominant/only Brazilian on 1180, and DXed in
North America, Europe, but now there are 17 others. It is still the
highest powered, both day and night, per WRTH 2009, 50/10 kW. I gather
that the transmitter remains on the air with computer-generated music
programming, but no local origination (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
Olá Marcelo e Colegas. Era previsível. Muito, mas muito pesar mesmo :-
(Não sei o que se passa na cabeça da Globo e outras grandes redes!
Onde está a ANATEL? Provavelmente perseguindo algum legalizado
radioamador por causa de um vizinho com um televisor de péssima
fabricação do circuito de sintonia; ou prevendo os lucros do PLC.
Esperem e vejam mais uma emissora de noticias o dia inteiro; estão
viciando a população com informações inúteis, ou mais uma com o
"quintal da globo" (em minúsculo mesmo).
Infelizmente a proliferação do baixo nível musical e de programação
das emissoras tanto de OM como de FM foi abraçada pela nossa pobre e
inculta população. Que a voz do colega Daniel de Aracajú, QTC
Brasileiro, seja ouvida e praticada por nós radioescutas e dexistas e
nos empenhemos em uma maior divulgação de nosso hobby entre os jovens
que estão sendo metralhados com tudo de ruim em termo cultural. 73 em
luto (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana Bahia, Brasil, op. cit.)
** BRAZIL. Summer time: Hi Glenn, de acordo com o Decreto nº 6.558 de
8 de setembro de 2008, o Horário de Verão 2008/2009 terá início à zero
hora (00:00) de 19 de Outubro de 2008, com término à zero hora (00:00)
de 15 de Fevereiro de 2009.
According to law act nº 6.558 of september 08, 2008, Brazilian
summertime starts at (00:00) zero hour of October 19, 2008 ending at
(00:00) zero hour of February 15, 2009. It´s just to be in accordance
with (Eduardo Heinrich, São Paulo, Brasil, Feb 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. Vinyl Café from CBC Radio 1, Wed Feb 4 at 0722 on 6160,
Stuart McLean going from a story to a song. This is the final Tuesday
night repeat from the PST zone via CKZU, 11:06 pm local across Canada.
SAH probably from CKZN but CKZU quite dominant at the moment.
CBC News, 6160, Feb 7 at 0701, double feed one word apart, especially
long ones like Saskatchewan, mostly about Canadian job losses; usual
fast SAH between CKZN and CKZU. Since CBC decided to put them both on
the same frequency many years ago, they should also have taken steps
to synchronize them. But this applies only during newscasts and Cross
Country Checkup live nationwide, which is during the afternoon anyway;
otherwise the two are 4 or 3 hours apart (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. The sorry state of local radio --- From the public files of
the CRTC - an intervention against CKDH Amherst NS's application to
flip to FM - also, an insight into MBS Radio, the regional chain that
owns, among other stations, CKDH:
"Commentaire / Comment :
Mr. Robert A. Morin
Secretary General
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Central Building
1 Promenade du Portage
Hull, Quebec
K1A 0N2
I am writing today in opposition of application # 2008-0816-5 by
Maritime Broadcasting System Limited (MBS) to convert the radio
station CKDH Amherst from the AM band to the FM band. Having CKDH on
the FM frequency band will not improve the quality of the radio
programming to the citizens of Amherst, and will only serve to
increase the profits of MBS.
CKDH Amherst employs four individuals - two sales reps and two jocks.
The two jocks each do a shift, and then two other shifts are piped in
from out-of-town or out-of-province. I would not have a problem with
this lineup if the remote voices reflected the thoughts and
perspectives of the citizens of Amherst. But frequently mispronouncing
both local place names (e.g. River Hebert; Nappan) and family names
that have long been established in Amherst is insulting, and serves to
alienate the proud people of Amherst. Jocks should do more than say
"that song was.." and "this next song is.", they should be a part of
the community. I found it interesting that MBS's response of September
3rd, 2008 indicated that, if granted an FM license, it would provide
13 hours of live programming daily, weekdays from 6:00am to 7pm. If
this is such a good idea, why are they only providing a fraction of
this amount now?
The news service provided sporadically throughout the day on CKDH is
from the Maritime News Network, which originates 200 kilometers away
in Halifax. The news coverage rarely covers local stories and mostly
covers stories from Halifax. Even when Provincial or National stories
are presented, than at the very least CKDH could be presented with an
Amherst perspective to the news stories. Just when newspapers and
television are cutting back on their local news content, you would
think that the local radio station would step up and fill the void.
A simply telephone call to the radio station reveals that even the
music played at CKDH is picked remotely. Apparently an individual in
another province programs the identical music for CKDH and two or
three other MBS radio stations. I was told that if you take out the
commercials, you would hear the exact same songs at the exact same
times on each of the four radio stations. This cookie-cutter approach
does not reflect local preferences and tastes of the people of
Amherst. Citizens of Amherst should be able to request a song from the
local high-school band and promote area talent. What incentive is
there for youth today to encourage and develop musical culture when
the local radio station does not provide an opportunity for their
music to be played?
CKDH is not an active member of the community, and rarely
participates in local parades and charity events. Four employees
cannot keep a radio station on the air 24/7. I know for a fact that
Amherst Town Council has sent letters to MBS on multiple occasions
about the radio station being off the air during bad weather. I can
think of one particular winter storm two years ago when the citizens
of Amherst were desperate to know if schools were cancelled, if
hospitals were open and when power would be restored. When the
citizens of Amherst were begging for a local voice amidst the
confusion, CKDH was off the air.
MBS speaks of declining profitability as a reason to oppose the
recent application by the Tantramar Community Radio Society for a
community station. For the record, I am neither in support nor
against a community radio station. But given the out-of-town news,
out-of-town jocks and out-of-province music provided by CKDH, it is
little wonder that profitability has decreased. CKDH has alienated
the citizens of Amherst through poor programming decisions.
Furthermore, the station is run so leanly, that I would wager that
the profitability of CKDH is better than most AM radio stations in
the Maritimes and Canada.
A conversion of CKDH to the FM band would result in out-of-town news,
canned jock talk and out-of-province music being heard in a clearer
FM signal. The only benefactor will be MBS, who will now charge more
for its advertising with an FM signal.
The CRTC is entrusted with maintaining the airwaves of all Canadians.
Without a clear improvement to the quality of radio programming to
the citizens of Amherst, the application by MBS to convert CKDH must
be denied. J Ripley" (via Phil Rafuse, PEI, Feb 2, ABDX via DXLD)
Continued under U S A – local radio
** CANADA. Canadian Coast Guard - Atlantic & Gulf of St. Lawrence ---
A picture is worth a thousand words at least. In map format this month
mostly all the coastal frequencies you will need to DX Canada’s
eastern seaboard.
John Fisher of Mass. asked me for some detail on what he was hearing
on 2749 kHz USB. I managed to pick it up at 0742Z to 0802Z with the
detailed weather bulletin for the Maritimes in both French and
English, signing off “Sydney (NS) Coast Guard Radio out”.
Wanting to find out how this vast area is covered by radio led me to
these maps. It is by far the best representation of communications in
an all in one format that I have seen to date. For more information go
to the following site.
http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/eng/CCG/MCTS_Radio_Aids
(Robert Ross, Ont., Feb CIDX Messenger via DXLD)
** CHINA. 8400, 1522 1 Jan, Firedrake jammer? Jamming what? Tx
product? SIO 433 (David Gascoyne, Staplehurst, Kent, Feb BDXC-UK
Communication via DXLD)
The answer appeared three times in December DXLDs, and nine times so
far in 2009. 9000, Firedrake mixing with some other audio, maybe Sound
of Hope itself, or an additional CNR-1 jamming source? Feb 6 at 1420,
stronger than 8400 but both poor.
CRI English, 5955, weak but clear at 1410 Feb 6, an echo apart from
Cuba 13740. 5955 is 95 degrees from Beijing site, per Aoki (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC normally closes 6180 in Spanish at 0500, per sked, but
Feb 5 at 0657 it was still going with news sounder, 0658 timecheck for
``8 de la noche, hora nacional en toda Cuba``, so a replay from 6+
hours earlier! Distorted, lo-fi, adjacent-channel interference from
Brasília 6185. RHC still going past 0700. Next nite, Feb 7 did not
check until 0723 and it was not on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6220, Radio Havana Cuba spur, 0220-0235, Feb 7, spur from
6060 leapfrogging over 6140 and landing on 6220. Spanish talk. Poor to
fair signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 9550, Arnie Coro news with big hum, Feb 7 at 0634.
Wiggle that patchcord! A theory on why there are so many SNAFUs at
RHC: people there are demoralized, and don`t really give a damn. They
know it is the home of the Big Lie, such as U.S. ``genocide`` against
Cuba. Even if they agree with the Party Line, they are as bored to
death as listeners abroad about RHC`s obsession with the ``Cinco
Héroes`` Commie talking point.
Propagation was unusual, with little else audible on 31m --- not even
WYFR, 9355, 9680, 9715, which are normally inbooming, nor WTJC 9370.
There was some weak French on 9580, which would be Gabon (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6140, R Habana Cuba f/d 45th anniversary card with photo of a
lighthouse and fort, 4/Sept/08 0546 reception. Received in FIVE
months(!) for *email report* in an envelope that was almost completely
split open but which somehow managed to not lose the contents,
including not only the QSL but also a sked and two pocket calendars
commemorating the 90th anniversary of the birth of Ecuadorian artist
Oswaldo Guayasamin who died 10 years ago. I wonder if they were slow
or if this was how long it took the border officials to inspect,
detect, reject and neglect it? Kinda fun to get an exotic looking
envelope in the mail again. I may need to send more reports! (Ken
Zichi, MI, MARE Tipsheet Feb 6 via DXLD)
** CUBA. HAVANA (Reuters) - The man who banned the Beatles from the
communist-run island's radio and television stations has died, state
television said on Tuesday.
Jorge "Papito" Serguera, who at the time was president of the Cuban
Institute of Radio and Television, pulled Beatles music from the
airwaves in the 1970s even though he later admitted he enjoyed
listening to it in private.
Serguera, who was 76 when he died, said in a 2001 interview he was
following orders from high government officials who viewed the British
band's music as a threat to the revolution.
But he was viewed as an architect of a general cultural crackdown that
dampened dissent and marginalized many for their beliefs or sexuality.
"There were national leaders who were against, not them (the Beatles),
but the so-called modern music ... there was incredible pressure," he
told Ernesto Juan Castellanos, author of "John Lennon in Havana with a
little help from my friend."
Today, Beatles music is played on the Cuban airwaves and one of
Havana's minor landmarks is a statue of Lennon sitting on a park
bench.
Serguera fought in the 1959 revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio
Batista, then worked alongside Ernesto "Che" Guevara as a prosecutor
in controversial trials that condemned to death hundreds of Batista
collaborators. His appearance on television in 2006 provoked protests
from intellectuals still angry about his 1970s actions (via Brock
Whaley, HI, Feb 4, DXLD)
** CUBA [and non]. PUBLICAN INFORME SOBRE RADIO MARTI
La Oficina de Auditoría General de Estados Unidos, GAO, divulgó este
miércoles los resultados de una investigación sobre las transmisiones
del gobierno federal a Cuba.
La GAO, brazo de investigación del Congreso, señala que las
transmisiones de Radio y TV Martí enfrentan diferentes niveles de
interferencia del régimen cubano, y la audiencia y televidencia es
pequeña. Sondeos realizados por teléfono desde el 2003, indican que
menos del 2 por ciento de los consultados en Cuba escucharon Radio o
TV Martí durante la semana correspondiente a la fecha de la encuesta.
El informe de la GAO precisa que las emisoras no comparten bien la
información sobre la audiencia en Cuba, y los directores carecen de
los datos que se necesitan para evaluar la efectividad de los métodos
de transmisión. La GAO destaca que el Buró Internacional de
Transmisiones, organismo que administra a la Oficina de Transmisiones
a Cuba, no da suficiente entrenamiento a las personas que evalúan el
rendimiento operacional de Radio y TV Martí.
Asimismo, una estación privada de televisión contratada para difundir
programas de TV Martí, incorporó publicidad inapropiada, y las
transmisiones interfieren la televisión cubana. Añade la GAO que hay
problemas de pobre comunicación por parte de la administración de la
Oficina de Transmisiones a Cuba, baja moral entre los empleados, y
carencia de mecanismos para recibir información de los empleados.
El legislador demócrata Bill Delahunt, quien en el pasado ha
cuestionado la eficacia de las transmisiones de Estados Unidos a Cuba,
solicitó esta investigación de la GAO, y comentó que el informe de 55
páginas es preocupante, y que dada la crisis económica, hay que
garantizar que cada centavo de los contribuyentes invertido en estos
programas sea usado de manera eficiente.Delahunt es el presidente del
Subcomité de Organizaciones Internacionales, Derechos Humanos, y
Supervisión, entidad adscrita al Comité de Relaciones Exteriores de la
Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos. Fuente: MartiNoticias.com
http://www.martinoticias.com/FullStory.aspx?ID=C4A9DF26-FC2D-4570-B2791F93126A8F60
(via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia http://yimber.blogspot.com Feb 5, DXLD)
INFORME CUESTIONA LA AUDIENCIA DE RADIO Y TV MARTÍ EN LA ISLA,
http://www.cubamatinal.com/Noticia.cfm?NoticiaID=10273
Cubamatinal/ Tras décadas en el aire y unos $500 millones en gastos,
todavía no está claro si hay cubanos que escuchen o vean las
transmisiones de Radio y Televisión Martí, según un nuevo informe del
Congreso publicado el miércoles.
Washington, 5 de febrero/ The Miami Herald/ El año pasado, menos del 1
por ciento de los encuestados dijo que había escuchado Radio Martí la
semana anterior, indica el estudio de la Oficina de Fiscalización del
Gobierno(GAO), el brazo investigador del Congreso. Pero el mismo
informe indica que casi la mitad de los recién llegados de Cuba dicen
que han escuchado las transmisiones en los seis meses anteriores.
La encuesta telefónica entre por lo menos 1,200 cubanos se realizó
entre marzo del 2008 y enero del 2009.
Aunque el informe de la GAO afirma que la programación ha mejorado y
elogió a la administración, señaló que la programación con frecuencia
es prejuiciada y no satisface las normas periodísticas.
Pedro Roig, director de la Oficina de Transmisiones a Cuba, cuestionó
las encuestas porque hasta los mismos encuestadores reconocen que los
cubanos piensan que los encuestadores son miembros del gobierno cubano
y Radio Martí es ilegal en Cuba.
"Usted tiene gente que dice que nadie la oye y recién llegados que
dicen que cinco millones de personas están oyendo Radio Martí'', dijo
Roig. "Las dos cosas son exageradas''.
El informe se publica después de críticas públicas de destacados
disidentes cubanos, como Martha Beatriz Roque, quien dijo que la
estación no transmitía los reportes de los disidentes sobre los abusos
de derechos humanos en la isla y exhortó a "reportar desde el
corazón''.
El gobierno federal invierte $34 millones anuales en Radio y
Televisión Martí, con sede en Miami, con el objetivo de romper el
monopolio del gobierno cubano sobre la información, pero las
frecuencias son interferidas constantemente por el gobierno cubano.
"En vez de gastar fondos en otro estudio, deberían de usar el dinero
mejorando la tecnología para que las transmisions de Radio Martí
lleguen a más casas'', dijo la representante Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
republicana por Miami.
Según el informe:
* Las encuestas no han mostrado ningún aumento en la audiencia, pese a
dos años de un plan anual de $5 millones para burlar la interferencia.
* Los locutores usan con frecuencia lenguaje "incendiario'' que no
satisface las normas básicas de la objetividad periodística y los
espacios que llenan estaciones de televisión comerciales han incluido
anuncios políticos y hasta un anuncio de relaciones sexuales
telefónicas.
El representante William Delahunt, demócrata por Massachusetts, que
solicitó el informe a la GAO, dijo que el estudio subrayaba la
necesidad de realizar audiencias sobre el tema.
"¿Cómo sabemos que le sacamos provecho a la inversión?", dijo
Delahunt. "Lo reto a encontrar alguien que haya visto TV Martí. Es una
estación de televisión sin audiencia''.
En una declaración por escrito en respuesta al informe, la Junta de
Gobernadores que supervisa las operaciones de Radio y TV Martí, dijo
en general concordaba con las conclusiones y recomendaciones del
informe, pero subrayó que las restricciones del gobierno dificultan
mucho la medición de la audiencia.
Roig dijo que la sugerencia de Martha Beatriz Roque de reportar con
más emoción es exactamente lo que la estación evita para ofrecer
noticias de manera profesional y con credibilidad.
"Yo rechazo la noción de que estamos prejuiciados'', dijo Roig. "Esas
personas no están oyendo Radio Martí. Si alguien oye Radio Martí va a
encontrar periodistas muy profesionales. Durante la campaña se criticó
mucho al presidente Bush y nosotros sacamos esas críticas al aire''.
Hugo Landa, director de una página de internet con reportajes
independientes desde Cuba, dijo que las encuestas en la isla no son
confiables y que las transmisiones de Martí son una fuente importante
de noticias del exterior.
"Tenemos informes independientes desde Cuba de que la gente sí escucha
Radio Martí'', dijo Landa, director de Cuba Net (www.cubanet.org), con
sede en Coral Gables. "Es difícil pero la gente sí escucha... Es una
de las pocas formas de conseguir otra información que no sea la
propaganda oficial''.
Las transmisiones de televisión, dijo, habían tenido menos éxito (via
José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD)
REACH OF U.S. TV, RADIO IN CUBA QUESTIONED
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_11630811
Denver Post Wire Report Posted: 02/05/2009 12:30:00 AM MST
WASHINGTON — After decades on the air and the expense of half a
billion dollars, it remains unclear whether any Cubans listen to or
watch U.S.-funded radio and television broadcasts to the island,
according to a new congressional report on Radio and TV Marti released
Wednesday.
Last year, fewer than 1 percent of people surveyed said they had
listened to Radio Marti in the past week, said the study by the
Government Accountability Office, the investigating arm of Congress.
But the same report said nearly half of new Cuban arrivals to the
United States said they had listened to the broadcasts in the past six
months.
Pedro Roig, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, questioned
the listener surveys because even the pollsters acknowledged that
Cubans who responded to survey calls believed the surveyor was a
member of the Cuban government — and Radio Marti is illegal in Cuba
(via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD)
RADIO & TV MARTÍ INEFFECTIVE IN ATTRACTING LARGE AUDIENCE IN CUBA
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2009/02/radio_tv_marti_ineffective_in.php
By Kyle Munzenrieder in Media Watch
,
News
Wednesday, Feb. 4 2009 @ 4:58PM
The idea that the free broadcast of views opposing the state sponsored
media could, in part, help to tumble Communism in Cuba is certainly a
noble one, but its chances of success would certainly be helped if
more Cubans were receiving those broadcasts.
Reports today from Congressional investigators state that gauging the
audience for TV and Radio Martí is not an exact science, but their
best guess is that less than 2% of Cubans have heard or seen the
broadcasts in the past two years. This is, undoubtedly, in part due to
Cuba's efforts to jam the signals, an operation the investigation
finds the US has few details on.
The U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is responsible for
Radio Martí, hopes to carry out surveys this years of recently arrived
refugees to gauge which broadcasts are most effective. The report also
suggests that broadcasts increase their journalistic standards (via
Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD)
** CZECHIA. RADIO FREE EUROPE MOVES TO NEW PRAGUE HEADQUARTERS
The Associated Press February 4, 2009 Prague
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/04/business/EU-Czech-Radio-Free-Europe.php
U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has begun broadcasting
from its new headquarters in the Czech capital. Network spokesman
Julian Knapp says the first program broadcast from the newly built
five-story facility was a six-minute news bulletin to Iraq on Tuesday.
Knapp said Wednesday the broadcaster's studios, equipment and more
than 500 employees would be relocated by the end of May.
The Czech and U.S. governments agreed to move the station several
miles (kilometers) from downtown Prague after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terror attacks raised fears that it was vulnerable at its previous
location.
Radio Free Europe is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts
in 28 languages to 20 countries (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD)
....and the new email addresses to write to: webteam @ rferl.org and
knappj @ rferl.org {Tony Ashar, West Java, Indonesia)
FIRST BROADCAST FROM NEW RFE/RL HEADQUARTERS
http://www.rferl.org/Content/First_Broadcast_From_New_RFERL_Headquarters_/1378790.html
February 03, 2009 (PRAGUE, Czech Republic) Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty (RFE/RL) began a new chapter in its long and distinguished
history today when Radio Free Iraq broadcast its first program from
RFE/RL's recently completed Prague headquarters.
