DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-041, May 20, 2009 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2009 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1461, May 21-27 Thu 0530 WRMI 9955 Thu 1900 WBCQ 7415 Fri 0000 WBCQ 5110-CUSB Area 51 Fri 0100 WRMI 9955 Fri 1130 WRMI 9955 Fri 1900 WBCQ 7415 Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 [or 2029] Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 0800 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 9510 [except first Sat] Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Mon 0500 WRMI 9955 Mon 2200 WBCQ 7415 Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Tue 1900 WBCQ 7415 Wed 0500 WRMI 9955 [or new 1462 starting here?] Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1900 WBCQ 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 DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD, which seems to be coming out less frequently? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg without delay. When applying, please identify yourself with your real name and location. Those who do not, unless I recognize them, will be prompted once to do so and no action will be taken otherwise. Here`s where to sign up http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ ** ANGOLA. 4949.757, Radio Nacional? 2050, no ID but certainly sounds like them. Local hilife and Portuguese ballads and hyper male announcer talking over the top of the songs. Had hoped for news at 2100 but went across top-of-hour with music. The announcer started taking calls from listeners at 2104, at which point I thought I heard one or two mentions of "Angola." Then UT +1 time check as "Vinte dois e seis minutos" at 2106. Still good as I type, 2119. Also, had a carrier on 7216.745 kHz at the same time but no audio. 16 May (David Sharp, FT-950, NSW Australia, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Have not had a chance to check for possible Angola again, as I am at work that hour M-F. Will be curious to see if anyone else is hearing this as I won't have another opportunity to check until Saturday local time. 73s (David Sharp, NSW, May 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 945, RNA-Serviço Internacional, Mulenvos, 2119-2147, 15 May, English, Angolan songs, mostly in Vernacular, ID & newscast at 2130, talks; 44433 during the best peaks, QRM de FRANCE. 1088, RNA-Canal "A", Mulenvos, 1818-1910, 16 May, Portuguese, talks, news at 1900; 13431, adjacent QRM de ALGERIA 1089. It was rated 33442 at 1900. \\ 4947.9. I'd say the modulation quality on 1088 is slightly better than that on 60 m. 4947.9, ditto, 1810-1915, 16 May, Portuguese, talks, newscast at 1900, \\ 1088; 15331, then rated 35332 at 1900. I don't know when this was reactivated, but must have been quite recently (15 days max.), if not on this very day. 7216.75, RNA (presumed), Mulenvos, 1838-, 15 May, carrier detected, heterodyne, adjacent QRM; 13441 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So 60m was 2 kHz lower than usual? As mentioned twice above (gh, DXLD) ** ANGUILLA [and non]. Caribbean Beacon (as it never axually IDs) still missing from 11775 at 1228 May 13; could hear DCJC pulses QRMing weak Chinese signal, Commie jammer vs Commie jammer since the Chinese is on there to block All India Radio in Tibetan via Goa! Is 6090 also missing at night or are DGS/PMS stuck on that frequency also in the daytime? After several days` absence, DGS was back on 11775, May 14 at 2132 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) As you might be aware, radio parts are hard to come by on the Island of Anguilla and engineering problems can also take time to figure out by the local engineer who sometimes must seek telephone help from "off the island". There is an extremely heavy Government TAX which prevents stockpiling of spare parts. The purchase of parts takes place only when immediately or in near future, they are needed. This explanation of the engineering problems will offer an understanding of what must appear as a long time off the air when these problems happen (George McClintock, Consulting Engineer for the Caribbean Beacon (CBB), May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. ANTARTIDA, 15476, LRA36, Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, Base Esperanza, 1855-1912 , 12-05, canciones, identificación: "Transmite LRA 36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, en la frecuencia de 15476 kHz desde Base Esperanza, Antártida Argentina", comentarios, locutora, "De Esperanza al mundo, un contraste entre... y la belleza de nuestros paisajes", 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de Cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15476.03, 1855-1915 13.05, R Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, Base Esperanza Spanish ann, Argentine pop songs, 25332. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, 28 metres of longwire, AOR AR7030PLUS, via Dario Monferini, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ANTARTIDA, 15476, LRA36, Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, Base Esperanza, 1840-1906, 15-05, locutora, comentarios, canciones argentinas, Atahualpa Yupaqui, Horación Guarany, identificación a las 1900, locutor, locutora, "De Esperanza al Mundo", "Transmite LRA 36, Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, por la frecuencia de 15476 kHz, banda de 19 metros, desde Base Esperanza, Antártida Argentina". 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de Cable, 10 metros, orienta WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. ANTARCTIC RADIO UNFREEZES --- GLOBAL WARMING HITS THE DIAL! The Radio Heritage Foundation has now released an introductory guide to broadcasting in Antarctica at its global [sic] website http://www.radioheritage.net and with some four stations at McMurdo Station alone, it seems 'global warming' is now unfreezing the Antarctic radio dial. 'Antarctic Radio Unfreezes' journeys back to AFRS radio station WASA 600 AM at McMurdo and traces broadcasting through the American Forces Antarctic Network [AFAN] on shortwave 6012 through to today's Ice FM 104.5 --- where old vinyls have kept on spinning for a new audience. Local 'pirate' station 88.7 FM is heard whilst cruising around Mactown, and along the ice highway linking McMurdo with New Zealand's nearby Scott Base, techno music from Radio Scott Base 97.0 FM can blast away the icicles. Even deep down at the South Pole, it's KOLD 87.5 FM and across the continent, stations as diverse as Radio W.I.L.K.E.S, LRA36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, Soberanía FM, and Radio Ker 98.0 FM keep scientists and support staff entertained and informed through the seasons of snow and ice. This well illustrated article helps shine the light on little known radio stations across the entire 'ice' and may even result in more stations being discovered. Not all stations mentioned may still be on the air. With all kinds of music coming from over 10 radio stations, volunteer DJ's, a Wells Fargo Bank ATM, increasing numbers of adventure travellers, cafes, and more trappings of 'civilization' the Antarctic of today is very different from when explorers barely a century ago first stepped ashore. For a fascinating and unique look at radio broadcasting in the Antarctic, we warmly recommend your visiting 'Antarctic Radio Unfreezes' today at www.radioheritage.net (David Ricquish, RHF May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Several other new articles there are being promoted by such commercialized press releases; see the site (gh) ** ARGENTINA. 11710.64v, RAE, 0159-0226, May 20. In English; IS; pips; IS & IDs; segment talking about tango music; played some selections; news; poor-fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ASIA. TWR-Asia has launched a new web site: http://www.twr.asia/ (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, May 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Under Broadcast Schedules you can choose a language or a country, one at a time, and get that program schedule to display in local time, minus transmitter site. It seems that for TWR, Africa is part of Asia (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 15515, R. A. - Shepparton, 0228-0233 + 0320, May 20. Probably on at their scheduled *0200, as not heard before 0200; conversation about agricultural economic issues; fair; // 15240 (via the same site). Nothing heard on 15560 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Amigos, mais um QSL foi recebido hoje. Depois de um tempão recebi o tão esperado e desejado QSL da Rádio Austrália (o segundo obtido dela). 11880, Rádio Austrália - Shepparton - Recebido bonito QSL full data (comemorativo dos 60 anos da emissora), schedule e programme guide. 1 ano 53 dias (114 dias após follow-up). V/S: Ilegível. Informe enviado por e-mail: english @ your.abc.net.au QTH: Radio Australia, GPO Box 48G, Melbourne, Australia 3001. 73 (Rubens Ferraz Pedroso; Bandeirantes - Paraná - Brasil, May 19, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) Re DXLD 9-023: Got a Radio Australia QSL in the mail today and recalled seeing this a while back. Perhaps they are cleaning out the mailbag? QSL details: Full data "Shepparton International High Frequency Transmission Station", "Broadcasting Radio Australia for 60 Years" card w/ site (Brandon), frequency schedule for Asia & Pacific region in 371 days for $2 US and a report sent to the RA Melbourne address. QSL mailed from Singapore. V/S, Ian Johnson (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I communicated with Radio Australia at the time of the SWL Fest and found them responsive and helpful. This was regarding pens / trinkets / schedule info, not anything QSL related. Not sure what their QSL policy is nowadays or who manages that activity. Oddly enough, I'm having trouble bringing up their website right now for contact information, and that's rare. I visit their website normally a couple times per week. Their website URL is http://www.abc.net.au/ra (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. ABC GETS A LARGE FUNDING BOOST --- While this article (and publication) focus on television, one hopes this funding will help boost the ABC's radio offerings, which, in my own view, are among the world's best amongst English-language broadcasters: http://tbivision.com/article.php?category=7&article=897 (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, May 13, Swprograms list via DXLD) Don't count on it (Scott Royall, Conch Republic, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. 15525, HCJB (Kununurra), 2159-2215, 5/14/2009, English. Music and identification by man followed at 2200 by identification and opening announcements for English language program by woman. Talk by man and woman until 2215 tune-out. Very poor signal, frequently fading into the noise. Couldn't understand much of the program, but the 2200 ID was solid (Jim Evans, Germantown TN, E1, Random Wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. CVC 12000: see CUBA ** BANGLADESH. Re 9-034: ``Bangladesh plans to start applying summer time UT +7h in June (WRTH Update April 14 via DXLD) What nonsense! That will make it a sesquihour ahead of India which is not only west, but north and east of Bangladesh, and even a semihour ahead of Burma further east (gh)`` Time and date still says there is no DST change in Bangladesh: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/clockchange.html?n=73 Where did WRTH info come from; any confirmation now? (Glenn Hauser, May 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS. 15 May 2009, 1500 UT, 7255 kHz, Radio Grodno, SIO - 454. Address for report? (Andrey Skorodumov, Yaroslavl, Russia / "open_dx" via RusDX 17 May via DXLD) Radio Grodno, ul. Gorkogo, 85, Grodno, 230015, Belarus http://www.radio.grodno.by (Sergey Alekseychik, Grodno, Belarus, ibid.) Re 9-040 CHINA item by Carlos: "7135, CRI, some Beijing area site, 1842-1855, 10 May, Russian, talks; 24331, sporadic amateur (i.e., legal) QRM; \\ 6070." Belarus has been using 7135 around this time rather often lately (Jari Savolainen, Finland, May 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. Bhutan Broadcasting Service Annual Report 2007 is now available for download using this link : http://www.bbs.com.bt/annualreport07.pdf Lot of interesting info & photos of BBS, there is a photo of 100 kW SW transmitter at Sangaygang, Thimpu on Page 10. Excerpts from the Annual Report -- Technical Department continued to upgrade and strengthen BBS's technical capacity to gather and disseminate news and programmes. New satellite technologies were successfully introduced and effectively used particularly during the mock elections and the National Council elections. The following FM and Television transmitters were installed to enhance our Radio and TV transmission in 2007: - 150 W TV Transmitter installed at Yonphula, - 500 W FM Transmitter and 150 W VHF TV Transmitter at Jabjey, Paro - 500 W FM Transmitter and 150 W VHF TV Transmitter at Saureni, Samtse - 500 W FM Transmitter and 150 W VHF TV Transmitter at Thonphu Gompa, Pema Gatshel - 500 W FM Transmitter at Rameytay, Phuentsholing (accordingly the 1 KW FM Transmitter at Takti which serviced Phuentsholing was replaced with 5 watts solar powered FM Transposer to counter frequent power surge) - 250 Watts FM Transmitter at Bumthang - 100 Kilo Watt shortwave transmitter with Digital Radio Mondale (DRM) capability was commissioned. . . (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dxldyg via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4835, R. Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza. May 14, Spanish, 2351 religious music, 0000 [UT May 15 then?] male on flute music ID “R. Virgen de Remedios… R. Virgen de Remedios FM 89.5”, 0001-0004 seems relaying audio of TV religious channel. 33233 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Regarding the Brazilian mystery on 5050, I have just noticed that the nominal 5055 station, was recently reported to be active on 5050, altho Lúcio has also reported it (presumed) more recently on 5055. So could that have been the one on 5050, rather than a somewhat unlikely fifth harmonic of anything on 1010? (Glenn Hauser, OK, May 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Rádio Difusora de Cáceres está ativa em 5050 kHz. O Dexista Itamar Nunes de Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, captou a emissora no dia 23 de março passado, pouco antes das 1400 UT. Também o George Henrique de Moura Cunha, telefonou para a emissora, onde o funcionário Francisco lhe informou que ela está ativa, e emitindo diariamente de 0900 às 1400 UT (Via lista Radio escutas via Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX April 19 via DXLD 9-035) 5055, Brazil, R. Difusora de Cáceres (presumed), MT. May 05, Portuguese, 0938, music maybe religious, 0941-0949 religious talks by male “espírito santo”. Very weak 14421 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) re 9-039: ** BRAZIL. Re 9-038, 5050: Hello Glenn, About 5050, something interesting is happening; I heard on May 7, 8, 9 a very defined sign on around, all days, 0946. If it's the fifth harmonic, originated of 1010 kHz, this frequency (1010) is signing on in the same time, of course. But that's very strange because this station certainly runs 24 hours a day (I don't checked it but if it's not this time, 0947 is not usual to a station sign on in Brazil). Checked the potential fourth harmonic 4040 and was nothing there around 0946. I made a mistake in my log about 5050, that's not R. Cidade but R. Solar. What do you think? 73 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, SP, May 9, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Harmonix tend to be either odd or even, so you might not hear 4040, but 3030, if propagation were working on the lower frequency too. Maybe it really signs on at that odd time for some reason, or maybe you have some other station entirely; are you sure of the Radio Solar ID now on 5050? (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Hello Glenn, One thing I can assure to you is what I hear from 0946 on 5050 here have many mentionings of "R. Solar" of Juiz de Fora-MG with "Manhã Legal" program. But from where its signal, I have no idea, if it wasn't a harmonic. That defined, sudden s/on sounded-like I hear at 0946 on 5050 I was thinking that was the tranmitter exchange from the low to the higher power to runs during the day and like I said, it sounded like a sign on at 0946 which is the time to happen these things in Brazilian stations. And have something there on 5055 too, like I logged. Sorry to enhance the mystery. 73 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, May 16, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 5050, Brazil, mystery signal with R. Solar, Juiz de Fora-MG content, with Forró music in “Viola na Cidade” program, wich should be a harmonic of 1010 kHz or according someone should not, sign on as usual at 0951, other days around it, May 17, good signal (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. Radio Guaruja Paulista 5045 kHz location. --- "This station has been inactive again, but returned now to the air which is great news for lovers of the world of the Tropical Wave, because it is an excellent provider of QSLs. I know personally the owner (Mr. Orivaldo Rampazzo) who is a radio enthusiast. He had told me that it was temporary off the air. They had plans to return to the Tropical Waves ... and that actually occurred. I talked with Orivaldo Rampazzo, last night, May 08, by phone, and he gave me information on the return of the transmission on Tropical Waves: Transmission of 24 hours daily. Correct name: ZYG 850, Rádio Guarujá Paulista on 5045 kHz. They have no further connection with the network Globo Radio. Location of Transmitter: Guarujá, São Paulo. Latitude: 23 59 35 S, Longitude 46 15 23 W Power: 1 kW. R Guarujá Paulista also transmits on 1550 MW, but with a programming different from 5045. (Azevedo)" (Mauno Ritola, Finland, shortwavesites yg May 13 via BC-DX 16 May via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DXLD) BRASIL – A Rádio Guarujá Paulista, de Guarujá (SP), já está transmitindo novamente em 5045 kHz. Conforme o diretor da emissora, Orivaldo Rampazo, a frequência voltou a funcionar com apenas 250 watts, a título de “ajustes”. Quem ouvir a emissora pode entrar em contato pelo e-mail: rampazo@radioguarujaam.com.br BRASIL – A Rádio Canção Nova, de Cachoeira Paulista (SP), informa que o transmissor usado na freqüência de 9675 kHz está sendo consertado. Muitos ouvintes católicos têm ligado para a emissora pedindo o retorno da freqüência ao ar, conforme informações de George Cunha, de Brasília (DF). BRASIL – A Rádio Guaíba, de Porto Alegre (RS), continua fora do ar na frequência de 11785 kHz, em 25 metros. A emissora está fazendo a manutenção dos equipamentos para voltar a transmitir em tal canal, de acordo com informações de George Cunha, de Brasília (DF). BRASIL – A Rádio Transmundial, de Santa Maria (RS), voltou a transmitir com uma potência de 50 kW na frequência de 11735 kHz, na faixa de 25 metros. A informação foi repassada pelo coordenador de estúdio da emissora, Samuel Matos, a Ramon Aragão, de Barreiras (BA). BRASIL – Em breve, a Rádio Cultura Brasil, de São Paulo (SP), voltará a transmitir na frequência de 17815 kHz, na faixa de 16 metros. A estação está mudando os seus transmissores devido a transformações no terreno onde está localizado o parque de equipamentos. A potência a ser utilizada em tal freqüência será 10 kW. As informações foram repassadas pelo funcionário, de nome Moreno, a George Cunha, de Brasília (DF). (Célio Romais blog May 11 via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 9818.9, R. 9 de Julho, São Paulo SP, 2213-2225, 16 May, Portuguese music program "Caravela do Fado"; 33442, Adjacent QRM de CHINA 9820 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 6089.95, Radio Bandeirantes (presumed), 0246-0301 + 0312- 0332, May 12. Conversation in Portuguese; poor-fair with Anguilla off- the-air and also off the next day (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9645.34, R. Bandeirantes, May 15 2009, 0715-0730. OM in Portuguese delivering what sounded like a sermon. Several mentions of Jesus. But very low-key delivery. At 0720 it souded like either a second OM took over, or, the original got a second wind and his voice changed a bit. No music -- religious or otherwise -- was heard through tune-out at 0730 (Bruce Barker, Broomall, PA. Equipment: NRD 535D and an Alpha Delta DX Sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Fortunately, this one is not all-ghuxter-all-the-time. Notable by its offfrequenciness, sometimes only as a het to 9645.0 stations such as Vatican or the WYFR 9715/9680 mixing product (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 9-040: I'm missing the link to the photo of R. Bandeirantes-site (Ydun Ritz, Denmark, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Everyone was missing it but now I have uploaded it into the Station Scenes folder in the Photos sexion of this yg (Glenn, May 13, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. CBN 12460 kHz em FM? Neste instante tenho escuta muito clara da CBN - Goiânia, conforme se identifica, na freq. 12460 kHz, são 17h53 PT (2053 UT), entrevista sobre fusão Sadia X Perdigão. Sumiu o sinal exatamente às 18h00 PT (2100 UT). O que mais me chamou a atenção foi tratar-se de uma transmissão captada em FM. QTH=João Pessoa-PB RX=IC 706MKIIG - Antena: 3DX3 --- Essas frequências que você listou são todas para modo AM e eu escutei em modo FM na QRG=12460 kHz. Mudei a modalidade de recepção USB/LSB/CW/RTTY/ AM/WFM e só consegui em FM. Aqui em João Pessoa a CBN também transmite em 1230 kHz AM, não temos CBN em FM. Ela faz parte do sistema Correio de Comunicação. Só posso acrescentar uma frase do João Grilo: "Não sei, só sei que foi assim". (Antonio Garcia, PR7BCP, May 19, dxclube pr via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DXLD) ** BURKINA FASO. After daytime+nighttime obs. this past weekend on the SW coast: 5030, 7230, R. Burkina, Ouagadougou. Both still missing. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BURMA [and non]. SHORTWAVE RADIOS SELL FOR PREMIUM IN SITTWE AFTER DAW SUU'S ARREST ---- 5/19/2009 Sittwe: The price of shortwave radios has been increasing recently in Sittwe markets after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested on 14 May, 2009, said a town elder. "I went to a store at Sittwe market two days ago to buy a Chinese-made shortwave radio but the prices had increased at least 20 percent as many radio buyers crowded the market," said the elder. The price of a Chinese-made shortwave radio was previously only 2500 kyat, but it has recently increased to 4000 kyat. "Despite the price increase, I bought a Kubo branch radio for 4000 kyat that day because I need to listen to news about Daw Suu broadcast by foreign-based radio stations. At present, every Burmese wants to know about Daw Suu after her arrest. I realized why the radio prices have increase at least 20 percent recently in Sittwe," he said. [. . .] There are four foreign-based radio programs that are popular in Burma - the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and Democratic Voice of Burma. Homes are noisy with the radios every morning and evening with residents listening to the latest news of Burma. http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=2179 (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, May 19, dxldyg via DXLD) ** CANADA. 6100, Radio Canadá Internacional, Sackville, 0229-0240, escuchada el 19 de mayo en español a locutor y locutora con reportaje con entrevista sobre Cochabamba, noticias, ID, programa “Canadá en las Américas”, SINPO 45444 Frecuencia no listada en WRTH A-09, tampoco en EiBi ni en Aoki. Supongo frecuencia de reemplazo por 6075. Según Radio Canadá Int., servicio anunciado de 0205 a 0304. http://www.rciviva.ca/rci/PDF/2009Summer/A09_SW_FINAL.pdf (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. May 19 at 2135 I was checking 9330 to see if I could get a signal there // 12085 Syria, q.v. Instead I heard a big blob of extremely distorted talk, extending roughly 9320-9360, peaking around 9335. Figured it was most likely very strong WWRB 9385 which has done this before, or weaker but still spur-producing WTJC 9370 --- but the modulation spike peaks did not match either. So searched further on second receiver for a match. There it is, on 9515! Which is RCI, currently in Chinese. That`s another transmitter which has gone haywire in the past. Then looked for more spurious on hi side and found it even worse, roughly 9650- 9720, peaking around 9685. Forget about hearing any other stations in those ranges. 9515 itself was somewhat undermodulated and distorted but nowhere as bad as the spurs. 9515 is scheduled to go off at 2159, and indeed it and the spurs were off after 2200. The next language, Spanish, should start at 2205 on 6100, but I was hearing nothing there a few minutes later. If it`s the very same transmitter it might also pollute the 49m band. I have notified Sackville. Checked RCI 9515 again 24 hours later, May 20 at 2145 and no spurs in the 9.3 or 9.7 MHz area (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. See FRANCE; Primarily the circumstance that the CBC websites had already been blocked in China: http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/newsreleases/20080404.shtml http://www.insidethecbc.com/radio-canada-website-blocked-in-china-again Not a single word about the extensive airtime exchange between RCI and CRI in all this. But I indeed think that its continuation seriously undermines all the protests against the website being blocked in China. And I wonder how much self-censorship could be in place on RCI's Chinese service. Do not anger them, because we need to cooperate with them (Kai Ludwig, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The two links about the CBC you mentioned are very old news. The CBC website is no longer blocked after the CBC and the government protested to the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa. RCI's Chinese Service does not use any self censorship. Also I would bet you anything that the CBC managers in Toronto have no idea about the relay agreement between CRI and RCI (Keith Perron, Taiwan, ibid.) RFI Russian maintains that it won a respite - SW broadcasting should continue for at least a few more years. Considering that a good chunk of the US budget is funded by the People's Republic of China, RFA and VoA should count themselves lucky that CPC graciously allows them to broadcast in Chinese. Back in 2005 there was a lot of noise about VoA's moving part of its news division to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Did that outsourcing plan go through? I believe both RFA and VoA should consider applying for a direct funding from Beijing and maybe even moving their operations there, to guarantee their uninterrupted financing. The same applies to RFI and CBC. VoR already boasts a banner ad for CRI on its website (Sergei S., Russia, ibid.) Reply under USA ** CANADA. CBC RADIO ONE, RADIO 2 JUGGLE SCHEDULES --- Changes reflect need to cut budgets and hold on to listeners === CBC News Schedule changes are coming for CBC Radio One and Radio 2, the public broadcaster announced Thursday. On Radio One, the local noon programs move to a one-hour format from two hours on June 29 and the afternoon schedule will be filled with repeats and repackaged items. On Radio 2, classical music will come on earlier in the day, and several other shows have been shifted. These changes are a "tweak" to the schedules designed to smooth the transition from classical to contemporary music and back again, according to Chris Boyce, CBC Radio programming director. As of June 29, the changes to the Radio One schedule are: . . . http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2009/05/14/cbc-radio.html (via Ricky Leong, AB, DXLD) The CBC has announced changes to the schedules of both RADIO ONE and RADIO 2, with changes coming in JUNE and SEPTEMBER. On RADIO ONE, changes effective JUNE 29th include the reduction of local noon shows to an hour and the addition of repeats of other shows for 1-3p [local in 5 timezones]. Changes set for SEPTEMBER 7th include "THE DEBATERS" moving from 11:30a to 1p SATURDAY, followed by "WIRETAP" (moving from SUNDAY) and "DNTO," bumping "SPARK" from SATURDAY to SUNDAY at 1p (and expanding to an hour). The network has also ordered 16 new episodes of "WHITE COAT, BLACK ART" for SATURDAYS. On RADIO 2, Classical music will begin earlier in the day at 9a, shrinking TOM ALLEN's morning show by an hour; ALLEN will add an afternoon show, "SHIFT." RICH TERFRY's afternoon drive show "DRIVE" will expand to 3:30-7p, with "CANADA LIVE" shorter by an hour at 8p and "TONIC" moving to 9p. On weekends, Classical music will now start at 10a SATURDAY and 9a SUNDAY, and the network is adding a new show "THIS IS MY MUSIC" and RADIO ONE shows "SATURDAY NIGHT BLUES," "A PROPOS," and "VINYL TAP" with RANDY BACHMAN (allaccess.com May 15 via Brock Whaley, HI, DX Listening Digest) caps = allaccess quirk CBC Radio announces fall lineup that includes weekday afternoon repeats http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hQD--A-ZKXyR3TaCh3O8f3cmo9xg (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 7220, Central African Republic, R. Bangui (presumed). May 16, 0907-0932 male and female talks. 15321. 73's (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) After daytime + nighttime observations this past weekend on the SW coast: 7220, R. Centrafricaine, Bimbo, still here, but very modest (daytime) signal. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 18, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHAD. After daytime + nighttime observations this past weekend on the SW coast: 4905, 6165 RD. Nationale Tchadienne, Gredia, missing, but can't say I checked evenings on the latter frequency - I forgot! I would not like to speculate, but maybe the recent problems with Sudan are related. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE. CVC Portuguese going off June 30: see U S A [non] ** CHILE [non]. Fallece Ekaterina Olievskaya, la voz de "Escucha Chile" --- SE NOS FUE KATIA, LA VOZ DE “ESCUCHA CHILE” http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias_v2/site/artic/20090513/pags/20090513212739.html No por esperada, la noticia ha sido menos dolorosa. Se nos fue Katia, Ekaterina Olievskaya, la voz de "Escucha Chile", la expresión concreta de la solidaridad soviética con las luchas por la democracia de Chile. Murió en Israel, a donde viajó acongojada por la incertidumbre que su familia (judíos ucranianos) creyó ver en los estertores del cambio político en las postrimerías de la Unión Soviética, cuando parecían reactivarse amenazas antisemitas. De algún modo, al fondo de su corazón se fue al destierro, porque siempre fue una patriota soviética. Así lo sentimos quienes la acompañamos a la estación de Kiev, un día triste que nos hizo revivir otras partidas, otros exilios. Murió a los 92 años. En su vida está anotado su paso por México, su trabajo como locutora en español de Radio Moscú cuando las hordas nazis estaban a las puertas de Moscú, cuando el Ejército Rojo hizo flamear su bandera en el Reichstag o Gagarin entró en la historia del espacio. Quienes conocimos a Katia y convivimos con ella en el blanco Moscú invernal, en los estudios de Radio Moscú Internacional (hoy La Voz de Rusia) o fuimos acogidos en su hogar y degustamos sus platos, estamos de duelo. Ha muerto una parte importante de nuestras historias, una mujer excepcional que entregó su calidad profesional y un afecto invalorable en la nostalgia por la patria. Pero Katia fue mucho más. La calidez de su voz, la pasión puesta en la denuncia de los horrores de la dictadura (algunos responsables políticos hasta hoy defensores cómplices del pinochetismo los pretenden blanquear), el cariño por "sus chilenos" como decía, fue un símbolo. Fue efectivamente "la voz de la solidaridad internacional", de la esperanza en terminar con la dictadura, del compromiso democrático que alimentaba los corazones, levantaba los espíritus, estimulaba la certeza de que no estábamos solos. Duele pensar que un día, en 1989, cuando vino a conocer los paisajes y la gente de ese Chile soñado desde Moscú, la dictadura, que tenía sus días contados, en un acto infame, le cerró las puertas y debió quedarse en Mendoza, donde muchos chilenos fueron en una especie de peregrinación de desagravio. Luego vino en 1994 y recibió el cariño de centenares de chilenos, de representantes de los trabajadores y la juventud, pero brilló por su ausencia un gesto oficial. Ha muerto Katia, y con ella se va una etapa no sólo de Radio Moscú, del programa "Escucha Chile" y de la vida de muchos de quienes estuvimos a su lado. También se nos ha ido, físicamente, una parte importante de la historia de las luchas por la democracia de Chile, del combate contra la dictadura. Se ha ido una página, insuficientemente conocida y quizás hasta ignorada de la historia de la radio y el periodismo chilenos, porque el programa, los periodistas soviéticos de entonces, forman parte del acervo histórico-profesional del periodismo nacional. Chile sin duda tiene una deuda con Katia Olievskaya. Quizás el Colegio de Periodistas, el Gobierno de la Presidenta Michelle Bachelet, la Concertación, la izquierda, deberían dedicarle un minuto de recuerdo solemne. Nunca es tarde (via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) Sad, but the USSR in support of ``democracy``?? Ha, ha (gh, DXLD) VoR's official obituary with Katya's picture and her background is here: http://ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=spa&q=10477&cid=83&p=12.05.2009 Here's a good piece from José Miguel Varas, a Chilean writer and journalist who worked alongside Katya in 1970 and 80s: http://ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=spa&q=10532&cid=83&p=14.05.2009&pn=1 The audio file of his report: ftp://ftp.vor.ru/Video/Spanish/VARAS/Varas14_05.wma And here's another obituary written by Luis Sepúlveda (he knew Katya personally): http://www.lemondediplomatique.cl/Escucha-Chile-Ha-muerto-Katya.html The joint photo of R. Moscú's Chilean department is here: http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias_v2/site/artic/20090513/pags/20090513211923.html I believe those photos were taken in the mid-1980s (Sergei S., Moscow, dxldyg via DXLD) ** CHINA [and non]. I can tell you that as of this morning, at 1400 UT, Only PRC domestic heard on 4750 (no RRI). Nothing on 4755 (no Micronesia. CRI in English out of nowhere at 1400 on 7325 (no PNG). (Brock Whaley, Oahu, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 7105, PBS Nei Menggu, 1412, May 13. Fair to good reception, in Chinese; // 9520. 7225, PBS-2 Sichuan, from 1504 to past 1535, May 12. Traditional Chinese music; fair; // 6060 with 1516*. Different on May 13: 7225 with 1516* and 6060 with 1515*. Certainly their sign-off schedule is in a state of flux. 7420, CNR-1 program echo-jamming of BBC, 1416, May 12. Strong jamming; // 5030. Was looking for PBS Nei Menggu on their new frequency, but no hope of reception (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 7105 above: Wondered where this was and it is coming here as early as 1030. Modulation seems to vary. Will try 9520 tonight and see if it's same. The echo jammer on 7185 with CNR1 or 2 (it varies from day to day) I suspect is western China as it does not peak until after 1230, although they may vary the sites daily to take account of propagation (Robin VK7RH Harwood, Tasmania, May 14, ibid.) ** CHINA. Chinese station on 9000.00 at 1742, never heard anything but it and it either faded or went off at 1800 (Bruce MacGibbon, OR, May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Firedrakes on 8400 and 9000 are in as late as 1900 UT. My local sunrise around 1545 UT (Brock Whaley, Oahu, May 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also TAIWAN ** CHINA [and non]. Thanks to the imminent 20th anniversary of June 3, jamming is building up. Now we are hearing two separate Firedrakes --- same type of music but being fed from non-synchronized sources. May 13 observations: At 1205, new FD on 9400 underneath something in Chinese, per Aoki FEBC PHILIPPINES, which would not normally be jammed, and Aoki does not yet have it asterisked. At 1208, FD on 9000, stronger than 9400, and not //; however, FD on 8400 was // 9400 but not to 9000 as it previously had been. At 1231, FD on 13970 // 8400, not // 9000. No FD found higher than 13970. At 1336, FD on 9000 stronger than not // 8400. At 1412 both of these were off. And the non-FD jamming by CNR1 echoes: May 13 at 1234 on 15255, burying VOA via Tinang. At 1304 on 17515 heard Chinese talk and music, which must be jamming against BBC`s Uzbek service at 1300-1330 via Cyprus. Yes, the ChiCom even block broadcasts in languages of neighboring countries, the excuse being that some Uzbek-speakers reside in China. Firedrake observations May 15: at 1240, very poor, barely audible on 8400, while very good on 9000 and as has recently been the case, not // any more but from separate feeds. None audible today on 9400 under FEBC. Maybe they hit it by mistake previously, overzealously blocking anything heard in Chinese. At 1322 FD on 15150 fairly good and not // 9000 either; all these presumably against inaudible Sound of Hope, Falung Gong via Taiwan. Meanwhile lots of CNR1 jamming, such as on 19m, at 1323 on 15330 // 15285, but 15330 went off at 1330, and the victim on 15285 was also audible. BBCWS Uzbek via Cyprus is scheduled until 1330 on 15330, // 17515 where I also heard CNR1 jamming two days before. Firedrake May 16: not heard on 13970 before 1300, but at 1313 a good signal from it; became very good by 1340, and still audible at 1522 check. 15150 had FD weakly audible mixing with something else at 1315. 15375 at 1315 May 17 with Chinese talk, mixed with buzz; carrier also unstable; not // 12000 so not Russia, but // 15330 and 12040 so is CNR1 jamming. Victim is R Free Asia, Tibetan, 75 degrees via UAE at 11-14, inaudible. The buzz seems to be a defect in the ChiCom transmission, but since it`s a jammer, that only helps. Heard a Windows logo go by at 1317. Also checked 15375 May 18: at 1336 Chinese again with buzz, but not as bad as before, // 12040. Firedrake May 18: at 1305, 8400 and 9000 but not //. At 1335, FD good on 15600, better than // 9000, not // 8400. Nothing on 13970. At 1400 found 15600 in open carrier, but no SOH or anything else audible. FD here resumed at 1404:40, and caused adjacent QRM to V of Russia in English on 15605. Firedrake, May 19 at 1350: 8400 stronger than 9000 and once again // rather than different feeds. Also // 13970 but not audible on 15150 or 15600. Firedrake May 20 at 1319: best on 13970, next best 9000, and just barely audible on 8400, all // synchronized (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also CUBA ** CHINA. Scan for Firedrake: 7000-19000, from 1344 to 1428, May 20: 8400 // 9000 // 13970 Firedrake (Chinese music jamming), all with good signals. A non-parallel Firedrake on 11300 till 1400*, did not re-start again. Very weak station in Chinese heard after 1400, positive not CNR-1 jamming (not // 5030), so perhaps SOH. During the 1400-1405 absence of Firedrake, heard weak stations on 8400 and 9000, but nothing heard on 13970 during the gap. At 1428 noted Firedrake on 15600 (// 8400, 9000 & 13970), had been absent pre-1400. Some of the Firedrakes certainly are no longer 24 hour operations (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. You know, China being China, all they did was buy a few 250 to 500 kW transmitters and are now making copies. Oddly, none have made their way to the DPRK. I suspect this is because China is involved in the 6 party talks and wants to be seen as an international player. Also it would anger the US and other members of the UN security council if they were to provide such broadcasting equipment. I remember in 2005, Li Dan made this big announcement to the staff saying CRI was installing some new transmitters. The line out of his speech that sticks out in my head was (translated from Chinese: We can now inform the world the truth about China and "fight back" all the anti-China broadcasts. Tell the world Taiwan is part of China and that the government has made improvements to the lives of the people of Tibet). So often when I would hear him speak to CRI staff it sounded like something from the Cultural Revolution. Mind you, like most top officials in China, they have two faces. One face for people outside China, and one face for its own population. I don't know if you know this, but after Li Dan left CRI he became one of the leaders of CCTV (Keith Perron, Taiwan, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. FOREIGN REPORTERS PREVENTED FROM WORKING IN CHINA'S SICHUAN A YEAR AFTER QUAKE | Text of press release in English by Paris-based media freedom organization Reporters Sans Frontieres on 12 May Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns the Chinese government's behaviour towards the international media on the first anniversary of an earthquake in Sichuan province that killed tens of thousands. Foreign reporters are being prevented from covering the relief work and reconstruction in the areas hit by the quake. Many cases of harassment, threats or violence have been reported. Officials have accused foreign journalists of being "trouble-makers." "Why are the authorities now preventing journalists from covering the Sichuan earthquake anniversary after giving China's 700-odd accredited foreign reporters the go-ahead in 2007 to operate freely throughout the country except Tibet?" Reporters Without Borders said. "We urge the authorities to stop obstructing the work of foreign journalists in Sichuan and to let them talk to victims and the relatives of those who died." The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC), which the government regards as an "illegal organisation," warned its members on 6 May that the situation was becoming "more volatile" in Sichuan and advised "extra caution" when visiting the region. A Finnish TV crew was pushed and shoved by 10 civilian security officials in the city of Fuxin and some of its equipment was damaged. "It was very violent," said reporter Katri Makkonen. A reporter with the London-based Financial Times newspaper was interviewing the parents of children killed in the earthquake in Fuxin when a man tried to snatch his camera and punched his arm, and then he and his crew were surrounded by a dozen men as they retreated towards their car. Radio France's China correspondent, Dominique Andre, found herself surrounded by four police trucks and about 15 to 20 men in uniform in the village of Juyuan before she had even begun interviewing people. "It is the first time that I have been physically stopped from working - without violence, but firmly," she told AFP. "The only thing I did wrong was being there." An AFP crew was ordered to leave the village of Wufu on 6 May despite previously being told they would work there. Two days later, the crew was chased out of the village of Juyuan. And yesterday, the crew was forced to leave a third quake-hit locality. On 6 May, the deputy chief of the Sichuan propaganda department, Hou Xiongfei, accused some Western journalists of trying to stir up trouble. "They are not going to the disaster area to report, but are inciting the crowds, asking people to organise [against the government]," he claimed. The Chinese media have meanwhile been churning out positive reports about the heroic survivors and reconstruction. Cyber-dissident Huang Qi has been detained in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu since 10 June 2008 for posting articles on his website 64Tianwang http://www.64tianwang.com about the humanitarian situation in the province after the earthquake and how international aid was mismanaged by the local authorities. Source: Reporters Sans Frontieres press release, Paris, in English 12 May 09 (via BBCM via DXLD) See also FRANCE ** CHINA [and non]. Here's a useful tool if you'd like to figure out what's accessible in China and what's not: http://www.websitepulse.com/help/testtools.china-test.html This free online service conducts website connectivity test from locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. There are also three overseas sites (Seattle, Munich, Brisbane). RCI Chinese is accessible in PRC. But the Chinese services of BBC and VoA are not. HK doesn't seem to be a part of the Great Firewall of China. A good summary from WebsitePulse.com: The Golden Shield Project (a.k.a. Great Firewall of China) is owned by the Government of China (MPS) and was started in 1998. The firewall system blocks website content by preventing IP addresses from being routed through and consists of standard firewall and proxy servers at the Internet gateways of China's ISPs. The banning of websites is mostly uncoordinated and ad-hoc, with some web sites being blocked from one city and the same web sites being allowed from other cities and vice versa. You can find more details here: http://tinyurl.com/pmvds (Sergei S., Moscow, May 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I am talking to two friends now in China, one in Shanghai and one in Beijing. The link you sent shows RCI as accessible in China but we they tried to log onto http://www.rciviva.ca They got "the website you wish to access is as fault" (translated from Chinese). So it's still blocked. Hong Kong is not part of China's system. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher signed with Deng Xiaoping at the end of 1984 an agreement for the handover of HK back to China in 1997 called One Country, Two systems. It stated that HK must remain untouched for 50 years after. Since 1997, China has tried to control HK Media, but has failed at every attempt. This is due to the fact that if an uprising was to happen on the territory, the old men in Beijing know it would in no time cross over into Shenzhen and Guangzhou. So the thinking in Beijing is to keep the people of Hong Kong happy (Keith Perron, Taiwan, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, ibid.) Wait a minute: So cbc.ca and radio-canada.ca are accessible, but rciviva.ca is blocked at present, and this is no new situation? So CBC boss Hubert Lacroix sent out a letter of gratitude to China's amassador in Canada for his help in restoring access to the CBC main websites, but did not care at all for rciviva.ca? This is really remarkable! No further comments from my side, since I think this speaks for itself, in regard to various aspects (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) You got it in a nut shell. If you read the letter which is somewhere in the CBC website and some others there is no mention in it to RCI. Typical of CBC management when it comes to RCI. Here found it: http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/china-letter.pdf (Keith Perron, Taiwan, ibid., WORLD OF RADIO 1461) Viz.: Friday, April 4, 2008 His Excellency Lu Shumin Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Canada 515 St. Patrick Street P.O. Box 8935 New Terminal, Alta Vista Ottawa, Ontario K1N 5H3 Your Excellency, 2008 is an important year for the image and reputation of China as a leading member of the international community. All eyes are on China as it prepares to host the world for the Summer Olympics. CBC/Radio-Canada is proud to be a partner in broadcasting the pageantry and excitement of these Games and, as backdrop, the tremendous social and economic strides that China is making to assert its role as a modern, engaged, global leader. It is with this in mind that I call your attention to a matter of the gravest importance. You are aware, no doubt, that access to the two principal CBC/Radio-Canada websites, Radio-Canada.ca and CBC.ca, has been blocked in China. Our French site has been blocked for at least six months and our English site since January of this year. As you may be aware, Canadian embassy officials in Beijing have raised this issue with your Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I am writing to request that you make formal and immediate enquiries as to why the sites have been blocked, and that you take steps to ensure that this policy is reversed. CBC/Radio-Canada has maintained staff and a bureau in China for many years and, as Canada’s public broadcaster, we are committed to freedom of the press. I took note of the remarks of Premier Wen Jiabao when he promised, in April 2007, that in the spirit of One World, One Dream, “the government will provide services of an Olympic standard to athlete, officials, spectators and the media in order to facilitate their participation and enjoyment of the Games. The freedom of foreign journalists in their news coverage will also be ensured.” I understand that, in that spirit, access to the BBC’s website, which had been restricted, has recently been unblocked. This is welcome. Your Excellency, Canada and China have a long history built on our ability to share our culture with each other. That relationship depends on our ability to communicate. Blocking access to our websites is inconsistent with that history, and with China’s growing place on the world stage. I would appreciate your personal commitment to resolving this problem as quickly as possible and ensuring that access to our programming is restored expeditiously. Yours sincerely, Hubert T. Lacroix President and CEO CBC/Radio-Canada Copies to: Hon. Josée Verner, PC, M.P. Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages Hon. Maxime Bernier, PC, M.P. Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon. Bob Rae, PC, MP Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Francine Lalonde, MP Bloc Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar, MP (via Perron, DXLD) ** CHINA [and non]. It would not surprise me if the Chinese have been helping the Cubans with internet jamming. Since around 2005 CRI has been sending what they call “technical advisors” to Cuba. Something I forgot to mention, Glenn, with the commentary you did on WOR about jamming which is rather funny. RCI’s website is blocked in China, but yet CRI and RCI have a relay agreement. In 2006 CBC in Toronto contacted me to show some RCI and CBC people around, from RCI the reps were Zhao Li from the Chinese Section and Roger Tretault (wrong spelling). I Remember asking them about RCI’s website being blocked by China. All they said was oh. When I showed them again, OH. The reality is, countries like Canada, US, and others all say the great firewall of China and jamming is a problem, but they never do anything. Instead they turn around and offer them to use relays in their own countries. Just like the 2008 Games with promises China made the international community and how many were broken, but no one did anything. Here is a website that is an interesting read. Two friends of mine are on the board of the Foreign Correspondents Club in Beijing. You might know their names, Jocelyn Ford who was working for Market Place on MPR and Jaime Flora Cruz from CNN International. http://www.fccchina.org/ Every case is logged. Each one is in total violation of promises China made when they were awarded the games (Keith Perron, Taiwan, May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also CANADA ** CHINA. TIANANMEN BROADCAST, June 3, 1989 --- I have listened to your reports for years on the SW radio, I heard you being interviewed last night and you mentioned the audio of the Tiananmen Square massacre SW report of the Truth was available on your website. I can not find it, Please send me a link to it. Thank You (Thomas Buyea, Fla. News Service, Miami, FL USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Look for May 31, 2001, segment 2: http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/arch2001jan-june.html There are probably some other sources without the interruptions. Regards, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** CROATIA. 3985, 2215-2223, HRV, 16.05, Voice of Croatia, Deanovec. English news, sports, weather and complete frequency schedule. Announced 3 SW frequencies, but 3985 was the only one on the air at this hour! 55544 (Anker Petersen, DSWCI AGM DX-Camp in Vejers on the westcoast of Denmark, AOR AR7030PLUS with a 10 metres longwire out in the sand dunes, via Dario Monferini, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Was 9925 among those announced or checked, just changed a few days ago from 7375, via Germany? Supposed to start at 2200 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Viz: ** CROATIA [non]. Confirming that VOC via Germany has belatedly replaced 7375 with 9925 for the summer, at 2353 UT check May 15, VG signal on 9925, rock music with Slavic(?) lyrix, nothing on 7375. English segments presumably remain at 2215 and 0200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. DISCLAIMER FOR ALL LW/MW ITEMS: No portion of the below may be read reproduced or redistributed by the satanic National Radio Club, their evil editors or blind, sheep-like current members [sic] without my expressed written permission, which will then be swiftly -- and we do mean swiftly -- denied. Editors receiving this directly from me are excluded, provided this entire disclaimer is included once, where any of the below LW/MW items are first reproduced. Mobile logs made on the stock 2004 Cheverolet Impala radio, approximate location of logs noted within copy. All other logs made from Clearwater, Florida. 840, Dobleve, Santa Clara, Villa Clara 1918-1925 May 16, 2009. "W" ID right at tune-in, coming out of a vocal. Very good signal. Logged at Ft DeSoto, extreme southern Pinellas County. 1000, Radio Cadena Habana, unknown western Cuba site 1704-1745 May 16, 2009. Tune-in to net feed Noticiero Nacional de Radio newscast till 1730, ID coming out of the feed, vocals. Excellent. Log made on Anna Maria Island, Manatee County. 1020, Radio Guamá, Los Palacios, Pinar del Río 1904-1915 May 16, 2009. Live news with lots of phoned-in actualities from various provinces, most appended with Radio Guamá tags. Parallel weak 990 (under the Orlando Radio Disney station). Logged at Ft. DeSoto, extreme southern Pinellas County (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 5025, R. Rebelde, Bauta, 0932-f/out 1015, 16 May, home news, music, talks; 15331. Single BC station audible on the 60 m band at this time (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. Altho RHC was back on 15370 May 12, it had resumed the newer frequency 13780 on May 13, at 1305 check; and along with it the leapfrogs over 13680 landing on 13880 by itself, and under R. Prague on 13580. Meanwhile, 15120 was still missing; what has become of that transmitter? Also, at 1411 check, 6000 was still on the air and just barely audible in the growing daytime noise level. Per all versions of RHC schedules in DXLD 9-039, it is supposed to go off at 1400; it was an echo apart from // 15360. See also RUSSIA As I was checking RFI on 17620 and 17630 before 2130 May 14, did not notice any RHC on 17660, scheduled in English until 2130. But at 2131 there it was, opening Kriyol as scheduled, distorted. What is RHC doing on such a high frequency to a neighboring country? It`s only about 720 miles from Habana to Port-au-Prince, and the optimum skip distance on 17+ MHz is longer than that --- except when sporadic-E may kick in unpredictably. But surely Arnie knows this basic propagational fact. 17660 is designated for the Caribbean in all its language services 2030-2300. It might be OK for the Windward Islands further away, and RHC does have much lower // 5965 for the two Creole broadcasts at 2130 and 2230, but for summer afternoons that may really be too low versus the absorption level. At 2133 I found 11760 with RHC in real French, scheduled at same time as Creole on 17660; while 11770, 11800, 13760 and 13790 were all in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Another screwup at RHC, but mitigated by brevity: May 15 at 0500 I happened to be tuned to 6120, as the RHC Spanish service was closing for the night, distorted and lofi. Then it re-opened in Portuguese, but cut off the air after a semiminute. Portuguese at 0500 seems to be a regular feature on their program feed line, who knows why, as it is the middle of the night in Brasil and is not promoted as available even on webcast. RHC 12000 again hit by heavy distorted co-channel QRM in Chinese, at 1314 May 15, previously tracked to the V. of Russia Khabarovsk transmitter as scheduled. RHC 13880 leapfrog mixing product best yet, May 15 at 1318, S9+15 and not very distorted, quite readable, in item from UN Radio citing infexion figures for H1N1 in various American countries. Matching amphibian on 13580 was as usual weaker, only S9+10 or so, about the same as R. Prague English to NAm, and thus plenty to ruin its reception. These are caused by inadequate separation, physically and electronically, between the 13680 and 13780 transmitters and their antennas. RHC`s big signals on 22m, 13680 and 13780 both missing at 1302 May 16; just the weak one on 13760. So I checked the two frequencies they supposedly move up from at 1300, 6180 and 9600 --- yes, those were still running at 1304; I sat on 6180 to hear when it would finally go off, and that was at 1307*, while 13780 finally came up at *1309 just as the `news` was ending; presumably about the same for 9600/13680. By 1312 both 13680 and 13780 were on as well as their leapfrog spurs on 13880 and 13580, which means that R. Prague was free of that QRM for the first dekaminute or so of its English to North America on 13580. I also checked the RHC 19mb channels: after missing a few days, 15120 was back on May 16 at 1304 check but JBA; by 1314 it had improved a lot and now // 15360 became JBA with flutter. Quite a disparity between these and the inboomers just one band lower on 13 MHz. RHC missing from 12000 the last few mornings, including May 18 at 1330, when occupied by RUSSIA, q.v.,; and at 1419 when the not distorted but a bit hummy Chinese on 12000 is instead CVC Darwin, then gospel rock at 1421. Cuba was certainly propagable, as 11760 was in well as usual during hoary Voces de la Revolución speech. Unless the RHC 12000 transmitter is simply down, it could be on the way to a new frequency, as RHC keeps up with reports from its volunteer monitor in Oclajoma. It still shows on their online schedule as 11-15 to ``New York`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also VENEZUELA [non] 9805, May 18 at 1422, DCJC pulses QRMing weak signal in Vietnamese. Per Aoki, that is Radio Free Asia, 14-15 at 285 degrees from Saipan. Nice of Habana to help out their Hanoi comrades, but jamming probably not very effective way over there! Axually, it`s typically leftover incompetent Cuban jamming which on 9805 is ``needed`` only at 1000- 1300 when Radio Martí is using it. Aoki does not have this RFA transmission a*terisked as jammed intentionally. Imagine how many Cuban people could have a decent meal merely with the money saved by reducing jamming only to hours required against broadcasts hostile to the regime! Let alone closing down the power- hogging jammers completely and letting chips fall where they may. The Revolution really has no confidence in itself. 9565, DentroCuban Jamming Command pulses against nothing, May 19 at 1311; they`re there because Radio Martí uses 9565 at a totally different time, 1700-2400. Well, not exactly against nothing, since this was QRMing CRI relay via CUBA on 9570! Cuban Commies vs Chinese Commies via Cuban Commies! DentroCuban Jamming Command pulses interfering with WORLD OF RADIO on WRMI, 9955, May 20 at 0503. Excuse me if I continue to be upset about Cuban jamming, especially against non-Spanish, non-exile broadcasts. How many of you can say that you are jammed by the pals of ``your friend in Habana``, Arnie Coro, whose own DX program is immune from jamming? This was a repeat of WOR edition 1460, as 1461 starts this week on UT Thursday May 21. 9560 with hash against weakest R. Australia signal at 1300 May 20, from the Cuban relay of CRI on 9570, and also traces of same audible under strongest RA signal 9580. These must be what ruin RA reception in Ontario, as Andy Reid reminds us. After missing a few days, RHC`s 12000 was back May 20 at 1318, despite V of Russia Chinese service co-channel. The two were about equal levels here, despite Cuba`s extreme proximity advantage, taking turns dominating. Still same at 1345, when Russian song being played, but announcements in Chinese. At least the VOR transmission has been cleaned up to lack all the dirty splash above and below. I suppose the clash is less of a problem in RHC`s 12000 target area of ``Nueva York``, while there are plenty of clear //s, 11760, 13680, 13760, 13780, 13880, 15120, 15360 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. Chinese and Cuban officials have been discussing installing four new 250 kW transmitters at one of the RHC transmitter sites, but not for RHC broadcasts. So we may be able to hear CRI relays even better or US broadcasts to Cuba even worse (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Radio Habana Cuba. Still no Esperanto on 6000 at 0700 UT Sunday, May 17. Only English which went off abruptly at 0730 with no closing announcements. It appeared to be a repeat of the first half hour of a previous broadcast since they announced that Arnie Coro would be coming up during the hour (which of course he did not as they closed at 0730). No sign of Aló Presidente today, May 17 when I checked the listed frequencies after 1600 (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. DTV PLANS --- At 1221 May 15 on 6000 heard the voice of Arnaldo Coro with part of a `news` item within Despertar con Cuba, saying that Cuba would not be adopting the US DTV standard ATSC, due to trade restrixions(?) and anyhow, Cuba will have access to a superior DTV system when it is ready to change. Take your time: we are looking forward to more analog Cuban TV DX once most US lowband TV stations are gone June 12. It should be an interesting DX challenge to decode Cuban DTV, whatever it may become (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, I think they'll eventually go with the Japanese OR European DTV system, once they run out of options in obtaining NTSC gear. Though, there is enough demand in Cuba that they could make arrangements with Chinese firms for NTSC set manufacture via special order. In any case, we'll probably have Cuba in analog until most of Latin America goes digital (Curtis Sadowski, IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) More on this country`s DTV plans: an item on REE`s Amigos de la Onda Corta, May 16 around 0515 on 6055, gave more detail than we heard from Arnie on RHC. Cuba has a committee studying which standard to adopt, China`s, Brasil`s or Europe`s, I think the third one was; with USA`s not even being considered, but it may be a sesquidecade before anything happens to analog. BTW, I tried to catch the complete Coro/RHC item on the webcast replay but it did not show at the expected time 1620 UT May 15. (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) They probably don't want their citizens to watch TV from the U.S. or even Mexico which is what they like to do. Now with the U.S. almost all DTV that will put a stop to watching TV from the U.S. and when they go digital the sets won't decode ATSC. Of course, if relations continue to improve their DTV decision may change if they don't feel the need to stop viewing of U.S. stations (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I bet some ATSC STBs have already been smuggled into Cuba (Glenn Hauser, WTFDA via DXLD) I bet so, too. They check pretty carefully at the border, but stuff can get in. I took a whack of computer components a few years ago, and they were held at customs. I stated who they were intended for, it was all legit, but there was mega paperwork to be done on their end. It took several weeks for the intended recipient to get the goods. I think it was the sheer amount I took of similar components that attracted attention. Things are beginning to ease now (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) Both times I went in (legally) my carry on bag was not checked. I could have easily taken in a DTV tuner card which I should have taken. It was more difficult to get back into the United States. I did send a tuner card to Jesús in the Cayman Islands, but it was returned. I still have it so, Jesús, if you see this message and still want it let me know? (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, WTFDA via DXLD) I would bet dollars to donuts that Arnie Coro has a converter box and/or TV with a ATSC tuner sitting in his shack. The things are probably considered "counterrevolutionary" to the rank and file Cuban by the local authorities. But as far as Cuba doing DTV, I don't see it happening for a few years, and probably under a different regime that is more tolerant. I don't see ATSC as a dead issue in Cuba unless there the status-quo remains. Perhaps by that time even the brand/network "CMQ" could be resurrected (Fritze H Prentice Jr, KC5KBV, Star City, AR EM43aw, http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com ibid.) THE DIGITAL TELEVISION CAN DELAY ABOUT 15 YEARS TO BE DEVELOPED IN CUBA | Cuba News Headlines. Cuban Daily News A recent story from Prensa Latina, the Cuban wire service. I didn't know China HAD a standard for DTV. I'd lay odds they go with that one, if they can get it to properly work on 120 volt 60 cycle AC. http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2009/05/13/17159/the_digital_television_can_delay_about_15_years_be_developed_cuba.html (Curtis Sadowski, IL, ibid.) Looks like the story Arnie must have been quoting from (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. Cuba-2 test pattern at 1058 CDT [1558 UT] May 15 en Macomb, IL (Jeff Kadet, WTFDA via DXLD) Sounds like the Cubans are behind times. They obviously haven't reached the point about going 24/7 and throwing the TP cards in the trash like all TV stations have done in the USA (John L., Muskego, WI, ibid.) Jeff, did you see color bars, a Phillips TP, or what? I haven't seen anything on channel 2 except bars for a couple of years. I miss the old TPs from Cuba (Danny Ogleghorpe, Shreveport, LA, ibid.) All I heard was the tone. I think they started the news at 1100. I assume it was color bars. Haven't seen any Phillips TPs for years on Cubans (Jeff Kadet, ibid.) Unless it`s from Cd. Habana, most FM's down there S/OFF at 10 or 11 pm and back on at 6 am. I guess there's not many night owls in Cuba. :-) (JimThomas, Colorado, ibid.) i.e. off 0200/0300-1000 UT Simple reason: no late-night infomericals ;) More practical reason - electricity is cycled with 6-18 hour shut downs by areas/regions and the average wage is US$15 a month (Bob Cooper in NZ, ibid.) Not any more since Hugo C. started sending tons of oil over there (Rick Shaftan, NJ, ibid.) ** CUBA [non]. $2.4M CUT MAY HIT BROADCASTS TO CUBA By David Adams, Times Latin America Correspondent Published Wednesday, May 13, 2009 In the latest U-turn in U.S.