The six-minute news bulletin at 18:00 Baghdad time was part of
RFE/RL's 17 hours of daily programming to Iraq. Many of today's
stories focused on the aftermath of Saturday's elections and what they
might mean for Iraq's future. [Read a commentary by RFE/RL's Abbas
Djavadi, "Iraq is More Democratic than Iran"]
The broadcast was the first step in relocating all of RFE/RL's more
than 500 Prague-based employees to the facility in Hagibor, ten
minutes from the city center. The five-story, 236,000 sq/ft broadcast
center features multimedia recording studios, interlinking offices,
and a modern newsroom. It is also energy-efficient and one of the most
secure buildings in Europe.
"Our new home is tailor-made to meet the needs of a 21st century media
organization," said RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin. "It allows us to
stay ahead of the technological curve as we broadcast news and
information to many places where authorities are hostile to free and
independent media."
Steve Simmons of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which
oversees all U.S. international broadcasting including RFE/RL,
credited a number of partners for the successful completion of the
project. "We could not have done this without the crucial support of
the Czech government, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. embassy in
Prague," he said. "The BBG is delighted that RFE/RL employees, who
broadcast in 28 languages to 20 countries via radio, TV, and the
Internet, will now have a state-of-the-art headquarters to meet their
needs."
The building was constructed by Paris-based Orco Property Group and
designed by the architectural firm Cigler Marani. RFE/RL is leaving
its home of 15 years, the former Czechoslovak communist parliament
building, which is being turned over to the National Museum (via
Zacharias Liangas, Greece; Kai Ludwig, Germany, DXLD)
See also CTK report:
http://praguemonitor.com/2009/02/04/radio-free-europe-starts-broadcasts-new-building-prague
Presentation of the building by the owner:
http://www.orcogroup.com/projects/hagibor-office-building
Presentation from the contractor:
http://edv.heberger.de/cms/cms/front_content.php?idcat=131&idart=203
(Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** DENMARK. Dear Sir, The information for Danish longwave 243 kHz on
the Hepburn Radio & TV DX Information Centre:
243 DAN DR P1
OXP DNK Kalundborg-Frederiksberg 0433-2330
is no longer correct and should read:
243 DAN "DR Kalundborg"
OXP DNK Kalundborg 24H
The transmitter has been broadcasting exclusively in DRM (Digital
Radio Mondiale) since October 2008. Best regards, Niels Dreijer,
Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, Banestrøget 21, DK-2630 Høje Tåstrup
(via William Hepburn, Ont., DXLD) See also GREENLAND
** ECUADOR. Yet another HCJB anomaly. Listened again to the ID at
1444:30 Feb 4 on 11960. Besides claiming to be on ``11690, 21455,
11690``, says ``la señal`` will indicate the time of 9:45 am --- but
unlike BBCWS, HCJB never runs timesignals on the quarter hour! The
announcer must have been recording a string of these ages ago for the
automation, without engaging brain (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA ECUATORIAL. 6250, Radio Nacional de Guinea
Ecuatorial, Malabo, 1905-1908, escuchada el 7 de febrero en español a
locutora con comentarios, a pesar de llegar buena señal el nivel de
audio es muy bajo y la escucha se hace inaudible, SINPO 34232 (José
Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, 1950-2011*, Feb 7, Spanish talk. Local
tribal music. Afro-pop music. Abrupt sign off mid-song. Weak. Poor in
noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ERITREA. 7175, VOBME, program 2, *0355-0407, Feb 7, IS. Talk at
0400. Weak. Covered by noise jammer at approximately 0405.
7209.98, VOBME, program 1, *0355-0415, Feb 7, IS. Talk at 0400. Horn
of Africa music at 0412. Weak (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** ETHIOPIA. 5980, Voice of Tigray Revolution, *0255-0310, Feb 7, sign
on with IS. Talk at 0300. Horn of Africa music at 0301. Weak but
readable. // 5950 - poor, mixing with Okeechobee, FL (Brian Alexander,
PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ETHIOPIA [non]. Re 9-011, ``UNIDENTIFIED 11835, Ethiopian
clandestine at 1710-1730 fade out, CLANDESTINE Sat Jan 24, UNID, via
Nauen, Germany. Vernacular talk like a speech without audience, 1717
UT song from Horn of Africa, more talk 25332 (Anker Petersen-DEN, via
Dario Monferini-ITA, playdx yg via dxld Jan 24 via BC-DX Feb 2 via
DXLD)
According to DTK/M&B schedule: ADM Abu Dhabi Media Company.
Sats 1700-1758 UT only:
11835 1700-1758 47E,48 145degr 7-Sat 030109-280309 NAU 500 kW ADM
(Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Feb 2 via DXLD)
Yes, but what is the program, the client, the language; another
Ethiopian cland? (gh, DXLD)``
Hi Glenn, This mystery is solved by the recent WRTH update: it's
Ethiopia Adera Dimts Radio!
http://wrth.com/files/WRTHB08UpdateFEB2009.pdf
Regards (Dave Kernick, Interval Signals Online, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EUROPE. Pirate DX event Friday! I saw this report to share with you
from Paul Watson of http://www.shortwavedx.blogspot.com
Russian pirate to test
Finnish DXer Harri Kujala reports on his blog "Pirate Radio DXing in
SW Finland" that Radio Snowball from Stavropol-city, SW Russia will
have a test broadcast to Europe tomorrow (Friday, February 6).
Harri writes: "Radio Snowball will broadcast music for one hour on
6630 kHz on Friday 6th February 2009 from 2000 to 2100 UT. Power
is 50 Watts in USB. This station was heard in Finland on 31.1.2009 on
this same channel. At the moment there is no public e-mail or contact
address to the station!"
Harri says reports can be sent via his blog at
http://hkdx2.blogspot.com/
For more information and to hear an MP3 clip go to Harri's site at
the above web address (Gary Drew, UK, Feb 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
I gave it a try here, but no luck. Did hear what I assumed to be some
fishermen on the frequency, 6630 USB, laughing and whistling. I did
suggest to Harri, and perhaps he can pass on to Radio Snowball, that
they try to test at a later time for North America (Steve Lare,
Holland, MI, USA, ibid.)
No joy here in London either just static at 2040 GMT (Drew, ibid.)
** FINLAND. Dear listeners, Scandinavian Weekend Radio shall start 24
hours broadcast this evening 22 hours UT.
Our frequencies are 11720 / 11690 kHz on 25 mb. I encourage specially
to try these 25 mb frequencies because we might have antenna tests
there during transmission (specially towards South-East from
transmitter location). Other frequencies are 5980 / 6170 kHz on 49 mb
and 1602 kHz MW.
Timetables for frequencies and programes available can be found from
our web: http://www.swradio.net/schedule.htm
Main page: http://www.swradio.net/index2.htm
Best Regards, (Alpo Heinonen, Scandinavian Weekend Radio, P. O. Box
99, FI-34801 Virrat, FINLAND, Feb 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY. 3955, HCJB via DTK/M&B Juelich, two spurious on 3901 and
4009 kHz. Nils DK8OK noted two HCJB signals symmetrical on Perseus SDR
Feb 1st.
Confirmed by YT on Eton E1 on Feb 2nd
3899.60 - 3903.88 and
4006.80 - 4010.40 kHz.
Antenna type 976 - VM12.5/12.5/ 120/3 midst on the cornfield (Wolfgang
Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 2, harmonics yg Feb 3 via DXLD)
** GERMANY. Glenn, since you always suggest us to listen to DW
Russian's ''MUZPROSVET'' via web, and you never give the DIRECT
download links, here they are:
MP3 / 64 kbps / 44 kHz / STEREO [13.8 MB]:
http://217.243.250.77/dwworldondemand1/encoder/audio/mitschnitt/Rot-rus-stp-1530.mp3
WMA / 48 kbps / 44 kHz / MONO [21.0 MB]:
http://217.243.250.77/dwworldondemand1/encoder/audio/mitschnitt/Rot-rus-stp-1530.wmv
First airing of the show is at 1530z on Saturdays, so we can download
the latest show approximately as of 1610z on Saturdays.
By the way, how is that .wmv (actually it is an audio file) bigger
than mp3 file, but has less kbps??? Best regards! (Dragan Lekic,
Serbia, Feb 7, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
I have not given the direct linx, since I have not been sure they will
stay the same for following weeks` programs. Do they? (gh, DXLD)
** GERMANY. A rare picture of the Calau transmitter site, 15 km west
of Cottbus and often listed as such, has been put online:
http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/9aey-4-jpg.html
It features the old lattice tower, dominated by the big 62 MHz antenna
for the ch. 4 outlet that went on air there in 1958, and behind it the
current tower under construction. The old tower had been dismantled
around 1987 or so.
A local TV piece that also features the transmission equipment:
http://www.myvideo.de/watch/994013/Funkturm_Calau
After 3:40 the now scrapped analogue TV transmitters and their PA
stage tubes are portrayed, away from an inserted shot of the FM
equipment. These transmitters were shut down on Dec 12 2006 at 0:30,
disconnected from the antenna, the new DVB-T transmitters connected
instead and fired up at about 3:00. And it turned out that nobody had
a possibility to tape the event here at all. Analogue terrestrial TV
was so dead that nobody was equipped to pick it up anymore.
A local newspaper report:
http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/9aey-3-gif.html
Herein a former transmitter engineer is quoted with the statement that
the frequency had been "allocated by an international body", probably
a response to frequent accusations that it was a primary purpose of
the Calau transmitter to reduce the reach of the co-channel Ochsenkopf
transmitter. Here it must be noted that both sites are about 200 km
apart from each other, used different polarization and the power for
Calau was limited (probably 30 kW, but I have not seen a reliable
figure so far). So dismissing the Calau transmitter as jamming against
Ochsenkopf is certainly unqualified Cold War rhetoric.
The press article also says that the original transmitter "was made in
Czechoslovakia and most spare parts had to be imported from the West",
which is a bit contradictory in itself. After 1970 it was replaced by
a new, higher powered and colour-capable Tesla transmitter, installed
in a new building and requiring an upgrade of the antenna.
Finally in 1985 the whole old transmission facilities were replaced by
a new tower, which for the first time allowed high power transmission
of the second TV program on ch. 23, previously on air only from a low
power transmitter within Cottbus, covering the city only. Ch. 4 was
replaced by an UHF channel for the first TV program, too, namely ch.
53. This is prove that the GDR was really serious about getting rid of
band I, because elder TV sets could not tune beyond ch. 39, so it
became necessary to use a converter box. The new tower also brought
for the first time a complete set of FM transmitters for all networks.
A photo of the construction of the current tower's base:
http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/9aey-5-jpg-nb.html
(Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Here is a photo:
http://forum.mysnip.de/read.php?8773,626371,664690#msg-664690
It should be added that perhaps just the existing transmitter got an
upgrade, especially since this is certainly not a fancy new
transmitter room. Likewise other VHF transmitters had not been
replaced either when colour broadcasts on the first program started in
1972.
Btw, what had the BBC common with East German Deutscher Fernsehfunk?
Both got Marconi Mark VII cameras for launching their colour services.
http://www.mausoleumclubforum.org.uk/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=17404
http://www.asmi81.dsl.pipex.com/marconi/mk7/m_mkvii1.htm
In Berlin the last ones (in the presentation studio of the second
program) had not been retired before 1987, when they were almost 20
years old. And yes, the productions made with these cameras during the
seventies were of pretty good picture quality.
(And beware, the Mark VII and the Soviet KT-116 cameras look pretty
similar, so when someone talks about those heavy Russian cameras one
must be a bit cautious, it could have been the Marconi's as well.)
(Kai Ludwig, Feb 8, ibid.)
** GREECE. Radio Ouranio Toxo, alias Radio Arcobaleno, 1620 kHz
http://www.harriku.com/photos2008/QSL_R-98.jpg
Ciao, curiosando su google ho trovato questo link di una WEB di Harri
Kujala in Finlandia .....un altro CACCIATORE di pirate dalla Grecia
...... dice che ha addirittura visitato Radio Arcobaleno !!!!!!
ed ha QSL da Radio 98 Volos attiva su 1720 kHz. Sempre su 1720 kHz
Radio Pilios e Radio Xenos .....
http://hkdx2.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
1625 kHz - Radio Nikolas Dynamitis, Tyrnavos (10 km NW of Larissa),
Greece giving SMS-number (6972734489). I phoned to this number shortly
and sent sms - and I have message back!! They are the oldest station
in the town!! (Tnx Costas for help) - 18.50- (O=1-3) mp3 (name clearly
mentioned in the end of mp3)
1630 kHz - Radio Anatolia, from Kilkis, Greece. This is also on air
daily with phone-in's in the evenings (usually +/- 2 kHz). Must have a
few kW tx - 18.30- (O=2-4)
1650 kHz - Radio Thessalos, Larissa-city, Greece. Music-programme for
many hours. Now I have learned to identify this station - 18.45 -(O=2-
4)
1680 kHz - Stathmos Alpha Vita, Thessaloniki (East), Greece. QSO-
station (Vita=Beta. (Tnx Costas for confirming this stn) - 18.40-
(O=2-4)
1622 kHz - Radio Anikito Kytos, Imathia, west from Thessaloniki,
Greece with music and SMS. Gave n:o: 6981748558. I phoned to this
number but nobody talking English (First a little girl talking)!-
21.45- (O=1-3) mp3 (tnx Costas for correction)
1629 kHz - UNID Greek with music and SMS-number. Tel. 6949398344. I
phoned them but no reply. - 21.45- (O=2-4) mp3
1640 kHz - Radio Anatolia, Kilkis, Greece had to move 10 kHz up from
usual frequency because the other station on 1630 kHz. 21.45-
1690 kHz - Stathmos Sylvania, Thiva, Greece. QSO Panorama. He says his
location "Stathmos Sylvania apo Thiva"(100 km North of Athens; Tnx
Spider and Vagelis). 21.24- O=2-3+ - mp3
1689 kHz - Radio Samurai, Kalamata-city, South Greece. QSO Panorama. I
have heard this before (map). This is 1.5 k- station from very South
Greece.. 21.30- O=1-2+ - mp3 --- spero siano informazioni utili !
73's (Dario Monferini, Italy, Feb 5, playdx yg via DXLD)
** GREENLAND [and non]. Re Callsigns --- Hi friends, I have some
editions of these "Broadcasting Stations of the World" (BSW)
publications and I have downloaded all the available ones in
http://www.archive.org/
When I QSLed the Kalundborg (DENMARK) LW station on 245 I added its
call sign OXP (as read in BSW-1953 and 1955) to my log; when I
received the QSL from coastal station OXZ/LyngbyRadio, I deleted it.
Why? because the QSL say: "SkagenRadio/OXP was established in 1945
(...) since 1993 OXP has been controled from OXZ" (and still is!).
The 1948 ITU list already show OXP/SkagenRadio. So why BSW-53&55
assign OXP to D.R. Kalundborg is a mystery for me. The same editions
assign OXQ to a station in Copenhagen (1484). Years ago, when Danish
Administration assigned call signs to MW stations, OXQ belonged to a
transmitter at Skamlebæk: http://www.qsl.net/oz3yi/QSL.html
In the BSW 1957 both c/s OXP and OXQ has been deleted (OXQ was
assigned to DansmarkshavnRadio in Greenland). It seems that BSW did
just like the Danish Administration: to erase the call signs for MW/LW
Broadcasting Stations (but many years later). On SW Danmarks Radio
still used c/s for a while.
And that is what the ITU Registers show: c/s for SW broadcasting and
c/s for utility services, nothing more. That´s the fact (see first
half of the graph.). Are/were the Greenland AM stations operated from
the same sites or by the same people who operate the coast /
communications stations? Probably yes, and probably from the same hut.
But this does not mean that KNR-570 shares the c/s with GodthaabRadio.
Not today and not from 1948 (at least). But looking at the 1958 OXI´s
we will find a broadcast c/s: OXI26, probably assigned to the
transmitter on 49 m.b. at this time? As the OXI23 (3999) was
registered for FX service (1967), or a change of transmitter, service
and c/s --- who knows! (look for number 1 in graph).
``There is nothing unusual about the same call sign being used for
both a coast and broadcasting station - since they are both owned by
the Greenland government.``
Yes, but when done, this is reflected in the ITU register with several
entries. One per service or per service and site as the same call can
be assigned to different transmitter sites (see #2). We must remember
that it is the Administrations which assign c/s to the transmitters or
services they want. Or, if they want, to delete or change them
according to their own interests.
ZDK, Antigua´s Magic Radio? Nope! Gibraltar´s Coast station in 1958
(see #3), but (I suppose) after the problems with my country (Spain)
about the sovereignty claim and the UN declaring it as a Colony, the
British Admin. changed the c/s allocation for Gibraltar services to
the "first class" ones used in the Isles as the Z series were for ---
the colonies. So in the 1968 ITU Register, the Gibraltar entries are
in the G series. So ZDK is freed and assigned to a broadcast station.
What the Danish Admin. did with the c/s in Greenland and Denmark for
MW stations was --- to delete them.
And the "American" stations? No, they did not have either! They could
call their stations like they wanted but these calls seems to be ---
"fantasy calls" for doing things as at home? or internal calls for
their military organization? Anyway no real call signs internationally
registered.
That is the cruel reality; another thing are our desires. Our old EFE,
EFJ and ECS stations lost their c/s when merging with RNE. The RNE
stations never have had c/s assigned (with some exception during the
war or before the real born, no that clandestine station launched in
Salamanca by the Franco´s forces). A real pain, but they are gone. Now
there are only EAJ and EAK stations. And about the WRTH: no comment
[sic]. In some of the recent years editions it seems that they have
put more enthusiasm in deleting call signs that in any other thing
(Mauricio Molano, Salamanca, Spain, Feb 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Hi Mauricio, Your comment about OXP was interesting because in
November I received an update to my website from Broadcast Service
Danmark about Kalundborg-OXP (see DENMARK). Curiously enough, they did
not mention to omit the OXP callsign and in fact repeated it! I agree
though that the c/s is very old and is now (also/instead) assigned to
Skagen. However it is the last known call and thus I have it in my log
as such.
Being Canadian, I got over the issue of callsigns assigned to
different locations a long time ago. The reason being - in Canada
there are OFFICIAL broadcast callsigns CBE, CBK, CBN, CBW, etc., etc.
which are clearly also officially assigned to Chilean maritime
stations as well - and presently at the SAME TIME. If you do a search
in the current IFL for " CBY " you will see it assigned in both Canada
and Easter Island. In the USA, the same calls are often used by
unrelated AM & FM stations 100's of miles apart (although the FM does
officially have a prefix attached).
The IFL, by the way, only displays callsigns that have been submitted
by national administrations. Some administrations keep track of
callsigns but do not submit them to the ITU. Jim Thomas, editor of
Emisoras de FM, has done a lot of research collecting official FM
callsigns from national administrations in Central America and the
Caribbean. The IFL needs a major 21st century overhaul to be current
and complete. Right now, it sadly is not.
I have been collecting lost & forgotten call signs and will be
publishing them on the web this year. It's been a long project and I
hope to have people send in additional information & updates. The
project got started after I was told by several DXers that I was wrong
- that Radio Canada International does not have an official callsign,
when in fact it does, CKCX. (Type in CKCX here
https://sd.ic.gc.ca/pls/engdoc_anon/web_search.call_sign_input to
see). It would be nice to see the WRTH publish CKCX and other valid
callsigns (CMRH Radio Habana Cuba, etc, etc). Good discussion.
Regards, (William Hepburn, Ont, Feb 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Hi again, yes my friend, Good discussion! I love to talk about this
things.
``Curiously enough, they did not mention to omit the OXP callsign and
in fact repeated it! I agree though that the c/s is very old and is
now (also/instead) assigned to Skagen. However it is the last known
call and thus I have it in my log as such.``
but, as things run this days, do you think they know what is "OXP" or
what this mean?...
For me it is not sufficient that OXP appears on some edition of B-S-W
as the c/s for Kalundborg-LW to give it credibility. Because there are
many more sources saying other thing. From the official (ITU reg.) to
published listings in magazines from the early days. Do you now the
"Radio Station Treasury 1094-1946" book? It contains lots of listings
reprinted from radio magazines of the 30´s and 40´s. None of this
listings show a c/s for Kalundborg (and there are c/s rarely listed as
Finish-LW/MW, Czech, Italian, Hungarian...), only an OXO for a station
in Skamlebæk (may be a typo for the OXQ showed in
http://www.qsl.net/oz3yi/QSL.html ??)
And to put more doubts on the table, on the same page there is other
QSL-letter showing OXP as the c/s of a SW station on 9520 kHz.
Nope, for me there is not sufficient evidence.