-Cuba policy, the Obama administration is making spending cuts and programming changes for Miami-based Radio and TV Martí, the government broadcasting network directed at promoting democracy in Cuba. A 2010 budget request to Congress made by the broadcast agency that oversees the Martí operation, is proposing to shave $2.4 million off its $34.8 million budget last year, a cut of 7 percent. That would mean laying off 20 percent of the 160 workers at the stations, officials say, marking the largest cutback since they were created in the 1980s. The taxpayer-funded broadcasts are also being told to switch programming toward more hard news and less commentary. Radio Martí would go to an all-news format, while TV Martí would lose its nightly half-hour evening news show, in favor of a five- minute news update every half hour. The new budget appears designed in part to deal with criticism of political bias and propaganda at the stations. It comes in the wake of a damning report in early February by the Government Accountability Office, which found that fewer than 1 percent of people surveyed in Cuba listen to the Martí stations. The report also raised questions about poor standards of journalism at the stations, including editorializing, use of unsubstantiated reports coming from Cuba, and offensive and incendiary language. Officials describe the new budget as an effort at "streamlining" programming, in an effort to increase the audience in Cuba in response to feedback from audience research. "This is being receptive to what is in the interest of listeners in Cuba," said Letitia King, a spokesperson for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which runs a stable of federal broadcast stations worldwide, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. While the cut is not unexpected in a time of severe federal budget trimming, it also represents a strategic downgrading of the Cuba program, compared with other parts of the world. The overall global broadcasting budget proposal was $745.5 million, up about 4 percent from 2009. The proposal adds money for Voice of America's broadcasts to Afghanistan and Pakistan, establishes a Russian language Internet site for Central Asia and pays for a television and radio equipment replacement program for Middle East broadcasts. The changes leave both supporters and critics of the Martí stations scratching their heads. Advocates of the stations wonder how the government expects them to fill the programming slots once the commentary is removed. Some exceptions to the all-news format will be allowed, said King. "We won't be dispensing with sports. They will continue to broadcast Major League Baseball for example." The budget must still be approved by Congress later this summer, where it will face a challenge from some members who want TV Martí scrapped altogether (St Petersburg Times via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) RADIO, TV MARTÍ TO RETOOL, DOWNSIZE With a smaller budget on the horizon, anti-Castro broadcasters Radio and TV Martí will undergo format changes and staffing cuts. By FRANCES ROBLES, Miami Herald Radio and TV Martí will lay off 20 percent of their workforce in a shake-up aimed at retooling the struggling anti-Castro stations in the face of a steep federal budget cut. In its funding request to Congress, the agency that oversees the Miami-based Radio and TV Martí submitted a budget that allocates $2.4 million less on the controversial broadcasts. The U.S.-funded broadcasts, aimed at breaking the information blockade on the island, will change formats in response to the proposed budget cut. Radio Martí will go to an all-news format, and TV Martí will have a five-minute news update every half hour, with other shows in between. The goal: a smaller staff producing news that's faster and sharper, in a desperate attempt to gain audiences for widely criticized programs that opponents say are overfunded and underwatched. ''We will need to cut 35 jobs, 10 of them already vacant,'' Pedro Roig, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, said Tuesday from Pragu e, where he was attending an agency board meeting. ``We believe we will be able to meet the challenge and be more flexible. For television, when the news is on, we find people's attention span is down. What people want is something shorter, faster, crisper -- a different dynamic than what we were offering.'' Employees got the news at a meeting last week but were left baffled as to how the stations plan to fill air time, several employees said. Radio and TV Martí, which employ a combined 160 people, have long been accused of being federal boondoggles that employ people with politically influential friends. Critics say hardly anyone listens to Radio Martí, and virtually no one watches TV Martí. The Cuban government constantly jams the signals, and many people have said the programming is dull. LIMITED ACCESS Official figures on the number of viewers and listeners on the island of 11.2 million is not known, but U.S. officials have previously said that there are an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 satellite dishes on rooftops that would allow for access to the broadcasts. Last year, fewer than 1 percent of 1,200 people surveyed over the telephone said they had listened to Radio Martí in the past week, according to the study released 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. BUDGET CHANGES The budget cut was proposed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the stations. The agency sent a budget proposal to Congress that includes an overall 3.9 percent funding increase, a boost reflected in places such as Afghanistan. The Cuba program's budget was cut by about 7 percent. ''We are trying to enlarge the audience and streamline aspects of the programming to respond to the feedback we have been getting,'' said Board of Governors spokeswoman Tish King. ``We are making these changes, and it turns out it costs less to do these things.'' She said the budget proposal sent to Congress asks for $32.4 million, down from $34.8 million. ''This is a beginning, but the real issue is what is the rationale for continuing to fund TV Martí?'' said Rep. Bill Delahunt, the Massachusetts Democrat who commissioned a Congressional report blasting the station's lack of audience. ``Why continue to fund an operation that has absolutely zero benefit?'' Roig said he asked that funding for transmissions not be cut, which is why the personnel side took a harder hit. `IT'S NOT FEASIBLE' The layoffs and format changes will not take effect until October, but some of the Martí correspondents said they have already decided to quit. ''I understand that the radio side is going to an all-news format. I don't think that works, because it's very difficult to sustain,'' said radio show host Ernesto Betancourt, who was the station's first director when it went on the air in the 1980s. ``It's not feasible. People in Cuba are marginalized and need explanation and commentary on the news.'' Betancourt said he decided to resign because he felt obligated to discuss President Barack Obama's Cuba policies, which he disagrees with. Obama last month lifted travel restrictions for Americans to visit relatives on the island and permitted unlimited amounts of cash transfers to people there. ''I don't want any part of this,'' Betancourt said, ``not even to criticize it.'' 73 (via Oscar de Céspedes, May 13, DXFlorida yg via Brock Whaley, HI, also via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) INCERTIDUMBRE POR EL FUTURO DE RADIO Y TV MARTÍ, MEDIOS DE EEUU PARA CUBA http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hjVo78QIGiexx3yR6o9f6nNvwEqg MIAMI (AFP) — Las estaciones de Radio y TV Martí, que transmiten información desde Estados Unidos hacia Cuba, iniciaron un proceso de reducción de presupuesto y personal que genera gran incertidumbre sobre el futuro y tensiones internas, dijeron fuentes de esos medios a la AFP. Financiadas por el gobierno de Estados Unidos con el fin de romper el bloqueo informativo dentro de Cuba, las dos estaciones con sede en Miami encaran una profunda reforma que podría llevar paulatinamente a un futuro cese de sus actividades, dijeron los informantes. "Hay un gran nerviosismo, grandes pujas internas y mucha incertidumbre sobre lo que pasará", dijo una de las fuentes, que se mantuvo en el anonimato. "Todo el mundo cree que estos medios creados en la época de la Guerra Fría no responden a la nueva relación con Cuba que busca el gobierno de Obama", agregó. El gobierno cubano considera que la actividad de Radio y TV Martí es una intromisión ilegal de parte de Estados Unidos dentro de Cuba, e interfiere las señales y ondas. "Es posible que la Casa Blanca ofrezca en algún momento la desactivación de ambas estaciones como parte de las negociaciones diplomáticas con Cuba", dijo otra fuente. Obama ha reiterado desde su llegada a la presidencia que impulsa un cambio en la política hacia Cuba tras 50 años de aislamiento y embargo. Como primera medida, levantó las restricciones de viajes y envios de remesas a la isla de parte de los cubanos en Estados Unidos, y admitió que propugna un diálogo directo con La Habana. En Estados Unidos, congresistas críticos de la continuidad de Radio Y TV Martí señalan que se están destinando fondos públicos a dos estaciones que son interferidas por el gobierno cubano y que nadie mira ni escucha en la isla. "Habrá intentos de negarle los fondos a estas necesarias transmisiones, pero serán derrotados en un enérgico debate", dijo a la AFP la representante republicana Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, una de las voces cubano-americanas en el Congreso que se preparan para una férrea defensa de las dos estaciones. Mientras el gobierno del presidente Barack Obama analiza qué hacer con Radio y TV Martí, se espera que como primer paso se produzca este año una reducción de la platilla de empleados y del presupuesto de funcionamiento. La oficina de Transmisiones estadounidense, que se encarga del presupuesto de estas y otras estaciones con los mismos fines, presentó al Congreso para Radio y TV Martí un presupuesto total de 32,4 millones de dólares para el próximo ejercicio, lo que representa una disminución de 2,4 millones en relación con el anterior. Para octubre se espera contar con una reducción del 20 por ciento de la plantilla total de 160 personas que angloba a ambos medios, dijeron los informantes. Los empleados fueron informados la semana pasada de los cambios en marcha, que implicarían nuevos formatos informativos con noticias 24 horas en la Radio, y una programación más dinámica en la televisión en un intento por obtener audiencia en la isla. Radio y TV Martí fueron creadas en 1983 por el entonces presidente republicano Ronald Reagan para combatir el comunismo en Cuba, siguiendo el modelo de Radio Free Europe y otras destinadas a transmitir en la órbita soviética. (via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) Yet another version: RADIO MARTÍ SIGUE PERO CON MENOS PLATA Thursday, 14 May 2009 19:27 El Comercio Newspaper http://www.elcomercionewspaper.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2069:radio-marti-sigue-pero-con-menos-plata&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18 (via Dino Bloise, FL, ibid.) ** CUBA [non]. 9545, Radio República (clandestina) via ??, 18 mayo 09, 0035-, señal regular, con jamming (Yimber Gaviría, Cali, Colombia, Sony ICF 7600G Ant. KA33 http://yimber.blogspot.com (dx logs), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS GREEKISH. Nueva QSL: CHIPRE, 5930 kHz. CyBC CYPRUS BROADCASTING CORPORATION. Escuchada el día 24-04-09 a las 2219 UT en griego. Recibida QSL. Datos completos (con error en la fecha de la escucha, ya que indica el 24-03-09) V/S: Director general. Informe enviado a: rik @ cybc.com.cy Demoró 14 días (Javier Robledillo Jaén, EA5-1028, Elche (Alicante), Spain, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) ** CYPRUS TURKISH. Hi Brandon, did you receive any reply? I have probable R. Bayrak Int. carrier on 6150.036 kHz now at 1650. It is rather stable. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, May 13, playdxyg via DXLD) Hi Mauno, The only responses that I have received are that R. Bayrak hasn't been logged in a few years and is likely inactive. I sent an email to the station but did not receive a reply. I have not checked this frequency lately to see if the carrier that I was watching last month is still present, but will try to remember to do so this evening. 73, (Brandon Jordan, TN, ibid.) ** CZECHIA [and non]. R. Prague is receiving interference from what I suspect is Tunisia [thanks WRTH updates] on their long time 7345 kHz frequency. Tunisia is scheduled here 19-24 UT but they left Prague in the clear at 2310. Bad Choice. Hope they get the word (Andy Reid, Ont., May 12, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This cannot be a surprise to R. Prague, as they are deeply involved in HFCC, and Tunisia registered its new frequency, ex-7190 which had to be evacuated. Prague does not start until 2230, and there are plenty of repeats of the English broadcast after that (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: ** CZECHIA [and non]. CHECH [sic] REP. Summer A-09 of Radio Prague: CZECH 0130-0157 on 6200 7345 0230-0257 on 7345 9870 0830-0857 on 11600 15710 0930-0957 on 9880 21745 1100-1127 on 11665 15710 1230-1257 on 6055 7345 1530-1557 on 5930 17485 1730-1757 on 5930 17485 1930-1957 on 5930 11600 2100-2127 on 9410 11600 2330-2357 on 7345 9440 ENGLISH 0000-0027 on 7345 9440 0100-0127 on 6200 7345 0300-0327 on 7345 9870 0330-0357 on 6080 SAC 0330-0357 on 9445 11600 0700-0727 on 9880 11600 0900-0927 on 9880 21745 0900-0927 on 9955 RMI 1030-1057 on 9880 11665 1300-1327 on 13580 17540 1330-1357 on 9850 WOF Fri/Sat in DRM 1400-1427 on 9955 RMI 1600-1627 on 5930 17485 1700-1727 on 5930 17485 2000-2027 on 5930 11600 2130-2157 on 9410 11600 2230-2257 on 7345 9415 GERMAN 0630-0657 on 5930 7345 1000-1027 on 6055 9880 1200-1227 on 6055 7345 1300-1327 on 9850 WOF Fri/Sat in DRM 1500-1527 on 5930 1630-1657 on 11700 SIN in DRM FRENCH 0600-0627 on 5930 7345 0730-0757 on 9880 11600 1330-1357 on 13580 17540 1630-1657 on 5930 17485 1830-1857 on 5930 13580 2200-2227 on 7345 9415 RUSSIAN 0400-0427 on 9445 11600 1130-1157 on 11665 15710 1430-1457 on 7345 13580 1630-1657 on 5930 17485 1800-1827 on 5840 DB SPANISH 0000-0027 on 7275 ASC 0030-0057 on 7345 9440 0200-0227 on 6200 7345 0430-0457 on 9955 RMI 0800-0827 on 11600 15710 0930-0957 on 9955 RMI 1400-1427 on 11625 13580 1800-1827 on 5930 13580 1900-1927 on 5930 13580 2030-2057 on 5930 11600 2300-2327 on 7345 9415 2330-2357 on 11730 SAC ASC=Ascension Island; DB= Dushanbe, Tajikistan; RMI=WRMI, USA; SAC=Sackville, Canada; SIN=Sines, Portugal; WOF=Woof[f]erton, U.K. (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 15 via DXLD) ** DEUTSCHES REICH. GERMAN RADIO OVERSEAS PROGRAMS DURING WWII Several days ago I was recording FM signals here in Subotica, and I heard interesting segment in the show called "Time Mosaic" on Radio Belgrade 1. These segments are from that radio-show... Every Wednesday and Saturday evenings from March 1941 till February 1943 the German Radio (Nazi propaganda) was transmitting musical program "Charlie and His Orchestra" on short and medium waves intended to listeners in Canada, USA and England. You can download these 3 short mp3 files: - Announcement (the beginning of the show) - "Who's Afraid of The BBC" - "A Man With The Big Cigar" Here is the address: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/33412 Regards, (Dragan Lekic from Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I have a double CD that came out a few years ago with the Nazi propaganda swing recordings. I'm not sure if it's still in the market, but I'm sure it can be found on ebay or something (Keith Perron, Taiwan, ibid.) MP3's of the two CD set is available for download here: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/03/charlie_and_his.html (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) Charlie and His Orchestra is a fascinating story. My buddy the late Brian Smith and I avidly collected all sorts of WW2 audio, and have many of the different arrangements by Karl Schwedler, a.k.a Charlie. While jazz and other "degenerate music" was banned officially in the Third Reich, Goebbel's propaganda ministry put together this band to appeal to Allied tastes while delivering a defeatist message. The propaganda is rather ineffective and heavy handed, anecdotal accounts suggest Churchill found them hilarious. The music itself is top notch...they were all accomplished musicians. In a later era one might suggest that they "rocked". You can download many of them at http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Charlie%20and%20His%20Orchestra Note: I don't know who posted them but Charlie/Karl was NOT executed by the British. Various accounts suggest he just faded into the population after the war, fearing prosecution, others suggest he immigrated to the US. [tagline] 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 (Fred Waterer http://www.doghousecharlie.com dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DIEGO GARCIA. 4319 (U), AFRTS, 1411-1416, May 19. ABC news; Air Force Network News with PSA for the military; very poor reception, but clearly // 10320 (U) Pearl Harbor; fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EAST TURKESTAN. From this afternoon Xinjiang PBS is on its summer schedule. 7205 ex 7195 (Uighur) and 7260 ex 7155 (Chinese) are both confirmed. (7260 noted under a co-channel CNR-1 jammer at 1750. On shortwaves the CNR-1 allnight program, as it seems, is used only by jammers.) (Olle Alm, Sweden. Thursday, 14 May, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Xinjiang PBS moved to summer frequency from May 14; Now sked: 2300-1800 Uighur: (not Tu.Th. 0800-1100) 13670 0230-1400, 7205 2300-0230, 1400-1800 11885 2300-1800 9560 0300-1200, 6120 2300-0300, 1200-1800 7275 2300-1800 2300-1800 Chinese: (not Tu.Th. 0800-1100) 11770 2300-1800 9600 0300-1400, 7310 2300-0300, 1400-1800 7260 2300-1800 5960 2300-1800 2330-1800 Kazakh: (not Tu.Th. 0800-1100) 9470 0300-1150, 6015 2330-0300, 1151-1800 7340 2330-1800 2330-0330, 0530-1030(Tu.Th. 0800), 1230-1800 Mongolian 6190 2330-0330, 1230-1800, 9510 0530-1030 7230 2330-0030, 0530-1030, 1230-1800 0330-0530, 1030(Tu.Th.1100)-1230 Kyrgyz: 9705 0330-0530, 1030-1230 11975 0330-0530, 1030-1230 de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, May 15, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CHINA. 7230, Xinjiang PBS, Urümqi; *2327-2340 May 15, 2009. Carrier, into cool nine or so xylophone-like interval signal from 2330 to 2331:30, female in presumed Mongolian, local music from 2335. Clear and weak, and fading fast (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. HCJB, 9745, May 16 at 0500-0503* with several choral verses of the Ecuadorian National Anthem, a good chance to hear it with good reception. They used to play a bit of other music a few sex after it finished, before turning off the transmitter, in a persistent bit of mis-programming; now that no longer happens. But the big news is that HCJB has finally fixed their automated Spanish IDs in the morning, removing the extinct 21455 frequency from the announcements, 10.5 months after it was closed down June 28, 2008, as reported in detail in DXLD 8-074. In the meantime, we have filed numerous log reports, most recently May 2, quoting outdated announcements at 14:30, 29:30, 44:30, and/or 59:30 past the hours until 1500:00, whenever there is a break between programs, which insisted on saying ``11690, 21455, y 11960 kHz`` -- usually, except we caught one saying only one of the 11 MHz frequencies twice. Now on May 16, 2009, we find the announcements have been fixed, removing mention of 21455. Listening to 11960 at 1259:30, 21455 was omitted, 8 am TC, and into Cruzada con Luís Palau. Another check at 1344:30 found no frequencies mentioned at all, but instead a promo for Ecuador being one of 17 countries with the most ecological diversity, a jingle ID, and 1345 into BGEA`s Momentos de Decisión, contrary to the English version which is Hour of Decision --- in Spanish, no time to waste in upmaking your mind. At 1359:30, just 11690 and 11960 given. After Aventura Diexista, at 1459:30-1500:00* the old cacao- producing promo, but once again 21455 absent from the list. They are still uncoördinated, having to fade out the last few sex of the previous program in time for the ID (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. EQUADOR – Desde Barreiras (BA), Ramón Aragão informa que recebeu uma carta “comovente” da HCJB Global, onde a emissora salienta que enfrenta “a realidade de somente transmitir seus programas em ondas curtas até abril do ano que vem, quando todos os transmissores serão desligados oficialmente por causa da construção do aeroporto de Quito”. Conforme o Ramón, o serviço em português da HCJB Global é um dos mais antigos no âmbito das ondas curtas. Uma das torres já foi retirada do local, onde outras 15 antenas permanecem funcionando (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 17 via DXLD) HCJB laments that from April 2010 there will be no more SW from Ecuador, including the Brazilian service, as all the transmitters will be officially turned off due to the Quito airport construxion. Well, if they really want to maintain the service, there are plenty of other transmitters they could buy time on --- such as Bonaire, Chile, Guiana French, not to mention inside Brasil (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Charlie Jacobson discussed the status of HCJB’s operations in Ecuador. Due to the construction of a new airport and due to financial considerations, HCJB’s shortwave ministry has been downsizing. This process is now in its final phase. By April 1, 2010, all transmitters at the Pifo transmission site will be shut down. They will maintain 49 meter broadcasts to reach the Andean area and the headwaters of the Amazon River Basin. This would be done from their high-power AM site. The number of antennas at Pifo has declined from a total of 31 to 8 at the present time. The site will eventually be closed entirely. At its peak, it had 12 transmitters and 31 antennas. Items for sale (mostly vacuum capacitors) can be viewed at http://www.hcsh.de/sale They have 3 – 100 kW HC-100 transmitters. One will stay in Ecuador for regional coverage as previously mentioned, but the other two will be refurbished and moved to other locations. All other transmitters will be dismantled and scrapped. One of these is a 50 kW unit. One 500 kW transmitter could be updated with a solid state modulator and used as a 250 kW transmitter. Other equipment currently available includes an antenna switch matrix rated at 500 kW (4 inputs/10 outputs). An antenna matrix rated at 100 kW (8 inputs/20 outputs) will be available at a later date (NASB/DRM USA ANNUAL MEETING REPORT by David Creel, Far East Broadcasting Company May NASB Newsletter via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DXLD) ** ECUADOR. TRANSPARENCIA: 'PECULADO' EN VENTA DE FRECUENCIAS Publicado el 16/Mayo/2009 | 00:15 Un delito de peculado se habría configurado en la venta o traspaso de frecuencias de radio y televisión a través del mecanismo de "devolución-concesión", entre 2003 y 2008. En el Conartel se diseñó un mecanismo ilegal de concesiones, según la Secretaría de Transparencia En días pasados, la Secretaría de Transparencia, presidida por Alfredo Vera, entregó a la Presidencia de la República, Contraloría, Ministerio Público, Conartel y Comisión Auditora de Frecuencias, un informe sobre las concesiones de radio y televisión otorgadas entre los años 2003 y 2008. El documento menciona que en esa institución se diseñó un mecanismo ilegal de reparto de frecuencias (devolución-concesión) a través de regulaciones que dieron lugar a una concentración de frecuencias y al incremento de patrimonios personales de algunos dirigentes de la Asociación Ecuatoriana de Radio (AER) y de la Asociación Ecuatoriana de Canales de Televisión (AECTV), lo que configura un delito de peculado que debe ser conocido y sancionado por la justicia. . . Fuente: http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/peculado-por-frecuencias-2-348740.html (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, May 17, DXLD) ** EGYPT. Middle East Radio starts using 1071 --- Hello DXers, On 15/5/09 The commercial network of ERTU known as Middle East Radio started using the frequency of 1071, in addition to the usual frequency 774 and the FM Frequency 89.5. 1071 used to carry the News Radio Network, but sounds like ERTU decided to drop that network after launching Radio Masr on the FM band frequency of 88.7. News Radio used to transmit on the FM 91.5, but not any more as they are only transmitting classical and light music on that frequency from 0400 to 1400 UT; after that the usual culture program takes over till 0100 UT. So no more News Radio from the ERTU on the MW and FM frequencies. P.S.: this might be my last report from Egypt as I'm moving to Denmark starting first of June; don't think DXing the Middle East will be an easy task from there; but you'll never know :) All the best, guys (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, May 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tarek, we`ll certainly miss your reports from a part of the world lacking monitors like yourself, but best of luck to you in Denmark! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello DXers, Today I've noticed that all the radio stations in Egypt including the semi-governmental ones like Nile FM and Nougom FM are playing nothing but religious music and religious programs. same for all the Egyptian TV networks. The official statement on the TV screen is stating that President Mubarak is mourning over the death of his grandson Mohammed who passed away yesterday. Mohamed, 13 years old, was the son of the grand son of Mubarak Alaa, who's not playing any key role in the political life here in Egypt (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, May 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA ECUATORIAL. 5005, RNGE/"R. Bata", Bata, 2207- 2222, 15 May, Castilian, some talks followed by a menu of African pops but also international music; 55433 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5005, Radio Nacional, Bata, 1927-1945, 16-05, locutor, locutora, comentarios, canciones: "Continuamos ofreciendoles compañia aquí en Radio Bata. 24322. 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, 0530-0607, 17-05. A las 0530 programa religioso del domingo: "Hoy domingo día del Señor", canciones religiosas. A las 0600 canciones en español, comentarios, identificación: "Radio Malabo". 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de Cable, 10 metros, orienta WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, *0516-0605, May 16, sign on with Afro- pop music. Spanish talk. Radio Nacional ID. Fair to good signal but some talk with low modulation (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [and non]. NEW TRIAL DATE SET FOR ALAMO Texarkana Gazette May 9, 2009 By: Lynn LaRowe Tony Alamo has a new trial date. Jury selection will begin July 13 for the evangelist who is accused of bringing young girls across state lines for sex. . . http://www.tonyalamonews.com/1088/50909-tg-new-trial-date-set-for-alamo.php (via DXLD) see also USA: WWCR ** ETHIOPIA. 6170, Voice of Tigray Revolution, 0259 May 17, vernacular opening announcement after 5 minutes of flute IS. Had not heard them on this frequency for quite some time, back here presumably replacing 5980 reported in DXLD 9-039 but which I could not trace. In the clear but slightly weaker than // 5950 (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. Amhara Regional State Radio, Bahirdar, Etiopien-6090 har svarat med tre e-mail från Dereje Moges, dereradio2000@yahoo.com Jag kopierar in en del text från Amhara Radio, som väl får betraktas som nyheter: [sic] "heloo bjorn fransson.i am dereje moges radio director from amhara radio, bahirdar, ethiopia. thankyou for your feedback!!!!!!!!!! dear our radio station is stablish 12 years ago.for the first time it transmit for one hour a day.but now the transmittion time is 9 hours aday. our agency also have news paper and tv transmittion.the tv transmittion is by using etv transmiter one hour a day" "hello bjorn fransson ? thank you for your feedback about our station!!!! I am dereje moges radio station director. dear,I confrim that the recaption report is correct .and I appreciate your hobby of listining shortwave radio .it is very intersting!!!!!!!!!!! dear, amhara radio start its tansmittion 12 years ago.from this years the time coverage is 1 houra day for 10 years by using ethiopian radio transmiter on 594.. after this the rest 2 yeras transmition is brodcast by its own transmitter on 801 khz mw by expanding the time to 3 hours a day THE TRANMITION POWER IS 100KW .And now from may 9 /2009 it started the transmition on 801 kz mw and 6090kz sw by expanding the time to 9 hours aday.The amhara radio have news,music and entertaining,educational ,informative programmes." "dear I am happy and ready to give any information .and i need your help.I THINK we will have strong contact..PLEASE CONTACT ME I WILL (via Björn Fransson, Sweden, SWB via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. GERMANY(non [sic]) New schedule for Voice of Oromia Liberation Front in Oromo: 1600-1630 11760 WER 500 kW / 135 deg EaAf Sun/Tue/Thu, ex JUL 100 kW 1600-1630 11975 JUL 100 kW / 130 deg EaAf Sun/Tue/Thu, deleted May 3 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 15 via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 15350, R Bilal, via Samara, Russia, *1700-1720, May 03, s/on with repeated ID’s, Amharic talks, ann, prayers, greetings; good but rapidly getting weaker, no jamming (Vashek Korinek via DXplorer, via DSWCI DX Window May 13 via DXLD) ** EUROPE. No doubt every European watched it live today, but for the rest of us, videos from the Eurovision Song Contest: http://eurovision-2009.com/ Flush with flesh and flash, most of them, and more variety than you might expect. Crank it up and be sure to watch full-screen and HQ if you can. Most are scarcely two minutes long, but further down in the file are some official preview videos of 3 or 4 minutes. It seems you cannot simply stand there and sing your song with expression; you have to have flashing lights, acrobats, cameras zooming around on trax (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hardly. In Germany it had 7.3 millions viewers, which is a market share of 31 percent. Norddeutscher Rundfunk (who handles this EBU event for the ARD) praises this result as great success, since in previous years the market share was below 30 percent. And they again say that "radically new ways" are necessary. The same mantra as every year, and nothing will happen of course. There are quite a lot of people who think that they should like ORF and RAI simply stop wasting licence fee payer's money on this satirical event, which saw its best times before 1980 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The official website is here: http://www.eurovision.tv/ This year's winner, Norway, was very smart to pick up a Belarusian guy as its participant. As a result, he got not only Norway's traditional Nordic support but much of Slavic/ex-Soviet vote. Here's the country by country scorecard: http://www.eurovision.tv/event/scoreboard?event=1482 This Eurovision Contest was the most expensive in history. (A controversial subject in Russia that is in grips of acute economic crisis.) For the first time the contest was carried live in Australia and NZ, albeit at a very inconvenient time (Sergei S., Moscow, ibid.) We mainly watched the final part of the conductor "Malko Competition 2009" competition in which a 21 year old American, Joshua Weilerstein, won this attractive competition at DR here in Copenhagen! But switched to Moscow now & then... http://www.dr.dk/p2/malko watch him conducting: Weilerstein dirigerer Carl Nielsens Pan og Syrinx (09:58) Weilerstein dirigerer Brahms 4. symfoni (13:59) 73, (Erik Koie, Copenhagen, IBID.) ** FINLAND. POPOV SEMINAR IN FINLAND & HAM-STATION 14 MAY 2009 Hi Glenn: just to inform that during a Seminar of Maritime Radio History & Alexander Popov there will be a ham station OF5POPOV operating at around 07-15 UT, all bands from KOTKA, FINLAND. The station is operated by the local ham-club. At the seminar among other programs will be "Historical role of A. S. Popov and his school in the development of radio Popov's museum in the SPb Electrotecnical University LETI Doctor Larisa Zolotinkina, Director of Memorial Museum of A.S. Popov & A.S. Popov and radio electronics of XXI century Professor Valerie Mitko, Arctic Academy of Sciences 73 (Tarmo Kontro, Espoo Finland, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) and in advance on the dxldyg ** FINLAND. Medium wave transmissions launched 11th May 2009 Radio86 has started broadcasting China-themed programs on 950 kHz [sic --- error for 963 kHz] in the medium-wave band from Finland. Daily programs air between 5 and 9 am and between 6 pm and 1 am [0200-0600 and 1500-2200 UT]. The transmission is ensured by Digita transmission services in Pori. The programs are produced by Radio86, based in Tampere, Finland. The radio shows, presented in a number of European languages, all focus on China. Additional content is provided by China Radio International. "The aim of Radio86 is to provide ample and diverse information on China and its culture to our audiences in the Nordic and Baltic countries. We are committed to this mission in the long-term," Zhao Yinong, Managing Director of FutuVision Media Ltd. says. Digita is happy with a client who is committed to long-term cooperation. The launch of the transmissions represent a new beginning for medium wave radio in Finland. "We here at Digita are very happy about our cooperation with FutuVision Media. TDF Group, a leading terrestrial broadcast service operator, is backing our cooperation by providing the required satellite linking," Jari Pasuri, Service Development Manager for Digita Ltd. says. Additional Information: Jari Pasuri, Service Development Manager for Digita Ltd. Tel. +358-40-5287088, first name.last name @ digita.fi Editor-in-chief Jutta Valkeinen, FutuVision Media/Radio86. Tel. +358- 3-4108- 9031, jutta @ radio86.com http://www.futuvision.com http://www.radio86.com http://www.digita.fi http://www.futuvision.com/en/futuvision-media/news/232 (via Mauno Ritola, Finland, mwdx yg via DXLD) Where does the 86 come from? (gh) Toomas Metsis May 12th, 2009 - 8:25 UTC The Estonian transmission is audible in Tallinn. It is a mixture of various touristic and other information, language lessons, Chinese pop music. The texts are completely translated from other sources, either from English or Finnish. They also use citations from Reuters. CRI was never mentioned. The transmission is called “Hiina tund” (Chinese hour), the name of the station was pronounced as “FutuVision Radio86.com”. The Lithuanian transmission used the same station name and followed without any break. Both programmes are produced in Tampere. 13 Sigitas May 12th, 2009 - 10:09 UTC Unfortunately, no signal in Lithuania. Some days something is audible, but so weak that I can’t identify even language. Bad propagation at this time of the year. 14 Toomas Metsis May 13th, 2009 - 5:17 UTC The website for Estonian programms is http://ee.radio86.com for Lithuanian programms http://lt.radio86.com but unfortunately the podcast and feed links are not working. 