Yes, I know. This is an agreement between Govs. after the efective
"robbery" by Canadians of the Chilean letters (as previously did with
the Moroccan CN´s! hi, hi, hi...).
An interesting place could be Nicaragua, where the official license
papers show calls HAM style YN-number-XXX while in WRTH are listed the
old 4 letters ones... and some of this "new" c/s where assigned in
1999!!!. [see later entry under NICARAGUA]
Or Portugal, where they still assign a c/s to every FM station but
when several years ago I asked ANACOM for a list or a place where this
info could be found, they told me that they don´t have such thing
(?!), that the better way would be ask station per station!!. Portugal
have assigned c/s to all the stations even the AFRTS ones!(I heard the
FM Lajes, Açores, station via Es, giving a TOH ID with its CSB call
years ago!).
Yes, a very interesting and almost "secret" subject this of the c/s!.
Saludos (Mauricio Molano, Salamanca, Spain, ibid.)
** GUATEMALA. Re: LANZAN LA PRIMERA RADIO DIGITAL EN BANDA AM EN EL
PAÍS Prensa Libre Edición Electrónica Guatemala, 2 de febrero de 2009
La emisora "Carretera Radio" en la frecuencia 810 AM, fue lanzada hoy
a las 18 horas en Guatemala, con lo cual se completa otra etapa de la
historia radiofónica, ya que es la primera emisora digital de esa
frecuencia. Los locutores informarán constantemente sobre reportes del
tránsito en todo el país, así como "talkshows", noticias y música.
NOTA: No hay más información sobre esta emisora. Fuente: Prensa Libre
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2009/febrero/02/292972.html
(via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia http://yimber.blogspot.com DXLD)
IBOC??? WRTH 2009 has three stations on 810, none by this name, and
none in Guatemala City; there is a G.C. outlet on 820, so none of this
makes sense (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-011)
Re DXLD 9-011, 810 AM Carretera Radio, first digital station
Glenn, I found what appears to be the station's web page
http://www.carreteranews.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=37 and
http://www.carreteranews.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70
I'll leave it to someone else to translate (Bruce Portzer, WA, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
Second page has an interesting overview of broadcasting history in
Guatemala, including the once-dominant TGW, which also put Guatemala
on the world map via shortwave.
Nowhere in either page do I find any specific info about the location
of this 810 station, nor its call sign, but they do refer to it as
serving the ``municipios de Santa Catarina Pinula, San José Pinula y
Fraijanes``. Those municipalities are in the vicinity of Guatemala
City, all in the same department as G.C.
Nor do these stories ever detail what kind of ``digital`` radio this
is, no mention of IBOC, HD or DRM, but claims that the sound is better
than FM, and how digital will somehow relieve congestion on the bands.
The station`s purpose is to serve drivers (truckers mainly?) on the
highway between Guatemala and El Salvador, the latter country
frequently mentioned. I suppose one is more likely to find IBOC radios
in some new imported cars than in homes. But it`s hard to believe it
has any significant `digital` audience and if IBOC, is surely hybrid
relying overwhelmingly on its AM signal, surrounded by noise.
It could even be that this is nothing but hype, no axual digital
transmission mode, but who knows, `digital` studio equipment! The
website also has streaming which connects promptly via an embedded
player. ID says ``810 AM Digital`` and no callsign.
The main towns on the Panamerican Highway from Guatemala to San
Salvador are Cuilapa, Jutiapa and El Progreso, in Guatemala, all some
distance down the road from the places mentioned.
It`s interesting that of the 3 stations on 810 in WRTH 2009, two of
them are without callsigns and all of them are without powers. But
this also happens on various other frequencies.
810, R. Moapán, Santa Elena, Petén --- in the north so not this one
810, TGEND, R. Constelación, San Marcos, San Marcos, in the west near
Mexico, so not this one either
810, R. Circuito San Juan, San Juan, in Sacatepéquez, SW of Guat City,
wrong direxion, but close, the most likely candidate unless there is
now a fourth station on 810 plus IBOC sidebands.
Can anyone find more definite info about this? How is its coverage in
Guatemala, especially with a station on 820 in the capital? (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-012)
[non] Amigo Glenn, Aqui no Brasil também existe isso. São emissoras
que anunciam serem digitais, mas realidade é o audio deles que é com
qualidade digital. A emissão de RF continua analógica com todas as
tradicionais emissoras de AM. Aqui em Barbacena, a Rádio Correio da
Serra, também fala isso, "Transmissão digital..." , mas a transmissão
deles é a comum e tradicional analógica, eles apenas deram uma
melhorada no som (audio) e não mecheram na RF. É questão de falta de
conhecimento do pessoal. Um abraço, (Adalberto Marques de Azevedo,
Barbacena-MG, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUIANA FRENCH. Occasionally I run through the time stations to get
an idea of propagation conditions. The frequencies below 10 MHz were
all doing well from the US and Canada. 10 MHz and above was a
wasteland until I came to 14670. Surprisingly, the Voice of Russia was
coming though loud and clear. I had to adjust my antenna tuner down to
a frequency near 3 MHz as opposed to 14-15 MHz in order to get a clear
signal. SIO was running from 333 to 211.
The female announcer was talking about the state of the Russian
economy in terms of food production and was followed by a speech by
the Russian President Medvedev. The English voice over was reminiscent
of the old Russian line that by such and such a date we will improve
production by some outlandish amount. In this case it was a 50%
increase in production by the year 2010. Next came a request by e-mail
from a Russian living in America for a song by a famous Russian writer
of pop music similar to the style of Irving Berlin. He is very well
known in Russia as he was able to keep writing music that followed the
party line from Stalin's time to the present. The song was played and
then the announcer talked about the history of the composer. His name
was Isaac Domeyesky (sic) if I understood right.
I was trying to figure out why I was hearing VOR on 14670 when it
dawned on me that this was an exact multiple of 7335, a station that
VOR uses every evening from 0400 to 0600 UT. You never know what you
can find until you look for it. Shortwave will always show you
something new if you just keep at it (Steve Cross, Midwest City, OK,
USA, UT Feb 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Steve, While it`s possible the French Guiana relay would be putting
out a harmonic on 14670 and it would be propagating, the fact that you
had to peak your antenna tuner somewhere other than 14-15 MHz suggests
that this was produced in your receiver, not the transmitter. 73,
(Glenn Hauser, ibid.)
It could be very possible. I am using an Eton 5 receiver with a random
wire. It has usually been pretty reliable about receiving a station
most clear with the tuner peaked to the receiving frequency. But I'm
sure stranger things have happened. Thanks for your reply (Steve
Cross, ibid.)
** GUINEA. 7125, Radio Conakry, 2210-2340, Feb 6, French talk. Some
Afro-pop music. Tentative. Weak but readable (Brian Alexander, PA, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
7125, R. Conakry (tentative). February 6, 2224, African music, 2231-
2241 OM talks unreadable. Low modulation, co-channel QRM, 22322 (Lúcio
Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m,
dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 4970, AIR Shillong; 1411-1512, Feb 3; mostly in English;
IDs "This is the North Eastern Service of All India Radio
broadcasting from Shillong on 60.36 meters on shortwave,
corresponding to 4,970 kHz."; news about the government (parliament,
supreme court, etc.); subcontinent music; BoH DJs with phone-in
dedications and playing pop songs (Billy Joel singing "Uptown Woman",
etc.), giving phone number if calling from Shillong and another
number if calling from the North Eastern region; program ended at
1512, when they switch over to programming from New Delhi (news in
vernacular and English); fair to poor (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach,
CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. AIR GIVES A DEMO OF LIVE DIGITAL RADIO TRANSMISSION
Wed, Jan 21 10:29 AM
http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090121/804/tnl-air-gives-a-demo-of-live-digital-rad_1.html
As air broadcasts go digital, a live demonstration of digital radio
transmission was held at the Ahmedabad centre of All India Radio on
Tuesday. The demonstration was held under the aegis of Broadcast
Engineering Society (BES). Sources said the technology called DRM
(digital radio mondiale) was launched at the Khampur transmitter at
Delhi and it has near-FM quality.
V G Malagi, who is in the R and D division of AIR, New Delhi, was in
Ahmedabad for monitoring the DRM signals transmitted from AIR,
Khampur. He said the digital technology was launched after a series of
tests and trails over the past two years.
He explained that the existing Short Wave (SW) transmitter at Khampur
Delhi had been modified for DRM broadcasting and radiating at
frequency 6095-6100-6105 kHz from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm [0900-1200 UT]
daily on 100 KW power. The primary expected coverage area of this
system is in the radius of 800 kilometer.
BES honorary secretary, Gujarat Chapter, and the Station Engineer of
AIR-Ahmedabad Meenakshi Singhvi said the DRM was a consortium of about
75 broadcast-related organisations, which had worked to develop a
digital transmission system for the current AM broadcast bands. "The
DRM system provides a universal, non-proprietary, digital transmission
system designed to replace, eventually, the current analogue
transmissions in the LW, MW and SW bands."
She said DRM offers great advantages for listeners like excellent
reception quality, no more fading, noise or interference. Experts
present believed that DRM would slowly replace AM broadcastings to
become the "digital AM" by using the existing band and infrastructure
with little modification in the transmitter and with the present
listening habits.
Related news :
http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/India/20090120/1156808.html
(Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dx_india yg via DXLD)
** INDIA [and non]. AIR RECOVERS HISTORIC '59 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
INTERVIEW
http://www.radioandmusic.com/content/editorial/news/air-recovers-historic-59-martin-luther-king-jr-interview
An archival recording found by the staff of All India Radio quotes
Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr as saying Gandhi “embodied
in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the
moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as
inescapable as the law of gravitation.”
The recording was made a day before he left India in March
1959. The recording dated 9 March 1959 is available on All India Radio
at the website
http://www.indianembassy.org/newsite/press_release/2009/Jan/MLK on All
India Radio.mp3
The transcript is also available on the Embassy of India in
Washington’s website at
http://www.indianembassy.org/newsite/press_release/2009/Jan/17.asp
Invited by then Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, King
along with his wife Coretta and biographer Lawrence Reddick, arrived
in Mumbai on 9 February 1959, and traveled to New Delhi and several
other cities over the next four weeks.
The 50th anniversary of that historic journey is being
commemorated this month with a visit to India by King’s son, Martin
Luther King III; members of the US Congress, including Representative
John Lewis who is the last surviving speaker from the 1963 March on
Washington; Clayborne Carson, editor of several volumes of King’s
papers; jazz musician Herbie Hancock; and others.
This State Department–sponsored tour will include two musical
performances by Hancock plus a special tribute by Indian musicians
(via Jaisakthivel, Chennai, India, dxldyg via DXLD)
** INDONESIA. 4790, RRI Fak2, again the only Indo audible on 60m, Feb
4 at 1355 with talk in Indonesian, constant CODAR, and 4750 still
absent.
4790, Feb 6 at 1359 tuneby with the RRI theme, Song of the Coconut
Isles. At http://www.intervalsignals.net you may hear this on the RRI
Pro-3 clip rather than Fak2.
VOI has been very poor to poor lately, even inaudible, on 9525.9; Feb
4 at 1446 all I could make out was open carrier and hum; by 1450 some
undermodulated music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Jakarta 9525.890 kHz, 1006 UT. Program in English about Obama, strong
signal and clear audio. RX: Pereus + selfmade home loopantenna. Gr
(Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, Feb 7, bdx mailing list via DXLD)
** INTERNATIONAL WATERS. RADIO MOVIES: THE TRAILER OF "THE BOAT THAT
ROCKED" --- The boat radios in UK during the '60. The new Richard
Curtis Movie. The trailer is available on youtube or here:
http://blog.libero.it/radioascolto/6454592.html
73's (Francesco Cecconi, cumbredx via DXLD)
** INTERNATIONAL WATERS. New 8-week series debuts February 7 (archived
for 7 days after broadcast). This sounds like a blast.
Pirate Johnnie Walker --- Johnnie recreates the sounds of a bygone
era, with classic tracks from 1955-'75 and jingles capturing the
vintage pirate radio sound SATURDAYS 2100-2300
ABOUT THE SHOW: Climb aboad the good ship Rock'n'Roll for a flavour of
the golden era of pirate radio with plenty of nostalgia, music and
banter. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/piratejohnniewalker/
(Fred Waterer, Ont., To those of you who seek lost objects of history,
I wish you the best of luck. They're out there, and they're
whispering. - Clive Cussler, http://www.doghousecharlie.com dxldyg via
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
He was one of my favourites. He once really upset the BBC while one
day relaying part of their radio soap operas, "Mrs Dale's Diary". He
also had the best theme tune, IMO, for 60's radio... Because They're
Young by Duanne Eddy. Aside from a good "tune", it is perfect for a
theme tune, slow start, lots of places for dramatic pauses while doing
a talk over. I used it myself while doing some local FM radio, plain
stole it from him (Andy O`Brien, NY, K3UK, ibid.)
** IRAN. Has anyone received any messages from the Iranian national
station? They are in regular contact with me and I have been invited
to submit an article for their magazine; the theme is celebration of
the 30th anniversary of the overthrow of the Shah and the ascendancy
of Ayatollah Khomeni. I will be planning to submit a piece, seeing as
I grew up in the airport town of Gander, Newfoundland, and we had
Iranians defecting there all the time during the Shah days! (I will
mention why Iranians don’t like the US government, and with good
reason. Google Operation Ajax and you will find out how the CIA helped
overthrow a democratic government so they could get at Iran’s oil!
Anyway, enjoy the rest of your winter and happy DXing! 73 (Sue Hickey,
NL, Feb CIDX Messenger via DXLD)
** IRELAND [non]. In case anyone is still wondering about the RTE test
on Jan 28, 6220 kHz, WRN says the test was from Meyerton, South Africa
(Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. While P`yongyang was in on 2850, Feb 4 at 1342, also noticed
SSB VOLMET in YL robot English on 2863 kHz. Hard to catch cities, but
heard Fukuoka mentioned twice, and at 1344 ``Tokyo, out`` (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KALININGRAD. 7320-7325-7330, [Kaliningrad] Bolshakovo in DRM mode
at 1000-1300 UT. Here in Stuttgart at 1017 UT 'looks' the noise at
S=8-9 level on Eton E1. ... vy73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Feb 4, dxldyg
via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Here in Copenhagen the SNR is up at 20-22 dB producing fine audio, at
1050 UT, 7325 kHz. 73, (Erik Køie, Denmark, ibid.)
** KOREA NORTH. Nice when propagation and noise level coöperate to
bring in P`yongyang on 2850, an old and extremely out-of-band
frequency: Feb 4 at 1338 M&W in Korean with dramatic dialog, fair with
heavy fading; nothing heard on somewhat higher NK channels 3250, 3320,
3560, so we may class this as a mediumwave opening?
However, at 1349 there was a continuous wailing sound and a het on
3480, which I assume has something to do with this, as in Aoki:
3480 KOREAN NAT. DEM. FRONT 0757-1400 1234567 Korean 5 ND Wonsan KRE
12725E 3905N KNDF relay KCBS --- Also another entry for same at 2157-
0400. One might wonder, why they bother if all they do is relay KCBS?
This is a ``target broadcast`` in WRTH 2009, page 495: ``broadcast
service claimed to be provided by the Pyongyang Mission of the [South
Korean] `Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front` (AINDF). Believed
to be a North Korean government operation. Jammed.`` And they QSL from
an address in Shinjuku, Tokyo. This is the one also on 1053, 4450 and
4557.
Also, 3985 at 1354 with roaring noise, waves, no doubt NK jamming
against Echo of Hope.
2850, KCBS, Feb 6 at 1354 with singing, weaker than VL8K 2485, 26
minutes after LSR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Todas con fecha: 04 Febrero 2009, QTH: Jiutepec, Morelos México;
Receptor: Sangean ATS-818 (Hace milagros!... .) y con Antena: Tipo "V"
invertida, de 7,55 mts. x lado. Fabricación casera.
2850 kHz / 1308 UT / KCBS Pyongyang / SINPO: 23332. Voces masculina y
femenina en idioma coreano. (Esta señal ya cotejada con log de Glenn
Hauser!!! en Play DX)
4450 / 1318 UT / KCBS Pyongyang / SINPO: 34443. Música como de ópera
cantada por mujer, idioma coreano (Misma emisión que 2850 kHz).
Cordiales 73's y muy buenos DX's!!! (Magdiel Cruz Rodríguez,
Jiutepec, Morelos, México, playdx yg via DXLD)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5985.0, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze via Yamata; 1417-
1430*, Feb 4; in English with details about the abductees (birth
date, height & weight, place & date of abduction, etc.) with musical
bridges between names; completely different format from their Fri.
English broadcast; would be nice if this was the return of English
twice a week as it use to be; moderate Myanmar QRM and possible light
jamming (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
Hi Glenn, Sent an email to Mr. Sadaki MANABE, at COMJAN, informing him
about the interference I was hearing with the Shiokaze broadcast on
5985 (*1400-1430*), as a result of QRM from Myanma Radio also on that
frequency. Attached an audio file of a recent reception, so he could
hear for himself what it sounded like, with the proviso "I do not know
how much interference Myanma Radio causes for reception in North
Korea, but wanted to call this situation to your attention." I have
paraphrased the response I received Feb. 6, at 0230 UT:
He thanked me very much for my information. Because of my email he
consulted with "Mr. MURAO, who is a specialist and manages Shiokaze",
who indicated he knew about the Myanmar interference and the situation
was under review/analysis. "Then, I will change the frequency of
SHIOKAZE soon today. I would like to ask Mr. Ron Howard to search near
5985".
So it seems their next broadcast from 1400 to 1430 will not be on
5985, but close to it and still will be in the 49m band. Let's hope
they have better luck with the new frequency! (Ron Howard, Asilomar
Beach, CA, Feb 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
5910, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze via Yamata; *1400-1430*, Feb 6 (Fri.); ex
5985. Heard on the first day of this new frequency, actually their
former frequency. Should be much better reception than 5985, at least
until the jamming starts again. In English with "Today's News Flash"
and "Today's News on North Korean Issues" and long commentary about
President Obama; ID "JSR. This is Shiokaze Sea Breeze, the shortwave
radio program from Tokyo, Japan"; mostly fair reception. After
Shiokaze signed-off, heard Iran signing on in assume scheduled
Bengali; Anthem and reciting from Qur'an; weak (Ron Howard, Asilomar
Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Shiokaze, Sea-Breeze, the service obsessed with North Korean
kidnappings of a few Japanese years ago, has returned to their
previous frequency via Japan, 5910, after a few weeks on 5985: Feb 6
at 1407 in heavily-accented English, as usually on Fridays, mentioning
bombing of that KAL flight; 1412 speculating on Obama`s policies vis-
à-vis P`yongyang. 5910 is better here, no QRM except for lite splatter
from WBOH 5920 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9880, Feb 4 at 1448, Japanese W&W narrative,
sad-sounding, with occasional music stingers; G signal with lite hum.
Per Aoki this is: Furusato no Kaze, daily at 1430-1500, 250 kW, 3
degrees via Darwin, AUSTRALIA.
This time I was waiting for Furusato no Kaze to start via Darwin,
9880. Less than a minute after R. Japan finished 9875, Feb 6 a few sex
before 1430 heard a few words of Chinese, then into Japanese.
Uncoördinated switching at Darwin; wonder what the Chinese was about
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH. 6215, Korean numbers pronounced by emphatic YL, Feb 4
shortly after 1400 and again at 1437. S. Hasegawa, NDXC says this is
``random number station of S. Korea. I can sometimes receive even 5715
kHz at 1400``. But nothing audible here on 5715. Are the numbers
really random, or encrypted spy messages? Neither frequency is in
Aoki, probably classified as utility (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 13620, R. Kuwait presumed, doing very well against WYFR
13615, Feb 6 at 1537 with ME music; 1611 recheck still good and WYFR
gone, axually closing at 1545 per Aoki; fast-paced Arabic programming
mixing music and talk. Kuwait is 310 degrees toward us, while 13615 is
160 degrees away from us (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MADAGASCAR. 5009.92v, R. Nasionaly Malagasy (presumed); 1516-1545,
Feb 3; heard about 8 songs (high-life singing, pop songs, ballads,
etc.) played non-stop with only brief silence between selections; no
parallels found; best in LSB to escape from AIR on 5010 (which had
news in vernacular and English); mostly poor (Ron Howard, Asilomar
Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MADAGASCAR. Radio Madagascar 5010 --- the past two evenings around
0200 gmt I have tuned in to 5010. There are continuous easy listening
songs and music of their country. At 0249 tonight, I heard the musical
jingle "Radio Madagascar" between continuous songs.