15 SRG May 13th, 2009 - 14:03 UTC Toomas, CRI’s official website has the same issues. (Media Network blog comments via DXLD) ** FRANCE. Frequency change of R. France International from Apr. 28 and May 3: 0400-0500 9790 ISS 500 kW / 120 deg ECAf French, ex 11700 \\ 7265 0500-0530 11995 ISS 500 kW / 135 deg CSAf English, ex 15160 \\ 13680 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 15 via DXLD) ** FRANCE [and non]. RFI Spanish transmission on 17630 [via GUIANA FRENCH], normally heard 2100-2130 did not sign off until 2230 today May 13, offering 1 1/2 hours of fill music with excellent reception. Workers at RFI have voted in favor of two motions directed at RFI's top management and against the organization where RFI was placed with television channels France 24 and TV5. AFP, citing a labor spokesman, said one motion accuses the French government of fabricating claims that an underfunded RFI is responsible for a budget deficit. The other motion accuses directors of RFI and the holding group Audiovisuel Exterieur de la France of "fabricating unfounded arguments to justify a layoff plan that is as massive as it is illegitimate." Four labor unions say more than two-thirds of RFI staff voted on the resolutions, and more than 95 percent of the votes were in favor of them. A statement by the unions said the strike would continue for another 24 hours (Mike Cooper, GA, 0258 UT May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11700, good signal in French at 0514 May 14, RFI Sport. Don`t usually hear this with Europe not propagating. Is 500 kW, 155 degrees from Issoudun, so directly off the back would be 155 + 180 = 335 degrees. Unseemed strike music fill at the moment. 17630, May 14 at 2123 with music unannounced except for ``RFI Musique`` interjexions, first a chanson in French and 2127 a Cuban ``mueve tu cuerpo`` rap in Spanish. Same music was running about two sesquiseconds behind on much weaker 17620. Normally these two, both Guiana French, would not be // as 17620 is 75 degrees in French at 17- 22, missing from PWBR `2009`, while 17630 is Guiana French, 295 degrees in Spanish at 2100-2130 only. But this was strike fill-music, crossing language service boundaries, and at 2130, 17630 did cut off abruptly in mid-music while 17620 continued. KVOH was fair on 17775, but not super-strong, so its spur on 17630v was not audible before or after RFI was transmitting. (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The strike at RFI must be continuing on May 15, as on 13640 at 1203 instead of news in Spanish I was hearing a version of ``Buena Vista`` mixing in rap, as if the original version were insufficient these days. 1206 ``RFI Musique`` ID and more music fill. This was SSOB --- strongest signal on band 22m, by far, eclipsing VOA, RHC, DCJC, etc., which had not yet built up to full strength. Scheduled as 1200-1230 RFI Spanish at 295 degrees from GUIANA FRENCH, following a semi-hour of French at 1130, 320 degrees, which I believe is Météo Marine --- is that cut off by the strike too? How will the mariners manage? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Today it had been decided to continue the strike at RFI. Another rally will take place tomorrow: http://rfiriposte.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/la-greve-a-ete-revotee-ce-lundi/ http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2009/05/18/01011-20090518FILWWW00483-greve-reconduite-a-rfi.php The strike appears to be pretty effective. I have no time to follow the developments in detail, but it seems that no new content has been posted to the webpages of the endangered German service since May 12 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 17620, May 19 at 1355 with jazz vocal by YL in English, but off at 1357* This fits for RFI Issoudun to WAf schedule. The strike must be in its 8th day, since May 19 at 2123 I was again hearing songs in French on 17630, instead of the scheduled Spanish semihour via Guiana French, and again cut off abruptly at 2130* sharp, while the same music, a few sex apart continued on much weaker 17620, now to WAf from Montsinéry (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Just now I was reading on the RFI website http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/113/article_3692.asp --- they are planning to move some languages over to internet stream only. One of the languages is Chinese. Humm! Do they not know that the FRI website is blocked by the Great Firewall Of China? So who would the audience be? Are they targeting the Chinese service to Singapore? Humm! Singapore where less than 1% of the population have shortwave radios. Oh maybe Taiwan! Let's see! Sangean, one of the worlds major makers of radios and shortwave radios, shortwave radios sales in Taiwan from Sangean are well! In 2008 Sangean sold no shortwave radios in Taiwan. So it must be China. Unless the French government promised China the Dalai Lama would never visit France again, never mention China's human rights abuses again, or something else. China will UNBLOCK RFI if the switch is made to the internet. The world`s largest maker of shortwave radios TECSUN, and makes radios for Etón like the Grundig Satellite 800 and Grundig 350BCL, has almost the entire market of China. Last year TECSUN sold over 1 million units. Almost every radio TECSUN makes has the SW bands. Except for areas and regions like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou which total 70 million people, or around 5% of the total population of China. 95% of the country do listen to shortwave. When I was in Inner Mongolia in 2004, 2005, and 2006 the only radio (domestic) I was able to hear was on shortwave. China does have the world`s largest amount of internet users in the world. But again this is only in first tier cities like the ones I mentioned before. The vast majority of China don't even have telephones and computers, let alone internet access. So the big question is: if RFI puts the Chinese section as a webstream, Who will listen? This is like if an international broadcaster would cut SW in favor of internet streaming to Africa (Keith Perron, Taiwan, May 14, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``Do they not know that the RFI website is blocked by the Great Firewall Of China?`` Probably not, since such a situation should be reason enough to stop any further cooperation with SARFT, shouldn't it? But perhaps the airtime exchange with CRI will come to an end anyway, since it seems that RFI's plan is to abolish shortwave in the former Soviet Union and Asia altogether, like they already did in Europe. This airtime exchange runs since the eighties. Interestingly it seems that RFI had suspended it at some point around the early nineties. Was this probably a result of the events on Tiananmen square? (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) see also CANADA ``RFI Russian maintains that it won a respite - SW broadcasting should continue for at least a few more years.`` Until yearend 2011, or are there other informations around now? An earlier report by the "Le Figaro" newspaper points at the circumstance that at this point the current transmission contract with TDF expires, and it remains to be seen what French international broadcasting (can't recall the name of the new RFI / France 24 / TV5 holding right now) will do then (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. How I fell in love with Fip Radio Guardian, By Johnny Dee, 18 May 2009 From chanson to alt.rock to purring DJs, France's online Fip radio station has everything this UK listener could possibly want. Any more continental radio gems out there? Last week I managed to completely forget about the Championship playoffs, as well as the final episode of Damages - all because I'd become hooked on the French radio station Fip. The station, full name France Inter Paris, streams online at the Radio France site and can be found on some satellites. After a couple of hours' listening, I'd filled an A4 sheet with names of artists I'd never heard before, to find and download. . . http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/tvandradioblog (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) And here are the MP3 streaming links: 32kbits/s mono : http://www.tv-radio.com/station/fip_mp3/fip_mp3-32k.m3u 128kbits/s stéréo : http://www.tv-radio.com/station/fip_mp3/fip_mp3-128k.m3u (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, ibid.) ** GERMANY. Media Broadcast (DTK) updated A09 schd (as on 19th May, 2009) is now available for download from this link : http://www.media-broadcast.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/A09_operational_190509.pdf (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, May 19, dxldyg via DXLD) ** GERMANY. MEDIA BROADCAST sendet Fußball-Radio über DAB MEDIA BROADCAST und die REGIOCAST DIGITAL, Veranstalter des Fußball- Radios 90elf, haben einen Pilotversuch zur Aussendung des Hörfunkprogramms via Digital Radio im DAB-Standard (Digital Audio Broadcasting) vereinbart. Das Programm, bisher auf den digitalen Verbreitungswegen DVB-T und im Internet empfangbar, ist ab dem 19.03.2009 auch in den DAB-Netzen Berlin und Brandenburg aufgeschaltet. Der Pilotversuch soll die Akzeptanz des Radioprogramms über die digitale Terrestrik testen. Darüber hinaus soll 90elf demnächst auch im Rahmen des DAB+ Probebetriebs der Sächsischen Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk und neue Medien (SLM) in Leipzig und Umgebung ausgesendet werden. Das erste deutsche Fußball-Radio ist ein 24 Stunden Vollprogramm für Fußballfans. Zentral geht es um die Spielberichte der ersten und zweiten Liga, um Hintergrundberichte für diese beliebte Sportart, aber auch um Interaktion mit den Hörern (via Jaisakthivel, ADXC, Chennai, India, dxldyg via DXLKD) What this is about: For unknown reasons a pilot project "to test the acceptance of the system" at present takes place on the remains of the DAB network that formerly covered the whole of Berlin and Brandenburg. It is still on air in the greater Berlin area only, all transmitters in the wide, rural regions of Brandenburg (being referred to by mockers as Pampa and, for the southern parts with lots of pine forrests, as Taiga) have been shut down after Rundfunk Berlin- Brandenburg bailed out. In this pilot project 90elf as well as the dance music station sunshine-live are on air until June 30, presumably free of charge. It seems that the primary goal is to attract them for a regular service. You can guess what observers believe will happen when the test period is over. Concerning the reference to Leipzig: A Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk transmitter formerly used to test the DMB system has been reactivated in DAB mode to test DAB transmissions with AAC audio coding, being referred to as "DAB+" (and not audible on existing DAB radios). There is no reason to bring up web radio here: The internet is the primary distribution platform of 90elf anyway. See also http://www.radioszene.de/news/90elf_090808.htm (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) ** GERMANY [non]. DW Russian via Rampisham, ENGLAND, on new 15510, May 16 at 1529, scheduled at 1400-1559 since May 15. This replaces 15265, where it was equally well-heard here, so why the change? Nothing else listed during this bihour on 15260, 15265 or 15270 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 15265: I didn't check that, but I guess to avoid CNR1 Echo Jamming here, due of Taiwan at other times of the day. The China Mainland keep often that jamming 24 hours or longer periods on air. 15265 0300-0600 IBB UDORN, echo jamming. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** GERMANY [non]. On June 1, DW German will appear on a new frequency, 17820 at 22-24 UT, but whence? WHRI to SAm (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) IBB sign-off routines: see U S A [non] ** GREECE. Glenn: On Monday at 0000 UT, I got the back end of Good Luck/It's All Greek To Me with two women talking about the German Occupation of Greece during World War II; yes it was all Greek. All three transmitters from Avlis, 7475, 9420, and 15650 were coming in with excellent or very good reception. At 0005 UT, after "edo Athena," the one hour program "Greek In Style" began with Adriana in English saying that we were going to have a program of popular old Greek songs and the disk-jockey style of recordings began with no let-up until the last two songs when Adriana invited us to the program next week. Not much English, but the music was great and reminded me of the music at Greek picnics and other gatherings. [John also has been checking VOG`s online program previews in Greek and translating some of them:] “Network Without Borders” - From the 18/5/09 and for one month, 19.00 - 20.00 hour Greece time, with Nikos Angelidis. In the emission “Network Without Borders” from 18 May 2009 and for one month roughly, in the 19.00 - 20.00 hour Greece (1600-1700 UT [Mondays), the journalist Nikos Angelidis will present the fellow-countrymen news “Cultural Program” - On Thursday May 20, at 12.05 Greek Time (0905 UT), Maya Gaki presents a choice of extracts from testimonies of Ritsos for his stone years, his memories from the film of Sgoyraki and extracts from the theater of his Helen, Persephone, Ismene, Epitafeios, Sonata of Selinofotos (John Babbis, MD, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREENLAND. 3815, 2055-2105 15.05, KNR, Tasiilaq (USB) (presumed), Danish news 2100, before that Greenlandic songs, 15111 (Anker Petersen, DSWCI AGM DX-Camp in Vejers on the westcoast of Denmark, AOR AR7030PLUS with a 10 metres longwire out in the sand dunes, via Dario Monferini, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This must be the only SW station still broadcasting in Danish! So your presumption should be extremely confident. As there are zero entries for that language in A-09 at http://www.addx.de/cgi-bin/hfp.cgi --- Wait a minute – Vatican`s morning and evening ``Scandinavian`` language blox ought to include Danish, tho never specified which one on which days of week. So is there any Danish? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM. 13362(USB), AFRTS (Barrigada), 0414-0422, 5/14/2009, English. Usual AFN programming with news, job hunting tips, a few good words about the Navy Seals, and Health Matters from the NIH. Identification by man at 0422. Rather poor signal, but steady and readable. Parallels noted from Hawaii (10320 - good signal) and from Key West (5446.5 - very good, 12133.5 - moderate). (Jim Evans, Germantown TN, E1, Eavesdropper Dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. RADIO PODRÍA SALVAR IDIOMAS MAYAS Las radios comunitarias podrían jugar un papel decisivo para salvar los idiomas mayas en peligro de extinción, según Marcelino Nicolás, presidente de la Asociación de Radios Comunitarias de Guatemala (ARCG). Estas declaraciones surgieron luego de conocerse que 23 lenguas indígenas de Guatemala se encuentran en estado de vulnerabilidad, y tres (xinca, itzá y mopam) podrían desaparecer en breve si no se toman medidas para protegerlas, según el Mapa Mundial de las Lenguas en Peligro, de la UNESCO, del año 2009. "Es difícil hablar de rescatar los idiomas mayas en peligro de extinción cuando las comunidades indígenas diariamente son bombardeadas con mensajes radiales ajenos a su cultura, como ocurre en la actualidad", dijo Nicolás. Agregó que las comunidades indígenas necesitan más apoyo para difundir sus idiomas y en esa tarea las más indicadas para hacerlo son las radios comunitarias por tener legitimidad y mantener una comunicación interactiva con las comunidades, pero para eso se necesita patrocinio del estado. Fuente: http://www.radioworld.com/article/81000 (via Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, noticias dx yg via DXLD) ** GUIANA FRENCH. Hi All, FYI, DRM transmissions to Brazil from TDF Montsinery (French Guiana) are scheduled using the following parameters: DRM = B mode, Bandwidth = 10 kHz MSC = 64 QAM CR=0,6 Audio encoding = AAC+SBR Power = 150 kW - From Friday 15 May to Friday 22 May 2009: 15740 kHz: 1200 to 1700 UTC, 17875 kHz: 1700 to 2100 UTC, 15740 kHz: 2100 to 2300 UTC. - On Saturday 23 May 2009: 15740 kHz: 1200 to 1700 UTC, 17875 kHz: 1700 to 1800 UTC. Wishing you all good listening! Regards / 73. Jacques GRUSON F6AJW (Via drmna via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dxldyg via DXLD) They missed some important parameters: azimuth and target area, which are: 165 degrees to Brasil, not to mention, what for (gh, DXLD) FRANÇA – A Redação Brasil da Rádio França Internacional produziu um programa que será transmitido em Digital Radio Mondiale – DRM nesta segunda e terça-feira, 18 e 19, quando ocorrerá um seminário de rádios públicas, em Brasília (DF). “Vozes e sons da radiodifusão pública brasileira” é o nome do programa. Várias emissoras públicas gravaram participações falando de suas atividades e da cidade onde estão sediadas. Uma delas é a Rádio Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, onde trabalha o radioescuta Danilo Nonato de Paula, que participará também do evento em Brasília. Em seu material de divulgação, entretanto, a Rádio França Internacional não menciona a frequência nem os horários em que as emissões em DRM ocorrerão. Apenas citam que ela ocorrerá via retransmissores localizados na Guiana Francesa. Além de “Vozes e sons da radiodifusão pública brasileira”, a RFI transmitirá o programa “Brasil, Brasil”, uma espécie de institucional do Consórcio DRM. Deve participar do evento a jornalista Maria Emília Alencar, responsável pela Redação Brasil da RFI, além de Carlos Acciari e Pompeyo Pino, ambos do Departamento Técnico da emissora (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 17 via DXLD) ** GUINEA. -Conakry. After daytime + nighttime observations this past weekend on the SW coast: 1386v, R. Rurale, Labé, still missing. 7125, R. Guinée, Sonfonya, active, but still with weakish audio. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAITI. TÉLÉ SOLEIL, A NEW AND THE FIRST CATHOLIC TV STATION IN THE COUNTRY. After several test transmissions in past February, Télé Soleil, the first Catholic TV station in Haiti has been inaugurated on May 3rd, to celebrate also the 31st anniversary of Radio Soleil. With this TV station, the target area of Port-au-Prince now is served by 22 TV stations. Broadcasts are via air on channel 25, from 12 PM thru 10 PM. Programme format will be along the the same philosophy as that of Radio Soleil, namely evangelisation, education, information and entertainment for the public. Original message: (Dr. Anton J. Kuchelmeister, Germany, May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAITI. RADIO SUPERSTAR NOW ALSO HAS ITS TV STATION, TÉLÉ SUPER STAR (TSS) On the occasion of its 22 years of existence, Radio Superstar (102.9 FM) has inaugurated on May 10th its TV station Télé Super Star (TSS). TSS transmits via air on channel 68, as well as on channel 124 via cable TV. [+ open house] The original text: 22 ans après, Radio Super Star passe à la télé. La Radio Superstar (102.9 FM) a célébré ses 22 ans d'existence le dimanche 10 mai en cours. A cette occasion, les responsables en ont profité pour inaugurer la Télé Super Star (TSS), captée sur la chaîne 68 et sur le CATV 124. Une journée porte ouverte a été également organisée par la radio de 11h AM à 4h PM, dans son local sis à Delmas 68. Taken from a message from May 12th, (Dr. Anton J. Kuchelmeister, Germany, May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAWAII. 10320usb, AFN, 1109-, 16 May, talks; 15341. Isn't this supposed to be off at this time? (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) other frequency 6350 not reported since longtime; maybe stix on 10320 24h now, Brock? (gh, DXLD) ** HUNGARY [non?]. Re: DTK A09 Updated Sched [see GERMANY] Is it possible JBR is closed, and R Budapest transmissions are now carried by WER? 3975 0400 0500 28 231700 ND 926 1234567 290309 241009 WER 250 RBP 6025 1000 1059 28 222600 ND 930 1234567 290309 241009 WER 250 RBP 6025 1600 1700 28 231500 ND 926 1234567 290309 241009 WER 250 RBP 15160 1600 1659 47,48 231000 150 217 1234567 290309 241009 WER 250 RBP 3975 2100 2200 28 231700 ND 926 1234567 290309 241009 WER 250 RBP (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, May 19, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 9425, AIR Bengaluru - National Channel, 1431-1501, May 13 (Wed.). In English; news; National Channel ID; pop song; segment of talking about what to look for regarding depression in children; PSA warning about children becoming addicted to video games. This is consistent with the Mon., Wed. and Fri. schedule for this English program. At 1501 into sub-continent music and Hindi (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 9425, AIR Bengaluru - National Channel, 1435-1500, May 18 (Mon.). In English; EZL music; interview with surgeon from New Delhi hospital; PSA about eating disorders. These programs in English on Mon., Wed. and Fri. are primarily public service oriented with talks about health issues, education, etc. 1500 into Hindi. May 19 (Tue.) during this time period was in Hindi (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. FINE-TUNING AIR NEWS BULLETINS --- MADHU AGRAWAL http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15769463 'PUBLIC INTERESTS' campaigns aired in Hindi on All India Radio (AIR) especially when English news bulletins are delivered, sound rather odd. These should be designed in such a way as to be useful to the category of listeners in question. Otherwise, AIR (Akashvani) should propagate the use of Hindi by virtue of it being the broadcasting media of the nation. Akashvani should be the only name used to refer to it, shedding its English equivalent “All India Radio” just as the word Doordarshan is used to refer to the official television channel, in all languages, including English. Even otherwise, it is not proper to use the English equivalent of Akashvani. The Hindi programme on current affairs, Samayaki, should be allotted the prime time slot - just after the main Hindi news bulletin, the way the programme “Spotlight” follows the main English bulletin. This can be best done by advancing the Hindi bulletin to 8 pm from present 8.45 pm. The 8.15 pm time slot can be set aside for Samayaki leaving the 8.30 - 9 pm time slot for programmes like Radio Newsreel, Today in Parliament, etc and their respective Hindi versions. “News-Sameeksha” should be revived for listeners’ comments on programmes produced by the AIR News Services Division, on Sundays, at 8.30 pm. Akashvani should use only Hindi words in its news bulletins to improve the Hindi vocabulary of non-Hindi speaking people by avoiding the usage of words from other languages for whatever reason. Listeners will get used to the vocabulary in the same way they got used to the word Doordarshan after it was used exclusively to refer to the official television channel (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 3325, RRI, Palangkaraya, Borneo, 2157-2213, 15 May, Indonesian, talks, news bulletin at 2200; 35332 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PNG 3325 ** INDONESIA. After a disastrous sesquiweek on 11785, colliding with double-ChiCom jamming and VOA, Voice of Indonesia finally took our advice and returned to 9525 on May 13, first noted at 1204 in Indonesian, no QRM from Poland via Germany or anything else. At 1227 checked 11785 just in case and heard Chinese echoing but no fast SAH as had been the case with slightly off-frequency VOI. At 1301, ``Sound of Dignity`` still on 9525 in VOI transition from Indonesian to English, still clear. Now the major obstacle resumes: heavy concentration needed to try to make out the heavy accents in English, plus the hum. 1327 started ``Indonesian Wonders`` segment but couldn`t figure out about what. 1331 into language lesson. Final check at 1414 found the usual situation after 1400 on 9525 --- VOI Malay mixing with CRI in Russian. The smarter thing for VOI to do would be to switch to 11785 at 1400 when it clears up (except for BBC). BTW, whatever became of VOI`s Korean service, which used to be at 1200? Now it`s totally missing from the WRTH A09 Update (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Thank you for contacting VOI. Seems to have motivated them to move back to 9524.96 and abandon 11784.96v for the time being. Heard with good reception on May 13, but still with the normal transmitter hum, from 1347 to 1349. In English with music and acknowledging letters from listeners, said would send out QSL cards. Thanks again for your input to the station. (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9524.96, Voice of Indonesia, 1501-1517, May 18. In English; news; “Today in History”; “News and Events”; IDs. Running past their normal 1501*; still going at tune-out at 1517 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Now that VOI is back on a clear frequency, 9525, I can confirm that they are still doing a joint program in English with RRI Banjarmasin on Tuesdays; May 19 had give-and-take between Jakarta hostess and RRI- B guy, and at 1342 went to pre-produced program from Banjarmasin. No QRM, but we still have to cope with accents, hum, undermodulation, and propagational fading reducing readability. All I could tell was that the talk was full of numerical statistics, probably MEGO-inducing anyway, tsk (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. 10 WORST COUNTRIES TO BE A BLOGGER Special Reports CPJ names the worst online oppressors. Booming online cultures in many Asian and Middle Eastern nations have led to aggressive government repression. Burma leads the dishonor roll. New York, April 30, 2009 — With a military government that severely restricts Internet access and imprisons people for years for posting critical material, Burma is the worst place in the world to be a blogger, the Committee to Protect Journalists says in a new report. CPJ’s “10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger” also identifies a number of countries in the Middle East and Asia where Internet penetration has blossomed and government repression has grown in response. “Bloggers are at the vanguard of the information revolution and their numbers are expanding rapidly,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “But governments are quickly learning how to turn technology against bloggers by censoring and filtering the Internet, restricting online access and mining personal data. When all else fails, the authorities simply jail a few bloggers to intimidate the rest of the online community into silence or self-censorship.” Turkmen soldiers guard an Internet cafe in Ashgabat. (Reuters)Relying on a mix of detentions, regulations, and intimidation, authorities in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt have emerged as the leading online oppressors in the Middle East and North Africa. China and Vietnam, where burgeoning blogging cultures have encountered extensive monitoring and restriction, are among Asia’s worst blogging nations. Cuba and Turkmenistan, nations where Internet access is heavily restricted, round out the dishonor roll. . . http://cpj.org/reports/2009/04/10-worst-countries-to-be-a-blogger.php (found by gh following Yimber Gaviría`s fwd of the Spanish version, for DXLD) See the original for illustrations, linx. CPJ also has a number of separate articles in more detail about persecution of bloggers in individual countries (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. World of radio 1460 is now available from our playback service at South Herts Radio http://www.southhertsradio.com/playback.html The player contains other DX programmes of interest and our vintage page has also been updated today with more rare radio archive http://www.southhertsradio.com/vintage.html The live stream may be off air this weekend due to other commitments, however it is still worth trying. We plan special broadcasts next weekend 'Whitsun' UK bank holiday. The internet part of our schedule has been updated as follows and all times are UT. Saturday 1630 - 1800 Security Now - Computer security programme. 1800 - 1900 CNET UK - Technology and computing. 1900 - 2130 Our Music with Brendan & Tim - Join Brendan Bradley and Timmy Wing for their own selection of music and fun. 2130 - 2400 Vintage SHR - Rebroadcasts from offshore and inland pirate radio plus various documentaries about all forms of radio from yesterday and today. Sunday 1200 - 1230 DX'ing with Cumbre - DX News. 1230 - 1300 Glenn Hauser's world of radio - DX radio news for enthusiasts. 1300 - 1530 Our Music with Brendan & Tim - Join Brendan Bradley and Timmy Wing for their own selection of music and fun. 1530 - 1600 Frequency Cast - UK TV & Tech. 1600 - 2000 Vintage SHR - Rebroadcasts from offshore and inland pirate radio plus various documentaries about all forms of radio from yesterday and today. We also relay other stations like WRN from our tuner http://www.southhertsradio.com/tuner.html The live stream is running an (unscheduled) test right now with DX and radio related shows until around 2200-2300 UT. 73's. (Gary Drew, May 16, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. 32 GHz NASA Kepler signal received In an e-mail to Southgate News, Paul M0EYT writes: Hi folks, I don't know if you are interested, but I've written up my reception of the deep space satellite 'Kepler', recently launched by NASA, and my reception of its 32 GHz down link signal. Info on it can be found on line at http://www.uhf-satcom.com/amateurdsn/kepler/ and background information on the down converter build at http://www.uhf-satcom.com/kaband/ A write up with further technical info will appear in the UK microwave group's 'Scatterpoint' publication. Thanks and regards, Paul M0EYT Scatterpoint: http://www.scatterpoint.org/ UK Microwave Group website: http://www.microwavers.org/ http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2009/32ghz_nasa_kepler_signal.htm (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. INTERFERENCE TO BROADCASTERS' SIGNALS 'GETTING WORSE' http://www.abu.org.my/abu/index.cfm/elementid/52050/Interference-to-broadcasters-signals-getting-worse- Interference to broadcasters’ satellite signals is a problem that is continuing to worsen, an international meeting of broadcasters and satellite operators in Tokyo heard today. “In a digital world, it doesn’t take much to mess up your signal,” Dick Tauber of CNN told a meeting of the World Broadcasting Unions International Satellite Operations Group (WBU-ISOG), hosted by Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK. “Broadcasters need to act in unison on this. We need to keep doing what we can,” said Mr Tauber, who chairs the group. Participants heard that causes of satellite inference included Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) systems, poor equipment standards, improper installation and a lack of incident coordination. Representatives of major satellite companies Intelsat and SES pledged to work together to fight the problem. Patty Constantino of Intelsat said it was important for the industry as a whole, including satellite operators and broadcasters, to join the fight. Among the steps needed to combat satellite interference were more training for uplink operators and more effective ways of tracing the source of interference, the meeting heard. (ABU Wednesday 13 May 2009 via Alokesh Gupta, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER's WX4NHC SETS ON-THE-AIR STATION TEST The annual WX4NHC On-the-Air Station Test from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami will take place Saturday, May 30, from 1300-2100 UTC. "The purpose of this annual Station Test is to test all of our radio equipment, computers and antennas using as many modes and frequencies as possible. This is not a contest or simulated hurricane exercise. New equipment and software will be tested, and we will also conduct some operator training," said WX4NHC Assistant Amateur Radio Volunteer Coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4R. Ripoll said that WX4NHC also will be testing new computers and software, as well as conducting operator training. "NHC Director Bill Read, KB5FYA, will be at WX4NHC, making contacts," he said. WX4NHC will be on the air on HF, VHF and UHF, plus 2 and 30 meter APRS. Suggested SSB frequencies are 3950, 7268, 14325, 21325 and 28525 kHz, +/-QRM; WX4NHC reports that they will mostly be on 14325 and will make announcements when they change frequencies. WX4NHC also will be on the VoIP Hurricane Net 1700-1900 UTC (IRLP node 9219/EchoLink WX-TALK Conference) and on South Florida area VHF/UHF repeaters and simplex; APRS and e-mail will also be monitored. Stations working WX4NHC exchange call sign, signal report, location and name plus a brief weather report, such as "sunny," "rain" or "cloudy." Non-hams may submit their actual weather using the On-Line Hurricane Report Form. QSL to WD4R and include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Do not send cards to the NHC. Due to security measures, no visitors will be allowed at NHC during the test (ARRL email newsletter May 15 via Brock Whaley WH6SZ Kailua, HI, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DXLD) Stations working WX4NHC exchange call sign, signal report, location and name plus a brief weather report, such as "sunny," "rain" or "cloudy." They must also go into great detail about their antenna, transceiver, and ask if their audio sounds better with the speech processor in position "A" or position "B." (Whaley, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Really? ** IRAN [non]. 5945, 16/05 2010, LITHUANIA, Voice Islamic Rep Iran, English, from Sitkunai, with 100 kW, YL Talk between short music Iranian, 24332 (Jorge Freitas, Bahia, Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Re gh`s log: 6973 and 15785: Galei Zahal now broadcasts 24 hours on both channels! Look in the DBS-11 (Anker Petersen, DSWCI DX Window May 13 via DXLD) ** ITALY. HOT’ TRANSMITTERS KEEP AFN RADIO NAPLES OFF-AIR --- By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes European edition, Tuesday, May 19, 2009 NAPLES, Italy — American Forces Network radio in Naples remains out of commission while the U.S. Consulate and AFN officials lobby for Italian approval to use new transmitters. The transmitters are atop Collina dei Camaldoli, Naples’ highest point, where numerous other radio, television and cell phone towers also are located. The site is "hot [with electromagnetic field emissions], and there have been many complaints from residents in the area," according to Giuseppe D’Antonio, with Agenzia Regionale Protezione Ambientale Campania, the regional equivalent of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. . . http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=62770 (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dxldyg via DXLD) FM ** ITALY [non]. SLOVAKIA(non [sic]), NEXUS-IBA IRRS Shortwave - EGR in English from May 1: 1800-2000 on 7290 RSO 150 kW / 060 deg Eu/ME/NoAf Fri-Sun, ex 1800-2100 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 15 via DXLD) ** JAPAN. As we thought on Wednesdays 1710-1800z Radio Japan in Japanese has a program with hot old jazz. Not exactly! Today (May 20) I checked it, same OM host, old music, but not jazz! Apparently they indeed play old music, but not always jazz. Today it was French old music! You can listen to my recording. Unfortunately, my PC was turned on, so you can hear QRM. I recorded on portable radio, since it received the less QRM from PC. You can download my 5-minute mp3 recording: 090520we 1719-1724z RJapanJAPA 13740kHz DHA500-285 Here is the address: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/33468 73 (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, Serbia, May 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. 11735 in Chinese with noisy buzz apparently emanating from same transmitter, VOK Kujang as scheduled during this hour, preceded and followed by Korean on same azimuth, 238 degrees with 200 kW per Aoki. VOK also audible more clearly in English on 11710. One assumes the ChiCom would never jam Chinese from their good neighbor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. KCBS domestic from Prongyang. 2850 good with operatic music. Parallel 3960 poor, 9665 with a mean unID het, 11680 good. 1330 May 13. Pyongyang Broadcasting Station. 3250 poor with M in Korean, but no jammer heard. 3320 weaker again no jammer. 6250 heard under a jammer. 6400 just a jammer noted. 1355 May 13. KCBS relay very good on 4450 with operatic music. 3480 just a jammer. On 4557 Nothing heard, broadcast or jammer. Very directional or saving on the electric bill? 1335 May 13 (Brock Whaley, HI, DX Listening Digest) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. JAPAN, (Clandestine to North Korea), 6045, Shiokaze, at 2044-2100* UT on May 3. Japanese program. Message from families of abduction victims, report of the 9th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees, etc. ID as "JSR, Kochirawa Shiokaze desu." Weak jammer was noted. Very strong signal (Takeshi Sejimo, Japan, DXplorer May 9 via BC-DX 16 May via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze via Yamata, *1400, May 13 (Wed.). In Korean. So they broke their streak of two consecutive Wednesdays in English. Fri. is still the best bet to hear English here (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Re 9-040, FNK: ``I queried because I found it odd that you did not mention the frequency and site which were being verified, whether or not still in use (gh, DXLD)`` Hi Glenn, I didn't mention frequency and site in my first mail, because there was no in the QSL (?) text: "We were pleased to have your kind reception report". I had reported them twice on two different frequencies (9485 kHz in 2007 and 5880 kHz in 2005) and sites (unknown to me at that time) and can't tell which of them they replied to. Odd - ? QSL - no! Interesting - yes! 73 from (Björn Fransson, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. TAIWAN. Radio Free Chosun. Nothing heard on 9485 during the 1330-1400 scheduled Korean transmission. May 13 (Brock Whaley, HI, DX Listening Digest) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 7490, 16/05 2040, UZBEKISTAN, Radio Free Chosun, in Korean, from Tashkent, with 200 kW, OM and YL Talk, at 2042 UT OM and YL seem to tell a story, you hear a woman crying, seems a radio novel, moderate QRM of R. Algerienne Holy Qur`an in 7495 kHz, at 2059 UT YL ID short anthem and end of transmission, 33333 (Jorge Freitas, Bahia, Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. Are the N. Korean jamming facilities being stretched thin? May 14 noted that Echo of Hope (VOH) on 6003 was free from the usual jamming (rapid pulsating noise). Is a rare event to hear them in the clear. This also helped reception of CNR-11 (Tibetan Service) on 6010, which usually has some QRM from the adjacent jamming. Instead heard the same non-stop rapid pulsating noise on 5910, from 1354 to past 1501, to jam Shiokaze (*1400-1430*), which was in Japanese. This jamming also adversely affected reception of Myanmar on 5915. May 15 was just the opposite, with Shiokaze (in English) completely in the clear and Echo of Hope (VOH) on 6003 being jammed again, as it usually is. So N. Korea did not have enough jammers to cover both stations on the same day? (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH. Radio Echo of Hope. M in Korean under a pulsing jammer on 6003. 3985 Just a white noise jammer, 6348 just a pulsing jammer. 1340 May 13 (Brock Whaley, HI, DX Listening Digest) Voice of the People. M in Korean atop a pulse jammer on 6518. 3912 Just a white noise jammer, 6660 under a jammer. 1345 May 13 (Brock Whaley, HI, DX Listening Digest) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9650, KBSWR via Sackville, Saturday May 16 at 1250 in Worldwide Friendship with a few minutes of ``listening tips from North America`` voiced by Kevin O`Donovan, starting with VOA plans to cut three languages next fiscal year. Then info on how to hear KBS via non-SW relays in UK, Canada, which you would think they would have been able to tell us about directly from Seoul. There were no SW/DX tips on this segment, but such were invited by Kevin who would resume next week. He was also credited with sending KBS daily reception reports, which must have led to his getting this gig. Never heard where he is located, and I don`t recognize the name from any DX clubs or lists, so where did he come from? Meanwhile, 9650 was bothered by continuous tone test underneath at 1250-1255, no doubt IBB Tinang warming up for the R. Netherlands Dutch 1300-1327 and English 1327-1330* relay which by then QRMs the 9650 Sackville relay of CRI English, even in mid-America, tsk2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, R. TV Malagasy, Ambohidrano, 2035-2055, 16 May, vernacular, African pops; 44433, splatter de GNE 5005. It was off at recheck at shortly past 2100 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) On May 19th at 1757 noted Madagascar on 5019.92 (approximately) with talks and music in Malagasy. Weak parallel was noted on 3289.2 both AM mode (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So about 10 kHz off frequency, error or change? (gh, DXLD) May 20th at 1830 Madagascar seems to be back on its approximate 5009.92 channel. Maybe yesterday a punch-up error at the tx site. The parallel is still around 3289.2 (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. Recent events surrounding Madagascar World Voice (the African shortwave project of World Christian Broadcasting) were next discussed by Charles Caudill. Madagascar had a rather violent coup d'etat recently. WCB was good friends with the former president. WCB began hearing of problems in December 2008 through the ambassador. On January 27th, they found that the rioting had escalated and that their warehouse was attacked at random and destroyed. The loss is estimated to be between $50,000 and $100,000. They got a roadblock to protect the actual building site. The US Embassy advised that their staff leave the country. They hid equipment and then evacuated the American staff. They left an 11 man security force in-place. An army commander then offered to provide protection as long as WCB would provide food. Work continues at the site; great progress is being made. They had to reschedule some of the work – especially the electrical work due to the theft of wire. What about the state of the country? The new president is in power and is being supported by the communists who were formerly in power. Things are in a mess. Tax and customs revenues are down. Education is in a mess. Government funds will probably start running empty by the end of this month. The former president is planning to return with support from other countries. Everyone is hoping for a peaceful return rather than a civil war. WCB is trying to keep a low profile and keep doing its business in the meantime. The population in Madagascar is 50% Christian, 45% tribal, and 5% Muslim. The new president has no religious affiliation; the old president was Presbyterian (NASB/DRM USA ANNUAL MEETING REPORT by David Creel, Far East Broadcasting Company, May NASB Newsletter via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 6049.6, RTM-Suara Islam, Kajang, 1451-1523, 17 May, Malay, talks; 14431, adjacent QRM de CHINA 6050. 7295, Traxx FM via RTM, Kajang, 1448-1521, 17 May, English, pops, news at 1500, announcing music request show; 25432 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6049.60. Strange goings on here! May 15 tuned in at 1440 to hear two audios going at the same time. One was slightly stronger; the regularly heard and scheduled R. Suara Islam programming with a speech about Islam, in vernacular, along with background sounds of the audience (probably from a mosque); news at ToH. I was very surprised to find the other audio was Klasik Nasional FM programming, playing pop songs and with their distinctive singing “Klasik Nasional” jingle before ToH. This was parallel to their usual frequency of 5964.91. RTM was putting out two audios via one transmitter? For years now I have checked this frequency regularly and have never heard anything like this before. Hope it was only a one day occurrence. RTM seems to intend to change their schedule, but I am not sure just what they are doing. In the past I believe the schedule was Klasik Nasional (KN) FM was 24 hours a day only on 5964.91. Asyik FM was on 6049.60 from 0500 to 1400, then into Radio Suara Islam/Voice of Islam program from 1400 to 1700*. Heard the following on May 16: 5964.91, from 1347 to 1400, clearly heard with two audio feeds: one was KN FM, which is normally heard here. Mixing with the audio of Asyik FM, which has not been heard here before. BOTH audios parallel with the two audios on 6049.60. Both stations in vernacular and playing music. 1400-1516, heavy QRM here from CRI (in Korean from 1400 to 1457 and after 1500 in Russian). Occasionally I could clearly hear KN FM programming under the QRM. Think the audio feed for Asyik FM ended at 1400, but hard to be sure. Believe KN FM was the only one here from 1400 to 1516 tune out, but am not positive. 6049.60, from 1347 to 1400, clearly heard with two audio feeds: one was KN FM, which was heard here for the first time yesterday. Mixing with the audio of Asyik FM, which is normally here till 1400. BOTH audios parallel with the two audios on 5964.91. 1400-1516, Asyik FM audio feed ended at 1400. KN FM was in the clear; RTM news; coverage of the Pakistan vs. S. Korea (Asian Cup field hockey) sports event; again with RTM news and sports news. Perhaps (just a guess) they intend for KN FM to follow the Asyik FM programming at 1400 on 6049.60, as replacement for the former R. Suara Islam program. Unable to predict what they intend to do with KN FM on 5964.91. What would happen to R. Suara Islam programming? Move to another frequency? Needs more monitoring. Their websites, which are not in English: http://klasiknasional.dapat.fm/ only lists FM frequencies. http://www.asyikfm.my/ frequency shown is from many years ago (ex: 6025). (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Ron, Yes it seems there is a switching/feed mix-up at the moment on the two remaining domestic frequencies from Kajang on 6 MHz. Audio from Klasik Nasional and Asyik FM is heard mixed together on both 5965v and 6050v at the moment. I'll try to check what is happening at 1400-1700 (when Voice of Islam is scheduled on 6050). English on 7295 kHz is still going strong, though the audio is a bit rough. Regards (Alan Davies, visiting Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 16-17, ibid.) Hi Alan, Thank you for your confirmation. May 17, from 1344 to 1434 + 1457 to 1500, continued to hear the audio of Klasik Nasional FM for the whole time period, along with audio from Asyik FM till 1400, when today, unlike yesterday, they successfully switched over to Suara Islam programming, on both 5964.91v and 6049.60v. Clear IDs for both “Suara Islam, Kuala Lumpur” and the singing “Klasik Nasional” jingle during the gap in the QRM (1457-1500) on 5964.91v. This is an interesting oddity, but is not conducive to the enjoyable listening I have had in the past when hearing just Asyik FM and Radio Suara Islam on 6049.60v and just Klasik Nasional FM by itself on 5964.91v (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The streaming service of Nasional FM seems been replaced by Selangor FM, or by Sembilan FM; I am not totally sure since I did not use my earphones (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Klasik Nasional FM is still heard with live audio streaming at http://www.rtm.gov.my/ (towards the bottom of the page), along with Asyik FM, etc. (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, USA - May 18 (1300 UT), ibid.) Hmm the older [broken for much time] links are now back ... http://bkj-station1.jaring.my/klasikfm (Zacharias Liangas, ibid.) 5964.91v, Klasik Nasional FM via RTM, 1336-1358 + 1404, May 18. They are completely back to normal broadcasting today. Only Klasik Nasional FM audio heard here; in vernacular with DJ playing pop songs; IDs; fair. Very nice! Poor after 1400 with heavy QRM (CRI). 6049.60v, Asyik FM, 1336-1400, May 18. They are completely back to normal broadcasting today with only Asyik FM audio here. Heard in vernacular with DJ playing pop songs; singing “Asyik FM” jingle; 1400 switches over to become R. Suara Islam; reciting from the Qur’an; fair. Nice to have things back to normal again (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK [and non]. Sarawak FM via RTM. A check on May 18 found no sign of Sarawak FM under CNR-1 on 5030. Alan Davies says “5030 is still on, but listening is difficult because the audio level is very low” and also “I'm now in Kuching [May 18], where 7130 kHz has just been switched off as far as I can tell, not changed to another frequency.” I believe I heard 7130 on their last day there (March 30), as the next day there was no sign of them at all. 7270.0, Wai FM, 1412-1432, May 18. In vernacular with pop songs and on-air phone calls; IDs; into their usual program of indigenous chanting/singing; covered at 1432 by strong CNR-1 program echo-jamming (//5030), which is against Taiwan that is scheduled for 1435 sign-on. Above average Malaysian propagation today! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) A further update: The audio on 5030 has improved greatly since Monday. 5030 and 7270 seem to be the only AM radio frequencies surviving in Sarawak. Sibu 6050 and all of the Kuching MW channels have vanished. To think that a mighty civilisation once flourished at this spot! (Alan Davies, Wednesday May 20, ibid.) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, Malaysia, Traxx FM via RTM (presumed). May 14, English, 0943 reggae music, OM and YL talks returning reggae music, 0951 again OM and YL followed by hip hop music, 0956 pop sounding like Alanis Morisette, YL talks, 1000 time pips, OM talks returning pop music until 1004. 24422 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7295, 18/05 0948, RTM Traxx FM, English, *presumed*, from Kajang, with 50 kW, pop music, beep signal at 1001 UT and YL Talk (failed to understand it was an ID), degrading signal, at 1003 OM Talk, at 1004 pop mx, recorded, 25322 (Jorge Freitas, Bahia, Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) ** MALI. 5995, RTV du Mali, May 15 2009, 0635-0700. Knock your socks off signal from Mali. Great selection of tribal tunes with YL DJ in French. Plenty of drums and wind instruments in the music, most of which sounded rustic as if it was recorded remotely, on site. Others though, were obviously professionally-produced studio recordings. Regardless, this did not diminish their entertainment value. All music in vernaculars, not French. Frequent "Radio Mali" ID's. Formal ID at 0700 by OM in French, "Ici Radio Mali... ? ... Bamako...?" and he gave the frequency. 5995, RTV du Mali, May 18 0650-0710. Good signal from Mali strong enough to rattle the windows. Tuned-in to fabulous tribal music -- vocals with lots of different wind and percussion instruments for accompaniment. Frequent Radio Mali ID's heard. At 0700 a formal ID by YL in French followed by OM reading what sounded like news in French with some vernaculars (Bruce Barker, Broomall, PA. Equipment: NRD535D and an Alpha Delta DX sloper antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7285.9, R. Mali, Kati, 0945-1411, 16 May, vernacular, Malian music program, vernacular again at 1400 for newscast; 45444, \\ 9635 very good (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 4845, R. Mauritanie, May 15 2009, 0650-0725. Tuned-in to om talking in Arabic. Musical briddges between what seemed to be different topics. Frequent "Salam's" and "Mohammed" mention several times. ID at 0658. Rechecked at 0720 music from a stringed instrument, sounding very much like a sitar, was being played. Fair signal, but the audio and carrier dropped off at 0725 and no further sign of the transmission could be detected after several rechecks (Bruce Barker, Broomall, PA. Equipment: NRD 535D and an Alpha Delta DX Sloper, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 783, R. Mauritanie, Nouakchott, 0840-f/out 0905, 17 May, Arabic, lute tunes, chanting; 14341, QRM de ESPAÑA. 4845, ditto, 0725-0835*, 17 May, Arabic, end of news bulletin, IS+ID at 0830, lute tunes, abrupt s/off; 44443. It did not move to 7245 immediately; it took quite a while as typical (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITIUS. TRANSRADIO COMPLETES AM TRANSMITTER DELIVERY TO MAURITIUS --- 05 May 2009 TRANSRADIO proudly announces the completion of our latest MW project, the installation and commissioning of a two frequency 10 kW MW transmitting system at MCML (Multi Carrier Mauritius Ltd.) Malherbes site on the beautiful island of Mauritius (Republic of Mauritius). The system comprises one 10 kW MW transmitter pre-tuned to 684 kHz and 819 kHz carrier frequencies, one mains voltage regulator and one 50 Ohm dummy load. With its quick carrier frequency tuning capability the TRAM 10 transmitter can operate within minutes on either one of both MW frequencies required at the Malherbes site, adding remarkable redundancy to the existing equipment. The complete project including installation, commissioning and customer training was finished on time and without any difficulties. TSB would like to thank all the people at MCML Malherbes for their friendly cooperation, warm welcome and generous hospitality. We’re looking forward to continuing our fruitful partnership in future projects. Pictures at: http://www.broadcast-transradio.com/html/mauritius.html 73 (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, May 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ex- Telefunken, Berlin ** MEXICO. Re 9-040, UNIDENTIFIED: Identificación "de una emisora desconocida." Respetable Sr. Hauser: La señal que escuchó Chuck Bolland en 6104.66 kHz proveniente de México el día 11 de mayo de 2009 y que menciona usted en su reporte del 12 de mayo de 2009, al parecer es el antiguo transmisor de XEQM (6105) de Mérida, Yucatán que ha transmitido esporádicamente las señales de XEMH (970) y XEMQ (810) y al parecer ahora es XEPY (680), también de Mérida, donde se retransmite la señal de XENK, en la Cd. de México, la cual forma parte del Sistema RASA Comunicaciones. Espero que la información de las emisoras de la ciudad donde vivo le hayan sido útiles y gracias por su atención. Atte. (Ing. Israel González Ahumada, M.I., May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tnx, that was thought most likely except no one had been able to get any definite ID and there are other Latin Americans on 6105v. Have you actually heard XEQM on the air there in Mérida, at this hour or any hour? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) XEMQ (6105 kHz, 250 W) no es anunciada por XEQM ni por XEMH; tal vez sean trasmisiones esporádicas (¿pruebas?) escuchada fortuitamente por algunos en el exterior ya que tal vez por la propagación no es audible en la península. Sin embargo XEMH transmite las 24 Hrs por 970 KHz y por 95.3 MHz, y XEQM por 810 KHz entre 06:00 y 00:00 en dialecto maya (que no comprendo), desplazando a Radio Reloj, Radio Caracol y Radio Transmundial. Espero que le sirva la información que le mando (Ing. Israel González Ahumada, M.I., May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So he has not axually been able to hear 6105 locally, nor is it announced on 810 or 970 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** MEXICO. On channel 3 before and still after 1700 UT May 15 (noon CDT) I am getting an Es station with animation. Large-eyed humans, animals, could be biblical. Occasional color burst kicks in but no audio yet, so unsure if Spanish. Spotted a 5 bug in a circle, upper right. Probably Mexican network 5. Also Es CCI on 2 and 4. All analog. [Later:] Per TV Guide, Canal 5 network is carrying two full-length animated movies, El Camino Hacia El Dorado until noon, then Hormiguitaz (Ants), which this was not; maybe running late. Only visible at occasional fadeups, not lately as of 1715 UT. Per W9WI.com, the only fullpower XHGC-5 on 3 is XHBQ, Zacatecas, tho I`m suspicious of all the low-power stations listed with 0 kilowatts. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. While in Tucson this weekend I noticed XESOS has finally moved from 670 to 730. The move was first listed a couple of years ago but they remained on 670 until fairly recently. Still using "Radio Uno" slogan. 73 (Tim Hall, CA, May 16, ABDX via DXLD) ? So we are supposed to know where XESOS is? WRTH: Agua Prieta, Sonora, on the border. Or is it now Xe? Hey, that fits! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** MONACO [non]. Again some news from Radio Monaco. News are relayed ONLY Monday-Friday. At 0700 UT it's a LIVE relay from 95.4 MHz; at 1100 UT it's a relay of the 10h00 news (local time). On Saturdays and Sundays Radio Monaco is ONLY music & songs, so it's the reason why there is no news bulletins on these days. So if you want to listen to Radio Monaco over Monaco Radio, just listen on week days !!! It's not a mistake, the news bulletin is at 1100 UT over Monaco Radio (short waves) it's a relay of the 10 AM local time news (i.e. 0800 UT). It's NOT live, it's recorded, because there is no news at 0100 PM on Radio Monaco. Quite complicated but you know in Monaco & Côte d'Azur ALL is very complicated. Monaco Radio, confirmed me this Monday that ALL transmitters and antennas used by Monaco Radio are in FontBonne, so on the French soil. Regards, (Christian Ghibaudo, Nice, France, May 13, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 8728, *0654-0703* 14.05, Monaco R, Fontbonne, FRANCE (USB). Coastal station, French announcing schedule, ID: "Ici Monaco Radio", 0657 English schedule on VHF, ID, 0700: Relay of R Monaco news, in between classical music. 35333, heard // 13146 USB (15221) (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, 28 metres of longwire, AOR AR7030PLUS, via Dario Monferini, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. DST of UT +1 is to be observed between May 31/June 1 and August 20/21, also Morocco-controlled WESTERN SAHARA (from http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/clockchange.html?n=60 via DXLD) Probably will mean the SWBCs on 15340 and 15345 start and end an hour earlier by UT. If nothing else, that could clear up 15345 for RAE`s German service at 2100 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. 1079.9, RTM-"Q", Casablanca, 1224-, 17 May, Arabic, Arabic songs; 55555 which makes me wonder whether the actual power is not higher than the listed one (25 kW), but on the other hand the signal is easily choked by co-channel Spain in the evening (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Additional frequency of RNW in Spanish from June 1: 2300-2357 on 9495 GUF 250 kW / 196 deg to SoAm (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 15 via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. The special Happy Station Show with British songbird Helen Shapiro now uploaded. http://www.radio4all.net:8080/files/kperron@gmail.com/3101-1-happy_station_05:14:09_helen_shapiro.mp3 Next week Johnny Mann of the Johnny Mann Singers. 73, (Keith Perron, Taiwan, May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This June 4th I'm doing a special Happy Station called A Tribute To Dxers. Now since the day is June 4th and it is the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square and I worked at China Radio International for almost 6 years I will be joined by Stuart Parkins who worked at CRI for over 10 years. Stuart was one of the host for LIsteners Corner and a very wacky radio series on Chinese cooking. We will share some funny strange stories about working at CRI. After 11 years Stuart left CRI in 2006 to work at BTV. I will also play some rare CRI clips which are from tapes missing from the archives. The dates of programs missing from the CRI archives are from May 15 to June 30, 1989. Try to guess why?? LOL Firedrake will also be looked at. Bob Zanotti with a very funny story about SINPO. Then in the second half of the show I will be joined by Ian McFarland formally of Radio Canada International and Radio Japan to talk about interval signals and other things. And much more On June 4th the 0100 UTC will be a regular program. The 1500 UTC transmission will air the special. North America air dates: June 4th at 1500, repeated June 11th at 0100 and 1500. Frequency: 9955 khz, 31 Meters, Via Radio Miami International http://www.wrmi.net New Zealand air date: June 6th at 1000 UT Frequency: 88.5fm Via World FM http://www.worldfm.co.nz Indonesia air date: June 7th at 0100 UT Frequency: Jakarta 92.0fm, Surabaya 98.0fm Web stream not reliable http://www.sonora.co.id (Keith Perron, Taiwan, May 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. 6159.96, CKZN (presumed), 0301-0305, May 20. Both Newfoundland and Vancouver with the same Radio One newscast and assume because of the long distance between stations, there was a strong echo (out of sync); 0304 they both started their own programming; Vancouver stronger (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. After daytime + nighttime observations this past weekend on the SW coast: 4770, R. Nigeria, Kaduna, very irregular, sometimes with empty carrier. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 6089.93, R. Nigeria (presumed), Kaduna, 0312-0332, May 12. Non-stop music, mixing with Brazil, which was steadily improving. Anguilla off-the-air and also off the next day (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. 15355.000. Sultanate of Oman Radio, 0330, weak but readable, 0332 into "Upside Down" by Diana Ross. Lively male DJ, with music by Pink, Duffy and The Police. Improving nicely by 0345. Audio cut at 0357 and carrier off. No news, as noted with 15140 logs. 17 May (David Sharp, FT-950, NSW Australia, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This 03-04 English broadcast was on their schedule long ago, but hasn`t been confirmed on air for years. Like the 1400 on 15140, we can only wonder if it is on the air extremely rarely (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. Glenn, re in 9-039 ``(Noel Green-UK, Mar 7 [sic; I hope this means May 7 --- gh] wwdxc BC-DX TopNews May 9 via DXLD)`` Yes, definitely May here when I wrote it! 73 (Noel Green, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. Previsiblemente PAKISTAN ha ampliado su trancha horaria en los 9380 kHz, escuchada el 13 de mayo 2009 con entrevistas y comentarios de actualidad alusivos a los últimos enfrentamientos en el valle de Saw ¿...? de 0500-0530 UTC ¿podría ser la trancha que AOKI lista a las 4 para la emisión en Gujarati? A las 0530 aparecen los cánticos de una religiosa norteamericana, según AOKI, en 9385 estaría WWRB pero no a esa hora, sólo difundían música y piano, tampoco corresponde a la emisión de l FBN - WTJC de los 9370 aunque la programación era muy similar, en algunos momentos incluso parecía que era transmisión en paralelo, a los 10 minutos se diferenció una emisora de otra, pero sin comentarios. CORDIALES SALUDOS / GOOD LUCK / (JUAN FRANCO CRESPO, STAMP JOURNALIST (AIPET), E-43800 VALLS-TARRAGONA ESPAÑA, UT May 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9385 at that hour is now WYFR (gh, DXLD) Gracias Glenn, pero la señal de WYFR en ningún momento la pasaron, de todas maneras esa pequeña interferencia la dejaba bloqueada con la sintonía fina, pero no así si intentaba aclarar más la voz de los pakistaníes que entonces le salían unos tonos más parecidos a una emisora de radioaficionados (la modulación se hacía más deficiente). (Crespo, ibid.) ** PAKISTAN. THIS IS RADIO TALIBAN... By Fawad Ali Shah KARACHI: “Da paka army na ganda army da, da kafiran di dwee na sirf sar na di prekawol pakar balkai da dwee tukri tukri kol pakar di,” (They are not the Pak army, they are infidels, not only behead them but also chop their bodies up into little pieces), this is what Zuleikha, 52, heard on Fazlullah FM, after the military operation was launched in Swat; it was Maulana Shah Duran, a close-aide of Maulana Fazlullah, who delivered the speech. “They call the police and army infidels and have given permission to everyone to kill them,” says Zuleikha, who hails from the Khwazakhela Town of the Swat Valley. She migrated to Karachi a few days ago, as the law and order situation in the valley deteriorates. She is currently living with her daughter, who has been living in Qasbah Colony, Karachi for the last ten years. Zuleikha reveals that Maulana Shah Duran, who was one of the three speakers on Fazlullah FM, would use abusive language when talking about government officials. The FM radio would broadcast programmes from 8:00 to 10:00 pm and rebroadcast them from seven to nine in the morning. The programme schedule was divided into three segments; the recitation of Holy Quran verses and their inferences, threats to opponents and a programme titled ‘Good News’. Many violent incidents started after Maulana Fazlullah established a FM radio station in Swat; he first used the station for the purpose of reciting and preaching Quranic verses, but later on, he and his accomplices used it to spread propaganda. This radio station was very popular among women, who traditionally stay at home in the Malakand division. On it, they could learn the Quran and the principles of Islam. . . http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\05\18\story_18-5-2009_pg12_7 (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) WTFK? ** PALESTINE. The live audio stream of Al Aqsa voice radio from Gaza is working again on the website : http://www.alaqsavoice.ps All the best, guys (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, May 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3325, R. Bougainville (presumed), 1339-1401*, May 13. Needs more monitoring, but possibly a permanent change in their sign-off time. Heard under RRI Palangkaraya with pop songs in English; ToH seemed to give frequencies; choral anthem (not the instrumental National Anthem I heard May 10). Reception weaker today, hence no positive ID. 3325, R. Bougainville (presumed), 1328-1401*, May 15. Heard with pop songs in English; unable to make out the language of the announcers; off with choral anthem; poor, mixing with RRI, which was also playing a lot of music. 3325, R. Bougainville (presumed), 1328-1402*, May 19. DJ playing pop songs (Phil Collins “Another Day in Paradise”, George Michael “Never Gonna Dance Again”, etc.); off with choral anthem; poor, mixing with RRI. Clearly they now have added about 50 minutes to their broadcasting day (ex: about 1312*). I note in DX-Window No. 376 that Anker Petersen indicates the name as “R. Buka, Kubu (Ex R Bougainville)”, but I wonder if that is correct. Mark Wolfsbauer’s blog entry for Sept. 21, 2008 http://aboganinbougainville.blogspot.com/ say he has a program on “Radio Bougainville (call sign is Voice of the Sun Rise), which as it happens is just across the field from my house”, in Buka (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 3329.53, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco since 0930 with exceptionally strong signal; still in at 1012. flauta andina, om one ID (Bob Wilkner, Florida, May 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. UNIDENTIFIED. 4790.024. 0655, someone here with Spanish religious programming. Fair at tune-in, rapidly improving. Into easy- listening religious music at 0700, then into 30-minute sermon by a man at 0713. RRI was starting to fade-up by 0745 and both battled it out until RRI was on top by 0750. A Peruvian? Someone else? Rebelde [5025] was also good at the time but was the only other LAm heard. 16 May (David Sharp, FT-950, NSW Australia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Very likely Radio Visión, Perú, commonly heard in NAm (gh, DXLD) Hi Glenn, Thanks for your likely ID on my 4790+ kHz unidentified. I thought it might have been R. Visión but didn't know if they went all night or what their sked was vs Atlántida (David Sharp, NSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4790.1, Radio Visión, Chiclayo, 0505-0615, 17-05, religioso: "La casa de Dios, Iglesia Pentecostal La Cosecha", "Para todos los que están escuchando Radio Visión en este momento", "La Voz de la Salvación, únase a nosotros". 