The frequency is centered on 5009.95. However, there is LSB and USB
modulation. Signal strength is very nice, peaking at S-7 to S-9. Fade
down starts happening around 0345 as the grayline disappears into
daylight over Madagascar, just like last year this time when I
regularly monitored them.
I was a regular listener of Radio Madagasikara last year this time but
I don't remember ever hearing them this strong or this clearly. I was
getting a nice collection of reception reports to try and QSL them.
Well, guess that probably won't happen anytime soon. Perhaps all my
40-50 reports that I sent over the past year are smoldering in the
studio somewhere. Of all the luck and success I have had with the most
difficult QSL countries (Radio Bata, Tunis, come to mind) this is a
very strong holdout for me, even with the most detailed reports
written in French, sent to all known good (at one time) BP 442, 4422,
1202 addresses.
Also, the LSB was suppressed last year this time and not now. The
signal strength is strong and very clear. I can only contribute [sic]
this to propagation or could they have cranked up the power of the
transmitter? I must say, it is a very nice copy tonight (Stephen J.
Price, Johnstown, PA, 5 February 2009, 400 foot "L" with 200 foot
buried grounding system, Kenwood R-5000, NASWA yg via DXLD)
Hi Stephen, Indeed this was nice reception. Made it all the way over
to California, but not as strong a reception as at your location. On
Feb 6, from 0309 to 0327, I was listening to a DJ playing African hi-
life music and songs; 0327 heard what sounded like a singing jingle,
perhaps the station jingle you mentioned. This is the first time
recently that I have actually heard announcers and not just non-stop
music, so they seem to be getting back to normal programming again.
After 0333 noted they had speeches, with some background sounds. All
in all an enjoyable reception! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, ibid.)
Yep on that. I was a reg listener last year for a few weeks from 0230-
0345 fade out. they had some very nice programming with news, music,
id's jingles, etc., etc.
I really like that station, but I would bet the fire was kept alive a
few more hours due to all the reports and goodies that I sent them ---
with absolutely no QSL luck.
I mailed to BP 1202 (once good in 90's), 442 (rm website addr), 4422
(WRTH address). I would send the same report to all three addresses
AND I even just put a generic RM, Antanananrivo, Mad on the envelope,
full words, of course.
I sent CD recordings, $$$, postcards, and other goodies, to even plain
unsealed envelopes of all combinations. Three of my 40-50 letters came
back stamped in "Antanananrivo" "unclaimed". yea, I got something from
Madagascar, but it was some of my letters BACK! (Steve Price, NASWA yg
via DXLD)
Radio Madagasikara in with S+15 dB at 0300 with excellent local
music. Stronger than Mauritania on 4845. Undoubtedly the absolute
best I ever heard them -- even over last evening.
As a regular listener of RM last winter/spring, the signal is
incredible. I am very familiar with the propagation from there to
here as the grayline crosses over the island. Either they cranked up
the power of the transmitter -or- the atmosphere is extremely charged
for propagation.
Right now at 0307, I have the kenwood piped thru my professional
audio system and the AM sounds just like my local WCRO station,
despite a slight bit of fading.
It is not Cristal, for what I believed to be them earlier in the
evening, signed off at 0200, and were no way near as strong. The
Malagasy transmitter turned on with OC at 0225 and had audio at 0230.
ID at 0320 with musical jingle. I could be wrong, but I think power
has been increased on the xmtr. It is UNBELIEVABLE. Has anyone else
experienced a much stronger than normal Radio Madagasikara lately ?
(Steve Price, Johnstown, PA, UT Feb 7, ODXA yg via DXLD)
5009.92v, R. Nasionaly Malagasy (presumed); 0309-0337, Feb 6. First
time recently that I have actually heard announcers and not just non-
stop music, so they seem to be getting back to normal programming
again. Seemed to be in French, DJ playing African hi-life music and
songs; singing jingle (Stephen J. Price - Johnstown, PA reported
hearing a station jingle, so perhaps this was it); sounded like
speeches, with some background sounds; poor to fair reception.
This continues to broadcast in conventional DSB mode (Ron Howard,
Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
5009.9, RTV Malagasy (Ambohidrano), 0247-0302, 2/7/2009, Malagasy. Pop
music with drums, local stringed instruments, and a male vocalist. A
minute or so of very low audio talk by a man at 0251 followed by more
music. No ID on the hour, just music. Surprisingly good signal,
peaking just before 0300 which is, per my ancient DX Edge (copyright
1981), sunset at the transmitter site. SINPO 33333 (Jim Evans,
Germantown, TN, TenTec RX-340, Eton E1, Random Wires (90' and 200'),
Eavesdropper Dipole, Cumbredx via DXLD) You mean sunRISE (gh, DXLD)
** MADAGASCAR. Você tem alguma informação sobre a estação que o World
Christian Broadcasting está montando em Madagascar? Vi na internet que
ela irá emitir também em português, será que isso é verdade ?
Em que situação está esta emissora? Um abraço (Adalberto Marques de
Azevedo, Brasil, Feb 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
I have not heard anything about the station since the riots broke out.
But if Pres. Ravalomanana goes out of power, the WCBC project is in
trouble, as he was their patron. The WCBC website seems to have no
updates but does mention ``Be prayerful about the Spanish and
Portuguese broadcasting teams being assembled.`` Yes, they previously
publicized plans to broadcast to Latin America from there.
Here`s the latest story about the Mad situation. Seems Ravalomanana
remains in power at the expense of many lives. Are WCBC sure they want
to be involved with this individual, even if he is a Presbyterian?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/world/africa/08madagascar.html?_r=1
(Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MALAYSIA SABAH. KENINGAU FM RADIO ACCESSIBLE WORLDWIDE
February 07, 2009 13:53 PM
http://web7.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=388302
KOTA KINABALU, Feb 7 (Bernama) -- The Keningau FM radio station, which
begins its broadcast on Jan 1, can now be viewed and listened to
throughout the world live on the internet through audio-video
streaming.
Sabah Broadcasting director Datuk Jumat Engson, said the proactive
measure by Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) Sabah in making the
Keningau FM broadcast accessible through the internet was mooted by
Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek.
"We thanked the Information Minister for his commitment in helping to
promote the uniqueness of the culture and language, including those of
the Murut and Dusun in the Sabah interior areas," he told Bernama here
today. He said the Keningau FM broadcast could be accessed through the
internet at http://www.rtmsabah.gov.my
Keningau FM is a 10 hour broadcast which starts from 7am daily and can
be listened at frequency 98.4 MHz. The Bahasa Malaysia broadcast is at
0700-1000 hrs and 1400-1700 hrs, Murut (1000-1200) and Dusun (1200-
1400).
Jumat said currently the Keningau FM could be listened by residents
staying within a 12 km radius of the Keningau town, adding that the
coverage would be expanded to other districts like Nabawan, Sook and
Ranau with the installation of the FM transmitters at Bukit Sigapon
and Layang-Layang under phase two of the project.
Meanwhile, Jumat said Ahmad Shabery would be in Sandakan for a visit
tomorrow to brief local leaders on the restructuring of RTM
programmes.
He said the Information Minister would also attend the launching of
the "Berita Wilayah Sabah dan Sarawak" on TV1 by Chief Minister Datuk
Seri Musa Aman in Kota Kinabalu on Monday. -- BERNAMA (via Zacharias
Liangas, Greece, DXLD)
Malaysia: Keningau FM radio accessible worldwide
. . .He said the Keningau FM broadcast could be accessed through the
Internet at http://www.rtmsabah.gov.my Keningau FM is a 10 hour
broadcast which starts from 7 am (2300 UT] daily and can be listened
at frequency 98.4 MHz. The Bahasa Malaysia broadcast is at 0700-1000
hrs [2300-0200 UT] and 1400-1700 hrs [0600-0900 UT], Murut 1000-1200
hrs [0200-0400 UTC] and Dusun 1200-1400 hrs [0400-0600 UT]. (Source:
Bernama)
Andy Sennitt adds: To access the stream, click on the graphic at the
bottom right hand corner of the home page. At times when the station
is not broadcasting, this produces an error message. I would be
pleased to hear from anyone who successfully hears the station between
2300 and 0900 UT (February 7th, 2009 - 11:46 UTC by Andy Sennitt,
Media Network blog via DXLD).
** MALI. 5995, RTVM, *0556-0615, Feb 6, guitar IS. National Anthem
at 0558. Flute IS at 0559 & opening French ID announcements. Religious
recitations at 0601. Vernacular talk. Poor to fair with some adjacent
channel splatter (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Logged XEHB (Hidalgo de Parral, Chih) tonight on 730 kHz at
0259 UT Feb 6 with call letter ID in English(!) then longer ID in
Spanish mentioning 50,000 watts of power, call letters, "Grupo
Radiofonico Zer" network, into cumbia music. Slogan sounds like "Radio
Viva Vida". Ex-770 kHz. Thanks to local DXer, John Wilkins, for the
tip! 73, (Chris Knight, Fort Lupton, Colorado, IRCA via DXLD)
Another nail in the coffin of XEX`s once clear-channel status. A
recent change, I suppose as WRTH 2009 still had XEHB on 770 with only
1000/250 watts; I used to hear it there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIG
DIGEST)
Pretty amazing grant considering XEX's dominance/longevity! (Pete
Taylor, Tacoma, WA, IRCA via DXLD) There were already 6 other Mexicans
on 730, per WRTH 2009 (gh, DXLD)
** MYANMAR. 7185, 0030 13 Jan, R. Myanmar, Yangon, sign-on IS,
nat[ive? ional?] song, ID, prayers to 0040, then talk and songs, QRN
but strong clear signal, 333 by 0125, vernacular, SIO 534 (Charles
Hendry, Bucks., Feb BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD)
** MYANMAR. 5985.0, Myanma R.; 1529-1545, Feb 4; their signature
indigenous instrumental music, "Good evening. This is Myanma Radio.
We are calling with our second English transmission located on 5985
kHz., 50.13 meters, 576 kHz., 520 meters, 555 (?) kHz., 585 (?)
meters [sounded very much like 555 & 585, but not completely
positive, as they do not compute together correctly]. Now you can
hear the news. I am … with the news. First the headlines",
information as to the activities of various government military
leaders (e.g., Minister for Rail Transportation Major General Aung
Min); "This news comes to you from Myanma Radio. The weather. Partly
cloudy … Outlook for the next two days …", conditions for Myanmar
waters; pep talk about national policy and development, always sounds
like it's given over a loudspeaker (reverberation); played pop songs
in English; would have been good reception except for the splatter /
QRM from adjacent station (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1,
dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEPAL. I haven't seen the 5005 carrier in a few days, but I have
just received an email from Ram Karki who is working out in the field
there. He tells me:
"Great apology for not replying on time. I was away from home and it
is very difficult to find internet and power supply together. We have
power supply only 8 hours a day and 16 hours of power supply cut.
"Regarding SW transmitter, I need to find the donors. Government is
not funding us this time. We are not in priorities. So it may take
long time."
I had no idea that things have gotten so bad there. It seems that
DX'ers will still have to wait a while more before a new shortwave
transmitter is brought online in Nepal. Ram personally delivered my
QSL to me in 2006 when he returned to Sudan from annual leave. Maybe
USAID or some other grant machine will come through for them. 73s de
(Al Muick, Afghanistan, Feb 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Alo Glenn, Tal como você previu no DXLD, falando que a R. Nepal em
5005 estava silenciosa desde fevereiro último, o Albert Muick, de
Kabul divulgou que recebeu E-Mail do Ram Karki, (eu tenho um QSL
antigo assinado por ele), e neste E-Mail ele informa as dificuldades
que estão enfrentando, sem financiamento do governo, com racionamento
de comida, 16 horas por dia sem energia, trabalhando no transmissor e
procurando doadores. Pelas palavras dele eu pude deduzir que v ocê
estava certo, a R. Nepal está mesmo fora em 5005 kHz (Adalberto
Marques de Azevedo, Brasil, Feb 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. RNW establishes disaster service
Radio Netherlands Worldwide has established a special disaster service
for Dutch citizens living abroad. A calamity team consisting of
members of the editorial staff will go into action whenever there are
major events involving large numbers of Dutch citizens, such as
natural disasters, accidents or attacks. The service will provide
Dutch citizens in the region with information and advice and, when
necessary, report on possibilities of returning to the Netherlands.
The information will be made available via radio, television, internet
and mobile phone platforms.
Editor-in-chief Rik Rensen says the special disaster transmissions
will provide an extra service, in addition to the regular broadcasts.
He points out that there was a huge demand for extra information
during the recent attacks in Mumbai and the blockade of Bangkok’s
international airport.
Comments so far: 1 Steve February 5th, 2009 - 19:45 UTC
This would be nice if they still had a substantial network on
shortwave. Unfortunately, Jan Hoek and company have embarked on a
misguided plan to dismantle the shortwave network that was once the
envy of the industry.
2 Andy Sennitt February 5th, 2009 - 21:20 UTC
There is no plan to “dismantle the shortwave network”. We only ever
had two shortwave transmitter sites of our own, both of which are
still in operation. Bonaire was refurbished with new transmitters only
a couple of years ago. The third site, Flevo, was owned by the Nozema,
in which we held a small 1% share. That company was dismantled and the
site privatised by the Dutch government. We no longer use it because
we can get airtime more cheaply on other sites, most of which are one
hop away from the target area and provide stronger signals than we
could provide from Flevo. In our current schedule we use well over 20
shortwave transmitter sites. If that’s a plan to “dismantle the
shortwave network” it clearly isn’t working very well (February 5th,
2009 - 13:37 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD)
** NICARAGUA. During many years I have been accustomed to see the
Nicaraguan stations linked to call signs of four letters --- YNRS
Radio Sandino, YNRC Radio Católica. So, what a big surprise when I
discovered that these c/s are no more the valid ones!
YNRS has become YNA3LS and YNRC is now YNA3RC. And this is not a
recent change. There are some on the "new" c/s issued in 1999! The
Telcor (Gov.) site contains many License files (many others are not
available) but it seems that it is not updated regularly. This is the
data I extracted several months ago:
kHz Call KW Station name/Licensee, City (Key)
540 YNA3OW 20 RADIO CORPORACIÓN, Managua (1)
570 YNA2RQ 5 RADIO 570, Chinandega (1)
580 YNA3LP 10 RADIO 580, Managua (1)
600 YNA3MD 10 LA NUEVA RADIO YA, Managua (2)
620 lic 031 gob. nic., pero datos de La Mera! (*)
640 YNA3LR 5 RADIO LA MERA MERA, Managua (*)
650 RADIO DIRIANGEN (3)
650 YNA6RS 5 RADIO MUZUN, Matagalpa (1)
660 Carlos Mario Peña Pérez (4)
680 ASOC. DE PROF. RADIODIF. NICARAGÜENSE (3)
690 Diócesis de Matagalpa, Matagalpa (5)
720 YNA3RC 25 RADIO CATÓLICA, Managua (1)
730 YNAARS 5 RADIO SEGOVIA, Nueva Segovia (2)
740 YNA3LS 10 RADIO SANDINO, Managua (6)
760 YNA3AR 10 RADIO MAGIC, Altamira, Managua (1)
780 YNA3RD 1 RADIO MILENIUM, Altamira, Managua (1)
800 YNA3RO 10 RADIO 800, Managua (7)
820 YNFAOL 20 RADIO ONDAS DE LUZ, Managua (1)
840 YNA3NT 5 RADIO NOTICIAS, Managua (1)
860 YNA3CO 5 LA GRAN CADENA, Managua (1)
870 Asociación para el desarrollo de la Región V (8)
880 YNA3EP 5 RADIO EL PENSAMIENTO, Managua (1)
890 SILVIO JAVIER PILARTE CENTENO (3)
900 YNA3RT 5 RADIO TIEMPO (2)
910 TRABAJ. ASOC. DE RADIO JINOTEGA Y Cia. Ltd. (3)
920 Cadena Nicaragüense de Radiodifusión (9)
940 Fundación Libertad y Democracia (3)
950 YNA4RR 10 RADIO RUMBOS , Rivas (2)
960 YNACTH 2’5 RADIO LA VOZ DEL TRÓPICO HÚMEDO, S. Carlos (2)
970 YNA2RD 5 RADIO DARÍO, León (1)
980 YNA3NO 1 LA PODEROSA 980, Managua (2)
990 Mons. BERNARDO HOMBACH (CURIA EPISCOPAL) (3)
1000 Dulce Maria Rivera Cruz (9)
1010 YNFAVP 1 RADIO LA VOZ DEL PINAR, Ocotal (2)
1030 1 Jorge Correa Montiel (no tech. data on Lic. file) (2)
1040 YNA5RC 2 RADIO CIMA, Sto. Tomás (1)
1050 YNA3AF 1 RADIO DEPORTES, Managua (1)
1080 YNA3LC 10 RADIO 15 DE SEPTIEMBRE, Managua (1)
1090 YNHAAL 5 LA NUEVA RADIO ALMA LATINA, Esteli (2)
1110 YNF2MT 1 RADIO MOMOTOMBO, La Paz Centro (2)
1120 YNA3CP 5 RADIO CEPAD, Managua (1)
1150 YNA2RD 5 RADIO DARÍO, León (1)
1180 YNA3AC 0’5 LA RADIO, Managua (10)
1190 YNA6RB 1 RADIO BENDICIÓN, Matagalpa (2)
1200 YNA3AC 0’5 LA RADIO, Managua (10)
1220 YNA3RA 1 RADIO AMÉRICA, Managua (7)
1230 Coop. de Scios. Pub. de Radiodif. de Nueva Guinea (4)
1240 YNA3RR 5 RADIO RESTAURACIÓN, Managua (1)
1260 YNA3LR 10 LIDICE RADIO, Managua (1)
1270 Freddy Méndez Lainez (11)
1280 YNA3VA 25 RADIO LA VOZ APOSTÓLICA, Managua (1)
1290 Graciela de Jesús Herrera Joya, Jinotega (12)
1300 Alejandro Amador López (3)
1300 YNA2CC 1 CANAL 130, Managua (2)
1310 Ana María Aguirre Gómez, Chinandega (13)
1350 Negocios Múltiples S.A., Jinotepe (12)
1370 YNA6RM 2 RADIO MATAGALPA, Matagalpa (14)
1370 YNAARS 1 RADIO FRONTERAS, Somoto (2)
1380 Diócesis de Matagalpa, Matagalpa (5)
1400 YNA3MA 10 RADIO MARIA, Managua (Lic. includes FM repeater) (1)
1410 YNA2RA 3 RADIO AMISTAD, León (2)
1430 YNAARL 5 RADIO LIBERACIÓN “TAYACANA”, Estela (2)
1440 YNA3MR 25 RADIO MARANATHA, Managua (1)
1470 RADIO YARRINCÉ DE BOACO (3)
1500 RADIO MINUTO S.A. (no tech. data on License file) (2)
1530 YNA4TS 0’5 RADIO LA VOZ DE TERESA, Sta. Teresa, Carazo (2)
(*) The National Licenses Registry links the 620 kHz freq. to the
License document "LIC-2004-RDSAM-031". This doc. show as Licensee
(Operador) the "Gobierno de Nicaragua" but the rest of the data are
those of 640-Radio La Mera Mera. The 640 kHz are linked to a not
available license document.
(1) Active license
(2) Expired license. Licensee deleted
(3) License file not available. Licensee deleted
(4) License file not available. Licensee is now holder of FM
licenses only.
(5) License file not available. License status: “en trámite”(in
proceeding).
(6) Expired license. Licensee is not holder now of any license
(AM or FM).
(7) Expired license. Licensee is now holder of FM license only.
(8) License file not available. License “en renovación”(renewing).
(9) License file not available. License “elaborada”(elaborated, but
not signed).
(10) Expired license. Licensee deleted. The National Licenses Registry
lists this station on 1200. 1180 on the License document.
(11) License file not available. License status: “Abandono de trámite”
(left proceeding)
(12) License file not available. Licensee is now registered for FM
service only but is not holder of any License.
(13) License file not available. License status: “En renovación”
(renewing).
(14) Expired license. Licensee deleted. The National Licenses Registry
lists this License on 1330
(Mauricio Molano, Salamanca, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTH AMERICA. Undercover Radio - Pirate 1720 kHz --- A rare chance
to hear a pirate just above the MW band. Still on at 0338 UT, with a
replay of the 2005 Halloween show. S8 signal into NY, SIO 444.
Off at around 0341, then gave a notice that they're moving down to
1710 kHz. Requesting immediate reception reports via e-mail to
undercoverradio @ mail.com (George Maroti, UT Feb 7, NASWA yg via
DXLD)
Pirate, 1710 USB, Undercover Radio, 0458-0550*, Feb 7, Thanks to
George Zeller tip. Dr Benway with IDs. Gave e-mail address & Merlin,
Ontario mail drop. Said this was a 1000 watt mobile transmitter.