35433 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de Cable, 10 metros, orienta WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 12040, Radio Victoria, 18 mayo 09, 0053-, señal pobre a regular, escuchada en su segundo armónico (6020 x 2); en realidad en los 6020 a esta hora es difícil escucharla porque están CRI y REE en la misma frecuencia. Escuchada en paralelo a 9720 kHz con buena señal. Escuchar. [Descargar] (Yimber Gaviría, Cali, Colombia, Sony ICF 7600G Ant. KA33 http://yimber.blogspot.com (dx logs), WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 9700, May 18 at 1320, warbling het against something. Scheduled here at 13-14 is FEBC, Iba site with 50 kW due west in various SE Asian minolity languages, Muong during this quarter-hour on Mondays, says Aoki, so either someone is trying to jam that or QRM is self-inflicted defect (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Russian domestics on 7200 and 7345 are on past listed 1400 close down. Both are parallel 281 now at 1415. 281 usually closes a 1400, but I have it on here in the living room on a consumer Grundig portable using just the built it ferrite long wave antenna (Brock Whaley, Oahu, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7200, R. Rossii via Yakutsk. Good news! Their transmitter is fixed. May 12 again noted the recently heard rapid pulsating sound that ended at 1500, which is their sign-off time, so had to be their transmitter. Sure enough, heard May 13, from 1408 to 1417 with fair to good reception and good audio; clearly // to a weaker 7140 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yup, also noted here and // 5940. I guess they are reading DXLD :) (Robin VK7RH Harwood, Tasmania, May 14, ibid.) Radio Rossii, Yakutsk on 7200 and 7345 both excellent with American movie music such as "Putting on the Ritz." 279 from Sakhalin Island parallel with a great steady signal for this time of year. 1410. I presume 180, 5920, and 7320 had closed at the usual 1400. They blast in and were absent by this time. May 13 (Brock Whaley, HI DX Listening Digest) ** RUSSIA. 7260, Golos Rossii, Moscow (presumed from one recent list) 2300-2310 May 15, 2009. Tune-in to Russian ID by female, into slickly produced news with techno music bed throughout till 2304:45 ID, discussion program. Excellent (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Habana 12000 at 1339 May 13 had hum and heavy distorted QRM from something in Chinese, spreading 11985 to 12015. Could not find any // from ChiCom jamming or non-jamming frequencies on 25m or anywhere else. Was wondering if a ChiCom feed was somehow getting into the RHC transmitter itself. But at 1359, ahá, VOR IS and 1401 more Chinese mixing, but now not distorted. Per Aoki, here`s the explanation: Until 1400 it`s VOR in Chinese via Khabarovsk, 100 kW at 220 degrees but plenty of signal here in opposite direxion off the back at 40 degrees. After 1400 the Chinese on 12000 is CVC Darwin, 250 kW at 340 degrees. 12000, extremely distorted and broad VOR Chinese via Khabarovsk, May 17 at 1304, and no RHC even audible underneath; maybe off the air at the moment and/or desperately seeking a new frequency. Also May 18 at 1330 check, Chinese talk voice-overing something briefly in Russian, mixed with noise bursts, unstable carrier, no trace of RHC audible; see also CUBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA ** RUSSIA. 13775, Voice of Russia (Vladivostok), 0425-0430, 5/14/2009, English. Russian opera featuring male singer. Short talk by woman at 0430 followed by a classical orchestral selection. Very good signal. The Vladivostok transmitter has been consistently strong this year, unlike last year when it was mediocre at best (Jim Evans, Germantown TN, E1, Eavesdropper Dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. 7300, LV de Rusia, Moscú, 18 mayo 09, 0100-0200, con buena señal, en paralelo a 9880 kHz (buena Señal). En los 9810 kHz después de las 0100 salió otra vez la emisión de Radio Nederland en español. Me faltó chequear los 9735. De 0200-0300 UT: 7300 señal buena 9735 señal buena 9880 señal buena. De 0300-0400 UT: 7395 señal buena 9735 señal mezclándose con R. Rumanía en inglés 9880 señal buena. De 0400-0500 UT: 9665 via Grigoriopol MDA señal regular 9735 via Guayana Francesa buena señal 9880 via Krasnodar excelente señal, o será vía Guayana Francesa? 73 de (Yimber Gaviría, Cali, Colombia, Sony ICF 7600G Ant. KA33 http://yimber.blogspot.com (dx logs), DX LISTENING DIGEST) all Spanish ** RUSSIA. VOR PODCASTS --- Dear Glenn, I've been reading DXLD for a while now and haven't had anything to contribute. I'm not sure if anyone's noticed, but the Voice of Russia seems to have had podcasts of some sort for some time, just not available via a program like iTunes or whatever. They've had downloadable mp3s on their site for some time --- and, strangely enough, from a partially unprotected FTP. ftp://ftp.ruvr.ru/ is the site. After poking around in there for a bit, a couple friends and I found that we could upload files as well as download them from certain directories. Moscow Mailbag is available in the folder of the same name in the root directory from 2002 to 04, in .rm format. There seems to be a large video archive at ftp://ftp.ruvr.ru/Video/ - and oddly enough we have English audio at ftp://ftp.ruvr.ru/Video/English/ - where Moscow Mailbag is regularly updated, but the old episodes (aside from a couple anniversary editions) are not kept. I really have no idea why anyone can access it. Thought you'd be interested. I found it via links on the VOR's website once at http://www.ruvr.ru (April Ferguson, May 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAINT HELENA. RSHD QSL CARDS 2008 --- Dear All, Many thanks for your letters which were all received. I read them all and it was good to know that so many of you were out there listening and from all around the world. However, I am very pleased to say that all the QSL cards for 2008 have been done and have left the island on the 8 May 2009. From here they went to Ascension Island and then to the United Kingdom. Thanks to those of you in the United Kingdom and Ireland who have e- mail to say you have received yours. May I take this opportunity to thank you once again and to say keep it tuned to Radio St Helena on shortwave 11092.5 USB coming soon!!! With regards Gary Walters Station Manager Radio St Helena Pouncey's St Pauls St Helena Island South Atlantic Ocean STHL 1ZZ Phone: + 290 4542 Live in studio: + 290 4654 Fax: + 290 4542 E-mail: station.manager @ cwimail.sh (via Rumen Pankov, May 17, DXLD, and Jaisakthivel, May 18, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, dxldyg) Received my cards today, Postmarked May 4! 73, (Erik Koie, CPH, May 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11092.5 USB, Radio St. Helena, for reception at 2122 UT, a nice card in an envelope with a nice 40 p fish stamp and clear postmark of Jamestown, May 3, 2009, (received May 18). Dispatch seal on back hand noted as 06.05.09. Signed by Gerry Walters (sp.?), station manager, and a brief note enclosed. Front of card is colorful map, small emblem and two photos, Radio Station, Pounceys, St. Helena, South Atlantic Ocean. Call letters ZD7RSD, Radio St. Helena Day on Shortwave, 15 November, 2008. This was heard on SONY ICF 2010 with external long wire (Roger Chambers, Utica, New York, ODXA yg via DXLD) Yes! I received mine as well! Gary sent a very nice note. I have put mine on line here: http://www.enlitants.com/shortwave/content/rqsl.html It is the latest one so that it is last in the list (Richard Mitchell, May 18, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 15435, Saut ul-Buzz, still awful self-inflicted noise at 1530 check May 16, atop talk in Arabic, which I doubt even a motivated native speaker could have comprehended beneath the buzz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SENEGAL. BBC Afrique moving to Dakar --- Media Guardian is reporting that the new director of the BBC World Service, Peter Horrocks, intends to move the WS's french to Africa service to Dakar, Senegal. This, of course, follows the plan a few months ago to move some of the South Asia services in-region. No word yet from NUJ or BECTU. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/15/bbc-world-service-afrique (J E Durso, dxldyg via DXLD) ** SERBIA. "... the survival of International Radio Serbia is endangered. .." International Radio Serbia LISTENERS' MAILBOX May 17, 2009 http://glassrbije.org:80/E/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7242&Itemid=28 A large number of your letters and email messages came to our newsroom from all parts of the world, in which you write that you listen to us via short wave, satellite and Internet. Thanks for your useful suggestions, praise, as well as reports on the signal reception, which are very valuable, because we receive feedback about programs you like to listen to and the quality of reception. We refer our listeners asking for summer scheme broadcasting on short wave and via satellite to our web site where they can find all details. We are happy to see an increasing number of visitors at our website http://www.glassrbije.org which, as you write, is informative, entertaining and modern, because it has audio, video and written form of broadcasting, as well as archive of all content. We are especially happy about the interest shown by young students who are working on their language improvement during the summer in our newsroom. Your mail has been reviewed by Katarina Dostanic who has more on the subject. Jerg Clemens Hoffmann from Germany writes that for 30 years already he has been listening to shortwave radio stations, he is very happy that International Radio Serbia has a program in the German language. Short wave is a good and accessible way to inform about events in Serbia, and your program is good and interesting, says Mr. Hoffmann. He states that he is most interested in topics dedicated to everyday life in Serbia. We received best wishes in our future work from Fazel Mondani from Iran, who regularly listens to our broadcast in German via short wave, and he was recently informed that we broadcast our program via satellite and the Internet, so in the future he will follow up on our program in that fashion as well. He said that he likes our program very much and he would like to stay in touch through letters. Another regular listener - Hidemitsu Mijake from Japan - says that he would like to visit Serbia very much. He is particularly interested in visiting Belgrade, and would like to receive tourist brochures. We invite Mr. Mijake to see the sights and beautiful landmarks of Serbia, about which he heard in our programs and, of course, to be a guest of our editorial board. Andrey Krajnjuk from Ukraine said that since 1989, he has been listening to our broadcast in the Russian language via short wave, and he now regularly follows up via the Internet. The quality of your program has always been at a very high level, assessed Mr. Krajnjuk, wishing us all the best in the future work. Numerous listeners in Arab countries write to us on a regular basis, pointing that it means a lot to them to learn of Serbia in the program direct from Belgrade, and that they enjoy LISTENERS' MAILBOX. Jalul Amar from Algeria is grateful to the editorial board for efforts invested so that his fellow-citizens can learn about Serbia. "Man is amazed with beauty and history of Serbia. I have done a lot of research and read a lot in the media about Serbia, until I came across your short wave frequency from 6100 KHz, and now International Radio Serbia enriches my knowledge about your country, "said Mr. Amar. Your encouraging messages greatly help the efforts of employees in our media house, despite unenviable financial situation, to preserve one of the oldest short wave stations in the world, help us, because you rightfully expect better and more interesting program. "The interruption in your program, even for just a few days, for any reason, would be a source of concern and sorrow for us, because you become part of our life and our family, says Al Aid Bin Amar from Algeria. Our colleague Christian Miling from Germany writes with dismay how he read the information on our web page that, because of the difficult financial situation, the survival of International Radio Serbia is endangered. He says that he would like to make an interview with us in this respect to help the general public in Germany become aware of the problem. "I solidarise with all your employees who must be faced with a very difficult moment, and I believe in compassion and intelligence of the state bodies, as well as of the management of International Radio of Serbia, that will instigate them to make a useful decision, which would help the survival of your very significant media house, "says Agide Meloni from Italy. "Regardless of the enormous power of the Internet and satellite channels, I think that short wave broadcast is indispensable. As a listener and an Italian citizen, I am very closely connected to the historical presence of your signal. I remember horrible days of war on at the end of the last century, when the International Radio Serbia had a very important role in coordinating, informing and helping people attacked in a ruffian-like manner. I hope that the program in Italian, as well as in all other languages, will not be affected by the difficult financial situation and I wish that all employees in your house look with confidence to the future. We, the listeners, need you ", says Mr. Agide Meloni from Italy. Radio program intended for foreign countries, especially broadcasted from Serbia, is an important source of information. In Germany, it is almost impossible to hear the news about Serbia that is often associated with stereotypes that Serbs are aggressive, rude, outdated. These stereotypes are denied by your program - through your radio, I came to learn about a proud and self-aware people, with significant achievements in culture and art. This does not mean I always share opinions of your political commentators, but to listen to other opinions and to address those is a part of the cultural understanding between nations, "says Luk Vinkler from Germany. Our colleague Miroslav Todorovski from Germany writes of his support to the continuation of our broadcasts or, as he says, important and interesting program. "Serbia has always been of modest financial means, and so the International Radio Serbia functions as a modest, but valuable media institution - it achieves a lot, while not spending much. You nurture our culture, and at the same time, connections with others in the world, you use so many important languages and do not avoid the need for modernization and your listeners and readers need you. Because of all this, I hope that you will continue to thrive in providing anyone who is interested in Serbia with your high journalistic and communication services, "says Miroslav Todorovski, who himself worked as a translator for the German language in our house for several months. Dear listeners, we will keep trying to earn and justify your confidence, and work on the quality of program and communicating regularly with you. At the end of this week's gathering, we invite you to continue to write to us at the address Radio Serbia, Hilandarska 2, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, while your emails should be sent at radioyu @ bitsyu.net (via Mike Terry, UK, dxldyg via DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. 3915, BBC, Kranji relay, 2105-2126, 15 May, WS in English to SE Asia, newscast followed by Outlook at 2105; 44343, adjacent utility QRM. It was very good on 16 May at around 2155 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALIA [non]. unID: Lunedì 11 maggio 2009, 0549 - 15200 kHz, English/Arabic, programma educativo. Segnale insufficiente-buono. Altri giorni era spenta. Nuovo servizio EDC? Sudan Radio Service riattivata? Relay Dhabbaya? (SWL I1-0799Ge, Luca Botto Fiora G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) Don`t you check Aoki? The answer, but not Arabic: 15200 Somali Interactive R.(SIRIP) 0545-0615 .234..7 Somali 250 225 15200 Somali Interactive R.(SIRIP) 0620-0650 .23...7 Somali 250 225 Dhabbaya UAE 05415E 2410N SIRIP a09 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALILAND. 7145.05, 1800-1900* 13.05, R Hargeisa, Somali talk, folksongs from Horn of Africa, closing announcement, 45333 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, 28 metres of longwire, AOR AR7030PLUS, via Dario Monferini, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SOMALIA, 7145.04, R. Hargeisa, May 07 *1502-1513, 35322, Somali, 1502 sign on with opening music, Opening announce, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) I guess 1500 is now too early for Europeans to hear it (gh, DXLD) I got a QSL card from the Radio Hargeisa German address yesterday. On the backside lines they have lined out by hand all frequencies, but changed 7122 to 7145 kHz - so it was confirmed. On the next line "10 kW" is changed by hand to "100 kW T-antenna"! 73 from (Björn Fransson, Sweden, May 13, HCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DXLD) ** SPAIN. Radio De España in English, please help. Sir, I am not listening to shortwave as much as I did in the past. I have SiriusXM with World Radio Network and BBC news. I do miss Radio Exterior de España. Do you know if they stream the hour show daily? Do they podcast? WRN told me that they were unable to contact them to add them to their Sirius XM line-up. Any news or status would be a help. (Marty Browne, Queens NYC USA, May 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Marty, REE certainly streams and podcasts in Spanish, but as far as I can tell on their website, not in foreign languages. Anyhow, you should easily hear them at 8-9 pm EDT on 6055. Regards, (Glenn to Marty, via DXLD) Thanks. In my building I have always run into interference but I will have to try again. Thanks (Marty, ibid.) ** SPAIN. 15110, REE with usual excellent signal direct from Noblejas, Thursday May 14 at 2109 with live program from studio 202 at Prado del Rey, YL host giving current timechex in UT, local and Canary time. It`s ``Otros Acentos``, firstly dedicated to the maestro of the vallenato of the Colombian coast, Rafael Escalona, who just died in Bogotá, with some of his lively music; then interview about hard of hearing problems, using FM transmitters as hearing aids, inviting phone calls to 91-512-04-58 or -02-42 or by e-mail; 2118 about the ``don`t forget your ears`` campaign. All in Castilian. According to the current schedule grid at http://www.rtve.es/files/70-14142-FICHERO/Parrilla_marzo_2009.pdf the accuracy of which is questionable, Otros Acentos is M-F at 21-22 in its first edition ---- but there is no ``second edition`` elsewhere on the schedule! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGST) ** SPAIN. On REE Amigos de la Onda Corta, May 16, Antonio Buitrago reported that Spain will complete conversion to TDT (terrestrial digital television) by April 2010, and listed analog cutoff dates before then for various cities (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. ESPANHA – Desde Pontes e Lacerda (MT), José Moacir Portera de Melo ressalta que “desistiu desta estória de a REE enviar cartão QSL aos ouvintes”. Ele informa que enviou diversos informes para a emissora há mais de um ano e “jamais recebeu resposta”. Acrescenta que o programa dominical que contesta as cartas dos ouvintes simplesmente ignora suas cartas e informes. “Parece que só dão atenção aos ouvintes de Cuba”. Realmente, para quem cuida do contato com os ouvintes na REE, a emissora transmite apenas para Cuba e não existem outros ouvintes! Uma lástima! (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 17 via DXLD) Sez don`t you believe that REE has resumed QSLing; in fact on their mailbag program they ignore everyone but Cubans (gh) ** SPAIN [non]. La Pirenaica, la voz de la esperanza antifranquista Grabación sobre La Pirenaica del programa Amigos de la Onda Corta de Radio Exterior de España. Entrevista a Luis Zaragoza, autor "La Pirenaica, la voz de la esperanza antifranquista", sobre la historia de la emisora de onda corta Radio España Independiente "La Pirenaica" que transmitía para España hasta 1977, desde Rusia y Rumania. http://swdxer.blogspot.com/2009/05/emisora-la-pirenaica.html 73's (J C Menotti, May 19, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) ?? ** SRI LANKA. 15745.012. SLBC. 0120, English, request and dedication show, hosted by a man. Mostly old country songs being played, i.e. "Don't Fence Me In." Into Christian "Thought for the Day" type program, 0200-0205, then "It's 7:35. This is the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. Here is the news..." News ended at 0211. Then ID and frequencies. Fair (David Sharp, FT-950, NSW Australia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Date? 11905, SLBC, 0115-0135, May 16, Hindi vocals. Some talk in listed Hindi. Subcontinental music. Weak but readable. Threshold signal on // 7190 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Free time has been a precious commodity this week. 11905, SLBC Colombo-Ekala *0020-0050, May 14, English. IS at s/on followed by choral-like vocal music; brief Hindi-like music at 0024 then W with solid ID "This is the (English ?) service of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.." and frequency announcement; various music selections followed with IDs & pips (5+1) at 0030 & 0045; first positive ID I've ever logged for this station; fair; checked // 7190 per T. Krueger tip but only ARO chatter noted (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, N.H. USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200'Bevs, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. 7190, SLBC, Ekala; *0018-0028 May 16, 2009. Carrier up at 0018 with 1000 cycle continuous tone, percussion interval signal from 0020, children's group vocal at 0020:53, percussion from 0023:27, Hindi female announcer from 0025:20. Clear and weak, parallel slightly better 11905 (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 11500, 16/05 1641, MADAGASCAR, R Dabanga, in Arabic/Sudanese, from Talata-Volondry, with 250 kW, OM Talk and sticker “Radio Dabanga, Radio Dabanga…”, after news, 44444 (Jorge Freitas, Bahia, Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. Transmission with SAQ Tuesday 19 May 2009 changed. The *planned* transmission with the Alexanderson alternator on longwave 17.2 kHz at Grimeton Radio/SAQ at Tuesday 19 May is *moved to Wednesday 20 May* at the same times, 0700 UTC and 0730 UTC. Sorry for trouble. Lars/SM6NM (via Andrea Borgnino, Italy, via UDXF, May 15 via BC-DX 16 May via DXLD) ** SYRIA. 12085, Radio Damascus, 2125-2200, May 16, tune-in to English talk. Local music. English news summary at 2157. National Anthem at 2159. Spanish talk at 2200. The usual poor audio with hum and low modulation. Slightly worse on // 9330 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 12085 with big S9+20 signal May 19 at 2133, but hum and just barely audible extremely undermodulated ME vocal music. Has to be R. Damascus as scheduled during this hour in English, and with its typical modulation problems. Then looked for possible // 9330 but found it blocked by RCI spur; see CANADA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SÍRIA – Após mais de 20 anos de sintonia e envio de diversos informes de recepção, José Moacir Portera de Melo, de Pontes e Lacerda (MT), conseguiu, finalmente, receber um cartão de confirmação QSL da Rádio Damasco. Segundo ele, a pessoa na emissora – não identificada – ainda enviou uma saudação ao Daniel Wyllyans, outro ouvinte da emissora que reside em Nova Xavantina (MT), bem próximo ao José Moacir (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 17 via DXLD) ** TAIWAN. QSL - Clandestine Sound of Hope Radio Network verified with a full data Earphones/Microphone" card, personal letter in 72 days from postal address P. O. Box 70456, Sunnyvale, CA 94086, USA. from v/s Demi Yan, Listener Service Coordinator who apologized for the delay in replying. The letter indicated that the "Sound of Hope Radio Network is a non- profit station that produces comprehensive news and commentaries on or related to China and we broadcast to China through shortwave. We are the largest non-governmental shortwave broadcaster to China. Our mission is to provide mainland Chinese people with free, independent and objective information, which is most of the time unavailable due to the total monopoly of information by Chinese government. Due to the Communist government's monopoly o f the power and media, state-sponsored human rights violations go undeterred and many, many people suffered as a result. Outstanding examples are underground churches and Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans and many deprived people are being persecuted in very brutal and covered-up way. Our radio station strives to bring the exposure to such crimes in an effort to deter it and hope to the people in much need." (Rich D'Angelo, PA, DXplorer May 11 via BC-DX 16 May via DXLD) ?? If it was ``F/D``, what were the frequency and transmitter site and power? People keep claiming full-data QSLs and then don`t report what that data said (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) 9000, 14/05 1910, TAIWAN, Xi Wang Zhi Sheng SOH (?), *tentative*, in Chinese, with 1 kW, OM and YL Talk, Firedrake music in the background, on 8400 kHz only Firedrake music without speech, 22322 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana BA-Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) Could be, and also could be if you really hear SOH it`s with a higher- power transmitter at the moment. Especially with clandestines, but also nonsuch, rated powers are really unreliable, a guessing game what power is *really* being run, typically lower to much lower, except for brand-new transmitters of medium power. There`s also not much point in speculating about powers, without including antenna gain and direxionality in the equation (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** TAIWAN. The spurs from RTI`s 9735 Japanese service were back, May 16 at 1323, producing similar-pitched hets on BBC 9740 and CRI 9730. Most days the spurs are not there, but they keep upsprouting irregularly. Spurfree May 21 circa 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. 9455, R. Thailand, at 1330 May 14 in Thai ID, the first day heard without that annoying het from off-frequency YFR via Taiwan, so maybe they have taken my advice and moved, but where? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Answer: see U S A [non] ** THAILAND. 15275, Radio Thailand, 0003-0025, May 16, tune-in to English news. ID. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions. Very poor by 0020 due to high noise level (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET. 7255, PBS Xizang, 1413, May 12. New frequency; assume in Tibetan with call-in show, // 6200. Nothing heard on ex: 7125. 7450, PBS Xizang, 1419, May 12. New frequency; in Chinese; // 5935. Nothing heard on ex: 7170 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET [non]. 17560, 16/05 1420, MADAGASGAR, Voice of Tibet, in Tibetan, from Talata-Volondry, with 250 kW, YL and OM Talk, strong QRM of jammer Chinese, 32432 (Jorge Freitas, Bahia, Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) ** UGANDA. 4976. R. Uganda, Kampala, 2039-2055, 16 May, English, talks, but the modulation was dreadful, hard to copy what was being said; 45333 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. I haven`t mentioned this in months, so for the record, the same old classical music warhorses are *still* being used by BBC Mundo, the Spanish service relayed by WHRI on 9410 weekdays at 1200- 1300. Great reception of great music, but only excerpts, and never identified as no announcements are permitted; listened May 15 1250- 1300* abruptly off just as one piece had fortunately ended on its own. These included O Mio Babbino Caro, and Sunrise from Peer Gynt. This is because BBC Spanish has been drastically reduced to nothing but a newscast at 1200, and the rest of the hour has to be filled by archival material, and from 1233 nothing but music, classical on M/W/F, pop hits on Tue/Thu. It would take only a minimum amount of effort for BBC Mundo to produce a real classical music show with much more variety and IDs of the music, but that is obviously beyond their capability or desire to do so (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. BBC Afrique moving to Dakar --- see SENEGAL http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/15/bbc-world-service-afrique (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U K. Re: Rehabbing Kershaw on BBCR4 pulled at last minute Digital Spy poster has spotted an article by Andy Kershaw in the Independent May 1 about the decision to pull his On The Ropes interview: Kershaw: How the BBC left me on the ropes For 25 years he was one of the nation's best-known broadcasters. Last week, however, a heavily trailed radio show about him was pulled at the last minute. Andy Kershaw reveals the inside story According to Radio 4's own website message-board, many listeners were as stunned and dismayed as I was by the cancellation of last Tuesday's On The Ropes. For their sakes (and thanks to them for the overwhelming support), I'm glad they didn't also have to share the public humiliation of that decision. Full article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/kershaw-how-the-bbc-left-me-on-the-ropes-1677104.html (Mike Barraclough, England, May 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. UKOGBANI - BBC RADIO LINCOLNSHIRE SUNDAY gardening show host DAPHNE LEDWARD has been fired for an alleged drunken outburst at a reception for a nature weekend at SOUTH CLIFF FARM in LINCOLN, ENGLAND. LEDWARD, author of "THE IDIOT GARDENER'S HANDBOOK" and seven other books and a former panelist (1982-94) on BBC RADIO 4 "GARDENERS' QUESTION TIME," reportedly began to yell at the other guests at the "Discover Nature WEEKEND" event two weeks ago, accusing them of killing the five greyhounds she had brought with her in her car after the dogs had gotten loose for a second time. Unbeknownst to her, her husband had already tracked down the dogs. LEDWARD, who admits to having had wine at the event, has apologized but the station has announced her termination (allaccess.com May 15 via Brock Whaley, HI, DX Listening Digest) caps: allaccess quirk ** U S A. U.S. CONGRESS HONORS WILLIS CONOVER: MUSIC OF FREEDOM Monday, May 18, 2009 3:35 AM The Weekly Challenger, by Rick Gee, St. Petersburg, FL, May 14, 2009 http://www.theweeklychallenger.com:80/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=96468&sID=37 In the February 26 issue of The Weekly Challenger, I shared with you a story of an evening during my first week as a freshman at Howard University. Myself and several other freshmen were listening to the popular Voice of America Music U.S.A. radio program. You may recall that I said, on the weekends most of us jazz enthusiasts made it a point to listen to the jazz program emceed by popular disc jockey and jazz icon Willis Conover. Sadly, in 1996, Willis Conover passed away after a long bout with cancer. It was a very sad occasion for jazz fans, since Conover's voice had been one of the most distinctive and most popular in the jazz world. I can still remember listening to LP jazz records that included Conover introducing musicians at New York's famed Bop City. His jazz program was considered to be one of the most influential in the world. Adding credence to the accolades bestowed upon Conover, just a little over a week ago, the U.S. Congress proclaimed April 25 Willis Conover Day. It was recognized that at a time when European politics were quite shaky, Conover's broadcasting reached far overseas. Conover did more to spread the sound of jazz than any other person in music history. In 1955, it was Conover who broadcasted jazz music to many of the Eastern European countries where jazz was looked upon as subversive and revolutionary. Nevertheless, Conover's radio shows were tremendously popular and was estimated that more than 100 million people listened to his broadcasts. Many Europeans subsequently became jazz musicians and learned how to play by first listening to Conover's program. One need only to visit Europe today to see just how extraordinarily popular jazz is there. In fact, because of the interest shown in jazz overseas, many of our most popular American jazz musicians relocated there. In other words, Conover helped make "jazz" music an international language. Conover's popular program was headquartered in Washington. He knew many jazz musicians there and in New York City. These were friendships which he used to overcome some obvious jazz clubs prejudices. During the early 1950s, there were many jazz clubs where black musicians performed, but did not allow black guests to attend. Conover brought about a positive change, whereas he began to promote jazz shows where people of all races were welcomed. During Conover's jazz programs, he demonstrated his vast knowledge of jazz. He was considered to be a superb interviewer, and interviewed many jazz greats such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and many others. His programs featured the best jazz music. Conover also did a lot to keep jazz alive in the United States. He was the announcer for many famous jazz festivals and concerts in America. At the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Conover presented more than 30 concerts. In 1969, Conover was the producer of the White House concert held to celebrate the 70th birthday of jazz great Duke Ellington. It should be noted that Conover's jazz programs included different types of jazz. He was known to play not only songs that he liked, but also songs that he didn't like. It was also known however, that he would play more of the musicians that he preferred, such as Duke Ellington. We'll end this article with one of Conover's thoughtful quotes about jazz music: "Jazz is a living music and anything that is alive grows and changes, just as we grow and change. So it changes all the time. But it's based on our memories and our cultural heritage and how we feel about it. And that changes. So it has its roots in the music of a half-century ago and music that came along since then. It depends on what the musician has heard and what the musician wants to do with it once he or she has heard it. It changes because it's living music." Remember to "Keep Jazz Alive" by "Supporting Live Jazz!" Jazz fans - do you have any feedback? I would like to hear from YOU! You may visit my website at: rickgeesjazzjamm.com or email me at JazzJamm@aol.com. You may also mail your letters to Rick Gee's Jazz Jamm, c/o The Weekly Challenger, 2500 ML King St., S., St. Petersburg, FL 33705 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. 