Replaying the 20th anniversary special with stories about Progressive
Music Radio from 1986. Good. Strong, but occasional co-channel QRM
from Spanish station (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 1640, KFXY, Enid, OK; “Your sports authority, The Score,
16-40 KFXY Enid-Oklahoma City” Personal First, Fair, 0000 UT 03 Feb
(Paul Crankshaw, Troon, Scotland, MWC via DXLD)
** OKLAHOMA. OKLAHOMA SPLIT OVER DIGITAL TRANSITION DELAY
OKLAHOMA TV STATIONS PREPARING FOR DIGITAL SWITCH
By The Associated Press Published: February 5, 2009
http://www.newsok.com/oklahoma-tv-stations-preparing-for-digital-switch/article/3343506
Despite congressional action allowing a four-month delay in the switch
to digital-only television, stations in Oklahoma City and Lawton plan
to make the changeover as scheduled on Feb. 17.
The situation in Tulsa is less clear.
Officials with Oklahoma City stations KFOR, KWTV, KOCO, KOKH and OETA
and Lawton station KSWO said the switch from analog to digital signals
will proceed without change. [but see below: KOCO backed out]
"Everything's done, we've notified everybody, we've run the ads at our
expense that the government required us to," KWTV general manager Rob
Krier said.
"They told us a year ago, or two or three, and we've been going full
steam ahead to get ready for this and for them to come out a week
before, two weeks before, that's even not fair."
The U.S. House voted 264-158 Wednesday to postpone the switch to
digital until June 12. The Senate previously approved the bill
unanimously and President Barack Obama has said he will sign it.
The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress maintain that the
previous administration mismanaged efforts to ensure that all
consumers — particularly poor, rural and minority Americans — will be
prepared for the switchover.
People who subscribe to cable or satellite TV or have a newer TV with
a digital tuner will not be affected. Those with older televisions
receiving their signal via antenna will need a converter box to
continue to get reception. A government program providing coupons to
defray the costs of converters has hit its funding limit.
Krier said, though, that tests in which the station briefly switched
to a digital-only signal, leaving analog TVs with no signal, went well
and there were few complaints from viewers, leading him to believe
most are ready for the change.
One Oklahoma City station, KSBI, said it plans to continue
broadcasting both analog and digital signals.
"We are fortunate in that we will be able to continue to operate both
in analog and digital through the new cutoff date," Brady Brus,
president of Family Broadcasting Group, Inc., said in a statement. "It
will be operations as normal for us through June 12."
[KSBI = analog 52, digital 51 in OKC, but what about their statewide
analog translator network, even into Kansas? K45EJ in Enid has just
revived after months of absence or very low power -- gh]
In Lawton, KSWO general manager Larry Patton said viewers have had
plenty of time to prepare.
"They've had two years to get ready is our feeling," he said. "We feel
there's always going to be a few people who are going to wake up on
the morning of Feb. 17, or June 17, or whenever it is, and not be
ready. "We're willing to get it done."
David Griffin, president and chief executive officer of Griffin
Communications, which owns both KWTV in Oklahoma City and KOTV in
Tulsa, said he has filed a request to switch both stations to digital
transmission on Feb. 17.
But he also said he reserves the right to rescind that request for one
or both stations if other broadcast outlets do not convert or if there
are signal interference problems.
Steve Foerster, vice president of corporate development for Griffin,
said stations could interfere with each other's signal if some move to
digital only while others continue with an analog broadcast.
"If we could get all stations in both markets to convert, we believe
that would be in the best interest of the public."
Michael Vrabac, vice president and general manager of Tulsa television
station KJRH, said stations in that market haven't finalized a date to
make the switch (via DXLD)
TULSA: OKLAHOMA BROADCASTERS GO FORWARD ON TRANSITION TO DIGITAL
BY ROBERT EVATT - Tulsa World Published: February 6, 2009
[how`s that for a misleading headline: if you READ the story, it`s
Tulsa where the transition apparently is NOT going forward. Mostly it
duplicates the above story --- gh]
Most Oklahoma television stations plan to shut off their analog
transmissions on or near Feb. 17 despite the deadline extension, said
Vince Harrison, president of the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters.
. . .
http://www.newsok.com/tulsa-oklahoma-broadcasters-go-forward-on-transition-to-digital/article/3343693
(Daily Disappointment Feb 6 via DXLD)
However, on Feb 7 we heard KOCO-5/DT-7 say it would NOT make the
switch Feb 17, but keep going with both until June 12(?).
http://www.koco.com/news/18660122/detail.html
KFOR-4/DT 27 has kept running announcements that it would turn analog
off Feb 17 --- so far, and so has KWTV-9/DT 39 which will be going
back to 9 with DTV (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
See more under DIGITAL BROADCASTING
** PALESTINE [non]. Re: 6220 kHz, Al Quds TV audio carrier. Israelian
sources say that Al Quds TV is financed by Damascus and just another
Hamas outlet: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128340
http://armyofheavens.blogspot.com/2008/11/marketing-terrorism.html
I have not found an independent review of their programming so far,
but of course it would fit to the circumstance that their TV audio is
now relayed on shortwave in the very same way than the Al Aqsa TV
audio. Again the same question: Who does this, where are the
transmitters located?
However, I think that these Israelian sources messed up one thing: The
signal on 7 deg. West is, as Tarek already mentioned, on Atlantic Bird
4. This is a satellite owned and operated by Eutelsat, cf.
http://www.eutelsat.org/satellites/7wab4.html
Nilesat has an agreement for capacity on Atlantic Bird 4 with
Eutelsat. But the multiplex in which Al Quds TV is included is
operated by the Bahrain-based Noorsat company, and I understand that
Noorsat leases its slots directly from Eutelsat (Kai Ludwig, Germany,
dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. With all the axion on the 120 and 105 m bands,
looked for PNG stations on 90m, Feb 4 at 1347: 3235 with island music;
best signal was 3365, but only a carrier with hum, still wastefully
audible past 1400. Carriers on 3325, 3345 at 1352. 3335 at 1358
bothered by non-Spanish SSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
3905, R. New Ireland, Kavieng. February 7, 0822-0834 Cher music, 0824
after some seconds silent a slow reggae, from 0826 Spanish talks like
ham changed Papua to behind but don't annoyed. At tune-in 34333. 73's
(Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m,
32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 3329.6, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco 1115 to 1145. Noted 4 and
5 February with several IDs by om.
4857.5, Radio La Hora, Cusco with om ID, 1115 to 1145. Noted also 2300
to 0030 most recent evenings.
5039.24, Radio Libertad, Junín, 1120 to 1200 on 5 February, noted each
morning. 73s (Bob Wilkner, S Florida, NRD 535D, R8 and Sony 2010XA
modified by D. L., DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. One of the most complicated schedules is of Radio Rossii.
It seems they have four or more variations of programmes, earlier
named Orbita-1, Orbita-2, etc.; later Dubl-1, Dubl-2, etc. Now the
tentative schedule looks like this (according to observations of US
DXers and me):
Dubl-1 Far East: 1800-1400 UT, regional programs usually on 12th minute
after news:
6075 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy – programmes ``Radio Rossii`` and
``Radio Rossii Kamchatka`` at 2310-0000 and others; 5935 // 7320
Magadan - Programmes ``Radio Rossii`` and ``Radio Rossii Magadan``
Dubl-2 East Siberia: 2000-1600, includes regional programmes from
Yakutsk/Radio Sakha on 6150, 7140, 7200, 7345
Dubl-3 West Siberia: 4050 Bishkek 2300-1800 (and 1800-2000 with
``Dubl-4`` programmes)
6085 Krasnoyarsk, 6100 Kyzyl, 6195 Ulan Ude, all three 2200-1800 with
regional programmes; 9495 Sukhumi, Abkhazia Mon-Sat 0600-0800 and
1600-1800
Dubl-e Europe: Radio Rossii on:
0100-1600 6030
0200-2200 5930 6160
0500-0800 9840
0825-1300 12075
1325-1600 7310
1625-2200 5905
Radio Rossii plus regional programmes on: Murmansk 5930 and
Arkhangelsk 6160. Sometimes the programmes of Dubl-3 and 4 are common
(Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Feb BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD)
** RUSSIA. R. Rossii, 6075 via Pet/Kam, has developed a slightly
unstable carrier --- or is it a modulation problem? Hard to tell, a
bit of motor-boating underneath audio on Feb 5; and Feb 6 with late
timesignal at 1400 and stayed on for a semiminute while I reconfirmed
8GAL; see UNIDENTIFIED (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. NOVOSEMEYKINO SITE TO BE DISMANTLED
For looking up about Novosemeykino:
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=novosemeykino+site%3Awww.w4uvh.net&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
And a new photo set:
http://foto.cqham.ru/showgallery.php?cat=698&ppuser=2420
The Samara branch of RTRS now announces that it will dismantle the
Novosemeykino transmitter site, saying that it deteriorates further
every year and that there is meanwhile a risk that the antenna towers
could collapse. http://samara.rtrn.ru/news.asp?view=10762
At the end of this news they also mention another dismantling project
for tall objects, to be carried out in the second or third quarter of
2009, with the paperwork being under way at present. It's not
specified what this project is about, but the first suspect would of
course be the Radio Centre 3, i.e. the shortwave site in the northern
outskirts of Samara. Here is an extensive photo collection:
http://foto.mail.ru/inbox/yemel/21
And a nice view of the antenna farm at sunset:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/4466573
(Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 8, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. PERSONALITY PROFILE --- Estelle Winters – Voice of Russia
Estelle has, perhaps, the most distinctive female voice on the air at
the Voice of Russia since Lucy Pravdina. A self-described “Brit” she
started working at the VoR in 1990 when it was still Radio Moscow and
has been with the station ever since. She can be heard on a few shows,
principally Science Plus (successor to Boris Belitsky’s old science
programs on Radio Moscow) and Timelines, and interview program.
Estelle brings a pleasant style and subtle sense of humour to VoR
broadcasts. Science Plus is as the name suggests a straight science
and technology program. Lots of space related subjects and
developments on the ground in Russia and the FSU (and the world).
Science Plus --- “Estelle Winters brings you a wide range of themes
related one way or another with scientif c matters. The program is
aired during the week and also includes short interviews with the
people around our world who specialize in Russian scientific affairs.
“Tune in to Science Plus on Monday at 07.00 and 17.00 , Wednesday at
05.00 and 17.00 and Thursday at 04.00 UTC.”
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&rt=119&p=22.05.2008
Timelines
Perhaps my favourite VoR program; well, tied with Carl Watts’ Jazz
Show. Timelines can be heard in North America on Mondays at 0230 UT
and Saturdays at 0530 and at other times worldwide. Each week Estelle
brings you an interview with someone from abroad, who is living in
Moscow or just visiting. It offers some fascinating insights into the
way people see life in the Russian capital. In the past I’ve heard her
interview a Latvian author on a book tour, an African woman
(Ghanaian?) on the perils and joys of giving birth in Moscow (and
the Russian health care system) and most recently the Press Attaché of
the US Embassy in Moscow on the election of President Obama. Yes,
Obama-mania has reached Moscow.
“Estelle Winters giving you an insight into life in Moscow through
foreign eyes every weekend with information, entertainment and a few
laughs.” “TIMELINES used to be the only new thing back in 1992; now
it’s one of the best things every weekend without fail with British
radio personality Estelle Winters chatting with all ranks from all
over the globe about Moscow and its vast surroundings.
“Warning: Not recommended for those who don’t wish sometimes to have a
chuckle. VoR-PG - suitable for most ages!
“Tune in to TIMELINES on Saturday at 05.30 and 15.30, Sunday at 07.30,
09.30 and 17.30 and on Monday at 02.30 UTC.”
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&rt=127&p=22.05.2008
Unlike the old Radio Moscow, Estelle, and Timelines, presents Moscow
warts and all. Estelle has a great interviewing style, she asks
pointed questions, but also has a delightful sense of humour. I highly
recommend Timelines (Fred Waterer, Ont., Programming Matters, Feb ODXA
Listening In via DXLD)
** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA (Jeddah) 4790. 0444-0453. 31 Jan 09. Arabic. OM
with prayers and preaching. Poor (Joe Wood, Greenback TN, MARE
Tipsheet via DXLD)
I don't see a listing for BSKSA in either EiBi or Aoki, or anything at
that time. Not saying you're wrong but that I don't see it listed. --
Ed. ----- http://www2.starcat.ne.jp/~ndxc/ ----- http://www.eibi.vu.de
(Liz Cameron, ibid.)
This was reported years ago as a semi-harmonic, but haven`t seen it
logged in a long time now. Check 9580 and you will find in Aoki: 9580,
R. Riyadh, 03-06 and 17-22, 50 kW ND from Jeddah, B-08. Is anyone else
hearing them on 4790 during these hours? CODAR and R. Visión, Peru
with prayers and preaching in Spanish normally occupy 4790 here (Glenn
Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SERBIA. Another Serbian MW-pirate Radio Texas (from Vrsac, East
Serbia) has built new PLL-transmitter with 120 W output for MW (around
1700 kHz).
Looks very professional, clean and cool! The station plans to put 1 kW
on air later this year by using this tx as a driver! Radio Texas will
also test internationally during this autumn. I will inform about the
broadcasts later in the forums!
1688 kHz - Radio Panorama, Serbia. I have never heard this Serbian
before. QSO Sylvania. 21.26- - mp3 O=2
[apparently from same source as GREECE, q.v.] spero siano informazioni
utili ! 73's (Dario Monferini, Italy, Feb 5, playdx yg via DXLD)
** SERBIA [non]. International Radio of Serbia heard on 6190 kHz at
2200 UT with Interval Signal and ID at start of English Service. SIO
444. Frequencies still announced at end of broadcast at 2230 as 6100
and 7200 kHz. I do not recollect hearing them on 6190 at 2200 before,
so presume this is a recent replacement for 6100? (Tony Rogers,
Birmingham, UK, Feb 5, AOR 7030+ / LW, BDXC-UK via DXLD)
Seemingly a one-off on 6190 kHz last night. This evening (6 February
2009) heard in English at 2200 UTC on usual 6100 kHz (Tony Rogers,
Birmingham, UK, AOR 7030+ / LW, ibid.)
** SOLOMON ISLANDS. Nu momenteel op 9541.52 kHz, 0815 UT. Met
worldnews, wel aan de zwakke kant maar goed tevolgen (Maurits Van
Driessche, Belgium, Feb 4, BDX via DXLD)
Ik hoorde inderdaad de solomon eilanden vanmorgen, maar dan alleen met
de T2FD, maar niet met de andere antennes. Signaal was zwak, een
beetje te verstaan, misschien genoeg voor een ontvangst rapport.
9541.55, wel veel last van 9545. 73! (Ruud Vos, JRC.NRD-545, T2FD, bdx
mailing list, Feb 5, via DXLD)
Solomon Islands tehoren op 9541.518 kHz, 0838 UT. With talks by
female, very weak and splatter from the D.W. 9545. RX: Pereus, Kaz
antenna. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, Feb 7, BDX via DXLD)
** SOMALIA. RADIO CHIEF IN SOMALIA SHOT DEAD
The director of Somalia's independent HornAfrik radio station, Said
Tahlil Ahmed, has been killed in the capital. An eyewitness told the
BBC a group of journalists were attacked on their way to a press
conference called by the hardline Islamist militia al-Shabab. Gunmen
escaped from the scene and no-one has claimed responsibility.
Al-Shabab does not support the new president - Sheikh Sharif Sheikh
Ahmed, a moderate Islamist - recently elected by MPs as part of a
peace process.
Since the announcement of the murder, all radio stations in the
capital have been playing Kor`anic verses. Analysts say this may be
out of respect for Mr Ahmed or possibly because they are frightened of
further attacks.
A journalist, who was with Mr Ahmed when he was attacked, told the BBC
Somali Service that senior members of Mogadishu's radio stations had
been called to a press conference by al-Shabab. He said they were
nearly at the venue in Mogadishu's central Bakara Market when gunmen
fired on them. Mr Ahmed fell to the ground and his attackers
approached him and shot him again.
Colleagues say Mr Ahmed was a well-respected journalist who continued
working in Somalia after the collapse of Siad Barre's regime in 1991
despite extremely dangerous conditions in the capital. HornAfrik's
owner, Ali Iman Sharmake, and a station presenter, Mahad Ahmed Elmi,
were murdered in 2007.
Somalia has not had a functioning central government for nearly two
decades and tens of thousands of people have been killed in successive
waves of violence.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7869862.stm
Published: 2009/02/04 14:48:35 GMT © BBC MMIX (via Terry Krueger, FL,
Ben Dawson, Zacharias Liangas, DXLD)
STATEMENT FROM THE BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS AND THE VOICE OF
AMERICA ON THE MURDER OF SAID TAHLIL AHMED Washington, DC, 02/04/2009
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and the Voice of America
(VOA) condemn the senseless murder of Said Tahlil Ahmed, Director of
HornAfrik, a Somali media network. Mr. Ahmed was gunned down today in
Mogadishu's Bakara market.
"Targeting journalists such as Said Tahlil Ahmed has a disastrous
impact on the institution of the press in Somalia," said Blanquita
Cullum of the Broadcasting Board of Governors which oversees the Voice
of America. "Free media is one of the building blocks for stability,
something greatly needed in Somalia."
HornAfrik, a longtime VOA affiliate, operates two radio stations and a
television station in Somalia. The private network has been an
important partner in transmitting VOA's news and information in both
English and Somali to listeners throughout Somalia.
"This is a tragic loss for HornAfrik, VOA and the people of Somalia
who suffer the most when they are without reliable and unbiased news
and information," said VOA Director Danforth Austin.
Mr. Ahmed had been director of HornAfrik since 2007 and hosted a
popular talk show on the station. No one has claimed responsibility
for his death.
Somalia remains one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, a
situation that has led many journalists to flee the country or cease
their work rather than risk their lives. Mr. Ahmed's predecessor at
HornAfrik, Mohamed Elmi, was killed by a roadside bomb in Mogadishu in
2007, and the network has been attacked and shut down at various times
by insurgents or government officials (via Dr Hansjoerg Biener, and
Clara Listensprechen, Feb 5, DXLD)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Heard B.S. on WCKY 1530 Cincinnati circa 0715
Feb 4 mention that he is not getting much response from listeners to
KAAY 1090 Little Rock so it`s time to re-evaluate whether to continue
on that station (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. English podcast from Madrid --- Hi Glenn, Hope all is well
on your side. Would like to inform you about a new English language
newspod that a few of us at the English-language edition of El País
have begun producing. It is an approx. 20-minute news and sports
roundup, plus analysis, of the current events in Spain, and features
Guy Hedgecoe, editor of El País English edition, journalist Simon
Hunter and myself. We hope to be putting online a fresh podcast every
two weeks. Here is the link: http://www.spanishnewspod.libsyn.com/
Please check it out. All the best (Marty Delfín, Madrid, Spain, Feb 3,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. CAMBIOS EN REE --- A partir del 2 de febrero 2009 ha
cambiado la programación de Radio exterior de España.
Página de REE: http://www.rtve.es/programas/radioexterior
Esquema de programación:
http://www.rtve.es/files/70-13363-FICHERO/Parrilla__5.pdf
Frecuencias:
http://www.rtve.es/files/70-13342-FICHERO/Microsoft_Word_-_Frecuencias+++_pdf.pdf
Frecuencias en lenguas extranjeras:
http://www.rtve.es/files/70-13364-FICHERO/FRECUENCIAS__extranjeras_en_su_idioma.pdf
(José Bueno, Córdoba, España, Feb 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Among other things, Fuero Propio is now shown at 1330-1400 M-F,
instead of News in Co-Official Languages; last time that came off the
grid, it wasn`t true, so need to confirm. Also Amigos de la Onda Corta
gets a new time UT Sundays 0005-0030, followed by semi-hour mailbag
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
El programa Amigos de la Onda Corta no sale al aire en el horario que
publican en su esquema de programación para el sábado; en lugar de las
0505 UT, fue a las 0605 UT cuando comenzó. Imagino que las frecuencias
tampoco coincidirán con las publicadas. Solo pude escucharlo en 11895
kHz. Desconozco si el programa del domingo también está erróneo (José
Bueno, Córdoba, España, Feb 7, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Did not try at 0505 or 0605, but confirmed the tail end of the program
at 0025 UT Sunday on webcast, so must have started at 0005 as on the
new schedule (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Confirmado Amigos de la OC hasta terminarse a las 0028 del domingo
Universal, en línea, así es que en este caso es correcto el horario de
0005 TU del domingo. Y a las 0029, El Correo del Oyente. 73,
(Guillermo Glenn Hauser, Oclajoma, ibid.)
** SUDAN [non]. via Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia, 15650, Miraya FM,
1501-1511, Feb 6, English news. Mentioned _www.MirayaFM.com_
http://www.MirayaFM.com website. Arabic at 1511. Poor, mixing with a
strong Greece (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SYRIA. Re: DXLD 9-011. Radio Damascus appeal --- Radio Damascus
should be named as Radio Hum. See Horacio, exactly that same strong
carrier but worthless with such strong hum I heard at 2220, Wed. 4
Feb., on 9330 with very distorted audio, let's say in a 90/10 % ratio.
This time nothing on 12085. It's funny that while the announcers cast
this urgent appeal, the engineers don't seem to know where they are
standing. Frankly, because this is not a new transmission problem,
hard for me to explain how can be unnoticed by their technical
department. Hope this time someone send them a clip, so they finally
awake. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
12085, Radio Damascus, 1855-1935*, Feb 7, German talk. Short breaks of
Mid-East music. French at 1900 with talk & Mid-east music. Abrupt sign
off. Strong carrier level but slightly low modulation, loud hum and
slight distortion. Nothing heard on 9330. First time I have heard
12085 in quite a long time (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. Re: ``9280 02/02 2328 (TWH) TAIWAN, Family Radio, em
chinese, desde Yunlin, com 100 kW, tradicional programa de perguntas
e respostas, QRM de jamming, 43433 (Jorge Freitas - Feira de Santana
BA - Brasil) What kind of jamming? I didn`t think the Chicom bothered
to jam YFR (Glenn Hauser, DXLD)``
Glenn, quanto ao jamming da Family Radio em chinês é o som parecido
com o antigo pica pau da década de 70, não era contínuo, mas
frequentemente interrompia a transmissão. 73, (Jorge Freitas, Feira de
Santana Bahia, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Like the old woodpecker. In that case I think it was some ute QRM and
not jamming (Glenn Hauser, DXLD)
** TRINIDAD & TOBAGO [and non]. TRINIDAD GOVERNMENT TO OWN REGIONAL
NEWSPAPERS AND RADIO STATIONS AFTER BAILOUT
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/article.php?news_id=13985
(via Dale Park, HI, DXLD)
** U K. BBC "On Air" Vs "World Agenda" magazine --- After stop of the
BBC "On Air" magazine, now BBC World Service send the 28 pages "World
Agenda" (A4 Size) magazine to their listeners / Government /
diplomatic services / Media / culture / Business and trade /
Development agencies / NGOs and Education / research people. To
request a free copy of World Agenda or confirm your mailing details
complete the form in the following link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/worldagenda/registration_form.shtml
(Jaisakthivel, ADXC, Chennai, India, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 12150, VOA at 1454 Feb 4 with editorial about
Richard Holbrooke, envoy, and clip of Sec. State Clinton. Hard to copy
tnx to CODAR x 2. This is via Iranawila, Sri Lanka, 250 kW at 322
degrees. I cringe whenever I hear an English-speaker pronounce `envoy`
half in French, half in English. Make up your mind! (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
VOA Spanish, Greenville 15590, with Saturday morning music show Feb 7,
outro at 1358 as ``Éxitos Latinoamericanos llegó a Vds. vía satélite e
internet, www.voanoticias.com`` So at VOA, shortwave is not even worth
mentioning as another delivery platform. Off at 1359:30* without any
sign-off announcement. It`s also nonsensical to have a website URL
with `news` in it when you also play music. But that`s becoming
common: a local TV station which only spends a small fraxion of the
168-hour week on news, such as KWTV OKC, brands itself as ``News 9``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. ARMED FORCES RADIO MUTATES AWAY
February 3, 2009: A U.S. military tradition is about to be killed off
by the iPod. Since World War II, the U.S. Armed Forces Radio (AFR) has
broadcast to the troops, no matter where they are, using local
transmitters and troops as announcers. But declining ratings, caused
by iPods and changing tastes, has resulted in massive changes in what
will be heard. Surveys and focus groups were conducted among the
military audience, and it was found that a lot of the current
programming was not well liked, or listened to. Troops would tune in
for the news, and then go back to their MP3 players for music and
podcasts. Another change that has sort of crept up on everyone is the
fact that over half the troops are married, and most have kids. There
are more families overseas, who are also AFR listeners, and they have
different preferences than the troops. . .
. . .Long term, AFR will mutate into AFN (Armed Forces Network), that
will live on cell phones and the Internet, not via radio broadcasts.
AFR will become a fond memory, like the base newspaper and many other
military customs that have disappeared the last half century.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmoral/articles/20090203.aspx
(via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD)
It`s already been known as AFN for ages (gh, DXLD)
** U S A. KJES, 11715, inaudible around 1405 Feb 4, but by 1457 it had
infaded with G signal, but very undermodulated, YL solo. This
correlates with sporadic E opening on HF if not VHF, which during the
hour had also brought WWCR from nothing to inbooming on 15825. Once
again, it seems these HF Es openings are quite broad geographically,
unlike when they hit VHF (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. BILL LEONARD AWARD TO TED RANDALL
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/02/04/10610/?nc=1
The award is nice but the picture is rather scary!
(Ted Randall, Radio Disclosure, QSO Radio Show
http://www.tedrandall.com Feb 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Sad to say, but NPR occasionally botches their news on the
hour. Usually around midnight when I get my final news fix of the day
at 0500, 0600 or 0700 UT, I have noticed problems like playing the
wrong clip and then trying to get out of it, throwing off the timing
for the optional rigid cutaway at 4 minutes past the hour, for the
benefit of affiliates who think 3 minutes of news is plenty!
But everything went wrong Feb 6 at 0500 as heard on KOSU.
Automatically joined network at 0501 --- silence. After a minute or
so, non-classical fill music cut in, and then abruptly joined news in
progress, voiced by Shay Stevens,
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2101249
but there was background noise, papers rustling, she blew some lines
and may have been out of breath, but doggedly kept going. One can only
guess at what catastrophe had happened in the studio. Totally
amateurish-sounding.
Dirty little secret: some commercial network news on the hour is not
live at all, but recorded a few minutes earlier to ensure there are no
such problems, or if there are, then can do it over live and hope for
the best. Perhaps NPR needs to adopt this tactic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. BU SELLS WRNI FOR $2 MILLION -- RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC RADIO TO
OWN, OPERATE NPR STATION
The sale of radio station WRNI by Boston University to Rhode Island
Public Radio became final earlier this month, ending a multiyear
process and marking the first transaction completed in accordance with
a 2005 Rhode Island law requiring the attorney general to protect the
state’s charitable assets.
“Now, finally, we can say that WRNI is owned and operated by Rhode
Islanders,” says Joe O’Connor, the station’s general manager since
2006. The agreement gives WRNI, Rhode Island’s first National Public
Radio news station, administrative and financial independence from
Boston University and its WBUR Group.
The station, formerly WRCP 1290AM, was acquired by WBUR and BU for $2
million in 1998. . .
http://www.bu.edu/today/2009/01/29/bu-sells-wrni-2-million
(via Artie Bigley, OH, Feb 3, DXLD)
** U S A. 1560 kHz with booming dominant loud & clear signal in sports
talk, discussing merits of Monday night football hosts, Feb 7 at 0649
UT, phone 1-800-878-PLAY. Missed hourtop ID if any but at 0706, got
program name ``Sports Overnight America``, and mentioned several
affiliates, including KTRB-860, but not 1560.
Would normally tune out this nonsense, but something is amiss.
Strongly suspect KGOW Bellaire/Houston TX, which has a 50 kW rig for
daytime only, but which got out very well a few months ago during a
hurricane on emergency usage. Searching on S.O.A., one gets to this
which does show KGOW as an affiliate:
http://www.sportsbyline.com/affil.htm
And KGOW`s own program schedule, ``lineup`` calls it ``Midnight Sports
Byline`` starting at 9 pm most nights with no details of exactly
what`s on until 7 am local CT:
http://www.1560thegame.com/media/?page_id=150
This signal was huge, and by comparison, XERF-1570 was buried in QRM.
So was KGOW running day power and tower? Inspecting FCC info at
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&hpat=2&facid=17389 ---
Licensed nite power is 100 watts, but this was no 100 watts; no point
in even looking at the direxional pattern for that. But also has a CP
for 15 kW at night, with peak at 145 degrees, nulls at 45, 100, 295
and 345 degrees --- we are about 345 degrees from Houston.
The 50 kW day pattern, however, has a broad peak from 340 to 50
degrees, centered on 15 degrees, so it sure looks like this was in use
--- and no hurricanes anywhere near.
If I were one of the four other Texans on 1560 {adhering to licensed
feeble night power}, or KOCY Oklahoma City, not a trace of which was
audible here, I`d be blowing the whistle on KGOW (Glenn Hauser, Enid
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
I believe KGOW is non directional at night and I don't think they've
built out their CP; it took them forever to get to 50 kW as it is. The
50 kW is directional, with 6 towers and sends a huge lobe N/NE.
Blowing the whistle? That's a bit harsh, why don't you call the
station first? Don't assume because it prevents you from DXing that it
was done intentionally. I've called stations recently when I noticed a
problem, and one in particular in Mississippi was extremely
aprpeciative and glad I mentioned something to them as they didn't
know (Paul Walker, NE, NRC-AM via DXLD)
This is in reply both to Paul Walker and Ron Gitschier, who are not on
the same lists:
Every time some station gets caught cheating, and someone exposes them
on it (in this case a lot of someones as far away as Scotland),
someone else comes back that we should treat them with kid gloves, or
do responsible monitoring of their own station for them. If I had some
personal connexion with someone at the station, that might be
different.
It does not prevent me from DXing. I had no burning need to hear
anything else on 1560 at the moment. I am not KOCY or one of the other
Texans on 1560, adhering to licensed feeble night power, and it is not
my job to inform KGOW about what they are fully responsible for doing,
or letting happen unintentionally. As for phoning automated stations
in the middle of the night trying to reach a real human being, I have
better things to do. Anyhow, checking next night, UT Feb 8 at 0222,
back to normal multi-station jumble on 1560, no KGOW heard (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Glenn, List: While the KGOW situation seems likely to be what is
speculated - I think a simple phone call of "Hey you might want to
check your (circuit werks sicon / Burke / Sine Systems) switch or
something. Last night you were really tearing up the ether in xxx QTH
- vice mobilizing the feds may do the trick. Maybe wait for the
station ID before calling for selfish DX reasons... (snicker).
Now if they were a habitual offender - sure blow the whistle loud and
clear. I won't say you method is wrong; just trying to look it from
all sides. No station deserves unintentional interference.
Somebody may have absent-mindedly left the transmitter in local vs
remote - could be a myriad of things; and the folks who operate the
station probably would appreciate the heads-up. Even though they ought
to turn a radio on every now and again to check on their baby. I do,
but I don't listen 24/7. I know that on that rare occasion things
happen - and that in and of itself wouldn't make me a hardened
criminal. I don't ever approve operating out of parameters. That will
just bite you in the hind end sooner or later, attracting undesired
results. Just a view from the cheap seats (Ron, Gitschier, ABDX via
DXLD) Meant to say no station deserves interference from a breach of
diligence (Ron Gitschier, Palm Coast FL, ibid.)
Although the current episode may be an accident, I'm pretty sure they
are habitual cheaters. When I was in Houston in Feb 2004 for my dad's
cancer diagnosis, they were still a daytimer. They actually had
brokered programming scheduled 4 or 5 hours past sunset every night
(they had no FM or other // station as far as I could tell) and left
their carrier on all night to boot. The FCC was oblivious to these
apparent flagrant violations, and with Clouseau-like skill, deftly
awarded them with a permit for night operation a year or two later.
73, (Tim Hall, CA, ABDX via DXLD)
I`m not saying we need to monitor a station for the owners, but unless
we can pretty much, without a doubt, prove frivolous negligence on the
licensees part, we can't always assume the worst, yet we do.
Just today, rather then report them to the FCC, I contacted the
licensee of a 2 tower AM DA that lights on both towers were out,
because I KNEW it wasn't done on purpose (Paul Walker, NE, IRCA via
DXLD)
Glenn, We have been through this several times in the past. I have
always felt that the term "cheating" should NEVER be used in regard to
a suspicion that a station might be on high power on the lists. First
of all, it does not go over well using that term with many engineers
and it does not look well on us. Plus there are many other terms that
could be used.
Second, we have no idea why a station may be on high power, testing
equip, a glitch in the timer, or whatever. Also in some cases, it
could be reception conditions that we hear a station. Even though we
cannot control what people do, but calling a station in the middle of
the night doesn't help either, as you stated. Maybe a quiet call
asking for the CE the next day, as he/she may not know about a glitch
in their timer.
But I wish people would quit using that term on the lists. It just
does not look good. I don't want to start a flame war here, but every
time I see that term used, it drives me up the wall. For the record, I
know of several engineers who see our postings. They do not directly
sub to the lists, but the postings show up elsewhere. Often within a
few minutes (Patrick Martin, Co Moderator, IRCA reflector, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
Back to the original night:
KGOW Bellaire TX is poking through WQEW here tonight at 2130 EST [0230
UT], likely indicating day power operation. Sports talk format (Barry
McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, UT Feb 7, IRCA via DXLD)
Received here in Scotland at 0101 UT with fair signal (Paul Crankshaw,
Troon, Scotland, UT Feb 7, IRCA via DXLD)
This was LOCAL-like here in southern Missouri Friday night with
sports-talk around 10:30 pm Central (0430 UT Sat 7 Feb). Are you sure
there WAS anyone else on the channel, hi? Assuming KGOW, they had to
have been running on their 50kW blowtorch last night (Randy Stewart,
Battlefield MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Thanks for the tip on KGOW. Good solid signal here, almost nothing
from R. Disney in New York. KGOW with good ID at 03:05 CST. Signal is
much stronger & clearer than when heard during hurricane Ike last
September (Tom Jasinski, Shorewood, IL, R8A & Quantum loop, IRCA via
DXLD)
KGOW operated off of their daytime power for a few nights after
hurricane Ike. They are a regular, and very strong daytime fixture
here in the Dallas area. The strongest Houston signal during the
daytime up here, almost sounding local between deep fades that
characterize these frequencies in the daytime (Bruce Carter, Feb 7,
ABDX via DXLD)
I guess you are speaking here of winter daytime skywave, which should
diminish progressively as equinox oncomes (gh, DXLD)
According to Radio-Locator, they have a Construction Permit granted on
15-Jan-2009 that allows them to operate with 15,000 watts at night,
but with a VERY narrow directional pattern to their southeast. Their
normal nighttime power is 100 watts with a relatively non-directional
pattern. Maybe they kicked up their power, but forgot to switch
patterns?? 73, (Steve N5WBI Ponder, Houston TX, Feb 7, ABDX via DXLD)
** U S A. ECONOMIC DOWNTURN'S EFFECT ON RADIO
Radio is indeed getting hit hard in the present economy. The company I
work for [Salem] has laid off 10% of its employees in the last three
months, and all employees have taken a 5% pay reduction as of Feb 1,
except for upper management who have taken a 10% reduction. Still, it
is better than letting go 1850 employees as Clear Channel did last
month, with more rumored to come as on Feb 20. Radio stocks are at
their lowest point ever. All of this is, of course, public knowledge
(including the info on the company I work for).
Still, it's not just the economy. It's the technology. As has been
noted, fewer and fewer young people are listening to radio. I can
understand that. Why would you want to listen to a mode of technology
in which one must listen to what someone else wants you to hear when
you can carry around a small device that will hold an entire music
library of music you like? Logic alone tells you that eventually the
latter will win the battle. And that can be extended to satellite
radio, as well.
The comments about local programming are right on the mark. But, I
would take it even further. Local programming without innovative
programming is still at a disadvantage. With few exceptions, everyone
does the same formats in the same way. Radio has become generic. You
can hear the same formatics in Minneapolis that I hear in
Philadelphia.
If radio is to survive, it must reinvent itself, whether it be AM or
FM. It will always have the "one-way" medium disadvantage, as opposed
to technologies that are interactive. It must find new ways of
presenting what it historically does best: entertaining. Without the
relatable, local entertaining factor, radio will continue to have
additional nails hammered into its coffin day by day, week by week,
year by year, as people flee to more flexible media. Radio has to give
people what their mp3 players can't.
As for me, I'm an old fart like a lot of you. I am 57 and was raised
primarily on AM. I remember great stations of the past - WNBC, WNEW,
WKBW, WCFL, and so on. I even had the privilege of working for some
great heritage AMs like WNEW and WPTR. But, creatures like me (us?)
are fast becoming the exception to the rule. I still listen to AM,
although not as much as I used to: except for DXing, of course. I work
for two AM stations, and as an engineer I prefer doing AM to FM. It is
still the more challenging technology - particularly in the aspect of
directional antennas. But, even I can see the writing on the wall, and
I don't like what it says. 73, (Rene' Tetro, PA, Feb 7, IRCA via DXLD)
What I find bizarre is that, despite those massive layoffs, Clear
Channel has added AM IBOC on no fewer than five stations (WNIO, WARF,
KXEW, WFXJ, WGIN) so far this year. Granted that the IBOC conversions
were probably in progress before the latest downturn, but I still
think they have their priorities badly skewed. The problem is not the
delivery system - it's the content, stupid! (Barry McLarnon VE3JF
Ottawa, ON, ibid.)
One of my locals, KFRU, just fired the rest of the news staff who
hadn't already been let go, along with the meteorologist.
Some trivia: KFRU's alumni includes Chuck Roberts, now at CNN Headline
News, and Skip Caray. Jim Bohannon tried to get a job there back in
the day but was turned down. I wanted to go into radio from about age
12 but wound up in magazine journalism instead (Tim Kridel, ibid.)
Tim, I think back on the first radio station I had connections with,
WALL in Middletown, NY. I spent a lot of time "hanging out" there when
I was a young teenager in the 60s, and worked there in the 70s.
This was a small class IV 1 kW-day/250 watt-night station on 1340 in a
city of about 22,000 and a county of under 100,000. The station had a
three person new department, plus a sports director. And, of course,
all local disc jockeys. And the station made money hand over fist. The
joke was that all the station had to do to make money was remember to
turn the transmitter on in the morning. And in Orange County it had to
directly compete with the big-guns in New York City (and even
regularly beat WABC locally in the ratings).
WALL was owned by R. Peter Straus at the time, who also owned Top-40
WMCA in New York City. Later the station was sold to Oroco
Communications, formed by Jim O'Grady who had been the general manager
at WOR. These were radio people who almost instinctively knew what
worked and what didn't. And, they new that a strong local identity was
key. Strong local personalities and local news presence drove the
station.
What the current crop of radio corporations has forgotten is the
audience. I can remember a radio owner in the 70s, who cut his teeth
writing copy for NBC in the 40s and 50s, telling me, "The station has
to stick out like a sore thumb." It has to be distinctive. You have to
give the audience a reason to want to listen. As radio's "piece of the
media pie" gets swallowed up by newer, "sexier" technologies, this is
going be increasingly important to keep the industry viable.
When Mike Bloomberg bought WNEW in 1992 he gave an interview to the
New York Times. Something he said about the industry has always stuck
with me. He said, "Often people can't see the forest for the trees.
Radio people are definitely tree people." He was right. 73, (Rene'
Tetro, ibid.)
** U S A. REPORT OF KNAU'S DEMISE GREATLY EXAGGERATED --- NAU
administrators affirm that they are not considering completely
eliminating financial support for KNAU. The station will be subject to
some state budget cuts and survive. KNAU is largely self-funded and a
great example of a successful public-private partnership. Each dollar
that NAU provides the station is leveraged to five dollars through
membership, underwriting, and grant revenue. As more listeners and
businesses support KNAU, we become a stronger and more widely-used
service. Sincerely - John Stark (KNAU newsletter, Flagstaff AZ, Feb 5
via DXLD)
** U S A. COUNTY COUNCIL REVERSES RADIO TOWER RULING --- Council
discounts studies' claims of health risk --- By David Chircop, Herald
Writer, Published: Wednesday, January 28, 2009
EVERETT [Washington] -- The Snohomish County Council in an appeals
hearing Tuesday voted 3-2 to overturn a hearing examiner's October
ruling that halted construction on two controversial AM radio towers
south of Snohomish.
Council members who reversed Examiner Barbara Dykes' decision said she
cited studies that lacked substantial evidence to prove that radio
frequency emitted from the radio antennae could pose a public health
risk.
"I certainly can't find significant evidence to support the hearing
examiner's decision," County Councilman Dave Gossett said.