9760, VOA via Philippines, Wednesday May 13 at 1318- 1323 with Wordmaster feature, interviewing someone from Burkina Faso at a TESOL conference in Denver about English teaching. Interesting feature added to my MONITORING REMINDERS CALENDAR. But searching the VOA site on Wordmaster you get zero hits! If you look under W in the seemingly exhaustive A-Z list of VOA program titles in all languages, it is not there! Instead you have to find it under Special English, even tho as heard it was NOT in S.E., and not part of an S.E. program block. http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/wordmaster/index.cfm And this week`s item is at the top, audio available, http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/Wordmaster/2009-05-13-voa9.cfm where we also see that TESOL stands for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. No sign of KJES on 11715, May 18 at 1417, allowing VOA Tinang 50 kW unit to be heard well enough in report about school in Zimbabwe // 9760 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also KJES below ** U S A [and non]. IBB sign on/off routine You can access this file at the URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/files/IBB_Tsi405Announcements.pdf IBB transmitter tune up routine - You can access this file at the URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/files/IBB_Tsi409TransmitterTuneUp.pdf Glenn, I really don't get it why various IBB transmitters warm-up in various ways, but they have TSIs (Transmitting Station Instructions), and they are supposed do the routine same as written in TSIs, but for example, Biblis, Germany has only open carriers as a tune up. 73 (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, May 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Biblis is unattended. There is an operator post at Lampertheim that oversees the transmitters there, at Biblis and until the closure of this site, also at Holzkirchen. For Holzkirchen the remote control gear consisted mainly of a keyboard and two monitors, one for the transmitter controls, the other for the audio matrix switch. This means that there is simply nobody who could play some takes from a CD. Such things are well possible at sites like Greenville where they have to deal with manual operations anyway. But obviously IBB, at the level above those who developed these operational procedures, is no longer willing to pay for such dinosaur facilities. I was once told that Biblis/Lampertheim is about the most cost-effective operation in the IBB network. Could well be the case, judging from the circumstance that it is still alive (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) ** U S A. ``Back in 2005 there was a lot of noise about VoA's moving part of its news division to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Did that outsourcing plan go through?`` Very good question. Indeed, what became of this? In detail the "Washington Post" had reported on April 15 2005 that it was planned to no longer staff the VOA newsroom between midnight and 7 AM local time. Instead at night news were to be delivered by a production company in Hong Kong, staffed with eight editors from the USA, the UK and Australia. The annual savings had been specified as 300,000 $, about two thousandths of the complete budget. ``I believe both RFA and VoA should consider applying for a direct funding from Beijing and maybe even moving their operations there, to guarantee their uninterrupted financing. The same applies to RFI and CBC. VoR already boasts a banner ad for CRI on its website.`` Old joke from two decades ago: What will the German Democratic Republic be in 2000? A small, aggressively behaving country on China's western border (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. ESTADOS UNIDOS – A Seção de Língua Portuguesa da Voz da América acaba de lançar um concurso de fotografia digital. Valendo um receptor de rádio a manivela e outros brindes, o interessado deverá enviar para a emissora uma fotografia que retrate lugares, cidades, pessoas ou coisas. Seis fotos deverão ser escolhidas para o calendário 2010 da emissora. O prazo para o envio das participações é 31 de julho. As fotos devem ser remetidas para o seguinte e-mail: portugues @ gmail.com (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 17 via DXLD) ** U S A. Re gh interview on QSO with Ted Randall starting May 12: Thanks for doing that, Glen[n], I got home just in time to catch most of the show, very informative for a SW nooby! I had some static for the first 15 minutes, but cleared up after that (Dean Wayman, ABDX via DXLD) Available on demand, after another guest in the first 40(?) minutes: http://www.tedrandall.com/media/podcat/qso-05-12-09.mp3 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5070, WWCR, World Wide Conspiracy Radio at its finest with ad for water filter that polarizes chemical contaminates and thus renders them harmless (really!), and book about how the federal reserve system is killing us, and a film about the New World Order/Obama connection. Into paranoid drivel program with host talking about UN and other conspiracies with some guy named Alex Jones who clearly needs to have the dose of his meds adjusted. 0520-0550 14/May (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** U S A. WWCR, 15825, May 20 at 1324, tnx sporadic E inbooming so much that the squeal was audible beneath the jailed Tony Alámo, whose child sexual abuse trial has been postponed again until July, presumably another playback of an old program, ``if you serve yourself, you are serving Satan``. Judging from occasional murmurs, prompted reaxion from his small audience, he was preaching to children, which could explain his extremely condescending tone, turning off an adult audience except for those ripe for condescension. Similar reception 24 hours later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WEWN, 7555, May 16 at 0510 in Spanish, noticed some continuous utility QRM on hi side, multiplex without a specific carrier. One could evade it by tuning to low side of WEWN. Have not noticed this before; such are the risks of broadcasting on a fixed band. Especially if it`s US-based, military or commercial, the ute might well complain and get WEWN removed, since these 7.3+ MHz US SWBC stations are allowed only on a non-interference basis. Not only is WYFR 15600 blasted by WEWN`s 10-kHz-away spurs from 15610 between 19 and 23 UT, but another case of too-close-for-comfort exists for WYFR on 11530 at 0400-0900 since WEWN is using 11520 during those hours, and beyond. May 17 at 0605, the WEWN squealing spur was badly disrupting much weaker WYFR 11530. Could also hear it on 11510 with BFO on. Catholix vs Protestants! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. 11725 with YFR Chinese service at 1343 May 16 spelling out P-O-B-O-X address in Oakland; letters pronounced in English, numbers in Chinese. In English, of course, they never announce a box, just the zip code is sufficient. WRTH only shows a street address, but spelling out H-E-G-E-N-B-E-R-G-E-R would just be too much to grapple with. The rough audio processing is instantly recognizable as not coming from Okeechobee, so whence? Pet-Kam, RUSSIA, 244 degrees. I was also hearing this an hour earlier. R. Thailand, 9455, in Thai at 1330 May 16 still free of YFR Taiwan Vietnamese interference, so I research in Aoki where it is now: during the 13-14 hour, moved May 11 to 9960 and is also on 7260 Taiwan, 11895 Irkutsk, none of them checked yet, but the important thing is that they got off 9455 following my tipoff that they were colliding with Thailand. You`re welcome (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. U.K.(non [sic]), Some VT Communications changes from May 11: WYFR Family Radio 1800-1900 on 9465 DHA 250 kW / 255 deg to CeAf English, deleted 1800-1900 on 11875 ASC 250 kW / 065 deg to CeAf Igbo, ex English (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 15 via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. 11715 at 1500 May 16: KJES big signal but just barely audible with kid giving address in Spanish, as VOA was going thru sign-off routine in English; per Aoki the latter being PHILIPPINES, Tinang 50 kW unit at 220 degrees used only at 1400-1500, but nonetheless producing a clash, Americans vs Americans! As for KJES, Aoki shows the 13-16 transmission as M-F only, but that is wrong, as this was Saturday; also shows 13-15 English, 15-16 Spanish, but they were already in Spanish at 14. Furthermore, they supposedly change azimuth each hour from 70 to 350 to 150 degrees. So I wonder if they were rotating the hefty LP from 70 to 350 degrees as I listened. If so, it made no difference, while bringing up the modulation to normal level would have made a big difference. WRTH A-09 update says daily, 13-15 English, 15-16 Spanish, all to NAm, not making any azimuthal distinxions. [more KJES above with VOA] {One of the drawbax of WRTH, as well as EiBi, unless you really don`t care about such things, is that they deliberately omit any azimuth info, just settling for target areas, as in continental abbrs., not specific CIRAF zones either. You do get azimuths from Aoki, but CIRAFs only from HFCC --- aside from individual broadcasters which may or may not publish any of the above (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)} ** U S A [non]. THE END OF CVC A SUA VOZ --- Originally, CVC was going to terminate the Brazilian service on SW at the end of April, but it has continued to be heard all day on 15410 via CHILE. Now comes word from Célio Romais in his blog that a sesquimonth from now, not only will SW be closed down, but also Internet streaming, i.e. the entire service is being terminated, one reason being the difficulty of finding qualified staff in Miami. {So why don`t they originate programming from a studio in Brasil like HCJB et al.??} But the staff they have in Miami have been given notice and are very upset about it. Starting May 18, announcements will be made on each program, including Radio DX, that the service will terminate at Junend. Nothing is mentioned here about the fate of the Spanish service, but as far as we know, that will continue. Here`s Célio`s original report in his blog (Glenn Hauser, May 14, WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: O FIM DA CVC --- Enviado em 14 de Maio de 2009 http://blog.romais.jor.br/2009/05/14/o-fim-da-cvc/ 30 de junho. Este será o último dia em que a Rádio Christian Vision estará no ar, em português, em 15410 kHz, em 19 metros, e também na Internet. A decisão de acabar com as emissões em ondas curtas e na Internet se deu por dois motivos: cortes de despesas e a dificuldade de conseguir bons profissionais em Miami para trabalharem na emissora. A decisão foi comunicada pelo diretor do grupo, Terry Bennett, ao diretor regional para a América Latina, Mark Gallardo. Conforme o apresentador da emissora José Antonio Ceschin, todos os funcionários do Departamento de Língua Portuguesa já estão cumprindo aviso prévio. A partir de segunda-feira, 18, todos os programas em português da CVC estarão avisando os ouvintes sobre o encerramento das transmissões. “Para nós todos foi uma grande surpresa e um choque. Esperávamos cortes, inclusive a possibilidade de reduzirem as ondas curtas a apenas algumas horas por dia, mas foram muito mais longe e resolveram acabar com tudo”, enfatiza Ceschin. Ele também destaca a importância das ondas curtas e a divulgação da radioescuta pela emissora nos últimos anos. “Sinto muito pelo Rádio DX, um dos melhores programas que temos. Mas é assim mesmo. O nosso trabalho parece não ter importância para a diretoria e fomos as vítimas fatais dos cortes de custos”, finaliza. [caption:] Eduardo da Silva, o Dudu, produtor e apresentador da Rádio CVC (via Romais, DXLD) Hi Glenn, perhaps it is rather irrelevant now, but a month ago the initial reports about CVC cancelling shortwave for Portuguese, broke by you of course, brought this flat denial, at least for the DRM side. Must have been real bombshell news to the staff that this service will be terminated altogether: Dear Douglas [Kähler], CVC has no plans to stop its Portuguese DRM transmissions. DRM, soon to include DRM+, is ideally suited to a country such as Brazil, which has expressed renewed interest in adopting the system. Kind regards, Mathias Svensson, 14. April, CVC Chile (via Kai Ludwig, DXLD) I see no any indications of an impending end at http://www.radiocvc.com But then it is still May 17 local time in Miami. For now I want to point out something else: The website of the Chile transmitter operation has been renewed and includes now also photos from the reconstruction work in 1997: http://www.cvclavoz.cl/historia.html (Kai Ludwig, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15410, CVC A Sua Voz via Chile, fair May 18 at 1406 in gospel rock. As I tuned by sometime during the previous hour, heard a PSA about child sexual abuse. Without CVC, how are the Brazilians going to know about that? Célio Romais reports this service is closing down completely at Junend, and announcements to that effect are being broadcast starting today; but I didn`t listen long enough to confirm one. Anyhow, the Brazilian radio bands, including domestic SW, are full of gospel huxters, so they hardly need any more in Miami trying to reach them via Chile. Of course, each g.h. thinx he has something unique to offer, and access to The Truth; CVC employing the stealth approach with lots of rock music to rope in impressionable youngsters, few of them, we fear, SW addicts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 6996.1/USB, AIR, Andrews AFB, Camp Springs MD, USA; 1939- 2010+, 9 May; "This is AIR performing the annual U.S. Armed Forces Day amateur military cross-band communications test, transmitting on 6996.1 upper and receiving on 7285 upper." (with variations). Message repeated every few minutes. 1955 switched from W to M announcer. S8 signal. At 1956 heard AF6EZP check in on 6996.1, but nothing heard on 7285. At 2006 announcement, receiving frequency was changed to 7175. Nothing heard there either during contact. 2008 contact was 202MD, not heard; reminded me of Radar & Sparky (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** U S A. CATHOLIC RADIO STATION WILL LAUNCH IN UTAH by Author, Intermountain Catholic SALT LAKE CITY — Immaculate Heart Radio announced May 7, that it has signed a contract to purchase 50,000 watt KPCW AM 1010 from Community Wireless of Park City, Inc. The station is licensed to Tooele, but the towers are located closer to Salt Lake city and the signal reaches most of the population of Utah from that location. “We are very excited to serve the Church in this way by bringing the best Catholic programming from around the country and around the world to Utah,” said Immaculate Heart Radio President Doug Sherman. “The transaction will close in August, and our broadcasts will begin at that time… http://www.icatholic.org/indstory/2009/051509_03a.html (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) 1010 is the formerly public radio outlet which had been relaying BBC WS in the interim, but who needs that when you can have 24/7 religion other than LDS?? Only 194 watts at nite. Heh heh, LDS domination of Utah continues to crumble (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. STRIKE AT KDNA PUTS STATION OFF THE AIR Yakima Herald-Republic, By Melissa Sánchez, Granger, May 16, 2009 http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2009/05/16/05-16-09-web-kdna KDNA employees have gone on strike and the station has been off the air since around 8:30 a.m. today. Around 2 p.m., about 40 station listeners and supporters joined employees picketing with Teamster signs outside the station's home on Sunnyside Avenue. Employees say they elected to go on strike early this morning in support of two former co-workers who they believe were unfairly terminated during an organizing campaign with Teamsters Union Local 760. Problems at the Yakima Valley's only Spanish-language public broadcaster began last summer, when KDNA's board of directors hired María Fernández to replace executive director Ricardo García, who retired. "We are no longer getting the respect we deserve," KDNA night supervisor Manuel López said. "We no longer have a voice here. In the 29 years of this station's existence, we have never had to go off the air because of a labor conflict like this." For more on this story, check Sunday's Yakima Herald-Republic (via Mike Terry, UK, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. KTRS'S DORSEY DENIES PRESSURE TO RESIGN BY Phillip O'connor, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 05/16/2009 Tim Dorsey, the president and general manager of KTRS (550 AM), said Friday that he was under no pressure to resign despite a report that some investors want him removed for mismanagement of the Cardinals flagship radio station. . . http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/93CDBB4A2B8BBE9B862575B700835A4B?OpenDocument (via Will Martin, MO, DXLD) ** U S A. UNID "Magic 91.3" --- I haven't heard of this station yet today on the road it was coming in because local WDOM was off. I thought they said their location was Carolina. The format was oldies. Thanks, (Jay, 2035 UT May 13, surname and location unknown, ABDX via DXLD) Why in the world do people post `local` logs without specifying where that is? Axually, there is a hint, WDOM --- I had look that up in FCC FMQ and find it is 91.3 in Providence RI (gh, DXLD) Never mind. It's a local a-hole pirate relaying Majic 94.1 from the Carolinas. This pirate has also been on 90.1, 90.7, 102.1 & every weekend on 103.1. Where's the damn F.C.C.? (Jay, ibid.) You must not like FM pirate stations. There was one (maybe still is?) on the south side of Houston I heard last year playing dirty language urban style music that I didn't care for (heard it on the car radio while tuning around and driving somewhere on loop 610) and I didn't say one thing to the FCC about it. I heard another playing country music in Pasadena two years ago and didn't report that one either. There are only two fairly clear FM frequencies in the Houston area that a pirate could sit on and I seldom hear any pirates on either one, perhaps because there is a resident FCC field agent here. Oh well, maybe I should start up a pirate station one day and see how long it lasts before I get the FCC knock on the door. Let`s see, a mix of rock, country, classical, audiobooks and sermon messages might be a good format for a pirate station (Robert M. Bratcher Jr., TX, ibid.) ** U S A. RIAA vs. PUBLIC RADIO - PERFORMANCE RIGHTS ACT MOVES AHEAD If one were to frame this as a case of biting the hand that feeds it, there would be plenty of people who wouldn’t be surprised at the comparison. A bill in the US is moving ahead that would tack on a brand new tax onto public radio broadcasters where if radio plays music, they have even more royalty fees they have to pay. . . http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86235/riaa-vs-public-radio-performance-rights-act-moves-ahead/ (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) ** U S A. Happened to be watching MSNBC around 1500 UT May 14, when they kept referring to tornado damage in northern OK the night before, with all-too-brief clips of some of it, not saying what town that was, and mixed in with a live correspondent in Kirksville MO about 400 miles away, who the airhead anchorette thought was in OK. She warned Oklahomans to beware of storms still threatening, while weather maps showed by then the line had moved way off from Oklahoma. Then there was video from Anadarko OK damage, which is NOT in northern OK. There was lesser tornado damage near Tonkawa, N OK, but never mentioned or for all I could tell, seen. Hey, it`s all in that amorphous area West Of The Hudson (or west of Secaucus) (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN [and non]. VR, 9645 in Scandinavian language, UT Wednesday May 20 at 0505, along with Brazilian het from 9645.3 or so. Wonder if this was in Danish, or is ever in Danish, as it would be the only SWBC left in that language besides Greenland 3815. VR is not helpful in breaking down which days of the week carry which Scand language; only native speakers can tell (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. GLOBOVISIÓN PODRÍA SER SANCIONADA EN VENEZUELA Investigan al canal bajo cargos de incitar al “pánico y ansiedad” durante un terremoto cuando criticó al Gobierno por su respuesta lenta. 16.05.09 - Actualizado: 16.05.09 07:12pm - AFP/AP Caracas, Venezuela --- Cuando los venezolanos sintonizan Globovisión, ven protestas por los servicios públicos precarios o un invitado a un programa de diálogo diciendo que el presidente Hugo Chávez podría ser ejecutado por sus oponentes, al igual que el dictador italiano Benito Mussolini. Ahora Chávez parece estar preparándose para un enfrentamiento final con Globovisión, el único canal de televisión de la oposición en Venezuela en señal abierta. Los reguladores están investigando al canal noticioso bajo cargos de incitar al “pánico y ansiedad” durante un terremoto menor cuando criticó al Gobierno por su respuesta lenta. . . http://www.laprensa.hn/Internacionales/Ediciones/2009/05/17/Noticias/Globovision-podria-ser-sancionada-en-Venezuela (La Prensa HN Internacional via Yimber Gaviría, DXLD) HUGO CHAVEZ AMENAZÓ HACE UNOS DÍAS CON CERRAR UN CANAL El gobierno de Chávez amenaza con revisar las licencias de radio y TV. Lo dijo una funcionaria. Hace unos días, el presidente amenazó con cerrar un canal. Por: caracas. dpa La defensora del pueblo de Venezuela, Gabriela Ramírez, propuso ayer "revisar" a los medios radioeléctricos de prensa cuyas políticas editoriales "perjudiquen al Estado y generen zozobra". Ramírez, que responde al gobierno, consideró que es posible revisar las concesiones dadas a estaciones de radio y televisión que abusen de esas licencias. Las funcionaria hizo la advertencia en medio de la tensión provocada por la inminente sanción a la televisora Globovisión, que el gobierno acusa de conspiradora y de generar "terrorismo mediático". . . http://www.clarin.com/diario/2009/05/19/elmundo/i-01921381.htm (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DXLD) `Defensora del pueblo` -- what`s that, the Bolivarian version of a so- called ombudspeson? (gh, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. RADIO RUMBOS ESTRENA TRANSMISOR Y PROGRAMACIÓN martes 19 de mayo de 2009 Oseches y Abraham diseñan los cambios de la emisora (Gabriela Pulido) La emisora cumple 60 años en diciembre pero espera rejuvenecer Oseches y Abraham diseñan los cambios de la emisora (Gabriela Pulido) A partir de hoy Radio Rumbos estrena programación con mayor contenido dirigido al adulto joven. Además está en período de prueba el transmisor de 100 mil vatios recién adquirido por la emisora que cumple 60 años en el mes de diciembre y que desde ya realiza cambios en su imagen para celebrar el aniversario. "Para rediseñar la grilla de programación antes teníamos que determinar la audiencia. La idea no es abandonar al público que siempre nos ha seguido, que es un público adulto, sino adaptarnos y convertirnos en una emisora más adulto contemporánea y empezar a ser una AM con contenido FM", explica Rebeca Abraham, gerente de programación de la emisora. Luego de los respectivos análisis, la programación de Radio Rumbos empezará a las 7:00 a.m. con De todo aquí con los locutores Ana Freitas y Manuel Freitas. A las 10:00 a.m. se dará inicio al programa Sin rumbo fijo (nombre tentativo) que tendrá un casting permanente donde los radioescuchas van a poder mostrar su talento. Al mediodía es el turno de NotiRumbos. Al iniciar la tarde se transmitirá El gran negocio con Rafael García Flores a las 12:30 p.m. Dos horas más tarde llegarán Carolina Gómez Ávila y Mayra de Libero con el programa Con las dos ganas y a las 4:30 p.m. se realizará el relanzamiento de La soda de la noche, con Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba. Con la adquisición del transmisor de 100 mil vatios, Abelardo Oseches, director general de Radio Rumbos, asegura que se han querido adelantar a la llegada de la era digital a Venezuela. "También queremos volver a ser la emisora emblemática del país y vamos a combinar calidad de sonido con cobertura", agrega. El presidente de Radio Rumbos, Fernando Bermúdez, acota que a pesar de los cambios, algunas cosas se mantendrán igual como el tradicional sonido de la marimba en el noticiero. "Además, somos la única empresa privada que transmite Aló Presidente porque el programa conducido por el ciudadano Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías es donde se generan todas las noticias más frescas del Gobierno". SJ Fuente: El Universal http://www.eluniversal.com/2009/05/18/til_art_radio-rumbos-estrena_1392635.shtml (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DXLD) Rumbos has changed its programming to focus on young adults. They have a new 100 kW transmitter ready for the digital age. WTFK? Does that mean MW 670 and it will be IBOC?? WRTH already has them at 100 kW while all other Venezuelan MW count on no more than 50 kW. They want to keep off Chávez` shitlist by being the only private broadcaster to carry Aló, Presidente (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. Another week off for Hugo Chávez Frias, as no transmission found on the ``Aló, Presidente`` frequencies via CUBA, such as 12010, 13680, 13750, checked Sunday May 17 at 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. CUBA/VENEZUELA, 11670, QSL RN de VENEZUELA, Canal Internacional. In Spanisch, 2200-2300 UT, auf 11670 kHz, via RHC Havanna (100 kW?); dzt. oefters brauchbar zu empfangen. Habe mir an denen jahrelang die Zaehne ausgebissen; also keine QSL ueber die regulaeren RNV-Anschriften/email erhalten. Jetzt hat es geklappt via: César Alí MÉNDEZ MARTÍNEZ P. O. Box 66267 Caracas 1061 (Rep. Bolivariana de) Venezuela Voll detaillierte farbige, offizielle RNV Karte; plus pers. Brief in Englisch. Herr Mendez schreibt, dass dies seine Privatadresse ist. Er war Mitarbeiter von RNV; seit einiger Zeit pensioniert. Loeblicherweise findet er manchmal Zeit, Hoererpost zu beantworten. Ich legte meinem RR 2 USD Rueckporto bei (Wolfgang Gargitter, Austria, A-DX May 15 via BC-DX 16 May via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DXLD) Full-data color QSL card arrived from this guy who has retired from RNV and answers reports to his personal address when he has time; $2 r.p. was included; contrary to no replies direct from station (gh) ** VIETNAM. 9840.008, VoV, 1000 sign-on with ID by a woman, "You are listening to the Voice of Vietnam." Slight drift with transmitter. 15 May (David Sharp, FT-950, NSW Australia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. CLANDESTINE, 1550, Polisario Front, Rabouni, ALGERIA, *1700-, 16 May, "national anthem", ID, announcements and immediately into prayer as usual; 45444, \\ 6300 (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZANZIBAR. Ciao a tutti! Rieccomi qua! In attesa di un'antenna più decente qualche ascolto col mirabolante degen e quanto in dotazione :-) 11735, 13/05 1750-1810, R. Tanzania, Zanzibar, parlato Swahili... se potete, correte ad ascoltarla arriva come una BOMBA! Alle 1800 niente news in English purtroppo. Segnale ottimo. Rx: Degen 1103 + stilo (Leo Peppe [?], Italy [?], playdx yg via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE. 3396.000. ZBC, 2020, English/vernacular, lively male announcer with local music, "Radio Zimbabwe" at 2024, then into more music. 16 May. 4828.000, Voice of Zimbabwe. 2007, presumed with continuous hilife music until 2013, then brief dead air and transmitter off with no announcements. 16 May (David Sharp, FT-950, NSW Australia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4828, Voice of Zimbabwe, Guinea-fowl, 202-2216 [sic], 15 May, non-stop African songs; 45332, but very weak audio, not as it used to be (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. CLANDESTINE, 4880, SW R. Africa, Meyerton, RSA, 1844-1852, 15 May, English to ZWE, talks; 42431, QRM de jammer + numbers station (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) U.K.(non [sic]), Some VT Communications changes from May 11: SW Radio Africa 1700-1900 on 4880 MEY 100 kW / 005 deg to SoAf English 1700-1900 on 12035 RMP 500 kW / 140 deg to SoAf English, deleted (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, May 15 via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. 5950, 16/05 2020, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, Zimbabwe Community Radio, in Ndebele, from Dhabbaya, with 250 kW, OM and YL Talk, local music, degrading signal, 24332 (Jorge Freitas, Bahia, Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. I caught a station, in Spanish, on 2859.6 this morning, May 18 at 1100z. Male and female announcers, with perhaps a mention of Colombia. Try again tomorrow with the recorder on (Jerry Lenamon, Waco Texas, Drake R-8B, T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6040, 2226- 15 May (also the following day but at around 2200), chanting; 24331, QRM de CHINA (presumed). I was unable to determine approximate bearing or continent. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, PORTUGAL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Besides Beijing and Hohhot, Kishinov is registered here, but may not be in use; could be something exotic (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 13720. 1438-1445+, 5/19/09 in Arabic or similar language. Man with story telling - like program (as compared with declarative news or actualities - like program). Under that was a second station in an unId language, also with a male announcer. The programs faded separately leading me to believe they were two signals, not one feed with two programs. The dominant signal was fair, the signal under it was poor. Nothing is listed at this time in Aoki or EiBi, and there are no entries for this time in the last couple of months of DXLD. IRIB has a program in Dari ending at 1430 listed and Sudan Radio Service is on to Darfur in Arabic, but circa 0600. Since the reason I was home and listening at this time is because I am not feeling well, I didn't have the presence of mind to check for spurs, mixing products, or receiver images (although I was using the E1 and a flextenna which aren't prone to images in the 22 meter band in my experience so far.) Any of those still could be possibilities. (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Maybe overtime by IRIB ? 13720 BBC 1500-1530 Azeri 250 90 Skelton G 13720 0830-1430 IRN IRIB Teheran Dari AFG (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Mark, Altho it is not in frequency order, it does not take long to search out a given frequency in the WRTH A-09 pdf update, where you also find 13720 until 1430 is Iran in Dari, Ahwaz site. Maybe they don`t get it turned off at 1430 sharp. Dari continues until 1500 on other frequencies. Pashto is also at 1430 on another frequency. However, between 1345 and 1500 I usually hear on 13720 only the Cuban mixing product of RHC Spanish 13760 over CRI relay English 13740, and that is probably your second signal. 73, (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Perfect editorial --- Love the editorial you did today about China. In December I was meeting the technical staff of RTI and suggested the same. But the reaction was as if seems like to much work. I said what's the point of doing programs in Chinese that no one in China can hear. LOL (Keith Perron, Taiwan, May 13, referring to WOR 1460) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ EMISORAS DE FM My instant reaction is we, as a group of strange people, have some excellent skills buried here! Jim Thomas has created a research work that can only be described as a '"labor of love" (or laboUr in the British world where I live). Incredible. Anyone who does not have a copy is making a major mistake by that decision. The printing cost alone must come very close to exceeding the modest selling price and that says the hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours put into this by a very talented and devoted human being are essentially 'gratis.' Whether any of us survive past the 'HD' format change is unimportant - that someone has taken the time to create this memorable edition should be our focus! (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, May 15, WTFDA via DXLD) A second printing is now being planned (gh) MONITORING MATTERS if not MONTHLY As you are aware, the loss of Monitoring Monthly has left a deep hole in our interest. To offer a replacement, a number of original Monitoring Monthly contributors, plus many others, have offered their services to provide an online magazine - or e-zine as it is called. Areas of interest will include (in no particular order) Equipment Reviews, Data feeds, Logs, Frequencies, Mil Air, Maritime, Rally News, Advertisements, Satellite, DX-TV, Number Stations even RSGB news! Yes, all the regular features you could enjoy in MM. However, we will also be able to provide a "live" news section" where members can read/post items. We now need to solicit your views on the new e-zine content in order to get it suitable for you. To do this a number of polls will be held. May I therefore please ask you to send a blank email to the following link to register your interest? You need do no more. You will then have access to the latest news and developments: Monitoring-Matters-subscribe @ yahoogroups.com Thank you. Pat Carty and The Monitoring Matters Team (via Southgate via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) LANGUAGE LESSONS See GUATEMALA; INDIA ++++++++++++++++ WORLD OF HOROLOGY See BANGLADESH; MOROCCO +++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PORTABLE HD RADIO PROTOTYPE GETS PICTURED, COMING THIS SUMMER FOR UNDER $50 --- by Darren Murph [sic], posted May 13th 2009 at 10:07PM Details are rather scant on this little gem right now, but here's what we can tell you: you're looking at the world's first HD Radio portable device prototype, and it's slated to do just about exactly what you expect. In other words, it'll slip into your pocket, tune into HD Radio as well as standard analog FM broadcasts and connect with any set of cans that use a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. Unfortunately, the manufacturer is being kept under wraps, and there's no Bluetooth headset support baked in. That said, you can expect it to land in an undisclosed "big box retailer" this summer for under $50. http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/portable-hd-radio-prototype-gets-pictured-coming-this-summer-fo/ (via Kevin Redding, TN, May 14, ABDX via DXLD) Interesting. Does this mean the world is giving up on AM HD? This article mentions nothing about AM (Michael n Wyo Richard, ibid.) I wonder how hot it gets - I might re-think that pocket if it gets as hot as my Sony (Bruce Carter, ibid.) This was the device I got to play with for a few minutes at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. It uses a completely different (and less power- hungry) chipset from the Sony, so heat doesn't appear to be an issue. It was still very much in prototype mode when I saw it - while there was a menu selection for AM, the unit didn't actually work on AM, and from inside the giant Faraday cage of the convention center, it was impossible to get a read on how well the FM side of the tuner performs on "real" FM signals (as opposed to the one coming from the demo transmitter a few feet away.) s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) Given all the still-born HD products announced over the years, I'll believe this one is real when I see it in stores. Moreover, who buys pocket radios these days outside of radioheads like us?? When was the last time you saw someone listening to a portable radio instead of a MP3 player or texting on a cell phone? Don't take my word for it; visit your local beach or shopping mall and try find just one person listening to a pocket radio. They're trying to market a product better suited for 1969 instead of 2009 (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17 http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ ABDX via DXLD) So, if I wanted to listen to KSPN 710 HD and listen to the game, or keep up with the news listening to KNX 1070 HD, or my kid wants to listen to Radio Disney 1110 HD, or want to hear a little talk radio on KFI 640 HD, I'm totally out of luck, eh? This is ANOTHER reason why AM is dying (and now HD will speed along with it) - radio manufacturers are increasingly not even bothering including AM in PORTABLE units in particular. I don't understand the rationale of manufacturers that people are supposed to suddenly not want to listen to AM when they grab a portable radio, plug headphones in, and take a walk. It can't be a size issue either - some of my smallest radios (barely an inch thick by 1.5x3.5 inches) are AM AND FM. Remember the day when you were hard-strapped to find FM in a portable radio?? Crazy (Darwin Long, CA, ibid.) HD/RDS Question Can I assume that any FM station noted broadcasting in HD also has RDS in operation? Can some of our expert WTFDA broadcasting engineers or other experts in the know, confirm that this is always the case, or are there exceptions? If so, then I could list those stations as having RDS in the WTFDA RDS List, even though the DXers` radios didn't lock onto RDS before HD lock (Fred Nordquist, Moncks Corner, SC, May 17, WTFDA via DXLD) I'm not familiar with the specific equipment so cannot say conclusively but --- I would be about 75% confident that it's *possible* to run HD without RDS. The RDS is probably turned on by default & filled from data given to fill data fields in the HD signal. (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) I've noticed local station 104.1 WPRS Waldorf, MD run HD without RDS for the better half of last year. I am 23 miles away from the 50kw signal, and whenever their HD signal was on-air, my Denon TU-1500RD would not receive RDS at all from the station. However, whenever their HD would be off-air, which interestingly enough happened frequently, the RDS would be working and scrolling. But, the RDS would disappear when the HD came back. WPRS has since quit using HD radio (much to my delight as it frees up its adjacents for DX), and their RDS has returned permanently (David P, Woodbridge, VA, http://home.comcast.net/~dlp85x/ ibid.) I know a few stations that run "HD Radio" (IBOC) don't have RDS. KOKY 102.1 Sherwood AR (Little Rock area) is a small-signal IBOC station. It has no RDS and only one "HD" stream. I also can never recall seeing RDS on WRR 101.1 Dallas (Fritze H Prentice Jr, KC5KBV, Star City, AR, ibid.) I'd thought I'd read something here some time ago stating that the two weren't compatible in terms of where they fit within the overall signal envelope or that the HD equipment didn't incorporate it ( or both ). (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) You can have HD with or without RDS. My four HD stations all have separate RDS encoders. HD and RDS are two completely separate entities. They don't share the same data stream. We produce and transport completely separate data streams for analog RDS, HD1 and HD2 displays (Girard Westerberg, http://www.DXFM.com Lexington, KY, ibid.) I believe that a lot of HD exciters (transmitters) have basic RDS features built in, but it's not always turned on unless the engineer activates it. I definitely know this to be true with 107.1 WFHN Fairhaven, MA. They had never run RDS in the past, but started running HD maybe about a year and a half ago. I'm friends with the engineer, so I naturally asked about RDS. He then discovered that it was built in to the transmitter, and turned it on. Overall, I'd say that 90% of stations that I've seen running HD are also running RDS. 88.5 WFCR was one that didn't have RDS until recently. 90.1 WMEA in Portland and 89.5 WVPR (maybe all the Vermont Public Radio stations?) also run HD but not RDS (Jeff Lehmann, Hanson, MA, ibid.) Thanks all for the inputs on my question. It would be best for us DXers not to assume that a station running HD would also be running RDS, even though the actual percentage of FM stations running both systems is very high. Most of us know that Ubiquity keeps a fairly up-to-date web page of stations licensed (or soon to be licensed) with HD systems at http://www.ibiquity.com/hdradio/hdradio_hdstations.htm so this is a good resource to use to determine a high likelihood of a station running RDS (Fred Nordquist, Moncks Corner, SC, ibid.) Don't some HD exciters incorporate a built-in RDS encoder? (I thought *most* of them did?) (it just seems strange that *MANY* stations add RDS at precisely the same time they go HD.) (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) I'm pretty sure that the RDS encoders built into the exciters only allow for basic information, like a static station name in the PS, PTy, PI, and a slogan in the text. Just about every Clear Channel station that I've seen uses a more advanced encoder that allows for the song titles in the PS, traffic info, and other things (Jeff Lehmann, Hanson, MA, ibid.) Jeff, That's correct. Our Nautel HD exciters have an internal RDS encoder, but they apparently requires an optional communications port to do anything other than static data display. As far as I know, all of the CC stations use the Audemat FMB80 RDS encoders, which allow us to run the scrolling title/artist data, as well as the embedded traffic data used by some of the in-car navigation systems. So in our case at least, the RDS functions are completely separate from our HD functions. Keep in mind, the HD exporters include an RDS-like function. The exporter gets its own title/artist data stream, as well as ancillary traffic data. So, in analog mode, a receiver uses RDS data if it's present, but in HD mode, it takes it's display data from the HD data stream. As an interesting side note, we have to delay the data going to the RDS generator because the analog audio is delayed (in our case by 10 seconds) to match the HD1 signal. If this weren't done, the title and artist information would show up on the radio about 10 seconds before the song actually starts playing out of the radio. And then there is the HD2 (or even HD3) stream(s). That represents yet another data stream with its own title/artist embedded into the audio data stream. Don't forget the on-line streaming. In our case each station spits out a Flash encoded and a Windows Media encoded stream, complete with title/artist data, for a total of 12 more separate streams. Who would have thought a few years back that your typical radio station would be pushing so many 1's & 0's out on so many different streams. We no longer go fix a transmitter, we just reboot it :-). (Girard Westerberg, http://www.DXFM.com Lexington, KY, ibid.) His stations = the Clear Channel cluster in Lexky (gh) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See also BHUTAN; CZECHIA; GUIANA FRENCH; ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ USA non CVC; CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES Re: NASB Urges Development of Simple, Inexpensive DRM Receivers [see full item under CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES] "We are expecting by around the end of this year the first low-cost DRM receiver with an ST chipset. The receiver will be made in China, will cost less than 50 U.S. dollars, and will have a high-quality front-end." Michel Penneroux, Chairman of DRM Consortium Commercial Committee (Report in Radio World 07.18.2007 of NASB meeting by Jeff White) "Mina is encouraged about a new tuner coming out of China. Thomson Broadcast found and worked with Dr. Lin Liang who founded a private company, Newstar Electronics; it plans to make DRM receivers. The design is being completed on what he called "very small" radios, he said. The new Chinese receiver will have a small LCD screen, GPS, a built-in photo album and a DRM receiver. Other DRM receivers are also being developed. Students at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, are working on a DRM unit, as are some three groups in China. There is also a group in South Africa developing a DRM receiver, specifically for use on shortwave, Mina said.... He predicted low-cost DRM receivers would "soon" be on the market." (DRM: Behind Its Targets, But Catching Up? Continental's Adil Mina Says Lower-Cost DRM Receivers Are Coming `Soon' by Jeff White, Radio World 08.01.2008) So what progress was reported on each of these projects at the latest meeting? ``The NASB resolution applauded the efforts of the DRM Consortium and manufacturers for introducing several models of excellent receivers to the market, but it added "many of the currently available receivers are priced beyond what the market can bear in Africa, Asia, and other countries outside North America and Europe." Many of the "currently available receivers"? Which receivers are they talking about and how do they define several? As only "many" of these receivers are priced beyond what the market can bear in Africa and Asia, which ones are priced at an appropriate level for Africa and Asia? The DRM website lists four "consumer receivers": Technisat Multyradio. The site shouts SPECIAL OFFER!! at me but just links to the company`s website which doesn't tell me what this special offer is or where I can buy the receiver from. Through google search I find I can buy it online from SatEuropa.co.uk for £199. Himalaya DRM2009 which I can get from KBC, who ship to the UK, for 249 Euros, £222.36. Morphy Richards DRM Radio, which IGear will sell me with a European plug for £166.37, which is well above the price UK consumers generally pay for a digital radio. All of these are "currently available" but soon won't be, I presume, as Radioscape has discontinued making the chip they use: In October 2008, the Company (Radioscape) announced that it would exit the DAB module market by the end of 2008. This was primarily due to severe financial constraints on the Consumer Receivers business resulting from both pricing pressure and volume decline. This division was closed in December 2008. and on May 5 Radioscape entered administration (UK equivalent of [US] Chapter 11). The DRM website advises me I can buy the Mayah 2010, except they give a link to their website which doesn't show it as a product! The DRM site also links to a pdf of the Starwaves Truck Box which converts your existing car radio to DRM and DAB for 249 Euros, though the only site I found seems to see to Germany only. What pricing and models are being applauded here and what appropriate pricing do they have in mind for each region? (Mike Barraclough, England, May 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV see also SPAIN; CUBA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HD(TV) Signal Needs To Be Stronger Than Accompanying SD Signal??? Started looking at LCD TVs, and when talking to a salesman, the concept of reception was introduced and --- cutting to the chase --- he insists that, if the HDTV signal isn't strong enough, that the HD signal won't decode, just the SD signal will! I made it clear I knew the difference between analog and digital, but he insists that, within the digital signal, it has to be stronger for the HD component to decode than the SD! Since it is all from the same data stream, isn't that impossible? I.e., if it is strong enough for SD, shouldn't it be strong enough for HD? Is this just a case of him not knowing as much as he thinks he does, or am I the one misinformed? (~Kaimbridge~ M. GoldChild, May 15, WTFDA via DXLD) The salesman needs to find another line of work or go back to DTV/HDTV school. He is totally misinformed on this issue. Once the signal decodes, it will decode in SD or HD, depending on which is being fed (Steve Rich, Indianapolis, IN, ibid.) REPLACEMENT TRANSLATORS o New "Replacement" TV Translator Service can help broadcasters correct signal losses caused by the DTV transition. News release: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-290659A1.doc o Here are the new rules (and voluminous background information) for the Replacement TV Translator Service: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-36A1.doc o Replacement translators were approved over the objections of Microsoft and others who correctly feared that their precious White Spaces would be diminished: http://tinyurl.com/MicrosoftObjects (CGC Communicator May 17 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ NASB URGES DEVELOPMENT OF SIMPLE, INEXPENSIVE DRM RECEIVERS Official News Release from NASB, May 2009. At its 2009 annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee on May 8, the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB) adopted a resolution encouraging radio receiver manufacturers “to develop and produce as a high priority simple to operate, inexpensive DRM receivers.” The NASB resolution applauded the efforts of the DRM Consortium and manufacturers for introducing several models of excellent receivers to the market, but it added “many of the currently available receivers are priced beyond what the market can bear in Africa, Asia, and other countries outside North America and Europe.” Therefore, asserted the NASB, “there is an urgent need for the availability in the marketplace of simple to operate, inexpensive DRM HF/MW capable receivers.” Allan McGuirl Jr. of Galcom International, a Canadian company that makes fix-tuned shortwave receivers for many religious broadcasters, announced at the same meeting that its engineers are working to develop a low-cost, no frills DRM receiver, although no details are available yet. Adil Mina of Continental Electronics gave a general update on DRM and the receiver situation at the joint meeting of the NASB and the DRM USA group. Technical consultant Dr. Donald Messer gave the group an overview of the propagation experiments that he plans to undertake with the Digital Aurora Radio Technologies regional DRM project in Alaska. And amateur radio operator Mel Whitten explained how ham operators have adopted a form of digital modulation using a program called WinDRM that is based on DRM technology. In other news from the NASB annual meeting, Brady Murray, Operations Director of shortwave station WWCR in Nashville, was elected to the NASB Board of Directors, replacing retiring board member Charles Caudill, president of World Christian Broadcasting, which operates shortwave station KNLS in Alaska. WWCR and World Christian Broadcasting jointly hosted the NASB meeting in Nashville. Jeff White of Radio Miami International was re-elected president of the NASB, and Mike Adams of Far East Broadcasting Co. was reelected vice president. The Association gave a special award for lifetime achievement in shortwave broadcasting to George Woodard, former director of engineering for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau. Adrian Peterson, International Relations Coordinator of Adventist World Radio, announced that as of June 2009, AWR will be closing its production studios in Singapore due to rising costs. AWR's DX program “Wavescan” was produced in Singapore, but as of June it will be transferred to the United States under an agreement with WRMI in Miami, which will handle production and distribution of the program to the AWR worldwide network. Two Tennessee-based manufacturers of radio equipment gave presentations at the NASB meeting. Gary Barbour of Ten-Tec talked about his company's HF receivers; and Tom King, president of Kintronic Labs, showed examples of shortwave and mediumwave antenna systems that Kintronic has built for stations in various countries around the world. During their conference, NASB delegates visited the Nashville-area facilities of WWCR and World Christian Broadcasting. They heard about how the recent political developments in Madagascar have affected the progress of WCB's new shortwave station Madagascar World Voice. The organization's president, Charles Caudill, said the civil disruptions following a recent coup d'etat in Madagascar have set back work on the station somewhat, but that the project will continue as planned. Michael Murray, former Secretary-General of the European DX Council, spoke about the state of shortwave broadcasting and listening in Europe. Bruce Baskin, producer of a weekly program called World Baseball Today on WRMI, talked about sports programming on shortwave radio. Charles Jacobson of the HCJB Global Technology Center in Indiana updated participants on the gradual dismantlement of HCJB's legendary shortwave transmitter site in Pifo, Ecuador. Ted Collora of Hansen Professional Services, summarized his company's engineering projects at U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau facilities around the world. Next year's NASB and DRM USA annual meetings will take place in Canada. Galcom International will host the meetings in Hamilton, Ontario on May 20 and 21, 2010. Miami is being considered as the possible location of the 2011 annual meetings. (Source: http://www.drm.org --- via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, May 15, dxldyg via DXLD) Galcom, purveyor of fixed-tuned radios, no doubt has an evil interest in DRM, as in digital broadcasting there would be a way to totally lock out all but the sponsoring broadcaster, a big step forward over merely tuning to one or two allowed analog frequencies, which might be overcome by co-channel QRM, or even variable (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ DXING FROM AIRPLANES As I had some success DXing in an airplane during our trip to Cuba, I plan to do that once again! I can't wait. I'm almost prepared for a sleepless night and I'm too excited, because DXing aboard an airplane with a decent portable is one of the greatest challenges FM DXing can bring you! As far as DXing longwave, mediumwave or shortwave, I can't say much, because I never had much success doing so from an airplane (Bogdan Chiochiu, QC, about to fly to Romania, May 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Bogdan, FM DXing from planes in flight is frowned upon, since the IF oscillator in your ``receiver`` transmits at short range and may interfere with aeronautical communications above 108 MHz, if not navigation, not to mention possible harmonics higher. I haven`t flown in quite a while; is this no longer prohibited without explicit permission from the crew? May your flight be successful nevertheless. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) That brings back great memories I hadn't thought about in a while. I remember listening to my walkman on the plane. This was 20 years ago. I remember there was something on every spot on the dial! And it was constantly changing!! It was wild! Like nothing I had ever heard. Pretty cool! Again, that was 20 years ago back before they knew of any interference or anything. Last time I flew, which was back in 2001 they allowed things like cell phones, laptops, radios....but not until we reached cruising altitude (Michael n Wyo Richard, ABDX via DXLD) Not just frowned upon, but forbidden. I fly a lot commercially, and am also a pilot. Not allowed for the reasons stated above. Still, worth asking permission. Some airlines are more lax with the rules than others (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That's what they tell you. Do not believe that. When flying to Russia with a Russian airline I always was surprised when they announced, "you can turn on all your electronics (even mobile phones) when we are in horizontal flight". I used my ATS909 all the time and also my little scanner. The same flight with a German airliner: "You are not allowed to use any electronics, and definitely not your CD/DVD player". Why not CD players, do they emit RF? Is the airplane that sensitive? If so, I better get out! Minutes later I learned why. They sold headphones for the onboard music channels. And thus did not want to have "competition". So the reason was Euros, not RF. I once read a report about the sensitivity of planes against RFI where they mentioned passengers` radio receivers. If an airplane would react on those low level emissions, that are far lower than 20 years ago, that airplane would get out of control when they fly near a high power radio station on the ground. There are many tests to make the plane immune to such emissions, let alone that your low level emissions needs to get out of a metal container to reach the external antenna. Why is it no problem with Russian airplanes (even using mobile phones, which I personally would not do), are they more robust than others? Are Russians more careless? I don't think so. Note: it was on a flight Germany to/from Russia, so they have follow EU regulations to be allowed on EU airports (Jurgen Bartels, Suellwarden, N. Germany, mwdx yg via DXLD) My very expensive JVC CD/DVD player, and TV DVD VHScassete, disc video RAM and cam recorder etc. in German called 'eierlegende Wollmilch Sau' produces a mixture of FM/AM signal on 7330 kHz; that`s when my wife is listening to Enya music from Ireland on DVD player. I can forget the 7300-7350 kHz range for SW reception. Maybe produces spurs also on different frequency bands. Distance between living room and Eton E 1 rx about 14 meters and 3 solid concrete walls in between. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Hi Glenn and Bogdan, On flights lines in Europe it is allowed to listen to portables receivers, AFTER the light of life belts is switch off, and you may use also Computers or CD players. No ideas if US Air Companies has differents laws, cause I don't fly with US companies. Good flight! Enjoy FM DXing over 9000 meters!!! But don't try AM or SW, cause just NOISE!!!! 73's (Dario Monferini, playdx yg, plus huge list of logs from his AUGUST 2008 FLIGHT MILANO-HELSINKI, via DXLD) O, must be OK, since your plane didn`t crash, whew (gh, DXLD) ICF-2010 ERROR 3 The typical ICF-2010 "Error 3" indication comes from a poor or corroded negative (ground) connection between the battery slot's spring connector and an adjacent circuit board. Since this connection is not soldered but relies only on mechanical contact from spring pressure, over time, the connection becomes corroded and unreliable. Any 2010 that operates OK on a power adapter but has an "Error 3" on batteries is most likely suffering from this problem, which is an easy fix once the mechanical connection is cleaned up and the spring pressure restored (or the connection soldered, a permanent solution). 73, (Gary DeBock, IRCA via DXLD) the "Error 3" message is extremely common with older 2010s (they're all getting so these days), and mine had the same thing and the solution was exactly as Gary mentioned. In my case, simply cleaning the contacts worked fine (for now) (Walt Salmaniw, BC, ibid.) ACTIVE DIPOLE ANTENNA I just completed the documentation for an active short dipole antenna that I've been working on. It's available at: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~christrask/Paper021.html (Chris Trask, High Performance Mixers and Amplifiers for RF Communications, N7ZWY, Principal Engineer, Sonoran Radio Research, P. O. Box 25240, Tempe, Arizona 85285-5240, IEEE Senior Member #40274515, May 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) A fully professional opus; looks like it is ready for journal publication! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) PERSEUS SOFTWARE-DEFINED RADIO Guy's blog is the best place to get started learning about the Perseus SDR (which seems to be the one to beat at the moment). It's at: http://perseus-sdr.blogspot.com/ Be careful, though - once you start reading about it, you may have a difficult time resisting the urge to buy one! (Brett Saylor, N3EVB, IRCA via DXLD) I have one and already sold my AR7030 after 10 years good service. The ability to tune the entire AM band overnight and then listen with full functionality later that afternoon is, for me, a giant step forward in the hobby. To hear a particular DX catch and then search the rest of the band for stations in the same locality is truly amazing. You still need a good antenna (I have an EWE) and a lot of time. Here is the web page http://www.microtelecom.it/perseus/ (Barry Davies, UK, ibid.) AM Radio at the pirate drive-in [Pennsylvania] I suppose this could have DX implications for the area concerned. (I am also tickled to see an item on AM radio.) ef (Eric Flodén, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: HUNT FOR THE WEST CHESTER GUERILLA DRIVE-IN'S SECRET AM BROADCAST Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, May 19, 2009 11:20 AM http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/19/hunt-for-the-west-ch.html John Young says: Back in 2007, you posted a link to the West Chester Guerilla Drive-In, where we project 16MM movies at secret locations from the sidecar of my 1977 BMW motorcycle: The kit-built AM transmitter in the photo you posted is the MacGuffin, a secret AM transmitter in a waterproof case hidden somewhere in the area, and broadcasting around the clock. In order to find out where movies are going to be shown, you have to find the broadcast, tune in, and discover the secret access code. This year, the audio for the AM broadcast includes a freshly-recorded cover of "Brazil", which you will probably remember as the soundtrack for the Ministry of Information in Terry Gilliam's awesome 1985 movie. You can see the MacGuffin and hear the first bit of the secret message on the Guerilla Drive-In website. [+ many comments, q.v.] (via DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ SMART METERS - COULD BE WORRYING NEWS FOR RADIO USERS The UK government has unveiled plans for all homes to be equipped with Smart Meters by the end of 2020 and a public consultation is now taking place. Smart meters allow suppliers to remotely record customers' gas and electricity use. Although a number of different technologies, e.g. Cell Phone, could be used to connect the Smart Meters, the BPL/PLT lobby may well attempt to capitalise on this announcement. Radio Frequencies (RF) up to 1.5 MHz can be transmitted over the electrical mains cable to Smart Meters, however, electric cables are not designed to carry RF and they inevitably radiate both on the fundamental and harmonic frequencies and could cause severe interference to peoples' favourite radio shows. If a Smart Metering system using BPL/PLT technology is installed then it seems logical that companies will attempt to make money by also delivering Broadband Internet Access and Security Monitoring Services via the Smart Meter. Initial attempts to sell Broadband Internet access via the mains failed due to the high costs, they couldn't compete with Internet delivery via Cable/Telephone ADSL/Cell Phones. If Government were to mandate that BPL/PLT Smart Meters are installed in all homes then the economics of Internet delivery via the electrical power line change completely. The consultation on Smart Metering for Electricity and Gas closes on 3rd August 2009. More details at http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2009/smart_metering_consultation.htm BBC News report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8042716.stm (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) NOISE PROBLEM OF PLC (POWER LINE COMMUNICATION) EQUIPMENT IN JAPAN The Japan SW Club has filed three complain documents so far against the 17 certified types of PLC equipment claiming cancellation of these certification because of high noise level on SW bands emitted from these equipment. In these three filings, almost 300 short wave listeners joined. The assessment committee was held three times in the past months, but the raised issue of critical defect in the Japanese PLC engineering standard has never been discussed. The Chairman of the Government committee stated in the last committee held on Apr 22 that we, short wave listeners were not qualified legally to complain the Government decision because we were not licensed stations. The committee is going to advise the Minister to reject our complain. (Ridiculous attitude! DSWCI Ed. Anker Petersen) The defect of the Japanese standard means it does not consider the noise emission by the line impedance change in the power line when lighting devices and other home appliances are switching on and off. So the most of the certified PLC equipment radiates 20 dB or higher noise than the noise level assumed in the introduction of PLC equipment in Japan. This is serious problem for all short wave listeners and we will continue to fight against the Government decision (Toshimichi Ohtake/JSWC, Kamakura, Japan, DSWCI DX Window May 13 via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Re: ARLS003 Scientists Predict Solar Cycle 24 to Peak in 2013 Tough to get my head around the following grammatical construct: "The panel predicted that the lowest sunspot number between cycles -- the solar minimum -- occurred in December 2008" It's the concept of predicting something in the past that strikes me funny. Sort of like the Procrastinators' Club coming out with their 2009 predictions on 12/31/2009 (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, May 13, ODXA yg via DXLD) The December smoothed SSN won't be known until later. Here`s how it's calculated: Smoothed Sunspot Number The daily sunspot number has little, if any, relationship to ionospheric variability. However, the most widely used Ionospheric Index, R12, is derived from the daily sunspot numbers. The R12 index is a twelve-month smoothed relative sunspot number. To calculate the R12 index for July 1980 add half of the Jan 1980 value plus the sum of the Feb through Dec 1980 values plus half of the Jan 1981 value and by divide the sum twelve: [(n1/2)+(n2+ n3+...... ..n11+n12) +(n13/2)] /12 (where n1 = Jan 1980, n7 = July 1980 and n13 = Jan 1981) [from: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/IONO/sunspot.html ] (DanFerguson, SC, ibid.) Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet levels at all latitudes during most of the period. However, activity briefly increased to active levels late on 14 May. ACE observations indicated the active period (14/1800 - 14/2100 UTC) was due to solar wind changes associated with a solar sector boundary crossing (SSBC). Solar wind changes included a period of sustained southward IMF Bz (minimum - 8 nT), increased IMF Bt (maximum +8 nT), and a modest increase in velocities (approximately 340 to 400 km/sec). FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 20 MAY - 15 JUNE 2009 Solar activity is expected to be very low. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at normal flux levels. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at quiet levels through 02 June. Activity is expected to increase to unsettled to active levels during 03 - 05 June with a chance for minor storm levels at high latitudes due to a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Mostly quiet conditions are expected during 06 - 15 June. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2009 May 19 1721 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # Product description and SWPC contact on the Web # http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2009 May 19 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2009 May 20 73 5 2 2009 May 21 73 5 2 2009 May 22 72 5 2 2009 May 23 70 5 2 2009 May 24 70 5 2 2009 May 25 70 5 2 2009 May 26 70 5 2 2009 May 27 70 5 2 2009 May 28 70 5 2 2009 May 29 70 5 2 2009 May 30 70 5 2 2009 May 31 70 5 2 2009 Jun 01 70 5 2 2009 Jun 02 70 5 2 2009 Jun 03 70 10 3 2009 Jun 04 70 15 4 2009 Jun 05 72 8 3 2009 Jun 06 72 5 2 2009 Jun 07 72 5 2 2009 Jun 08 74 5 2 2009 Jun 09 74 5 2 2009 Jun 10 74 8 3 2009 Jun 11 74 5 2 2009 Jun 12 74 5 2 2009 Jun 13 74 5 2 2009 Jun 14 73 5 2 2009 Jun 15 73 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1461, DXLD) ###