The decision, which may be appealed to Snohomish Superior Court, opens
a path for S-R Broadcasting Inc., the owners of KRKO (1380 AM), to
open a new full-power AM radio station to broadcast on a frequency of
1520 AM. . . http://heraldnet.com/article/20090128/NEWS01/701289798
(via Artie Bigley, OH, Feb 3, DXLD)
KRKO-1380 IBOC? Off the NE EWE, there is a "Very" strong carrier at
S9+45-50 DB on 1380 and horrible IBOC hash on 1390. Cannot tell on
1370 as I have a local, KAST. Anyone in the Puget Sound can check?
Thanks. 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, 0551 UT Feb 4, IRCA via DXLD)
Hi Patrick, I'm in northeast Seattle, and I certainly hear the IBOC
hash, but KRKO's modulation is very low. Carrier sounds stronger than
usual, though, and I know they were planning on using IBOC. Their
signal isn't sensational here, but I can't imagine who else would be
doing IBOC on 1380. – (Rick Lewis, ibid.)
Patrick, I checked on the SDR-IQ, and the display is showing IBOC hash
on 1370 and 1390. The IBOC carriers are about about the right level to
be originating from them, and they change strength by the same amount
as KRKO when I switch antennas. Your suspicions appear to be correct,
but I'll try to check tomorrow during the day to confirm them. I'm not
getting a strong carrier there, just KRKO at S9+10 with bits of other
stuff in the background (Bruce Portzer, WA, ibid.)
Thanks Bruce & Rick, The signal is down now to S9+15, but it was
"Very" strong for a while. It looks like they are testing the new 50
kW, IBOC and all. The earlier signal was probably the 34 kW ND I would
guess, maybe 50 kW ND? It was stronger than I get KIRO or KJR!!! Oh
great, another IBOC generator (Patrick Martin, 0623 UT Feb 4, ibid.)
It looks like the power boost for 1380 has become a reality,
unfortunately, plus more IBOC noise and 1390 has been a good channel
logging Maine & SC and few years back (Patrick Martin, ibid.)
What amazes me is just how strong their IBOC was compared to their
modulation on 1380.
At times I could hear the carrier, but had trouble hearing what was
being said, due to low modulation and other signals on the frequency.
Yet the IBOC was pounding away loudly especially on 1370 (Rick Lewis,
ibid.)
It sounded like they were on with high power, but low modulation. I
guess the IBOC hash gets out as well even with the modulation is low
(Patrick Martin, ibid.)
** U S A. NAB SUES FCC OVER LPFM
http://prometheusradio.org/rahrahrah
(Bennett Kobb, Feb 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Very enlightening item (gh)
** YEMEN. Republic of Yemen Radio, Sana`a, heard on 21 Jan with news
in English at 1830-1835 on 9780.15 kHz, SIO 242. Possible weak
parallel on 6005, but not certain (Dave Kenny, Feb BDXC-UK
Communication via DXLD)
** ZANZIBAR. 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1800-1811, [Sat] Feb 7,
English Spice FM news. Into Swahili talk at 1811. Local pop music. Not
as strong as usual but audio much better. Clear and clean audio
without the distortion or wobble (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** ZIMBABWE. ZBC JOURNALISTS PLACED ON EU TARGETED SANCTIONS LIST
Six more Zimbabwean journalists were slapped with European Union (EU)
targeted sanctions on the 26th January according to the latest list
published from Brussels. Recent additions include ZBC chief
correspondent Reuben Barwe, diplomatic correspondent Judith Makwanya,
senior producer Musoro Wegomo Mukosi, board chairman Justin Mutasa and
Acting Chief Executive Happison Muchechetere, who will not be able to
travel to any EU country. The targeted sanctions which include a
freeze on assets were introduced several years ago to target
individuals aiding and abetting the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe.
Barwe, Makwanya and Mukosi were accused of whipping up violence during
the government-orchestrated terror campaign before and during the 2008
elections.
According to the list Muchechetere and Mutasa, who chairs the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings and is Chief Executive of Zimbabwe Newspapers,
(owners of the Herald and Chronicle newspapers among others) are
accused of having ties to the Government and being involved in
activities that seriously undermine freedom of expression and the
media in Zimbabwe.
Also on the list is Pikirai Deketeke who chairs the Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe and is editor of the official pro-government
newspaper - The Herald. He also has ties to the regime, which further
compromised freedom of expression in the media. Last year Herald
journalists Caesar Zvayi and Munyaradzi Huni were the first
journalists to make it on the list.
The EU said the measures were being extended for another 12 months and
took into account the situation, including the violence organised and
committed by the regime, and the continued blocking of the
implementation of the unity deal signed by ZANU PF and the MDC last
year.
Previous additions on the list include businessmen like John
Bredenkamp, who is said to have provided, through his companies,
financial and other support to the regime. Sekesai Makwavarara the
former opposition mayor who later joined ZANU PF is also on the list,
and is accused of ‘bearing wide responsibility for serious violations
of human rights.’ Other key people in the army, police, intelligence,
media, political circles and business are on the EU list which has 203
people and 40 companies aligned to Mugabe.
This week Mugabe tried to use the African Union summit to lobby for a
removal of the targeted sanctions, but western countries said they
would remain in place until ‘real progress’ was made in sharing power
with the opposition. Many people are still suspicious of Mugabe’s
sincerity in the unity government, convinced he wants to use the MDC
to win international acceptance for his rogue regime, and relieve
pressure on his embattled stay in power (SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
via David Pringle-Wood, Feb 5, DXLD)
UNIDENTIFIED. 3623, Feb 4 at 1403, open carrier with fading, when NK
and PNG were in on lower frequencies, so possibly Indonesian or some
other Asian broadcaster of interest meriting further checking tho
nothing listed here. Or just a closer ham (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
This was probably Japanese Meteo which has operated on or near this
frequency for ages. It comes in here in our local evenings (Robin
VK7RH Harwood, Tasmania, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
3622.5 kHz are Kyodo NEWS and Meteo Fax (F3C) of JMH 5 kW via Nazaki
transmitter site, Ibaragi-prefecture of NTT (Nipon Tel&Tel). These
other frequency of JMH on 7795 and 13988.5 kHz. JMH change a TX site
this year in Kagoshima (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, ibid.)
3623, open carrier again Feb 6 at 1355. Following my previous log,
Robin Harwood in Tasmania says it`s probably Japanese meteo; S.
Hasegawa says JMH, a 5 kW NTT transmitter at Nazaki which carries
Kyodo News and Meteo Fax, on 3622.5. Maybe I have caught it during
idle moments, but this time I measured to be sure and it was on
3623.0, or within 0.1 of there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 4750, 0045-0100 Feb 8, Noted a threshold signal here
with a person in steady unidentified language. Signal faded in to
poorest a few times, but not well enough to copy anything. I'd like to
think this was Bangladesh since that's all I can find listed on this
freq for this period? Signal faded to only a carrier by 0100. Needless
to say, CODAR didn't help with the copy (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston,
Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, Feb 6 at 1400 V/CQ marker started during R. Rossii
closing timesignal on 6075, and was strong enough to reconfirm
tactical ID as 8GAL, probably Russia too. Last year this was not heard
after Feb 28 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6092v, carrier oscillating making variable hets with
weak 6090 and 6095 signals, Feb 4 at 1433; trying to pull some audio,
but off already at 1434. One guess: Mérida 6105v malfunxioning (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 8000, with regular beeps on modulated carrier you could
take for timesignals except there were 36 of them per minute, and no
marker on the minute, Feb 6 at 1419. I believe there used to be
something here from Japan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Saludos amigos, monitoreen rápido los 9630 kHz. Que
emisora es esa, se escucha toda saturada y corrida de frecuencia (José
Elías Díaz Gómez, Apartado Postal 488, Código Postal 6001-A,
Barcelona, Venezuela, 0156 UT Feb 8, condiglist yg via DXLD)
Did not see this until several hours later. As reported in DXLD, two
stations have previously been putting spurs around here: CBCNQ 9625
and Brasília 9665 relaying CRI (gh, DXLD)
José Elias e colegas, Não sei se é a mesma emissão, mas agora às 0228
UT nessa frequência sintonizei a CNR(Central PBS) em chinês, muito
forte, mas sem saturação. SINPO 55444. Rx Sony ICF SW 7600 GR, com um
cabo coaxial esticado pela janela. 73's (Arthur Antonio Raimundo,
Araçatuba SP Brasil, Latitude -21 13' 04'' Longitude 50 25' 55'',
radioescutas yg via DXLD)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PUBLICATIONS
++++++++++++
WRTH VIA AMAZON ARRIVED
Well, what do you know. Received the 2009 WRTH from Amazon on February
4, 2009. Ordered, I believe, back in October. Should have gotten at
least 1/2 off since there already is a WRTH update. 73, (Kraig,
KG4LAC, Krist, VA, Feb 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Sorry, but as a former editor of WRTH I fail to see the logic here.
WRTH now offers free updates (which I always wanted to do, but I was
never given the budget to do it), and yet you expect to get it half
price? Many people in Third World countries have to pay a lot more in
real terms and have to wait a lot longer to receive their copies. And
many of them are not able to take advantage of Internet updates.
I guess you ordered from Amazon because it was cheaper already than
ordering direct from the WRTH website, which would certainly have
ensured earlier delivery. I guess Amazon requested surface mail
shipment rather than air shipment, which is a lot cheaper and is one
of the reasons they can offer the book at a lower price. In fact, I
just looked at the Amazon website and, because the pound has tumbled
in value, the 2009 edition is $23.10 but the 2008 edition is still on
sale at $26.95 !!
All the years we printed WRTH in the States, we had very few
complaints about late delivery from US customers, but plenty from
Europe. Now the situation is reversed. I always told people that it
depended on where they ordered from. You can get it quicker if you cut
out the middleman. But the fact is, you normally get what you pay for
(Andy Sennitt, Netherlands, Feb 6, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Andy, 1/2 price from Amazon since the WRTH is late. I've had people
email me from other locations telling me they've had the WRTH 2009 for
months.
Yes ago when I created and published the "Shortwave Listeners Program
Guide" EEB in Vienna sold my publication. EEB's mark up was 40%.
Plenty of room to offer a "discount".
Perhaps, I really don't know, this is how Amazon gives book discounts.
They wait until the item is old, they buy it at a great discount and
then it is available? I know DeepDiscount had it less than Amazon.
Don't know if the WRTH was in stock or not at DeepDiscount. 73,
(Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, ibid.)
No, that's not how Amazon works based on my experience, both as an
author and a publisher, of selling tens of thousands of books through
Amazon. It sounds like the problem is on the WRTH end; maybe late
shipment?
I got a smile out of your mention of EEB. By far, they were the most
dishonest SWL/DX vendor I ever encountered, and I got a good laugh
back in 1995 when a federal jurt returned a couple of felony
convictions against Dick Robinson (owner of EEB) for defrauding the
U.S. government. The karnic boomerang hits its target!!
(Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17
http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com ibid.)
Hi Glenn, I am aware of, and share, the concern about these delays. I
have been chasing this since the beginning of January.
As I have explained to many WRTH readers, the books reached the Port
of New York on December 16. They were trucked from there in a sealed
container (so it did not have to go to a warehouse to be broken down)
direct to the distribution center in Virginia. They should, and could
easily have been, released from there before Christmas. For some
reason they did not get released *officially* until January 15. I
think they were actually released on February 2 as they arrived at
Grove and Universal (and, I assume, Amazon.com) on February 3 - by UPS
courier!
This is the worst distribution performance ever in any country for any
edition of WRTH. We were delivering in Mongolia and Christmas Island
long before these books were finally despatched.
The failure to deliver to Amazon has also had an impact on readers and
clubs all over the world who ordered from Amazon.com or from websites
who do so.
The new owners of Billboard (Random House) do not want to carry books
like WRTH and so next year we will have a completely different
distribution arrangement. Best wishes (Nicholas Hardyman, Publisher,
World Radio TV Handbook, Feb 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
HIGH FREQUENCIES DEBATED IN TUNIS --- ASBU
The Tunisian capital, Tunis, hosted February 2, 2009, the winter
session of the High Frequencies Coordination Congress (HFCC), with the
participation of 130 experts, representing 30 countries and 50
broadcasting organizations.
Slaheddine Maaoui, Director General of the Arab States Broadcasting
Union (ASBU) and Tunisia's Minister in charge of Communication and
Relations with the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Advisors,
Rafaa Dkhil, co-chaired the opening session. Proceedings are expected
to go on in the tourist resort of Hammamet till February 6.
In his opening statement, the Director General welcomed participants
and Mr. Dkhil, whose presence, he said, "reflects the high interest
the Government of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali puts in ASBU's
activities and programs and the support it provides to the Union's
projects and achievements."
He also praised the active participation by ASBU and its member
organizations in HFCC, which allowed them to choose the most
appropriate broadcasting channels and helped provide better service to
their Arab and international audiences.
Such a participation in the coordination process has also been
economically efficient. He called on even more broadcasters to take
part in the process. Mr. Maaoui said that ASBU is looking forward to
digital broadcasting and is striving to encourage all its members to
adopt the upgrade from the analogical system to the digital one.
The conference President, Oldrich Cip (Czech Republic), reviewed the
rich history of cooperation between HFCC and ASBU in the field of
coordinating high broadcasting frequencies. He stressed the importance
of such an effort to achieve better broadcasting results and avoid
interference through improving work equipment, especially in Africa
and Asia. He called on all broadcasters to use HFCC's common database,
now available on its website.
Minister Rafaa Dkhil highlighted the importance of coordinating radio
shortwave broadcasting, especially that such a technology is one of
the most important means to disseminate the news worldwide, along with
home broadcasting satellite. "Although shortwave radio broadcasting
needs no advance authorization; he said; international coordination is
required because it allows each station to broadcast with no
interference from other stations."
http://www.asbu.net/www/en/articles.asp?artid=77 (photos on site)
(via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD)
RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM
+++++++++++++++++++++
'THE LARGEST RADIO TRANSMITTER IN THE WORLD'
A 1950 newsreel movie showing the opening the of a new 1 megawatt
transmitter for the US Navy can be seen on YouTube. The YouTube video
titled - 'The Largest Radio Transmitter in the World' 1950
newsreel - can be seen here:
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2009/largest_transmitter_in_the_world.htm
(via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD)
Jim Creek, Washington. WTFK?? What`s the call? This one-minute
newsreel gives no such details. VLF, of course. Some of these use very
long cables strung across a canyon as antenna, or even buried cables.
Yet shows a string of self-supporting radio towers. Seems I recall it
was since decommissioned? (Glenn Hauser, ibid.)
24.8 kHz, NLK: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/vlf.htm
The Google results page indicates that it was a site in Virginia that
has been closed down and replaced by a new installation.
And of course those who wrote the script for the Newsreel bawler did
not know that these 1000 kW were nothing unique for a transmitter.
Maybe for RCA, since another megawatter I'm aware of (Erching near
Munich) had been built by Continental instead (Kai Ludwig, Germany,
ibid.) That info from 1998y shows power as only 192 kW (gh, DXLD)
Might this have been physically largest, because of component sizes at
VLF? (David Coursey, ibid.)
I don't think so. The 1000 kW VLF transmitter at Kalbe/Milde, known as
"Goliath", sat in a transmitter hall of 14 x 26.5 metres size, and the
transmitter itself can not be distinguished from a LW/MW broadcasting
transmitter of the same power by its optical appearance, without a
closer look at details. The real giant thing was the antenna, as it is
the case with other VLF sites as well.
No pictures of Goliath itself appear to be online (only of the remains
of this installation), but here is a coil of another VLF transmitter:
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/c/criggion_radio/index2.shtml
And another old VLF transmitter with tube PA stages:
http://www.hawkins.pair.com/nss.shtml
Another detail: Transradio offers VLF transmitters "on request" just
as a variant of their TRAM series, well known for MW (TRAM) and LW
(TRAM-L) broadcasting as well as LW utility (TRAM-LC) stations. Or
should I say VLW? Medium waves, long waves, very long waves -- in
German VLF is indeed called Längstwelle = "longest waves" (Kai Ludwig,
Germany, ibid.)
IMAGES FROM OVERLOAD DUE TO MISCONNECTED BALUN
Re 9-011, UNIDENTIFIED 8760: Olá Glenn e Colegas. Descobri o motivo
das imagens em meu Degen. No domingo eu estava tentando identificar
algumas emissoras em OT que estavam chegando com sinal baixo e muito
ruído, tentei diversos baluns e outros procedimentos e os ruídos
continuavam. Aí inverti as pontas do balum 9:1 e os ruídos diminuíram,
acontece que eu esqueci de voltar a posição correta. Esse foi o
problema das imagens nos 30 metros e pela manhã de segunda feira
liguei o rádio e me deparei com diversas imagens de uma rádio local em
diversas faixas, pensei: o degen pifou :-( Desmontei a antena, troquei
de lugar, direção, aterramento, angulo de inclinação e nada, apenas
pequena melhora. Foi aí que olhando já desalentado para o rádio
percebi que o balum estava invertido, coloquei no lugar correto e....
UFA, tudo voltou ao normal, isso me custou um atraso considerável em
minhas atividades profissionais. Bem, resolvido o problema as imagens
sumiram, é como o Glenn disse: a inversão do balum provocou uma
sobrecarga de sinal na entrada do degen. 73, (Jorge Freitas, Feira de
Santana Bahia, Brasil, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
THE CONSUMERS ARE NOW IN CHARGE
by Mark Durenberger, 02.02.2009
[illustrated with author in shorts in front of VLA, irrelevant]
Commenters on the state of the radio industry are passionate and
engaging, striving to energize management and their troops in the
creation of new ideas.
Some may miss the point. The ultimate reality is that radio will have
to totally reinvent itself. The concept of "top-down" broadcasting
from a radio tower to passive listeners in real time is no longer
relevant. It's now dangerous to buy a station for stick value and do
cash-flow analysis and projected ROI based on "expected sales."
Consumers ("listeners") are now in charge. They seek content they can
manipulate; delivered when they want it, in the form they want it, and
containing only what they want. Radio stations operating in real-time
can't do this. Multiple HD Radio channels might provide limited
content choice but can't sort, prioritize or manipulate content to the
continued satisfaction of their constituents. . .
http://www.rwonline.com/article/73976
(via Harry Helms, ABDX via DXLD)
There are still some stations that are nearly all local - like WSNJ-
1240 in Bridgeton NJ, or WMIK-560 in Middlesboro KY but they are rare.
There are very few such stations here on the east coast. It simply is
cheaper to pipe in your programming rather than pay to sit a warm body
in front on a mic for a 6-hour shift, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
That's the simple economic truth of the matter, which is why many
stations can't afford to go all local. You have to find talent and pay
for it and keep it, and that means benefits and health care and what-
not, and that gets expensive. I wish more could/would go all local
(and I'm looking at you, WDOV-1410 in Dover, Delaware, which is a CC
station) but I just don't see it happening, especially with those
stations run by Clear Channel and other conglomerates that care only
for the bottom line instead of actually serving their community.
If the FCC is going to mandate some form of localism, it needs to
apply to FM stations even more than it does AM. One thing it could
hopefully accomplish is to kill off many of the translators groups
like Calvary Chapel or some universities litter the FM band with,
which would be a good thing. Maybe we would see a decline in voice
tracking and out-of-town personalities as well. In my opinion, FM is
much more of a wasteland than AM is when it comes to lack of local
programming.
But how many stations would a revived Fairness Doctrine/local
programming rules kill off? (John Cereghin, Smyrna DE, ABDX via DXLD)
See also CANADA: CKDH
PHASING OUT JAMMING WITH `INTERFEROMETER`
Recently I heard a very interesting storey on Radio Liberty Russian
service in the programme “Your letters” hosted by Anatoliy Strelyany.
The storey has been written by an old lady, Albina Sats. I’ll retell
it to you briefly.
“Before the War, boys had mass enthusiasm for a radio hobby. At the
time it was very hard to get by somebody subscription to the magazine
“Radiofront”. My neighbour – a nice, clever boy – presented me a
homemade valve receiver, and as a gift I arranged him subscription via
a relative of Polina Zhemchuzhina, the wife of Viacheslav Molotov, the
then Foreign Minister of the USSR.
So, friendship was started between me and this boy, named Igor G.
Somewhere in the 40s, Igor invented a method how to listen to the
shortwave Western stations – BBC, the Voice of America – through the
jammers. He named his invention “interferometer”. He had some antennas
in the attic of our house, signals from which he somewhat put
together. The signals from the neighbouring jammers occurred in the
contrary phases, and were annulled, but those from the remote stations
were added and heard practically without jamming.
When Igor studied at the 9-th form of a secondary school, he was
arrested. His mother died after his arrest. I asked Polina
Zhemchuzhina, who was later arrested too, for help. Igor was released
from prison but not allowed to live in Moscow. He sent me a letter.
Sixty years later, he found me. Now he lives in Canada, in a little
university town on the ocean coast. He teaches the theoretical course
of quantum physics. He is considered an authority in this field of
science.”
Such was the storey told by Anatoliy Streliany in his programme “Your
letters” on the Russian service of Radio Liberty (Olex Yegorov, RUI
Whole World on the Radio Dial Jan 24, via DXLD)
DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see DENMARK; GUATEMALA; INDIA; KALININGRAD
++++++++++++++++++++
ABOUT THE NEW ANALOG CUTOFF DATE
I wonder just how this "piecemeal" approach to the analog switch-off
(in which stations MAY shut down analog on the original February date,
but don't have to absolutely until June) is going to work. Probably
not too well. I have a feeling there is going to be some confusion,
quite a few conflicts, and some hard feelings all around.
Take one local case in point. In the Orlando-Daytona Beach market, CBS
affiliate WKMG (channel 6 analog) has its DTV transmitter on (out of
core) channel 58. They were approved to move to channel 26 on
Transition Day. They have been running both analog and DTV on reduced
power, prepping the transmitter in anticipation of the big move.
Whoa, but hold on there: Univisión affiliate WVEN is on analog channel
26 (DTV 49). WKMG's move to their permanent channel hinges on WVEN
shutting down their analog. Suppose WKMG is all set to go on February
17th, but WVEN says, "Ah, we're not quite ready; we're going to wait
until the new June cutoff date." In essence, WVEN can then hold WKMG
"hostage" and leave them in limbo, unable to finalize their DTV plan.
Locally, that seems to be the only conflict, but I know there are
dozens of other similar situations around the country. The whole point
of the transition was to do the final switch all at once, in a smooth
and coordinated fashion. This new plan, with the option of making the
switch pretty much any time between February and June is, IMHO, going
to cause some major problems in some markets. Stations that literally
cannot afford to keep two transmitters going without major financial
investment (or engineering repairs, renegotiating tower leases, etc.),
but can't make their final move due to a channel conflict, are going
to be between a rock and a hard place. They may be stuck with their
temporary DTV channels, power, and transmitter sites until it can all
be resolved (Stan Jones, FL, Feb 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
FCC RELEASES PROCEDURES FOR FEBRUARY 17TH ANALOG SIGNOFFS
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-6A1.pdf
The FCC has issued a Public Notice implementing the DTV Delay Act.
The Notice waives, in part, the requirement that stations signing off
before the final deadline (now June 12th) notify viewers 60 days in
advance.
It waives in part the requirement to get advance FCC approval before
signing off more than 90 days before the final deadline. (it is
roughly 110 days before June 12th)
SOME STATIONS MAY BE DENIED PERMISSION TO SIGN OFF "ON TIME"
The Commission "...reserves the right to limit or reconsider this
partial waiver in the event that it determines that analog termination
on February 17 by a station or group of stations is contrary to the
public interest."
It looks like they might look poorly upon notifications of on-time
termination if most of the stations in a market notify and an unusual
number of viewers in that market are not prepared for digital.
Expect affected stations, if any, to scream bloody murder.
Stations wishing to sign off their analogs on February 17th have three
days to notify the Commission of their decision. That includes
stations which have already so-notified the FCC; they must notify
again.
Stations wishing to sign off their analogs on February 17th face
additional audience notification requirements. From Tuesday through
Saturday of next week, stations must run a notification crawl for five
minutes out of every hour. On Monday and Tuesday of the subsequent
week, the crawl must run for ten minutes. (somehow they managed to
skip Sunday.) The crawl must specify that the station is signing off
before the new mandatory deadline of June 12th.
Stations whose post-transition digital facility is different from
their pre-transition facility must obtain FCC approval before
activating their post-transition facility on February 18th. This
presumably to ensure they don't interfere with any analog stations
that are remaining on past that date. -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant
View, TN EM66, Feb 6, WTFDA via DXLD)
Just like a new version of the "Soup Nazi" episode on Seinfeld. "No
early sign off for you!!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ3AOmZ2fps&mode=related&search?SteveIndianapolis
(Steve Rich, IN, ibid.)
WHITE HOUSE SEEKS COMMENT ON DELAY BILL --- Obama not likely to sign
bill into law before Monday, asks for five day public comment period
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/6/2009 8:33:28 AM MT
It looks like the White House won't be signing the bill into law until
at least Monday, the same day broadcasters must let the FCC know if
they want to pull the plug on analog Feb. 17, which is now early but
is the date the government has been telling them was the drop-dead
date for years.
President Barack Obama, as part of his pledge of openness and
transparency, said he would give the public five days to comment on
bills before he signed them.
The text of the DTV delay bill has been posted on the White House Web
site along with a comment form.
Broadcasters may make the transition on Feb. 17, but bill co-author
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA), chairman of the Senate Commerce
Committee, has asked broadcasters to "put consumers first." The FCC is
doing more than asking. Broadcasters must request to make the move by
Feb. 9, but the FCC can deny the request if it doesn't think it is in
the public interest, say, if all the stations in a market with high
analog-only penetration want to go on Feb. 17.
The big problem is that the converter box coupon program slowdown,
which prompted the Obama administration's request to move the date,
may not be unstuck until March or April, so, the more stations that go
Feb. 17, the more the bill's effect is weakened (via Steve Rich, WTFDA
via DXLD)
Cf. OKLAHOMA above: Here in St. Louis, analog channel 46 is already
off the air, with 46.1 working quite fine. My main objection is that I
can no longer record some movie-review programs on at 10 AM Sunday
(the same time as To The Best Of Our Knowledge on local NPR (KWMU)).
KDNL, channel 30 (ABC), is still announcing the closing of their
analog channel on Feb. 17th; I get 30.1 much better than I ever could
receive the analog -- I could never reliably record them anyway. Don't
know if this new delay will affect their analog cutoff or not.
Channel 4 (CBS) is somehow partnering with the religious organization
New Life Evangelistic Center, which operated channel 24 KNLC, and
analog 24 is off the air while their digital 24.1 is on in addition
to a much clearer & stronger duplicate on digital 4.2 -- no idea if
that will go on indefinitely or what. 4 keeps announcing "rescan"
days for people to do new autoprograms to keep up with their series of
revisions to the digital equipment. 4 also held a converter-box
giveaway with the NELC head (Rev. Larry Rice, a local homeless-persons
and poor-people supporter) at their headquarters in downtown St.
Louis.
Nobody ever addresses the issue of what`s going to happen in a
digital-only world during windstorms, tornadoes, etc. when the public-
safety aspect of TV stations transmitting weather warnings and data to
battery-operated portable TVs disappears. I thought that I had read
here (or in DXLD) that the state of Florida had officially requested
the cancellation of the digital changeover because of the effect on
hurricane warnings -- whatever happened with that? Also, there was a
political decision to delay the changeover within 50 miles of the
Mexican border to preserve the audience of US Spanish-language
stations from Mexican still-analog transmissions, wasn't there? What
happened with that?
Of course, LPTV stations are still going along on analog; I get about
5 of those with home-shopping and religious programming. Don't watch
them with any regularity, so haven't seen or heard any plans for any
of those to go digital.
The local PBS station (KETC, channel 9) has the usual PBS group of 4
digital subchannels [NOT usual in OK! -- gh] -- one duplicating the
analog, one kids' programming only, one "Create" (mainly cooking &
crafts shows). The other was "PBS HD" up until this week when it
suddenly switched to being "World" and has a different program line-up
(& also moved from 9.1 to 9.3, with 9.1 now being the analog-copy
subchannel). But they haven't even changed their website's schedule
info to show the new programming; I just sent them a gripe via e-mail
about that. 73, (Will Martin, St Louis MO, Feb 6, dxldeyg via DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
While glad to publish input from DXLD direct contributors, I am not
attempting to round up from other sources, everybody`s comments about
what`s going on in every market, especially in such a state of flux.
Maybe we will eventually have a list of which stations are doing what
to link to (gh, DXLD)
I suppose there's no limit on how boneheaded DC can be about this, but
I think any further extension would be awfully hard to pull off.
We won't know the final numbers until Tuesday, but it seems like a
good bet that between 400 and 700 of the 1800 or so full-power TV
stations will be going off on or before Feb. 17.
Among those are every commercial station, save one (WOAY-4), in the
state of West Virginia. Could Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the chief
sponsor of the extension bill in the Senate, really get up there in
June and make the case that a further extension is needed, three-plus
months after TV in his state has gone effectively all-digital?
Then there's also the promise that was made to Qualcomm and other
concerned parties that the latest extension would be the last; but we
know what promises are worth in Washington, don't we? s (Scott Fybush,
NY, Feb 6, WTFDA via DXLD)
This is almost surreal. On WTNH 8 News at 10:20 pm, an item that
states that the DTV delay will cause a shortage of converter boxes.
So let me understand this. Without the delay we'll have a shortage of
coupons. And with the delay, we'll have a shortage of converter boxes.
Either way, we lose. -- (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT USA, Feb 6, ibid.)
Yup. I spent a couple of hours yesterday watching the FCC's open
meeting, and one of the last witnesses to testify was from the
Consumer Electronics Association. He explained that the Chinese
factories that make the boxes had ramped down production a few months
ago, on the expectation that demand for them would drop to near zero
within a few weeks after the Feb. 17 cutover.
You can see where this is going, right?
They've restarted production in China now that the delay has passed,
but the new boxes being made there won't make it here until mid-April
at the earliest.
Which should work out just fine, since the new coupons might not be
budgeted until then, anyway. Your gubmint at work...
(Saul and fellow Canadians excepted; presumably by the time OTA analog
ends up there in 2011, they'll have the bugs all ironed out for the
0.15% of Canadians still watching OTA TV...) s (Scott Fybush, ibid.)
Can somebody explain to us non US group members, the Channel 46.1
concept US Digital TV is using - i.e. the analog is normal US Channel
46, and the digi channels are being described as decimals on that
number - are they really slightly off the actual frequency, or are
they somewhere else? (Keith, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
It's a virtual channel designation. The stations broadcasting in 8VSB
DTV format can carry more than one program simultaneously. Each
program is designated by its sub-channel, so a station carrying three
programs would be on .1, .2. and .3. While the primary, or .1,
sub-channel is typically a high definition network feed, each
additional sub-channel takes bandwidth away from the primary since the
overall bandwidth is a fixed rate. As sub-channels are added the
bandwidth is shared between them and the primary HD channel is
degraded to allow enough bandwidth for the other sub-channels.
Typically the higher numbered sub-channels are in SD or Standard
Definition format or the DTV equivalent of the NTSC analog signal,
although the amount of bandwidth allocated to a sub-channel can be low
enough that digital artifacts are visible and the picture quality is
noticably lower. HTH, 73, de (Nate Bargmann, KS, ibid.)
Sorry, I appreciate that explanation, but it does not answer my
question. In the UK where the network has been a bit more controlled
over the years, we have Channels 21-69, which equate for a frequency
within the range 471-861 MHz, though neither of these sets of numbers
are used on air.?? In Manchester, UK, we have 5 national channels
utilising Ch 55, 62, 59, 65, and 48.
Within the Terrestrial DTV realm these services are currently
duplicated from a set of 6 transmitters on Ch 56, 60, 63, 66, 67, 68,
each broadcasting between 10 and 15 services of radio, TV, and
teletext. The basic Satellite EPG utilises the names in its numbering.
Whilst over the years, the main channels have become known as
BBC1 (Analog-Ch55 / Digital-Ch56 / SatEPG-Ch101),
BBC2 (62 / 56 / 102),
ITV (59 / 66 / 103),
Channel 4 (65 / 66 / 104), and
Five (49 / 68 / 105),
as they usually occupy those places in all lists, and most people`s TV
sets(!) (including above)
So my query was really, if an analog US Station is using US channel 46
(i.e. 663.25 MHz), where are digital Channels 46.1, 46.2, etc.? Or
like in UK there is no correlation between the two?
(for any with a historical interest, all the above Analog and Digital
services emanate from one aerial, alongside an analog VHF net and DAB
net at Winter Hill, with the first VHF-TV service starting in 1956? =
an awful lot of stations!!!
see
(Keith, UK, ibid.)
Exact same frequency range. 46 in DTV is the same slice of spectrum as
46 in analog. Some stations are moving to a new channel allocation
with DTV operations and others are replacing analog with DTV on their
current allocations. Channels 51 through 69 will be vacated by TV and
reallocated to new services. 73, de (Nate Bargmann, KS, ibid.)
I think the point is that the digital/virtual channels designated by
.1, .2, etc. cannot be correlated with any specific frequency within
the 6-MHz bandwidth of any TV channel. They are all mixed in together,
right? (Glenn Hauser, ibid.)
Yes. It's the computer chips that take care of the multiplexing for
us. Here is more than anyone probably wants to know:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8VSB
73, de (Nate Bargmann, ibid.)
I was going to add this point too. In most cases, the ultimate
digital RF channel is not the same as the original analog RF channel,
but it could be, depending on circumstances. Many stations have been
operating on a temporary DTV channel until the transition be complete
(whenver that may be!). For example, in Oklahoma City, KETA-13 has
been duplicated on digital channel 32, which in this case consists of
32.1 and 32.2. On Feb 17 (?), it turns off 32 digitals, turns off 13
analog, and turns on 13 digitals. All along it has retained its
identity as ``Channel 13`` even when viewed on channel 32. To further
confuse matters, the DTV system is set up so that when the digital
channel is tuned in, it is `re-mapped` to display the original analog
channel identity.
On the other hand, KFOR channel 4 has been duplicated on digital
channel 27 (27.1 and 27.2), and will stay on 27, turning off 4
forever.
So the station transmitting DTV on channel 27, KFOR, will continue to
be identified as 4.1 and 4.2, and only the techies need to know it is
really on RF channel 27. If you punch in 27 on your DTV converter it
tunes to 27.1 and then displays that it is tuned to the pretend-
channel channel 4.1, not 27.1 as I implied. Yes, it does get very
confusing! It could get even worse if a new station went on the air
(DTV) really on channel 4 in the same city --- how would it be
numbered? But that is unlikely (Glenn Hauser, ibid.)
Glenn, But, it will likely be known as "4" and will map into the
converter box/ATSC tuner as 4.1, 4.2, etc. while actually transmitting
on RF 27. The remapping has made things quite confusing for some
people who don't easily understand that after all of these years they
will need a UHF antenna to receive "4".
In this area KSNB, 4, Superior, NE was slated to operate on 34, but
submitted a petition last fall to operate DTV on 4 instead. The FCC
granted their request in December as Pappas Broadcasting is cash
strapped and requested 4 to reuse most of their tower equipment as a
cost savings measure. Nearby KHAS, Hastings, NE will also commence DTV
operations on channel 5. It will be interesting to see how DTV on VHF
low will work out for the mostly rural area they serve.
At Lincoln, NE, KLKN and KOLN will commence DTV operations on their
analog channels, 8 and 10 respectively. As far as I know all four of
the previous stations have filed to terminate analog by the 17th.
In Omaha, NE, KMTV, 3, WOWT, 6, and KETV, 7, will all operate DTV on
their current UHF assignments and at some point will terminate their
analog operations.
KUON, 12, Lincoln, suspended analog operations on November 11, 2008
and sometime by mid December (when I did a rescan for grins) NETV had
also converted translators 23, Beatrice, and 33, Pawnee City, to DTV.
From Topeka, KS, WIBW, 13, will commence DTV operations on 13 as will
KTWU, 11. So, for these parts to get all channels a full sized TV
antenna is still required. 73, de (Nate Bargmann, ibid.)
THE NEW FCC, AND IBOC
A fairly complete overhaul of the FCC is in progress. Commissioner
Tate and Chairman Martin have both resigned; President Obama will be
appointing two new Commissioners to replace them (the full strength of
the FCC is five Commissioners, so there's 40% turnover going on).
It is very common to see this kind of turnover after a Presidential
inauguration. Even if it's the same President being re-inaugurated for
a second term, let alone if there's a new President, let alone if that
new President is of the other party. So don't consider these
resignations unusual.
Congress has expressed considerable displeasure with the way Chairman
Martin ran the Commission; the critical report released late last year
didn't cite IBOC but it did complain about the Commission sweeping
evidence under the rug in other proceedings.
On the other hand, you should not count on the new Commission to end
the IBOC program entirely, or even just on AM. -- (Doug Smith W9WI,
Pleasant View, TN EM66, having trouble typing because Friendly
Neighborhood Stray Cat is insisting on rubbing her head on my hands as
I type. She's been hanging out around a fire somewhere, I can smell
it, Feb 3, WTFDA via DXLD)
RECORDING OF HOW AM HD RADIO SOUNDS.
I just posted something on the web archive of some interest to the
list- an AM HD radio recording. The information at the site pretty
much gives the details:
http://www.archive.org/details/HdRadioAircheckWls-hd890AmChicagoIllinois02-04-09
(Curtis Sadowski, Paxton, Illinois, WTFDA-AM via DXLD)
I'm surprised how graceful the transitions between HD and 'real' AM
sound. It is painful to hear how narrow the standard AM broadcasts
sound when forced through an HD system. The analog remains of WCBS-AM,
here in NY, sounds so lousy since they went to HD. How graceful are
transitions while mobile? Interesting recording! (Karl Zuk N2KZ,
ibid.) IBOC: see also USA: KRKO
POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS
++++++++++++++++++++++++
LANÇAMENTO MUNDIAL ! PLC - INTERNET PELA REDE ELETRICA
http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-89106063-lancamento-mundial-plc-internet-pela-rede-eletrica-_JM
(via Marcelo Bedene, dxcljube pr yg via DXLD)
Fiz uma pergunta, e tive uma resposta que acredito, dentro da
ignorancia do vendedor , foi o melhor que podia dizer. Ele necessita
ser melhor esclarecido.
*Pergunta:* Senhor Vendedor Poderia informar se este equipamento
provoca interferencia em equipamentos como receptores e transceptores
utilizados por radioamadores, radioescutas, aeronautica, etc.? Como já
foi constatado. 04/02/2009
12:50 *Resposta:* A evolução deste produto no exterior foi muito
grande, toda esta gama de problemas já foi resolvida há muito tempo
(via Ulysses Galletti, PY2UAJ, Feb 4, ibid.)
I know some of you have been following this. Just a quick update: a
very helpful Ofcom investigator was round today, and my QRM problem IS
the infamous BT home-hub after all. His next step is to contact BT and
lodge a complaint and get the Noisy PSU replaced; he's also begged the
BT customer (on my behalf) to unplug the thing when he's not using it
(until the replacement arrives) - but the customer is elderly and
seems to have forgotten this already.
For 5 minutes this afternoon I had the band back - I swear it was as
quiet as Grayland with this thing off! But eventually The Ofcom man
had to allow the BT user to plug his home hub back in and it`s back to
the usual QRM hell again.
The Ofcom man did promise to phone the guy tonight to remind him to
unplug it, so I may be able to get an overnight session in tonight.
Feel free to forward this to UK QRM or anyone else suffering with this
problem (Tim Bucknall, England, Feb 6, harmonics yg via DXLD)
WORLD OF HOROLOGY
+++++++++++++++++
BBC PIPS 85
Glenn, I was listening to the CBC Radio One show Q this morning and
the opening monologue paid tribute to the pips leading up to the top
of the hour on the BBC's radio services, which celebrate their 85th
birthday today. 73, (Ricky Leong, AB, Feb 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See
also BRAZIL; one more week of DST left
PROPAGATION
+++++++++++
CARIBBEAN SPORADIC E TV DX INTO WEST FLORIDA
Mike Schaffer, KA3JAW of Tampa, Florida likes to hunt commercial
broadcast television DX, and reports that last winter he didn't see
any, but on January 25 he reported, "I just snagged my initial 2009
winter season television DX on channel two coming from HIJB Tele
Antillas, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I saw the station logo
(TA) several minutes before 17:00 GMT. The audio level was about
equal to the video quality in this case, but normally the audio is
loud compared to the video level. The distance from me here in
Tampa, Florida to Santo Domingo city is 1,045 miles. Half this
distance, 523 miles, would place the Es plasma cloud near south-west
of George Town, Bahamas." Mike copied the signal for less than 3
minutes.
Later that same day he copied WKAQ on channel 2 at 2313z from San
Juan, Puerto Rico, 1,232 miles away. He said the sporadic-E opening
that day ran from 1530-2320z. The next day, also on channel 2 he
copied a TV station in Managua, Nicaragua. (QST de W1AW
Propagation Forecast Bulletin 6 ARLP006, From Tad Cook, K7RA,
Seattle, WA February 6, 2009, To all radio amateurs, via Dave
Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ###